CBS News reports: The CDC announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after a case of the highly-mutated variant was discovered in Michigan. “Today we are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus. Scientists are working now to understand more about the newly identified lineage in these cases and …
Read More »Updated COVID Vaccine To Be Available Next Month
Reuters reports: A new COVID vaccine is due out next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from “Eris”, a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country. Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. …
Read More »NIH Launches Clinical Trials For Long COVID Treatments
CBS News reports: Two new clinical trials to test potential treatments for long COVID are now set to launch, the National Institutes of Health said Monday, opening enrollment for the first of an array of federally-funded studies aimed at evaluating treatments for long-term symptoms still faced by many COVID-19 survivors. They will begin with a study into using Pfizer’s Paxlovid …
Read More »Study Links Vax Rejection To Excess FL GOP Deaths
The Washington Post reports: The political maelstrom swirling around coronavirus vaccines may be to blame for a higher rate of excess deaths among registered Republicans in Ohio and Florida during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published yesterday. The report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine underscores the partisan divide over coronavirus vaccines that have saved lives but continued …
Read More »Dem Sen. Dick Durbin Tests COVID+ For Third Time
Chicago’s NBC affiliate reports: Illinois Senator and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin revealed Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, marking his third positive test in the span of one year. Prior to Sunday, the longtime senator most recently tested positive for COVID-19 in March. At that time, Durbin said that he was only experiencing minor symptoms, noting that …
Read More »NYT: DeSantis Worsened Florida’s COVID Death Toll
The New York Times reports: In Florida, unlike the nation as a whole — and states like New York and California that Mr. DeSantis likes to single out — most people who died from Covid died after vaccines became available to all adults, not before. As the governor’s political positions began to shift, so did his state’s death rate, for …
Read More »UNFAVORABLE: Kennedy Craters In Two New Polls
The Washington Post reports: Quinnipiac University released a poll Wednesday showing Republicans continue to like Kennedy — by more than a 2-to-1 margin, in fact. But among Democrats, Kennedy’s image was more than 2-to-1 negative. While 21 percent had a favorable opinion, 47 percent had an unfavorable one. That’s 26 points “underwater,” up from 15 points underwater a month ago. …
Read More »“Bleach Church” Family Guilty Of COVID Cure Scam
Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: A Florida man and his three sons were convicted on federal fraud charges Wednesday for marketing a poisonous bleach concoction as a cure for 95% of the world’s diseases, including COVID-19. Mark Grenon, 65, and his sons, 37-year-old Jonathan, 35-year-old Joseph and 29-year-old Jordan, were all charged with conspiring to defraud the U.S. and deliver misbranded …
Read More »RFK Laughably Declares “I Have Never Been Anti-Vax”
The Independent reports: Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr baselessly claimed in a congressional hearing on Thursday that he has never been anti-vaccine. Mr Kennedy testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government where House Republicans had invited him to testify about being censored by the Biden administration and tech companies. Mr Kennedy, currently a …
Read More »MAGA House Reps Lose Court Battle Over Mask Fines
The Washington Post reports: Three Republican House members lost a years-long fight Thursday against congressional mask mandates, with a unanimous appeals court panel ruling that they had no jurisdiction to review the policy. Masks haven’t been required on the floor of the House of Representatives for more than a year, but Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and …
Read More »DOJ: Florida Couple Stole Over $2M In COVID Relief
From the Justice Department: United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the arrest and unsealing of a criminal complaint charging Timothy Craig Jolloff (46, Fort Myers) and Lisa Ann Jolloff (56, Fort Myers) with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of illegal monetary transactions. Timothy Jolloff is also charged with one count of wire fraud. …
Read More »FDA Panel Recommends COVID Vaccine Booster For Fall
NBC News reports: Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended updating the Covid vaccines to target a circulating strain of the virus, while pushing for newer vaccines that provide longer-lasting protection. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously in support of tweaking the shots to target an XBB strain, as well as dropping …
Read More »Prominent Anti-Vax Doctor Dies Of Something [VIDEO]
The Daily Dot reports: Dr. Rashid Buttar was one of the most prolific purveyors of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the vaccine. His outlandish claims, such as that everyone who took the vaccine will die by 2025, and large online following, earned Buttar a spot on the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s “Disinformation Dozen,” a list of 12 influencers responsible …
Read More »Pew Research: 21% Still Oppose COVID Vaccinations
Pew Research reports: With the U.S. national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic now at an end, Americans have sorted themselves into three groups based on their vaccination decisions. Roughly a third of U.S. adults (34%) are enthusiastic about the vaccines and up-to-date, being fully vaccinated and having gotten a recent booster shot. A similar share of the public …
Read More »Rochelle Walensky To Step Down As CDC Director
Politico reports: Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who guided President Joe Biden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic from his first day in office, is leaving her post, the White House announced Friday. Her announcement comes days before the Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency in place since early 2020, and …
Read More »WHO Declares End To Global Coronavirus Emergency
Reuters reports: COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday, a major step towards the end of the pandemic that has killed more than 6.9 million people, disrupted the global economy and ravaged communities. “Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to …
Read More »WI Supreme Court Rules Against Horse Paste Covidiot
The Hill reports: The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Wisconsin hospital cannot be forced to give ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient. The 6-1 ruling overturned a lower court order that required Aurora Health Care to administer ivermectin to John Zingsheim, a patient who was placed on a ventilator due to COVID-19 complications. Zingsheim’s nephew, Allen Gahl, was …
Read More »US To End Vaccine Requirement For Foreign Visitors
Reuters reports: The United States will end its COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international travelers and federal workers on May 11, when the coronavirus public health emergency ends, the White House said on Monday. In February, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to lift the requirement that most foreign air travelers be vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the few remaining pandemic …
Read More »DOJ Charges New York Nurses With Selling Fake Vax Cards, Destroying Doses, Ripping Off Relief Program
From the Justice Department: Five individuals, including two certified nurse midwives, one licensed practical nurse and two health care business owners, have been charged for their participation in separate schemes that fraudulently distributed more than 2,600 fake COVID-19 vaccination records cards and defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program of more than $1.7 million. The defendants …
Read More »DOJ Charges 18 In Massive COVID Fraud Schemes
CNBC reports: Eighteen people, some of them doctors, were criminally charged with Covid-19 health-care fraud schemes that netted hundreds of millions of dollars from false billings and theft from federally funded programs, the Department of Justice said Thursday. The charges, which span nine federal judicial districts, comprise the largest coordinated law enforcement action in the U.S. targeting fraud schemes that …
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