Login
Covid News Watch
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVIDs Origins + More
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
Gilles Demaneuf is a data scientist with the Bank of New Zealand in Auckland. He was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome ten years ago, and believes it gives him a professional advantage. “I’m very good at finding patterns in data, when other people see nothing,” he says.
Early last spring, as cities worldwide were shutting down to halt the spread of COVID-19, Demaneuf, 52, began reading up on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. The prevailing theory was that it had jumped from bats to some other species before making the leap to humans at a market in China, where some of the earliest cases appeared in late 2019. The Huanan wholesale market, in the city of Wuhan, is a complex of markets selling seafood, meat, fruit, and vegetables. A handful of vendors sold live wild animals — a possible source of the virus.
That wasn’t the only theory, though. Wuhan is also home to China’s foremost coronavirus research laboratory, housing one of the world’s largest collections of bat samples and bat-virus strains.
7 U.S. Teens Developed Heart Inflammation After Second Pfizer Vaccine, New Study Shows
Seven boys between the ages of 14 and 19 in the U.S. reportedly developed chest pain and heart inflammation within four days of receiving a second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine, according to a new study published today in Pediatrics.
Heart imaging tests detected a rare type of heart muscle inflammation called myocarditis and pericarditis. None of the teens were critically ill but all were hospitalized.
All were healthy enough to be sent home after two to six days in the hospital and are ‘’doing pretty well,’’ said Dr. Preeti Jaggi, an Emory University infectious disease specialist who co-authored the report.
Latest VAERS Data Show: 5,165 Deaths Reported Following COVID Vaccines
This week’s number of reported deaths among all age groups following COVID vaccines passed the 5,000 mark, up 759 from last week, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data comes directly from reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed.
Every Friday, VAERS makes public all vaccine injury reports received as of a specified date, usually about a week prior to the release date. Today’s data show that between Dec. 14, 2020 and May 28, a total of 294,801 total adverse events were reported to VAERS, including 5,165 deaths — an increase of 759 over the previous week. There were 25,359 serious injuries reported, up 3,822 compared with last week.
Children’s Health Defense Demands Immediate Suspension of Plans to Give COVID Vaccines to Children
In light of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails released Wednesday, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) calls for health agencies to immediately halt the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to minors, whether in clinical trials or under Emergency Use Authorization.
With a recovery rate of 99.997%, children are not at great risk of serious health consequences from COVID-19 infections — but they are at significant risk of adverse events from the vaccine.
On May 19, Pfizer released a 37-page “fact sheet” of clinical trial data on its COVID-19 vaccine tested on children 12 and older. The date showed four out of five children in the trials suffered from mild to severe adverse events.
Regardless of the severity of these adverse events, long-term effects on children’s health from this experimental vaccine are unknown.
Children’s Health Defense Seeks Rutgers Students Opposed to COVID Vaccine Mandate for Legal Challenge
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is preparing to file a lawsuit challenging Rutgers University’s student-only COVID-19 vaccine mandate for on-campus learning this fall 2021, and is seeking Rutgers students who oppose the mandate to become potential plaintiffs.
As The Defender reported in March, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CHD chairman and chief legal counsel, sent a letter to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway informing him that his intention to mandate Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) products violates federal law.
However, Rutgers moved ahead with its plan, adding COVID vaccines to the list of other injections students must receive to attend school, with limited exceptions.
Singapore Boy, 16, Wrongly Given First Dose of Moderna Vaccine: MOH, MOE
A 16-year-old teenager was given the wrong vaccine when he showed up at Kolam Ayer Community Club Vaccination centre on Thursday (3 June).
He was administered the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, which is currently authorized for use in individuals aged 18 and above. In Singapore, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be administered to those below 18 who are eligible.
In a joint press release on Thursday evening, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education apologized for “the inconvenience and anxiety caused.” They have reached out to the youth’s parents to explain the situation.
UK Regulator Approves Pfizer COVID Vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds
The UK regulator has approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine in children aged 12 to 15, potentially opening the way for a vaccination campaign in schoolchildren.
The decision on giving the vaccine to children rests with the government’s advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), who will now look at the evidence.
Children are generally less severely affected by COVID than adults, apart from a small minority who have suffered a debilitating condition as a result of infection called multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Most recover, although there appear to be some lingering longer-term effects, and a few have died.
Guns, Trucks and Trips: West Virginia Expands Prizes for Vaccinated Residents
West Virginia is giving its vaccine incentive program a boost to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus, Gov. Jim Justice announced on Tuesday.
All residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine will be enrolled in the chance to win a college scholarship, a tricked-out truck, or hunting rifles, in addition to a $1.588 million grand prize. The program, which will run from June 20 through Aug. 4, will be paid for through federal pandemic relief funds.
Maine Vaccine Incentives End With Less Than 15 Percent of Eligible Adults Claiming Their Reward
More than 5,300 Mainers claimed rewards under the state’s COVID-19 vaccine incentive program in May, but the total represented less than 15 percent of the eligible adults vaccinated during that period.
State health officials still said Wednesday that they were happy with the program and were exploring other ways to incentivize people to get the vaccine as roughly 350,000 eligible Mainers aged 12 and older remain unvaccinated, according to federal data.
The “Your Shot to Get Outdoors” program allowed people aged 18 and older who got their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine between May 11 and May 31 to claim one of several rewards, ranging from a $20 L.L. Bean gift card to a hunting or fishing license. It aimed to woo young adults to get shots as the rate of newly vaccinated people in Maine was slowing.
New Dad Latest to Win $1M in Ohio’s COVID-19 Vaccine Lottery: ‘I Was Overcome’
Jonathan Carlyle had just missed a call Wednesday evening while wrapping up a long shift as an Amazon delivery driver. When he saw that the call was from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, he had an idea what it was about — he won $1 million.
“I listened to the voicemail and I pretty much almost lost it inside the van,” the Toledo resident said during a press briefing with DeWine on Thursday. “I was overcome. Nothing like this ever happened to me.”
COVID Cases in U.S. Fall to Levels Not Seen Since March 2020
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have fallen to levels not seen since March 2020, according to an NBC News analysis — and experts say they expect case counts to stay low through the summer.
Cases first surged in March last year, driven by a wave in New York City. That first surge peaked in April, then gradually decreased to a seven-day average of 19,000 cases June 1, 2020 — and would not fall below that threshold for the next year. On Wednesday, the seven-day average was 16,860, the lowest since March 29, 2020.
COVID-19 Cases Are Falling, but Experts Say Kids Should Still Get a Vaccine When They Can. Here’s Why
As a pediatric infectious disease specialist, Dr. Amy Edwards has fielded a lot of questions from worried parents during the pandemic. As case numbers drop — among children, COVID-19 cases have fallen to levels not seen since October — the question she’s getting is: Do younger children really need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when a shot becomes available?
Her answer is yes.
Experts say vaccinating young people is an integral part of protecting the broader community from COVID-19, and although serious disease among children is rare, they need protection, too.
“The truth of the matter is, kids wouldn’t have to get vaccinated if all the adults would,” said Edwards, who is the associate medical director of Pediatric Infection Control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.
The FBI’s Strange Anthrax Investigation Sheds Light on COVID Lab-Leak Theory and Fauci’s Emails
One of the most significant events of the last two decades has been largely memory-holed: the October, 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S. Beginning just one week after 9/11 and extending for another three weeks, a highly weaponized and sophisticated strain of anthrax had been sent around the country through the U.S. Postal Service addressed to some of the country’s most prominent political and media figures. As Americans were still reeling from the devastation of 9/11, the anthrax killed five Americans and sickened another seventeen.
As part of the extensive reporting I did on the subsequent FBI investigation to find the perpetrator(s), I documented how significant these attacks were in the public consciousness.
DHEC, Local Breweries Launching New Campaign to Get More People Vaccinated
We now know when and where vaccine clinics will be taking place at Upstate breweries, and they’re coming up fast.
It’s all part of a plan we first told you about last week, where DHEC hopes to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to public events to boost vaccination rates among the younger population.
One participating brewery tells FOX Carolina that DHEC will take over a portion of their building where people can get either the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or the Moderna vaccine.
Biden Promises Free Beer and Childcare if 70% of Americans Get Vaccine + More
Biden Promises Free Beer and Childcare if 70% of Americans Get at Least 1 Vaccine Shot Before July 4
President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to get 70% of Americans at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot before the July 4th holiday, during a speech Wednesday afternoon.
“Today we’re announcing a month-long effort to pull out all the stops to free ourselves from this virus,” the president said. “It’s going to take everyone: the federal government, the state governments and local, tribal, and territorial governments, the private sector and, most importantly, the American people to get to this 70% mark so we can declare independence from COVID-19.”
The plan includes recruiting private businesses to offer incentives to get vaccinated, including a tax credit to cover the cost of providing paid time off for Americans to get the vaccine.
The plan also includes a pledge by Anheuser-Busch to offer free beer to Americans after the country meets Biden’s 70% goal. Meanwhile, CVS has begun a sweepstakes for vaccinated people to win free cruises, Super Bowl tickets and cash prizes, and Major League Baseball will offer on-site vaccinations at games and give free tickets to fans who take up the offer.
Tucker Carlson: Uncovered Emails Show Fauci Supported ‘Grotesque’ Experiments at Wuhan Lab
In the segment below on last night’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson said evidence shows Dr. Anthony Fauci has been “implicated in the very pandemic he had been charged with fighting.”
Emails obtained by BuzzFeed via the Freedom of Information Act show “Fauci supported the grotesque and dangerous experiments that appeared to have made COVID possible,” Carlson said.
The emails, which date back to the early winter of 2020, show Fauci was worried the public would think COVID originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
‘We Made a Big Mistake’ — COVID Vaccine Spike Protein Travels From Injection Site, Can Cause Organ Damage
COVID vaccine researchers had previously assumed mRNA COVID vaccines would behave like traditional vaccines. The vaccine’s spike protein — responsible for infection and its most severe symptoms — would remain mostly in the injection site at the shoulder muscle or local lymph nodes.
But new research obtained by a group of scientists contradicts that theory, a Canadian cancer vaccine researcher said last week.
“We made a big mistake. We didn’t realize it until now,” said Byram Bridle, a viral immunologist and associate professor at University of Guelph, Ontario. “We thought the spike protein was a great target antigen, we never knew the spike protein itself was a toxin and was a pathogenic protein. So by vaccinating people we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin.”
Washington Post Ripped for Quietly Adding ‘Correction’ to Article ‘Debunking’ COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Origin Theory
The Washington Post is facing scrutiny after critics noticed a correction to a story published last year debunking the “conspiracy theory” that COVID-19 could have originated from a Wuhan lab.
The correction came after journalist Michael Tracey pointed out that the piece “flagrantly mischaracterized a key expert” quoted.
‘This Week’ With Mary + Polly: White House Teams Up With Snapchat to Encourage Teens Get Vaccinated + More
This week, Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) president, and Polly Tommey, co-producer of “Vaxxed,” cover the latest COVID headlines, including heart problems in young people in Connecticut post-COVID vaccine, how Snapchat and the White House are teaming up to get teens vaccinated, and schools that are creating pep-rally atmospheres with mascots, food and prizes to encourage students to get the COVID vaccine.
Mary and Polly also discuss how Merck is using celebs to push childhood vaccines, Germany’s plan to start vaccinating kids 12 to 15 for COVID and the enrollment of children ages 6 months to 11 years old in a Moderna vaccine study at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
How Amateur Sleuths Broke the Wuhan Lab Story and Embarrassed the Media
For most of last year, the idea that the coronavirus pandemic could have been triggered by a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China, was largely dismissed as a racist conspiracy theory of the alt-right. The Washington Post in early 2020 accused Senator Tom Cotton of “fanning the embers of a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts.” CNN jumped in with “How to debunk coronavirus conspiracy theories and misinformation from friends and family.”
Most other mainstream outlets, from The New York Times (“fringe theory”) to NPR (“Scientists debunk lab accident theory”), were equally dismissive. (Newsweek was an exception, reporting in April 2020 that the WIV was involved in gain-of-function research and might have been the site of a lab leak; Mother Jones, Business Insider, the NY Post and FOX News were also exceptions.)
But in the last week or so, the story has burst into the public discourse. President Joe Biden has demanded an investigation by U.S. intelligence. And the mainstream media, in an astonishing about-face, is treating the possibility with deadly seriousness.
Biden Admin Probes Risk of Low-level Contamination in Vaccines Made at Troubled Plant
The Food and Drug Administration has asked Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca to assess any potential health risks from minor cross-contamination of their COVID-19 vaccines, two people familiar with those conversations told POLITICO.
The agency requested the analyses because it cannot rule out low-level contamination of doses of both vaccines manufactured by contractor Emergent BioSolutions.
In March, Emergent’s Baltimore facility accidentally contaminated 15 million Johnson & Johnson doses with the active ingredient of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Production at the plant stopped in April and the FDA began investigating the matter.
Countries Vaccinating Children Against COVID-19
The European Commission on Friday authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, paving the way for a broader roll-out in the EU after similar clearances in the United States and Canada.
However, vaccinating adolescents in affluent countries while many parts of the world await doses for older and more vulnerable people has raised concerns, with the World Health Organization urging rich countries to give shots to the COVAX scheme instead.
Fauci Colluded With Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook COVID-19 ‘Information Hub,’ Emails Show
Dr. Anthony Fauci colluded with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on distributing government-approved information on COVID-19 across the social media platform. In a series of March 2020 emails obtained by BuzzFeed News, Zuckerberg invited the infectious disease doctor to partake in the company’s newly developed informational program on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This isn’t public yet, but we’re building a Coronavirus Information Hub that we’re going to put at the top of Facebook for everyone (200+ million Americans, 2.5 billion people worldwide) with two goals: (1) make sure people can get authoritative information from reliable sources and (2) encourage people to practice social distance and give people ideas for doing this using internet tools,” the March 15 email read. “This will be live within the next 48 hours.”
If the Wuhan Lab-leak Hypothesis Is True, Expect a Political Earthquake
There was a time when the COVID pandemic seemed to confirm so many of our assumptions. It cast down the people we regarded as villains. It raised up those we thought were heroes. It prospered people who could shift easily to working from home even as it problematized the lives of those Trump voters living in the old economy.
Like all plagues, COVID often felt like the hand of God on earth, scourging the people for their sins against higher learning and visibly sorting the righteous from the unmasked wicked. “Respect science,” admonished our yard signs. And lo!, COVID came and forced us to do so, elevating our scientists to the highest seats of social authority, from where they banned assembly, commerce, and all the rest.
U.S. Launches Study Mixing COVID-19 Booster Vaccine Regimens
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has initiated an early-stage study testing mixed COVID-19 booster vaccine schedules among fully vaccinated adults. The goal is to understand safety and immune responses following mixed boosted regimens, should booster vaccines become necessary.
The NIAID-funded study involves some 150 people who already received one of the authorized COVID-19 vaccine regimens developed by Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.
This Ominous Warning From Moderna Could Shake Up the COVID Vaccine Market
Last week, Moderna held its fourth annual Science Day. In this virtual event for investors, the company laid out its research and development plans. But the biotech’s top scientists also sounded an alarm reminiscent of Paul Revere’s famous call that the British were coming. In this case, though, Moderna’s warning was that new COVID-19 waves are coming.
Moderna chief scientific officer Melissa Moore stated, “As the virus spreads, it is rapidly mutating.” She added, “Some of these new viral strains appear to be even more transmissible than the original strain.”
The good news is that vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, in particular, have been highly effective so far. The bad news is, in Moore’s words, “We already know that some of these new strains are less susceptible to neutralization by our current vaccine.”
COVID Origin ‘Worst Cover-Up in Human History’ + More
Rep. McCaul: COVID Origin ‘Worst Cover-Up in Human History’
Texas Rep. Mike McCaul on Sunday said it was “more likely than not” that the coronavirus originated from a lab accident, calling it the “worst cover-up in human history.”
Bipartisan support has grown for a congressional probe into whether the virus originated in a Chinese lab following a Wall Street Journal report that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hospitalized in November 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus.
Moderna Files for Full U.S. Approval of COVID Vaccine
Moderna on Tuesday filed for full U.S. approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently only authorized for emergency use in the country, becoming the second drugmaker to seek a broader regulatory nod.
The development comes weeks after rival Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech sought full approval for their Covid-19 vaccine in the United States.
Full approval for the vaccines, which are at the forefront of global immunization efforts, could be an important step in allaying vaccine hesitancy, a growing concern in the United States and other wealthy nations.
Pfizer Vaccine ‘Probably’ Linked to Heart Inflammation, Israeli Panel of Experts Concludes
Israeli health officials found a probable link between the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine — which the country has relied on almost exclusively in its vaccination drive — and dozens of cases of heart inflammation in young men following the second dose, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.
After the ministry received reports of heart inflammation, including myocarditis, following recent COVID vaccination, a panel of experts was appointed to investigate the issue. The panel included public health experts specializing in epidemiology, members of the National Center for Disease Control and academics from the Tel Aviv University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Haifa University.
‘Self-Spreading’ Vaccines Pose Multiple Risks to Society — Including the End of Informed Consent
In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security co-sponsored the “pandemic exercise,” Event 201.
A little more than a year later, when the Event 201 scenario morphed from “hypothetical” to concrete, it became clear that sponsors of the event intended to see the majority of the world vaccinated against COVID-19.
Accomplishing this goal is a “monumental challenge,” however. In the U.S., more than one-third (38% to 45%) of adults continue to decline the unlicensed, Emergency Use Authorization injections, despite a marketing blitz that has included both carrots (ranging from the chance to win cash payments to a free order of fries) and sticks (such as nasty calls to “get personal” and “shun” the unvaccinated).
Woman Who Nearly Died After J&J Vaccine Stuck With $1 Million Medical Bill, Says Government Should Pay
Kendra Lippy was a healthy 38-year old woman — until she got the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID vaccine. Within about one week, she began experiencing headaches, abdominal pain and nausea.
Lippy was diagnosed with severe blood clots that subsequently sent most of her organs into failure. She also was left without most of her small intestine — and with crippling medical bills that she said the federal government should compensate her for.
Lippy’s case was one of the six that led federal agencies to temporarily pause the J&J shot in mid-April. Her blood clots developed in March. She was hospitalized for 33 days, including 22 days of intensive care.
The Novel Coronavirus’ Spike Protein Plays Additional Key Role in Illness
Scientists have known for a while that SARS-CoV-2’s distinctive “spike” proteins help the virus infect its host by latching on to healthy cells. Now, a major new study shows that the virus spike proteins (which behave very differently than those safely encoded by vaccines) also play a key role in the disease itself.
The paper, published on April 30, 2021, in Circulation Research, also shows conclusively that COVID-19 is a vascular disease, demonstrating exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages and attacks the vascular system on a cellular level. The findings help explain COVID-19’s wide variety of seemingly unconnected complications, and could open the door for new research into more effective therapies.
Mobile Vaccination Units Hit Tiny U.S. Towns to Boost Immunity
Pick-up truck drivers motor up to a white trailer in a parking lot on Fallon Paiute-Shoshone land in Nevada’s high desert and within a few moments they’re handed forms to sign, jabbed with coronavirus vaccine and sent on their way.
The pop-up clinic 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Reno is one of 28 locations in the state where the Federal Emergency Management Agency has dispatched mobile vaccination units to ensure people in far-flung rural areas and one stop-light towns can get inoculated.
It’s one of the tactics health officials are using across the country to counter waning interest in vaccinations. In tiny towns, churches, ballparks, strip clubs and even marijuana dispensaries, officials are setting up shop and offering incentives to entice people as the nation struggles to reach herd immunity.
Hope Builds That COVID Vaccine Boosters Won’t Be Needed for a Year — Or Much Longer
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Scientists are increasingly confident that vaccines provide long-lasting protection against the coronavirus and that boosters will not be necessary for at least a year, perhaps much longer.
The vaccines are holding up well against all coronavirus variants so far. That means boosters probably won’t be needed anytime soon to protect against variants. Even more promising, it suggests that unlike influenza, the coronavirus may not require seasonal shots to keep up with mutations.
There’s also growing evidence that the immune system retains a long memory for fighting off the virus after infection or vaccination. People who received the first shots in clinical trials more than a year ago are still showing signs of strong protection. Other signals of long-term effectiveness, such as the presence of certain types of immune cells found in the bone marrow, are promising as well.
COVID: Despite Lure of $1.5 Million, No Stampede to Get Shots at Bay Area Vaccine Sites
A steady trickle of traffic flowed into Bay Area vaccination sites on Friday, a day after the state’s announcement of financial incentives to get jabbed. But trying to find a person for whom the promise of $50 and a chance at more than a million dollars had pushed them over the edge to get a shot was on par with hunting for a unicorn.
Most people at the sites — including the volunteers — hadn’t even heard of the $116.5 million program, which Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled to great fanfare Thursday as part of a growing trend of vaccine giveaways to nudge more hesitant Americans to get a COVID-19 shot. Named “Vax for the Win,” California’s program will provide $50 cash or grocery cards to the next two million Californians who get vaccinated and will enter all vaccinated residents into drawings for cash prizes of $50,000 and $1.5 million.
Second-Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial Starts at Baylor College of Medicine
The Houston Chronicle reported:
Baylor College of Medicine investigators are recruiting volunteers for a multicenter Phase 1 clinical trial to examine the safety, tolerability and immune response for different doses of a two-part, investigational COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
“Gritstone Oncology’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been designed to broaden the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with the goal of generating immune responses to provide protection against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2,” said Dr. Jennifer Whitaker, assistant professor of medicine and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator of Baylor’s trial site.
Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant
Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant that is highly transmissible and has features of two other strains.
“Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the U.K.,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to Reuters. “That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the U.K. variant is very dangerous.”
Who Renames COVID-19 Variants With Greek Letter Names to Avoid Confusion, Stigma
The World Health Organization has created a new system to name COVID-19 variants, getting away from place-based names that can be hard to pronounce, difficult to remember and stigmatizing to a country.
The new system, which was announced Monday, is based on the letters of the Greek alphabet. The United Kingdom variant, called by scientists B.1.1.7, will now be Alpha. B.1.351, the South Africa variant will be Beta, and the B.1.617.2 variant discovered in India will now be known as Delta.
When the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet are used up, WHO will announce another series.
Fauci Backed Virus Experiments ‘Despite Pandemic Risk’ + More
Anthony Fauci Backed Virus Experiments ‘Despite Pandemic Risk’
America’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci, argued that the benefits of experimenting on contagious viruses – manipulating and heightening their infectious potency – was worth the risk of a laboratory accident sparking a pandemic.
In previously unreported remarks, Dr. Fauci supported the contentious gain-of-function experiments that some now fear might have led to an escape from a Wuhan laboratory causing the COVID-19 pandemic, calling them “important work.”
An investigation by The Weekend Australian has also confirmed Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not alert senior White House officials before lifting the ban on gain-of-function research in 2017.
Minnesota Candidate Backs Move to Block COVID Shots for Kids
Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen is backing a court action to stop COVID-19 vaccinations for 12- to 16-year-olds that, among other things, compares the inoculations to Nazi experimentation on imprisoned Jews.
Jensen is a family physician and former state senator from Chaska. And he’s the first named plaintiff in a petition filed in federal court in Alabama by America’s Frontline Doctors, which calls the vaccines “dangerous biological agents.”
Coronavirus Cases Slow at College Campuses Across the U.S.
As spring classes draw to a close and more people in the United States get vaccinated, coronavirus infections, which plagued college campuses across the country and seeped into the community at large, appear to be slowing among students and employees.
The New York Times has been tracking virus cases at U.S. colleges and universities for nearly a year and has identified about 700,000 infections involving students and employees. Of those, more than 260,000 cases have occurred since Jan. 1.
The Times has regularly surveyed more than 1,900 colleges and universities for coronavirus information for nearly a year. Altogether, the colleges reported about 60,000 cases each month between January and late April. From late April to late May, however, they reported fewer than 30,000 cases. Some of the newly identified cases may be from earlier in the pandemic and cases may be slowing in some places because spring semesters ended in early May, but the decline suggests that the overall outlook might be improving.
Legislators Ask North Dakota Health Department to End Vaccination Phone Calls to Residents
The Bismarck Tribune reported:
Two legislators are asking North Dakota’s Health Department to end phone calls to residents that inform them of how and where to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The state health officer in a response said immunization reminders are routine, callers are state-employed and trained on federal privacy law, and people can opt out of state-issued reminders.
Sens. Jessica Bell, R-Beulah, and Nicole Poolman, R-Bismarck, sent a letter to State Health Officer Dr. Nizar Wehbi on Tuesday about the calls, listing concerns with patient privacy and the role of state government in “personal health choices.”
Canada’s Secret COVID-19 Vaccine Contracts Hinder the Fight To Boost Vaccine Confidence, Researchers Say
Canada, unlike its southern neighbour, is keeping secret the details of its vaccine contracts with big pharma, including what they’re paying for doses — and experts say that’s a problem in the fight to build confidence with the public and contain vaccine hesitancy.
As part of a study in vaccine clinical trial and procurement transparency by the University of Toronto and Transparency International, Canada is being called on by researchers to be more forthcoming with details on the total cost and price per dose for COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to ensure fair pricing globally, instill trust with the public and counter hesitancy.
The report notes that 1.3 billion people globally are unwilling to take a COVID vaccine, according to a recent Gallup poll.