Over 100 million Americans are under winter weather alerts on Sunday.
January 31, 2021, 9:01 PM
• 4 min read
Over 100 million Americans were under winter weather alerts Sunday from Minnesota to Maine as a major winter storm continues to track eastward.
Heavy snow blanketed the Great Lakes and Midwest region Sunday morning as moderate to heavy rain fell across the Ohio Valley into the Southeast.
Overnight in Chicago, there were reports of snowfall rates of 1 inch per hour and quarter-mile visibility.
About half a foot of snow is currently being reported across parts of southwest Virginia and into southern West Virginia, while parts of northeastern Illinois and southeast Wisconsin are reporting more than 10 inches so far.
Snow continued to linger from Chicago to Ohio Sunday afternoon and areas including Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia have started to see light snow.
Snow will begin to spread near New York City Sunday evening from south to north, beginning as a light flurry.
Between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., heavier snow will be accompanied by gusty winds, deteriorating road conditions with low visibility.
The snow will then continue along the I-95 corridor throughout the day on Monday with the heaviest snow falling during the afternoon hours.
The worst of the storm will wrap by Monday evening, when a period of mixing may transition to a cold rain for coastal areas. Any freezing rain or sleet will make travel hazardous as hard surfaces will become icy.
The heaviest snowfall totals of a foot or more will remain west of the coast and into higher elevations and New York and Philadelphia have a good chance of seeing 6 to 12 inches of snow with Washington, D.C. and Boston looking at totals in the 3 to 6 inch range.
Elsewhere, a series of systems will move across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California over the next few days bringing heavy rain.
There is a risk for flash flooding across southwest Oregon and Northern California where they could see as much as 5 inches of rain.
Additional snowfall of 1 to 2 feet is expected along the Cascade mountain range through Monday evening with an avalanche warning having been issued for the region from Lake Chelan southward to I-90 through 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Over 100 million Americans are under winter weather alerts on Sunday.
January 31, 2021, 9:01 PM
• 4 min read
Over 100 million Americans were under winter weather alerts Sunday from Minnesota to Maine as a major winter storm continues to track eastward.
Heavy snow blanketed the Great Lakes and Midwest region Sunday morning as moderate to heavy rain fell across the Ohio Valley into the Southeast.
Overnight in Chicago, there were reports of snowfall rates of 1 inch per hour and quarter-mile visibility.
About half a foot of snow is currently being reported across parts of southwest Virginia and into southern West Virginia, while parts of northeastern Illinois and southeast Wisconsin are reporting more than 10 inches so far.
Snow continued to linger from Chicago to Ohio Sunday afternoon and areas including Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia have started to see light snow.
Snow will begin to spread near New York City Sunday evening from south to north, beginning as a light flurry.
Between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., heavier snow will be accompanied by gusty winds, deteriorating road conditions with low visibility.
The snow will then continue along the I-95 corridor throughout the day on Monday with the heaviest snow falling during the afternoon hours.
The worst of the storm will wrap by Monday evening, when a period of mixing may transition to a cold rain for coastal areas. Any freezing rain or sleet will make travel hazardous as hard surfaces will become icy.
The heaviest snowfall totals of a foot or more will remain west of the coast and into higher elevations and New York and Philadelphia have a good chance of seeing 6 to 12 inches of snow with Washington, D.C. and Boston looking at totals in the 3 to 6 inch range.
Elsewhere, a series of systems will move across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California over the next few days bringing heavy rain.
There is a risk for flash flooding across southwest Oregon and Northern California where they could see as much as 5 inches of rain.
Additional snowfall of 1 to 2 feet is expected along the Cascade mountain range through Monday evening with an avalanche warning having been issued for the region from Lake Chelan southward to I-90 through 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people again protested across Russia to call for the release of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny and were confronted with a massive deployment of security forces that sought to stifle the demonstrations.
Russian riot police moved to break up rallies, and by evening they had detained over at least 4,400 people, according to a monitoring group that tracks arrests.
The security deployment to counter the protests was one of the biggest seen in years. Ahead of the protest in Moscow, authorities sealed off the city center with hundreds of police and steel barriers and closed some metro stations, effectively shutting down the heart of the capital in a step many residents said was unprecedented.
A week earlier, tens of thousands of people joined protests in dozens of cities across Russia to support Navalny in the largest display of public opposition the Kremlin has seen in years. Police detained over 3,000 people.
This time, authorities appeared determined to send a message by stamping down on the protests. Police in helmets and batons began grabbing people before the demonstrations started, detaining dozens of young people they deemed likely protesters.
In St. Petersburg, hundreds of riot police in camouflage with steel shields moved to blockade protesters, cutting off streets. They advanced, banging their batons against their shields.
In many cities, people walked in peaceful groups, chanting “Putin is a thief” and “freedom.” Navalny’s allies had called for people not to gather in one place but to just walk around. Police in Moscow sought to disrupt the crowds, and people wandered through the city, with a large crowd eventually reaching the jail where Navalny is held.
Police kept up an almost continuous tempo of arrests, with groups of officers snatching people and carting them into waiting buses, as well as sometimes clubbing people with batons. Police in Moscow and St. Petersburg used stun guns on some demonstrators, which is uncommon in Russia. In some videos, police were filmed shocking protesters who were already detained.
“The main task of the police today to frighten people,” Mikhail Birukov, a lawyer who works with the monitoring group OVD-Info, said at a police station where his client had been detained. “The police don’t think about law at all,” he said.
Like last weekend, the mood of the protests was unusually angry, and while mostly peaceful, demonstrators in a few places scuffled with police.
Because the protests were scattered, it was difficult to judge crowd size, but in Moscow and St. Petersburg they seemed of a similar scale to last week’s protests, involving thousands. The threats of arrest and police deployments appeared to have deterred some people, and in regional cities, numbers seemed smaller.
In Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast, people gathered on the ice of a frozen bay near the city, dancing in a circle. In Yekaterinburg in Siberia, a crowd of a few thousand marched through the city and at one point walked across a frozen river.
The protests followed a week of crackdown by authorities targeting supporters of Navalny. Police launched a wave of house searches and detentions this week, detaining leading activists as well as Navalny’s brother Oleg Navalny. Almost all of Navalny’s core team were in detention by the time Sunday’s protests began.
A day earlier, police also targeted independent journalists, detaining the editor-in-chief of Mediazona, an outlet that focuses on rights violations by law enforcement. The detention of the editor, Sergey Smirnov, was denounced by other independent outlets as an extraordinary attempt to intimidate media that is critical of the Kremlin.
Navalny himself remains in jail, where he has been held since being arrested two weeks ago on his arrival to Moscow after returning to Russia for the first time since recovering from a nerve agent poisoning.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most troublesome opponent, has built a grassroots following with his video investigations that have exposed alleged corruption among the Kremlin elite.
A new investigation released by Navalny after his arrest claimed to reveal the staggering luxury of a secret palace built for Putin on the Black Sea. The nearly two-hour video has been watched over 100 million times on YouTube, forcing the Kremlin to respond.
This week, journalists from pro-Kremlin media were taken around the palace to show that the interior is still largely a building site. And on Sunday, oligarch and Putin’s former judo partner Arkady Rotenberg abruptly came forward claiming the palace was his and it was actually intended to be a hotel.
Navalny is detained on allegations that he violated the terms of an old suspended sentence from a trial in 2014 that found him guilty of embezzlement. The European Court of Human Rights later ruled that sentence was politically motivated.
Authorities have requested that suspended sentence now be converted to real prison time, raising the possibility that Navalny could be behind bars for up to three and a half years.
Navalny’s team on Sunday hailed the protests and called for people to come out again on Tuesday at a court in Moscow where a hearing is due to decide whether to jail Navalny.
Video surfaced of comments both are seen making at a Black Lives Matter protest.
January 30, 2021, 9:14 PM
• 3 min read
A police chief and an officer in Hamilton, Georgia, are out from their positions after video surfaced of comments both are seen making at a Black Lives Matter protest, ABC News affiliate WTVM reported.
Hamilton Police Department Chief Gene Allmond is reported to have resigned and Patrolman John Brooks was terminated according to the assistant to the Hamilton mayor, Julie Brown, WTVM reported.
Both officers were wearing bodycams at a BLM protest in Hamilton in June 2020. The video has since been made public.
In the video, a man speaking off-camera and a man on-camera make several comments with racial slurs and explicit language.
The off-camera speaker presumably makes reference to the June 2020 fatal police shooting of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who was shot after allegedly grabbing a police officer’s Taser, following a struggle during a field sobriety test. The incident led to BLM protests, the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields and the firing of Officer Garrett Rolfe.
Brown told WTVM that “the mayor and city council acted quickly to remove the Chief and patrolman after viewing the video for the first time,” on Monday.
“It was disgusting,” Hamilton Mayor Pro-Tem Ransom Farley told ABC News. “The fact they were on duty … when we found out they were terminated in an hour-and-a-half time,” he said.
“I thank God, we caught it,” Farley said. “When you’re a police officer and you have that type of frame of mind …. how can you protect and serve?”
Attempts to reach the Hamilton Police Department, Allmond and Brooks were unsuccessful.
Her family’s lawyer said the teen was knocked unconscious.
January 30, 2021, 10:08 PM
• 7 min read
A Florida teenager seen in a viral video this week being body-slammed by a school resource officer has been “traumatized” by the incident, her family said.
Taylor Bracey, 16, a student at Liberty High School in Kissimmee, is suffering from memory loss, headaches, blurry vision and sleep deprivation, her mother told reporters at a press briefing Saturday.
“She’s depressed, I’m depressed. We all are traumatized about what happened,” Jamesha Bracey said outside the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, which employs Deputy Ethan Fournier, the school resource officer involved in the incident. “I think, if this was a white girl, would this have happened to the white child?”
According to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, Taylor was knocked unconscious during the incident and suffered a concussion.
“He’s supposed to be trained,” he said. “It’s foreseeable that children may get in altercations at school. You’re not supposed to knock them unconscious. You’re supposed to be the person who knows how to de-escalate the situation. It’s just mind-boggling.”
“This is the adultification of Black children — that our children are seen as adults,” he added. “No, no, this was a child.”
The incident occurred on Tuesday in the school’s hallway, as Fournier was attempting to break up a fight between Taylor and another student, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
“The student was not complying with lawful commands,” Sheriff Marcos Lopez said during a press briefing Wednesday.
On the day of the incident, Jamesha Bracey said her daughter told her there were “some girls wanted to jump her after school.”
In video of the incident, after Taylor’s head audibly hits the concrete floor, Fournier can then be seen handcuffing her while students look on.
According to Crump, Fournier did not render aid. Taylor received medical attention at the scene, Lopez said.
The sheriff’s office handed a criminal investigation of the deputy over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement “to make sure that this is completely independent of our agency,” Lopez said. “We want to make sure it’s a complete, thorough investigation without my influence in this case.”
Fournier has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He does not have a history of misconduct other than minor property damage, Lopez said.
Fournier also was the girls’ flag football coach at Liberty High and will not be coaching, pending the outcome of the investigation, the Osceola School District confirmed to ABC News.
“It has been a difficult week for Liberty High students and staff,” Osceola School District spokesperson Dana Schafer said in a statement to ABC News. “The entire staff and administration of Liberty High School remain committed to ensuring that we have a safe and positive learning environment for all students.”
The school district is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
School resource officers are not school district employees but rather employed through their law enforcement agency, she added.
Community leaders who joined Taylor’s family Saturday called to repeal a Florida law requiring at least one school resource officer at each school in the state.
They also called for Fournier to be fired and not work as a school resource officer elsewhere in the future, and for the investigation to be led by a community task force, not law enforcement, among other demands.
Taylor’s parents are weighing sending their daughter back to the school, Crump said.
“That will be a family decision, but think about it — you’re going to send your daughter back to the school that has a school resource officer that was supposed to protect her, but body-slammed her and knocked her unconscious?” he said. “As a parent, how confident do you feel sending your child back to that environment?”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
David Vowell was found near the alleged murder scene on Saturday.
January 31, 2021, 3:39 AM
• 4 min read
David Vowell, the 70-year-old man accused of killing two fellow duck hunters in rural Tennessee earlier this week, was found dead on Saturday.
Vowell was found dead in Reelfoot Lake, not far from where the two men were fatally shot on Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
Chance Black, 26, and Zachery Grooms, 25, were at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee on Monday morning when Vowell approached them and got into a verbal altercation, District Attorney Tommy Thomas told ABC News. Vowell allegedly opened fire and killed both Black and Grooms.
Thomas said earlier this week that it was unknown whether Vowell knew the two victims.
Vowell’s body was found around 3 p.m. local time on Saturday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Authorities said he was positively identified, but an autopsy would be conducted. A cause of death was not announced.
Vowell had fled the shooting scene on foot as his boat was recovered and the car he drove to the boat ramp was also seized, Thomas said Wednesday.
He had been wanted on two counts of first-degree murder. He was considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.
The search was conducted in a large, extremely rural area — Reelfoot Lake State Park — near the Missouri and Kentucky borders. Reelfoot Lake itself is 15,000 acres and is surrounded by thick, murky swampland filled with cypress trees.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation posted footage of them searching the area on Friday, showing the adverse conditions they were dealing with.
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
The California ski resort received in excess of 7 feet of snow this week.
January 31, 2021, 1:15 AM
• 3 min read
A skier has died after being found upside down in several feet of snow at Mammoth Mountain ski resort in California.
The man was found by guests of the resort buried head first at about noon on Thursday “in deep snow near the intersection of Redwing and Hully Gully,” Mammoth Mountain said in a statement.
The Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol arrived on the scene, where skiers had already begun digging out the man. The ski patrol started CPR immediately and used a defibrillator as the man did not have a pulse, the resort said.
The man was taken to Mammoth Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The victim was not identified by authorities, but San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV said he was a 52-year-old from Oceanside, California, about a half hour north of San Diego.
Circumstances into the skier’s death are still being investigated, authorities said.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains are getting hammered by a snow storm this week. Mammoth Mountain said it had received 87 inches — or more than 7 feet — of snow since Tuesday.
Mammoth Mountain warned of the danger the weather posed to skiers on the same day the victim was found, and specifically alerted skiers to suffocation danger.
“This storm is another reminder about the power of Mother Nature. Conditions are currently dangerous,” the resort wrote on Instagram. “It will take considerable time and extreme caution and care by our team to dig out and prepare the mountain to open the next few days.
“Snow Immersion Suffocation (SIS) danger will remain a threat through the weekend – ski and ride with a buddy and keep your buddy in sight at all times,” it added.
ABC News’ David Herndon contributed to this report.
Federal authorities are continuing to charge rioters who allegedly took part in the siege on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
Here is the latest:
2 alleged Proud Boys indicted
Two alleged Proud Boys members were indicted by a federal grand jury Jan. 29 on charges of conspiracy in connection with the Capitol attack, the Department of Justice said. It marks the first such conspiracy charges brought against alleged members of the alt-right group.
Dominic Pezzola, 43, of Rochester, New York, and William Pepe, 31, of Beacon, New York, face multiple charges in the indictment. They originally were charged by criminal complaint and arrested on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, respectively.
Pezzola was in the Marines for seven years as an infantry assault man, the Marine Corps told ABC News.
The indictment alleged that Pezzola and Pepe engaged in a conspiracy to “obstruct, influence, impede and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder.” This includes allegedly removing a police barricade at the entrance to the west plaza of the Capitol “so that other Proud Boys and persons could infiltrate that plaza.”
The indictment also alleges Pezzola “ripped away” an officer’s riot shield and used it to smash a Capitol building window.
Both men allegedly own tactical vests branded with the Proud Boys logo and have previously attended Proud Boys protests, according to the charging documents.
A lawyer for Pezzola told ABC News he hopes to speak to his client on Sunday and is reviewing the indictment, while a lawyer for Pepe said she hasn’t seen the indictment yet.
2 Montana brothers who allegedly chased officer Eugene Goodman charged
The Justice Department recently unsealed charges against two Montana brothers who allegedly were part of the mob seen chasing Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman through the Capitol halls.
Joshua Hughes and Jerod Hughes reported themselves to the Helena Police Department on Jan. 11 after seeing themselves in FBI bulletins seeking the identities of Capitol rioters, according to an FBI affidavit.
They both face nine charges, including destruction of property.
Through surveillance and social media videos, the FBI says it tracked both men’s alleged movements throughout the Capitol.
They allegedly were among the first rioters to breach the building. According to the FBI affidavit, videos show them joining with a group that was trying to break windows and doors to let more people inside.
The FBI also alleged the two were the primary aggressors seen in a viral video of a mob chasing Goodman up the stairs.
Afterward, both men allegedly went to the Senate floor, where they were seen in videos sitting in senators’ chairs, opening their desks and reviewing “sensitive material stored” in them, according to the affidavit.
Court records did not include information on an attorney for the defendants.
2 alleged associates of Josiah Colt charged
Two alleged associates of Josiah Colt, whom authorities identified as the man seen rappelling into the Senate chamber, now face charges themselves for their alleged participation in the riot.
Ronald “Ronnie” Sandlin and Nathaniel “Nathan” DeGrave have been charged after the FBI investigated their social media posts and reviewed surveillance videos that detail their alleged movements during the insurrection.
Sandlin and DeGrave even solicited donations for their trip to Washington with Colt, according to an FBI affidavit.
“Every dollar you contribute to us is a smack in the face to Antifa. Every penny is a boot in the ass against tyranny,” Sandlin allegedly wrote in a Facebook post that named DeGrave and Colt.
According to the FBI affidavit, Sandlin could be seen in a bright orange sweatshirt carrying camera equipment during the riot. At one point, he and DeGrave allegedly got into a shoving match with Capitol Police officers.
Both men were arrested Jan. 28 in Las Vegas and face multiple charges.
Court records did not include information on an attorney.
Illinois pair who allegedly posted photos from Capitol arrested
A man and woman from Illinois were arrested Jan. 28 after both allegedly posted about joining in the Capitol building insurrection on their social media feeds.
“Here’s two people from Quincy, Illinois who took part in the Capital [sic] Hill insurgance [sic] !!!” Christina Gerding allegedly posted to her Twitter profile, which featured multiple references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an FBI affidavit.
Jason Gerding allegedly posted a photo from inside the Capitol that showed a Trump hat and mask on a bust of George Washington.
The affidavit did not explain their relationship. Both face three charges in connection with the Capitol attack. They were released on conditions and are next due in federal court via video on Feb. 2.
Attorney information was not immediately available.
Man allegedly took selfie showing him smoking marijuana in the Capitol
The Justice Department filed charges Jan. 25 against a New York man who allegedly posted a selfie video to his Facebook showing him smoking what appeared to be a marijuana cigarette in the Capitol, according to the FBI affidavit.
The FBI said James Bonet of Glen Falls, New York, can be heard in the video saying, “Capitol building smoking with all my people!”
According to the affidavit, Bonet shot video in the crypt of the Capitol, in which he was heard saying, “We made it in the building … We’re taking it back!”
Bonet was identified by a co-worker who shared the video with the FBI.
According to the documents, the co-worker told the FBI that Bonet “openly talks about conspiracy theories at work” and tries to get his other co-workers to subscribe to such theories. The coworker remarked that they were more concerned about Bonet’s attendance at former President Donald Trump’s rally due to the possibility he might contract COVID-19 and spread it, because videos showed him not wearing a mask.
A lawyer for Bonet was not listed.
Rioter who allegedly stole documents from Mitch McConnell’s desk
A California man who allegedly stole documents, including a letter signed by Trump, from the desk of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been charged for participating in the Capitol riot.
In federal court documents filed Jan. 20, prosecutors cite a video where Tommy Allan can allegedly be heard saying he stole the documents from McConnell’s desk in the Senate chamber.
The court documents also cite a video recently posted by the New Yorker from inside the Senate chamber, which FBI investigators say shows Allan taking a document and placing it in his back left pocket.
Allan is also reportedly seen in a separate Facebook post standing outside the Capitol after the riot with “multiple documents in his hand,” including one that was the Senate’s official calendar of business, according to the affidavit. He then shows a separate document to an individual and says it was “a letter from Trump” and was “signed by Trump.”
In the video, when asked why he removed the documents from McConnell’s desk, Allan replied because he is a “taxpayer,” according to the court documents. The FBI believes Allan also attempted to take a flag from the Capitol but that it was taken from him before leaving the chamber.
The FBI began investigating Allan after receiving a tip that he made several posts on social media showing people breaking windows at the Capitol that was followed by a “disturbing post that said the next step of the Insurrection was to get rid of Justice [John] Roberts,” according to his charging documents.
Founder of the #WalkAway social media campaign
Brandon Straka, the founder of “#WalkAway,” a social media campaign created prior to the 2018 mid-term elections to encourage liberals to leave the Democratic party, was charged Jan. 20 for participating in the Capitol riot.
Straka, a 44-year-old hair stylist from New York City, was allegedly seen in several social media posts and other videos in the crowd at the riot, according to federal court documents.
In one post, he is allegedly heard calling for individuals to take a Capitol police officer’s riot shield away from him.
Straka also spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., the day before the riot, according to the charging documents.
A tweet by Straka that disparaged White House press secretary Jen Psaki, comparing her appearance with a picture of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, went viral last week. Straka, who has more than 500,000 followers, has since made his tweets protected.
In the affidavit, investigators cited one comment Straka made on Twitter disputing that Antifa were a part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.
“… it was not Antifa, it was patriots desperate to be heard,” Straka allegedly said.
Rioter who attacked police officer with hockey stick ordered detained
Michigan resident Michael Joseph Foy, who was arrested Jan. 21 after he allegedly assaulted a police officer with a hockey stick at the Capitol riot, was ordered detained by a federal judge in Michigan until he appears before a judge in Washington, D.C.
During Foy’s detention hearing on Jan. 25, prosecutors showed Magistrate Judge Patricia Morris body camera footage of Foy hitting an officer repeatedly.
Foy attacked the officer for 16 seconds before he was knocked down by another rioter, according to the FBI’s analysis of the video. The FBI identified Foy as the man seen in a video published by the New York Times swinging a hockey stick repeatedly at a Metropolitan Police officer who had been pulled from the entryway to the Capitol by the mob, according to federal court documents.
Morris said she believed Foy should remain in the government’s custody given the potential danger to the community he could pose.
Prosecutors described Foy as “among the most violent rioters” on the day of the insurrection, noting he is a “combat trained Marine” and “assumed a leadership role in the violence.”
Dozens of rioters who participated in the siege have already been taken into custody.
Notable alleged participants include the man seen wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” hoodie, Olympic gold medalist swimmer Klete Keller, the woman who allegedly stole Nancy Pelosi’s laptop to sell to Russian intelligence and several people who allegedly assaulted law enforcement at the Capitol.
ABC News’ Desiree Adib and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
With priority groups like front-line workers and doctors receiving their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the prospect of vaccination for the general population on the horizon, many Americans may be wondering: What happens after I get vaccinated?
While one dose offers partial protection in 50%-60% effective range, efficacy after one dose has been less carefully studied, according to Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “One dose makes you feel somewhat better, but it shouldn’t alter your careful behavior,” Schaffner said.
“I suspect two doses will also give longer immunity,” added Dr. Michael Merson, a professor of global health at Duke University and senior scholar at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy.
So one dose is good, two doses are better. But what happens after you’re fully vaccinated?
The short answer: Your behavior shouldn’t dramatically change, especially in the early days of vaccination in United States.
“As our vaccination program rolls out, it will be enormously helpful and a powerful addition to all of our interventions,” Schaffner said. “But we can’t give up the tried and true, particularly because we’re getting new strains that are highly contagious.” Interventions like masks and social distancing will still be key ways to protect against those newer variants, Schaffner noted.
“Our return to ‘normal’ life after vaccination is going to be gradual,” Merson said. “It will not be like opening and closing a book or turning on or off a light switch. And how fast this will happen is going to depend how quickly we vaccinate the population and reach herd immunity.”
Until then, here’s what you can expect after getting vaccinated:
Do I have to keep social distancing?
“The answer is distinctly yes,” Schaffner said.
There are a few reasons for this. First, since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are roughly 95% effective, there’s a 5% gap — meaning there’s a small chance you could still become infected. Second, clinical trials were set up to determine whether the vaccines could prevent serious disease and death. They weren’t designed to study whether vaccinated people could contract the virus and remain asymptomatic while spreading to others.
“We don’t yet know how much the mRNA vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection and thus block transmission of the coronavirus,” Merson said.
“For the time being, vaccinated people should continue to wear masks, social distance, etc. Hopefully, we will have this information in six weeks’ time and this could influence our recommendations,” he added.
Do I have to wear a mask?
Yes, for the most part.
In addition to the small risk of infection, there are social factors at play, according to Schaffner. Universal mask wearing puts social pressure on people to continue protecting one another by wearing masks. “It’s the whole community acting together to defeat COVID,” he said. “If some people start not wearing masks, that will encourage the further repose to be not wearing masks.”
Merson said that after two doses of the vaccine it would be reasonable to go from wearing a mask all the time to wearing it under certain circumstances, such as in group gatherings. Reaching herd immunity, where enough people have immunity that it affords protection to the rest of the population, will take time, he explained.
“If you are in a vulnerable population group, you may want to proceed more cautiously,” he said. “If I were fully vaccinated, I would see my grandchildren, but social distance and wear a mask until there is herd immunity.”
Can I still get COVID or test positive?
Importantly, the vaccine itself will not give you COVID-19. “The vaccines will not give you a positive PCR or antigen COVID test. They can give you a very positive antibody test,” Merson said.
As for the very small chance that you contract COVID after receiving two doses of the vaccine, “you can still be infected and become ill but your disease is very likely going to be mild,” he said.
Can I still infect other people?
As mentioned above, we don’t know yet, which is part of why you should keep wearing a mask and social distancing after being vaccinated.
“We may change our mind about that as more information comes in,” Schaffner said. “At the moment we need to be conservative.”
Can I dine indoors? Travel? Hug my grandkids?
It depends.
Your individual circumstances matter. “Are they careful people or are they people who have been rather carefree?” Schaffner asked. If you’ve been careful, and your grandparents have been vaccinated, you could potentially visit them, Schaffner said. But if you’ve been carefree and gone to bars, for example, “then you need to be careful, wear the mask and keep it a hug- and kiss-free zone,” he said.
“Your grandparents have just gotten vaccinated,” Schaffner said. “They didn’t put on a suit of armor. There still is the chance that they could be infected.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, recommended that vaccinated people avoid traveling for non-essential reasons during CNN’s Town Hall meeting Wednesday.
“We don’t want people to think because they got vaccinated that other public health recommendations just don’t apply,” Fauci said. “Getting vaccinated doesn’t say I have a free pass to travel nor does it say I have a free pass to put aside all of the public health measures we talk about all the time.”
Schaffner and his wife are both fully vaccinated, but they’re holding off on dining out with friends until their friends, and the restaurant staff, are vaccinated.
While Schaffner knows many people won’t be as careful as he is, he urged Americans to play it safe. “I’ve seen what this virus can do to people, even young healthy people,” he said. “There are people who, after mild infection, develop symptoms and become long haulers. That’s really troublesome.”
ABC News’ Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
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“Imagine what harm she could cause,” a deaf actor and model tweeted.
January 29, 2021, 10:31 PM
• 6 min read
The background of the first American Sign Language interpreter to appear as part of a White House press briefing during the Biden administration is raising questions about the administration’s vetting process, after she was revealed to be a frequent interpreter of far-right videos, including some containing misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Members of the deaf community identified Heather Mewshaw on social media posts Monday, highlighting her previous work interpreting Trump administration events and other right-wing videos. Mewshaw appears as an ASL interpreter in videos on the official Trump White House archive on YouTube.
She is also an organizer of Hands of Liberty, a group that provides ASL interpretation for right-wing videos. Hands of Liberty, previously called Right Side ASL, has been removed from Facebook for “violating community standards,” according to a post by the group on the social platform MeWe. Mewshaw appears in a Nov. 17 post titled “Admin Update” explaining the move from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to platforms MeWe and Gab, which are popular with conservatives for their light approaches to moderation.
Mewshaw appears in dozens of videos on Hands of Liberty’s MeWe page, many of which contain misinformation. Mewshaw’s participation in such videos was first reported by TIME.
At her briefing Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki highlighted the virtual presence of “Heather” — who appeared in a picture-in-picture box on the online streams of the briefing.
“As a part of this administration’s accessibility and inclusion efforts, starting today, we will have an ASL — an American Sign Language — interpreter for our daily press briefings,” Psaki said. “Today’s interpreter, Heather, is joining us virtually.”
Mewshaw did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News on Friday and she has not interpreted for a White House briefing since Monday.
“The President and this administration have made a commitment to having an ASL interpreter at every press briefing and are working to follow through on that commitment every single day. We are not commenting on specific people or personnel matters at this time,” a White House official said in a statement provided Friday evening.
While no public complaints have been made about Mewshaw’s interpretation of Psaki’s briefing, questions arose among the deaf community about whether Mewshaw could be trusted to accurately convey the Biden administration’s message, given her apparent political bias.
“Imagine what harm she could cause… literally holding the message in her hands,” tweeted deaf actor and model, Nyle DiMarco.
The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, a national organization that certifies ASL interpreters, confirmed that Mewshaw held several certifications.
The group said it requires certified interpreters to follow a code of professional conduct – which includes the requirement that they disclose “any actual or perceived conflicts of interest” – and it adjudicates complaints against interpreters. A spokesperson for the registry declined to comment to ABC News about whether it had received any complaints about Mewshaw, citing confidentiality rules.
The White House only began including ASL interpreters in its briefings in the fall, following a successful lawsuit filed by the National Association of the Deaf, a civil rights group, and five deaf Americans.
In November, a federal judge said the White House had to provide the interpretation at coronavirus briefings. ASL interpreters had long appeared with many state and local officials around the country during their briefings over the course of the pandemic, but not at the White House.
Asked about Mewshaw’s participation in Monday’s briefing, the National Association of the Deaf’s president, Howard Rosenblum, told ABC News it was the White House’s job to make sure its interpreters were qualified.
“Under federal laws, any entity that is required to provide ASL interpreters must ensure that they meet the federal definition of a ‘qualified interpreter’ which means that they are effective, accurate, and impartial in their interpretations,” Rosenblum said. “It is up to the entity, such as the White House, to properly vet all ASL interpreters to assess that they are qualified for the job.”
