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10 Myths Told by COVID Experts — and Now Debunked
In the past few weeks, a series of analyses published by highly respected researchers have exposed a truth about public health officials during COVID: Much of the time, they were wrong.
To be clear, public health officials were not wrong for making recommendations based on what was known at the time. That’s understandable. You go with the data you have. No, they were wrong because they refused to change their directives in the face of new evidence. When a study did not support their policies, they dismissed it and censored opposing opinions.
At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weaponized research itself by putting out its own flawed studies in its own non-peer-reviewed medical journal, MMWR.
In the final analysis, public health officials actively propagated misinformation that ruined lives and forever damaged public trust in the medical profession. What’s most amazing about all the misinformation conveyed by CDC and public health officials is that there have been no apologies for holding on to their recommendations for so long after the data became apparent that they were dead wrong.
At a minimum, the CDC should come clean and the FDA should add a warning label to COVID vaccines, clearly stating what is now known. A mea culpa by those who led us astray would be the first step to rebuilding trust.
Still No Consensus on COVID’s Origins, White House Says
The U.S. government still has not reached a consensus on how the coronavirus pandemic started, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday — despite news reports that the Energy Department has concluded the virus most likely leaked from a lab in China.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the department had reached a “low confidence” conclusion supporting the so-called lab leak theory in a classified finding shared with the White House and members of Congress. Kirby would not confirm or deny the report, saying he is “not going to get ahead” of the U.S. government’s investigation.
Two Republicans leading the House’s COVID probes demanded Monday that the Energy Department, State Department and FBI provide documents related to the issue.
The Energy Department declined Monday to comment on the Journal article, saying through a spokesperson: “The Department of Energy continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed.”
Fauci Blames Attacks on China — Not China — for COVID Origins Impasse
Dr. Anthony Fauci is offering a defense of Chinese officials who have repeatedly been accused of denying access to scientists working to determine the origins of COVID. Fauci, who retired from decades of government service late last year, blames Beijing’s critics, not the Chinese Communist Party, for a lack of transparency that he seems certain would show the virus came about via natural transmission, not a lab leak in Wuhan.
“The only way we’ll know is if China opens up and we get American scientists, Canadian scientists, Australian scientists to go there and do the kind of surveillance in the wild,” Fauci told Boston Globe Magazine editor-at-large Neil Swidey.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who is now the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said last month that Fauci’s own emails raise questions on whether Fauci concealed information about COVID originating in a lab. Fauci argues his emails show nothing of the sort.
One area in which Republicans have pledged to investigate Fauci is in regard to federal funding for bat coronavirus research with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci has vociferously denied the work amounted to gain-of-function research, in which viruses are manipulated to become more dangerous. In the new interview, Fauci said that it is impossible for the research conducted in Wuhan to have created COVID.
China Says It’s Been ‘Open and Transparent’ on COVID Origins
China on Tuesday said it has been “open and transparent” in the search for the origins of COVID-19, after questions about how the pandemic began received new attention.
Most recently, the U.S. Department of Energy assessed with “low confidence” that the pandemic that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 began with the leak of a virus from a lab. The report hasn’t been made public.
China had “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.
More COVID Vaccine Injuries Approved for Compensation; Injured Still Waiting for Payouts
More than a dozen COVID-19 vaccine injury claims have now been approved by U.S. authorities, but none of the injured have received compensation.
The U.S. government’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program has approved claims from 19 people, ruling that they proved their injuries were caused by the vaccines. The approvals are through Feb. 1.
In 17 of the cases, a COVID-19 vaccine caused myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation; pericarditis, a related condition; or both. One of the remaining approvals was for severe allergic shock and one was for a type of skin swelling called angioedema.
A Condition Called POTS Rose After COVID, but Patients Can’t Find Care
A life-changing condition called POTS, which can cause fainting, irregular heartbeats and dizziness, particularly among young women, appears to be on the rise as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the condition isn’t well understood, and many patients are dismissed as having anxiety, delaying diagnosis. Once diagnosed, many patients face waiting lists for as long as two years to get treatment from specialists.
POTS stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary functions like heart rate, blood pressure and digestion.
It’s still unclear how many COVID patients develop POTS. Studies show that anywhere from 2% to 14% of people with COVID develop POTS. One study of long COVID patients found that overall 30% met the criteria for POTS, although it was far more common in women. In that study, 36% of women met the criteria for POTS compared to 7% of men.
B.C. Says Stockpile of Moderna Infant COVID Vaccines Set to Expire, With No New Supply for a Month
The national supply of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for babies and young children will expire next week, and another shipment isn’t expected in B.C. until April, the province announced Monday.
Canada’s current stock of the company’s infant mRNA shots, used for children between the ages of six months and four years old, will expire on March 8, according to a statement from the B.C. Ministry of Health. A new supply is expected to begin arriving in the province on April 11.
Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine for infants is still available and can be substituted for the Moderna product, the ministry says. The Pfizer vaccine is given in three doses rather than two.
