Tag Archives: us federal departments and agencies

US

Exclusive: Mark Meadows complied with DOJ subpoena in January 6 probe

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has complied with a subpoena from the Justice Department’s investigation into events surrounding January 6, 2021, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, making him the highest-ranking Trump official known to have responded to a subpoena in the federal investigation.

Meadows turned over the same materials he provided to the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack, one source said, meeting the obligations of the Justice Department subpoena, which has not been previously reported.

Last year, Meadows turned over thousands of text messages and emails to the House committee, before he stopped cooperating. The texts he handed over between Election Day 2020 and Joe Biden’s inauguration, which CNN previously obtained, provided a window into his dealings at the White House, though he withheld hundreds of messages, citing executive privilege.

Lawyer explains the DOJ subpoena ‘blitzkrieg’ ahead of midterm elections

In addition to Trump’s former chief of staff, one of Meadows’ top deputies in the White House, Ben Williamson, also recently received a grand jury subpoena, another source familiar with the matter tells CNN. That subpoena was similar to what others in Trump’s orbit received. It asked for testimony and records relating to January 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Williamson previously cooperated with the January 6 committee. He declined to comment to CNN.

Meadows’ compliance with the subpoena comes as the Justice Department has ramped up its investigation related to January 6, which now touches nearly every aspect of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss – including the fraudulent electors plot, efforts to push baseless election fraud claims and how money flowed to support these various efforts, CNN reported this week.

An attorney for Meadows declined comment. The Justice Department did not respond to CNN requests for comment.

Federal investigators have issued at least 30 subpoenas to individuals with connections to Trump, including top officials from his fundraising and former campaign operation.

As White House chief of staff, Meadows was in the middle of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the two months between Election Day and Biden’s inauguration. Meadows communicated with numerous officials who tried to find election fraud and pushed various schemes to try to overturn the election, according to text messages obtained by CNN that Meadows turned over to the House select committee. Meadows also shared baseless conspiracy theories with Justice Department leaders as Trump tried to enlist DOJ’s help in his push to claim the election was stolen from him.

After Meadows stopped cooperating with the House committee, Congress referred him to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress. DOJ declined to prosecute him for contempt earlier this year.

It’s not yet clear whether the Justice Department will seek more materials from Meadows as part of the ongoing criminal investigation, which could lead to a legal fight over executive privilege.

Following last month’s FBI search of Trump’s Florida residence and resort, Meadows handed over texts and emails to the National Archives that he had not previously turned over from his time in the administration, CNN previously reported. Last year, Meadows spoke with Trump about the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago that the National Archives wanted returned.

Trump has been counseled to cut contact with Meadows, and some of Trump’s attorneys believe Meadows could also be in investigators’ crosshairs and are concerned he could become a fact witness if he’s pushed to cooperate, CNN reported last month. Still, Trump and Meadows have spoken a number of times, according to a source familiar with their relationship.

Another source described their relationship as “not the same as it once was” while in the White House, but said they still have maintained a relationship, even as Trump has complained about Meadows to others.

Read original article here

Health

Monkeypox outbreak slowing in the US, but health leaders say critical challenges remain

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

New monkeypox cases in the United States have been steadily dropping in recent weeks, with cases reported in the first week of September cut to about half of what they were at their peak a month ago.

But the recent death of a Los Angeles County resident – the first attributed to monkeypox in the US – is a tragic reminder that the outbreak is ongoing and still poses risks.

“There is some hope around these cases leveling off. That should not be anybody’s solace that this outbreak is done,” David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said at a briefing Tuesday.

“We still have to ramp up our efforts to respond to this outbreak. And there are many, many data questions, clinical care questions, research questions that remain to be answered about this very unusual outbreak of a known virus over the decades that is presenting itself very differently in the United States.”

Deaths from monkeypox are extremely rare and often affect babies, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as from HIV. This year, the World Health Organization has reported 22 deaths among about 58,000 cases. About 22,000 of those cases have been reported in the US.

“Back in July, CDC estimated that it took eight days for cases to double nationwide. By mid-August, the doubling rate was 25 days, showing encouraging signs of progress,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House’s assistant monkeypox response coordinator, said last week.

But Harvey and other public health leaders warned Tuesday that people on the front lines of the response – including local health departments, epidemiologists and clinics that deal with sexually transmitted infections – do not have adequate resources to ensure continued improvement.

And there is a “very important immunocompromised population in the United States” who will be at high risk if the outbreak continues, Dr. Cesar Arias, a board member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and chief of infectious diseases at Houston Methodist Hospital, said at the briefing.

Other key areas of concern cited by US public health leaders at Tuesday’s briefing include inequitable vaccination, access to testing and incomplete surveillance data.

They called on Congress to make significant funding immediately available to address the outbreak, defending the Biden administration’s request that about $4 billion in funding be allocated to the monkeypox response in the next government funding bill as one of “four critical needs,” along with support for Ukraine, Covid-19 response and natural disaster recovery.

The push for funding comes a day before federal leaders – including US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci – are scheduled to speak to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions about the federal response to the monkeypox outbreak.

Public health leaders attribute the slowing rate of new cases to vaccination and behavior changes among those most at-risk. Men who have sex with men have been disproportionately affected in the outbreak, and about half have reported taking steps to protect themselves and their partners, according to the CDC.

But for the hopeful trend to continue, continued work and investment is needed – especially in reaching underrepresented groups, health leaders say.

“In many ways, the initial and easy work has been done. Now, local health departments are needing to be more creative, to reach more deeply into their communities hardest to reach with messaging, education, vaccine, testing and treatment,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Data from the CDC shows that people of color make up a disproportionate share of cases but are underrepresented among those vaccinated.

More than half of new monkeypox cases over the past two months have been among Black and Hispanic people, but only about a third of first vaccine doses have gone to individuals in these groups, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.

The White House Monkeypox Response Team addressed these inequities last month, highlighting efforts to offer vaccinations at large-scale events and festivals as one strategy to curb them.

“With supply of vaccine increasing, I think we have a new opportunity in strategy which is bringing vaccine to people as opposed to trying to have people find vaccines,” Daskalakis said.

Last week, Daskalakis noted that case rates were slowing in parts of the country that have been hardest-hit, including New York, Texas, California and Illinois.

But local public health leaders emphasized the need for a broader perspective.

“We cannot take our foot off the gas simply because major cities have the means to mount a robust response, leaving smaller rural communities to fend for themselves,” Harvey said.

Read original article here

US

Mar-a-Lago search: DOJ appeals decision to order special master to review evidence seized

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

The Justice Department on Thursday appealed a court-ordered special master review of the materials seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago – including more than 100 classified documents – as it argued the order was putting US national security at risk.

The government has halted the intelligence community’s risk assessment of classified documents it obtained during last month’s search of former President Donald Trump’s home and resort.

In addition to its appeal, the Justice Department asked US District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who ordered the special master, to let it continue the review of documents being done for the FBI’s criminal probe – a review the judge put on hold. The prosecutors argued that the criminal probe could not be decoupled from the intelligence community’s review.

“The application of the injunction to classified records would thus frustrate the government’s ability to conduct an effective national security risk assessment and classification review and could preclude the government from taking necessary remedial steps in light of that review – risking irreparable harm to our national security and intelligence interests,” the DOJ wrote in it’s request for a stay.

The Justice Department had vigorously opposed the appointment of a special master, which is a third-party attorney tasked with reviewing evidence and filtering out privileged documents. The department argued to Cannon the independent review wasn’t necessary, given the internal DOJ filter practices that had been used in the search.

In her Monday order granting Trump’s request for the special master, Cannon halted any use of the seized materials for the DOJ’s criminal investigation. She said, however, that the intelligence community’s assessment could continue. The Justice Department’s Thursday filing shed light on how the two endeavors are intertwined.

“The injunction against using classified records in the criminal investigation could impede efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored – which itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security,” the DOJ said Thursday.

The prosecutors pointed to the empty folders marked with “classified banners” that had been found at Mar-a-Lago in the search.

“The FBI would be chiefly responsible for investigating what materials may have once been stored in these folders and whether they may have been lost or compromised – steps that, again, may require the use of grand jury subpoenas, search warrants, and other criminal investigative tools and could lead to evidence that would also be highly relevant to advancing the criminal investigation,” the DOJ said.

The prosecutor described the intelligence community review that Cannon was allowing to proceed as just “one facet of the overall effort by the government to respond to and mitigate any risks to national security.” For instance, determining the “likelihood that improperly stored classified information may have been accessed by others and compromised” is a “core aspect of the FBI’s criminal investigation,” the prosecutors added.

“Departments and agencies in the IC would then consider this information to determine whether they need to treat certain sources and methods as compromised,” the prosecutors said.

Cannon had also ordered that the independent review look for documents potentially covered by executive privilege – in addition to the attorney-client privilege concerns that are usually a special master’s focus.

The move, described as novel by both the Justice Department and outside legal experts, stands to protract the review as the criminal investigation remains hindered by Cannon’s injunction.

In requesting that the criminal investigators be allowed to access to the classified documents, the Justice Department on Thursday rejected the idea that the privilege could ever apply to classified materials.

“Supreme Court precedent makes clear that any possible assertion of privilege that Plaintiff might attempt to make over the classified records would be overcome by the government’s “demonstrated, specific need” for that evidence,” the department said, while quoting the 1974 case United States v. Nixon. “Among other things, the classified records are the very subject of the government’s ongoing investigation.”

The department also took swipes at how Cannon’s order cited a recent Supreme Court order, along with a concurring statement from Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in justify her move to have the review cover executive privilege. The case in question involved Trump White House records sought by a congressional committee, the department noted Thursday.

“Neither the Supreme Court’s opinion denying Plaintiff’s request for a stay in Thompson nor Justice Kavanaugh’s concurring statement suggested that a former President can successfully assert executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch itself from reviewing and using its own records,” the filing said.

Trump filed the lawsuit seeking the special master two weeks after the search warrant was executed on his Mar-a-Lago residence and resort. According to submissions the Justice Department made to the magistrate judge who approved the warrant, the FBI is investigating potential violations of the Espionage Act, criminal mishandling of government documents and obstruction of justice.

Cannon has ordered the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers to file legal briefs laying out their proposed candidates to serve as special master, along with recommendations for how the review should proceed. The judge on Thursday instructed that the parties, in the joint submission due Friday, “consider Defendant’s position as to the approximately 100 documents” referred to in the request filed by the DOJ.

Additionally, the judge has ordered Trump to file a formal response by 10 a.m. Monday to the Justice Department’s request that the judge suspend parts of her special master order while the appeal proceeds.

The prosecutors told Cannon that if she did not grant their request to suspend parts of her ruling by September 15, they’d seek the intervention of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Read original article here

US

Barr: Justice Department should appeal ‘deeply flawed’ ruling approving special master in Trump documents case

Leave a comment


Washington
CNN
 — 

Former Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday said the decision by a Florida judge to grant former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago is “deeply flawed” and urged the Justice Department to appeal it.

“The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways,” Barr said during a Fox interview Tuesday.

“I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up – but even if it does, I don’t see it fundamentally changing the trajectory. In other words, I don’t think it changes the ball game so much as maybe we’ll have a rain delay for a couple of innings.”

Trump-appointed District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday ordered that a third-party attorney be brought in to review the materials that were taken from Trump’s home and resort in Florida. The order also halts the Justice Department from continuing its review of the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago “pending completion of the special master’s review or further Court order.”

The classification review and intelligence assessments being conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, will be allowed to continue.

The Justice Department strongly opposed a special master and has said that its own “filter team” already finished its review of the Mar-a-Lago documents. A DOJ spokesman said Monday that officials are “examining the opinion” and considering “appropriate next steps.”

Cannon’s decision was a significant victory for the former President, who has railed against the Biden administration and Justice Department since the search of his Palm Beach property. Trump’s lawyers had argued that a special master was needed because they don’t trust the Justice Department to fairly identify privileged materials that would need to be excluded from the ongoing criminal probe.

All about the judge who granted Trump’s ‘special master’ request

Though Barr was a Trump loyalist during his time as attorney general, he has at times criticized the former President since leaving the administration and hasn’t held back in recent days when asked about Trump’s special master effort.

Barr, in a separate appearance on Fox last week, called the special master request a “red herring” and a “waste of time.” He doubled down on those comments in a phone interview with The New York Times, saying that he didn’t think a special master was “called for.”

Weighing in on the prospect of a DOJ appeal, he told Fox: “I think if DOJ appeals, eventually it will be overturned. I hope they expedite it, but it could take several months to get that straightened out.”

Read original article here

Science

Artemis I’s next launch attempt may not happen until later this year

Leave a comment

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.


Kennedy Space Center, Florida
CNN
 — 

NASA will not pursue a launch of Artemis I for the remainder of the launch period, which ends on Tuesday, according to an update from the agency after a second scrubbed launch attempt Saturday.

Future launch periods, including those in September and October, depend on what the team decides early next week, but this results in a minimum of delays consisting of at least several weeks.

“We will not be launching in this launch period,” said Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “We are not where we wanted to be.”

Free said the stack, including the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, has to roll back into the Vehicle Assembly Building, unless they get a waiver from the range, which is run by the US Space Force.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reminded that the shuttle was sent back to the Vehicle Assembly Building 20 times before it launched – and noted that the cost of two scrubs is a lot less than a failure.

“We do not launch until we think it’s right,” Nelson said. “These teams have labored over that and that is the conclusion they came to. I look at this as part of our space program, in which safety is the top of the list.”

The scrub was called at 11:17 a.m. ET, three hours before the beginning of the launch window.

Artemis I had been slated to take off Saturday afternoon, but those plans were scrubbed after team members discovered a liquid hydrogen leak that they spent the better part of the morning trying to resolve. Liquid hydrogen is one of the propellants used in the rocket’s large core stage. The leak prevented the launch team from being able to fill the liquid hydrogen tank despite trying various troubleshooting procedures.

Previously, a small leak had been seen in this area, but it became a much larger leak on Saturday. The team believes an overpressurization event might have damaged the soft seal on the liquid hydrogen connection, but they will need to take a closer look.

“This was not a manageable leak,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager.

It’s the second time in a week that the space agency has been forced to halt the launch countdown in the face of technical issues. The first launch attempt, on Monday, was called off after several issues arose, including with a system meant to cool the rocket’s engines ahead of liftoff and various leaks that sprung up as the rocket was being fueled.

The liquid hydrogen leak was detected Saturday at 7:15 a.m. ET in the quick disconnect cavity that feeds the rocket with hydrogen in the engine section of the core stage. It was a different leak than one that occurred ahead of the scrubbed launch on Monday.

The launch controllers warmed up the line in an attempt to get a tight seal and the flow of liquid hydrogen resumed before a leak reoccurred. They stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen and proceeded to “close the valve used to fill and drain it, then increase pressure on a ground transfer line using helium to try to reseal it,” according to NASA.

That troubleshooting plan was not successful. The team attempted the first plan again to warm up the line, but the leak reoccurred after they manually restarted the flow of liquid hydrogen.

There was a 60% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch, according to weather officer Melody Lovin.

The Artemis I stack, which includes the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, continues to sit on Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Artemis I mission is just the beginning of a program that will aim to return humans to the moon and eventually land crewed missions on Mars. Nelson said that the issues during the first two scrubs have not caused any delays to future Artemis program missions.

Here’s how NASA wants to send humans back to the moon

In the last few days, the launch team has taken time to address issues, like hydrogen leaks, that cropped up ahead of Monday’s planned launch before it was scrubbed. The team has also completed a risk assessment of an engine conditioning issue and a foam crack that also cropped up, according to NASA officials.

Both were considered to be acceptable risks heading into the launch countdown, according to Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager.

On Monday, a sensor on one of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines, identified as engine #3, reflected that the engine could not reach the proper temperature range required for the engine to start at liftoff.

The engines need to be thermally conditioned before super-cold propellant flows through them prior to liftoff. To prevent the engines from experiencing any temperature shocks, launch controllers gradually increase the pressure of the core stage liquid hydrogen tank in the hours before launch to send a small amount of liquid hydrogen to the engines. This is known as a “bleed.”

The team has since determined it was a bad sensor providing the reading – they plan to ignore the faulty sensor moving forward, according to John Blevins, Space Launch Systems chief engineer.

Once Artemis I launches, Orion’s journey will last 37 days as it travels to the moon, loops around it and returns to Earth – traveling a total of 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers).

While the passenger list doesn’t include any humans, it does have passengers: three mannequins and a plush Snoopy toy will ride in Orion.

The crew aboard Artemis I may sound a little unusual, but they each serve a purpose. Snoopy will serve as the zero gravity indicator – meaning that he will begin to float inside the capsule once it reaches the space environment.

The mannequins, named Commander Moonikin Campos, Helga and Zohar, will measure the deep space radiation future crews could experience and test out new suit and shielding technology. A biology experiment carrying seeds, algae, fungi and yeast is also tucked inside Orion to measure how life reacts to this radiation as well.

Additional science experiments and technology demonstrations are also riding in a ring on the rocket. From there, 10 small satellites, called CubeSats, will detach and go their separate ways to collect information on the moon and the deep space environment.

Cameras inside and outside of Orion will share images and video throughout the mission, including live views from the Callisto experiment, which will capture a stream of Commander Moonikin Campos sitting in the commander’s seat. And if you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, you can ask it about the mission’s location each day.

Expect to see views of Earthrise similar to what was shared for the first time during the Apollo 8 mission back in 1968, but with much better cameras and technology.

The inaugural mission of the Artemis program will kick off a phase of NASA space exploration that intends to land diverse astronaut crews at previously unexplored regions of the moon – on the Artemis II and Artemis III missions, slated for 2024 and 2025 respectively – and eventually delivers crewed missions to Mars.

Read original article here

Business

E. coli outbreak associated with Wendy’s restaurants has now sickened 97 people in 6 states

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

Wendy’s restaurants have been associated with an E. coli outbreak now reported in six states, with 97 people infected, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an update Thursday.

Of the 67 people for whom local public health officials have a detailed food history, 81% reported eating at a Wendy’s restaurant in the week before their illness started, the CDC said.

No deaths have been reported, but according to the CDC, 43 people have been hospitalized and 10 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that can cause kidney failure.

“The true number of sick people in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses,” the update said. “In addition, some people recover without medical care and are not tested for E. coli.”

So far, no specific food has been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, according to the CDC. In late August, however, Wendy’s removed the romaine lettuce that was being used in sandwiches in its restaurants in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the CDC.

The CDC is not advising people to avoid Wendy’s, and the agency notes there is no evidence that romaine lettuce sold in grocery stores or served in other restaurants is linked to the current outbreak.

Those who have E. coli symptoms, like diarrhea and a fever over 102°F, severe vomiting or signs of dehydration, should call their health care provider right away, according to the CDC. They are also urged to write down what they ate the week before and report their illness to their local or state health department.

Each year, around 1 in 6 Americans gets a foodborne illness from at least 31 known pathogens and other unspecified agents, according to the CDC, and around 3,000 lose their lives.

Read original article here

Health

Black and Hispanic people get monkeypox more but get less care. Here’s what’s being done to address inequities

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

The organizers of Atlanta Black Pride, an LGBTQ celebration held each Labor Day weekend, have big plans. There will be parties and performances, workshops and financial literacy classes, brunches and a boat ride. This year also brings an event that no one ever expected would be necessary: a vaccination clinic.

“We actually got a head start, and we started early, even before the festival, with monkeypox vaccinations for people that are here in Atlanta,” said Melissa Scott, one of the organizers.

The festival will also offer Covid-19 vaccines on location.

The monkeypox vaccines won’t protect people right away, because two doses are needed, but Scott said the festival is the perfect opportunity to reach a large group of people who have been disproportionately affected by the outbreak.

As of Friday, there are nearly 20,000 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is spread through close contact and can infect anyone. But cases in this outbreak have mostly been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and no one’s been hit harder than those who identify as Black or Latino/Hispanic.

Nearly 38% of monkeypox cases are among Black people, yet they represent only 12% of the US population. Hispanic or Latino people make up 19% of the US population but account for 29% of the cases as of August 27, according to the CDC.

Not all US cities keep or publish demographic data. But among those with the most monkeypox cases, people of color are often overrepresented among the sick and underrepresented among the vaccinated.

In Philadelphia, for example, 55% of monkeypox cases are in Black people, 16% are in people who identify as Hispanic, and 24% are in those who identify as white. Yet 56% of the shots have gone to white individuals, 24% to Black people and 12% to Hispanic people, according to the city’s website.

In Atlanta, as of mid-August, 71% of monkeypox patients identified as Black, 12% as white and 7% as Hispanic, while 44% of the vaccines have gone to white people, 46% to Black people and 8% to Hispanics.

And in Houston, Black people are overrepresented among the sick, making up 32% of all the cases, but they are only 23% of the population. Only 15% of people who have gotten the vaccine identify as Black, according to the Houston Health Department.

However, while Hispanic people account for 21% of the cases in Houston, they make up 45% of the city’s population and 32% of those who have been vaccinated. White people are 24% of the population, 17% of the cases and 39% of those who have been vaccinated against monkeypox.

In Los Angeles County, the health department says 40% of cases are among Hispanic people, yet only 32% of first vaccine doses have gone to members of that community. Hispanics make up 49% of the county’s population.

White people are the most vaccinated against monkeypox in Los Angeles. They’ve gotten 41% of the first doses, and they account for 29% of the cases. White people make up a quarter of the population of the county.

Black people are overrepresented among the cases. They make up 9% of the population in the county but 11% of the cases. Only 9% of those who got their first vaccine dose identify as Black.

It is not totally clear what’s driving the differences, but this isn’t the first disease to see such inequities, said Dr. Chyke Doubeni, chief health equity officer at Ohio State University. Unless something drastically changes, he said, we’ll see the same pattern in the next outbreak.

“I would say as a public health community, we’re very good at repeating the same mistakes multiple times,” he said. “It’s the same story, the same underlying causes. There are barriers to care and information. Systems that require people to stand in line for hours for a vaccine do not work for people with hourly jobs, for instance.”

For months, community leaders have repeatedly called on the Biden administration to step up its efforts to protect this population. On Tuesday, the administration announced that it was launching a pilot program aimed at LGBTQ communities of color.

“It’s important to acknowledge that there’s more work we must do together with our partners on the ground to get shots in arms in the highest-risk communities,” said Robert Fenton, the White House national monkeypox response team coordinator.

“Equity is a key pillar in our response, and we recognize the need to put extra resources into the field to make sure we are reaching communities most impacted by the outbreak.”

The administration will send thousands of vaccine doses to organizations that work with Black and brown communities. The initiative will also work with state and local governments to set up vaccination clinics at key LGBTQ events that attract hundreds of thousands of people, such as Atlanta Black Pride, Oakland Pride in California and Southern Decadence in New Orleans. They will send enough vials to vaccinate up to 5,000 people at each event.

Federal health officials say they also will work with local leaders to identify smaller gatherings for pop-up vaccine clinics, like house and ballroom events that are popular with younger people. They’ve set aside an additional 10,000 vials for those equity initiatives.

Pride Month events in June went by without pop-up clinics. One pilot vaccination program that the administration launched with local public health organizers at the Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade last weekend ended up administering only about a quarter of the doses allocated, but officials still called it a “great success.”

“It’s important to also respect sort of the strategy that Charlotte may have had in terms of how to get the word out,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House’s assistant monkeypox response coordinator, said Tuesday. “And so, 500-plus vaccines is a great success – it’s not a clinic, and so really, going to Pride and getting vaccinated – any number, especially that, I think is remarkable.”

The outreach seems to be working in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta and several large suburbs.

Black people make up 79% of monkeypox cases there but are only 42.5% of the population, according to the last census. Since the start of the outbreak, the county Board of Health said, it has initiated its own efforts to engage directly with organizations that work with Black and brown communities. Officials have set up clinics, posted QR codes in bars that link to appointment information, and extended hours at clinics so people don’t have to take time off from work to get vaccinated.

As a result, nearly 70% of the monkeypox vaccines that the county has given have gone to people of color, the board said. In comparison, only 10% of doses nationwide have gone to people who are Black, 22% went to Hispanic or Latino people, and 44% went to people who identify as white, according to the Biden administration.

“Communities of color have been hit particularly hard by monkeypox,” said Dr. Lynn Paxton, Fulton County’s district health director. “So efforts targeting health equity have been especially crucial for the Board of Health.”

The Biden administration said equity is a key priority with its monkeypox strategy.

“Our vaccine strategy is to meet people where they seek services, care or community, especially in communities of color,” Daskalakis said.

The extra efforts have been prompted by several obstacles to access to treatments, vaccines and culturally sensitive education material, public health experts say.

Sean Cahill, director of health policy research at the Fenway Institute in Boston, a health organization that works with sexual and gender minorities, says he has been frustrated by these unnecessary barriers.

For example, the monkeypox treatment Tpoxx is still considered experimental, so patients and doctors have to fill out paperwork required by the CDC to get it. For months, not one of the forms was translated into a language other than English. The CDC made the Spanish-language form available on its website in the second week of August.

“For patients who speak Spanish or Chinese or don’t speak a lot of English, it can be a real challenge for them to complete these forms,” Cahill said. It’s even harder for people who don’t have access to a computer or printer.

“There’s just some logistical issues that have been a constant challenge to help patients, and there needn’t be,” he added.

Throughout the outbreak, organizers have been critical of the Biden administration’s response to the public health crisis, especially where people of color are concerned.

“As soon as we started receiving a vaccine, we should have had a conversation with Black and brown community-based organizations to lead the way to vaccinate the most at risk,” said Daniel Driffin, an HIV patient advocate and a consultant with NMAC, a national organization that works for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic.

To get a vaccine appointment, particularly in the beginning of the US outbreak when vaccines were in much shorter supply, people essentially had to follow their local health department on Twitter to find out when they were available, Driffin said. The appointments would often fill up in minutes.

“Your health status should not be dictated by Twitter or Instagram,” Driffin said.

He added that it’s especially difficult for some people to get appointments to get tests or treatments.

“Especially here in Georgia, where many individuals, especially men, Black and brown people, may not have access to regular medical care. So where are they supposed to go?”

This is not, of course, the first health outbreak to disproportionately affect Black and brown communities.

Black people account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses and cases compared with other races and ethnicities. Hispanic and Latino people are also disproportionately affected by HIV.

The CDC says racism, stigma, homophobia, poverty and limited access to health care continue to drive these disparities.

These same communities are overrepresented in the Covid-19 pandemic. People of color have a disproportionate number of cases and deaths compared with White people when accounting for age differences, according to the CDC.

The CDC has regularly said that more needs to be done to help these communities, and public health officials’ inclination to want to help is good, Doubeni said.

“But typically, they don’t say ‘Oh, we have a problem. Let me see how I can work with the community to see what is beneficial for them,’ and they especially don’t do this from the beginning,” Doubeni said.

On more than one occasion, Doubeni said, he has watched government public health officials spend months to create education materials in English. Only after those materials come out will they start working on a Spanish version.

“I think it’s all well-intentioned, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always begin with an end in mind,” he said.

He tells people that because of institutional racism, and for social and economic reasons, those who are in communities of color may have to be persistent to get the treatment they need.

“Don’t take no for an answer,” Doubeni said. “People should not be ashamed to have to seek treatment for monkeypox. It has nothing to do with them as a person per se. We can control this outbreak and keep it from running out of control. And it’s your right to get the answers you need.”

Atlanta Black Pride organizer Scott said she’s been pleased with the local public health department’s targeted outreach. One of the event’s goals has always been to strengthen the community’s health while encouraging everyone to have fun.

“We’re trying to make sure we reach the people who need it most,” she said.

Read original article here

Business

FDA grants priority review to Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine; decision on approval expected by January 2022

Leave a comment



CNN
—  

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review designation to the companies’ application for approval of their Covid-19 vaccine. The goal date for a decision from the FDA is January 2022, the companies said.

The typical priority review process allows six months, but FDA approval could come before the goal date.

Andy Slavitt, former White House senior adviser for the Covid-19 response, told CNN earlier this month that approval could happen in July, but acknowledged it’s a complex process.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces. It’s not as easy,” Slavitt told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “Hopefully in the next four to five weeks, and I think that will be very, very good news.”

Pfizer and BioNTech completed the rolling submission for the vaccine’s Biologics License Application for people ages 16 and older in May.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY.

Read original article here

Health

Drug overdose deaths hit highest number ever recorded

Leave a comment



CNN
—  

Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. That’s a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019.

“Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids (such as prescription pain medication),” the NCHS said in a statement.

“This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.

“These data are chilling. The COVID-19 pandemic created a devastating collision of health crises in America,” added Volkow.

As in recent years, inappropriate use of opioids was behind most of the deaths. The NCHS reported that overdose deaths from opioids rose from 50,963 in 2019 to 69,710 in 2020.

“This has been an incredibly uncertain and stressful time for many people and we are seeing an increase in drug consumption, difficulty in accessing life-saving treatments for substance use disorders, and a tragic rise in overdose deaths,” Volkow said.

“As we continue to address both the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis, we must prioritize making treatment options more widely available to people with substance use disorders.”

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a former deputy commission at the US Food and Drug Administration, agreed the pandemic made an already serious crisis even worse.

“The pandemic had a lot to do with it,” Sharfstein told CNN.

“But as the pandemic recedes, we are still dealing with this overdose crisis.”

Overdoses from opioids have been steadily worsening in the US for decades. Some members of Congress have blamed the FDA for approving new synthetic opioids, and makers of some of the drugs – notably Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma – have been prosecuted for their role in marketing them.

Last week, members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue, reached a $4.5 billion settlement with 15 states as part of legal actions dissolving the company.

Doctors have also been blamed for overprescribing opioids and addicting people to them in the first place.

Sharfstein said he thinks the FDA could and should do more to control over-prescribing of opioids.

“There are definitely actions that the clinical community can take to reduce the risk of people becoming addicted to opioids,” Sharfstein told CNN.

“The FDA oversight of medical and clinical practice is an area the agency acknowledges it needs to improve. The question of whether a particular drug should have been approved or not is fair to ask. But now the emphasis should be on the oversight of prescribing,” added Sharfstein.

“If you think about how the country has made progress on Covid since there was a clear national strategy that included goals and good data and evidence for critical projects – I think that kind of approach is important here. The same kind of urgency and strategy that has been applied to Covid could produce results over time.”

Sharfstein was pleased by the announcement Tuesday that President Joe Biden would nominate former West Virginia health commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. If confirmed, Gupta would be the first physician to lead the office.

“Dr, Gupta is experienced at viewing the drug crisis as a health problem. He’ll follow the evidence where it takes him,” Sharfstein said.

Read original article here

Health

US Covid-19: Fewer than half of states have reached the White House’s July 4th vaccine goal as the Delta variant threatens the nation’s progress

Leave a comment



CNN
—  

Twenty states have reached the Biden administration’s goal to partially vaccinate 70% of American adults by the Fourth of July as the Delta variant spreads and people gather for holiday celebrations across the country.

White House officials acknowledged last month that they would fall short of their goal, which was set in early May when the US was vaccinating people at a much faster pace than it is now.

The US reached its highest vaccination rate in mid-April when the seven-day average of doses administered daily topped 3.3 million. At that time, 1.8 million new people became fully vaccinated each day.

But that rate was not sustained, dropping to a seven-day average of 1,121,064 doses given per day as of Saturday. About 685,472 people are becoming fully vaccinated daily.

However, the administration did come close to its goal of vaccinating 160 million adults by the holiday – 157 million adults were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, federal data shows.

Health experts have been sounding the alarm on the risk low vaccination rates pose in some areas as the Delta variant of the coronavirus is now detected in all 50 US states and Washington, DC.

The Delta variant, which is highly contagious and causes even more severe illness, has been spreading so rapidly in some areas that officials brought back their mask guidance even if people are fully vaccinated.

Health officials in Los Angeles County, suggested last week that people in the county should wear masks while in public indoor spaces, regardless of their vaccination status.

After California relaxed most of its Covid-19 restrictions on June 15, the state’s Covid-19 test positivity rate doubled from 0.7% at the time to 1.5% on July 2, state health data shows. The Delta variant represents 36% of all new Covid-19 cases in California, and that number is expected to rise, a state health officer said Friday.

Health experts and studies have said the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are highly effective in protecting people from severe illness and hospitalizations related to Covid-19 and some of its dangerous variants.

Yet Barbara Ferrer, who heads Los Angeles County’s Public Health Department, told CNN Saturday the county’s new mask guidance is an extra precaution against the rise of Covid-19 cases there.

“There are lots of settings where even though we know that the vaccines provide powerful protection to those who are vaccinated, the slight risk that a vaccinated person could shed enough virus to infect somebody else, coupled with just creating less and less risk in those settings where there are many unvaccinated people, makes it a prudent tool that I think has its place in this full reopening that we’ve done in L.A. County,” Ferrer said.

She added that the county is not requiring people to wear masks.

“We just made a strong recommendation, if you’re indoors, in a setting where you don’t know everybody else’s vaccination status … it is best at this point to prevent another surge here in L.A. County by having everyone in those settings, where it could be crowded and you’re indoors, often with poor ventilation, to keep those face coverings on,” she said.

California is one of 19 states to have fully vaccinated more than half its population. The other 18 are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state, as well as Washington, D.C.

Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University and CNN medical analyst, said Saturday that full approval of vaccines from the US Food and Drug Administration will help get more people vaccinated.

“I think that getting full approval will make a big difference. It will overcome that hesitancy or lack of confidence of a segment of our population,” she said.

Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have begun their applications for full approval from the FDA. Johnson & Johnson has said it intends to file a Biologics License Application, but had not yet done so as of Friday.

Pfizer and Moderna requested priority review, which asks the FDA to take action within six months, compared to the 10 months under standard review. Goal dates have not yet been announced.

“I wish the FDA would move faster,” Ranney said, referring to the approval process. “Full FDA approval process normally does takes months, but they’ve already looked at the preliminary data. It’s not that much more.”

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows 31% of adults who have yet to get vaccinated would be more likely to get a vaccine that is fully approved by the FDA. About 20% of adults who have not been vaccinated said it’s because they believe the vaccine is too new.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House Covid-19 briefing on Thursday it would be “most unusual” for the FDA to refuse full approval for coronavirus vaccines being used under emergency use authorization.

“You never want to get ahead of the FDA, but it would really be a most unusual situation not to see this … get full approval,” Fauci said. “I believe it’s going to happen.”

The number of people traveling by air hit a new pandemic-era record Friday as people are on the move for the Fourth of July weekend.

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2,196,411 people at airports across the country, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.

According to the TSA, that number is higher than the same day in 2019 before the pandemic, when the TSA screened 2,184,253 passengers.

AAA anticipates 47.7 million people will travel by road and air from July 1 to July 5, a 40% increase over Independence Day travel last year and the second-highest travel volume on record.

CNN’s Nadia Kounang, Pete Muntean, Deidre McPhillips, Jamie Gumbrecht, Cheri Mossburg, Natasha Chen, Kevin Conlon, Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.



Read original article here