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DeSantis Seeks Grand Jury Investigation of COVID Vaccines

Associated Press reported:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he plans to petition the state’s Supreme Court to convene a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” with respect to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The Republican governor, who is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024, gave no specifics on what wrongdoing the panel would investigate but suggested it would be in part aimed at jogging loose more information about the vaccines.

He made the announcement following a roundtable with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and a panel of scientists and physicians, in which some discussion centered on the fact that pharmaceutical companies have not provided their data on the COVID-19 vaccines to independent researchers.

“We’ll be able to get the data whether they want to give it or not,” DeSantis said. “In Florida, it is illegal to mislead and misrepresent, especially when you are talking about the efficacy of a drug.”

Pfizer Sees $10 Billion-$15 Billion in Potential Revenue From mRNA Vaccines by 2030

Reuters reported:

Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) said on Monday that annual revenue from its mRNA vaccine portfolio could reach $10 billion to $15 billion by 2030, alleviating fears of a sharp hit to its topline from an expected decline in COVID vaccine demand and patent expirations.

Shares of the New York City-based company rose nearly 2% to $52.59 during afternoon trade and helped lift U.S. stock indexes higher.

The company’s revenue is expected to top $100 billion this year — more than double the pre-pandemic level — helped by strong demand for its COVID-19 vaccine and oral treatment Paxlovid.

The company has been investing heavily into its mRNA pipeline and said the manufacturing capacity for Comirnaty, its COVID-19 vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech SE, leaves it uniquely positioned to deliver other mRNA shots globally.

POTS, a Debilitating Heart Condition, Is Linked to COVID and, to a Lesser Degree, Vaccines

NBC News reported:

Research published Monday has confirmed a link between a COVID infection and a debilitating heart condition called POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, that has been diagnosed in some patients with long COVID.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, are in line with earlier reports from physicians that COVID may trigger POTS, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system often characterized by a rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, fainting and lightheadedness.

POTS was also linked, to a lesser degree, to COVID vaccination with an mRNA vaccine, according to the new study.

Lead study author Dr. Alan Kwan, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said the study has limitations, including that the results were based on patient data from a single health system. He also said that the link between POTS and COVID vaccination needs to be confirmed with further studies.

People Died From mRNA-Vaccine-Damaged Hearts, New Peer-Reviewed German Study Provides Direct Evidence

The Epoch Times reported:

Medical pathologists from Heidelberg University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany have published direct evidence showing how people found dead after mRNA vaccination died.

As this team of six scientists explore in their study, these mRNA-vaccinated patients suffered from heart damage because their hearts were attacked by their own immune cells. This autoimmune attack on their own heart cells then leads to their damaged hearts beating so many times per second that, once the tachycardia unexpectedly started, they died in minutes.

The article, “Autopsy-based histopathological characterization of myocarditis after anti-SARS-CoV-2-vaccination,” was published on Nov. 27, 2022, in the journal Clinical Research in Cardiology, the official journal of the German Cardiac Society. The research team autopsied 25 victims of different ages who were found dead at home within 28 days of vaccination. They looked at their heart tissue under the microscope to find out why these people died of cardiac rhythmic disruption when they had no apparent underlying heart disease.

In the authors’ own words: “Our findings establish the histological phenotype of lethal vaccination-associated myocarditis.” Histological phenotype means direct observation of microscopic tissue.

Two Decades After 9/11 Inquiry, a Similar Plan for COVID Stalls in Congress

The New York Times reported:

The United States is climbing out of a different crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed vastly more people than the Sept. 11 attacks and set off a global economic crisis. But some experts in biodefense and public health fear that the opportunity for a national reckoning with COVID-19 is slipping away — and with it, a chance to build on lessons learned during the pandemic.

Bipartisan legislation to create a Sept. 11-style independent panel to investigate the pandemic response by both the Trump and Biden administrations appears stalled on Capitol Hill, despite a 20-2 vote in favor of the measure by the Senate health committee. Backers say their last hope for passage is to tack it onto an upcoming spending bill, the final major must-pass piece of legislation of the current Congress.

The commission would be created as part of a sprawling bill called the PREVENT Pandemics Act. The measure would also make the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a Senate-confirmed position and take other steps to improve pandemic preparedness, including increasing coordination among public health agencies and addressing supply chain deficiencies.

No Insurance Coverage for Business COVID Losses, Says Ohio Top Court

Reuters reported:

Ohio’s highest court on Monday became the latest state supreme court to conclude that businesses’ insurance policies do not cover losses they suffered after being forced to curtail operations during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Ohio Supreme Court on a 5-1 vote ruled that Cincinnati Insurance Co was not obligated to cover the losses sustained by an operator of an audiology practice because the coronavirus did not cause any direct physical loss or damage to its property.

The business contended that it suffered a direct physical loss or damage to property as defined by its “all-risk” commercial insurance policy after it was forced to cease almost all operations for the first several weeks of the pandemic.

Why Special Flu Shots Are Recommended for Those 65 and Older

The Washington Post reported:

For many years, people 65 or older have had the option to get a flu shot specially formulated for them. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to recommend that older adults get these shots instead of the standard flu shot options. This flu season, that changed.

The CDC is now recommending that people 65 or older try to find one of these specially formulated vaccines. The season has already begun, so if you haven’t gotten your flu vaccine yet, the time is now. And if you’re 65 or older, you should try to find one of these three shots: Fluzone High-Dose, Fluad or Flublok. Here’s why. Vaccines with “quadrivalent” in their names provide protection against four different strains of influenza.

Experimental mRNA Cancer Vaccine With Immunotherapy Reduces Risk of Melanoma Returning, Preliminary Study Finds

CNN Health reported:

An experimental personalized mRNA vaccine in combination with the immunotherapy Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death from melanoma in patients who had already had surgery, Moderna and Merck said Tuesday.

The randomized trial included 157 patients with stage 3 or stage 4 melanoma who had already had surgery. Some patients received nine doses of the experimental cancer vaccine made by Moderna and the immunotherapy made by Merck every three weeks for about a year, and some received only the immunotherapy. Treatment with the experimental vaccine in combination with the immunotherapy reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 44% compared with the immunotherapy alone, the companies said.

The preliminary results of a Phase 2b trial were shared in a news release and have not been peer-reviewed or published. The companies said they will publish the full data in the future and share results at an upcoming conference.

The companies said they will initiate a Phase 3 study in melanoma patients next year and will study additional tumor types.

China Health App Starts Online Sales of Pfizer’s Paxlovid for COVID Treatment

Reuters reported:

A Chinese healthcare platform has started selling Pfizer‘s (PFE.N) oral COVID treatment pill Paxlovid in what appears to be the first retail sale of the drug in the country, as China braces for a surge in COVID patients.

The medication sold out just over half an hour after the listing was reported in the media, the platform’s customer service said, underscoring surging demand for COVID and flu medicines in China.

Japan’s Meiji Holdings Says Drug Unit Started Late-Stage Trial for COVID Vaccine

Reuters reported:

Japan’s Meiji Holdings Co. (2269.T) said on Tuesday its drug subsidiary had started a Phase III trial of an mRNA-based vaccine for COVID-19.

Meiji Seika Pharma had started the late-stage trial among 780 subjects in Japan, with the test period running from November to April 2024, Meiji said in a statement.

The trial will test the effectiveness of the vaccine, developed by U.S.-based Arcturus Therapeutics Inc, in comparison with the mRNA shot developed by Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE).