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Kansas Sues Pfizer Over ‘Misrepresentations’ and ‘Adverse Events’ of COVID Vaccine
The state of Kansas has filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc. for alleged consumer protection violations related to the company’s manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the company marketed the shot as “safe” even though it “knew” the vaccine was connected to “serious adverse events.”
“Pfizer misled the public that it had a ‘safe and effective’ COVID-19 vaccine,” the 69-page lawsuit filed Monday in the District Court of Thomas County alleges. “Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine was safe even though it knew its COVID-19 vaccine was connected to serious adverse events, including myocarditis and pericarditis, failed pregnancies, and deaths. Pfizer concealed this critical safety information from the public,” the suit alleges.
“Pfizer must be held accountable for falsely representing the benefits of its COVID-19 vaccine while concealing and suppressing the truth about its vaccine’s safety risks, waning effectiveness, and inability to prevent transmission,” the lawsuit says.
The suit, filed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, alleges that through the company’s “misrepresentations” of the vaccine, it earned “record company revenue” of approximately $75 billion in just two years.
Former CDC Director Predicts Bird Flu Pandemic
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said he predicts a bird flu pandemic will happen — it’s just a matter of when that will be.
Redfield joined NewsNation on Friday to discuss the growing concern for bird flu, as the virus has been detected in dozens of cattle across the country, and the World Health Organization identified the first human death in Mexico.
“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Redfield said. He also noted that bird flu has a “significant mortality” when it enters humans compared to COVID-19. Redfield predicts the mortality is “probably somewhere between 25 and 50% mortality.” NewsNation noted that the death rate for COVID was 0.6%.
Scientists have found that five amino acids must change in the key receptor in order for bird flu to gain a propensity to bind to a human receptor “and then be able to go human to human” like COVID-19 did, Redfield said.
“I know exactly what amino acids I have to change because in 2012, against my recommendation, the scientists that did these experiments actually published them,” he said. “So, the recipe for how to make bird flu highly [infectious] for humans is already out there.”
Anthony Fauci Says He Turned Down $7 Million Jobs Because ‘I Cared’ About U.S.
Before Anthony Fauci retired from his lengthy run as the U.S. government’s top infectious disease doctor, major pharmaceutical companies tried to lure him away from his post by offering him seven-figure jobs — but he turned them down because he “cared about … the health of the country” too much, he says in a new interview.
Speaking to medical correspondent Dr. Jonathan LaPook for the upcoming CBS News Sunday Morning episode, Fauci confirmed that pharmaceutical corporations offered him big money or chunks of private equity if he would leave the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and work for them instead.
“At the time that I was getting offered [that], I was making $125,000 to $200,000 — then I would get offered a job that would get me $5m, $6m, $7m a year,” Fauci said in an interview excerpt published on Friday by CBS. LaPook asked Fauci: “So why didn’t you take it?”
“Because I really felt what I was doing was having an impact on what I cared about, which was the health of the country and, indirectly, the health of the world,” Fauci replied. “Because the United States is such a leader in science, medicine and public health that what we do indirectly spills over onto the rest of the world. And to me, that is priceless.”
Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign to Undermine China During Pandemic
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines — China’s Sinovac inoculation.
Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus — Tagalog for China is the virus.
The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.
Study: Previous COVID Infection May Protect Against Common Colds
Infection with COVID-19 may offer protection against other, less severe endemic coronaviruses (eCOVs) that are often behind the common cold, according to a study today in Science Translational Medicine. COVID vaccines, however, don’t appear to afford similar protection.
The study was based on polymerase chain reaction test results from a retrospective cohort of 4,935 people who presented for clinical evaluation for respiratory illness from November 2020 to October 2021 at Boston Medical Center.
Previous COVID-19 infection was associated with an almost 50% reduced risk of a future symptomatic eCoV during the follow-up period of more than 120 days [hazard ratio 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.21 to 1.1).
Independent Probe Finds Cuomo COVID Response ‘Engendered Public Mistrust’
An independent investigation into New York’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic found that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) response “engendered public mistrust” and sowed confusion.
The investigation, commissioned by current Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), found that Cuomo’s administration and its lack of communication with agencies and facilities, particularly nursing homes, across the state, resulted in resources wasted and mistrust among individuals.
The report, released Friday by The Olson Group, noted that New York State was frequently categorized as the United States’s “epicenter” for the disease.
Cuomo particularly drew criticism for his handling of nursing facilities and the impact the pandemic had on the elderly. The group found that policies on how nursing homes should handle COVID were “rushed and uncoordinated.” Still, the report acknowledged that fatality rates in New York were consistent with the rest of the country.
Study Sheds Light on Factors That May Predispose Some COVID Patients to Recover More Slowly
Early in the pandemic, many people who had SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 began to report that they couldn’t shake off their symptoms even after a month or more — unusually long for a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract — or developed new, persistent symptoms soon after the infection cleared.
Although it’s still not clear what causes post-COVID-19 conditions or “long COVID” (symptoms and conditions that develop, linger, or reoccur weeks or months after SARS-CoV-2 infection), a new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons confirms the high burden of long COVID and sheds light on who’s at greatest risk.
The study is titled, “Epidemiologic Features of Recovery from SARS-CoV-2 Infection.” It was published online June 17 in JAMA Network Open.
Women and adults with pre-pandemic cardiovascular disease were less likely to recover within three months. Other pre-pandemic health conditions — including chronic kidney disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, depressive symptoms, and a history of smoking — were linked to longer recovery times, but these associations were no longer significant after accounting for sex, cardiovascular disease, vaccination, and variant exposure.
Other groups disproportionately affected by long COVID were American Indian and Alaska Native participants, in whom severe infections and longer recovery times were more common.
Aged Care Vaccinations ‘Disappointingly Low’ as COVID Cases Climb
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
Residential aged care facilities nationally are dealing with the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases among residents in 18 months as vaccination coverage wanes.
As of June 12, only 40.3% of permanent aged care residents had received a COVID-19 booster shot within the past six months, as recommended.
Aged and Community Care Providers Association chief executive Tom Symondson said his organization was discussing with the department how to encourage residents, and their families, to receive their next vaccine.
