Month: July 2020

The Marines were aboard a small amphibious craft that took on water.

One Marine was killed and eight service members are missing when the amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) they were on sank in the waters off the California coast during a training exercise late Thursday afternoon, according to the Marine Corps.

The incident occurred around 5:45 p.m. PT in the vicinity of West Cove on San Clemente Island, a defense official said. Located 80 miles off the coast of Southern California, the island is managed by the U.S. Navy and frequently used by the Navy and Marine Corps for training.

Two others were injured in the incident.

Fifteen Marines and a sailor were aboard the AAV as it made its way back to the U.S. Navy amphibious ship USS Somerset, according to three defense officials.

The AAV was spotted taking on water and “submerging rapidly,” one official said.

Rescue efforts were immediately launched and eight of the 16 personnel aboard were recovered from water.

A Marine rescued later died at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, according to officials. Two injured Marines were taken to local hospitals. One is in critical condition and the other is in stable condition.

Multiple ships and helicopters from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard have been combing the waters off of San Clemente Island looking for the missing service members.

The Marines were from the 15 Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), I Marine Expeditionary Force, that is based at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego.

The Marines use amphibious assault vehicles to carry out beach landings. The small armored craft are launched from U.S. Navy amphibious ships and convert into armored personnel carriers after arriving on land.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident. I ask that you keep our Marines, sailors, and their families in your prayers as we continue our search,” said Col. Christopher Bronzi, the commander of the 15th MEU.

Mishaps with AAVs are not a common occurrence. There have been 10 to 15 reported incidents over the past 20 years and the last reported fatality involving an AAV in water occurred in January of 2011.

“San Clemente is a very challenging amphibious training ground,” said Eric Oehlerich, an ABC News contributor and former Navy SEAL who has conducted training on the island. “Night amphibious training is some of the most complex and high risk training you can do as an amphibious soldier.”

According to Oehlerich, the high surf conditions around the island can be tricky to navigate in an AAV, particularly at night.

Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) are typically composed of 2,200 Marines that travel aboard three Navy amphibious ships that form an Amphibious Ready Group.

The Marines will stay aboard the ships during six-month deployments to specific regions of the world. During that time they can use the aircraft or landing craft aboard the ships to get to land locations for short-notice deployments or scheduled training.

The mishap occurred as the 15th MEU was training with the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group that includes the USS Somerset and USS San Diego.

Forecasters predict the storm will hit Florida this weekend.

Hurricane Isaias, which strengthened into a Category 1 storm overnight, will hit the Bahamas Friday with torrential rains and high winds before taking aim at eastern Florida, according to forecasters.

The National Hurricane Center said in its 8 a.m. update that the islands will experience wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour and heavy squalls throughout the day. Four to eight inches of rain is expected to fall in the Bahamas, according to the NHC.

“These rainfall amounts will lead to life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, as well as river flooding,” the NHC said.

Forecasters predict the storm will travel northwest and arrive in southeast Florida on Saturday and Sunday. The east coast of Florida from Ocean Reef to Sebastian Inlet and the Lake Okeechobee region are all under a tropical storm watch, according to the NHC.

Parts of the state could see two to four inches of rain with isolated maximum totals of six inches, according to the current forecast.

“These rainfall amounts could result in isolated flash and urban flooding, especially in low-lying and poorly drained areas,” the NHC said.

Florida officials are on high alert and watching the storm closely. NASA and SpaceX said Friday they are monitoring the Florida conditions but decided to move forward with plans to bring astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley home to Earth with a splashdown on Sunday.

Officials in Miami-Dade County announced Thursday that parks and beaches would close in anticipation of the storm.

Isaias already caused tremendous damage to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Mudslides left people and cars stranded in the streets and the storm knocked out power to 400,000 customers across Puerto Rico, according to authorities.

Tybre Faw met the late congressman at a Selma march in 2018.

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta echoed with applause for a young boy from Tennessee who admired Rep. John Lewis and was tapped by the late civil rights icon’s family to speak at his funeral on Thursday.

12-year-old Tybre Faw took the stage during the service to celebrate Lewis’ life by reciting one of the lawmaker’s favorite poems, “Invictus,” by William Ernest Henley.

“It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,” Faw read at the service.

Faw first met Lewis in 2018 when he traveled 400 miles with his family to attend a march in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

Lewis noticed Faw’s sign at the time which read, “Thank you, Rep. John Lewis. You have shown me how to have courage.”

Since their first meeting two years ago when Lewis introduced himself to Faw, the pair became friends and stayed in touch.

“John Lewis was my hero, my friend, let’s honor him by getting in good trouble,” Faw said to the congregation filled with Lewis’ friends and family.

As he walked away, Faw was overcome with emotion from the response of the crowd’s applause and support.

In a letter from Lewis published Thursday by the New York Times, his call to fight for change was renewed.

“While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society,” Lewis wrote before his death. “Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.”

Lewis died on July 17 at 80 after a monthslong battle with pancreatic cancer.

The coffee chain is adapting to “customers’ growing need for convenience.”

Starbucks has been dynamic in its changes amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and is set to roll out a new blend of hybrid storefronts.

As more locations cater to curbside takeaway, drive-thru and mobile-only orders with coffee shop dinning spaces sealed off, the company announced on it’s earnings call that it will accelerate the rollout of new pick-up stores.

“In urban core markets where drive-thru and curbside aren’t feasible, we will begin to reposition our store formats,” CEO Kevin Johnson said Tuesday. “These stores are built in a smaller footprint and create a familiar and convenient walk-through experience that is very relevant to customers in urban markets.”

The team explained that the new store concepts will “ideally be located within a three to five minute walk from a traditional Starbucks store” to give customers flexibility to enjoy beverage in our store or on the go.

“We plan to accelerate the development of over 50 of these stores over the next 12 to 18 months with a view to have several hundred in the U.S. over the next three to five years,” the team added.

The director of the coffee company explained that data from their third quarter earnings which showed “customers are adapting their routines” ultimately prompted Starbucks’ decision to start “accelerating innovative store formats.”

The company plans to leverage its various store formats “to create a network of stores in a community,” Johnson added. “Think of this as blending highly complementary store formats throughout a community that collectively better serves the expanding and shifting need states of customers in that community.”

Additionally, Starbucks announced that it will introduce “a simple handheld device to further increase throughput and improve the customer experience.”

There will also be a new curbside pick-up experience available in 700 to 1,000 locations by the end of this quarter to enable incremental customer visits.

“Our near-term focus is to recover sales safely and responsibly,” Johnson said, adding that they have seen firsthand “the power of integrating physical and digital customer touchpoints to meet customers’ growing need for convenience.”

This fall, the brand will also enhance it’s app-based loyalty program, Starbucks Rewards, with a new pay-as-you-go option for members in the U.S. and Canada.

Finally, Johnson reiterated that the businesses’ “recovery strategy is working” and that Starbucks has “future-proofed” their model with strategic initiatives for long-term growth in the face of the pandemic.

A new study at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering showed ventilation systems can change the spread of aerosolized and potentially virus-containing particles in common indoor areas. The study looked at results in an elevator, a supermarket and a classroom.

Although their findings are still undergoing peer review, they have caught the attention of an anxious nation gearing up to send children back to school and eager for any small hints on how to stay safe and reduce transmission indoors.

Dr. Jiarong Hong and Dr. Suo Yang, mechanical engineering associate professors at the University of Minnesota analyzed how aerosolized and potentially virus-containing particles could spread in common indoor areas using a computer simulation.

To start, they evaluated eight asymptomatic participants with COVID and calculated the particle spread from actions like talking, coughing and sneezing. They took this data and applied it into various computer simulations.

In one simulation, they created various circumstances in a standard classroom, with a teacher placed at the front and children scattered throughout the room. In other simulations, they did the same thing, but in an elevator or a grocery store. They studied various conditions, including how the spread would change if the rooms had a powerful ventilator in either the entrance or back of the room.

They found that in indoor spaces, good ventilation will filter some of the virus out of the air, but may leave more viral particles on surfaces, such as walls. Key among their findings: The aerosols spread significantly less throughout the room when the asymptomatic person was placed directly under an air vent rather than away from.

This could come into play in the classroom, with the risk of transmission theoretically lower if an unknowing asymptomatic teacher were placed directly underneath the ventilation system. Conversely, a ventilation system at the back of the room might spread potentially infectious particles throughout the room.

“If the teacher is in the front, the ventilation is in the back, the ventilation will draw the aerosol throughout the whole classroom.” says Suo Yang, one of the lead researchers. “In comparison, if we move the ventilation to the front, right above the teacher, then the ventilation will create a recirculating zone in the front, which will confine the aerosols within the front 1/3 part of the classroom.”

For the classroom case, with strong simulated ventilation, only about 10% of particles were vented out, meaning you can’t necessarily bank on a high-quality ventilation system to filter out all the potentially infectious particles in a standard classroom.

A grocery store, meanwhile, was a different story. In the simulated supermarket, 50% of the particles were vented out, according to the computer simulation, with Yang considering that the tall shelving units of a supermarket create small wind channels that more efficiently circulate air through a room.

In both of these scenarios, many of the particles ended up on surfaces, such as the floor and the walls.

“With very strong ventilation, it doesn’t mean you get aerosols out. We found the surface deposition is huge. That means the regular cleaning of the surface is important,” said Yang.

It is important to note that this study is currently under peer review. Experts caution the study has limits, and its conclusions shouldn’t be applied in a diverse set of scenarios. Every classroom, grocery store and elevator is unique, and needs to be specifically evaluated for transmission risk. Nor should the findings that some scenarios offer reduce risk mean that people should replace typical COVID-19 safety measures, such as social distancing and facial coverings.

“Modeling might be useful but we also need to understand that there are many possible scenarios that can exist for the same indoor space, so modeling all scenarios is not possible,” said Rajat Mittal, professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University and an expert in fluid dynamics.

Nevertheless, Mittal said the results are “in line with what has been found in earlier studies.”

For Yang, one of the biggest takeaways from his research is that a good ventilation system is not a silver bullet for reducing transmission indoors.

“Normally people think ventilation will help. Our observation is, it depends on how the room is set up and where is the ventilation,” said Yang. “Sometimes it helps, sometimes it helps the spread out. The key observation is the relative location of the ventilation.”

Alexis E. Carrington, M.D., a dermatology research fellow at the University of California, Davis in Sacramento, California, and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit. Sony Salzman is the coordinating producer of ABC News Medical Unit.

Wesley Bell said he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt a crime occurred.

The former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown six years ago in Ferguson, Missouri, will not be criminally charged, the St. Louis County prosecutor said Thursday.

“This is one of the most difficult things I have had to do as an elected official,” Wesley Bell said at a press conference announcing the findings of an independent, five-month review.

After examining thousands of pages of witness statements, forensic reports and other evidence, Bell said his office was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Darren Wilson committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law when he shot and killed Brown.

Bell, who was elected St. Louis County’s first Black prosecutor in 2018, said the investigation does not exonerate Wilson.

“The question of whether we can prove a case at trial is different than clearing him of any and all wrongdoing,” Bell said. “There’s so many points at which Darren Wilson could have handled the case differently, and if he had, Michael Brown might still be alive. But that is not the question before us. The only question is whether we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, and the answer to that is no.”

Brown, a Black teenager, was unarmed when Wilson, a white police officer, shot and killed him on Aug. 9, 2014. The incident sparked national protests over police brutality and marked the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bell’s predecessor, Bob McCulloch, turned the case over to a grand jury which declined to indict Wilson in November 2014. Wilson also resigned that month.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute the former officer in March 2015, citing evidence and witnesses supporting Wilson’s claims that Brown attacked him.

Brown’s family was paid $1.5 million in a 2017 settlement after they sued the city of Ferguson.

Brown’s name has been among those invoked in the recent nationwide protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd in May while in the custody of Minneapolis police.

The storm is also delivering damage to the Dominican Republic today.

Isaias has strengthened from a tropical storm into a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center announced Thursday night, adding that the storm’s maximum winds are estimated to be 80 mph, with higher gusts.

The government of the Bahamas has issued a Hurricane Warning for the central and southeastern Bahamas.

A special advisory will be issued soon.

The storm continues its path through the Caribbean leaving intense flooding in Puerto Rico.

Multiple municipalities on the west and east side of the island have been hit the hardest by the storm.

On the west side of the island at least 41 people have been rescued amid the flooding, Puerto Rico National Guard Gen. Jose Reyes told ABC News.

Officials are still visiting affected areas in the island as intense showers continue Thursday evening.

A woman’s car was swept away by water in Rincón, on the west side of the U.S. territory. The head of the island’s Emergency Management Service confirmed at a press conference that they are still looking for her, though her car has been found.

Heavy rain and intense flooding have led to destruction in communities that were already vulnerable due to the earthquakes.

About 400,000 families are without power and at least 150,000 are without water.

The island’s power authority executive director, Jose Ortiz, said most customers should have power “within today or tomorrow.”

As the island is facing multiple emergencies, Reyes told ABC News that one of his main worries is how they’ve had to stretch their resources.

“It’s concerning when you have a certain number of resources and you have two, three and four battles to fight” Reyes said. Amid the storm, Puerto Rico is still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria and ongoing earthquakes while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are currently 22 shelters opened with over 60 people — following social distancing guidelines.

Tropical Storm Isaias has now reached Dominican Republic, as it continues its path toward the East Coast of the U.S.

Isaias will likely be near the Turks and Caicos Islands and southern Bahamas on Friday.

Some fluctuation in intensity is expected as the storm interacts with the more mountainous terrain if Hispaniola.

If the storm can maintain its organization and some intensity past Hispaniola, there will be some opportunity for strengthening on Friday and Saturday as the storm moves through the warm waters near the Bahamas and east of Florida.

Isaias will bring tropical storm force winds of over 50 mph to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Locally 4 to 8 inches of rainfall is expected across these Caribbean Islands, which could cause flash flooding and mudslides.

Over the last 24 hours, some of the model consensus has shifted eastward as the track has shifted eastward. Once the storm passes Hispaniola, there will be a better understanding of how this storm will behave as it moves towards the United States.

If the storm manages to stay east of Florida and avoid a tremendous amount of land interaction, conditions may be conducive for some strengthening off the Southeast coast line.

Water temperatures are very warm along nearly the entire U.S. East Coast and that will help the storm maintain intensity or gain strength slightly.

This is reflected in the official forecast track. The cone of uncertainty includes the possibility of the storm staying just offshore and traveling along the East Coast into early next week.

If this happens, there could be some impacts to the Georgia, the Carolinas and perhaps the Mid-Atlantic and into part of the Northeast.

Regardless of the exact forecast track, impacts from Isaias remain quite possible along the East Coast even though the exact location and magnitude of the these impacts remains uncertain.

Portland’s governor had said federal officers would begin departing Thursday.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that federal agents dispatched to Portland, Oregon, would not be ordered to depart the city until “safety” was restored, appearing to contradict statements a day earlier by the state’s governor, who said she had been assured that officers would begin their phased withdrawal as soon as Thursday.

Trump said in a tweet Thursday morning that Gov. Kate Brown, “isn’t doing her job.”

“She must clear out, and in some cases arrest, the Anarchists & Agitators in Portland,” Trump said. “If she can’t do it, the Federal Government will do it for her. We will not be leaving until there is safety!”

In an interview with ABC News Live Wednesday, Brown outlined what appears to be a different understanding of the agreement reached with the Department of Homeland Security — which would see officers from the Oregon State Police take the place of federal officials protecting the Hatfield Federal Courthouse that has faced attacks and vandalism in recent weeks.

“The plan is very, very clear and both sides are in agreement that starting tomorrow afternoon, Thursday afternoon, Customs and Border Patrol and ICE officers that have been on the streets of Portland will begin leaving,” Brown said. “This is definitely a step by step, gradual process, but we know how it is, they will be out of the city of Portland and Oregonians will be in charge.”

Brown further argued that the surge of federal forces in the city was part of “a political strategy” by the Trump administration.

“Their presence here was like pouring gasoline on the fire, and their strategy — because it was a political one, has backfired,” Brown said. “And they are leaving they’re leaving the streets of Portland and leaving Oregon.”

Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf by contrast released a separate statement following Brown’s initial announcement that hinged any withdrawal of federal officers on a clear restoration of peace in the city and near federal properties.

“The Department will continue to maintain our current, augmented federal law enforcement personnel in Portland until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked,” Wolf said. “The Department will continue to re-evaluate our security posture in Portland, and should circumstances on the ground significantly improve due to the influx of state and local law enforcement, we anticipate the ability to change our force posture, as we do everyday at our other 9,000 federal properties we protect across the country.”

“We’re not going to [move out] that quickly,” Wolf added later in a conference call with reporters.

Brown’s office responded to ABC News’ request for comment by referring to a tweet from Gov. Brown posted to her account Thursday afternoon, where she stated “today, federal troops are preparing to leave downtown Portland.”

According to reports from The Oregonian newspaper, following the announcement on Wednesday about the phased withdrawal, dozens of DHS and CBP agents squared off with protesters in the streets near the federal courthouse in the “largest visible response” from the federal officers yet.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News as to whether any officers would be departing the city Thursday or whether officials believed Wednesday night’s events amounted to any improvement in terms of safety compared with previous nights.

Wolf told reporters Wednesday that federal officers near the courthouse “have faced assaults with Molotov cocktails, mortar-style commercial grade fireworks accelerants, IEDs and other violent weapons since July 4.”

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.

Herman Cain, American businessman and former Republican candidate for president, has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19 for nearly a month, according to a post on his personal website and a source close to the White House to ABC News.

“You’re never ready for the kind of news we are grappling with this morning. But we have no choice but to seek and find God’s strength and comfort to deal with it,” staffer Dan Calabrese wrote in an obituary posted on HermanCain.com Thursday. “Herman Cain — our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us — has passed away.”

“Although he was basically pretty healthy in recent years, he was still in a high-risk group because of his history with cancer,” the post continues. “We knew the time would come when the Lord would call him home, but we really liked having him here with us, and we held out hope he’d have a full recovery.”

Cain, 74, was hospitalized in Atlanta with the coronavirus on July 1, 11 days after he attended President Donald Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20. He was photographed there inside the arena without a mask sitting with a group of other Trump campaign surrogates.

When Cain’s team confirmed the news of his hospitalization on Twitter, they noted: “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus.”

A spokesperson for Cain said on Monday that he remained hospitalized and was being treated with oxygen for his lungs.

“The doctors say his other organs and systems are strong,” the spokesperson added at the time.

The former pizza company executive was the frontrunner in the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination for roughly a month with an agenda he called the 9-9-9 plan to simplify the tax code.

Another former Republican candidate for president, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was among the first to express his condolences on social media and noted Cain’s catchphrase.

President Trump tweeted in the afternoon that he spoke with Cain’s wife, Gloria, and their two children, Melanie and Vincent, and expressed his condolences.

“He was a very special man, an American Patriot, and great friend,” Trump tweeted.

Cain was born in 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Atlanta by two working-class parents. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and earned a master’s degree in computer science from Purdue University four years later.

During his studies, he served as a mathematician at the U.S. Department of the Navy.

David A. Thomas, the president of Morehouse College, offered his condolences, saying, “He was a philanthropist, a successful business executive, a political activist, a media personality, a caring father, and a son of Morehouse who graduated in 1967. Our hearts and prayers are with the Cain family.”

Cain entered the corporate world and climbed the professional ladder at several companies including Coca-Cola, Pillsbury and Burger King. In 1986, he was appointed the CEO of Godfather Pizza and quickly turned the failing chain into a profitable business.

In 1993, Cain rose to the political spotlight during a town hall meeting with President Bill Clinton over health care. He argued with the president over a health care mandate, contending it would cost jobs and hurt businesses.

“Mr. President, with all due respect, your calculation on what the impact would do, quite honestly, is incorrect,” he said.

Cain left the Godfather Pizza in 1996 and became the president and, later, CEO of the National Restaurant Association, where he lobbied with congressional lawmakers. He served as an economic adviser during the 1996 Bob Dole presidential campaign and remained close with Republicans.

Cain launched two unsuccessful presidential runs in 2000 and 2004. In 2006, he was diagnosed with stage IV liver and colon cancer, but he said in 2007 he was cancer-free.

In 2012, he made another attempt at the White House and gained momentum among potential GOP voters.

A Quinnipiac University poll released at the end of October 2011 had him leading the GOP candidates by seven points. It was around this time that several women came forward with sexual harassment allegations that dated back to the ’90s. While Cain denied all of the allegations, his poll numbers slipped and he suspended his campaign that December.

He remained an active figure in GOP politics following his campaign and served as a pundit on Fox News and other programs. Last year, Trump said he was considering Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve, but Cain withdrew.

A co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, Cain became an outspoken advocate for the Republican Party and Trump in recent years.

Cain is survived by his wife, who he married in 1968, two children and several grandchildren.

ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson and John Santucci contributed to this report.

One father said overcoming kids’ fears of face masks took creativity, practice.

As coronavirus cases surge across the U.S., more than 30 states now require people to wear face masks in public. Several states even mandate masks while exercising outdoors.

The orders have triggered a wave of backlash and bogus claims about legal and medical exemptions. But medical experts tell ABC News Live that people with concerns about masks should talk with their doctors because in nearly all cases — even those with autism, PTSD or chronic lung disease — wearing a face covering makes most medical sense and will not cause harm.

“It’s unfortunate,” Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, told ABC News Live about people claiming they can’t wear masks. He said it’s “the same as people putting a handicap sticker on their car and using a spot that was designated for someone else.”

Doctors say people with neurodevelopmental disorders, like autism, can experience intense anxiety when forced to wear face masks but that it can be overcome through practice, mask modifications and therapy.

“It’s the responsible thing to do,” said Rob Gorski, a single father of three autistic sons in Canton, Ohio. “I know that my kids — it wasn’t easy. But I’m telling you, like, if my kids can do it, all these people out here who are, who are complaining about it being uncomfortable, they don’t have a leg to stand on.”

Gorski said training his sons to get comfortable with masks took creativity.

“They tried at first and then it was too uncomfortable,” he said. “Too itchy. And so what we would do is we would just practice. Like I would go for a drive just to get out of the house, and I would have them wear the mask.”

Children under 2, anyone unconscious or incapacitated and people who have trouble breathing should not wear face masks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But medical experts say most of those people probably shouldn’t be out in public anyway. And, they say, individuals with chronic conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not at heightened risk from wearing a mask, unless they are in active respiratory distress.

“If an individual has advanced lung disease that, for example, they’re already on supplemental oxygen at home, especially if they’re also considered somebody who retains carbon dioxide, that’s probably the highest risk group to then put a mask on them and have them breathe through it for any period of time,” said Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer with the American Lung Association.

The American Lung Association and other top lung health groups are encouraging people who want an exemption from mask mandates to weigh their concerns against societal needs to mitigate spread of the virus.

The groups also reject claims that face masks harm the lungs by dangerously reducing oxygen intake and retaining harmful carbon dioxide gas.

“These materials are designed to restrict small particles, not to restrict gas exchange,” Rizzo said. “Oxygen and carbon dioxide are much smaller molecules than the actual viral particles. So again the science doesn’t seem to support significant retention of CO2.”

Studies have shown a slight drop of oxygen in health care workers who use these for hours at a time — and yes, there are some headaches noted — but the oxygen drop is minimal, he said.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, echoed that point in a recent Facebook Live interview.

“There has not been any indication that putting a mask on and wearing a mask for a considerable period of time has any deleterious effects on oxygen exchange or anything like that. Not at all,” he said.

Most Americans — nearly 90% in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll — say they regularly wear a face covering when leaving home. Only one in 10 still choose to go mask-free.

Some mask opponents have been invoking the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to defend non-compliance with local mask mandates.

The ADA, which was signed 30 years ago this week, requires businesses to “reasonably accommodate” people with disabilities and medical conditions — but not at the expense of public health.

Clarifying claims around the law circulating on social media, the Justice Department says it “does not provide a blanket exemption to people with disabilities from complying with legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operations.”

Official-looking cards that claim to exempt holders from mask mandates have been circulating widely on social media. Federal officials have called the cards fraudulent.