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What 25 million children are telling us about the next pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF just issued a dire warning: we’re witnessing the most significant decline in childhood vaccination rates in a generation. A red alert for policymakers, this signals that the health of children globally is at risk and the impacts will be measured in lives.

Decades of hard-won progress protecting the world’s children is unraveling before our eyes as vaccinations plummet to 30-year lows. New immunization data confirm that 25 million children around the world missed out on life-saving vaccines last year for diseases like measles, polio, and human papilloma virus. Of those kids, a staggering 18 million have never received a dose of any vaccine. 

The ramifications of missing vaccines are extensive and enduring. The oncoming wave of illness is likely to overwhelm health systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Further, an entire generation of children missing out on vaccinations will mean many millions of them are likely to experience a lifetime of poor health, resulting in missed educational and job opportunities, and lower national productivity. In addition, the economic impact of parents losing income from having to care for sickly children will be felt globally and more immediately.

This growing immunization gap, initially caused by COVID-19 and compounded now by factors including regional insecurity, conflict, and supply chain issues, comes at a bad time. Even before the pandemic, measles was on the rise among children worldwide, with the number of reported cases in 2019 reaching heights not seen for more than two decades. As of July 1, the WHO has received 25 reports of large and disruptive measles outbreaks from around the world. The number of reported measles cases for the first half of 2022 is nearly the same as the whole year reported for 2021.  However, with reports for the second year in a row of increasing numbers of kids never receiving any vaccine (6 million more kids compared to 2019), we are entering a new era of ever-growing pools of children succumbing to entirely preventable diseases.

Urgent action is needed on two fronts. We must conduct immediate outreach in lagging countries to catch-up with kids who have missed out on vaccines, while simultaneously strengthening routine immunization services to build on existing health systems in parallel to the COVID vaccine rollout. In reality, this means that national governments must enact policy changes to ensure those kids who missed out in 2019, 2020, and 2021 — some of whom are now two to three years old — are accommodated by health systems that are more attuned to reaching newborns. It also means conducting vaccine programs in parallel to each other to ensure children receive needed vaccines more effectively in batches, and not administering one vaccine (e.g., COVID) at the expense of others.

To make this happen, funding is paramount. In countries like Pakistan, the government has reversed the effect of COVID disruptions by committing to vaccine outreach in collaboration with Immunization Agenda 2030 partners like WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In 2019, the number of unvaccinated children was 600,000, which rose to 1 million in 2020.  Thanks to concerted efforts to reach those kids who were missed, that number was back to 600,000 in 2021.

Efforts like this are encouraging, but the example of 25 million unvaccinated kids worldwide tells us that we need to fix health systems globally with an effort that puts immunization front and center. COVID has taught us many lessons, including the imperative role vaccines play to save lives and to build on immunization services to imbue more robust health systems. That is why the recently approved Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Preparedness and Response by the World Bank Board of Governors on June 30 could not have come at a more opportune time.

A total of $1.1 billion has been pledged by the US, Germany, the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Singapore, as well as philanthropies to help fund it. This should be used to ensure that current Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the Global Health Architecture are strengthened and lead to investment in Primary Health Care services, with explicit support to beef-up essential Immunization programs. This must also be part of future allocations so that countries can build on existing health systems to improve immunization services for existing, preventable diseases as well as those for future outbreaks of unknown pathogens.

Last week’s news is a wake-up call. With more kids susceptible to childhood disease, outbreaks are inevitable across the globe and will continue to increase, and we are headed for some very tough years ahead. To counter the backsliding that has occurred and help the increasing numbers of children who lack access to immunizations, we must draw from positive experiences and optimize efforts like the new FIF, not only to close the immunization gap in childhood diseases, but also better equip countries to prepare for the next pandemic.

Lori Sloate is the senior director for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation, a founding partner of the Measles & Rubella Initiative. She also serves as Co-chair Advocacy Group, Immunization Agenda 2030, a global partnership of UN agencies and other partners.

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Warren backs Bass in Los Angeles mayoral runoff election

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced on Tuesday that she would be endorsing Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff.

“Karen Bass has fought her entire life for social and economic justice for the people of Los Angeles,” Warren said in a statement.

“Karen Bass has always fought for reproductive freedom, always fought for good-paying jobs for working families, and always fought to protect our planet. We have to move Los Angeles forward — and we’ve already seen what kind of damage an out-of-touch billionaire can do. I’m proud to endorse Karen Bass in this race and look forward to helping her become the next mayor of the second-largest city in the country,” she added, taking a jab at Bass’ challenger, Rick Caruso.

Bass thanked the progressive senator for her support in her own statement. 

“I am honored to have the support of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has devoted her life to leveling the playing field and giving working people an equal shot at achieving the American Dream,” Bass said. “All of us who work with her are in awe of her compassion, commitment and knowledge.”

Last month, Bass and Caruso advanced in the Los Angeles mayoral primary after neither was able to notch at least half of the votes, forcing the top two vote-getters into a runoff.

Bass has received high-profile endorsements from Emily’s List, Magic Johnson, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry and Elon Musk have backed Caruso.

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Broadway declines to mandate masks again as case counts rise

Broadway theaters say they’ll continue to be mask-optional, despite rising case counts of COVID-19 around the country.

The Broadway League, a national trade association, said Tuesday that owners and operators of performance spaces in New York’s famed theater district “will continue their mask optional policy through August and until further notice.”

The group stressed that consistent with recommendations from local health officials, “audience members are strongly encouraged to wear masks in theaters.” 

Broadway’s 41 theaters lifted their mask mandates at the beginning of this month after requiring them since productions reopened last year following an 18-month shutdown — the longest in the Great White Way’s history — due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Broadway League said in a June statement announcing the move to mask-optional that future face covering protocols would be evaluated each month, saying it would “continue to monitor the science.”

While COVID-19 cases have risen across the country in recent months — with around 100,000 reported per day in June — deaths have stayed flat.

Earlier this month, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a Twitter post that it was “seeing high levels of COVID-19” in the Big Apple.

“To help slow the spread, all New Yorkers should wear a high-quality mask, such as an N95, KN95 or KF94 in all public indoor settings and around crowds outside,” the department said.

Source: TEST FEED1

988 is officially live — here’s what people should know

With last week’s official launch of 988, the number to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, individuals seeking help for suicide prevention or a mental health crisis will be quickly connected to a trained crisis counselor who can provide support over the phone and dispatch a mobile response unit, if necessary, to take that person to a place where they can get more help. 

At least, that’s what is supposed to happen.

Unfortunately, despite knowing this day was coming for nearly two years, many states remain woefully unprepared for the anticipated increase in emergency calls. Perhaps even worse, over three-quarters of Americans polled at the end of May claimed they had never heard of the hotline. This is a recipe for disaster, and unless state leaders immediately make the necessary investments to properly fund and publicize 988’s services, the hotline’s efficacy — as well as the public’s trust — will be dramatically undermined. 

988 is the product of the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020, a federal law aimed at creating an easy to remember, easy to access pathway to mental health care when people need it most. Essentially, it is designed to function as the equivalent to the 911 emergency number, but for mental health emergencies rather than medical ones. 

In light of this hotline’s rollout, it’s imperative that people who need to contact 988 understand how it helps to facilitate an effective crisis response system and to have realistic expectations when they reach out. This is just the beginning — good things take time to get right. 

First, people in crisis need someone to talk to. Though most people who contact 988 should be able to get through to a trained crisis responder who can offer assistance, depending on where you live and your call center, you may be required to spend time in a queue while call centers get up to speed with staffing.

Second, an in-person response should be available for mobilization if necessary. According to National Suicide Prevention Hotline data, a majority of crisis calls can be resolved remotely; less than 2 percent require the dispatch of emergency services. Ideally, mobile crisis teams with trained mental health professionals should respond to 988 calls, but for now most callers may still get a response from law enforcement and/or EMTs. 

Third, those experiencing extreme mental health or substance use crises should be transported safely and expeditiously to a facility that can properly treat, observe and care for them. If those facilities are not available, individuals in crisis who call 988 may be taken to hospitals or emergency rooms to receive immediate care.

Beyond simply providing a shorter number to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 988 has the potential to revolutionize mental health care. An effective, fully-funded system would knock down barriers, ensuring equitable care is available to everyone, regardless of background or socioeconomic status. Acting as a kind of Trojan horse, 988’s implementation can serve to more broadly address America’s worsening mental health crisis. 

The numbers make it clear that help can’t come soon enough. Rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing among Americans of all ages and backgrounds. Data compiled from 2020 showed the highest number of deaths of despair — from alcohol, drug use and suicide — in the United States in a single year on record. 

While the purpose of 988 is commendable, the logistics of its mandated nationwide launch have been hampered by an inconsistent approach from individual states’ leaders and a lack of consistent federal funding. Despite being required to do so, as of late June, a number of states did not yet have new legislation regarding the funding or staffing of 988.

Yet, it’s not too late for state and community leaders to right the ship by building out a robust continuum of mental health and crisis care. Yes, a sufficient number of counselors and responders must be trained to help in an emergency. But it’s equally critical that communities invest in both preventative care, such as public education and mental health screenings, and post-crisis care to help its members remain stabilized. 

This is not the time to lose faith and dwell on the shortcomings of 988’s flawed rollout. This is the beginning of an important new phase in mental health care — one in which communities are equipped to handle the mental health needs of their residents, reduce reliance on police and hospitals for mental health treatment, and get people in crisis the support they need. 

After all, 988 can — and will — save lives if given the chance.

Benjamin F. Miller, a clinical psychologist by training, is president of Well Being Trust and chair of the advisory board of Inseparable, two mental health organizations.

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National Archives demands Secret Service probe into 'erased' text messages

The National Archives is pushing the Secret Service to launch a probe into claims it may have erased text messages from agents from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021.

The request comes after the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused the agency of having “erased text messages as part of a device replacement program.”

“If it is determined that any text messages have been improperly deleted (regardless of their relevance to the OIG/Congressional inquiry of the events on January 6, 2021), then the Secret Service must send NARA a report within 30 calendar days of the date of this letter with a report documenting the deletion,” Laurence Brewer, chief records officer for the U.S. government, wrote in a letter to the custodian of records at DHS.

The Secret Service has denied the allegations from the OIG, stressing that it does not communicate by text as a policy due to security concerns. However it acknowledged some data may have been lost in what it has referred to as a “system migration.”

Still, any such text messages that were sent should have been uploaded and preserved.

“This report must include a complete description of the records affected, a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages, a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss of documentation, and details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records,” Brewer wrote in the letter from the Archives.

The Secret Service’s custodian of records now has 30 days to conduct the review. 

A spokesperson for the Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, the agency has denied that it has not cooperated with investigators and maintains it’s unaware that any specific text messages were lost during the migration.

“In January 2021, before any inspection was opened by OIG on this subject, the Secret Service began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost,” Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the agency said last week.

“The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration,” he added.    

The demand from the National Archives came just hours after a subpoena deadline from the Jan. 6 committee to turn over “the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports” for Jan. 6.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) a member of the committee, said that while the Secret Service pledged to comply with the subpoena, the panel is likely to have outstanding questions about any missing data.

“I suspect we will still have a lot of additional questions to be answered,” he said Tuesday.

Source: TEST FEED1

Jimmy Carter, James Baker call for reforms to 'antiquated, muddled' Electoral Count Act

Former President Jimmy Carter and former White House Chief of Staff James Baker penned an op-ed calling for reforms to the 1887 law that governs the counting of Electoral College votes, arguing that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is the latest example of why change is necessary.

The duo’s op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday evening, provides support to ongoing negotiations being led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to reform the Electoral Count Act in the wake of Jan. 6, when then-Vice President Pence was pressured to exploit the statute’s ambiguities to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“The threat of confusion remains,” Carter and Baker wrote. “Left unclosed, loopholes in the act could allow a repeat of the same destructive path that occurred in 2021.”

Multiple outlets have reported that the bipartisan group of senators are expected to release their proposed reforms this week.

The piece by Carter, a Democratic president, and Baker, who served as chief of staff under Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, highlights that bipartisan support.

“We stand on opposite sides of the partisan divide, but we believe it is better to search for solutions together than to remain divided,” the two wrote. “This is particularly true of a vexing problem that could wreak havoc during the 2024 presidential election: the inadequacy of the Electoral Count Act of 1887.”

Carter and Baker called the act potentially unconstitutional, antiquated and muddled, pointing to efforts by a limited number of lawmakers who attempted to mount objections to the Electoral College votes after the 2000, 2004 and 2016 elections.

“The act became law 10 years after several states submitted competing slates of electoral votes during the disputed Reconstruction-era election of 1876,” they wrote. “It spawned no controversy for the next 30 presidential elections. Weaknesses in the law started to become apparent after the 2000 election.”

But perhaps most notable is the 2020 election, when Trump and his allies pressured Pence to overturn the election results in his role as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, when the Electoral College votes were counted.

In a now-infamous memo written by attorney John Eastman, he outlined a strategy for Pence to block the counting of votes from states in which Trump was putting forth unfounded claims of election fraud.

Pence ultimately rejected that he had the authority to do so, but the developments have led some lawmakers to draw concerns over how the law could be exploited in the future.

“The need to reform the Electoral Count Act is too great for our elected leaders to get bogged down in the zero-sum game of politics that characterizes Washington today,” Carter and Baker wrote.

Source: TEST FEED1

Half of parents unaware of health issues excessive screen time could cause their kids

Only half of parents understand the possible health ramifications their children could experience as a result of excessive exposure to screens without spending time outdoors, according to a recent poll.  

“Many parents may not be aware of both the short and long-term health issues linked to excessive screen time, including its effect on children’s eyes,” said the University of Michigan’s Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark in a news release. 

“Our findings suggest that some parents may have inaccurate perceptions of activities that affect their child’s eye health and vision and how to minimize risks,” Clark added.  

Spending hours staring at screens combined with a lack of time spent outdoors can cause children to develop nearsightedness, myopia, and lead to serious eye problems later in life, researchers said. They added that outdoor time could mitigate some of the risks.  

“It’s important time to think about myopia risks for children because kids with this condition often become more nearsighted over time,” said Olivia Killeen, M.D., ophthalmologist at U-M Health Kellogg Eye Center who consulted on the report. 

“The age of myopia onset is the most significant predictor of severe myopia later in life,” Killeen added. 

Approximately 54 percent of parents said their child has seen an ophthalmologist in the past year, according to the poll. 

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Further, fewer than a third of parents surveyed said their children wear protective glasses when exposed to blue light from television or computer screens. 

Researchers said there are steps parents might take to promote eye health in their children.  

“Parents should encourage at least one to two hours of outdoor time per day because exposure to natural light benefits eye development,” Clark said. 

“Parents should enforce family rules to ensure children have a sustained period of non-screen time during the day. This is especially important during summer months when they’re off from school and may have less structured downtime.” 

The findings were based on a nationally representative sample of 2,002 parents of children aged 3 to 18 in April. 

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Watch live: Buffalo mayor testifies before House panel on mass shootings

Buffalo mayor Byron Brown will be among those providing testimony to the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee about the harm that mass shootings do to a community beyond the bloodshed.

The virtual hearing is scheduled for 2:00 pm ET.

Watch the live video above.

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Will this generation meet Ben Franklin’s challenge — will we ‘keep’ our constitutional republic?

“A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” Ben Franklin’s response to a Philadelphian who asked what the Constitutional Convention had produced indicated that those who wrote the Constitution knew the vessel of American self-governance they had launched was fragile. 

Successive generations of Americans have met Franklin’s challenge and “kept” America’s constitutional republic for 233 years — by acting in ways consistent with sustaining a common enterprise: America’s representative democracy. Unfortunately, that sense of Americans sharing a common democratic enterprise has waned in recent years.

The founding generation, led by George Washington, established constructive precedents and examples for how to make the American republic work, such as the peaceful transfer of power following contested elections and governance based on the rule of law, not the dictates of popular leaders, such as Washington.  

Subsequent generations maintained America’s representative democracy, despite a bloody Civil War, domestic political and economic shocks, and threats from abroad. They did so by generally adhering to the founding generation’s governance model and also by expanding Constitutional rights and protections to a growing number of citizens, for example by ending slavery and instituting universal adult suffrage. As a result, the American constitutional republic has, since 1789, made progress towards becoming a “more perfect union.”

But past progress is no guarantee of continued success.

Today, too many Americans pay lip service to their democratic inheritance, but act in ways that are corrosive to a representative democracy. There are several trends in American politics today that — if not reversed — could lead to failing Franklin’s challenge of “keeping” our republic.    

First, while free and fair elections are the beating heart and the hallmark of America’s representative democracy, their legitimacy is being undermined in two ways: false claims of voting fraud that lead to voting restrictions, and gerrymandering of election districts, which privileges some voters over others.

Claims of voting fraud to question the legitimacy of elections have moved from the fringe of American politics to the mainstream. A sitting President made demonstrably false claims that he lost re-election in 2020 because of fraud and then — without evidence — tried to convince state and federal officials to change the results. Based on lies about the election, 147 Republican members of the House and Senate voted against certifying the Electoral College results for the 2020 election — after a mob attacked the Capitol to prevent the certification. The now former-president and his followers have continued using lies about the 2020 election as a fundraising tool and to encourage other election fabulists to run for state offices that oversee elections, which, if they are elected to those offices, could provide real reasons to question subsequent election results.

Studies of voting fraud have consistently found it to be extremely rare. For example, a review of 1 billion votes cast in all American elections during the period 2000 – 2016 found only 44 ballots to have been fraudulent. Nonetheless, in response to unsupported claims of the threat of election fraud, a number of states have either passed or are seeking to pass laws that have the effect of making it harder for citizens to vote. In their 2022 legislative sessions, for example, 39 states have considered some 393 restrictive voting laws that would disproportionally affect minority voters.

While voting restrictions make it more difficult for citizens to vote, gerrymandering privileges one party’s voters over others. For example, majorities of voters in the 2018 elections in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina voted for Democrats, but — because of gerrymandering of election districts — Republicans won the majority of those states’ legislative seats. While both parties are guilty of gerrymandering, Republicans lead nine of the top ten gerrymandered states. Worse may lie ahead, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that Federal Courts cannot determine whether states’ electoral maps are made for partisan advantage.

Undermining the legitimacy of elections helps undermine confidence in America’s institutions of governance. A Gallup survey in June 2022 found that Americans have low confidence in all three branches of the federal government, with only 25 percent having confidence in the Supreme Court (a record low), 23 percent in the presidency, and 7 percent in the Congress.

A more recent New York Times/Sienna College survey found a majority of Americans believe America’s system of government does not work and needs major reforms. The Times reported further that Republican discontent was “driven” by distrust of elections, while Democratic views were shaped by their unhappiness that Republicans could use gerrymandered states and a new Supreme Court majority they see as produced by dubious means to achieve their policy goals, despite Democrats holding the White House and the Congress.

More significantly, Americans are also losing trust in one another. A Pew survey in 2019 found that 64 percent of Americans believe trust in other Americans has been shrinking and 70 percent believe that this lack of trust impedes addressing the country’s problems. Growing distrust among Americans fuels — and is fueled by — the increasing factionalism in American politics and the declining sense that all are involved in the shared enterprise of democratic self-governance.

Perhaps the most important final negative trend in American politics is a general failure of the nation’s political leadership — at national and state levels — to recognize America’s representative democracy is in trouble and needs unifying, constructive leadership, not more partisan grandstanding. 

The standout American leaders of the past sought to unify the nation in the service of the common good. When unified, America and Americans have achieved great things. But leaders with a unifying vision and message are all too rare today. Instead, too many American political “leaders” — nationally and in the states — promote a divisive “us versus them” approach to politics. Too many stoke election lies or sow division among groups to advance their own standing and parochial agendas. Not enough rise above the partisan divide with a unifying message for all Americans. Some have even extolled foreign autocratic leaders for their policies and success.

As the polls cited above illustrate, divisive political leadership is undermining the sense of shared enterprise among the American people. In an earlier challenging age for America, Lincoln noted a house divided against itself cannot long stand.

Each generation of Americans earns its democratic inheritance by sustaining America’s democratic traditions and institutions for the next generation. The current generation of Americans is in danger of squandering its inheritance by supporting or tolerating leaders who tear at the fabric of the country’s representative democracy. A national course correction is badly needed; elections between now and 2024 offer a chance to make it. But that will require stepped-up civic engagement and massive voter turnouts to elect leaders — regardless of party — at the state and national levels who seek to unify, not divide, the electorate, and who will keep faith with the traditions of our democratic past in order to sustain the future of — or in Ben Franklin’s words — “keep” our constitutional republic.

Kenneth C. Brill was a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer who served as an ambassador in the Clinton and Bush administrations and a senior intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations. He was the founding Director of the U.S. National Counterproliferation Center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Majority of US thinks COVID will never go away: poll

A large majority of Americans believe that COVID-19 will always be around, according to new polling data released on Tuesday, with pandemic pessimism appearing to be rising — along with recent case counts.

The Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index found that 78 percent of Americans surveyed agreed with the statement “We will never fully be rid of the coronavirus in my lifetime.” This trend was consistent for Democrats, Republicans and independents.

At the same time, 29 percent of respondents said they believed that the pandemic was over, indicating there was some overlap between those who believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus will never go away but also consider pandemic conditions to be over.

The primary concern for Americans when it comes to the pandemic is spreading the virus to people at a higher-risk of developing a severe case of the coronavirus, according to the poll.

After several months of stagnation, the U.S. average COVID-19 case rate has once again begun to rise as the omicron BA.5 subvariant has risen to become the dominant strain in the country. While infections are rising, pandemic fatigue has been noted to be at an all-time high, with a minority people now willing to take up mitigation efforts.

The Axios/Ipsos poll noted that only 36 percent of respondents said they wear a mask when outside their home, the lowest rate observed since the beginning of the pandemic. The same percentage of respondents said they never wear a mask when outside their home, a 14 percent jump from this same time last year.

While mask-wearing has only become more unpopular, the same survey found that roughly three out of four people said they were willing to get another booster vaccine dose — an annual shot — if it was recommended to them or if it was more effective against variants like omicron.

Source: TEST FEED1