(BALTIMORE) — Two Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were shot Tuesday morning in the parking lot of Security Square Mall, according to authorities.
Baltimore County police said the officers’ injuries are non-life-threatening. The suspect, who was also shot, is dead, police said.
Baltimore police said the two officers involved are on the Warrant Apprehension Task Force. They were working with the U.S. Marshals regional fugitive task force at the time of the shooting, according to a law enforcement source.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison is heading to the hospital, police said.
Additional information was not immediately available.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Americans who are fully vaccinated don’t need another shot, top U.S. health officials said late Monday following a private meeting with top executives at Pfizer, which says it had new data showing a third vaccine dose could boost the body’s antibody response five- to ten-fold.
The statements appear to close the door – at least for now – on the suggestion that people who were among the first to be vaccinated more than six months ago would once again need to line up for a third shot. One factor that could change that calculus is the emergence of new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.
“At this time, fully vaccinated Americans do not need a booster shot,” the Department of Health and Human Sciences said in a statement following the meeting with Pfizer.
Pfizer called its meeting with government health officials “productive” and said it would publish more “definitive data” in a peer-reviewed journal soon.
“Both Pfizer and the U.S. government share a sense of urgency in staying ahead of the virus that causes COVID-19, and we also agree that the scientific data will dictate next steps in the rigorous regulatory process that we always follow,” the company said in a statement released Tuesday.
The question of whether and when Americans might need a third shot has been an open question for months, as health experts noted that a person’s detectible antibodies wane over time and as new variants of the virus have emerged. But there are other parts of a person’s immune system, including T-cells, that doctors believe also play a major role in helping prevent hospitalization or death.
The first vaccine shots given in the U.S. were Pfizer doses to health care workers on Dec. 14 – some seven months ago.
But since then, ample real-world evidence has surfaced that vaccinated individuals are strongly protected from the virus and its currently known variants. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 99.5 percent of deaths from COVID-19 are among unvaccinated patients.
“Nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky last week.
On July 8, Pfizer announced it had “encouraging data” on the prospects of a third dose. The Pfizer vaccine is typically given in two doses, three weeks apart.
“Initial data from the study demonstrate that a booster dose given after 6 months of the second dose has a consistent tolerability profile while eliciting high neutralization titers, 5-10 times higher than after two primary doses” against variants of the virus, the company stated in an announcement.
“While protection against severe disease remained high across the full 6 months, the observed decline in efficacy against symptomatic disease over time and the continued emergence of variants are key factors driving our belief that a booster dose will likely be necessary to maintain highest levels of protection,” Pfizer said in its earlier statement.
After meeting with Pfizer officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday night that it’s possible the government will recommend boosters eventually, possibly starting with older Americans or people with underlying medical conditions.
But Fauci said he doesn’t think boosters are needed just yet.
“We heard their data. We made it very clear their data is a part of a much larger puzzle, and we will be gathering data as the weeks go by,” Fauci said.
Fauci also noted that if a decision on boosters is made, “it will be based on a comprehensive study, not on the announcement of a pharmaceutical company.”
Fauci’s statement was a nod to the public confusion about the effectiveness of the vaccine after Pfizer announced it would recommend boosters.
“I don’t mean that in a derogatory way because it was a very good meeting, very informative. We exchanged information, and I think it’s an important step in the right direction,” he added.
In attendance were Drs. Fauci and Walensky, as well as acting FDA Administrator Janet Woodcock; Peter Marks, who has been leading FDA regulatory efforts on the vaccine; Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health; Biden COVID adviser David Kessler; and Rachel Levine, assistance secretary for Health at HHS.
ABC News’ Eric Strauss contributed to this report.
(DAYTON, Ohio) — A COVID-19 outbreak has been reported among attendees of a church retreat, officials announced.
At least 30 positive cases have been identified so far in people who took part in the weeklong event, health officials confirmed.
Dayton and Montgomery County Public Health said more than 800 people attended the Baptist Church retreat at Camp Chautauqua in Miamisburg, Ohio, from June 27 to July 3. Visitors came to the event from churches across Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.
Dr. Michael Dohn, medical director for Dayton & Montgomery County Public Health, spoke out about his concern, stating: “Unvaccinated people, including children under 12 years of age, are up to 100 times more likely to get sick after exposure to COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated individuals.”
Dohn added: “the outbreak demonstrates that the COVID-19 virus is still circulating and continues to make people sick.”
The positive cases were so far identified in attendees from Ohio and Kentucky.
One person tested positive for COVID-19 during the final days of the retreat and was “immediately quarantined off campus,” Jason Harmeyer, President of the Chautauqua Camp and Conference Center said in a statement. Event organizers then proceeded to monitor individuals associated with that group for symptoms and conducted regular temperature checks.
Health officials investigating the outbreak said camp and event organizers had failed to provide contact information for attendees after the initial cases were recognized, so authorities were asking anyone who may have attended the retreat to contact them or their local health department.
The camp organizer said it was in regular contact with group leaders to take necessary precautions.
It is unknown how many attendees had received COVID-19 vaccinations.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden will attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which will be held on July 23, according to the office of the first lady.
The Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Japan’s capital last year on July 24 but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now scheduled to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8. Despite the year delay, COVID-19 continues to rip through the country, mudding up the games with controversy and calls to cancel.
To address some of those concerns, organizers unveiled a series of “playbooks” with new rules and guidelines for how they plan to hold safe and successful Games in Tokyo this summer amid the pandemic. The rules include spectator gaps, a ban on cheering, mandatory COVID-19 testing and more.
Asked last month whether the first lady would attend, President Joe Biden said, “That’s the plan.”
“Well, we’re trying to work that out now,” he told White House reporters as he departed for a trip to Wisconsin. “That’s the plan.”
(BALTIMORE) — Two Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were shot Tuesday morning and are in unknown conditions, according to the city’s Fraternal Order of Police.
Baltimore police said the two officers involved are on the Warrant Apprehension Task Force. They were working with the U.S. Marshals regional fugitive task force at the time of the shooting, according to a law enforcement source.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison is heading to the hospital, police said.
Additional information was not immediately available.
(WASHINGTON) — Consumer prices continued to climb last month, newly-released data indicates, as the economy begins to bounce back from the pandemic-induced downturn.
The consumer price index, the Labor Department’s measure of what consumers pay for everyday goods and services, spiked 5.4% over the last 12 months. In June alone, it jumped 0.9%.
This was the largest one-month change since June 2008 and the largest 12-month increase since August 2008, the Labor Department said Tuesday.
The latest CPI data was largely driven up by the index for used cars and trucks, which skyrocketed by a whopping 10.5% in June amid a global chip shortage. This increase accounted for more than one-third of the increase for all items.
The so-called core index, which accounts for all items except the more volatile food and energy index, spiked 0.9% in June after rising 0.7% in May. The core index rose by some 4.5% over the last year — the largest 12-month increase since the period ending in Nov. 1991.
The food index spiked 0.8% in June, double the 0.4% jump reported in May. The energy index spiked 1.5% last month, with the gasoline index spiking 2.5%. Over the last 12 months, the food index was up 2.4% and the energy index rose 24.5%.
While nearly all the indexes saw increases last month, the index for medical care and the index for household furnishings were among the few that decreased in June, according to the DOL. The consumer price index for all items has been trending upward every month since the start of the year.
The latest figures come as the pandemic wanes in the U.S. and consumer demand surges while many businesses have reported supply chain bottlenecks and labor issues. Meanwhile, economists and policymakers mull over whether the data reflects a temporary blip or indicates the potential of longer-term inflation.
Last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell downplayed inflation fears in a testimony before lawmakers, saying it is likely temporary.
“Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell stated, according to prepared remarks. “This reflects, in part, the very low readings from early in the pandemic falling out of the calculation; the pass-through of past increases in oil prices to consumer energy prices; the rebound in spending as the economy continues to reopen; and the exacerbating factor of supply bottlenecks, which have limited how quickly production in some sectors can respond in the near term.”
“As these transitory supply effects abate, inflation is expected to drop back toward our longer-run goal,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — It is finally time to light the Olympic torch. After being delayed a year due to the coronavirus, the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin next Friday, July 23, and will run through Aug. 8.
Since spectators won’t be allowed to travel to Tokyo, all eyes will instead be watching Team USA on TV as they take on the world. And what better way to support Team USA than by sporting some patriotic gear and accessories?
In support of the Olympic Games, Macy’s has launched an Olympic store that will run until Aug. 8. You can check out the items here.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A Taco Bell employee was arrested on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee after she and her coworkers allegedly set off fireworks inside the restaurant, causing the building to catch fire as they watched from afar and accidentally locked themselves out.
The incident occurred on July 5, at one of the fast-food chain’s locations in Tennessee’s capital city. But the investigation into how the blaze began took a turn on July 8, when the restaurant’s management called local fire investigators to report that surveillance cameras had captured their employees playing with fireworks inside of the establishment, according to a statement released Monday by the Nashville Fire Department.
“According to the surveillance footage, the employees can be seen locking the doors to the dining room to keep customers from entering the business,” the fire department said in the statement. “The video then shows the employees running around the inside of the store with fireworks in their hands.”
At one point in the video, the employees can be seen going into the men’s bathroom, where they are out of sight of the camera for a short period of time, before returning to the lobby and placing an item into a trash can near the door, according to the Nashville Fire Department.
“Employees are seen using their cell phone cameras to record the trash can from the outside of the restaurant,” the fire department said. “Employees then realized they locked themselves out of the restaurant. The employees tried unsuccessfully to get back into the store. When the employees saw the trash can start to smoke, they called 911 for help.”
The footage has not been released.
Firefighters arrived on scene a short time later and were able to force their way into the restaurant to extinguish the flames.
The Nashville Fire Department estimated that the fire caused more than $30,000 worth of damage to the inside of the restaurant. Investigators also found damage inside of the men’s bathroom where it appeared fireworks were ignited inside of the trash can.
The restaurant’s shift leader, 25-year-old Courtney Mayes, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with felony aggravated arson. She is being held on a $5,000 bond at the Davidson County Jail in Nashville.
“Arson is one of the costliest human-made disasters,” the Nashville Fire Department said in the statement. “Arson indirectly contributes to increased insurance premiums, higher medical costs, lost jobs, lost income, and the increased costs of fire services.”
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, and the Nashville Fire Department said it expects additional arrests “in the coming days.”
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — California issued a new rule on Monday banning unmasked students from school campuses but then rescinded it just hours later.
The California Department of Health published its COVID-19 public health guidance for K-12 schools in the Golden State for the 2021-2022 school year, including a new mandate that said students “are required” to wear face masks indoors, unless they are exempt due to a medical condition, and “schools must exclude students from campus” if they refuse to do so. The guidance, which was initially published on Monday afternoon and took immediate effect, noted that schools “should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering.”
But later, officials backtracked on that rule. The California Department of Health took to Twitter on Monday evening to signal a change of direction, saying, “California’s school guidance will be clarified regarding masking enforcement, recognizing local schools’ experience in keeping students and educators safe while ensuring schools fully reopen for in-person instruction.”
The guidance was ultimately revised, dropping the language about excluding unmasked students from classrooms statewide and instead allowing schools to decide how to deal with the issue.
“Consistent with guidance from the 2020-21 school year, schools must develop and implement local protocols to enforce the mask requirements,” the guidance now states. “Additionally, schools should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering.”
The California Department of Health says the guidelines are “effective immediately and will be reviewed regularly.” The department further noted that it is operating within the updated recommendations released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to advise schools to promote COVID-19 vaccination and implement indoor mask requirements and physical distancing for those who are not fully vaccinated. But the CDC’s guidelines also state that schools “should not exclude students from in-person learning to keep a minimum distance requirement.”
“Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,” the CDC says.
Nevertheless, California’s COVID-19 measures are among the strictest of any U.S. state. Education and health officials alike are concerned about the so-called delta variant, a highly contagious version of the novel coronavirus, with infections on the rise as the new academic year draws closer.
As of July 7, there were 1,085 confirmed cases of the delta variant in California — a 71% rise from the previous week. Meanwhile, among the COVID-19 tests statewide that are genomically sequenced, the delta variant accounted for 43% on June 21 compared with just 5.8% on May 21, according to data from the California Department of Health.
Overall, California has reported more than 3.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 63,000 deaths from the disease. More than 42.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across to the state, which is home to some 39.5 million people, according to data from the California Department of Health.
(NEW YORK) — While all adults in the United States are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, parents with young children find themselves in an uncomfortable limbo state. Fully vaccinated parents are protected against the virus, but their kids under 12 aren’t even eligible for a shot.
While children are less likely to have serious infection than in adults, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noting that “most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all,” in rare instances, children have developed severe COVID-19 cases that led to hospitalization or death.
As of early June, 4,000 children nationwide had developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19. There’s also an element of uncertainty associated with any COVID-19 infection, since the long-term health consequences of having COVID-19 are not yet known.
Navigating kids and COVID is complicated. Come fall, vaccines are likely to be approved for children younger than 12, but until then, some parents are wondering how to keep their kids safe as guidelines about masks and social distancing loosen.
ABC News spoke with Dr. Judith Flores, a pediatrician and former chief of ambulatory care at NYC Health + Hospitals, who has been in practice for more than 30 years, about how parents can lower their kids’ COVID risk.
Q: My kid is going back to school in person this year. What do I need to know?
You should start planning and ask questions, Flores says.
“I would also inquire who is vaccinated at school and keep an eye on what their environmental controls are,” Flores said.
According to the CDC’s guidelines for K-12 schools, “consistent and correct use of face masks reduces the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and, with some exceptions, is recommended for use indoors among people aged 2 and older who are not fully vaccinated.” The CDC also recommends handwashing, improving ventilation, staying home if sick, social distancing and testing in schools to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks.
Depending on school guidance and your risk tolerance as a parent, send your child to school with a mask. Flores noted that if she had a small child, she would have them wear a mask at school, especially in the beginning, while you determine whether or not the school is doing a good job of keeping the environment safe.
But ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind that schools have been reasonably safe settings so far.
“It’s been well documented that kids get sicker when they’re home with family,” Flores said.
Despite that reality, some parents are rightfully nervous. Flores works with families that were hit hard by COVID-19’s initial wave in New York City. Some parents and children are anxious about returning in person, she explained, adding that behavioral and mental health support are critical, especially for kids who lost family members during the pandemic.
“It’s not just, ‘let’s make sure we have your supply list for the teacher this year,'” she said. “You really have to prepare your children mentally — and yourself,” she said.
Q: Is there anything I can do to lower my child’s COVID risk until they’re eligible for a vaccine?
“The best way to take care of your child is for you, your family and your community to be vaccinated,” Flores stressed. “Your kid’s risk goes up depending on the community you live in or go to school in. If your community has a low vaccination rate and high infection rate, there’s a greater risk your child will get sick.”
“If I were in Mississippi, I’d be very concerned, because the vaccination rate is low. So there, I’d keep a mask on my child and keep social distancing. If I lived in Massachusetts, I might breathe a little easier,” she said.
Mississippi’s vaccination rate trails the national average. As of Monday, 37% of residents had received at least one dose, and 33% were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 71% of people in Massachusetts who’ve gotten at least one shot and 63% who are fully vaccinated.
Your child doesn’t need to wear a mask in most outdoor settings because the risk of transmission is low, Flores noted, but it’s a good idea to have them wear one in indoor public spaces, especially if ventilation is poor or if the space is crowded.
The same fundamental practices the CDC recommends for schools, like handwashing and social distancing, are useful for reducing kids’ risk in non-school settings. You can also model wearing a mask for your child, even if you’re vaccinated and don’t technically need one yourself. If you’re not going to wear a mask around your child, having a conversation as a family explaining why masks are important is key, Flores suggested.
“This is an added protection for you. Just like I would put a seatbelt on you, I would put a mask on you for this time,” she said. “Kids understand seatbelts.”
