Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truckFGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
Scottie Scheffler facing felony charges; local attorney reacts The attorney we spoke with told us that, at a minimum, we’d spend the night in jail before having our first appearance and getting bail.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament The FGCU softball team couldn’t keep up with the No. 4 Florida Gators as the Eagles drop their first Regional game 6-0 to the Gators.
Summer Safety: Swim safety tips to know before the summer The pool is warming up to be the hot spot for kids and families this summer. It’s now also the number one leading cause of drowning deaths for children ages 1-4 in the state.
FORT MYERS BEACH ‘The Whale’ restaurant to break ground on new building The Whale is a place that has shown great strength and determination.
COLLIER COUNTY Endangered Florida panther deaths surpass 2023 total in 5 months It’s taken wildlife officials just over four and a half months to report finding more dead endangered Florida panthers than in all of 2023.
FORT MYERS FMPD honors 7 officers and 2 K-9s who died in the line of duty dating back to 1930 Nine lives were given, and all nine will remain remembered. A lifetime of gratitude for the fallen officers.
Firefighter recovering from heat exhaustion after battling flames in Collier County It happened at Progress Rail, a transit corporation on Mercantile Avenue just before 5am on Friday.
FORT MYERS How do SWFL graduation rates compare to the state average? How do graduation rates for Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties stack up against the state? WINK News crunched the numbers.
FORT MYERS Community divisive over ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan A detective who killed an unarmed black man in a controversial shooting will be back at work on Monday.
CAPE CORAL Family submits civil complaint against Cape Coral Police Department The family of a 13-year-old boy who was struck and killed while riding his scooter has officially filed a civil complaint.
FORT MYERS Community reacts to ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan Leaders with the NAACP are saying there is a divide between the black community and Fort Myers police.
NAPLES Inside look at $21 million Naples Players Theater, set to open at the end of May On Friday, as the theater’s 70th season approached, leaders and organizers invited WINK News for a ‘hard-hat-tour’ to showcase the new additions and construction updates.
FORT MYERS Detective who fired fatal shot at Christopher Jordan returns to work Monday Fort Myers police have confirmed to WINK News the detective who shot and killed a man inside his home will return to work Monday morning.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot onto first state semifinals in nearly a decade A trip to the FHSAA State Semifinals has been a long time coming for the Bishop Verot Vikings who have not been since 2016.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
Scottie Scheffler facing felony charges; local attorney reacts The attorney we spoke with told us that, at a minimum, we’d spend the night in jail before having our first appearance and getting bail.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament The FGCU softball team couldn’t keep up with the No. 4 Florida Gators as the Eagles drop their first Regional game 6-0 to the Gators.
Summer Safety: Swim safety tips to know before the summer The pool is warming up to be the hot spot for kids and families this summer. It’s now also the number one leading cause of drowning deaths for children ages 1-4 in the state.
FORT MYERS BEACH ‘The Whale’ restaurant to break ground on new building The Whale is a place that has shown great strength and determination.
COLLIER COUNTY Endangered Florida panther deaths surpass 2023 total in 5 months It’s taken wildlife officials just over four and a half months to report finding more dead endangered Florida panthers than in all of 2023.
FORT MYERS FMPD honors 7 officers and 2 K-9s who died in the line of duty dating back to 1930 Nine lives were given, and all nine will remain remembered. A lifetime of gratitude for the fallen officers.
Firefighter recovering from heat exhaustion after battling flames in Collier County It happened at Progress Rail, a transit corporation on Mercantile Avenue just before 5am on Friday.
FORT MYERS How do SWFL graduation rates compare to the state average? How do graduation rates for Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties stack up against the state? WINK News crunched the numbers.
FORT MYERS Community divisive over ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan A detective who killed an unarmed black man in a controversial shooting will be back at work on Monday.
CAPE CORAL Family submits civil complaint against Cape Coral Police Department The family of a 13-year-old boy who was struck and killed while riding his scooter has officially filed a civil complaint.
FORT MYERS Community reacts to ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan Leaders with the NAACP are saying there is a divide between the black community and Fort Myers police.
NAPLES Inside look at $21 million Naples Players Theater, set to open at the end of May On Friday, as the theater’s 70th season approached, leaders and organizers invited WINK News for a ‘hard-hat-tour’ to showcase the new additions and construction updates.
FORT MYERS Detective who fired fatal shot at Christopher Jordan returns to work Monday Fort Myers police have confirmed to WINK News the detective who shot and killed a man inside his home will return to work Monday morning.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot onto first state semifinals in nearly a decade A trip to the FHSAA State Semifinals has been a long time coming for the Bishop Verot Vikings who have not been since 2016.
The FDA approved Beyfortus, from AstraZeneca and Sanofi, to protect infants from the respiratory virus RSV. ASTRAZENECA AND SANOFI The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday it had approved a new kind of immunization to protect babies from RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. The drug, nirsevimab, is one of two new options doctors hope could soon prevent the leading cause of hospitalization facing American infants. Outside advisers to the federal government have previously hailed nirsevimab’s showing in clinical trials as potentially “groundbreaking” for protecting babies. A panel of the FDA’s outside experts voted in June to back the drug’s safety and efficacy. “Today’s approval addresses the great need for products to help reduce the impact of RSV disease on children, families and the health care system,” the FDA’s Dr. John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. Drugmakers AstraZeneca and Sanofi, which will market nirsevimab under the brand name Beyfortus, have touted results showing an 83.2% reduction in hospitalizations from RSV infections after infants got their antibody injection. “Today’s approval marks an unprecedented moment for protecting infant health in the U.S., following an RSV season that took a record toll on infants, their families, and the U.S. healthcare system,” Sanofi executive vice president Thomas Triomphe said in a statement. Until recently, parents and doctors only had one option to shield some babies from RSV: monthly injections of palivizumab, an antibody drug which is recommended for use just in at-risk infants and young children. Nirsevimab only requires one injection for the season, shielding infants from catching their first RSV infection until they are older with a single shot. While virtually all children catch RSV by age 2, those who catch the virus within their first months of life are substantially more likely to be hospitalized, even if they do not have underlying medical conditions. However, concerns over cost, as well as a competing option to protect babies that is also seeking the FDA’s approval – Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine, which is given during pregnancy – could limit how many babies end up getting nirsevimab. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have wrestled for months around drafting recommendations on how parents and doctors will navigate the two competing products. “When considering whether to give both a maternal vaccine and a monoclonal antibody, giving both products was not found to be cost effective,” the CDC’s Christopher Jones told an ACIP meeting in June. Instead, Jones said a work group of the committee’s advisers was weighing whether to limit the recommendations for using the drug to only babies of moms who had not gotten Pfizer’s vaccine, with only a handful of exceptions. Next month that CDC panel is scheduled to meet again and formally vote on nirsevimab. The vote will be a key step towards including the antibody drug in the federal Vaccines for Children program in order to cover the shots for uninsured babies, as well as triggering federal requirements governing what private insurers must cover. A Sanofi spokesperson said the company plans to launch Beyfortus “in time for the 2023-2024 RSV season” and will share more information about the U.S. price of the drug by then. “We expect Beyfortus to be priced similarly to an innovative pediatric vaccine series, in accordance with the value and innovation it delivers,” the spokesperson said. The FDA and CDC previously signed off on the first new options to protect older adults from RSV, which include Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine. Abrysvo is expected to be “broadly available in about a month from now” for eligible Americans, a Pfizer spokesperson said. Logistical hurdles Nirsevimab’s coming rollout as a broadly recommended option for American babies has also posed a series of logistical hurdles for health authorities, whose immunization systems are largely designed for handling only traditional vaccines as opposed to antibody drugs. “There are quite a lot of challenges that we are working through, and we will continue to work through, because we’ve got a product that sort of will function as a therapeutic and an immunizing agent at the same time,” the CDC’s Georgina Peacock told a Department of Health and Human Services meeting last month. One hurdle health authorities have worked to plan out is how the safety of nirsevimab will be monitored between the FDA and CDC. Reports of adverse events in babies after getting the injections will need to be routed through a separate system run by the FDA for drugs, which works differently from the databases and systems typically used to track vaccine side effects and any potential safety issues. Some states also may not be able to include nirsevimab in their immunization registries, complicating efforts to track who has gotten the injection. “There will be a robust monitoring process in place for nirsevimab to include CDC and FDA, and collaboration between the two agencies, to make sure that safety information or the data are analyzed,” the CDC’s Tom Shimabukuro said last month.