The Republican Study Committee argued in a policy memo that if Republicans take back Congress in November’s midterm elections, holding “radical” public health officials like Fauci accountable must be a “major oversight priority” for the party.
“If Congress fails to hold the Fauci clique accountable, and fails to reform public health agencies, we will be giving far-left bureaucrats a blank check to shut the country down whenever they want to,” RSC Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said. “We need to send a message that the restrictions, the mandates, and the school closures can never happen again.”
Worthless Quadruple-Vaxxed California Gov. Gavin Newsom tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, a day after a high-profile meeting with the visiting prime minister of New Zealand.
Newsom has mild symptoms and will remain in isolation at least through Thursday and until he tests negative, his office said in a statement. The Democratic governor plans to work remotely during that time. His office said Newsom, 54, will begin a five-day regimen of the Paxlovid antiviral.
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday has tested positive for the Covid virus, she announced Wednesday morning.
“While I am fully vaccinated and boosted, I received a positive test result for COVID-19 early Wednesday morning,” Cheney said. “I am currently experiencing mild symptoms and will follow the CDC’s guidance as I continue to work on behalf of the people of Wyoming.
Inslee is experiencing very mild symptoms, including a mild cough. As Inslee works from home, he is consulting with his doctor to set up treatments for Paxlovid antiviral treatments. He is also fully vaccinated, including two booster shots, in Oct. 2021 and Mar. 2022.
The analysis estimates that 35.98 million people traveled to Florida between the start of January and the end of March. Florida has now recorded four consecutive quarters attracting more than 30 million visitors.
Today I tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, I’m vaccinated and boosted, and I’m asymptomatic. I’ll be isolating and working remotely this week. A reminder to all New Yorkers: get vaccinated and boosted, get tested, and stay home if you don’t feel well.
The FAA said there were 1.9 reported incidents per 10,000 flights during the week ending April 24, compared to 4.4 reported incidents per 10,000 flights the prior week. The FAA said previously about 70% of reported incidents involved the enforcement of masking rules.
“I want to clarify one thing. I probably should have said the acute component of the pandemic phase. And I understand how that can lead to some misinterpretation,” Fauci said on an NPR podcast.
“I was talking about the acute fulminant phase. And everyone agrees we’re not there. We’re not 900,000 new infections a day. Is the pandemic still here? Absolutely.”
On the radio and while speaking with the other news outlets, Fauci portrayed the situation as evolving between a pandemic phase to an endemic one, but not having arrived yet.
“So, if you’re saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are. What we hope to do, I don’t believe — and I have spoken about this widely — we’re not going to eradicate this virus,” he said, adding that people may need to be “intermittently” vaccinated.
“I don’t know how often that would have to be, Judy,” Fauci said.
“That might be every year, that might be longer, in order to keep that level low. But, right now, we are not in the pandemic phase in this country. Pandemic means a widespread, throughout the world, infection that spreads rapidly among people.” he said, adding that the global situation shows that the pandemic is “still ongoing.”
Fifty-one percent of Americans approve of a judge’s ruling striking down the nation’s federal mask mandate on public transportation, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports.
Here are how the poll results, released Friday, break down:
34% say it is a bad decision, while 16% are not certain.
72% of Republicans say it is a good decision.
51% of Democrats say ending the mask mandate is bad.
48% of independents say it a good decision, compared to 36% who say it is a bad decision.
51% of all those polled say they believe the danger from COVID-19 is mostly over, compared to 40% who think it remains a major public health threat.
The poll, conducted April 20-21, surveyed 1,000 people. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Infants born during the pandemic produced significantly fewer vocalizations and had less verbal back-and-forth with their caretakers compared to those born before Covid, according to independent studies by Brown University and a national nonprofit focused on early language development.
The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate, according to the Philadelphia health department, which released a statement that cited “decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.”
Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, told the Board of Health at a public meeting Thursday night that hospitalizations had unexpectedly gone down 25% in a matter of days.
Topping the list for where the virus is most heavily concentrated is Champaign, Illinois, hoisting a seven-day rolling average of 62.6 cases per 100,000 people.
Burlington, Vermont, with a seven-day average of 56.8 per 100,000. The area also has the highest COVID hospitalization admission rate in the country at 9.7 per 100,000.
Sweden’s initial Covid surge was blamed on those lax policies, but Sweden stuck to them and actually discouraged masks in most situations. As indicated on the graph, surveys during the pandemic showed that fewer than 10 percent of Swedes bothered to wear masks. In Germany, by contrast, more than 80 percent did so, but look at the similar trajectories of the daily Covid death toll in both countries from the summer of 2020 through March of this year.
Eleven states never mandated masks, while the other 39 states enforced mandates. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. The black line on the graph shows the weekly rate of Covid cases in all the states with mask mandates that week, while the orange line shows the rate in all the states without mandates.
Frontier Airlines: “To mask or not to mask, the choice is yours. Masks are now optional on domestic flights, however, certain airports or countries may still require masks, so check the policy at your destination prior to departure and we’ll see you in the sky.”
Spirit Airlines: “Face coverings are now optional for Spirit Team Members & Guests onboard our flights following the federal court ruling and TSA guidance. We understand some Guests may want to continue wearing face coverings on flights, and that’s perfectly fine under our optional policy. For our Guests traveling internationally, please remember to check country-specific airport requirements before traveling.”
JetBlue: “In line with Monday’s federal court ruling and the Transportation Security Administration’s guidance, mask wearing will now be optional on JetBlue. While no longer required, customers and crewmembers are welcome to continue wearing masks in our terminals and on board our aircraft. Regardless of the U.S. rule change, customers and crewmembers who are traveling internationally should always have a mask with them in case they continue to be required at their destination.”
Alaska Airlines: “Face masks have been like boarding passes for nearly two years — you couldn’t fly without one. But, as of today, masks are optional in airports and onboard aircraft, effective immediately. Due to a judicial decision in our federal court system, the mask mandate has been overturned, which means our guests and employees have the option to wear a mask while traveling in the U.S. and at work. While we are glad this means many of us get to see your smiling faces, we understand some might have mixed feelings. Please remember to be kind to one another and that wearing a mask while traveling is still an option.”
Southwest Airlines: “As a result of this development, effectively immediately, Southwest Employees and Customers will be able to choose whether they would like to wear a mask, and we encourage individuals to make the best decision to support their personal wellbeing. Additionally, Southwest will continue supporting the comfort of those who travel with us by offering additional layers of protection, including sophisticated cabin air ventilation systems onboard our aircraft which incorporate HEPA air filtration that removes at least 99.97% of airborne particles.”
Delta Air Lines: “Effective immediately, masks are optional for all airport employees, crew members and customers inside U.S. airports and onboard aircraft. Delta employees and customers may continue wearing masks if they so choose. Wearing a well-fitting mask protects the wearer, even if others around them are not wearing masks.”
United Airlines: “Effective immediately, masks are no longer required at United on domestic flights, select international flights (dependent upon the arrival country’s mask requirements) or at U.S. airports. While this means that our employees are no longer required to wear a mask – and no longer have to enforce a mask requirement for most of the flying public – they will be able to wear masks if they choose to do so, as the CDC continues to strongly recommend wearing a mask on public transit. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in the event of changes.”
American Airlines: “In accordance with the Transportation Security Administration no longer enforcing the federal face mask mandate, face masks will no longer be required for our customers and team members at U.S. airports and on domestic flights. Please note face masks may still be required based on local ordinances, or when traveling to/from certain international locations based on country requirements. In keeping with our commitment to creating a welcoming environment for everyone who travels with us, customers and team members may choose to continue to wear masks at their own discretion.”
A group of business owners and several residents in Philadelphia are pushing back against the city’s indoor mask mandate. The group filed a lawsuit over the weekend claiming the city does not have the authority to reimpose a mandate, which went into effect Monday.
Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the CDC failed to follow the proper rule-making and failed to justify the decision.
US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, in Florida, said that the authority of the Centres for Disease Control didn’t extend to public transportation, and that the implementation of the mandate was a violation of administrative law
“Starting today, we’re asking businesses to dig up those ‘masks required’ signs and start hanging them in your windows,” city health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Monday. “Beginning Monday, April 18, our health inspectors will begin enforcing the mask mandate again.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tested positive for COVID-19 but is “feeling well” and not showing any symptoms, a spokesman said Thursday.
Murphy, 64, is vaccinated and boosted but is considered high risk because he had a cancerous tumor removed from his kidney in 2020, according to NJ.com.
I am concerned that existing HIPAA regulations are threatening the lives of our citizens and depriving Pennsylvania residents of knowing if – and when – they were exposed to a contagious person. This emergency measure is necessary to share vital and life-saving medical information with those who may have been subjected to this dangerous virus. The new information that would become available would help us combat the spread of the Coronavirus.
It is deeply concerning that the federal government did not proactively roll back this dangerous policy, which endangers our people. This situation changes daily – it remains my top priority to do what is in the best interest of protecting public health, and this measure will increase transparency in an effort to quell the spread of this virus.
According to new survey data released Thursday, more than 44 percent of American teens reported “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” while nearly 20 percent seriously considered suicide, and nine percent actually did attempt suicide in 2020.
“According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of blood donor samples, conducted in December and updated last month, an estimated 95% of Americans ages 16 and older have developed identifiable Covid antibodies,” CNBC reported on Tuesday. “Those come from both vaccinations — roughly 77% of the U.S. population has received at least one Covid vaccine dose, according to the CDC — and prior Covid infections.”
On Wednesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. She referenced the 95% immunity figure in her testimony.
A new analysis published at the scientific journal “Lancet” has provided further evidence that Covid policies implemented by public health experts around the globe failed to substantially lower excess deaths.
(Natural News) Dr. Scott Atlas, former medical advisor to the Trump administration, lamented the damage caused by Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns. He also denounced the globalist-backed medical tyrants responsible for these draconian measures.
Atlas gave a presentation about the disastrous effects of COVID-19 policies on March 23 to students of Michigan State University.
He referenced several studies that revealed the full extent of the damage caused by lockdowns. These include excess deaths, severe mental health issues and lasting economic damage to the lower echelons of society. Atlas also pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic drew a clear line among those brainwashed and those that remain able to think independently and rationally.
According to the former White House Coronavirus Task Force adviser, the pandemic opened people’s eyes to totalitarian government – and how many will submit to any command no matter how ridiculous they may be. “This kind of stuff is shocking. There is going to be another pandemic. We always have another crisis on the horizon. People want to bring back lockdowns for global warming, for instance,” said Atlas.
He also lamented the “loss of humanity” and “loss of common decency” in the U.S. and called for the need “to get past the behavior that we have now normalized.”
“First of all, there is no quick solution. The country is in a bad place. We have a severely damaged younger generation. They’re not just fearful; it’s worse. They’re unhealthy, they have psychiatric and psychological disease. I don’ t know if we have seen the tip of the iceberg on that. It’s very sad.”
Atlas also denounced COVID-19 mask mandates as “a psychological conditioning ritual.” He elaborated: “What they’ve done here is they have turned the public into assuming that everyone else is dangerous to them. You are hurting them by not believing in the mask. The data show that widespread population masking does not work; the masks are proven to not work, including specifically in schools. It is absurd.”
Despite the negative outlook, Atlas pointed to a sliver of hope, saying: “We have to change the mentality of people to where they have a healthy skepticism of everything, which I finally see developing now.” (Related: The unscientific attack on the science of Dr. Scott Atlas.)
Atlas has strong words for the medical tyrants
“When they make freedom and individual liberty dirty, they are hurting lower-income people [and] poor people more than anyone else. Realize this: The people in charge are an elitist group [and the] lockdowns are a luxury of the rich,” Atlas said.
A radiologist by training, Atlas became an adviser to former President Donald Trump in August 2020. However, former Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner warned Atlas that globalist-backed forces would “destroy” him if he went on board as an adviser. The expert remained unfazed despite the risks.
“There’s no one that has been more livid than I have, with what I saw in the White House. The gross incompetence, the politicization of everything, these folks on the White House COVID-19 Task Force – the medical people, at least – were grossly incompetent,” revealed Atlas.
He explained that entrenched public health bureaucrats in Washington, including White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, have held their jobs for decades because of their sycophancy toward the current administration rather than scientific expertise. Atlas also denounced the federal scientific cartel that has a tight grip on research.
“The underlying problem here is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One group of people controls science because [it] controls the funding of science. [The NIH] controls the promotion of science because everyone is reliant on [its] grant money. [It] controls all the publications.”
Atlas ultimately called for the federal bureaucracy to be defanged, saying: “I was never for term limits, but I’m for term limits for people who have these appointed positions.”
The high court in a brief order Friday sided with the Biden administration and said that while the lawsuit plays out, the Navy may consider the sailors’ vaccination status in making deployment, assignment and other operational decisions. The group that sued includes mostly Navy SEALs.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there was a “simple overarching reason” that he agreed with the court’s decision. The Constitution makes the president, “not any federal judge,” the commander in chief of the armed forces, he wrote, noting that courts have been traditionally “reluctant to intrude upon the authority of the Executive in military and national security affairs.”
Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — noted that they disagreed with their colleagues’ decision and would have sided with the group of SEALs.
Results in the Politico-Harvard survey showed that 46% of parents with children in grades K-12 where schools required masks during the past year said students’ social learning and interactions were hurt by the mandate.
A total of 41% said masks hurt “the general schooling experience” and 39% said they hurt students’ “mental and emotional health.”
“Today, in preparation for travel to Europe, I took a PCR test this morning. That test came back positive, which means I will be adhering to CDC guidance and no longer be traveling on the President’s trip to Europe.”
The pilots’ lawsuit against the Centers for Disease & Control (CDC) is the first legal challenge to the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate (FTMM) filed by airline workers.
The resolution, spearheaded by Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, picked up bipartisan support in a 57-40 vote. The vote comes after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced Thursday that they would extend the current mask mandate for public transportation through April 18. Eight Democrats voted in favor of Paul’s resolution and only one Republican voted against it, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Allegedly “fully-vaccinated” and “boosted” Barack Obama has tested positive for Covid-19 and is showing symptoms. His wife, Michelle, has tested negative.
A new analysis published at the scientific journal “Lancet” has provided further evidence that Covid policies implemented by public health experts around the globe failed to substantially lower excess deaths.
As the Lancet article, “Estimating excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of COVID-19-related mortality, 2020–21,” explains, “the magnitude and distribution of many other causes of death might have changed because of social, economic, and behavioural responses to the pandemic, including strict lockdowns. Under these conditions, excess mortality can provide a more accurate assessment of the total mortality impact of the COVID-19 pandemic than reported COVID-19 deaths.”
“Our excess mortality estimates reflect the full impact of the pandemic on mortality around the world, and not only deaths directly attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the article explains about its model, which incorporated all-cause mortality reports for 74 countries and territories and 266 subnational locations.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccine rollouts began in January 2021. Screenshot: The Lancet.
The main finding of the study was its estimate that about three times as many people died worldwide due to the “global pandemic” than is suggested by Covid-related mortality figures.
“Although reported COVID-19 deaths between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2021, totalled 5.94 million worldwide, we estimate that 18.2 million (95% uncertainty interval 17·1–19·6) people died worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic (as measured by excess mortality) over that period. The global all-age rate of excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic was 120.3 deaths (113·1–129·3) per 100 000 of the population, and excess mortality rate exceeded 300 deaths per 100,000 of the population in 21 countries. The number of excess deaths due to COVID-19 was largest in the regions of south Asia, north Africa and the Middle East, and eastern Europe.”
However, the “global pandemic” did not directly cause millions of these estimated deaths; the Covid policies, such as lockdowns, contributed greatly to the final tallies, as the Lancet study itself notes (cited above). Agency matters.
An exhaustive Johns Hopkins University comparative analysis published in January found that strict lockdowns failed to significantly reduce Covid-related deaths.
“Lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little or no impact in reducing deaths from COVID-19, according to a new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University,” the Washington Times reported. “The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies.”Advertisements
“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote.
Importantly, the Covid lockdowns and policy mandates were unprecedented in their scope for any global pandemic in world history. They caused a massive amount of economic damage and social division, but produced virtually insignificant net benefits for public health.
“Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors conclude. “Our results are in line with the World Health Organization Writing Group (2006), who state, “Reports from the 1918 influenza pandemic indicate that social-distancing measures did not stop or appear to dramatically reduce transmission.”
Source: Nature
“The use of lockdowns is a unique feature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors added. “Lockdowns have not been used to such a large extent during any of the pandemics of the past century. However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy. These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
The Covid-19 pandemic is also unique in that the overwhelming number of people who died with the virus were near life expectancy and had underlying health conditions. In 2020 that the average age of mortality for Covid-19 related deaths (77 years old) was about that of life expectancy (78 years old). It is now estimated globally to be between 73 and 79 years old. As noted by the CDC, 95% of all Covid-related deaths have at least one ‘comorbidity,’ and the average number of Covid-related comorbidities is 4.0.
As reported exclusively here in November, such all-cause mortality rates did not decrease as expected in advanced nations despite the substantial vaccination rates. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), show that excess mortality rates did not decline in 2021 in many advanced nations, despite lockdowns and relatively high vaccination rates.
In the United States, for example, despite the vaccines, there was no significant decline in excess mortality. (There were actually more reported Covid-related deaths in 2021 than in 2020.) The U.K. similarly saw no overall decline in excess mortality.
Covid policies were imposed in many cases around the world by emergency decree, without a consideration for democratic processes, medical norms such as informed consent, legal recourse in a court of law due to liability shields, or respect for individuals’ constitutionally protected due process rights. Vaccine and mask mandates, as well as strict lockdowns, nonetheless inflicted massive amounts of economic damage, social division, and mental health trauma on large segments of the respective populations.Advertisements
Excess mortality rates are the gold standard for evaluating whether the ‘experts’ succeeded in preventing Covid deaths. That data is in. And the answer is ‘no.’
The New York Times said vaccinations, booster shots and masks have not caused a major difference in case rates between parts of the country with different levels of COVID-19 precautions in a Wednesday morning newsletter.
The article compared COVID-19 case rates for Democratic and Republican areas, noting that Democrats were more likely to wear masks, get vaccinated and boosted, avoid public spaces and shut down in-person schools over virus fears.
“These factors seem as if they should have caused large differences in case rates. They have not. And that they haven’t offers some clarity about the relative effectiveness of different Covid interventions,” David Leonhardt wrote in the NYT newsletter
TSA officials have indicated that the masking requirements are under review, in consultation from the CDC. The decision on whether they will remain in place will come March 18, when they are set to expire.
The new CDC guidance divides communities into high, medium and low risk categories based on COVID metrics like hospitalizations. People in communities that are deemed high risk are advised to wear a mask indoors, but those in low or medium risk areas are advised only to get vaccinated and get tested if sick.
In medium risk communities, vulnerable individuals are encouraged to seek the advice of their doctor on whether or not to wear a mask. Roughly 70% of American counties fall in the medium or low risk groups, meaning those residents aren’t advised to mask.
