Covid News Watch
Mum’s Numb Arm Following COVID Jab Diagnosed as Motor Neuron Disease + More
Mum’s Numb Arm Following COVID Jab Diagnosed as Motor Neuron Disease
A mum has been diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND) after her symptoms were originally believed to have been caused by a COVID-19 vaccine. Anna Barrow, 38, from Eccles, Greater Manchester was told she had MND in May this year after she started experiencing a loss of sensation in her arm.
The mum-of-three first first noticed the symptom in March 2021 but doctors believed it could have been caused by nerve damage from having her jab too high up in her arm. It was hoped she should see an improvement in the next 18 months but her symptoms progressively got worse and the loss of sensation spread across her body.
She was urgently referred to a neurology department but while waiting for an appointment Anna realised she was struggling to breathe and swallow during a work meeting, which prompted her to go to A&E.
The NHS says MND is a condition that affects the brain and nerves, causing weakness that gets worse over time.
Living With Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis: A Qualitative Study
Following the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, governments across the world instigated a range of infection control measures including mass vaccination. Although effective in reducing the severity of COVID-19 infection, a very small percentage of individuals receiving adenoviral vector-based vaccines experienced vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), which involved life-threatening thromboses in multiple body sites.
At the onset, symptoms of thrombosis included severe pain (unremitting headache, backache, abdominal pain, chest pain), typical manifestations of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism (PE), such as leg swelling and breathlessness, and in extreme cases seizures and disturbed consciousness. Intracerebral bleeding occurred in approximately one-third of those with cerebral vein thrombosis, with high mortality risk.
Survivors report a range of long-term debilitating symptoms including those related to stroke (eg, limb weakness or paralysis, dysphasia, chronic headache), PE, myocardial infarction, hepatic hypertension, loss of limb and chronic fatigue.
The need for long-term psychological care has also been acknowledged. This should not be surprising. The sudden-onset, life-threatening and life-changing nature of VITT would predict high levels of associated psychological distress among survivors, similar if not greater than those found in patients with more ‘classic’ thrombosis.
Interior Department Worked With Group Linked to Wuhan Lab on Key COVID Report: Watchdog
The Department of the Interior worked with officials from a global non-profit linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China on a key study of COVID and bats in the United States, according to a watchdog group.
Protect the Public’s Trust, a government watchdog organization, obtained documents showing that the Interior Department worked with officials from the EcoHealth Alliance, a controversial group linked to the lab in Wuhan, on a report on “the possibility that humans could give SARS-CoV-2 to bats and bats would, in turn, spread the infection back to humans.”
The EcoHealth Alliance previously took a U.S. grant for bat virus research and paid part of it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The group’s president, Peter Daszak, was part of the World Health Organization-China team that dismissed the lab leak hypothesis as “extremely unlikely.”
“As we unearth more EcoHealth Alliance ties to the federal government, the question is why the federal government has downplayed the organization’s apparent reporting violations and how the public can have any confidence that it is deserving of taxpayer funds,” Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain added.
The watchdog’s report comes as increased scrutiny is being placed on the Wuhan lab, as some entities, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, believe that it is likely that COVID emerged after a lab leak.
‘Alarming’ Sevenfold Increase in Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Linked to COVID and Vaccine
A sudden increase in Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) — a rare and potentially fatal skin disorder — may be triggered by COVID-19, increased vaccination rates, or a lowered threshold caused by vaccines or previous infection, according to a large case series recently published in the medical journal Burns.
While SJS isn’t caused by fire, it is typically treated by burn units in hospitals because of its similarities to actual burns. Researchers with the burns unit at Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Australia saw two to four cases of SJS, or toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), per year prior to COVID-19. In the first six months of 2022 alone, the same burn center observed a sevenfold rise in cases.
Of the 14 reported cases, five patients had COVID-19 a month before developing SJS/TEN, and three of 14 patients received a COVID-19 vaccine one month prior. Not a single case of SJS/TEN was reported in an unvaccinated individual.
Researchers said the rarity of the condition and presence of medications known to trigger the disease make the link difficult to prove, but the rapid rise in cases since the beginning of the pandemic and vaccine rollout is “alarming.”
Increased Antibiotic Exposure Linked to Severe COVID Outcomes
Repeated antibiotic exposure may be associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes, British researchers reported this week in eClinical Medicine.
To investigate whether frequent antibiotic exposure may be linked to COVID-19 severity, a team led by researchers from the University of Manchester conducted a matched case-control study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 (the cases) and those with a COVID-19 diagnosis (the controls). Using 3 years of patient data prior to infection, the researchers created five quintile groups based on the number of prior antibiotic prescriptions and used conditional logistic regression to compare the difference between cases and controls.
The researchers observed a dose-response relationship between the number of antibiotic prescriptions and the risk of severe outcomes. The case group had higher odds of receiving antibiotics than controls, and the risk rose with increased exposure. For the highest antibiotic exposure quintile, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) was 1.80 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.75 to 1.84) for hospital admission and 1.34 (95% CI, 1.28 to 1.41) for death compared with patients without antibiotic exposure.
A larger number of prior antibiotic types was also associated with more severe COVID-19 outcomes. The adjusted OR for those who received more than three antibiotic types in the previous 3 years was nearly double that of those who received only one antibiotic type (OR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.75 to 1.84 vs OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.05).
“Given the known effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiome, it seems advisable to discourage the regular practice of indiscriminately prescribing antibiotics repeatedly and intermittently, given their uncertain benefits and likely risks,” the authors wrote.
New COVID Variants Giving ‘Arcturus’ a Run for its Money
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The so-called “Arcturus” coronavirus strain is the most prominent variant circulating in the U.S., but several other Omicron subvariants are increasing across the country.
XBB.1.16, or Arcturus, was responsible for more than 17% of new COVID-19 infections over the past two weeks, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a slight increase from the previous two-week period, which CDC revised down to 16%.
XBB.1.5, which will be the target of the fall COVID-19 vaccines, is not far behind at 16% of new infections in recent weeks.
But other Omicron subvariants are making inroads in the U.S., including EG.5 and XBB.2.3. Each strain was responsible for 13% of new infections over the last two weeks. The World Health Organization is monitoring XBB.2.3, which is also increasing globally. According to WHO, some countries are seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Washington University Researchers Develop Air Monitor That Detects COVID Virus
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
A team of researchers at Washington University has developed an air monitor that can alert users to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19 — in just five minutes.
In an article published in Nature Communications on Monday, the researchers showed the monitor’s ability to detect as few as tens of viral particles in a cubic meter. They hope to commercialize the air monitor so it can be placed in public spaces like hospitals and schools, helping prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The monitor works by pulling a high volume of air into the device — about 1,000 liters per minute. The high speed traps any aerosols collected within a fluid, where a sensor resides.
Virus particles then bind to a protein on the sensor that recognizes the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Finally, a voltage is applied that alters the charge of the virus particle, and the sensor detects that electrical change. With a switch from a green to red light, the monitor signals the need for increased airflow in the room.
New Insights Into Long COVID Point to Damage to the Vagus Nerve
Reports from 2022 show that more than 65 million people that were infected with COVID-19 developed long-lasting symptoms, a condition that is now defined as Long COVID. Given how difficult it can be to identify and diagnose, the incidence rates among those exposed to multiple viral infections may be much higher. Long COVID symptoms, such as fatigue, difficulty breathing, and brain fog, can significantly interfere with one’s quality of life.
Emerging studies now suggest that many of these symptoms may be a consequence of damage to the vagus nerve. As the body’s primary communication superhighway, the vagus nerve extends into every major organ in the body, including the heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. Injury to this nerve, therefore, can disrupt the systems we rely on to breath, digest, and simply function on a daily basis.
Here, we will highlight recent insights gained from a team in Spain investigating the impact of COVID-19 infection on the vagus nerve.
Investigators took a closer look at the nerve itself using ultrasound imaging. In 20% of those reporting Long COVID symptoms, they observed significant thickening throughout parts of the vagus nerve that extend out from the neck and into the chest. Nerve thickening often results from inflammatory damage. Lldados et. al, therefore, speculate that these structural changes in the vagus nerve were likely a consequence of direct viral infection, as well as indirect damage from robust activation of the immune system.
Scientists Develop ‘All Species’ COVID Test
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Researchers can now detect the COVID-19 virus in any animal using a new all-species test. It’s an advance that they say will help track COVID-19 variants in wild and domesticated animals.
Ying Fang, a virologist and pathobiology professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, led the research.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been detected in cats, dogs, rodents, deer, apes and a variety of farm and zoo animals. It can also mutate in these animal hosts, leading to new variants.
While most coronavirus tests require specialized chemical reagents to detect antibody responses against the virus in each species tested, this one focuses on antibodies against a protein, called the N-protein. That protein is embedded in part of the virus known as the nucleocapsid. The N-protein is a better target for testing, Fang said in a university news release.
Moderna Strikes Deal to Develop mRNA Drugs in China + More
Moderna Strikes Deal to Develop mRNA Drugs in China
Moderna on Wednesday said it struck a deal with Chinese officials to research, develop and manufacture messenger RNA medicines in the country, despite rising tensions between the U.S. and China.
The Massachusetts-based biotech company signed a memorandum of understanding and a related land collaboration deal to develop drugs that will “be exclusively for the Chinese people” and won’t “be exported,” a Moderna spokesperson told CNBC.
Chinese media outlet Yicai first reported on Tuesday that Moderna was slated to make its first investment in China which could be worth around $1 billion, citing unnamed sources. The outlet also reported that Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was visiting Shanghai.
Moderna is trying to capitalize on the success of its COVID vaccine, which uses a platform called mRNA to teach human cells to produce an immune response against a virus.
Rare Link Between Coronavirus Vaccines and Long COVID–Like Illness Starts to Gain Acceptance
COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives, and the world is gearing up for a new round of boosters. But like all vaccines, those targeting the coronavirus can cause side effects in some people, including rare cases of abnormal blood clotting and heart inflammation.
Another apparent complication, a debilitating suite of symptoms that resembles Long COVID, has been more elusive, its link to vaccination unclear and its diagnostic features ill-defined. But in recent months, what some call Long Vax has gained wider acceptance among doctors and scientists, and some are now working to better understand and treat its symptoms.
Despite the uncertainties, German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach acknowledged in March that though rare, Long COVID–like symptoms after vaccination are a real phenomenon. He said his ministry was working to organize funding for studies, although none has been announced so far.
Woman Files $10.5 Million Lawsuit Against Federal Government and CBC for Vaccine Harms
A Canadian mother of three who says she suffered “permanent, significant physical, psychological, and emotional harms, and other damages” after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has filed a $10.5 million lawsuit against the federal government, CBC News, and others.
According to a July 3 media release by the groups Empowered Canadians and the Institute for Freedom and Justice, the lawsuit was filed in the Court of King’s Bench in Lethbridge, Alberta, against the federal minister of health, the chief public health officer of Canada, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Alberta Health Services, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, among others.
According to the release, Sakamoto was a “previously healthy woman” until she received her second COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly afterward, she was admitted to Lethbridge Hospital with paralysis in her face, mouth, and tongue, and difficulty eating and blinking. Sakamoto remained on a feeding tube in the hospital for 17 days.
After a medical evaluation, the 47-year-old was diagnosed with a severe and permanent case of Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face, the release says. Sakamoto went on to experience chronic health issues such as facial paralysis, vision impairment, dizziness, memory loss, cognitive impairment, sleep disruption, speech impairment, and tinnitus.
More Than Three-Quarters of Americans 16 and Older Have Been Infected With COVID: CDC
U.S. News & World Report reported:
While a little more than half of American adults think they’ve had COVID-19, the reality is about 77.5% have been infected at least once, new government data shows.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released final estimates for people ages 16 and up for 2022.
About 96.7% of adults had antibodies to the virus either from infection, vaccination or a combination of the two, the CDC reported. But U.S. Census data shows that only 54.9% of Americans think they have had COVID.
Estimates for children were previously released, using data from commercial testing laboratories, in which nine of 10 people under age 18 had been infected, CBS News reported.
Naloxone Being Studied to Treat Long COVID Chronic Fatigue
University Hospital’s COVID-19 Recovery Clinic doctors are now in the treatment phase of their studies, researching and developing different protocols, therapies, and medications that can improve long COVID-19 symptoms. Clinic head, David Rosenberg, said some drugs look hopeful.
“Naloxone or Narcan, which is an opioid blocker,” Rosenberg said. “That’s been potentially useful in certain patients.”
Historically, low doses of a drug called Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist primarily used to treat alcohol addiction, have shown to be effective in post-viral fatigue syndrome. Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a rescue medication for opioid overdoses. It has a similar mechanism of action as Naltrexone and could have similar efficacy for long COVID-19 fatigue.
No Texts. No Contracts. No Criticism. How Europe’s COVID Inquiry Went Dark
It all started so promisingly. In March 2022, the European Parliament set up a special committee on COVID-19, fueled by the desire to restore some democratic accountability to decisions where Europe’s lawmakers felt they had been sidelined.
The time seemed right for a transparency push. Just weeks earlier, the European Ombudsman had scolded the Commission for not searching for text messages allegedly exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in the run-up to signing the EU’s biggest vaccine contract. Yet, 16 months later, we know nothing more about the mysterious texts and what little we do know about the vaccine contracts comes from media leaks.
On May 30 this year, a little over a week before its final meeting, a select group of MEPs in the European Parliament’s committee on COVID-19 were sworn to secrecy and privately briefed on the outcome of a new vaccine deal struck by the European Commission with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Pierre Delsaux, head of the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), provided the MEPs with details of updates to the EU’s 2021 mega-contract to buy Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, which had put the bloc on the hook for 1.1 billion doses. HERA had led negotiations to reduce the number of vaccine deliveries from the U.S. pharmaceutical giant, following a request from EU countries who were struggling with an oversupply.
Enough Gaslighting. We Absolutely Need to Know Where COVID Came From. + More
Enough Gaslighting. We Absolutely Need to Know Where COVID Came From.
We should be near a breakthrough on the question of how the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that U.S. officials have identified three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who were sickened with a mysterious illness in November 2019. One of these researchers, Ben Hu, is reported to have studied bat coronaviruses, and reportedly did work on how they infect humans. (Hu denies having been ill.)
And over in the U.K., the Sunday Times reports that State Department investigators who scrutinized “top-secret intercepted communications and scientific research” concluded that “Chinese scientists were running a covert project of dangerous experiments, which caused a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and started the COVID-19 outbreak.”
After initially ignoring a law requiring it to declassify the information it has on the origins of COVID by a certain date, the Biden administration finally released a perfunctory report through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Despite its brevity, the report contains plenty of alarming information: Scientists at the WIV “genetically engineered coronaviruses” using “techniques that could make it difficult to detect intentional changes,” and “some WIV researchers probably did not use adequate biosafety precautions at least some of the time prior to the pandemic in handling SARS-like coronaviruses.”
And yet for all that, the report reads like another attempt to throw our hands up and say “We’ll never know.” As Mike Turner, Chair of the House intelligence committee, noted, instead of declassifying intelligence about the WIV to help us get closer to an answer, the DNI “did a paper on what they believe about the intelligence,” concluding simply that it’s all inconclusive.
Outgoing CDC Director Says the U.S. Is Not Prepared for the Next Pandemic Because Parts of the Public Health System Still Use ‘Old Fax Machines’
As she prepares to step down as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on June 30, Dr. Rochelle Walensky has given the U.S. a grave warning: The nation is not prepared for future public health crises.
“To this day some of our public health data systems are reliant on old fax machines,” Walensky wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times on Tuesday. These faxes led to significant delays across the nation during the coronavirus pandemic.
Washington State even had to bring 25 members of the National Guard to help with manual data entry from faxes, The Times reported in July 2020. And Austin, Texas, was recording deceptively low coronavirus case counts because of lags caused by fax machines.
Technological failures also caused vital information associated with COVID-19 test results to get lost, causing delays and roadblocks for public health officials while contact tracing, according to the New York Times.
Walensky added: “I want to remind America: The question is not if there will be another public health threat, but when.”
COVID Could Harm Men’s Sperm Months After Infection
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Having even a mild COVID-19 infection could trigger a months-long drop in sperm, a new study finds.
Researchers found both lower sperm concentrations and fewer sperm that were able to swim when studying men an average of 100 days after COVID-19 infection, which is enough time for new sperm to be produced.
The research team recruited 45 men with an average age of 31 at six reproductive clinics in Spain between February 2020 and October 2022. All had a confirmed diagnosis of mild COVID. The clinics had data from the analysis of semen samples taken before the men were infected.
Motility and the total sperm count were the most severely affected. Half of the men had total sperm counts that were 57% lower after COVID compared to their pre-COVID samples, the study discovered. The shape of the sperm was not significantly affected.
Home Delivery of Alcohol Expanded During Pandemic, With Permanent Effects on Health
U.S. News & World Report reported:
During the COVID-19 pandemic home liquor delivery soared in the United States, as did binge drinking along with it, a new study finds.
Researcher Elyse Grossman, a social and behavioral sciences administrator at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, and her team analyzed legal databases and found that more states permitted home delivery during the pandemic. In January 2020, 21 states permitted home delivery of alcohol by retailers, which grew to 38 states by January 2022.
“Although data from early in the pandemic showed large increases in alcohol sales, it was unclear at that time if individuals were increasing their alcohol consumption or only stockpiling the alcohol,” Grossman said in a meeting news release.
Your Blood Type Can Make You More Likely to Get COVID, New Research Suggests. Who’s Most at Risk
Can your blood type increase your chance of developing COVID? The idea was floated early in the pandemic, as scientists worked to determine why some became much sicker than others.
Initial research suggested that those with Type A blood might be at elevated risk compared to those with Type O — and new research published Tuesday in the journal Blood seems to confirm the notion.
Those with Type A blood — about a third of the U.S. population — are at a 20% to 30% greater risk of infection with the novel coronavirus than those with Type O blood (nearly half of Americans), Dr. Sean Stowell, associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and lead author on the study, tells Fortune.
More research needs to be done to understand if COVID shows a preference for blood types B and/or AB. Stowell’s team is currently looking into how the virus responds to Type B. While research is ongoing, whether or not one has such a blood type may become more relevant if they’re exposed to the virus orally.
Reckitt Creates ‘Air Sanitizing Spray’ Effective Against Coronavirus
Reckitt’s (RKT.L) Lysol disinfectant brand said on Tuesday that it would start selling in the U.S. an “air sanitizing spray” that kills 99.9% of airborne viruses and bacteria.
The spray, which Reckitt said helps reduce the spread of airborne pathogens such as cold, influenza and coronavirus, has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reckitt, Clorox (CLX.N) and other disinfectant makers benefited from a boom in sales of surface cleaners and wipes. At the time, there were no products suited to sanitizing air, though some anxious consumers took to spraying surface cleaners into their surroundings.
Fraudsters May Have Stolen $200 Billion in Federal COVID Relief Funds, New Report Says
More than $200 billion in COVID relief loans and grants were distributed to potentially fraudulent actors, nearly one-fifth of all Small Business Administration funds disbursed in the U.S., according to a new estimate by the inspector general for the SBA.
The estimate is the highest yet for the $1.2 trillion released under the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan from March 2020 to January 2022, by which time funding for both programs had ended. The figure is based on the watchdog’s casework, prior reports and advanced data analysis. Last year NBC News reported that fraud in the two programs, which together approved 22 million loans, could reach as high as $160 billion.
To date, at least $30 billion has been recovered, seized or returned to the U.S. Treasury. Financial institutions returned $8 billion and borrowers returned an additional $20 billion. The IG’s report said the watchdog’s work has produced 529 fraud convictions so far and that 570 investigations are ongoing.
Almost $1.9 Billion Left in COVID Vaccine Scheme for Future Health Efforts, Germany Says
Almost $1.9 billion left in the global scheme to share COVID-19 vaccines more equitably will be used to help prepare for future pandemics and other health threats, said the German development ministry on Tuesday.
Germany was a major donor to the COVAX vaccine initiative run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
As Reuters reported on Monday, donors and the Gavi board have been discussing what to do with the leftover funds as the emergency phase of the pandemic ends and vaccine demand dwindles.
At Gavi’s board meeting on Tuesday, they agreed to use $813 million for variant-adapted vaccines and boosters over the next two years, the spokesperson for Germany’s development ministry said. Almost $1.9 billion will now “be invested so that health systems are better prepared for future waves or pandemics,” they added.
COVID Vaccine Scheme for Poorest Has $2.6 Billion Left to Spend as Pandemic Recedes + More
COVID Vaccine Scheme for Poorest Has $2.6 Billion Left to Spend as Pandemic Recedes
Several billions of dollars left in a scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poorest could be diverted to prepare for other pandemics or to support vaccine manufacturing in Africa, the scheme’s partners said.
The COVAX initiative, run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), has $2.6 billion left in its coffers as the emergency phase of the pandemic draws to a close, according to documents seen by Reuters and two sources close to the scheme.
The initiative is set to wind up at the end of this year, although some of its work will continue. With demand for COVID-19 vaccines dwindling, the partners are now working out how best to use the remaining cash — a significant sum in global health — alongside the donors who originally pledged it.
Around $600 million was given as part of a “contingency” fund in case the pandemic escalated again. The remaining $2 billion has come back to COVAX after drugmakers agreed to refund deals agreed for vaccines at the height of the pandemic.
Around $700 million is likely to be used for an ongoing COVID-19 vaccination program in countries supported by Gavi, for 2024 and 2025. This option will be discussed by Gavi’s board this week. Another portion of the money will be used for booster shots this year and next.
Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein: If a Lab Leak Led to COVID, There Are Truths We Must Not Ignore
In the past year as the pandemic wound down, the “very likely” theory of an animal vector has been met with increasing skepticism. Many in the scientific community, as well as some in U.S. intelligence circles, do not buy the remarkable coincidence that the first COVID-19 cases just happened to appear in Wuhan, China, the site of the Chinese government-run Wuhan Institute of Virology. FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that the bureau believes COVID-19 most likely originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.
Now out is a comprehensive investigation of the virus origin by the Sunday Times of London, compiled with extensive sourcing including interviews with U.S. State Department special investigators who have been studying the origin of COVID-19 and have amassed secret intelligence on events in China before COVID-19 emerged.
The conclusion of Times reporters was startling. “Scientists in Wuhan working alongside the Chinese military were combining the world’s most deadly coronaviruses to create a new mutant virus just as the pandemic began. Investigators who scrutinized top-secret intercepted communications and scientific research believe Chinese scientists were running a covert project of dangerous experiments, which caused a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and started the COVID-19 outbreak.
The U.S. investigators say one of the reasons there is no published information on the work is because it was done in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding it and which, they say, was pursuing bioweapons.” Moreover, scientists from the Chinese military working at the Wuhan Institute were coincidentally involved in vaccine development just before the international outbreak.
U.S. Intelligence Report on COVID Origins Rejects Some Points Raised by Lab Leak Theory Proponents
U.S. officials released an intelligence report Friday that rejected some points raised by those who argue COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, instead reiterating that American spy agencies remain divided over how the pandemic began. The report was issued at the behest of Congress, which in March passed a bill giving U.S. intelligence 90 days to declassify intelligence related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The newest report angered some Republicans who have argued the administration is wrongly withholding classified information and researchers who accuse the U.S. of not being forthcoming.
But Alina Chan, a molecular biologist who has long argued the virus may have originated in the Wuhan lab, noted the public version of the report did not include the names of researchers who fell sick or other details mandated by Congress. The bill requiring the review allowed intelligence officials to redact information publicly to protect agency sources and methods.
“It’s getting very difficult to believe that the government is not trying to hide what they know about #OriginOfCOVID when you see a report like this that contains none of the requested info,” Chan tweeted.
Pfizer/BioNTech Initiate Application With EU Regulator for Updated COVID Vaccine
Pfizer (PFE.N) and partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE) said on Friday they had initiated an application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for authorization of updated COVID-19 vaccine targeting Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.
Earlier in June, Europe’s medicine regulators backed the World Health Organization’s recommendation to update the antigen composition of COVID shots to target one of the currently dominant XBB variants ahead of the upcoming autumn vaccination campaign.
Pfizer/BioNTech said they expect to be ready to ship XBB.1.5-adapted monovalent vaccines to member states of the European Union immediately following regulatory approval.
The companies added they also plan to file an application with the U.S. drug regulator in the coming days.
Fauci, Former Face of U.S. COVID Response, to Join Georgetown Faculty
Anthony S. Fauci, who retired from the National Institutes of Health in December after helping two presidents navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, plans to join the faculty at Georgetown University on July 1, according to the university.
Fauci declined to comment, through his attorney, Robert Barnett.
Fauci has deep ties to the 234-year Jesuit institution. He and his wife, Christine Grady, a Georgetown alumna and head of NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Bioethics, were married in the campus’s Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart. Their three daughters were born at Georgetown University Hospital. Fauci attended New York City’s Regis High School and the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., both Jesuit institutions.
CDC Tracking New COVID Variant EU.1.1
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now separately tracking several new COVID-19 variants, the agency announced Friday, adding more Omicron descendants to an increasingly complex list of new strains that are competing nationwide.
Among the new variants now being tracked by the CDC is EU.1.1, a strain first designated by scientists earlier this year over its rapid ascent in some European countries.
The variant is a more distant descendant of the XBB.1.5 variant that had surged earlier this year, with a handful of more mutations to its spike protein that may be driving its spread.
The CDC estimates that EU.1.1 is now 1.7% of U.S. cases nationwide, but may have already reached as much as 8.7% of cases in the region spanning Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Fed Gov’t Study Showed Canadians Hid COVID Vaccination Status
According to an internal memo from the Privy Council Office, Canadians concealed their vaccination status when questioned by federal pollsters.
Researchers attributed this behavior to the “social desirability” of claiming full compliance with public health orders, especially during a period when unvaccinated individuals faced restrictions on public services and the risk of potential job losses.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, federal pollsters discovered 68% of Canadians reported receiving a booster shot, while the Department of Health figures indicated the actual rate was 55%.
According to researchers, a consistent trend existed for people to “overstate” their vaccination status. Pollsters “observed a similar trend during the initial rollout of vaccines in the spring of 2021 where the proportion of respondents who indicated they had received a vaccine was roughly 20 points too high,” said the memo.
CDC Director Concerned About ‘Breakthrough’ Cases Weeks After COVID Vaccine Rollout: Email
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and several other top officials knew in early 2021 that vaccinated people were becoming infected with COVID-19, according to an email obtained by The Epoch Times. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told colleagues in the Jan. 30, 2021, missive that she had spoken with Dr. Francis Collins that morning “and one of the issues we discussed was that of vaccine breakthroughs.”
The email was included in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Requests for records from roughly the same time seeking what top U.S. officials were saying about breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are pending.
Walensky didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment that also asked for an unredacted version of the email. Dr. Francis Collins didn’t return an inquiry. Dr. Anthony Fauci couldn’t be reached. The CDC stated that it was looking into it when it first became aware of breakthrough cases.
A few months after the email, Walensky went on MSNBC and claimed that data from the CDC and clinical trials “suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus” and “don’t get sick.”
