Tag: Citing

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Entertainment

Famed Conductor, Citing Mind Tumor, Withdraws From Concert events

Famed Conductor, Citing Brain Tumor, Withdraws From Concerts

The renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas announced on Friday that he would withdraw from performances for the next several months as he recovers from surgery to treat a brain tumor.

Thomas, 76, the former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, said in a statement that he would take a hiatus through October as he undergoes treatment. He said doctors recently discovered the tumor and advised he have surgery immediately. He described the surgery, which took place at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, as successful.

“I deeply regret missing projects that I was greatly anticipating,” Thomas said in the statement. “I look forward to seeing everyone again in November.”

Thomas, an eminent figure in the music industry known by the nickname M.T.T., stepped down as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director last year. He had held the post since 1995 and was widely credited with transforming the ensemble into one of the best in the nation and championing works by modern American composers.

Thomas said in the statement that he was canceling his participation in a starry concert with the National Symphony Orchestra in September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Center, as well as appearances with the New World Symphony, a training orchestra for young artists in Miami that he helped found; the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where he was to lead his “Agnegram” alongside works by Beethoven and Copland; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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Health

Citing New Knowledge, Pfizer Outlines Case for Booster Photographs

Citing New Data, Pfizer Outlines Case for Booster Shots

Pfizer reported on Wednesday that the power of its two-dose Covid vaccine wanes slightly over time, but nonetheless offers lasting and robust protection against serious disease. The company suggested that a third shot could improve immunity, but whether boosters will be widely needed is far from settled, the subject of heated debate among scientists.

So far, federal health officials have said boosters for the general population are unnecessary. And experts questioned whether vaccinated people should get more doses when so many people have yet to be immunized at all.

“There’s not enough evidence right now to support that that is somehow the best use of resources,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta.

Still, the findings raise questions about how well the Pfizer vaccine will prevent infection in the months to come. And with coronavirus cases surging again in many states, the data may influence the Biden administration’s deliberations about delivering boosters for older people.

If third shots are cleared for the general population, the boosters would likely represent a multi-billion-dollar business for Pfizer.

In a study posted online but not yet peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists reported that the vaccine had a sky-high efficacy rate of about 96 percent against symptomatic Covid-19 for the first two months following the second dose. But the figure declined by about 6 percent every two months after that, falling to 83.7 percent after about four to six months.

Against severe disease, however, the vaccine’s efficacy held steady at about 97 percent.

“This drop is very slight — I wouldn’t say it’s waning,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. She did not see in the new study any evidence that boosters should go into use for the general population. “These data don’t support a need for that right now,” she said.

The findings fit with what scientists have learned about how the immune system fends off viruses. Antibodies are the only defense to prevent an infection, but their levels typically drop in the months after vaccination or recovery from the disease. If the coronavirus takes hold, immune cells can swoop in to destroy infected cells and make new antibodies.

That enduring defense produced by the vaccine may explain how the virus can sometimes breed in the nose — producing a cold or sore throat — but fail to reach the lung where it can cause serious disease.

“Everything that’s engaged by the vaccine is able to fight off that spread that ultimately leads to severe disease,” Dr. Iwasaki said. “That’s probably not declining at all.”

The study period ended before the rise of the Delta variant, the highly contagious version of the virus that now dominates in the United States and makes vaccines somewhat less effective against infection.

The findings come from 42,000 volunteers in six countries who participated in a clinical trial that Pfizer and BioNTech began last July. Half of the volunteers got the vaccine, while the other half received a placebo. Both groups received two shots spaced three weeks apart.

The researchers compared the number of people in each group who developed symptoms of Covid-19, which was then confirmed by a P.C.R. virus test. When the companies announced their first batch of results, the vaccine showed an efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 of 95 percent.

Updated 

July 28, 2021, 8:48 p.m. ET

In other words, the risk of getting sick was reduced by 95 percent in the group that got the vaccine, compared with the group that got the placebo. That result — the first for any Covid-19 vaccine — brought an exhilarating dose of hope to the world in December when it was riding what had been the biggest wave of the pandemic.

Since then, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has made up the majority of shots that Americans have received, with more than 191 million doses given so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In the new study, the researchers followed the volunteers for six months after vaccination, up to March 13. Over the entire period, the researchers estimated, the vaccine’s efficacy was 91.5 percent against symptomatic Covid-19. (The study did not measure the rate of asymptomatic virus infections.)

But within that period, efficacy did gradually drop. Between one week and two months after the second dose, the figure was 96.2 percent. In the period from two to four months following vaccination, efficacy fell to 90.1 percent. From four months after vaccination to the March cutoff, the figure was 83.7 percent.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

Those figures still describe a remarkably effective vaccine, however, and may not convince critics that booster shots are widely needed.

The study comes on the heels of data from Israel suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s protection may be waning there. But experts have pushed back against a rush to approving a booster there. The data have too many sources of uncertainty, they say, to make a precise estimate of how much effectiveness has waned. For example, the Delta-driven outbreak hit parts of the country with high vaccination rates first and has been hitting other regions later.

“Such an analysis is still highly uncertain,” said Doron Gazit, a physicist at Hebrew University who analyzes Covid-19 trends for the Israeli government.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pfizer reported that a third dose of its vaccine significantly increases blood levels of antibodies against several versions of the virus, including the Delta variant.

Results were similar for antibodies produced against the original virus and the Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa. Pfizer and BioNTech expect to publish more definitive research in the coming weeks.

The announcement was a preliminary snapshot of data contained in an earnings statement. And although antibody levels are an important measure of immunity, they are not the only metric. The body has other defenses that turn back infection.

Pfizer also said in its statement that vaccines for children ages 5 through 11 years could be available as early as the end of September. The vaccine is already authorized in the United States for everyone ages 12 and up.

Pfizer’s vaccine brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the last three months, the company said, and is on track to generate more than $33.5 billion this year.

The vaccine is poised to generate more sales in a single year than any previous medical product, and by a wide margin. Pfizer did not disclose its exact profits on the vaccine, but reiterated its previous estimate that its profit margins on the vaccine would be in the high 20 percent range. Even if the drugmaker’s profits fall on the lower end of that range, that would work out to about $3 billion in profit so far this year.

Rebecca Robbins contributed reporting.

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Health

Citing the Delta Variant, Pfizer Will Pursue Booster Pictures and a New Vaccine

Citing the Delta Variant, Pfizer Will Pursue Booster Shots and a New Vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that they are developing a version of the coronavirus vaccine that will target Delta, a highly contagious variant that has spread to nearly 100 countries. The companies expect to begin clinical trials of the vaccine in August.

Pfizer and BioNTech also reported promising results from studies of people who received a third dose of the original vaccine. A booster shot six months after the second dose of the vaccine increases the effectiveness of the antibodies against the original virus and beta variant by five to ten-fold, the companies say.

The vaccine’s effectiveness could decline six months after immunization, the companies said in a press release, and booster doses may be needed to fight off virus variants.

The data were neither published nor peer-reviewed. The vaccine manufacturers said they expected to submit their results to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, a step toward approval for booster shots.

But the companies’ claims contradict other research, and several experts dismissed the claim that boosters are needed.

“Given the variants currently circulating, there is really no evidence of a third booster or a third dose of an mRNA vaccine,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. “In fact, many of us wonder if you’ll ever need boosters.”

Federal authorities also sounded dubious on Thursday night. In general, Americans who have been fully vaccinated currently do not need a booster vaccination, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a joint statement.

“We are prepared for booster doses when science shows they are needed,” the authorities said.

The Delta variant, first identified in India, is believed to be about 60 percent more contagious than Alpha, the version of the virus that ripped through the UK and much of Europe earlier this year, and perhaps twice as contagious as the original coronavirus.

The delta variant is now causing outbreaks among unvaccinated populations in countries like Malaysia, Portugal, Indonesia and Australia. In the USA, too, Delta is now the dominant variant, the CDC reported this week.

Until recently, infections in the US were at their lowest level since the pandemic began. Hospital stays and deaths related to the virus have continued to decline, but new infections could increase.

It is not yet clear to what extent the variant is responsible for this; A slower vaccination campaign and quick reopenings also play a role.

Citing data from Israel, Pfizer and BioNTech suggest that the effectiveness of their vaccine “in preventing infections and symptomatic illnesses decreased six months after vaccination.” Given the surge in Delta and other variants, the companies said “a third dose may be required within 6 to 12 months of full vaccination”.

Updated

July 11, 2021 at 1:57 p.m. ET

Health officials in Israel have estimated that full vaccination with the Pfizer BioNTech is only 64 percent effective against the Delta variant. (It is more than 90 percent effective against the original virus.)

But Israel’s estimates have been disproved by a number of other studies which found the vaccine to be very effective at preventing infection – against all variants. For example, a recent study showed that mRNA vaccines like those from Pfizer trigger a sustained immune response in the body that can protect against the coronavirus for years.

“Pfizer is looking opportunistic by putting an announcement on the back of very early and undigested data from Israel,” said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “When the time comes to use boosters here, the decision is not up to you.”

The companies described their plan to develop a new vaccine against Delta as a kind of backup measure in case the original vaccine replenishment fails. The new vaccine targets all of the spike protein, not a portion, and the first batch has already been made.

The delta variant poses challenges for the immune system. In the journal Nature on Thursday, French researchers reported new evidence that the delta variant can partially bypass the body’s immune response, as changes to the spike protein on its surface make it difficult for antibodies to attack.

The team analyzed blood samples from 59 people after they received the first and second doses of the vaccine. Blood samples from just 10 percent of those immunized with a dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were able to neutralize the Delta and Beta variants in laboratory tests.

“A single dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca was either poorly effective or not effective at all against beta and delta variants,” the researchers concluded. Data from Israel and the UK largely support this finding, although those studies also suggested that one dose of vaccine was still enough to prevent hospitalization or death from the virus.

But a second dose increased the effectiveness to 95 percent. There was not much difference in the levels of antibodies produced by the two vaccines.

“When you receive two doses of an mRNA vaccine, you are very well protected against serious illness, hospitalization and death for each of the variants,” said Dr. Gounder.

The researchers also looked at blood samples from 103 people infected with the coronavirus. Delta was much less sensitive than Alpha to samples from unvaccinated individuals in this group, the study found.

One dose of vaccine increased sensitivity significantly, suggesting that people who have recovered from Covid-19 may still need to be vaccinated to fight off some variants.

Taken together, the results suggest that two doses of the vaccine provide strong protection against all variants, as does one dose for people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have some natural immunity.

Some experts also questioned discussions about boosters for Americans while much of the world has not yet received a single dose.

“It’s impossible to ignore the global situation,” said Natalie Dean, biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta. “I find it hard to imagine getting a third dose when there are front line workers treating Covid patients who have not yet been vaccinated.”

Every unvaccinated person offers the virus additional opportunities to mutate into dangerous variants, said Dr. Gounder feast.

“If we are concerned about variants,” she said, “our best protection is to get the rest of the world vaccinated, and not to hoard more doses to give people here in the US third doses of mRNA vaccines. “

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Business

O.E.C.D. Raises International Progress Forecast Sharply, Citing Vaccines

O.E.C.D. Raises Global Growth Forecast Sharply, Citing Vaccines

The global economy is expected to recover from the coronavirus pandemic faster than expected this year, as vaccinations in advanced economies and an enormous fiscal stimulus package in the United States unleash pent-up business activity and job creation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Monday.

But the pace of the recovery still hinges on vaccination programs and the ability of governments to beat back new variants of the virus, raising fresh risks even as economic activity starts to rev back up in most parts of the world, the organization said in its latest economic outlook.

The organization sharply raised its forecast for global growth to 5.8 percent in 2021, up from a 4.2 percent projection in December. It said the pace of expansion would cool to 4.5 percent in 2022 as government support programs unwind.

A government stimulus-led upturn in the United States, where President Biden is betting on a $2 trillion infrastructure package to end the effects of the pandemic faster, has helped improve the global outlook, the group said. China continues to experience the world’s strongest rebound, also lifting the global outlook.

In Europe, which has been lagging the United States in a recovery, an acceleration of vaccination programs has allowed governments to begin lifting restrictions on activities, speeding up what had been a slow economic reopening.

The opposite is true for many emerging-market economies that are suffering from slow distribution of vaccines, new outbreaks of Covid-19 and economically limiting containment measures, dampening prospects for a quick recovery.

India, which has suffered a deadly resurgence of the virus, is likely to face economic struggles as a result and a slower return to prepandemic growth levels until the impact of the virus fades, the organization said.

It estimated the economy in the United States would grow 6.9 percent in 2021; in China, 8.5 percent; in the euro area, 4.3 percent; in Britain, 7.2 percent; in Argentina, 6.1 percent; and in India, 9.9 percent.

“Our latest projections provide hope that in many countries, people hit hard by the pandemic may soon be able to return to work and start living a normal life again,” Laurence Boone, the organization’s chief economist, said during a news briefing.

“But we are at a critical stage of the recovery. Vaccination production and distribution have to accelerate globally and be backed by effective public health strategies,” she said.

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World News

North Korea Bows Out of Tokyo Olympics, Citing Covid-19

North Korea Bows Out of Tokyo Olympics, Citing Covid-19

North Korea announced on Tuesday that it had decided not to participate in the 32nd Summer Olympics in Tokyo because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision was made when the National Olympic Committee of the North met in Pyongyang on March 25th and decided that a delegation would skip the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for July 23rd to August 8th, “to our athletes protect from the global health crisis caused by the malignant viral infection, “said the government-run sport in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It’s the first Summer Olympics the North has skipped since boycotting the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

North Korea, which has a rundown public health system, has taken tough measures against the virus since the beginning of last year, including closing its borders. The country officially claims there are no Covid-19 cases, but outside health experts remain skeptical.

North Korea’s decision robs South Korea and other nations of a rare opportunity to make official contact with the isolated country. Officials in the south had hoped the Olympics could provide a venue for high-level delegates from both Koreas to discuss issues beyond the sport.

The 2018 Winter Olympics in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang provided such an opportunity. Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, attracted worldwide attention when she became the first member of the Kim family to cross the border into South Korea to attend the opening ceremony.

Mr. Kim used the North’s participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics as a signal to begin diplomacy after a series of nuclear and long-range missile tests. The inter-Korean dialogue soon followed, leading to three summit meetings between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. Mr. Kim also met three times with President Donald J. Trump.

Since the collapse of Mr Kim’s diplomacy with Mr Trump in 2019, North Korea has avoided official contact with South Korea or the United States. The pandemic has deepened its diplomatic isolation and economic difficulties amid concerns over its nuclear ambitions. North Korea launched two ballistic missiles in its first such test in a year on March 25 to challenge President Biden.

The Tokyo Games, which start in July, were originally scheduled for 2020 but have been postponed for a year due to the pandemic. The Tokyo Organizing Committee has made efforts to develop security protocols to protect both attendees and local residents from the virus. Concern is high in Japan, with large majorities in polls saying the Games shouldn’t be held this summer.

A number of health, economic and political challenges have besieged the Games. Even when the organizers decided last month to exclude international viewers, Epidemiologists warn that the Olympics could turn into a superspreader event. Thousands of athletes and other participants will come to Tokyo from more than 200 countries while much of the Japanese public remains unvaccinated.

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Business

Superior Cancers Are Rising, Medical doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop in Screenings

Advanced Cancers Are Emerging, Doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop in Screenings

Yvette Lowery usually gets her annual mammogram in March. But last year when the pandemic took hold and medical facilities closed, the center she goes to canceled her appointment. Nobody could tell her when to set a new appointment.

“They just said keep calling back, keep calling back,” said Ms. Lowery, 59, who lives in Rock Hill, SC

Ms. Lowery felt a lump under her arm in August but was not able to make an appointment until October.

Eventually she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, started chemotherapy in November, and had a double mastectomy that month.

“I’ve seen a lot of patients at an advanced stage,” said Dr. Kashyap B. Patel, one of Ms. Lowery’s physicians and executive director of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates. If her cancer had been discovered last May or June, it would likely have been caught before it spread, said Dr. Patel.

According to experts, months of bans and waves of Covid cases closed clinics and testing laboratories or cut working hours in other locations over the past year, leading to a sharp decline in the number of screenings, including breast and colon cancers.

Numerous studies have shown that the number of patients screened or diagnosed decreased in the first few months of the pandemic. By mid-June, the rate of screenings for breast, colon and cervical cancer was still 29 to 36 percent below their prepandemic levels, according to a data analysis by the Epic Health Research Network. According to network data, hundreds of thousands fewer screenings were done in the past year than in 2019.

“We still haven’t caught up,” said Dr. Chris Mast, vice president of clinical informatics at Epic, who develops electronic health records for hospitals and clinics.

Another analysis of the Medicare data found that cancer screenings declined as Covid cases rose over certain periods in 2020. Analysis, conducted by Avalere Health, a consulting firm for the Community Oncology Alliance, which represents independent cancer specialists, found test scores in November were about 25 percent lower than in 2019. The number of biopsies used to diagnose used by cancer decreased by about a third.

While it is too early to fully appreciate the full impact of the delays in screenings, many cancer specialists are concerned about the emergence of patients with more severe disease.

“In practice, there is no question that we see patients with advanced breast cancer and colon cancer,” said Dr. Lucio N. Gordan, President of the Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, one of the largest independent oncology groups in the country. He is working on a study to see if these lack of screenings have resulted in more patients with later-stage cancer overall.

And although the number of mammograms and colonoscopies has risen again in recent months, many people with cancer go undetected, doctors report.

Some patients, like Ms. Lowery, were unable to make an appointment after the clinics reopened due to pent-up demand. Others skipped regular tests or ignored worrying symptoms because they were afraid of getting infected or because they couldn’t afford a test after losing their job.

Updated

March 17, 2021, 8:59 p.m. ET

“The fear of Covid was more tangible than the fear of missing a screen that detected cancer,” said Dr. Patrick I. Borgen, the chairman of surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, who also directs the breast center. His hospital treated so many coronavirus patients early on that “we are now called a Covid hospital,” he said, and healthy people stayed away to avoid contagion.

Even patients at high risk due to their genetic makeup or because they had cancer before have missed critical screenings. Dr. Ritu Salani, director of gynecological oncology at UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said a woman at risk for colon cancer had a negative test in 2019 but did not go to her usual screening last year because of the pandemic.

When she went to see her doctor, she had advanced cancer. “It’s just a devastating story,” said Dr. Salani. “Screening tests are really designed for when patients are not feeling bad.”

Ryan Bellamy was in no hurry to postpone an aborted colonoscopy last spring, despite the presence of blood in his stool prompting him to check for symptoms. “I really didn’t want to go to the hospital,” said Mr Bellamy. He decided he was unlikely to have cancer. “They’re not following me, so I’m okay with Googling,” he told himself.

Mr Bellamy, a Palm Coast, Florida resident, said that after his symptoms worsened, his wife insisted that he go for a test in December and have a colonoscopy in late January. With a new diagnosis of stage 3 rectal cancer, 38-year-old Bellamy is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy.

Colon screening stayed significantly lower in 2020, declining about 15 percent from 2019, according to data from the Epic network, although overall screening was down 6 percent. The analysis looked at screenings for more than 600 hospitals in 41 states.

Lung cancer patients have also been delayed in seeking appropriate treatment, said Dr. Michael J. Liptay, chairman of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. One patient had an imaging that showed a spot in their lungs and they should follow up just like the pandemic. “Additional workup and maintenance has been postponed,” said Dr. Liptay. By the time the patient was fully examined, the cancer had grown in size. “It wasn’t good waiting 10 months,” said Dr. Liptay, although he wasn’t sure if previous treatment would have changed the patient’s prognosis.

Just as previous economic recessions resulted in people foregoing medical care, the economic downturn during the pandemic also prevented many people from seeking help or treatment.

“We know there is cancer,” said Dr. Barbara L. McAneny, the executive director of New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants. Many of their patients stay away, even if they are insured, because they cannot afford the deductibles or co-payments. “We see this, especially with our poorer people who are marginalized anyway and live from paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

Some patients ignored their symptoms for as long as they could. Last March, Sandy Prieto, a school librarian who lived in Fowler, California, had a stomach ache. But she refused to go to the doctor because she didn’t want Covid. After a telemedicine visit to her family doctor, she tried over-the-counter medication, which did not help with pain and nausea. She continued to refuse.

“It got to a point where we had no choice,” said her husband Eric, who had repeatedly urged her to see a doctor. Jaundice and severe discomfort, she went to the emergency room in late May and was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She died in September.

“If it hadn’t been for Covid and we’d taken her somewhere sooner, she would still be with us today,” said her sister Carolann Meme, who had tried to convince Ms. Prieto to go to an academic medical center where she could go a clinical trial may be advisable.

When patients like Ms. Prieto are treated virtually instead of being seen in person, doctors can easily overlook important symptoms or recommend medication instead of telling them to come in, said Dr. Ravi D. Rao, the oncologist who treated Ms. Prieto. Patients could downplay how sick they feel or fail to mention the pain in their hip, he said.

“In my opinion, telemedicine and cancer don’t travel together,” said Dr. Rao. He also used telemedicine during the pandemic but said he had worked to keep his offices open.

Other doctors defended the use of virtual visits as a critical tool when office visits were too dangerous for most patients and staff. “We were grateful for robust telemedicine when people just couldn’t come to the center,” said Dr. Borrowing from Maimonides. However, he acknowledged that patients were often reluctant to discuss their symptoms during a telemedicine session, especially a mother whose young children could hear what they were saying. “It’s not private,” he remarked.

Some health networks say they have taken aggressive steps to counter the effects of the pandemic. Kaiser Permanente, the major California managed care company, saw a decline in breast cancer screenings and diagnoses on their first home order last year in the north of the state. “Doctors immediately teamed up” to get in touch with patients, said Dr. Tatjana Kolevska, Medical Director of the Kaiser Permanente National Cancer Excellence Program.

Kaiser also relies on its electronic health records to make appointments for women who are overdue for their mammograms, when they want to book an appointment with their GP, or even get a prescription for new glasses.

While Dr. Kolevska says waiting to see data for the entire system, she was encouraged by the number of patients in her practice who are now up to date with their mammograms.

“All of these things helped tremendously,” she said.

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Business

Frontier Cancels Flight, Citing Maskless Passengers

Frontier Cancels Flight, Citing Maskless Passengers

A Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to New York’s La Guardia Airport was canceled Sunday evening after a large group of passengers, including several adults, refused to wear masks.

On Monday morning, the airline was charged with anti-Semitism for the treatment of passengers who are Hasidic Jews, as well as demands for investigations by the Anti-Defamation League of New York and other groups. Frontier held firm to its position that passengers had refused to comply with federal regulations requiring them to wear masks.

Some cell phone videos that have surfaced do not show the confrontation between the passengers and Frontier crew members, only the aftermath. The footage from the plane appeared to show members of the group wearing masks. Some passengers said the episode escalated because only one member of the group, a 15-month-old child, was not carrying a child.

Videos of passengers exiting the plane amid the chaos and taped by others on the flight have been posted on Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. In one video, a passenger says, “This is an anti-Semitic act.”

Another video showed a couple holding a maskless baby in a car seat when children heard crying, and one woman explained that the young children in her group, sitting in the back of the plane, had removed their masks to eat.

In a third video, a passenger says “This is Nazi Germany” as the couple and the small child walk up the aisle of the plane to the exit.

A Frontier Airlines spokeswoman said in a statement that “a large group of passengers have repeatedly refused to comply with the US government’s mask mandate.”

“Several people, including several adults, have been repeatedly asked to wear their masks and refused to do so,” said Jennifer de la Cruz, the spokeswoman. “Due to the continued refusal to comply with the federal mask mandate, refusal to disembark, and aggression against the flight crew, local law enforcement agencies were engaged. The flight was eventually canceled. “

But members of the group said they wore masks.

“We are law abiding citizens, law abiding people,” said Martin Joseph, who traveled with 21 members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “We have young children. We understand that the mask must be worn and everyone must wear a mask and that is the law. We keep a million percent. “

Mr. Joseph said his daughter and her husband were sitting in the back row with their 15-month-old child and two other couples and their children. All are Hasidic Jews, said Mr. Joseph, although he added that one of the couples was not related to him.

Updated

March 1, 2021, 9:49 p.m. ET

He said a flight attendant asked his daughter to put a mask on her baby. She argued that her son did not have to wear a mask because of his age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires masks only for passengers who are at least 2 years old.

“Then they announced that all three couples would have to get off the plane in the back of the plane before they could take off,” said Mr. Joseph. “The babies were crying, the people were crying, the mothers were crying.”

Another passenger on the plane, Temima Stark, said she was sitting with her husband and child when the commotion started. She said she saw airline employees approaching passengers in the background. Everyone seemed to be wearing masks, she said, except for the baby who was eating.

As the passengers got off the plane, Ms. Stark, who was not traveling with the group, said she saw airline employees pulling each other up. Several other passengers interviewed on video reiterated the claim. Frontier Airlines did not comment directly on the allegation.

“The whole plane just went crazy,” she said.

A few minutes after disembarking, Ms. Stark said, the remaining passengers were ordered off the plane.

On Monday, the New York Anti-Defamation League called for a “full and transparent investigation” on Twitter, citing “obvious # anti-Semitic comments from the occupation or others”.

When asked about the allegations of anti-Semitism, Ms. de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for Frontier, said the airline is looking into “any situation that requires a passenger to be removed from a flight.”

“Like many other airlines,” she said, “Frontier has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to masks on our flights.” This becomes clear at the time of purchase, before and during the check-in process at the gate and on board the aircraft. “

Wearing masks and other public health measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus became a hotspot in the New York area during the summer as Covid-19 spread rapidly in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. The city’s health authorities said at the time they were particularly concerned about a significant increase in transmission between some of the city’s Hasidic communities. Similar tensions simmered in Israel.

When asked about the confrontation aboard the Frontier flight, Yossi Gestetner, founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, said: “Regardless of what started this whole mess, people certainly blame airline staff for doing so unacceptable and needs to be addressed. “

“The airline wants the public to believe that 12 people, some of whom are unrelated other than belonging to the same ethnic group, decided to go to the airport and on the plane wearing masks and leave with masks on, as seen on videos however, to act together remove all masks while seated, ”he said. “It’s contrary to logic.”

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Entertainment

FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf, Citing Abusive Relationship

FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf, Citing Abusive Relationship

But living with him was getting scary, she said. The lawsuit says that he kept a loaded gun by the bed and that she was afraid to go to the bathroom at night so he wouldn’t mistake her for an intruder and shoot her. He didn’t let her wear clothes to bed and led a minor disagreement – over an artist she liked, and he didn’t, for example – to a nightly fight that had deprived her of sleep, the suit says.

The situation came just as she was finishing her most acclaimed album “Magdalene”. Ms. Barnett said she was stasis, having difficulty performing her job duties, and confusing her friends and colleagues. “Twigs is always the driving force behind their careers – always one step ahead,” said their long-time manager Michael Stirton. “This was an extreme change in her personality and character.” The album’s release was delayed several times and a tour was postponed at a high cost, Mr Stirton said when Mrs Barnett resigned. “I could talk to her,” he said. “But I couldn’t reach her.”

As Ms. Barnett became more isolated, she said she felt that her safety nets were about to fall apart. The gas station incident happened in public, she said, and no one came to her aid. An early attempt to tell a colleague was abandoned. “I just thought to myself that nobody will ever believe me,” she said in an interview. “I’m unconventional. And I am a colored person who is female. “

With the help of a therapist, she slowly began to strategize her exit. While she was packing to leave in the spring of 2019, Mr LaBeouf showed up unannounced and terrorizing her in the lawsuit, according to an affidavit from a witness, her housekeeper. When Ms. Barnett refused to go with him, the statement said he “forcibly grabbed” her, picked her up, and locked her in another room where he yelled at her.

Escaping him appeared “both difficult and dangerous,” the lawsuit said. And even when she got determined, she felt overwhelmed, she told her therapist in an email checked by The Times. Despite having the funds, it took Mrs Barnett several attempts to break free, she said in an interview. And only then did she realize how broken she had become.

“The whole time I was with him I could have bought a business ticket back to my four-story townhouse in Hackney,” she said in London. And yet she didn’t. “He got me so deep that the idea of ​​leaving him and coming back to work just seemed impossible,” she said.