(NEW YORK) – Former quarterback and current ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Brian Griese had plenty of on-field success across his collegiate and professional career. A national champion in 1997, he entered the NFL Draft and went on to play 11 seasons and win a Super Bowl. For many of those years, however, he was trying to process a tragedy that occurred in his childhood: the loss of his mother.
“I was angry… at God for taking my mom from me because she was such a wonderful person. She was a nurse and she cared for other people long before she cared about herself and was just a wonderful person.”
Brian was 12-years-old when his mother passed away from breast cancer, and says it took him years to actually process the grief because he was reluctant to share his feelings for a long time.
“You’re really at a very formative stage in your development. And I remember feeling like I was the only 12 year old boy in the world that had just lost his mom.”
It even brought on a range of emotions that, while not drawing much public attention, manifested in negative ways across his life: “My ability to form relationships, my work in school, the way that I interacted with people… I had a hard time dealing with the media. I had built these walls around myself so that I can only depend on me to get through tough times. And so when I started losing games in the NFL and the media started to talk negatively about me, I put those walls up even higher and it was a self-destructive way of approaching it… It impacted me in a negative way throughout my life from 12-years-old all the way until 2002.”
That was the year Brian channeled his grief into action. Along with his wife Brook, a licensed clinical psychologist, Brian founded the non-profit Judi’s House, named after his mother. Its mission is to help connect and heal children and families who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
Griese reflected on the achievements of Judi’s House in a conversation with ABC News on Thursday, Children’s Grief Awareness Day. “I had this great opportunity as a professional athlete and a great platform to give back, and I knew that I wanted to help a population that was experiencing the tragedy of losing a loved one, whether that’s a mother or father, brother or sister. And I wanted to support them through that that dark time. I knew that we could prevent some of the negative outcomes that I felt, whether it’s stress, anxiety, depression, teen suicide. We could help to prevent some of those things by building positive coping skills in kids and bringing them together with other children that were experiencing the same thing…. That was the genesis of Judi’s House. And for the past 18 years, we’ve done that work. We’ve served over eleven thousand children and caregivers in that time.”
One of his foundation’s proudest achievements is the way they are able serve people from different walks of life:
“All socioeconomic statuses, all race, religion, creed, and we do so free of charge. When we first started out… we had a lot of folks that came that were from challenging backgrounds because the free service for them was a big deal. And folks that came from more advantaged backgrounds, you would think would go to see individual counselors because they could afford that. What we found now is we have both, from all socioeconomic statuses, that come into this house.”
This year, as Judi’s House acknowledges Children’s Grief Awareness Day, they do so amid a pandemic that has caused grief and heightened anxiety for many families. Griese says the foundation has had to adjust, and feels now is as important a time as ever to help connect people to one another and process grief together:
“The in-person part of what we do is critical… so we pivoted pretty early on in March to providing telehealth services, counseling services… and we added in video portions of that in June… But it’s important that we continue to provide that connection to our families because their grief does not stop because of COVID and the pandemic. I think more people are going to be aware of grief and loss because of what we’re all experiencing. It’s a time where I would encourage people to create the space to talk about loss and to talk about death. We are a grief-avoidance society, and I think we need to do a better job of having these conversations among adults and then extrapolating that to conversations with our kids, which is probably most important.”
narvikk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, EMILY SHAPIRO, ERIN SCHUMAKER, IVAN PEREIRA, JON HAWORTH and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
Over 56.4 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks. The criteria for diagnosis — through clinical means or a lab test — has also varied from country to country.
The United States is the worst-affected nation, with more than 11.5 million diagnosed cases and at least 250,898 deaths.
Nearly 200 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least 10 of which are in crucial phase three studies. Of those 10 potential vaccines in late-stage trials, there are currently five that will be available in the United States if approved.
Here’s how the news is developing Thursday. All times Eastern:
Nov 19, 12:33 pm One person dying of COVID-19 every 17 seconds in Europe
More than 29,000 people in Europe died last week of COVID-19, equalling one about every 17 seconds, said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the continent.
Some intensive care units in Switzerland are at full capacity, he said, while in France, intensive care wards have been at over 95% capacity for 10 days.
“Every time we choose to follow guidance, stop the spread of misinformation or address denial, we contribute to preventing lives lost,” Kluge said. “This is avoidable.” ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report. Nov 19, 12:06 pm CDC predicts at least 276,000 Americans dead by Dec. 12
The CDC predicts that between 276,000 and 298,000 Americans will be dead from COVID-19 by Dec. 12.
Earlier this month, the CDC forecasted that the U.S. would hit at least 250,000 deaths by Thanksgiving weekend. That grim milestone was reached on Wednesday. ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
Nov 19, 12:05 pm CDC recommends against Thanksgiving travel
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that Americans do not travel for Thanksgiving.
“We’re seeing exponential growth in cases,” CDC COVID-19 incident manager Dr. Henry Walke said. “The opportunity to translocate disease or infection from one part of the country to another leads to our recommendation to avoid travel at this time.”
United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest all reported a spike in cancellations over the last week. ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
Nov 19, 11:23 am Los Angeles may see another stay-at-home order
With the pandemic intensifying in Los Angeles County, another stay-at-home order is possible in “the near future,” said Christina Ghaly, the county’s health department director, “if we can’t get the numbers down.”
“Earlier on in the pandemic, we were seeing the cases among people who had known risk factors: they were in congregate living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, they had a clear exposure in their workplace,” she told “GMA3: What You Need To Know.” “Now, the transmission is just simply much more widespread. And it seems to be due to the fact that people are mingling with others outside of their household, maybe are letting their guard down with their mask or not wearing the mask, and just not always following those basic public health practices.”
With Thanksgiving one week away, Ghaly warned, “A test can’t be used as a free pass for getting into a social gathering with people outside of your household.”
“The test result is really only accurate on the day you took the test,” she explained. “When it comes back a day later, you could have turned to be positive that day, or certainly the day after that or the day after that. So while the test is helpful and very critical part of helping us to curb the transmission of COVID when combined with other measures, by itself, it doesn’t necessarily do anything. So I would encourage people, please don’t use a test to go out with your friends on the weekend or to engage and intermingle with people that are outside of your household. ”
Nov 19, 10:13 am Fauci says his frustration ‘borders on pain’: ‘This is a public health crisis’
With over 11.5 million cases and more than 250,000 deaths in the U.S., the “flu doesn’t even come close,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told the USA Today editorial board.
Fauci said his “frustration” with those not taking the pandemic seriously “borders on pain.”
“Either people don’t want to look at the data or they look at the data and they say it’s fake. No, it isn’t fake,” Fauci said. “This is a global issue. I tell the people who deny or think that this is nothing, do you mean that every single country in Europe is doing the same thing, is making things up? They’re not.”
“Get rid of these ridiculous conspiracy theories and realize this is a public health crisis,” Fauci said. We don’t want to shut down as a nation because of the psychological and economic consequences of that. But we at least have got to be consistent in doing some fundamental things, so that’s what concerns me. We’re in a vulnerable position.” ABC News’ Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
Nov 19, 11:16 am Maryland football coach tests positive, Saturday’s game canceled
The University of Maryland’s head football coach, Michael Locksley, has tested positive for COVID-19, Maryland’s athletics department announced.
This Saturday’s game against Michigan State has been canceled and won’t be rescheduled.
Locksley, who tested positive Wednesday and is isolating at home, said in a statement, “I am feeling strong, with only minor symptoms.”
“I will continue to lead this program virtually and our game preparations for Indiana [set for Nov. 28] will begin immediately,” he said. “This virus is testing our players and coaches right now, but I have no doubt that we will emerge as a stronger unit for having gone through this together.”
Nov 19, 8:26 am Africa’s case count tops two million
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa has surpassed two million.
As of Thursday morning, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 2,013,388 cases since the start of the pandemic, including 48,408 deaths. South Africa currently accounts for more than 37% of confirmed cases on the 54-nation continent and over 42% of the deaths.
The true number of COVID-19 infections across Africa is feared to be much higher, as testing and health care access remains a challenge in many areas. Nevertheless, the continent of 1.3 billion people has fared better than other regions amid the pandemic, possibly due swift actions taken early to curb transmission as well as decades of experience with emerging infectious diseases.
According to a weekly epidemiological report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization, the African region saw a 22% increase in new cases over the past seven days compared to the previous week, while death rates remained similar. South Africa, Kenya, Algeria and Ethiopia reported the largest number of new weekly cases in the region.
Nov 19, 7:40 am Former CDC head warns nation could be mourning 300,000 deaths by end of year
As the United States mourns the loss of a quarter of a million people to the coronavirus pandemic, the former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the death toll could reach 300,000 by the end of the year.
“It is absolutely mind-numbing to think that we have lost that many people — each individual representing a friend, a family member, someone whose life had value,” Dr. Richard Besser, now the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview Thursday on Good Morning America.
“One of the things that’s so true in public health is that it’s much easier for people to grasp the meaning when two or three people die in an accident than it is to truly understand what it means to lose 250,000 people,” he added. “I worry, Robin, that if we don’t change what we’re doing, we’re going to be having a conversation before the end of the year about 300,000 people.”
When pressed on that grim prediction, Besser replied, “We’re losing more than a thousand people a day, and the numbers are rising.”
Nov 19, 7:24 am Intubated COVID-19 patient plays violin to thank his caregivers
A COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at a Utah hospital brought staff to tears when he played his violin for them to show his appreciation and help lift their spirts.
Grover Wilhelmsen, a retired orchestra teacher, was intubated and unable to talk, but he used pen and paper to communicate with one of the nurses taking care of him at Intermountain Healthcare’s McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah.
“Toward the middle of my shift he wrote, ‘You know, I really want to play here at the hospital. What do you think about my wife bringing in my violin and viola?'” Ciara Sase, a registered nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital, said in a press release from Intermountain Healthcare. “I said to him, ‘We’d love to hear you play, it would bring so much brightness and positivity into our environment.'”
Sase and her coworkers talked through the details of Wilhelmsen’s request and, after getting approval from doctors, the team agreed they could manage it as long as Sase stayed in the patient’s room to monitor him while he played.
Wilhelmsen’s wife of 47 years, Diana, brought his violin and viola into the hospital, along with some music books. Wilhelmsen then played church hymns and other songs including the Tennessee Waltz.
Because all ICU rooms have glass doors that are kept closed, Sase turned on her Vocera communication device so her colleagues on the other side could hear Wilhelmsen play.
“About a dozen caregivers gathered to watch and listen in the ICU,” she said. “It brought tears to my eyes. For all the staff to see a patient doing this while intubated was unbelievable.”
Matt Harper, another registered nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital, was one of the staff members who came to listen.
“It was honestly shocking to be there when he picked up the violin. It felt like I was in a dream,” Harper said in the press release. “I’m used to patients being miserable or sedated while being intubated, but Grover made an unfortunate situation into something positive. This was by far one of my favorite memories in the ICU that I’ve had. It was a small light in the darkness of COVID.”
Wilhelmsen played multiple times over the course of two days before he became too ill and required sedation. Sase said she would be in the room with him for about two hours each time he played.
“Afterward, I told him how thankful we were and how much it meant to us,” she said. “Before he took a turn for the worse, he continued to write things to me such as, ‘It’s the very least I could do,’ and ‘I do it for you guys because you all are sacrificing so much to take care of me.'”
After spending more than a month battling COVID-19 at McKay-Dee Hospital, Wilhelmsen was discharged from the ICU to a long-term acute care facility where he’s expected to recover from the disease.
“He truly is special and made a mark on all of us,” Sase said. “When I started to cry in the room after he was done playing, he wrote to me, ‘Quit crying. Just smile,’ and he smiled at me.”
Nov 19, 6:15 am US Coast Guard vessel returns to base due to COVID-19 outbreak
A U.S. Coast Guard vessel on a counter-narcotics patrol was forced to return to its base in California on Wednesday, after 11 crew members tested positive for COVID-19.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton set out from its homeport in Alameda on Oct. 28 to begin a counter-narcotics patrol in the Eastern Pacific. Prior to departure, the crew was required to self-quarantine and test negative for COVID-19 twice, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.
Last week, several crew members began to develop mild COVID-19 symptoms and were administered rapid testing kits on board. All affected personnel and their close contacts were identified and quarantined, according to the press release.
Coast Guard medical staff conducted testing of the ship’s entire crew, who then went into quarantine. The infected crew members are receiving medical care, according to the press release.
“The crew’s health and safety is my highest priority,” Stratton’s commanding officer, Capt. Bob Little, said in a statement Wednesday. “Stratton has a highly resilient crew, always dedicated to the mission. Our mission today is to get healthy so we can continue our service to the nation.”
Nov 19, 5:51 am Russia surpasses two million total cases
Russia’s COVID-19 case count surpassed the two million mark on Thursday morning, as the number of new infections and daily deaths hit record highs.
Russia confirmed 23,610 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the country’s highest single-day tally since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, an all-time high of 463 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide over the past day, marking the third straight day that Russia set a new record for its daily death toll from the disease, according to the country’s coronavirus response headquarters.
Russia’s cumulative total now stands at 2,015,608 cases, including 34,850 deaths, according to the coronavirus response headquarters. It’s the second country in Europe and the fifth in the world to reach the grim milestone of two million total cases.
The Eastern European nation of 145 million people has the fifth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India, Brazil and France, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Nov 19, 5:03 am US reports over 170K new cases
There were 170,161 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Tuesday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the sixth day in a row that the country has reported over 150,000 newly diagnosed infections. Tuesday’s count is slightly less than the all-time high of 177,224 on Nov. 13.
An additional 1,848 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Tuesday, the highest since May 7 but still under a peak of 2,609 new deaths on April 15.
A total of 11,529,818 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 250,537 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4.
Courtesy of Rodolfo LopezBy ASHLEY SCHWARTZ-LAVARES, ERIELLE RESHEF, LAUREN PEARLE, and HALEY YAMADA, ABC News
(TEMPE, Az.) — New mothers often experience many sleepless, tired nights taking care of their newborns. But for Reyna Lopez, the past five months have been a brutal nightmare — she was diagnosed with COVID-19 just two months since giving birth.
“I had a fever. I had chills. I would get very dizzy and lightheaded when I would have any movement — sitting down, standing up, just turning my head. I was getting nauseous. My body was hurting,” said Reyna.
The 31-year-old tested positive for the coronavirus in June. She was admitted to a hospital in Tempe, Arizona, just a few months after giving birth to her son, Noah.
Lopez was released from the hospital at the end of October after spending months in the intensive care unit on a ventilator. Afterward, she had to go into isolation from Noah, her two elder daughters and her husband, Rodolfo.
“Our life got flipped upside-down,” Rodolfo Lopez said. “We have three kids. My 4-year-old kept asking, ‘Where’s mommy? Where’s mommy?’ “It’s just three months of that. It’s just this numbing pain.”
Like many of the 11 million Americans who’ve been infected by the virus, Reyna Lopez is part of a group of people who experience lasting symptoms even after the virus has left the body, known as “long-haulers.”
“I still am on oxygen,” she said. “I try not to be as much. That way I can get my lungs stronger. But my taste has completely changed. So there’s a lot of foods that I don’t eat anymore that [once] were my favorite.”
Despite her symptoms, Lopez said that she’s slowly turning the corner now that she is back with her family making up for time lost.
“My kids keep me going. My husband thinks I’m spoiling them, but I’m just making up for it,” said Lopez.
An estimated 10% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 go on to experience prolonged symptoms, according to the British Medical Journal. That translates into over a million Americans who could potentially experience debilitating symptoms long after they’ve recovered from the infection.
The alarming phenomenon has prompted a slew of post-COVID-19 care centers to open across the U.S. Dr. Zijian Chen, director of the Mount Sinai Center for Post-COVID Care in New York City, says long-hauler symptoms can affect a person physically and cognitively.
“You have patients with cognitive dysfunction, you have difficulty concentrating, having very bad fatigue, and also patients who are very [physically] deconditioned,” said Chen.
According to the Mount Sinai Health System, the majority of long-haulers they’ve treated are between 20 and 40 years old, they’re most often women and they have no known underlying health conditions.
Chen said the center was launched in May when the city was recovering from its apex of viral cases.
“Many of these patients admitted to the hospital, they knew [they needed] some sort of follow up… We wanted to make sure that when they went home that they had a good landing place and that we’re continuing their care,” said Chen.
She added that the demand for post-disease care is increasing across the country, and that that hospitals in other states have begun to open their own care centers.
Along with physical care, COVID-19 patients often are left wanting more information and a support network of others affected by the illness.
Diana Berrent, a New York mother of two and a COVID-19 survivor, founded Survivor Corps. The nationwide group of COVID-19 survivors crowdsources firsthand knowledge about life after the virus.
Berrent said she founded the group after her own personal experience with the virus.
“I went into isolation in one world and I came out to a very, very different world,” said Berrent. “You have a novel virus, and you have no information whatsoever… I started having gastro[intestinal] issues. I couldn’t find anything on the internet.”
The group’s Facebook page now has nearly 120,000 members who share their experiences, advice and support. Many of its members say they’re still fighting long-term symptoms and report feeling anxious or depressed.
“Sometimes you just need to talk to somebody who understands what you’re going through. And Survivor Corps offers that,” said Berrent. “As a collection, it is inspiring just people coming together in a moment of need to help each other and help each other through.”
The group has also helped researchers examine trends in the long-hauler virus population, including a recent survey by Indiana University’s School of Medicine, which found that fatigue is the most common of the top 50 symptoms reported by long-haulers.
Chen said that scientists are still trying to figure out the best way to care for these patients. He said that the number one way to prevent long-term effects is to protect yourself from getting the virus in the first place.
“Listen to your doctors and your health officials,” he said. “Wear a mask and social distance, because the best way to prevent yourself from getting long-term symptoms is actually to prevent yourself from getting COVID in the first place.”
Myriam Borzee/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, EMILY SHAPIRO, ERIN SCHUMAKER, IVAN PEREIRA and JON HAWORTH, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
Over 55.7 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks. The criteria for diagnosis — through clinical means or a lab test — has also varied from country to country.
The United States is the worst-affected nation, with more than 11.3 million diagnosed cases and at least 249,430 deaths.
Nearly 200 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least 10 of which are in crucial phase three studies. Of those 10 potential vaccines in late-stage trials, there are currently five that will be available in the United States if approved.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
Nov 18, 1:39 pm
US facing ‘worst rate of rise in cases’
White House coronavirus task force member Adm. Brett Giroir saod the U.S. is facing “the worst rate of rise in cases that we’ve seen.”
Though “vaccines are around the corner,” Giroir said, state and local officials must be “very rigorous” about limiting certain businesses, limiting crowds in indoor spaces and enforcing mask use.
“If we do not do that, we will lose tens of thousands of Americans by the time the vaccine is out and widely distributed,” he said.
Giroir also urged Americans to remember that a negative test is not a “free pass” to forgo masks and social distancing over the holidays.
“That negative test today does not mean you’re going to be negative tomorrow or the next day, and certainly not by Thanksgiving. And it is not a free pass to go without all the important measures that we want, particularly mask wearing, physical distancing and following all the recommendations that the CDC has for the holidays,” Giroir said.
ABC News’ Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
Nov 18, 12:28 pm
New surge hits South Korea
South Korea is on edge after a surge in new COVID-19 cases this week.
Since the outbreak in late February, South Korea has mostly maintained low COVID-19 number.
But this week this country is seeing a steady increase and hit the highest in 81 days at 313 newly confirmed cases.
South Korea now has 29,311 cases and 496 deaths. ABC News’ Joohee Cho Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
Nov 18, 11:31 am Delta Air Lines extending middle-seat block through March
Delta Air Lines will continue to block middle seats through March 2021 “because customers tell us that adds confidence to their travel experience,” CEO Ed Bastian told “GMA 3: What You Need to Know.”
Bastian stressed that Delta hasn’t “pulled back at all with our safety and cleaning protocols.”
“Every airplane gets sanitized with electric spray fogging before we take off. We continue to focus on the filtration systems ,and they’re state-of-the-art, and customers are required to wear masks,” he said. “We don’t have a single documented transmission of COVID aboard any of our planes.”
“While travel is slow, it’s steadily improving,” Bastian said. “We’re expecting over the Thanksgiving holiday period, starting on Friday for the next 10 days, about 2 million customers.” ABC News’ Andrea Amiel and Lataya Rothmiller contributed to this report.
Nov 18, 10:17 am Nurse on the picket line speaks out: ‘We’re putting our foot down’
Jim Gentile is one of hundreds of registered nurses who have gone on strike at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, some 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The nurses and their union say the main issue is inadequate staffing due to low wages, which they fear will only worsen as COVID-19 hospitalizations increase over the winter months.
“We’re putting our foot down now because we know it’s going to get twice as bad,” Gentile told “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
Gentile, who works in the surgical services unit, said the hospital suspended all elective and non-emergency surgeries when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit earlier this year. He and his coworkers were then sent to other floors to take care of COVID-19 patients.
“I did postmortem care on more bodies in two months than I have in 42 years of nursing. That’s how bad it was,” he said. “That’s not my job. Usually, we wake people up from surgery and everybody’s happy and we send them home. So this was really quite a shift.”
The hospital resumed all surgeries over the summer and Gentile was able to return to his unit. But as COVID-19 hospitalizations tick back up, Gentile worries he and his coworkers will again be taken out of their area of expertise and sent to the coronavirus wards.
“In two weeks, we’ve doubled the number of COVID patients in our hospital,” he said. “There are not enough nurses to take care of the patients.”
The nurses on the picket line are fighting for a fair contract and better wages.
Gentile said the hospital desperately needs to hire more nurses to help care for the influx of COVID-19 patients, but the wages are too low and can’t compete with other area hospitals. In the last two years, 243 nurses have left St. Mary’s Medical Center, according to Gentile.
“When they showed us the wages, we realized no nurses are going to come to our institution with wages this low,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to recruit, we’re not going to be able to retain.”
Gentile, who has watched coworkers and friends die from COVID-19, said it’s a matter of life and death.
“They don’t understand the PTSD that nurses are going through and all they care about is keeping, you know, the budget, the bottom line, the margin,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve lost. We’ve lost family, we’ve lost friends. We put our lives at stake.”
When asked for comment, a St. Mary Medical Center spokesperson told ABC News the hospital has offered a wage increase, which the nurses rejected, and that outside nurses have been hired to fill in during the strike.
“We respect the union members’ right to strike, and we remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach agreement on a fair, consistent and sustainable initial contract for St. Mary nurses,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We look forward to the day productive negotiations can resume.”
Nov 18, 8:38 am Europe sees decline in cases for first time in months, but deaths continue to rise: WHO
The European region saw a 10% decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases over the past week for the first time in more than three months, according to the latest weekly epidemiological report from the World Health Organization.
The report, dated Tuesday, said the decline is attributed to “the strengthening of public health and social measures across the region.”
However, the number of new deaths from the disease “has increased substantially” in Europe, with an 18% jump over the past week in comparison to the previous one.
The European region recorded 46% of all cases and 49% of all deaths reported globally over the past week, with nearly two million new cases and almost 30,000 new deaths. The countries reporting the highest number of cases during that time were Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Romania and Austria, according to the report.
The nations with the highest weekly mortality rates — exceeding 60 deaths per 1 million population — were the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, North Macedonia, Armenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, France, Croatia and Montenegro. The United Kingdom was the first country in the region to record over 50,000 cumulative deaths, the report said.
Nov 18, 6:57 am Pfizer vaccine 95% effective in final analysis, plans to seek emergency authorization ‘within days’
Pfizer and partner BioNTech announced Wednesday that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate is more than 95% effective in the final analysis of its massive Phase 3 trial and has reached a key safety milestone that will allow the company to apply for authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “within days.”
If the FDA gives the vaccine the green light, Pfizer will likely make history as the first company with an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine. It has plans to start delivering millions of doses of the potentially lifesaving vaccine to the most vulnerable overnight once the government gives a green light, possibly before the end of 2020, the company said.
Just last week, Pfizer and BioNTech announced their vaccine was more than 90% effective, according to a preliminary analysis based on the first 94 patients to develop symptomatic COVID-19 in a trial of more than 43,000 volunteers.
But with the pandemic raging in the United States and across the globe, it didn’t take long for even more volunteers to become infected, quickly bringing Pfizer’s trial to 170 COVID-positive cases — exceeding the threshold needed for a “final” analysis on the vaccine’s effectiveness.
In a press release, delivered before the stock market opened, Pfizer announced that among the 170 volunteers to develop COVID-19 in the clinical trial, 162 had been given placebo shots, while only eight volunteers to become infected were given the real vaccine.
This means Pfizer’s vaccine is roughly 95% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. The updated efficacy data follows news from competitor Moderna, which announced earlier this week that its vaccine was 94.5% effective in its own preliminary analysis.
It’s not known yet what level of immunity or how long the immunity lasts after receiving the vaccines. Trial volunteers will be followed for two years to answer questions like durability of protection.
Pfizer also announced another major milestone Wednesday — enough safety data to merit FDA authorization. The FDA requires at least two months of safety data among at least half of the trial volunteers before it will consider granting a limited emergency authorization. Pfizer has now hit key milestones that will allow the company to apply for this limited authorization, which could happen in the coming days.
Nov 18, 6:02 am Tokyo reports highest daily increase in cases
Tokyo confirmed 493 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest single-day tally for Japan’s capital since the pandemic began.
According to local media reports, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is preparing to raise the COVID-19 alert level to the highest of four ranks and is also considering asking bars and restaurants to shorten their hours again as part of efforts to curb the rising infection rate.
Meanwhile, Japan confirmed more than 2,000 new cases on Wednesday for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Overall, the East Asian country has reported more than 120,000 cases including just under 2,000 deaths, according to the latest figures from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The recent surge in infections comes amid the Japanese government’s controversial “Go to Travel” campaign, which encourages domestic travel to help boost the economy by providing residents with subsidies of up to 50% on hotels, restaurants and transportation within Japan.
Nov 18, 5:24 am Russia sees record-high deaths for second straight day
Russia registered 456 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, setting a new single-day record for the second straight day.
An additional 20,985 new cases of COVID-19 were also confirmed nationwide over the past day. Russia’s cumulative total now stands at 1,991,998 cases with 34,387 deaths, according to the country’s coronavirus response headquarters.
Moscow remains the epicenter of the country’s outbreak and recent surge. Nearly 20% of the newly confirmed cases — 4,174 — and more than 16% of the new deaths — 76 — were reported in the capital, according to Russia’s coronavirus response headquarters.
Despite the growing number of infections and deaths, Russian authorities have repeatedly said they have no plans to impose another nationwide lockdown.
The Eastern European country of 145 million people has the fifth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India, Brazil and France, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Nov 18, 5:06 am France becomes first country in Europe to reach two million cases
France’s tally of COVID-19 cases has hit the two million mark, becoming the first country in Europe to do so and the fourth in the world.
French Director General of Health Jerome Salomon announced Tuesday evening that the country had reached the grim milestone of 2,036,755 confirmed cases, along with an “unprecedented number of hospitalizations” of over 33,000.
“Whether in cities or in rural areas, all regions, all metropolitan departments are affected,” Salomon said. “This second wave, which we are all facing, is massive, deadly and is straining all of our caregivers and our health system as a whole.”
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday that while the country was regaining control over COVID-19, it’s still too soon to lift the second nationwide lockdown, which was imposed on Oct. 30 to contain the spread of the virus.
The French government has set a Dec. 1 deadline for ending the lockdown but said it could extend it if case numbers don’t decline fast enough.
Nov 18, 4:27 am US reports over 150K new cases for fifth straight day
There were 161,934 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Tuesday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the fifth day in a row that the country has reported over 150,000 newly diagnosed infections. Tuesday’s count is slightly less than the all-time high of 177,224 on Nov. 13.
An additional 1,707 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Tuesday, the highest since mid-May but still under a peak of 2,609 new deaths on April 15.
A total of 11,359,804 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 248,687 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4.
U.S. Missile Defense Agency/U.S. NavyBy LUIS MARTINEZ, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — In a first-of-its-kind test, the United States has successfully used a small, ship-fired missile to intercept a target Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), according to the Missile Defense Agency. The successful test shows the U.S. military now has another missile defense system capable of defending against North Korean ICBM’s aimed at the United States.
“The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and U.S. Navy sailors aboard an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System-equipped destroyer intercepted and destroyed a threat-representative Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) target with a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missile during a flight test demonstration in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii, Nov. 16,” according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency.
A target ICBM missile launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean traveled thousands of miles towards the body of water between Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States mainland. The destroyer USS John Finn that was positioned in those waters then fired an SM3 missile that successfully intercepted the target ICBM. The interceptor missile was directed towards its target using tracking information provided by an array of sensor systems designed to monitor any incoming missile attack on the United States.
The successful intercept marked the first time that a target ICBM had been intercepted by a ship-launched interceptor missile.
Previous interceptor tests have been carried out with the much larger Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) missiles based in Alaska and California that are designed to prevent a North Korean ICBM attack on the U.S.
The successful ship-fired missile test shows that another layer of missile defense could become available to counter North Korea’s growing long-range missile inventory. Last month it unveiled what appears to be the world’s largest mobile-launched ICBM that could threaten the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific region.
Originally designed to intercept intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the SM3 has now shown it can be used to defend against longer range ICBM’s that reach much higher in the atmosphere.
“This was an incredible accomplishment and critical milestone for the Aegis BMD SM-3 Block IIA program,” said MDA Director Vice Admiral Jon Hill in a press release announcing the successful test.
“The Department is investigating the possibility of augmenting the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system by fielding additional sensors and weapon systems to hedge against unexpected developments in the missile threat,” said Hill.
“We have demonstrated that an Aegis BMD-equipped vessel equipped with the SM-3 Block IIA missile can defeat an ICBM-class target, which is a step in the process of determining its feasibility as part of an architecture for layered defense of the homeland,” he said.
The missile test was originally scheduled for May, but was delayed due to restrictions on the movement of personnel and equipment that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic.
The SM3 Block IIA missile is jointly built by Raytheon Missiles and Defense and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The successful intercept was designated as Flight Test Aegis Weapon System-44 (FTM-44), and was the sixth flight test of the SM3 Block IIA missile fired from a Navy ship equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
Joe Faraoni/ESPN ImagesBy: ERIC MOLLO, ABC News
