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This week, Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) president, and Polly Tommey, co-producer of “Vaxxed,” cover the latest COVID headlines, including how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention corrected the number of reported deaths after COVID vaccines by dumping foreign reports, and news that 49 fully vaccinated New Jersey residents died from COVID

Also on tap this week is news the CDC is withdrawing its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for one of the earliest real-time PCR tests for COVID, and word that George Soros and Bill Gates are part of a consortium to buy UK COVID test maker, Mologic.

Mary and Polly also discuss a warning from immunologist and former National Institutes of Health scientist J. Bart Classen that COVID vaccines are producing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. 

Here are more of this week’s highlights:

  • A New Jersey hospital fired six supervisor-level employees for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. “It takes a lot of courage to stand up to your colleagues and to your boss,” said Mary. “But it matters to say your life is more important.”
  • The largest healthcare union in the U.S. held a rally last week protesting New York-Presbyterian Health System’s COVID vaccination or termination policy. “That’s big news,” said Mary. “It’s the biggest healthcare worker’s union.”
  • In the New York Times article, “Why Vaccinated People Are Getting ‘Breakthrough’ Infections,” Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, said if you’re vaccinated you’re protected and are “not going to end up with severe disease, hospitalization or death.” Mary said, “That’s false. We know fully vaccinated people are succumbing to severe illness and death.”
  • Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s expanding New York City’s vaccination-or-test mandate to cover the entire city workforce — all 300,000-plus municipal employees, including the Department of Education and the New York Police Department. “They are ramping up coercion to get vaccinated,” said Mary.
  • Business Insider reports1 in 5 COVID infections in Los Angeles in June were in fully vaccinated people. 
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci said fully vaccinated Americans “might want to consider” wearing a mask indoors as a precaution against the Delta variant. “They’re telling vaccinated people you have to wear a mask if you want to be safe,” said Mary. “Isn’t that an admission that the vaccines don’t work very well?”
  • A new bill introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) would let Facebook, YouTube, Twitter be sued for health misinformation. “Klobuchar has also suggested that Children’s Health Defense be deplatformed,” said Mary. 
  • Two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine are nearly as effective against the Delta variant as they are against the previously dominant Alpha variant, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Mary said, “The more doses people have, the higher the possibility of an injury.”
  • Biden administration health officials think vulnerable populations will need booster shots. It’s a sharp shift from just a few weeks ago, when the administration said there was not enough evidence to back boosters yet. “It’s targeting the vulnerable,” said Mary. 
  • Intensive-care unit and lung doctor Dr. Vin Gupta told CNBC that he’s already encouraging patients who received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine to get a Pfizer or Moderna booster shot. 
  • Johnson & Johnson projects $2.5 billion from vaccine sales globally, even as the company faces questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness against the Delta variant. “Just like wars are very profitable for some, pandemics are the new wars in terms of global profit-taking,” said Mary. 
  • Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams predicted that the U.S. military will mandate COVID shots once they gain full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Polly said, “We get so many messages from people in the military. We have your backs. We will do everything we can to help you.”
  • Moderna’s COVID vaccine could become the second shot approved by the European Union for use in 12 to 17 year-olds. 
  • A 5-year-old from Georgia died of COVID. The Atlantic Journal Constitution said dying at such a young age from COVID is extremely rare. Of the more than 18,600 people who have succumbed to it in Georgia, only 11 were children.
  • The Gamma variant, first found in Brazil, has been detected in small quantities in Russia. 
  • The staff at a French hospital have gone on an indefinite strike to protest new rules demanding they take a COVID vaccine by mid-September or face losing their jobs.
  • The Italian government said it will require people to show proof of vaccination in order to participate in certain social activities, including indoor dining, visiting museums and attending shows.
  • Eric Clapton said he won’t play at UK concert venues that require proof of vaccination. “I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present,” said Clapton.
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Watch “This Week” with Mary + Polly: