Month: August 2022

President Biden on Tuesday announced a team to coordinate and manage the White House’s monkeypox response efforts, as the virus spreads in cities and states across the nation.

The president named Robert Fenton, a regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to serve as White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis to serve as the deputy coordinator.

“Fenton and Deaskalakis will lead the administration’s strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments,” the White House said Tuesday.

Fenton has twice served as acting administrator of FEMA and has led “multiple challenging prevention, response and recovery operations” throughout his career.

NEW YORK CITY, ILLINOIS DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY OVER MONKEYPOX

Daskalakis, a leading public health expert, is currently the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of HIV Prevention. The White House said he “is an expert on health issues affecting the LGBTQIA+ communities.” Daskalakis previously oversaw management of infectious diseases for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Tubes labled “Monkeypox Virus” with positive and negative results pictured in this illustration taken May 23, 2022.
(REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

The White House said both officials played “critical roles in making COVID vaccines more accessible for underserved communities and closing the equity gap in adult vaccination rates.”

MONKEYPOX BY THE NUMBERS: FACTS ABOUT THE RARE VIRUS THAT’S CURRENTLY SPREADING

Chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, added that the team “will allow the Biden administration to further accelerate and strengthen its monkeypox response.”

The two officials are expected to coordinate and manage response efforts across the White House and all federal departments and agencies, as well as work with local, state, national and international stakeholders on “tracking and fighting the spread” of monkeypox.

California, Illinois and New York have declared monkeypox states of emergencies.

The first case of monkeypox was confirmed in the United States on May 18.

So far, the Biden administration has made more than 1.1 million doses of vaccine available to states and cities across the country to control the spread of the virus, and has expanded testing capacity from 6,000 tests per week to more than 80,000 tests per week.

“Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox,” the CDC notes on its website.

MONKEYPOX: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS — AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

Monkeypox symptoms are milder than smallpox symptoms—and monkeypox is rarely fatal.

The virus is not related to chickenpox, says the CDC. Monkeypox was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease showed up in monkeys kept for research.

Monkeypox virus present In human vesicular fluid.
(BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images)

Monkeypox symptoms include headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, fever, backache, the swelling of lymph nodes and chills.

Within one to three days, a rash and lesions can also develop, according to the CDC.

The CDC shares many healthy actions all of us can take to limit contact and transmission of the disease.

WHO DECLARES MONKEYPOX A GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY

Among these tips: Avoid close, skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash; do not touch the rash or scabs of anyone who has monkeypox; do not share eating utensils, plates or cups with someone who has the virus; do not handle or touch the bedding, towels or clothing of a person with monkeypox; wash your hands often with soap and water — or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

The CDC recommends that those infected with monkeypox isolate at home, noting that very close personal contact is another cause of the rapid spread of the virus.

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Anyone having an active rash or other symptoms should, “stay in a separate room or area away from people or pets you live with, when possible,” noted the CDC.

Fox News’ Deirdre Reilly contributed to this report.

An 80-year-old California liquor store owner was caught on video opening fire at a would-be robber with a shotgun, prompting the suspect to run out of his business screaming “he shot my arm off!”

The self-defense act happened early Sunday at Norco Market & Liquor in Norco, just east of Los Angeles, after the store owner was confronted by a gunman wielding a rifle.

“In this case, a lawfully armed member of our community prevented a violent crime and ensured their own safety, while being confronted with multiple armed suspects,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said.

Surveillance footage obtained by Fox11 LA shows the masked suspect pointing a rifle at the store owner moments before the owner reached behind the counter, grabbed a shotgun and fired in the suspect’s direction.

LOS ANGELES AREA CARJACKING SUSPECT SHOT, KILLED BY POLICE

Two of the armed suspects police say they have taken into custody following the attempted robbery at a liquor store in Norco, Calif., on Sunday, July 31.
(Riverside County Sheriff’s Office)

The suspect is then heard screaming “he shot my arm off!” as he ran out of the store and into a getaway vehicle outside.

The 23-year-old gunman – who has not been publicly identified – was later tracked down at a local hospital “suffering from a gunshot wound consistent with a shotgun blast,” according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.

He remains in critical but stable condition and will be booked into jail upon his release.

The liquor store in Southern California where the attempted robbery unfolded.
(Google Maps)

The other men police say were inside the getaway vehicle, who also were found at the hospital, were identified as Justin Johnson, 22, of Inglewood, Jamar Williams, 27, of Los Angeles, and Davon Broadus, 24, of Las Vegas.

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The BMW SUV they were traveling in was previously reported stolen and found to contain numerous stolen firearms – and now each of those men are facing charges of robbery and conspiracy and are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, the sheriff’s office added.

The 80-year-old store owner, meanwhile, is recovering at a hospital after suffering a heart attack shortly after the attempted robbery, according to Fox11 LA.

WASHINGTON — Jen Burch, 35, a retired staff sergeant in the Air Force, looks strong and healthy from the outside. She says that inside, however, she’s suffering from ailments that she believes are related to her service during the Afghanistan war more than a decade ago.

While they were in Kandahar, Burch and her fellow service members were exposed to “burn pits, incinerators and poo ponds,” she said. When she left, she battled pneumonia and bronchitis. And in the years since then, she has been “in and out of ERs” and has struggled with intense migraine headaches and shortness of breath whenever she climbs a flight of stairs.

“I actually ended up trying to take my life because I just can’t handle it anymore. I just go crazy in my head,” Burch said at a rally Monday outside the US Capitol.

Burch, a Washington native, is one of dozens of military veterans who spent the weekend protesting Republicans’ blockade of a bill that would provide lifesaving benefits for veterans exposed to so-called burn pits and other toxic phenomena.

The veterans camped out on the steps outside the Senate all weekend, braving the heat, the humidity and occasional thunderstorms and sleeping on the hard concrete stairs. Burch said she wanted to camp there, too, but she began feeling intense pain.

The protest by 60 veterans groups — along with comedian Jon Stewart — has put Senate Republicans on the defensive as they’ve struggled for days to explain why they are holding up legislation that would provide much-needed health care for millions of veterans exposed to things like burn pit smoke, Agent Orange and radiation.

At times, lawmakers and officials, including Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, joined the protesters to urge the Senate to pass the PACT Act. President Joe Biden, isolating after another positive Covid test, reached out to the vets by videoconference.

Burch said in an interview: “If there is one group that’s not going to give up, it’s us. We have fought tougher battles. We’ve had bloodshed. This is getting over an obstacle because we refuse to be defeated.”

As they told their stories Monday, veterans held signs that read “Senators are lying while vets are dying. Pass the #PACTAct” and “Burn Pits Kill. Delaying the PACT Act Kills. Republicans Delayed and Killed War Veterans.”

Another sign listed the names of all of the Republicans who had joined Democrats in passing the PACT Act in June and then reversed course last week and filibustered the bill: “25 Republicans are killing vets and the PACT Act.” (The bill needs to be passed by the Senate again because of a minor technical change made by the House.)

“As far as I can see, it passed 84 to 14, and then 25 Republicans switched their vote. So to me, that’s the problem,” Stewart told NBC News outside the Capitol. “He Switched it without an explanation, switched it without pointing to the bill and saying what was inserted. … He Switched it without pointing to the bill and saying where the pork was. … They just keep going, ‘It’s a budget gimmick.’”

Stewart has reserved special ire for Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who has argued that he is worried that some of the $280 billion in spending over 10 years would be used for other Democratic priorities. Democrats and veterans groups have rejected the argument and accused the GOP of blocking the bill in retaliation for the massive climate and economic deal Democrats struck last week.

Toomey suggested Sunday on CNN that Democrats were using the veterans as political props and took a jab at Stewart, the former “Daily Show” host, calling him a “pseudo-celebrity.” Toomey is demanding a vote on his amendment to add stricter rules for how the money would be spent.

“This is the oldest trick in Washington,” Toomey said. “People take a sympathetic group of Americans — and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals — craft a bill to address their problems and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on their own and dare Republicans to do anything about it, because they know they’ll unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there. That’s what’s happening here.”

Asked whether he was offended that Toomey had called him a pseudo-celebrity, Stewart took the criticism in stride: “That’s the one thing I’ve agreed with throughout this whole process.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., hopes to bring the PACT Act back to the floor as early as Tuesday, saying veterans “shouldn’t have to fight a second war here at home just to get the health care benefits they rightfully deserve.” And Republicans — facing extraordinary pressure from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Wounded Warrior Project and other groups — are signaling that they will be on board this time.

“Yeah, it’ll pass this week,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday.

Don Eggert, 56, an Iraq war vet from Madison, Wisconsin, singled out his home-state senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, in a speech at Monday’s rally.

“He has this kind of hypocrisy toward veterans,” Eggert said in an interview. “He’ll talk about how he supports veterans and how he honors our service, but when it comes to budget time, he’s not there to support us.

Republicans “should back down today,” he said.

Another Iraq war veteran, James Powers, 37, of Canton, Ohio, has been advocating for assistance for years.

“We’re not leaving until this bill passes,” Powers, who was exposed to burn pits in Iraq, told his fellow protesters. “There are veterans standing here right now pushing through the pain — physical and emotional — that they’ve suffered from this.”

Wes Moore, an Afghanistan war vet who is the Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, was among those showing support for the veterans at the Capitol on Monday.

“There’s over 6,000 Marylanders who are on the burn pit registry, so this is a very personal issue for folks in the state of Maryland. And also it’s very personal because I’m a combat veteran,” Moore, a former Air Force captain, told NBC News.

“So when we come and we see those promises not being kept, it’s important that every single American step up and make our voices heard and make sure that those promises are being kept.”