(TAMPA BAY, Fla.) — Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady is retiring after 22 years in the NFL, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington reported.
Brady, the most successful quarterback in NFL history, has won seven Super Bowls — six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — and won five Super Bowl MVPs and three NFL MVP trophies. He went to 15 Pro Bowls and was an All Pro in each of his MVP seasons.
“I understand the advanced speculation about Tom’s future,” Brady’s agent, Don Yee, told ESPN’s Schefter in a statement. “Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”
Brady’s last season came to an end with a loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round of the playoffs. In true Brady fashion, the quarterback led his team back from a 27-3 deficit, only to lose 30-27 on a field goal by the Rams as time expired.
Brady, 44, played two seasons with the Buccaneers after leaving New England in 2020. In his first season in Tampa Bay, he led the Bucs to their first Super Bowl win since 2003.
He holds virtually every career record by a quarterback, including most passing yards (84,520), pass completions (7,263) and passing touchdowns (624).
While Brady himself has yet to announce the move, his company, TB12 Sports, tweeted the star’s accomplishments and wrote “Thank you for it all, @TomBrady.” The account later deleted the tweet.
Brady has delved into several off-field endeavors in recent years, including his TB12 Sports, a health and wellness company, and the Brady Brand clothing line, which he launched earlier this month and will be sold in Nordstrom stores.
He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he has been “very involved” in the clothing line.
“I’ve always kind of, you know, loved fashion and apparel, and I wanted to be as hands-on as possible,” he said.
Following the 2021-22 season, he had said he would talk with his family about whether he wanted to return for another season. Brady is married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen, with whom he has two children. He also has a son with actress Bridget Moynahan.
MORE: Tom Brady forays into fashion with new apparel brand that highlights college athletes
Brady was far from a highly touted prospect as a sixth-round pick out of Michigan by the Patriots in the 2000 NFL draft. But a hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis on Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 of the 2001 season launched Brady into stardom in his second season. He ended up starting 14 games, leading the team to an 11-3 record and an upset win against the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.
He won two more Super Bowls in the next three seasons, establishing himself as a star and the Patriots as a dynasty led by head coach Bill Belichick.
Brady also won Super Bowls with the Patriots in 2015, 2017 and 2019. He’s the only player to win Super Bowls in three different decades.
For years, Brady’s only kryptonite appeared to be the New York Giants and their quarterback, Eli Manning. The Giants defeated Brady’s Patriots in 2008 and 2012. New England had entered the Super Bowl in 2008 with an undefeated record and was looking to become the first team with an unblemished record since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
Brady’s only other loss in a Super Bowl came in 2018 against the Philadelphia Eagles — despite throwing for over 500 yards and three touchdowns.
The reaction to Brady’s retirement was swift. Former Patriots teammate Julian Edelman tweeted, “Thanks for the memories, babe.”
Several of his Tampa Bay teammates also tweeted about the news. Wide receiver Chris Godwin tweeted, “The best ever. Congratulations bro @TomBrady grateful to have gotten to share the field with you!” Bucs linebacker Devin White shared, “Congrats to the greatest QB to ever lace em up on a helluva career.” Wide receiver Cyril Grayson wrote, “Happy Retirement! THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GAME!”
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Albert Lam, a geriatrician who works with nursing home patients in Palo Alto, California, was excited to be among the first to prescribe the new antiviral pill Paxlovid after one of his patients tested positive for COVID-19.
Hailed as a “game-changer” in the pandemic, Paxlovid is a drug made by Pfizer that if taken within five days of being diagnosed reduces the chance of hospitalization and death by 88% for people who are at high risk of severe illness.
The treatment has proved so promising that President Joe Biden included it in a Jan. 4 televised speech on the omicron variant, announcing that the first batch had shipped on Christmas Eve. While production would take “months,” Biden said it was in “full swing” and promised the drugs were on their way.
“The United States has more pills than any other country in the world, and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months as more of these pills are manufactured,” Biden said.
Lam’s patient, a woman in her 80s with a history of cancer, got the drug within 24 hours and responded well.
Since then, however, the doctor hasn’t been so lucky.
Whereas nursing homes were first in line to get COVID vaccines last year, Lam now regularly scours a publicly available federal database to see if a Paxlovid prescription pops up near his location. This week, his home state of California got 9,560 doses — about 24 prescriptions for every 100,000 people.
Five weeks after federal regulators approved Paxlovid and began distributing it to states, few people can find it — omicron’s aggressive rise has quickly outstripped supplies.
According to an ABC News analysis of federal data on Paxlovid in more than 3,100 U.S. counties, three-quarters didn’t have any of the drug on hand as of Jan. 27, and about three-fifths had no access to a provider offering Paxlovid.
States are given amounts based on population, but some face more demand than others. Among the states that have the lowest rates of Paxlovid treatment on hand are Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas, according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Race also seems to be a factor in access, at least for now: Urban counties with majority nonwhite population have the lowest average of doses on hand, whereas counties with less than 10% of its population being nonwhite have the highest average of treatments on hand.
Scarcity isn’t the only problem. Doctors and pharmacists told ABC News the process of obtaining the drug is opaque, even arbitrary.
In Nevada, for example, Paxlovid primarily goes to long-term care facilities like nursing homes. But in neighboring California, state officials use a complex formula that factors in rising case numbers with other risk factors. In the District of Columbia, a few Safeway grocery stores are the primary distributors, although city health officials have asked doctors to give priority to high-risk individuals.
Dr. Christian Ramers of the Family Health Centers of San Diego, a network of clinics for low-income patients, said his clinic was able to secure its first shipment of 100 treatments of Paxlovid two weeks ago as part of a Biden program aimed at improving health equity.
But the staff also had to set up a system, using federal guidelines, to decide who gets the drugs first because there just weren’t enough. Often, that’s meant prioritizing people who initially refused a vaccination and now are at much greater risk of dying.
“The volume has been just mind-blowing for the last three to four weeks — just absolutely insane,” he said. That spike “to us means hundreds to thousands of people vying for about … 40 to 50 treatment slots per day.”
For now, he said, the reality is “if you’re vaccinated and you’re under age 65 and you don’t have a medical condition, you’re not going to get Paxlovid.”
Adding to the confusion is that many doctors are nervous about prescribing the drug for many high-risk patients because of potentially dangerous interactions with other commonly used medications, including cholesterol-lowering drugs and certain anti-depressants. Advocates say more data should be collected on people in their 80s and 90s.
But there aren’t a lot of other options.
“It is a little disappointing, and it makes me wonder: Could we do more?” said Erin Karara, a pharmacy consultant who works with nursing homes and long-term care facilities. “I mean, we’re seeing entire wings of nursing homes or facilities converted to COVID units. … It’s a lot of people affected by it.”
For its part, both the White House and Pfizer said the drug was never expected to roll out in large numbers right away, in part because of the time it takes to secure raw materials and to scale up manufacturing.
The current plan calls for 265,000 courses of treatment in January, gradually ramping up to 10 million by the end of June and 20 million by the end of September.
This week, Pfizer told ABC News it plans to increase its production of Paxlovid overall to 120 million courses of treatment globally — some 3.6 billion pills total.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said producing the drug can’t be compared to its COVID vaccine.
“It is very different, the situation,” Bourla said at anindustry conference. “Any decent manufacturer of medicines can make it. But the chemistry, it is complicated, and it takes time to synthesize the active substance.”
Some conservatives still have been quick to criticize Biden’s handling of the rollout, with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board deriding it as “Biden’s Operation Snail Speed,” writing, “Why didn’t it order more treatments sooner?”
According to one senior administration official, the White House did everything it could, including promising to Pfizer last July it would spend at least $1 billion on the drugs if it worked. This informal “handshake agreement” was intended to be a powerful incentive for the company, which doesn’t use government money to develop new products, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
By then, Pfizer had already spent months preparing its supply chain and developing the drug. It agreed to allow the U.S. to receive the world’s first shipments.
A company official declined to confirm details of private discussions with the White House before the drug became available.
“Thanks to this at-risk preparation — drawing on our deep expertise — we have already shipped hundreds of thousands of Paxlovid courses in the U.S.,” a spokesperson told ABC. “We continue to work quickly to ship courses in accordance with our agreed delivery schedule.”
Two years into the pandemic, doctors still have few ways to treat COVID-19 with vaccines as the most effective option. Treatment options dwindled further this week when federal regulators pulled authorization of two types of monoclonal antibodies that had been widely used in the pandemic, including the kind given to then-President Donald Trump.
The antibody cocktails, made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron, were found to be useless against omicron, now 99.9% of all U.S. cases.
Two remaining drugs, Remdesivir and Sotrovimab, have to be administered intravenously at a medical facility. Molnupiravir, the new antiviral pill from Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics, found to be 30% effective at preventing hospitalization and death, is authorized only for high-risk patients who can’t access other treatments.
That leaves Paxlovid — if a person can find it and take it early enough, and if the medication doesn’t put them at risk because of other drugs they are taking.
This week, the Southern Nevada Health District in Las Vegas announced it received 120 prescriptions last week and was willing to offer the medication to anyone older than 12 who is at high risk of COVID and tests positive through their clinic.
“If we can identify and treat people early in the course of their illness who otherwise may have ended up in the emergency department or hospital … we can potentially reduce the impact on our hospital system,” said Dr. Cort Lohff, chief medical officer of the public health agency.
Lam, the doctor in northern California, said he’s hopeful access will improve, particularly for nursing homes and long-term care residents.
“Frankly,” he added, “I think that if we were able to target those advanced therapeutics for the most at-risk populations, I think we would really make a bigger difference in terms of our death rate.”
(NEW YORK) — Tens of millions of Americans across more than a dozen states are under winter weather alerts Saturday morning from South Carolina to Maine.
Snowfall rates upwards of 2 inches per hour are hitting Atlantic City, New Jersey, and other parts of the Jersey Shore at times, while eastern Connecticut is seeing a rate as fast as 3 inches per hour.
A plow clears a walkway in the snow during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.
In addition to the snowfall, strong wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph are expected along parts of the Northeast coastline.
Some states have declared emergencies as they brace for the worst of this storm system coming Saturday afternoon.
Whipping winds, treacherous travel, potential power outages and frigid temperatures are all concerns associated with the winter nor’easter. Nearly 120,000 customers are without power in Massachusetts, and over 3,550 flights have been canceled within, into, and out of the United States Saturday, according to Flightaware.
In Connecticut, airports are “down at this point,” Gov. Ned Lamont said during a briefing midday Saturday. Metro-North is running on limited hourly service, and Amtrak is not operating, officials said.
Snow totals, treacherous conditions
Parts of Connecticut to Maine may see up to 18 to 24 inches of snow, with the possibility of up to 30 inches near Boston Metro — a potential recordbreaker. For the city of Boston, the most snowfall in one day in January on record is 22.1 inches on Jan. 27, 2015, and the most snow fall in one day on record overall is 23.6 inches on Feb. 17, 2003.
There are extremely hazardous travel conditions for coastal New Jersey; Suffolk County, New York; Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts where the heaviest snow totals and whiteout conditions with gusty winds will persist.
The I-95 corridor north of New York City toward Boston and Portland, Maine, are under major impacts, with whipping winds gusting 45 mph to 70 mph near the Boston Metro.
Below-zero wind chills
Parts of the Great Lakes and New England will experience bitterly cold temperatures with wind chills near 25 below zero.
The Northeast will feel frigid Saturday night as wind chills plunge to 2 and 5 below zero in New York City and Boston, respectively.
Cold weather is even heading south to Florida with temperatures in the 30s.
Coastal concerns
There are coastal concerns about storm surge and tidal influence especially along the coastal towns in Suffolk County, New York, which could see 4- to 8-feet waves during high tide Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Boston may also get battered with largest wave swells at 15 to 20 feet.
A worker clears snow in Times Square during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.
However, there is one silver lining to this winter storm: The storm system remained easterly, meaning less heavy snow and weather-related snarls for states west of Interstate 95.
The storm system is expected to move out of New York City by the afternoon and from Boston by the evening.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Daniel Peck, Hilda Estevez and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 879,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-US cases down nearly 25%
-New Hampshire to sell rapid COVID-19 tests at liquor stores
-NIH trial finds mixing and matching boosters is safe and effective
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Jan 28, 8:22 pm
Sen. Romney tests positive for COVID-19
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tested positive for COVID-19 Friday, his office said.
“He is currently asymptomatic and will be isolating and working remotely for the recommended period of time,” his office said.
His wife, Ann Romney, has tested negative for the virus. Both are fully vaccinated and boosted, his office said.
Jan 28, 5:06 pm
240 million free at-home tests ordered so far: White House
About 60 million American households have ordered 240 million free at-home COVID rapid tests since they became available on Jan. 18, White House officials said Friday.
The Biden administration plans to ultimately mail 1 billion free at-home rapid tests to Americans.
Additionally, the federal government has sent out “tens of millions of masks” since Biden announced last week that the government would provide 400 million N95 masks for free at pharmacies and community health centers across the country, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Jan 28, 1:32 pm
US cases down nearly 25%
Federal data shows that the U.S. is now reporting an average of almost 600,000 new cases per day — a nearly 25% drop in the last two weeks, according to federal data.
Just nine states are reporting at least a 10% increase in cases: Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia.
All other states and territories are reporting a decrease in new cases or are at a plateau.
Nationwide, hospitalization rates are also declining, according to federal data. Just under 145,000 COVID-19-positive patients are currently in U.S. hospitals, down from 160,000 patients reported last week.
It’s not clear how many of these patients were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and how many coincidentally tested positive for the virus after they were admitted for other reasons.
The national daily death average now stands at nearly 2,300 — a 30% jump in the last two weeks.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 27, 3:54 pm
San Francisco dropping masks in ‘stable cohorts’
San Francisco officials are ending indoor mask mandates for “stable cohorts” where everyone is up to date on vaccinations, like people in an office or gym setting.
The city’s health officer Dr. Susan Philip called this change, which begins Feb. 1, doable due to San Francisco’s highly vaccinated and boosted population.
“Other COVID-19 safety guidelines in these settings remain in effect and include a means for others who do not or cannot meet the vaccination requirements to join the group with the added safety of showing a negative test and wearing a mask,” San Francisco’s health department said.
Bloc Party has released a new song called “The Girls Are Fighting,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Alpha Games.
“I think ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ is kind of self-explanatory — someone’s been selling dreams to someone they shouldn’t have and it’s caught up with them,” says frontman Kele Okereke. “I just wanted to capture that moment of going from naught to ten in an evening, in a sweaty nightclub.”
You can download “The Girls Are Fighting” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which takes things from the club to the boxing ring, is streaming now on YouTube.
Alpha Games, the follow-up to 2016’s Hymns, arrives April 29. It also includes the previously released single “Traps.”
Light the Torch has premiered the video for “Death of Me,” a track off the band’s new album, You Will Be the Death of Me.
The clip finds Howard Jones and company in a decaying, gothic mansion. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
“‘Death of Me’ is a song dedicated to that one single person or habit you can’t shake,” Jones says. “A slow death hurts so much more. [Director] Ramon [Boutviseth] did a great job with directing this video and we hope you enjoy it.”
Light the Torch released You Will Be the Death of Me last June. They’ll hit the road in support of the record on a tour with Jones’ former band Killswitch Engage kicking off Friday in Pittsburgh.
Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment
More stars are lining up to perform during Super Bowl Weekend including Usher, Gunna and Lil Baby.
Usher will sing at the invitation-only Chairman’s Party on Saturday, February 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, site of the Super Bowl to be played on Sunday, February 13. The eight-time Grammy winner performed with the Black Eyed Peas during the Super Bowl 45 halftime show in 2011.
Gunna, whose new album, DS4Ever, debuted last week at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, will hit the stage with Lil Baby at the DirecTV/Maxim party on Friday, February 11 at City Market LA.
As previously reported, Drake will headline the h.wood Group “Homecoming” party on February 12 at the Pacific Design Center. The Champagne Papi will perform one night after his mentor, Lil Wayne, who signed him to the Young Money Entertainment label in 2009, headlines Shaquille O’Neal‘s “Shaq’s Fun House” party on February 11 at the Shrine Auditorium.
The shows by Usher, Gunna, Lil Baby, Drake and Lil Wayne will lead up to the main event, Super Bowl 56, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performing for the first time together during halftime.
Last week, U2‘s Bono made headlines by saying on a podcast that he feels “embarrassed” and “cringe” at the sound of his voice on the radio. But now he’s clarified that it’s not that he doesn’t like his voice — he just doesn’t like how it sounds on the band’s early records.
Speaking to Variety, Bono explains, “I’m used to those songs live. I love the recordings, as far as [the band] is concerned. But when I hear my voice, I just hear the fragility of it.”
He continues, “Live, when it happens, the songs are singing you. It’s the most incredible, miraculous thing. And something like ‘Pride (In the Name of Love),’ which I find particularly excruciating when I hear it [on record]…I sing that on stage and I sing it for everybody. Something is going on there that I have very little to do with.”
However, guitarist Edge disagrees, telling Variety, “I love Bono’s singing on those early records. The vulnerability is part of it.”
Bono and Edge also discuss the fact that they’re shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for “Your Song Saved My Life,” which they wrote for the animated film Sing 2. Their competition includes tracks by Billie Eilish, Van Morrison and Beyonce, which Edge says are “maybe the best array of original songs in the last five years.”
“Whoever wins I think will be a worthy winner — and I hope it’s us. But it’s going to be hard to even get nominated, I think,” notes the guitarist. But Bono insists, “We want to win! We don’t want to come in second. All those people who appreciate songwriting, and the truth behind it, the truth behind the tale, I hope they’re gonna show up for us.”
ABC News will broadcast two primetime specials to celebrate Black History Month in February.
As part of the Soul of a Nation series, Halle Berry, Tessa Thompson, Debbie Allen, and more will be featured in Screen Queens Rising airing Thursday, February 3 at 8 p.m. The special will explore how Black actresses are making progress in Hollywood.
One hour later, X/onerated – The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice, will present the first interview with Muhammad Abdul Aziz, who was wrongfully convicted of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965
Also for Black History Month, Good Morning America will feature a series about Black financial literacy. World News Tonight with David Muir will pay tribute to Black veterans, healthcare workers, teachers, and politicians within its “America Strong” segments. Nightline will take an intimate look at the first police academy at a historically Black college and university, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos will examine the impact of changes to voting rights legislation across the country.
In other news, LisaRaye McCoy reveals she suffered an “identity crisis” following her breakout role as a stripper in the 1998 film, The Players Club, starring Ice Cube, who was also the writer and director. “I felt like I had to have the long hair and look like my character, Diamond, in order to be recognized,” she told PageSix.
“Players Club put me on the map… it made me a bonafide sex symbol, and when you are a sex symbol people think that you’re sexy all the time, and that stigma follows you,” she added. LisaRaye currently stars in A House Divided on ALLBLK.
Finally, Varietyreports that Showtime has canceled Black Monday after three seasons. Don Cheadle and Regina Hall starred in the series about Wall Street traders in the 1980s.
Sean Penn is already famous for speaking his mind, and he’s apparently done so again, while promoting his new film Flag Day.
“I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized,” the actor and activist, 61, told the UK-based publication The i.
Admitting he’s “frustrated with the world,” Penn explained, “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.”
While some in Hollywood might backpedal in a subsequent chance to speak to the media, the Licorice Pizza supporting player attempted to explain his comments by telling the UK’s The Independent, “There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”
He added, “I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them.”
The comments left the multiple Oscar nominee’s 30-year-old daughter Dylan, his co-star in Flag Day, “quiet, staring into space,” the interviewer noted.
