CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

Labor unions say governments aren’t providing enough tests and masks and that leaders should consider short-term closures until the Omicron surge ends. | Jae C. Hong/AP Photo

Omicron is surging — and Democrats aren’t shutting things down this time

By LISA KASHINSKY and SUSANNAH LUTHI
01/09/2022 09:46 PM EST
Updated 01/10/2022 03:43 PM EST

BOSTON — Democrats have a message for Omicron-flooded America: get vaxxed and carry on.

From New York to California, Democratic mayors and governors are fighting to keep schools and businesses open with an urgency they haven’t flexed before in the pandemic.

In Chicago, where a teachers union dispute has shuttered the nation’s third-largest school system, Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted educators for not reporting to their classrooms — and got the tacit support of the White House.

“Enough is enough. We are standing firm,” Lightfoot told Chicago residents last week.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti swear the Super Bowl will go on in L.A. even as Covid-19 cases surge. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has declared “the end of the medical emergency” and said unvaccinated people have themselves to blame if they get sick. Even President Joe Biden urged Americans not to cancel their holiday travel plans last month.

Democrats went further than most Republicans in shutting down businesses, enforcing social distancing and requiring masks to tame the spread of the virus — and were initially rewarded politically for their caution. But as the nation trudges into a third pandemic year in the grips of another variant-fueled wave, blue state leaders faced with exhausted and frustrated voters have lost the stomach for strict shutdowns. Those early-pandemic tactics, some argue, hurt people financially and fostered a mental health crisis among siloed school kids.

Instead of facing anger from Republican voters, Democrats must now contend with critics on the left who accuse their own party of selling out public health to keep the economy going.

Labor unions representing teachers, health care workers and airline staff say governments aren’t providing enough tests and masks and that leaders should consider short-term closures until the Omicron surge ends.

Yet Democratic leaders are mindful that Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governor’s race in November by, in part, appealing to frustrated parents, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy came closer to defeat than most people expected and walked away citing the pandemic for the close call.

“There’s a real social impact that I think has not been part of the messaging [until recently],” said Doug Rubin, a veteran strategist who has worked with several prominent Massachusetts Democrats, including former Gov. Deval Patrick, and on Tom Steyer’s 2020 presidential bid.

“Democrats saw there were political impacts to this. They saw in Virginia and New Jersey the potential negative impacts of ignoring some of these issues.”

CDC: Omicron now accounts for 95% of U.S. covid cases

Share
Play Video .33 min

Democrats also gained greater confidence to keep the economy open as Covid-19 vaccines became widely available and early evidence suggests Omicron, while more transmissible, has lower rates of death and severe hospitalization.

Covid frustration runs deep after two years, and more Americans appear willing to accept greater risk in exchange for things staying open. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, last month acknowledged a desire “to keep our society running smoothly” in cutting the recommended isolation period in half.

Six in 10 Americans surveyed in a mid-December Monmouth University poll, just as the first Omicron cases emerged in the U.S., said they felt “worn out” by Covid’s toll on their daily lives, including 63 percent of Democrats.

Governors in both red and blue states have watched their approval ratings sink throughout the pandemic. The Monmouth poll showed Delta dragging down Covid approval ratings for governors in states Biden won in 2020, too.

“A year ago, most Democratic voters were ahead of where governors were, saying, ‘You’re not locking down enough,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said in an interview. “Many of those people are now saying it doesn’t matter at this point, and what we’re seeing is governors reacting to that and acknowledging the mood of their own base.”

As Omicron pushes Covid-19 cases to new heights and lays siege to hospitals across the nation, blue-state governors are again calling up their National Guards and urging the unvaccinated to roll up their sleeves. But they are also acknowledging the frustrations felt by those who followed the rules expecting Covid would be over by now — only to see Omicron spread rapidly.

Democratic leaders “see an upcoming election, they see backlashes,” said Bob Blendon, a polling and political strategy expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “They can’t close things down, and there is no public tolerance for serious disruptions in people’s lives. People have run out of patience.”

That doesn’t mean that Democratic governors are completely on the same page with one another. Those in deep blue states such as California and New York are still requiring masks, as well as vaccines for government and health care employees. Newsom has called for student vaccine mandates as soon as the next school year in California.

Democratic leaders in more conservative states, such as Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, have long had to protect public health without closures and strict mandates. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer eschewed a statewide mask mandate even as she warned before Christmas that “every one of us is likely going to have some exposure at some point,” urging unvaccinated Michiganders to get vaccinated.

Nevada’s Gov. Steve Sisolak — one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this fall — recently dismissed the idea of bringing government vaccine mandates to Las Vegas while keeping a mask requirement in high-spread areas.

“I don’t foresee [a vaccine mandate] happening in the future, barring any major catastrophes or other major variants coming down the line,” Sisolak recently told Nevada’s NBC affiliate. “We’ve left a lot of that to the private businesses.”

Republicans, meanwhile, say Democrats were simply too slow to recognize shifts in public opinion.

“It’s clear most voters are now siding with the Republican stance of caution but not over-restriction,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP strategist and former Mitt Romney aide who served in the Massachusetts governor’s office and on Romney’s presidential campaign. “Democrats are late to the game. If they continue to push draconian restrictions closer to Election Day, it could harm the party up and down the ballot.”

ow facing resistance from their own allies. Teachers unions beyond Chicago are asking local leaders to cancel classes as more staff and students got sick last week, and educators in San Francisco and Oakland are planning informal “sickouts.”

Unions also criticized the Biden administration for shortening isolation and quarantine guidelines, accusing the president of caring more about the economy than science.

“We said we wanted to hear from medical professionals on the best guidance for quarantine, not from corporate America advocating for a shortened period due to staffing shortages,” Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson said in a statement, adding that “we cannot allow pandemic fatigue to lead to decisions that extend the life of the pandemic or put policies on the backs of workers.”

But Democratic leaders are continuing on. Lightfoot said Sunday she’s empowered by Chicago parents who want to keep schools open — while trying to assure families and teachers that classrooms are safe.

“Well, the leverage I think we have is that we've got the will of the people,” Lightfoot told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Parents are outraged, and they are making their outrage known to the teachers union. This is a very different dynamic than ever before.”

As Democratic governors take a more forceful approach to keeping schools and businesses open, former operatives at the Democratic Governors Association argue party leaders are not emulating their red-state counterparts, some of whom have routinely rejected mask and vaccine mandates. They say that Democrats are still emphasizing safety precautions and emphasizing vaccinations while allowing residents and businesses to continue everyday life.

“You’re seeing a realistic acknowledgment of the frustration that people have with everything related to the pandemic,” former political director to the Democratic Governors Association Corey Platt said. “It’s less a messaging change than an understanding of where things are and being focused on safety and mitigating the pandemic when you’re hearing the exact opposite from other people.”

Jared Leopold, who worked for Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan during the Democratic gubernatorial primary, said Democrats now need to lay out what the next stage of the pandemic looks like in a country that increasingly wants to stay open.

“It would be smart for people heading into the 2022 campaign to level with their constituents about the challenges that they face,” Leopold said. “but also provide a clear path forward.”

French Company Develops Promising Injectable Ivermectin Treatment, But There’s a Catch

by Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn
January 14, 2022



Editor’s Commentary: I absolutely adore Dr. Joel Hirschhorn’s insights into Covid-19 and treatments that should be readily available instead of the incessant push for vaccines. With that said, I felt it necessary to prelude his article by inserting my skepticism. Call me crazy but anything that has the Bill Gates stamp of approval is instantly suspicious, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is behind the company making the Ivermectin injections.

Ivermectin has been shown by numerous studies to be effective against the coronavirus. The fact that it’s being suppressed by our own government and panned by mainstream media tells me there’s something beneficial about the drug. They wouldn’t call it a “horse dewormer” unless they believed it was either truly dangerous or so effective that it could derail their universal vaccine objectives. We know it’s not the former because the government has been recommending Ivermectin for years to people coming to America from Africa. They can’t say it’s dangerous to some but recommend it to others unless there’s a different agenda at play.

As our readers know, I’m still a huge fan of Dr. Zev Zelenko’s Z-Stack protocol. I take it daily, and yes, we have taken them on as a sponsor. Use promo code “Freedom” at checkout for a discount.

By no means am I contradicting anything that Dr. Hirschhorn says below in this article. It’s definitely worth a read and many will share his enthusiasm over the potential for Ivermectin as a preventive as well as a treatment. My bias against Bill Gates is the only thing giving me pause.

That doesn’t mean EVERYTHING with his name on it is evil… at least I hope not. Here’s Dr. Hirschhorn:

Ivermectin Delivered by a Novel Product

Moving beyond words is a new vote of confidence in using ivermectin to fight COVID with an innovative injectable product.

There is good reason to have hope for a new way to deliver IVM to millions of people to fight COVID variants. It offers a very sound alternative to vaccines.

With all of the considerable controversy about using IVM for treating and preventing COVID, something has slipped the attention of its supporters and critics. A relatively small French company has spent the past year or more developing an injectable product of IVM for prophylactic use and have it last in the body for months.

It has successfully completed a safety study for relatively high doses of IVM over long periods.

The company tested IVM taken daily in oral form to simulate the continuous release of the active substance by a long-acting injectable. It found the results fully supportive of their injectable approach.

If the company is able to get the commercial product into the market and, if needed, get regulatory approval, their product could compete against COVID vaccines and avoid the need for the new Pfizer and Merck antiviral treatment drugs.

This product would circumvent the many problems people face in getting IVM pills, in terms of its scarcity and cost. But the new product would probably require a prescription and a doctor, nurse or pharmacist to administer it. And so, it might be relatively expensive, though likely cheaper than vaccines and new Big Pharma drugs.

One can imagine that this innovative product could be just like annual flu vaccines in how it is administered to large numbers of people in a multitude of places, including medical offices, drug stores and supermarket pharmacies. And it would be wonderful if medical insurance covered it like it does for flu shots.

Here is some more information about this venture: The company is MedinCell. It has received financial support from the French government. It was started with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Safety addressed
At its website it is possible to download a March 2021 lengthy and detailed assessment and review of IVM focusing on its history of intense global use and safety. The title is Medical Safety of Ivermectin. Here are the conclusions:

“Hundreds of millions of human subjects have been treated with ivermectin for curative or prophylactic purposes worldwide over the last 3 decades. The reference list of this report demonstrates that a large body of data is available, which allows for a detailed analysis of ivermectin medical safety. Undoubtedly, uncertainties remain regarding ivermectin pharmacological effects and mechanisms of action, but when removed, this is not anticipated to alter the main conclusions of this report in any significant way as they rely on an extensive and consistent body of medical publications. Taking into account all the above, the author of the present analysis of the available medical data concludes that the safety profile of ivermectin has so far been excellent in the majority of treated human patients so that ivermectin human toxicity cannot be claimed to be a serious cause for concern.”

About product design
The company is based on the use of what they call BEPO® technology in the form of a pre-filled syringe, ready-to-use, with 24-month stability at room temperature. It creates the formation of a small subcutaneous deposit, fully bioresorbable, at the time of injection. This material acts as a mini pump that releases IVM regularly until it disappears or absorbs completely.

The core mechanism is the controlled and extended release of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, such as IVM. The company claims a significant reduction in the quantity of medication required as part of a chronic treatment. The BEPO® technology makes it possible to control and guarantee the regular delivery of a drug at the optimal therapeutic dose for as long as several months starting from the subcutaneous or local injection of a simple deposit of a few millimeters, of the fully bioresorbable medicine.

Optimism by the company
Here is an optimistic statement about the prophylactic strategy for using IVM in the pandemic:

“Our hypotheses are being confirmed, says Christophe Douat, CEO of MedinCell: the pandemic continues, and vaccination may not be enough to stop it. The body of clinical data and scientific knowledge supporting the efficacy of ivermectin at a therapeutic dose against Covid-19, in particular as a prophylaxis, continues to grow. In this context, our treatment, based on a widely known molecule, which could be stored at room temperature and which aims to offer protection for several months after a simple injection against Covid-19 and its variants, could become a key tool of the anti-Covid arsenal. Our goal is still to have a product ready in 2022. “

In addition to wide preventive use by the population, the product could also be administered to people identified as Covid-19 contact cases to protect them. Here is another potential benefit: Assume that some people may continue to get ill with late stage COVID infection, even with a regular dose of IVM and come down with lung and breathing problems. But research and clinical evidence shows that the anti-inflammatory property of IVM can treat such lung issues and prevent death. Having IVM in the body for months could either prevent or greatly mitigate such late-stage problems, the major cause of hospital COVID deaths now.

Conclusions
For those of us who have embraced the use of IVM as a prevention strategy this novel product could be of tremendous global importance, especially as new COVID variants inevitably become a problem.

Moreover, there is increasing recognition that repeated COVID vaccine booster shots are not justified because they can weaken immune systems and, inevitably, lose their effectiveness within short periods. It is good news that the limits of boosters are being recognized by some people and organizations. For example: Boosters “can be done once, or maybe twice, but it’s not something that we can think should be repeated constantly,” Marco Cavaleri, the European Medicines Agency head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy, said recently. “We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting.”

And the World Health Organization just said: “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.”

Along this same line of thinking was this observation in a recent detailed analysis: “A plausible conclusion is that aggressive vaccination campaigns accelerate the pace at which an individual’s immune system reaches an ‘aged’ status due to exuberant generation of memory B cells in response to the artificial stimuli induced by repeated vaccination… An even more worrisome possibility is that these vaccines, both the mRNA vaccines and the DNA vector vaccines, may be a pathway to crippling disease sometime in the future.”

The injectable IVM product should be seen as a potential alternative to vaccine shots not only because they are increasingly ineffective, but also because of their increasingly documented adverse health impacts and deaths. If COVID is to be seen as endemic, like the flu, then this new product merits serious support.

The question to be followed is if and how Big Pharma takes actions to stymie the French company’s efforts to fully commercialize their IVM injectable product in many countries.

BNO Newsroom
@BNODesk
19m

2 years ago today: WHO's most infamous tweet, saying China found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of coronavirus
View: https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1482210537022889986?s=20

Abigail Shrier
@AbigailShrier
Jan 13

He's imploring social media companies to censor Americans. That's state action in violation of the First Amendment. SCOTUS held in 1973 that the government “may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.”
View: https://twitter.com/AbigailShrier/status/1481666539010945025?s=20

Dr. Peter McCullough: Official COVID 'narrative has crumbled'
'The vaccines should be pulled off the market, they clearly are not solving the problem'

By Art Moore
Published January 14, 2022 at 11:58am

Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi depart the U.S. Capitol after the president spoke at the House Democratic Caucus meeting, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith)

Dr. Peter McCullough – a renowned cardiologist and highly published medical scientist whose confrontation of the government's COVID-19 policies has drawn more than 40 million views on Joe Rogan's podcast – told WND in a video interview Thursday night the official pandemic narrative that has been fiercely guarded by establishment media and social-media censors is "completely crumbling."

That narrative, he said, included "false statements regarding asymptomatic spread, reliance on lockdown and masks – which obviously didn't work – the suppression of early treatment, the mass promotion of vaccines that failed."

"And now here we are, almost in complete free fall," McCullough said, referring to the record number of COVID-19 cases as officials acknowledge the vaccines don't prevent infection or transmission.

McCullough noted that in California, with the more contagious but much milder omicron variant now dominant, health care workers who tested positive for COVID-19 and had symptoms were told to go back to work.

"With that, I think that's it. I think that's the end. The narrative has crumbled. People don't want these vaccines," McCullough said.

"The vaccines should be pulled off the market. They clearly are not solving the problem."

The focus, he said, should be on "treating high-risk patients who develop symptoms" with some of the early treatments that he and other physicians around the world have found to be effective, including ivermectin and a new drug granted emergency use authorization by the FDA, Paxlovid.

McCullough cited a study from Denmark and data from the U.K.'s health agency showing that the vaccines have zero effectiveness against omicron.

"That's not misinformation," he said. "I'm just quoting the data. All of this can be looked up. Fact-checkers can look at it. I know I'll never have any problems with allegations of misinformation, because I just quote the data."

President Biden clearly had McCullough in mind when on Thursday he urged social media companies and media outlets to "please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows. It has to stop."

McCullough pointed out his work has been relied upon by courts across the nation, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has testified to the U.S. Senate and will be back there later this month.

"I think America knows who is giving them the straight story."

In the half-hour video interview with WND (embedded below), McCullough also discussed:

• The punishment of physicians who counter the official COVID narrative and use clinically indicated, FDA-approved drugs off-label such as ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients, including a colleague in Maine whose was ordered to undergo a psychological examination after her license was suspended;
• His participation in a rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23 protesting vaccine mandates;
• The Supreme Court's rulings Thursday on vaccine mandates;
• The possibility that omicron could spell the end of the pandemic, serving as a "universal booster";
• Data showing that vaccination has backfired, making the pandemic worse in nations with high vaccine intake;
• The lethality of the mRNA vaccines;
• His view on Biden's mass testing program;
• His take on new FDA-approved treatments and his simple, inexpensive, over-the-counter protocol for treating omicron;
• The unwillingness of so many doctors to "come off the sidelines" and treat patients for COVID-19;
• The "crisis of competence" among top government health officials;
• Where to find resources and support for physicians and patients, and for employees confronting mandates.

"I think Americans are going to understand that their individual choice is really what's going to matter in the end," he McCullough told WND in conclusion. "If Americans decide that they're not going to take any boosters or any more vaccines, it doesn't matter how many mandates or how many court decisions that happen. The vaccine program is going to crumble. I think it's just a matter of saying no."

He emphasized that the vaccines are still "research."

"No one can be forced into it," he said of vaccination. "And they're not turning out to be safe or effective. So, if everybody just stands firm and declines the vaccines, I think that will be the quickest way for us to get out of this."

See the WND interview with Dr. Peter McCullough:
Rumble video 32:14 min

McCullough, in a video interview with WND in December, called for a "pivot" from the current policies to early treatment and "compassionate care" for those who have COVID or have suffered vaccine injuries, which have included myocarditis, neurological issues and blood clotting.

"Now is the time for doctors to step up. Now is not a time for rhetoric or harsh statements regarding scientific discourse," he said.

Many of McCullough's 600 peer-reviewed publications have appeared in top-tier journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. He testified to the U.S. Senate in November 2020 against what he described as the federal government's politicization of health care during the pandemic, curbing or blocking the availability of cheap, effective treatments. In a speech in September, he told of having been stripped of the editorship of a Swiss-based journal after having lost his position with a major health system, "with no explanation and no due process." Baylor University Medical Center fired him in February. And Texas A&M College of Medicine, Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine have cut ties with McCullough, accusing him of spreading misinformation.

"I've been stripped of every title that I've ever had in that institution. I've received a threat letter from the American College of Physicians, [and] a threat letter from the American Board," he said in September.

All because of his "lawful" participation "in a topic of public importance."

He said there are "powerful forces at work, far more powerful than we can possibly think of, that are influencing anybody who is in a position of authority."

McCullough is the chief medical adviser for the Truth for Health Foundation, a physician-founded charity that says it is "dedicated to following the Oath of Hippocrates to serve individual patients to the best of our ability and judgement and to uphold the highest standards of medical ethics."

'Shame has befallen our nation’s capital': Congressman 'will not comply' with DC vaccine mandate

by Luke Gentile, Social Media Producer
| January 14, 2022 11:13 AM


Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, announced on Thursday that his office would not adhere to the Washington, D.C., vaccination mandate that goes into effect on Saturday.

"The DC vaccine mandate kicks in this weekend. My office will not comply," Massie tweeted.

"We will not show papers. We will not order takeout from restaurants that require papers for dine in. We will get our food from Virginia or we will bring it to work," he added.

Massie denounced the mandate, which is set to take effect at 6:00 a.m. Saturday.




Once in effect, any person who is 12 or older will be required to present proof of vaccination before entering indoor facilities in the city, including gyms, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

"Shame has befallen our nation’s capital," Massie said.

Government data: COVID infections, deaths soar after vaccination
Confirms figures from several nations

By Art Moore
Published January 13, 2022 at 7:16pm

(Image by Silas Camargo Silão from Pixabay)

Data from the Canadian province Alberta confirms figures from other nations contradicting the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" narrative, showing a spike in COVID-19 cases after vaccination.

Alberta's data is particularly useful because the province reports COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths by day after the first and second vaccine doses.

The most recent figures from the population of 4.4 million show infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID all soar in the days and weeks after people receive their first vaccine dose, reports former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.

Hospitalizations:



Deaths:

He points out that the figures support the national data from Israel and Britain, which saw COVID deaths hit all-time highs after launching mass vaccination campaigns..

Berenson observes that advocates of the COVID vaccines argue the deaths in the U.K. could be the result of a preexisting winter wave. (Although, he adds, other European countries such as France and Spain did not face similar large surges).

In any case, that explanation can't be applied to Alberta, which began its vaccine campaign after the winter 2020-2021 COVID spike. Through mid-February 2021, only about 2% of Alberta residents had received their first dose.

"The most likely explanation for the spike was and remains that the first dose of the vaccines transiently suppresses the immune system, as Pfizer’s own clinical trial data reveal," Berenson writes.

He pointed out that under "the counting rules used by American public health authorities and media outlets, all these deaths and infections are counted and reported as having occurred in unvaccinated people."

Data from the U.K. from Aug. 16 to Dec. 5, 2021, showed people who had been vaccinated accounted for four of every five COVID-19 deaths, the Gateway Pundit reported.

Further, a U.K. "technical briefing on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern" found that as of Dec. 29, the fully vaccinated make up 74% hospitalizations due to infection from the omicron variant that now dominates Western nations.

REVEALED: Scientists believed COVID 'lab leak' theory but wanted to keep 'international harmony'

"Further debate would do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular."



Emails recently released have revealed that scientists in Britain and the United States thought that the lab leak theory regarding COVID-19's origins was likely, but were concerned that debate on such theory could cause damage to science both globally, and within China.

New details regarding scientists' stance on the lab leak theory, which theorizes that the COVID-19 virus leaked from a. Laboratory in China, came to light after members of the US Republican House Oversight Committee were granted access to the email documents, after complaining that the content of the emails had been heavily redacted when released under Freedom of Information requests, according to The Telegraph.

The emails were sent in response to a teleconference that occurred between 12 scientists, including the UK Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance on February 1.

On February 2, 2020, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, sent an email that said "a likely explanation" was that Covid had rapidly evolved from a Sars-like virus inside human tissue in a low-security lab.

The email, sent to Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, continued on to state that such an evolution in the virus may have "accidentally created a virus primed for rapid transmission between humans."

Despite these concerns, a leading scientist told Farrar that "further debate would do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular."

Dr Collins, the former director of the US National Institutes of Health, warned such debate could damage "international harmony."

"These emails show a lamentable lack of openness and transparency among Western scientists who appear to have been more interested in shutting down a hypothesis they thought was very plausible, for political reasons," wrote Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: the search for the origin of Covid.

Farrar wrote in the emails that other scientists also believed that the virus could not have evolved naturally. One of these scientists was Professor Mike Farzan, of Scripps Research, the expert who discovered how the original Sars virus binds to human cells.

In particular, scientists were concerned about a part of Covid-19 called the furin cleavage site, "a section of the spike protein which helps it enter cells and makes it so infectious to humans," according to The Telegraph.

"He is bothered by the furin site and has a hard time (to) explain that as an event outside the lab, though there are possible ways in nature but highly unlikely," Farrar wrote in an email, summarizing Farzan's concerns.

"I think this becomes a question of how do you put all this together, whether you believe in this series of coincidences, what you know of the lab in Wuhan, how much could be in nature - accidental release or natural event? I am 70:30 or 60:40," he continued.

By February 4, emails showed that Farrar had revised his estimate on the likelihood of a lab leak, placing its odds at 50:50. Professor Eddie Holmes, of the University of Sydney, on the other hand gave a 60:40 estimate in favor of an accidental release.

Bob Garry, of the University of Texas, was also shown in the emails to not have been convinced that the virus was naturally occurring.

"I just can't figure out how this gets accomplished in nature," he said.

Professor Andrew Rambaut, from the University of Edinburgh, also said that furin cleavage site "strikes me as unusual," according to The Telegraph.

"I think the only people with sufficient information or access to samples to address it would be the teams working in Wuhan," he added.

By February 2, 2020 though, scientists were already attempting to shut down debate regarding whether the virus had leaked from a lab.

"Further debate about such accusations would unnecessarily distract top researchers from their active duties and do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular," An email from Dr Ron Fouchier to Farrar said.

Dr Collins replied to Farrar stating: "I share your view that a swift convening of experts in a confidence-inspiring framework is needed or the voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony."

Rep. James Comer, who secured the unrelated form of the emails, said they showed that experts like Fauci had taken the Wuhan lab leak theory "much more seriously" than they had let on.

Emails released last year showed that Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, a group that was given an NIH grant that was used to support research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of "SARS-like viruses," personally thanked Fauci over email for calling the theory a "myth."

"As the PI of the R01 grant publicly targeted by Fox News reporters at the Presidential press briefing last night, I just wanted to say a personal thankyou on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology," read an email on April 18th, 2020.

Josh Hammer: The Best Path Forward for Omicron: Let It Rip

by Joshua Hammer|Published January 14, 2022

The recent arrival of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has, for far too many, reset the clock of our timeline for a return to societal normalcy.

Public health authorities in many countries reimposed loosened travel restrictions that had lapsed. Washington, D.C., under the mayorship of Muriel Bowser, passed a draconian private-sector vaccination mandate, the likes of which had previously only passed muster in iconic deep-blue metropolises such as New York City. The vacillating mandarins who constitute the “public health” apparatus in this country, such as Lord-Emperor Anthony Fauci, quickly began fearmongering about the need to avoid large gatherings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Restaurants and bars across the country that had shelved mask mandates suddenly deemed it necessary to make customers mask up again.

The sober reality, as should be obvious as we approach the two-year anniversary of “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” is that COVID-19 is simply not going anywhere; much like influenza or the common cold, it is now something humanity is simply going to have to deal with. Furthermore, at this point in the “pandemic,” it should be equally obvious that the COVID-19 vaccines are completely ineffective at preventing viral transmission. There is simply no compelling evidence that the vaccines are generally effective at slowing the spread. The vaccines often appear to be an effective symptom mitigation prophylactic for those who catch COVID-19, but that makes vaccination a quintessential private health decision with little-to-no relevance for public health authorities.

The omicron variant, furthermore, may be highly contagious, but it is also highly nonlethal.

According to a Wednesday tweet from no less a public health “authority” than Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky herself, the omicron variant, compared with its delta variant predecessor, poses a 53% lower risk for symptomatic hospitalization, a 74% lower risk for ICU admission and a 91% lower risk of death. What’s more, zero — yes, literally zero — omicron-infected patients in the U.S. have, to date, required mechanical ventilation. And it is at best unclear, as of this writing, whether there has been more than one omicron-induced death in the U.S.

What’s more, omicron isn’t just symptomatically mild — it’s everywhere. Last week, the CDC estimated that a remarkably high 95.4% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. were attributable to omicron.

In such a situation as this, where the overwhelming majority of new cases for a highly contagious virus (and for which even a “booster” vaccine cannot help forestall transmission) are so symptomatically mild and where the possibility of death is near zero, there is only one logical public policy posture that public health authorities should take: Sit back and let the omicron variant rip through these United States.

Suffice it to say that this has not been our universal response to date. As popular pundit Ann Coulter tweeted last month, the D.C.- and blue state-driven reaction has often looked more like this: “GOD: Here’s a gift humans: a COVID variant that’s wildly contagious, but not lethal, to spread immunity far and wide! HUMANS (in blue states): TRIPLE MASK! CANCEL GATHERINGS! SHUT DOWN!”

Coulter’s instinct is sound. In general, it is imprudent to base sweeping public policy decisions on idiosyncratically vulnerable population subsets. As one example, consider how no one in his right mind would seek to ban peanuts despite the fact that a peanut allergy is both common and often deadly (certainly, far deadlier than omicron). This has been the biggest flaw in our COVID-19 response, all along: It always made more sense to isolate and quarantine the uniquely compromised, rather than impose in blunderbuss fashion draconian restrictions upon an entire populace.

The very nonlethal nature of omicron only further militates in favor of a policy of “let it rip.”

Zero Americans have required a ventilation from omicron to date, and it seems that precisely one American has died. It borders on insanity to make public policy based on that. The wiser and saner thing to do would be to let the omicron variant rip and spread far and wide, temporarily making many Americans mildly ill in the short term while bulking up their natural immunity in the long term — and, of course, avoiding ventilation and death.

To that end, public policy should actually look like something approximating the opposite of our current approach. Instead of doling out free COVID-19 tests willy-nilly and encouraging everyone to test and avoid one another, we should be discouraging mass testing — especially for the asymptomatic — and eschewing any and all arbitrary restrictions on public gatherings.

Leading red states such as Texas, Florida and Tennessee can and should lead the way by restricting the mass availability of testing for all but the vulnerable and immunocompromised. On omicron, the freest policies are now necessarily also the best policies.

At least as it pertains to the omicron variant, the only way out is through. Let this thing rip.

PHOTO: Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Photo by Trump White House Archives. Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Bushwhacked by Alex Berenson on Fox News
Professional jealousy is an ugly thing

Alex Berenson goes on Fox News and directly calls me a liar to my face and says I didn’t invent RNA vaccines.

Unprofessional, rude and an asshole to boot.
But beyond that, I think we can all assume CONTROLLED OPPOSITION.

So, for Alex, who evidently doesn’t know how to do an internet search, find a patent and read it - I will make it easy for him.

First - a couple of proof of principle experiments conducted in 1989 -from the patents with the priority date of 1989 (issued later, but the ideas/experiments date to March 21, 1989 as decided by the United States Patent Office)




Early Patents priority dates from 1989
The first patents:

• Lipid-mediated polynucleotide administration to deliver a biologically active peptide and to induce a cellular immune response (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, R Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. No. 7,250,404, date of issue: 7/31/07 Cited in 105 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Lipid-mediated polynucleotide administration to reduce likelihood of subject's becoming infected (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,867,195 B1. Date of issue: 3/15/05. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Generation of an immune response to a pathogen (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,710,035. Date of issue: 3/23/04. Citations: 39 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Expression of exogenous polynucleotide sequences in a vertebrate, mammal, fish, bird or human (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,673,776. Date of issue: 1/6/04. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Methods of delivering a physiologically active polypeptide to a mammal (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,413,942. Date of issue: 7/2/02. (cited in 150 articles). Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Induction of a protective immune response in a mammal by injecting a DNA sequence (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,214,804, date of issue: 4/10/01. Cited in 360 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Induction of a protective immune response in a mammal by injecting a DNA sequence (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,589,466. Date of issue: 12/31/96. Cited in 899 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Delivery of exogenous DNA sequences in a mammal (includes mRNA). Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,580,859. Date of issue: 12/3/96. Cited in 1244 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
• Generation of antibodies through lipid mediated DNA delivery (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,703,055. Date of issue: 12/30/97. Cited in 419 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
  
  Below are some of the descriptions of the invention taken from the above patents - priority date 1989.
  
  

Some of my papers and other patents on this subject area (1988-2000)

• A novel approach to study packaging of retroviral RNA by RNA transfection (Abstract). RW Malone, P. Felgner, I. Verma. RNA Tumor Viruses, May 17-18, 1988. Cold Spring Harbor (the first in a series of papers/abstracts on RNA transfection).
• mRNA Transfection of cultured eukaryotic cells and embryos using cationic liposomes. Malone RW. Focus. 1989; 11:61-8
• The SALK patent that was filed with the USPTO on 3/21/1989. Note that the cover letter hides this - and says it was filed on 3/29/89 - the sane date as all the VICAL patents, showing that there was collusion. WRITTEN BT ME IN 1988.
• THE VERY FIRST mRNA VACCINE EXPERIMENTAL DATA 1990 (from Vical to patent office)
• Cationic liposome-mediated RNA transfection. Malone RW, Felgner PL, Verma IM. Proc Natl Acad Sci (PNAS) U S A. 1989;86(16):6077-81. Cited in 749 articles.
• Direct gene transfer into mouse muscle in vivo. Wolff JA, Malone RW, et al. Science. 1990;247(4949 Pt 1):1465-8. Cited in 4,750 articles. Note that Robert was a student at Northwestern, and was never affiliated with University of Wisc.
• High levels of messenger RNA expression following cationic liposome mediated transfection tissue cultured cells. Malone R, Kumar R, Felgner P. NIH Conference: “Self-Cleaving RNA as an Anti-HIV Agent (abstract). Washington, DC June 1989.
• Cationic liposome-mediated RNA transfection. Dwarki VJ, Malone RW, Verma IM. Methods Enzymol. 1993;217:644-54. Cited in: 102 articles.
• Delivery of exogenous DNA (includes mRNA) sequences in a mammal P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, R Malone, D Carson. Biotechnology Advances 1993: 15 (3-4), 763-763

For a deeper dive into the actual data, patent disclosures, meeting notes, lab books, etc, go to this webpage.
Patents and papers - from the 1990s

• DNA vaccines for eliciting a mucosal immune response (includes mRNA). US Pat. Ser. No. 6,110,898. Inventors: RW Malone and Jill Glasspool Malone. Date of issue: 8/29/00. Cited in 40 articles. Priority Date: 1996.
• Formulations and methods for generating active cytofectin: polynucleotide transfection complexes. Robert W Malone, et al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,925,623 7/20/99.
• Cationic Transport Reagents. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,892,071 Robert W Malone, et. al. issued 4/06/99.
• Polyfunctional cationic cytofectins, formulations and methods for generating active cytofectin: polynucleotide transfection complexes. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,824,812 issued 10/20/98.
• Cationic Transport Reagents. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,744,625 issued 4/28/98.
• Cationic Transport Reagents. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,527,928, date of issue: 6/18/96.
• Marked enhancement of macaque respiratory tissue transfection by aurintricarboxylic acid. Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Gene Med. 2002;4(3):323-2.
• Enhancing direct in vivo transfection with nuclease inhibitors and pulsed electrical fields. Glasspool-Malone J, Malone RW. In Gene Therapy Methods: Methods Enzymol. 2002;346:72-91
• Cutaneous transfection and immune responses to intradermal nucleic acid vaccination are significantly enhanced by in vivo electropermeabilization. Drabick JJ, Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2001;3(2):249-55. Cited in 192 articles.
• Theory and in vivo application of electroporative gene delivery. Somiari S, Glasspool-Malone J, … Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2000;2(3):178-87. Cited in 345 articles.
• Efficient nonviral cutaneous transfection. Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2000;2(2):140-6. Cited in 138 articles.
• Developing dendritic cell polynucleotide vaccination for prostate cancer immunotherapy. Berlyn KA, …, Malone RW J Biotechnol. 1999;73(2-3):155-79
• Models of Cationic Liposome Mediated Transfection. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology. Ahearn A, Malone RW. Vol 4. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology 1999;4
• Cationic lipid-mediated gene delivery to murine lung: correlation of lipid hydration with in vivo transfection activity. Bennett MJ, …, Malone RW, Nantz MH. J Med Chem. 1997;40(25):4069-78
• Considerations for the design of improved cationic amphiphile-based transfection reagents. Bennett MJ, …, Malone RW. Journal of Liposome Research 1996;6(3):545-65
• Structural and functional analysis of cationic transfection lipids: the hydrophobic domain. Balasubramaniam RP, …, Malone RW. Gene Ther. 1996;3(2):163-72. cited in 172 articles.
• A flexible approach to synthetic lipid ammonium salts for polynucleotide transfection. MJ Bennett, RW Malone, MH Nantz. Tetrahedron letters 36 (13), 2207-2210

For the written history of the early events, by Dr. Jill Glasspool Malone

Omicron Symptoms Less Severe in Unvaxxed: National Institute of Communicable Diseases

Study comparing thousands of patients shows unvaccinated people infected with Omicron Covid-19 variant are less prone to severe illness, requiring hospital care, or dying.

QUICK FACTS:

• A South African study by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in the Western Cape region compared about 11,600 patients from the first three Covid-19 waves with about 5,100 from the Omicron-driven wave that began in November, Reuters reports.
• The study looked at the differences in health outcomes between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, “whether protection against severe disease conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination was maintained.”
• The study concluded that unvaccinated individuals enjoy less severe symptoms from the Omicron coronavirus variant than vaccinated individuals.
• “Risk of all outcomes was lower in wave four compared to the Delta-driven wave three (adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for death 0.27 [0.19; 0.38],” the authors write.
• But the authors go on to specify that while “Risk reduction was lower when adjusting for vaccination and prior diagnosed infection,” health risk was “reduced further when accounting for unascertained prior infections.”
• Dr. Mark Sherwood from the Functional Medicine Institute tells American Faith these study results show that “when we have prior infections and have recovered, the risk of negative outcome is improved,” meaning natural immunity from prior infection leads to “at least as good or better health outcomes” when compared to vaccination.
• These findings raise questions about whether the vaccine is necessary for providing individuals with protection from coronavirus, given that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated enjoy equally less severe symptoms from the Omicron variant.

STUDY METHODS:

“In this cohort study, we included public sector patients aged ≥20 years with a laboratory confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis between 14 November-11 December 2021 (wave four) and equivalent prior wave periods,” the authors explain. “We compared the risk between waves of the following outcomes using Cox regression: death, severe hospitalization or death and any hospitalization or death (all ≤14 days after diagnosis) adjusted for age, sex, comorbidities, geography, vaccination and prior infection.”

Click to expand...

BACKGROUND:

• The South African study authors also noted that Omicron itself is a less dangerous than previous Covid-19 variants, as the Omicron variant’s “intrinsically reduced virulence may account for an approximately 25% reduced risk of severe hospitalization or death compared to Delta.”
• Omicron globally has tended to cause less severe disease, and proportionally fewer hospital admissions and deaths, than previous variants, Reuters summarizes.

Omicron Symptoms Less Severe in Unvaxxed: National Institute of Communicable Diseases - American Faith

Study comparing thousands of patients shows unvaccinated people infected with Omicron Covid-19 variant are less prone to severe illness, requiring hospital care, or dying.

americanfaith.com

Federal Registry Created for Those Requesting Religious Exemptions From COVID Vax



BySavannah Hulsey Pointer
19 hours ago

An administrative agency in D.C. is found to be collecting the data of those who are requesting a religious exemption to mandates for the coronavirus vaccine.

QUICK FACTS:

• A District of Columbia administrative agency is found to be collecting a list of Americans who have objected to the COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds.
• According to a report by The Daily Signal, this agency is thought to be forming the model of what the entire federal government will use to record those who don’t comply with vaccination mandates.
• The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia is a “federal independent entity that assists officers in the District of Columbia courts in formulating release recommendations and providing supervision and services to defendants awaiting trial,” according to The Daily Signal.
• The group announced their record system is through the Federal Register and will store the names and personal religious information of the employees who ask for exemptions.
• According to the Signal, they are going to keep tabs on the “religious accommodation requests for religious exemption” of anyone who is under a “federally mandated vaccination requirement.”

MORE DETAILS:

• Legal fellows at the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, Sarah Parshall Perry and GianCarlo Canaparo pointed to the possibility that the Biden administration is using this agency to “stealth test a policy” that it intends to use nationwide.
• The legal experts went on to say that the announcement about the agency’s work didn’t explain why the list was needed, or what would be done with the information after the request was accommodated.

BACKGROUND:

• The Biden administration has been attempting to enforce vaccine mandates at a federal level for months, with the largest being recently struck down by the United States Supreme Court, as USA Today reported.
• The administration began its effort to force vaccinations on workers in earnest in the fall of last year.

Watch | Dr. Robert Malone and Alex Berenson on Ingraham…
Posted by Kane on January 14, 2022 11:41 pm

View: https://youtu.be/RIwzalo6IqE
31:06 min
This clip has the interview near the end

Dan Ball W/ Dr. Robert Malone On The Shifting Narrative (January 12, 2022) 10:11 min

Dan Ball W/ Dr. Robert Malone On The Shifting Narrative (January 12, 2022)
KanekoaTheGreat Published January 13, 2022

Watch | Glenn Youngkin (VA) cancels school Mask Mandate on Day 1…
Posted by Kane on January 15, 2022 12:01 pm
View: https://youtu.be/wPHedTXJOcg
2:10:01 min

Glenn Youngkin will lift the state’s school mask mandate and change other COVID policies after taking office today. “We’re gonna rescind the mandate that requires K-12 children to wear a mask to school, and we’ve been quite clear about that,” he told WTKR-TV in Norfolk, repeating a point he made while campaigning.

School districts will be able to keep mask recommendations in place, but parents can choose not to follow them, he added. “The way that Virginia works is that the governor cannot ban mask mandates. Schools make those decisions,” he said. “We will in fact, then, also make sure that schools allow parents to exercise their rights for what’s best for their children, to opt-out of those mandates.”

Virginia’s response to the coronavirus thus far has been led by Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist who claims science has guided his steps. Youngkin, a Republican business executive who won by less than 2 points, has promised a new approach. He has encouraged vaccination but opposed vaccine and mask mandates, emphasizing personal choice.

Fauci’s Financial Disclosures Released: “Career Civil Servant” And Wife Worth $10.4 Million

By ProTrumpNews Staff
Published January 15, 2022 at 10:30am


During his Senate testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci was caught on a hot mic lashing out at GOP Senator Roger Marshall for asking him about the bombshell Project Veritas report on gain of function research funding.

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1480981931705745408
.17 min

Marshall has now released Dr. Fauci’s unredacted financial disclosures.

Marshall accused Dr. Fauci of being “completely dishonest” about his disclosures being readily accessible to the American people.



The records show that Dr. Fauci makes more than even President Joe Biden and is the highest-paid federal employee. Dr. Fauci earns $434,312 annually.

The disclosures also showed he gets over $100,000 a year from royalties from medical textbooks, was paid to attend four galas, and that he and his wife are worth a combined $10.4 million.

The Daily Mail reported:

Financial records from December 2020 show that the New York-born medical expert has a contributory IRA with $638,519.70 in it, and a brokerage trust account with $2,403,522.28.

Click to expand...

All his accounts are with Charles Schwab: the most valuable of the three disclosed being a Schwab One Trust containing $5,295,898.92.

Click to expand...

His three accounts have a total of $8,337,940.90.

Click to expand...

She has two accounts – an IRA, containing $120,277.82, and a Schwab One Trust with $1,962,819.27 – giving a total of $2,083,097.09.

Click to expand...

Between them, the pair are worth $10.4 million.

Click to expand...

Marshall is also introducing the FAUCI Act.

The New York Post reported:

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) is hoping a hot-mic moment with Dr. Anthony Fauci earlier this week leads to a groundswell of support for his bill that would force the publication of White House officials’ financial records.

Click to expand...

The bill, formally titled the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals (FAUCI) Act, would also require the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to publish a list of government officials whose financial disclosures are not publicly available, according to multiple outlets.

Click to expand...

For the antidote to media bias, check out ProTrumpNews.com!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZAa1BsB2ZI
16:01 min

Preparation promotes immune performance

Jan 15, 2022


Dr. John Campbell

Omicron exposure is inevitable, an optimised immune system is not

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D70kZDLGr4Q
17:17 min

The Narrative is Crumbling - 16 Reasons Why

Jan 15, 2022


AwakenWithJP

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF-sOAwRWDk
5:37 min

Ivy League parents take stand over college vaccine booster mandates

Jan 15, 2022


Fox News

Ivy League parents Joni McGary and Dr. Alison Pretti join ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to stand up to colleges imposing vaccine booster mandates on students

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U8SQtv9ZQg
55:06 min

TWiV 853: COVID-19 clinical update #97 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

Jan 14, 2022


Vincent Racaniello

In COVID-19 clinical update #97, Daniel Griffin covers immunity after infection recognized by CDC, outcomes before and after Omicron, infectious viral load in Delta vs Omicron, PCR vs rapid antigen tests, booster interval shortened to 5 months, risk factors for severe outcomes in vaccinated, cross-reactive memory T cells, vaccine effectiveness vs MIS-C, and Rivaroxiban for thromboprophylaxis. Show notes at https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-853/

New Data: Omicron makes vax mandates obsolete 4:58 min

New Data: Omicron makes vax mandates obsolete
One America News Network Published January 14, 2022

Amid Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, new data suggests the Omicron variant makes vaccine mandates obsolete and unnecessary.

Beijing Olympics Will Be The Largest Super Spreader Event In History 4:20 min

Beijing Olympics Will Be The Largest Super Spreader Event In History
Bannons War Room Published January 15, 2022

^^^^^^^^

TammyinWI said:

Omicron Symptoms Less Severe in Unvaxxed: National Institute of Communicable Diseases

Study comparing thousands of patients shows unvaccinated people infected with Omicron Covid-19 variant are less prone to severe illness, requiring hospital care, or dying.

QUICK FACTS:

• A South African study by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in the Western Cape region compared about 11,600 patients from the first three Covid-19 waves with about 5,100 from the Omicron-driven wave that began in November, Reuters reports.
• The study looked at the differences in health outcomes between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, “whether protection against severe disease conferred by prior infection and/or vaccination was maintained.”
• The study concluded that unvaccinated individuals enjoy less severe symptoms from the Omicron coronavirus variant than vaccinated individuals.
• “Risk of all outcomes was lower in wave four compared to the Delta-driven wave three (adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for death 0.27 [0.19; 0.38],” the authors write.
• But the authors go on to specify that while “Risk reduction was lower when adjusting for vaccination and prior diagnosed infection,” health risk was “reduced further when accounting for unascertained prior infections.”
• Dr. Mark Sherwood from the Functional Medicine Institute tells American Faith these study results show that “when we have prior infections and have recovered, the risk of negative outcome is improved,” meaning natural immunity from prior infection leads to “at least as good or better health outcomes” when compared to vaccination.
• These findings raise questions about whether the vaccine is necessary for providing individuals with protection from coronavirus, given that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated enjoy equally less severe symptoms from the Omicron variant.

STUDY METHODS:

BACKGROUND:

• The South African study authors also noted that Omicron itself is a less dangerous than previous Covid-19 variants, as the Omicron variant’s “intrinsically reduced virulence may account for an approximately 25% reduced risk of severe hospitalization or death compared to Delta.”
• Omicron globally has tended to cause less severe disease, and proportionally fewer hospital admissions and deaths, than previous variants, Reuters summarizes.

Omicron Symptoms Less Severe in Unvaxxed: National Institute of Communicable Diseases - American Faith

Study comparing thousands of patients shows unvaccinated people infected with Omicron Covid-19 variant are less prone to severe illness, requiring hospital care, or dying.

americanfaith.com

Click to expand...

Are they referring to never-infected, recovered, or both?

(France)


Teachers Across France Stage Mass Walkout Over Govt's Ever-Changing COVID-19 Rules

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 10:30 AM
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

Teachers across France staged a mass walkout this week in protest over the government’s ever-changing COVID-19 rules for those working in the education sector which they say fail to protect both staff and students.



The French Ministry of Education estimated that around 31 percent of all school teachers across the country took part in the strike on Thursday, 38 percent of whom worked in primary schools and nearly 24 percent in secondary schools.

A statement from the Mayor of Paris’ office said that in the capital city, roughly 58 percent of the teaching staff took part in the strike, and around 200 schools were forced to close, although trade and teachers unions put those figures much higher, at 75 percent.

The protests came as teachers across France are growing increasingly frustrated with the government’s ever-changing policies regarding the pandemic which has seen testing rules for children changed several times since the start of this year alone, oftentimes at the very last minute.

On top of that, educators say the government’s approach to the pandemic is failing to protect children or ensure replacement cover for teachers who are falling ill with the coronavirus.

Unions are also calling on the government to provide more protective FFP2 face masks for staff as well as carbon dioxide monitors in classrooms so that they can ensure that they are sufficiently ventilated, as per The Guardian.


A protestor holds a placard reading “Exhausted directress” during a demonstration called by teachers’ unions to denounce new government measures against COVID-19, in Marseille, southern France, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Clement Mahoudeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite a surge in virus cases in schools across France, which have reached record highs of close to 370,000 new daily cases, the government has so far kept classes open and required all pupils in contact with an infected person to get tested three times.

“We had reached such a level of exasperation, tiredness, and anger that we didn’t have any other option but to organize a strike to send a strong message to the government,” union leader Elisabeth Allain-Moreno said.

Click to expand...

On Monday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that the rules were changing yet again, telling TV station France 2 that students would now be required to take three self-administered COVID-19 at home, which will be free, as opposed to having PCR or antigen tests and then two self-administered tests on day two and day four.

“This will have an effect on the queues [outside pharmacies],” Castex said.


Teachers and school personnel march during a demonstration called by teachers’ unions to denounce new government measures against COVID-19, in Marseille, southern France, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Clement Mahoudeau/AFP via Getty Images)

But on Thursday, Snuipp-F.S.U., a leading union of elementary school personnel, criticized the government for allegedly updating the rules via the media as opposed to informing teachers beforehand.

“The prime minister’s televised speech ignoring the demands of personnel has once again demonstrated government contempt amplifying their anger and their mobilization,” SUNipp-FSU said.

Click to expand...

“Once again, the protocol relief is announced in the media, and staff in schools must respond from this morning to family questions without any official instructions.”

Click to expand...

The union stressed that the mass protests were not “a strike against the virus” but illustrated the growing frustrations among teachers, noting that the lack of replacements for sick teachers is adding extra pressure on the education system.

“Not only does the current protocol fail to protect students, staff, and their families but it also completely disorganizes the school,” SUNipp-FSU said. “Under current conditions, students cannot learn correctly.”

Click to expand...

France has seen dozens of protests in recent months over the strict measures that have been put in place across the nation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country has enforced a health pass, meaning that people have to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants, cafes, and bars, visit cinemas and use inter-regional trains.


A waiter wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus serves customers at the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris, on July 12, 2021. (Michel Euler/AP Photo)

However, the government wants to enact a law by the middle of this month which would drop that health pass and stop unvaccinated people from being able to enter hospitality venues, essentially banning unvaccinated people from public life.

President Emmanuel Macron has been outspoken about his thoughts on those who refuse to get vaccinated and promised to make their lives miserable, which sparked backlash across the nation.

“I’m not for pissing off the French … Now the unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so, we’re going to keep doing it, until the end. This is the strategy,” Macron said during an interview with Le Parisien earlier this month.

Click to expand...

Macron added that while he “won’t send [unvaccinated people] to prison”, he “will make their lives more complicated and encourage people who refuse to get vaccinated to do so by “limiting as much as possible their access to activities in social life.”

“So we need to tell them—from Jan. 15, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant. You will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theatre. You will no longer be able to go to the cinema,” he said.

Click to expand...

France is one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, with more than 90 percent of people aged 12 and older being fully vaccinated.

Denial Of Natural Immunity In CMS Vaccine Mandate "Unprecedented In Modern History": Scott Atlas

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 02:30 PM
Authored by Allen Zhong and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,

Denying natural immunity in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) vaccine mandates is “unprecedented in modern history,” a prominent public health expert said.



Dr. Scott Atlas, a former White House COVID-19 Task Force adviser during the Trump administration, made the remarks after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decide to uphold the CMS vaccine mandates in a Thursday ruling.

He told The Epoch Times that the ruling is “another serious denial of scientific fact” specifically mentioning the denial of natural immunity in CMS vaccine mandates.

“Our continued denial of superior protection in recovered individuals, with or without vaccination, compared to vaccinated individuals who’ve never had the infection,” he said.

Click to expand...

“The denial of that is simply unprecedented in modern history, proven fact and decades of fundamental immunology are somehow denied.”

Click to expand...

“If we are a society where the leaders repeatedly deny the fact, I’m very concerned about the future of such a society,” he added.

Click to expand...

The Epoch Times reached out to the SCOTUS, CMS, and the White House for comments.


Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s private business vaccine mandate imposed by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Meanwhile, America’s highest court decided to uphold the CMS vaccine mandate covering 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities.

In the 5–4 ruling in the CMS vaccine mandate, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined the Democrat-nominated trio of justices, while Clarence Thomas offered a dissent that was joined by Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett.

The majority of the court stated that the vaccine mandate “falls within the authorities that Congress has conferred upon” the Health and Human Service Secretary (HHS) Xavier Becerra.
CMS is part of the HHS.

The ruling also disagrees with the dozens of red states who said that CMS failed to consider the benefits of natural immunity.

“Given the rule-making record, it cannot be maintained that the Secretary failed to ‘examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for’ his decisions to require vaccination of employees with ‘natural immunity’ from prior COVID-19 illness,” read the majority opinion (pdf).

Click to expand...

CMS applauded the SCOTUS ruling saying it’s “extremely pleased” for the results.

“We look forward to working with health care providers and their workers to protect patients.

We will continue our extensive outreach and assistance efforts encouraging individuals working in health care to get vaccinated,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.

Biden Forms New Task Force To Tackle Future COVID Variants

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 01:00 PM

Even Bill Gates believes that omicron might finally mark the end of the COVID pandemic, but with his approval rating reaching new lows, President Biden is pulling out all the stops to assemble a group that will help protect the US from any future COVID variants.

Biden's new organization is called "The Pandemic Innovation Task Force", and it was created by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (or OSTP). It will focus on developing vaccines, treatments, diagnostic tests and other tools, according to officials familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity as the details aren't yet public.

This will help prepare the US should new versions of SARS-CoV-2 surface, or should any new viral threats emerge in the coming years.



While some officials stressed the group wasn’t created specifically as a response to omicron, the timing certainly is notable. The omicron variant is driving more COVID infections than at any time since the first COVID cases were confirmed in the US, Bloomberg reports.


Health officials have warned that new variants could emerge that could scramble the body's protections.

Though studies suggest that omicron causes milder infections than earlier strains, many hospitals have seen an influx of patients filling beds.

Additionally, rapid tests have been in short supply, and businesses have been disrupted by infected employees having to isolate.

Unlike the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the new group won’t focus on day-to-day pandemic response or the omicron variant, or things like distribution of vaccines, testing and therapeutic treatments.

Instead, it will work on "preparedness projects" that could be used to manage waves of new variants that could emerge within six months to two years. It's also being designed to handle other viral threats.

The Great Omicron Sickout: Millions Of Unwell Americans Causing "Hellacious" Worker Shortages

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 12:00 PM

Record spikes in Covid-19 Omicron cases across the country are causing a nationwide worker "sickout," as businesses from airlines to grocery stores are suffering from disruptions, even though the new variant is markedly far less severe - yet far more transmissible - than prior strains.



According to Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian, the past few weeks have been "hellacious," adding that around 10% of his workforce, or 8,000 of his employees, have contracted the virus in the past month. The shortages contributed to over 2,200 canceled Delta flights since December 24.

Although a precise count of the number of employees who are out sick or quarantining is hard to come by, about 5 million Americans could be isolating due to COVID-19 at the peak of Omicron, according to Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. That could reflect about 2% of the nation's workforce forced to stay home due to illness, he added.

Click to expand...

Some employers report taking a harder hit. Stew Leonard Jr., chief executive of supermarket chain Stew Leonard's, said about 8% of his staff was out sick or quarantining last week. That affects what shoppers find on store shelves. -CBS News

Click to expand...

"That's the highest we've ever had," said Leonard Jr. "What we are doing is the same as every other business — you have to limit your product line."

"Like I talked with my bakery director, and she said, 'I make a great crumb cake, and I also make a great apple crumb cake, but when I'm short on people I'm not able to make the apple crumb cake.' You'll get crumb cake, just not the apple crumb cake."

As we noted earlier this month, Omicron poses a major risk to Fed confidence about reaching maximum employment relatively soon.

It's even more obvious now that the CDC's revised December quarantine guidance from 10 days to 5 days (as long as symptoms aren't getting worse) was likely to grapple with Omicron's impending wave of sick-outs.

TD's Priya Misra predicted the pain - writing that the near certainty of the first rate hike in March is "very aggressive," adding that "the spike in infections should have a modest negative impact on the economy, and signs of slowing Q1 growth could be enough for the market to push out the start of the hiking cycle. This should help pull 2y yields lower in the near-term."

And as BofA chief economis Ethan Harris pointed out, "the challenge with Omicron is the dramatically higher case load, adding that a quick back of the envelope calculation illustrates the kind of labor shortages this could trigger.

Suppose that every infected person on average causes themselves and two other people to quarantine for five days. That means at the peak of omicron wave 30mn (= 2mn * 3 * 5) could be quarantined per day. Of course, many of these people either don’t work or can work from home. Roughly half of the population work and among them, according to a Gallup poll, about 30% always work in person. This suggests that 4.2 million (= 30 mil * 0.5 * 0.3) in-person workers per day will be absent due to quarantining. This number could be too high or too low, but a multi-million number seems very likely.

Click to expand...

As we wrote at the time: "These calculations underscore not only that the US labor market problem is about to get much, much worse, but that the well-advertised worker shortages in the airline industry are not an isolated problem. Generally speaking these absences will not show up in official estimates of labor supply—if you are home sick, you are still employed. Nonetheless, they add (temporarily) to the record 11 million job openings."

At present, Covid cases are averaging nearly 1 million per day nationally based on a seven-day moving average reported by CBS News - the highest number since the pandemic began. The number is undoubtedly higher, of course, as milder Omicron symptoms combined with a shortage of testing means that cases are potentially vastly understated. That said, deaths have continued to remain remarkably low.



Last week, one CEO of a consumer packaged goods company said that they were cutting production lines by 20% to adjust to the high numbers of absent workers, according to Consumer Brands Association spokeswoman, Andrea Woods, citing an off-the-record call.

About 75% of consumer packaged goods companies in a recent survey said they had experienced an increase in absenteeism due to positive COVID-19 tests or exposure to someone with the virus, Woods added. -CBS News

Click to expand...

"We are still dealing with a massive driver shortage — 80,000 and counting — with one truck available for every 16 loads. Omicron only intensifies that problem," said Woods. "Absenteeism in warehouses is resulting in late shipments, and retailers don't have the employee base to restock shelves."

That said, Omicron worker shortages may be over as quickly as they began...

Supermarkets Slash Hours As Workers Call Out Sick; Store Shelves Remain Bare

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 04:00 PM
Labor shortages at supermarkets across the country have increased in recent weeks as the COVID-19 omicron variant continues to spread. Workers are calling sick, and there are not enough cashiers, baggers, and stockers, forcing some supermarket chains to slash hours of operations. Compounding labor woes, supply chains are still severely snarled as food shortages are being reported nationwide.

WSJ reports supermarkets are having difficulty staying open as workers call out sick because of infection. Some grocers are frantically hiring new employees, using temporary employment agencies, and overworking current staff to keep stores from shuttering.



The seven-store supermarket chain Stew Leonard's in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey had 200 employees in quarantine or isolation as of last Thursday despite a 90% employee-vaccination rate. This represents about 7% of all employees.

"We sort of feel like we've got to buckle down for round two," Chief Executive Stew Leonard Jr. said, adding that the loss of employees to infections has hampered operations.

Click to expand...

American supermarket chain Giant Eagle Inc. which operates 470 stores, has avoided closing locations amid the omicron surge by adjusting hours of operations. The company's chief compliance officer, Vic Vercammen, said the company had seen a spike in workers calling sick because of infection.

Across Alabama and Georgia, Piggly Wiggly stores are overscheduling workers and using temporary work agencies to keep store shelves stocked as staffing woes developed this year because of the omicron spread. Operations have been affected, and store hours have been reduced in some locations.

In the Southeast, Harris Teeter supermarkets, owned by Kroger Co., will close one hour earlier, effective Monday, so that employees can restock shelves due to the loss of stockers.

Staffing shortages also impacted Fresh Encounter Inc., a 100-store supermarket chain based in Ohio. The chain is now closing at 10 pm local time versus 24 hours a day.

Michael Needler Jr., the chain's chief executive of Fresh Encounter, said, "the staffing situation started out very tenuous. Layering in Omicron vacancies on top of that makes it very, very stressful."

On top of staffing issues, supply-chain bottlenecks are plaguing supermarkets, resulting in bare shelves across the country.

Leaked Fauci Financials Expose How Millionaire Doctor Profited From Pandemic

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 05:00 PM

Finally, after a handful of organizations tried suing Dr. Anthony Fauci in order to have them released, the good doctor's financials - along with those of his wife, who is the NIH's top bioethicist - have been disclosed in detail. And they were leaked by the same Senator who Fauci called a "moron" last week during a hot-mic moment.



We already knew that Dr. Fauci is the highest-paid federal government employee, earning an annual salary of more than $400K. His wife, Christine Grady, earns $176K as Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the NIH.

The records, published by Republican Roger Marshall, himself a doctor and also the junior US senator from Kansas, showed that the Faucis' have a combined net worth of more than $10MM.



As the Daily Mail explains, Fauci, 80, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and, if he continues until the end of Biden's term in 2024, will have made roughly $2.5MM as the president's chief medical advisor. When he retires, Fauci's pension will be the largest in US history, exceeding $350,000 per year.

As a reminder, Dr. Fauci lied to Congress yet again by insisting that his financials were public, when they very much weren't (before being leaked by the Senator from Kansas, that is).

While the doctor has insisted he hasn't profited from the pandemic, his paperwork showed that he and his wife were paid $14,000 to "virtually" attend a series of galas directly related to his position as the nation's de facto COVID czar.



Perhaps the most entertaining disclosure from Dr. Fauci's financials is the revelation that the couple owns a restaurant in tony San Francisco. It's called Jackson Fillmore Trattoria. Unfortunately for them, the restaurant didn't make any money last year.

Sen. Marshall clashed with the 80-year-old doctor on Tuesday when Marshall wanted to see Fauci's financial information. Fauci replied that the documents were public, and appeared to take umbrage at even being asked. "Yes or no, would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?" Marshall asked. "Our office cannot find them." Fauci replied: "I don't understand why you're asking me that question...my financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so."

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Fauci's financial statements were indeed publicly available, however, obtaining them was a lengthy procedure: they requested the document in May 2020 didn't receive it until three months later.

All told, Dr. Fauci has three accounts with Charles Schwab that have a total of $8,337,940.90. He has a contributory IRA with $638,519.70 in it, and a brokerage trust account with $2,403,522.28. Finally, the most valuable of the three disclosed was a Schwab One Trust containing $5,295,898.92.





Most of Dr. Fauci's wealth comes from his government salary, but he has also made a substantial portion from books and appearances. Sen. Marshall is pushing for a new law called the "FAUCI Act" that would require unelected bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci to produce more thorough financial disclosures so that they can be appropriately scrutinized by the American public.

Readers can find more disclosures on Sen. Marshall's website, which features a more comprehensive breakdown of the doctor's financials, along with copies of all the associated paperwork.

Politicizing COVID-19 From The Start

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 06:30 PM
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

From the moment COVID-19 appeared, the pandemic became inseparable from politics.



Political frenzy was inevitable since the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have escaped from a level-4 security virology lab in Wuhan, China.

The rapid-fire spread soon threatened to indict the Chinese communist government for nearly destroying the world economy and killing millions.

Western elites, in response, feared that their own lucrative investments in China would be jeopardized by such disclosures - and so acted accordingly in defending Beijing.

Nonetheless, one scenario that remains intriguing is that the escaped virus was birthed by gain-of-function research scientists, overseen by elements of the Chinese communist military. Worse, the lab was given subsidies by U.S. health authorities, routed through third parties. Hiding all of that damaging information warped government policy and media coverage.

Belatedly, a panicked China shut down all domestic travel in and out of Wuhan - but not flights abroad to Western Europe and the United States.

The rest is history.

From the outset, the World Health Organization simply spread false talking points about the outbreak from the Chinese government, delaying a robust global response.

Former President Donald Trump's political opponents initially told Americans to shop and travel as usual - only to pivot as cases mounted and they blamed the president.

The U.S. 2020 ban on travel from China was met with charges of racism and xenophobia from presidential candidates. Ironically, many were simply channeling racist and xenophobic China's propaganda.

Many doctors kept hammering the need for therapeutics, including taboo off-label use of cheap generic drugs. The use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was widely ridiculed, despite continuing studies from abroad attesting to their usefulness.

Trump's Operation Warp Speed project to develop vaccinations was also pilloried. Candidates Kamala Harris and Joe Biden did their best to talk down the safety of the impending inoculations. But once in power, they projected their own prior harmful rhetoric onto so-called "anti-vaxxers."

Then they claimed credit for the initial success of the Trump vaccinations.

The Pfizer corporation had promised a major pre-election announcement about its likely rollout of a vaccine in October, just days before the 2020 election.

Then, mysteriously, Pfizer claimed the vaccine, in fact, would not be ready before November 3. A few days after the election of Joe Biden, the company reversed course and announced the vaccinations would soon be available.

Then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo obstructed most all federal help with Trump's fingerprints on it. That way Cuomo became a media, Emmy-winning darling - before resigning in disgrace.

Cuomo's policies of steering infected patients into long-term-care facilities doomed over 10,000 of the elderly. New York is now illegally using race to grant preferences in the allotments of tests and new drugs.

The rhetoric of the media-progressive nexus that mandatory, massive lockdowns were necessary all but destroyed a booming Trump economy and denied critical medical care to millions. Emphasizing therapeutics, natural herd immunity, and the resilience of the youth to the disease were all pronounced "anti-science" by the demagogues on the Left.

Various celebrities and politicos - such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - boasted the pandemic lockdown offered the perfect crisis that must not go to waste politically. Actress Jane Fonda even crowed that COVID-19 was a "gift from God to the Left" in helping to end Donald Trump.

In the waning days of the 2020 campaign, Biden went so far as to blame Trump personally for all the deaths from the virus.

Once the vaccinations had seemed to work in early 2021, an upbeat Joe Biden boasted that he would end the virus by summer 2021, by following "the science." He went so far as to claim that no one had been vaccinated prior to his inauguration even though 17 million, including Biden himself, had been.

Then Nemesis answered such hubris.

The unforeseen delta and omicron variants hit. A new phrase, "breakthrough case," revealed that the vaccinations often could only prevent serious illness, but not infection or infectiousness.

Suddenly the best and brightest people with three shots, who had blasted the red-state rubes as the ignorant un-vaxxed - got sick. More have now died from the virus on Biden's than on Trump's watch.

A warped economy amid renewed COVID-19 outbreaks helped to further destroy Biden's waning popularity.

In reaction, the Left now calls for realism, emphasis on treatments, and acknowledgment of the value of natural immunities. It is even newly curious about the origins of the virus, and the need to "get back to normal."

We are suddenly told that thousands had died "with" rather than "because" of COVID - the exact opposite of what we heard in the Trump era.

A skeptic might suggest terror over the impending midterms finally made the Left face reality.

Politicizing the pandemic is a euphemism. In truth, thousands of Americans have died needlessly because of weaponized disinformation about China's culpability, vaccines, useful drugs, lockdowns, racial preferences, and long-care facilities.

Democrats Moving Away From Lockdown Restrictions Over Fears Of Being Crushed Politically

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 04:30 PM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

In response to plummeting approval ratings, Democrats are now moving away from lockdown policies they previously vehemently advocated over fears about being wiped out politically.



That’s according to a new report by Politico, which notes how, “Omicron is surging — and Democrats aren’t shutting things down this time.”

“From New York to California, Democratic mayors and governors are fighting to keep schools and businesses open with an urgency they haven’t flexed before in the pandemic,” writes Lisa Kashinsky.

Click to expand...

That sea change likely has a lot to do with Republicans securing a November clean sweep of the House, as well as the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in Virginia.

Republican Glenn Youngkin appealed to parents who were angry over school closures and other issues such as mask mandates, while New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy came closer to defeat than expected over frustrations relating to COVID restrictions.

Big events such as the Super Bowl in L.A. will now go ahead, while the likes of Fauci and Biden refrained from telling Americans to cancel holiday plans despite record case numbers caused by Omicron.

“Democrats went further than most Republicans in shutting down businesses, enforcing social distancing and requiring masks to tame the spread of the virus — and were initially rewarded politically for their caution,” states the report.



“But as the nation trudges into a third pandemic year in the grips of another variant-fueled wave, blue state leaders faced with exhausted and frustrated voters have lost the stomach for strict shutdowns.”

According to Bob Blendon, a polling and political strategy expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School, Democrats “see an upcoming election, they see backlashes.”

“They can’t close things down, and there is no public tolerance for serious disruptions in people’s lives. People have run out of patience,” said Blendon.

Click to expand...

Polling has also been dreadful for Democrats, with Biden’s approval rating sinking to a new low as just 15.5% of Americans say they trust the president when it comes to information about COVID-19.

“Everything our government tried to contain this virus has failed and now, thanks to Omicron, everyone is getting infected with a “live covid vaccine” that’s relatively mild and actually works,” comments Chris Menahan.

Click to expand...

“With the combination of Omicron infecting millions and Democrats getting wiped out politically there’s a decent chance we may actually be able to move on from this hysteria and get on with life.”

View: https://youtu.be/0TxlJOd3Wxs
11:55 min

Labor Shortage Hits CVS, Walgreens, Forcing Pharmacies To Close Early

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 11:00 AM

Labor shortages at the biggest U.S. drugstore store chains force their in-house pharmacies to close on weekends as the COVID-19 omicron variant continues to spread. Pharmacists and technicians are calling out sick, leaving CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. with no other choice but to reduce hours of operations.

WSJ reports CVS and Walgreens closing pharmacies on weekends is "unusual," but it reflects today's environment of pharmacist and technician shortages due to sickness as omicron rapidly spreads.



Both drugstores could not quantify weekend closures because the number each week fluctuates. Customers are already reporting pharmacies have unexpectedly closed in Washington, D.C., New Gloucester, Maine, and New Paltz, New York. There have been instances when people have shown up for scheduled COVID tests to only find out the pharmacy was closed.

Zach Fox of Akron, Ohio, told WSJ his wife had been without pain medication because their local CVS' pharmacy was closed.

"At this point, I'm getting angry. My wife has now been twelve hours without her pain meds less than two days after a major surgery," Fox said. "She's in a lot of pain."

Click to expand...

CVS and Walgreens reassured only a tiny percentage of their stores are experiencing weekend pharmacy closures. Both blamed labor woes related to workers calling out sick.

A staffing crunch has also hit Rite Aid Corp., which announced last month it would reduce pharmacy hours and only allow one hour per day of walk-in vaccines.

The pharmacists and technicians who can work quickly burn out as they must juggle extra tasks.

It's not just pharmacies that are struggling to stay open. Supermarkets across the country are reducing hours as there are not enough cashiers, baggers, and stockers.

British Government Used "Propagandistic" Fear Tactics To Scare Public Into Mass Compliance

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 11:30 AM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

The British government used “propagandistic” fear tactics to scare the public into mass compliance during the first COVID lockdown, according to a behavioral scientist who worked inside Downing Street.


Simon Ruda co-founded Number 10’s ‘Nudge Unit’, which was initially set up to encourage positive behavioral changes in the British public without the need for coercion or legislation, but was weaponized during the pandemic to create scaremongering.

“In my mind, the most egregious and far-reaching mistake made in responding to the pandemic has been the level of fear willingly conveyed on the public,” wrote Ruda.

Click to expand...

“That fear seems to have subsequently driven policy decisions in a worrying feed-back loop,” he added, noting that such actions amounted to “state sanctioned propaganda.”

Click to expand...

The behavioral scientist said that an obsession with daily case numbers came to dominate thinking, serving to spread even more fear.

That process included grossly exaggerating the threat posed by COVID and producing lurid, alarmist propaganda to frighten the population into subservience.



As we previously highlighted, scientists in the UK working as advisors for the government admitted using what they now concede to be “unethical” and “totalitarian” methods of instilling fear in the population in order to control behavior during the pandemic.

The London Telegraph reported the comments made by Members of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B), a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) the government’s chief scientific advisory group.

The report quotes a briefing from March 2020, as the first lockdown was decreed, that stated the government should drastically increase “the perceived level of personal threat” that the virus poses because “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened.”

One scientist with the SPI-B admits that, “In March [2020] the Government was very worried about compliance and they thought people wouldn’t want to be locked down. There were discussions about fear being needed to encourage compliance, and decisions were made about how to ramp up the fear.”



The unnamed scientist added that, “The way we have used fear is dystopian.”

The scientist further confessed that, “The use of fear has definitely been ethically questionable.

It’s been like a weird experiment. Ultimately, it backfired because people became too scared.”

The fearmongering campaign clearly worked.

By the summer of 2020, the average Brit thought 6-7% of the population of the UK had died from coronavirus, a figure equating to around 4.5 million people.

At the time, COVID-19 had actually claimed around 40,000 lives.

But don’t worry, all this is of no importance whatsoever, because ‘fact checkers’ have ruled that ‘mass formation psychosis’ isn’t a thing that happened at all during the pandemic.

(Germany)


German Government Considering Shutting Down Telegram; Report

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 09:20 AM
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

A report in the German newspaper Die Welt suggests that the government there is considering taking action to shut down messaging app Telegram because people opposed to COVID restrictions and lockdowns are using it to organise protests and share information.



The report contains an interview with German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser who stated “We cannot rule this out,” when asked if the platform will be targeted for censorship.

“A shutdown would be grave and clearly a last resort. All other options must be exhausted first,” Faeser clarified.

The minister also told the newspaper that while it is currently unclear what legal action would be needed to shut down the platform, the German government is in consultation with the European Union regarding potential regulation of it.

The Epoch Times notes that in Germany, which has implemented some of the most severe pandemic restrictions, “Telegram has been used as a hub of communication for the protest movement against the measures established to fight the CCP virus, including lockdowns, intermittent mask mandates, and restrictions for the unvaccinated.”

Telegram has been shut down or blocked in other countries including Iran, China, Pakistan, India, Thailand, and Russia.

The platform saw a huge surge in users last year after Facebook owned Watts App introduced a controversial privacy update which led to concerns that the app would hand over user data to its parent company. It also came at the same time as President Trump’s purge from big tech social media platforms.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned that people are “being held hostage by tech monopolies.”

In addition to being independent from big tech, Telegram promises robust end-to-end encryption, ensuring messages remain private.

This has made Telegram a target for authoritarians and big tech monopolists.

In the U.S. lobbyist group The Coalition for a Safer Web even filed a lawsuit against Apple in an effort to get Telegram removed from the app store, claiming that it allows ‘extremists’ to spread ‘hate speech’.

View: https://youtu.be/aq8H0bqcmQA
8:32 min

(Australia)


Fully Vaccinated Australians In Hospital For COVID-19 Surpass Unvaccinated

FRIDAY, JAN 14, 2022 - 11:00 PM
Authored by Daniel Khmelev via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

For the first time, New South Wales (NSW) has seen more fully vaccinated patients hospitalised with COVID-19 compared to the number of unvaccinated patients as the Omicron outbreak continues to edge toward its peak.


Emergency Medicine Specialist Dr Kevin Maruno and medical team take a suspected COVID-19 patient in to the isolation ward in the Red zone of the Emergency Department at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia on Jun. 4, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Data published by the NSW government’s COVID-19 Critical Intelligence Unit has revealed that as of Jan. 9, 68.9 percent of COVID-19 patients aged 12 and over in hospitals had two doses of the vaccine, with 28.8 percent unvaccinated.

The number of double-dose vaccinated patients in intensive care units (ICUs) also surpassed those of the unvaccinated, with 50.3 percent of the vaccinated presenting to ICU with COVID-19, more than the 49.1 percent who are unvaccinated.

However, based on the data presented, unvaccinated individuals appear to be six times more likely to be hospitalised and nearly 13 times more likely to be sent to ICU than those who are fully vaccinated.

This is considering that the number of unvaccinated patients appears to be over-represented in the figures—7.3 percent of the NSW population aged 12 and over at the time were unvaccinated, but they made up half of the COVID-19 ICU patients in the NSW Health system. At present Australia does not permit alternative treatment approaches utilised and available in other countries, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.


Percentage of COVID-19 hospitalisations in New South Wales based on weekly reported data by the NSW COVID-19 Critical Intelligence Unit between Oct. 31, 2021 and Jan. 9, 2022. Vaccinated refers to those receiving two doses of an eligible vaccine. The graph has been smoothed for days between each reported week end. Points between Dec. 12, 2021 and Jan. 2, 2022 have been linearly interpolated due to data unavailability. (The Epoch Times)

According to NSW Health, 95.1 percent of people aged 16 and over have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 93.7 percent have received two doses as of Jan. 11.

The rise in the proportion of hospitalisations amongst the fully vaccinated comes both amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the CCP virus in Australia, along with the loss in the efficacy of the available COVID-19 vaccines.

A spokesperson for NSW Health told The Epoch Times on Jan. 11 that Omicron had supplanted Delta as the primary variant spreading in NSW, but that it also appeared to be less dangerous than its predecessor.

“The Omicron variant is associated with a lower rate of hospitalisation and ICU admission,” the spokesperson said.

While the state recorded 32,155 cases of the virus on Jan. 9, 2,030 were hospitalised, and only 159 had been sent to ICU. As of Jan. 12, the total number of cases has jumped to 53,909, with 2,242 hospitalised and 175 in ICU.

“NSW Health urges the community to continue to practise COVID-safe behaviours to keep themselves and the community safe, including wearing a mask indoors, maintaining physical distancing, and practising hand hygiene.”


People arrive to be vaccinated at the New South Wales Health mass vaccination hub at Homebush in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

The spokesperson also reminded those eligible to receive their third booster dose of an available COVID-19 vaccine—which can now be done four months after receiving the second dose—to raise the effectiveness of immunity granted by the vaccine.

“We continue to encourage everyone who has not yet done so to get vaccinated and anyone who is now eligible for their booster dose to get it without delay. The COVID-19 vaccines available in Australia are safe and very effective at reducing the risk of serious illness and death.”

In the United States, it has been reported that 2 out of the three available COVID-19 vaccines dropped below 50 percent efficacy after six months, according to a study published in November 2021.

To combat this, NSW has mandated booster shots for all education staff, joining other states that have implemented vaccine booster requirements.

NSW is also currently working to better understand the effects of the new COVID-19 variants.

“NSW Health is prioritising the whole genome sequencing of COVID-19 for patients in ICU in order to better understand the impact of both the Delta and Omicron variants,” the spokesperson said.

(Germany)


German Health Minister Supports Vaccine Mandate For All Adults

SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 07:35 AM

After weeks of warning that it was really planning to follow through with plans to make vaccines mandatory throughout German society, the German government just took one step closer to making the mandate a reality.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Friday that he would support a vaccine mandate for all German adults age 18 and up. Presumably, his feelings reflect those of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has never hesitated to discuss his views on mandatory vaccination (he's in favor of it).


However, the government's support doesn't change the fact that a vocal minority of Germans are vehemently against mandatory jabs. And it's not just Germany: in neighboring Austria, authorities are resorting to arresting elderly women for going to the grocery store without showing their digital identity card.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1481778066259345409

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1481778066259345409
2:18 min

As Germany pushes for even tighter restrictions on the unvaccinated, who have been demonized by Germany's leadership in recent weeks, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Friday that he supports imposing a vaccine mandate requiring all German adults 18 and up to have at least their first two vaccine shots.

Lauterbach also said during his press briefing Friday that the German government hopes to "stretch out" the omicron wave to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, but still he expects to reach "endemic stage" by the end of the year. Of course, that's what they said last year, too (although there were different people in charge back then). He also took a minute to slam the British: "had we followed the policies pursued by the British, we would have suffered twie as many deaths from COVID here in Germany," he said.

Keep in mind, the German government has already mandated N-95 masks, a policy that some places in the US have started to mimic.

Germany just recently became one of the first countries in Europe to approve COVID boosters for 12-to-17 year olds. The decision came as Germany reported 81K new COVID infections, a new daily record.



The booster shot decision makes Germany among the first countries in the world to make such a recommendation, following the United States, Israel and Hungary.

"The current situation, with a sharp increase in the number of cases due to the Omicron variant and the feared consequences for the health system in Germany, makes it necessary to extend the vaccination campaign," the STIKO vaccine committee said.

Click to expand...

According to Reuters, data on the effectiveness and safety of the booster vaccination for 12-to-17-year-olds remains limited, but "experts" believe the risk of severe side effects is very low (although research shows younger patients are more at risk for harmful inflammation of the heart and other supposedly "rare" side effects).

Germany is currently in the middle of what its government has labeled the "fifth" wave of COVID, and the first to be driven primarily by omicron, which accounts for the vast majority of all new cases.

Lawyer in historic vaccine mandate challenge warns larger constitutional issues remain unresolved
Ruling "kind of misses the forest from the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved," Robert Henneke says.

Updated: January 14, 2022 - 11:40pm

One of the lawyers in the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on private business is warning it is only a preliminary victory and the larger constitutional issues about government-compelled inoculations must still be litigated.

"In some ways, yesterday was a win of a major battle, but still leaves the war to be fought," said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which filed one of the original challenges in Texas against the vaccine mandate that was eventually consolidated before the Supreme Court.

"While it got to the right outcome for declaring the private employer vax mandate unlawful, it kind of misses the forest for the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved," he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.

John Solomon Reports 48:14 min

The nation's nine justices ruled Thursday that the Biden administration could not use the law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Agency to impose a mandate on private businesses with 100 or more employees requiring them to compel employees to get vaccinated or tested — or face termination.

"The court," said Henneke, "looked at that statute and said, 'No, that statute deals with occupational workplace safety issues. COVID-19 does not fall within that. So the statute that you're pointing to is your authority does not give you that authority. And so therefore, this mandate is illegal.'

"It's great. But it doesn't resolve the broader constitutional questions about whether the executive branch or the federal government at all has the lawful power under the Constitution to compel individuals to take on a medical treatment, have to receive a vaccine that they do not want to take. And those were the constitutional questions that we initially litigated in our lawsuits,” he added.

Henneke said the justices and lower federal courts have sent mixed messages, ruling OSHA can’t mandate vaccines in private businesses while allowing other mandates at federal, state and local levels to stand for municipal and health care workers.

“Personally and as a constitutional litigator and scholar, I believe that the very concept is unconstitutional, and it doesn't matter what branch of government or what level of government — state, local or federal — you cannot compel people to do to perform medical things on themselves without their acceptance,” he said.

“You've seen the Supreme Court not necessarily agree with that. And there's been several instances where you've had a state-level vaccine mandate, such as in Maine, New York, Indiana, and they let it stand,” he added. “So that tells me that a majority of the court is okay with a government vaccine mandate at some level. … That's concerning to me and certainly leaves these bigger issues unresolved and left for us to continue to fight.”

Profit of Doom said:

Are they referring to never-infected, recovered, or both?

Click to expand...

Good question! I don't know if they considered that factor. I think that I had read, more than once, that a lot of folks there took/take Ivermectin, some for parasite treatments, and that had helped/helps keep the numbers of COVID way down.

Report: Anthony Fauci’s $10M 2020 Investment Portfolio Includes Chinese Companies
5 AP Photo/Alex Brandon
WENDELL HUSEBØ15 Jan 2022132

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s reported $10.4 million-dollar 2020 investment portfolio included Chinese companies, Breitbart News discovered.

According to Fauci’s 2o20 financials first released by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and reported by the New York Post, President Biden’s top medical advisor held investments in companies in China through a fund named, Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund:

The Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund’s fact sheet, published in September 2021, revealed the fund has invested 42.7 percent of its investors’ money into companies in China and Hong Kong.

Among the companies listed is the enterprise named Wuxi Biologics Cayman. Headquartered in China, the Wuxi Biologics Cayman is in the pharmaceutical business.

Wuxi Biologics Cayman’s website states the enterprise is the “leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop, and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing”:

With a total estimated capacity of exceeding 430,000 liters for biopharmaceutical production planned after 2024 in China, Ireland, the U.S., Germany, and Singapore, WuXi Biologics will provide its biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network.

Click to expand...

The fund’s additional investments into China and Hong Kong include Tencent Holdings, Ltd.; Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd.; AIA Group, Ltd.; and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, Ltd.

Outside of the Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund, Fauci’s reported $10.4 million financial investments include stakes in Atlas large-cap mutual funds, Pimco’s investment-grade bond fund, and the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund, which invests into businesses that advance “women through gender-diverse boards, senior leadership teams and other policies and practices.”

Fauci’s past investment portfolio was only made public by way of Sen. Marshall, who disclosed Fauci’s 2020 investments Friday after, on a hot mic, the doctor called Marshall a “moron” during Tuesday’s Senate hearing.

“Dr. Fauci was completely dishonest about his financial disclosures being open to the public,” Marshall’s statement read. “Dr. Fauci must be held accountable to all Americans who have been suing and requesting for this information but don’t have the power of a Senate office to ask for it.”

Fauci is the highest-paid employee of the federal government, reportedly raking in more than 400,000 in 2020 and upon retirement will receive a $350,000 annual pension.

Maine Doctor Loses License, Ordered to Undergo Psych Evaluation for Treating Covid Patients with Ivermectin, ‘Spreading Covid Misinformation’

By Cristina Laila
Published January 15, 2022 at 7:26pm


Dr. Meryl Nass, a Maine doctor with more than 40 years experience cannot practice after her medical license was suspended for ‘spreading Covid misinformation’ and treating Covid patients with Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine.

Dr. Meryl Nass was also ordered to undergo a neuropsychological evaluation.

“The information received by the Board demonstrates that Dr. Nass is or may be unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to her patients by reason of mental illness, alcohol intemperance, excessive use of drugs, narcotics, or as a result of a mental or physical condition interfering with the competent practice of medicine,” the evaluation order states.

Recall, Dr. Nass was one of the outspoken medical professionals who busted Fauci for lying about the origins of Covid and affordable treatment such as HCQ.

The Board of Licensure in Medicine released a list of allegations against Dr. Meryl Nass when they suspended her medical license.

The board said Dr. Nass spread misinformation online when she questioned the safety of the experimental Covid vaccines.

In other words, Dr. Meryl Nass is under investigation for daring to speak out against the Biden Regime and for daring to question Big Pharma.

Bangor Daily News reported:

A state licensing board’s decision this week to suspend an Ellsworth doctor is part of a growing national trend of disciplinary actions against medical professionals accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

Click to expand...

On Wednesday, the Board of Licensure in Medicine released a lengthy list of allegations against Dr. Meryl Nass as part of the order temporarily suspending her ability to practice medicine in the state pending a deeper investigation.

Click to expand...

The board’s preliminary inquiry alleges Nass repeatedly failed to follow basic “standards of practice” during telemedicine appointments with COVID-19 patients and admitted to lying to a pharmacist to obtain drugs not authorized to treat the disease. The board also quoted 17 public statements from Nass questioning the safety of COVID vaccines and espousing conspiracy theories about the government’s pandemic response.

Click to expand...

Another physician, Dr. Paul Gosselin of Waterville, also had his license suspended last month by the osteopathic board over allegations of spreading misinformation and other potential misconduct. Because of confidentiality rules, however, it is unclear how many other COVID-related complaints regulators have received.

Click to expand...

There have now been 67 Ivermectin COVID-19 controlled studies that show a 67% improvement in COVID patients.



There have been 298 Hydroxychloroquine studies that show a 64% improvement in patients for COVID-19 patients.



On Monday Project Veritas released never before seen military documents regarding the origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research, vaccines, potential treatments and the government’s effort to conceal everything.

The documents contained evidence that Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were both effective in treating the coronavirus because they both inhibited the viral replication that spread the spike protein around the body.