(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 912,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.2% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Thursday. All times Eastern:
Feb 10, 7:44 am
Prince Charles tests positive for COVID-19 again
Charles, Prince of Wales, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday morning, according to a spokesperson for Clarence House, his official London residence.
The 73-year-old heir apparent to the British throne “is now self-isolating” and “is deeply disappointed not to be able to attend today’s events in Winchester and will look to reschedule his visit as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said.
It’s the second time that Charles has contracted COVID-19. He previously tested positive in March 2020, early on in the pandemic before vaccines were available, but he had mild symptoms.
Both the Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a Clarence House spokesperson has said.
The couple attended a British Asian Trust event at the British Museum in London on Wednesday night, along with hundreds of other guests, including several British politicians such as Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Health Secretary Said Javid. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, was also in attendance.
(LONDON) — Cases of Lassa fever have been identified in the United Kingdom for the first time in over a decade.
The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed in a press release Wednesday that two people have been diagnosed with Lassa fever in England, while a third “probable case” is under investigation.
All three cases are within the same family in the East of England and are linked to recent travel to West Africa, where the potentially deadly infectious disease is endemic.
“Cases of Lassa fever are rare in the U.K. and it does not spread easily between people. The overall risk to the public is very low,” Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor at the UKHSA, said in a statement Wednesday. “We are contacting the individuals who have had close contact with the cases prior to confirmation of their infection, to provide appropriate assessment, support and advice.”
Hopkins noted that the UKHSA and the National Health Service (NHS) in England “have well established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be reinforced.”
Prior to these cases, there had been just eight cases of Lassa fever imported to the U.K. since 1980. The last two occurred in 2009. There was no evidence of onward transmission from any of these cases, according to the UKHSA.
Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus. People usually become infected with Lassa virus through exposure to food or household items contaminated with urine or feces of infected rats that are present in parts of West Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The virus can also be spread through infected bodily fluids. People living in endemic areas of West Africa with high populations of rodents are most at risk. Imported cases rarely occur elsewhere in the world and such cases are almost exclusively people who work in endemic areas in high-risk occupations, like medical or other aid workers, according to the UKHSA.
Lassa fever is known to be endemic in Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Libera, Mali, Sierra Leone, Togo and Nigeria, but probably exists in other West African nations as well. It’s not easy to distinguish from other viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola virus disease and malaria, and clinical diagnoses are often difficult, especially early in the course of the disease, because the symptoms are so varied and non-specific, according to the WHO.
Symptoms are usually gradual, starting with fever, general weakness and malaise. Then, after a few days, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough and abdominal pain may follow. Patients with severe cases may develop facial swelling, fluid in the lung cavity, bleeding from the mouth, nose, vagina or gastrointestinal tract and low blood pressure. Deafness occurs in 25% of recovered patients and in half of these cases, hearing returns partially after one to three months, according to the WHO.
About 80% of people who become infected with Lassa virus have no symptoms and one in five infections result in severe disease, where the virus affects several organs such as the liver, spleen and kidneys. The overall case-fatality rate is 1%, while case-fatality among patients hospitalized with severe cases is estimated at around 15%. Death usually occurs within 14 days in fatal cases. Diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential, according to the WHO.
Although severe illness can occur in some individuals, most people with Lassa fever will make a full recovery, according to the UKHSA.
One of the patients with a confirmed case has recovered, while the other will receive specialist care at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, a London-based NHS foundation trust consisting of several hospitals and clinics. Meanwhile, the patient with the probable case is being treated at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs two hospitals in Bedfordshire county in the East of England. The U.K. High Consequence Infectious Disease Network is engaged with the ongoing care of the infected individuals, according to the UKHSA.
“The Royal Free Hospital is a specialist centre for treating patients with viral hemorrhagic fevers, including Lassa fever,” Dr. Sir Michael Jacobs, consultant in infectious diseases at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, said in a statement Wednesday. “Our secure unit is run by a highly-trained and experienced team of doctors, nurses, therapists and laboratory staff and is designed to ensure our staff can safely treat patients with these kind of infections.”
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
(BOULDER, Colo.) — Nearly a year after a gunman opened fire at a King Soopers in Boulder, Colorado, killing 10 people, the grocery store has reopened.
A marching band helped mark Wednesday’s reopening — a joyful yet somber celebration attended by local officials and community members that honored the victims and paid tribute to the first responders of the March 22, 2021, mass shooting.
Instead of a ribbon-cutting, the manager of the Table Mesa King Soopers store and the city’s mayor tied a ribbon together to signal their strength.
“Just like the strength of this knot, we are strong,” King Soopers spokesperson Kelli McGannon told the crowd.
There was also a moment of silence for the workers, shoppers and Boulder police officer killed in the shooting: Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Officer Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
King Soopers officials said they would also be installing a remembrance tree garden on the west side of the store, planting one tree for each victim.
The 10 trees will “remind us of the dark day, the day of evil that occurred here,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told the crowd, though he noted that the reopening marks a “turning point for the community to move forward.”
“Today is really a symbol of that perseverance. It’s the beginning of a new chapter,” the governor said. “I want to thank everybody whose hard work led to this occasion and wish everybody affected — family members, team members, shoppers — well in the journey of healing that we are all undertaking and for which today is a very important step.”
The store’s manager, Sheri Bosman, gave emotional remarks at the reopening.
“I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. We’ve come a long way in the past year,” she said, getting choked up.
“We were strong in the beginning. We continue to build our strength. We’re stronger than ever,” she continued. “My heart is thankful we are back together with our incredible Table Mesa associates and the South Boulder community.”
The redesign includes a new entry and higher ceilings with more lighting, as well as safety enhancements. The company hasn’t elaborated on those features because it is proprietary information and could pose a risk to share.
Local shoppers came by to support the workers and community and to lay flowers at the site.
“There’s been a lot of grieving and I feel the fact that the store’s open again will give everybody a chance to regroup and celebrate the fact that our spirit is strong,” Michelle Weiner-Davis, a family therapist who shops at the store, told Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.
In the wake of the shooting, King Soopers committed a $1 million donation to the Colorado Healing Fund to help provide mental health services and other financial relief to survivors and others who have been traumatized by the event.
Mental health partners were also on site for the opening, Bosman said.
As the store reopens, the case against the alleged shooter is ongoing. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, faces 10 counts of first-degree murder, among other charges, in connection with the shooting. A possible motive has not been released.
In December, a judge ruled that he was incompetent to stand trial and the suspect was ordered to undergo further treatment in the state mental hospital. A hearing has been scheduled for March 15 to review his condition.
(NEW YORK) — Two Oklahoma men were indicted by a federal grand jury after authorities accused them of committing hate crimes in connection with an alleged assault against two people outside of a bar in 2019.
The two-count indictment in the Western District of Oklahoma alleges that Brandon Killian and Devan Johnson “willfully caused bodily injury to two victims” because one of them was a Black man, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The assaults occurred in the parking lot of a bar in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in June 2019, the Justice Department said in a press release.
If convicted, Killian and Johnson each could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the release.
An attorney for Killian did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Information for Johnson’s attorney was not immediately available.
(BEIJING) — Nathan Chen has his Olympic gold medal.
The 22-year-old took the win in the men’s singles event, rebounding from his disappointing 2018 Pyeongchang performance for a triumphant comeback.
The reigning world champion scored a 218.63 in his free skate and 332.60 overall.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama stumbled on a quad loop, eliminating any chance of winning, but did hold on for silver. Fellow Japanese skater Shoma Uno had a stumble of his own, on a quad flip, but earned bronze.
Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time defending gold medalist, shockingly bailed on his first quad jump in the short program and managed to only place eighth heading into the free skate. Hanyu went for a quad axel in his free skate, which has never been landed in competition, but fell to the ice. Still, he jumped up to fourth in the final standings with a strong free skate.
Fellow Team USA member Jason Brown came into the free skate placing sixth in the individual short program. Brown, the first to take the ice in the final group, held onto that spot in the final standings.
Chen led coming into the free skate program following a world record-setting short program, with a score of 113.97 points that easily topped Japanese skaters Kagiyama (108.12) and Uno (105.90).
Earlier this week, Team USA took home silver in the team figure skating competition, behind the Russian Olympic Committee.
Teammate Vincent Zhou — who helped the team secure the silver medal with his free skating performance — had to withdraw from the individual competition after testing positive for COVID-19.
Chen was seen as a clear gold medal contender at the Beijing Olympics after a poor short program cost him a medal four years ago.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Chen earned bronze in the team event though failed to make the podium in singles, finishing fifth overall. But he still managed to make history there, becoming the first skater to land six quadruple jumps in a single program while also earning the highest free skate score ever in an Olympic competition.
Chen came to Beijing after winning his sixth straight national figure skating championship — a feat last accomplished by Dick Button, winner of seven consecutive U.S. titles in the 1940s and ’50s.
The three-time world champion took time off from Yale University to train for the 2022 Olympics and plans to return to the school in the fall to study statistics and data science.
(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 5 have not yet been authorized, but the U.S.’ rollout plan is already in the works.
The federal government is prepping an initial 10 million doses of the under-5 Pfizer formula, which will be ready to go out as soon as the Food and Drug Administration gives their final sign-off, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
The new three-microgram doses for this young population will be distributed in maroon-capped vials, according to a preliminary planning chart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to states and obtained by ABC News.
This is to differentiate that specific formula from the vials for 5- to 11-year-olds, which are orange-capped. The formula for adults and older adolescents will have grey caps (previously it had purple caps, but that color will no longer be used).
A CDC spokesperson confirmed the rollout plans.
Supply of the under-5 vaccine formula is abundant, with enough for all children in the age group, sources familiar with the rollout said. Now, all that is needed is FDA authorization and CDC recommendation.
The Biden administration has promised there will also be enough needles, syringes and kits, for the roughly 18 million children aged six months to 5 years old in the U.S. who will soon be eligible.
States will be putting in their orders this week and next week, sources said, so the government can start sorting out where the doses will ship.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday that the plan for the vaccine rollout for kids under 5 is “well underway,” and the CDC is working with state leaders to help them prepare.
The new formula for these young children will be available at “thousands of locations across the country, locations that parents know and trust,” Zients said, and the Biden administration is working “closely” with pediatricians, family doctors, children’s hospitals and pharmacies to ensure access.
The Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee (VRBPAC) is set to meet and publicly debate Pfizer’s request to authorize their under-5 vaccine on Feb. 15, after the company submitted that application at the start of February.
(BEIJING) — American snowboarding queen Chloe Kim was crowned with gold for the second straight Olympics.
The 21-year-old took first place in women’s halfpipe, followed by Spain’s Queralt Castellet, who claimed silver, and Japan’s Sena Tomita, who took home the bronze.
It took just one run for Kim to post a 94.00, the eventual winning score, despite a best-of-three runs format. Kim took a victory lap in her third run as the final competitor. She attempted to land the first 1260 for a woman in competition in her second and third runs, but couldn’t nail it.
Kim’s winning run included two 1080s as well as a switch 900. In the end, it was far above her second-closest competitor.
Among those rooting on Kim from the bottom of the halfpipe was Eileen Gu, the San Francisco-born freestyle skier competing for China, who won gold in the women’s big air event earlier this week. Gu is a favorite in the women’s ski halfpipe as well.
Kim was the only American in the final, as the other three competitors couldn’t make it through qualifying. Maddie Mastro was expected to compete for the podium with a double-cork maneuver even Kim did not have, but she couldn’t land a clean run in qualifications a night earlier.
Kim won gold despite taking off the better part of two years in 2019 and 2020, as she enrolled at Princeton University. She took a break from school over the past year to focus on training and qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.
She spent most of her time training ahead of the Olympics, as opposed to competing, but she won the only event she entered this world cup season in Laax, Switzerland, last month. She also won in her only Dew Tour event this season, taking first over Castellet at Copper Mountain in mid-December.
Kim won gold in Pyeongchang at just 17 in dominating fashion. She scored a 98.25 in her final run — the only athlete to score higher than 90.
The win at the 2018 Olympics, and her personality, catapulted her to international fame. She appeared in a Nike advertising campaign alongside Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe, had a Barbie doll released in her image and appeared in the Maroon 5 music video for “Girls Like You” and on the MTV show Ridiculousness.
The Southern California native has long ruled the world snowboarding scene despite her youth. She first competed at the 2014 X Games at just 14 years old, finishing in second place. Kim would’ve been a lock to compete for the U.S. in Sochi in 2014, but the sport’s governing body requires athletes be at least 15 to qualify for the Olympics.
Despite the disappointment of not being able to compete at the 2014 Games, she continued to perform at the highest level. She won a halfpipe competition on the world cup tour just weeks after the Sochi Olympics and won two golds at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2016. She came back to the X Games and won gold in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021. She sat out the X Games in 2020 and 2022.
Kim also won the world championships in 2021 and has finished first in both qualifying and the finals in every competition she’s entered on the world cup tour since February 2018.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday subpoenaed Trump White House official Peter Navarro for records and testimony.
Navarro, who served as President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, supported the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump through widespread voter fraud.
In addition to producing multiple reports of unproven voter fraud claims for Trump, Navarro, in his memoir, claimed to have come up with a plan with Trump ally Steve Bannon to contest the election results by delaying the Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College vote in order to keep Trump in office.
“Mr. Navarro appears to have information directly relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “He hasn’t been shy about his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has even discussed the former President’s support for those plans.”
“President Trump has invoked Executive Privilege; and it is not my privilege to waive,” Navarro said in a statement to ABC News regarding the subpoena. “They should negotiate any waiver of the privilege with the president and his attorneys directly, not through me.”
Under Navarro’s plan, dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep,” former Vice President Mike Pence was to send disputed election results back to the states, thereby forcing hours of debate on Capitol Hill.
“It was a perfect plan,” Navarro said in an interview late last year with the Daily Beast. “And it all predicated on peace and calm on Capitol Hill. We didn’t even need any protesters, because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it.”
But rioters disrupted the official count, and when the proceedings resumed, Pence certified the vote count over the objections of Trump and his allies who claimed he could have challenged the results.
“The last three people on God’s good earth who wanted chaos and violence on Capitol Hill were President Trump, Steve Bannon, and I,” Navarro said Wednesday.
“More than 500 witnesses have provided information in our investigation, and we expect Mr. Navarro to do so as well,” said Thompson.
(WASHINGTON) — The National Archives has asked the Justice Department to investigate former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
The request follows recent reporting around Trump’s handling of documents following his departure from the White House last year, including earlier this week when the Archives confirmed it recently retrieved 15 boxes of records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that were improperly taken in violation of the Presidential Records Act.
The news was first reported by The Washington Post.
A source confirmed to ABC News that discussions in the department around the Archives’ referral are in the very early stages, and it is not clear whether DOJ would open a formal investigation into the matter.
Legal experts reached by ABC News earlier this week expressed skepticism that the department would take the unusual step of seeking criminal charges against a former president for violating the Presidential Records Act.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on the referral. The National Archives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Trump provided the following response to ABC News in response to an inquiry on the Archives’ referral:
“Following collaborative and respectful discussions, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) arranged for the transport of boxes that contained Presidential Records in compliance with the Presidential Records Act. Much of this material will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People.
“The media’s characterization of my relationship with NARA is Fake News. It was exactly the opposite! It was a great honor to work with NARA to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy.”
The Chainsmokers will headline TikTok’s Tailgate Party this Sunday, in addition to several other Super Bowl events. And while the duo, who are based in L.A., are Rams fans, they’re not counting out the Bengals either.
“That’s a very dangerous question,” The Chainsmokers‘ Drew Taggarttells Uproxx when asked for his predictions. “[If I answer], I automatically p**s off 50% of the people there. But they’re both great teams. I think the energy of the Rams being at home and that stadium is going to really play in their favor. I’ve been really impressed watching them.”
“I’ll admit it, I’m not the biggest football fan…but I know I love being a part of it. I love being part of the events and I’ve been really impressed watching [the Rams] and I think they can persevere in the Super Bowl,” he adds.
However, Drew notes, “I think everyone’s really excited for the Bengals and [quarterback] Joe Burrow might be the most popular man in America right now. And so I know everyone’s kind of rooting for that from the underdog side.”
At the Super Bowl where they’ll be performing, Drew and his musical partner Alex Pall will no doubt play their new single “High,” from their upcoming album, which they recorded in Hawaii in late 2021.
“There’s a lot more depth on this album that I can’t wait for our fans to hear,” Drew tells Uproxx. He adds, “I feel like this album is very genreless, and it’s going to be really fun to have everybody hear stuff that still feels like Chainsmokers, but pulls in a lot of other things that we’ve loved over the years.”
