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COVID Cases Explode After White House Media Dinner Becomes Superspreader Event

ZeroHedge reported:

Cases of COVID-19 among attendees to the White House correspondents’ dinner two weekends ago continue to mount, as the fully vaccinated and boosted ‘elites’ who condescended to non-compliant Americans participated in a superspreader event.

As The Hill notes, “High-profile cases following the dinner include ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and reporters from The Washington Post, Voice of America and other outlets.”

“The cases have also played into an ongoing debate, with some arguing that the current era of COVID-19 allows vaccinated and boosted people to decide to attend large gatherings even if it means a small risk, while others are more cautious, pointing to the downstream effects on other people of increased transmission,” reports The Hill.

It’s not a debate over whether large gatherings are a good idea since the dominant strain of COVID is only slightly more deadly than the common cold and the vast majority of people will make it through COVID-19 without issue. The point is that those who refused to play the lockdown game were chastised by the very people at this superspreader event.

Fauci, Collins Shared In ‘Secret’ NIH ‘Royalties’ Totaling $350 Million: Watchdog Report

The Daily Wire reported:

Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins and other bigwigs at the National Institutes of Health reaped more than $350 million in secretive “royalty” payments from drug companies and other third parties over a 10-year period, according to an explosive new report from a watchdog organization.

The report from OpenTheBooks.com said the royalty payments, including at least 23 to Fauci and 14 to his former boss, Collins, were paid out between 2010 and 2020. Government scientists got the payments for being credited as “co-inventors” of various treatments and pharmaceutical products, according to the report.

The report paints an incestuous picture of the NIH doling out $30 billion a year in grants to some 56,000 recipients in Big Pharma, research institutes and other entities, with money flowing back to the secretive agency’s scientists and senior management in the form of huge royalty payments. It is not yet known how much the payments to Fauci, who is the U.S. government highest-salaried employee at $456,028, totaled.

A Company With an Early Contract to Produce Coronavirus Vaccine Hid Evidence of Problems

The New York Times reported:

Emergent BioSolutions, a longtime government contractor hired to produce hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses, hid evidence of quality control problems from Food and Drug Administration inspectors in February 2021 — six weeks before it alerted federal officials that 15 million doses had been contaminated.

The report, released Tuesday morning by the House and the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said that all told, nearly 400 million doses of coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Emergent had to be destroyed “due to poor quality control,” including about 240 million doses in late 2020 and early 2021. Previous estimates of lost vaccine were far lower; no contaminated doses were ever released to the public.

The State of the Teen Mental Health Crisis — and How to Help

Axios reported:

Never have so many kids reported being so sad and stressed. The American Academy of Pediatrics declared the mental health crisis among children and teens a national emergency.

Consider these troubling stats, reported by Axios healthcare editor Tina Reed.

More than 40% of teens said they persistently felt sad or hopeless during 2021, a CDC survey found. The same survey found increased use of alcohol and drugs during the shutdown. 55% reported emotional abuse from a parent or other adult in the home. Over 10% reported physical abuse.

DC Hasn’t Reported Daily COVID Case Counts to the CDC Since April 27

The Washington Post reported:

The DC health department has not shared data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since April 27 on the number of new coronavirus cases in the District or on any deaths from the virus, as cases inch upward again elsewhere in the region.

The District stopped reporting daily case data on its own website two months ago, saying it was time to treat coronavirus less like an emergency and more like an endemic illness, but it continued providing case counts to the CDC — which makes the data public — on a sporadic but fairly frequent basis. That stopped April 27, and local officials have not answered questions from reporters about why.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said the city health department is looking into why its normal practice of reporting numbers to the CDC has stopped. The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alberta Sees ‘Massive Increase’ in Deaths Among Youth During Pandemic: Study

Calgary Herald reported:

Alberta logged a “massive increase” in deaths from causes other than COVID-19 among youth during the pandemic, a recent study has found. “Increase in all-cause excess deaths was proportionately higher, and in significantly greater numbers, in the younger age groups,” the study read.

“Although older adults are more likely to die of COVID-19, there was massive increase in non-COVID-19 related mortality among the youth. These should be factored in public policy decisions on epidemic/pandemic management.”

The abstract was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases and written by five Alberta Health Services officials.

Rare Cases of COVID Returning Pose Questions for Pfizer Pill

Associated Press reported:

As more doctors prescribe Pfizer’s powerful COVID-19 pill, new questions are emerging about its performance, including why a small number of patients appear to relapse after taking the drug.

Paxlovid has become the go-to option against COVID-19 because of its at-home convenience and impressive results in heading off severe disease. The U.S. government has spent more than $10 billion to purchase enough pills to treat 20 million people.

But experts say there is still much to be learned about the drug, which was authorized in December for adults at high risk of severe COVID-19 based on a study in which 1,000 adults received the medication.

Biden Administration Warns of Impacts to Updated Vaccine Production as It Pushes Lawmakers for More COVID Funding

CNN Politics reported:

The Biden administration is ramping up its warnings of a potential fall and winter surge should Congress fail to pass additional COVID-19 supplemental funding, warning of effects to the production of updated vaccines, as well as other potential consequences to testing and treatments.

The warning comes as scientists are working to develop new vaccines that would offer additional protection from infection and severe illness from new variants. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will make a decision as soon as June on an updated new vaccine, senior administration official told CNN on Monday, based on data from manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer.

That vaccine would be used in the fall and winter, the official said, but warned there will not be resources to procure and distribute a bivalent vaccine — a vaccine that would combine a currently approved vaccine with an Omicron-specific vaccine, for example — without additional funding from Congress.

U.S. To Ask World for More on Global COVID Fight as Its Own Cash Dwindles

Politico reported:

The White House is hosting a global COVID response summit this week — but the U.S. isn’t currently prepared to bring significant new money to fight the virus worldwide, according to two people familiar with the preparations.

Some senior administration officials and health advocates said they fear the world will see the lack of renewed financial assistance by the U.S. as a retreat from the global efforts, and that could affect the Biden administration’s ability to drum up support from other countries.

Novavax Posts First Profitable Quarter as COVID Vaccine Rolls out Around the World

CNBC reported:

Novavax on Monday reported its first profitable quarter as its COVID vaccine rolls out across several countries around the world, though the company still missed earnings and revenue expectations.

Novavax reported net income of $203 million in the first quarter, compared to a net loss of $222.7 million the same period last year. The company reiterated its 2022 revenue guidance of $4 billion to $5 billion.

Novavax anticipates the FDA will authorize the shots for adults ages 18 and older as a two-dose primary vaccination series this summer, according to Erck. The company is currently in negotiations with the U.S. government on how it can meet demand after authorization, CEO Stanley Erck said.

Norway Discards COVID Vaccines as Supplies Exceed Demand

Associated Press reported:

Norwegian health authorities said Tuesday that the country has a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines and has already discarded more than 137,000 doses because there is declining demand in low-income countries.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said it plans a further disposal of doses if global demand does not change. In Norway there is high vaccine coverage while globally a demand for donations has fallen.

“For the first time during the pandemic, the supply now exceeds the demand for COVID-19 vaccine doses,” the agency said, adding that situation also applies to most European Union countries. Norway is not a member of the EU.