Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. It's free.

Baby Becomes World’s Youngest Person to Get 2 Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

Newsweek via MSN reported:

A baby involved in clinical trials into the effects of COVID vaccinations among children has reportedly become the youngest person in the world to get two Pfizer jabs against the disease.

The federal government has only approved the vaccine for children as young as 12.

However, Mike and Marissa Mincolla, both doctors from Baldwinsville, New York, said they had no qualms about their eight-month-old son, Vincenzo, or “Enzo” being administered with two doses of the vaccine at Upstate Medical University.

Delta Is First U.S. Airline to Require New Hires Be Vaccinated

CBS News reported:

Delta Air Lines will require all new hires in the U.S. to be immunized against COVID-19, the carrier announced Friday, calling vaccines “safe, effective and essential to the future of the airline and our world.”

The Atlanta-based airline noted its progress toward herd immunity within its own workforce, with 60% of its roughly 74,000 employees already vaccinated, the company said. To help maintain that trajectory, Delta will mandate that those joining the company be vaccinated unless they qualify for an accommodation, the company said in a statement. The policy starts Monday.

“Approximately two out of 10 Americans have been infected by COVID-19, and one out of 1,000 Americans has died from the virus. The vaccines are not only extremely effective in preventing illness and symptoms from COVID-19, but they are also nearly 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and death,” Delta stated.

AstraZeneca Woes Persist as Vaccine Side Effects Generate Headlines

The Defender reported:

AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine, not yet authorized in the U.S., continues to generate negative press in other countries related to reports of adverse side effects.

As The Defender reported today, musician Eric Clapton said he suffered “disastrous” side effects after getting the vaccine.

Other recent news stories include reports in India of 26 cases of blood clots related to AstraZeneca, and from British Columbia, the report of a 43-year-old man recovering from complications due to a blood clot he developed after taking the vaccine.

Eric Clapton ‘Feared He Would Never Play Again’ After AstraZeneca Vaccine, Says ‘Propaganda’ Overstated Safety

The Defender reported:

Eric Clapton said he had a “disastrous” health experience after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, and the 76-year-old musician blamed propaganda for overstating the vaccine’s safety, Rolling Stone reported.

Clapton detailed his experience with AstraZeneca in a letter to Italian architect Robin Monotti, who shared it May 12 on Twitter.

Russell Brand: Is There a ‘Deliberate Attempt’ to Hide Origins of COVID?

The Defender reported:

What are the origins of COVID-19? Did it occur in nature, as the media has strongly suggested? Or did it escape from a lab where scientists were conducting risky experiments with viruses?

In the video, “COVID Cover-Up: Did It Come From a Lab?,” Russell Brand questions the lack of transparency around the origins of COVID and asks, why is this discussion so contentious?

Fauci Admits — Roughly Half of NIH Employees Have Chosen Not to Get Vaccine …

Citizen Free Press reported:

WATCH: NEW: About 40-50% of CDC, FDA employees are refusing the COVID-19 vaccine according to Fauci, Marks

Scientists Demand New Inquiry Into COVID-19 Origins

The Daily Beast reported:

A group of 18 top researchers signed a letter published in the latest issue of the journal Science, calling for a new investigation into where and how the novel coronavirus originated, arguing that a satisfactory inquiry still has not been performed.

“Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable,” the letter reads. “Knowing how COVID-19 emerged is critical for informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks.” Robert Redfield, former President Donald Trump’s CDC director, has said — without evidence — that he believes the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.

For its part, the Chinese government has engaged in similarly baseless speculation, blaming the U.S. Army for creating the virus. Mainstream researchers have largely come out in favor of the theory that COVID-19 originated in animals and spilled over into humans naturally, although hard evidence of any sort has thus far remained elusive.

Moderna, Pfizer Join the Popular Crowd, Catapulting Into the Top 10 of America’s Favorite Companies

Fierce Pharma reported:

Americans love their vaccine makers. Cases in point? Moderna and Pfizer leaped into the top 10 best-regarded companies in the U.S. in the annual Axios Harris 100 survey.

They’re the first biopharma companies to crack the top 10 in the ranking’s 20-year history. Johnson & Johnson, which counts pharma as one of its three divisions, has landed in the top 10 before; this year, it hit No. 72 on the list with a reputation score roughly the same as 2020’s.

Meanwhile, Moderna ranked third, while Pfizer came in at No. 7 on the strength of its product and innovation scores, nabbing high marks for vision and culture along the way.