Florida Doctor Reinstated After Losing Board Certification for Criticizing COVID-19 Vaccines

A Florida physician known for being outspoken about COVID-related topics has regained his board certification that was stripped because he publicly criticized COVID vaccines.

Now, Dr. John Littell is moving forward from the experience with plans to help future physicians defend themselves when disciplined for voicing viewpoints that are not in the majority, he told The Epoch Times.

Dr. Littell, a longtime family physician in Ocala and a medical school professor, began posting videos sharing his thoughts about COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines early in the pandemic. He was frustrated to find his content often was pulled down from his YouTube channel.

But he fought against what he saw as censorship by moving the content to other platforms, such as Rumble, he said.

Then, in January 2022 and again five months later, he received warning letters from the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the organization that issued his certification for his medical specialty.

The letter stated that his videos on YouTube and Rumble spread “medical misinformation” and could put his board certification in jeopardy, he said.

The ABFM declined to comment on the matter because the board's "policy indicates we are unable to comment about professionalism cases," an unidentified spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.

The ABFM is the third largest of the 24 boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. More than 100,000 family medicine doctors are certified by the board, according to its website.

To keep their certification, physicians must uphold the board's ethical standards and "guidelines for professionalism, licensure, and personal conduct," the website states.

In letters from the board, Dr. Littell was told his public statements violated those guidelines. Dr. Littell responded to the letters and continued to speak publicly and post videos about the subjects, he said.

Months later, when he didn’t hear back, he said he thought the threat was gone.

“I was very happily under the radar,” he said.

That changed after he was escorted out of a Sarasota Memorial Hospital board meeting in February for approaching a board member behind the dais. He wanted to thank the board member, he said, for letting him speak at the meeting. He didn't realize that move would be seen as inappropriate, he said.

Though he's cared for many patients in hospitals, he'd never attended a hospital board meeting, let alone a contentious one, he said.

That day, medical freedom activists filled the boardroom to speak against the public hospital's policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were angry their loved ones were denied the opportunity to try ivermectin, an antiparasitic for humans and animals widely used by some in treating COVID-19, and other treatments.

Dr. Littell spoke cordially to board members from the podium, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. He told board members how treating patients with ivermectin had been his key to success in helping them recover. And he praised hospital personnel for their work during the pandemic.

Shortly after that, security guards escorted him outside.

A video of Dr. Littell's removal from the meeting by security guards was posted to social media and received millions of views and media coverage. And that thrust him back in the spotlight as a doctor vocal about COVID-19 policies. “I had a target on my back,” he said.

He questioned whether someone else would have been removed for the same reason.

Many doctors have faced consequences for questioning the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines and for advocating for the use of medicines such as ivermectin in the treatment of the disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in one social media post about ivermectin: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” It linked to a page entitled "Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19."

Three doctors sued the FDA over the statements, saying it had no power to tell doctors which drugs to prescribe.

On Sept. 1, a federal court ruled that the agency likely overstepped its authority when it told Americans to "stop" using ivermectin against COVID-19. The FDA can inform, but has "no authority" to recommend consumers "stop" taking medicine, U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the ruling.

Accused of 'Spreading False' Information

The month after Dr. Littell spoke in Sarasota, the board sent a letter saying he'd been de-certified for “spreading false, inaccurate, and misleading materials about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, and treatment and mitigation of the virus," The Epoch Times confirmed.

A letter reviewed by The Epoch Times stated that if Dr. Littell appealed the decision within 20 days, he would continue to be represented by the board, pending a review of his case by the professionalism committee of the ABFM board of directors.

The reason for the decision to review his record was because of his past suggestions the COVID-19 vaccine was a product of genetic engineering, causing deaths in children and causing the rise of the Delta variant, the letter indicated. It also referenced "false" statements made by Drs. Ryan Cole and Robert Malone, who spoke at a medical freedom conference Dr. Littell organized in October 2022.

In the letter, the board also criticized Dr. Littell for "offering to provide medical exemptions from vaccination" to patients across the country and "publicly comparing the U.S. public health system's response to the COVID-19 pandemic to Nazi Germany."

After receiving the troubling letter, Dr. Littell sought the help of attorney Jeff Childers, a business attorney in Gainesville, Florida. Since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, Mr. Childers has become active in lawsuits around the country related to medical freedom. He authors a daily blog called Coffee and Covid, which started by chronicling COVID-19 issues and now tracks other social and political issues, as well.

Mr. Childers crafted a 64-page appeal to the board, dissecting every accusation made against Dr. Littell, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. And as word of the threat to Dr. Littell's board certification spread—a move that would prevent him from practicing medicine—medical freedom activists rose up to take his side.

A GiveSendGo.com campaign was started to collect donations to fund his legal fees. More than 6,400 people donated almost $255,000. And more than 1,900 pledged to pray for Dr. Littell.

The Global Covid Summit, an international group of doctors focused on medical freedom in COVID-19 treatment, sent a letter signed by 169 doctors to the ABFM in support of Dr. Littell. In the letter, they argued that the board was false in every accusation made against Dr. Littell.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo also voiced support for Dr. Littell.

“What they’re doing is being a bully,” he said in an interview with The Floridian. “It’s not going to age well.

“I read the letter from the Board, and it’s dripping with political animosity.”

Both Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Dr. Littell's congresswoman, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) sent letters in his defense to the board, Dr. Littell said.

“I’ve got to believe it's not in the dozens, but probably in the hundreds of people who called and sent letters to the American Board of Family Medicine," Dr. Littell said. "I never asked them to, but that is what was happening.”

In July, Dr. Littell received word that the board had reviewed his case and retroactively de-certified him for three months, from March 16 to June 16. He never stopped seeing patients.

“It's like a slap on the wrist so they’d feel good about it, but wouldn't, presumably, have to face any legal action," he said.

His attorney agreed. “They did it in a very face-saving way,” Mr. Childers said. But ultimately, he's pleased with the decision.

“We were really surprised and gratified that we were able to achieve that result," Mr. Childers said.

Dr. Littell credits it to being “a God thing" that he was able to keep caring for patients and face a decertification period only retroactively.

“If they had said I was decertified, I would not have been able to do what I was doing. I mean, especially with the hospital care patients. I could have gotten into big trouble.”

He still may face consequences for having the blemish on his record, he said. He’ll have to report it to the hospitals at which he works and explain what happened, he said.

“Every time I go up for privileges with a hospital or any other institution, they're going to say, ‘Well, has your license ever been suspended or revoked, and has your board certification ever been revoked?’ So, it's still an issue. It’s not like you can just forget about it.”

He’s been advised by some other doctors, such as cardiologist Peter McCullough, to pursue legal action for the disciplinary measure they feel was wrong, he said.

Continuing to Speak Out

Dr. Littell continues to speak out about the same topics. So he suspects he’ll face retribution again, he said. “The way I read the letter, it's sort of like a warning,” Dr. Littell said.

The board, he said, seemed to be sending the warning, “If you act up again, we know it's a privilege to have this board certification, and it can be removed at any time.”

And the next time, the punishment is likely to escalate.

“The implication is that if it happens again, it's going to be more than just three months,” Mr. Childers said.

Around the country, a slew of doctors had board certifications removed and licensure threatened for sharing their COVID-related opinions.

“Most people would probably be surprised to find out there's a lot of this going on, now that the pandemic is over,” Mr. Childers said. “From what I've heard, there's probably more challenges to doctor licensing right now than at any other time.”

But because most doctors aren’t vocal about receiving discipline, it’s hard to know exactly how often it’s occurring, he said.

Doctors who have been active on social media seem to be targeted more often by medical authorities, he said.

Doctors who were not actively posting their thoughts about COVID-19 on social media "should feel very confident that if they follow a similar approach to what Dr. Littell did, they could hope for a good result at this point," he said.

Obtaining good legal advice is key, he said. It also helps to spread the word.

“All too often doctors either ignore these kinds of letters until it's too late because they're embarrassed, or they try to handle it on their own," he said.

“It's important that people know when this happens. And if they'll let folks know, they'll find that they get a lot of support.”

Dr. Littell has no plans to keep quiet about what he feels went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m not letting up," he said.

He's organizing his third annual medical freedom summit in November called “Food, Family & Medical Freedom" in Ocala, Florida at the World Equestrian Center.

Helping Future Doctors

He intends to use the remaining money donated to his legal fund to help others respond to similar licensure problems, especially threats faced by medical students, he said.

He's trying "to come up with a legal, legislative, and public relations strategy that helps future physicians,” he said. When they see practicing doctors disciplined and “raked over the coals” for speaking out about medical freedom issues, it deters good people from pursuing a degree in medicine, he said.

“I would like the medical freedom fighters, as I'm calling them, to create a sanctuary for pre-med, especially, and medical school students.”

"Early on, even in the colleges, they weed out the physicians who dare to question the narrative or challenge it," he said, of those who insist that doctors decrees made by federal health agencies.

But asking questions and challenging prevailing thought is important to the goal of continually improving medical treatments, he said.

"And that intellectual curiosity is what we’re so desperately lacking now in medicine, and in most professions.”

He also envisions the network expanding to help connect like-minded educators in colleges, universities, and medical schools to share their ideas without fear of being in opposition to “woke” ideology, he said.

He hopes to see that network push back against “lockstep mentality” and help students who are suffering because of it.

Medical students taught by Dr. Littell often tell him how difficult it is to be entering the field of medicine at this time, he said.

One student told him that his second-year class was forced to be vaccinated for COVID-19, he said. Classmates were told by their university they'd be "thrown out" of medical school in two weeks if they didn't comply, Dr. Littell said.

The student told him that, although more than half the class didn't want the vaccine, they felt they had no other option, Dr. Littell said. Weeks later, the mandate was lifted. But it was too late—many students already had submitted to getting the shot they didn't want.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/florida-doctor-reinstated-after-losing-board-certification-for-criticizing-covid-19-vaccines-5480957

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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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Excess Deaths in England: Everything but mRNA Vaccines Blamed

Back in June, TrialSite looked at the issue of excess deaths across Europe. Today, we focus on England with additional data on this frightening topic. As excess death reports pop up around the globe, a key question remains: are these due to lack of care during the lockdowns, COVID-19 mRNA vaccinations, COVID-19 itself, or some other causes?

While we can’t answer that today, we can add a few pieces to the puzzle. According to an Office of National Statistics report from September 2022, the total “excess deaths” in England and Wales from March 2020 to June 2022 were 137,447, about 87,000 men and 50,000 women. Excess deaths were concentrated as follows: cirrhosis/liver disease, 3.834 excess deaths; diabetes, 3,466 excess deaths, and “ill-defined” conditions which are often connected to old age and/or frailty, 9,094 excess deaths. Not counting COVID-19, deaths were above average for six consecutive months from July 2021 to December 2021, and this coincides with periods of heavy vaccination. In this time frame, 89,253 excess deaths took place at private homes, a 30.2% increase over the prior five-year average.

100,000 excess cardiac-related deaths

In June 2023, the British Heart Foundation took a look at this issue, with a focus on cardiac-related excess deaths. According to their headline, “Nearly 100,000 more deaths involving heart conditions and stroke than usual since the pandemic began.” These statistics mean that on average, “there have been over 500 additional deaths a week involving cardiovascular disease since the pandemic began.” The BHF cites many likely “contributing factors, including extreme and widespread pressure on NHS services and Covid-19.” BHF also notes that cardiovascular conditions account for more excess deaths than other disease groups—“a total of 96,540 since 21st March 2020, the analysis of data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) finds.”

Year three of the pandemic shows massive non-COVID-19-related heart conditions?

BHF continues that, “In the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 infection drove high numbers of excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease – an umbrella term for a range of heart and blood vessel conditions including heart attack and stroke. But while deaths from COVID-19 have since fallen year-on-year, the number of deaths involving cardiovascular disease have remained high above expected levels.” According to the chart below from the report’s Appendix, in year one of the pandemic a particular heart disease and COVID-19 deaths were comparable, yet when we look at year three, there is a serious mismatch, showing excess non-COVID-19 heart-related deaths:

A comprehensive solution to the complex challenge

BHF states that they, “believe that there are now other major factors likely driving the continued increase in excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease, including the severe, ongoing disruption to NHS heart care, and Covid-19 increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke." And “We're calling on the UK Government to take charge of the increasingly urgent cardiovascular disease crisis.” After listing every possible cause except the mRNA vaccines, BHF says that “While there has been some progress towards addressing the cardiovascular disease crisis, the BHF is pushing for the UK Government to go much further and faster in providing a comprehensive and coordinated solution to a complex challenge.”

COVID-19 no longer explains excess deaths

Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan, Associate Medical Director for BHF, said: “Covid-19 no longer fully explains the significant numbers of excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease. Other major factors are likely contributing, including the extreme and unrelenting pressure on the NHS over the last few years----As more and more heart patients wait longer and longer, we need to see a specific and long-term commitment from the government to fast-track improvements in cardiovascular care now and for the future.”

Why are vaccines not suspected?

Perhaps ignoring the mRNA elephant in the room, Professor John Greenwood, who is the president of the British Cardiovascular Society, noted: “The high numbers of excess cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths published today are worrying, but unfortunately not surprising. We know that Covid has caused direct (Covid leading to new CVD), indirect (reduced treatment and prevention of CVD) and long-term effects (CVD and Long Covid)----The BCS recommends urgent prioritization of CVD prevention and treatment, as well as an increase in the cardiovascular workforce (primary and secondary care, and multidisciplinary team) to begin tackling the backlog of work and long waiting lists for treatment. Added to this we need a strong public health strategy from the government to promote healthy behaviors and prevent heart disease in the first place.”

When will the full facts be known?

In considering these excess deaths, one must ask why the experts are considering everything but the mRNA vaccines. This is especially true with cardiac-related deaths: we know that these vaccines have cardiovascular risks. Perhaps once the fog of COVID-19 dissipates, we will get some real answers to these important questions.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/excess-deaths-in-england-everything-but-mrna-vaccines-blamed-70b9b443

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Are unvaccinated children healthier?

* A 2021 study that compared health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated children found significantly higher incidence of severe allergies, autism, chronic ear infections, gastrointestinal disorders, asthma and ADD/ADHD (attention deficit hyper disorder) in vaccinated children. [1]

* A 2020 study of children over 5 years of age found higher incidence of development delays, asthma, ear infection and gastrointestinal disorders in vaccinated children compared to unvaccinated children.[2]

* Another study from 2020 found a higher incidence of doctor office visits for conditions such as fever, ear pain, asthma, allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis, sinusitis, breathing issues, anemia, eczema, urticaria, behavioural issues, gastroenteritis and weight and eating disorders. Oddly enough this study was retracted.[3]

* A 2017 study of 6 to 12 year old children found higher incidence of otitis media, pneumonia, allergic rhinitis, allergies, ADHD, ASD, eczema, learning disability and neurodevelopmental disorder. [4]

* As far back as 1992, a study was conducted by a body named IAS in New Zealand. While the study is not peer reviewed, some of the findings were similar to findings of studies highlighted above. The study found increased incidence of asthma, eczema, ear infection , tonsillitis, tonsillectomy, apnoea, hyperactivity, epilepsy and slow development of motor skills among vaccinated children. [5]

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/are-unvaccinated-children-healthier-c9060c90

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Covid-19 vaccinations in Thailand: Risks outweighed Benefits?

Outside of China, Thailand was the first country to report a Covid-19 case. [0]Prior to the launch of mass vaccinations, Covid-19 in Thailand was limited to just a few cases and small contained outbreaks. As the country gradually opened up, Thailand continued to be free of any major Covid-19 outbreaks.

As of July 1st, 2020 bars, pubs, shopping malls, Internet cafes and convenience stores and all opened up and schools and restarted. [1] International travel restrictions were still there for much of the year and tourism continued to be impacted, although restrictions started gradually easing in October. [2] Over the next 6 months, Thailand seemed to heading in the right direction in terms of reopening of the economy,

Throughout 2020, Thailand recorded 120 deaths and 6,331 cases. Up until the launch of the vaccination program on Feb 14th, 2021, Thailand had recorded ~24,400 cases and 80 deaths over approximately 11 months since the first reported case. However, as vaccination ramped up, Thailand recorded 20,445 deaths 2,252,976 cases over the next 11 months. This represented a 92-fold increase in cases and 256-fold increase in deaths over the same time frame of 11 months after vaccination, compared to the timeframe of 11 months before vaccination.

The Covid-19 cases and deaths were observed to be in strong temporal association with the rollout of the vaccination program. It has been argued by this author in this article, quoting publicly available data as well as published studies, that massive Covid-19 waves in several countries seem to have been triggered by mass vaccinations, with 1-dose vaccinated the likely spreaders to close contacts thereby triggering outbreaks. To date, Thailand has reported 34,453 Covid-19 deaths, out of which 34,373, or 99.8% have occurred after the launch of mass vaccinations.

Another important piece of statistic for this vaccination drive is the number of people who have been compensated for vaccine injury. As of September 9th, 2022, 21,139 people had filed vaccine injury claims, of which 17,559 met eligibility for compensation. Families of 4,441 people were compensated for post-vaccination deaths or disability. [3]At least 3,670 families were compensated for post-vaccination deaths. [4]

Conclusion

Despite opening up much of its domestic economy in July 2020, Thailand was free of Covid-19 outbreaks for the best part of the next 6 months, up until the launch of the vaccination campaign.

99.8% of all Covid-19 deaths in Thailand occurred after the launch of the mass vaccination program, in strong temporal association with the vaccination drive.

21,139 people filed for vaccine injury compensation, of which 17,559 already have been or will be compensated.

4,441 people suffered post vaccination deaths or disability for which families were compensated.

Based on the above facts, what should one infer about the outcome of the Covid-19 vaccination program in Thailand?

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/covid-19-vaccinations-in-thailand-risks-outweighed-benefits-ee887774

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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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Maine Hospital Fired Nurses for Refusing COVID Shots—Now It’s Begging Them to Come Back

Nurses and other health care workers at MaineGeneral Health, one of Maine’s largest health care providers, were unceremoniously fired two years ago if they refused to take the experimental mRNA injections touted as COVID-19 preventatives.

Some of those workers were even slapped with misconduct charges for refusing to comply with the mandate, many were later denied unemployment benefits, and no requests for religious exemptions were honored.

Now, one of the nonprofit hospitals that left some employees jobless and without recourse to Maine’s unemployment insurance benefits is sending text messages to the same employees it cast aside practically begging them to come back to work.

“You were once a proud member of the MaineGeneral team. Would you consider rejoining us? We would be pleased to discuss options with you,” the MaineGeneral Health Recruitment team said in a text message to former registered nurse Terry Poland.

“As you know, nearly 2 years ago MaineGeneral had to comply with a state mandate for COVID-19 vaccination. We lost a number of great employees as a result, including you,” MaineGeneral said.

“MaineGeneral has eliminated the COVID-19 vaccination as an employment condition,” MaineGeneral said.

Poland, who lives in Augusta, had worked as a registered nurse for 33 years. Her career included employment with MaineGeneral, Central Maine Medical Center, Pen Bay Medical Center, and the Aroostook Medical Center.

She couldn’t believe that the hospital would contact her in such a manner after casting her life into chaos for nearly two years.

“I was livid. Like, how dare you force me out of a career that I’ve dedicated my whole life to, taken away my livelihood, my ability to earn a good income, and now you think I’m gonna come grovel back to you?” Poland said.

Poland continued:

“I don’t hardly think so. And that’s the attitude of most everybody that I’ve been in contact with since yesterday.”

A source told the Maine Wire that about 15 former MaineGeneral Health employees received similar text messages.

Poland refused to take the experimental COVID-19 shots after Gov. Janet Mills decreed on Aug. 12, 2021, that health care workers would be forced to receive the shots as a condition of working in health care by Oct. 1, 2021.

Documents reviewed by the Maine Wire show that MaineGeneral established a speedier timeline of Sept. 17 for compliance.

Eventually, the state pushed back the deadline to the end of October.

Poland was never opposed to vaccines generally speaking.

Though she previously used a religious exemption to avoid taking an influenza shot, she willingly took the other vaccines required to work in health care prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, including immunizations for measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis B.

She said she was concerned about the novel nature of the mRNA technology, a form of gene therapy, which prior to COVID-19 had not been used in the standard schedule of immunizations.

“I knew enough not to take it. I’ve been a nurse long enough to know I need to question what new products are,” Poland said. “I’m not going to be the first one to jump on board of an experiment.”

When she discovered that fetal tissues are commonly used in the development and production of the drugs, that only strengthened her resolve as a Christian not to get the injections.

In previous years, Poland has said she was allowed an exemption from taking the influenza shot so long as she wore a mask during flu season. However, the hospital was unwilling to provide this accommodation for COVID-19.

As a result of her choice, Poland faced not only termination but also an allegation of misconduct from her former employer.

When she applied for unemployment benefits, she was rejected because of the misconduct allegation.

When she appealed, she was turned away.

Documents reviewed by the Maine Wire show that the Maine Department of Labor determined that MaineGeneral Health “discharged” her; however, the agency concluded that Poland’s refusal to get the injections was a violation that constituted a “culpable breach of obligations to the employer.”

As a result, Poland had to rely on her savings to get by in the middle of economically disastrous government lockdowns and soaring inflation.

Poland then sought help from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that she’d been discriminated against on the basis of her religious beliefs.

MaineGeneral Health, in responding to the commission, argued that allowing Poland religious accommodations would impose an “undue hardship” on the hospital. On that basis, the commission declined to take on her case.

The Maine Human Rights Commission also rejected her discrimination complaint.

“[T]here has been positive energy between human resource personnel and managers who are in the process of working together to reach out to former employees to see if they are interested in returning,” said Joy McKenna, director of communications for MaineGeneral, in an email.

“Since Monday, we are only aware of a few people who have indicated that they are interested in having a conversation about applying for an open position,” she said. “We currently have 453 open positions, which is similar to our pre-COVID open position count.”

McKenna said the hospital did not intentionally fire unvaccinated employees in a way that would block them from getting unemployment benefits.

Some of those positions have been filled by foreign nationals with green cards, McKenna said, though she was not able to provide an exact number on Aug. 9.

At the time MaineGeneral fired her, Poland was working at the MaineGeneral Rehabilitation and Long Term Care at Gray Birch facility in Augusta.

The facility provides nursing home and assisted living services and has a 37-bed capacity. Federal stats show the facility had 141 staff before the mandate and 110 after it was enforced.

In the years since she was fired, she estimates she’s earned only $12,000 and $17,000 as a home health care worker, a position that hasn’t provided similar benefits to the job she lost.

As a registered nurse, Poland was making about $75,000 per year.

She’s still not willing to give MaineGeneral another shot.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/maine-hospital-fired-nurses-for-refusing-covid-shots-now-its-begging-them-to-come-back-5479108

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New ‘Pirola’ variant of COVID is spreading fast, has experts concerned

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, a new variant dubbed “Pirola” has experts worried.

Also referred to as BA.2.86, Pirola is a highly mutated variant of the Omicron strain of the coronavirus, which emerged in 2021 and led to a frightful spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

“When Omicron hit in the winter of 2021, there was a huge rise in COVID-19 cases because it was so different from the Delta variant, and it evaded immunity from both natural infection and vaccination,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Scott Roberts said in a Yale Medicine bulletin.

The bulletin states that “there is some reason to worry, in that this variant … has more than 30 mutations to its spike protein,” referring to the proteins on the surface of the virus that allow it to enter and infect human cells.

“Such a high number of mutations is notable,” Roberts said. “When we went from XBB.1.5 to EG.5, that was maybe one or two mutations. But these massive shifts, which we also saw from Delta to Omicron, are worrisome.”

Is the new COVID variant worse?

The three biggest questions facing medical experts are: How transmissible is Pirola? Will it bypass existing immune defenses? How lethal will it be for those unlucky enough to get infected by it?

“Nobody knows right now, but studies are ongoing,” Roberts said.

The Pirola variant was initially detected in Israel and was later identified in Canada, Denmark, the UK, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Thailand, according to the CDC.

By August, it had surfaced in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and New York. And Thursday, Dr. S. Wesley Long of Houston Methodist Hospital reported that he had isolated a Texas case of the Pirola variant.

The rapid spread of Pirola “doesn’t look good right now,” Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif., told Reuters.

Pirola’s multiple mutations make it “radically different in its structure” compared to earlier coronavirus variants, Topol said.

As far as Pirola’s severity is concerned, “[i]t is too soon to know whether this variant might cause more severe illness compared with previous variants,” the CDC stated.

Our current levels of immunity, whether from vaccination or prior infection, also remain to be seen.

The new booster shots, expected to be available later this month, were developed to target the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.

Nonetheless, the boosters “will likely be effective at reducing severe disease and hospitalization” from BA.2.86, the CDC states. “That assessment may change as additional scientific data are developed.”

“The vaccine is still going to provide you great defense against illness and death,” Long said.

Other experts agree: Despite Pirola’s mutations, “it’s important to remember that it’s still the same virus at its core, so the same prevention methods — masking, vaccination and hand-washing, among others — can help people avoid infection,” Roberts said.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/01/pirola-variant-of-covid-spreads-fast-has-experts-concerned/

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Team Youngkin Addresses Future COVID-19 Restrictions: ‘In Virginia You Get to Choose’

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin won’t be mandating that Americans mask up or lock down to fight the COVID-19 pandemic any time soon, The Daily Signal has learned.

Some schools, hospitals, and businesses have begun encouraging Americans to wear masks again amid a rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, sparking fears that lawmakers will once again institute lockdown measures and mask mandates.

Youngkin’s office told The Daily Signal on Thursday that such measures won’t be happening in the state, where the governor previously has banned schools from mandating masks.

“Governor Youngkin has been consistent since the beginning of his administration, if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask, but in Virginia you get to choose,” spokesman Christian Martinez said.

He added: “On Inauguration Day, Governor Glenn Youngkin declared Virginia open for business, the governor has no plans to change that.”

On Tuesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen said that up to 10,000 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 per week in the United States. Cohen noted that this number is significantly lower than the comparative figures for August 2022, at the pandemic’s highest point, when there were 40,000 hospitalizations a week.

“We’re in a much different and better place in August of 2023,” she said. “We have stronger immunity and tools to protect ourselves, we have vaccines, at-home tests, effective treatments, and commonsense strategies like washing your hands and staying away from people when you’re sick.”

The Daily Signal also asked 2024 presidential candidates whether they would support future mask mandates or lockdowns. None of the 2024 hopefuls that The Daily Signal spoke with supported any such restrictions.

“No mask mandates,” candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “No vaccine mandates. No lockdown ever again.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/31/team-youngkin-addresses-future-covid-restrictions-virginia-get-choose/

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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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‘No Lockdown Ever Again’: 2024 Candidates Push Back Against Future COVID-19 Lockdowns, Mandates

Amid growing fears that Americans could face more COVID-19 lockdowns or mandates, Republican candidates vying for the 2024 presidential nomination say they are firmly against such restrictive measures.

“No mask mandates,” candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “No vaccine mandates. No lockdown ever again.”

Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas reminded The Daily Signal of how he handled the pandemic within his own state: “No, I would not,” he said, asked if he would support more lockdowns or mask mandates. “During the last pandemic, as governor, we had no shelter-in-place orders or business lockdown policies in Arkansas.”

Sen. Tim Scott is also adamantly against locking down the American people again.

“I have always been against mandates,” the South Carolina Republican told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “Period. I’m unapologetically a First Amendment kind of guy, so I believe that individual freedom is central to who we are as Americans.”

“It is important to call out the lies told by [Dr. Anthony] Fauci,” Scott added. “There was a devastating impact of their lies and theories. Human dignity comes from maximizing one’s potential, and the mandates and lockdowns hurt children, small businesses, and all Americans.”

Asked if former Vice President Mike Pence supports more COVID-19 lockdowns or mandates, spokesman Devin O’Malley replied: “Not a chance.”

A spokesman for Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, similarly decried the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on the American people.

“Lockdowns wreaked havoc on our economy and the mental and physical health of every American—especially our children,” spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Daily Signal. “Lockdowns, championed by leftist teachers unions, damaged our children’s’ education for a generation. A Haley administration will plan for the next pandemic and ensure we do not allow fear, government overreach, or bureaucrat-forced mandates to devastate our country ever again.”

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a video denouncing the Left’s push to “restart the COVID hysteria” and pledging that the United States would not return to lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates.

“Hear my words—WE WILL NOT COMPLY,” the campaign posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“To every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: We will not comply, so don’t even think about it,” the former president said. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. According to his campaign, he has spent the week focused on the state’s response to Hurricane Idalia.

During the last presidential debate, the Florida governor promised: “As your president, I will never let the deep state bureaucrats lock you down.”

The Daily Signal reached out to all top GOP candidates regarding future lockdowns and mandates as well as to Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. and to President Joe Biden’s White House. Candidates Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, and Kennedy (as well as Trump and DeSantis) did not respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment.

On Thursday, the Biden administration released the “National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.”

“We look to a future when Americans no longer fear lockdowns, shutdowns, and our kids not going to school,” the White House said. “It’s a future when the country relies on the powerful layers of protection we have built and invests in the next generation of tools to stay ahead of this virus.”

The plan emphasizes that the White House wants to keep kids in school and workers in the work place: “The path forward in the fight against COVID-19 is clear: schools, workers, and workplaces have resources and guidance to prevent shutdowns.”

A White House spokesperson told The Daily Signal on Thursday that the Biden administration expects updated COVID-19 vaccines to be available in mid-September. The White House will be encouraging Americans to get this vaccine in addition to their annual flu shots and, for people over 60 as well as infants, the RSV immunization.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/31/no-lockdown-ever-again-2024-candidates-push-back-against-future-covid-lockdowns-mandates/

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Ivermectin makes a comeback: It should never have been banned

Writing for the Brownstone Institute, Debbie Lerman asked a provocative question: ‘What If There Had Been No Covid Coup’ and the leading US public health agencies had been left in charge of the pandemic response? Instead, it was taken over by the National Security Council and the departments of defense and homeland security. The prevailing assumption being, of course, that the same set of responses would have unfolded over the next two to three years. She refutes this and explains with great clarity and considerable plausibility why the national security elite had to take over and what the implications are.

For one thing, the existing national and World Health Organisation guidelines would have been followed, to wit: don’t panic, treat serious cases on presentation, keep society functioning as close to normality as possible, and look for inexpensive and widely available early treatment options to reduce the risk of serious illness. With national security agencies taking over, the new pandemic response paradigm became that of biowarfare: shut down society, institute medical countermeasures, and develop and roll out vaccines at warp speed. Designed to counter biowarfare and bioterrorism, they upended the scientific underpinnings and ethical principles of existing public health-based interventions. Propaganda, censorship and silencing of critical and dissenting voices were essential and therefore integral to the new normal.

In a complementary article, also for Brownstone, Dr Meryl Nass speculates that ‘maybe the vaccines were not made for the pandemic, and instead the pandemic was made to roll out the vaccines’. As part of the evidence, she notes that Australia, the EU and the US were purchasing 8 to 10 vaccine doses per capita in mid-2021, despite unresolved doubts over their safety and prophylactic efficacy in infection and transmission. Because these were unresolved, the Covid vaccines could only be granted ‘emergency use authorisation’ after a public health emergency had been declared in order, says the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to ‘prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives’. In sum, fear porn was necessary to convince the public of the gravity and urgency of a public health emergency, which was then used to justify cutting corners in the development, manufacture and rollout of vaccines. But this could not be done if an alternative treatment was available. It therefore became necessary to reject any role for cheap, widely available and potentially lifesaving drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, repurposed to treat Covid-19, and doctors were banned from recommending them for prophylaxis and early outpatient treatment.

With around four billion pills sold around the world over several decades, ivermectin’s safety profile was well established. There were three parallel tracks along which to assess ivermectin efficacy and risks: randomised control trials, observational data and meta-analysis. The signals from all three indicated moderately positive outcomes. These included observational data from Brazil and states in Peru and India, plus meta-analyses supported by the WHO, Stockholm-based physician Sebastian Rushworth, and biostatistician Andrew Bryant and medical doctor and researcher Tess Lawrie. These showed between 56 per cent and 62 per cent mortality reduction associated with ivermectin use. However, although suggestive, these were not conclusive enough to establish ivermectin’s efficacy in preventing and treating Covid.

A study of ivermectin (IVM) use in Peru, using excess deaths rather than deaths with Covid as the yardstick, found a 74 per cent mortality reduction in the 30 days after peak deaths in the ten of Peru’s 25 states with the most intensive IVM use. Strikingly: ‘During four months of IVM use in 2020, before a new president of Peru restricted its use, there was a 14-fold reduction in nationwide excess deaths and then a 13-fold increase in the two months following the restriction of IVM use’.

Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies frown on cheap generic drugs like ivermectin and few regulators of rich Western countries were able to escape industry capture. On 4 February 2021, Merck – which makes patent-free low profit Ivermectin and has been selling it for years – questioned its safety. In August 2021, the FDA warned Americans against taking ivermectin, a medicine used to deworm livestock: ‘You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it’. The next month, Australia’s TGA banned GPs from prescribing ivermectin for preventing or treating Covid-19, citing ‘a number of significant public health risks associated with taking ivermectin in an attempt to prevent Covid-19 infection rather than getting vaccinated’. In other words the ivermectin ban was meant to promote vaccination.

The August 2021 tweet from the FDA, reinforcing the message that ivermectin was a horse de-wormer and not authorised to treat Covid-19, went viral. In response, some ivermectin-prescribing doctors took the FDA to court. During oral arguments in a US appeals court on 8 August 2023, Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, said the ‘FDA explicitly recognises that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat Covid’. Australia’s TGA had already lifted its restrictions on IVM from 1 June 2023. Suspicions grew that the financial interests of the pharmaceutical sector might have unduly influenced regulators’ decisions in banning the use of ivermectin. These have been strengthened with the removal of the bans: how can a product that was considered safe for decades before 2020 but banned during 2020-22 suddenly become safe once again?

In this connection, it is worth noting that the Peru study was published in preprint on 8 March 2021, yet it was not published as a peer-reviewed article in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science until 8 August 2023. The journal says its average time from submission to publication is 33 days. Readers can draw their own conclusions.

On 12 May, Governor Ron DeSantis signed four laws aiming to give Florida the strongest protection of medical freedoms in America. The package protects citizens against testing, mask and vaccine mandates by government, business and educational institutions. It also protects medical professionals’ freedom of speech and their right to prescribe alternative treatments to their patients.

Writing in the Federalist on 21 August, Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, two of the three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, argue that after the litany of lies, abuses of power and conflicts of interests exposed during the Covid years, the US Congress must enact structural reforms of the National Institutes of Health.

Could we please copy both initiatives?

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/ivermectin-makes-a-comeback/ ?

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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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Whistleblower Who Disclosed Myocarditis Spike in Military After COVID Vaccine Rollout Goes Public

A service member who earlier this year blew the whistle and disclosed data from a Pentagon medical database showing a spike in the rate of myocarditis in the military in 2021, after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, is going public.

The whistleblower is active-duty Navy Medical Service Corps officer Lt. Ted Macie. He has also revealed new data showing a substantial rise in accidents, assaults, self-harm, and suicide attempts in the military in 2021, compared to the average from 2016 to 2021.

This includes a 147 percent increase in intentional self-harm incidents among service members and an 828 percent increase in injuries from assaults.

Lt. Macie told The Epoch Times that he began “keeping an eye on" a defense medical database when another whistleblower alerted him to a rise in health-related incidents in the winter of 2021/2022.

The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) is a depository of all diagnoses—recorded using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes—when an active service member is seen on or off base by a military or civilian provider. The database doesn't include any personally identifiable information of service members.

In January, Lt. Macie and his wife traveled to Washington with a report of the data that he collected from DMED.

Exposing the Vaccine 'Military Machinery' Behind the Global COVID-19 Response: Sasha Latypova
It showed that diagnoses of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, increased in 2021 by 130.5 percent over the average number of cases in the five-year period from 2016 to 2020. Myocarditis is a serious condition that can lead to death.

All four of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States can cause myocarditis, according to U.S. officials. COVID-19 can also cause myocarditis, though some experts say that the data on that front is weaker.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated the vaccines in 2021, a requirement that remained in place until Congress forced its withdrawal in late 2022.

The data also showed spikes in diagnoses of pulmonary embolism (41.2 percent), blood clots in the lungs, ovarian dysfunction (38.2 percent), and "complications and ill-defined descriptions of heart disease" (37.7 percent).

DMED Data

Lt. Macie downloaded the data almost a year after the Pentagon said it fixed a data corruption issue with the DMED.

In 2022, other military whistleblowers reported shocking spikes in disease rates after the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine. But the Pentagon responded that those figures weren't correct because some diagnoses in the years 2016 to 2020 hadn't been counted, an issue stemming from "corrupt" data.

After the Pentagon said the issue was corrected, Lt. Macie and others—including 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, a preventive medicine officer in the Army, Navy Lt. Billy Moseley, Army Surgeon Lt. Col. Theresa Long, and Army doctor Maj. Samuel Sigoloff—noticed that there were still concerning signs of increases in diagnoses, such as myocarditis and pulmonary embolism.

Since word spread that Lt. Macie was the only active-duty member at his command who didn’t receive the COVID-19 vaccine and was actively suing the secretary of defense, people began to come to him in confidence, telling him about adverse reactions, which they were convinced were “from the shot,” he said.

“These anecdotal, but compelling, personal injuries were a motivator to get things on the right track,” Lt. Macie said.

After verifying Lt. Macie's report with the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the top Republican on that panel, sent a letter (pdf) to Mr. Austin in March asking the Pentagon to confirm Lt. Macie's data.

Lt. Macie had suspected that the Pentagon wouldn't respond, based on his experience of previous requests made within the department going unfulfilled.

“In the event our suspicions were correct, I kept additional data to reveal as soon as the data we brought [to Washington] was confirmed, or after being ignored for some time,” he said.

Much to his surprise, he said, the Pentagon, in a July reply (pdf) to Mr. Johnson's letter, confirmed that his data was accurate.

In the Pentagon's response, Gilbert Cisneros Jr., undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, pointed to data on the rate of cases per 100,000 person-years, a way to measure risk across a certain period of time. For almost all the conditions that showed an increase in cases in 2021, he stated, the new case rate was higher for service members with a prior COVID-19 infection than for those with a prior COVID-19 vaccination.

"This suggests that it was more likely to be [COVID-19] infection and not COVID-19 vaccination that was the cause," Mr. Cisneros stated.

Lt. Macie said he plans to bring the additional data he kept up his chain of command “with the aim of a resolution and validation for injured service members.”

"But I’m not holding my breath," he said.

Lt. Macie has also brought this new data to the office of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), hoping to get the attention of the House Armed Services Committee, a panel that Mr. Gaetz sits on. Lt. Macie isn't aware of what Mr. Gaetz and his staff will do, but the lawmaker's office acknowledged in June that “they will take a look,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Gaetz's office for comment, but didn't receive a reply by press time.

Rise in Accidents, Self-Harm

According to his research, health-related incidents in 2021 rose substantially above the five-year average from 2016 to 2020.

“As some may expect, internal injuries like myocarditis (130 percent), tinnitus (42 percent), and cerebral infarction (stroke) (43.5 percent) are on the rise,” Lt. Macie said.

But it was Lt. Macie’s wife who became curious, asking about other types of injuries.

“What about external cause morbidities, like burns, accidents, self-inflicted harm, and injuries that are not expected to be associated with the COVID shot?” he said.

With the new data that he discovered, incidents that exhibited increases in 2021 above the five-year average included exposure to forces of nature (773 percent); water transport accidents (7,400 percent); land transport vehicle accidents (526 percent); suicide attempts (33 percent); assault (828 percent); slipping, tripping, stumbles, and falls (471 percent); and intentional self-harm (147 percent).

Some of these not only increased in 2021 but continued to rise in 2022. The Epoch Times has viewed screenshots of these data from the DMED.

Historically, if the Pentagon noticed a trend in certain areas such as abuse and suicide, he said, the department would hold a safety stand-down—a military-wide mandatory training and review in which all commands require 100 percent participation.

“What will higher-ranking general officers, the surgeon general, Defense Health Agency, and Joint Chiefs do when they receive word that ICD codes/injuries for these incidents are on the rise?” Lt. Macie said.

“Soon, we’ll see if the same people who claim that the service member is their top priority actually show that through their action.”

According to Lt. Macie, there are a few possibilities concerning the new data collected.

“If the data is correct, and is confirmed by [the Pentagon], more than just a stand-down needs to happen. Rising problems like self-harm, suicide attempts, accidents, and assault must be addressed immediately, not just the mess of [vaccine] injuries,” he said.

He noted that the Pentagon may, for a second time, reply, saying that the data are incorrect, even though the department previously said they've resolved the data corruption issues in the system to prevent future errors. But such a reply would raise even more questions concerning the integrity of the database and whether there's a cover-up at play, he projected.

Lt. Macie hopes that Congress will press the Pentagon for answers concerning the new data.

But if lawmakers fail to do this, "the people need to step up to hold our government accountable,” he said.

Lt. Macie emphasized that his views don't reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Navy.

The Pentagon didn't return inquiries by The Epoch Times seeking an explanation for the rise in external cause morbidities.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/exclusive-whistleblower-who-disclosed-myocarditis-spike-in-military-after-covid-vaccine-goes-public-5477416

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Meta Analysis: mRNA Vax Myocarditis/Pericarditis at 2X the Rate of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

With an aim of summarizing the available evidence on the risk of myocarditis and/or pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination as compared with the risk among unvaccinated individuals in the absence of COVID-19 infection, a group of researchers led by Abdallah Alami, a Masters graduate at Carleton University, School of Mathematics and Statistics and colleagues in Canada, United States and Argentina conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to address the following research question: what is the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis among individuals who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine compared with those who did not receive an mRNA injection, in the absence of COVID-19 infection?

The multinational team found that while the overall absolute number of myocarditis and pericarditis was quite low, when comparing the adverse events induced by mRNA COVID-19 vaccination versus unvaccinated indivduals in the absence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccination is associated with higher risk.

Acknowledging that the COVID-19 vaccines helped reduce morbidity and mortality (albeit in surges due to durability and breadth challenges), Alami and associates suggest more research focusing on the rates of myocarditis/pericarditis linked to the mRNA jabs, as well as an imperative need to better understand the biological mechanisms driving the rare cardiac events. Finally, research must better peg risk stratification.

Results

After seven studies met this present studies inclusion criteria, the study team included six of them in their quantitative synthesis. The meta-analysis points to the following observation: within a 30=day follow-up duration, “Vaccinated individuals were twice as likely to develop myo/pericarditis in absence of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to unvaccinated indivudals, with a rate ratio of 2.05 (95% CI 1.49–2.82).”

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/meta-analysis-mrna-vax-myocarditispericarditis-at-2x-the-rate-of-sars-cov-2-infection-5c1cad23

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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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Ivermectin War Continues: Washington Medical Commission Fines Doctor, Puts License on Probation Five Years

A Yakima, Washington physician was not only fined but also had his medical license restricted by the Washington Medical Commission. Why? According to recent local media accounts, he failed to meet the state’s standard of care due to his decision to prescribe patients ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 in addition to spreading misinformation. In addition to a $15,000 fine, Dr. Richard Wilkinson’s license is placed on probation for five years. During this time, he cannot prescribe ivermectin for non-FDA approved purposes. Also, he must pass a clinical competency within a half-year. He is part of a countersuit. While the Food and Drug Administration representative acknowledged in a court case that doctors have always been able to prescribe ivermectin off label, this is not technically how doctors found trouble during the pandemic. See TrialSite’s “Doctor’s Always had the Right to Treat COVID-19 Patients with Ivermectin.”

The Washington Medical Commission issued a statement and order in August restricting the doctor’s license due to unprofessional conduct and misrepresentation involving COVID-19 to patients, reports Santiago Ochoa with the Yakima Herald-Republic.

The facts

According to the local media account, the doctor prescribed ivermectin to seven patients during the period August to December 2021, yet failed to both A) document a sufficient rationale and B) inform the patients that the medication was off label, not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for COVID-19 treatment or prevention.

A technicality that hurt a substantial number of doctors during the pandemic, they failed to follow a procedure including the above points plus the allegation that a physician-patient relationship must be established as well. For example, some doctors that via telehealth prescribed ivermectin without that established relationship, plus the other aforementioned documentation and informed consent led to trouble.

Wilkinson also prescribed inhaled hydrogen peroxide to one patient without “a warning that inhaled hydrogen peroxide does not have any effect on a COVID-19 infection and is dangerous.”

Lawsuit

As reported in The Chronicle, Dr. Wilkinson joined four other plaintiffs in Benton County to challenge the Washington Medical Commission’s COVID-19 misinformation position statement.

Filed by the group called the Silent Majority Foundation based in Pasco, WA on behalf of the doctors, the local media reports that Dr. Wilkinson’s attorney is the nonprofit’s director and general counsel.

Is the medical commission’s COVID-19 misinformation position statement an enforceable rule? The Silent Majority Foundation position suggests it is not. A hearing is scheduled in Benton County on August 30.

Background

TrialSite first started reporting on how ivermectin seems to zap SARS-CoV-2 in a cell culture in the laboratory. That news from Australia spread around the world as mostly low-and-moderate countries (LMICs) embraced the drug in research and care during the pandemic. A large number of studies show positive evidence that the drug inhibited SARs-CoV-2. For example, 99 studies involving 1,089 scientists and 137,255 patients across 28 countries show significant benefits against mortality, ventilation, ICU, hospitalization, aiding recovery and viral clearance.

Yet most of these studies were conducted in LMICs with what medical establishments in the United States consider questionable study design, data and the like. Also, some prominent studies in North America and South America pointed to a lack of effectiveness. Although, some critics who happen to be TrialSite contributors such as David Scheim, have openly questioned these studies' design and conduct. For a summary of the unfolding ivermectin war by the start of 2022, see “The Ivermectin Wars Intensify as States want Access Over the Counter and a Medical Freedom March Commences this Weekend.”

The national emergency has been called off, but many doctors found themselves in hot water, or worse. One key point many in the medical freedom movement didn’t fully grasp was that drugs are regulated nationally and that doctors that did embrace ivermectin off label needed to follow very careful protocol, plus they needed to be careful how they communicated about the drug online.

TrialSite suggests that much of the medical establishment didn’t care about ivermectin use off label until it came to the attention of the pharmaceutical industry that weekly prescriptions which were about 3,000 pre-pandemics skyrocketed to nearly 90,000 prescriptions per week during the pandemic.

The regulators such as the FDA wrote menacing letters to groups such as the Federation of State Medical Boards as reported by TrialSite in “Feds Coming After Doctors and Pharmacies that Market Ivermectin as Effective & Safe for COVID-19.” Then, that umbrella board association would communicate with state members charged with licensing physicians and pharmacists, spooking members to not discuss topics like Ivermectin.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/ivermectin-war-washington-medical-commission-fines-doctor-puts-license-on-probation-five-years-9110f28a

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Does America Face a Growing ‘Anti-Vaxx’ Crisis? Kaiser Family Foundation Poll Points in That Direction

A recent poll from the prominent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) finds that doubts about COVID-19 vaccines run rampant, as over 25% of the participants believe the jabs cause infertility, despite any lack of conclusive evidence. Involving 2,007 adults, the KFF poll titled “Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot’ the survey was conducted from May 23 to June 12. 33% of the poll respondents believe that the COVID-19 vaccines led to thousands of sudden deaths in what were otherwise healthy people.

Almost a third of the population believes ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment while 22% are definitely certain that’s not the case. 44% are “probably certain,” meaning they have some trepidation. On to some of the more radical, or fringe beliefs would be the group that believes that more people died from the COVID-19 jabs than the virus itself. 14% of the poll population believes this to be the case. 20% of the respondents believe the MMR vaccine causes autism, however, this hypothesis was discredited. We don’t know what the cause of autism in fact is, and there are many lines of research investigating today.

Importantly, vaccination rates for more of the standard vaccines on the children’s vaccination schedule are on the decline. In 2021, due to a confluence of factors including the pandemic, but also a growing anti-vaxx movement, nearly 40 million children in America failed to get a measles vaccine, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

TrialSite has reported on slipping measles vaccination rates in some key states. In Ohio, 80 children contracted the infection at the end of 2022, as reported by the CDC.

TrialSite’s founder Daniel O’Connor recently presented on YouTube the controversial position that its perfectly acceptable to openly discuss some of the disturbing science associated with the COVID-19 vaccines (safety signals, lack of sterilizing powers, durability issues) while remaining unapologetically pro vaccination. That video can be seen here. O’Connor shared that 130,000 children die every year due to measles worldwide. He notes that an anti-vaccine movement, often led by individuals in the upper echelons of socio-economic strata, fails to embrace that vaccines are public health tools, meant to address aggregate population level needs. This becomes mission-critical to overcome certain diseases in low- and middle-income countries while continuing to ensure herd immunity in the rich world. He reminds that not all vaccines are the same, and that risk-benefit analyses are quite important when considering their criticality.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/does-america-face-a-growing-anti-vaxx-crisis-kaiser-family-foundation-poll-points-in-that-direction-91fe657c

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New study shared by NIH suggests N95 Covid masks create dangerous of level toxic compounds linked seizures, cancer

A recently published study has found that wearing an N95 mask is, far from being safe, a potential health risk.

Published in April and quietly shared by the National Institutes of Health, the study from researchers at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea found that disposable masks, including medical-grade N95 masks, released eight times the recommended safety limit for toxic volatile organic compounds (TVOCs).

According to the American Lung Association, breathing TVOCs “can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, can cause difficulty breathing and nausea, and can damage the central nervous system and other organs.” Some TVOCs can even cause cancer.

Bob Barker remembered for support of MN Wildcat Sanctuary
What other types of products release TVOCs? Paint, caulks, cleaners/disinfectants, pesticides, and even tobacco smoke.

Here’s the huge catch: The researchers discovered that TVOC levels were 14 times lower in cloth masks, suggesting therefore that despite not being medical-grade, cloth masks are safer to wear than N95 masks.

However, speaking with the Daily Mail, Dr. Stuart Fischer warned against reaching any major conclusions from the study, though he did endorse the notion that there are indeed drawbacks to mask-wearing.

“There seems to be diminishing returns on the need for masks,” he said.

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/08/27/new-study-shared-by-nih-suggests-n95-covid-masks-create-dangerous-of-level-toxic-compounds-linked-seizures-cancer-1390631/

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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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First COVID Deaths Were Fully Jabbed, Australian State Records Reveal

In light of a court case launched by a group of doctors challenging the Queensland government's COVID-19 vaccination mandates, records have revealed that the first deaths in the Australian state were individuals who were fully vaccinated.

A list of the state’s first 183 COVID-19 deaths from the pandemic's start on March 13, 2020, until Jan. 27, 2022, produced by Queensland’s chief health officer in an affidavit, indicates it was known to authorities as early as Jan. 2022 that the vaccines may not be preventing deaths.

The list shows that the first locally acquired COVID-19 death was one in their 80s and another in their 30s, with both having received two doses of the vaccine in December 2021 and January 2022, respectively.

While Queensland recorded seven deaths early in the pandemic, these cases were acquired outside of the state and before vaccine rollouts began.

Queensland's border opened in December 2021 after 80 percent of the state population vaccination was reached. By Dec. 31, 2021, nearly 90 percent of the population over 16 were fully vaccinated.

The case, which was launched against the state, calls for the September 2021 directive requiring employees in public health and aged-care facilities to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to be revoked.

A specialist from the case, psychiatrist Peter Parry, said that in the three decades of his career, he had never been subject to disciplinary action until now.

“I graduated from medical school 40 years ago and in all that time have never had a single complaint about me presented to a medical board or AHPRA,” he said.

The reason he chose to decline the COVID-19 vaccines was because these are “not normal vaccines.”

“We hope, by bringing evidentiary material and expert witness testimonies before the Supreme Court, that the Justices will look at the evidence and rule in our favour. If successful, large numbers of experienced nurses, allied health, and doctors will be able to return to assist an overstretched Queensland public health system,” he added.

In addition to enforced work mandates, Premier Annastacia Palazczuk barred the unvaccinated from accessing services and freedoms such as hospitals, disability services, aged care, libraries, and hospitality venues.

This was enforced by proof of vaccination requirements at venues, which the Queensland government said was to keep Queenslanders safe.

Messaging Shifts to Reducing Severe Illness

Initially, in 2021, the Queensland Government closed the state's borders and encouraged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. They aimed to reopen the borders once 80 percent of the population was vaccinated, with the goal of stopping the virus's spread and safeguarding vulnerable citizens.

However, when the borders reopened after reaching the target, COVID-19 cases surged instead of decreasing. When it became clear that the vaccines didn't entirely prevent infection or transmission, the focus of the messaging shifted to highlight the vaccines' effectiveness in reducing severe illness and death.

It is still a condition today for most Queensland health staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to ensure the ongoing safety of employees, patients, visitors and the wider community.

“The overwhelming benefits of COVID-19 vaccination continue to outweigh the potential risks, and this is substantiated by enormous amounts of safety data based on billions of doses worldwide,” a spokesperson for the TGA told The Epoch Times in an email.

Pfizer Dismisses Concerns Over Vaccine Mandates

The news of the deaths follows a parliamentary inquiry into the COVID-19 mandates heard from the Australian heads of Pfizer Australia that the vaccine mandates coerced Australians into getting vaccinated for COVID-19, saying they had a choice.

Appearing before an Australian senate inquiry into the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Pfizer Country Medical Director Dr. Krishan Thiru and Dr. Brian Hewitt, the head of Regulatory Sciences for Pfizer, dismissed concerns of senators that Australians had been coerced into getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

"I believe firmly that nobody was forced to have a vaccine," Dr. Thiru said.

"Mandates for vaccine requirements are determined by governments and health authorities. I believe everybody was offered an opportunity to get a vaccine or not get a vaccine. I don't believe that anybody was forced to take a vaccine."

Meanwhile, Dr. Hewitt, when asked if he believed Australians in states that were subject to large-scale mandates—like Western Australia or Victoria—were not forced into getting the shot even when they found they were unable to earn a living without receiving a vaccination, replied he did not believe mandates compelled individuals into vaccinating.

"The mandates for vaccine requirements are determined by governments and health authorities. I don't believe that the mandates actually forced individuals to get vaccinations," he said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/first-covid-deaths-were-fully-jabbed-australian-state-records-reveal-5480523

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Recent Mask Mandates Lifted Amid Pushback

Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California, on Aug. 24 reversed a recent policy that would require masks in its hospital after it reinstated the mandate days before. A Hollywood studio also said it would do away with its mandate.

Officials for the hospital system told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that the mask policy applies only to staff, not patients. It said that it is “strongly encouraging masks for patients, members, and visitors in the hospital and medical offices in the Santa Rosa Service Area in response to this latest increase in COVID-19 cases.”

“Our intent was to communicate that as of Tuesday, we have expanded the masking requirement for our employees and physicians to medical offices and clinic settings; we apologize for any confusion among Press Democrat readers,” Kaiser said in its latest statement.

The statement also said that "visitors, patients, and members are strongly encouraged to also wear masks in these settings,” according to the paper. “We have not changed our masking requirements in the hospital, which have been in effect since April: employees and physicians are required to wear masks and we ask visitors to wear masks when in the hospital.”

It doesn't appear that Kaiser Permanente, which operates hospitals across the United States and California, would also attempt to reinstate mask mandates at other locations.

Days before its latest statement, the hospital system said it would be mandating masks for patients, doctors, patients, visitors, and staff members at its hospital and medical offices.

“Kaiser Permanente Northern California is committed to protecting the safety of our members, patients, employees, physicians, and visitors, which includes taking appropriate steps to prevent the spread of transmissible infectious diseases in our facilities," it told local media.

Some Northern California locals weren't happy with the announcement that mask mandates would return, according to local outlets.

"They told us a bunch of [expletive]," Richard Staudinger, a North Sacramento resident, told CBS. "I think most of the people don't believe it now."

Another, Craig Roberts, said, "I think it's more political than anything, just think they're trying to do what they did in 2020."

But some said they don't mind the mandates. "I don't have a problem if they reinstate the masks," Kiona Cooper, of Northern California, said.

Other Mandates

Meanwhile, the Lionsgate film studio in Santa Monica also said it would not be implementing a mask mandate, days after the media company said it would force workers to put on masks again on certain floors. It claimed that it never changed its mask policy.

“The LA County Department of Public Health notified us yesterday that we could lift the mask requirements, effective immediately, and we have," the firm told news outlets over the weekend.

The statement also said: "Lionsgate never changed its own mask policy. The LA County Department of Health ordered us to institute the temporary masking requirement after we reported a cluster of COVID cases to them and we have an obligation to comply with their orders."

Last week, a Lionsgate memo stated that employees on only certain floors have to wear surgical masks, KN95 masks, or N95 masks "except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace.”

Earlier in the month, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that COVID-19 hospitalizations rose across the country. Hospitalizations rose by 21.6 percent, to 12,612 new admissions from 10,370, according to the data ending Aug. 12.

Despite the increase, it’s among the lowest levels of hospitalization recorded since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

“An upswing is not a surge; it’s not even a wave,” Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, told ABC News. “What we’re seeing is a very gradual and small upward trajectory of cases and hospitalizations, without deaths really going along, which is great news.”

At the same time, several hospitals, including some in upstate New York, and Morris Brown College in Atlanta reimplemented mask mandates, prompting concerns about a broader effort to force masks on people, three years after the start of the pandemic in the United States. Media coverage around the small increase in COVID-19 cases has also focused on whether masks should be worn, with mainstream outlets such as CNN interviewing doctors who say people should start wearing them again.

But some politicians and commentators, in response, called on supporters to resist the mandates.

“It’s alarming that the mandates are kicking in again,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in a recent interview. “It’s like, OK, we noticed masks didn’t work, particularly for children. We always knew they didn’t work for kids.”

It also comes as President Joe Biden on Aug. 25 told reporters in Lake Tahoe that he signed off on a proposal "to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works."

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/recent-mask-mandates-lifted-amid-pushback-5481484

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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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Will Heavily COVID-19 Vaccinated Populations Experience High Incidence of Cancer & Autoimmune Disease?

A frequent contributor to TrialSite, Geert Vanden Bossche, the Belgium-based vaccinologist has spent the last few years of the pandemic intensely studying not only SARS-CoV-2 and mass vaccination but also the immunological considerations, and risks, associated with the vaccination drives.

In this latest paper “Immunological correlates of vaccine breakthrough infections caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants in highly C-19 vaccinated populations,” Vanden Bossche unleashes a truly dark, complex, and what he believes is thorough hypotheses suggesting heavily COVID-19 vaccinated populations will experience crisis levels of cancer and autoimmune disease.

Why will this tragedy occur? According to Vanden Bossche, “In highly Covid-19 (C-19) vaccinated populations, an increase in IgG4 antibody (Ab) titers following steric immune refocusing (SIR)- enabling PNNAb1-dependent vaccine breakthrough infections (VBTIs) with infectious SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) immune escape variants promoted generalized hyposensitization to ‘foreign’ and hypersensitization to ‘self’.” Arguing that the process of hyposensitization (train immune system to become less reactive to allergen over time) “to ‘foreign’ leads to an “anti-inflammatory effect” and thus reducing the prospect for autoimmune-like disease symptoms, so-called ‘hypersensitization’ (heightened immune reaction) to ‘self’ will lead to surges in incidence of cancer and autoimmune disease.

Vanden Bossche’ s hypothesis suggests that in a highly COVID-19 vaccinated populations, there is a greater incidence of cancer and autoimmune disease. Looking into surges of IgG4 antibody titers first should be understood.

A subclass of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies which are a type of antibody generated by the immune system to help protect the body against infections and other foreign substances, they play a crucial role in the immune response by recognizing and binding to specific antigens, such as bacteria, viruses and other pathogens.

TrialSite recently summarized research out of Hungary suggesting that COVID-19 vaccines trigger higher levels of spike specific IgG than persons infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19.

This was according to a team of physicians and scientists employed in Internal Medicine and the Immunology and Hematology Research Group in Semmelweis University- Eötvös Loránd Research Network (Office for Supported Research Groups), Budapest Hungary. They investigated the SARS-CoV-2 infection and the vaccination induced a similar spike-specific IgG subclass pattern. With this study involving 47 healthy volunteers for the vaccinated cohort in Budapest Hungary, an important aim was to determine if these patterns have been influenced by the chronological order of natural virus infection and vaccination or not. Also monitoring the concentration of each spike-specific IgG subclass over a three-to-four-month period the Budapest-based investigators sought to estimate the stability of the antiviral humoral immune response.

Importantly, IgG 4 antibodies are generally less understood than other subclasses of IgG. Involved in immune tolerance, and with anti-inflammatory properties, IgG4 responses are associated with chronic infections, allergies and autoimmune diseases. Interestingly, unlike other subclasses, IgG4 antibodies can undergo a process called “Fab-arm exchange” where the arms of two different IgG4 antibodies can be swapped, potentially altering their function.

Back to Vanden Bossche, with an increase in IgG4 titers due to what he describes as “steric immune refocusing” (SIR), defined in another paper of his as “re-orientation of the humoral S-directed immune response towards more conserved, immune subdominant S-associated epitopes as a result of steric masking of variable, immunodominant S protein-associated epitopes by pre-existing, low-affinity pNAbs” the latter signifying human performed natural antibodies.

So, PNNAb1-dependent vaccine breakthrough infections or “VBTIs” lead to “infectious SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) immune escape variants promoted generalized hyposensitization to ‘foreign’ and hypersensitization to ‘self’, inducing carcinogenicity and autoreactivity.”

Not a good development if this comes true. Vanden Bossche is known for predicting select adverse outcomes as a result of the ongoing mass COVID-19 vaccination approach to the pandemic. For example, the Belgium-based vaccinologist predicted that introducing mass vaccination in the midst of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic would place great evolutionary pressures on the pathogen, supporting the evolutionary process. Most certainly SARS-Cov-2 mutated into many different variants and strains. However, we can’t be sure if it's due to Vanden Bossche’ s hypothesis but it should be vetted by experts in the field.

But ominously, here in heavily vaccinated populations Vanden Bossche’s hypothesis suggests a tragic explosion in cancer and autoimmune disease.

That's because according to his hypothesis, “SIR-enabling VBTIs, but also mRNA vaccination, facilitates immune refocusing to more conserved, immune subdominant spike (S)-associated epitopes.” Remember, epitopes are specific regions on the surface of antigens to which antibodies or immune cells bind. They play a crucial role in the immune system’s ability to recognize and respond to foreign substances such as viruses.

So, what’ s a key part of this mechanism that leads to serious trouble—namely higher incidence of cancer and autoimmune disease?

According to Vanden Bossche’ s paper, “delayed maturation of these de novo (new) primed, subneutralizing Abs into isotype-switched IgG4 anti-S Abs enables prolonged immune pressure on viral infectiousness.” What does this do? It leads to real trouble in the form of “promoting large-scale co-circulation of more infectious SC_2 immune escape variants.”

It is a cascade of immune selection events that “eventually mitigate disease caused by SC-2 and other unrelated viral pathogens (via anti-inflammatory IgG4)” leads to viral dissemination.

Vanden Bossche hypothesizes that “acute autoimmune disease and early-onset cancer in highly C-19 vaccinated populations are due to VBTI-or mRNA vaccine-mediated immune refocusing to more conserved, poorly immunogenic ‘self-like’ epitopes.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/will-heavily-covid-19-vaccinated-populations-experience-high-incidence-of-cancer-autoimmune-disease-4e88ff91

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Sen. Johnson Sounds Alarm on Return of COVID-19 Mask Mandates

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is sounding the alarm after a small number of offices, hospitals, and schools reinstated mask mandates in recent days.

Describing the mandates as “alarming,” Mr. Johnson told the Moms for Liberty group on Aug. 23 that they are ineffective and said he would keep fighting them.

“It’s alarming that the mandates are kicking in again,” he told the group. “It’s like, OK, we noticed masks didn’t work, particularly for children. We always knew they didn’t work for kids.”

The Wisconsin Republican said, “N-95 masks can have some marginal benefits—but not to deny people freedom.”

Mr. Johnson has said he was always skeptical of federal vaccine mandates and has been an advocate for people who claimed to have been injured by COVID-19 vaccines. He also called on the Biden administration to admit that its COVID-19 policies didn’t work.

“They’ll never admit they were wrong in how they handled COVID. I don’t see how anybody can take a look at how the federal government—really, over the course of two administrations—how they handled COVID, and say it was anything but a complete and miserable failure,” he told the Washington Examiner in May.

The White House, the senator added, won’t acknowledge what he described as the “the incalculable human toll” and the “economic devastation caused by the shutdowns.”

Mr. Johnson’s recent remarks come after Hollywood studio Lionsgate said in a memo earlier this week that it would reimpose a mask mandate for several floors of its office in Santa Monica, California.

“Employees must wear a medical grade face covering (surgical mask, KN95 or N95) when indoors except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace,” a Lionsgate manager said in a memo, reported by Deadline.

This week, Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, and the Upstate Community Hospital in Syracuse, New York, brought back the masking rule for visitors, patients, nurses, and doctors.

“To ensure that we are helping protect the health and safety of our patients, our workforce, and our community, we have reintroduced a mask mandate for physicians, staff, patients, members, and visitors in the hospital and medical offices in the Santa Rosa Service Area,” Kaiser Permanente said.

Morris Brown College in Atlanta also said that masks will again be required on campus because of a rise in cases on a larger campus in Atlanta.

“There will be no parties or large student events on campus for the next two weeks,” the school said.

At the same time, there has been an increase in media coverage of several COVID-19 variants, including one that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated could potentially evade vaccines. No federal agencies have announced any new mask mandates or recommendations.

Media Coverage

In recent days, an increasing number of television doctors have made suggestions that some people start masking again.

“It’s riskier that you will get infected now than it was a month or two ago, without question, probably twice as risky,” Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at the University of San Francisco, told CNN in a recent interview. “If you’re trying to be careful, it’s time to whip out the mask again.”

Also appearing on CNN, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist in Washington, said on Aug. 22 that people who are at risk from a COVID-19 infection—including people aged 65 and older—should put masks on again. He also said that President Joe Biden should do so, too.

“Octogenarians comprise the highest-risk group for complications following COVID infection,” he said. “At least until the numbers start to drop again, it would be appropriate for President Biden to take some precautions and wear a mask in crowds.”

Last week, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose across the country, according to data from the CDC. Hospitalizations rose by 21.6 percent, to 12,612 new admissions from 10,370, according to the data ending Aug. 12.

Despite the increase, it’s among the lowest levels of hospitalization recorded since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

“An upswing is not a surge; it’s not even a wave,” Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, told ABC News this week. “What we’re seeing is a very gradual and small upward trajectory of cases and hospitalizations, without deaths really going along, which is great news.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/senator-sounds-the-alarm-on-return-of-covid-19-mask-mandates-5480124

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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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