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COVID Origins ‘May Have Been Tied’ to China’s Bioweapons Program: GOP Report
Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee are alleging in a newly released report that there are “indications” that COVID-19 could be tied to China’s biological weapons research program and “spilled over” to the general human population during an incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The information was released in a minority staff report by members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s report released by House Republicans also alleges that its investigation “revealed serious shortcomings with both the classified and declassified versions of the Intelligence Community’s,” and states that the omissions “likely skewed the public’s understanding of key issues and deepened mistrust.”
While alleging that COVID’s origins were likely tied to China’s biological weapons research program, the report states, “We have not seen any credible indication that the virus was intentionally, rather than accidentally, released.”
Jim Jordan Outlines Plan of Attack Against Biden Administration
Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio is taking the administration of President Joe Biden to task over the origins of COVID-19.
Jordan and Kentucky Representative James Comer, both Republicans, are leading the charge to probe health experts and officials from the Biden administration about the virus. They’ll call for testimony from dozens of individuals about the matter in January when Republicans formally take control of the House.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced the investigation in a statement on Wednesday. The Republican lawmakers have compiled a list of some 40 people, with Dr. Anthony Fauci expected to testify.
”Mounting evidence points to the virus originating from a leak at the Wuhan lab,” he continued. “EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. National Institutes of Health grantee, passed taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab to conduct gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses — research that may have started the pandemic.”
Fauci Responds to DeSantis’s Call for COVID Vaccine Investigation
Outgoing White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he “doesn’t have a clue” what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hopes to accomplish by calling for a state grand jury investigation into alleged “crimes” related to COVID-19 vaccines.
DeSantis on Tuesday announced his office had petitioned for a grand jury investigation into alleged “crimes and wrongdoing” against Floridians “related to the development, promotion and distribution” of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The governor also shared plans to establish a Public Health Integrity Committee due to distrust of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), saying “anything they put out, you just assume, at this point, that it’s not worth the paper that it’s printed on.”
“It has been politicized and it has been politicized in a way that has actually cost lives,” Fauci added of the vaccine, calling the COVID-19 virus the “common enemy” that Americans should unite around regardless of party, and in spite of misinformation and disinformation.
Omicron BQ, XBB Subvariants Are a Serious Threat to Boosters and Knock Out Antibody Treatments, Study Finds
The Omicron subvariants that have become dominant in recent months present a serious threat to the effectiveness of the new boosters, render antibody treatments ineffective and could cause a surge of breakthrough infections, according to a new study.
The BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB and XBB.1 Omicron subvariants are the most immune evasive variants of COVID-19 to date, according to scientists affiliated with Columbia University and the University of Michigan. These variants, taken together, are currently causing 72% of new infections in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The scientists, in a study published online Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, found that these subvariants are “barely susceptible to neutralization” by the vaccines, including the new Omicron boosters. The immune response of people who were vaccinated and had breakthrough infections with prior Omicron variants also was weaker against the subvariants.
“Together, our findings indicate that BQ and XBB subvariants present serious threats to current COVID-19 vaccines, render inactive all authorized antibodies and may have gained dominance in the population because of their advantage in evading antibodies,” the scientists wrote.
Impaired Taste & Smell After a COVID Infection Linked to Higher Levels of Antibodies
In a new study published in the journal PLOS One, a group of researchers based in the United States found that the odds of developing greater amounts of antibodies to the coronavirus could be two times higher among those who experienced altered smell and taste post-infection.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, loss of smell and taste were identified as one of the key symptoms of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. It has been reported that loss of smell is experienced by at least 43% up to 62% of people who had COVID-19 and tends to occur in the early stages after catching the virus. Out of this, around 20% might have experienced no other symptom other than an impaired sense of smell.
To gain a better understanding of how people with altered smell and taste might have developed antibodies after a COVID-19 infection, the researchers enrolled 309 patients who are a part of the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center convalescent plasma trials. All of them had been diagnosed with COVID-19 recently when the trial had begun in 2020. The participants’ median age was 39 years. More than 60% of them were white women. Around 64% of them reported a loss of smell and/or loss of taste.
“Results from our study suggest that loss of smell and taste during COVID-19 infection are strong predictive factors for a robust immunologic response. Additional research is needed to address the durability of seropositivity among these individuals,” the researchers concluded.
Australian Cardiologist Calls to Halt mRNA COVID Vaccines, Citing Heart Damage
Eighteen-year-old Australian Monica Eskandar couldn’t wait to take her end-of-the-year exams. Instead, Eskandar was rushed to the hospital with severe chest pains. The pain, according to reporting by MSN.com, started just hours after she received a COVID-19 vaccine. Doctors diagnosed Eskandar with COVID-related pericarditis. Pericarditis is a condition that involves inflammation of the tissues lining the heart.
After witnessing as many as 70 cases of vaccine-related heart conditions similar to Eskandar’s, Australian Cardiologist Dr. Ross Walker is now saying publicly that he believes there should be a ban on the use of mRNA booster vaccines.
According to Walker, the mRNA vaccines are “very pro-inflammatory.” He contended that The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization should never have mandated mRNA vaccines.
“I’ve seen many people getting vaccine reactions, who get symptoms for about three to six months afterward,” Walker told the Daily Mail Australia. “I’ve seen 60-70 patients in my own practice over the past 12 months who have had similar reactions,” he said. Those reactions have included shortness of breath, heart palpitations and chest pain, he continued.
Biden Administration Makes at-Home COVID Tests Available for Free Again This Winter
The Biden administration is making rapid COVID tests available for free again this winter through a limited round of ordering.
Households can now order a total of four rapid COVID tests for free at COVIDTests.gov. Orders will start shipping next week, just days before families gather for the Christmas holiday, and deliveries will continue in the following weeks, according to the White House.
The Biden administration shut down the free at-home COVID test program in September because Congress did not pass additional funding to replenish the U.S. stockpile.
The White House decided to shift existing money to buy more tests and relaunch the popular program as COVID cases started increasing again, a senior administration official told reporters during a call Wednesday evening.
COVID Is Here to Stay, but Global Emergency Could End Next Year, WHO Chief Says
As the U.S. appears to be heading into another dreaded winter wave of COVID-19 infections, the World Health Organization is looking further ahead — and finding hope for the end of the global health emergency.
In a press conference on Wednesday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that discussion of the criteria for declaring the end of the pandemic would begin in January when the agency’s Emergency Committee will meet.
“We’re hopeful that at some point next year, we will be able to say that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency,” Tedros said. But he added plenty of caveats. “Of course, this virus will not go away. It’s here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other respiratory illnesses including influenza and RSV, both of which are now circulating intensely in many countries.”
Despite Unclear Effectiveness, Kanpō in Short Supply Amid COVID Wave
As Japan faces yet another wave of COVID-19 infections ahead of the New Year’s holiday season, there’s been a shortage of traditional Chinese kanpō medicine that doctors sometimes prescribe to patients.
A recent study in Japan that examined the effects of kanpō on COVID-19 symptoms may further heighten their demand. The research, conducted by Tohoku University and published in November, led some domestic media to report its positive findings. But a closer look at the results shows that its effectiveness appears to be limited.
Kanpō medicine is widely used at Japanese clinics and hospitals, where doctors trained in Western medicine write prescriptions for it depending on the patient’s symptoms, which could range from a stuffy nose, throat pain or cough. Kanpō, based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine and administered in granule form, is covered by the public health insurance program.
The two kanpō formulas were kakkontō — which contains kudzu root — often used to relieve early cold symptoms such as headache and fever, and shō-saiko-tō-ka-kikyō-sekkō — which contains a mix of herbs including mineral gypsum and bupleurum roots — used to relieve throat pain and swelling.
