Subclinical Heart Damage More Prevalent Than Thought After Moderna Vaccination: Study

Damage to the heart is more common than thought after receipt of Moderna’s COVID-19 booster, a new study indicates.

One in 35 health care workers at a Swiss hospital had signs of heart injury associated with the vaccine, mRNA-1273, researchers found.

“mRNA-1273 booster vaccination-associated elevation of markers of myocardial injury occurred in about one out of 35 persons (2.8%), a greater incidence than estimated in meta-analyses of hospitalized cases with myocarditis (estimated incidence 0.0035%) after the second vaccination,” the researchers wrote in the paper, published by the European Journal of Heart Failure.

In a generally healthy population, the level would be about 1 percent, the researchers said.

The group experiencing the adverse effects was followed for only 30 days, and half still had unusually high levels of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, an indicator of subclinical heart damage, at follow-up.

The long-term implications of the study remain unclear as little research has tracked people over time with heart injury after messenger RNA vaccination, which is known to cause myocarditis and other forms of heart damage.

“According to current knowledge, the cardiac muscle can’t regenerate, or only to a very limited degree at best. So it’s possible that repeated booster vaccinations every year could cause moderate damage to the heart muscle cells,” University Hospital Basel professor Christian Muller, a cardiologist and the lead researcher, said in a statement.

Moderna did not respond to a request for comment.

None of the patients experienced a major adverse cardiac event, such as heart failure, within 30 days of booster vaccination, and none had electrocardiogram changes.

The people with elevated levels were advised to avoid strenuous exercise, which may have mitigated more serious problems, the researchers said.

No imaging was done to examine the participants’ hearts, despite imaging being recommended by many cardiologists in cases of suspected vaccine-induced myocarditis.

It’s possible that imaging would have revealed inflammation, which could cause scarring or irregular heartbeat, Dr. Andrew Bostom, a heart expert in the United States who was not involved in the research, told The Epoch Times.

Dr. Anish Koka, an American cardiologist, said that the findings were “super useful to see how ‘cardioactive’ the booster is” but that it was hard to say how significant the elevated troponin levels were, particularly without a comparison to baseline levels. “There is really nothing clinically concerning at 30 days to report,” he said on Twitter.

Study Methods

Researchers posited that the incidence of vaccine-associated heart injury was more prevalent than previously thought following messenger RNA booster vaccination because of a lack of symptoms or mild symptoms.

They defined injury as a sharp increase in high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T on the third day after vaccination without evidence of an alternative cause. The levels of cardiac troponin had to hit the upper limit of normal, 8.9 nanograms per liter in women and 15.5 nanograms per liter in men.

All workers at the University Hospital Basel scheduled to receive a Moderna booster for the first time were offered a chance to participate in the study, unless they experienced a cardiac event or underwent heart surgery within 30 days of vaccination. The workers received a booster, which is half the dosage level of the primary series shots, from Dec. 10, 2021, to Feb. 10, 2022. The cohort ended up being 777 workers, including 540 females. The median age was 37 years.

Among the participants, 40 had elevated levels of cardiac troponin. Alternative causes were identified in 18. For the other 22, the researchers determined they had “vaccine-associated myocardial injury.” The median age of the 22 was 46. All but two were women, making the percentage of women with elevated levels higher than the percentage of men (3.7 percent versus 0.8 percent), which contrasts with most of the previous literature on vaccine-induced myocarditis. That could stem from women receiving a higher vaccine dose per body weight, the researchers said.

Baseline levels were not recorded because the hospital’s COVID-19 task force and the researchers decided that the study “should interfere as little as possible with the motivation of the hospital staff to obtain the mRNA-1273 first booster vaccination and the logistics of booster vaccination itself.”

None of the people with elevated markers had a history of heart disease. While half experienced symptoms, most symptoms were nonspecific like fever. Two participants suffered from chest pain. And two, according to the Brighton Collaboration case definition, likely suffered myocarditis.

Testing was done for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T because of its sensitivity.

“This marker is extremely sensitive—with other methods such as MRI we wouldn’t have been able to detect any damage to the cardiac muscle, as it only becomes visible once the damage there is about three to five times greater,” Dr. Muller said.

The researchers were not able to figure out the mechanism for the vaccine hurting the heart muscle.

The authors reported some conflicts of interest, including Dr. Muller reporting grants from drugmakers such as Novartis and Roche. The study was funded by the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel.

Limitations include the lack of baseline levels and lack of imaging.

Previous Findings, and Pending Study

Several other prospective studies examine myocarditis following Pfizer vaccination.

In Thailand, researchers found that 29 percent of 301 adolescents developed cardiovascular effects, including chest pain, after a second Pfizer dose. Seven were diagnosed with heart inflammation.

Researchers in Taiwan established baseline electrocardiogram levels before a second Pfizer dose and recorded abnormal results following the administration in one percent of 4,928 primary school students. That included five students diagnosed with myocarditis or an abnormal heartbeat.

And an Israeli study of 324 health care workers with a median age of 51 who received a second Pfizer booster identified two cases of vaccine-induced heart injury on day three.

Other recent studies have confirmed that vaccine-induced myocarditis can kill, including a South Korean study that ruled out all other possible causes for eight sudden deaths following messenger RNA vaccination. Myocarditis was not suspected as a clinical diagnosis or cause of death before autopsies were performed, researchers said.

The Swiss researchers said more prospective studies are needed to examine post-vaccination heart injury. Long-term problems from the injuries, they stressed, remain unclear.

Moderna was required by U.S. authorities to conduct a prospective study to assess the incidence of subclinical myocarditis following a booster among adults, with a projected completion date of June 30, 2023. Neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor Moderna have disclosed the results of the study as of yet.

Pfizer was required to conduct a similar study, with results due on Dec. 31, 2022, but the FDA changed the end date at the request of Pfizer.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/subclinical-heart-damage-more-prevalent-than-thought-after-moderna-vaccination-study-5423864

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The damage of Covid lockdowns is only now becoming apparent

Ross Clark

There are still those, like Matt Hancock, who think that lockdowns were an unalloyed good – who, indeed, believe that in a future pandemic we must lock down harder and faster. But for the rest of us, the appalling toll of Covid lockdowns continues to become apparent.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveals today that the number of people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness has grown by 400,000 to 2.5 million since 2019. More than half of these people – 135,000 – report depression and anxiety as either the primary or secondary cause of their absence from the workplace.

Where is the outrage over these figures?

The pandemic has left us with virtually zero economic growth, much of which is blamed on high inflation and rising interest rates. But an important underlying cause too often goes without comment: a sharp rise in economic inactivity.

We cannot grow richer as a country if ever more people are unproductive. Yet the figures for economic inactivity tend to get smothered by the more frequently-reported unemployment statistics. Since the 1990s, these have been based on answers to the Labour Force Survey (an ONS questionnaire) and do not include people on long-term sickness benefits.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Social Justice has published its latest termly tracker of school absence for the autumn term of 2022, showing that school attendance has not even nearly recovered from repeated lockdowns. It reveals that 1.7 million pupils – 24 per cent of the total – missed more than 10 per cent of their lessons. Meanwhile 125,000 pupils missed more than half their lessons. This latter figure has more than doubled since before the pandemic; by contrast it was 60,000 in the same term of 2019.

The implications of all this for society are still fully to be felt. There is a long-established link between school absence and the descent into crime. The rise in school absences suggests that there could be an extra 9,000 young offenders, 2,000 of them violent criminals, by 2027.

Yet where is the outrage over these figures? The scandal of school absences hardly shows up in the news agenda. Disgracefully, the whole issue of missed education was pushed aside by artificially inflated exam grades in 2020 and 2021, when GCSE and A level results were based on teachers’ predictions for their pupils, not on actual exam results. On paper we have a generation which looks extremely well-educated – yet which in reality has huge gaps in its education.

The government’s considered pandemic plan prior to Covid 19 was not to close schools. But, come March 2020, advisers and ministers panicked, dumped the plan and imposed lockdown, closing schools for months on end. We will be living with the consequences for a very long time.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/07/the-damage-of-covid-lockdowns-is-only-now-becoming-apparent/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Pediatrician Fired After Raising Alarm on COVID-19 Vaccines During US Senate Event

A medical expert was terminated by one of her employers after raising concerns about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines during an event held by a U.S. senator, according to newly disclosed documents.

After Dr. Renata Moon (who will appear on "American Thought Leaders" premiering Mon. Aug. 30, 7:30pm ET) testified during the December 2022 event on Capitol Hill, Washington State University officials told her that they were alerting a state medical commission because she allegedly promoted misinformation, one of the documents shows.

The Washington Medical Commission (WMC) has said that doctors who offer misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and preventative measures "erode the public trust in the medical profession and endanger patients," that people should lodge complaints against doctors who allegedly provide misinformation, and that it may revoke the licenses of doctors who are found to have spread misinformation.

Drs. Jeff Haney and James Record, Washington State University officials, referenced the commission in a letter to Dr. Moon dated March 3, 2023.

"The WMC has asked the public and practitioners to report possible spread of misinformation. There are components of your presentation that could be interpreted as a possible spread," they wrote. "As such, we are ethically obligated to make a report to the WMC to investigate possible breach of this expectation."

The university informed Dr. Moon in June 2023 that it was effectively firing her by not renewing her appointment as a clinical associate professor of medicine, according to other documents reviewed by The Epoch Times.

"At this time, the needs of the college are moving in a different direction and your participation is no longer required," Drs. Haney and Record wrote.

More detailed reasoning was not provided.

"This is not about my personal situation with the school. This is about freedom of speech for all Americans," Dr. Moon told The Epoch Times in an email. "We must create an ethical healthcare system that is concerned only with the well being of individual patients and not the financial interests of massive corporations. We are dealing with conflicts of interest that are larger than any of us ever imagined."

Testimony

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) convened Dr. Moon and other experts, including Drs. Peter McCullough and Robert Malone, to talk about COVID-19 vaccines. The event was titled, "COVID-19 Vaccines: What They Are, How They Work, and Possible Causes of Injuries."

Dr. Moon testified that she had only seen two or three cases of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, while practicing for more than 20 years. But after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, she said, she has been seeing more cases, and heard about others from fellow doctors.

"There's clearly been a massive increase," Dr. Moon said.

Dr. Moon also pulled out the package insert for the vaccines, or a piece of paper that typically outlines warnings, ingredients, and other information for a vaccine. The insert for the COVID-19 vaccines has no information and says, "intentionally blank," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged.

"How am I to give informed consent to parents when this is what I have?" Dr. Moon said.

Regulators say people can access the information that is usually on the paper on the administration's website. One of the vaccine manufacturers has said that the COVID-19 vaccine inserts were left blank because the information was being updated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I have a government telling me that I have to say 'safe and effective' and if I don't, my license is at threat. We're seeing an uptick in myocarditis. We're seeing an uptick in adverse reactions. We have trusted these regulatory agencies—I have—for my entire career up until now," Dr. Moon testified. "Something is extremely wrong, and that is the anecdotal story that I have."

Myocarditis is caused by the COVID-19 vaccines, U.S. officials have confirmed. The heart inflammation primarily affects younger males and can cause death.

"It's my obligation to speak out. It's the obligation of any physician who thinks that there is a problem with a product to speak about that product, whether, honestly, whether they're right or wrong," Dr. Moon said on EpochTV's "ATL: Now." "And in this case, everything I said was completely factual."

Other Concerns

Drs. Haney and Record claimed Dr. Moon failed to request and report an absence in order to travel to Washington and testify on the panel, which would violate faculty rules.

They also said that Dr. Moon did not make clear she was not speaking on behalf of Washington State University, another possible rule violation, and that other parts of the roundtable were "inconsistent with expectations of the evidence-based medical education expected in developing a future generation of physicians."

They added, "The expressed views will require us to review your teaching assignments in the frame of the education of our students."

Emails reviewed by The Epoch Times show Dr. Moon did not list the university in a bio she provided Mr. Johnson's office. The bio stated that her views were her own and that she was not speaking on behalf of any institutions with which she has or is affiliated.

Mr. Johnson, in introducing Dr. Moon, did not mention any institution but also did not mention the latter part of the bio.

Dr. Moon's placard did not list an institution. One of the video streams of the panel listed Washington State University. A university investigator noted that in one email.

"I was unaware of this happening and did everything in my power to prevent it by sending the press release and making sure not to mention the name of any employer either with my words or on the cardboard placard in front of me," Dr. Moon told The Epoch Times.

According to other emails, Dr. Moon requested substitutes for Dec. 6, 2021, and Dec. 8, 2021, the days before and after the panel. She was not scheduled to teach on the day of the panel. University employees responded to the messages by saying they were looking for or had found substitutes, and the university investigator confirmed that substitutes were ultimately found for both days.

"I did it the way we've always done it. My senior physicians approved it; we had substitutes for my classes," Dr. Moon told The Epoch Times.

A university spokesman declined to comment on the situation.

"As a matter of policy WSU does not comment on personnel matters," the spokesman told The Epoch Times via email.

It's unclear if the university ultimately referred Dr. Moon to the medical commission. Dr. Moon is part of a lawsuit against the commission for enforcing its misinformation statement without proper adoption. She says the threat of having her license revoked caused her to not renew her license and has impacted her constitutional right to free speech.

Trend?

Dr. Moon said she's concerned about medical schools no longer serving as venues for discussion and critical thinking.

She recalled being called into the office of a superior over student complaints. She learned that the students complained about Dr. Moon noting correctly that some information about the COVID-19 vaccines was unknown, such as where in the body the ingredients were distributed and whether they would cause certain health problems.

"I just engaged in some critical thinking with my students. I thought it was something that we're supposed to do in discussion groups, and they had asked me, right?" Dr. Moon said.

"They said that I had caused them trauma and harm by telling them that the vaccines might not be 100 percent safe. Again, these are medical students. This is a medical school. Nothing is 100 percent safe, not even aspirin is 100 percent safe. Everything has the potential for a reaction. So to have that be a complaint against me really surprised me and it really concerned me."

Another complaint related to how Dr. Moon, after students asked how her week in the clinic had gone, relayed how she had seen anxious and depressed children.

Dr. Moon attributed the problems to the harsh lockdowns imposed in Washington state, like much of the country, and questioned why those policies were put into place when children face little risk from COVID-19.

"I just said to my students, I think we need to rethink this masking that we're doing and the social distancing and isolating, I wonder if CDC has considered that we need to think about isolating our more vulnerable in our communities and keeping them more safe and keeping them at home but letting our kids go out there," Dr. Moon said, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"My students again stated that they were traumatized and harmed by that discussion, in a discussion group in a graduate-level medical school," Dr. Moon said. "This is happening nationwide. Our students have lost that ability, I think, to tolerate critical thinking, and to hear perspectives that are different than the main narrative or the main party line that is being pushed."

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/pediatrician-fired-after-raising-alarm-on-covid-19-vaccines-during-us-senate-event-5431515

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A completely dishonest scientific paper

"We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible." That's the key sentence in an article published in Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020, titled "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2."

It's also a prime example of eminently credentialed and government-subsidized scientists saying the exact opposite of what they believed in an attempt -- successful at the time, but now, three years later, exposed -- to deceive the public.

The article appeared, as the date indicates, just as the spread of COVID was becoming apparent. It also appeared after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in January 2020 that the virus could have leaked from "China's only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the world's most deadly pathogens" in Wuhan.

Cotton was careful to say that a lab leak was not proven and that the virus could also have been transmitted through an animal, and he dismissed the possibility of an intentional leak.

The Washington Post quickly dismissed A lab leak origin as a "fringe theory" and a "conspiracy theory" by The New York Times. Those characterizations were attributed to government and government-financed scientists -- the same bunch who would shortly produce the "Proximal Origin" paper.

The pushback against the lab leak theory has now been revealed as a fraud, thanks to the work of journalist Matt Taibbi, academic Roger Pielke Jr., and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The real conspiracy had roots in a February 2020 conference call led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and Dr. Francis Collins, his boss as head of the National Institutes of Health, and including the four scientists who would co-author the "Proximal Origin" paper.

In February, as the House subcommittee documents reveal, all four were expressing thoughts directly contrary to what they put their names to in March.

-- "I really can't think of a plausible natural scenario," wrote Dr. Robert Garry. "In the lab it would be easy."

-- "The only thing here that strikes me as unusual," wrote Dr. Andrew Rambaut, "is the furin cleavage site," something much more likely to be produced by a lab than by natural transmission.

-- Dr. Edward Holmes wrote he was "60-40 lab."

-- The main work over the last couple of weeks wrote Dr. Kristian Andersen, "has been focused on t(r)ying to disprove any type of lab theory, but we are at a crossroads where the scientific evidence isn't conclusive enough to say we have high confidence in any of the three main theories."

Not exactly "We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible," eh?

Why the change? As one conference call participant put it, "further debate about" a lab leak would "do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular."

Unstated but known to every one of the scientists was that Collins and Fauci had approved cooperation with the Wuhan lab and controlled millions in research dollars coveted by every scientist.

Their intentions were not in doubt. On April 16, Collins told Fauci he hoped "Proximal Origin" would put down "the very destructive conspiracy" of the lab leak theory and on April 17, Fauci recommended it to reporters as the product of a "group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists," without mentioning his own role.

That same month, Andersen, in emails, admitted that a lab leak was possible and bragged about misleading New York Times reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr.

I found the cynicism revealed in these emails shocking, even though I have written critically, in July 2021 and March 2023, about government scientists' attempts to discredit the lab leak theory. I note that statistics guru Nate Silver, not a member of any right-wing conspiracy, is now similarly appalled.

"I'm deeply disappointed by the scientists' conduct here and how unmoored they were from any attempt at truth-seeking," he wrote last week. "The COVID origins story has also been a journalistic fiasco," he added, opining that "journalists are more prone toward being manipulated by bad apples in academia and science than they were ten or twenty years ago."

Evidence for that predilection comes from New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who last week tweeted that a House Republican hearing "raised thorny questions about free speech in a democratic society: Is misinformation protected by the First Amendment? When is it appropriate for the federal government to seek to tamp down the spread of falsehoods?"

Leave aside the deliciously Orwellian flavor of her verb "tamp down" and her astonishing ignorance of First Amendment law and reflect on how "Proximal Origin" suggests that the government and government-financed credentialed experts are often better at generating misinformation and falsehoods than at detecting them.

https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2023/07/28/the-proximal-origin-of-a-scientific-fraud-n2626304

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Covid cover-up: how the science was silenced

America’s top infectious diseases adviser, Anthony Fauci, deliberately decided to downplay ­suspicions from scientists that Covid-19 came from a laboratory to protect his reputation and deflect from the risky coronavirus research his agency had funded, according to his boss, one of the most senior US health officials during the pandemic.

In an exclusive interview, Robert Kadlec – former assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the US Department of Health – told The Weekend Australian that he, Dr Fauci and National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins privately discussed how to “turn down the temperature” on accusations against China in the early days of the pandemic while they were trying to encourage Beijing to co-operate and share a sample of the virus.

But the senior US health official – who worked for George W. Bush and Donald Trump and went on to lead American efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine – said Dr Fauci mostly kept his knowledge of virologists’ concerns about a lab leak from Wuhan to himself.

The Weekend Australian revealed in 2021 that the National Institutes of Health and other US agencies funded 65 scientific projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology over the past decade, many involving risky research on bat coronaviruses.

‘Vaccine research was the proximate cause’

Dr Kadlec’s comments give the closest insight to date on how Dr Fauci – who led coronavirus policy for two presidents and influenced the worldwide ­approach to the pandemic – handled the link between Covid-19 and China. They came as US congressional investigations in the past month revealed how scientists worked to silence concerns about a lab leak.

“I think Tony Fauci was ­trying to protect his institution and his own reputation from the possibility that his agency was funding the Wuhan ­Institute of Virology researchers who, beyond the scope of the grants received from the ­National Institutes of Health, may have been working with People’s Liberation Army researchers on defensive coronavirus vaccines,” Dr Kadlec said.

“I think it’s evident from his later released emails (obtained via Freedom of Information requests) that he had more sense of what his institute had funded at that moment. This was a reputational risk to him and his ­institute and certainly he probably sided with the international scientists that ­believed that false or unsubstantiated accusations could have a chilling effect on scientific collaboration between the western world and China.”

Dr Kadlec, in his first ever media interview, added: “We think vaccine research resulted in the pandemic – that vaccine ­research was the proximate cause.”

In an extraordinary admission, Dr Kadlec said they decided to try to encourage a group of leading international scientists to calm down speculation on the origins of the virus.

The scientists held a phone call on February 1, 2020, in which they discussed concerns that SARS-CoV-2 looked like it may have been genetically engineered.

“When we talked about this in advance of that call, he (Fauci) would just try and see if he could get the scientists to take the temperature down, turn the rhetoric down. to at least find, we’re going to look into this but we don’t know,” Dr Kadlec said.

As both Mr Bush’s biodefence adviser and Mr Trump’s assistant health secretary for preparedness, Dr Kadlec has decades of experience in fighting public health crises. He created Operation Warp Speed, the plan to accelerate the development of a Covid-19 ­vaccine, and is credited for leading the push to vaccinate Americans. In 2018, he warned Congress the US was ill-prepared for a pandemic.

‘Turn the temperature down’

Dr Kadlec’s personal approach was to ask the National Academy of Sciences in late January 2020, to formally examine the sequence of SARS-CoV-2, to understand its origin. But publicly, he felt it was important to achieve co-operation from China from a public health perspective. Beijing had not yet shared a sample of the virus, critical for developing an effective vaccine.

“We decided to engage our national experts to look at this, the National Academy of Sciences,” he said. “It would take time to figure out what was going on. We were trying to prevent people from saying this was a bioweapon when we didn’t really know. That was my intent. It was Dr Fauci’s idea to see if he could get international scientists to examine the origins in a similar fashion. The object was to prevent speculation and turn the temperature down. There was something that could be said to turn the temperature of rhetoric down and avoid the wild speculation, of a bioweapon, that had already started at that point in time.”

That phone call was at the instigation of Dr Fauci after he spoke with scientist Kristian Andersen who expressed concern that SARS-Cov-2 may have been genetically engineered, because of its unusual features. In an email, Dr Andersen said “some of the features (potentially) look engineered” and several leading virologists “all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”

Dr Kadlec said Dr Fauci kept these suspicions, privately expressed by leading virologists that the virus had been engineered in a laboratory, mostly to himself.

The full extent of those suspicions is now laid bare in emails subpoenaed by US congress and published in recent weeks. In those emails, some scientists discussed the “shit show” that would eventuate if anyone serious accused China of, even accidentally, starting the pandemic. They also discussed the impact such an accusation would have on scientific research and international relations. But, publicly, they insisted the possibility of an inadvertent laboratory leak was a conspiracy and authored a paper published in Nature Medicine, that argued SARS-Cov-2 was almost certainly a natural virus. Dr Kadlec acknowledges the power of that paper, titled the Proximal Origins of SARS-CoV-2, as becoming the official word that a laboratory leak was a conspiracy theory.

“Their paper did result in casting the die for what would then be the international scientific response going forward,” he said.

“I found it really odd that in light of the now revealed private musings of some of the scientists indicated the sequence looked unusual, that the authors decided to draft a letter as an opinion piece.

“Many people were confused or mistaken by what they wrote as more of a peer-reviewed paper.”

Wuhan ‘fingerprints’

Dr Kadlec accused the scientists of having personal agendas that might have influenced their decision to author a paper that suggested a laboratory leak was a conspiracy theory. “Their initial opinion was likely shaded by their personal professional equities or the belief that what was going on in the US – statements by political leaders- could be problematic for world relations for China but also their professional interests in science,” he said.

Dr Kadlec alluded to the febrile political atmosphere in the US under Mr Trump as a likely influence on the scientists, although the scientists’ deliberations began in late January, and the former president did not make any public comment about a potential laboratory origin of Covid-19 until April.

The authors of the Proximal Origins paper have argued in the media and congressional hearings that later virus research had led them to scotch their first fears of a lab leak – and to conclude instead that the origins of Covid-19 were zoonotic: i.e. the virus had been passed from animal to human, possibly via a Wuhan wet market.

However, new emails and posts over the Slack messaging platform that have surfaced in recent weeks pinpoint the ­moment this group began steering world attention away from the Wuhan lab. It was not months, or even weeks, but within days and hours of their realisation that the virus may contain “fingerprints” that connected it to the Wuhan ­Institute of Virology. The scientists are facing allegations that they embarked on a campaign of subterfuge that has rocked Washington.

’Blueprint for Covid-19’

Dr Kadlec has now spent a year and a half formally investigating the origins of the pandemic, putting together an A and B team to gather evidence for both a natural and laboratory origin respectively.

Gain-of-function research was banned by the Obama administration but lifted during the Trump era. Dr Kadlec says this was at the behest of the NIH. “Francis Collins and Fauci both had a similar world view which was scientists know best and there should be few restrictions on research,” he said.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance drew up a proposal for grant funding for coronavirus research, which international scientists now believe could be the “blueprint” of Covid-19. Dr Kadlec chaired a committee to authorise whether gain-of-function could proceed. The proposal from the Wuhan institute was bouncing around US Government agencies, in search of funding, but it never went through his committee. “It shows you the fallibility or vulnerability of the oversight system,” he said.

Dr Fauci has denied his agency funded gain-of-function research, but Dr Kadlec said this wasn’t true. “It’s evident NIH supported research that has the potential for, and it at least one case resulted in gain of function,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/covid-coverup-wuhan-lab-leak-suspicions-anthony-fauci-and-how-the-science-was-silenced/news-story/3e2669c7983b6a66a2bcc535c1e4c6be

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Who made Covid? US spy agencies have a name

US intelligence agencies are understood to be examining the possibility that Chinese military scientist Zhou Yusen’s research to develop a coronavirus vaccine led to the creation of Covid-19, and the first cluster of the pandemic.

The decorated Chinese scientist died about May 2020 in circumstances that Five Eyes intelligence agencies have long suspected was at the hands of the People’s Liberation Army. The Weekend Australian can reveal that the FBI has, on at least two occasions since mid-last year, spoken with a close relative of Zhou who is now residing in the US. The individual is understood to be a crucial new witness.

For the individual’s safety and protection, The Weekend Australian has chosen not to name the relative, who is understood to be “nervous”. The family member did not respond to requests for comment in the weeks leading up to publication of this article.

FBI director Christopher Wray has said publicly that a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology led to the pandemic. “The FBI has assessed for quite some time that the origins … are a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Mr Wray told Fox News in April. “You’re talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans.”

’Highest-risk’ vaccine research

In June 2021, The Australian revealed that Zhou was listed as the lead inventor on Chinese ­patent documents, translated by The Australian, for a Covid-19 vaccine. The patent was dated February 24, 2020.

Zhou died about three months later. Despite his illustrious career, there were no published mentions of this celebrated military scientists in the Chinese press.

Five Eyes intelligence agencies suspected he had been killed.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/covid19-origins-may-be-traced-to-chinese-military-scientist-zhou-yusen/news-story/916e55a6285b243c0a357c6dcb560c66

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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The truth about myocarditis and Covid vaccines: After Bronny James' cardiac arrest and Elon Musk pushing anti-vaxx theory, leading doctors insist jabs are NOT to blame

The presentation below is reasonable but it depends to an extent on the veracity of official statistics -- which is a very weak reed to lean on indeed. Very often dying WITH Covid has been conflated with dying OF Covid

First the anti-vaxxers jumped on Christian Eriksen, alleging the Covid vaccines were to blame when the Danish footballer suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.

Then, less than 12 months later, they claimed Pfizer's 'clot shot' was behind Australian cricket icon Shane Warne's sudden heart-related death.

And when NFL safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a Buffalo Bills match in January, so-called 'truthers' brandished it as the icing on their Covid conspiracy cake.

Now, however, the anti-vaxx mob have a new target: Bronny James, son of legendary NBA hooper LeBron.

The 18-year-old, expected to follow in his father's footsteps, was rushed to hospital on Monday after suffering a cardiac arrest during practice at the University of Southern California.

Despite it being unconfirmed when, or if, Bronny had a Covid jab, critics were quick to establish a potential link.

Even Elon Musk chipped in, fuelling the conspiracy even further.

Posting on Twitter under a news story about Bronny's cardiac arrest, Musk wrote: 'We cannot ascribe everything to the vaccine, but, by the same token, we cannot ascribe nothing. Myocarditis is a known side-effect. The only question is whether it is rare or common.'

But leading doctors have dismissed the theory.

Two facts — both of which are widely misinterpreted — are central to the claims.

One is that mRNA jabs, like Pfizer's and Moderna's, can cause myocarditis, an extremely rare complication that causes inflammation of the heart muscle. Young people, especially boys, are most at risk.

The other? That heart-related deaths are massively above levels seen pre-pandemic.

Cardiologists and heart health charities say conflating the two is not only incorrect, but irresponsible.

No drug is risk-free. And while there is a very small chance of developing myocarditis from a Covid vaccine, experts insist the benefits, in the form of the tens of thousands of lives saved, clearly outweigh any potential dangers.

Myocarditis can, in some cases, damage the pumping function of the heart, leading to disturbance issues later in life.

But an overwhelming majority of vaccine-induced myocarditis cases are mild, real world evidence shows.

Symptoms generally appear within a week of being jabbed and most patients make a full recovery shortly thereafter, according to the British Heart Foundation.

The charity, which has funded various projects into the hugely controversial topic, also insists there is no evidence vaccine recipients are at increased risk of cardiac arrest afterwards, regardless of whether it is days, or months, later.

Any such link, they argue, would have been spotted by now, given that the jabs — delivered to billions across the world — were first rolled out almost three years ago.

Infections, including Covid itself, can also trigger myocarditis. This, experts argue, is a point conveniently dismissed by anti-vaxxers.

Challenging the second point, that cardiac-related deaths are massively above pre-pandemic levels, proves trickier.

Data undisputedly shows an uptick in England since the unprecedented virus crisis began.

Even the BHF acknowledges there have been nearly 100,000 excess cardiovascular disease deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Yet, when broken down by age, overall death rates among young men have not risen significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels — debunking one of the main anti-vaxxer theories that swathes are being mercilessly laid low by jabs.

And they claim the rise in excess deaths, most obvious among over-45s, is partly down to the ailing state of the NHS.

Delays in heart health screening during the pandemic, knock-on disruption of Covid lockdowns themselves, and poor ambulance response times are just some obvious factors at play.

A BHF spokesperson said: 'Every second counts when someone has a heart attack.

'Average ambulance response times for suspected heart attacks and strokes have been above 30 minutes in all but one month since the beginning of 2022, and in December 2022 they even breached 90 minutes.'

They added: 'The pandemic has caused significant disruption to the detection and management of conditions that put millions of people at much greater risk of a heart attack or stroke, like high blood pressure.'

Experts also suspect the lingering health impacts of Covid could have also played a role in total excess deaths

A study from January found people who got infected before the vaccine roll-out were 40 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, and five times more likely to die in the 18 months after infection.

So, what about data showing heart-related deaths in younger men, the group at the centre of concerns about myocarditis risk, have shot up since the pandemic kicked off?

Well, rates were either highest in 2020 — or no different to levels seen pre-Covid, according to data collated by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Rates for young cardiac deaths, defined medically as a person under 35, have since fallen to around pre-pandemic norms.

Then, what is to blame for what feels like a spate of cardiac emergencies among stars of the sporting world? Undeniably, before Covid, instances similar to Bronny's felt few and far between.

In fact, the only high-profile incidents involved footballers Marc-Vivien Foé and Fabrice Muamba, who both collapsed on the field due to a cardiac emergency nine years apart, stick out in people's memory, though over a dozen high-profile incidents, mainly in America, have also been recorded in the past 40 years.

Renowned experts in cardiac health issues in young athletes told MailOnline bluntly — there has been no rise in deaths, or incidents, since Covid vaccines were put out en masse.

A 2012 study in the journal Circulation found that a young athlete dies of a sudden cardiac event every three days on average in the US, totalling between 100 to 150 fatalities each year.

Dr Raghav Bhatia, research fellow at the globally respected cardiovascular clinical academic group at St George’s University of London — one of the world's most renowned sites in this specialist branch of cardiology — said: 'There is no published literature that supports this claim.

'A clear distinction needs to be made between peer-reviewed robust medical literature and hear-say or individual case-reports, which are often found on social media and may often represent misinformation.'

Usually, these are down to undetected cardiac problems, he said.

For example Eriksen's collapse was pinned on an undetected ventricular fibrillation, a heart rhythm disruption.

Meanwhile, Hamlin's was down to case of commotio cordis, where the heart stops due to a high velocity impact from an object like a ball to the chest.

Global reports of myocarditis following Covid vaccination, particularly in young men, spooked health chiefs in 2021, when the vaccines first started being dished out to younger demographics.

But rates in Britain were eventually found to be lower than in the US and Israel, where concerns peaked.

Some experts attributed this to the UK's longer intervals between doses, eight weeks compared to four, and this giving the body greater time to recover.

This, followed by data showing the risk of myocarditis from a jab was much lower than that from a Covid infection itself, led to the jabs continuing to be recommended.

British data on vaccine safety is gathered through the UK Government's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Its latest report, from November, found there had been 851 reports of myocarditis following a Covid vaccination in the UK since the start of the rollout, of which 15 were fatal.

Considering the millions of jabs that have been dished out to Britons, this provides an overall risk of 10 suspected cases of myocarditis per million doses.

Yet this is likely to be an undercount because not all cases would have been logged or reported to official channels, though reports don't necessarily mean a confirmed case.

The MHRA states that studies show the risk of myocarditis from contracting the virus itself has been estimated at about 1,500 cases per million patients.

Officially less than 100 deaths from Covid vaccines have been recorded the UK. Only a tiny fraction, about three, occurred in under-30s.

While such deaths are tragic, they pale in comparison to the almost 230,000 lives estimated to have been saved by Britain's historic Covid inoculation campaign.

And that's not to mention the knock-on benefits, with jabs credited for ending the cycle of paralysing lockdowns that crippled the economy and the NHS.

Globally, Covid vaccines have been credited with saving almost 20million lives during the first year of their existence.

Like with any medication or vaccine, however, the jabs do have risks. The majority are mild, such as a sore arm, flu-like symptoms and headaches.

Some concerns were raised after vaccines were found in extremely rare cases to trigger myocarditis and pericarditis — inflammation of the heart — especially among young people.

But leading heart experts insist the majority of cases are mild and temporary, and that contracting the virus itself can also cause the condition.

So what is the risk of getting myocarditis or pericarditis after the vaccine? How would I know if I had any heart damage? And is the vaccine safe for people with heart conditions or taking heart medications?

Since 2020 has there been an increase in heart-related deaths?
Yes. A report by the British Heart Foundation in November revealed that there has been just over 30,000 excess deaths involving heart disease in England since the start of the pandemic.

This is, on average, over 230 additional deaths a week above expected.

However, causes of this 'relate to being unable to access care for high blood pressure, heart tests and treatment for heart disease,' according to Dr Martin Lowe, a consultant cardiologist at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London and consultant paediatric cardiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

He said the possible effects of Covid on the heart may also be to blame.

Now Covid's threat has been drastically blunted, the virus is no longer thought to be a driving force behind the excess heart disease death rate.

Instead, 'significant and widespread disruption to heart care services' — including rapidly rising ambulance response times and 'unacceptably long waits for diagnosis and treatment of conditions' — is to blame, the BHF warned.

NHS data also shows 2million fewer people were recorded as having controlled hypertension in 2021 compared to the previous year.

Modelling indicates that this reduction in blood pressure control could lead to an estimated 11,190 and 16,702 additional heart attacks and strokes, respectively, over a three year period.

Can the vaccines affect the heart? In short, yes.

Although it is 'very rare', an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis has been found with mRNA Covid vaccines — such as Moderna or Pfizer/BioNtech.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, while pericarditis is inflammation of the lining around the heart, also known as the pericardium, he added.

But, the majority of cases that occur after vaccination 'are mild with a complete recovery', Dr Lowe said.

Only in 'extremely rare' cases of severe myocarditis do people require hospitalisation and treatment, he added.

'Importantly, most people who get myocarditis or pericarditis have mild disease and the vast majority make a complete recovery, even children,' said Professor Amitava Banerjee, an honorary consultant cardiologist at University College London.

How common is that side effect?

The risk is low. UK data suggests a risk of one case in every 20,000 vaccine doses in most studies', Dr Lowe added.

Those aged 18-29, particularly young men, appear to be at higher risk. And it is most common after the second dose.

But a 2022 review on myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination, published by the University of Alberta, found there were up to 15 cases recorded per 100,000 young men.

A 2021 review carried out by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also showed that per million second doses of mRNA Covid vaccine administered to men aged 12–29, it may trigger between 39 and 47 expected cases of myocarditis.

However, it would also prevent 11,000 Covid infections, 560 hospitalisations, 138 intensive care hospital admissions and six deaths.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) asks doctors to report side effects via its 'Yellow Card' scheme.

According to latest figures shared by UKHSA, as of November 23 the MHRA had received 851 reports of myocarditis and 579 of pericarditis linked to the Pfizer vaccination.

By comparison, there were 241 reports of myocarditis and 226 reports of pericarditis linked to Oxford's AstraZeneca jab and 251 reports of myocarditis and 149 of pericarditis, with Moderna.

'It is important to note that Yellow Card data and similar vaccine surveillance data from other countries cannot be used to compare the safety profile of Covid vaccines as many factors can influence reporting,' UKHSA said.

Treatment of myocarditis depends on the symptoms experienced, but can include painkillers for the chest pain or medication to calm the inflammation, as well as drinking plenty of fluids and resting.

Do the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks of myocarditis and pericarditis?

'Absolutely yes. Anybody who says otherwise does not understand how to analyse the data,' Professor Banerjee said.

'The risk of heart disease after Covid is much greater than the risk of heart disease after vaccination,' he added.

Among people hospitalised with Covid, around one in 50 people per year will have pericarditis, he said.

Covid also carries a risk of myocarditis – and one that is far higher than the vaccine, at 1,500 cases per million infections.

'Other cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure, is more common and the associated risk is much higher with Covid,' he said.

'Thankfully the vast majority of the these patients have mild heart inflammation only and make a full recovery,' Dr Lowe added.

Some people have reported feeling a faster heartbeat in the days after their Covid vaccine. This can be part of the body's normal immune response to the vaccine and is not normally a cause for concern.

Is the vaccine safe for people with heart conditions and taking heart medications or blood thinners like warfarin, clopidogrel or other antiplatelet drugs?

Yes. People who have heart conditions or who take heart medication such as anti-hypertensives or statins should still get the Covid vaccine, both experts said.

They 'absolutely' agree that the vaccine is 'safe and effective' for people who take blood thinning medication.

It is 'indeed recommended to protect against the effects of Covid infection', Dr Lowe said.

For people with heart diseases, chronic kidney disease or other chronic conditions and those over the age of 70, 'vaccination is especially important', Professor Banerjee added, as their risk of hospital admission from Covid is higher.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12339279/Covid-vaccine-myocarditis-heart-Elon-Musk-bronny-james.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Chase Shuts Down Accounts for Dr. Joseph Mercola’s Companies

JPMorgan Chase is shutting down accounts for companies owned by prominent COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Joseph Mercola.

The primary accounts for several Mercola-owned businesses, including Mercola Market, are being shut down in August, according to notices reviewed by The Epoch Times.

“Financial institutions have an obligation to know our customers and monitor transactions that flow through our customers’ accounts,” the notices state. “After careful consideration, we decided to close your account because of unexpected activity on these or another Chase account.”

Accounts for Mercola, CEO Steven Rye, Mr. Rye’s wife, chief financial officer Amalia Legaspi, Mrs. Legaspi’s husband, and Mrs. Legaspi’s son are also being closed.

The accountholders are being given until Aug. 11 to move funds to another institution. They have struggled to get answers on what exactly precipitated the harsh action.

Anthony Anesi, a Chase vice president, told Mr. Rye in a voicemail that he asked for the reason and “was told for legal reasons they can not tell me why they are closing the account.”

Mr. Anesi requested copies of the notices so he could file for reconsideration. “It’s not a guarantee, once we put in for reconsideration, that they will keep the accounts open. There’s no guarantee of that. But we are going to try because you’re a good client of our institution,” Mr. Anesi said.

Mr. Rye told The Epoch Times that in phone calls with Chase representatives, they said changes were made in the backend and that they cannot access the backend to see the changes.

Mr. Rye said that he believes Chase either based its decision on illegal acts from accountholders, which he says did not take place, or from Chase itself, which could run afoul of a new Florida law that bars banks from denying services to people for their religious, political, or social beliefs.

Dr. Mercola has been a strong critic of the government’s response to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines. Some of his articles are republished by The Epoch Times.

Chase has “refused to provide any reason” for the debanking, Dr. Mercola said in a statement. “They won’t say, ‘Hey, what’s this wire for? What’s this transaction for?” Mr. Rye said. “We’ve been doing business for them forever, right? Even in that voicemail, Tony, who we’ve known forever, says, ‘You guys are great customers.’ I don’t know what’s happening.”

He added: “I think it was a little bit surprising to the timing. The COVID stuff has kind of died down. So I found that a little bit unusual. So I can only speculate. I don’t know exactly why they did it. But we’ve looked at everything within our records. There’s nothing that we did.”

Even if the decisions are reversed, it would be hard to trust Chase enough to keep the accounts, Mr. Rye said. He and others are preparing to move their money to other institutions before the deadline.

A spokesperson for Chase told The Epoch Times in an email that most account closures are done for anti-money laundering or identify verification purposes.

“For privacy reasons, we can’t discuss customer relationships, but we don’t close accounts because of political affiliations, and we didn’t do so in this case,” the spokesperson said.

Mr. Anesi did not respond to a request for comment.

Robert F. Kennedy, a Democrat running for president who has also been critical of the vaccines, was among those decrying what happened.

“Looks like Chase shut down long-time accounts of Mercola’s company, employees, and their family members. No reason given. I wonder if it has anything to do with their medical dissent?” Mr. Kennedy wrote on Twitter. “No payment platform should be allowed to discriminate against people for exercising their right to free speech.”

Chase has a history of shutting down accounts of people with certain beliefs. Chase shut down accounts of three right-wing personalities in moves that did not appear to be based on any official company policies, The Epoch Times reported in 2019.

That included an account for Martina Markota, a performing artist-turned-reporter who had worked for the Daily Caller and The Rebel, and an account for Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.

Chase stopped providing services to Mr. Tarrio just one day after a reporter claimed an online store he owned was linked to the Proud Boys, which was described as a “hate group.”

A spokeswoman for Chase said at the time the events were unrelated. “He has gotten an email from us, and we have repeatedly talked to him with very clear reasons why. He knows why,” the spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email. “If he agrees in writing that I can share that email with you, I’m happy to do so. But as it stands, I’m not able to share it.”

She also said, “We have never, and would never, shut down any account due to political affiliation.”

In a recording of a call between Mr. Tarrio and a Chase representative, the Chase representative called the account closure “mind-boggling,” adding, “I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/chase-shuts-down-accounts-for-dr-joseph-mercolas-companies-5424215

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COVID Vaccines Show 24 Times More Adverse Reactions Than Others

The latest report on adverse reactions to vaccines in Western Australia has revealed that COVID-19 vaccinations have 24 times the rate of adverse reactions in the state compared to all other vaccines.

According to the state’s vaccine safety surveillance report (pdf), COVID-19 vaccines showed that for every 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines administered, 264 adverse events following immunisations (AEFIs) were recorded.

For all other vaccinations, 11.1 AEFIs were recorded, making the COVID-19 vaccines 23.8 times more likely than non-COVID-19 vaccines to result in adverse events.

The rate of adverse events varied among different types of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Spikevax (Moderna) vaccine recorded 281.4 AEFIs per 100,000 doses, Comirnaty (Pfizer) recorded 244.8, and the Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) vaccine, which was removed from the vaccine program after reports emerged of blood clotting in younger people, recorded 306.

Adverse events following vaccination can range from mild, such as a sore arm, to serious conditions, such as anaphylaxis, thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia syndrome (TTS), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), myocarditis, and pericarditis.

Collaboration Continues With 3-in-1 Super Jab

Meanwhile, despite these concerns, the Australian government’s partnership with Moderna to produce vaccines using experimental messenger RNA technology to prepare for the next pandemic means these vaccines are here to stay.

The company has been forming a trifecta jab to address the main respiratory viruses—influenza, COVID-19, and RSV to maintain its market share amid the falling revenue of vaccine companies as the health crisis subsides.

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine sales of US$18.4 billion in 2022 are expected to dive to $5 billion this year.

Recently, it was granted expedited approval by Australia’s authority for medicines for its mRNA-1345 (RSV vaccine), meaning that the company will be able to launch the vaccines in Australia before any other country in the world.

A spokesperson from Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration told the Epoch Times that Moderna was granted an accelerated approval process on March 30 after satisfying all of the following criteria:

the medicine is new

the medicine is for the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of a life-threatening condition

no other medicines that are intended to treat, prevent or diagnose the condition are included in the Australian drug register or there is substantial evidence that this medicine provides a significant improvement in efficacy or safety of the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of the condition compared to those goods already included in the register
there is substantial evidence that the medicine provides a major therapeutic advance.

However, phase 3 clinical trials for Moderna’s mRNA version of the seasonal influenza vaccine have been underwhelming, showing a high rate of side effects.

Although the vaccine generates a strong immune response against the A strains of the flu, its efficacy against B strains is not better than existing approved vaccines.

Additionally, 70 percent of trial participants who received the shot reported adverse reactions such as headaches, swelling, and fatigue compared to 48 percent for the conventional flu vaccine.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/covid-vaccines-show-24-times-more-adverse-reactions-than-other-vaccines-5423426

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Yale Study Finds Death Rates for Covid Higher for Republicans

Probably a social class effect

In the fall of 2022, with the United States politically divided over Covid, the Yale University School of Public Health released a report about a working study which found excess deaths due to the Covid pandemic were along partisan political lines even after the coronavirus vaccines were made available to the public. The study was released as a working paper and emphasized the fact that Republican voters in two U.S. states had more deaths than Democratic voters after vaccines for Covid-19 became widely available to counter the disease.

Additionally, this discrepancy didn’t exist prior to the vaccines. The two states were Ohio and Florida. The study found the excess death rate for Republican voters was 5.4 percentage points, or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democratic voters. “The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available,” the authors said in the study.

The authors, Jacob Wallace, assistant professor of public health, Jason L. Schwartz, associate professor of public health and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, assistant professor at the Yale School of Management conducted the research using a novel linkage of political party affiliation and mortality data to assess whether there were differences in COVID-19 excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters. Now, the authors have published their study.

Final study published

The cohort study itself was published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. The Yale researchers examined the deaths of 538,139 people 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio, between January 2018, and December 2021, with researchers linking them to party registration records. Researchers found the excess death rate for Republicans and Democrats was about the same at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The following winter members of both political parties experienced a similar sharp increase in deaths, but after April 2021, the number of Republicans who died exceeded the number of Democrats by 7.7% which came out to a 43% rise in deaths for members of the GOP. The median age of death was 78.

“In this cohort study evaluating 538?159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020, and December 2021, excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before. These differences were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates, and primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio. The differences in excess mortality by political party affiliation after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.” The study was a “cross-sectional comparison of excess mortality between registered Republican and Democratic voters between March 2020, and December 2021 adjusted for age and state of voter registration was conducted. Voter and mortality data from Florida and Ohio in 2017 linked to mortality records for January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, were used in data analysis.”

Conclusion

As reported by the study’s authors:

“In this cross-sectional study, an association was observed between political party affiliation and excess deaths in Ohio and Florida after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults. These findings suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been factors in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.” The data didn’t look at voters without a political party affiliation and was limited to Ohio and Florida. “We’re not saying that if you took someone’s political party affiliation and were to change it from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party that they would be more likely to die from Covid-19,” Jacob Wallace said. However, “Our study found evidence of higher excess mortality for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio after, but not before, COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults in the US. These differences in excess death rates were larger in counties with lower vaccination rates. If differences in COVID-19 vaccination by political party affiliation persist, particularly in the absence of other pandemic mitigation strategies, the higher excess death rate observed among Republican voters may continue through subsequent stages of the pandemic.”

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/yale-study-finds-death-rates-for-covid-higher-for-republicans-b4619d04

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Qatar National Study: mRNA Bivalent Booster Bomb! Natural Immunity Superior against XBB

Population health scientist Hiam Chemaitelly and team at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar have conducted yet another large population level study. TrialSite has tracked the efforts of this impressive group throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In their latest study results uploaded to medRxiv the Qatar-based group uses a matched, retrospective, cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of the bivalent booster mRNA vaccines targeting BA.1 strains. The study included 11,482 persons in the bivalent booster cohort and 56,806 persons in the no-recent vaccination cohort. They found 65 infections recorded in the bivalent cohort and 406 recorded in the no-recent-vaccination cohort. Not one of the Omicron-based infections advanced into a more severe condition, including no deaths.

So, what did Chemaitelly and team find?

The cumulative incidence of infection equaled 0.80% (95% CI: 0.61-1.07%) in the bivalent cohort and 1.00% (95% CI: 0.89-1.11%) in the no-recent- vaccination cohort at 150 days after the start of follow-up.

Furthermore, the outcomes, which haven’t been reviewed yet, lead to the observation that omicron XBB subvariants, including XBB, XBB.1, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.9.2, XBB.1.16, and XBB.2.3, predominated the cases.

They found that when calculating and applying adjusted hazard ratios to compare incidence of infection in the bivalent cohort to that in the no-recent-vaccination cohort the outcome equaled 0.75 (95% CI: 0.57-0.97).

The Qatar-based Weill Cornell team reports:

Bivalent vaccine effectiveness against infection was 25.2% (95% CI: 2.6-42.6%). Effectiveness was 21.5% (95% CI: -8.2-43.5%) among persons with no prior infection and 33.3% (95% CI: - 4.6-57.6%) among persons with prior infection revealing the superiority of prior infection in the context of this study and its limitations.

The Moderna product (mRNA-1273.214) reduced incidence of SARS- CoV-2 infection, but Chemaitelly and team report that such protection was “modest” at best at 25%.

The modest protection may have risen because of XBB immune evasion or immune imprinting effects, or combination of both.

Study & Support

The study authors were supported both with internal Weill Cornell resources as well as external government and private sector sources.

For example, the Biomedical Research Program and the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Biomathematics Research Core, both at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar supported the authors.

And externally so did the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, and Sidra Medicine. The authors are also grateful for the Qatar Genome Programme and Qatar University Biomedical Research Center for institutional support for the reagents needed for the viral genome sequencing.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/qatar-national-study-mrna-bivalent-booster-bomb-natural-immunity-superior-against-xbb-c1a762c7

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A journalist records Covidian Australia's pandemic over-reach

Medically idiotic, economically ruinous, socially disruptive and embittering, culturally dystopian, politically despotic: what was there to like in the Covid era? Billions, if you were Big Pharma. Unchecked power, if you were Big State. More money and power over the world’s governments and people, for the WHO. Template for action for climate zealots. Dreamtime for cops given free rein to indulge their inner bully. Anguished despair, if you were a caring, inquisitive reporter.

In Australia Breaks Apart, John Stapleton, a retired journalist with over 25 years’ experience with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian, chronicles the collective madness that suffocated Covidian Australia, but also the resistance movement that began hesitantly and grew organically. It is a tale of the many villains complicit in tyranny and the few heroes of resistance. ‘What will you tell UR kids? Did you rise up or comply’, asked a sign during the Canberra protests. It’s a story of venal, incompetent politicians and brutish police – thugs in uniform – acting at the behest of ‘power drunk apparatchiks’.

If you want to know or recall what happened, read the book. If you questioned and resisted from the start, take heart at the documentation for the record. If you belong to the Covid class in slow retreat from the wastelands you created and now leave behind, take evasive action. An extract was published in the Weekend Australian. Among more than 900 online commentators, one quoted Tony Abbott that in two world wars, many risked their lives to protect our freedoms, but in the last three years, so many gave up freedoms to prolong lives. Some took Stapleton to task for failing to thank our great and good leaders and public health authorities for keeping us safe through the terrifying ordeal of the ‘rona wars. The persistence of the last attitude justifies the book’s publication. It’s an effort to chronicle and, if possible, come to terms with how an entire population was terrorised into fearing a virus and complying with arbitrary and draconian rules. Stapleton laments this is not the Australia he knew and loved. There evolved a co-dependency between the uber surveillance state and a Stasi-like snitch society in which ‘we are all guilty until proven uninfected’.

The unleashing of state violence on peaceful protestors included militarised responses on the streets and in the air that drew gasps of disbelief from around the world. State over-reach included ‘an insane level of micromanagement’. All was done without providing any evidence and cost-benefit analyses in support. It’s all here in grim detail, possibly with generous dollops of hyperbole. But who can blame Stapleton, writing amidst the ‘height of totalitarian derangement’ syndrome.?

Stapleton uses the narrative device of a fictional character called Old Alex who watches what is happening with detachment and growing disenchantment. In 444 pages divided into 19 chapters, he provides a comprehensive catalogue of the milestones, lies, and obfuscations on the relentless march to medical tyranny and vaccine apartheid. He puzzles over the left’s embrace of the Pharma-state’s over-reach. Struggles for words strong enough to convey the depth of contempt for the ‘shameless’, ‘odious’ and ‘loathed’ Scott Morrison, whose name became synonymous for some with the act of defecation as shouts were heard from inside a lavatory: ‘I’m doing a ScoMo, I’m doing a ScoMo’. Readers will encounter many writers from the Spectator Australia and Brownstone stables, which clearly sustained Stapleton through the dark Covid years with emotional connections to many of the world’s leading fellow-dissidents. They will be reminded of many characters whose horror stories were illuminated briefly during the long darkness, such as Anthony and Natalie Reale who run the Village Fix café in Shellharbour, NSW. I wrote about them in the Speccie on 15 January 2022. We encountered the big-hearted and generous family on the drive up from Canberra to our new home in the Northern Rivers in December 2021.

Australia broke apart most obviously in the way in which the Morrison government was complicit in the fracturing of the federation into mini-fiefdoms run by wannabe warlords aka Premiers and their palace courtiers of CHOs and Police Commissioners, some of whom have since been pushed upwards into Governors’ mansions. But it was more. Trust was also broken, perhaps irreparably, with respect to parliaments, the judiciary, human rights machinery, police, medical establishment, experts, and the media. The significant switch to independent media reflects disillusionment as much with social media’s Big Tech platforms that turned into narrative enforcers as with the legacy media that turned into fear-mongering Big State mouthpieces and Big Pharma shills.

It was important for someone to write this instant history under time pressure, an accessible work of record, lest we forget. Or rather, lest they be allowed to forget and move on. This is neither a book by nor for academics. Therein lies some of its failings and much of its strength. ‘The Government is my enemy’, laments a disillusioned citizen. Do not trust politicians and bureaucrats. ‘They lie for a living’, says the cynical reporter. In the years to come a flood of scholarly tomes can be expected, analysing in excruciating detail the excesses of lockdowns, masks, and vaccines and systematic assessments of their successes and failures. Given the paucity of critical journalism, it’s useful to have a record of contemporaneous events before memories fade and stories are conveniently rewritten. The journalistic strengths include on-the-ground reporting from protests like the Canberra Convoy, observation skills, an eye for the human interest story, jargon-free writing, and analysis uncluttered by theoretical explorations. His stories of the personalities encountered during the massive Canberra protests in early 2022 bring out vividly the electric atmosphere, energy, and camaraderie of what became a festive, exultant celebration of shared emotions and commitments to securing the freedoms of future generations of Australians.

This is a book to read, display prominently on the coffee table or discreetly on the bookshelf, recommend for purchase to the public library, and spread awareness by word of mouth. It contains many literary quotations and allusions. It’s appropriate therefore that I am left at the end recalling these lines from Dylan Thomas that apply very much to ‘Old Alex’: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/07/the-government-my-enemy/ ?

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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CDC Changed Definition of Breakthrough COVID-19 After Emails About ‘Vaccine Failure’

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) altered its definition of COVID-19 cases among the vaccinated, leading to a lower number of cases classified as a breakthrough, according to documents obtained by The Epoch Times.

The CDC in early 2021 defined the post-vaccination cases as people testing positive seven or more days after receipt of a primary vaccination series, according to one of the documents.

The definition was changed on Feb. 2, 2021, to only include cases detected at least 14 days after a primary series, another document shows.

“We have revised the case definition,” Dr. Marc Fisher, the lead of the CDC’s Vaccine Breakthrough Case Investigation Team, wrote to colleagues at the time.

The rationale for the change was redacted.

A CDC spokesperson defended the altered definition.

“CDC made the change to the definition of a breakthrough infection time period due to the most current data that showed that the 14-day period was required for an effective antibody response to the vaccines,” Scott Pauley, the spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“That, in combination with the data showing that many cases of COVID-19 were incubating for up to two weeks before becoming symptomatic, required the change to refine the time period to eliminate cases where exposure happened before the vaccination response would be effective,” Mr. Pauley added.

Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said there was “no cogent rationale” for excluding early cases and other events among the vaccinated, whether they occurred within seven days or 14 days.

“With either of these delays, CDC addressed what is the theoretical best that the vaccination could achieve. If the vaccines don’t work for the first 7 or 14 days or increase risk of getting Covid-19 during that period, that is part of what happens when they are deployed in a population,” Dr. Risch told The Epoch Times via email.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor health policy at Stanford University, said that the CDC should have been focused on advising people that they weren’t as protected immediately after vaccination.

“Rather than playing games with the definition of breakthrough cases,” Dr. Bhattacharya told The Epoch Times in an email, the CDC should have warned “recently vaccinated vulnerable older people that they were at higher risk for being infected during that period.”

The CDC excluded some postvaccination cases because they did not meet the updated definition, the documents show, providing an inflated view of vaccine effectiveness.

One document, for instance, shows that Kansas in early 2021 reported 37 cases among the vaccinated.

Thirty-four were not counted because they occurred after receipt of one dose, not two. A primary series for both vaccines was two doses until recently, with the second dose not advised until at least 21 days after the first dose.

The other three cases happened after a second dose, but they were not counted as breakthrough cases by the CDC because they happened within 13 days of completion of a primary series, Dr. Fisher informed colleagues in an email.

On Jan. 29, 2021, the CDC learned in a call with Maryland health officials that a cluster appeared to stem from a person who was vaccinated with a single dose before experiencing symptoms. A CDC official said it was a “possible breakthrough case,” but the case would not have been counted under the earlier or later breakthrough definition.

In another likely form of suppression of the true number of cases, states weren’t able to report cases through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System until February 2021, according to one of the emails. Kansas was the first state to send info through the system, according to a Feb. 1, 2021, email reporting the 37 cases.

States could also report cases outside of the system through calls, as could health care providers, according to another email. Reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System were also analyzed for possible inclusion.

The CDC started reporting the number of breakthrough cases on April 15, 2021. Some of the breakthrough cases led to hospitalization and death. CDC officials discussed breakthrough cases sporadically in public settings, but also made false claims about vaccine effectiveness, including claiming in March 2021 that vaccinated people did not get sick.

The breakthrough case definition was revised after multiple CDC officials emailed about the vaccines failing to prevent infection.

Dr. Fisher said in one missive on Dec. 21, 2020, that he was directed by a superior “to start working on a protocol to evaluate COVID vaccine failures or breakthrough cases.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director at the time, highlighted an editorial on Jan. 30, 2021, that described variants as a “growing threat” of escaping the protection from vaccines and said she’d spoken to the head of the U.S. National Institutes of Health about the matter.

Around the same time, CDC officials circulated a one-page document about investigating post-vaccination cases.

“What? There is a 1-pager from Tom about vaccine failures?” Dr. Nancy Messionnier, another top CDC official, said on Jan. 27, 2021, after hearing about the document, which was being distributed by CDC medical officer Dr. Thomas Clark.

The version of the document The Epoch Times received was fully redacted. After Dr. Clark was asked for an unredacted version, the CDC declined to provide any other versions of the document.

Dr. Fisher also made a presentation near the end of January 2021 on breakthrough cases and sent those slides to colleagues after emphasizing he’d developed them “for internal use” and that the slides “have not been reviewed or cleared by anyone.” Dr. Fisher did not respond when asked for the slides.

Soon after the change, the CDC was alerted to a college athlete who tested positive for COVID-19 about three weeks after completing a Pfizer primary series. One CDC official described it as a “potential breakthrough case” and said data would have to be reviewed to see whether it would be counted.

In a document distributed to states, the CDC outlined a number of ways post-vaccination cases, even one detected at least 14 days after a primary series, would not be counted. That included excluding people who received a vaccine that was not authorized in the United States, people with only a positive antibody test, and people who tested positive within 44 days of their latest test.

Time Exclusion

The CDC initially floated (pdf) counting a person as “fully vaccinated” as early as seven days after completion of a primary series but ultimately settled on 14 days after completion.

The CDC declined to provide the name of the official who decided on the definition of fully vaccinated. The agency, in response to a Freedom of Information Act, also said it did not have any records on deciding to exclude cases that occur in what amounts to at least 35 days after the first vaccine dose.

Officials pointed to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) materials that outlined the results from clinical trials from Pfizer and Moderna, which make the vaccines that the FDA authorized in 2020.

The trials found efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 was much lower within days of vaccination. In Pfizer’s trial, for instance, suspected cases within seven days of a vaccine dose were 409 among the vaccinated versus 287 among placebo recipients. Moderna estimated a 50.8 percent efficacy within 14 days of dose one, compared to 92 percent efficacy 15 or more days after the dose.

Observational data have also indicated lower or negative shielding in the days after vaccination, and almost immediately after the vaccines were rolled out, some vaccinated people were reporting getting infected anyways.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/exclusive-cdc-changed-definition-of-breakthrough-covid-19-after-emails-about-vaccine-failure-5414511

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Rubio: Stop the Moderna & Chinese mRNA Deal

TrialSite recently reported on Moderna’s deal with the Chinese government to research and manufacture novel mRNA medicines and vaccines. Importantly, the deal was termed exclusively only for the Chinese people. It’s important to note that China classifies life sciences industry generally as a matter of national security. While China’s biotech industry has made great strides with a modernization of regulations and a rapidly maturing life science-focused investment ecosystem, the country has tailed America and Europe when it comes to the development of mRNA technologies. Now, the latest Moderna deal is meant to change that.

But given growing geopolitical tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, was this deal a smart thing to do? Moderna is seeking to tap into and exploit the Chinese market for medicines and vaccines, the second biggest worldwide according to some sources. For its investors, Moderna's move makes sense. But let us not forget that Moderna’s financial position now is far better thanks to U.S. government contracts both before, during and now, after the pandemic. The company went from money loser to highly profitable because of government contracts during COVID-19.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has gone on the record, openly questioning the wisdom of allowing such a deal. Rubio sent a letter to Stéphane Bancel, the company’s CEO, regarding the national security implications of the agreement and requested information on the details of the arrangement, including how the company plans to protect technology funded by American taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars.

Rubio and team fret publicly that China’s “genocidal regime” benefits with “exclusive access to critical intellectual property.” The Florida senator correctly identifies China's policy of enticing investment in Mainland China, only to leverage or exploit intellectual property insight, transferring such knowledge from Western investment to mainland monetization.

But Rubio goes a step further, playing the blame game of the COVID-19 pandemic itself. The Florida senator points to “significant evidence that COVID-19 came from a government-run lab in China” and continues to cover up such a connection.

TrialSite has accumulated enough evidence suggesting that the U.S. government (which includes Rubio) has likely covered up elements of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the Chinese government, but likely, for different reasons. We continue to refer to the DARPA memo sent to us, authored by a military officer explicitly calling out that SARS-CoV-2 was a unique American development. After requesting an explanation from DARPA, a communications chief could not verify nor refute the veracity of the memo that included the official DARPA seal. Interestingly, the DARPA officer cited that the DoD’s research agency was not funding EcoHealth Alliance. It was EcoHealth Alliance, that coronavirus specialist, that served as an intermediary between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID), part of the National Institute of Health, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Lots of evidence points to a complicated entanglement between elements of both the Chinese and U.S. governments, despite the public positioning of both to the opposite. It’s likely that both the Chinese and American governments are covering up aspects of the deadly pandemic, one that took nearly 7 million lives worldwide. America experienced more COVID-19 mortality than any other nation, with 1.12 million deaths. It is likely, however, that this number would be markedly lower if those deaths that were primarily due to other reasons were counted. Regardless, the pandemic wreaked havoc on nations, economies and human life.

Now, Rubio calls out to Moderna’s chief, that “Allowing the PRC to monopolize the benefits of research and production that Moderna performs on Chinese soil is a betrayal of the American taxpayers whose hard-earned dollars made this technology possible.”

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/floridas-rubio-stop-the-moderna-chinese-mrna-deal-4b4ff355

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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