(WASHINGTON) — The Biden Administration announced Monday it will move to protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it will roll back a Trump administration policy that tried to narrow the legal protections against discrimination in health care by issuing rules defining sex as gender assigned at birth.
“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” HHS Secretary Xavier Beccera said in a statement.
Beccera said this action today puts HHS in line with a 6-3 Supreme Court decision last year, which established that federal laws against sex discrimination on the job also protect gay and transgender people.
(NEW YORK) — A group of moms from across the country celebrated Mother’s Day this year with one wish — to find the bone marrow donors who will save their daughters’ lives.
“If she gets the bone marrow transplant, she’ll be a normal baby,” Anessa Haden said of her 8-month-old daughter, True, who has been told by doctors she likely won’t live past the age of 3 without a matching donor. “A bone marrow transplant is literally her hope to a long life.”
True was diagnosed three months ago with congenital amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia (CAMT), a rare disease in which bone marrow no longer produces platelets, which are critical to blood clotting and preventing bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Haden, of Huntsville, Alabama, said True, her first child, was quickly categorized as an “emergency transplant” case because she needs a bone marrow transplant to survive.
The past three months of Haden’s life have, as a result, been a dizzying mix of hospital stays and doctors’ appointments for True, while Haden does everything she can to find a bone marrow match for her daughter.
Making the task more difficult is True’s interracial background — a mix of African American, Indian, Puerto Rican and Caucasian — which makes it harder to find a match because these ethnicity groups are underrepresented in the global donor pool, according to DKMS, an international nonprofit organization that works to find bone marrow matches.
“It’s definitely an isolating experience,” said Haden. “A lot of people hear bone marrow transplant and they don’t really get to see the life and face of a kid who needs a bone marrow transplant.”
After finding each other through both DKMS and social media, Haden has formed a lifelong bond with three other mothers from across the country who are also searching for matching blood marrow donors who could save their daughters’ lives.
Destiny Van Sciver, of California, is looking for a matching donor for her two daughters, Kylie, 9, and Kimora, 13, both of whom were diagnosed with sickle cell disease at 6 weeks old.
Doctors have told Van Sciver that one matching donor could help both of her daughters but they have yet to find that donor. Like True, the girls’ race, Black, has made it harder to find a donor because people of color are underrepresented on the bone marrow registry.
People of color account for 7% of all registrants on the registry, according to DKMS.
“We always fantasize about a day where we won’t have to do all these things,” said Van Sciver, whose oldest daughter, Kimora, recently had to undergo a hip transplant. “It’s so frustrating seeing my daughter trying to learn how to walk every day, knowing that there’s a cure out there that can save her.”
In Louisiana, Jaimie Havard is looking for a bone marrow match for her 16-year-old daughter, Courtlynn, who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria in October. The high school sophomore went from playing baseball and softball to undergoing weekly blood and platelet transfusions to stay alive, according to Havard.
“Her life is totally different now,” said Havard. “A [bone marrow] transplant is the cure. It’s truly a difference between life and death for these children.”
Just before Mother’s Day, the three moms and one more, Tara Forrest, of Boston, whose 14-year-old daughter Ali Pantoja is battling acute myeloid leukemia, met on Zoom for the first time after spending weeks connecting by phone, texts and social media.
“You instantly have a connection with them because you feel the pain and desperation,” said Havard. “It’s just amazing to be able to talk to somebody who actually knows what you’re feeling on the inside.”
“Other people can be sympathetic but they can’t be empathetic because they’re not quite walking in my shoes,” said Haden. “To have other moms or dads who understand, it’s definitely vital. It means the world to us to be able to connect.”
All four moms are working with DKMS to recruit bone marrow donors for their daughters.
“It truly is all consuming,” Havad said of the search for a donor. “The focus is on your child and their future. Knowing that their future lies in a stranger’s hand, your mindset then goes to what can I do to get this story out, to get people to swab their cheek and get on the donor list to save a life?”
Only around 30% of patients are able to find a compatible bone marrow donor in their family, according to DKMS co-founder and chairwoman Katharina Harf, whose family started the nonprofit when Harf’s mother died of leukemia after not being able to find a bone marrow donor match.
Each year in the United States, around 18,000 people are diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses where a bone marrow transplant or umbilical cord blood transplant is their best treatment option, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA).
All it takes to join the bone marrow registry is to request a swab kit, which DKMS offers online, and to swab the inside of your cheeks.
If a person is found to be a match, in most cases, the process of donating their bone marrow or stem cell is an outpatient procedure and one that does not require surgery, according to Harf.
“You’re giving a second chance at life to a person,” said Harf. “A lot of our patients really celebrate the day they receive the stem cells as a second birthday.”
Van Sciver said she and the moms she has met while searching for cures for their daughters may come from different backgrounds and have different stories but they are all just “moms asking for help.”
“I really hope that people hear this message and want to get out and make a difference,” she said. “One person would make a difference.”
(NEW YORK) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was found to have sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former state employees, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday morning after a four-month probe into the allegations.
According to James, the probe found that Cuomo and his staff fostered a toxic work environment — though Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing and has sought in recent weeks to cast doubt on the integrity of the investigation.
Once considered a leading voice among national Democrats for his aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo has suffered a meteoric fall from grace in recent months under a deluge of negative headlines.
When sexual harassment claims against Cuomo emerged in March, federal investigators were already reportedly probing his administration over concerns that it withheld damning data about nursing home deaths in New York. Cuomo has also faced scrutiny over reports that he prioritized testing for his family in the early days of the pandemic.
At least six women, including several who previously worked for the three-term governor, have accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior and unwanted advances — claims that he has either dismissed as an exaggeration or outright denied.
“Wait for the facts,” Cuomo said in March. “An opinion without facts is irresponsible.”
Reports of the alleged misconduct prompted James to launch an independent investigation, tapping two seasoned investigators to lead the probe.
As part of the fallout from the sexual harassment claims, Cuomo faced calls from several high-profile Democrats — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — to resign. Cuomo has rebuffed those calls.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Three employees were shot and injured at a Smile Direct Club manufacturing facility in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, early Tuesday, officials said.
One employee was struck in the chest, one in the abdomen and one in the leg, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference.
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One of the victims is in critical condition, he said.
The suspected gunman left the building as officers responded to the call, but officers spotted him at an intersection and demanded he drop the weapon, Aaron said. The suspect, armed with a semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine, instead directed the gun toward officers, according to Aaron.
The suspect was shot by police and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Smile Direct Club said in a statement, “The safety of our team members is a top priority for our Company and we maintain strict security protocols and a no weapons policy at all of our facilities. We are working with the local police as they investigate this matter.”
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — An employee allegedly shot and injured three co-workers at a Smile Direct Club manufacturing facility in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, early Tuesday, officials said.
One worker was struck in the chest, one in the abdomen and one in the leg, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference.
One of the victims is in critical condition, he said.
The suspected gunman, a 22-year-old employee, left the building as officers responded to the call, but officers spotted him at an intersection and demanded he drop the weapon, police said.
The suspect, armed with a semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine, instead directed the gun toward officers, according to Aaron.
The suspect was shot by police and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
It appears the gunman acted alone, police said. The suspect, who was not named, started working at Smile Direct Club in June, police said. He also worked there from late 2019 to early 2020.
Smile Direct Club said in a statement, “The safety of our team members is a top priority for our Company and we maintain strict security protocols and a no weapons policy at all of our facilities. We are working with the local police as they investigate this matter.”
(NEW YORK) — While states like Missouri end a second month enduring a surge in COVID-19 cases as the more contagious delta variant spreads, public health officials across the country are hearing the same story from an increasing number of people getting the vaccine: someone they know recently caught the virus and the experience was unsettling.
“We don’t want to see more people getting sick as a driving force to get people vaccinated, but we know the case counts and more people in the hospital will play a role in that conversation,” Dr. Sam Page, St. Louis county executive, told ABC News.
Missouri has seen an increase of nearly 560% in new cases, 205% virus-related hospitalizations since early June — staggering increases, which have been exacerbated by the low number of residents — just over 41% — who are fully vaccinated.
“We really need higher vaccination penetration in our communities to slow this down,” Page said.
However, Missouri is one of the many states in the nation which has experienced a significant, newfound demand for COVID-19 vaccinations in the last several weeks. Vaccinations statewide increased by approximately 100% in the last two weeks of July.
While the uptick in shots has been most notable in the states that have been recently hardest hit by the coronavirus, the entire country is experiencing a rising vaccination rate.
According to an ABC News analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from the last three weeks, every state has reported an increase in its average number of first doses administered, with the national rate of Americans receiving their first dose up by more than 73%.
Similarly, in the last week alone, vaccination rates have increased by nearly 20% in young Americans, ages 12-17, and by more than 25% in adults.
And on Sunday, the White House reported more than 800,000 vaccine doses administered, including first and second doses, marking the fifth consecutive day with more than 700,000 doses were reported administered. The uptick pushed the national vaccination average to more than 637,000 doses administered each day — up by more than 24% in the last two weeks.
There are many factors at play — fear of the delta variant, incentives from the government and the rising popularity of vaccine requirements for school or work — but regardless of why it’s happening, Page said the increase in vaccinations could not come soon enough.
“The delta variant is a whole new virus,” Page said.
Slowly but surely, officials have started to see their public urgings translate into shots in arms, data showed — a sobering silver lining to the immeasurable grief that has accompanied the virus.
But Page urged other states and counties to get ahead of the delta variant while they could, pulling out every stop to increase vaccination rates before the virus hits their community, because when it does, it’s too late.
The uptick in vaccinations in Missouri, for example, will only begin to give ample protection beginning around September, since full vaccination requires two shots and then about two weeks for the antibodies to kick in.
“We just wish that we could get people vaccinated sooner because the illness has an unfortunate loss of life associated with it. And that’s just a terrible thing to watch,” Page said.
In the final weeks of July, 14 states saw an increase of 100% or more in their first-dose average. All of those states have vaccination totals below the national baseline of eligible Americans who have had one at least shot — 67.6%.
The five states which have seen the most significant increases in their vaccination rates — Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma — are also among the states with the current highest seven-day case rates per capita. Louisiana, which currently has the nation’s highest case rate, has experienced a nearly 335% increase in individuals receiving their first vaccine dose. Similarly, Arkansas, which has the nation’s second highest case rate, has seen a 193% increase in recent weeks.
“This increase in vaccination rates in states that have been lagging is a positive trend. Americans are seeing the risk and impact of being unvaccinated and responding with action. And that’s what it’s going to take to get us out of this pandemic,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Monday at a briefing with reporters.
But experts caution that it will be critical for this trend to see even greater increases for the country to avoid more unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths.
“While the increasing caseload has had an impact on vaccine uptake, it has been minor, relative to the need,” Maureen Miller, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“Since the delta variant is so much more contagious, we’ll need to see more people vaccinated to get this pandemic under control — in the range of 85%-90% of the population.”
The introduction of the delta variant, which now results in 8 out of 10 new cases in the U.S., has resulted in a rapid and significant increase in infections across the country.
The United States’ daily case average is now up to more than 72,400 cases a day, a 532% increase since mid-June. On Friday alone, the country recorded more than 100,000 new cases, marking the highest single-day report in nearly six months.
Nationally, as of Friday, nearly 40,000 patients were receiving hospital care across the country, up nearly 190% increase in the last month.
Several states with the lowest vaccination rates are now seeing viral surges equal to or higher than the peaks they experienced last winter and spring.
“The combination of the new, highly transmissible delta variant and the lack of both vaccination and implementing preventive behaviors, such as mask wearing and social distancing, have ensured that the unvaccinated will continue to become infected, hospitalized, and a needless amount will die,” Miller said.
In Louisiana — reporting the nation’s highest case rate — the average number of first doses administered has tripled over the last three weeks.
“My hope and my prayer today, is that that slope — that trajectory of increases in vaccinations — will continue for a long period of time. Because when that happens, you will see that case growth lines start to come down,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
Edwards on Monday imposed an indoor mask mandate congruent with case numbers climbing and the CDC’s most recent mask guidance for everyone, including vaccinated people, to mask up if they’re in areas with a lot of transmission.
Health experts like Miller praised the increased restrictions, since mandating vaccines — considered to be the most effective way to reach herd immunity — isn’t currently an option.
“A current stumbling block to mandating vaccines is the (Food and Drug Administration) emergency use authorization status. Once the FDA provides full regulatory status, that will provide strong legal cover to institute mandatory vaccination,” said Miller.
But a piecemeal effort to mandate vaccines is underway, and quickly gaining momentum as the spread of the delta variant grows. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) joined up with over 50 other health care organizations to call for mandatory vaccinations within their industry last week, citing rising COVID cases and the delta variant as reasons.
“Due to the recent COVID-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement.
And last week, the U.S. government announced that federal workers must receive the COVID-19 vaccine or contend with regular testing. The announcement came as a growing list of companies are requiring shots for employees, including Walmart, Google and Disney, ABC News’ parent company.
Vaccination is the “primary way” to move out of the pandemic, the AMA wrote, without having to revert to state lockdowns and additional mitigation measures.
“This surge was preventable. Unfortunately, it takes dying loved ones begging their family members to get vaccinated. Some people are starting to listen,” Miller said.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Spirit Airlines and American Airlines passengers faced cancellations and delays on Monday in the latest summer travel snag.
The airlines canceled more than 800 flights combined on Monday, and delayed more than 1,000.
A Spirit spokesperson told ABC News the cancellations are the result of a “perfect storm,” blaming weather, staffing shortages and crews reaching the hour limits in which they are legally able to fly.
In order to get their operations back on track, they proactively canceled 313 flights, which is around 40% of their daily operation. The cancellations gave Spirit “breathing room” to ensure crews and planes can get to the right locations, the spokesperson said.
Frustrated passengers took to social media tweeting that they were stranded, forced to wait in long lines, or rerouted.
“We’re working around the clock to get back on track in the wake of some travel disruptions over the weekend due to a series of weather and operational challenges,” Spirit said in a statement. “We needed to make proactive cancellations to some flights across the network, but the majority of flights are still scheduled as planned.”
American canceled 529 flights on Monday, almost 20% of its daily operation.
The carrier told ABC News it’s still recovering from inclement weather Sunday in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A spokesperson said severe thunderstorms moved in and at least 80 flights had to divert to other airports, adding that it is currently repositioning planes and crews to improve the operation. . The cancellations come as air travel continues to break pandemic records.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers screened more than 2.2 million people at U.S. airports nationwide Sunday — the highest checkpoint volume since the start of the pandemic.
All U.S. airlines and the TSA have struggled with staffing as air travel has rapidly jumped from historic lows to approaching pre-pandemic levels.
When air travel came to a halt in March 2020, thousands of employees were offered early retirements and buyouts, but now the airlines are desperate to fill these positions again.
Hundreds of American Airlines flights were cancelled in late June because of significant staffing and maintenance issues.
During its most recent earnings call, Southwest Airlines executives revealed they have had to double their hiring efforts because they are getting fewer applications than they are used to.
“If it’s not the number one focus, it is 1A, which is getting our hiring in place and our staffing in place,” Southwest’s Executive Vice President Robert Jordan said.
(NEW YORK) — Black women are typically paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, which means they have to work seven months into 2021, Aug. 3, to earn what white, non-Hispanic men made in 2020 alone.
The gender wage gap has closed by only three cents for Black women over the last 30 years, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.
As a result of the wage gap, Black women, on average, lose $2,009 each month, $24,110 annually, and $964,400 over the course of a 40-year career, according to a new analysis by the NWLC.
Equal Pay Day for all women was marked on March 24, 2021, meaning that Black women have to work an extra five months to catch up.
This year’s Black Women’s Equal Pay Day comes as Black women are continuing to face the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, during which Black women have been hit disproportionately hard.
Over 1 in 12 Black women ages 20 and over were unemployed in June, an increase of 8% since May. And Black women’s unemployment rate remains nearly two times higher than their pre-pandemic unemployment rate, according to the NWLC.
In July, the median weekly earnings for a Black woman were $746, compared to $1,115 for a white man, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With Black women more likely to be the breadwinner for their family, the pay gap matters even more in a time of economic uncertainty like the pandemic, according to Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
“When we have a pandemic and then the economic downturn, there’s less money to ride out an economic storm, less money that they’re bringing home, especially if their hours have been cut,” Mason told Good Morning America last year. “Some people think that the pay gap doesn’t exist or you don’t really feel it, but women feel it every day in their wallets, every day when they go to work and bring home less, or during an economic downturn or job loss. They don’t have the money they need to be able to provide for their families.”
Mason’s organization has released research that estimates Black women will not bring home the same earnings as white men for the same jobs until 2130 if the current rate of change persists.
When it comes to solutions for closing the pay gap for Black women, Mason said the federal government can play a role in passing legislation that promotes pay equity and pay transparency and works to end workplace discrimination.
She said employers can play a role, too.
“Employers have a role to play in terms of making sure there is pay equity and making sure that women across the board earn what they’re worth and the skills and talents they bring to the table,” Mason added. “And as a culture and a society, we have a lot of work to do in terms of breaking gender stereotypes around women in the workplace, their value and how much women should be paid for their work.”
(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — After a very public flop in 2019, Boeing’s chance at redemption for its Starliner spacecraft is finally here.
The second test flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the Florida coast on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. ET, after a launch attempt last week was scrubbed due to an unplanned thruster-firing incident on the International Space Station. The first Starliner launch in December 2019 famously did not go as planned, and the spacecraft never reached the ISS.
NASA will carry live coverage of the uncrewed mission as it is a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, in which the space agency tapped the private sector to help with missions in low-Earth orbit. Live coverage of the Starliner launch will commence on NASA’s website and social media handles at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Approximately 30 minutes after launch, the Starliner is set to perform its orbital insertion burn that kicks off its daylong trip to the space station. It is then scheduled to dock at the ISS at 1:37 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The spaceship is bringing some 400 pounds of cargo and supplies to the space station crew.
While the test flight is unmanned, an anthropometric dummy dubbed “Rosie the Rocketeer” will be aboard the Starliner. The 180-pound test device will sit in the commander’s seat of the capsule for the test flight, and its sensors will be used to collect data on how the launch will impact eventual human passengers. The model human was named after the World War II icon Rosie the Riveter, and is meant to honor women pioneers in aerospace. The test device is clad in the iconic red polka-dot bandana.
Boeing also said it will be paying tribute to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities during the flight test. Among the cargo inside the spacecraft are flags, small pennants and other items “representing HBCUs from throughout the U.S.,” according to a statement from the company.
NASA and Boeing blamed errors in automation and software issues for the botched launch in December 2019, saying mission clocks were not in sync and thus timing errors prevented the Starliner from reaching the orbit it needed in order to get to the space station. Rather than reach the space station, the Starliner landed in White Sands, New Mexico.
Tuesday’s mission is seen as critical for Boeing, as it has yet to launch astronauts for NASA while its Commercial Crew program competitor SpaceX has flown multiple crewed missions to the space station in addition to numerous cargo flights. Boeing is also still reeling from the fallout related to issues with its 737 Max jets. If the Starliner launch fails again, it is difficult to see how it will be able to remain competitive against SpaceX for NASA contracts — especially as the private sector’s involvement in the budding commercial space industry has grown significantly over the past year.
