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FBI Director Says COVID Origin Is ‘Most Likely’ a Lab Incident in China

U.S. News & World Report reported:

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday publicly acknowledged the agency’s stance that the COVID-19 pandemic likely resulted from an accidental laboratory leak in China.

The interview came days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Energy decided with “low” confidence that the coronavirus most likely came from a laboratory. The agency previously said it was unsure how the virus originated.

The Biden administration this week downplayed the DOE report, saying that the U.S. government and the intelligence community have not reached a “definitive conclusion.”

Wray added that Beijing has hindered investigation efforts into COVID-19’s origin. “I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing, and that’s unfortunate for everybody,” he said.

Pfizer/BioNTech Seeks U.S. Nod for Updated COVID Vaccine as Booster in Kids Under 5

Reuters reported:

Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) have applied for emergency use authorization of their Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine in the United States as a booster dose for children aged six months through four years, the companies said on Wednesday.

The Omicron-adapted vaccine is currently authorized by the U.S. health regulator as the third dose of the three-dose primary course of vaccination in the country for children in this age group.

If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes the vaccine as a booster dose, children who have completed their primary series — either with three doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s original vaccine or with two doses of their original and one dose of the adapted vaccine — would be eligible to receive the booster dose at least two months after the completion of their primary series.

‘No-Brainer’ COVID Was Made in a Lab, Johns Hopkins Doctor Says

Newsweek reported:

A professor of public health policy at John Hopkins University has told Congress that it was a “no-brainer” that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese laboratory the same day the director of the FBI made a far more cautious assertion to the same effect.

Speaking on a panel to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Tuesday, Marty Makary, a surgeon who became a prominent pundit during the pandemic but has no background in virology, noted a series of indicators that made it clear to him that the virus came from a lab, but said it was “embarrassing” since the U.S. government had funded the lab.

Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to the president, previously came under fire after it emerged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance a $3.7 million grant in 2014, $600,000 of which was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in order to study bat coronaviruses.

“The reason this is even an issue is that it’s embarrassing we funded the lab,” Makary told House representatives. “If we had not funded the lab, 100% of Americans would say this is obvious, this is a no-brainer.”

China Dismisses FBI Statement on COVID Lab Leak Theory

Associated Press reported:

For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

Responding to comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the “politicization of origin tracing.”

“By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao said.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China’s) Wuhan.”

Cruz Rips Fauci: ‘Directly Responsible’ for Future Pandemic Deaths Because He Destroyed Credibility of Experts

The Daily Wire reported:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said this week that he believes Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will likely not be held accountable for actions during the pandemic because the Biden administration controls the Department of Justice.

Cruz made the remarks during his podcast “Verdict” with co-host Ben Ferguson while discussing the revelation this week that the Department of Energy now believes that the pandemic likely originated from a lab accident in Wuhan, China.

“I have asked Attorney General Merrick Garland whether he intended to prosecute Fauci and he dodges those questions,” Cruz said in reference to allegations that Fauci lied to Congress. “He refuses to answer those questions. I’ve asked the FBI, they dodge those questions. Look, Fauci flat-out told Congress under oath that the federal government was not funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute for Virology. … NIH, in writing, confirmed that they were funding gain-of-function research.”

Cruz later added that Fauci has done “more damage” to the U.S. than any other bureaucrat in U.S. history and that he has also done “more damage to the credibility of the scientific and medical community” than anyone else in history.

Novavax Raises Doubts About Ability to Remain in Business, Shares Fall

Reuters reported:

COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) on Tuesday raised doubts about its ability to remain in business and announced plans to slash spending as it works to prepare for a fall vaccination campaign, and its shares plunged more than 25%.

The company said there is significant uncertainty around its 2023 revenue, funding from the U.S. government, and pending arbitration with global vaccine alliance Gavi. But its cash flow forecast indicates it has sufficient capital to fund operations over the next year.

The company lost $182 million, or $2.28 per share, in the fourth quarter on weaker-than-expected sales of $357 million. Analysts had expected sales of $383 million, according to Refinitiv data.

The company said the U.S. government did not extend its agreement with Novavax beyond December 2023, putting some of the remaining $416 million in that deal at risk.

EU Silence Over Pfizer COVID Contract Talks Is Problem That Won’t Go Away — Watchdog

Reuters reported:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s silence about her dealings with drugmaker Pfizer (PFE.N) leading to the EU’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine contract is hurting public trust and is a problem that will not go away, its ombudsman said.

“We need to hear what went on, otherwise it’s going to drag on,” Emily O’Reilly said in an interview, pointing to the EU public prosecutor’s investigation of the bloc’s acquisition of vaccines and the European parliament’s COVID committee’s plans to hold more hearings on the issue. “So it just won’t go away.”

O’Reilly said the Commission had “stonewalled” her request last year for it to publish text messages exchanged by von der Leyen and Bourla in the months before Brussels signed a contract in May 2021 with Pfizer and BioNTech (22UAy.DE) to buy up to 1.8 billion doses.

In February, the New York Times said it was suing the Commission over failure to release the text messages.

Pfizer Confirms It Ended COVID Vaccine Pregnancy Trial Early

The Epoch Times reported:

Pfizer has confirmed it stopped its clinical trial analyzing COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy in pregnant women. The company said that enrollment in the study stopped in the fourth quarter of 2021 after health experts, including the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, began recommending the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for pregnant women.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency both agreed to the proposal to halt the study, according to Pfizer. The regulatory agencies did not respond to requests for comment. The randomized, placebo-controlled study in question was launched in early 2021 after pregnant women were excluded from the phase three trial that led to the authorization of the vaccine in the United States and a number of other countries.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they expected to enroll some 4,000 pregnant women but actually enrolled just 349, according to the trial record. Some of the participants were to receive a vaccine while others would receive a placebo, according to the original protocol. Women were expected to be studied for seven to 10 months.

The trial was listed as completed on Aug. 23, 2022, but no results have been released yet.