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Rand Paul Introduces Amendment to Eliminate Fauci’s Position as NIAID Director
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday introduced an amendment that would eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and decentralize it, so that no one person can act as “dictator-in-chief” in the name of public health, the senator said.
Paul’s amendment would reorganize NIAID by breaking it down into three separate national research institutes, all with their own director, including the National Institute of Allergic Diseases, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Immunologic Diseases.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed ‘dictator-in-chief,’” Paul said in a statement announcing the amendment. “No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”
‘I’m Fat-Splaining,’ Bill Maher Rants on Reality of Obesity, COVID Deaths
Television host Bill Maher says that American media outlets have “blood on their hands” for failing to report on COVID-19 deaths that are linked to obesity.
Maher, the host of HBO‘s political talk show Real Time With Bill Maher, has been a consistent critic of the media’s reporting on obesity as the COVID-19 pandemic rampaged through the U.S. In a Sunday appearance on a conservative platform, Maher said he was “not fat-shaming” but “fat-splaining” about the country’s obesity problem.
Maher said that he feels the link between obesity and COVID has not been well-documented by the media. “Seventy-eight percent of the people who died or were hospitalized were obese, and that’s another one that’s not a popular opinion to talk about,” Maher said to the show’s host, Ben Shapiro. “If you just said to somebody, okay, there’s an X-factor in this, of 78% of the people who get [COVID]…die or go to the hospital, wouldn’t you be a little curious if you’re a news organization? Wouldn’t you be talking about that fact all the time?”
Pfizer-BioNTech to Seek U.S. OK for Second COVID Booster for 65 and Older — Report
Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) will seek emergency use authorization for a second booster shot of their COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 65 and older as soon as Tuesday, the Washington Post reported.
The submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, anticipated as soon as Tuesday, is expected to include “real-world data” collected in Israel, one of the few countries that has authorized a second booster for older people, the report said, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Moderna President Says 4th COVID Shot Is Probably Only Necessary for Older and Immunocompromised People
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS’s “Face the Nation on Sunday that a fourth dose, or second booster shot, was indeed necessary, since a third dose doesn’t protect well against infections and immunity wanes quickly. COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against hospitalization and death.
But Moderna President Stephen Hoge told Insider on Monday that people can be more selective about boosters from now on.
“For those who are immune-compromised, those who are older adults, over the age of 50 or at least 65, we want to strongly recommend and encourage [a fourth shot], the same way we do with flu vaccines,” he said.
The Profound Costs of Global Learning Loss, and What Can Be Done About It
Since the start of the pandemic, educators and scholars have been ringing the alarm about learning loss and the long-term effects it will have on students and society at large. But as we contemplate this issue — one so colossal that it is difficult to fully grasp — many of us are probably not considering the education that’s been lost worldwide, and what that has to do with us.
Nearly 1.6 billion learners across the globe endured school closures that lasted from a few months to two years, and the consequences of these learning gaps will reverberate for generations, according to a recent report from the World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF. Students now risk losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings, or about 14% of today’s global GDP, because of COVID-19-related school closures and economic shocks.
U.S. Offering Families of COVID Victims Up to $9,000 to Pay for Funerals
A new program launched by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide up to $9,000 to families of coronavirus victims to help them pay for funerals.
The COVID-19 Funeral Assistance program has received more than $2 billion from the federal government to offer financial aid to families, the Associated Press reported. Any deaths connected to COVID-19 since January 20, 2020, can be covered by the program.
U.S. Will Run out of Key COVID Treatments Without More Funds, White House Says
The U.S. government will run out of supplies of COVID-19 treatments known as monoclonal antibodies as soon as late May and will have to scale back plans to get more unless Congress provides more funding, the White House said on Tuesday.
Raising the alarm about depleted funding for the U.S. pandemic response, the White House said the government also would not have enough money to provide additional COVID-19 booster shots or variant-specific vaccines without a new injection of cash.
The White House has requested $22.5 billion in immediate emergency funding to fight the pandemic, but, after objections from Republicans and Democrats, the money was removed from the latest government funding bill passed by lawmakers last week.
Iowans’ Support for Non-COVID Vaccine Requirements in Schools Erodes, Iowa Poll Finds
Support for strict vaccination requirements for schoolchildren has fallen in Iowa, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.
Just 34% of Iowa adults now say all children should be required to receive standard shots unless they have a doctor-signed statement showing they have a medical reason not to be vaccinated, the poll shows. That’s down from 59% who supported such a requirement in 2015, when the Iowa Poll asked a similar question about childhood vaccinations.
The shifting opinions come amid controversy over COVID-19 vaccines, which are not included in the list of shots Iowa children are supposed to receive before attending school. The list of state-mandated shots includes those against measles, polio, mumps and whooping cough, which have been required for decades.
The new poll specifically asked how Iowans feel about the state law requiring children to be vaccinated against diseases other than COVID-19.
Millions of Vulnerable Americans Likely to Fall off Medicaid Once the Federal Public Health Emergency Ends
As many as 16 million low-income Americans, including millions of children, are destined to fall off Medicaid when the nation’s public health emergency ends, as states face a herculean mission to sort out who no longer belongs on rolls that have swollen to record levels during the pandemic.
The looming disruption is a little-noticed side effect of the coronavirus crisis, and it is stoking fears among some on Medicaid and their advocates that vulnerable people who survived the pandemic will risk suddenly living without health coverage.
For the Biden administration — which will make the decision on when to lift the health emergency — there is the potential political stain of presiding over a surge of poor, newly uninsured Americans, depending on how things go once states resume checking which Medicaid beneficiaries still qualify.
Merck’s COVID Pill Heavily Used so Far Despite Concerns
The Wall Street Journal reported:
A new COVID-19 pill from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP has been more widely used than expected since rolling out late last year, though regulators and many doctors consider it a last resort.
Many doctors and health officials anticipated a rival pill, Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid, would be the COVID-19 drug of choice. Paxlovid was found to be far more effective than Merck-Ridgeback’s molnupiravir in clinical trials, and regulators and guidelines recommended using Paxlovid if possible.
Doctors said they turned to molnupiravir, especially during the recent Omicron surge, often because Paxlovid supplies were limited and some antibody drugs didn’t work against the new variant. In addition, some patients couldn’t take Paxlovid because of the potential harm from mixing it with other medicines they take.
COVID Exposed the Cracks in the U.S. Food System — Meet the People Trying to Fix Them
Long before most of the emergency rooms were overloaded, it was the food system that showed the first signs of the enormous impact the pandemic would have. Empty shelves at the supermarket. Closed restaurants. Farmers dumping milk out into their fields or euthanizing animals as meat processing plants became overwhelmed or shut down.
And it wasn’t just farmers or the restaurant owners or the agricultural industry that suffered: hunger spiked across the country. Food insecurity in the U.S. increased from 11% to 15% during the pandemic, with at least 60 million Americans visiting a food bank during 2020, an increase of 50% from the year before.
COVID’s upturning of the U.S. food system gave those in the industry a preview of a future where pandemics, global conflict and extreme weather events exacerbated by the climate crisis will wreak havoc on our ability to provide food reliably and equitably (the latest IPCC report on the climate crisis warns about exactly this).
‘You Cannot Stop the Flow of Our Medicine to Russia’: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla
Pfizer (PFE) announced it is halting new clinical trials in Russia and donating revenue from Russia to the Ukrainian cause, joining other big pharmaceutical companies.
“Our medicines are medicines, not like [an] iPhone Pro, for example, or the new Mac,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman at SXSW Monday. Sanctions against Russia do not include medicines, though the economic penalties could provide challenges in delivery.
“Ending delivery of medicines, including cancer or cardiovascular therapies, would cause significant patient suffering and potential loss of life, particularly among children and elderly people,” the company noted.
Scientists Call for Immediate Rollout of COVID Jab for UK Primary School Children
Scientists are calling for the immediate rollout of COVID vaccines to primary-aged children, as new data suggests that even a single dose of the Pfizer jab helps to prevent older children against infection, and shortens the duration and severity of symptoms if they do get infected.
The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) approved the vaccination of healthy 5- to 11-year-olds on Feb. 16. At the time, Sajid Javid said the NHS would prepare to extend this “non-urgent” vaccination offer to all children during April “to increase protection against potential future waves of COVID-19” — but parents are still unable to book an appointment, and it is unclear how vaccines will be delivered to this age group.
Dr. Gottlieb Says China Is ‘Very Vulnerable’ to Omicron Subvariant Spread Despite ‘Zero-COVID Policy’
Low levels of natural immunity are complicating China’s efforts to limit spread during its recent surge in cases of the new COVID Omicron BA.2 subvariant, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.
“China has a population that’s very vulnerable to this new variant. This is a much more contagious variant, it’s going to be harder to control, and they don’t have a population that has natural immunity,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said in an interview on “Squawk Box.”
