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CDC Refuses to Release Updated Information on Post-COVID Vaccination Heart Inflammation
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is refusing to release updated information on reported cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.
COVID-19 vaccines can cause the inflammatory conditions, the CDC has confirmed previously.
The agency has regularly conveyed the number of post-vaccination myocarditis and pericarditis cases to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which it helps manage, as it has consulted with its advisers on updates to the vaccines.
But during a meeting on Sept. 12, the CDC did not mention VAERS data. Asked for the information, a CDC spokesman pointed to a CDC study that covers data only through Oct. 23, 2022.
That study identified nine reports of myocarditis or pericarditis following vaccination with one of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which were introduced in September 2022. Seven of the reports were verified by medical review.
Asked for more current data, the spokesman acknowledged the agency has it but is not making it public.
“When appropriate, the updated safety data will be published,” the spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email.
He did not answer when asked why the meeting was not an appropriate time.
“The CDC has acknowledged that heart inflammation is a complication of mRNA COVID-19 shots and, yet, the only published data released by CDC officials about that complication is a seven week study that ended on Oct. 23, 2022. Where is more specific myocarditis/pericarditis data related to bivalent COVID shots for the past 10 months?” Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times via email.
President Biden Gets COVID, Flu Shots
President Joe Biden has been freshly vaccinated for three major respiratory viruses that could spread widely this fall and winter.
Biden got both the updated COVID-19 booster and his annual flu shot on Friday, White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a White House memo. The president received the new vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus several weeks ago.
“As we enter the cold and flu season, the President encourages all Americans to follow his example and to check with their healthcare provider or pharmacist to assure that they are fully vaccinated,” O’Connor added.
Biden, 80, had COVID-19 in July 2022, which also included a rebound infection after taking the antiviral medication Paxlovid.
Cancers Appearing in Ways Never Before Seen After COVID Vaccinations: Dr. Harvey Risch
There is evidence that cancers are occurring in excess after people receive COVID-19 vaccinations, according to Dr. Harvey Risch.
Dr. Risch is professor emeritus of epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine. His research has focused extensively on the causes of cancer as well as prevention and early diagnosis.
In an interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Dr. Risch said patients must now wait months, not weeks, to get an appointment at an oncology clinic in New York.
There is difficulty in observing whether a vaccine can cause cancer, because cancer usually takes time to develop, Dr. Risch said. It can take anywhere from two years to 30 years, depending on the different types of cancer, from leukemia to colon cancer.
“What clinicians have been seeing,” said Dr. Risch, “is very strange things: For example, 25-year-olds with colon cancer, who don’t have family histories of the disease — that’s basically impossible along the known paradigm for how colon cancer works — and other long-latency cancers that they’re seeing in very young people.”
He said this is not how cancer normally develops.
“There has to be some initiating stimulus to why this happens,” he said.
Use of Antiviral May Be Fueling Evolution of COVID, Scientists Say
An antiviral drug used to treat patients with COVID-19 may be causing mutations in the virus and fuelling the evolution of new variants, scientists have said.
Molnupiravir, which is also sold under the brand name Lagevrio, is designed to mutate coronavirus to destruction, but researchers found evidence that the virus can sometimes survive the treatment, leading to mutated versions that occasionally spread to other people.
There is no evidence molnupiravir has produced more dangerous variants of COVID-19, but scientists said the mutations increased the genetic diversity of the virus in the wild and provided more options for future evolution.
“People have some concerns about molnupiravir and to some sense this makes those more concrete,” said Dr. Theo Sanderson, the lead author on the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
“We know these viruses can still be alive following a significant number of mutations and they can still be transmissible in some cases.”
Pfizer RSV Vaccine Wins CDC Recommendation for Seasonal Use Only
Pfizer’s new shot to protect infants against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) by vaccinating their mothers late in pregnancy won a limited recommendation Friday from an expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clearing the way for a second product to protect babies against RSV to soon hit the market.
The recommendation was accepted by CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen shortly after the conclusion of the panel’s meeting.
The vote, which passed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices by an 11-to-1 margin, was an attempt to make the choice of preventive measures less complicated for parents-to-be and the obstetricians and pediatricians who will care for each mother-baby pair. The goal is to ensure babies are protected with one or the other anti-RSV product, but ideally not both together.
Using both in a mother-baby pair would offer little or no added benefit for most babies, and would come at a high cost, with Pfizer set to charge $295 for its vaccine and the other product, Sanofi’s monoclonal antibody, priced at $495. Insurance companies are unlikely to pay for both, unless there is a medical reason for giving a child born to a vaccinated mother the monoclonal antibody.
FDA Urges Infant Formula Industry to Improve Safety of Manufacturing Processes After Similac Recall
Federal regulators are calling for infant formula manufacturers to improve safety practices at their manufacturing facilities in the wake of last year’s massive Similac recall, which was linked to outbreaks of cronobacter and salmonella food poisoning, which sickened babies nationwide.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is taking significant actions to shore up the safety of powdered infant formula manufacturing in an update issued on Sept. 20, indicating that it is collaborating with industry, as well as academics and consumer groups to explore ways to make the process more secure.
The FDA is particularly focused on Cronobacter sakazakii illnesses, which were at the heart of the Similac recall issued in February 2022, following illnesses linked to powdered infant formula manufactured at a Michigan facility.
The bacteria may cause serious life-threatening infections or meningitis (an inflammation of the membranes that protect the brain and spine).
Following the Similac formula recall, subsequent investigations have revealed that Abbott ignored industry safety standards and best practices at its facility for years, endangering children for the sake of profits, leading to individual and class action lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system.
