Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. It's free.
Fox News Special Report Outlines Fresh Questions on What Fauci, Government Knew About COVID Origin
Fresh questions are being raised about what American scientists and federal health officials knew about the origins of the coronavirus and whether conflicting evidence was suppressed and hidden from the public.
On Tuesday night’s episode of Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox News dove into the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and explored documents obtained showing that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was warned early on that the virus may have originated in a Wuhan, China lab.
According to the timeline of events laid out by Baier, Fauci was told on January 27, 2020, that his NIAID had been indirectly funding the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth — a U.S.-based scientific non-profit that had been working with novel coronaviruses.
Special Report’s findings highlight frustration in the scientific community stemming from lack of openness and incomplete or inaccurate facts as Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill push for more information on what the federal government knew about the origins of the virus and when.
County Becomes First to Change ‘Fully Vaccinated’ Definition as CDC Backs Initial Guideline
The definition of “fully vaccinated” has been changed for the first time in one U.S. county, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sticking with the original sequence for now.
As of Tuesday, Maui County, the third-largest county in Hawaii, now requires residents or visitors to have a booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Adults over 18 that are eligible for boosters will have to show proof of vaccination in order to do things like dining at restaurants or bars or visiting gyms.
Boosters will be required five months after getting the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two months after the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Those who have not gotten a booster can show a negative COVID test that is less than 48 hours old.
Colorado Schools Nix COVID Vaccine Clinics After Videos Claim Kids Could Get Shots Without Parental OK
Littleton Public Schools will no longer hold COVID-19 vaccination clinics on school campuses after two videos circulated online of students being offered shots without parental consent.
The school district sent a letter to parents on Tuesday, saying that it is “aware of a situation” that happened at a vaccine clinic held at Heritage High School in Littleton on Jan. 21, but did not provide details on what occurred beyond saying that they don’t agree that the company that staffed the clinic — Jogan Health — followed proper protocols.
Littleton Public Schools had assumed all clinics in the state required a parent to be present during a vaccination, wrote Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Brian Ewert in the letter to parents.
COVID Vaccine Booster Drive Is Faltering in the U.S.
The COVID-19 booster drive in the U.S. is losing steam, worrying health experts who have pleaded with Americans to get an extra shot to shore up their protection against the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Just 40% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the average number of booster shots dispensed per day in the U.S. has plummeted from a peak of 1 million in early December to about 490,000 as of last week.
It’s Very Difficult to Get Access to Antiviral COVID Treatments
Antiviral COVID treatments are hailed as a pandemic game-changer, but they’re currently in very short supply — and that’s only one of several barriers to access for high-risk patients.
The big picture: Even when supply ramps up, it will still be tricky to connect some of the most vulnerable patients to the pills without changes to the process.
Why it matters: Recently approved antivirals reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by up to 89%.
Iowa Doctor Goes National and Stages Hospital ‘Jailbreaks’ for COVID Patients
An Iowa-licensed physician who has questioned the use of vaccines and face masks in fighting COVID-19 says that each day she treats up to 40 patients from around the country and is staging “jailbreaks” that involve pulling patients out of hospitals against the medical advice of other doctors.
Dr. Mollie James, who operates a clinic in Chariton, is a surgeon and critical care specialist who trained at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines and the University of Minnesota. She has practiced in Des Moines, St. Louis and New York City. Her license is in good standing with the Iowa Board of Medicine.
Scolding the Unvaccinated Left Biden Unprepared for Omicron
A full year into President Joe Biden‘s term, Americans have watched the China-originated COVID-19 virus work its way through half of the Greek alphabet. We’ve learned much along the way, including that the Biden administration vastly overstated the COVID vaccines’ ability to keep most everyone from getting the virus.
Biden has adopted a strategy of scaring Americans into getting vaccinations and boosters. He said on Dec. 14 that “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and asked “How about making sure that you’re vaccinated, so you do not spread the disease to anyone else?”
Meanwhile, supposedly non-partisan public health agencies, such as the CDC, NIH and FDA, have become thoroughly politicized and have repeatedly downplayed or ignored data that contradict the White House narrative.
When such data emerge, the White House has not taken it into account. Biden conspicuously neglected to mention that the CDC has stated that anyone with an Omicron variant infection, including the vaccinated, can spread the virus to the vaccinated or unvaccinated.
Yamhill County Commissioner Threatens Her Own Health Department for Failing to Discredit COVID Vaccines
The Oregonian via MSN reported:
A Yamhill County commissioner has threatened to punish her own health department if it fails to publish information discrediting the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
“I’ve been asking our public health department to put some numbers on our public health website, because I don’t want to be an accomplice to another kid dying from myocarditis,” Starrett said, referring to a rare side-effect of COVID-19 vaccines.
“And I don’t want to be an accomplice to this lie, that vaccines and masks will keep you healthy.”
More Hospitals Are Removing Transplant Patients From Lists Due to COVID Vaccine Status
A Boston man fighting for his life at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been removed from the heart transplant list for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A man seeking a kidney transplant has also been denied a place on the active transplant list because he chose not to get vaccinated. Shamgar Connors, 42, is a patient at University of Virginia Hospital who is now listed as “inactive” on the list for a life-saving kidney transplant. Connors said his entire family had COVID-19 and doesn’t believe he needs the vaccine.
Similarly, a Colorado woman was denied a kidney transplant because she refuses to get the vaccine for religious reasons.
Spotify Silent After Neil Young Reportedly Threatens to Pull Songs From Platform Over Joe Rogan
Spotify has noticeably kept mum amid news that Neil Young reportedly asked the streaming giant to remove his music.
The veteran rocker fired off a public missive to his management on Monday, demanding that they remove his music from Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on his popular podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
But soon after, the letter disappeared from view on Young’s website. As of Wednesday morning, listeners could still listen to many of the 76-year-old’s hits.
China Hasn’t Reported a Single COVID Death in a Year, as Questions Remain About Accuracy of Its Data
China’s health authorities have now gone a full year without reporting a single death from COVID-19 despite facing sporadic outbreaks across parts of the country during the same period, suggesting its “zero-COVID” approach may be effective — but also raising more questions about the accuracy of its public data, concerns that have dogged China since the very beginning of the pandemic.
The country’s last reported COVID-19 death was on January 26, 2021 — one year ago — in the northeastern province of Jinlin.
Since the start of the pandemic, several questions have been raised about the accuracy of China’s COVID-19 data.
BioNTech Preps Hiring Spree at mRNA Vaccine Plant, Boosting Workforce by 50%
In just two short years, BioNTech will have more than doubled the size of its workforce at the German biologics facility it bought from Novartis at the height of the pandemic.
BioNTech is hiking the headcount at its Marburg, Germany, vaccine plant by 50%, the company confirmed via email Wednesday. Since it picked up the site from Novartis in 2020, BioNTech has added about 200 employees. Now, it’s planning to recruit an additional 250 staffers before the year is out, a company spokesperson said.
At the same time, the German mRNA specialist is socking some €50 million (about $56.4 million) into the site. It’s planning to add additional office space there as it weighs options for future growth, BNN Bloomberg reports.
Fewer Czechs Dying of COVID Despite Record Infections
The number of Czech citizens dying of COVID-19 has been steadily declining despite a recent record surge in coronavirus infections caused by the highly transmittable Omicron variant.
The figures released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday show that 121 people died in the last seven days, down from 206 the previous period and 289 another seven days back.
