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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Monday marked a major breakthrough in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to Pfizer’s vaccine.

Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. surgeon general and WISH-TV’s medical expert, talked to Phil Sanchez about the impact of that announcement.

What’s your reaction to the news, and can you explain exactly what the difference is between full approval and emergency use approval? This is the exact vaccine they’ve been using for months already.

“Well I’m ecstatic. I really am. I’ve been clamoring for this. Many of us experts out there have been saying we can’t wait for this day to occur. And to your to your question, this is the exact same vaccine have been administered throughout the last last year, essentially. And for the EUA — that’s emergency use authorization — that’s what previously the status was. And that meant that the benefits were thought to outweigh the risk. It only requires two months follow-up of people who have been fully vaccinated, and it expires when the emergency goes away. So it’s only a temporary status. Full approval means that this has been seen as followed in people for six months after vaccination. It means that the drug is approved, and it doesn’t go away after the after the emergency goes away, and I think it’s going to give a lot of people confidence to go out there and get that shot,” Adams said.

So we’ve heard people coming out and saying they’re not getting the vaccine until it’s FDA approved. Now that it is, do you hope that’s going to change some minds?

“What we know is that about a third of people who are unvaccinated have said that the fact that the vaccine was not fully approved with a major part of their reason for this trust. So if you’re one of those people out there, I encourage you go to vaccines.gov and make an appointment today. It’s not going to convince everybody, but it will give a lot of people more confidence. And it’s one less reason that people have to be concerned about the vaccine. The other side of this — and you’ve heard me and others talk about it — is that I think it’s going to give more organizations, more businesses the confidence to be more aggressive in terms of getting their employees vaccinated, and that’s going to include mandates,” Adams said.

So that’s a good thing in your opinion?

“I think it is a good thing when you look at the fact that we have five vaccines now that are mandated within schools, and many of them don’t work as well as the COVID-19 vaccine works. I think it’s going to be important for us keeping schools open, keeping businesses open and getting over this current surge, particularly in health care settings and in settings like colleges and universities, where you’re bringing large numbers of people together and they’re at risk for being super-spreaders,” Adams said.

Does this put us any closer to full approval for other vaccines or any closer to approval for kids under the age of 12?

“The FDA says that these are completely separate pathways and that one doesn’t impact the other. Here’s what I would say to you. I think full approval for adults actually is going to give people more confidence when authorization comes for kids. Now that we’re over this hurdle, we know the FDA has limited bandwidth. There will be more people available to help review those studies and children. So I do think it will help us get to where we want to be faster, in terms of getting authorization and approval for younger people and in terms of continuing to build confidence,” Adams.

PLYMOUTH, Ind. (AP/WISH) — The death of an 11-month-old northern Indiana girl found dead in a wooded area has been ruled a homicide.

Marshall County Prosecutor Nelson Chipman said Monday that Mercedes Lain of Plymouth died from blunt force injuries to the head. The baby’s autopsy was conducted Friday in Fort Wayne.

Thirty-seven-year-old Justin Miller of Hamlet is being held in the Marshall County Jail on a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. He’s due in court Tuesday morning.

The girl’s body was found Wednesday evening in a densely wooded area of Starke County near the Marshall County line after Miller led officers to the site.

The girl’s parents, Kenneth Lain and Tiffany Coburn, are also charged with neglect. The FBI says the couple left the baby with Miller earlier this month.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — Noblesville East Middle School will move to virtual classes Tuesday after more than 60 positive COVID-19 cases and 200 quarantined students since the beginning of school.

In a letter to families, Noblesville Schools said 20% of the middle school’s population is currently absent due to illness, including 50 COVID-19 cases reported last week and another 12 on Monday. The 20% of students missing class does include students with illnesses other than COVID-19 but does not account for students who had close contact with people who tested positive, the school district said Monday.

Two teams of students, with about 100 students each, were quarantined earlier this month, the district said.

Noblesville East Middle is the only school in the district moving to virtual learning on Tuesday, the district said, saying, “the spike of illness NEMS is currently experiencing is significant, rapidly spreading, and like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”

The middle school’s athletics and other after-school activities are canceled through Aug. 31, the district said.

The two teams of students who were quarantined earlier in August — Wake Forest and DePauw — will return to school Aug. 26 and Aug. 30, respectively. Other students will return to school Aug. 31, the district said.

Noblesville schools went back to class Aug. 3. Masks were initially optional for students, staff and visitors, but the district changed the policy Aug. 13, requiring masks for all people inside. At the time of the mask policy change, the district said Noblesville East and one elementary school classroom had experienced “three major outbreaks that required us to disrupt learning for hundreds of students.” The message also said unvaccinated people are visiting the schools and spreading the coronavirus to unvaccinated and vaccinated people. 

Bandannas are not considered to be acceptable for use as masks, and face shields will only be used by select staff and students in specific, approved situations. 

The district also encouraged people to get vaccinated. The district will have an immunization clinic with the Pfizer vaccine from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday for students and adults 12 and older. The clinic will be at Noblesville Schools Community Center, 1775 Field Drive. People can sign up online for the clinic.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Jeopardy!” is back to guest hosts after the resignation of Mike Richards, and actor Mayim Bialik will return as the first one up.

Sony Pictures Television announced Monday that Bialik will take the podium long occupied by the late Alex Trebek for three weeks of episodes.

The 45-year-old “Big Bang Theory” and “Blossom” actor was one of many guest hosts who filled in for two-week stints in the past season after the death of Trebek, who hosted the show for 37 seasons. Trebek died in November at age 80 of cancer.

When Richards was announced as the new host on Aug. 11, producers also revealed that Bialik would have an ongoing role as emcee for “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship.

Sony’s news release Monday said other guest hosts would follow Bialik and made no mention of a permanent replacement.

Richards, the show’s executive producer, had been announced as host just nine days earlier when he stepped down Friday after a report of past demeaning comments he had made about women, homeless people and others on a podcast. Richards selection after a parade of celebrity contenders was met by a chorus of criticism.

The episodes that Richards taped last week will air when the show returns for its 38th season starting Sept. 13.

(CNN) — Legendary Black entertainer Josephine Baker is set to become the first Black woman to have her remains buried in the Panthéon monument in Paris — one of the highest honors in France.

French president Emmanuel Macron made the announcement on Monday, writing that Baker “held high the motto of the French Republic.”

In a statement released the same day, the Élysée Palace wrote that Baker was the embodiment of the French spirit, though she was born American.

“World-renowned music hall artist, committed to the Resistance, tireless anti-racist activist, she was involved in all the fights that bring together citizens of good will, in France and around the world,” the palace wrote.

She will be honored at the monument on Nov. 30.

Baker, who died in 1975, will become the first Black woman to be buried at the monument, joining just five other women — French Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, scientist Marie Curie, French Resistance fighters Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion, and Sophie Berthelot, the wife of a famous chemist who was buried along with her husband.

The news of Baker’s reinterment comes as France has been embroiled in debates over racism in the country, as more and more people of color in the nation are challenging long-held ideas of French universalism.

Beginning her career in the US as a dancer in several vaudeville shows, Baker became immensely popular, so much so that her success took her to Paris. There, Baker became a household name, even playing in a few successful movies released in Europe, according to the National Women’s History Museum.

Later, Baker became a spy for the French military during World War II. While performing for the Nazi regime, she would send secret information she discovered to French officials through invisible ink on music sheets, the museum said.

Throughout her life, Baker was also outspoken against racism particularly in the US. As one of the few women speakers at the March on Washington in 1963, Baker spoke against segregation, comparing her experiences abroad to the place of her birth.

“You know, friends, that I do not lie to you when I tell you I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad,” she said, according to the museum.

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LOGANSPORT, Ind. (WISH) — A Logansport man on Friday turned himself in to Cass County sheriff’s deputies after being charged with child molestation.

Gregory Berkshire, 57, faces two felony counts of child molestation in connection to events that occurred in 2011, Indiana State Police said Monday.

State police in late July began investigating after they received information that Berkshire had molested two girls, ages 5 and 6, on multiple occasions in 2011 in Cass County.

On Monday, Berkshire had bonded out of the Cass County Jail, online court records show.

LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — A Haitian gang leader on Sunday offered a truce and help for communities shattered by a devastating earthquake — potentially offering a break for a relief effort that has been plagued by hijacked aid trucks and disorder.

The offer came as many Haitians resumed services in or outside damaged churches, sometimes for the first time since the magnitude 7.2 quake of Aug. 14. The country’s Civil Protection Agency also raised toll of dead to 2,207.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much impact the truce offer might have: While powerful, Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue,” is far from the only gang leader in Haiti and widely repeated social media reports of an earlier gang truce failed to prevent attacks on the expanding relief effort.

Gangs have blocked roads, hijacked aid trucks and stolen supplies, forcing relief workers to transport supplies by helicopter. In places, desperate crowds have scuffled over bags of food.

Cherizier addressed a Facebook video on Sunday to the hardest-hit parts of the Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, saying “We want to tell them that the G9 Revolutionary Forces and allies, all for one and one for all, sympathize with their pain and sorrows.”

“The G9 Revolutionary Forces and allies … will participate in the relief by bringing them help. We invite all compatriots to show solidarity with the victims by trying to share what little there is with them.”

The increase in the death toll was the first since late Wednesday when the government put it at 2,189. The government said Sunday that 344 people were still missing, 12,268 people were injured and nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed by the quake.

In Les Cayes, many attended church to mourn those lost and give thanks for their own survival.

At an evangelical church in the Bergeaud neighborhood, parishioners sang hymns under beams of sunlight streaming through holes in the roof and walls.

Pastor Sevrain Marc Dix Jonas, said Sunday’s service was special because until now his congregation had been unable to meet since the quake.

“Today was a must,” Dix Jonas said, standing below a gaping opening high in his church’s facade. “To thank God. He protected us. We did not die.”

His church was one of the few where congregants could worship inside. At many others, services were held in the street outside collapsed sanctuaries.

Taking that into account, the Roman Catholic church in Les Cayes moved its morning service to 6:30 a.m. to avoid the heat of day.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson, and his wife, Jacqueline, remained under doctors’ observation Sunday at a Chicago hospital and were “responding positively to treatments” for COVID-19, their son told The Associated Press.

The couple, married for nearly six decades, were admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital a day earlier. Physicians were “carefully monitoring their condition” because of their ages, Jonathan Jackson, one of the couple’s five children, said in a statement.

Jesse Jackson is 79, and Jacqueline is 77.

“Both are resting comfortably and are responding positively to their treatments,” Jonathan Jackson said. “My family appreciates all of the expressions of concern and prayers that have been offered on their behalf, and we will continue to offer our prayers for your family as well.”

Jesse Jackson, a Chicago civil rights leader, is vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicized event as he urged others to receive the inoculation as soon as possible. The vaccination status of his, wife, who is also an activist, was unclear. Family members said she has an unspecified underlying health condition that triggered concerns in recent days.

“We ask that you continue to pray for the full recovery of our parents. We will continue to update you on a regular basis,” Jonathan Jackson said.

Jesse Jackson, who has Parkinson’s disease, was hospitalized earlier this year for an unrelated gallbladder surgery.

A mentee of the Rev. Martin Luther King, he was crucial in guiding the modern civil rights movement on numerous issues, including voting rights. Despite his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Jackson has stayed active and continued travel, even during the pandemic.

In recent weeks he has been arrested for civil disobedience, including last month during a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has faced pressure over her opposition to ending the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

A Northwestern spokesman did not have further information.

Four new films with major stars from Hugh Jackman to Michael Keaton opened in North American movie theaters this weekend and only the one with animated puppies fared well. But it wasn’t enough to beat out Ryan Reynolds’ action-comedy “Free Guy,” which topped the charts for the second weekend running.

“PAW Patrol: The Movie,” a Paramount release targeted at very young kids that’s also streaming on Paramount+, earned $13 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday. It was by far the best of the new openers, which included three adult-skewing films that failed to find significant audiences: The action pic “The Protégé,” with Keaton and Maggie Q, the sci-fi thriller “Reminiscence,” which is also streaming on HBO Max, and the well-reviewed Rebecca Hall horror “The Night House.”

First place went to “Free Guy,” a 20th Century and Disney release that’s playing exclusively in theaters. It dropped a miniscule 34% and added $18.8 million this weekend, bringing its global total to $112 million. The studio attributed the strong hold to good word of mouth.

“’Free Guy’ is a movie that harkens back to the days when strong word of mouth and a really engaged star, Ryan Reynolds, combine to make for a great theatrical-first release,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It shows that a theatrical-first release even in today’s unusual marketplace can have legs. It feels very 2019, not pandemic-era.”

The relative success of “PAW Patrol” came as a bit of a surprise, even to those involved. Although the movie is based on an immensely popular Nickelodeon series, its target audience of under 6-year-olds is a wild card. Delta variant concerns and its availability to stream at home made it even more of a moving target.

Chris Aronson, the president of domestic distribution for Paramount Pictures said the weekend was a “Very nice, very pleasant surprise.”

“It’s a younger skewing audience and we’re in interesting times, but I think our marketing teams, both on our side and the exhibition side, did a terrific job at getting the message out,” Aronson said. “The pups are very beloved and have a very, very loyal audience.”

The studio said the audience who turned out to theaters was diverse (41% white, 34% Hispanic and 20% Black) and predominately comprised of families with very young children. Aronson also noted that for the younger kids, “PAW Patrol” is likely their first experience in a movie theater ever.

Celebrities who voiced characters in “PAW Patrol” included Tyler Perry, Jimmy Kimmel, Yara Shahidi and Kim Kardashian.

Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” which is available to rent on Disney+ for $30, landed in third place in its fourth weekend in release. So far, the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt action-adventure has grossed $174 million globally.

In its first weekend, Millennium Media’s “The Protégé,” starring Keaton, Q and Samuel L. Jackson, earned $2.9 million from 2,577 locations. Distributed by Lionsgate, the Martin Campbill-directed action pic about Q’s assassin character Anna, who is seeking justice, got mixed-to-positive reviews.

Searchlight’s “The Night House,” which was very well-reviewed, didn’t connect with its opening weekend audience, who gave it a C- CinemaScore. The indie horror about a recently widowed woman played by Hall grossed an estimated $2.9 million from 2,240 locations.

Meanwhile, “Reminiscence” with Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson and Thandiwe Newton fizzled with only $2 million from 3,265 locations. The directorial debut of “Westworld” co-creator Lisa Joy, “Reminiscence” is also streaming on HBO Max.

It’s one of several Warner Bros.’ adult-skewing films that have underwhelmed with the hybrid release strategy, including the thrillers “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” with Angelina Jolie and “The Little Things,” with Denzel Washington. The studio is releasing all of its 2021 slate on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously.

“I think there is a consumer confusion,” Dergarabedian said of the many hybrid release strategies. “When people are faced with myriad options, they have to figure out how when and where they can get that content. To rise above the noise, you really have to have a film that’s buzzworthy. ‘Free Guy’ is that buzzworthy movie and it’s only available in theaters.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Free Guy,” $18.8 million.

2. “PAW Patrol: The Movie,” $13 million.

3. “Jungle Cruise,” $6.2 million.

4. “Don’t Breathe 2,” $5.1 million.

5. “Respect,” $3.8 million.

6. “The Suicide Squad,” $3.4 million.

7. “The Protégé,” $2.9 million.

8. “The Night House,” $2.9 million.

9. “Reminiscence,” $2 million.

10. “Black Widow,” $1.2 million.