Vincent Martin’s death has raised questions of alleged misconduct.
May 31, 2020, 10:33 AM
7 min read
A grieving family has filed a lawsuit against Hollywood Premier Healthcare Center, a skilled nursing home in California, after their loved one died from COVID-19.
Vincent Martin, an 84-year-old Army veteran, died on April 4 and his daughters, Elizabeth Gagliano and Kathryn Sessinghaus, and his wife, Emma Martin, are alleging in a lawsuit that the facility mishandled the novel coronavirus outbreak, leading to Martin’s death.
With at least 16 residents dead, 72 positive cases among residents and 37 cases among staff, the facility, formerly known as Serrano North Convalescent Hospital, has become one of the worst-hit nursing homes in the country as the pandemic continued to spread.
Sessinghaus, who last visited her father on Feb. 29, says she was told the facility was closing its doors to visitors the first week of March due to COVID-19. In her lawsuit, Sessinghaus alleges she did not observe the staff wearing personal protective equipment during her final visit with her father. According to the complaint, Sessinghaus continued to drop off care packages afterward and was alarmed when she was met by staff members at the door who took the items, but weren’t wearing masks.
“That really concerned me at that point because now we’re in mid-March and things are effectively shutting down,” Sessinghaus said.
The family alleges it wasn’t notified of Martin being sick until April 1. According to the complaint, a nurse told the family he wasn’t eating or drinking, was running a low fever and had a slight breathing problem.
Sessinghaus alleges she asked at that point if the facility had any positive COVID-19 cases, and claims the nurse she spoke to hesitantly told her they had at least one case before admitting there were actually four active cases in the facility.
The lawsuit filed by the family with the Superior Court of the State of California accuses the nursing home of negligence, wrongful death, violations of the Elder and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, fraudulent concealment and fraudulent misrepresentation. The lawsuit also claims there has been a “long-standing practice of keeping the nursing home understaffed and skirting safety and infection controls.”
In 2019, the facility was cited for infection protocol failures and lack of appropriate personal protective equipment, according to the California Department of Health and Human Services.
Martin had been under the care of the facility since 2014 due to physical disabilities and was described by his family as a sweet and quiet person with a passion for painting and history.
“He was so proud of his family, he just loved his children and grandchildren so much,” Sessinghaus told ABC News.
When Martin fell ill, he wasn’t given a COVID-19 test until the family specifically asked for it, they say, and first had to wait for approval from the facility’s doctor. His results came back positive a day after he died, his relatives told ABC News.
The family alleges their struggles didn’t stop there. According to the lawsuit, after Martin’s death, the facility’s doctor failed to mention coronavirus on Martin’s death certificate and the funeral home said it was not notified that Martin tested positive for the virus.
Although HPHC did not respond to a request from ABC News on the lawsuit, it issued a statement Friday saying that it was dedicated as a COVID-19 facility by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and is complying with local and state health department guidelines.
“Due to government privacy requirements, we cannot divulge specific information about the individuals who have confirmed or suspected COVID-19, unless they are your family member and you have the necessary permissions to receive such information. We know you are concerned about your loved one, but it is crucial that we restrict visitation to reduce the spread of this virus to others. We will contact you directly if your loved one is suspected or diagnosed with COVID-19,” the statement said.
The law firm representing the Martin family has sent a request to District Attorney Jackie Lacey to open a criminal investigation in regards to HPHC’s alleged conduct.
Sessinghaus said the family spoke up in hopes this situation wouldn’t happen again.
“In order to make things right you have to get out of your comfort zone and hope you can make a difference,” she said.
Bill de Blasio defended the officers. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned them.
May 31, 2020, 9:05 AM
5 min read
5 min read
A video has emerged of two police SUVs plowing into a group of protesters in New York City after being peppered with debris from the crowd of people.
The incident occurred on the evening of May 30 as demonstrations were taking place across the city in reaction to the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers early last week.
The video, which was filmed near the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and St. Marks Avenue just a few blocks away from Prospect Park in Brooklyn, shows a New York Police Department SUV being blocked by a group of protesters behind a barricade as various items and objects can be seen striking the vehicle.
Another NYPD police SUV then pulls up alongside the first vehicle before both of them can be seen accelerating into the crowd of people knocking many of them over as the screaming and yelling from the crowd begins to intensify.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about the incident at a late night press conference and said that the officers did what they needed to do to get out of that situation.
“It is inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threatened police officers. That is wrong on its face. That has not happened in the history of protests in this city. I have been watching protests for decades, people don’t do that. It is clear that a different element has come into play here,” said de Blasio.
“They are trying to hurt police officers and trying to damage their vehicles,” de Blasio continued. “And if the police officers are in that situation they have to get out of that situation. I wish the officers had not done that, but I also understood they did not start the situation, the situation was started by protesters converging on a police vehicle, attacking that vehicle. It is unacceptable … Protests in New York City do not look like this.”
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was furious and tweeted that nobody gets to slam a car into a group of people and that the officers involved should be held accountable.
“NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could’ve killed them, & we don’t know how many they injured. NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings,” the congresswoman wrote on Twitter.
Ocasio-Cortez also condemned de Blasio’s comments.
“As mayor, this police department is under your leadership,” she tweeted. This moment demands leadership & accountability from each of us. Defending and making excuses for NYPD running SUVs into crowds was wrong. Make it right. De-escalate.
In another tweet she said, “running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalized. No matter who does it, no matter why.”
Said de Blasio: “It is a very tense situation. Imagine what it would be like, you are job and you see hundreds of will converging upon you. I’m not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation. The folks converging on that police car did the wrong thing and created an untenable situation. I wish the officers would have found a different approach but the protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround that police car, period.”
It is unclear if any of the people who were struck by the NYPD SUVs suffered any serious injuries.
The police officers involved in the incident have not yet been identified.
Joe Biden holds a 10-point lead over President Donald Trump among registered voters in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, but that’s sliced in half among those certain to vote, reflecting challenges for Biden in terms of voter commitment and enthusiasm alike.
Trump has his own risks, including sharply negative views of the economy and greater criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His overall job approval rating is back under water, 45-53% among all Americans, with a seven-point rise in disapproval since late March.
Trump’s rating specifically for handling the outbreak is a nearly identical 46-53%, with approval down 5 percentage points and disapproval up 8 in the past two months. The margin worsens in terms of strong sentiment: The number who strongly disapprove of his work on the crisis exceeds those who strongly approve by 15 points, 43 versus 28%.
Neither is popular in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Forty-two percent of adults see Trump favorably overall, 46% Biden. But more see Trump unfavorably, 55% versus 48% for Biden. And Trump remains poorly rated on a range of personal attributes: About 6 in 10 apiece don’t see him as honest and trustworthy, don’t think he understands the problems of average Americans and don’t think he has the personality and temperament for the job.
That said, 50% see Trump as a strong leader – shy of a majority but up a slight 6 points from last fall, and more than say the same of Biden, 43%. And even with the economy in dire straits, Trump gets 52% approval for handling it, although that’s down 5 points since late March, with disapproval up 6, to 44%.
Helpful for Biden is that Americans trust him over Trump to direct the federal government’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, 50-42%. The two instead are rated evenly in trust to direct federal government efforts to help the economy recover, 47-47%. But polling this spring has found a greater public priority on controlling the spread of the virus than on restoring the economy.
Economy and COVID-19
The economy’s condition was to have been Trump’s ace in the hole in the November election. But the number of Americans saying it’s in good shape has plummeted from 69% in a Bloomberg survey in early March to 34% in this poll.
That matters: Trump is supported by 73% of registered voters who say the economy is in good shape. Among those who say it’s in bad shape, 70% back Biden. (Those economic views, themselves, are highly partisan.)
A statistical analysis called regression finds that views of the condition of the economy are a significant independent predictor of candidate support. Holding other factors constant — including the usual heavy hitters, partisanship, ideology and race/ethnicity — having favorable economic views predicts support for Trump.
Another factor is an independent predictor of vote preference as well: The relative prevalence of COVID-19 cases in one’s county of residence.
This appears in cross-tabulated data. We split the nation’s counties into four equal-sized groups, or quartiles, from those with the most COVID-19 cases to those with the fewest. Among registered voters living in counties with the most cases, Biden leads Trump by 72-24%. In the second-highest quartile, it’s 62-35%. In the third quartile, results flip, 53-41%, Trump-Biden. And in the quartile with the fewest cases, it’s 60-38%, Trump-Biden.
Part of this reflects that fact that there are more Democrats in harder-hit counties and more Republicans in counties with fewer cases. As noted, however, the regression shows that county-level COVID-19 cases predict vote preference even when controlling for party identification, among other factors.
Vote Preference
In all, the presidential contest stands at 53-40%, Biden-Trump, among all adults; 53-43% among those who report being registered to vote; and 51-46% among those who are both registered and certain to vote. The result among registered voters is Biden’s best since last fall, improved from a scant +2 points, 49-47%, in late March.
Biden’s gains from two months ago have come mainly among independents, moderates and younger women. But, as noted, he faces challenges in commitment and enthusiasm.
Among registered voters who support Trump, 87% say they’d “definitely” vote for him if the election were today (as opposed to probably or possibly supporting him). Definite support slides to 74% for Biden – about where it was for Hillary Clinton in an ABC/Post poll four years ago.
Further, again among registered voters who support Trump, 69% are very enthusiastic about doing so. Strong enthusiasm for Biden, by contrast, is just 34%, a 2-1 margin for Trump on this measure – potentially important because enthusiasm can motivate voter participation.
Indeed, even while he’s lost ground overall, strong enthusiasm for Trump among registered voters who support him has gained 14 points since late March, while strong enthusiasm for Biden is up just half as much. It is, though, slightly up; in March Biden’s strong enthusiasm was the lowest on record for a Democratic presidential candidate in ABC/Post polls back 20 years.
There are mixed results for Biden from Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders for the nomination. They’re as likely as those who preferred Biden in the primaries to back him over Trump. But they’re slightly less likely to say they’re certain to vote in November, and much less enthusiastic about Biden.
Mail It?
Among the many wildcards in the election is how voting will happen. The public by more than 2-1, 65-30%, supports making it easier for people to cast an absentee ballot or vote by mail instead of going to a polling place to vote. Twice as many strongly support such steps, 49%, as strongly oppose them, 24%.
Trump has opposed expanded mail-in voting, arguing that it’s vulnerable to fraud and that its expansion would “lead to the end of our great Republican Party.” The comment resonates within his base: Just 33% of Republicans support expanded absentee or mail-in voting. That doubles to 67% of independents and rises further to 87% of Democrats.
Groups
Notably among groups, Biden leads by 56-39% among independents who are registered to vote, often a swing group in presidential elections; that’s shifted from a dead heat among independents (Biden +1) two months ago. And there’s a vast gender gap, Trump +8 among men (52-44%), Biden +28 points among women, 62-34%.
The divisions by sex include a shift toward Biden among younger women, age 18-44; 72% in this group favor the Democrat now, vs. 54% in March.
Differences by racial and ethnic groups remain profound. It’s 53-44%, Trump-Biden, among whites who are registered to vote, while Biden is supported by 89% of blacks and 69% of Hispanics. Racial and ethnic minorities have made up a growing share of the electorate, rising from 10% of voters in the national exit poll in 1976 to 29% in 2016.
Biden, further, leads Trump by more than 2-1, 66-30%, among Americans who have been laid off or furloughed without pay since the pandemic began. That’s a group with larger numbers of women and racial or ethnic minorities than the population at large.
Another potential factor – given the Electoral College lesson of 2016 — is the distribution of votes across states. Biden has a vast 65-32% lead among registered voters in the so-called blue states won by Clinton that year, evidence of a Democratic overvote, meaning he’s getting more support there than he needs. In the 2016 red states, by contrast — states that were sufficient for Trump to claim the presidency even while losing the national popular vote — it’s 51-44%, Trump-Biden.
Attributes
Trump’s difficulties on personal attributes are well-established and mostly stable. Biden generally does better – but, at the same time, not particularly well. Fewer than half rate him as honest and trustworthy (48% versus 35% for Trump) or say he understands the problems of people like them (45% versus 38% for Trump).
Biden does better, but still just 53%, on having the personality and temperament it takes to serve effectively as president (compared with 38% who say that of Trump). And 51% say Biden — dubbed “Sleepy Joe” by Trump — has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively; 46% say that of Trump.
These weaknesses for Trump are among the factors that have kept his approval rating below 50 percent continuously since he took office — a first for any president — and, likewise, have given him the lowest career average presidential approval on record in polls dating to the Truman administration. The questions in the months ahead include whether Biden, with his poor enthusiasm and weak voter commitment, can capitalize on Trump’s vulnerabilities; and — perhaps above all — the course of the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic alike.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone May 25-28, 2020, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Md. See details on the survey’s methodology here.
The patient went to Backwater Jacks twice on May 23, officials said.
May 30, 2020, 8:55 PM
4 min read
4 min read
Health officials in Missouri are alerting those who attended Memorial Day weekend parties at the Lake of the Ozarks that a partygoer there has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“Camden County Health Department has been notified of a Boone County resident who has tested positive for COVID-19 after being in the Lake area on May 23 and 24,” according to a statement issued on Friday.
Over the holiday weekend, photographs and videos were posted on social media that showed dozens of people in public pools and inside businesses not practicing social distancing or wearing masks or gloves.
The St. Louis County Department of Health issued an advisory on Tuesday urging anyone who did not practice COVID-19 safety guidelines to self-quarantine for 14 days or until they test negative for the virus.
The patient arrived the area on May 23 around 1 p.m. and went to Backwater Jacks twice and to Shady Gators and Lazy Gators Pool until 10 p.m., officials said. The following day, the patient started his day around 1 p.m., where he went to Buffalo Wild Wings for an hour then Shady Gators until 7 p.m., from which he took a taxi to a private residence.
“The public who may have been in these places is asked to please monitor for symptoms. … If you develop symptoms, please contact your physician and isolate until test results are known,” officials said.
As of Saturday, Missouri has recorded 12,795 confirmed case and at least 738 deaths, according to the state’s health department. Worldwide positive cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center, exceeded 6 million by Saturday evening.
No new coronavirus cases were reported among Camden County residents this week, officials said.
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Here’s how the day unfolded before and immediately after the launch. All times Eastern.
4:15 p.m.: Dragon expected to dock at ISS Sunday morning
Dragon is expected to dock at the International Space Station at 10:29 a.m. ET Sunday, according to NASA.
3:48 p.m.: ‘So proud’: Jim Bridenstine reacts to launch
Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, said he was “so proud” after the successful launch.
“For the first time in nine years, we have now launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. I’m so proud of the @NASA and @SpaceX team for making this moment possible,” Bridenstine tweeted.
3:46 p.m.: Falcon 9 has landed
The Falcon 9 booster successfully separated from the Dragon and has landed, making it the first Falcon 9 to carry humans to orbit, according to NASA.
The Dragon is now officially making its way to the International Space Station, NASA said.
3:31 p.m.: Stage 2 propulsion ‘still good’
The astronauts are now in Stage 2 of the launch and the propulsion was “still good,” NASA said.
3:22: Successful liftoff for NASA astronauts aboard SpaceX Dragon
The SpaceX Demo-2 successfully launched NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, and is making its way to the International Space Station.
It’s a nine-minute ride to reach orbit, and then a 19-hour ride after that, NASA said.
The good news comes after Wednesday’s launch was scrubbed.
“It is absolutely our honor to be part of this huge effort to get the United States back in the launch business. We’ll talk to you from orbit,” Hurley said minutes before launch.
2:30 p.m.: Crew and weather ‘go’ for launch
Both the crew and weather are “go” for launch, according to NASA.
Fuel is now being loaded into the spacecraft with less than an hour to launch time.
NASA said that liquid oxygen and RP-1, typically referred to as rocket fuel, will fill the Falcon 9 until about two minutes before liftoff.
The news of a “go” for weather is a welcome development after the conditions were touch-and-go throughout the morning.
1:47 p.m.: Weather not cooperating
The launch has not been scrubbed, but there is a no-go because of weather right now.
NASA and Space X are waiting to see if conditions improve.
1:25 p.m.: Hatch closed, crew ‘settled in’
The hatch is closed and astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are “settled in” ahead of the SpaceX Demo-2 liftoff, according to NASA.
SpaceX confirmed Saturday morning that its launch is going ahead as planned
“All systems go for Crew Dragon’s test flight with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug,” the company tweet. “Teams are keeping an eye on weather.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Must echoed the weather concern, tweeting “Proceeding with countdown today, weather cancellation risk ~50%.”
If all goes well Saturday, it will be the first time Musk’s private space firm, SpaceX, will launch a human crew. It will also mark the first time in nearly a decade the U.S. has launched American astronauts from U.S. soil, ending an expensive reliance on Russia for seats to space.
“We’re at the dawn of a new age, and we’re really leading the beginning of a space revolution,” NASA Deputy Administrator James Morhard said at a news conference Friday.
He said the aim for the launch is to “give hope for many people who need it right now, and also to unite our country and the world.”
You can learn more about the NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who are headed to the ISS, here.
’50-50 chance’: Weather forecast includes possible thunderstorms, showers
The weather forecast for Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the time of the launch includes scattered showers and thunderstorms.
“It sounds like we got a 50-50 chance with the weather again,” Bob Cabana, the director of the Kennedy Space Center, said in a news conference Friday.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine added that despite all the VIP’s coming to watch the launch, including President Donald Trump, and the national hype they will feel “no pressure” and “we will launch when we are ready,” emphasizing the safety of Behnken and Hurley as a top priority.
According to the Launch Mission Executive Forecast, there is a 50% probability of violating weather constraints. Meanwhile, there is a 40% of probability of violating weather constraints on the backup launch date of Sunday.
SpaceX and NASA are set to launch two American astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday, in the first crewed mission for Elon Musk’s private space company.
Saturday’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight is also historic in that it would mark the first time in nearly a decade that the U.S. is sending American astronauts into space from American soil, ditching an expensive dependency on Russia for seats to space. The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but rescheduled due to inclement weather.
While there has been a lot of hype and buzz surrounding Musk and SpaceX, the NASA astronauts have largely shied away from the spotlight.
In a video released by NASA ahead of the launch, the two were bashful when asked about what makes the other great and joked with each other like longtime friends.
There are a lot of similarities between Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Both joined NASA’s astronaut program in 2000, they are both married to fellow NASA astronauts and they are fathers. They even share the same taste in music.
Here is everything you need to know about Hurley and Behnken, the astronauts NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has called “truly the best of us.”
Doug Hurley
Hurley, 53, was a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot prior to being selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2000.
He piloted two spaceflight missions in July 2009 and July 2011, and has logged a total of 683 hours in space.
Hurley is a native of Apalachin, New York. When he’s not flying to space, he enjoys hunting and spending time with his family in the Texas Hill Country, according to his official NASA biography.
Hurley is married to fellow NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg. They have one son.
Ahead of the launch, Hurley shared an image that his son drew of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on Instagram.
Bob Behnken
Behnken, 49, a veteran Air Force test pilot, was first selected as an astronaut in July 2000.
The St. Ann, Missouri, native has logged more than 708 hours in space and flew on two space shuttle flights in March 2008 and February 2010. He has also logged more than 37 hours of spacewalking on six different occasions, according to NASA.
Behnken is married to fellow NASA astronaut K. Megan McArthur and has a young son.
Bringing spaceflight capabilities back to the U.S. is important to him so that his son can witness him launch, Behnken said in a video released by NASA.
“On a deeply personal level, I’m really excited that my son is going to get a chance to see me launch into space,” he said. “Being an astronaut has been a little bit of an abstraction thing for him because he’s seen me do it in old videos but he hasn’t seen me do it for real.”
“I’m just one piece of a multi-thousand member team that is going to hopefully pull this off in short order,” he added. “It’s inspiring to me and I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
People packed into a pool at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
Parks in New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak, jammed with sunbathers
A crowded brunch spot in Colorado with diners celebrating Mother’s Day.
With more than 100,000 Americans dead and rising from the novel coronavirus, health experts and other leaders have been pleading for people to adhere to their strict guidelines to keep people safe.
But all too recently, these and other examples, large and small, have emerged of people blatantly defying social distancing and face-covering rules.
Psychology experts said they haven’t been surprised by this type of behavior, since it’s been a long-standing issue with public health: the ability for people to assess risk. Rajita Sinha, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University and the founding director of the Yale Stress Center, said the uncertainty about when the pandemic will end, access to information and one’s underlying beliefs can influence someone to flout precautions.
“Those features of the current pandemic really put into gear people’s need for control which is an important aspect of coping,” she told ABC News. “Gaining control is a basic way we cope.”
Sinha and other health experts say there is no easy solution to the problem, but there are ways to help those individuals see the need for health precautions.
She noted that risk is a very abstract concept to people. While some people may look at the COVID-related news and feel fear from the images of sick patients, others may want to take their chances, Sinha said.
“If you’re in a bad scenario where there is a lot of danger…if you worried you may not be able to get yourself out, there is a mechanism where we just plow along,” she said.
Joshua Ackerman, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who has studied behaviors related to infectious diseases, said individualism also plays a part in adhering to guidelines.
“If people think masks are self-protection and you don’t think you’ll need protection, you won’t wear them,” he told ABC News.
Sten Vermund, the dean of Yale School of Public Health, likened the behavior to running a red light.
“They don’t perceive enough personal risk and they don’t have a sense of altruism that is acute,” he told ABC News.
Attitudes on masks and social distancing are mixed in the U.S., according to polling from ABC News and Ipsos. At the end of April, a large majority of the country (82%) were concerned about coronavirus and just 14% thought stay-at-home orders restricted personal liberty. Earlier in April, an ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 55% of Americans had worn a mask in the last week.
While guidance on social distancing has largely been consistent and long-standing — staying 6 feet away from others to prevent the transmission of respiratory droplets, avoiding large gatherings and staying home — wearing a mask has been has been much murkier. Public health officials initially suggested that people not wear masks and instead reserve them for health workers, but on April 3, they recommended that people wear cloth masks in public to prevent asymptomatic transmission.
That message has been further confused by President Trump generally refusing to wear a mask, despite the CDC recommendation.
Information, particularly that which is circulating in one’s immediate circle, is an important factor for people’s behavior’s during the pandemic, according to Ackerman. Even though the U.S. leads the world with over 1.7 million cases, there are whole counties, particularly in rural communities, where there are few or no cases. The pandemic looks very different in those places compared to hotspots such as New York City.
Ackerman said the lack of centralized and consistent health-related messaging from local, state and federal leaders and the polarization of news sources will lead people to make different choices.
“People listen to information and they use that to calculate their own risk. In situations like this, sometimes the accuracy of the information is far less important to the availability of that information,” he said.
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.
Sinha said that the sometimes lax response to COVID can be amplified where others act similarly for the same reasons. She pointed out the examples of rallies and other demonstrations of people who have expressed frustration with the rise in unemployment and the loss of other social norms.
“They’re worried about work and unemployment and other stressors affecting them and family. They’re not paying attention to everything else,” Sinha said. Many protesters at reopening rallies around the country have, however, worn masks.
Vermund said there are also Americans who don’t have direct connections with the people most vulnerable to COVID, like the elderly or immunocompromised, so it may take longer for them to grasp the need for precautions. Although the true number of infected is unknown, just a fraction of the country has had confirmed COVID cases and a vast number of those have been concentrated in the urban Northeast.
“We lived through this during the HIV era,” he explained. “During the early years, 1981, 1982, people were not changing their behaviors because they weren’t so close to people who got ill. By 1985, the pandemic was so striking and so many people got to know people who got ill and died, that behaviors started to change.”
Ackerman said there will likely be increasing cases of people not adhering to social distancing and face-covering precautions as states being to reopen their economies. He noted the psychological notion of “goal completion” — in this case, the sense that the pandemic may be over because life appears to be returning to normal — may give some people a false sense of security.
“If we think about the information provided to people…one of the goals given was that we have to flatten the curve. To the extent that people think that the curve has been flattened, they might think the worst is behind them,” he said.
He and other health experts, however, said the public can still turn things around and increase compliance with social distancing rules. Sinha said people are more prone to comply with health orders if they have a clear understanding of how it affects the people around them.
Even if it is just one person articulating to a friend or family member that the face masks and distracting practices help the greater good, it could get them to change their minds and pass it on, according to Sinha.
“There is no reason it can’t be done if you can build a narrative around it. If you articulate the full narrative that we are shifting gears and preparing for the next phase, some people will listen,” she said.
The Minnesota man’s killing was captured on a 10-minute cellphone video.
May 29, 2020, 11:25 PM
7 min read
Attorneys for a Minneapolis man whose last moments alive were captured by a bystander on a 10-minute cellphone video have requested to have an independent autopsy.
George Floyd was accused by a convenience store clerk on May 25 of attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill when Minneapolis Police Department officers arrived on scene. About 20 minutes later, Floyd was pronounced dead, and four days later, former officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder. It’s unclear whether Chauvin has retained legal counsel.
None of the other responding officers had been charged as of Friday night.
Chauvin arrived outside the Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue with Officer Tou Thoa to assist two other officers, whose body cameras had been activated, with making the arrest.
Floyd complained of being “claustrophobic” and having troubling breathing before he was wrestled onto the pavement face first, according to the arrest warrant.
Around 8:19 p.m., Chauvin placed his left knee onto the back of Floyd’s neck, refusing to move it despite Floyd’s pleading, “I can’t breathe.”
“Should we roll him on his side?” Officer Thomas Lane is heard on bodycam footage asking Chauvin.
“No,” Chauvin responded. “Staying put where we got him.”
“The defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous,” according to the arrest warrant.
Ben Crump and S. Lee Merritt, attorneys for Floyd’s family, announced at a press conference on Friday that they will have Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist, conduct an independent autopsy instead of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office.
“Under Minnesota state law, the Medical Examiner is a neutral and independent office and is separate and distinct from any prosecutorial authority or law enforcement agency,” according to a statement from the medical examiner’s office.
“We saw in the Eric Garner case, and so many other cases where they have people who work with the city workers come up with things that are such an illusion — he had asthma, he had a heart condition — all these things that are irrelevant when they were living, breathing, walking, talking, just fine until the police accosted them,” Crump said at a press conference.
Floyd’s words were reminiscent of the death of Garner, who died in police custody in July 2014 after being placed in an unauthorized chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Panteleo. Panteleo wasn’t criminally charged, but he was fired from the force after a departmental trial in 2019. Garner’s death also was caught on camera.
Baden also conducted an independent autopsy on Garner after a New York City medical examiner determined that a chokehold triggered a fatal cascade of events, including an asthma attack, for the 43-year-old.
Prior to Chauvin’s arrest on Friday, Crump and Merritt called for a congressional hearing and a national task force to address deadly police-involved shootings.
“We need a national response — we can no longer do this on a case-by-case basis” Merritt said.
“We have been dealing with the pandemic of racism and discrimination for far too long,” said Ben Crump. “It is a pandemic, a national pandemic, we cannot keep looking at this regionally, this is affecting all African Americans, this a state of emergency. If we don’t address this in the next month or two we will see another senseless, unjustifiable killing of an African American at the hands by people who are police or pretend to be police.”
Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter Friday.
May 30, 2020, 4:25 AM
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The wife of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who is charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, is now filing for divorce, according to her attorneys.
“This evening, I spoke with Kellie Chauvin and her family. She is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy. She has filed for dissolution of her marriage to Derek Chauvin,” the Sekula Law Office said in a statement Friday night. “While Ms. Chauvin has no children from her current marriage, she respectfully requests that her children, her elder parents, and her extended family be given safety and privacy during this difficult time.”
Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd on Friday. More arrests and charges are anticipated, according to Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman.
Video of Chauvin pinning Floyd to the ground with his knee pressed into Floyd’s neck set off widespread protests across the U.S. this week since his death on Monday. Many of those protests have turned chaotic and violent in cities like Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta and several others.
Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, say evidence shows Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for a total of 8 minutes and 46 seconds, including two minutes and 53 seconds of which Floyd was non-responsive.
Police were called after Floyd had allegedly used a fake $20 bill to make a purchase at a local Cup Foods, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said Floyd “resisted being handcuffed,” according to the complaint, but “became compliant” once they were on him.
ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd and Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
“We’re at the dawn of a new age,” NASA’s deputy administrator said.
May 30, 2020, 12:04 PM
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Millions are expected to tune in on Saturday as NASA and SpaceX go forward with their second attempt to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.
SpaceX confirmed Saturday morning that its launch is going ahead as planned.
“All systems go for Crew Dragon’s test flight with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug,” the company tweet. “Teams are keeping an eye on weather.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Must echoed the weather concern, tweeting “Proceeding with countdown today, weather cancellation risk ~50%.”
If all goes well Saturday, it will be the first time Musk’s private space firm, SpaceX, will launch a human crew. It will also mark the first time in nearly a decade the U.S. has launched American astronauts from U.S. soil, ending an expensive reliance on Russia for seats to space.
“We’re at the dawn of a new age, and we’re really leading the beginning of a space revolution,” NASA Deputy Administrator James Morhard said at a news conference Friday.
He said the aim for the launch is to “give hope for many people who need it right now, and also to unite our country and the world.”
You can learn more about the NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who are headed to the ISS, here.
’50-50 chance’: Weather forecast includes possible thunderstorms, showers
The weather forecast for Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the time of the launch includes scattered showers and thunderstorms.
“It sounds like we got a 50-50 chance with the weather again,” Bob Cabana, the director of the Kennedy Space Center, said in a news conference Friday.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine added that despite all the VIP’s coming to watch the launch, including President Donald Trump, and the national hype they will feel “no pressure” and “we will launch when we are ready,” emphasizing the safety of Behnken and Hurley as a top priority.
According to the Launch Mission Executive Forecast, there is a 50% probability of violating weather constraints. Meanwhile, there is a 40% of probability of violating weather constraints on the backup launch date of Sunday.
