(NEW YORK)– Colleges and universities have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of students this fall, heralding a much-anticipated return to normalcy on campuses, with COVID-19 cases beginning to abate again across the country.

However, following the nation’s growing monkeypox outbreak, there are growing concerns from health experts that this second virus could once again disrupt the upcoming school year given the potential spread of the virus through sexual networks and close contacts during physical and social activities.

“Monkeypox is most likely to spread through dense social networks where frequent close contact occurs. College campuses are a potentially high-risk environment where this virus could take hold and should be a target for surveillance efforts,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

Experts say the greatest risk of transmission is prolonged, skin-to-skin contact with a person with monkeypox. It is also possible to spread the virus through bedding and towels contaminated with infected lesions.

More casual contact, such as brushing past someone or speaking face to face, is significantly less risk, experts say.

A handful of universities, including Bucknell University, Georgetown University and West Chester University in Pennsylvania, have already reported cases in their communities, prompting college officials to roll out monkeypox education programs, and stock up on test kits.

“I think college campuses need to be very aware of the possibility” of monkeypox spreading into their student populations, Dr. Stephanie Silvera, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Montclair State University, told ABC News. “It would be foolish to think that it won’t happen on these college campuses where we know that infectious diseases have the opportunity to spread quickly.”

The shift to a more urgent strategy comes after the Biden administration declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, last week, with the number of reported cases growing exponentially in recent weeks.

Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including more than 11,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.

The majority of cases, in the current monkeypox outbreak, have been detected in gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.

“As much as this has, thus far, been largely confined to a single population, it doesn’t take much for that expand when you have so many people living together or in close contact as frequently as you do at schools and colleges,” Dr. Alexandra Brugler Yonts, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told ABC News.

Keeping students safe

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has yet to release specific guidance for curbing the spread of monkeypox at colleges and universities, the agency recently published guidance for congregate living settings, which includes dormitories at institutes of higher education.

The CDC recommends that institutions provide clear updates on the status of the outbreak to residents, respond to cases by testing and keeping in contact with local health officials and ensure that those who test positive wear a mask and stay in isolation for monkeypox.

Similar to quarantine periods associated with COVID-19, experts noted that universities will once again have to consider how to best support students who are isolating with monkeypox.

“Drawing from the covid playbook, setting up infrastructure for testing and contact tracing, is a reasonable strategy ahead of any possible outbreak this fall,” Brownstein said.

At this time, no quarantine is recommended for individuals who have been exposed to the virus. However, for those who do test positive, isolation is recommended until the monkeypox lesions have completely healed with a new layer of skin which can take up to four weeks — significantly longer than what is currently recommended for those who are COVID-19 positive.

“Some universities had isolation housing for COVID, but most of those have sort of relinquished that inventory so that we can have more students living on campus, and so making sure we have the space for those students to stay safely is going to be very important,” Silvera said.

How colleges are preparing

In light of the recent upsurge in monkeypox cases, colleges and universities from coast to coast have begun to create informational programs to ensure students are educated on the risks associated with monkeypox, as well as the key symptoms and signs, in order to adequately spot potential cases within the community.

At the University of Texas at Austin, university officials recently sent a letter out to students and faculty, alerting them to the global spread of monkeypox.

“UT has a longstanding public health infrastructure and implements mitigation protocols when faced with known or emerging communicable diseases, and we collaborate on strategies needed to reduce the incidence or spread within our population. Monkeypox will be handled as we would most other communicable illnesses with similar modes of transmission,” wrote Dr. Terrance Hines, executive director and chief medical officer at the university.

Some universities, including Northwestern and Bucknell, have set up monkeypox pages on their websites, with information pointing students to resources about the virus.

“I think that level of information is really the first step,” Silvera said.

And at North Carolina State, officials confirmed to ABC News that the university has “limited testing and vaccines available by appointment” for monkeypox.

With students set to return to campus at Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, school leadership is preparing to urge students to follow the same health protocols as they have with COVID-19.

“I think that the key to being prepared is education and communication with our students, and so many of the same best practices that we encourage our students to follow around COVID-19 — hand hygiene, social distancing, monitoring for symptoms — are the same for monkeypox or any other infectious disease,” Summer McGee, Ph.D., president of Salem Academy and College, told ABC News.

In addition, health experts stressed that it will be critical that colleges not single out or stigmatize certain populations in their messaging.

Students should be on alert, health experts say

The increase in cases across the country has left some students feeling anxious about their return to school.

Camila Heard, a Los Angeles Community College District student who heads to campus this month, said she doesn’t “feel too good” about going due to the threat of monkeypox.

Heard noted the multiple precautions she’s taken to avoid contracting the virus, including always carrying sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and wearing a mask.

Experts say students with monkeypox should refrain from sharing towels, sheets and other materials and that all students should be honest about their symptoms and contact history with potential partners, roommates, or friends.

“I think you have to be very mindful of what, at this point, what your behaviors are,” Silvera said. “So think about who you’re interacting with, who you’re having that close physical contact with. Be open and honest in your communication about where you have been, and signs and symptoms.”

“This is not the time to ignore the signs and symptoms,” she added. “If you’re not feeling well, make note of that. Put on a mask, try to limit the amount of physical contact you’re having with other people, and that can hopefully help to prevent the spread of this disease.”

Avery Edelmon, who is immunocompromised, currently lives in a dorm and begins classes next week at Tarleton State University in Texas — one of the states leading the country in monkeypox cases.

“I’m pretty nervous about going to class and I kind of know that if I want to be as safe as can be, I’ll have to put that on myself,” she told ABC News.

Immunocompromised people are at higher risk for developing severe disease due to monkeypox, according to the CDC.

It will also be critical for students to responsibly monitor themselves and seek care, should they develop symptoms, health experts stressed.

“The same thing we tried to say with COVID-19, if you’re sick, stay home. Well, if you’ve got a pustules or vesicle or rash, cover it up, and go get it checked out,” Brugler Yonts said. “Don’t just go to that party, like it’s no big deal.”

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(NEW YORK) — A suspect has been charged with attempted murder in the attack on author Salman Rushdie at a speaking event in New York state.

Rushdie, who has faced death threats over his writing, was scheduled to give a lecture at the education center Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, in southwestern New York, Friday morning.

At around 11 a.m., a man “ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer,” according to New York State Police.

Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and abdomen and was transported by helicopter to a trauma center in Erie, Pennsylvania, police said.

His agent told ABC News Friday that Rushdie is undergoing surgery and is on a ventilator. The author will likely lose one eye as a result of the attack, his agent said. The nerves in his arm were also severed and his liver was damaged in the stabbing, his agent said.

The alleged attacker is Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, a law enforcement official told ABC News. He was arrested at the scene by a New York State Police trooper.

State police were working with the Chautauqua County district attorney to determine “appropriate charges,” Major Eugene Staniszewski, a troop commander for New York State Police, told reporters during a press briefing Friday afternoon.

Matar has since been charged with attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Saturday. He was arraigned Friday night and remanded without bail, Schmidt said. It wasn’t immediately clear if Matar had a lawyer.

Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told ABC News that “a preliminary investigation into the suspected perpetrator’s probable social media presence indicates a likely adherence or sympathy towards Shi’a extremism and sympathies to the Iranian regime/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

The officials say investigators found photos on Matar’s phone of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iraq’s pro-Iranian militia movement, who were killed by U.S. forces in a drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, 2020.

JUST IN: Author Salman Rushdie’s alleged attacker has been identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, officials say. Rushdie was stabbed “at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen.” https://t.co/TML9Ty3QS0 pic.twitter.com/3W3xcZtZUs

— ABC News (@ABC) August 12, 2022

Police believe the suspect acted alone and were in the process Friday of obtaining search warrants for items including electronics and a backpack found at the scene that they believe belong to the suspect, Staniszewski said.

The FBI is also assisting with the investigation, he said.

The suspect had a pass to access the event, officials said.

In the aftermath of the attack, Rushdie, 75, was seen being tended to while on the stage.

The interviewer, Henry Reese, 73, suffered a minor head injury during the attack, police said. He was treated for a facial injury at a nearby hospital and has since been released, police said.

Chautauqua Institution president Michael Hill said during Friday’s press briefing that security “has been a top priority,” and that they had a state trooper and sheriff presence at the event.

“We’ll continue to look at providing the maximum security that we can,” Hill said. “This has never happened in our entire history. Chautauqua has always been an extremely safe place. We will continue to be working to keep that tradition going.”

Those in the audience expressed shock at the attack.

“He rushed the stage, it looked like he was punching him,” Patrick Fogarty told Erie, Pennsylvania, ABC affiliate WJET. “It was all over very fast.”

John Stein told WJET he was worried about security given Rushdie’s notoriety.

“Somebody just ran up on stage,” he said. “It was so quick. I was just thinking, am I really seeing this?”

Stein said when the attacker started to run off the stage following the assault he was apprehended with the help of a handful of attendees.

“People in the audience had gone up on the stage when they saw this and then grabbed the attacker, who still had a knife, I think,” he told the station. “A lot of bravery.”

One or two doctors in the audience also went on stage to help provide medical assistance, he said.

Thank you to the swift response of @nyspolice & first responders following today’s attack of author Salman Rushdie.

Our thoughts are with Salman & his loved ones following this horrific event. I have directed State Police to further assist however needed in the investigation.

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) August 12, 2022

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the attack “horrific,” saying she has directed state police to “further assist however needed in the investigation.”

“Here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who has been out there, unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him through his entire adult life,” Hochul remarked during a press briefing on an unrelated matter on Friday.

The British-Indian writer faced years of death threats after his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” was published in 1988.

The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accused the author of blasphemy over the book and in 1989 issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling for his death.

Rushdie spent years in hiding, which he chronicled in his 2012 memoir, “Joseph Anton.” The book was nominated for the United Kingdom’s top nonfiction award, the Samuel Johnson prize.

In 1998, the Iranian foreign minister said that the country no longer supported the fatwa against Rushdie, though a bounty for his death continues to be offered by an Iranian religious foundation. In 2012, the group increased the bounty from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.

Others have been attacked in connection with “The Satanic Verses,” which was banned in several countries following its publication. Among them, Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the book into Japanese, was stabbed to death in 1991 on the campus where he taught literature.

Rushdie has authored over a dozen books, including the Booker Prize-winning “Midnight’s Children,” and is a former president of the literary and human rights organization PEN America.

PEN America expressed “shock and horror” at the attack on Rushdie.

“We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil,” Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said in a statement.

“Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades but has never flinched nor faltered,” she continued. “While we do not know the origins or motives of this attack, all those around the world who have met words with violence or called for the same are culpable for legitimizing this assault on a writer while he was engaged in his essential work of connecting to readers.”

Penguin Random House, which will publish Rushdie’s “Victory City,” next year, released a statement Friday evening on the attack.

“We are deeply shocked and appalled to hear of the attack on Salman Rushdie while he was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. We condemn this violent public assault, and our thoughts are with Salman and his family at this distressing time,” chief executive officer Markus Dohle said.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the attack was “reprehensible.”

“Today, the country and the world witnessed a reprehensible attack against the writer Salman Rushdie,” Sullivan said in a statement. “This act of violence is appalling. All of us in the Biden-Harris Administration are praying for his speedy recovery.”

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolin, Somayeh Malekian and Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Just a few months ago, the real estate market was favorable to people selling homes. The amount of buyers was increasing, the number of listings were down and interest rates were dropping, it seemed, across the country.

Now, brokers are saying the market has shifted.

“Today, week after week, we see more and more inventory come on the market and demand is down,” broker Justin Itzen, who sells high-end homes in Orange County, California, told ABC News’ “Nightline.”

“Buyers have more to choose from, they can be more selective,” he said.

In expensive coastal markets such as Orange County, there has been a notable drop in homebuyer interest and other signs of a cooling market, according to Taylor Marr, chief economist of real estate listings site Redfin.

At large, the share of home listings that have been on the market for more than 30 days has increased more than 12% from last year, according to a Redfin report released last week.

As interest rates increase due to inflation, from 2-3% last year for certain mortgages to between 5-6% this month, buyers are more hesitant to take out loans.

“We did feel a very aggressive slowdown,” said Itzen, that happened almost overnight. “During open houses it was like, ‘where’s all the buyers?’”

Iesha McTier-Whyte, a broker who sells middle to high-end homes in the Newark, New Jersey area told ABC News’ “Nightline” that she has experienced the same, but doesn’t view it necessarily as a bad thing.

“It’s nice to see [the market] cool down and kind of go back to the basics,” she said. “What we experienced last year was like no other.”

Justin Itzen’s real estate partner, Gio Helou, said “buyers are [now] able to actually go through the natural home buying process,” instead of making extraordinary sacrifices to try to secure a home.

And yet the rising interest rates have put pressure on buyers in certain ways.

One couple, Deni and Tim Sherman, started looking to buy a home in California this spring and reached out to Gio Helou for help. They found the process extremely stressful.

“Homes were going within days for way over the asking price,” said Tim Sherman.

When they found a home they wanted to buy in Huntington Beach, California, they said they considered liquidating investments to buy it.

Not only was it “15% over the asking price,” said Tim Sherman, “but it was now over the market estimates of what the property was worth.”

The house fell through, but they were finally able to buy a house. Helou had sent it to them and they put an offer immediately, solely based on photos.

Their home in Dallas sold in a day, they said.

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