Weekly Round Up - Stories you might have missed!
Weekly Round Up - Stories you might have missed!
Dr. Levine Wants to Fully Embrace Changing Children’s Gender, Omission of Children’s C-19 Jab Deaths In Australia Raises Concern, and more!
NEWS
CDC Bought Phone Data to Monitor Americans’ Compliance With Lockdowns, Contracts Show
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) purchased data from tracking companies to monitor compliance with lockdowns, according to contracts with the firms.
The CDC paid one firm $420,000 and another $208,000. That bought access to location data from at least 55 million cellphone users.
The contracts, approved under emergency review due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were aimed at providing the CDC “with the necessary data to continue critical emergency response functions related to evaluating the impact of visits to key points of interest, stay at home orders, closures, re-openings and other public heath communications related to mask mandate, and other merging research areas on community transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” the contracts, obtained by The Epoch Times, state.
ENTERTAINMENT
JK Rowling feels gender identity movement ‘echoes’ warnings in Harry Potter: ‘I’m upholding the positions I took in Potter’
JK Rowling says she ‘absolutely knew’ that her comments and views on transgender issues would make Harry Potter fans ‘deeply unhappy’, but she feels that the gender identity movement ‘echoes’ what she was ‘warning against’ in her best-selling books.
MEDIA
Dr. Rachel Levine says changing kids' genders will soon be fully embraced: 'Wheels will turn on this'
Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine promised that medically changing kids’ genders will soon be normalized.
Levine praised the "gender-affirming care" at the Pediatric Grand Rounds session at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. Levine was invited to speak at the event about the Florida Parental Rights in Education law and the political implications of gender reassignment surgery taking place at children’s hospitals.
Levine also said gender-affirming care for minors had the "highest support" of the Biden administration.
"But I'm a positive and optimistic person, and I choose to be positive, optimistic. And I think that the wheels will turn on this," Levine said.
NEWS
Transportation Safety Board urges better medical screening guidelines for pilots
EDMONTON - The Transportation Safety Board is calling for better screening of heart-related conditions of Canadian pilots.
The recommendation comes after at least eight fatal or serious plane crashes between the early 2000s and 2021 — all believed to be linked to heart attacks or cardiovascular diseases among pilots.
In a report published Tuesday, the independent federal agency recommended the Department of Transport “establish a framework for routine review and improvement” of its guidelines “to ensure it contains the most effective screening tools for assessing medical conditions,” including cardiovascular health issues.
NEWS
Omission of Children’s COVID-19 Vaccine Deaths In Australia Raises Concerns
Australia’s drug regulator was slow to update the country’s Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) despite several deaths being attributed to the vaccine, including two children, aged 7 and 9.
The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by an Australian doctor that found the delayed response from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
Senator Gerard Rennick said he would push for independent oversight of the TGA.
“A third independent medical party should examine the evidence as the TGA has a conflict of interest because they approved the vaccines and would therefore be held responsible for the deaths of these children due to poor regulatory oversight,” Rennick told The Epoch Times.
EXCLUSIVE
EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Sutta, Former Pussycat Dolls Member: ‘I Was Severely Injured by the Moderna Vaccine’
Former Pussycat Dolls member Jessica Sutta says she experienced a severe reaction to the Moderna vaccine. Three days after her first shot in August 2021, she developed an excruciating muscle spasm in her side, she says. After chiropractic treatments, acupuncture, massage, etc. proved unhelpful, she went to the hospital. Doctors believed it was a kidney infection and did not associate it with the COVID-19 vaccine, she says.
NEWS
All Vaccines Perform Worse Than Natural Immunity Against COVID: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
While it has become a fact that vaccines have performed drastically worse during the Omicron era, a recent meta-analysis accounting for dozens of studies reveals that natural immunity offers better protection against reinfection, symptomatic infections, and severe disease from all COVID-19 variants than all the COVID vaccines. In addition, natural immunity offered the advantage of reducing viral rebound compared with full vaccination.
Natural Immunity Performs Better Against All Variants
Vaccines belong to a group of drugs called prophylactics, meaning that they are meant to prevent disease. However, that classification is not limited to vaccines but also refers to medication, regular health screenings, and when it comes to reinfection, a previous infection.
For a virus like SARS‑CoV‑2 that would inevitably become endemic or as seasonal as the flu, a vaccine with a specific immunogen as a core component could never provide long-term protection, given that the virus is very likely to mutate.
NEWS
Miami hotel may lose liquor license after kids shown ‘sexually explicit’ drag show
A luxury Miami hotel may be stripped of its liquor license Tuesday after putting on a “sexually explicit” Christmas drag performance with children in the audience, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced.
The Sunshine State’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation had warned the Hyatt Regency Miami against letting children under the age of 16 attend the Dec. 27 “Drag Queen Christmas Show” at its James L. Knight Center, according to a formal complaint shared with The Post.
But the venue went ahead with the performance anyway, letting minors attend if accompanied by an adult.
NEWS
Less than six hours’ sleep cuts immune response to vaccines, data shows
Sleeping for less than six hours per night reduces the immune response to vaccination, particularly in younger men, data suggests.
The reduction is comparable to the waning of Covid-19 antibodies two months after vaccination.
People’s immune response to vaccination is known to vary because of factors such as age, biological sex and general health. Previous studies have also suggested that sleep duration might play a role – although the results of such investigations have been mixed.
NEWS
FDA authorizes Pfizer’s Covid omicron booster as fourth shot for kids under 5
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized Pfizer’s omicron booster shot for kids under five years old who were previously vaccinated with three doses of the company’s original vaccine.
Children six months through four years old who completed their three-dose primary series with Pfizer and BioNTech’s original monovalent shots more than two months ago are now eligible to receive a single booster dose of the updated shot. The new shot is bivalent, meaning it targets the original Covid strain as well as omicron BA.4 and BA.5.
Media Outlets “Reporting” Information That You Might Confuse for Satire
“HEALTH”
The Next Stage of COVID Is Starting Now
Three years into the coronavirus pandemic, these babies are on the leading edge of a generational turnover that will define the rest of our relationship with SARS-CoV-2. They and their slightly older peers are slated to be the first humans who may still be alive when COVID-19 truly hits a new turning point: when almost everyone on Earth has acquired a degree of immunity to the virus as a very young child.
“SCIENCE”
The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic
A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs.
For three years now, the debate over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has ping-ponged between two big ideas: that SARS-CoV-2 spilled into human populations directly from a wild-animal source, and that the pathogen leaked from a lab. Through a swirl of data obfuscation by Chinese authorities and politicalization within the United States, and rampant speculation from all corners of the world, 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.
