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CURL: Fauci Finally Exposed as the Hypocrite He Truly Is

The Daily Wire reported:

When COVID-19 first came ashore in America — long before scientists really knew anything about the coronavirus — the top brains said in one breathless voice: Wash your hands!

Everyone was saying everything all at the same time — and the mainstream media was laughing all the way to the bank. “It turns out the pandemic is a pretty big part of the news cycle and that’s not going away anytime soon,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in March 2021. “It turns out it’s really good for ratings.”

But let’s get to the real Debbie Downer of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist. Back in March 2020, Fauci declared, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”

Now that we all know just what a hypocrite Fauci is, the question must be asked: When will he just go away? He’s 81, the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government (he gets more than the president), and he keeps getting everything wrong — and not practicing what he preaches, just like all Democrats have done from the beginning.

FDA: ‘No Evidence’ Second Pfizer COVID Pill Stops Repeat Symptoms, Contradicting CEO

Axios reported:

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said Wednesday that there is “no evidence” that a second round of the Pfizer COVID pill Paxlovid will help patients who suffer a relapse in symptoms.

The FDA’s comments contradict Pfizer chief executive officer Albert Bourla, who said patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms after their first treatment can take more of the pill.

“There is no evidence of benefit at this time for a longer course of treatment or repeating a treatment course of Paxlovid,” John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

Bourla told Bloomberg that Paxlovid “reduces the viral load” but doesn’t always clear the coronavirus out of people’s systems. When that happens, people should take more of the drug, he said.

CDC Lowers Threshold for Cruise Ships to Qualify as ‘Highly Vaccinated’ Against COVID

USA TODAY reported:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it is lowering its threshold for cruise ships to meet a “highly vaccinated” status.

“CDC has reevaluated and lowered the cruise ship vaccination status thresholds from 95% of passengers to 90% of passengers under the COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships,” CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner said in an email.

That means that ships are now to be considered “highly vaccinated” if 90% of passengers and 95% of crew members who are eligible to receive the COVID vaccine are fully vaccinated with a “primary series,” or two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

WHO: COVID Continues to Decline, Except in Americas, Africa

Associated Press reported:

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of newly reported coronavirus cases and deaths globally continued to fall in the last week, continuing a decline that first began in March.

Still, the WHO noted that cases rose by about a third in Africa and 13% in the Americas. There was also a nearly 70% jump in deaths reported in India, although that was attributed to delayed reporting rather than a recent surge of disease.

Last week, authorities in South Africa said they had noted an uptick in COVID-19 cases attributable to the BA.4 mutant of Omicron, although they said it was too early to tell if that would result in a significant new wave of disease.

Although the BA.4 version of COVID-19′s Omicron variant appears more infectious than Omicron, the WHO said there was no evidence yet that it was leading to substantially higher rates of hospitalization or death.

Biden Is Rightsizing the COVID Crisis

The Atlantic reported:

This past weekend, Anthony Fauci bailed on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser concluded that the indoor event, though open only to vaccinated attendees who tested negative for COVID-19 the same day, was too risky for his own taste. Biden himself split the difference and showed up only for the speeches, not for the meal.

Asked to explain this turn of events, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “Every individual will make their own decisions about whether they attend this event, other events, whether they wear a mask at it or not.”

The underlying premise was that Fauci and Biden, like all other Americans, must reach their own conclusions about how to reduce their risk. Whether individuals party or don’t party is not a federal question. The implicit policy, in short, is: You do you.

New BA.2 COVID Subvariant Taking Hold in United States

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Yet another subvariant of the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the United States and is likely to become the dominant strain within weeks, experts say.

Early research suggests that BA.2.12.1 — a subvariant of the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant — is better able to evade the immune system than previous versions of the coronavirus, but it’s not clear yet if it causes more severe illness, The New York Times reported.

BA.2.12.1 was first detected in New York State in April, and it is spreading more rapidly than the first versions of Omicron.

COVID Transmission 1,000 Times More Likely From Air vs. Surfaces: Study

U.S. News & World Report reported:

If you’re still wiping down groceries, doorknobs and light switches in an attempt to thwart COVID-19, maybe you can relax a little: You’re 1,000 times more likely to get COVID from the air you breathe than from surfaces you touch, a new study suggests.

University of Michigan researchers tested air and surface samples around their campus and found odds are greater for inhaling virus particles than picking them up on your fingers.

“The overall risk of exposure to the virus was low at all of the locations we measured,” said study author Richard Neitzel, a professor of environmental health sciences and global public health. However, “our results suggest that there was a much higher risk of infection from inhalation than from contact with surfaces like door handles, drinking fountains, keyboards, desks, sinks and light switches,” he noted.

New COVID Vaccines From Canada, China Score in International Trials — but Does the World Even Need Any More, Experts Ask?

MedPage Today reported:

A plant-based vaccine developed in Canada and a protein subunit vaccine from China proved safe and effective against symptomatic COVID-19, a pair of phase III trials found.

But in an accompanying editorial, experts raised the question: “Does the world still need new COVID-19 vaccines?”

Hanna Nohynek, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Bern in Switzerland, and Annelies Wilder-Smith, MD, Ph.D., of the World Health Organization (WHO), pointed out that both trials included “mostly working-age adults,” so no vaccine efficacy data were available for older adults, and both lacked efficacy data against Omicron, “as well as data on the durability of protection and safety in subpopulations such as older persons, pregnant women and persons with immunosuppression.”

Novavax Files for Authorization of COVID Shot Among Adolescents in Britain

Reuters reported:

Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) said on Wednesday it had filed an application with Britain’s drugs regulator for the authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine among adolescents aged 12 and older. Britain had in February cleared the two-dose vaccine, Nuvaxovid, for use in adults amid a spike in cases fueled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The drugmaker in late January filed for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 shot for adults in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to hold several meetings of its outside panel of experts in June to discuss authorization requests submitted by multiple COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers including Novavax.

Understanding How COVID Can Trigger Loss of Smell

U.S. News & World Report reported:

It has happened to millions during the pandemic: a sudden loss of smell that heralds the start of a COVID-19 infection. But scientists have been stumped as to why. Until now.

New research suggests the symptom is due to inflammation rather than directly caused by the coronavirus.

“As a neuropathologist, I wondered why smell loss is a very common symptom with COVID-19 but not with other respiratory diseases,” said study lead author Dr. Cheng-Ying Ho. She is an associate professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.

“So, we decided to dig deeply into the mechanics of smell, to see what actually occurs at the cellular level when SARS-CoV-2 invades the body,” Ho said in a university news release.

COVID Coverage for All Dries up Even as Hospital Costs Rise

Associated Press reported:

For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing healthcare for all during the coronavirus pandemic — but for just one condition, COVID-19.

Now, things are reverting to the way they were as federal money for COVID care of the uninsured dries up, creating a potential barrier to timely access.

“We haven’t turned anybody away yet,” said Dr. Mark Loafman, chair of family and community medicine at Cook County Health in Chicago. “But I think it’s just a matter of time … People don’t get cancer treatment or blood pressure treatment every day in America because they can’t afford it.”

A $20 billion government COVID program covered testing, treatment and vaccine costs for uninsured people. But that’s been shut down. Special Medicaid COVID coverage for the uninsured in more than a dozen states also likely faces its last months.