(NEW YORK) — The contagious delta variant has complicated the country’s COVID-19 recovery, and health care experts are again suggesting Americans cover their faces.
They’re now advising all people, both unvaccinated and vaccinated, to wear marks in indoor and crowded settings. While the virus may have mutated, medical experts told ABC News people can wear the same masks they’ve used previously.
“The delta variant has raised the stakes,” Maureen Miller, an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “The most important thing about the masks is that you wear them properly.”
Miller, a former epidemiologist for the New York City Health Department, said the N95 is the most secure mask to block out the virus and the variants, but due to higher prices and strained supplies, most people should consider other options, such as the cloth masks and surgical masks found in most stores.
The key thing is making sure the mask completely covers one’s mouth and nose.
“If it’s not covering your nose, or if it’s on your chin, it’s not going to protect you,” Miller added.
Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist with UF Health in Gainesville, Florida, also told ABC News that regular face coverings sold in stores should protect people from the delta variant. Iovine also said double-masking is a good strategy, especially if you’re unvaccinated.
“We should think about it as layers of protection,” she said. “If you’re unvaccinated, the only layer you can have is wearing a mask and staying isolated. If you’re vaccinated, you have strong protection, but with a mask on you’re very, very protected.”
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the most important rule about masking during the delta surge is being aware of one’s surroundings. Extra care must be taken in situations in which it’s easier for air droplets to spread.
“If you’re in a crowded, poorly ventilated room, it’s a bigger risk than being out in the woods,” he said.
Miller recommended that vaccinated Americans should be masked up in any location where they’re indoors and may be in contact with someone 12 years old or younger, because they’re not yet vaccine eligible.
“The delta variant threw us a nasty curveball and set us back a step,” Miller said. “All of the things that worked before — social distancing, mask-wearing — are all the things that will get us through this next round.”
Anyone seeking help to schedule a free vaccine appointment can log onto vaccines.gov.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz’s one-time wingman has been steadily providing information and handing over potential evidence that could implicate the Florida congressman and others in the sprawling probe.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, as part of his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors, has provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages exclusively reviewed by ABC News potentially shed new light on the process by which Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage. Greenberg agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
Gaetz, who currently sits at the center of the ongoing federal sex trafficking investigation into allegations that he had sex with a minor who he also met through Greenberg, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.
ABC News has reviewed Google Voice text messages from September 2018 that appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online. In the texts, Greenberg appears to discuss payment options and asks the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends.
“I have a friend flying in and we are trying to make plans for tonight. What are your plans for later,” Greenberg wrote to the woman, whose identity ABC News is withholding for privacy purposes. “And how much of an allowance will you be requiring :)” Greenberg added.
The woman responded by telling Greenberg she has “a friend who introduced me to the website that I could bring” and said she “usually” requires “$400 per meet.”
Greenberg then sent the woman a photo of Gaetz taking a selfie with students at Pea Ridge Elementary from a 2017 visit, and wrote, “My friend,” indicating that Gaetz would be the friend joining him.
“Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.
Greenberg then replied that Gaetz was “down here only for the day,” adding “we work hard and play hard,” before asking, “Have you ever tried molly,” referring to the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy.
As Greenberg was discussing payment for the get-together, the woman asked if Gaetz used the same website Greenberg had used to meet her. Greenberg replied, in part, “He knows the deal :),” referring to the Florida congressman. The former tax collector then said he would book a “suite Downtown” for the gathering.
Asked about the allegations reported in this article, Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, told ABC News, “After months of media coverage, not one woman has come forward to accuse Rep. Gaetz of wrongdoing. Not even President Biden can say that. That others might invite people unbeknownst to a U.S. Congressman to functions he may or may not attend is the everyday life of a political figure. Your story references people the congressman doesn’t know, things he hasn’t done and messages he neither sent nor received.”
“Rep. Gaetz addressed the debunked allegations against him — and their origin in an extortion plot — during his Firebrand podcast episode last week,” Hill added. “People should download and watch.”
Gaetz himself has also forcefully pushed back against reports of the investigation. After the self-described “sugar daddy” website Seeking.com released a statement claiming to have “no knowledge of Mr. Gaetz ever having an account on the website,” Gaetz said on Twitter that “we are seeing the collapse of the Fake News media’s lies.”
However, The New York Times reported in April that investigators believe it was Greenberg who initially met women through online sugar daddy websites — which connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts and allowances — and then “introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them.”
Additional Facebook messages reviewed by ABC News paint a similar picture, showing Greenberg appearing to organize a gathering in July 2018 that included Gaetz and women the former tax collector had allegedly been paying for sex, at the home of Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida hand doctor who founded a medical marijuana advocacy group and, according to reports, allegedly accompanied Gaetz on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas that investigators are scrutinizing.
The Facebook messages also appear to show Greenberg offering to introduce a Florida media entrepreneur at the meet-up at Pirozzolo’s home, which Greenberg described as “our safe place.”
“You should come meet the group,” Greenberg wrote to the entrepreneur, according to the messages. He then mentioned the names of two girls repeatedly featured on the former tax collector’s Venmo transactions, which ABC News has reviewed.
“I think it would be a wise investment of time. You might already know Jason Pirrazolo … but I’d like for you to meet Congressman Matt Gaetz,” Greenberg wrote. “Gaetz is a wild man, but great dude.”
Greenberg said in the message that the party would have “6-7 chicks” and “just 3-4 guys.” He then provided directions to Pirrazolo’s house, adding, “It’s our safe place, all things considered.”
A few days after the date of the July gathering, the entrepreneur posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to come from a separate get-together and includes the two young women Greenberg had mentioned in his private messages. ABC News is withholding the names of the two women for privacy purposes.
It’s not immediately certain if the gatherings Greenberg was working to arrange in July and September of 2018, over the private messages reviewed by ABC News, ultimately took place around those specific dates. Greenberg had arranged similar gatherings at hotels in the Central Florida area and at friends’ houses, including Pirozzolo’s, with the congressman in attendance, multiple sources who attended the gatherings in the past told ABC News.
Contacted by ABC News, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, said, “The only comment I can make is Joel Greenberg has executed a plea agreement with the government and will continue to honor his obligations pursuant to that agreement.”
Pirozzolo’s attorney, David Haas, declined to comment when reached by ABC News, citing the ongoing investigation.
Last month, a judge granted a request by Greenberg to delay his sentencing for three months, citing the breadth of his continued cooperation with federal prosecutors.
“Mr. Greenberg has been cooperating with the Government and has participated in a series of proffers,” Scheller wrote in a filing requesting the delay. “Said cooperation, which could impact his ultimate sentence, cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing.”
Prosecutors did not oppose the delay and a judge approved it a day later.
While Gaetz has appeared to distance himself from Greenberg since news broke regarding the investigation, he previously described Greenberg to acquaintances as his “wingman” and also publicly floated the former tax collector as a potential congressional candidate.
“Joel Greenberg has gone into the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office, he’s taken it by storm,” Gaetz said in a radio interview on WFLA in June 2017, in which he pushed Greenberg to run for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
“He’s been a disrupter,” Gaetz said of Greenberg. “And if you look at what people want in the country right now, they want that disrupter. And they want someone who is not going to adhere to the dogma that has strangled progress in Washington, D.C., for a generation.”
(NEW YORK) — Eight months after Iran banned imports of any vaccines developed in the United States or the United Kingdom, the country is in the grips of its deadliest coronavirus surge yet, prompting criticism of the government for prioritizing politics over public health.
Over the past week, a daily average of 493 people died from COVID-19, according to official statistics, a deadlier toll than the country experienced even during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, during which the country was badly hit. To date, the country has recorded over 4.2 million cases of coronavirus, with 95,647 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
After a surge in April this year, the country experienced a sharp decline in cases, but since July the numbers have been headed in the wrong direction. According to Our World in Data, only 11.2% of Iranians have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and only 3.3% have been fully vaccinated, mostly with China’s Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, which have been sent as part of humanitarian aids from Japan and other countries, as well as the domestically developed COVIran Barekat, which has not been recognized by international health bodies.
In January, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines made in the U.S. and U.K. Khamenei claimed that Americans wanted to “test the vaccines on other nations,” without providing any evidence or reasons to back up his claim.
However, in a televised speech on Wednesday, with the country now experiencing a fifth wave coronavirus infections, Khamenei indicated a potential change in heart with the onset of the more transmissible delta variant.
“Corona vaccines must be accessible for all people from any possible way, be it domestic production or through importing,” he said. “As the disease or the enemy takes on a new form, so should our defense.”
Disappointed by the response of their own officials, many Iranians have criticized the government on social media. Users have posted tweets, photos and videos to document the situation in hospitals across the country, using the hashtag #SOSIran. Users ask the international community to pay attention to the situation in Iran and address the Islamic Republic officials to stop the ban on importing vaccines.
“It was an ideological approach to a health issue from the beginning,” Sarvenaz, an Iranian psychiatrist whose full name cannot be published for security reasons, told ABC News. “It was a gesture to show that the Islamic Republic won’t import medical products from a country it has been calling the Great Satan and its biggest enemy. But it has cost thousands of lives.”
In the past, regime officials have attributed the shortage of medicines and supplies in the country to international sanctions, but now the ire of Iranians has turned to the government, with the ban on importing effective vaccines taking that excuse away.
With the delta variant of the coronavirus ravaging the country, graveyards, as well as hospitals, are struggling to deal with the surge.
In the holy city of Mashhad, the officials at city cemeteries have asked for taxi drivers to allow their cars to be used as hearses as the city has run out of enough hearses to carry dead bodies, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency reported on Wednesday.
On the ground, medical professionals have warned that hospitals are struggling to deal with the surge, even as vaccination rates remain low.
Dr. Morteza Gharibi, head of the emergency unit of Iran’s University of Medical Sciences in Markazi Province, told ABC News that that the hospital is running out of basic medication, and expects the death toll to climb even higher.
“Even if the vaccination gets accelerated — which I do not think [will] happen — it takes at least three weeks for the first shot to produce antibodies. It is already too late for that in this spike,” he explained.
“I foresee an estimation of around 1,200 daily COVID death cases in about three weeks in the country,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Houston 5, Colorado 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Minnesota 1, Chi White Sox 0
NY Yankees 5, Kansas City 2
Detroit 5, Baltimore 2
Oakland 6, Cleveland 3
Boston 20, Tampa Bay 8
Toronto 10, LA Angels 2
Seattle 2, Texas 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Miami 7, San Diego 0
NY Mets 8 Washington 7
St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 0
LA Dodgers 8, Philadelphia 2
Milwaukee 10, Chi Cubs 0
Atlanta 8, Cincinnati 6
San Francisco 7, Arizona 2
Journey’s Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon & Arnel Pineda; Courtesy of Journey
In June, Journeyreleased a new single called “The Way We Used to Be” that will part of the band’s forthcoming studio album, which will be the group’s first collection of new, original songs since 2011’s Eclipse.
Journey guitarist Neal Schon tells ABC Audio that “The Way We Used to Be” began as a musical idea he came up with using a keyboard loop, to which he then added guitar, bass and string sounds before sending it to the band’s longtime keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, for him to fill out with lyrics and melodies.
Schon admits that when he first sent the tune to Cain, he didn’t think it sounded like a Journey song.
“I thought it was more like…a Bad English song or something for John Waite or Rolling Stones with a little harder edge,” Neal explains. “And I’m glad that 90 percent of the people that have heard it love it. Some others are just going, ‘Wow, that doesn’t sound like Journey.’ And I go, ‘Well, it wasn’t meant to be’…but it ended up on our album.”
Speaking about the band’s studio effort, Schon says, “There’s so much great material on this album that we’ve…produced and I’ve been working on for well over a year now with everybody.”
Neal tells ABC Audio that it was “a blessing” for him to get to record a lot of his parts live in the studio with Journey’s new drummer, Narada Michael Walden, who also is producing the album, while the other band members generally laid down there parts remotely.
As for when the new album might be released, Schon reports, “It could come out at the end of this year, or, if it doesn’t, I believe that it will come out sometime after the first [of January].”
Brie Larson reprises her role as Captain Marvel in the upcoming MCU film The Marvels, and she recently offered an update on her character — or at least what she’s allowed to tells us.
“Gosh, so much going on, a lot of really juicy things happening that I cannot say a word about,” the 31-year-old actress teased on SirusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “But, boy oh boy, is it good. And you’re going to be very excited about it.”
Larson also praised the film’s “amazing” and “awesome” director, Nia DaCosta.
“She just came in, was ready, had such an incredible take on this story and on this film,” Brie went on to explain. “And I’m so happy that she’s guiding this. I’m thrilled.”
The Marvels, the sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, is set to open November 11, 2022.
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Bleachers has premiered a live video for “What’d I Do with All This Faith?”, a track off the Jack Antonoff-led band’s new album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
The clip finds Antonoff and company performing atop the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with a special appearance by St. Vincent providing guest vocals. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
Bleachers has also shared a Electric Lady rooftop performance video for another Saturday Night song, “Big Life.”
Electric Lady, it seems, has become Antonoff’s favorite performance venue of late. He previously joined Lorde there for rooftop renditions of her new singles “Solar Power” and “Stoned at the Nail Salon.”
Bleachers released Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night in July. The album also features the single “Stop Making This Hurt,” as well as collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Bruce Springsteen.
Meanwhile, Antonoff has also announced that he’s “working with the promoters and venues” to install a COVID-19 vaccine or negative test requirement for the upcoming Bleachers tour.
“We’re not messing around,” Antonoff says. “Every show will be as safe as possible without any weirdo bulls***.”
All Good Things‘ single “For the Glory” is certainly living up to its name.
The band’s breakout track, which features Hollywood Undead‘s Johnny 3 Tears and Charlie Scene, has hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“For the Glory” gives All Good Things their first-ever number-one single. It’s also the highest either Hollywood Undead member has charted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay ranking.
Interestingly, All Good Things is the fourth act to earn their first Mainstream Rock chart-topper in 2021. This year has also seen Mammoth WVH, Ayron Jones and, surprisingly, Rise Against conquer the ranking for the first time with “Distance,” “Mercy” and “Nowhere Generation,” respectively.
“For the Glory” will appear on All Good Things’ upcoming album A Hope in Hell, due out August 20. The record also includes the single “The Comeback,” featuring Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate.
Marlon Wayans says he wanted to give Aretha Franklin‘s first husband and manager Ted White a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T when he channeled him in the new biographical drama, Respect. Unfortunately for the actor, that wasn’t an easy task.
“It was funny because I couldn’t really get anything out of anybody about Ted,” Wayans tells ABC Audio. “They said he was a really nice dresser. They said he was stroppy. They said he was charming, but…that there was a bad guy in there.”
Wayans says before he decided to take his own “creative license” to portray the accomplished songwriter, he first tried to “reach out to Ted” to get his perspective — “but Ted didn’t want to talk.”
“So, I…based [Ted] on a minute-and-a-half interview I saw with him and Aretha,” Wayans says. “And from there, I started thinking about the psychology of a guy like Ted, because as much of a devil [that] he was, there was something angelic about him. And so I focused in on not him being all good or all bad, but sometimes he couldn’t keep his bad under control.”
To that end, Wayans says he formed a back story for White that helped explain his harsh behavior.
“And I focused on him maybe having… mommy issues and a lack of appreciation for women,” he shares. “And…even pimps and guys like that, they’re not bad people. They’re hurt people.”
Wayans continues, “Damaged people damage people. And so I wanted to protect that little nugget of innocence in him, because I think in order to make a great bad guy — you’ve got to love him and you got to hate them.”
Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul, hits theaters Friday.
The first-look teaser for Denzel Washington’s romantic drama, A Journal for Jordan, has been released.
Directed by Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan, the film is based on Dana Canedy’s New York Times best-selling memoir of the same name. It’s inspired by Canedy’s love affair with First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, who was killed in 2006 in Iraq when his son, Jordan, was just seven months old. The story centers on the journal King left behind for his son, filled with important life lessons. As previously reported, A Journal for Jordan will play in limited release on December 10 in New York and LA and then go to wide theatrical release on December 22.
In other news, Netflix has set a November 10 release date for Rebecca Hall‘s directorial debut, Passing. Based on Nella Larsen‘s 1929 novella of the same name, the film follows two mixed-race women who reunite in their adulthood and discover that one of them is now passing for a white woman. As previously reported, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga will play the two childhood friends.
Finally, a trailer for Issa Rae‘s Sweet Life: Los Angeles has been released. Described as a mix between MTV’s The Hills and BET’s Baldwin Hills, the new series follows a group of longtime friends from South LA who are “finally seeing the fruits of their labor.” Sweet Life: Los Angeles premieres on Thursday, August 19, with its first three episodes.
