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More Reports of COVID Vaccine-Linked Heart Inflammation in Young Males Submitted to CDC
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new data suggesting that cases of post-COVID-19 vaccine-linked heart inflammation among young males have risen.
Recent figures published in the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink surveillance system show that within a week of getting the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, there were 14 confirmed cases of myocarditis or pericarditis among 102,091 males between the ages of 16 and 17. And of the 206,000 12- to 15-year-old males who got the same two-dose vaccine series, 31 cases were confirmed in a week, according to the data.
With last week’s report, the CDC said that the incident rate for the 12- to 15-year-old group is 150.5 per million — or about 1 in 6,600 — and 137.1 per million for the 16- to 17-year-old group — or about 1 in 7,262.
Following the first booster dose, CDC figures show that it jumps to 188 per million among the 16- to 17-year-old group. But for the 12- to 15-year-old males, 61.3 per million developed heart inflammation after the booster dose, according to the figures.
Cardiologist: Spike Proteins Generated by COVID Vaccines Are ‘Toxic’ to Heart
A pediatric cardiologist says that it’s now clear from all of the available evidence that the spike proteins the COVID-19 vaccines tell the body to make are toxic to the heart, and that myocarditis in young people is not as rare as the CDC and FDA have led Americans to believe.
In a lecture on Aug. 26, Dr. Kirk Milhoan said the harm to the heart caused by the spike proteins is an “inconvenient truth.”
Milhoan, a board-certified pediatric cardiologist, based his conclusion on data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and several recently published studies on myocarditis. He believes that myocarditis caused by the COVID-19 vaccines is not as rare as the government has led Americans to believe.
In his Aug. 26 talk, Milhoan said the evidence shows that infection with SARS-CoV-2 likely results in the smallest exposure to the spike protein. In contrast, the mRNA vaccines cause the body to produce spike proteins for an unknown period, perhaps indefinitely.
Did the U.S. Jump the Gun With the New Omicron-Targeted Vaccines?
Last month, the FDA authorized Omicron-specific vaccines, accompanied by a breathless science-by-press release and a media blitz. Just days after the FDA’s move, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed, recommending updated boosters for anyone age 12 and up who had received at least two doses of the original COVID vaccines. The message to a nation still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic: The cavalry — in the form of a shot — is coming over the hill.
But for those familiar with the business tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, that exuberant messaging — combined with the lack of completed studies — has caused considerable heartburn and raised an array of unanswered concerns.
The updated shots easily clear the “safe and effective” bar for government authorization. But in the real world, are the Omicron-specific vaccines significantly more protective — and in what ways — than the original COVID vaccines so many have already taken?
If so, who would benefit most from the new shots? Since the federal government is purchasing these new vaccines — and many of the original, already purchased vaccines may never find their way into taxpayers’ arms — is the $3.2 billion price tag worth the unclear benefit? Especially when these funds had to be pulled from other COVID response efforts, like testing and treatment.
EU Stonewalls Over Von Der Leyen’s Role in Multibillion-Euro Pfizer Vaccine Deal
With every passing day, the negotiations held between the European Commission and Pfizer over the EU’s largest COVID-19 vaccine contract look less like business as usual and more like a whodunnit.
The plot thickened further after the European Court of Auditors published a report today, accusing the Commission of refusing to disclose any details of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s personal role in the talks.
The budget watchdog found that the EU chief threw out the existing rulebook to hash out a preliminary deal with the U.S. multinational, paving the way for a contract for up to 1.8 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to be signed in May 2021.
For all the other vaccine deals struck by the EU between 2020 and 2021, a joint team comprising officials from the Commission and seven member countries conducted exploratory talks. The outcome was then taken to a Vaccine Steering Board made up of representatives from all 27 EU member states who signed off on it.
The Mystery of Why Some People Don’t Get COVID
We all know a “COVID virgin,” or “Novid,” someone who has defied all logic in dodging the coronavirus. But beyond judicious caution, sheer luck or a lack of friends, could the secret to these people’s immunity be found nestled in their genes? And could it hold the key to fighting the virus?
In the early days of the pandemic, a small, tight-knit community of scientists from around the world set up an international consortium, called the COVID Human Genetic Effort, whose goal was to search for a genetic explanation as to why some people were becoming severely sick with COVID while others got off with a mild case of the sniffles.
After a while, the group noticed that some people weren’t getting infected at all — despite repeated and intense exposures. The most intriguing cases were the partners of people who became really ill and ended up in intensive care.
András Spaan, a clinical microbiologist at Rockefeller University in New York, was tasked with setting up an arm of the project to investigate these seemingly immune individuals. But they had to find a good number of them first. So the team put out a paper in Nature Immunology in which they outlined their endeavor, with a discreet final line mentioning that “subjects from all over the world are welcome.”
‘Guardrails’ Needed? Telehealth Fraud Cost Medicare $128 Million in First Year of COVID Pandemic, Feds Say
The federal government eased telehealth requirements at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic so more Americans could get remote care with fewer obstacles.
A report by government investigators last week found that more-permissive remote care has come at a price. During the first year of the pandemic, 1,714 doctors and health providers billed Medicare nearly $128 million in “high risk” claims, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
The report comes less than two months after the inspector general’s office alerted medical professionals about rising telemedicine fraud by companies that often pay kickbacks to doctors, labs and others to generate orders paid by Medicare and other federal health programs.
Also in July, the Justice Department announced 36 people were charged with over $1 billion in health fraud involving telemedicine providers. Some were part of a telemarketing network that lured thousands of elderly or disabled patients to get unnecessary genetic testing or orders for medical equipment
St. Louis Research Fuels COVID Nasal Vaccine Rollout in India
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
The science behind India’s new nasal vaccine for COVID-19 has its roots in St. Louis. India-based drug company Bharat Biotech announced last Tuesday that its nasal vaccine had received emergency approval. The vaccine technology was licensed by Washington University.
Dr. Michael Diamond, a Washington University professor and viral immunologist, said he began working on the vaccine in the spring of 2020 with fellow Washington University professor Dr. David Curiel. The world’s scientific community was just mobilizing on its massive, urgent search for methods to treat and prevent the new coronavirus.
Their work is now making its public debut nearly two years after the injectable products made by Pfizer, Moderna and others. But it could become a strong tool in the fight against COVID-19.
The new vaccine doesn’t require the ultra-cold storage needed for Pfizer’s shot. It is stored between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit. And because it is administered through the nose, it doesn’t produce the biohazard waste of needles and syringes.
AstraZeneca Beats U.S. Shareholder Lawsuit Over COVID Vaccine Disclosures
AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) on Monday won the dismissal of a U.S. shareholder lawsuit claiming that the company failed to disclose problems in developing its COVID-19 vaccine, making it unlikely to win regulatory approval to market the vaccine in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan said AstraZeneca shareholders in the proposed class action failed to identify any misleading statements, or adequately allege that the company intended to defraud them.
Oetken dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again.
EU Regulator Backs Pfizer’s BA.4/5-Adapted COVID Booster
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday recommended a COVID-19 booster designed to combat Omicron offshoots BA.4/5, days after endorsing a pair of boosters tailored to target the older BA.1 variant.
The latest recommendation is for a so-called bivalent vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE), which targets BA.4/5 as well as the strain of the virus that originally emerged in China in December 2019.
The EMA recommendation is to authorize the vaccines for people aged 12 and above who have received at least primary vaccination against COVID. The final go-ahead will be subject to European Commission approval, which is expected to come in shortly.
