Following Sidney Poitier‘s death on Friday at the age of 94, Deadline reports that Apple is in the middle of filming a documentary on the Oscar-winning actor with Oprah Winfrey executive-producing and House Party helmer Reginald Hudlin directing. The project, which has been in production for more than a year, is an in-depth examination of Poitier’s life that includes the participation of his family. The doc will be an Apple Original Films release. Poitier became the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor in 1964 for his role in Lilies of the Field. His other credits include 1967’s groundbreaking film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night…
Drive My Car was the big winner at Saturday’s National Society of Film Critics ceremony. Along with best picture, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s sweeping drama also won for director, screenplay and best actor, for Hidetoshi Nishijima. Other winners included Penélope Cruz, who copped Best Actress honors for Parallel Mothers. The Best Supporting Actress trophy went to Ruth Negga for Passing, and Anders Danielsen Lie walked off with the Best Supporting Actor award for The Worst Person in the World. Drive My Car also won top honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle. The complete winners list can be found on the National Society of Film Critics website…
Dwayne Hickman, best known for playing the titular character in the 1950-60s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, died of complications related to Parkinson’s disease on Sunday, his public relations head Harlan Boll tells Variety. He was 87 years old. The first major television series to feature teenagers as its primary characters, Dobie Gillis established Hickman a cultural icon for ’50s and 60s Baby Boomers. Prior to that, Hickman appeared in 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath, and TV’s The Bob Cummings Show. During the 70s, he became a network executive at CBS and directed various episodes of different half-hour comedies. Hickman produced and starred in a 1988 reunion of his classic sitcom titled, Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis, and also had co-starring roles in A Night at the Roxbury, Saving Gilligan’s Island, and a recurring role in UPN’s Clueless…
Lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who along with her husband, Alan Bergman, became one-half of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated songwriting duos, died peacefully early Saturday morning in her Los Angeles home, family rep Ken Sunshine tells The Hollywood Reporter. She was 93. Bergman’s work includes the Oscar-wining songs “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “Nice ’n’ Easy” and “The Way We Were, as well as “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Legendary crooner Tony Bennett remembered the duo’s work and Marilyn on Saturday, tweeting, “Marilyn and Alan Bergman with Michele Legrand wrote my favorite song, ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing?’ We lost Marilyn today, but her music keeps playing”…
Spider-Man: No Way Home scored a fourth consecutive week in the box office top spot, earning an estimated $33 million domestically and sliding into sixth place among the all-time domestic box office earners, beating Titanic‘s $659 million by more than $9 million dollars.
Overseas, No Way Home has collected $867.5 million so far, putting its worldwide total just shy of $1.54 billion, making it the eighth-biggest-grossing film worldwide, just ahead of 2102’s The Avengers‘ $1.52 billion.
Sing 2 also smashed a box office record. In its third week of release, the animated musical delivered just under $12 million, making it the only animated film since Disney’s Frozen II to cross the #100 in the U.S. Sing 2 has collected $81.8 million internationally so far, bringing its three-week global total to $190.8.
The all-female action flick The 355 sputtered in its debut, fighting the pandemic and poor reviews both to bow with an estimated 4.8 million for a third-place finish. The action thriller — led by Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing — has yet to open overseas, but will will be available to stream on Peacock in 45 days.
The King’s Man took fourth place, grabbing an estimated $3.3 million in its third week. Its U.S. total now sits at $25.1 million. Overseas, the film has amassed $49.2 million, putting its global haul at $74.3 million.
American Underdog rounds out the top five with an estimated $2.4 million. The sports drama has earned $18.7 million in its first three weeks of domestic release and has not yet opened overseas.
After receiving praise for her starring role in the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, Jennifer Hudson wants to take a crack at hosting her own daytime TV talk show.
“I would love to do that, that would be a whole new interesting world to walk into,” the Oscar winner tells Entertainment Tonight. “I do love talking as you could probably already tell, and I love to Jennifer-ize people. So maybe I will make it into your living room, 2022 is definitely going to let us know, for sure!”
Adds Hudson, “Here at Jhud Productions, we always got a plan. And we never stop working and, as I always say, you will always see me try and grow so there’s always a plan, I can tell you that much.”
(WASHINGTON) — More than a year after the 2020 presidential election, the GOP is still covering numerous legal bills for the benefit of former President Donald Trump — and the price tag is ruffling the feathers of some longtime GOP donors who are now critical of Trump.
In October and November alone, the Republican National Committee spent nearly $720,000 of its donor money on paying law firms representing Trump in various legal challenges, including criminal investigations into his businesses in New York, according to campaign finance records.
Trump’s legal bills have sent the Republican Party’s total legal expenditures soaring in recent months, resulting in $3 million spent just between September and November. In contrast, the Democratic National Committee has been gradually winding down its legal expenses over the last few months.
Traditionally, national political parties have at times covered presidents and their advisers’ legal fees in matters related to their presidential campaigns. And throughout his presidency, the Republican Party has footed legal bills for Trump, his family members and his political allies, going back to the days of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election, through the impeachment proceedings following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But experts say the GOP’s recent payments of Trump’s attorney fees after he left the White House, for investigations that are not relevant to the next presidential campaign, is a very unusual move that’s indicative of the ongoing influence that the former president has over the party.
“Campaign finance law does not strictly prohibit a national party committee from paying for private legal expenses, but it is very rare for a party committee to use donor money in that way,” said Brendan Fischer, federal reforms director at nonpartisan government ethics group Campaign Legal Center.
“And it is entirely unprecedented for a national party committee to cover a former president’s private legal bills, especially when those legal expenses arise out of an investigation into activity that preceded Trump’s time in the White House, and when Trump is sitting on millions of his own PAC funds,” Fischer said.
RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn told ABC News that the RNC’s executive committee approved paying for “certain legal expenses that related to politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump,” while declining to comment on which specific cases are being paid for.
“As a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP,” Vaughn said. “It is entirely appropriate for the RNC to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats’ never ending witch hunt and attacks on him.”
The RNC has so far paid three law firms on behalf of Trump, paying $328,000 to NechelesLaw LLP, $200,000 to van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, and $172,000 to Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, according to its recent disclosure filings. The Washington Post reported that the RNC has agreed to pay up to $1.6 million of Trump’s legal bills.
Fischetti & Malgieri represents Trump in the parallel investigations by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York state Attorney General Letitia James into the business practices of Trump’s eponymous company. Vance and James have said their investigations are not politically motivated.
Susan Necheles of NechelesLaw reportedly joined the legal team representing Trump and the Trump Organization last summer. Michael van der Veen was part of Trump’s defense team during the impeachment proceedings after Jan. 6.
The law firm payments haven’t sat well with some Trump critics within the GOP.
“It is very disheartening to see RNC donors funding Trump’s legal bills,” former Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., told ABC News.
Rooney, who is among several Republican lawmakers who announced their retirement after clashing with pro-Trump forces within the GOP, was previously a U.S. ambassador to the Holy See under the Bush administration and a generous donor to the Republican Party, giving upwards of $1 million to various GOP candidates and groups over the years.
“I used to support the RNC quite a bit, especially when Reince Priebus was there,” Rooney said. “But I don’t see myself doing it right now because they keep giving money to Trump.”
Many Republicans are “exhausted and bothered by” Trump allies’ continued election challenges, Rooney said, “because all it’s doing is giving a lot of grist to people who want to oppose the Republican Party, at least the one that I used to know.”
“We’re getting tarred with this big lie and this claim of election fraud, and that is damaging our most important institution in our country — belief in elections,” Rooney said.
The RNC’s financial support of Trump’s legal bills also complicates the party’s vow to remain neutral ahead of nominating process for the 2024 presidential election. “The party has to stay neutral. I’m not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024,” RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel said last January. She has since reaffirmed that Trump “still leads the party.”
Financial support notwithstanding, the GOP and Trump have not always had a smooth relationship over the past year. In the final days of Trump’s presidency, Trump told McDaniel he was leaving the GOP and creating his own political party, only to back down after McDaniel threatened to stop paying Trump’s legal bills for his post-election challenges, according to a book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
Both Trump and McDaniel have denied the story.
Not long after that, Trump and the party again clashed over the use of Trump’s name in fundraising appeals, with the GOP eventually reaching an agreement to use his name.
In addition to covering many of Trump’s legal bills, the RNC has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting lawsuits across the country “to ensure the integrity of our elections,” said RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez.
Gearing up for the 2022 election cycle, the RNC has been building an aggressive nationwide “election integrity program,” engaging in election-related lawsuits in states like Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Texas, stationing state-directors in battleground states, engaging hundreds of attorneys at the state level and training thousands of poll watchers.
The party is engaged in 30 such “election integrity” lawsuits, Alvarez said, with financial disclosures showing payments of $500,000 to the law firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, more than $260,000 to McGuireWoods, and $243,000 to Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.
Even with all the legal expenditures, the RNC has continued to build a huge war chest over the past year. Backed by megadonors that include Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and casino mogul Steve Wynn, the RNC ended November with more than $65 million in cash on hand.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 837,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.5% 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. All times Eastern:
Jan 10, 6:37 am
UK launches campaign urging pregnant women to get vaccinated, boosted
The United Kingdom has launched a new advertising campaign that urges pregnant women who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot to do so as soon as possible.
Testimonies of pregnant women who have had the shots will be played out in ads across U.K. radio stations and on social media starting Monday. The new campaign urges pregnant women “don’t wait to take the vaccine” and highlights the risks of COVID-19 to both mother and baby as well as the benefits of getting vaccinated, according to a press release from the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.
The press release cited the latest data from the U.K. Health Security Agency that suggests COVID-19 vaccination is safe for pregnant women and provides strong protection against the virus for both mother and baby. The press release also cited data from the U.K. Obstetric Surveillance System that shows more than 96% of pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms between May and October 2021 were unvaccinated, and a third of them required respiratory support. Around one in five women who are hospitalized with COVID-19 need to be delivered preterm to help them recover, and one in five of their babies need care in the neonatal unit.
“Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is one of the most important things a pregnant woman can do this year to keep herself and her baby as safe from this virus as possible,” Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care, said in a statement Monday. “We have extensive evidence now to show that the vaccines are safe and that the risks posed by COVID-19 are far greater.”
Jan 10, 4:55 am
Spain reports more COVID-19 reinfections in 2 weeks than rest of pandemic
Spain has reported more COVID-19 reinfections in a recent span of two weeks than it has during the rest of the pandemic, according to the latest data from a Spanish public health research institute.
Data from the Carlos III Health Institute shows there were 20,890 repeat infections reported in Spain from Dec. 22, 2021, to Jan. 5, 2022. That figure tops the 17,140 reinfections reported in the European country from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to Dec. 22, 2021. The data includes confirmed, probable and possible cases.
Alfredo Corell, an immunology professor at Spain’s University of Valladolid, told Spanish news site NIUS that the rising number of reinfections were due to the new and highly transmissible omicron variant.
“Prior to this variant, reinfections were anecdotal at the global level,” Corell told NIUS. “Omicron has changed this paradigm.”
In southern Africa, where the variant was first identified in November, preliminary research suggests that omicron is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared to other known variants of the virus, including the highly contagious delta. However, symptoms of reinfected individuals appear to be mild, according to Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases who is studying omicron.
“Previous infection used to protect against Delta,” von Gottberg said during a press briefing on Dec. 2. “But now, with Omicron, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration’s plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free is an historic undertaking, but one that will take weeks or months to fully execute, recently released contracts and interviews with seven test manufacturers suggest.
Contracts for the first two batches of tests were announced on Friday, one for 13.3 million kits from a health technology company and another for an undisclosed amount from a distribution company in Virginia that had extras on hand — all to be distributed in an effort to reduce the massive testing shortage in the U.S.
And while a White House official told ABC News that the rest of the contracts to fulfill the 500-million pledge are expected to be awarded in the next two weeks, the cumbersome process of ramping up test availability indicates that the plan won’t deliver a quick fix.
Tests won’t be available to be ordered through a government website until later this month, the official said, meaning it’s unlikely the average American will get free tests delivered in time for the January peak of omicron cases predicted by most models.
In the last week alone, the U.S. has reported more than 4.1 million new COVID-19 cases — the highest number of cases seen over the span of a week on record.
And as cases soar, tests have become increasingly vital for basic day-to-day needs, including keeping kids in school and employees in the workforce.
ABC News reached out to all 13 testing companies that have an FDA authorization for at-home test kits. In interviews with seven, including five of the largest producers, the testing companies said they were each producing anywhere from a few million to 200 million tests per month.
But that total supply is intended for all customers, including pharmacies and grocery stores, not solely for the government.
Dr. Michael Mina, chief science officer for eMed, a health care technology company that proctors at-home rapid tests, said he expects to see around 100 to 200 million tests distributed in the month after the website launches, an estimate he made based on conversations with test manufacturers.
Tests are then expected to ramp up in February after two newly authorized rapid tests hit the market, which could contribute tens of millions of tests to the government’s supply. But it will take longer than just a month for testing companies to produce the half a billion tests promised by the government.
For experts focused on the near future, that’s a concern.
“We need the testing yesterday, we need those tests available,” Dr. Gerald Harmon, president of the American Medical Association, said in an interview with ABC News. “And that’s going to be incredibly important for us to overcome the spread and mitigate the spread of this virus.”
One of the leading producers, iHealth, plans to distribute 200 million tests this month to buyers like state governments and Amazon, the company’s chief operating officer, Jack Feng, told ABC News.
Feng said iHealth could increase its supply to work with the federal government, contributing 50 million in the next three weeks and an additional 150 million tests in February.
But Feng says manufacturing the tests isn’t the major issue for iHealth — it’s getting them into the country from China, where they’re made.
Abbott, one of the first major testing companies to produce an at-home rapid test, has invested in new plants and automation to further increase its supply, which is one of the biggest sources of U.S. tests, a spokesperson said.
“We’re running 24/7 to make 70 million tests per month with plans to surpass that,” said John Koval, a spokesperson for Abbott.
The two newest tests on the scene, from Roche and Siemens Healthineers, could give an extra boost if the companies are awarded contracts from the government. Both companies said they will be able to deliver “tens of millions” of tests per month, once they become available.
But for Roche, initial deliveries won’t begin arriving until “late January with capacity ramping up to full output throughout February and March,” a spokesperson said. Siemens told ABC News they anticipate a first supply of tests will be also available sometime in January.
Quidel, another large manufacturer, said it recently opened a manufacturing facility in California and is shipping “millions of QuickVue tests.”
And two smaller companies, Becton Dickenson and Ellume, will contribute 20 million between the two of them.
Taken altogether, the testing companies alone are unlikely to hit 500 million within a month.
Fast action requires manufacturing capabilities that the U.S. wasn’t prepared for, in part because of the unpredictability of the virus but also due to the country’s vaccine-focused approach over the past year, which drove down demand for tests and left the country with fewer tests when it needed them most.
“It is important for the U.S. to maintain the testing manufacturing capacity and supply during periods of low demand so we can respond to future variants and surges,” Koval, with Abbott, said.
“We’re on the right path now, but we can’t be complacent or think that testing won’t play a critical role in our ability to gather safely,” he said.
Unlike PCR tests, which are able to detect even small amounts of virus and can stay positive for up to three months after an infection, rapid tests are helpful for a person to know if they are likely to be contagious in that moment.
Increased access to rapid tests means Americans will be able to follow the advice of experts who say you should use rapid tests frequently, ideally a few times a week, to detect when someone becomes contagious to others.
For its part, the White House did not pledge to deliver all 500 million tests in January, but to just begin sending them then. Officials have not provided a concrete timeline on when the full amount of tests will be delivered to Americans.
It’s also not clear how many tests would be distributed to each American, though the White House has said people will request them through a website that will launch when enough tests have been acquired.
But the administration remains confident in the plan, maintaining that they are making significant progress and will deliver on the extra 500 million tests without dipping into the supply on pharmacy shelves.
“We expect to have all 500 million [tests] contracted over the next two weeks, and Americans will be able to begin ordering these tests online later this month,” a White House official told ABC News.
“We are ensuring that the tests contracted arrive as quickly as they are manufactured by the companies, and then immediately made available to the American people,” the official said.
The official said the first tests from the initial contracts awarded will be delivered to the government next week, then be distributed to Americans once the website launches.
“Securing half a billion tests will require agreements with multiple manufacturers and distributors, and the Biden administration continues to be an active partner to help accelerate production and distribution of at-home tests at large, including investing billions and using the Defense Production Act,” the official said.
A distribution plan is also in final stages between the White House and the U.S. Post Office, according to a source who was briefed on the plan last week.
In the meantime, Americans can buy tests where they can find them, though supply is spotty in many parts of the country. Beginning next week those tests will be reimbursable through health insurance, the White House said last week.
“Obviously this is an unprecedented action, to have a half a billion tests bought by the U.S. government and distributed for free,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Tuesday. “And we’ll continue to do more and more to increase access to testing.”
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States was open to discussing limits on missile deployments and troop exercises in Europe during talks with Russia this week over Ukraine.
“There are confidence-building measures, there are risk-reduction measures, all of which, if done reciprocally, I think can really reduce tensions and address concerns,” Blinken told told ABC This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos.
And after Russia sent troops to help quell unrest in neighboring Kazakhstan, Blinken did not rule out that events there could come up in talks — even though Russia has ruled that out.
He criticized Kazakhstan’s president ordering security forces to shoot to kill protesters.
“That is something I resolutely reject,” Blinken said. “The shoot-to-kill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded.”
Delegations from the U.S. and Russia planned to hold talksSunday night and Monday in Geneva, kicking off a critical week of diplomacy between Moscow and the West over Russian President Vladimir Putin menacing neighboring Ukraine.
Blinken said it may be possible “to address whatever legitimate concerns Russia may have.”
For example, he said, “there may be grounds for renewing” the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, from which the Trump administration withdrew and which the U.S. accuses Russia of violating.
“Similarly, there are agreements on the deployment of conventional forces in Europe, on things like the scope and scale of exercises, that, if adhered to reciprocally — that is, Russia makes good on its commitments, which it’s repeatedly violated — then there are grounds for reducing tensions, creating greater transparency, creating greater confidence, all of which would address concerns that Russia purports to have,” Blinken said.
Stephanopoulos pressed, “So you’re willing to address troop levels, you’re willing to address missile deployments, you’re willing to address training exercises?”
Blinken said the United States was “not looking at troop levels.”
“When it comes to the deployment of forces and troop levels, we’re not looking at troop levels,” he said. “To the contrary, if Russia commits renewed aggression against Ukraine, I think it’s a very fair prospect that NATO will reinforce its positions along its eastern flank, the countries that border Russia.
“But when it comes to, for example, the scope and scale of exercises,” he continued, “things that were dealt with in the conventional forces in Europe treaty that Russia’s been in violation of, those are things that we can look at.”
The U.S.-Russia negotiations are expected to be followed by talks between Russia and NATO in Brussels on Wednesday and more discussions between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday. The U.S. will participate in those talks, too.
As President Joe Biden has threatened in the past, Blinken promised “massive consequences” for Russia if it invades Ukraine — promising they would go beyond those that the West imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — saying the U.S. and European allies have coordinated on “economic, financial and other consequences.”
But when asked by Stephanopoulos whether he thinks Putin has already made the decision to take control of the Ukraine, Blinken noted he wasn’t sure yet.
“It’s clear that we’ve offered him two paths forward,” Blinken said. “One is through diplomacy and dialogue. The other is through deterrents and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression against Ukraine. And we’re about to test the proposition of which path President Putin wants to take this week.”
And the secretary of state tempered expectations about quick results.
“I don’t think we’re going to see any breakthroughs next week,” Blinken said.
It would be “very difficult” to “make actual progress,” he said, as long as “there’s an ongoing escalation, when Russia has a gun to the head of Ukraine with 100,000 troops near its borders, the possibility of doubling that on very short order.”
“If we’re seeing de-escalation, if we’re seeing a reduction in tensions, that is the kind of environment in which we can make real progress and, again, address concerns, reasonable concerns on both sides,” Blinken said.
(NEW YORK) — Explosive COVID-19 surge strains hospitals and schools around the nation
The number of hospitalized Americans who are positive for COVID-19 soared to more than 138,000.
For nearly two years, day after day, under exhausting and often dangerous conditions, health care workers across the country have continued to care for the nation’s sickest Americans who have fallen victim to coronavirus.
As the highly infectious omicron sweeps through the country, the United States is now facing its most significant coronavirus infection surge to date, putting additional pressure on an overtaxed health care system.
“We have seen an incredible proliferation of the virus in hospitals, such that we went from a place where virtually no county in the country was at risk of exceeding its capacity to well over half are now. I don’t like to make predictions, but things could get very bad in the coming couple of weeks,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told ABC News.
Although preliminary global studies indicate that the omicron variant may cause less severe illness than prior variants, health officials say that the sheer numbers of infections caused by the new variant could still overwhelm the health care system.
The burden on the health care system is made worse by nationwide staffing shortages and hospital capacity at elevated levels as many other patients seek care for non-virus related reasons.
“Due to the tsunami of omicron cases, the volume is affecting our health and community service,” said Dr. Rebecca Weintraub, assistant professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “While we are very lucky hospitalizations have decoupled, the vast spread is alarming.”
Late last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, pointed to the disparity between cases and hospitalization as a “strong” indicator that omicron is less severe, as the U.S. has not experienced a concomitant increase in the relative percentage of hospitalizations.
Even so, Fauci warned that there will still be many virus-positive Americans who will seek medical care, creating further strain on hospitals.
“Even if you have a less of a percentage of severity, when you have multi-multi-multi-fold more people getting infected, the net amount is you’re still going to get a lot of people that are going to be needing hospitalization. And that’s the reason why we’re concerned about stressing and straining the hospital system,” Fauci told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos during an appearance on This Week, earlier this month.
Experts say the baseline for hospitalizations is already higher than it was a year ago, with hospitals described by some experts as “relatively quiet” last winter for ailments other than COVID-19, which provided a “much bigger buffer zone,” to care for the most critically ill. In addition, hospitals were already struggling with patients from the delta wave.
“We entered this wave, with hospitals at a higher capacity than they were in previous waves, from non-COVID [health issues],” Faust explained. “That’s the real problem.”
Highly localized surges a pain point for many communities
An ABC News analysis of federal data found that in recent weeks, total hospitalizations — COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related — have seen an uptick. The number of COVID-19-positive Americans who are hospitalized is now nearing a pandemic high, with more than 138,000 Americans hospitalized, and an average of 17,000 being admitted to hospitals each day.
Most of the patients who are requiring intensive care are still unvaccinated, according to top health officials, including U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.
Experts say there is no overarching experience for how COVID-19 is now affecting the country, as surges are asymmetric, and the impact of COVID-19 will look different for every community.
“Ground conditions matter beyond belief,” Faust said, explaining that while one area can see an uptick in COVID-19 infections, hospitals may not become overwhelmed, because they have adequate staffing or a highly vaccinated and younger population, hospitals in other areas with lower vaccination rates and fewer resources could find themselves completely overwhelmed.
“There are places where incidental infection is a higher proportion of admissions than others. The reverse is true in other areas. And there are places with higher vaccination rates than others. When an unvaccinated person gets admitted to the hospital, they are going to be sicker and require more care and take up more resources. Every place is different,” Faust added.
Even within a state, the timing of surges is also highly localized, experts say, varying by areas and even by hospital. Thus, even if hospital capacity nationwide or on the state level looks relatively stable, “micro surges,” seen in individual facilities or communities may still be occurring and threatening care.
Even virus-positive patients who are not admitted primarily for COVID-19 are adding a strain
Nationwide, it remains unclear as to how many patients are being admitted to the hospital for coronavirus-related care, and how many patients are coincidentally tested positive for the virus, after they were admitted for other reasons and subsequently checked for positivity as a routine check.
In New York, state officials reported on Friday that 42% of COVID patients were admitted for non-COVID reasons, and in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis cited data from three of the state’s major hospitals, which reported that half, or more, of their COVID-19 positive patients are getting treated for other conditions, not the virus.
However, some experts and hospital officials have cautioned that the proportion of patients seeking care specifically for COVID-19 likely varies widely community by community. In addition, health officials say a COVID-19 diagnosis can cause additional strain on a health system, as virus-positive patients in many hospitals are required to be treated differently.
In a series of tweets last week, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, stressed that both patients “with COVID-19” and those admitted “for COVID-19,” have an impact on care, utilization, and can stress the health care system.
Patients, who may have come in for another ailment, such as a broken leg, and are found to be positive for the virus must stay in a COVID-19 isolation room, explained Jha, who added that there are already a limited number of such rooms available.
In addition, every time a health care worker enters a room with a COVID-19 positive patient, they must be wearing full PPE, which in turn, prolongs wait times for many patients.
“Admissions with COVID is still very disruptive to the health care system, at a time when it can’t afford more disruption,” Jha said.
Federal data shows the emergency department visits with diagnosed COVID-19 cases are currently at their highest point of the pandemic — a figure that has more than doubled over the last month.
“People are in the ER for hours and days, creating gridlock for new patients that need emergency services every day,” said Dr. Jay Bhatt, an internist and adjunct faculty at the UIC School of Public Health and an ABC News Med Unit contributor.
Other hospital officials have noted that even if patients are admitted for a reason other than COVID-19, a COVID-19 infection on top of another condition may only exacerbate an individual’s original illness.
At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, hospital officials told ABC News that they have seen their COVID-19 positive patient totals “skyrocket” in recent weeks. Some of these patients happen to test positive while admitted for other concerns, while others are primarily sick with COVID-19.
“Even the children who are not admitted primarily for COVID have hospital courses that are further complicated because of COVID. Having cancer, heart issues, appendicitis, and COVID is never a good thing,” one hospital representative said.
A growing shortage of hospital staff ‘wreaking havoc’ on the health care system
Surge after surge, nurses, doctors and respiratory technicians have led the fight against the virus, many forced to leave their families for weeks to months at a time in order to avoid a total collapse of the health care system during the pandemic.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the already existing staffing shortage has only grown worse, and now experts say they are concerned there will not be enough front-line workers to care for the influx of patients in need as many of them are forced into isolation and quarantine after testing positive.
“I am worried we don’t have enough health care workers to care for patients flooding hospitals,” said Bhatt. “[The] unprecedented numbers of sick clinical staff [are] wreaking havoc on hospitals and health systems as they do their best to care for patients in this current surge. I have not seen a workforce issue as serious as this, and is deeply concerning.”
As of January 2022, there have been at least 819,000 coronavirus cases among health care personnel, and more than 3,100 virus-related deaths.
Late last month, the CDC shortened the isolation time for COVID-19-positive health care workers in anticipation of the potential shortages that might occur amid the latest surge.
Many health care workers say they are exhausted as they train to keep their facilities running.
“There are wait times in the emergency department that are running six to eight hours, in the trauma center. [In the] emergency room sometimes it runs greater than 24 hours. So you know we … the nursing staff is tired, we have burned out. We’re working 12- to 14-hour shifts, on Sundays up to 16-hour shifts,” Thomas Mapplebeck, a nurse in the Emergency Department at Baystate Health told ABC News.
Staffing shortages are also preventing some people from receiving the critical care they need, added Bhatt, who said that some patients in need of hospice are struggling to receive placement because of the shortages.
The unknown of what’s to come
Many health officials and experts have tried to forecast what Americans can expect from the virus in the months and weeks to come, and when COVID-19 will finally enter an endemic phase. However, Faust explained he is reluctant to make predictions as there is still so much unknown surrounding the virus.
“Five weeks ago, we’d never heard about omicron because it didn’t exist as far as we know, and now we were in the worst part of this pandemic,” Faust said.
With many younger Americans becoming infected, Faust said it is possible intenstive care unit bed capacity may not be overrun. It is also possible the virus could reach the millions of Americans who are still unvaccinated, as well as many at-risk people who remain vulnerable for severe illness.
An additional roadblock for some hospitals has been delays in returning patients to nursing rooms, further exacerbating the shortage of beds.
“Patients who are ready for discharge are having trouble getting back to long-term care, nursing home facilities, short-term rehab and home without social support as resources are strained and this creates a logjam that strains the system and workforce even further,” Bhatt said. “We can’t have situations where we are having trouble getting patients back to the community so that others that really need hospital care can get it. We can and need to do better.”
The worst-case scenario, said Faust, will be if nursing homes see significant spikes.
“If that happens in places that are already on the edge, we will see horrifying scenes that we’ve been warning against for a long time,” Faust said.
Health officials have stressed it will be critical for Americans to modify their behavior by wearing masks, avoiding mass gatherings and getting vaccinated.
“I hope people can do their part to get vaccinated, decrease the number of people who need hospital beds so that these other folks who are really sick have a chance to get the care that they need,” said Dr. Jeff Pothof, an emergency medicine physician at UW Health in Madison Wisconsin. “It’s really bad right now,” he added.
Benjamin Rader, a research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, contributed to this report.
(MELBOURNE) — The Australian government has overturned a decision to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa, saying the Serbian tennis star will be released immediately from immigration detention.
Djokovic had been detained upon arrival for the Australian Open, where he was set to defend his Grand Slam title. The Australian Border Force canceled Djokovic’s visa and denied him entry into the country, saying he could have been deported.
Djokovic’s legal team argued that border officials failed to give valid notice of the intention to cancel his visa and that he did everything asked of him for quarantine-free travel.
Judge Anthony Kelly ordered on Monday that the Australian government pay for Djokovic’s legal costs, that his passport be returned to him and that he be released from immigration detention within 30 minutes of the ruling.
The Australian Open is scheduled to begin Jan. 17.
(CAPITOLIO, Brazil) — At least 10 people are dead and two remain hospitalized after a slab of a cliff broke off Saturday afternoon and crashed down onto four tourist boats in a lake in Brazil, officials said.
The incident took place at Lake Furnas, a popular tourist spot roughly 260 miles north of Sao Paulo, around 12:30 p.m., according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. The Brazilian Navy and local firefighters were deployed to the scene to help the victims.
One of the deceased victims has been identified as 68-year-old Julio Borges Antunes, according to the Minas Gerais Fire department. The names of the other victims have not been released.
Officials said all of the tourists on the boats were Brazilians.
Officials on Saturday evening had said 20 people were missing and 32 were hospitalized.
Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, tweeted updates on the incident during the afternoon and said heavy rains were a factor in the cliff collapse. The rescue efforts were ongoing, Zema tweeted.
“I sympathize with the families during this difficult time,” he tweeted in Portuguese.
The Brazilian Navy is overseeing the investigation into what caused the collapse, according to authorities.
