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Most Parents Are Saying No to COVID Vaccines for Toddlers

The Wall Street Journal via MSN reported:

Parents are having their say about the COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5, and for most, the answer so far is no.

More than a month after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended shots for about 17.4 million children ages 6 months through 4 years, about 4% to 5% of them have received a shot, according to the most recent agency data and population estimates from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

By contrast, the vaccination rate for children 5 to 11 years reached about 18% a month after the CDC first recommended shots last November. The rate now stands at about 38%.

High numbers of parents also don’t perceive the virus as a threat or have safety concerns because the vaccines are still new, according to surveys and parents and health officials.

Controversial Drug Remdesivir Plays Key Role in COVID-Related Hospital Deaths: Dr. Ardis

The Epoch Times reported:

The antiviral medication remdesivir has played a controversial role in the COVID-19 treatment protocols used by hospitals that many families allege resulted in the death of their loved ones. Among the drug’s potential side effects is acute kidney failure, which many physicians argue is the source of the same symptom reported by the medical establishment to have been caused by COVID-19.

Dr. Bryan Ardis, CEO of Ardis Labs and host of The Dr. Ardis Show, said he watched his own father-in-law die in a hospital in February 2020 after being taken through the same hard-wired, standard-of-care protocols he would eventually witness playing out in the lives of others.

Ardis’s research brought him to COVID protocols set by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who had deemed remdesivir as “safe and effective” based on an experimental trial in Africa during an Ebola outbreak.

In the study found in the New England Journal of Medicine, a safety board found remdesivir to be “the least effective and the deadliest drug in this trial,” before it was suspended, Ardis explained. “Fifty-three percent of people they gave that drug to died,” Ardis said.

Fauci Warns of ‘Trouble’ for Those With BA.5 Variant if Not up to Date on Vaccines

The Washington Post reported:

More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said he understands people are exhausted but is urging those who are not up to date on the vaccines to get the shots — this time, as the latest Omicron subvariant, BA.5, has become the dominant strain in the United States.

Fauci told Los Angeles radio station KNX News earlier this week that although people who are unvaccinated and those with underlying conditions are at the greatest risk of complications from COVID-19, others are not exempt.

“If they don’t get vaccinated or they don’t get boosted, they’re going to get into trouble,” he said. BA.5, which has been called “the worst version of the virus,” accounts for more than 85% of cases of COVID-19, with more than 41% of U.S. counties experiencing a high COVID-19 community level, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. University Concedes It May Have Broken Law in Contract With Wuhan Lab

The Epoch Times reported:

A top U.S. biosecurity lab is taking responsibility for signing “poorly drafted” agreements with three high-level biosecurity labs in China that they concede may have broken the law. The three contracts, including one with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), gave the Chinese labs the power to destroy “secret files” from any stage of their collaboration.

“The party is entitled to ask the other to destroy and/or return the secret files, materials, and equipment without any backups,” reads the 2017 memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) signed with the Wuhan lab, which was revealed in April.

The university recently disclosed that it had signed contracts with identical confidentiality provisions with two other top-level biosecurity labs in China — the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (pdf) in China’s Heilongjiang Province and the Institute of Medical Biology in Kunming (pdf), the capital of China’s Yunnan Province — documents first obtained by the investigative research group U.S. Right to Know show.

The two facilities, together with the WIV, house China’s only three labs certified at the highest biosafety levels.

Vaccine Targeting Fast-Spreading Omicron Subvariants Could Be Ready for Fall as Pfizer, BioNTech Announce Trials

Forbes reported:

Pfizer and BioNTech will begin trials of their updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine designed to protect against the newer BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of the coronavirus later this month, BioNTech announced on Monday, joining other vaccine makers like Moderna who are trying to create updated shots targeting the faster spreading and immune evasive variants.

The trial announcement was included in BioNTech’s financial results for the second quarter of 2022, where the German vaccine maker reported a total revenue of €3.2 billion ($3.26 billion) — lower than analyst estimates.

BioNTech and its American partner Pfizer have started manufacturing “bivalent” Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 vaccines that will offer protections both against the fast-spreading newer variants and earlier variants, the company said.

The company claims it will be able roll out the updated shots by October — in time for potential fall boosters — if it receives regulatory approval.

UN Warns of ‘Worrying And Dangerous’ Conspiracy Theories

ZeroHedge reported:

The United Nations would like everyone to be on the lookout for ‘worrying and dangerous’ conspiracy theories — especially those that might lead people to the conclusion that COVID-19 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China… you know, the thing the WHO just admitted could very well be the case, and which Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has launched recent investigations into.

Before we get into the UN’s latest salvo in the war over narratives (feel free to scroll down if you’re a regular reader); We know from government contracts, FOIA records, and leaked emails that the U.S. government was conducting risky gain-of-function research on U.S. soil until former President Obama banned it in 2014 over ethical questions raised by the scientific community.

The ‘research’ included manipulating bat COVID to be more transmissible to humans, and following Obama’s ban, was funneled overseas through New York nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance — whose CEO Peter Daszak secured lucrative contracts to study and manipulate bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, four months before Obama’s ban.

Enter the UN’s new #ThinkBeforeSharing campaign, which helps people “learn how to identify, debunk, react to and report on conspiracy theories to prevent their spread.” So the default position of those behind the UN’s “watch out for conspiracy theories” campaign is that the lab leak is a conspiracy theory. Right.

BioNTech Reports Strong First Half, Expects Demand to Grow

Associated Press reported:

BioNTech, which teamed with Pfizer to develop a powerful COVID-19 vaccine, has reported higher revenue and net profit in the first half of the year and expects demand to grow as it releases updated vaccines to target new Omicron strains.

The German pharmaceutical company said Monday that revenue hit about 9.57 billion euros ($9.76 billion) in the first six months of 2022, up from nearly 7.36 billion euros in the same period a year earlier. But revenue dropped to about 3.2 billion euros in the second quarter from 5.31 billion euros in April through June of last year.

BioNTech said the dynamic nature of the pandemic has led to changes in orders and revenue but that it expects a strong end to the year. It said it plans to release revamped vaccines tailored to the latest Omicron variants as early as October, which could lead to a fall booster campaign.

Explainer: Monkeypox in the U.S.: Where Could It Spread Next?

Reuters reported:

The United States declared monkeypox a public health emergency last week, an effort to bolster the U.S. response to contain the outbreak.

The virus continues to be largely transmitted among gay and bisexual men, but experts say the disease could spill over into other populations, especially due to vaccine shortages. Monkeypox is spread by contact with puss-filled sores and is rarely fatal.

Experts point to the way HIV spread as a possible indicator of where the virus will go next.

Illinois Daycare Worker With Monkeypox Might Have Exposed Children, Officials Say

NBC News reported:

An Illinois daycare worker with monkeypox might have exposed children under his care, and an exemption was granted to allow those youths to receive the vaccine, health officials said Friday.

The case was reported in Rontoul, a village in Champaign County in central Illinois, health officials said. The number of children possibly exposed wasn’t clear, but officials said that no other people related to the center have tested positive.

Though the vaccine is not typically available to children, the Food and Drug Administration is allowing vaccination for those younger than 18 in cases where they may have been exposed to the virus, Vohra said.

The current vaccine for monkeypox, Jynneos, is approved in the U.S. for use only in adults. However, the vaccine may be administered in children six months to 17 years old under special circumstances that include possible exposure, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Climate Change Puts Lyme Disease in Focus for France’s Valneva After COVID Blow

Reuters reported:

With climate change spurring more cases of tick-borne Lyme disease, drugmaker Valneva (VLS.PA) is betting big on a vaccine as it looks beyond disappointing sales of its COVID shot.

Although Valneva secured European Union and British regulatory approval, both walked away from contracts worth more than a billion dollars combined, wiping nearly 40% off the value of Valneva’s share price in the past six months.

The French firm had touted its COVID-19 vaccine as a traditional alternative for people who had refused shots based on newer messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which teaches cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response.

But unlike the fierce competition with major international drugmakers such as Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca to roll out vaccines to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, there are no established rivals for either Lyme disease or Chikungunya.

Fewer Smokers Tried to Quit During COVID Pandemic

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Fewer people tried to quit smoking as the COVID-19 pandemic began, and this continued for at least a year, according to a new U.S. study.

The American Cancer Society detailed pandemic smoking behavior in the report, while stressing the need to re-engage smokers in smoking cessation campaigns.

“Smoking cessation is an urgent public health priority given that smoking is associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes and at least 12 cancers,” said lead study author Dr. Priti Bandi. She is the principal scientist for risk factors and screening surveillance research at the society.

The researchers found that the number of past-year attempts to quit smoking dropped between 2019 and 2020 for the first time since 2011. Attempts to quit also declined in 2020.