House again adjourns without a speaker, CA declares state of emergency: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: 'Groundhog Day': House adjourns without a speaker

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has lost six rounds of votes to become speaker of the House. Plus, California declares a state of emergency and evacuations as a storm brings massive waves and flooding, there's a new COVID-19 variant and it's five times more contagious than an earlier omicron variant, abortion pills for early pregnancy will be made available at some pharmacies around the country, and USA TODAY Trending Reporter Orlando Mayorquin looks at a lawsuit against Apple that alleges the Apple Watch's blood oxygen reader is ineffective on people of color.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday, the 5th of January, 2023. Today there's still no speaker of the House, plus abortion pills will soon be dispensed at pharmacies, and we look at a lawsuit against Apple surrounding the company's alleged ineffectiveness of its blood oxygen reader on people of color.

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A chaotic and historic two days in the House were punctuated last night by a vote to adjourn during a tumultuous session full of shouting and confusion, and still no speaker. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has now lost six rounds of votes to become speaker, something he shrugged off after the first few votes earlier this week.

Kevin McCarthy:

Look, I have the record for the longest speech ever on the floor. I don't have a problem getting a record for the most votes for speaker, too.

Taylor Wilson:

But how much longer will his fight for the position last? Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY National Political Correspondent David Jackson to find out more.

PJ Elliott:

David, thanks so much for coming on 5 Things.

David Jackson:

Sure.

PJ Elliott:

So I guess the biggest question is what's it going to take for Kevin McCarthy to get these 20 Republicans on board with him?

David Jackson:

Boy, that's a good question. The one thing it would take would be some massive concessions to some of the Republicans who oppose them, including prime committee assignments, promises not to oppose them, and some other goodies that McCarthy doesn't want to give, and friends of McCarthy don't want him to give, because then they say it would be rewarding extortion. I mean, on the one hand, McCarthy could slide into the job if he offers a bunch of goodies to some of his critics, but he doesn't want to do that and others don't want him to do that because that would set a bad precedent. So we're kind of stuck here. So I think he's working at the margins. I think the number he needs, it would be around 15, 15 or 16 of these Republicans. So I think he's trying to think in terms of individual deals for specific individuals, things that he can give them that wouldn't be too hard to swallow.

PJ Elliott:

So even though the Democrats clearly are in the minority, it seems like they could be holding all the cards here. Why aren't they working to try to find five moderate Republicans to sort of come together on someone from the GOP that may be willing to work with people on the other side and finally choose a speaker?

David Jackson:

Well, there are rumors that that is the part of the plan that... Supposedly the plan of the anti-McCarthyites is that they're throwing up these guys like Jim Jordan and Byron Donalds knowing they won't be elected, but that they're going to eventually introduce a special candidate who can carry the day. And a lot of the rumors concerned Steve Scalise, who's currently the House Republican whip, he's the number two Republican in the House right now. He's McCarthy's top aide. And a lot of people think he'll wind up being the compromised choice if it comes to that. But we haven't seen... Scalise hasn't made his move yet, and we haven't seen any of his supporters make their move yet. But that's something we're definitely looking for in the days ahead.

PJ Elliott:

So is Scalise a guy that can bring the GOP together and unite the party or is it too fractured?

David Jackson:

I don't think it's too fractured. It's fractured, but not too much. Scalise has very good relations in most of the camps with the Republicans and he also has good connections with the Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries has talked about how he's worked with Scalise over the past two years and he seems to have a lot of respect for him. So Scalise has an awful lot going for him. He's an old style politician, which is not a bad thing to be in this position. And a lot of people think he would be a good answer, but I wouldn't count McCarthy out just yet. He's working, talking to these members, trying to make enough concessions to bring some of these people over to support him.

PJ Elliott:

David, the last question I have for you is what does this say about what we can expect from the House for the next two years?

David Jackson:

Well, this is going to be a one circus after another, one impasse after another, one fight after another. I don't think there's any question about it. I just think that the most conservative members of the House caucus want things that just aren't doable. Not because the Republicans don't like them, but because they can never get the votes from the entire House and certainly couldn't get the votes from the Senate to do it. So the Republicans don't feel that way. This is a very assertive group, a very outspoken group and they're going to continue to push and push for things that they want.

And I think the break point is going to be when the budget issues come back up. At some point the government's going to run out of money and they're going to need a new spending plan. And that's when the rubber's really going to hit the road in terms of the Republican factionism. And another issue that people are worried about is raising the debt ceiling. Because I can guarantee you a lot of conservative Republicans are going to want to oppose doing that, nevermind the fact that that's basically the government forfeiting its credit rating. But I think that the budget fights and the debt ceiling fights are coming up probably towards the fall and that's when you'll see more of this kind of infighting.

PJ Elliott:

Thanks so much David. I guess we'll see what happens on Thursday.

David Jackson:

No problem, PJ. Thanks sir.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

California declared a state of emergency yesterday as a powerful storm created 45-foot waves, dropped soaking rain and led to warnings of floods and mudslides in areas already slammed by wet weather last week. Evacuations have been ordered in coastal cities, including Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. The regional National Weather Service office warned the more than 8 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area to limit travel. And Governor Gavin Newsom has authorized National Guard units to support disaster response. Three flood related deaths have been confirmed in Sacramento County and more than 120,000 homes and businesses were in the dark as of last night. Landslides are one of the biggest concerns across the state after it was already slammed with rain on New Year's Eve, despite a long-term drought. The head of the California Department of Water Resources said last night that trees are stressed after years of intense drought and are at high risk of falling in the storm.

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The latest COVID-19 variant to spread across the US doesn't appear to cause more serious disease than its predecessors, according to experts. But it's five times more contagious than an earlier Omicron variant, which itself was five times more contagious than the original virus. That's according to Mehul Suthar who studies emerging viral infections at Emory University. As of New Year's Eve, the new variant dubbed XBB.1.5 made up more than 40% of cases in the country, up from 1% a month earlier, according to the CDC. The big question now is whether current vaccines hold up with the variant. A study in December that showed COVID boosters designed to target two different variants still provide protection against the new one, especially against severe illness from the virus. But as was the case with Omicron, vaccines are no longer as good at preventing infection in the first place along with mild illness.

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Abortion pills for early pregnancy will soon be dispensed at some pharmacies around the country. Walgreens and CVS said yesterday that they plan to sell the pill after an FDA update earlier this week that expands access to medication abortions. Patients will still need a prescription for the drug, but they'll now have more options on how to receive it. For the past two decades since its approval, the medication had to be obtained at doctor's offices and clinics. The FDA rule change also allows those seeking an abortion to get a prescription through a telehealth appointment and then get the drug through the mail or at a local pharmacy. Still, the impact of the FDA update will be limited because several states continue to limit access to abortion broadly, including access to the pills. Abortion by pill makes up more than half of all abortions in the US. That's according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

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Apple is facing a federal class action lawsuit that claims the blood oxygen reader in the Apple Watch gives inaccurate results for people of color. The suit comes after the FDA launched a review last November that found pulse oximeters in general may give less accurate readings for people with darker skin tones. For more on this issue, I'm now joined by USA TODAY Trending Reporter Orlando Mayorquin. Orlando, thanks for coming on the show.

Orlando Mayorquin:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's start with this Apple lawsuit. What exactly does the suit claim and what is Apple saying in response?

Orlando Mayorquin:

The lawsuit basically draws from a bunch of medical studies that show that pulse oximeter technology isn't super effective in measuring blood oxygen levels for people with darker skin, the reason being that melanin absorbs light and these devices use sort of light to measure the oxygen in your blood. And so folks with more melanin have sort of skewed results. And the same is true for people with tattoos and with pigmented skin basically. And so the lawyer who is bringing this case basically says that there's all this evidence that shows that this technology isn't effective, has limitations for people of color. So he challenges the idea that the Apple Watch can do these readings accurately.

When initially I started reporting this story, I didn't hear back from Apple, but it turns out that they don't know any limitations of the Apple Watch blood oxygen reader. They did their own study and have their own sort of published white paper that claims that the Apple Watch can kind of automatically adjust to different skin colors and that it basically is accurate across a wide range of skin colors, which, if it's true, would be a pretty significant claim given that the FDA is currently reviewing that technology and trying to figure out ways to improve and rectify this problem.

Taylor Wilson:

Orlando, how did these issues especially pop up during the pandemic?

Orlando Mayorquin:

So this issue had been known for some decades. Some studies have suggested this was a problem, I think going back to the '90s. But it wasn't until the pandemic where obviously COVID-19 patients started to overwhelm hospitals that there was an increased use of these devices by medical staff. Basically, there are more accurate ways to take a patient's blood oxygen level, but those ways are more intrusive. They take more time. And so what the pulse oximeter did was offer a really quick way for you to take a patient's blood oxygen level. When you had all these patients in these hospitals having their blood oxygen level read with pulse oximeters, more medical staff started to sort of notice the discrepancies in the readings between white and black patients. A lot of difficult choices were made about patient care and these pulse oximeters played potentially a crucial role in that because they were the tool that a lot of medical staff relied on.

Taylor Wilson:

You wrote in November about this FDA review of studies that found blood oxygen readers in general are inaccurate for people with darker skin. What's the latest on that?

Orlando Mayorquin:

So the FDA is pretty early in its process. It has no concrete timeline. When I spoke to an FDA spokesperson, they said it was a high priority. It's at the very least on their radar. And some of the medical experts that I've talked to who have been kind of raising the alarm about this issue for decades are happy to see that the FDA is finally taking a serious look at it. There are some temporary solutions on the table. Some folks at the meeting suggested maybe having disclaimer labels on some of the devices and just overall elevating the awareness of the limitations of this technology.

Taylor Wilson:

Orlando Mayorquin is a rending news reporter for USA TODAY. Orlando, thanks for making the time.

Orlando Mayorquin:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find a link to his full story in today's show notes, and you can find 5 Things every morning right here, wherever you're listening right now. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: McCarthy denied 6th time, new contagious COVID variant: 5 Things podcast