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Childhood Vaccine Exemptions Hit Highest Level Yet: CDC
U.S. News & World Report reported:
In a sign that suggests many American parents have become dubious about the safety of childhood vaccines, new government data shows that immunization exemptions for kindergartners have reached their highest levels ever.
The latest statistics continue a decline in routine vaccinations for kids that increases the risk for highly contagious diseases, such as measles, to spread, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned.
How much of a spike in vaccine exemptions was seen? The overall percentage of kindergartners with a vaccination exemption increased from 2.6% during the 2021-2022 school year to 3% in 2022-2023, the highest exemption rate ever tallied in the United States.
National vaccine coverage among kindergartners fell from 95% before the pandemic to 93% in the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 school years, according to the report, which was published Nov. 10 in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Coverage stayed at 93% during the last school year.
Pfizer CEO’s Vaccine Message Sparks Attacks From Vaccine Skeptics
A message from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has brought outrage from vaccine skeptics on social media, with his post receiving more than 3 million views.
Bourla’s November 9 post on X (formerly Twitter) celebrated the three-year anniversary of Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine passing safety trials. “Three years ago today, we were able to share with the world the joyous news that our #COVID19 vaccine was highly effective in preventing disease,” Bourla wrote.
Bourla’s post included a photo of himself with a group of colleagues, each wearing a “science will win” face mask. “This photo was taken moments after we received the good news from our R&D team, and you can see the smiles through our masks,” he wrote.
His post has angered vaccine skeptics such as American swimmer and anti-vaxxer Riley Gaines. “The irony of masks that say ‘science will win’ hahahahaha,” she wrote, quoting Bourla’s post. “So proud of the effective vaccine that he turned the comments off.” Another poster, @FiveTimesAugust, wrote: “If science won Albert Bourla wouldn’t have to turn off his comments every time he posts.”
The Real COVID Jab Scandal Is Finally Emerging
The Telegraph via Yahoo!News reported:
I am not an anti-vaxxer but … On 29 April 2021, Lisa Shaw, a clever, sensible, creative, mischievous, award-winning presenter at BBC Radio Newcastle, had her first COVID vaccination.
Like millions of us, Lisa was delighted and relieved to get her jab. Not only did the 44-year-old mother of one feel she was doing her bit to keep her community safe (Lisa had been astonished a few weeks earlier when a girlfriend had said she wasn’t getting jabbed), she was excited “to give her mam a hug.”
A few days later, Lisa developed a headache and stabbing pains behind her eyes which wouldn’t go away. By May 16, she was taken by ambulance to the University Hospital of North Durham. Tests revealed blood clots in Lisa’s brain and she was moved to a specialist neurology unit in Newcastle.
By now, she had difficulty speaking. Scans showed she had suffered a hemorrhage in the brain and part of her skull was removed to try and relieve the pressure. Her husband Gareth Eve remained by his wife’s bedside, but Lisa told him to go home because she was worried about Zachary, their six-year-old. One final kiss. The last time Gareth heard her voice. Lisa Shaw died on May 21 from complications arising from the AstraZeneca COVID vaccination.
The coroner said: “Ms. Shaw was previously fit and well” but it was “clearly established” that her death was due to a very rare “vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT)”, a new condition which leads to swelling and bleeding of the brain.
How CDC’s New Director Is Trying to Regain Trust Shattered by COVID
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had spent days on television and social media urging Americans to get the updated coronavirus vaccine. The new shot is the most effective protection for the looming virus season, she said. And it’s free.
But by the afternoon of Sept. 21, it was becoming clear to Mandy Cohen that the nine-day-old vaccine rollout was stumbling with many Americans unable to promptly get shots at pharmacies, insurers making erroneous claims about who would have to pay, and little explanation from the government.
One month into the job, she overhauled the leadership of the center in charge of the agency’s response to COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, a move she felt would help the CDC better stay atop the upcoming virus season. And she’s prompted the agency to activate its second-highest level of emergency status to address current cases of flu, RSV and COVID-19 — just one level down from the agency-wide mobilization at the height of the pandemic — according to three senior officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal conversations.
Longtime CDC officials are confused why the agency has taken such an aggressive posture — with some staff tasked with focusing intensively on flu, RSV and COVID-19 on top of their day jobs — given that none of the viruses has risen to the level of an emergency, said one official, adding that “working around-the-clock … scientifically may not make sense.”
Axios/Ipsos polling shows 86% of Americans in March 2020 said they trusted the CDC to provide them with accurate information about COVID-19. By February 2022, that had fallen to 61%.
Poll Shows One-Third of Americans Believe They Don’t Need Flu, COVID Vaccines
A third of Americans surveyed in a new poll from researchers at Ohio State said they do not believe they need vaccines for the flu or COVID-19 this season because they do not consider themselves high risk for complications from the viruses.
The survey was conducted from October 20 through the 23rd of this year among a sample of 1,007 respondents. The survey was conducted via web (977) and telephone (30).
Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed said they are doing everything they can to avoid spreading respiratory illnesses to others, but the researchers say one-third of those polled said their vaccine decisions do not impact others.
The GOP Congressman Who Leads the House’s Probe of COVID’s Origins Says He Won’t Seek Reelection
Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who leads the House GOP’s investigation of the origins of COVID-19, says he won’t seek reelection next year. Wenstrup represents Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District and was first elected to the House in 2012. He said in a video posted on X on Thursday that he would be stepping down to spend more time with his family.
A married father of two young children, the Cincinnati native is a doctor of podiatric medicine and colonel in the Army Reserve. As chair of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, Wenstrup led an inquiry into the virus’ origins and the government’s response.
Wenstrup, who is also a longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee, has accused U.S. intelligence of withholding key facts about its investigation into the coronavirus.
Republicans on the committee last year issued a staff report arguing that there are “indications” that the virus may have been developed as a bioweapon inside China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Vows to Expose ‘Truth’ About COVID Vaccines
Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that she will be “exposing the TRUTH” about COVID jabs at a hearing she is holding on the “injuries” allegedly caused by coronavirus vaccines.
The Georgia Republican representative, who was previously suspended from X, called Twitter at the time, over claims about the vaccines, will be joined by a panel of “expert witnesses” during the event on Monday afternoon. She claimed: “They lied to us for years.”
Greene will be joined at the hearing by Dr. Robert Malone, who in his early career researched mRNA vaccines, such as those produced by Pfizer and Moderna, and who since 2021 has received criticism for propagating misinformation about the pandemic and COVID vaccines. In 2022, he claimed that the vaccines were “causing a form of AIDS,” for which there is no evidence. Other medical practitioners have refuted the claim.
She will also be joined by Dr. Kimberly Biss, a gynecologist who regularly shares vaccine misinformation on social media, and Thomas Renz, an Ohio-based attorney who, as of 2021, was litigating federal lawsuits in six states over the vaccine, according to the Washington Post.
WHO Updates COVID Treatment Guidelines, Risk Estimates for Hospitalization
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its COVID-19 treatment guidelines, with revised risk categories and hospitalization estimates.
A group of international experts representing the WHO’s Guideline Development Group today released its 13th update of these guidelines, which include a new “moderate risk” category for people previously considered to be high risk (ie, older people and those with chronic conditions, disabilities, or comorbidities of chronic disease).
“The current COVID-19 virus variants tend to cause less severe disease while immunity levels are higher due to vaccination, leading to lower risks of severe illness and death for most patients,” the WHO said in a statement. “The updated risk estimates will assist healthcare professionals to identify individuals at high, moderate or low risk of hospital admission, and to tailor treatment according to WHO guidelines.”
The WHO lowered its treatment-benefit threshold from a 6% to a 1.5% reduction in the risk of hospitalization. It continues to strongly recommend the antiviral nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) for people at high or moderate risk of hospitalization. If Paxlovid is unavailable, molnupiravir or remdesivir should be used, but only in high-risk patients.
Antivirals aren’t recommended for those at low risk, and the antiparasitic drug ivermectin and the new antiviral VV116 should be used only in clinical trials, the WHO said.
A New COVID Variant, HV.1, Is Now Dominant. These Are Its Most Common Symptoms
As the United States enters respiratory virus season and health officials roll out updated COVID-19 vaccines, a new COVID variant HV.1 has emerged and is currently sweeping the country.
The new Omicron subvariant has rapidly overtaken other strains, including EG.5 aka Eris, to become the dominant variant in the U.S. As of late October, HV.1 is responsible for more than a quarter of all COVID-19 cases, and health officials are monitoring the new variant amid concerns of a winter COVID-19 surge.
HV.1 accounted for an estimated 25.2% of new COVID-19 cases during the two-week period ending Oct. 28, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Congestion, sore throat and dry cough seem to be the three most prominent symptoms right now,” says Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
