Ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford has just released an archival album called For All the Money in the World that he recorded in 1986 with then-Greg Kihn Band bassist/songwriter Steve Wright, who died in 2017.
Clifford tells ABC Audio that the project came about when Wright, who grew up in the same town, El Cerrito, California, looked him up and suggested they write together.
“[I]t was very easy and very productive, so we kept doing that,” Clifford recalls. “And then we decided…we’ve got material and have a formula for having more material and it’d be nice to have a band to put it out there.”
Cosmo says they enlisted various Bay Area musicians for the sessions, many of whom also played with the Greg Kihn Band around that time, including guitarists Joe Satriani, Greg Douglass and Jimmy Lyon, and keyboardist Pat Mosca.
Rounding things out was a talented singer named Keith England whom, Clifford notes, had “a great rock ‘n’ roll voice.”
For All the Money in the World is an 11-track collection that offers a mix of catchy pop and rock songs.
Clifford says he loves the title track because it features a shuffle beat, noting, “Shuffles are just…fun. You can’t help but move to a shuffle.”
Cosmo also reveals that he sent the album to Steve Miller, who singled out the driving rock tune “She Told Me So” as his favorite.
Clifford says Miller told him, “[Y]ou guys ripped the roof off the barn with [that song].'”
According to Cosmo, Clifford/Wright “had the components of…something pretty special,” but the album was shelved when Wright’s lack of interest in playing clubs brought the project “to a close.”
Thirty-five years later, the album finally has been released.
Bachelor super-fan Lance Bass takes over guest hosting duties tonight onBachelor in Paradise and while he loves the entire franchise, he tells ABC Audio that Paradise is his absolute favorite version.
“Paradise, to me, I just feel is the better chance of people finding love,” he explains.
“When you have multiple people as an option to fall in love with, it’s just way more fun to watch… as opposed to when you watch The Bachelor and you just have one person vying for 30 people,” Bass adds. “It just causes a lot more drama. Of course, we’re in it for the drama. Let’s be real.”
Speaking of drama, the pop singer was also fascinated by how real it all was. Sharing that he had a TV in his dressing room and could “watch every conversation,” Bass says, “…it is amazing how real this can get in such a short amount of time, especially when you’re there just focused on finding love and no outside world. It’s the craziest speed dating on Earth.”
Another thing that took the boy bander by surprise — the heat in Mexico, which, for him, does not create a great environment for romance.
“…there’s like sweating and just like wait do I smell. And when I’m hot, the last thing I want to think about is kissing someone or having sex, like I just want to be like, no, don’t touch me, don’t touch me,” he says with a laugh.
Though the heat was tough, the most difficult thing for Bass was learning everyone’s names.
Sharingthat he had 20 minutes to pair the names and faces, he reveals, “… that was definitely the hardest part, was keeping all the names together and which ones were coupled up, and which ones were fighting.”
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Betty White is the last woman standing.
Ed Asner, who along with White was one of two living main cast members of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at age 91, according to his verified Twitter account. “We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully,” read the tweet. “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”
The Emmy-winning Asner portrayed Mary Richards’ tough boss Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and in the hour-long spinoff drama Lou Grant. He was the only actor to win Emmys for playing the same character in both a comedy and drama.
While he’s best-known for playing Grant, Asner also won Emmys for his roles in the hit TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots, bringing his career Emmy total to seven.
The series Lou Grant took on social issues, as Asner did in his personal life and as president of the Screen Actor’s Guild. However, his activism didn’t always sit well with network executives or advertisers. When CBS abruptly canceled Lou Grant while it was still a top-10 show, Asner believed that it was due to his left-wing political views.
According to Variety, Asner defended his political activism throughout his life, calling it “not a luxury, but a necessity.”
After MTM and Lou Grant ended, Asner continued to work in movies and on TV, most recently appearing on Grace & Frankie, Cobra Kai, Dead to Me, Modern Family and Blue Bloods. In addition, he had a successful career providing voiceovers for animated movies like Up, in which he played the lead role of Carl Fredricksen. Among the animated TV shows he lent his voice to: King of the Hill, American Dad, SpongeBob SquarePants, Central Park and many more.
Asner, whose two marriages ended in divorce, is survived by four children.
(NEW YORK) — As many parents wait for COVID-19 vaccines to be authorized for children younger than 12, doctors increasingly are alarmed at the rising number of kids who are missing routine vaccinations — a trend that’s had a domino effect from last year, when so many families were confined to their homes.
Now, a new analysis finds that to catch up, community health centers may need to increase the number of childhood vaccinations by 265% — and maintain that pace for at least six months.
“The decline in routine pediatric immunizations is very concerning because measles, pertussis and chickenpox still remain threats to child health,” said Dr. Josh Sharfstein, a pediatrician and vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
With in-person schooling restarting this fall, a growing chorus of doctors is now urging parents to make sure their children receive their routine pediatric vaccinations, which run along a specific schedule. For example, babies are supposed to get their measles, mumps, rubella vaccination near their first birthday. By age 11, it’s time to be vaccinated against human papilloma virus.
But with so many children missing these routine immunizations, doctors are now warning of a potentially sharp uptick in vaccine-preventable diseases, which may coincide with a potentially difficult flu season if children also are receiving fewer flu shots.
“We now face the double challenge of keeping children safe from the delta variant and making sure they’re not falling ill from other preventable diseases as they return to in-person schooling,” Sharfstein said. “The next year will be an immense challenge for parents, pediatricians, teachers and school administrators to protect children.”
HealthEfficient, a not-for-profit organization in New York that supports community health centers nationwide, has been tracking childhood immunization rates since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Our data shows a substantial and persistent drop in the number of childhood immunizations occurring over the last two years,” Alan Mitchell, the group’s executive director, told ABC News. “The numbers in 2021 are in some cases even lower than 2020, and 2020 already represented a large drop-off from 2019.”
Analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of high-performing immunization information systems from 10 jurisdictions in the U.S. showed that administered doses of routine childhood and adolescent vaccines were substantially lower from March to May 2020 compared with that same time period in 2018 and 2019.
A study conducted by a team at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington found a similar drop-off in vaccination rates throughout the world, with the most significant decrease seen in April 2020. Data from the World Health Organization and UNICEF shows that at least 23 million children missed routine vaccinations in 2020 because of the disruption in health services.
“Any time there is a decrease in vaccination rates, this lowers herd immunity and increases the potential for an outbreak, as we saw for measles in Minnesota in 2017 and in New York in 2018-2019,” said Dr. Keila Lopez, an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine/ Texas Children’s Hospital.
“These declining immunization rates risk reversing years of gains via public health efforts to improve pediatric immunization trends,” Mitchell said. “In our view, a sustained, coordinated public health initiative is needed to drive these rates back up to pre-pandemic levels.”
Experts recommend restoring vaccination services and campaigns, helping health care workers and community leaders educate the public about the importance of vaccinations, identifying and rectifying vaccination gaps in individual communities, making sure COVID-19 vaccinations don’t affect the routine childhood vaccination drive, and implementing plans to prevent and respond to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
The impact of the pandemic can be felt as a ripple through other serious conditions that make catching up even more critical.
Health care providers and schools should assess the vaccination status of all pediatric patients, including adolescents, and contact those who are behind schedule to ensure all children are fully vaccinated, experts told ABC News. Furthermore, more public health campaigns to combat misinformation and reinforce the overwhelming value of vaccines also could help, and community health centers have a critical role to play.
“Based on the current delta surge impacting higher numbers of children, school reopening’s with varied public health practices and more frequent quarantines,” Lopez said, “I fear that routine and flu vaccine acquisition will fall even lower this season.”
Tushar Garg, M.D., an incoming postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit. Jay Bhatt, D.O., an internist and adjunct faculty at the UIC School of Public Health, is an ABC News contributor.
(WASHINGTON) — Imagine buying a new car, at your home computer, in 19 minutes. That’s what MINI, the funky British marque, says is now possible.
The brand recently introduced MINI Anywhere, a pilot program in California where MINI enthusiasts can choose their vehicle, apply for financing and sign all necessary paperwork in under 30 minutes. The majority of credit applications are approved instantly, according to MINI executive Patrick McKenna.
MINI Anywhere is headed next to Florida and Texas and a nationwide rollout to MINI’s 115 dealers is planned by year-end.
“This definitely is the future,” McKenna, who oversees MINI’s marketing and product teams, told ABC News. “We’re making dealers digitally savvy in the marketplace.”
The program was designed to make the car buying process easy: Shoppers can see what the car looks like in their driveway or parking garage via augmented reality. Virtual test-drives and walk-arounds are possible too, said McKenna, who helped spearhead the program last July.
Plus, buying a car with a few clicks of a button is not too different from shopping for groceries on Amazon, McKenna noted.
“The younger generation is fine doing a transaction online without driving a car,” he said.
Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, said many consumers would be happy to eliminate the dealership experience — the haggling, the long hours — entirely. The pandemic forced shoppers to be independent and choose vehicles without sales assistance, a scenario that has been largely positive and beneficial, he said.
“We have a new awareness of how much easier it can be to buy a car online with minimal to no physical requirement to visit a dealership,” he told ABC News. “Digital options existed for years. Automakers were ready. The pandemic pushed it along.”
There are drawbacks, of course. Higher prices. Zero negotiating. The inability to see or touch the new vehicle in person. Even impulsive decisions.
“You could end up with buyer’s remorse,” Brauer explained. “Car purchases can be highly emotional and it’s not wise to make a big financial decision based on emotion.”
McKenna acknowledged MINI Anywhere may not be the cheapest way to buy a car. The program could also potentially impact MINI’s sales associates, or “motoring advisers” in MINI speak. But dealers can “reinvent” the delivery, he said.
“They have a chance to build [a customer] relationship by making it a personal, exciting delivery — a ‘wow’ experience,” he explained.
Carvana, an online dealer for used cars, has sold more than 750,000 vehicles since its launch in January 2013. Last quarter it moved 107,815 retail units, an increase of 96% year-over-year. Second-quarter revenue topped $3.3 billion, a rise of 198% YoY.
“For most customers, buying a car online is simpler and a better experience,” Eric Garcia, CEO of Carvana, told ABC News. “The biggest hurdle for online is establishing trust.”
Carvana gives customers seven days to return a vehicle if they’re not completely satisfied. The return rate is the mid- to high-single digits and more than half of returns are swapped for another vehicle, Garcia noted.
“We found undoubtedly that customers are ready and willing to buy cars this way,” he said. “That’s what’s driven our growth year after year. COVID accelerated people’s willingness to try new experiences.”
And the test-drive that’s missing when buying a vehicle online? Not a huge factor in the buying decision, according to Garcia.
“Consumers don’t even know what they are trying to learn in a test-drive,” he said. “People don’t have a great sense of how cars feel differently. Consumers are looking for a deal, a good price and a seamless experience.”
Lincoln, like MINI, has been vocal about sending consumers online to buy its SUVs. Not every automaker though is ready for the digital shift. Genesis, the 6-year-old Korean luxury brand from Hyundai, has been ramping up its dealership presence in the U.S., building new “permanent residences” in various U.S. cities and markets to boost sales.
“Many people still want to go into a dealership and compare vehicles and test-drive them and shop at their convenience,” Tedros Mengiste, executive director of sales operations at Genesis North America, told ABC News. “You can’t buy a [Genesis] car online yet but can send exact specifications to a dealer.”
Mark Takahashi, senior reviews editor at Edmunds, has not heard of any online car buying horror stories. Going to a dealership can be “an ordeal,” he argued, adding, “There really aren’t any disadvantages to buying online.”
“Dealers are trying to do better … but it’s still unknown if the dealer model will survive,” he told ABC News. “I don’t think shoppers are going back to dealerships 100%.”
Brands that tout their personalized service and intricate customizations can also move the entire process online, Takahashi said.
“This model can apply to every automaker,” he said. “Online shopping is getting more ubiquitous and consumers are trusting it a lot more for larger purchases. But there will always be holdouts who want to see the car and samples in person.”
MINI of San Diego formally launched the MINI Anywhere program on Monday after a “dress rehearsal” and is busy notifying current clients about the online tool. So far one customer has purchased a MINI online with the help of Lisa Mitchell, the dealership’s finance director.
“We did it together [on Zoom] and it took about 45 minutes,” she told ABC News. “We’re letting guests be more empowered now — they get to do it their way. I am excited.”
Whether it’s via a computer screen or in person, Brauer applauds the moves automakers are implementing to improve the shopping experience.
“Buying a car should be one of the most enjoyable things you do,” he said.
(New York) — Bombings, death, and uncertainty — life in Afghanistan has become a nightmare for many Afghans looking to escape the country they call home.
Waheed Arian, a doctor and ex-refugee from Afghanistan, was born into war in 1983. He told ABC News that he didn’t know what “normal” life was as a child — and says he became numb to the daily rockets and bombs during the Soviet-Afghan war.
When he returned to Afghanistan, the civil war broke out in the early 1990s, bringing back harsh memories of his childhood.
“I became detached from reality,” said Arian, who now lives in the U.K. “I lost my appetite. I couldn’t sleep well and, on reflection, they were the signs of depression.”
The recent unrest back in Afghanistan has left many refugees and immigrants like Arian across the globe shaken, as they relive trauma from past violence in the country and experience renewed terror in the present.
Nightmares, stress and sweats continue to plague Arian, as he perpetually awaits news that his family is safe back home.
An explosion near Kabul Airport on Thursday left at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members dead. Terrorist group ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the bombing, which injured hundreds more.
However, since the Taliban seized the Afghan capital of Kabul on Aug. 14, tens of thousands of people have fled the country. U.S. troops and other Americans in the country are continuing to withdraw as the Aug. 31 deadline appears.
Living in a war zone can have severe, long-term impact on civilians’ mental health, experts say.
“Everyone [in Afghanistan] is exposed to chronic fear and chronic vulnerability and deprivation,” said Kenneth Miller, psychologist and researcher at the advocacy organization War Child Holland. “It keeps people in a state of high alert perpetually. That wears down our bodies, our minds, and it leaves us vulnerable to getting sick and developing anxiety disorders and depression.”
Mashal Rahmati, a Hazara-Afghan immigrant in the U.S., said her family and friends back home live in constant fear. Rahmati said they can’t sleep — worried about rumors of random home searches and memories of past attacks on Hazara people.
“It’s incredibly re-traumatizing to the degree that I don’t think anyone really quite could understand,” Rahmati said. “For a lot of Afghans, this is the apocalypse. Our world has ended. Every single Afghan family knows someone killed by the Taliban.”
Arian said that as a young adult, amid the civil war, he was given sedatives to treat his mental health issues, but said he had to stop taking them: “I couldn’t be sleepy — I had to be on my feet. I had to be alert.”
According to UNHCR, the Taliban’s takeover has caused up to 515,000 new refugees to flee, citing the Taliban’s history of brutal punishments, oppressive treatment of women and potential for retaliation against U.S and Afghan government allies.
Afghans comprise the largest refugee population in Asia and the second-largest refugee population in the world, UNHCR reports.
Left untreated, these mental health conditions can have many long-term effects, according to Miller, like the deterioration of one’s physical health, violence against others, inability to work, focus or eat, and more.
But the issue of mental health isn’t over once refugees have been settled, researchers say.
Refugees and immigrants have to abandon their belongings, their livelihoods, and their home countries. As thousands are scrambling to leave the country, many refugees and immigrants say they wish they did not have to leave.
“The people that live in Afghanistan love their country — they want to see Afghanistan prosper,” Rahmati said. “For the past 40 years, they’ve dedicated their blood, sweat and tears into building the country with international support … but right now it’s life or death for them.”
Resettlement efforts are just as important in mitigating mental health issues, Pieter Ventevogel, senior mental health and psychosocial support officer at UNCHR, told ABC News.
Refugees are often faced with stressors like “prolonged detention, insecure immigration status,” unemployment, poor housing, language barriers and isolation, the American Psychiatric Association reports, which can worsen or cause mental health issues.
Refugee camps aren’t always safe either — as a refugee in Pakistan, Arian was living in a tent with his family — where illnesses spread quickly and he fell ill with tuberculosis.
Compounded with xenophobia and Islamophobia, refugees face many barriers to success.
Refugee children, in particular, are at a high risk of developing “psychological disturbances,” experiencing constant instability and danger from a war zone to their new country, according to research from the University of Oxford.
Ventevogel said its up to resettlement services and agencies to make sure refugees have culturally competent and accessible health services. Mental health care and mental illness is stigmatized in some cultures, he said, and these services have to account for hesitation or resistance.
“It is much easier for an Afghan woman to go somewhere to talk and have tea with another woman rather than to be referred to mental health specialists in a hospital,” Ventevogel said. “Providing counseling in logical places of access, ideally with people who understand their culture and background and know the language.”
Ventevogel said refugees aren’t always set up with jobs, secure housing or language learning services — but these kinds of services can help them build stability in their new life, in their new country.
“The most important things are to give people the chance to develop their life as much as possible in the way they would like, a feeling of autonomy,” Ventevogel said.
Rahmati adds that international crisis lines, with multiple languages available, is also a lacking yet important resource.
For now, Afghans around the world are left awaiting solutions to the ongoing chaos.
“We feel like the world is silent,” Rahmati said. “These are not just anonymous crowds, these are our family members.”
(WASHINGTON) — With fewer than 4 in 10 Americans approving of President Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, there is overwhelming bipartisan support for keeping U.S. troops in the country until all Americans and Afghans who aided the United States during the 20-year war have been evacuated, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.
Although President Joe Biden has held firm that all U.S. troops must be out of the country by Tuesday, regardless of whether the evacuation mission at hand is complete, Americans broadly disagree, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel and all interviews were completed after the terrorist attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that left at least 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans dead. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack, which an affiliate of the Islamic State, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for.
More than 8 in 10 (84%) Americans think U.S. troops should remain in the country until all Americans are evacuated, and just over 7 in 10 (71%) think they should stay until all Afghans who helped the United States are evacuated as well.
Breaking from the typical polarization that characterizes public attitudes, support for U.S. troops staying is strikingly consistent across party lines. Among Republicans, Democrats and independents, overwhelming majorities — 87%, 86% and 86%, respectively — believe U.S. troops should not leave until all Americans are out of Afghanistan. The partisan gap is also negligible for keeping troops in Afghanistan until all Afghans who aided the United States are evacuated, with 77% of Republicans, 72% of Democrats and 70% of independents saying troops should stay until that happens.
Speaking about the attack Thursday, Biden said the mission’s danger is why he’s “been so determined to limit the duration” of it.
“The sooner we can finish the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops,” the president said Tuesday, two days before the suicide bombing. “Every day we’re on the ground, is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians.”
In a statement Saturday afternoon following a meeting with his national security team, Biden said U.S. troops are continuing to evacuate civilians amid “extremely dangerous conditions,” warning that another attack is “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.” Earlier Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued an alert similar to the one issued roughly 14 hours before Thursday’s terrorist attack warning of security threats at the airport, telling all U.S. citizens to avoid the area or “leave immediately” if at the gates. In the evening, the U.S. embassy issued an updated warning of a “specific, credible threat” at the airport.
Fewer than 4 in 10 (38%) Americans approve of the president’s handling of Afghanistan — 17 points lower than the share who said they approved of Biden’s handling of the U.S. troop withdrawal in a July 23-24 ABC News/Ipsos poll.
While Sunday’s ABC News/Ipsos did not measure Biden’s overall approval, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker averaging presidential approval polls showed his approve-disapprove ratings were even for the first time during his term, converging at 47%-47% as of Friday.
But the public’s disapproval of his handling of Afghanistan has not influenced their views on other issues, according to the new ABC News/Ipsos poll. A strong majority (64%) approve of how Biden is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, which is virtually identical to the findings in July’s ABC News/Ipsos poll. Biden also enjoys high approval (62%) for his handling of rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.
A majority (55%) of the American public also approves of his handling of the economic recovery; 53% approved in July’s poll. About 4 in 10 (41%) approve of his handling of immigration and the situation at the southern border, compared to 37% last month.
On his handling of gun violence and crime, issues that track closely with one another, about half of Americans disapprove — 52% and 50%, respectively. But this actually represents an improvement since July, when 61% of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of gun violence and 58% disapproved of his handling of crime, according to the July ABC News/Ipsos poll.
For each issue, at least two-thirds of Democrats approve of how Biden is handling them. His highest approval ratings among his own party are for his handling of COVID-19 (91%), infrastructure (91%) and the economic recovery (89%), and his lowest approval ratings — each at 67% — are for his handling of the border, gun violence and Afghanistan.
Among the key group of independents, approval ratings track closely with the results among the public overall for each issue.
Fewer than a third of Republicans approve of Biden’s handling of each issue, but he gets the highest marks for his handling of the pandemic response (32%). On his handling of Afghanistan, only 1 in 10 (11%) Republicans approve, his lowest mark of the issues polled.
While two-thirds (67%) of Americans are at least somewhat worried about a major terrorist attack in the United States, Republicans are more likely to be concerned than Democrats and independents, 80% compared to 59% and 65%, respectively.
But even after the deadly terrorist attack in Kabul, the public has a lower level of concern for a major terrorist attack at home than during other times in recent years when it was measured by ABC News/Washington Post polls. In October 2014, about 7 in 10 (71%) of Americans were worried about an attack in the United States; in January 2015, about three-quarters were worried; and in September 2016, the last time this question was asked in ABC News polling, nearly 8 in 10 (78%) were worried.
A majority (56%) of Americans also feel that the end of the United States’ military presence in Afghanistan makes no difference in how safe the nation is from terrorism. Over a third (36%) feel this makes the United States less safe from terrorism, but again, Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to think it makes America less safe, 59% compared to 21% and 36%.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® Aug. 27-28, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 513 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.9 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31%-24%-36%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
ABC News’ Dan Merkle and Ken Goldstein contributed to this report.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music Group
Kanye West’s long-awaited album Donda has finally arrived.
The album hit streaming services Sunday morning following three listening events over the past month — the latest one taking place Thursday in Kanye’s hometown of Chicago.
Donda, named for Kanye’s mother who passed away in 2007, was initially supposed to be released July 23.
(WASHINGTON) — Public health officials are sticking with the recommendation that people get booster shots eight months after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but that could change based on reviewing the data, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.
“We’re still sticking with the eight months,” the chief medical adviser for the White House told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “However, as we’ve said, even in the original statement that came out, we’re gonna have to go through the standard way of the (Food and Drug Administration) looking at the data and then the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. So although we’re sticking with eight, we’re remaining flexible, that if the data tells us differently, we’ll make adjustments accordingly. But for now, we’re sticking with the eight.”
As the U.S. prepares a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot program, President Joe Biden said on Friday that the administration is considering whether booster shots should be given as early as five months after vaccination. Biden was meeting with the Israeli prime minister and credited his advice that the U.S. should start earlier.
The new daily COVID-19 case average in the U.S. has risen to 142,000, and is 130,000 daily cases higher than the average was about two months ago, as of Thursday. The U.S. has also continued to experience its steepest rise in COVID-19 related hospitalizations since the winter of 2020, with more than 101,000 patients hospitalized across the country with COVID-19. This marked the highest number of patients hospitalized with the virus in seven months.
Pediatric hospital admissions for children under 18 with COVID-19 were also up by 514% since July Fourth, as of Friday.
Regarding when children under 12 will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Fauci said that the FDA should be examining the data toward the middle or end of September.
“Hopefully we’ll be acting quickly, depending on the data, and their assessment of the risk-benefit ratio,” Fauci said.
But the nation’s top infectious disease doctor also emphasized that there are other ways to protect unvaccinated children as they head back to school amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant of the virus.
“You can protect children who can’t get vaccinated because of their age. Yes, we can protect them by surrounding them with a community of people who are vaccinated. That’s how you protect children. And you also do it by complying with the CDC guidance about masking, particularly masking in school, even though you have vaccinated teachers and vaccinated personnel. You want to give that extra, added level of protection for the children.”
Fauci also addressed an unclassified report released on Friday by the intelligence community that did not come to any definitive conclusion over the origins of the coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China. The agencies that worked on the report wrote that two hypotheses are still possible: “natural exposure to an infected animal” or “a laboratory-associated incident.”
When asked if the origins will ever be known, Fauci said, “You know, I hope so … because it will help us to avoid this in the future. But we will need the cooperation of Chinese scientists and Chinese public health officials, if we’re gonna do the proper surveillance serologically of people who were infected in China, as well as the animals; being able to asses whether or not animals had viruses that are closely related to SARS-COV-2. We’ll need to do that in China with the cooperation of the Chinese,” Fauci said.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., accused President Joe Biden and his administration for painting a rosier picture of the Afghanistan evacuations as the Aug. 31 U.S. troop withdrawal looms.
“There is clearly no plan. There has been no plan. Their plan has basically been happy talk,” Sasse told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
In an earlier interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Raddatz pressed the secretary about the United States’ ability to get the remaining U.S. citizens and Afghan allies out of the country once all U.S. troops where out of Afghanistan.
Blinken pointed to private and public assurances from Taliban leadership to allow free travel after America’s departure to anyone who wishes to leave the country. Sasse called the interview “disgusting” and he said the thinking that the U.S. should trust the Taliban is “stupid” and “insane.”
“And their plan still seems to be, ‘let’s rely on the Taliban’ because the Taliban cares a lot about what world opinion thinks of them — it was a disgusting revelation of yet again no plan,” Sasse added.
The senator, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been critical of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan since the final months of the Trump administration.
“I fear this weak retreat is not grounded in reality and will make the world a more dangerous place,” Sasse said in a statement in November 2020.
In the last few days, Sasse has repeatedly urged Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan past Tuesday’s deadline to ensure that every U.S citizen and ally who wants to leave the country is safely evacuated.
Raddatz asked the senator Sunday what he thinks should be done to continue evacuations.
“There are some small ways to try to do things around the margins. But what we need is a commander in chief that actually has a big plan and a big way to solve this problem,” Sasse responded, accusing Biden of being “disconnected from reality.”
Sasse continued to hammer the “happy talk” he claimed is being used by Biden and that he said won’t resolve the growing terror threat in Afghanistan.
“The consequences are going to be a return of the Taliban that has been willing to provide safe haven to terrorists in the past,” Sasse added. “We have so many different groups who want to turn Afghanistan into the global capital city of jihad, and the administration doesn’t have a plan.”
Raddatz asked Sasse whether his plea to keep more U.S. forces in Afghanistan past the Tuesday deadline would put them at risk.
“Given that the Taliban said this date was a red line, given that ISIS is now carrying out these horrendous bombings and threatening more violence, wouldn’t staying have put our forces more at risk?” Raddatz asked.
“Joe Biden put our forces at risk by having no plan for how to evacuate. We are absolutely at risk,” Sasse responded.
“Abandoning Bagram base will be read about in military textbooks for decades as one of the stupidest military blunders ever,” Sasse continued, adding that the rapid reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has left a “ridiculously untenable position” for evacuations.
“Thirteen servicemen and women died this week, and our families across this country are in prayer for those families and for the ultimate sacrifice they have made, but they were doing something to make sure that no one was left behind,” Sasse said.
