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California brush fire explodes over 20,000 acres, Newsom declares state of emergency

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — A wind-whipped Southern California brush fire that exploded to over 20,000 acres in about 24 hours, destroying homes and prompting mass evacuations, remained out of control Thursday as Gov. Gavin Newsom rallied state and federal resources to battle the blaze.

The governor declared a state of emergency in Ventura County as firefighters struggled to gain an edge on the Mountain Fire, which had burned 20,484 acres and destroyed an undetermined number of homes since starting near the town of Camarillo. The blaze was 5% contained Thursday evening.

The November fire came amid unseasonably warm temperatures and strong Santa Ana winds. The National Weather Service issued red-flag warnings for Ventura and Los Angeles counties that are to remain in effect through at least Friday morning.

Aerial footage from ABC Los Angeles station KABC showed what appeared to be row after row of destroyed homes in the towns Camarillo, Moorpark and Somis.

Multiple people were taken to the hospitals to be treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries, Ventura County emergency officials said. Some victims became trapped in their cars as they raced from the fast-moving flames, officials said.

In a press conference Thursday evening, Ventura County Fire officials said 88 structures has been damaged and 132 structures were destroyed, the majority of which were homes.

Offcials said there were 10 confirmed injuries, most due to smoke inhalation and all were deemed non-life threatening.

At least 14,000 people were ordered to evacuate, said Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff.

Newsom announced on Wednesday that he has mobilized statewide resources to help battle the fire and has secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make vital resources available to extinguish the fire.

The California Office of Emergency Services said it had prepositioned 48 pieces of firefighting equipment, nine helicopters and over 100 personnel in 19 counties across California in advance of dangerous fire weather forecast in many parts of coastal and inland California.

“This is a dangerous fire that’s spreading quickly and threatening lives,” Newsom said in a statement. “State resources have been mobilized to protect communities, and this federal support from the Biden-Harris Administration will give state and local firefighters the resources they need to save lives and property as they continue battling this aggressive fire.”

The Mountain Fire is one of two wind-driven fires that broke out in Southern California, leading the NWS to issue rare November red flag warnings for Los Angeles and Ventura counties alerting of an “extreme fire risk” from Malibu into the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles, where winds could gust near 100 mph.

“A very strong, widespread, and long-duration Santa Ana wind event will bring widespread extremely critical fire weather conditions to many areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Wednesday into Thursday,” according to the NWS warning.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday.

Due to extreme wind conditions, fixed-wing aircraft are unable to assist in firefighting efforts, according to the Ventura Fire Department, which said ground crews, helicopters and mutual aid resources are “actively working to protect lives and property.”

Broad Fire

A second wildfire erupted in Los Angeles County’s Malibu area Wednesday — named the Broad Fire — and has burned at least 50 acres southwest of South Malibu Canyon Road and the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu, according to CAL Fire.

The fire was 15% contained Wednesday evening, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Local fire officials have warned residents to prepare for potential evacuations and the PCH has been closed in both directions between Webb Way and Corral Canyon.

Santa Ana wind conditions

Named after Southern California’s Santa Ana Canyon, the region’s Santa Ana winds bring blustery, dry and warm wind that blows out of the desert, drying out vegetation and increasing wildfire danger.

The long-duration Santa Ana wind event was expected to peak late Wednesday, becoming moderate on Thursday, then tailing off to light offshore winds on Friday.

Northeast winds moving 20 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph are expected across the canyons and passes of Southern California, with higher winds in the more wind-prone areas.

Another surge of wind is expected to peak through Thursday morning with widespread northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 50 mph before weakening considerably by Thursday afternoon.

Judge rules Biden’s ‘Keeping Families Together’ program for undocumented spouses is illegal

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has struck down the Biden administration’s program known as “Keeping Families Together,” dealing a major blow to the estimated half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens that DHS estimates would have benefited.

The administration announced the program in June, but a coalition of 16 Republican-led states — led by Texas and Stephen Miller’s America First Legal — quickly filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August.

A federal judge put the program on hold just days after hopeful applicants filed their paperwork.

The program would have provided temporary relief from deportation for undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens through a process known as “parole in place.” It would have allowed them to apply for legal status without having to leave the country.

On Thursday, Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled in favor of the Republican-led effort to dismantle the program, agreeing with Republican states that the administration had exceeded its statutory authority because the Immigration and Nationality Act allows for paroling people “into the United States,” not to those already in the country.

Noncitizen spouses are already eligible for legal status under current laws but often have to apply from their home countries and face up to a 10-year ban from returning to the U.S.

In August, ABC News spoke with a 24-year-old woman who was one of the first people to be approved under the program. She is married to a U.S. citizen and they have a 3-year-old child.

It’s unclear at the moment what will happen to people who have already submitted their paperwork, like Cecilia, and if they’ll be able to get their application fees refunded.

ABC News has reached out to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the White House for a comment.

“District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker did not just dismantle the Keeping Families Together program, he shattered the hopes of hundreds of thousands of American families. The Biden-Harris program would have allowed noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to stay in the country after they’ve contributed to our communities, helped grow our economy, and built lives with their loved ones” Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, said in a statement to ABC News.

“We urge the Biden-Harris administration to immediately appeal Judge Barker’s ruling, preventing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 15 other Republican Attorneys General cruel lawsuit from devastating over 550,000 individuals in mixed-status families. Families like ours deserve better than this blatant attempt to stop a legal program, and we will not stop until the courts rectify this injustice,” DeAzevedo said.

Why inflation helped tip the election toward Trump, according to experts

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A surging stock market, low unemployment and robust growth — by just about every measure, the economy stood poised to deliver victory for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The exception, of course, was inflation, and it appears to have overshadowed other indicators. More than two-thirds of voters say the economy is in bad shape, according to the preliminary results of an ABC News exit poll.

Inflation likely shaped negative voter perceptions of the economy and helped fuel anger toward the party in power, just as it has done across the globe since the pandemic unleashed a wave of rapid price increases, experts told ABC News.

The political potency of inflation stems from the visceral, recurring sense of unease caused by high prices, experts added. That feeling leaves voters insecure about their future and desperate for a leader who can change the nation’s course.

“Inflation has a specific and special power in elections,” Chris Jackson, senior vice president of public affairs for Ipsos in the U.S., told ABC News. “It’s something people see in their face every day — every time they go to the grocery store or fill up their car.”

He added, “Inflation is present in people’s lives. It’s something they’re unhappy with and it’s something they rightly or wrongly blame on whoever is in charge.”

The pandemic set off an acute bout of inflation that impacted nearly every country across the world, when global supply chain blockages caused an imbalance between the availability of goods and the demand for them. In other words, too much money chased too few products.

Prices began to rise rapidly in the U.S. in 2021, catapulting the inflation rate to a peak of about 9% the following year. Inflation soared even higher in many other countries, including the likes of Brazil and England, where leaders faced an angry electorate.

In Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro cut taxes on fuel and electricity in an effort to slash prices over the months preceding an election that concluded in October 2022, the nation nevertheless replaced him with a leftwing challenger.

Earlier that year, in England, Prime Minister Liz Truss responded to the highest inflation in four decades with an economic policy centered on tax cuts and energy price controls. Her tenure in office lasted just 44 days before market reaction and political disarray led to her stepping down.

The post-pandemic pattern has exemplified a high rate of leadership change amid inflation crises around the world over the last half century, according to a study by Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy firm. Examining 57 inflation shocks since 1970, the firm found government turnover in 58% of cases.

Further, when there was an election during or within two years of an inflation shock, it led to a change in government in roughly three out of every four instances, according to Eurasia Group.

“We’re seeing this trend on jet fuel after the pandemic,” said Robert Kahn, the managing director of global macro-geoeconomics at the New York-based Eurasia Group. “The pandemic inflation shock contributes to a sense of instability and a loss of confidence among people in their governments.”

Carola Binder, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies the history of inflation in the U.S., characterized recent anti-incumbent sentiment in a slightly different way: “When people are experiencing inflation and suffering from it, they want to have someone or something to blame.”

Inflation has cooled dramatically over the past two years, now hovering near the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%. Even so, that progress hasn’t reversed a leap in prices that dates back to the pandemic. Since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, consumer prices have skyrocketed more than 20%.

The potential role of inflation in the U.S. election owes to a typical lag between when inflation comes down and when consumers acclimate to new price levels, since a lower inflation rate does not mean prices have come down but rather that they have begun to increase at a slower pace, experts told ABC News.

“When inflation comes back down, the prices of many critical items remain high, especially for people who are stretched and living paycheck to paycheck,” Kahn said.

Consumers will likely acclimate to current price levels over the coming months, but voters will remain sensitive to inflation, experts said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals of heightened tariffs and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants risk rekindling rapid price increases, some experts said.

When asked about whether inflation could reemerge as an important issue ahead of the next midterm elections in 2026, Jackson said: “If Republicans shoot themselves in the foot, absolutely.”

2 people detained after vehicles, buildings fired at in Raleigh: Police

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(RALEIGH, N.C.) — Two people have been detained in connection with a spate of shootings that occurred in Raleigh this week, authorities said Thursday.

Since Monday, police have received 12 reports of shots being fired at vehicles and buildings in the vicinity of I-40 and I-440, according to Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson. Among the incidents, eight vehicles were fired into, resulting in one person being injured, she said.

“At this time, we do believe that the 12 incidents are related,” Patterson said at a press briefing Thursday. “I can also confirm that we have identified a person of interest, and this person has been detained. However, we will continue to pursue all leads.”

The investigation led authorities to a residence in Raleigh on Thursday, where they detained the person of interest, police said. A second person who was also in the residence at the time was additionally detained, police said.

Police have urged drivers in the Raleigh area to remain vigilant following reports of vehicles being fired into during the early morning hours on I-40.

In one incident, on Monday, a woman was shot in the leg, suffering a non-life-threatening injury, police said.

Patterson said it is unclear at this time if shots were being fired from a vehicle or on foot.

Police previously said they believe a handgun was used in the shootings.

The shootings remain under investigation. Patterson urged anyone with surveillance or dashcam footage to come forward.

A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible, she said.

82-year-old Washington woman arrested for a suspected hate crime after allegedly assaulting Trump supporters

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(EDMONDS, Wash.) — An 82-year-old white woman was arrested for a suspected hate crime and assault following an altercation with Trump supporters in which she confronted one about voting for the former president based on her skin color, according to a police report.

The incident occurred on Monday, a day before the general election, at an intersection where several Trump supporters were gathered in Edmonds, Washington, located about 17 miles north of Seattle.

The suspect, who was not publicly identified by police, is accused of pushing and punching a 55-year-old female Trump supporter after getting into a verbal altercation, Edmonds police said. She is accused of then punching in the chin a 66-year-old female Trump supporter who intervened while demonstrating how she pushed the initial supporter, according to the probable cause statement.

“Neither victim suffered significant injury nor required medical treatment,” the Edmonds Police Department said in a press release on Wednesday.

The suspect has not been charged in the incident, a Snohomish County prosecutor’s office spokesperson told ABC News on Thursday. The case will be reviewed by the prosecutor’s office for any charging decision.

The suspect, who was wearing a Harris-Walz pin, told a responding officer that she approached the first supporter and said, “I want to know why you’re voting for Trump,” according to body camera footage obtained and reviewed by ABC News. “And I said, ‘Because you’re brown-skinned.'”

“I hate the racism in this country, I hate how people are treated,” the suspect continued. “And so I’m wondering, why would somebody with brown skin support this man? And that was my question.”

She told the officer the Trump supporter “immediately started screaming ‘racist'” in her face.

“And my response was to push her away, and I put my hand to her chin, and I pushed on her shoulder,” the suspect said. “And it wasn’t hard. But I did do that.”

“I didn’t help the situation,” she added.

“I said why? Because of my skin color? I said, ‘You’re a racist,'” she said. “Then she came up and she pushed me. And then she hit me in the frickin’ chin.”

“She obviously didn’t hurt me,” she continued. “But it’s like, you know what, we have freedom of speech, you can say whatever you want. You can’t touch me.”

When asked if she wanted to press charges, the woman said yes. “That makes me nervous, you can’t do that,” she said.

The second Trump supporter said the suspect hit her face while demonstrating the initial altercation. “It was pretty forceful,” she told the officer.

The suspect told an officer at the scene that she has been wanting to talk to people of color who are supporting Trump.

“I am definitely not a racist,” the suspect said. “But I definitely want to flag people with brown skin or other color skins that, ‘Hey, you realize what’s gonna happen?'”

“That’s kind of racist if you’re targeting certain individuals,” the officer responded.

“I’m not targeting them,” she responded.

The suspect was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for an alleged hate crime and assault, police said. She was released on personal recognizance following a probable cause hearing on Tuesday, according to the Snohomish County prosecutor’s office spokesperson.

There is no timeline on the case or any scheduled hearing dates, the prosecutor’s office spokesperson said.

ABC News was unable to reach the suspect for comment.

The Trump supporter who was initially approached in the incident told Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO she was still in “shock.”

“She made it very clear it was my skin color,” the woman told the station.

Edmonds Police Chief Michelle Bennett said in a statement that the officers “properly determined that this was more than just an assault and arrested the suspect for the appropriate charge.”

“The constitution protects peaceful rallies in our community, and community members should never be met with violence while exercising those rights,” she said.

Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen said he was “disheartened that this violence has occurred in our community.”

“Community members peacefully showing political support should not be subject to hateful violence,” he said in a statement. “I’m thankful there were no serious injuries, and the suspect was held accountable.”

Israeli soccer fans involved in ‘violent incident’ in Amsterdam: Officials

November 8, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — At least five people have been hospitalized and 62 others detained after a night of violence targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam Thursday evening, authorities said.

The violence occurred after a UEFA Europa League match between the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club and the Dutch Ajax Football Club in Amsterdam on Thursday.

The Israeli National Security Headquarters told Israeli citizens staying in Amsterdam to “avoid movements in the street and shut oneself in hotel rooms.”

The Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, said the situation is now calm and that he is “horrified by the antisemitic attacks on Israeli citizens.” Israeli PM Netanyahu said he had been in touch with Schoof and called for increased security for Jewish communities in the Netherlands.

Tensions were rising in the lead up to the game last night, Amsterdam police on Wednesday night had reported a group of people pulled a Palestinian flag off the face of a building in the center of the city, and that police “prevented a confrontation” between a group of visitors and taxi drivers.

The Amsterdam Police have not yet commented on the incident but announced Wednesday evening that a “number of safety measures” had been taken before the match to ensure “that everything proceeds safely and orderly,” in a post on X.

Officials in Amsterdam said there will now be extra police on the move in the coming days and extra attention “for the extra security of Jewish institutions and objects.”

Amsterdam authorities will be holding a press conference at 12 p.m. on Friday where additional measures that will be taken today and in the coming days will be announced.

ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.

President Biden has no plans of pardoning son Hunter Biden, White House says

November 7, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden does not plan to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted on federal gun charges, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated during a press briefing on Thursday.

Hunter Biden is scheduled to be sentenced next month on the gun charges as well as federal tax-related charges in a separate case.

When asked Thursday whether the president has any intention of pardoning his son, Jean-Pierre responded, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”

Jean-Pierre said she didn’t have comment on pardons the president intends to make at the end of his term, including any administration officials or people threatened by President-elect Donald Trump with legal action.

“I know pardons is going to be a big part of the questions that I get here over the next several weeks and a couple of months that we have,” she said. “I don’t have anything to share or any thought process on pardons. Once we have something to share, we certainly will share with that.”

No son of a sitting president has faced a criminal trial before.

President Biden told ABC News anchor David Muir during an interview in June amid the Delaware trial in the gun case that he would not pardon his son.

Hunter Biden was ultimately found guilty that month on three felony counts related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12.

In a separate case, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to nine federal tax-related charges in Los Angeles, where he is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16.

How advocates predict Trump’s 2024 win could impact gun violence prevention laws

November 7, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Drew Spiegel was preparing to march in the 2022 Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park when gunfire rang out.

“In that short time span, seven people died, 48 more [were] injured,” the 19-year-old told ABC News. “I texted my parents that I might not be coming home from the Fourth of July parade. And my life forever changed.”

For more than a year after the shooting, Spiegel didn’t talk about it. That changed when he got to college and encountered the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

“They asked me straight up like, ‘Are you a survivor of gun violence?’ ” he said. “And I was like, no, but technically I was at a mass shooting. And they were like, so then yes.”

The U.S. sees 43,000 fatal shootings every year, and 120 people are fatally shot every day, according to Angela Ferrell-Zabala, the executive director of Moms Demand Action, an Everytown subsidiary group.

“This is bigger than a mass shooting problem, it’s a gun violence epidemic,” Spiegel said, citing the July assassination attempt and apparent September attempt on former President Donald Trump, who won a second term in the White House on Tuesday, as evidence of the problem’s scale.

“If Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, is not safe from gun violence, then nobody is,” he said.

Now, Spiegel is sharing his story with people who may have different opinions than him.

“The change we’re fighting for, is not mutually exclusive with the Second Amendment. They can coexist,” he told ABC News. “We can have a country where people are allowed to have guns and also a country where you don’t have to worry about going to school.”

But he isn’t just thinking in terms of the next four years — he’s looking at how the laws made in the coming decades could save lives.

He’s found an ally in Rep. Maxwell Frost, who won election in Florida’s 10th Congressional District in 2022 and won reelection on Tuesday. The 27-year-old Democrat is also a survivor of gun violence and was previously the national organizing director for gun control advocacy group March For Our Lives.

That movement didn’t result in gun control legislation getting passed, but Frost accepts that change takes time.

“The way you measure the success of a movement is, you see the seeds are planted in people,” Frost told ABC News. “I’m the first person from that movement to be in Congress. That’s a win, right? And then we got the Office of Gun Violence Prevention[in 2023]. That’s a win.”

However, Frost warned ABC News in August that he foresees this progress being rolled back.

“If Donald Trump wins this election, one of the things he’s going to do on Day One is get rid of the office completely. Get rid of it,” he said. “This office is helping to save lives across the entire country. So getting rid of the office literally means more people will die due to gun violence.”

With Trump returning to the White House in January, it’s unclear how much progress gun control will make. In 2018, the Trump administration banned bump stocks, which allow guns to essentially operate as automatic weapons. However, the Supreme Court struck down that ban in June.

“When I’m back in the Oval Office, no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” he told National Rifle Association (NRA) members in February.

Despite this, Spiegel is hoping people will keep fighting for gun violence prevention laws, to prevent stories similar to his own from happening all over again.

“I think our rights and freedoms will be under a higher attack than ever before. But I don’t think it’s completely over,” he told ABC News. “I think there’s still a country and, more importantly, our friends and family in the country that are worth fighting for. And we just put our heads down and get back to work. You just keep fighting.”

Judge says Giuliani faces contempt if he doesn’t turn over property to poll workers

November 7, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Thursday raised the possibility of holding Rudy Giuliani in contempt if he fails to turn over property by next week to the two Georgia poll workers he defamed after the 2020 election.

A 90-minute hearing devolved into what the judge called “griping” after a lawyer for former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss accused Giuliani of “game playing” and an attorney for Giuliani accused the two women of being “vindictive.”

A federal jury last year ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss nearly $150 million for defaming them with false accusations that the mother and daughter committed election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.

Earlier this week, Freeman and Moss’ attorney claimed that Giuliani had “secreted away” his property after the receivership controlled by the two election workers accessed Giuliani’s apartment, only to find it virtually empty.

The former New York City mayor was given a Nov. 14 deadline to turn over the shares in his Upper East Side co-op apartment, valuable sports memorabilia, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and luxury watches — including one that belonged to Giuliani’s grandfather.

When defense lawyer Ken Caruso complained that forcing Giuliani to relinquish his grandfather’s watch was “vindictive,” an exasperated Judge Lewis Liman said, “Oh come on!”

“The law is the law and I don’t apply it differently to your client,” Liman said. “Don’t come to me and say something is vindictive.”

The judge was equally unmoved by the defense argument that Giuliani’s car, a blue Mercedes-Benz convertible once owned by the actress Lauren Bacall, was exempt from the judgment because it’s worth less than $4,000.

“Monday the title and keys will be delivered as well as the physical location of the car,” Judge Liman said.

Giuliani also balked at relinquishing about $2 million dollars he is owed for legal worked performed for Donald Trump.

“They wanted that money to make a political statement,” Caruso said.

Liman did not budge and reminded Giuliani of the consequences.

“He is under an unqualified order to deliver all the receivership property to the receiver,” Liman said. “If he doesn’t comply then I’m sure I’ll get a motion for contempt. If he hasn’t delivered, and there is a way in which he could have delivered, he’ll be subject to contempt sanctions.”

Outside court, Giuliani accused Freeman and Moss of bringing a “political vendetta” that was “financed by the Bidens.”

When ABC News asked whether he regretted defaming Freeman and Moss, Giuliani answered “No” before his lawyer stepped in to say the case was on appeal.

CDC updates recommendations for bird flu testing, treatment after more infections found among dairy workers

November 7, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating its recommendations for testing, treatment and protection for workers who may be exposed to animals infected with bird flu.

The update comes after the agency found evidence of dairy workers with positive antibodies, suggesting more bird flu infections that previously reported, according to a new report released Thursday afternoon.

Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, found that eight out of 115 workers, or 7%, who were exposed to bird flu during outbreaks among cows at dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado had evidence of recent infection.

All eight workers said their jobs included either milking cows or cleaning a milking parlor. Four workers recalled experiencing symptoms, mainly conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. The remaining four patients said they did not experience symptoms when the cows were ill.

As a result, the CDC said it is updating its guidance addressing who should be tested for bird flu to include workers who were exposed to bird flu and do not have symptoms.

“There may be individuals infected but who do not recall having symptoms,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told reporters during a media call Thursday morning. “That means we need to cast a wider net in terms of who is offered a test.”

Secondly, the CDC is now recommending offering oseltamivir – a prescription medication to treat influenza that’s often marketed under the name Tamiflu – to asymptomatic workers who have experienced high-risk exposure to animals infected with bird flu and who did not wear adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Shah said a high-risk exposure event could include a splash in the face with raw cow milk, or a culling event without PPE being worn.

He added that the Tamiflu treatment recommendation both reduces asymptomatic cases from becoming symptomatic because they are being treated, and reduces the risk of infected individuals spreading the virus to close contacts.

Lastly, the Shah said the CDC was changing its PPE guidance for workers.

Although the risk of bird flu transmission from dairy cows to humans Is low, the CDC said there have been few reports addressing how PPE is used during work activities on dairy farms.

The new CDC report said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) offered PPE to all Colorado farms before or during the bird flu outbreak in cows in 2024.

When asked if they had access to PPE before a bird flu outbreak, 88% of workers reported access to gloves, 76% reported access to eye protection such as safety glasses or goggles, 71% reported access to rubber boots or boot covers, and 69% reported access to head covers, according to the report.

“Reported use of many individual PPE items was higher among dairy workers who reported exposure to ill cows in the week before or week after the detection of [bird flu] on the farm compared with those who did not report exposure to ill cows,” according to the CDC report.

Shah said that CDC recommendations will now prioritize what PPE a farm worker should wear based on which farm tasks present the highest risk for bird flu.

“Simply put, the higher-risk activities will call for more PPE use,” Shah said. “The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 [bird flu] to humans and reduce the possibility of the virus changing,” Shah said.

As of Thursday, there have been 46 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S. this year, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the media call.

Of those cases, 26 were due to the outbreak in dairy cows and 20 were due to people coming into contact with infected poultry. There is one case in Missouri that had no known animal exposure.

All of the patients experienced mild conjunctivitis or mild respiratory symptoms and all have recovered, according to the CDC.

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