Covidiots

The Washington Post reports: The CIA said Saturday that it now favors a Chinese laboratory leak as the mostly likely origin of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest development in the still-simmering debate over the virus and the nation’s response. Several other intelligence agencies continue to favor the natural-origin theory, and there is no evidence SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the pandemic, …

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump has decided to put all federal health agencies on hold until his Department of Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets his confirmation hearing. The Washington Post reported that dozens of current staffers have been instructed to halt all external communications, including health advisories, social media posts, publishing of …

Reuters reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. played an instrumental role in organizing mass litigation against drugmaker Merck over its Gardasil vaccine, a strategy that faces its first test in a Los Angeles court next week, according to two attorneys close to the case and court filings. Kennedy awaits confirmation as U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. The role would …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s health agencies, formally asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the authorization of all Covid vaccines during a deadly phase of the pandemic when thousands of Americans were still dying every week. Mr. Kennedy filed a petition with the F.D.A. in …

Radiology Business reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump first announced his HHS selection in November, with Kennedy slated to serve as the commander in chief’s principal advisor on all health matters. However, the Committee to Protect Health Care, a national advocacy organization, is now pushing lawmakers to derail his confirmation. The group had garnered signatures from more than 19,000 physicians as …

Mediaite reports: Mel Gibson told Joe Rogan that several of his friends were cured of stage 4 cancer with alternative medicines like the drug ivermectin, typically used to treat parasitic infections in humans and large animals. At one point in their lengthy conversation, the two talked about medicine and the healthcare industry, which prompted Gibson to tell a personal story. …

“Are your friends in LA not reacting to danger in an expected way? Are they almost in a trance? Multiple confirmations independently that suggest that this is the case, including from a therapist who says her patients are not reacting normally. “Could a mood stabilizer of some kind be in what was sprayed, or do weather manipulation waves entrain human …

The Guardian reports: State legislation to ban what some lawmakers call chemtrails has been pushed forward in Tennessee and, most recently, Florida. Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy, who has expressed interest in the conspiracy theory on social media and his podcast, is set to be at the heart of Donald Trump’s new administration following his nomination as health secretary. Believers of …

NBC News reports: Del Bigtree, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement, brought in a record windfall last year for the nonprofit group he founded, according to the latest tax filings. The Informed Consent Action Network, known as ICAN, reported $23 million in revenue for 2023, a 74% increase from the previous year. The group spent nearly $17 million on …

New Orleans’ NPR affiliate reports: A group of high-level managers at the Louisiana Department of Health walked into a Nov. 14 meeting in Baton Rouge expecting to talk about outreach and community events. Instead, they were told by an assistant secretary in the department and another official that department leadership had a new policy: Advertising or otherwise promoting the COVID, …

The journal Science reports: A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems, according to a retraction notice. The paper in the …

The Hill reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be seeking to ease any skepticism over his confirmation this week as he begins meetings with Senate Republicans over his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While Kennedy was considered one of the most controversial choices initially, there has been little public criticism from Senate Republicans. GOP …

NBC News reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a polio survivor, responded critically to a report in The New York Times that a key lawyer and longtime advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine. McConnell, who still deals with the effects of his battle with …

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed legislation that would enable patients to force hospitals into administering drugs for off-label use if the hospital’s own physicians refuse. The legislation comes after a COVID-19 pandemic when conservatives came to believe that drugs like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, neither of which have been proven to benefit COVID-19 patients, would cure, …

Florida Politics reports: Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo continues to speak out against fluoride in the water supply, saying it’s “clearly something that was far riskier than how it was presented” by advocates of the practice. “It really is insane to keep on doing it,” Ladapo said. “You just can’t justify it.” During a recent interview on the CR Podcast with …

Axios reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the CIA had a role in assassinating his uncle, President John F. Kennedy — part of RFK Jr.’s motivation for pushing his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for deputy CIA director, Axios has learned. President-elect Trump feels indebted to RFK Jr., his pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, for his help in …

NOTUS reports: Do cell phones and 5G cause cancer? It’s a question that has plagued Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and if Kennedy is confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, it’s one he will have power to explore. “The next-generation telecommunications network should be discontinued until it has been ‘sufficiently demonstrated that there are no …

Raw Story reports: New reporting flagged what it called an “unusual” application to work for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which applicants are asked a slew of bizarre questions, including a pattern completion test and even whether they have an interest in having “sexual experiences with another person.” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, confirmed to Puck …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is in line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the next Trump administration, is well-known for promoting conspiracy theories and vaccine skepticism in the United States. But Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has also spent years working abroad to undermine policies that have been pillars of …

The Hill reports: Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA during President-elect Trump’s first term, expressed concerns with his pick of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Humans Services due to his anti-vaccine advocacy. “I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it …