WORLD NEWS
Risk of Nuclear War From China and Russia Increases
With rising global instability, caused primarily by the belligerence of the new China–Russia axis, these and other countries keep surprising America with their quest for new nuclear weapons and delivery systems, including the hypersonic variety.
The chief of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, believes that China’s “breathtaking expansion” of its nuclear arsenal leads the United States in hypersonics and already escalates the risk for America, according to his April 5 congressional testimony.
In July, China launched its first test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, which was launched from an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
According to Richard, the test was a “technological achievement with serious implications for strategic stability.”
The hypersonic reentry vehicle flew 25,000 miles in one hour and 40 minutes—“the greatest distance and longest flight time of any land attack weapon system of any nation to date,” he wrote in his testimony, which was delivered to the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee on April 5.
One of the greatest dangers of this high-speed nuclear-capable delivery vehicle is that it could destroy American defenses, including in space, before we had time to react adequately. That puts all major American weapons systems, which tend to be thoroughly technological and interdependent upon each other, at high risk of defeat at their weakest link.
According to Richard, all Pentagon operational plans and “every other capability we have, rests on the assumption that strategic deterrence, and in particular nuclear deterrence, will hold.”
Now that Beijing and Moscow have broken our assumption with their hypersonic capabilities, American nuclear deterrence may already have been defeated. We’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Evidence of Pandemic and Bioweapon Cover-Ups
As evidence of a potential bioweapons cover-up has started emerging, a company called Metabiota is gaining prominence
Metabiota’s mission is to make the world more resilient to epidemics by providing “data, analytics, advice and training to prepare for global health threats and mitigate their impacts.” Its founder is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader graduate
Metabiota investors include In-Q-Tel, a CIA venture capital firm that specializes in high-tech investments that support or benefit the intelligence capacity of U.S. intelligence agencies, Hunter Biden’s investment fund, Rosemont Seneca and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which contracted Metabiota to run operations in U.S.-connected labs in Ukraine
In addition to having close ties to the WEF and its Great Reset agenda, Nathan Wolfe, the founder of Metabiota, has also served on the EcoHealth Alliance’s editorial board since 2004. In 2017, he co-wrote a study on coronaviruses in bats together with EcoHealth president Peter Daszak, Ph.D. EcoHealth worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China, where SARS-CoV-2 is suspected of having originated
Metabiota’s Global Partnerships are led by Andrew C. Weber, former assistant secretary of defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense, who created the DTRA
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
California city to give universal income to transgender, nonbinary residents regardless of earnings
A California city is planning to give universal basic income (UBI) to transgender and nonbinary residents regardless of their earnings level.
Transgender residents in Palm Springs, California are eligible to receive a UBI of up to $900 per month solely for identifying as transgender or nonbinary — no strings attached.
The new pilot program will have $200,000 set aside for allocation after a unanimous vote by the Palm Springs City Council last week.
Former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who served as the first openly gay member of the city council, called the program “outrageous and discriminatory.”
“We’re completely opposed to guaranteed or universal basic income programs, because they ultimately cause inflation and raise the cost of living on everyone — they don’t work,” DeMaio said in a statement.
“But at least some of them have minimum income requirements to qualify, whereas this one is no-strings-attached ‘woke’ virtue signaling to the LGBT community in a way that is not only offensive but discriminatory,” he continued.
Twenty transgender and nonbinary Palm Springs residents will receive the free money funded by the taxpayers for 18 months, with advocacy-based health center DAP Health and LGBT advocacy group Queer Works managing the program.
A six-month design period will be the precursor of the program’s implementation, in which the group Mayors for a Guaranteed Income will be involved providing guidance.
I was allowed to transition at 18 without question – but I regretted it
The debate about trans identities and gender dysphoria has become very polarised – even for those of us who have lived through it.
When the Government announced this week it would not go ahead with a Bill to ban conversion therapy for trans people, my response was mixed. At 18, I’d been prescribed testosterone by a private GP so I could transition to living as a man. The GP didn’t attempt to explore the possible causes of my gender dysphoria, such as my mental health problems or my difficulties fitting in socially. But even if they had, I might have insisted on going ahead anyway. I thought I knew everything about myself – nobody could tell me what to do.
I was raised in Lancashire, in a very masculine environment. My mum used to work nights, so I was looked after by my dad. I also had two stepbrothers, eight years older. I wasn’t brought up with them, but we did socialise as I was growing up. After my parents divorced when I was 11, I spent a lot of time with my dad because my mum used to work three jobs.
When I started school, I struggled to make friends with other girls. I didn’t care for Groovy Chick, or Barbie or Bratz – I just wanted to play football. There were a lot of social rules to female friendships. Male friendships were just so much easier: we’d fall out, we’d fight, we’d make up, we’d forget about it the next day.
High school was a particularly difficult time. When I was about 11, I became convinced I was meant to be a boy. My male friends were all developing differently to me, and in turn that made me feel like I wished I had what they had – they were stronger and more outgoing. On Tumblr and YouTube, I discovered trans people who argued that some people who are meant to be male are accidentally born female. I thought: this is the answer! I was gender dysphoric, I was meant to be born male and there was no other reason why I might not get on with women.
At the same time, I began feeling sexually attracted to girls, though later I realised I was bisexual. Aged 12, I developed depression and anxiety. I had a few sessions with a counsellor, who used words such as “borderline”, “bipolar” and “manic”. My parents didn’t really know what to do, and support from the school was minimal. It was my boyfriend, who I met in high school and who is also bisexual, who gave me the most support.
Exclusive: Illegal Alien Charged with Killing Elderly Man, Injuring Three Others in Florida
An illegal alien has been charged with killing a 72-year-old man and injuring three others in a drunk driving crash in Walton County, Florida, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.
Jose Virgilio Carcamo Elvir, a 42-year-old illegal alien, was charged with one count of DUI manslaughter, three counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury, driving with an expired license, and driving with open alcohol containers.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Elvir is an illegal alien living in the United States and that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has placed a detainer on him so that, if he is released, they will take over custody.
According to a report issued by Florida Highway Patrol, exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, Elvir was driving drunk in Walton County on April 3 when he crashed into the back of another vehicle and caused an eight-vehicle crash as a result.
Perry Adrian Cole, a 72-year-old resident of Palmetto Bay, Florida, was involved in the crash and rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Santa Rosa, Florida, where he was later pronounced dead as a result of his injuries.
“Just weeks after a Haitian criminal alien brutally murdered a Florida husband and wife in Daytona Beach, another innocent Floridian lost his life at the hands of an illegal alien in Walton County,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) office wrote in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News.
“How much senseless violence and suffering will Americans endure, while the Biden Administration doubles down on their reckless open-borders agenda?” they said.
Three other Americans sustained serious bodily injuries in the crash and were taken to a nearby hospital. Eyewitnesses told officers that they witnessed Elvir drunk driving when he caused the crash and then refused to exit his vehicle.
Biden Administration Stops Shipments of COVID-19 Treatment to All States
The U.S. government on April 5 immediately halted all shipments of a COVID-19 treatment to states and ordered health care providers not to use the drug.
The actions were taken because of the increasing prevalence of BA.2, a subvariant of Omicron, which is a variant of the CCP virus, the virus causes COVID-19.
Data so far indicate that the monoclonal antibody called sotrovimab doesn’t work against BA.2, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Regulators initially told doctors in eight states on March 27 to stop administering sotrovimab to COVID-19 patients. Several days later, the FDA expanded the action, which essentially revokes the emergency use authorization granted in 2021, to 14 additional states.
With the April 5 move, the monoclonal therapy “is no longer authorized to treat COVID-19 in any U.S. region due to increases in the proportion of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron BA.2 subvariant,” the FDA said in a statement.
The regulator is relying on estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which pegs BA.2 as causing the majority of COVID-19 cases in all regions of the country.
According to pseudovirus testing performed by the FDA, sotrovimab worked about 16 times less well against BA.2. As a result, it’s unlikely that the authorized dose is effective against the subvariant, the FDA told health care providers in a recently updated fact sheet.
After the FDA’s update, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was stopping all shipments of sotrovimab.
Leaked DHS Document Says US Plans to Offer ‘Broadscale Release Mechanisms’ for Illegal Aliens
A leaked U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plan published this week shows senior officials being told that the removal of Title 42 would lead to an increase in illegal immigration and one way to respond to the increase is to release many apprehended illegal aliens into the U.S. interior.
The 115-page document, dated Feb. 17 and published by Breitbart News, is titled the “DHS Southwest Border Mass Irregular Migration Contingency Plan.”
The plan was being put in place to comply with an earlier executive order from President Joe Biden that directed officials to create a framework to address the causes of migration and to manage migration in addition to providing “safe and orderly processing” of illegal immigrants claiming asylum once they cross into the United States.
The plan “anticipates the eventual recession of Title 42 public health order,” an action that “will likely cause a surge in irregular immigration and have a direct impact to short-term holding and processing capacity along the” U.S.–Mexico border, the document states. That will stem in part from “the perception that restrictions to entry will be reduced.”
Top Biden administration officials on April 1 announced the decision to rescind the order, which has allowed for the quick expulsion of illegal immigrants since March 2020 due to concerns the aliens carry the virus that causes COVID-19.
Texas will bus migrants to the nation’s capital, Abbott says
The governor of Texas said Wednesday that his state will start busing and flying undocumented immigrants to the nation’s capital, escalating his clash with the Biden administration over border policy and its plans to phase out pandemic-era restrictions.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the busing as part of a broader crackdown amid rising illegal crossings and fears that restoring old policies will overwhelm border communities. For two years, a federal health order called Title 42 has allowed the government to expel more than 1.7 million migrants in the name of controlling covid-19.
Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed alarms about a humanitarian “crisis” at the U.S. border with Mexico, but Abbott’s critics accuse him of favoring flashy politics over effective solutions. Wednesday’s announcement about mass relocations drew the expected cheers from conservatives and denunciations from advocates for undocumented immigrants, who noted that Abbott is seeking reelection this year.
“He uses human beings as political pinatas to score political points six months before his election,” Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said in a statement. “It is mean-spirited to use refugees’ lives to manipulate public opinion.”
Governor Greg Abbott today announced the first in a series of aggressive actions by the State of Texas to secure the border in the wake of President Biden’s decision to end Title 42 expulsions. The Governor made the announcement at a press conference in Weslaco, where he was joined by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Steve McCraw, Adjutant General of Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, and Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) Chief Nim Kidd.
“The Biden Administration’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States, and this crisis will only be made worse by ending Title 42 expulsions,” said Governor Abbott. “With the end of Title 42 expulsions looming next month, Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border. The new strategies announced today and next week will further strengthen our already robust response to the Biden border disaster, and we will use any and all lawful powers to curtail the flow of drugs, human traffickers, illegal immigrants, weapons, and other contraband into Texas.”
During his remarks, Governor Abbott noted that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is projecting as many as 18,000 migrant apprehensions per day upon the end of Title 42 expulsions. This prediction would indicate over half a million illegal border crossings per month.
White House Defends Giving Illegal Border Crossers Smart Phones to Report to ICE
The White House on Wednesday defended the idea of giving smartphones to illegal border crossers, to help them stay in touch with ICE officials.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki appeared indignant after Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned her about the program, detailed recently in their reporting.
“I think you, of all people, since you’ve asked me a range of questions on this topic over time, would recognize that we need to take steps to ensure that we know where individuals are and we can track, and we can check in with then,” she replied.
Psaki said the phones provided to migrants and border crossers were part of the administration’s “alternative to detention” program at the border.
There are nearly 180,000 undocumented immigrants in the United States being monitored with traceable devices, according to reports.
The phones, Psaki said, provided migrants the ability monitored by officials using “telephonic” technology — matching a voice print and requiring migrants to call once a week to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
She said tablets and smartphones could also be used to monitor border crossers using “facial matching” and GPS monitoring.
Psaki explained the program was “all part” of the Biden administration’s effort to track migrants coming into the country without having to detain them.
When asked if the administration was concerned about migrants just throwing the phone away, Psaki replied, “Do you have a record of people throwing phones away?”
“Our concern is ensuring individuals who irregularly migrate to the United States proceed through our process of being monitored,” she continued.
The monitoring systems, she argued, helped border officials “do that effectively” until their immigration court hearings could be completed.
Moms for Liberty Vows Boycott: ‘Disney Has Severely Underestimated Florida Parents’
As the battle between The Walt Disney Co. and Florida rages on, the co-founders of Moms for Liberty are calling for a boycott, saying “Disney has severely underestimated Florida parents.”
On March 28, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law. House Bill 1557, inaccurately branded by liberal opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibits Florida educators from teaching anything about sexual orientation or gender identity to children in Kindergarten through third grade. The law goes further, enabling parents to sue if they believe schools or instructors have violated the law.
A week prior, after facing pressure from LGBTQ communities and staff for his silence, Disney CEO Bob Chapek issued a statement apologizing for not being a “stronger ally” to them, calling the bill “yet another challenge to basic human rights.” Chapek then announced Disney would immediately halt all political donations in Florida.
In a March 28 statement, Disney’s corporate office said its new goal was “for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts,” and vowed to support organizations working to make such a thing happen.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice told Fox News Digital in a March 30 interview she found that to be “striking language” coming from a company with a target audience of children
Poll: Herschel Walker Leads Raphael Warnock in Tight Georgia Senate Race
Republican Herschel Walker holds a narrow lead over incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in a hypothetical matchup in the race for U.S. Senate in Georgia, according to a poll published Wednesday.
The poll, taken by Emerson College Polling and the Hill from April 1 to 3, found Walker with a four-point edge over Warnock. Walker received 49 percent support compared to Warnock’s 45 percent support, while six percent of respondents said they were undecided on a candidate.
The poll was conducted among 1,013 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.
Walker, a former University of Georgia football star and Heisman Trophy winner, has for months polled narrowly ahead of Warnock, and always within the polls’ margins of errors, indicating a highly competitive general election is on the horizon. The race will also be closely watched nationally as it is one of just a handful that could determine next year’s Senate majority.
While the general election poll results are close, Walker continues to be seen as a shoo-in for the Republican primary, holding a wide lead — albeit a slimmed-down one — over his challengers.
In the primary, Walker came in at 57 percent, followed by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black with 13 percent and several others candidates with single-digit support. Sixteen percent of respondents said they were undecided.
The Republican primary poll questions were conducted among 509 likely primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percent.
The poll overall suggests Democrats are facing an uphill climb in the battleground Peach State. Like Warnock, the poll found Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams narrowly trails her potential Republican opponents. The pair of Democrats, who are two of the most well-funded candidates in the country, are also competing in a midterm year that, historically speaking, is expected to bode well for Republicans.
I was fired for a joke about Kamala Harris’s outfit
I am no stranger to cancel culture — or what we know more commonly (and accurately, in my opinion) as censorship.
When I was one of a handful of conservatives on a liberal college campus, my peers on the left reported me to our resident advisor for “creating an unsafe environment” and demanded the administration step in to cancel speaker events I hosted through the College Republicans. They later would ask the university to revoke my degree. Throughout my six years as a political journalist and commentator, left-wing activists have tried every trick in the book to drive me out of the industry: digging up old tweets, demeaning my appearance and harassing my employers.
None of it has worked… until now.
About a month ago today, I posted a tweet during the State of the Union address poking fun at Vice President Kamala Harris’s outfit. Harris wore a chocolate brown business suit that was panned on social media — some users compared her to a Hershey’s chocolate bar, while others wondered why she wore the same color as her chair. I went for a UPS joke, featuring the company’s now retired slogan:
“Kamala looks like a UPS employee — what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
War On Cash Losing Ground As Circulating Currency Doubles In 10 Years
President Biden’s latest executive order calls for extensive research on digital assets and may usher in a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), eventually allowing individuals to maintain accounts with the Federal Reserve. Other central banks are already on the job. The People’s Bank of China began piloting a digital renminbi in April 2021. India’s Reserve Bank intends to launch a digital rupee as early as this year.
A CBDC may upgrade the physical cash the Federal Reserve already issues — but only if its designers appreciate the value of financial privacy.
Cash is a 7th century technology, with obvious drawbacks today. It pays no interest, is less secure than a bank deposit, and is difficult to insure against loss or theft. It is unwieldy for large transactions, and also requires those transacting to be at the same place at the same time — a big problem in an increasingly digital world.
Nonetheless, cash remains popular. Circulating U.S. currency exceeded $2.2 trillion in January 2022, more than doubling over the last decade. The inflation-adjusted value of circulating notes grew more than 5.5 percent per year over the period. And U.S. consumers used cash in 19 percent of transactions in 2020.
Why is cash so popular, despite its drawbacks? Cash is easy to use. There are no bank or merchant terminal fees associated with cash. And, most importantly, it offers more financial privacy than the available alternatives.
When you use cash, no one other than the recipient needs to know. Unlike a check or debit card transaction, there’s no bank recording how you spend your money. You can donate to a political or religious cause, buy controversial books or magazines, or secure medicine or medical treatment without much concern that governments, corporations, or snoopy neighbors will ever find out.
Privacy means you get to decide whether to disclose the intimate details of your life. Some will happily share. That is their choice. But others will prefer to keep those details private.
In a digital world, personal information can spread far and wide. And it can be used to exclude or exploit people on the margins. The choice about what information to share is important. For some, flourishing depends on carefully choosing how much others know about their politics, religion, relationships, or medical conditions.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Renewable Energy Can’t Solve Energy Crisis
- Europe has been aggressively pursuing a clean energy future and the end of fossil fuels, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the shortcomings of renewables.
- The soaring prices of key metals and the length of time it takes to implement renewable energy projects have meant Europe is turning to fossil fuels to solve its energy crisis.
- The EU is planning to replace Russian gas with LNG imports, coal, and even fuel oil, with a relatively small amount of the gas to be replaced by wind and solar.
Germany is preparing for gas rationing. France’s power grid operator is asking consumers to use less electricity. In the UK, protests are breaking out over the latest electricity price hike that plunged millions of households into what one local think tank called fuel stress. Europe has a serious energy problem.
The problem dates back years and points to a persistent complacency on the part of European governments that whatever happens, there will always be gas from Russia. After all, even during the Cold War Russia pumped billions of cubic meters of gas to European countries. Now, things are different, and it’s not just because of the war in Ukraine.
Europe has been enthusiastically trying to reduce its dependence on all fossil fuels, not just Russian gas, for a few years now. The EU recently boasted that in 2022 renewable energy sources accounted for 37.5 percent of gross electricity consumption, with wind and hydro constituting two-thirds of the total renewable energy output. Why, then, one wonders, would Germany have to brace for gas rationing and France ask its citizens to consume less electricity? Now that has a bit to do with the war in Ukraine. The war seems to have whipped EU governments – and Downing Street – into a frenzy seeking to distance themselves from Russia in every possible way, up to and including cutting Russian gas imports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for payment in rubles for the gas Russia supplies seems to have only increased the desire of European governments to ditch the gas, and the three Baltic states already announced they’d stopped buying Russian gas from April 1. For now, they are using gas from storage. For later, there’s either LNG arriving at the Klaipeda terminal in Lithuania or an interconnector with Poland. Lithuania is calling on the rest of the EU to follow its example. Interestingly, the Baltics do not appear to have replaced their gas dependence with wind and solar dependence.
The same is true for the rest of the European Union, too. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that renewables across the EU were “crowding out” natural gas. The report cited a study by environmentalist think tank Ember, whose lead author said
“These are moments and paradigm shifts when governments and businesses start taking this much more seriously. The alternatives are available, they are cheaper, and they are likely to get even cheaper and more competitive. Renewables are now an opportunity, not a cost,” Charles Moore explained.
Worst avian flu since 2015 has already killed nearly 23 million chickens and turkeys
You might need to find something else to dye this Easter—maybe the ham? The US, a leading meat and egg producer, is suffering its worst avian flu outbreak since 2015, and a major bird shortage could cause already inflated poultry prices to go even higher.
- Almost 23 million birds have either been killed by the virus or had to be culled to stop the spread.
Poultry producers have déjà flu: Seven years ago, nearly 50 million birds were killed by an avian flu outbreak. This time around, flocks in 24 states have been infected since the first cases were detected in January.
- The virus is so contagious that if it’s detected in just one chicken, the entire flock must be killed.
- Even zoos, which haven’t seen any outbreaks yet, are ramping up protections for birds in their exhibits. The only birds you might catch a glimpse of on your zoo trip are penguins, since they already have glass barriers protecting them.
HEALTH
Researchers look to licorice for promising cancer treatments
Licorice is more than a candy people either love or hate — it may play a role in preventing or treating certain types of cancer, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Gnanasekar Munirathinam and his research team are studying substances derived from the licorice plant Glycyrrhiza glabra to determine if they could be used to prevent or stop the growth of prostate cancer. Munirathinam is an associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences at the College of Medicine Rockford.
A research review into molecular insights of a licorice-derived substance called glycyrrhizin for preventing or treating cancer conducted by Dr. Munirathinam and student researchers suggests further research could lead to specific agents for clinical use.
The journal Pharmacological Research recently published the study titled “Oncopreventive and oncotherapeutic potential of licorice triterpenoid compound glycyrrhizin and its derivatives: Molecular insights.”
“When we look at the research out there and our own data, it appears that glycyrrhizin and its derivative glycyrrhetinic acid have great potential as anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agents,” Munirathinam said. “More research is needed into exactly how these could best be used to develop therapies, but this appears to be a promising area of cancer research.”
Five Reasons to Eat More Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are more than just a popular staple food serving as a sweet appetizer, side dish or filling snack on their own. This starchy root vegetable has plenty to offer when it comes to achieving optimal health. Sweet potato is a common food source for many indigenous populations in Africa, Central and South Americas, the Caribbean and Hawaii.
It’s an excellent source of natural compounds, including beta-carotene and anthocyanins. The high concentration of these compounds in the root crop, paired with its stable colors, make sweet potato a healthful alternative to synthetic coloring agents in food.
Let’s take a closer look at five ways that sweet potatoes benefit overall wellness.
- Rich Nutrition Profile
- Enhanced Memory and Cognitive Health
- Immune Support
- Anticancer Potential
- Diabetes Control and Prevention
COVID RELATED NEWS
White House COVID-19 Czar: US Has ‘National Interest’ to Vaccinate Entire World
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients proclaimed that it is in the United States’ “national interest” to get the entire world vaccinated for COVID-19, coming after senators dropped a provision that would provide global funding in a spending package.
“It is a real disappointment that there’s no global funding in this bill. This virus knows no borders, and it’s in our national interest to vaccinate the world and protect against possible new variants,” Zients said Tuesday during a briefing at the White House.
A day before, senators said Monday that they came to an agreement to allocate $10 billion in funding for the federal government’s COVID-19 response program. No funding was provided to distribute vaccines worldwide.
“Without additional funding for a global response, we won’t have resources to help get more shots in arms in countries in need,” Zients said.
And due to the lack of funding, the United States will be “forced to scale back” certain types of treatment such as oxygen therapy and other supplies to other countries, said Zients. “Our global genomic sequencing capabilities will fall off, and that undermines our ability to detect emerging variants beyond our borders,” he added.
Since the start of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, the United States has already provided more than 500 million vaccine doses to more than 100 countries as of April 5, according to a State Department readout.
“To date, we have shipped millions of vaccines to over 40 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, 30 countries in the Western Hemisphere, and to about 20 countries in Southern and Eastern Asia. This disease knows no borders and is affecting the entire world, and the U.S. is showing up, leading, and helping to bring an end to COVID-19,” said the agency.
Meanwhile, Zients is slated to leave his role as White House COVID-19 czar in May after spending about a year in that position, according to the White House.
Hospital Refuses Father-to-Son Kidney Transplant Over COVID Jab
A 9-year-old boy is being denied a life-saving kidney transplant because his father is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dane Donaldson was found to be a perfect match for his son Tanner back in early 2018 by the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital before the outbreak of the pandemic.
The family decided to wait a little longer before having Tanner undergo the transplant since transplanted kidneys from a live donor only lasted about 20 years.
Then COVID-19 hit and put a freeze on the procedure.
Now the hospital is refusing to perform the life-saving father-to-son kidney transplant it agreed to do nearly four years ago over the senior Donaldson’s unvaccinated status.
In a statement released to The Epoch Times, the Cleveland Clinic cited a 2021 policy it adopted requiring all donors and candidates for organ transplants to be fully vaccinated against the virus.
“Individuals who are actively infected with COVID-19 have a much higher rate of complications during and after surgery, even if the infection is asymptomatic,” the hospital stated.
Donaldson, who is in the insurance business, told The Epoch Times he is opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons, but also because he has seen a rising number of clients get critically ill after receiving it.
He believes the hospital is contradicting itself by requiring a living donor to be vaccinated, but not a deceased one.
“I asked them in that car accident victim, would you vaccinate him on the way to the hospital to rip his kidney out and they said ‘no’,” Donaldson told The Epoch Times.
Donaldson said he even offered to sign a waiver freeing the hospital from any liability should either himself or his son develop COVID-19. At the same time, the hospital has refused to agree to take any responsibility for any side effects that he or his son experienced from the vaccine.
The hospital, he said, is blowing the chance of a lifetime for his son.
Praise and Prick: Pennsylvania Pays Churches to Convince Members to Get Vaccinated
Many who have chosen not to get the COVID-19 shots have cited religious objections. Now Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration wants church leaders to bring vaccination events into churches.
Pennsylvania’s public health leaders want to “harness the power of community trust in statewide faith-based organizations” to convince folks to get a COVID-19 shot. That is according to the mission statement of the Faith-based Organization Coalition, which is being formed under the state’s Department of Health and is expected to launch April 11.
The state aims to reduce vaccine hesitancy through the “Local Innovations in Vaccine Equity in Pennsylvania” project (LIVE PA), which is a grant program that pays churches and nonprofits to speak with their people and persuade them to get vaccinated.
That is, $10 for each person-to-person outreach including direct phone calls, direct text messages, direct social media messages, door-knocking campaigns, and anything that involves one on one dialogue promoting the COVID-19 shot. The church or other nonprofit gets another $10 for each person who gets the shot.
“LIVE PA is a collaboration between the Wolf Administration’s Office of Advocacy and Reform and the departments of Health and Human Services, working closely with United Way of Pennsylvania to fund hyper-local, grassroots nonprofit and faith-based organizations to partner with certified vaccine providers to help the populations they serve overcome barriers to vaccination,” Amanda McNaughton, member services manager and Resilient PA Staff Liaison for United Way of Pennsylvania, told The Epoch Times.
The funding comes federally from the Center for Disease Control with $4 million dollars allocated to nonprofit organizations and $630,000 for faith-based organizations, McNaughton said. Grant applications were open in July 2021 and will continue through the end of 2023. So far, 104 applications have been approved, combining faith-based and nonprofit organizations, and 93 clinics have been hosted.
The LIVE PA program was promoted in a March 24, 2022 training meeting for chaplain assistants at UPMC Health Care System. Usually connected to churches, chaplains visit the sick and offer spiritual services. The Epoch Times obtained a video of the meeting, during which Aubrey Juris, partnership opportunity initiative coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Health Office of Health Equity explained its faith-based initiatives and encouraged chaplains to bring LIVE PA to their churches.
Large Israeli Study Finds That Protection Against COVID-19 From 4th Shot Drops Quickly
An Israeli study found that a fourth dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t offer long-lived protection against the Omicron variant of the CCP virus.
Using Ministry of Health data on more than 1.2 million people, researchers found that a second booster dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine offered protection against significant COVID-19 infections for six weeks. But protection against all virus infections started to drop quickly after four weeks and nearly disappeared after eight weeks, according to the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers, however, said that there appears to be some benefit conferred by a second booster, or fourth dose, of the Pfizer vaccine.
“Overall, these analyses provided evidence for the effectiveness of a fourth vaccine dose against severe illness caused by the omicron variant, as compared with a third dose administered more than 4 months earlier. For confirmed infection, a fourth dose appeared to provide only short-term protection and a modest absolute benefit,” the study’s authors wrote.
They made note of reports indicating that the “protection against hospital admission conferred by a third dose given more than 3 months earlier is substantially lower against the omicron variant than the protection of a fresh third dose against hospital admission for illness caused by the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant.”
“In our study, a fourth dose appeared to increase the protection against severe illness relative to three doses that were administered more than 4 months earlier,” they added.
The authors further stipulated that because the study only covered a two-month period, it’s not clear if the vaccine’s protection against severe illness faded after eight weeks. More studies and follow-up research is needed to make a clear determination, the study said.
CANCEL CULTURE
Twitter Reveals Whether Trump Will Be Reinstated After Elon Musk Joins Board
Twitter said it has no plans to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account after billionaire Elon Musk purchased a significant number of Twitter shares and will be joining the firm’s board of directors.
After Musk was tapped to join Twitter’s board, there was rampant speculation that Musk—who previously criticized the company for failing to adhere to “free speech principles”—would push to get Trump’s account reinstated. Before his suspension in January 2021, Trump, for years, extensively used Twitter and would often trigger news cycles with his tweets.
But a spokesperson for the San Francisco-based social network told the Mercury News on Tuesday, in response to a question about Trump’s ban, that “our policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions.” The spokesperson added that its board of directors merely “[play] an important advisory and feedback role.”
Days before purchasing nearly a 10 percent stake in the company, Musk wrote a series of posts that he believes Twitter doesn’t adhere to the principles of free speech. For years, conservatives, critics of COVID-19 policies, and some libertarians have panned Twitter for banning high-profile individuals and having a double standard when it comes to punishing prominent users who push mainstream viewpoints.
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