February 22, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy EMILY SHAPIRO and CHEYENNE HASLETT, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — As the United States nears 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Monday that the U.S. has “done worse than most any other country” in the battle against the coronavirus, despite being a “highly developed, rich country.”

“It’s so tough to just go back and try and, you know, do a metaphorical autopsy on how things went. It was just bad. It is bad now,” Fauci told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.

The U.S. has by far the highest death toll, with at least 498,901 lives lost, followed by Brazil with 246,504 fatalities, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. is expected to reach the grim 500,000 death milestone on Monday, which Fauci called a “stunning figure.”

One in every 656 Americans has now succumbed to the virus. With 525,600 minutes in one year, 500,000 deaths is equivalent to approximately one American dying from COVID-19 per minute for almost an entire year.

In the late winter and early spring of 2020, health officials “were saying we could get as high as 240,000 [deaths] and people were thinking we were being hyperbolic,” Fauci noted.

“Rather than looking back and saying, ‘What the heck happened here?'” Fauci said, he urged Americans to “be completely committed as a unified country to just go at this together.”

“This is a common enemy. We’ve all got to pitch in,” Fauci said. “We’re in some good shape now with the vaccines, but it’s going to be a race against the infections that keep coming.”

In total, 13% of the population (42.8 million people) has received one or more vaccine doses while 5% of the population (17.9 million people) has received two doses, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Fauci rejected the thinking in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal by Johns Hopkins medical school professor Dr. Marty Makary, who wrote that he thinks the U.S. will reach herd immunity by April.

“We got to be really careful and not just say, ‘We’re finished now, we’re through it,'” Fauci said. “We have variants out there that could actually set us back.”

Fauci acknowledged that vaccines are working against the current variants, but said the virus could bounce back at any time if new strains pop up or get out of control.

“Rather than even think about declaring victory and saying, ‘Well, we have herd immunity, we’re in good shape,’ we’ve got to keep pushing and pushing because this thing can bounce back with the variants very, very quickly,” Fauci said.

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February 21, 2021 • No Comments • National News

University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine/FacebookBY: JON HAWORTH, ABC NEWS

(ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.) — A 10.5-foot-long crocodile weighing almost 350 pounds has undergone successful surgery two months after it ate a tourist’s shoe.

The problem started when Anuket, who lives at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Augustine, Florida, ate a shoe that fell off a tourist’s foot while they were ziplining over the enclosure in December 2020 where Anuket and another crocodile named Sobek live.

“Our team members observed Anuket swallow the shoe, regurgitate it, and then swallow it again before we were able to retrieve it,” the zoological park said in a statement posted on social media. “Crocodilians explore their surroundings by biting and testing an item to see if it’s food, and they swallow their food whole. We waited and watched Anuket, hoping she would regurgitate the shoe again.”

According to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, weeks passed after the 341-pound crocodile swallowed the shoe and the decision was made to make an attempt to flush the show from the crocodile’s stomach.

“This technique of stomach flushing is commonly used when crocodilians swallow an inedible item or during scientific research in the field to see what crocodilians have been eating,” the park said. “We flushed her stomach multiple times, massaged her abdomen to move the shoe, and even reached inside to try to find it.”

Scientists at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine were called in to help with zoo medicine resident Garrett Fraess initially attempting to remove the shoe by reaching his arm up and through the crocodile’s esophagus, the university said in a statement on social media.

“All of these measures were taken to avoid major abdominal surgery,” the zoological park explained.

But nothing the park or the university did to remove the shoe worked. Anuket needed surgery.

The initial plan during the surgery was to have Dr. Adam Biedrzycki, a large animal surgeon, attempt to manipulate the shoe through an incision and push it from the stomach to the esophagus, where Fraess hoped to be able to grab hold of the shoe to pull it out.

“That effort, too, failed,” said the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. “Biedrzycki then performed a gastrotomy which allowed easier access to the crocodile’s stomach. Within a short time, he was able to remove the shoe. After an overnight stay, Anuket returned home, and has been recuperating at the park since then.”

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park said that “Anuket is recovering well back at our zoo in an off-display area, but her full recovery will take some time before she will be able to rejoin Sobek in the Oasis.”

The zoo had one more thing to say after confirming Anuket’s recovery and care was on track.

”Don’t eat falling shoes!”

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February 21, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBY: BRITTANY BORER, ABC NEWS

(NEW YORK) — Heavy snow is expected for the Cascades and Rockies today with rounds of rain for the coast and this pattern is forecast to continue for the next couple of days.

A foot of snow is likely for parts of the Northern Rockies while multiple feet of snow are expected over parts of the northern Cascades with heavy rain of up to 4 inches or more is expected in the Pacific Northwest coast through Thursday.

A weak disturbance will move across the Midwest bringing light to moderate snow this afternoon and evening.

Isolated light snow showers are possible from parts of the Northeast and Central Appalachians today and snow will begin in Chicago this evening and last overnight.

Snow will be falling throughout the Monday morning commute for Pittsburgh and Cleveland with rain enveloping the Tennessee Valley.

Some pockets of light freeing rain may even develop across parts of the Central Appalachians and may begin in New York as snow in the early afternoon but end as rain by Monday evening.

Rain showers will spread across the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions throughout the day.

Some areas of scattered to isolated thunderstorms may develop along the Carolina and Southeast coasts on Monday night and snow will still be falling in parts of New England by Monday evening before pulling the moisture offshore overnight.

An estimated 2 to 4 inches of snow is likely for much of the Upper Midwest with locally higher amounts possible in Iowa today.

The Central Appalachians and interior Northeast will also see a general area of 2-4 inches while locally heavier amounts are expected for areas downwind of the Lower Great Lakes tonight into tomorrow.

The good news is that most of the country is looking at a much quieter weather pattern this week with only the Pacific Northwest, however, being the exception as they should see rounds of rain and snow.

Additionally, temperatures will finally get back to near seasonable levels across the central US this week.

Dallas is forecast to reach 60 degrees on Sunday, which is the first time temperatures will be that mild since Feb. 8, almost two weeks ago, and will be just short of their average high by 2 degrees.

Charlotte will be at 58 degrees on Tuesday which is the mildest since Feb. 10 and will be 2 degrees above average.

It should get up to 70 degrees or higher at San Diego International Airport on Sunday which will be the first time since Feb. 1 and this will be 5 degrees above average for them.

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February 20, 2021 • No Comments • National News

Megan HarrisBy ANDY FIES, ABC News

(HUNTSVILLE, Ark.) — The bitter cold of the past two weeks has imposed a unique burden on Megan and Kenny Harris, who own a farm in Huntsville, Arkansas: Calves now roam their kitchen.

The couple raise 280 head of cattle and it is now calving season. They have had 47 newborns during this cold snap and expect another 95 in the coming weeks. Some of the fragile calves, born in temperatures that have ranged from well below zero at night to just over 10 degrees in recent days, were at immediate risk of freezing.

Without a large enough barn or heat to shelter all the new arrivals, the calves moved into the Harris’ home. Over the 10 days, they have brought 15 calves into their home, as many as seven at a time, penned mostly in the kitchen. Some have been able to get back to their mothers in a day.

But a handful of weaker ones have been in the house for as long as a week.

“It’s been so cold,” said Megan Harris. “I couldn’t just send them back out there like that. They were just weaker than the other ones.”

She spent Saturday saving a newborn.

“When he was born, his mom had him in the snow. So he was about froze,” she said. She warmed him and fed him a substitute for colostrum, the first milk his mother would have given him. “I’ve spent my morning trying to bring him back to life.”

She was successful. “Now I got him standing up,” she added.

Still, the cold has killed seven calves and Kenny Harris is convinced that “had we not brought in those 15 over the past few weeks, we’d have 22 dead.”

Having a mini-herd in your home isn’t all that different from child care, Megan Harris explained.

“They get their bottles three times a day,” she said. And, since diapers aren’t an option, “you just follow them around and you keep cleaning up after them. At first, they’ll kind of stay where they are supposed to. But as I get them feeling better, they’re up and wandering around and mooing at me.”

But keeping all their animals alive in these conditions adds substantial expense to the Harris’ livestock livelihood. Kenny Harris said the extra hay, fuel and feed needed because of the cold has added $2,500 to their already high costs and low margins. Not to mention the added exhaustion.

“It’s work daylight till dark,” he said. With his cattle spread out on nearby farms, he is in constant motion, “cutting ice two or three times a day because they can’t get water,” and delivering hay and feed for the animals “’cause that’s the only way they can make heat.”

The Harrises know their method for rescuing calves from the cold is limited to smaller operations like theirs, but see it as a necessary custom.

“I was raised doing it,” Kenny Harris said. He added, “It don’t matter if it’s gonna cost us money, we’re still gonna do it to try to keep everything going.”

Kenny Harris heaved a sigh of relief when asked about the forecast for next week, which calls for warmer temperatures.

“We just need the snow and ice to leave and then we’ll be all right,” he said.

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February 20, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBY: DANIEL MANZO, ABC NEWS

(NEW YORK) — The major winter blast that has gripped the nation for the last few weeks is finally lifting.

Over 3,000 daily cold temperature records were shattered and 79 all-time cold records were set between Feb. 12 and Feb. 17, according to the National Weather Service.

Dallas reported 139 consecutive hours at freezing or below freezing temperatures, which tied for the city’s seventh-longest cold streak on record. Waco, Texas, spent 205 consecutive hours at or below freezing temperatures, hitting a new all-time record.

In Monroe, Louisiana, an all-time cold duration was broken with 141 consecutive hours below freezing.

But warmer weather is heading to much of the U.S., including the South, which is suffering a water and power crisis in the wake of this week’s storms.

On Saturday the temperature will climb to 48 degrees in Dallas, 60 degrees in Houston and 62 degrees in Del Rio, Texas.

By Wednesday, the temperature is forecast to climb to 71 degrees in Houston and 69 degrees in Dallas.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, a quick hit of snow will blast the upper Midwest, including Chicago.

The snow will arrive in the Great Lakes and parts of the Appalachians by Monday morning.

By Monday afternoon, some of that snow will make its way into the Northeast. Major cities may see some wet snow, but nothing too impactful.

Most areas will only see 1 to 3 inches of snow, while parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and New York may get 3 to 6 inches.

There is some concern that lake effect snow could bring over 6 inches of snow to parts of upstate New York through Tuesday.

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