Covidiots

NBC News reports: The Food and Drug Administration confirmed Monday it was requiring drugmaker Novavax to run another clinical trial as part of the approval process for its Covid vaccine, which has been available under emergency use authorization since 2022. Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, said the company is asking the agency to approve “a new product” based on …

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world’s leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS, Covid and autism. Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the “Truth Seekers Conference”, a two-day …

Politico reports: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing pulling the Covid-19 vaccine from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO. The directive under consideration would remove the Covid shot from the childhood vaccine schedule maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and widely used by physicians to …

“It is your patriotic duty, I’ll say it again, it is the patriotic duty of all Americans to take care of themselves. Because it’s important for serving in the military but it’s also important because healthy people don’t consume health care resources. The best way to reduce drug spending is the use less drugs because you don’t need them because …

Wired reports: Anti-vaccine activists with close ties to US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are falsely claiming that the measles public health crisis in Texas is caused by a “bioweapon” targeting the Mennonite community. These activists are now trying to sell their followers a range of pseudoscientific cures—some purportedly powered by artificial intelligence—that supposedly prevent customers from contracting measles. …

The Texas Tribune reports: When Daisy Hildebrand became the second Texas child to die of measles on April 3, her physicians reported – per the state health code – the 8-year-old’s death to local officials in Lubbock where she died and in tiny Gaines County where the girl lived. In deference to the girl’s family, who planned to bury her …

Axios reports: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the unusual step of publicly contradicting one of his own agencies’ autism studies on Tuesday, suggesting at a press conference that “environmental factors” including drugs, not improved screening, were causing a spike in confirmed cases. Kennedy’s assertion that researchers and the media are engaging in what he called “epidemic denial” could …

The Daily Beast reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t convinced that “society” should pay to treat people with unhealthy habits. Asked in a CBS interview about the basic level of care every American should receive and who should pay for it, Kennedy said that “when it comes to healthcare, that’s a difficult question” with moral and philosophical considerations. “People have …

NBC News reports: The measles outbreak in West Texas has reignited familiar anti-vaccine tactics: claiming there are readily available treatments for the disease while sowing doubt in the safety of vaccines. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted two particular medications that have not been shown to work as first-line treatments for measles: the steroid budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin. …

Media Matters reports: Right-wing media helped dupe their audiences into believing that drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were miracle cures for COVID-19. Now, conservative commentators are apparently cashing in on that credulity thanks to the paid sponsorship of a mail-order pharmacy that provides easy access to the medicines. The Florida-based All Family Pharmacy has sponsored a slew of right-wing commentators, …

The Florida Alligator reports: When Gov. Ron DeSantis hand-picked Joseph Ladapo as Florida’s surgeon general in September 2021, the role came with a second high-profile appointment: a tenured faculty position at UF. But Ladapo’s colleagues still aren’t sure what he does to earn his salary at the university. Some say not much. UF fast-tracked Ladapo into a $337,000-a-year contract as …

“The COVID vax has turned out to be so dangerous. It killed so many people. It’s a fact. I mean, it’s in the VAERS program. These are not conspiracies. It’s like, that’s a fact, that it does make you wonder. I don’t want to fly in a plane with vaccinated pilots because I think it’s too dangerous. But are there …

Mother Jones reports: The fake website, RealCDC.org, was first spotted in late January by intel threat researcher Kyle Ehmke. While the page displayed no content then, he noted it was administered through the same Cloudflare account as Children’s Health Defense’s website and other domains related to CHD. By March 20, according to Ehmke’s later research, and as corroborated by archived …

Fox News reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants President Donald Trump to tap Sunshine State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo as CDC director. DeSantis contends that the public health official could do more for the state at the CDC than he can now. “Overhauling the CDC would be beneficial to FL. Joe could do more for FL as CDC Director …

Fox News reports: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., declared that U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for COVID-19 vaccines should be yanked, asserting that the jabs “are causing permanent harm and deaths.” “FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccines needs to be pulled and they need taken off the childhood vaccine schedule ASAP,” she said in a post on X. “I’ve been …

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s Governor is recommending his Surgeon General for yet another job in the Donald Trump administration. Ron DeSantis believes Dr. Joseph Ladapo would be a “fantastic selection” to helm the CDC. The recommendation is timely, as former Congressman Dave Weldon did not move forward in the process due to insufficient support from Senate Republicans. If this feels …

The Daily Beast reports: While RFK Jr. recently shifted his stance to concede that vaccinations are actually pretty useful, he has still stopped short of urging skeptics to go and get it. And in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night, he appeared to still favor natural immunity through exposure to the virus. “It used to …

The Guardian reports: Two days after initially downplaying the outbreak as “not unusual,” the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, on Friday said he recognizes the serious impact of the ongoing measles epidemic in Texas – in which a child died recently – and said the government is providing resources. The child’s death and the hospitalization of nearly 20 …

The Christian Post reports: A former vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election has been baptized as a Christian after more than a decade of practicing Judaism. In a post on X Tuesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vice presidential running mate for their independent campaign, attorney Nicole Shanahan, announced that she had been baptized as a Christian. Shanahan — …

Cincinnati’s CBS affiliate reports: Ken Long, a 54-year-old veteran from Eaton, has been denied a heart transplant at Christ Hospital due to his refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Long, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure nearly a year ago, believes the decision is based on his vaccination status.  “I don’t want to die because I got a granddaughter and …