Tag Archives: coronavirus

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 …

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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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NYC Life Expectancy Down 4.6 Years Due To COVID

Gothamist reports: The COVID-19 pandemic shortened average life expectancy for New Yorkers by more than four years, hitting the city’s minority populations hardest, according to a report released on Friday. The study by the city’s health department looked at trends in births and deaths in New York City during 2020, the year when COVID-19 arrived. The analysis found that from …

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White House To Disband COVID Response Team In May

The Washington Post reports: The White House will shut down its covid response team after the public health emergency ends in May, with some staffers already departing and national coordinator Ashish Jha likely to leave the administration once his team is disbanded. The move to disband the White House covid team, created in February 2020 and expanded to about three …

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Study Points To “Raccoon Dogs” As Origin Of COVID

The Atlantic reports: Many scientists have stood by the notion that this outbreak—like most others—had purely natural roots. But that hypothesis has been missing a key piece of proof: genetic evidence from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, showing that the virus had infected creatures for sale there. This week, an international team of virologists, genomicists, and evolutionary …

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Creator Of Russian COVID Vaccine Found Strangled

The Daily Beast reports: A prominent scientist who helped develop Russia’s COVID vaccine, Sputnik V, was killed in his apartment in Moscow on Thursday, according to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Andrey Botikov, who worked as a senior researcher at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Ecology and Mathematics, was found dead in his apartment on Thursday. His …

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NYPD: Drop Mask And Show Face When Entering Stores

New York City’s CW affiliate reports: Customers should be required to show their faces before being allowed into businesses, NYPD officials urged on Tuesday. Removing a mask and allowing identification can be a “condition of entry,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said. Businesses can then allow people to put masks back on after they’ve shown their face. “We’re seeing …

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China To US: Stop “Smearing” Us With Lab Leak Claims

Axios reports: China’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Tuesday that the country has been “open and transparent” about its efforts to trace the origins of COVID-19 and accused the U.S. of politicizing the issue. The U.S. Department of Energy concluded in a “low confidence” assessment that the pandemic most likely started from a laboratory leak. China has repeatedly dismissed the lab …

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Rand Paul Demands Declassifying “COVID Leak” Docs

Fox News reports: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday called for the Biden administration to declassify government documents that reportedly show the Energy Department assessing the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China. Paul was hardly the only Republican lawmakers to call for answers and accountability following news of the Energy Department’s assessment. Congressional Republicans quickly …

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White House: Still No Consensus On Origin Of COVID

Politico reports: The U.S. government still has not reached a consensus on how the coronavirus pandemic started, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday — despite news reports that the Energy Department has concluded the virus most likely leaked from a lab in China. “The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this,” …

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Energy Dept Has “Low Confidence” In Lab Leak Theory

Axios reports: A new U.S. government assessment that COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak in China has ignited yet another round of political furor around the issue, adding to many Republicans’ anger over how the pandemic was handled even as many scientists remain convinced the virus most likely originated naturally. Department of Energy scientists concluded in a “low confidence” …

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FDA Approves First At-Home Test For COVID And Flu

Via press release from the FDA: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first over-the-counter (OTC) at-home diagnostic test that can differentiate and detect influenza A and B, commonly known as the flu, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Home Test is a single-use at-home test …

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CA Population Down 500K Since Start Of Pandemic

The Los Angeles Times reports: The California exodus has shown no sign of slowing down as the state’s population dropped by more than 500,000 people between April 2020 and July 2022, with the number of residents leaving surpassing those moving in by nearly 700,000. The population decrease was second only to New York, which lost about 15,000 more people than …

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House GOP Relaunches Probe Into Origin Of COVID

The Hill reports: House Republicans are officially relaunching their investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by calling for testimony and information from Anthony Fauci and other current and former Biden administration officials. Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, …

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Biden To End COVID Emergency Program In May

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared. The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal …

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WHO: Pandemic Near Key Immunity “Inflection Point”

The Associated Press reports: The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Monday after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths. Speaking at the opening of WHO’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “there is no …

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Hannity Condemns Plan For Annual COVID Vaccine

“You can be fully vaccinated, fully boosted, have all the booster — booster 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. You can have natural immunity but you can still catch COVID. You can still get it and get sick. You can still transmit the virus to others. That’s what the science tells us. “Look at the recent findings that show that …

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FDA Expected To Propose Annual COVID Vaccinations

NPR reports: The Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy. The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar to what is used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. Currently, people who want to be fully vaccinated …

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New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Resigns Unexpectedly

The Guardian reports: New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said she is resigning, in an unexpected announcement that came as she confirmed a national election for October. At the party’s first caucus meeting of the year on Thursday, Ardern said she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job. “It’s time,” she added. “I’m leaving, because …

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Feds: Doctor Sold 2000 Vax Cards, Dumped Vaccines

ABC News reports: A Utah plastic surgeon issued COVID-19 vaccination cards to large numbers of patients who never received their shots, dumping the vaccines down the drain while telling the CDC the recipients had been properly inoculated, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday. Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, who operates the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah, is charged along …

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