(NEW YORK) — Johnson & Johnson has issued a voluntary recall of several sunscreen products after finding they contain trace amounts of a cancer-causing chemical.
The recalled products include five Neutrogena and Aveeno aerosol sunscreens, according to a statement released Wednesday by the company.
Some samples of the affected products, all spray-on sunscreens, were found to contain low levels of benzene, according to Johnson & Johnson, the parent company.
Johnson & Johnson said it recalled the products out of an “abundance of caution,” noting the low levels of benzene found in the samples would not be expected to impact people’s health.
“Based on exposure modeling and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) framework, daily exposure to benzene in these aerosol sunscreen products at the levels detected in our testing would not be expected to cause adverse health consequences,” the company said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are recalling all lots of these specific aerosol sunscreen products.”
Benzene is a colorless chemical that can cause complications like cancer, anemia and immune system damage, as well as irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in ovary size in women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The most severe health complications typically come after long term exposure to benzene, which the CDC defines as exposure of one year or more.
The five sunscreen products impacted by the voluntary recall are:
Johnson & Johnson is advising consumers to stop using these products and discard them.
“Consumers may contact the JJCI Consumer Care Center 24/7 with questions or to request a refund by calling 1-800-458-1673. Consumers should contact their physician or healthcare provider if they have any questions, concerns or have experienced any problems related to using these aerosol sunscreen products,” the company said in a statement. “JJCI is also notifying its distributors and retailers by letter and is arranging for returns of all recalled products.”
(NEW YORK) — Days after an avid long-distance runner mysteriously vanished in Northern California, police are “further scaling down operations” to find him, they announced Wednesday evening.
Philip Kreycik, 37, drove to the Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park at about 11 a.m. Saturday, parking at the Moller Trail staging area, to go for an 8-mile run, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Berkeley resident told his wife he’d be gone for an hour, police said. He has been missing ever since.
“Philip is an endurance athlete and is in top physical condition. He is also well versed on rural terrain and outdoor environments,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said in a statement Tuesday. “Temperatures that day on the ridge were about 106 degrees but were not a deterrent for Phillip who thrives in extreme environments.”
“This is a very bright man who went to Harvard and MIT, a man that’s analytical in his thinking, a guy that runs ultramarathons,” Kelly told ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV.
Wednesday marked “the last fully operational day” of the “exhaustive” five-day search, Pleasanton Police Department said, announcing that the department and aiding agencies are “further scaling down operations” to find him.
The search included more than a dozen agencies from across the state and nearly 300 volunteers, police said. Dogs, drones, helicopters and an airplane with advanced thermal imagery were also deployed, the sheriff’s office said.
Kreycik is the father of a 3-year-old and 10-month-old with his wife, Jen Yao.
“I know in my heart of hearts he’s out there,” Yao told KGO. “He’s out there and he’s alive and he’s waiting for us. And maybe he’s dehydrated, maybe injured, delirious.”
Police said Kreycik is described as white with a thin build, brown hair and brown eyes. He has no known health conditions.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Pleasanton Police Department at (925) 931-5107.
(NEW YORK) — A 23-year-old Wisconsin man is being held by authorities for allegedly shooting and dismembering his father, before hiding his remains.
Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing last week, but was arrested a day later for providing false information to police, investigators said.
Human remains belonging to Bart Halderson, 50, have since been found.
Authorities confirmed the son is now being held on new tentative charges: mutilating and hiding a corpse and first-degree intentional homicide.
Krista Halderson, 53, is still missing.
The new accusations, listed on the Dane County Jail’s inmate roster, came as the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office released a statement following an autopsy of the remains. It revealed that Bart died from “homicidal violence including firearm injury.”
The Dane County District Attorney’s office have not yet brought formal charges against Chandler Halderson in the death of his father. However, according to a probable cause statement released by the county, witnesses placed Chandler at an acquaintance’s address in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, on July 5, when he was seen “reversing his vehicle with the rear hatch open in a field near a wooded area.” A human torso identified as Bart was found nearby.
The suspect told police his parents had spent July Fourth weekend at their cabin in White Lake, Langlade County, with an unknown couple, and they never returned. But when authorities searched the lake house, they found no evidence that anyone had been there.
“Halderson reported that his parents, Krista and Bart Halderson, were picked up by an unknown acquaintance in the early hours of July 1, 2021, to travel to the family’s cabin in White Lake, Wisconsin,” the probable cause statement said. “Halderson reported that his mother Krista had sent him a text message on July 4, 2021, stating that they had arrived and were in White Lake, and were planning on attending a parade that day. Investigation revealed that where was no parade and that Krista and Bart Halderson did not travel to their cabin in White Lake.”
Once investigators discovered Bart Halderson’s remains, Chandler Halderson was arrested.
“Chandler Halderson did know that his parents didn’t travel to the cabin, and intentionally made false statements to law enforcement regarding his parent’s whereabouts,” the statement concluded.
Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The surgeon general is warning Americans about the “urgent threat of health misinformation” amid the government’s current push to boost stalling vaccination rates.
Dr. Vivek Murthy’s advisory — the first under the Biden administration — addresses an epidemic of misinformation and disinformation, and its pernicious impact on public health — specifically threatening the U.S. response to COVID-19. It frames misinformation as having hindered vaccination efforts, sown mistrust, caused people to reject public health measures, use unproven treatments, prolonged the pandemic and put lives at risk.
The advisory says combatting misinformation is a “moral and civic responsibility” on an individual and institutional level.
The decision to elevate this issue in his first official advisory comes as some Republicans have used the government’s coronavirus response and vaccine messaging as a political wedge.
While Murthy doesn’t call out by name any of the Republican elected officials who have criticized a distorted interpretation of the Biden administration’s vaccine push, he does suggest accountable “stakeholders” in the fight against misinformation include public officeholders as important public messengers.
“Misinformation tends to flourish in environments of significant societal division, animosity, and distrust,” the advisory says. “Distrust of the health care system due to experiences with racism and other inequities may make it easier for misinformation to spread in some communities. Growing polarization, including in the political sphere, may also contribute to the spread of misinformation.”
The advisory also digs into social media platforms as having greatly contributed to the “unprecedented speed and scale” of misinformation’s spread and Murthy calls on technology and social media companies to “take more responsibility to stop online spread of health misinformation.”
“Health misinformation is an urgent threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, and undermine public health efforts, including our ongoing work to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” Murthy said in a statement. “As Surgeon General, my job is to help people stay safe and healthy, and without limiting the spread of health misinformation, American lives are at risk … tackling this challenge will require an all-of-society approach, but it is critical for the long-term health of our nation.”
The advisory lays out how to better identify and avoid sharing health misinformation, engage with the community on the issue and develop local strategies against misinformation:
Health professionals and health organizations can proactively engage with patients and the public by listening with empathy and correcting misinformation in personalized ways. The advisory suggests using social media and partnering with community groups to get out accurate information.
Governments can prevent and address misinformation by finding “common ground on difficult questions,” increasing investment in research, fact checking and engaging in rumor control. Murthy advised partnering with trusted messengers, using proactive messaging and community engagement strategies. Health teams should identify local misinformation patterns and train public health misinformation researchers.
Technology platforms can assess benefits and harms of how their products are built and “take responsibility for addressing the harms;” strengthen their monitoring of misinformation and improve transparency; and proactively address information deficits. The companies could also prioritize early detection of misinformation “super-spreaders” or repeat offenders, and amplify trusted messenger, prioritizing protecting health professionals, journalists and others from online harassment.
Journalists and media organizations can make sure their teams are trained in recognizing, debunking and avoiding amplification of misinformation by carefully reviewing materials that have not been peer reviewed.
Educators and schools can shore up evidence-based programs that build a “resilience” to misinformation by teaching people how to be more discerning about it and talk to friends and family who are sharing misinformation.
Foundations can provide training and resources for grantees working in communities that are disproportionately affected by misinformation, including areas with lower vaccine confidence, and monitoring health misinformation across multiple languages.
Researchers and research institutions can strengthen their monitoring of health questions and concerns, assess the impact that misinformation might be having and tailor interventions to the needs of specific populations, with an understanding of how people are exposed to and affected by misinformation.
(NEW YORK) — After more than two months of trying to woo hesitant Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines with cash, free beer and other prizes, health data and experts suggest those incentives failed to move the needle forward appreciably in many cases, and in some had no impact at all.
“A small proportion responds to the incentives, but they are definitely not a panacea,” Dr. Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine and economics at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Graduate School of Business, told ABC News of the national vaccine situation.
There was some initial thought that lotteries, in particular, would be effective given their appeal to some people who were also hesitant to get vaccines, experts told ABC News. But since incentives started widely being offered beginning on May 12, the number of first does given in the U.S. briefly increased but then tailed off.
The country did not meet President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of Americans getting one dose by July 4 and only 48% of the entire population has been fully vaccinated as of July 13, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The situation is more urgent in some states, like Arkansas and Louisiana, where vaccinations levels are below 50% despite well-funded incentive programs.
Schulman and health experts are recommending governors and health officials refocus their efforts on outreach rather than incentivizing if they want to avoid another wave of cases, hospitalization and deaths brought upon by low vaccination numbers.
Ohio’s ‘Vax-a-Million’ — an outlier?
Ohio, the first state to offer a lottery to vaccinated residents, was seen as an early test case. Gov. Mike DeWine used federal stimulus money to offer a $1 million prize and one full college scholarship to teen entrants once a week for five weeks.
One week after the “Vax-a-Million” sweepstakes was announced, an additional 113,000 Ohio residents had received their first dose, according to the state’s health department. That increase represented a week to week 53% jump, the state’s health officials said.
“This exceeded the governor’s expectations,” Dan Tierney, a spokesman for DeWine, told ABC News.
While the state credited the lottery for the jump, there has been no direct study or data to show it was the impetus, aside from some anecdotal evidence, according to the state’s health officials. The data did show that the increase was short-lived.
Since May 12, the number of residents who received their first shot increased by 770,000, according to the Ohio Health Department.
While this represents 13.5% of the 5.7 million Ohio residents who have received their first shot as of July 13, the state only has 48.8% of its population with one dose.
Roughly 55.6% of the total U.S. population has received one dose as of July 13, according to the CDC.
John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said Ohio’s case demonstrated that vaccine health incentives are really just a stop-gap and true solutions lie in increasing access to a vaccine center and education about efficacy.
“The incentives only really worked for people who were on the fence,” Brownstein said of the Ohio lottery program. “You saw that slight bump, but there are still thousands of people who aren’t signing up and the incentives didn’t work on them.”
Tierney said the Ohio lottery campaign organizers acknowledged that the campaign was most effective at convincing residents who were planning on getting vaccinated but held out due to scheduling time around school, work or vacations.
But Tierney also maintained that those hundreds of thousands of newly vaccinated residents still make a difference in the state’s goal.
“I think Vax-a-Million forced a lot of people to think about their calculations about when they wanted to get the vaccine,” he said.
Others lagging behind
Brownstein and health experts warned that Ohio’s increase following its lottery was an outlier.
Eighteen other states, including Maryland and New York, came up with their own vaccine lotteries or cash giveaways following Ohio, according to the National Governor’s Association. Their combined efforts appeared to only make a small and short-lived dent in vaccination numbers.
The seven-day average of new first doses given initially climbed from 1.79 million on May 12 after the states offered their programs to 1.88 million a week later but has steadily declined to 421,000 on July 7, according to the data. The average peaked at 3.4 million doses on April 11, according to the CDC.
Several states with already lagging vaccine numbers saw no jump after their programs were announced, according to health data.
In Louisiana, where only 39% of the entire population has one dose of the vaccine, the seven-day average of new daily doses administered has remained level at around 10,000 for the last month, according to Louisiana Health Department. A lottery for vaccinated residents was announced on June 17.
In Arkansas, the seven-day average of new vaccine shots administered declined by over 3,500 after the state announced its scratch-off game incentive for vaccinated residents on May 25, according to the Arkansas Health Department.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to buy our way out of this,” Col. Robert Ator, the program director of the Arkansas vaccine incentive program, told ABC affiliate KATV on June 28.
A representative for the Arkansas Health Department told ABC News the state is looking at other options including a request to businesses to offer incentives to people.
Don’t focus on incentives: Experts
Schulman co-authored a report in the New England Journal of Medicine in January arguing that the best ways to promote the COVID-19 vaccination among the populace is for state leaders to rethink their approaches and focus on marketing rather than rewards
Specifically, Schulman said states should prepare and launch marketing and advertising campaigns aimed at Americans who think it’s OK not to get a shot because hospitalizations and deaths are down from the winter and they’ll be fine.
“They are a really important group to address now. They’re more likely to respond to a good marketing campaign,” he said.
Informing those unvaccinated members about the dangers of the virus, particularly the growing threat of variants, and the effects on their families and businesses will go a longer way than a cash prize, Schulman argued.
“I would go back to those lottery states and ask how much did you spend on the lottery and how much could you have spent on Facebook ads that could appeal to those populations,” he said.
Tierney noted that the Vax-a-Million sweepstakes generated a form of publicity for the vaccine because of news articles, social media posts and word of mouth. His office has estimated that the coverage was the equivalent of $50 million in advertising.
“We could not have bought this word of mouth,” he said.
Schulman said it is promising that state leaders are working to close the vaccination gap, but reiterated that they’ll need more precise targeting to pick up the pace.
“The fact that these governors sounded the alarm early and said, ‘We have a problem,’ is encouraging,” he said. “They must not give up.”
(NEW YORK) — “Sicker, younger, quicker” is how hospital executive Steve Edwards explained a sudden explosion this month in COVID patients in Springfield, Missouri.
It’s against this backdrop — rising COVID cases due to an aggressive new variant and lagging vaccination numbers — that the nation’s estimated 56 million students grades K-12 return to the classroom full-time in the coming weeks, many of them for the first time since the pandemic shuttered schools in March 2020.
Here’s what to know about schools reopening:
Only of a quarter of children ages 12-15 are fully immunized
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lowered the age of people eligible to receive the vaccine from 16 to 12 in May, citing evidence from clinical trials that the two doses were safe and effective in kids in preventing the symptoms caused by COVID-19. Studies also have shown that vaccination prevents the chances a teen could spread the virus.
But U.S. teens have been slow on the uptake.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 86% of people over age 75 are fully vaccinated. That’s compared to nearly 25% of children ages 12-15 and 37% of young people 16-17 who are fully vaccinated.
That leaves large populations of high schools and middle schools — which are often overcrowded, making social distancing difficult — unprotected against the virus, particularly as daily COVID cases have jumped 86% in the last three weeks.
For younger children, ages 5-11, Pfizer said its clinical trials are under way now to see if a smaller dose of the vaccine would be as effective. Company officials said they plan to seek authorization for kids younger than 12 in September or October, paving the way for elementary-age children to be fully immunized by the end of the year.
Several states are prohibiting schools from requiring masks
Last year, schools were found not to be super-spreaders so long as students and staff consistently wore masks and took other steps to prevent transmission.
The CDC now says vaccinated students and staff can forgo masks unless they are riding a school bus or if their school tells them otherwise. But verifying who is vaccinated will be up to schools and local officials — and many states don’t appear to be eager to mandate proof of vaccination.
According to the school tracker Burbio, seven states are prohibiting schools from mandating masks. Schools in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Vermont and South Carolina can only recommend masks to unvaccinated staff and students.
In Arizona, Chandler Unified School District, which welcomes back students July 21 — one of the earliest start dates in the nation — already decided masks would be voluntary when Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law that prohibits local counties and school districts from requiring students or staff to wear face coverings.
In most states though, including Missouri, school districts have the option of requiring masks come fall — a decision that could change as COVID case numbers fluctuate.
In Springfield, Missouri, for example, the city had lifted the mask mandate in schools only to reinstate it for its July summer program when COVID case numbers climbed. The superintendent there has yet to say whether masks will be required when the district reopens full-time on Aug. 23, welcoming back more than 23,000 students into its classrooms.
Biden designated $10B for testing in schools, but not every state wants it
President Joe Biden has designated $10 billion in federal money as part of his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan so schools can test students and staff. Under the program, states are required to report back how many tests are used and how many turn up positive.
Several of the nation’s largest school districts — Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago — plan to reopen with routine surveillance testing for students. Colorado’s health department also announced it wants to use federal dollars to implement a routine testing program.
But other parts of the country — including Idaho and Iowa — plan to forgo entirely their share of federal funding to test students for COVID-19.
Last April, Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that she would reject the $95 million in federal funds offered to the state for in-school coronavirus testing.
“I think he (Biden) thinks that COVID just started,” Reynolds said in a Fox News interview. “I just returned $95 million because they sent an additional $95 million to the state of Iowa to get our kids back in the classroom by doing surveillance testing. And I said we’ve been in the classroom since August. Here’s your $95 million back.”
The CDC and Biden’s top health officials are still suggesting schools embrace the idea of routine testing, particularly if they want schools to stay open.
“Our nation’s top public health scientists are recommending that school districts consider adding screening programs into their overall strategy for protecting their kids and their staff from outbreaks of COVID and the administration is supporting that recommendation with this testing program,” said Tom Inglesby, a senior COVID-19 response adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services.
(WASHINGTON) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the White House Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden.
After deciding not to seek another term in office, her trip will likely mark a farewell to Biden. It’s a chance for the longtime acquaintances and partners to reaffirm the strong U.S.-Germany bond in the face of global challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic and rising autocratic influences.
“Chancellor Merkel has been a true friend to the United States, a strong advocate for the transatlantic partnership for multilateral cooperation, as well as for our shared priorities,” a senior administration official said ahead of the meeting. “In their meeting, I expect that President Biden will convey gratitude for her leadership role, in Europe and around the world, as she prepares to depart the German political stage, following their elections this September.”
The visit with also be an opportunity for the pair to hash out some areas of concern ahead of the end of Merkel’s tenure.
Merkel kicks off her visit having breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris. In the afternoon, Merkel attends both a one-on-one and a larger group meeting at the White House with Biden. Merkel and Biden hold a press conference in the late afternoon and then in the evening, Biden will host a dinner for her and “a range of individuals who have long been strong supporters of Germany and the bilateral relationship, which will further demonstrate the close and continuing ties between our countries,” a senior administration official said.
Despite the warm welcome, challenges remain.
One sticking point between the two countries is Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to move gas directly from Russia, under the Baltic Sea and into Germany. Biden is opposed to the pipeline, as are many Republicans in Congress, because it could give Russia increased influence in Europe and more control over energy reserves. The pipeline will likely deprive other countries, such as Ukraine, of badly-needed oil revenues and some experts fear Russia could shut off the gas supply to certain countries in retaliatory moves.
Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on companies helping to build the pipeline in May as a goodwill gesture to European allies, as he worked to get them on board with his tough-on-Russia policies and in a tacit admission that U.S. sanctions ultimately failed to halt construction. That was a move some Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, criticized.
“Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit,” Sasse said.
It’s a topic Biden is expected to bring up with Merkel on Thursday.
“I do expect that President Biden will raise his long-standing concerns with Chancellor Merkel during their meeting about Russia’s geopolitical project and about the importance of developing concrete mechanisms to ensure that energy is not used as a coercive tool against Ukraine, our eastern flank allies or any other country. We believe that the sanctions waivers that we announced in May have given us diplomatic space to be able to work with Germany to have these conversations to try and find ways to address the negative impacts of the pipeline,” the official said.
However, the official did not anticipate any formal announcement on Nord Stream out of the meeting.
The official did preview that Biden and Merkel will release a so-called Washington Declaration, “which will outline their common vision for cooperation to confront policy challenges,” and provide guiding principles for years ahead, even as Merkel’s successor takes the helm. The official also anticipated a climate and energy partnership to be announced, though they provided no further details on what that will look like.
Another area of difference between the two leaders is China’s rising global influence. While Biden has seen China as a competitor that must be curtailed, Merkel is friendlier towards a rising China, believing their success and a balanced trade relationship between the two countries will benefit Germany.
Other agenda items include the pandemic and security challenges in Afghanistan.
(NEW YORK) — The vast majority of American families with children will automatically receive up to $300 per month, per child, beginning Thursday, the IRS and Treasury Department have announced.
The IRS said families who qualify for the Child Tax Credit, which was expanded as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will receive monthly payments without taking any further action. Initial eligibility will be based on 2019 or 2020 tax returns.
The changes increased the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 for children over 6, and to $3,600 for children under 6.
According to the IRS: “For tax year 2021, the Child Tax Credit is increased from $2,000 per qualifying child to: $3,600 for children ages 5 and under at the end of 2021; and $3,000 for children ages 6 through 17 at the end of 2021.”
In a nutshell: Families making less than $150,000 a year and single parents making less than $112,500 are now eligible for a credit of up to $3,600 per child. Payments will be going out to 39 million households, according to the IRS.
The IRS also added on its website: “The $500 nonrefundable Credit for Other Dependents amount has not changed.”
Biden will mark the rollout of checks and direct deposits from the child tax credit with a White House event featuring Americans who will benefit.
“We have seen projections that the child tax credit, the implementation or the extension of child tax credit could reduce — could cut child poverty in half,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “And this is just extra money that’s going into people’s bank accounts who need help the most. So, the president felt it was important to elevate this issue, to make sure people understand this is a benefit that will help them as we still work to recover from the pandemic and the economic downturn.”
In a June 21 statement, the president called the program the “largest-ever child tax credit.”
“For parents working to make ends meet and raise their children with greater security, dignity, and opportunity, help is here,” Biden said.
The Biden administration also launched a website with details about the tax credit.
The benefits will be paid monthly, according to the IRS. People can register for the program even if they did not fully file taxes.
Set to expire after a year, Biden has proposed extending the program through 2025.
In the meantime, this calculator from ABC News’ data journalism team tells you how much you may receive from the Child Tax Credit program using the guidelines spelled out in the bill based on your most recent tax form. The information you enter will not be stored or saved in any way.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — Nearly two dozen 911 calls released by the Miami-Dade Police Department Wednesday convey the confusion, panic and disbelief among residents and neighbors after the partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, Florida, in the early hours of June 24.
“I’m in the Champlain Towers, something is going on here. You gotta get us out of here.”
“It seemed like there was an earthquake.”
“Oh my God, the whole building collapsed.”
Frantic 911 calls came in from residents who were trapped inside after approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed in the collapse at around 1:15 a.m.
“Half the building’s gone!” a panicked woman told the operator from her apartment.
A woman calling from the second floor told the operator that she couldn’t find an exit.
“We didn’t know which stairs we can get out,” she said.
A man on the same call told the operator he heard people yelling from the collapsed portion of the building.
“There’s people yelling, saying that they’re stuck,” he said.
“Is it safe for us to stay here?” he later asked.
The operator stayed with him on the phone as he and his family went down to the basement looking for a way out.
“The entire garage is flooded,” he said, updating the operator that they were going to try to go back to the second floor and that other people had joined his family.
“There are people in the rubble yelling, by the way,” he later said, softly.
One person called 911 from the flooded garage.
“A bunch of us are in the garage but we cannot get out,” the caller said. “We’re going back up the stairwell, the garage is inundated with water. We don’t know where the water is coming from.”
A distressed woman called from outside the parking garage asking to be rescued.
“Can somebody help me get out?” she asked. “I was able to escape but I’m in the parking lot. If the building comes down it will come down on my head.”
Other calls came in from family members of those who lived in the condo begging for help.
“My sister lives there,” one person said. “I don’t know, something happened to it. I don’t know, half of the building isn’t there anymore. She is alive and she is there, she’s in apartment [muted]. If someone can get her out through the balcony.”
Witnesses who heard the collapse and saw the aftermath also called 911.
“What are you seeing sir because we are getting a lot of calls over there?” an overwhelmed operator asked in one call.
“A very large building collapse, like the building next to us is gone,” the caller replied.
Another caller a block and a half away reported hearing an explosion.
Others reported seeing smoke and flames following the collapse.
“A building collapsed a block away from me and there is major smoke everywhere. We don’t know if anybody is hurt,” a caller said. “I heard the explosion all the way and the building is collapsing.”
Several callers described hearing what sounded like an earthquake, as well as an explosion from the garage.
“I woke up because I was hearing some noise,” one caller said. “I looked outside and the patio area started sinking down.”
“The building just went into the sinkhole,” the caller said a few seconds later. “There will be many, many people dead.”
The full toll of the disaster still remains to be seen; after nearly three weeks of search efforts, at least 95 people have been confirmed dead, while 14 people remain unaccounted for, officials said Tuesday. The cause of the partial collapse is under investigation.
Documents released by the city of Surfside show there was structural damage to the concrete slabs on the condo building’s pool deck and failed waterproofing in parts of the tower, and that the pool deck and the ceiling of the underground parking garage beneath it had needed repairs as early as 1996.
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein contributed to this report.
(JACKSON, Miss.) — As the delta variant spreads rapidly across the U.S., Mississippi officials are warning about hospitalizations of children with severe cases of COVID-19.
Of the seven children currently in the intensive care unit due to COVID-19, two are on ventilators, according to State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.
“Delta Surge – be careful,” Dobbs said in a terse tweet Tuesday, while sharing the updates on the latest hospitalizations.
Dobbs initially said 12 children statewide were in the ICU due to COVID-19, though later revised that to a smaller number after a hospital corrected its report.
“Please be safe and if you are 12 or older – please protect yourself,” he said.
The ages ranged from under 1 to 17, Dobbs said in a statement to ABC News Wednesday.
Children are less likely than adults to have serious COVID-19 infections. Most have mild symptoms, if any, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though in rare instances, they have developed severe cases that led to hospitalization or death.
It is not clear if any of the seven chilidren have underlying health conditions that would put them at greater risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, told ABC News Wednesday that his facility was seeing a “significant increase” in pediatric patients over the last several weeks.
The medical center is currently treating five children with confirmed COVID-19 cases, two of whom are in the ICU. Two other children at the hospital are being investigated for potential COVID-19 infections, he said.
The children, who are in stable condition, range from infants to teenagers, Jones said. He could not share any further details about the cases but said that many patients within his hospital who are currently in the ICU do have some chronic, underlying comorbidity diseases that would put them at a higher risk of having a more severe illness associated with COVID-19.
The state has been seeing a “pretty alarming” increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Dobbs said during a press briefing last Friday, as the highly contagious delta variant, which was initially identified in India, has quickly become the dominant variant in the state.
“We have seen pretty much an entire takeover of the delta variant for our transmission,” Dobbs said during the briefing, noting that the current cases in the state are “pretty much all delta.”
Between June 15 and July 9, the delta variant accounted for 80% of all specimens sequenced in the state, according to Dobbs.
Hospital systems are not currently overwhelmed, but Dobbs said there are “concerns about it going forward, as has been seen in other states” due to delta, which has become the dominant variant nationwide.
Mississippi’s daily COVID-19 case average has more than doubled in the last three weeks. Less than three weeks ago, there were under 100 patients receiving care for COVID-19 in Mississippi. As of July 11, there were nearly 200. Hospital admissions have also increased by 26.7% in the last week.
The state has seen an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks as well, particularly among youth, in summer activities and nursing homes, Dobbs said.
Jones said his hospital’s pediatric patients seem to be more symptomatic than the children who became ill earlier in the pandemic, which he attributed to the delta variant.
“These seem to be more classic COVID symptoms — fever, cough, respiratory illness,” he said. “I suspect that’s probably because this delta variant is importing a little more severe illness in the pediatric population than those earlier strains that were circulating.”
The delta variant is surging as Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the country, with approximately one-third of the state’s total population fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. The “vast majority” of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the state now are in unvaccinated people, Dobbs said.
Due to the low vaccination rate, the state health department advised Friday that those who are ages 65 and older or have chronic medical conditions avoid mass indoor gatherings for several weeks.
“Our collective under-vaccination in the state has put us all at risk, especially the most vulnerable,” Dobbs said.
Editor’s Note: A state health officer has issued a correction revising the number of children hospitalized with severe COVID-19 cases from 12 to seven.
