Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that they are distributing $3.2 billion to state, local, and territorial health departments across the United States in what they describe as an attempt to “strengthen” public health initiatives. CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD said the money will give local agencies critical funding […]
Monoclonal antibodies, which are synthetic versions of antibodies that are produced in a lab, appear to have lost effectiveness against COVID-19 disease as new variants of the virus emerge. Previously touted as the top-of-the-line outpatient treatment by public health officials and many clinicians, monoclonal antibodies have fallen out of favor as outpatient treatment for patients […]
A recent analysis done by Cynthia Cox of the Kaiser Family Foundation for The Health 202 newsletter of The Washington Post found that approximately 58 percent of the people who died of COVID-19 in the United States in August 2022 had been vaccinated or vaccinated and boosted for COVID. Earlier this year, it was estimated that […]
Despite President Biden’s recent admission that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the White House is making another big push to encourage Americans to get yet another COVID booster shot. This time, the Biden administration is marketing the COVID Bivalent versions of messenger RNA (mRNA) Comirnaty and Spikevax biologics developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna/NIAID respectively.1 2 […]
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who recently announced that a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose will be necessary for everyone who has already gotten three doses, was awarded $24.3 million in personal financial compensation in 2021. In addition to his $1.69 million salary, which increased by 15 percent, Bourla took home a cash incentive of $8 million, […]
On Jan. 21, 2022, a Federal District Court in Texas temporarily blocked COVID-19 mandate for federal workers issued by the Biden administration.1 Judge Jeffrey Brown’s ruling applies nationwide.2 The federal worker mandate was issued on Sept. 9, 2021. According to the White House, as of December 2021, 97 percent of federal employees had been vaccinated […]
Perhaps influenced by the lifting of COVID-19-related restrictions by several European countries—starting with Denmark—during the past two weeks, the United States seems to be on the verge of following Europe’s lead in declaring the pandemic over. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, White House chief medical advisor and director of the National Institute […]
On Dec. 8, 2021, the White House’s chief medical advisor, Anthony Fauci, MD, suggested he believed it was likely the U.S. government would change the definition of what it meant to be “fully vaccinated” to include booster shots, as well as the original two-shot regimen of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna/NIAID COVID-19 biologics or one shot […]
Among many surprising developments during this pandemic, the most stunning has been the questioning of naturally acquired immunity after a person has had the COVID-19 disease. We have understood natural immunity since at least the Athenian Plague in 430 BC. Here is Thucydides: Yet it was with those who had recovered from the disease that the sick […]
Two senior officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have stepped down from the COVID vaccine review team at a critical time in the approval process. While the FDA did not cite a specific reason for the departure of two veteran officials, Endpoints News reports that widespread frustration in the regulatory agency began […]