(COOPER CITY, Fla.) — Hundreds of mourners gathered for an emotional Celebration of Life ceremony for Miya Marcano, the Florida college student who was found dead eight days after her family reported her missing.
Her funeral will take place Thursday afternoon.
Family and friends embraced each other in front of Marcano’s casket, which was painted her favorite color royal blue, during Wednesday’s ceremony at Cooper City Church of God.
Loved ones shared their favorite memories of Marcano and talked about how she enjoyed dancing and celebrating her Caribbean culture.
“It was totally amazing just to be there and to experience the lives that Miya touched in such a short period of time,” family attorney Daryl K. Washington told ABC News.
“Hearing the stories from her friends, strangers and family members talking about how she was such a princess and how she brightened up the room every time she entered. It makes it so hard to accept the fact that this young lady lost her life in such a brutal fashion,” he added.
Marcano’s mother, Yma Scarbriel, is asking that donations be made to the Miya Marcano Memorial Fund, which is supporting and providing resources to families of missing persons while advocating for the protection of students and vulnerable populations, in lieu of flowers.
“Miya always said she would change the world and we want to ensure her legacy lives on,” Scarbriel told local ABC affiliate in Miami, Florida, WPLG.
Marcano, who turned 19 in April and was a student at Valencia College, was last seen at the Arden Villas apartments complex in Orlando on Sept. 24. Her family reported her missing after she missed a flight home to South Florida that day.
Her body was found Oct. 2 near the Tymber Skan apartment complex in Orlando with her hands, feet and mouth taped over.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said last week that Armando Caballero, 27, “is the person responsible for her death.” He was a maintenance worker at Arden Villas and was found dead Sept. 27, three days after Marcano disappeared, from an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Authorities previously said Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but she rebuffed his advances. Caballero possessed a key fob to access apartments and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance, authorities said.
Washington said the family is working to establish policies that will assure maintenance and other apartment complex employees do not have free access to people’s apartments without their permission. He said the family is also in talks with state politicians to potentially pass legislation on the issue.
“There’s really no laws to protect people from this type of invasion of privacy,” he said. “Right now we’re working on it on the state level, but hopefully that’s going to be something that can really go on the national level.”
At Tuesday’s costume party premiere for her new film Halloween Kills, Jamie Lee Curtis honored her late mother, Janet Leigh, by dressing up as her famous character from Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1960 thriller, Psycho.
“Honoring my mother in ALL her gory…I meant glory!” the 62-year-old actress captioned an Instagram photo of her in a belted, buttoned-up blue dress, black pumps and short blonde wig. She completed the look with a black handbag and a bloody shower curtain draped over her arm.
Leigh is best remembered for her famous shower scene in Psycho, during which her character, Marion Crane, is stabbed to death by Anthony Perkins‘ serial killer, Norman Bates.
Coldplay‘s new album Music of the Spheres is out tomorrow, and they’ve just announced a tour to go along with it.
The Music of the Spheres stadium tour will kick off with the group’s first-ever show in Costa Rica on March 18, 2022, and then travel to the Dominican Republic and Mexico before reaching the U.S., starting with an April 26 date in Los Angeles, CA. That U.S. leg of the tour will wrap June 14 in Tampa, FL, after which the band heads to Europe and the U.K. More dates will be announced soon.
Opening for Coldplay on most of the dates will be H.E.R.
Tickets go on sale October 22 at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster. A Verified Fan presale, which you have to register for via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Program, is available starting October 20.
“Playing live and finding connection with people is ultimately why we exist as a band,” Coldplay says in a statement. “We’ve been planning this tour for years, and we’re super excited to play songs from across our whole time together.”
The band goes on to say that they’ve spent the last two years “consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible.”
To that end, Coldplay plans to power the tour via “renewable, super-low emission energy” — like solar panels at every venue, a “kinetic” stadium floor and kinetic bikes powered by fans. The power will be stored in the first-ever mobile, rechargeable show battery, made with recyclable BMW batteries.
They’ll also plant one tree for every ticket sold, give discounts to fans who use low-carbon transport to and from shows, offer free drinking water in an attempt to eliminate plastic bottles and put 10% of all the proceeds into a fund for environmental causes.
It’s considered a high honor to write a Bond song, but for Billie Eilish, it became a full-circle moment when she was tapped to compose the theme for the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday, the “bad guy” singer revealed she had plenty of practice before taking a crack at her now Grammy-winning song because, when she was younger, she and her brother and collaborator, FINNEAS, would pretend to write Bond themes for fun.
“Years before the Bond song — our song — was even a topic of discussion with us, we would do it as a songwriting exercise,” Billie recalled. “We would just be like, ‘Let’s sit down and do some chords that feel Bond-esque.'”
Eilish said she and her family are massive Bond fans, so she’s well aware of the theme-song talent that came before her, including Paul McCartney and Sam Smith. When it came to picking her favorite Bond singer of all time, the honor went to Adele, who performed 2012’s “Skyfall.”
“I know that was more of a recent one, but my favorite song in the world,” she raved. “I loved that song.”
Kimmel also brought up the possibility of Eilish winning an Oscar for “No Time to Die,” which led to the two discussing the singer’s interest in making movies; she’s already directed a few documentaries.
While Eilish said “cinematography is really something I admire,” she said she won’t venture out from behind the camera to “act in stuff” unless “something came along that felt right.”
“I used to want to make a movie really bad, like that was a thing I was planning on doing,” she teased. “Who knows.”
Culpeper County, Virginia Sheriff’s Department Captain James Anthony “Tony” Sisk is pictured in an undated handout photo. Sisk died of COVID-19 on Oct. 1, 2021. – Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office
(NEW YORK) — James Anthony “Tony” Sisk was a lifelong law enforcement officer.
He had reached the rank of captain with the Culpeper County, Virginia, Sheriff’s Department.
Before that, he had worked in several different local departments starting in 1994, according to a department Facebook post
Sisk was a native of the area, graduating from Culpeper High School and a lifelong friend of current Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who Sisk went to work for after Jenkins was elected sheriff.
The father of two was respected by his co-workers, and in 2019 he was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Culpeper Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Task Force for his work in support of crime victims.
On Oct. 1, Sisk died of COVID-19 after being admitted to the hospital, the Facebook post said.
He was 50 years old.
“Tony’s death leaves a hole in our hearts and in our community that cannot be filled,” Sheriff Jenkins said. “His ready smile and warm embrace were well known to all. Knowing that Tony is resting with God helps a little to ease the tremendous pain of losing this outstanding human being. Rest In Peace, brother.”
COVID-19 has claimed the lives of almost 500 law enforcement officers, between 2020 and 2021, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a database that tracks line of duty officer deaths.
That represents 62% of all law enforcement line of duty deaths in 2020 alone, according to the statistics.
“It’s taken a definite toll,” Fayette County, Ohio, Sheriff Vernon P. Stanforth told ABC News. “Anytime there’s a line of duty death there, it impacts the entire agency and the entire law enforcement community.”
Standforth is president of the National Sheriffs’ Association.
Those fallen officers will be honored by Attorney General Merrick Garland during a candlelight vigil on Thursday night, according to the National Law Enforcement Museum.
Patrick Yoes, president of the National Fraternal Order of Police, one of the biggest police unions in the country called COVID-19 not only a public health crisis, but a public safety crisis.
“The National Fraternal Order of Police knew at the beginning of the pandemic that law enforcement officers on the front lines combating this pandemic would be increasingly vulnerable to contracting the virus,” Yoes said. “As we had feared, the virus has claimed the lives of many, and now includes a growing number of law enforcement officers.”
It is not known if Sisk ever got vaccinated.
The Fraternal Order of Police maintains that getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is a personal decision, as does Sheriff Standforth.
He said he believes the vaccine will become like wearing a bulletproof vest. At first, Standforth said, officers were apprehensive about wearing a vest, but as time went on, more and more started wearing them.
“We will eventually, just like the past, we will eventually get to the place, where we will say, OK, I can’t make the argument any longer I’ve got it, I’m going to take the vaccine to protect myself and my family,” the sheriff said. “I think that’s just cyclical and it’ll happen in due time.”
Howie Mandel is home from the hospital after passing out at a Los Angeles Starbucks on Wednesday.
“I am home and doing better,” Mandel assured fans on Twitter that evening.
“I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar,” he continued. “I appreciate the great doctors and nurses that took such good care of me. Thank you to everyone who reached out but I am doing ok!”
TMZ reported earlier in the day that the 65-year-old America’s Got Talent judge was at his local Starbucks with his wife and friends when he suddenly passed out and fell over before.
Paramedics were reportedly called to the scene, but eyewitnesses tell the gossip website that Mandel, who had been placed on a nearby cement bench, was able to sit up by the time paramedics arrived.
Earlier this week, the St. Elsewhere alum shared that he had undergone an endoscopy and a colonoscopy.
“Colonoscopy,” he captioned the clip on Instagram. “Recovery audition.”
I am home and doing better. I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar. I appreciate the great doctors and nurses that took such good care of me. Thank you to everyone who reached out but I am doing ok!
(NEW YORK) — Despite more than 187 million Americans being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and data and attestations from researchers and public health officials that the vaccines are safe an effective, a small and in some cases vocal minority of Americans are reluctant to get the shot.
The reasons vary, but a number of those people are instead turning to treatments after they are diagnosed that have far less evidence to support their safety and effectiveness, including monoclonal antibodies — a trend that experts say is worrying.
Currently, over 1 million doses of monoclonal antibody infusions have been given in the United States. Use of monoclonal antibodies gained steam during the delta variant surge over the summer when Florida and other states opened clinics to administer the drugs in an attempt to keep sick people out of overwhelmed hospitals.
Monoclonal antibodies have been authorized for post-exposure prophylaxis, meaning they are used shortly after someone tests positive in order to prevent progression to severe disease. The antibodies range in effectiveness depending on type, but some have been shown in to reduce COVID-related hospitalization or death by up to 85%.
COVID-19 vaccines have been tested in large clinical trials with hundreds of thousands of people. The CDC says over 215 million people have safely received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including 187 million who have been fully vaccinated, either with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, or two dose mRNA vaccines.
All three COVID-19 vaccines have gone through the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history by government agencies, fully independent safety monitoring boards, vaccine manufacturers and academic researchers. The Pfizer COVID vaccine is currently FDA authorized for people 12 and older. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized for those 18 and up.
Common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine include pain or swelling at the injection site. Fever, muscle aches, chills, fatigue or headaches can also occur but should go away within a few days. More serious health problems, such as unusual heart rhythm or blood clots, are exceedingly rare — and in fact, are more likely to happen to an unvaccinated person who becomes sick with COVID-19 than with the vaccine itself.
‘More concerned with treatment rather than prevention’
Many vaccine holdouts in the U.S. have cited the vaccines’ emergency use authorization status — a special FDA pathway helps accelerate the often-slow regulatory process during a national emergency. Pfizer’s vaccine is now fully FDA approved for people 16 and older, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are still under emergency authorization, awaiting approval.
However, some experts interviewed by ABC news say some patients who won’t get vaccinated also ask for monoclonal antibody treatment after the are diagnosed with COVID, which has the same emergency use authorization. Doctors say they are perplexed about why some people pursue monoclonal antibody treatment which is supposed to reduce the risk of hospitalization in high-risk vulnerable people instead of prevention.
“People are more concerned with treatment rather than prevention,” said Rupali Limaye, Ph.D., the director of behavioral and implementation science for the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
“When they are in the hospital and needing COVID treatment, their options are limited — but they know they need treatment to fight COVID. Decision-making is very different related to preventative behaviors,” said Limaye.
What to know about monoclonal antibodies
The FDA has granted emergency authorization status to four antibody treatments for COVID-19. These antibody treatments are most helpful in mild to moderate disease. Not all antibody treatments are equally effective, and some have lost their potency in the face of new COVID-19 variants.
According to the FDA, monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins designed to mimic the immune system’s ability to fight disease particles known as antigens. For example, sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody that prevents COVID-19 infection by blocking the virus’ spike protein.
The data supporting these antibodies is much more limited than the extensive data supporting currently approved and authorized vaccines.
“Monoclonal antibodies are an important treatment option for high-risk patients. However, the idea that they can be used as a prevention tool is severely misguided,” said Dr. Andrew Pavia, Infectious Diseases Society of America fellow, NIH COVID treatment guidelines panel member and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
“They are no substitute for cheap and effective prevention tools like masks and vaccines,” said Pavia.
Other COVID treatments under EUA include tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody that is not directed toward the virus but instead reduces inflammation in already hospitalized patients. Remdesivir, an anti-viral, is FDA approved for hospitalized patients over 12 but under EUA for kids less than 12.
All of these treatments require an infusion and a trip to a medical center. Now, pharmaceutical companies are also working on easy-to-prescribe pills that can ease symptoms for people who are already sick, but doctors stress these are also not a replacement for a vaccine that can help prevent disease in the first place.
Ways to boost vaccination
Doctors interviewed by ABC News say their patients want an easy solution that will protect them from COVID-19. For most, that’s a vaccine. For others, misinformation surrounding vaccines can stand in the way, prompting them to seek alternatives.
“Hesitancy falls on a continuum. That means that those that are hesitant may refuse some vaccines, may accept vaccines but be unsure about the decision or may have concerns. There are validated scales that measure attitudes related to safety, efficacy, past vaccine behavior and vaccine intentions.” said Limaye.
The CDC suggests providers ask vaccine-hesitant patients a scaled question, for example, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to get the COVID vaccine? (1 = never and 10 = vaccine appointment is already set).” The goal is to help patients become more aware and move toward higher numbers on the scale.
For example, if a patient says that they are a three on the scale, providers can ask why and why not a lower number? This helps patients to reiterate the benefit of vaccines instead of explaining why they have not gotten it. Providers can then further follow up by asking, “What would help to go to a four or a five?”
While there are many successful ways to talk to people about the COVID vaccine — all methods center around a common theme of empathy, curiosity and open communication to help end the pandemic.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
Jess Dawson, M.D., a Master of Public Health candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — The American Automobile Association (AAA) is warning drivers nationwide not to over-rely on advanced safety systems in cars, like automatic braking and lane assist systems, during inclement weather.
New research from the organization found that heavy rain affects safety features from functioning properly, which can result in performance issues.
During AAA experiments, vehicles equipped with automatic emergency braking, that traveled at 35 mph, collided with a stopped vehicle one third of the time.
“Often these systems are tested in somewhat perfect conditions,” Greg Brannon, AAA’s director of automotive engineering and industry relations, told ABC News. “But the reality is drivers don’t drive in perfect conditions.”
In the experiment, AAA simulated rain and other environmental conditions, such as bugs and dirt, to measure impact on the performance of various advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
To simulate rainfall, AAA engineers designed a system using a reservoir to hold water atop the cargo area of the test vehicle. The system was connected to a nozzle positioned above the windshield, so the spray pattern covered the entire windshield.
“We created a device that allowed the windshield to experience basically what it would in a rainstorm,” Brannon said.
AAA also found that cars with lane keeping assistance departed their lanes 69% of the time.
“It’s pretty, pretty substantial and surprising findings for something that is on a lot of cars today,” Brannon said.
The tests were conducted with five different vehicles, including the 2020 Buick Enclave Avenir with automatic emergency braking and lane keep assist, a 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe with forward collision avoidance assist and lane keeping assist, a 2020 Toyota RAV4 with pre-collision system and lane tracing assist, and a 2020 Volkswagen Tiguan3 with front assist and lane assist.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “Driver assistance technologies hold the potential to reduce traffic crashes and save thousands of lives each year.”
The agency said more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2019 — many of which were tied to human error.
Brannon said consumers should use advanced safety systems, but not in the place of engaged driving. “The most dangerous thing that a consumer can do is to over-rely on the systems.”
“AAA’s advice to consumers that have advanced safety systems in their car really is the same regardless of what that system is, and that’s to drive the car like the system is not there,” Brannon said. “Select a car that has the most advanced safety systems available, because they all hold a lot of potential to reduce injury and save lives, and that’s a good thing.”
Brannon said drivers should never use cruise control during inclement weather, and he advised motorists to slow down.
“Really understand the environment that you’re operating in and then make sure that you are fully engaged in that task of driving,” Brannon said.
Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly recently celebrated their first anniversary and, on Wednesday, provided a candid glimpse into their relationship when taking the GQ “Couple’s Quiz.”
True to form, their answers were a mix of sweet, spicy and pure chaos.
Their interview starts off with the two telling the story of how they first met — which was at a GQ party — where Megan’s first words to MGK were “You smell like weed.”
“And I said,” Kelly smirked, “‘I am weed.'” Apparently, he vanished right after that bizarre first exchange.
Megan then grilled the “my ex’s best friend” singer over how well he knows her in a series of rapid-fire questions.
MGK knows that his lover has “being abducted by a UFO” on her bucket list, that loud chewing is her “pet peeve,” her favorite book AND movie is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and that her hidden talent is being “an almanac and an encyclopedia and a dictionary all in one.”
MGK’s most hilarious fail came when he forgot Megan played April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In all, he answered 28.5 out of 31 questions correctly.
When the roles were reversed, Megan correctly answered 29 questions. She revealed MGK prefers his coffee “black and bitter” — but that she makes his morning brew with oat milk and sugar “to sweeten you up” — and that he’s a secret fan of Nicole Kidman and is invested in Nine Perfect Strangers and The Undoing.
The Jennifer’s Body star also ratted out her boyfriend’s work/life balance by calling him out for rarely taking any days off and also said his favorite place is “Travis [Barker]’s studio.”
But, when it came to teasing her boyfriend’s upcoming sixth studio album Born with Horns, she agreed it is “very good.”
(NEW YORK) — The family of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cells were collected from her body and used for medical research without her consent in 1951, is seeking justice for their relative.
On Oct. 4, the 70th anniversary of her death, Henrietta Lacks’ family filed a federal lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific claiming unjust enrichment and nonconsensual use of her cells and tissue samples.
The Lacks family has retained Benjamin Crump as their lead attorney. Crump, who previously represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, says he believes this case can bring justice to the family.
“This whole notion of her cells are being sold even to this day as chattel property when everyone benefits from it but her own family. Her own flesh and blood. It reminisces of days of slavery when they sold black people as chattel property and we never got to benefits from our labor, our contributions,” Crump said.
In 1951, at the age of 31, Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and began treatment at one of the only facilities willing to treat African Americans, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. During her treatment, a gynecologist preformed a biopsy on her and sent her tissue to a lab for research, without her consent or that of her family’s.
In subsequent experiments with her tissue sample, scientists discovered that Henrietta’s cells reproduced and thrived outside of her body — a discovery that helped shape medical innovations.
Those cells were named, “HeLa” after Henrietta Lacks. HeLa cells have led to several medical breakthroughs including the polio vaccine, coronavirus vaccines, cancer treatments, AIDS treatments, zero gravity in space, and more.
What Henrietta Lacks experienced is now illegal and researchers are required to get consent before using a patient’s tissue sample for research according to federal law.
The family members say they have not received any profit from the research and use of Lacks’ cells. They say they believe the time is now to be compensated and they are aware they will have to fight as many as 100 defendants, the first being Thermo Fisher.
“Thermo Fisher Scientific’s business is to commercialize Henrietta Lacks’ cells—her-living bodily tissue—without the consent of or providing compensation to Ms. Lacks” the lawsuit states. “All the while, Thermo Fisher Scientific understands—indeed, acknowledges on its own website—that this genetic material [is] stolen from Ms. Lacks.”
The lawsuit is also asking the court to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to “disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks.”
Christopher Seeger, another attorney for the Lacks family, said that other companies also will be targeted for commercializing Lacks’ cells.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, he said, “shouldn’t feel too alone because they’re going to have a lot of company soon.”
Lack’s story emerged about a decade ago with the release of the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
Her story gained more national attention with the release of “The Life of Henrietta Lacks” movie. Oprah Winfrey starred as Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah Lacks, and Renee Elise Goldsberry portrayed Henrietta.
Ron Lacks says his mother was the first person in the family to discover that cells obtained from her deceased mother-in-law, Henrietta Lacks, were still viable in 1973.
Ron Lacks is the estate’s executor and the oldest grandson of Henrietta. For years he has been inspired by his mother’s resilience to keep Henrietta’s name alive and he is using this inspiration to fight for his family’s ownership of his grandmother’s legacy.
“Every time, I walk into my mother’s room, she gives me strength because I know I’m doing it for her. She started this in 1973. She started this, so when I walk into her room and feed her, change her, I know I’m doing this for her.” Ron Lack told ABC News. “When you fighting for your family, you come off with all guns blazing, you don’t stop until you succeed or they knock me down,” he added.
Johns Hopkins University states on its website that it has “never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells” and that the university does not own the rights to the HeLa cells.
The university also claims it has helped the Lacks family broker an agreement that requires scientists to receive permission to use Henrietta Lacks’ genetic blueprint.
