We’ll be keeping track of what we determine to be the most relevant updates on the coronavirus situation. New items will go at the top. If you have something to report — news, science news, or a check-in from your local area — please send to editors@planetwaves.net. Stay in touch and help us out by sharing this resource with others. This blog is published by Chiron Return, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, which is an affiliate of the Pacifica Radio Network.
The Year in Review Printable PDF
What Our Investigative Team Learned Covering Covid for 300 Days
This is an archive of the December 2020 entries for the Covid19 news feed. You may return to the current page here.
If you have lemons, make lemonade: John Michael Greer on the Great Reset | Added December 31
Like us, I am sure you stay up late at night staring at the ceiling wondering about the origins of socialism. We have found a brilliant new writer named John Michael Greer, who has covered its history in the context of the Great Reset.
Here is the original, and a quotation:
Before we talk about what happened to them, it’s important to take a plunge into the world of [Charles] Fourier’s ideas. According to Fourier, countless worlds condense out of the “interstellar aroma,” and they and their inhabitants pass through a preordained sequence of stages — Savagery, Barbarism, Civilization (which is the worst of all), and finally Harmony, which arrives promptly as soon as the intelligent beings of a planet accept Fourier’s philosophy. What makes Harmony differ from Civilization is that in the state of Harmony, economic activity is cooperative rather than competitive, private property gives way to sharing, and people are motivated to work by passional attraction rather than poverty or greed. According to Fourier, this change results in a fourfold increase in labor efficiency, so that a society in Harmony can provide extraordinary abundance for everyone with very modest amounts of work on the part of each citizen.
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Scientists call for lockdown in England | Added December 30
Scientists and health bodies are calling for tighter coronavirus restrictions in England as cases continue to rise and hospitals report mounting pressure.
Issuing a warning ahead of a government review of the tier system in England on Wednesday, the Independent Sage group of experts said that unless the whole country was immediately put under lockdown, there could be ‘tens of thousands’ of avoidable deaths.
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Pfizer vaccine and reproductive risks | Added December 30
The University of Miami is investigating the possible effects of the coronavirus vaccine on male fertility.
Lead researchers Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, a reproductive urologist with U Health, initiated an earlier study which found the virus was present in the testicles for up to six months following infection.
That spurred his team to question the virus’ effect on sperm and reproduction.
His team is now looking at the potential impact of the vaccine as well.
“We’re evaluating the sperm parameters and quality before the vaccine and after the vaccine. From the biology of the COVID vaccine we believe it shouldn’t affect fertility but we want to do the study to make sure that man who want to have kids in the future to assure them it’s safe to go ahead and get the vaccine,” Ramasamy said.
Study participants must have a fertility evaluation before receiving the vaccine.
To protect fertility, some men may want to consider freezing their sperm prior to vaccination.
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Forbes: Super Gonorrhea May Be Spreading From Antibiotic Overuse For Covid-19 Coronavirus | Added December 30
You want 2021 to be super. But not in a super gonorrhea type of way.
“Super gonorrhea” is trending on Twitter right now because, well, why not? It’s 2020, after all. And what better thing to have trend at the end of a year that brought us the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, a shortage of basically everything, constant drama in the White House, and a Presidential election that just won’t end? Consider this sexually transmitted infection to be the pie à la mode, the night cap, the final wipe of 2020.
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Spanish health minister announces registry for those who refuse vaccine | Added December 30
Spain’s health minister has said the country will create a vaccination registry that will include those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, yielding a document that could potentially be shared with other countries in Europe.
Days after EU countries began rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Salvador Illa said that those who reject the vaccine for “whatever reason” would be documented, as is done currently for those with certain other treatments.
“What we will have is a registry, that will also be shared with our European partners … of those who have been offered it and rejected it,” Illa told the broadcaster La Sexta. “The document will not be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for the legislation on data protection.”
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Facebook censors NYT article | Added December 29
Wu’s article in The New York Times was a simple news account. No editorializing. Nothing but the facts: A doctor was given a COVID-19 vaccine and within minutes suffered an anaphylactic reaction. He felt dizzy and faint, his heart began racing (150 beats per minute), his tongue “prickled and went numb,” he was “drenched in a cold sweat” and his blood pressure “plummeted.”5
Wu wrote, “His immune system, he realized, was in revolt.” She reported that Dr. Sadrzadeh said, “It was the same anaphylactic reaction that I experience with shellfish.”5
Dr. Sadrzadeh was taken to the emergency room, treated, monitored and then sent home.5
That was it. I posted The New York Times article on Facebook and thought nothing more of it. On Dec. 27, I received the following notice from Facebook:
Your post goes against our Community Standards. See options.
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Gov. Cuomo announces penalties to stem Covid-19 vaccine fraud | Added December 29
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday announced new penalties designed to rein in possible vaccination fraud, as suspected by Parcare Community Health Network — a healthcare provider with clinics across Brooklyn which allegedly received and distributed the vaccine to members of the public not yet eligible under state and federal law.
According to the governor, practitioners who break these laws will be subject to a $1 million fine and have all state licenses revoked.
“You’ll have fraud in the vaccine process it’s almost an inevitable function of human nature, and of the marketplace. Vaccines are valuable and there’ll be people who break the law, and we’re looking at one health care provider who may have done that,” Cuomo said. “That will apply to a provider, a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist — any licensed health care professional. So, if you engage in fraud on this vaccine, we will remove your license to practice in the state of New York.”
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Spiro Skouras with Dr. Pam Popper: The Lawsuit That Could End Covid-1984 | Added December 28
Commentary from Eric: This was a good presentation from Skouras and Popper and I think the right approach. There is no part of the “emergency” that is still left standing. Every single issue has been dismantled and shown to be entirely hollow. I am interested in the more granular causes of action being used, as well as the legal venue. For example, in New York, Article 78 is virtually useless as the agency almost always wins; it’s a stacked process. The only way to actually prevail against the state is in federal court.
Here is a backup video in case it is not accessible at the original link.
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NPR: Trump Signs COVID-19 Relief Deal After His Criticism Threatened To Derail It | Added December 28
He criticized Congress for not providing more in direct payments to Americans, suggesting the amount should increase to up to $2,000 per qualifying individual and $4,000 for couples.
That’s despite the fact that it was members of Trump’s own party who had rejected proposals for higher payments during negotiations. Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan effort to include $1,200 direct payments in the relief deal.
Trump also complained that too much money was being allocated to foreign aid and domestic projects not related to the coronavirus pandemic. The reality is that congressional leaders passed the relief bill in combination with a broader spending bill that funds the government. The president has signed bills including money for these programs in the past couple of years.
AND
Trump’s statement also mentions items that are not part of the relief and spending measure.
“Congress has promised that Section 230, which so unfairly benefits Big Tech at the expense of the American people, will be reviewed and either be terminated or substantially reformed,” he wrote. “Likewise, the House and Senate have agreed to focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud which took place in the November 3 Presidential election.”
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Japan plans to develop tracking system for overseas travelers | Added December 28
On the heels of Japan’s announcement that it will ban nonresident foreign citizens from entering the country, the country’s digital transformation minister has also announced the development of a new tracking system for travelers from overseas.
Japan is developing a system aimed at keeping track of travelers from overseas as part of efforts to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus within its borders, a senior government official said Sunday.
Takuya Hirai, digital transformation minister, said on a TV program that he’d like to make it mandatory for people entering the country.
Hirai said the government wants to complete the development of the monitoring system in time for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, due to be held next summer. Without providing details, he said it will function by using GPS.
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New video from Dr. Sam Bailey: Excess Mortality – What You Aren’t Being Told | Added December 27
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Top Class Actions: A Complete Guide to Coronavirus Lawsuits & Legal Issues | Added December 26
See List of Cases on Top Class Actions
The legal system is likely to be the court of last resort when it comes to protecting the public from government over-reach, restrictive lockdowns and outright fraud. This unusual website has created a list of all of the cases it’s aware of. Additionally, please check out this report of a legal strategy from Pam Popper.
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Zach Bush, MD, on the virome and the potential for humanity to expand consciousness during Covid-19 | Added December 26
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Did CDC violate federal law in changing death reporting methods specifically for Covid-19? Why has this issue not received more attention? | Added December 26
Commentary from Eric: Journalists who have reported that 94% of covid deaths were people who were already very sick have taken a lot of shit for doing so. Many major “news” organizations have done “factchecks” a “debunkings” of why this is a significant fact, claiming it is irrelevant. But it begs several questions: why are we punishing healthy people when those at risk are very sick, and is this not all a statistical maneuver of moving deaths from one category to another, something for which Monsanto is famous? This is not a new move. Combine it with multiple, credible revelations of no asymptomatic spread and it’s clear that the “virus” is an excuse to do the damage we are suffering. PDF attached is hosted on Chiron Return.
COVID-19 Data Collection, Comorbidity & Federal Law: A Historical Retrospective
By Henry Ealy, Michael McEvoy, Daniel Chong , John Nowicki , Monica Sava, Sandeep Gupta, David White, James Jordan, Daniel Simon, Paul Anderson
Abstract
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 23, 2020, “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19 , on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”[1] For a nation tormented by restrictive public health policies mandated for healthy individuals and small businesses, this is the most important statistical revelation of this crisis. This revelation significantly impacts the published fatalities count due to COVID-19. More importantly, it exposes major problems with the process by which the CDC was able to generate inaccurate data during a crisis.
The CDC has advocated for social isolation, social distancing, and personal protective equipment use as primary mitigation strategies in response to the COVID-19 crisis, while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the promise of inexpensive pharmaceutical and natural treatments. These mitigation strategies were promoted largely in response to projection model fatality forecasts that have proven to be substantially inaccurate.
Further investigation into the legality of the methods used to create these strategies raised additional concerns and questions. Why would the CDC decide against using a system of data collection & reporting they authored, and which has been in use nationwide for 17 years without incident, in favor of an untested & unproven system exclusively for COVID-19 without discussion and peer-review?
Did the CDC’s decision to abandon a known and proven effective system also breach several federal laws that ensure data accuracy and integrity? Did the CDC knowingly alter rules for reporting cause of death in the presence of comorbidity exclusively for COVID-19? If so, why?
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NYT: A ‘Great Cultural Depression’ Looms for Legions of Unemployed Performers | Added December 26
Pain can be found in nearly every nook of the economy. Millions of people have lost their jobs and tens of thousands of businesses have closed since the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States. But even in these extraordinary times, the losses in the performing arts and related sectors have been staggering.
During the quarter ending in September, when the overall unemployment rate averaged 8.5 percent, 52 percent of actors, 55 percent of dancers and 27 percent of musicians were out of work, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. By comparison, the jobless rate was 27 percent for waiters; 19 percent for cooks; and about 13 percent for retail salespeople over the same period.
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“The best revenge is living well”: Pam Popper on honoring holiday traditions during Covid-19 | Added December 24
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CHD: 5 Questions Fauci and FDA Need to Answer on Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccines | Added December 24
From Children’s Health Defense:
Another day, another story about a healthcare worker suffering a “severe allergic reaction” after receiving Pfizer’s COVID vaccine — this time, in New York. The report follows the news Children’s Health Defense (CHD) has been covering about similar severe reactions, first in the UK, then in Alaska and Illinois.
In light of these events, and because CHD previously warned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), about the potential for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to cause anaphylactic reactions, we have some questions we’d like Fauci and the FDA to answer.
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Trump demands changes to coronavirus relief bill — risk of government shutdown | Added December 23
In a video posted to social media on Tuesday evening, Trump surprised some of his closest officials by demanding lawmakers change the coronavirus aid part of the spending bill to include $2,000 payments to each American, more than triple the $600 per person provided.
A source familiar with the situation said aides thought they had talked Trump out of the $2,000 demand last week. The video surprised even Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who took part in the talks and backed the $600 figure.
Members of Congress had been discussing the $600 figure for almost a week before voting to approve it late on Monday night.
Trump did not explicitly say he would veto the bill, apparently holding out hope Congress would modify a package that took months to negotiate. The White House had said on Sunday that Trump would sign it into law.
Trump has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to veto the bill once he receives it from Congress, which is still processing the massive legislation.
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AwakenWithJP: My Apology to Facebook | Added December 23
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Experts send Vitamin D and Covid-19 open letter to world’s governments | Added December 23
21-Dec-2020 By Nikki Hancocks
In an open letter being sent to world governments today (21st December), 120 health, science and medical experts from the UK, US, and Europe say there is clear scientific evidence that vitamin D reduces Covid-19 infections, hospitalisations, and deaths.
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May throwback: New Yorkers staying home comprise the majority of new Covid-19 hospitalizations | Added December 22
Published Wed, May 6 202012:25 PM EDT
Most new Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York state are from people who were staying home and not venturing much outside, a “shocking” finding, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
The preliminary data was from 100 New York hospitals involving about 1,000 patients, Cuomo said at his daily briefing.
It shows that 66% of new admissions were from people who had largely been sheltering at home. The next highest source of admissions was from nursing homes, 18%.
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July throwback: Ultrasonic sensors to monitor social distancing between workers ‘instantaneously’ | Added December 22
Originally published July 29, from TDK:
To reduce the spread of COVID-19, offices and factories are being required to create an environment in which social distancing between workers and safe work practices are ensured. Solutions based on ultrasonic sensor*1 technology are attracting attention as a means to accurately measure distances between workers.
To prevent the spread of infectious diseases, keeping a safe distance from others and reducing contact to a minimum are essential. For businesses, it is also important to mitigate the risk of increased infections damaging supply chains, corporate reputation and productivity—let alone creating an environment allowing workers to work with peace of mind. To address these challenges, companies around the world are seeking practical solutions including alarms that ensure social distancing between workers and tags that enable contact tracing of infected individuals.
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San Francisco overdose deaths ‘far outpace’ deaths from Covid-19 | Added December 22
A record 621 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco so far this year, a staggering number that far outpaces the 173 deaths from COVID-19 the city has seen thus far.
The crisis fueled by the powerful painkiller fentanyl could have been far worse if it wasn’t for the nearly 3,000 times Narcan was used from January to the beginning of November to save someone from the brink of death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.
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Surprise question at Australian press conference: is anybody sick? | Added December 22
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Many healthcare workers at Texas’ Rio Grande Hospital decline vaccine | Added December 22
So many workers at a hospital in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley declined the new COVID-19 vaccine that the facility offered doses to other medical workers in the region. Many showed up, but so did a state lawmaker, a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy who weren’t on the state’s priority list for vaccination.
Hospitals across Texas began to receive the first batches of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over the last several days. Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, one of the Texas facilities hardest hit by the virus this year, received 5,850 doses of the vaccine.
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NPR: Congress Passes $900 Billion Coronavirus Relief Bill, Ending Months-Long Stalemate | Added December 22
The 5,593 page legislation extends economic assistance as millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet as cases of COVID-19 are surging across the country. It includes another round of direct stimulus checks — this time for $600 per adult who are in certain income thresholds, and the same amount for children. It provides an extension of enhanced unemployment insurance benefits for up to $300 per week and lengthens the maximum number of weeks.
The package includes $25 billion in rental assistance and extends a ban on evictions that was scheduled to expire at the end of January. To address the increasing number of those with food insecurity, $13 billion was added to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
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CNN: Biden receives first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on live television | Added December 22
President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on live television Monday afternoon and reassured Americans of the vaccine’s safety.
The shot, which Biden received in his left arm, was administered at ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, by Tabe Mase, who is a nurse practitioner and the head of employee health services at the hospital, according to the Biden transition team.
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Update from OffGuardian on transhumanism and the Great Reset | Added December 21
According to the consortium of capitalists and their organizations such as the World Economic Forum, World Bank and even the UN we have a technocratic revolution led by AI, robotics and nanotechnology to look forward to. There will be a huge reduction in the need for workers. Scenarios are proposed which anticipate some form of UBI for the unfortunate masses.
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Stimulus money about to go through — what is in it for real people? | Added December 21
Congressional leaders on Monday introduced a mammoth 5,593-page tax and spending bill that packages together emergency economic relief, government funding and tax cuts into what is probably one of the largest pieces of legislation ever considered by Congress.
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National Institutes of Health set to devise study on allergic reactions to coronavirus vaccine | Added December 21
Officials at the National Institutes of Health are rushing to devise a study to find out why, in a few rare cases, people have had severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
The goal is to identify the component of the vaccine most likely to be responsible for these potentially life-threatening incidents, known as anaphylaxis. No cases have yet been associated with the other newly authorized vaccine, made by Moderna, but it is being administered to the general public for the first time this week and has similar components to the one developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
This is a challenging task for researchers, who hope to get an answer within a matter of weeks. The study will recruit volunteers who have had a history of severe allergic reactions and who will receive the vaccine under close clinical supervision, according to Daniel Rotrosen, director of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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What Radical Leftists Are Like Now | Added December 21
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Neil Ferguson says “there is a hint” SARS-CoV-2 variant “has a higher propensity to infect children” | Added December 21
She said one idea was that the new strain was better able to connect with human cells to infect them meaning that where the virus had previously struggled to infect children they were now “on a more level playing field” with adults in terms of infection.
Peter Horby, chair of Nervtag and professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, said that since the initial analysis of data, which prompted the government to cancel a planned five-day lifting of restrictions over Christmas, scientists were now more confident about the risks from the new mutant strain.
He said: “This afternoon [Monday] more than a dozen scientists met again with some new faces who weren’t at the Friday meeting. We went through all the data again and additional analysis, both on bigger data sets and using different methods. The conclusion this afternoon is that we now have higher confidence that this variant does have a transmission advantage over other virus variants currently in the UK.”
Scientists are scrambling to study the new variant to determine if planned vaccines will still be effective.
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Officials claim new SARS-CoV-2 variant in UK, causing stricter lockdown measures and travel bans | Added December 21
How many times have we heard this before?
Britain was all but cut off from the rest of Europe on Monday, offering a chilling preview of what a rupture might look like, just 10 days before a deadline to negotiate a post-Brexit trade agreement with the European Union.
The disruptions stoked fears of panic buying in British supermarkets, as Britons, already rattled by a surge in infections and a hastily imposed lockdown in much of England, worried about running out of fresh food in the days before Christmas.
The upheaval over the virus mutation grew after Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said that it had been shown to be 70 percent more contagious than other variants. The 70 percent estimate of greater transmissibility is based only on modeling and has not been confirmed by lab experiments, said Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a scientific adviser to the British government. British officials said there was no reason to believe that the new variant caused more serious illness.
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How the PCR Works | Added December 21
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How Belarus Exposes the Lockdown Lie — article from Off-Guardian | Added December 20
Most European governments instituted the shutdown of economies, restrictions on freedom of movement and other policies known as lockdown. This was allegedly in response to the spread of Sars-Cov-2, a dangerous respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan, China.
Few countries rejected this approach; Sweden is the most well known of these. However, a more interesting case of dissent from the official narrative is Belarus and its leader Aleksandr Lukashenka.
This article will outline Lukashenka’s approach to the alleged pandemic, followed by an analysis of death figures and how the Belarussian case exposes the lies of lockdown advocates.
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Pence, Pelosi and McConnell receive a coronavirus vaccine. Biden is set to get an injection on Monday — more from The New York Times | Added Dec. 20
“I didn’t feel a thing — well done,” Mr. Pence said minutes after the vaccine was administered to him by a technician from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Promoting the vaccine and hailing the work of the Coronavirus Task Force that he leads, Mr. Pence called it a “truly inspiring day.”
He said, however, that “vigilance” was still necessary, and encouraged Americans to practice social distancing and wear face masks.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the symbolic day should remind the rest of the country to “step to the plate.” He also tried to reassure people who are skeptical of a vaccine, noting that the decision to call the new vaccine safe and effective “was not in the hands of the company, nor was it in the hands of the administration,” but in the hands of independent scientists and vaccinologists.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, are scheduled to receive an injection on camera on Monday, transition officials said on a conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon. Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the transition and the incoming White House press secretary, said Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband would receive the vaccine after Christmas.
Ms. Psaki said the vaccinations were staggered based on medical recommendations “that they should not do doses at the same time.”
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World Economic Forum and global elites announce ‘Great Reset’ in the face of Covid-19, climate change, and other world crises | Added December 19
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NYT: Employers Can Require Workers to Get Covid-19 Vaccine, U.S. says | Added December 19
From The New York Times:
Employers can require workers to get a Covid-19 vaccine and bar them from the workplace if they refuse, the federal government said in guidelines issued this week.
Public health experts see employers as playing an important role in vaccinating enough people to reach herd immunity and get a handle on a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 Americans. Widespread coronavirus vaccinations would keep people from dying, restart the economy and usher a return to some form of normalcy, experts say.
Employers had been waiting for guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination, because requiring employees be tested for the coronavirus touches on thorny medical and privacy issues covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
The guidance, issued on Wednesday, confirmed what employment lawyers had expected.
Businesses and employers are uniquely positioned to require large numbers of Americans who otherwise would not receive a vaccination to do so because their employment depends on it.
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Covid-19 may come down to vitamin D deficiency | Added December 19
And it will be driven by mandates to stay indoors…
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Science Alert: New Evidence Suggests COVID-19 Could Be a Kind of Autoimmune Disease | Added December 19
Whether or not a person with COVID-19 develops severe disease depends a lot on how their immune system reacts to the coronavirus.
But scientists still don’t know why some people develop severe disease while others suffer only mild symptoms – or no symptoms at all. Now, a new study from Yale University sheds some light on the issue.
The research, which has yet to be peer-reviewed and published in a journal, suggests that in patients with severe COVID, the body produces “autoantibodies”. These are antibodies that – instead of attacking the invading virus – attack the patient’s own immune system and organs.
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Third Alaska health care worker experiences adverse reaction to vaccine | Added December 19
A Fairbanks health care worker was treated for a “probable” serious allergic reaction on Thursday after she received the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Foundation Health Partners care system.
She is the third Alaskan to experience an adverse reaction this week after receiving the vaccine. Two Bartlett Regional Hospital employees in Juneau experienced reactions after the vaccine — one serious and one mild.
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UK government attempting to persuade US to lift or soften travel restrictions | Added December 19
The British government is making a concerted effort to persuade the Trump administration to lift or soften travel restrictions that bar most people in the United Kingdom from traveling to the United States, sources briefed on the matter said.
On Nov. 25, Reuters reported the White House was considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S. citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries.
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FDA: Virtual Meeting of Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee | Added December 18
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Holiday season reveals the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, due to Covid-19 measures | Added December 18
The National Retail Federation is betting that middle- and upper-class consumers will spend more this year. The trade group forecast a robust 3.6 to 5.2 percent increase in holiday sales, outpacing the five-year average of 3.5 percent. It said the season could generate as much as $767 billion in revenue, with the average shopper dropping $998 on gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal purchases.
But lost in that forecast, economists say, is a sobering reality: The gulf between the wealthiest Americans and the most vulnerable is larger than it has been in decades. More than 12 million people are poised to lose unemployment benefits Dec. 26, when key parts of the Cares Act will expire unless Congress intervenes. A number of state and federal programs are slated to run out by the end of the year, leaving millions on the edge of hunger and homelessness.
Meanwhile, many families — particularly those with white-collar jobs that can be done remotely — have seen their net worth rise during the pandemic. The stock market soared to new heights, home values are booming and Americans have stashed more than $1 trillion in savings since the pandemic began. At the very highest reaches of that trend, the nation’s 651 billionaires have amassed an additional $1 trillion in wealth, according to a recent analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness.
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Nurse in Chattanooga, among first front-line workers in Tennessee to be vaccinated against Covid-19, faints shortly after shot | Added December 18
See the footage in question at the link below.
During our livestream of the vaccinations at CHI Memorial, Nurse Manager Tiffany Dover while speaking to the media about receiving the vaccine mentioned she started feeling dizzy. She fainted, but thankfully one of the doctors behind her caught her.
Dover is now fine, and minutes later was able to get up and speak with us on camera again. The doctors there at CHI Memorial said this is not related to the ingredients in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the CDC, fainting can happen after many types of vaccinations. The CDC says although fainting has a variety of possible causes, it is usually triggered by pain or anxiety.
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Live-blog from Stat News breaks down FDA’s advisory panel meeting for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine | Added December 18
Both Moderna’s vaccine and the one developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, which was granted an EUA last week, use messenger RNA to instruct the body’s cells to produce copies of the spike protein found on the exterior of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Those vaccine-induced proteins teach the immune system to recognize the coronavirus as an invader and attack it when an immunized person is exposed to the virus.
Clinical trials showed both vaccines were highly effective, about 94% or 95% in fact, though both trigger side effects in a portion of people vaccinated.
STAT live-blogged the meeting of the advisory panel, known as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. An archive is below.
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KFox14: Video shows mishap during COVID-19 vaccination of El Paso nurses | Added December 18
See the footage in question at the link below.
You see the nurse is being prepped for the vaccine, but the syringe appears to be empty and the plunger has already been depressed.
Once the needle appears to go into his arm, the person giving the vaccine does not appear to push the plunger down.
It’s unclear if the nurse was vaccinated or why the syringe appears to have already been depressed.
The issue appears to only have applied to the second nurse.
While looking at footage of the other nurses, it appears the syringe that was used for their vaccines was full and the plunger in each syringe had not been depressed.
KFOX14 asked UMC about what happened Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday afternoon, UMC offered the following statement:
“After numerous reports emerged on social media claiming one of the five nurses receiving a vaccination on Tuesday did not receive a full dose of vaccine, we want to remove any doubt raised that he was not fully vaccinated and further strengthen confidence in the vaccination process.”
“The nurse in question today was vaccinated again. UMC has confirmed with the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that re-vaccinating the nurse will not cause adverse effects. The nurse will need to return after three weeks to receive his second dose.”
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Medical News Today: 1 in 3 excess deaths in the US not directly caused by Covid-19 | Added December 17
Written by James Kingsland on October 16, 2020 — Fact checked by Rita Ponce, Ph.D.
Healthcare disruption and emotional crises may have led to around a third of the 225,530 “excess deaths” in the United States between March 1 and August 1, 2020, a new study suggests.
The study, from researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, in Richmond, and the Yale School of Public Health, in New Haven, CT, found a 20% increase in deaths, compared with predictions based on mortality rates of previous years.
But the scientists also found a substantial gap between the number of reported COVID-19 deaths and total number of excess deaths.
Delays in reporting COVID-19 mortalities and errors in the data may partly explain this gap, but the scientists believe that collateral damage from the pandemic was largely to blame.
The team’s findings have been published in JAMA.
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Conversations with Dr. Cowan and Friends Episode 12: Jon Rappoport | Added December 17
In this interview, and hopefully for the final time, Jon Rappaport and I describe in common language and precise detail the steps that are needed to properly isolate and characterize a virus. We did this so we could empower our readers and listeners to know for themselves how to read and identify fraudulent science. Among the many challenges we face, one is the rampant scientific illiteracy. In some ages this may not have been relevant, but if we are going to live in an era in which “science” is the new religion and its tenets control our lives, we had better understand what its unquestioned “priests” are saying.
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FDA panel endorses Moderna’s vaccine as government prepares to distribute 6 million doses | Added December 17
Early in the meeting Thursday, the FDA addressed an issue that did not involve the Moderna vaccine directly: reports of allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was authorized by the FDA last Friday, including in two health-care workers in Alaska, one of whom was hospitalized. Both are recovering.
“While the totality of data at this time continue to support vaccinations under the Pfizer [emergency use authorization] without new restrictions, these cases underscore the need to remain vigilant during the early phase of the vaccination campaign,” FDA vaccine expert Doran Fink said.
AND
One of the major outstanding questions about this and other coronavirus vaccines is whether they prevent infection, not just disease. Since most cases of covid-19 are asymptomatic, that question has major implications for how to best use the vaccines and whether people will need to continue wearing masks and social distance despite being vaccinated.
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Another move behind the smokescreen of Covid-19 — more circumventing EU GMO seed laws | Added December 17
Thank you, Loreen Costa.
The “Green Revolution” continues its efforts to conquer Europe.
After decades of a curated effort to eradicate biodiversity in India and on the African continent in the name of commodities “high yield”, “Big Ag” and the bio-tech producers of patented GMO seeds are looking to work around EU limits on their products. A quick read of Vandana Shiva’s Soil Not Oil could tell us all about what might come next.
The discussion of how people of color are suffering disproportionately should also include how globalization in food has wreaked havoc on diets and launched the chronic disease processes which make the economically vulnerable the most disease vulnerable. But it doesn’t. We’re still hearing three tail-chasing on the tragedy of lack of access to the expensive and largely ineffective for-profit medicine that masquerades as “health care” in the USA.
“A small but powerful minority of seed and agriculture industry lobby groups continue to push for the deregulation of old and new GMOs (New Breeding Techniques or NBTs), both at European level and in the Member States, reports the peasant farmer network European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC).
ECVC member organisations in Italy and France have denounced the attempts to introduce GMOs by trying to change the Italian legislation on seed marketing without any public debate – and by refusing to apply European regulations on GMOs in France.
Four proposals for decrees are circulating in the Italian Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, which would, in very clear terms, look to authorise the entry of new GMOs into Italy, a country that has been “GMO free” since 2001, and where the fruit, wine and vegetable seed sectors that would be affected by the decree change are fundamental to the national agricultural system….
In the view of ECVC, attempts to amend national legislation to violate this regulatory framework are clearly intended to create a comparative advantage for a handful of powerful European seed companies and lead to unfair competition between these companies, to the detriment of those of more modest economic size.[3] On the contrary, ECVC says, what is needed is to maintain the European regulatory framework on GMOs as it stands, including Directive 2001/18/EC, and to apply it rigorously. This will ensure that the rights of consumers to know what they eat and the rights of farmers to know what they produce are respected, as well as the right to pursue a type of agriculture free from GMOs and the risk of pollution by undeclared GMOs.
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PBS: Childhood Trauma and COVID-19 | Added December 17
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of millions of children and their families by disrupting school, adding economic challenges and taking away sources of comfort and social connection. How has the prolonged period of social distancing affected kids and their caretakers? Dr. Jack Shonkoff, who founded Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, spoke with PBS NewsHour’s William Brangham and took viewer questions on the subject.
Watch the full conversation in the video player above.
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Military exempt from vaccine for now | Added December 17
Members of the military won’t be required to take a coronavirus vaccine when it comes available through a new trial plan the Pentagon announced Wednesday, but that could change if the Food and Drug Administration moves beyond the emergency approval that currently allows for the initial distribution of the vaccine.
“Voluntary for everyone,” Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, chief of the Defense Health Agency, told reporters at a press conference at the Pentagon. “No ifs, ands or buts about it. Voluntary for everyone.”
Public skepticism in a vaccine to treat the coronavirus has persisted throughout the spread of the pandemic, though a two-thirds majority of Americans now say they would take the vaccine, up from only half in September, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center released last week.
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NY Post: Wearing a used mask could be worse than no mask amid COVID-19: study | Added December 17
Wearing a used mask could be more dangerous than not wearing one at all when it comes to warding off COVID-19, a new study has found.
A new three-layer surgical mask is 65 percent efficient in filtering particles in the air — but when used, that number drops to 25 percent, according to the study published Tuesday in the Physics of Fluids.
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In November memo, AMA rescinds statement calling for stop in prescribing hydroxychloroquine | Added December 16
From the American Medical Association:
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NEJM: The Impact of Skin Color and Ethnicity on Clinical Diagnosis and Research | Added December 16
From The New England Journal of Medicine:
Join us for The Impact of Skin Color and Ethnicity on Clinical Diagnosis and Research — a four-part virtual series running from October 28–December 2, 2020. Clinical experts, thought leaders, and advocates will lead collaborative discussions on the issues of health disparities, structural racism, and medicine while examining specific dermatologic diseases in four free and open educational events.
Recorded Sessions Now Available
» Watch Pigmentary Disorders and Keloids
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FDA authorizes over-the-counter, coronavirus test kit for home use | Added December 16
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that can be taken at home without prescription and that yields immediate results.
The test could be a vital tool in the country’s fight against the virus — especially in the months before most Americans are vaccinated. Unlike previous home tests, this version does not require samples to be sent to a lab and can be taken without doctor’s orders by anyone older than 2.
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Someone asked, and got an answer | Added December 15
Acording to the document above, the New York State Department of Health has no records on the safety or efficacy of masks. PDF available here.
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Positive HIV test results in trial participants, determined to be false positives, cause Australia to end billion dollar Covid-19 vaccine deal | Added December 15
The vaccine, which used the COVID-19 spike protein and a ‘molecular clamp’, featured an HIV protein fragment.
The fragment posed ‘absolutely no health risk to people’ but was producing a partial antibody response in some participants, resulting in false positive tests for the virus.
It is understood health department secretary Brendan Murphy and acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, had reviewed the findings this week and recommended ending the deal.
Both UQ and CSL will continue their research which they hope will help develop other vaccines in the future.
And
What went wrong with the vaccine?
The trials were abandoned after some participants returned false positive results for another illness – HIV.
CSL said the false positives were caused by so-called ‘molecular clamp’ antibodies. There were no serious adverse events or safety concerns.
There is no possibility the vaccine gave people HIV but the trial was scrapped to keep public confidence in the other vaccines.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said the vaccine was likely to have worked but ‘we didn’t want to have any issues with confidence.’
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WHO declares Santa Claus immune to SARS-CoV-2, though maintains that social distancing be ‘strictly enforced’ between him and children | Added December 15
You can read more at Stat News on the background of Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead on Covid-19 at WHO, who made the official announcement about Santa Claus at yesterday’s press conference.
There may be a pandemic, but Santa Claus is still coming to town, according to the World Health Organization.
“I understand the concern for Santa because he is of older age,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, at a press conference on Monday. “I can tell you that Santa Claus is immune to this virus.”
Despite the travel restrictions in place around the globe, world leaders have relaxed measures just for him, she said, adding that both he and his wife, Mrs. Claus, are doing well during their busy season.
In her message to kids, she did get in a health warning, mentioning the importance of Covid-19 precautions — one that will likely be music to parents’ ears.
“Physical distancing by Santa Claus and of the children themselves must be strictly enforced, so it is really important that the children of the world still listen to their moms and dads and guardians and make sure they go to bed early on Christmas Eve,” she said.
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Willem Engel interview with Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg | Added December 14
Here is an English translation of an interview with German physician, lung specialist and epidemiologist Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg.
Highlights:
- We’ve always tackled all the flu viruses together as a group, except the flu that required a vaccine to be sold.
- The new vaccines represent a completely new method, foreign mRNA triggers our own DNA to produce virus spike proteins. This will disrupt our natural physiological feedback loops, putting the body at risk of overreacting, for example with a dangerous and potentially deadly ‘cytokine storm’.
- Vaccines will be injected into the muscles, but we don’t know where in the body the spike proteins will be produced, for example the liver, the bone marrow, the brain?
- Since we don’t know where in the body the spike production will take place, it can be present anywhere in the body. This makes it very difficult to assess, it requires a huge study that has not been done to the degree that is needed.
- The vaccines contain adjuvants that boost the immune system, which can also cause a cytokine storm overreaction.
- One of the spike proteins produced by our cells to trigger antibody formation
is very similar to syncytin-1. This protein was taken over from a retrovirus during evolution and is required to form a placenta.
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Vaccinations in Spain to start Jan. 5; herd immunity expected by summer | Added December 14
Spain will begin vaccinating people against the coronavirus as soon as January 4th or 5th, its health minister Salvador Illa said on Monday.
Presuming that the European Medicines Agency approves use of the vaccine by December 29th then authorities will begin the programme of mass vaccination in early January, Illa said.
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Naturopath Pam Popper: The CDC and Fauci regarding Asymptomatic Spread of COVID-19 | Added December 14
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Gothamist: NYC Nurse Is The First Person Vaccinated For COVID-19 In The U.S.| Added December 14
Long Island Jewish Medical Center, which is located in Queens and part of Northwell Health, is administering the first vaccines this morning to frontline healthcare workers.
Though the vaccine represents a turning point in the pandemic, it is not yet known if the vaccine prevents those who are injected with it from transmitting it to others. People would still need to wear masks and physically distance, and the CDC recommends even those who get the vaccine should continue wearing a mask.
“Just because we’re giving out the vaccine, it’s no excuse for the public out there not to continue wearing masks, not to social distance, et cetera,” said Michael Dowling, the president and CEO of Northwell Health.
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Mike Sygula at TruthTheory: This is Why I’m Not Getting the Covid-19 Vaccine | Added December 14
“These are the facts. This is not anti-vaccine propaganda. I think every case should be examined individually. And if we are about to experiment with our own bodies at this scale, we should be fully informed and have an actual, real choice. So I don’t want to cause any confusion here. I think for many people, this might be the only real opportunity. I don’t want to take part in this experiment. I think we should actually have a real choice, and not [one] where they tell you, ‘Yeah, you have a choice,’ — but you don’t really have a life without it, so you don’t really have a choice. And especially, if there are some really good ways to boost immunity naturally.”
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OffGuardian: Why this campaign of terror | Added Dec. 14
In the morning, the world is as the world should be. The sun rises, as predicted for this part of England in early December, at around twenty past eight. Shortly after this, I get up, go through the usual morning routines, have a quick breakfast, wash up, and am at my computer by ten o’clock. The hours pass unexceptionably until lunchtime. And then I can no longer put off the trip to the shops.
Going to the shops is something I do as little as possible nowadays. Once I might have walked in and out of the nearby town centre several times in a day, without thinking twice: but that was when I could move from home to street seamlessly, with no jarring transition between here and there.
Now it’s different. Now, beyond the protective confines of our home lies a parallel universe, a place of outlandish rituals and dogmas, where grotesquely masked figures pass each other warily on the street or, in the supermarket, lurk out-of-touch behind symbolic plastic screens. Instead of muzak, as I follow the prescribed route between the aisles, disembodied voices warn of death and disease, order me to protect myself and others by maintaining distance and keeping my plague-ridden exhalations to myself.
“We’re in this together!” they proclaim.
In less than a year some malign necromancy has transformed the fearless social beings who once thronged shops and cafés in the run-up to each Christmas into an infestation of dangerous, outsized germs: or, if scrupulous examination of the facts has left you confident that “the novel coronavirus” is no more threatening to moderately healthy people than the nastier brands of flu, into the crazed adherents of some apocalyptic cult.
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And Who the F*ck is This Guy? | Added December 14
.@BillGates on Covid: “Even through 2022” we should be prepared for life to not return to “normal”
Says “sadly” it’s “appropriate” for bars and restaurants to close over the next “four to six months” pic.twitter.com/cmDD8pv3XR
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 13, 2020
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From the Make It Stop Department | Added December 14
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FDA authorizes Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use | Added December 11
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday gave emergency use authorization to the nation’s first coronavirus vaccine, launching what scientists hope will be a critical counteroffensive against a pathogen that has killed more than 290,000 Americans, shredded the nation’s social and political fabric and devastated the economy.
The historic authorization of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech for people age 16 and older, just 336 days after the genetic blueprint of a novel coronavirus was shared online by Chinese scientists, sets in motion a highly choreographed and complex distribution process aimed at speeding vaccines throughout the United States to curb the pandemic.
The FDA action came after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Friday told FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn to be prepared to submit his resignation if the agency did not clear the vaccine by day’s end, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss what happened.
Meadows’s threat followed months of efforts by FDA scientists to try to ward off President Trump’s importuning on the vaccine and keep the review process apolitical and transparent in hopes of boosting public confidence in the shots. The FDA already had planned to clear the vaccine Saturday morning, and accelerating the authorization to Friday night was not expected to change the delivery timeline of the first shots.
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CNBC: Trial Participants Warn of Intense Symptoms After Second Shot | Added December 11
When trial participant Yasir Batalvi first read Moderna’s 22-page consent form warning of side effects ranging from nothing at all to death, he felt pretty worried, he told CNBC.
“You have to keep in mind, I joined the trial when we didn’t know it was going to be a safe vaccine,” said Batalvi, a recent college graduate living in Boston.
The 24-year-old said that when he got the first injection in mid-October, it felt just like a flu shot. “I experienced stiffness and pain in my left arm where I had gotten the shot, but it was mild,” he explained. “By that evening, I didn’t want to move my arm above my shoulder, but it was localized, and it disappeared by the next day.”
The second dose was a different story.
“After the injection, I had the same side effects as the first: localized pain and stiffness, but it was a little bit worse. My arm got sore faster, and by the time I got home, I started feeling fatigued and like anyone would feel if they were coming down with the flu,” said Batalvi.
More significant symptoms presented that evening. “I developed a low-grade fever and had chills,” he said. “That evening was rough.”
After a restless night, he called the study doctors, who reassured him it was a normal reaction and no cause for concern. By that afternoon, Batalvi said, he felt like himself again.
Moderna stopped testing the highest dose of its vaccine during the trial because of the number of reports of severe adverse reactions.
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Stat News: FDA advisory panel endorses Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine | Added December 10
From Stat News:
A panel of outside experts on Thursday recommended the Food and Drug Administration issue an emergency use authorization to the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a vaccine that appeared to be highly efficacious in a Phase 3 clinical trial.
The 17-4 vote came after a long day in which members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, discussed a wide range of issues related to the vaccine, including concerns about vaccinating people with severe allergies and 16- and 17-year-olds, as well as issues regarding vaccination during pregnancy or lactation.
Although the FDA does not have to follow the panel’s recommendation, it is widely expected to do so.
The rollout of Covid-19 vaccine could then begin in the United States in a matter of days.
STAT’s coverage of the meeting is below, with updates and analysis posted in reverse chronological order.
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FDA recommends that EUA be approved for Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine | Added December 10
Here is the full day of discussion from the vaccine advisory committee meeting today.
In the last few minutes, after the moderator ended the meeting, a separate person could be heard saying “It’s just that, you have limited data—” before the window was closed. This person seemed to be discussing the results of the vote with someone.
It was an interesting note to end on.
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FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to be held today; DOD stands ready to distribute vaccine once authorized | Added December 10
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be holding a vaccine advisory committee meeting today, December 10th, from 9am to 6pm EST. The meeting will be open session, and discuss “Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals 16 years of age and older.” It will be broadcast to the public on YouTube and Twitter — the details may be found here.
Meanwhile the Department of Defense has announced its plans to distribute Pfizer’s vaccine following Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.
The Department of Defense aims to administer just under 44,000 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine within 24 to 48 hours of authorization for emergency use. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said they will make a decision soon after they hear from an advisory committee which meets Thursday.
The vaccine will be distributed through 16 DOD installations, 13 in the U.S and three overseas. The facilities selected are in California, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington, director of the Defense Health Agency Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place said in a news conference Wednesday.
Each location was selected to be part of the DOD’s control pilot program for vaccine distribution. The installations selected have sizable populations to receive the vaccine, ample medical staff and the cold storage capabilities required, Place explained. Health care workers and high-risk people at these locations will be inoculated first.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery said some senior leaders will also receive the vaccine “as one way of helping to message the safety and efficacy, and underscore that we are encouraging all those eligible personnel to take the vaccine.”
The emergency use authorization would prohibit the vaccine from being administered to anyone who doesn’t want to take it. But DOD officials are optimistic that their 11 million personnel will have faith in the FDA.
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2020 News: Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon request a stop of all corona vaccination studies | Added December 10
On December 1, 2020, the ex-Pfizer head of respiratory research Dr. Michael Yeadon and the lung specialist and former head of the public health department Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg filed an application with the EMA, the European Medicine Agency responsible for EU-wide drug approval, for the immediate suspension of all SARS CoV 2 vaccine studies, in particular the BioNtech/Pfizer study on BNT162b (EudraCT number 2020-002641-42).
Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon demand that the studies – for the protection of the life and health of the volunteers – should not be continued until a study design is available that is suitable to address the significant safety concerns expressed by an increasing number of renowned scientists against the vaccine and the study design.
On the one hand, the petitioners demand that, due to the known lack of accuracy of the PCR test in a serious study, a so-called Sanger sequencing must be used. This is the only way to make reliable statements on the effectiveness of a vaccine against Covid-19. On the basis of the many different PCR tests of highly varying quality, neither the risk of disease nor a possible vaccine benefit can be determined with the necessary certainty, which is why testing the vaccine on humans is unethical per se.
Furthermore, they demand that it must be excluded, e.g. by means of animal experiments, that risks already known from previous studies, which partly originate from the nature of the corona viruses, can be realized. The concerns are directed in particular to the following points:
– The formation of so-called “non-neutralizing antibodies” can lead to an exaggerated immune reaction, especially when the test person is confronted with the real, “wild” virus after vaccination. This so-called antibody-dependent amplification, ADE, has long been known from experiments with corona vaccines in cats, for example. In the course of these studies all cats that initially tolerated the vaccination well died after catching the wild virus.
– The vaccinations are expected to produce antibodies against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. However, spike proteins also contain syncytin-homologous proteins, which are essential for the formation of the placenta in mammals such as humans. It must be absolutely ruled out that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 could trigger an immune reaction against syncytin-1, as otherwise infertility of indefinite duration could result in vaccinated women.
– The mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer contain polyethylene glycol (PEG). 70% of people develop antibodies against this substance – this means that many people can develop allergic, potentially fatal reactions to the vaccination.
– The much too short duration of the study does not allow a realistic estimation of the late effects. As in the narcolepsy cases after the swine flu vaccination, millions of healthy people would be exposed to an unacceptable risk if an emergency approval were to be granted and the possibility of observing the late effects of the vaccination were to follow. Nevertheless, BioNTech/Pfizer apparently submitted an application for emergency approval on December 1, 2020.
NPR: FDA Head Stephen Hahn On What’s Next For Pfizer Vaccine In Fast-Moving Process | Added December 9
As we have previously discussed at length here on Covid19 News, if we are relying on the PCR to indicate why people are dying and whether we are in a pandemic, we do not “know that people are dying of COVID-19” for certain.
How can you be sure that there are no long-term side effects from this vaccine with only several months of data?
So even if you look at other vaccine approvals, the normal approval process, we can, as with any medical product, never 100% predict long-term side effects. That’s why we have a vigorous post-authorization process for assessing both safety and effectiveness.
So I want to be really clear with the American people. This is expedited. We’re not cutting corners in terms of our assessment. But we know that the work isn’t done. If there’s an authorization that’s upcoming, we have to continue to monitor and to have surveillance.
We also need to balance. This is an important balance. We know that people are dying of COVID-19 and that prevention of COVID-19, if the data support it, is likewise a very important measure that needs to be instituted and the vaccine can help us with that potentially if it’s authorized.
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Canada becomes third nation, behind UK and Bahrain, to authorize Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, prepares for innoculations next week | Added December 9
“We are not in a race with any other regulator. What we are trying to do is beat this virus,” said Supriya Sharma, senior medical adviser at Canada’s health department. “We expedited the review, but we did not compromise in terms of the safety, efficacy and quality.”
A spokeswoman for Pfizer’s Canadian unit said Wednesday that Pfizer would supply Canada up to 76 million doses of the vaccine. The agreement calls for Canada to buy a minimum of 20 million doses with an option for 56 million more.
On Monday, Canada said it secured early delivery of 249,000 initial doses in anticipation that inoculations could start as early as next week.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told The Wall Street Journal on Monday approval was imminent. He said the pending vaccine rollout—combined with an aggressive fiscal policy—would fuel an economic recovery that is expected to gather strength by the middle of 2021.
The goal, Mr. Trudeau said, is to inoculate three million Canadians by the end of the first quarter, and a majority of the country’s 38 million residents by September.
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Two adverse reactions prompt UK medicine regulator to change official advice and warn those with serious allergies to avoid Pfizer vaccine | Added December 9
Britain’s medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergies do not get Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported adverse reactions on the first day of rollout.
Starting with the elderly and frontline workers, Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday, part of a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis said the advice had been changed after two NHS workers reported anaphylactoid reactions associated with receiving the vaccine. They were among the thousands who received the shot on Tuesday.
“As is common with new vaccines the MHRA (regulator) have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination, after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday,” Powis said.
“Both are recovering well.”
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Florida to require cycle thresholds be reported with PCR test results | Added December 8
The Florida Department of Health quietly sent out a memo by email on Friday afternoon, mandating that “Cycle threshold (CT) values and their reference ranges, as applicable, must be reported by laboratories to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately.”
The full memo can be read here.
The most common type of COVID-19 testing uses a technology called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which a sample is doubled until the amount of viral material exceeds a threshold. The cycle threshold is the value at which the sample exceeds the threshold, and various scientific papers recommend a maximum of 25-34 cycles to detect viral material that can be grown in culture (thus more likely to indicate that the patient is infectious). It is common for COVID-19 tests to run 38-40 doubling cycles, resulting in some unknown number of positive results for people who are not infectious.
It is unclear whether these results will be publicized or whether this is a first step toward changing the definition of a COVID-19 case in Florida.
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CNN: Florida police raid home of former state Covid-19 data scientist | Added December 8
Florida police raided the home of a former state coronavirus data scientist on Monday, escalating a feud between the state government and a data expert who has accused officials of trying to cover up the extent of the pandemic.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement executed a search warrant Monday morning at the home of data scientist Rebekah Jones, who was fired by the state Department of Health in May. The agency is investigating whether Jones accessed a state government messaging system without authorization to urge employees to speak out about coronavirus deaths, according to an affidavit by an agent working on the case.
Jones told CNN that she hadn’t improperly accessed any state messaging system and that she lost access to her government computer accounts after she was removed from her position.
About 10 officers with guns drawn showed up to her Tallahassee home around 8:30 a.m., Jones said. A video taken from a camera in her house, which she posted on social media, showed an officer pointing a gun up a stairwell as Jones told him her two children were upstairs. Jones said that the officer was pointing his gun at her 2-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son and her husband, who she said were in the stairwell, although the video doesn’t make that clear.
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Coronavirus vaccination begins in the UK | Added December 8
The first people in the UK are set to receive a coronavirus jab on what has been dubbed “V-Day”, as a mass vaccination programme begins.
About 70 hospital hubs across the UK are gearing up to give the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to the over-80s and some health and care staff.
The programme aims to protect the most vulnerable and return life to normal.
Grandfather-of-nine Dr Hari Shukla, 87, said he was “delighted to be doing my bit” by getting the jab on Tuesday.
“I feel it is my duty to do so and do whatever I can to help,” said Dr Shukla, who will receive his jab at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle with his wife, Ranjan.
The UK will be the first country in the world to start using the Pfizer vaccine after regulators approved its use last week.
Vaccination will not be compulsory.
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ProPublica: Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit | Added December 8
From ProPublica:
The promise of antigen tests emerged like a miracle this summer. With repeated use, the theory went, these rapid and cheap coronavirus tests would identify highly infectious people while giving healthy Americans a green light to return to offices, schools and restaurants. The idea of on-the-spot tests with near-instant results was an appealing alternative to the slow, lab-based testing that couldn’t meet public demand.
By September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had purchased more than 150 million tests for nursing homes and schools, spending more than $760 million. But it soon became clear that antigen testing — named for the viral proteins, or antigens, that the test detects — posed a new set of problems. Unlike lab-based, molecular PCR tests, which detect snippets of the virus’s genetic material, antigen tests are less sensitive because they can only detect samples with a higher viral load. The tests were prone to more false negatives and false positives. As problems emerged, officials were slow to acknowledge the evidence.
With the benefit of hindsight, experts said the Trump administration should have released antigen tests primarily to communities with outbreaks instead of expecting them to work just as well in large groups of asymptomatic people. Understanding they can produce false results, the government could have ensured that clinics had enough for repeat testing to reduce false negatives and access to more precise PCR tests to weed out false positives. Government agencies, which were aware of the tests’ limitations, could have built up trust by being more transparent about them and how to interpret results, scientists said.
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Staten Island bar owners make remarks | Added December 7
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Now on Planet Waves FM | Jupiter approaches conjunction to Saturn; 22 European and British scientists expose PCR ‘test’ design flaws and con — co-author Dr. Kevin Corbett is my guest
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This player contains the full interview, lasting 1 hour 50.
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Tonight I cover the run-up to the Jupiter-Saturn-Altair conjunction in Aquarius. These are a critical two weeks leading to this event, and my reading, much is about to come out. I covered some of that in Thursday night’s edition, called Drowning in Digital in easy to follow language. Further background can be found in the article How Safe is Too Safe?
You may be aware that a consortium of European and British scientists has prepared an external peer review of the original Jan. 23 paper that was supposed to have established the scientific basis of the pandemic. This is the “retraction paper,” or demand for retraction of the Jan. 23 paper, called the Corman-Drosten paper.
Tonight my guest (in the second player above) is Dr. Kevin Corbett, who for decades worked as a nurse directly with AIDS patients. He then pursued his doctorate in the technicalities and social implications of HIV testing.
Dr. Corbett is one of 22 coauthors of the peer review, and has given nearly two hours of his time to our audience to explain the implications of the paper.
Due to my unique background as a science writer and astrologer, we are the only publication that is able to handle both “sides” of reality with equal dexterity, and to integrate them. That’s the missing piece even in the alternative press, which tends to be politically obsessed (that is easy). Integrating spiritual maters and scientific ones — that’s exciting, and necessary.
Planet Waves FM is advertising-free, supported by our non-profit, Chiron Return. If you want to make a one-time or monthly donation, you are invited to do so. Each greatly facilitates our work.
Planet Waves astrology is also advertising-free and supported exclusively by you, our readers in the form of our Core Community. If you would like to get involved as a Core Community Member, here is the link.
I will have more news Saturday about our 2021 annual editions — please check your inbox in the early evening. Thank you for your trust, your readership and your business.
Here’s an interesting news roundup from Children’s Health Defense | Added December 6
From Children’s Health Defense:
- A participant in India’s AstraZeneca COVID vaccine trials reported to the Serum Institute, which is sponsoring the trial, that he developed acute neuro encephalopathy (a condition similar to what autistic children experience) after receiving the vaccine. “We should be very concerned about the tremendous levels of adverse events in all the COVID vaccine trials, and the obfuscation around who was in the trials.”
- New Zealand is creating “quarantine camps” where people who test positive for COVID are held against their will until they test negative. “It’s extraordinary that a common law country like New Zealand is leading the charge in these draconian measures.”
- In Portugal, the court ruled it illegal to force four German tourists into quarantine on the basis of a PCR test — which can give up to 97% false positives. Finland says it will not test healthy people, because there’s too much risk of false positives.
- Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, said he will refuse the COVID vaccine. “Good for him, it’s an individual’s right anywhere to refuse unwanted medical intervention, and it’s the law here in the U.S.”
- Employers can legally mandate the flu vaccine as a measure to prevent employees from getting COVID, but look for this issue to get more contentious. Some employers will also try to mandate COVID vaccines, “but I think legal cases against COVID vaccine mandates will succeed.”
- Celebrities are being recruited to counter “anti-vaxxers” and guilt people into getting the vaccine “for the common good, for your mother, for your grandmother.” But we’ll have celebrities on our side, too, and they’ll talk about the potential for injuries without liability, and how for vaccine makers and others, “there are trillions of dollars at stake.”
- In the UK, the British army says it will deploy its information warfare unit against “anti-vax propaganda.” But typically when a country starts deploying the military against its own citizens, “it doesn’t work for very long.”
- Some good news last week: The Supreme Court said New York can’t restrict the number of people allowed to gather in churches and synagogues. The court ruled that the government can’t use a crisis to overrule the First Amendment.
- There’s still time to contact the District of Columbia’s mayor and ask her to veto a bill, passed by Nov. 17 by the district’s city council that would allow children 11 and older to get a vaccine without parental consent. If this bill passes, Big Pharma will try to push it through all over the country. Even if you don’t live in D.C. please contact Mayor Bower. Go here for details.
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Short of mask mandate, Biden to ‘request’ all Americans to wear masks from Inauguration Day until May — 100 Days of Masks! | Added December 4
Joe Biden said Thursday that he will ask Americans to commit to 100 days of wearing masks as one of his first acts as president, stopping just short of the nationwide mandate he’s pushed before to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The move marks a notable shift from President Donald Trump, whose own skepticism of mask-wearing has contributed to a politicization of the issue. That’s made many people reticent to embrace a practice that public health experts say is one of the easiest ways to manage the pandemic, which has killed more than 275,000 Americans.
The president-elect has frequently emphasized mask-wearing as a “patriotic duty” and during the campaign floated the idea of instituting a nationwide mask mandate, which he later acknowledged would be beyond the ability of the president to enforce.
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Amazing Polly on The Great Reset | Added December 4
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California Governor Newsom orders new strict statewide lockdown measures to start Saturday | Added December 4
Californians will soon be asked to comply with strict limits on community outings, travel and in-person shopping under a statewide order issued Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a set of new and far-reaching restrictions tied to regional strains on critical care services as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
The rules, which take effect Saturday, are designed to last for at least 21 days once local critical care facilities approach capacity. But with so many hospitals in the state experiencing a rapid surge of patients with the disease, the “regional stay-at-home” order described by Newsom is likely to limit activities across California throughout the holiday season and possibly into the new year.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said in a midday news conference. “If we don’t act now, we’ll continue to see our death rate climb, more lives lost.”
Despite initial indications that 11 counties in Southern California and 12 counties in the San Joaquin Valley could be required to implement the new restrictions immediately, state health officials later provided a list showing no regions currently at the threshold for closure — meaning no more than 85% of their intensive care unit beds are filled. State officials intend to update the estimates of ICU capacity daily and post the information online.
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New Video from Naturopathic Physician Pam Popper on Surviving the Chaos | Added December 3
British Medical Journal blasts political and scientific abuse of Covid situation | Added December 3
BMJ, the British Medicla Journal, has published an editorial dismantling the abuse of the Covid situation and the corruption of science by government and Big Pharma.
From the article:
Science is being suppressed for political and financial gain. Covid-19 has unleashed state corruption on a grand scale, and it is harmful to public health.1 Politicians and industry are responsible for this opportunistic embezzlement. So too are scientists and health experts. The pandemic has revealed how the medical-political complex can be manipulated in an emergency—a time when it is even more important to safeguard science.
AND
Politicisation of science was enthusiastically deployed by some of history’s worst autocrats and dictators, and it is now regrettably commonplace in democracies.20 The medical-political complex tends towards suppression of science to aggrandise and enrich those in power. And, as the powerful become more successful, richer, and further intoxicated with power, the inconvenient truths of science are suppressed. When good science is suppressed, people die.
The three biggest scientific developments in the Covid situation happened in late November | Added Dec. 3
Johns Hopkins Study Says There were No Excess Deaths in 2020
First, Johns Hopkins University, in an official newsletter (founded 1896, and stylized News-Letter), reported that by its independent review of CDC data, there are no excess deaths in 2020. Johns Hopkins is a pillar of the medical and academic establishments and has been one of the official voices on the Covid issue. The notion of excess deaths is at the foundation of the claim that there is a pandemic happening. (Another foundation is that a disease be new.)
“Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same,” the University published in its official newsletter.
“These data analyses suggest that in contrast to most people’s assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States,” the article continues.
How to edit a virus, in case you were wondering. This is how it’s done — how the fraudulent PCR test was created, and how vaccines are designed | Added December 3
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CDC trims recommended quarantine period from 14 days, but why? | Added December 2
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shortening the recommended quarantine period from 14 days after a person has been exposed to the coronavirus, offering two alternatives, the agency said Wednesday.
The first alternative is to end quarantine after 10 days if no symptoms are reported, Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 incident manager, said on a call with reporters. The second option is to end quarantine after seven days if an individual tests negative and also reports no symptoms.
The decision is based on new research and modeling data, Walke said.
Shortening the length of quarantine “may make it easier for people to take this critical action, by reducing the economic hardship associated with a longer period, especially if they cannot work during that time,” Walke said.
It’s unclear how many Americans exposed to the virus have complied with the 14-day guidance since the pandemic began. According to Walke, the CDC has heard “anecdotally from our partners in public health that many people are discontinuing quarantine ahead of time because there’s pressure to go back to work, to get people back into school, and it imposes both a mental and possibly also physical burden on individuals.”
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Yet another new study suggests coronavirus was already present in fall 2019, this time in US | Added December 2
One can only hope that more studies will continue “disrupting previous thinking” on Covid-19.
The virus and the illness that it causes, COVID-19, were first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, but it wasn’t until about Jan. 20 that the first confirmed COVID-19 case, from a traveler returning from China, was found in the U.S.
However, new findings published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggest that the coronavirus, known officially as SARS-CoV-2, had infected people in the U.S. even earlier.
“SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the authors said.
This discovery adds to evidence that the virus was quietly spreading around the world before health officials and the public were aware, disrupting previous thinking of how the illness first emerged and how it has since evolved. It also shows the virus’s presence in U.S. communities likely didn’t start with the first case identified case in January.
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Over holiday weekend, Donald Trump’s special adviser on the coronavirus resigns | Added December 2
In response to the statement made by Dr. Scott Atlas’s Stanford colleagues, we ask these questions:
Where, again, is the evidence that mask-wearing and social-distancing are “proven preventative measures”? Where are the long-term clinical trials that show Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and ensure they won’t be hastily delivered in a way that is, at best, unhelpful, and at worst, harmful?
We would like to see that evidence and that regulation. We heartily welcome a scientific discussion of those studies and a civic discussion of those public policies.
Public health experts, including Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, have sharply criticized Atlas, a neuro-radiologist, for providing Trump with misleading or incorrect information on the virus pandemic.
“Dr. Scott Atlas’ resignation today is long overdue and underscores the triumph of science and truth over falsehoods and misinformation,” his peers at Stanford University’s medical school said in a statement issued late Monday. In September they had issued a letter denouncing his views.
“His actions have undermined and threatened public health even as countless lives have been lost to COVID-19. We will continue to advocate for evidence-based public health policies that are grounded in established science, including the use of proven preventative measures like mask-wearing and social-distancing, and the safe testing and delivery of effective therapies and vaccines.”
In his resignation letter, Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, listed what he considered accomplishments in reopening schools and expanding virus testing while also defending himself against his many critics.
“Like all scientists and health policy scholars, I learned new information and synthesized the latest data from around the world, all in an effort to provide you with the best information to serve the greater good,” he wrote.
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Police for freedom in Spain | Added December 2
Police in Spain are joining the protests there. Need we say more?
An amazing movement is beginning to take form in Spain as a group of police has come together to blow the whistle on the systemic human rights abuse and take a stand for freedom.
On the 28th of November, Policías por la Libertad (Police for Freedom) were leading the peaceful march through Valencia, supported by Dawn of Peace, Doctors for Truth, Scientists for Truth, Firemen for Freedom and Truth, Soberanía y Salud as well as Rebelión en La Granja.
We are coming together and standing on the right side of history! Join us!
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Hours after UK approves Pfizer’s vaccine, Putin calls for mass vaccinations of Russians to begin | Added December 2
The Kremlin is betting on a Russian-made vaccine called Sputnik V to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Putin announced the vaccine’s registration with the Russian Health Ministry in August when he said one of his daughters had tried it out.
Putin has since touted Sputnik V, still in phase three clinical trials, as the “world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus.” The vaccine’s name — the same as the world’s first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 — suggests that the Kremlin views vaccine development as a mini-space race.
In November, after Pfizer announced that interim results showed its vaccine was more than 90% effective, the Russian government researchers making Sputnik V said their vaccine had 92% efficacy. When Pfizer then raised its efficacy rate to 95%, the developers of Sputnik V followed suit by announcing an efficacy of “over 95%.”
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UK vaccine minister suggests pubs and restaurants might turn away the non-vaccinated | Added December 2
And just a few days ago the UK’s newly appointed vaccine minister had this vision of the future to share.
Customers who have refused a Covid-19 vaccine could be turned away by hospitality and sports venues, the government’s vaccine minister has suggested, as he discussed the idea of using technology to reopen the economy.
Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed on Saturday to be responsible for overseeing the rollout of the jab, said that while having the vaccine would not be compulsory, businesses such as pubs and restaurants might require proof that people have been vaccinated before allowing them in.
It raises questions over whether the government might use immunity passports as a way to get people back into shops and hospitality venues after a vaccine is licensed. They are already used by some countries to see whether people have protection against yellow fever or polio.
Asked by the BBC whether those who have been inoculated would get an immunity passport, Zahawi said: “We are looking at the technology. And, of course, a way of people being able to inform their GP that they have been vaccinated. But, also, I think you’ll probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system – as they have done with the [test and trace] app.
“I think that in many ways the pressure will come from both ways. From service providers who’ll say: ‘Look, demonstrate to us that you have been vaccinated.’ But, also, we will make the technology as easy and accessible as possible.”
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The UK approves Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine as safe for use | Added December 2
As the article below states, the UK is now the first country to approve Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine. Vaccinations are expected to begin in the coming days.
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.
Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out.
The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs.
Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff.
But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there – for care home staff, NHS staff and patients – so none of the vaccine is wasted.
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Democracy Now! report on relationship between evictions and pandemic deaths | Added December 1
Eric’s comment: Finally Democracy Now! finds an angle.
New research finds more than 400,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 11,000 deaths resulted from evictions, after many states allowed eviction moratoriums to expire over the summer. Emergency room physician Dr. Jason Wilson tweeted in response, “Stable housing is even more important than wearing a mask. Getting out of this pandemic means following all the CDC guidelines — including the one about not evicting people during a global pandemic.”
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Head of FDA summoned to White House amid pressure to authorize vaccine emergency use | Added December 1
Stephen Hahn, who is the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration, was summoned to the White House to discuss why a vaccine for the coronavirus has yet to be approved.
The head of the agency responsible for approving COVID-19 vaccines said Tuesday after a meeting at the White House that federal officials would take the time needed to “get this right,” despite increasing pressure and growing frustration from President Donald Trump that approval is taking too long.
“No one at FDA is sitting on his or her hands. Everyone is working really hard to look at these applications and get this done,” Stephen Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, told ABC in an interview on Instagram live. “But we absolutely have to do this the right way.”
Hahn’s comments came not long after he was summoned to the White House by Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows as the agency weighs whether to allow emergency use of the first vaccines that could help defeat the coronavirus in the U.S.
Trump has been livid with the FDA for not moving faster, blaming the fact that a vaccine was not developed ahead of the Nov. 3 election in part for his loss. He also has leveled unfounded claims that drug companies deliberately delayed vaccine development to hinder his chances, though there is no evidence to suggest that took place.
Covid19 News is published by a small nonprofit called Chiron Return. We are sustained exclusively by our readers. Please support our efforts and make a donation today.
Pfizer and partner BioNTech have applied for coronavirus vaccine approval in Europe | Added December 1
U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said they have applied to the European Medicines Agency for the conditional marketing authorization of their coronavirus vaccine.
If the authorization is granted, it could enable use of the vaccine in Europe this month, BioNTech said.
“In the interest of public health, applicants may be granted a conditional marketing authorisation for such medicines where the benefit of immediate availability outweighs the risk of less comprehensive data than normally required,” it adds. The applicant should be in a position to provide comprehensive clinical data in the future.
“Today’s announcement marks another key milestone in our efforts to fulfill our promise to do everything we can to address this dire crisis given the critical public health need,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said in a statement.
“We have known since the beginning of this journey that patients are waiting, and we stand ready to ship Covid-19 vaccine doses as soon as potential authorizations will allow us.”