BackyardProduction/iStockBy DR. HEATHER J. KAGAN, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A deadly and potent opioid, nicknamed “ISO,” first hit the illicit drug market in the United States last year, and since August 2019 has taken the lives of at least 19 Americans, alarming addiction experts and prompting the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to take action. Most of the deaths occurred in the Midwest, but ISO has also appeared in Canada and Europe.
ISO, short for Isotonitazene, “is a white or yellow powder [that] can be mixed with other substances,” said Dr. Roueen Rafeyan, the chief medical officer of the Gateway Foundation and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University.
It’s a manufactured opioid, also called a “synthetic opioid,” similar to fentanyl but estimated to be even more potent, Rafeyan said. “In humans, it is probably 60 times stronger than morphine,” he added.
Since the dawn of the opioid epidemic, doctors and law enforcement officials have been grappling with wave after wave of new illicit substances. First, it was prescription painkillers. Then, when legislative change made those more difficult to traffic, the market turned to back to heroin, and later, the much more potent synthetic fentanyl.
Now, experts are concerned ISO might be the newest dangerous illegal opioid claiming lives. ISO has actually been around since the 1950s, but was not thought to be particularly threatening to human health — until now. It wasn’t until June of this year that the DEA first categorized it as a “schedule I” drug, meaning that it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” like heroin.
“[It] went under the radar,” said Dr. Harshal Kirane, the medical director of Wellbridge Addiction Treatment and Research.
It’s a derivative of etonitazene, a synthetic opioid first developed by pharmaceutical companies to treat pain, “but because it was really strong and had side effects, it really never gained medical use,” Rafeyan explained.
So why is ISO suddenly making a devastating appearance?
“One of the primary reasons ISO in particular has resurfaced now is that China banned fentanyl and all of its derivatives in 2019,” Kirane said. Because fentanyl was suddenly less available, manufacturers started producing other synthetic opioids to meet demand, he explained.
As the new kid on the block, ISO was also able “to evade regulation,” said Dr. Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine at University of Southern California and the medical director of jail health services at LAC+USC. In other words, manufacturing, distributing, possessing and using ISO wasn’t illegal until the DEA made it a schedule I drug.
But regulation isn’t the only thing ISO has successfully evaded — it’s also been deceiving clinicians and people who struggle with substance use.
“Routine tests don’t pick it up,” and while 19 people were identified as dying of ISO overdoses, this is probably and underestimate, Rafeyan said. ISO was only linked to the 19 deaths after those bodies underwent autopsies.
Rafeyan described a particularly worrisome cluster of cases with devastating consequences due to ISO’s invisibility, where “known cocaine users [bought] cocaine, used it, overdosed and died, and they thought that it was maybe laced with fentanyl, but actually the cases are turning out to be ISO.”
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Trotzky-Sirr said, “We see that people are going to different suppliers for their drugs and there’s just more unknown.”
Gateway Foundation, the largest non-profit substance use treatment center in the country, is actively developing a urine drug test that will detect ISO, aimed to provide results “within a couple of hours,” Rafeyan said.
He also emphasized the importance of rapid testing for getting people who have overdosed on ISO life-saving treatment. A medication called Naloxone, also known as Narcan, reverses the effects of opioids and can prevent death from an overdose if administered quickly.
“There are some reports that actually Narcan does work for [ISO], but you need higher doses and repeated dosing,” Rafeyan said. Testing for ISO will avoid situations where a patient who has used ISO is given a standard amount of Naloxone “and it doesn’t work, and the providers and doctors start thinking maybe this is something else,” missing an opportunity to save a life.
Naloxone comes in a nasal spray that can be administered by the public to anyone suspected of having overdosed on an opioid.
Overall, Kirane said, “ISO represents the next step in this ongoing cycle of more readily available, more potent synthetic opioids.”
So, what we can do about it? Getting the word out and making Naloxone accessible are two good places to start.
“It is really important for everyone to be aware of [ISO] — the health care community, as well as the general population,” Rafeyan said.
Trozky-Sirr said, “Naloxone should be made available and given to many of our community members and our patients.”
Heather J. Kagan, M.D., is an internal medicine resident physician at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
william87/iStockBy ALEX STONE and MINA KAJI, ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — There is a mystery unfolding in Los Angeles. It wasn’t Buzz Lightyear or Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man,” but pilots landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday evening reported seeing a man wearing a jetpack flying near their planes.
American Airlines flight 1997 from Philadelphia to L.A. was the first to report in.
“Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jetpack,” the American Airlines pilot radioed to air traffic control, according to recordings by LiveATC.net.
Air traffic controllers sounded stunned in response and asked the pilot for more details.
“American 1997… Okay…. Were they off to your left side or right side?” the controller asked.
The pilot said the man was flying with a jetpack at 3,000 feet and only about 300 yards away from the plane, Airbus A321.
Shortly after that, another pilot reported that he, too, saw a man in a jetpack flying near their plane.
“We just saw the guy passing by us in the jetpack,” the SkyWest pilot told controllers.
Other aircraft were then immediately warned to use caution because of a man wearing a jetpack flying in the path of planes.
“You don’t hear that every day,” a JetBlue pilot said. “Only in L.A.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the report was turned over to the Los Angeles Police. Authorities have not found any man with a jetpack, and who or what came close to the plane remains a mystery. The FAA says an investigation is underway.
According to the FAA, reports of unmanned aircraft sightings from pilots, law enforcement personnel and the general public have increased dramatically over the past two years. The agency says it receives more than 100 such reports each month. If, in fact, the sighting was of a man with a jetpack, it would have been illegal for him to fly in commercial airline airspace or to fly alongside planes.
There are some human jetpacks in development that can reach altitudes of up to 12,000 feet with price tags of a half-million dollars.
“The size, weight of a person in a jet pack impacting an airplane at the exact wrong spot could potentially bring that airliner down,” ABC News Contributor and retired Marine Col. Steve Ganyard said. “This is why it’s so important for when these technologies come along — drones, jetpacks, taxis in the sky — that people need to fly them in a responsible way and not put the flying public in danger.”
An FBI spokesperson told ABC News “the FBI is aware of the reports by pilots on Sunday and is working to determine what occurred.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
(LOUISVILLE) — Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor who allegedly opened fire at the officers who shot and killed her, announced Tuesday he’s suing the city of Louisville, its police and others, for immunity against his actions that night under Kentucky’s “stand your ground” law.
Walker, 27, and a licensed gun owner, was initially charged with attempted murder and assault following the March 13 incident, but those charges were dropped. Kentucky’s attorney general and the FBI are still investigating Taylor’s shooting, and Walker said the suit would prevent officials from re-arresting and charging him for any crime related to the incident.
“I was raised by a good family. I am a legal gun owner and I would never knowingly shoot at a police officer,” he said at a news conference.
On March 13, three undercover Louisville officers, Myles Cosgrove, Brett Hankison and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, executed a no-knock warrant at the apartment where Taylor and Walker were living. The officers contend that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was shipping drugs to the address.
The couple was asleep when the officers allegedly tried to break down the door, which prompted Walker, a USPS worker, to get his licensed gun and fire at the door, according to the lawsuit.
The officers returned fire, killing Taylor, 26, an EMT, in her sleep and no drugs were found in the residence, police said. Mattingly was struck in the leg during the incident, according to police.
Taylor’s death gained national attention from activists all over the world who have called for the officers to be disciplined and criminally charged. As of Sept. 1, only one officer, Hankison, has been fired while Cosgrove and Mattingly have been placed on administrative duties.
Walker was immediately arrested after the shooting and released into home confinement less than two weeks later due to COVID concerns in the jail. In May, Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine announced the charges against Walker were dropped as the FBI and state attorney general investigated the shooting.
Walker told reporters that the charges were made to silence him.
“I can no longer remain silent,” he said.
Walker’s attorney, Steve Romines, said his client has never been in trouble with the law before and had a legal right to own the gun. The suit contends the state’s “stand your ground” law “protects all Kentuckians who seek to protect themselves or loved ones in self-defense.”
The suit said that Walker asked, “Who is it?” three times to no response before the officers broke open the door.
“Kenny immediately reacted by firing a single shot to scare away the intruder or intruders,” the suit said.
Romines said he is still waiting to get a ballistics report, but questioned whether Mattingly was struck by his client’s bullet or friendly fire.
“It is still six months later and they’re still trying to figure out what happened in that apartment,” he said at the news conference.
In addition to preventing future prosecution, Walker is seeking damages in part for the gross negligence of the police “for the trauma, humiliation, indignity, physical pain, mental suffering, or mental anguish he suffered,” the suit said.
Jean Porter, a spokeswoman for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, said in a statement to ABC News that her office cannot comment on the specifics of the pending litigation.
“As the mayor has said, Breonna Taylor’s death was a tragedy, and justice, peace, and healing are what is needed for her, for her loved ones and for our community,” she said in a statement.
A spokesman for Wine’s office told ABC News that the office was not served as of Tuesday afternoon and could not comment on the suit. The Louisville Police Department could not be reached for comment.
narvikk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 850,000 people worldwide.
Over 25.4 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 criteria for diagnosis — through clinical means or a lab test — has varied from country-to-country. Still, 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.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the virus has rapidly spread to every continent except Antarctica.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than six million diagnosed cases and at least 183,598 deaths. California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 712,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 632,000 cases and over 623,000 cases respectively.
Nearly 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, six of which are in crucial phase three trials.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Sep 01, 11:03 am Schools in Greece to reopen Sept. 14
Schools in Greece will reopen on Sept. 14, the government announced Tuesday.
Masks will be mandated indoors. Students in third grade and younger will be taught how to wear their masks properly.
Greece has 10,317 COVID-19 cases and 266 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
“The pandemic’s evolution is dynamic,” Greek Education Minister Niki Kerameus told reporters in Athens on Tuesday, adding that measures will be adjusted as necessary on local, regional and national levels.
“We will not hesitate to adopt measures that are more austere depending on the progression of the pandemic,” Kerameus said. ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
Sep 01, 11:00 am Alaska, Montana added to New York’s travel advisory list
Alaska and Montana have been added to New York’s travel advisory list, which requires people traveling to the Empire State from a high-coronavirus area to quarantine for two weeks, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.
The states and territories currently on New York’s list are: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Wisconsin.
The list applies to areas with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a one-week rolling average or areas with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a one-week rolling average.
New York was the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic in March and April, but of those tested across New York state on Monday, less than 1% were positive, Cuomo said.
New York currently has 109 coronavirus patients in ICUs — the lowest number since March 15.
Sep 01, 10:49 am Start of in-person school delayed in NYC
The start of in-person learning in New York City public schools has been delayed to Sept. 21, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
The district’s blended-learning plan was scheduled to begin on Sept. 10.
“Teachers who usually get two days of professional development at the beginning of the school year will now get nine,” schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said. “We’ve heard from everyone in our schools that have said we need some more time.”
In averting a strike authorization vote by the United Federation of Teachers later Tuesday, de Blasio agreed to delay the start of school to Sept. 16 for all-remote instruction. In-person learning, which is limited to a few days per week, will begin Sept. 21.
The mayor also announced expanded testing for teachers, a significant concession to the United Federation of Teachers. ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
Sep 01, 9:27 am White House reinstating public tours
White House public tours will resume on Sept. 12, though the number of visitors will be limited to 18% of the usual capacity, according to a Tuesday statement from the first lady’s office.
Tours will also be cut down to two days per week instead of five days per week.
Everyone ages 2 and older must wear a face covering and practice social distancing.
Sep 01, 9:11 am Bureau of Prisons resumes in-person visits
The Bureau of Prisons said Monday that it’s resuming in-person visits at all 122 of its facilities, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC News.
“Social visiting will resume no later than Saturday, October 3, 2020,” the memo said, adding that visiting will be non-contact only.
“Use of Plexiglas or a similar barrier between inmate and visitors will prevent any contact. In the alternative, if a barrier is not present, social distancing (i.e., 6 feet apart) between visitors and inmates must be enforced,” the memo said.
Inmates and visitors must wear face coverings at all times.
Every inmate will be permitted two visits per month. Inmates in isolation or quarantine will not be allowed visits.
Sep 01, 8:19 am ‘We’re all on the same team,’ Fauci says of Trump
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top medical expert on the coronavirus pandemic and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, is weighing in on comments President Donald Trump made during a recent interview with Fox News.
Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday, Trump said he “inherited” Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and that he disagrees with “a lot” of what he says.
“I think when you get statements like that, that doesn’t really reflect what goes on,” Fauci told ABC News’ Amy Robach in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America. “I think that’s kind of a distraction to pit me against the president. We’re all on the same team.”
Fauci also attempted to clarify new information released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed 94% of those who died from COVID-19 as of last week had underlying health conditions and contributing causes.
“The point the CDC was trying to make was that a certain percentage of them had nothing else but just COVID. That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of COVID-19. They did,” he said. “So the numbers that you’ve been hearing, the 180,000 plus deaths, are real deaths from COVID-19.”
Trump, however, retweeted a conspiracy theory that suggested only 9,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.
“Let there not be any confusion about that. It’s not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19; it’s 180,000 plus deaths,” Fauci added.
When asked about the CDC’s new guidelines on COVID-19 testing, Fauci admitted, “That did create some confusion.”
“The way that sentence was said, it gave the impression that they’re not concerned about community spread and that people who are asymptomatic should not be tested,” he said. “There’s no doubt that there are asymptomatic infection and that asymptomatic people can transmit and that you can and should test asymptomatic people.”
“What the guideline was trying to do was to try to make the point that not everyone who wants to be tested should be tested; only if you need to be tested,” he continued. “Understandably, that was confusing. Hopefully, that’s been straightened out now.”
Sep 01, 7:16 am Arizona State University reports over 800 cases
Arizona State University said it now has 803 known cases of COVID-19 among its students and staff.
Since Aug. 1, the public research university has collected test results from 40,402 students and employees so far. As of Sunday, 775 students and 28 staff and faculty members had tested positive for COVID-19. All positive cases are in isolation, according to the school.
“It is our expectation that COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon and that we must find a way to operate the university in a way that accounts for the ongoing presence of the virus,” Arizona State University said in an update posted on its website Monday night. “The incidence of testing has increased as we launched periodic testing of a statistically significant percentage of the on-campus population. ASU maintains a low positivity rate with students and an even lower positivity rate with faculty and staff.”
Most of the cases — 428 — were among people living off campus in the metropolitan Phoenix area. Another 323 are in isolation on the Tempe campus, where a total of 9,645 students live. The remaining are in isolation on either the downtown Phoenix or West campuses, where a collective total of 1,717 students live.
The university said there are currently no known cases at the Polytechnic campus, where 757 students live.
Sep 01, 5:44 am Russia’s case count surpasses one million
Russia has recorded 4,729 new cases of COVID-19 and 123 related deaths over the past 24 hours, the country’s coronavirus response headquarters said Tuesday morning.
The nation’s cumulative total now stands at 1,000,048 confirmed cases with 17,299 deaths.
Russia is the fourth country in the world to reach the one million mark of COVID-19 diagnoses, after the United States, Brazil and India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Sep 01, 4:10 am US case count tops six million
There were 33,888 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Monday, bringing the country’s cumulative total soaring past six million, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Monday’s tally is far below the country’s record set on July 16, when 77,255 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.
An additional 595 coronavirus-related deaths were also recorded Monday. The latest daily death toll is well under the record 2,666 new fatalities that were reported on April 17.
A total of 6,031,013 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 183,598 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.
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 70,000 for the first time in mid-July.
However, the numbers of new COVID-19 cases and new deaths in the United States have both decreased by substantial amounts in week-over-week comparisons, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News last week.
(LOS ANGELES) — Protesters gathered in South Los Angeles Monday night after Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a Black man who they say had a handgun and was fighting with them.
The shooting occurred Monday afternoon after two deputies pulled over a man who was riding a bicycle in violation of vehicle laws, according to Sheriff’s Department Lt. Brandon Dean.
The man got off the bike and ran off, Dean said, and the deputies ran him down.
“Our suspect was holding some items of clothing in his hands, punched one of the officers in the face, and then dropped the items in his hands,” Dean said. “The deputies noticed that inside the clothing items he dropped was a black semiautomatic handgun, at which time a deputy-involved shooting occurred.”
The suspect was struck several times, with both officers firing their weapons, Dean said.
Deputies recovered the handgun that the man had been carrying, he said. The investigation is ongoing.
Members of Black Lives Matter LA called on demonstrators to protest the shooting at the site of the incident. Video of the demonstration overnight, which was posted on social media, shows tense scenes between protesters and police near the scene of the shooting in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Westmont.
BackyardProduction/iStockBy DR. HEATHER J. KAGAN, ABC News
