Health experts urge people to get flu shot to avoid ‘twindemic’
The U.S. is gearing up in case of a bad flu season on top of the continuing COVID-19 crisis, with a plea Thursday for Americans to get vaccinated against both.
“I get it: We are all tired of talking about vaccines,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But “it is doubly important this year” to get your flu shot, added Walensky, who got her own vaccination this week just as she has every year since she was a medical student in 1995. “We are preparing for the return of the flu.”
Flu cases dropped to historically low levels globally over the pandemic, as restrictions designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus helped block other respiratory viruses. But with schools and businesses reopened, international travel resuming and far less masking, there’s no way to predict how bad a flu season the U.S. might expect this winter.
But officials are worried because a different respiratory virus, named RSV, that usually attacks young children in the winter instead roared back last summer as soon as people started dropping their masks.
“Is that a harbinger of a worse influenza season? We don’t know, but we certainly don’t want a ‘twindemic,’ both COVID and influenza,” said Dr. William Schaffner of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
And if you still need a COVID-19 vaccination — either first shots or a booster dose — you can get it at the same visit as a flu shot.
The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccination for just about everyone starting with 6-month-old babies. Influenza is especially dangerous for older adults, children younger than age 5, people with chronic health problems such as diabetes, asthma or heart disease, and during pregnancy.
Southeast flash flooding:
Terrified drivers climbed out of swamped cars and muddy floodwater flowed through neighborhoods after a stalled weather front drenched Alabama for hours, leaving entire communities under water Thursday and killing at least four people.
Dozens of people had to be rescued Wednesday night in central Alabama, where the National Weather Service said as much as 13 inches of rain fell, and a south Alabama town temporarily lost its main grocery store when a creek came through the doors of the Piggly Wiggly.
Near the coast, heavy rains caused sewage to bubble out of underground pipes.
Metro Birmingham remained under a flash flood watch much of the day until storms moved into Georgia.
Another 3 inches of rain could fall there and in western South Carolina by nightfall, the weather service said, and the Florida Panhandle could get doused.
A jury on Thursday convicted a man of capital murder in the 2015 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, her husband and six children, including his own son, at a Houston-area home.
David Conley, 54, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. His trial lasted two days.
Prosecutors didn’t pursue the death penalty against Conley, as state and defense experts concluded that he qualified as a person with an intellectual disability.
Conley was convicted in the Aug. 8, 2015, deaths
Texas shooting deaths:
of Valerie Jackson, 40, and her husband, Dwayne Jackson, 50, at the couple’s home in northwestern Harris County. Prosecutors charged him in the deaths of the children — Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6 — but he was not tried for their killings.
Conley admitted to killing the whole family in a video recording that was played for jurors of an interview with homicide detectives.
CIA creates working group: The CIA said Thursday it will create a top-level working group on China as part of a broad U.S. government effort focused on countering Beijing’s influence.
The group will become one of fewer than a dozen mission centers operated by the CIA, with weekly director-level meetings intended to drive the agency’s strategy toward China.
The CIA also announced that it would ramp up efforts to recruit Chinese speakers and create another mission
center focusing on emerging technologies and global issues such as climate change and global health.
President Joe Biden’s administration has called out what it sees as Chinese aggression on a range of security and economic issues while also seeking common ground on issues like climate change and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Top administration officials have repeatedly signaled a shift of resources toward “great power” competition with China while maintaining a focus on counterterrorism.
Pakistan earthquake: A powerful earthquake collapsed at least one coal mine and dozens of mud houses in southwest Pakistan early Thursday, killing at least 23 people as the death toll continued to creep higher.
At least another 200 people were injured, an official said.
The death tally was expected to rise even further as crews searched in the
remote mountainous area, said Suhail Anwar Shaheen, the local deputy commissioner.
At least four people were killed when the coal mine in which they were working collapsed, said Shaheen, citing coal miners in the area.
As many as 100 homes also collapsed, burying sleeping residents inside.
The epicenter of the 5.9 magnitude quake was about 9 miles north-northeast of Harnai in Baluchistan province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The initial measurement of the quake’s strength was 5.7 magnitude. It struck about 5.5 miles below the Earth’s surface.
Japan temblor: A powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the Tokyo area on Thursday night, injuring at least 17 people and halting trains and subways. Officials said there was no major damage or danger of a tsunami.
The Meteorological
Agency said the quake was centered in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, at a depth of 48 miles.
It caused buildings to sway and hanging objects such as signs to swing violently. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there were no abnormalities at nuclear power facilities in the area.
He said a total of 17 people were injured, including one who was seriously hurt.
Chiba prefectural police said two women in separate locations sprained their ankles when they were thrown to the floor during the quake.
NHK public television said a commuter train partially derailed when it made an emergency stop, causing three passengers to fall and get slightly injured.
Others were injured in Kanagawa prefecture, near Tokyo, according to media reports. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said about 250 homes in downtown Tokyo temporarily lost power.