Today’s News: December 06, 2021

New York massively expands vaccine mandate

RT –  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the extension of the Covid vaccine mandate to the entire private sector as part of a package of toughened measures that will come into force on December 27.

“NYC is a global leader when it comes to COVID-19 recovery. We’ve proven that with vaccine mandates and incentives, we can beat this virus. Now we’re taking another step towards the future – a private sector employee vaccine mandate,” de Blasio said on Twitter.

Instead of one vaccine dose, the new mandate will require two.

Kids aged 5 to 11 will also need to have proof of vaccination to be able to enjoy indoor dining, entertainment, and fitness.

Last week, city authorities extended their recommendation of indoor mask-wearing to vaccinated residents and announced additional vaccine requirements for those working in childcare and education.

According to NYC Health, 70% of the city’s residents are fully vaccinated, with 77.6% having at least one vaccine dose.

New York City to Mandate Coronavirus Vaccine for All Private Sector Employees

Breitbart –  New York City will mandate the coronavirus vaccine for all private sector employees starting December 27 in an attempt to combat the omicron variant.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the “first in the nation” measure on Monday morning, calling it a preemptive strike against the omicron coronavirus variant and a measure to “maximize vaccination quickly, so we can get ahead of omicron and all the other challenges we are facing right now with COVID.”

“All private-sector employers in New York City will be covered by this vaccine mandate as of Dec. 27,” he added.

Bill de Blasio’s mandate also expands indoor dining, entertainment, and fitness vaccine mandate for children, ages five to 11 years old. Individuals who are between those ages and unvaccinated will reportedly be refused service at restaurants, entertainment venues, and gyms on December 27.

The new measures will also require two vaccine doses, up from one, to be considered fully vaccinated.

Dark Winter Looms For Pennsylvanians As Power Bills Set To Soar

ZeroHedge – Power prices in some parts of Pennsylvania are set to jump as much as 50% beginning this month, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).

“Most Pennsylvania regulated electric utilities are adjusting the price they charge for the generation portion of customers’ bills on December 1 for non-shopping customers, also known as the ‘Price to Compare’ (PTC). The PTC averages 40% to 60% of the customer’s total utility bill. However, this percent varies by the utility and by the level of individual customer usage,” PUC said in a press release.

PUC lists power increases for residential customers. The most significant increase comes from Pike County Light & Power, which serves nearly 5,000 customers, is expected to raise power prices by 50%. The second highest is PPL Corporation, serving about 1.4 million customers in central and eastern parts of the state, which is expected to raise power prices by 26%. 

A PUC spokesperson told Fox News that rising energy prices are due to “market forces.” 

Many Pennsylvanians will be in for a sticker shock this winter as the Northern Hemisphere winter approaches. Customers are already stretched thin with soaring food, fuel, and shelter inflation. It’s a good thing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Tuesday that he would “retire” the “transitory” narrative to explain the inflationary environment that continues to crush the working poor. 

We noted last week that Americans, already preparing for one of the darkest cold seasons in years, have been panic buying cords of firewood and stoves as they seek alternative methods to heat their homes to mitigate soaring power prices. 

Jordan court jails health officials over COVID-19 oxygen deaths

Politicians and local activists say the incident that led to 10 deaths exposed gross negligence in the state health system.

Al Jazeera – A Jordanian court has sentenced five senior health officials to three years in jail for causing the death of 10 COVID-19 patients following an oxygen outage in a big state hospital, state media reported.

The court on Sunday found Abdel Razak al-Khashman, the former director of the state hospital and four of his senior aides responsible for the deaths, the media said.

The patients, who were being treated in the hospital in Salt, a city west of the capital Amman, died in March when staff failed to act after oxygen ran out in a COVID-19 ward for nearly an hour.

The verdict can be appealed within 10 days, the AFP news agency reported.

The disaster, which politicians and local activists said exposed gross negligence in the state health system during a spike in COVID-19 infections, sparked anti-government protests across many cities and provincial towns.

Health Minister Nathir Obeidat resigned hours after the incident and in a public apology, Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh said his government bore full responsibility for the incident.

Shortly after the deaths, King Abdullah II visited the hospital and publicly scolded health officials in the corridor of the hospital, where police were deployed to hold back hundreds of angry relatives and protesters who were encircling the compound.

The royal visit was intended to defuse tensions in a country where anger with the authorities has in the past triggered widespread civil unrest.

Conor McGregor Slams EU, Declares ‘Forced Vaccine Is a War Crime’

Breitbart – UFC legend Conor McGregor has branded “forced” vaccination a “war crime” and slammed the EU and its “lapdogs” in the Irish government.

McGregor, the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion, made the statement after Neale Richmond, a politician from Ireland’s governing Fine Gael party, had tried to needle him over his statement that it was “time to talk about Ireland leaving the European Union” on Twitter by trying to turn his infamous “You’ll do nuttin’” catch-phrase against him.

Report: China Military Spending Surge — Now 50% Larger than India, Japan, Taiwan, South-East Asia Combined

Breitbart – China is determined to match its aggressive military talk in South-East Asia with spending. A report by the Lowy Institute in Australia shows in 2021 it achieved just that as other reports indicate Beijing is looking to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea.

According to the latest Asia Power Index, China’s military financial outlay is now 50 per cent larger than India, Japan, Taiwan, and all 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) combined.

The annual report by the Lowy Institute noted in 2021, the U.S. remained the most powerful country in the Asia-Pacific region, with China coming in second place, after steadily growing influence on the Index in recent years.

“The pandemic has really affected most countries in terms of their ability to shape and respond to their external environment, but the United States has actually gained in its comprehensive power for the first time since 2018,” Hervé Lemahieu, the Lowy Institute’s director of research, told the ABC.

Authorities arrest fugitive parents of suspected Michigan school shooter after manhunt

The Blaze – According to Detroit police, the parents of Oxford High School shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley were arrested early Saturday morning after a citizen spotted their vehicle and relayed the tip to police. Police stated that the couple was found inside a commercial warehouse and appeared to be “hiding” and “distressed.” It is believed that a friend opened the building in question and allowed them to hide inside.

The Crumbleys were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter on Friday for their alleged failure to properly supervise their apparently troubled son Ethan, and for providing him with the firearm, which he then reportedly used to kill four of his fellow students, and wound seven others, during a mass murder on Monday. The parents, James and Jennifer, missed their arraignment on Friday and at that point were considered fugitives by the police, who began a manhunt for the couple. The couple’s attorney, Shannon Smith, stated that the couple had left town because they feared for their safety due to public outcry over the incident, and that they intended to turn themselves in to police.

Suspected Michigan School Shooter, Parents All Housed at Same Jail: Sheriff

Epoch TImes – The alleged Oxford High School shooter and his parents are all being held at the same jail but in separate cells, officials said.

Ethan Crumbley, 15, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of terrorism causing death, seven counts of assault, and firearms charges. Parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said that the three family members are being held in separate sections of the Oakland County Jail after the parents were arrested on Saturday.  They aren’t permitted to communicate with one another, he confirmed.

The three are all separately under suicide watch, out of an abundance of caution, Bouchard added.

“We have nothing to lead us to believe that anybody has any mental health challenges so far,” he said during a news conference. “They indicate no interest or desire to hurt themselves.”

Media Critics Turning on Kamala Harris as Staff Flee to the Exits

Breitbart – It has been a fraught 48-hours for Vice President Kamala Harris. As news broke last Friday that four of her staff are keen to put as much distance between them and their boss as quickly as possible, media outlets at home and abroad lined up to excoriate her job performance.

The London Daily Telegraph led the charge Sunday with an opinion piece querying just what future Harris, a career politician, has in Washington, the most archly political city on the planet.

Columnist Freddy Gray observed Harris has “made such a mess of the various roles she has been given as vice-president – from stopping migration from the Southern border to leading the charge on vaccines – that some figures in Washington are reportedly considering the ‘nuclear option’ of moving her to the Supreme Court and putting a more well-liked vice president in her place in time for the next presidential election.”

He continued by saying one of her biggest problem is that she comes across as a phoney. Gray wrote:

In the endless videos her press team pumps out to make her seem authentic, she comes across as anything but: a recent film of her feigning wonder at the stars with a group of children went viral for all the wrong reasons.

In October, the White House released another somewhat emetic video showing Biden giving Harris flowers for her birthday, but such stunts can’t hide the fact that relations between Team Biden and Team Harris are not at all rosey. The pair are giving fewer and fewer public appearances together as their first term goes on, perhaps because the President’s staff recognise that Harris is an increasingly toxic figure

Stumbling eagerly from one disappointment to the next is just one of the problems for Harris.

Fox News contributor Joe Concha branded her office “a sinking ship” after news broke another member of her staff, chief spokesperson Symone Sanders, announced she will move elsewhere by year’s end, as Breitbart News reported.

Parents Across Country Sue Schools Over Clandestine Gender Transitions

The Daily Signal – The lawsuit filed Nov. 17 by two public interest law firms against the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin over the clandestine social transition of a 12-year-old girl marks the latest in a series of cases where school officials allegedly initiated social gender transitions without parental consent.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, one of the public-interest firms suing the Waukesha-area school district, is also involved in litigation against the Madison Metropolitan School District. But one attorney involved in the litigation tells the Daily Caller News Foundation that policies and guidelines that are prompting schools to carry out clandestine transitions are in place across the country.

“[T]his sort of thing is metastasizing like a cancer underneath the surface around the country,” Vernadette Broyles, president and general counsel of the Child and Parent Rights Campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Broyles represents Jeff and January Littlejohn in a lawsuit that alleges that Leon County Schools in Florida began helping their daughter transition without their consent after their daughter experienced gender dysphoria during the spring and summer of 2020.

Mrs. Littlejohn told the DCNF she emailed her daughter’s math teacher, explaining that they “weren’t affirming at home,” but that they “didn’t feel like we could stop our daughter from using a nickname.”

However, weeks later, Mrs. Littlejohn told the DCNF, her daughter made a shocking revelation while being picked up from school, saying, “Mom. I had a meeting today about my name, and they asked me which restroom I wanted to use.”

“I immediately was very upset, I was confused. I asked her to elaborate. What are you talking about, I don’t know anything about a meeting. And so I immediately emailed the guidance counselor, and I was called back with the assistant principal, which I thought, that’s also odd,” Mrs. Littlejohn told the DCNF.

“And they then told me my daughter was now protected by law under a nondiscrimination law, and they could not give me any information, because my daughter, who was 13 at the time, had to be the one to authorize my notification or attendance at the meeting,” she said, adding that when she initially called the school, they would not even confirm such a meeting had taken place.

A guide for employees of Leon County Schools in addressing LGBTQ students shared with the DCNF by the Child and Parent Rights Campaign includes the question, “A student has exhibited behavior in school leading administrators or teachers to believe the student is LGBTQ+. Should the parents or legal guardians be notified?”

“No. Outing a student, especially to parents, can be very dangerous to the student’s health and well-being. Some students are not able to be out at home because their parents are unaccepting of LGBTQ+ people out,” the “LCS Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Nonconforming and Questioning Support Guide” states. “As many as 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ+, many of whom have been rejected by their families for being LGBTQ+. Outing students to their parents can literally make them homeless.”

After weeks of communications that failed to resolve the situation, the Littlejohns, backed by the Child and Parent Rights Campaign, filed suit in federal court on Oct 18.

CDC Director: FDA in Discussions to Authorize Omicron-Specific Vaccine

New variant has been found in about 15 states, director says

Epoch Times – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director confirmed on Dec. 5 that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is discussing how to streamline the authorization of an Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine.

During an interview with ABC News, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson have told the agency that “they can all do this fairly quickly within three months … but then you have FDA approval.”

The FDA, she said, is “already in conversations about streamlining the authorization of this, of an Omicron-specific vaccine, partially because much of the vaccine is actually exactly the same, and really, it would just be that mRNA code that would have to change.”

Without elaborating on the nature of the discussions, Walensky said that “those conversations are ongoing, and certainly, [the] FDA will move swiftly and CDC will move swiftly right thereafter.”

Should an Omicron-specific vaccine be developed, it’s not clear if the CDC or FDA will recommend that shot over the common COVID-19 vaccines that are currently in use.

About 15 U.S. states so far have confirmed at least one case of Omicron, Walensky told ABC News, adding that currently, “we know we have several dozen cases and we’re following them closely.” The Delta variant makes up most COVID-19 cases, she said.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin have confirmed cases so far, according to an Epoch Times analysis.

Walensky in her interview also didn’t make mention of reports from South Africa and Israel that indicated that Omicron may present milder symptoms than the Delta variant. A preprint study released over the weekend said the variant might have picked up genetic material from the common cold.

COVID-19 Outbreak Reported on US Cruise Ship Despite Fully Vaccinated Passengers

Epoch Times – At least 10 cases of COVID-19 have been reported on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship disembarking in New Orleans, officials said.

All of the crew members and passengers taking part in the cruise have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. The agency didn’t reveal the conditions of those who were infected with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

“Governor John Bel Edwards, the Louisiana Department of Health, the City of New Orleans, and the Port of New Orleans are aware and working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to initiate existing COVID-19 agreements and protocols with the cruise line,” the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement.

The Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship had left New Orleans on Nov. 28, making stops in Mexico, Honduras, and Belize. The ship was set to reach New Orleans on Dec. 5, according to its itinerary. Authorities with the department of health stated that more than 3,200 people were on board the ship.

Norwegian Cruise Lines “has been adhering to appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols as new cases and exposures have been identified aboard this vessel,” according to the statement.

Bob Dole, Former Republican Presidential Candidate, Dies at 98

Epoch Times – Bob Dole, a former Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas and the 1996 Republican presidential candidate, has died at age 98, his family confirmed on Dec. 5.

“Senator Robert Joseph Dole died early this morning in his sleep. At his death, at age 98, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years,” his family said in a statement through the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.

Earlier in 2021, it was announced that Dole was being treated for advanced lung cancer. President Joe Biden visited Dole shortly before his diagnosis in February.

“While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges of their own,” Dole said in a statement in February.

For 30 years, Dole was a senator for Kansas. In 1976, he was President Gerald Ford’s vice presidential nominee. The pair were defeated by then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and his running mate, Walter Mondale.

Dole, who was injured while fighting in World War II, was the Senate majority leader from 1985 to 1987 and again from 1995 to 1996. In 1996, Dole clinched the Republican nomination for the presidency, but he was ultimately defeated by incumbent President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

Writing in his memoir, “One Soldier’s Story,” Dole said that his experiences in World War II defined his life.

Man Bursts Into Flames After Being Tased by Police

How “nonlethal” are stun guns, really?

Futurism – A New York man is in critical condition after dousing himself with hand sanitizer and being set ablaze when a police officer used a Taser on him, Albany’s Times-Union newspaper reports — a grisly incident that raises deep questions about law enforcement’s wielding of high tech weaponry against the public.

The bizarre encounter took place on Halloween weekend when Jason Jones, a 29-year-old man from Catskill, New York, walked into the village’s police precinct. Cops told the Times-Union that Jones was familiar to them and said that he “appeared intoxicated” and was the one to start a confrontation. Village of Catskill Police Chief James Darling told the newspaper that officers “were afraid [Jones] was going to hurt himself, and that’s what started it.”

According to the Times-Union and other local news sources, police have not yet revealed the details surrounding the incident, such as whether they saw Jones pour hand sanitizer on himself or if he did that before arriving at the station.

Jones’ lawyer Kevin Luibrand told Hudson’s Register-Star newspaper that he has requested all documents and security camera footage from the Village of Catskill Police Department to get to the bottom of what happened to his client. Jones is currently being treated at Syracuse’s Upstate University Hospital in the burn unit.

CNN Fires Anchor Chris Cuomo Following Indefinite Suspension

Epoch TImes – CNN on Saturday terminated one of its top anchors, Chris Cuomo, after having indefinitely suspended him earlier this week.

The suspension was announced on Tuesday to review Chris Cuomo’s conduct over materials that suggested he was more involved than he had admitted in trying to help his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, amid sexual harassment allegations against the former governor earlier this year.

The materials were released on Nov. 29 by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, whose office found that Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women while he was governor.

CNN was reviewing the new materials before it decided to suspend Chris Cuomo and then ultimately fire him.

CNN hired a law firm for the review. The firm recommended Chris Cuomo’s termination and CNN chief Jeff Zucker informed the anchor of the decision on Saturday.

In a statement, CNN said, “We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately.

“While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”

Woman’s New Accusation Against Chris Cuomo Led to CNN Firing: Lawyer

Epoch TImes – Chris Cuomo, who was fired by CNN on Saturday, is facing an allegation of sexual misconduct, according to a lawyer who is representing a client accusing the former anchor.

Debra Katz, the attorney, told The New York Times that she contacted CNN last week about a client with an accusation of misconduct by Cuomo. Katz also represents Charlotte Bennett, who accused Cuomo’s brother, Andrew Cuomo, of misconduct in a separate case.

Katz told other news outlets on Sunday that the revelation led to his firing on Saturday.

“Hearing the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo’s on-air words and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, my client retained counsel to report his serious sexual misconduct against her to CNN,” Katz said in a statement Sunday.

A CNN spokesperson, speaking to the NY Times, did not disclose exactly why Cuomo was fired.

“Based on the report we received regarding Chris’s conduct with his brother’s defense, we had cause to terminate,” a representative for CNN said over the weekend. “When new allegations came to us this week, we took them seriously, and saw no reason to delay taking immediate action.”

Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for Chris Cuomo, denied any misconduct claims, characterizing them as anonymous. The woman who is accusing Cuomo has not been identified.

“These apparently anonymous allegations are not true,” Goldberg told the NY Times, adding that Cuomo “fully stands by his on-air statements about his connection to these issues, both professionally and in a profoundly personal way. If the goal in making these false and unvetted accusations was to see Mr. Cuomo punished by CNN, that may explain his unwarranted termination.”

But Katz told news outlets that her unnamed client was “disgusted by Chris Cuomo’s on-air statements in response to the allegations made against his brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo” when Chris Cuomo addressed the scandal in March.

6th Circuit Court Rules Against Biden Administration in OSHA Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit

Epoch TImes – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has denied the federal government’s motion to transfer the lawsuit challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement to a different court, while also rejecting a White House bid to dissolve a stay on the mandate, delivering a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to press ahead with implementation.

In a Dec. 3 ruling, the 6th Circuit Court denied the government’s motion to transfer the case to the 5th Circuit and the D.C. Circuit, while also rejecting as “moot” the Biden administration’s attempt to overturn a hold on the mandate.

OSHA on Nov. 5 published an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that would require private employers with 100 or more employees to impose a mandatory vaccinate-or-test policy. Under the rule, unvaccinated workers also would have to wear masks inside the workplace, with violators facing potential penalties of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per incident.

Twitter Slaps ‘Unsafe’ Label on Abstract in American Heart Association Journal

The abstract expressed concern over an elevated risk of heart disease resulting from mRNA vaccines

Epoch Times – On Thursday, Twitter applied a warning label to a post of a study abstract from the American Heart Association website AHA Journals that expresses concern over mRNA vaccines and heart disease.

The abstract, published Nov. 8, is titled “Abstract 10712: mRNA COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: a Warning.” The author outlines evidence that mRNA vaccines contribute to factors that predict an elevated risk of Acute Coronary Syndrome, which can lead to “inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for the observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination.”

The abstract was written by Steven Gundry, MD at the International Heart & Lung Institute in California.

A link to the abstract was posted on Twitter on Thursday by Marina Medvin, a trial attorney and opinion columnist. The post was flagged by Twitter’s system for screening and disclaiming content perceived as harmful.

When attempting to open the link, one is redirected to another Twitter page with the warning: “this link may be unsafe.”

Previously, this warning system was only used in the case of spam, malware risks, and other deceptive means of soliciting clicks or information. However, its scope has been expanded to include “violent and misleading content that could lead to real world harm” and “certain categories of content

Consumers’ Research Warns US Governors About BlackRock’s Retirement Fund Investments in China

Epoch Times – Consumers’ Research, the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, sent a Dec. 2 letter (pdf) to ten U.S. governors warning them about the reliance of their states’ pension funds on BlackRock’s strong ties to China.

BlackRock, under its CEO Larry Fink, is the first foreign-owned company to receive a license to operate in China’s $3.5 trillion mutual fund industry, Forbes reported.

Consumers’ Research executive director William Hild sent the warning to the governors of Washington, Florida, New York, Nevada, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Montana, Nebraska, and West Virginia—the ten states with the most investments in BlackRock.

Washington has invested the most money, with $13 billion of its state pension fund invested in BlackRock.

The letter, coming after the findings in the 2021 Report to Congress, was sent to “raise awareness among American consumers that BlackRock is taking their money and betting on China,” said Hild.

“In so doing they are putting American security at risk, along with billions of dollars from U.S. investors.”

“What we’ve seen is that while BlackRock is virtue signaling in the United States, they’re aiding our adversaries with American pension dollars,” said Hild.

“BlackRock’s unabashed gusto for Chinese markets flies in the face of concerns about China’s ascendant standing in the world, its authoritarian model of government, and its ambitions to supplant the U.S. as the pre-eminent world power.”

Fink, who has a cozy relationship with the regime and has been labeled a “trusted partner” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and has been acting as one of their top foreign economic advisers since the early 2000s.

In a March 2020 letter to shareholders, Fink said he continues “to firmly believe China will be one of the biggest opportunities for BlackRock over the long term, both for asset managers and investors,” the WSJ reported.

Hild has accused Fink of “choosing China over America,” by acting against the interests of his own shareholders and the security of his own nation.

“We cannot let executives like Larry Fink try and tell Americans how to live while simultaneously cozying up to one of the world’s leading human rights abusers,” he added.

WHO: ‘No Evidence’ Boosting Entire Population Offers Greater Protection to Healthy Individuals

Epoch Times – A top World Health Organization (WHO) official said there is “no evidence” to suggest that CCP virus booster doses would offer “greater protection” to healthy people.

Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergency director, questioned the logic of some countries trying to produce more booster doses to vaccinate anyone aged 18 and older.

“Right now, there is no evidence that I’m aware of that would suggest that boosting the entire population is going to necessarily provide any greater protection for otherwise healthy individuals against hospitalization and death,” Ryan said.

“The real risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death lies, in particularly, in at-risk and vulnerable individuals,” he said, “who do require protection against all variants of COVID-19,” the illness caused by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus. Health agencies around the world generally consider older individuals, those with compromised immune systems, and people who work in high-risk settings to be vulnerable.

The United Kingdom recently announced that it secured 114 million vaccine doses for 2022 and 2023. Those doses will be provided to everyone aged 18 and older by the end of January 2022.

On Monday, President Joe Biden called on Americans aged 18 and older to get a booster shot due to the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in southern Africa that has been detected in at least five U.S. states for far.

South African health officials said in interviews this week that those who have contracted the Omicron variant, named by the WHO last week, are presenting “extremely mild” symptoms. There have been no deaths associated with the COVID-19 strain, which officials described as heavily mutated, and WHO officials cautioned is not enough data so far to determine whether it can cause more severe disease or breach the protection afforded by natural immunity or vaccination.

Books Depicting Graphic Sex Scenes Back in Virginia School Library

Epoch Times – Books containing extremely graphic sex scenes and pictures were returned to a Virginia school library last week.

The books—”Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison—are among many books containing sexual content that have been banned from school libraries in several states, including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and Minnesota.

In Florida and Texas, police have launched criminal investigations into the availability of the books in school libraries after receiving complaints from parents.

Both books were chosen to receive the American Library Association’s Alex Awards, which are given to 10 books annually with “special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18.”

The Fairfax County School Board (FCPS), which oversees the largest public school system in Virginia, has ruled the books are appropriate and serve the needs of LGBTQ+ students in search of diverse reading material they can relate to.

Its decision was based on a review committee—made up of parents, students, and school officials—appointed to assess the books.

The committee unanimously recommended the books be returned to the school library.

The books contain such graphic material that when parent Stacy Langton began reading excerpts from them—during a public comment session at a Sept. 23 school board meeting—school board members interrupted her and told her the content wasn’t appropriate for public reading at the meeting because “there were children in the audience.”

At its Dec. 2 meeting, the Fairfax County School Board, got an earful of public comments on the issue from parents who spoke for, and against, the books.

Jane Miscavage, a school librarian and also a parent, thanked the committee for voting to return the books.

“I’m glad that the committee’s found what I did, that these books have the potential to reach marginalized students, who may not otherwise see themselves in FCPS’s 3-million-book collection,” she said.

70 Children in Maryland Received Expired COVID-19 Vaccine Doses, County Says

Epoch Times – About 70 children in Maryland’s Prince George’s County received expired vaccine doses, according to health officials, as they recommended the children get revaccinated for COVID-19.

The Prince George’s County Health Department said it informed the families of those 70 children aged 5 to 11 that they “received expired first or second doses of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine at the County’s Sports and Learning Complex” on Nov. 26.

The county blamed the incident on a “vaccine storage error,” which occurred when 300 Pfizer doses were transported “from a provider that was unable to administer the doses before they expired on November 24.”

A vendor at the Sports and Learning Complex clinic administered most of the transferred doses before they expired. But 70 remaining doses were not discarded and were mistakenly stored in a refrigerator with other, viable vaccine doses, the country said.

Those remaining doses that had expired were then “mistakenly placed on a tray with viable doses” before they were injected into children on Nov. 26, officials said.

The department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Maryland Department of Health recommend they get re-vaccinated, according to a news release issued by the county.

Furthermore, the county health agency claimed there is “no health risk” from receiving the expired Pfizer vaccine but said that “those doses are likely to be less effective at protecting against COVID-19.”

“We deeply regret the error and we apologize for the concern and inconvenience this has caused families,”  George L. Askew, a Prince George’s County health official. “As a pediatrician, I want to assure parents that receiving an expired COVID-19 vaccine dose or receiving a replacement dose does not endanger your child’s health.”

Omicron Variant and Vaccine Resistance

Mercola – Another SARS-CoV-2 variant dubbed Omicron has reportedly arisen in fully “vaccinated” patients in Botswana. Handfuls of cases have also emerged in other areas of the world.

In response, Japan, Israel and Morocco have closed their borders to all foreign travelers. The U.S., the U.K., Canada and the European Union have banned travelers from southern Africa specifically. Australia has delayed its reopening plans and China has announced a “zero-tolerance approach” to the new variant.

Fear over Omicron is likely unjustified, as it appears far milder than previous strains. Primary symptoms of infection include extreme fatigue for a couple of days, headache, body aches, scratchy throat and intermittent dry cough. No severe cases have been identified.

While the mass vaccination campaign appears to be driving the rapid mutation of the virus, governments around the world continue to double down on this failed strategy.

According to National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, Omicron might evade both monoclonal antibodies and COVID shot-induced antibodies, but he insists getting the COVID shot (if unvaccinated) or a booster if “fully vaccinated” is your best bet

ER Doctor: Omicron May Provide Natural Immunity With Mild Symptoms

Epoch Times – Dr. Omar Hamada on Dec. 1 said that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may provide natural immunity without inducing severe illness, as the symptoms so far resemble more of a “mild, common cold” in South Africa.

In an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” the emergency room doctor and former U.S. Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel said that even though “we’re seeing an uptick in [the] number of people affected, the severity of disease seems to be, at this point, minimal.”

“If the infectivity is greater, but the virulence or severity is less, this may be actually something good in terms of getting people immune to it without necessarily having to depend on a vaccine that’s not incredibly effective,” Hamada stated.

On Dec. 3 the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Omicron has been detected in 38 countries, up from 23 countries two days prior.

The Omicron variant has also been reported in 11 U.S. states as of Dec. 4, including 15 cases in vaccinated individuals.

One of the cases in the United States so far was confirmed to have recovered from COVID-19 and have natural immunity.

Being mRNA-based, both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines trigger the body to recognize and attack the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus’s spike protein.

Because the Omicron variant has “approximately two dozen mutations in that spike protein,” according to Hamada, the effectiveness of current vaccines against the new variant remains to be seen.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the Biden administration, stated in a Friday briefing that it would “take a while” to know “what the impact is going to be globally and for people who are infected with Omicron.”

“We absolutely have community spread in this country,” Fauci told Bloomberg TV on Friday. “We don’t know how many of them, but there’s no doubt there’s community spread.”

While Omicron is spreading rapidly globally, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged reporters to focus on the Delta variant for the time being during the White House briefing.

Toxicologist Warns Against COVID Jabs

Mercola  -Janci Chunn Lindsay, Ph.D., a molecular biologist and toxicologist, has called for an immediate halt to COVID-19 mRNA and DNA vaccines due to multiple safety concerns  There’s credible concern that the COVID jabs will cross-react with syncytin (a retroviral envelope protein) and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that may impair fertility and reproductive outcomes  In the case of the COVID shots, important animal studies that help ascertain toxic and systemic effects were not done. We’re now seeing danger signals that are not being heeded. Preliminary safety results of mRNA COVID shots used in pregnant women, published in April 2021, revealed an 82% miscarriage rate when the jab was administered during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy  CDC data reveal more than 300 children between the ages of 12 and 18 have died from myocarditis, a now-recognized side effect of the COVID jab, yet the shot is now authorized for children as young as 5  Since the COVID gene therapies do not prevent infection, but only lessen symptoms, they are actually a treatment, not a prevention. And there are far safer and more effective treatments available, including nebulized peroxide, ozone therapy, and hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin regimens.

COVID-19 a Pandemic of Fear ‘Manufactured’ by Authorities: Yale Epidemiologist

Epoch Times – The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of fear, manufactured by individuals who were in the nominal positions of authority as the virus began to spread across the globe last year, according to Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch.

In an appearance on Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, argued that by and large, what has characterized the entire CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has been a “degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

“Overall, I’d say that we’ve had a pandemic of fear. And fear has affected almost everybody, whereas the infection has affected relatively few,” said Risch.

“By and large, it’s been a very selected pandemic, and predictable. It was very distinguished between young versus old, healthy versus chronic disease people. So we quickly learned who was at risk for the pandemic and who wasn’t.

“However, the fear was manufactured for everybody. And that’s what’s characterized the whole pandemic is that degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

Risch has authored more than 300 original peer-reviewed publications and was formerly a member of the board of editors for the American Journal of Epidemiology.

 

EXCLUSIVE… Lawrence Sellin: Evidence Indicates COVID-19 is a Designed Bioweapon with a Toxic Structure that MAY BE REPLICATED IN VACCINES

Gateway Pundit – A previous Gateway Pundit article identified two “smoking guns” supporting the conclusion that COVID-19 was created in a laboratory.

First, a de facto scientific recipe for the laboratory creation of COVID-19 was described in the 2018 research grant application to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) submitted by scientists who directly collaborated with the “bat woman” Zheng-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The research proposal explicitly states that bat coronaviruses, collected in southern China by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, would be isolated and genetically sequenced, particularly the spike proteins, which are the binding elements initiating infection.

It was further proposed that spike proteins demonstrating “high risk” for human infection would be artificially combined with other bat coronavirus “backbones,” creating entirely new and potentially dangerous coronaviruses.

The second smoking gun in the DARPA grant application was the artificial insertion of furin polybasic cleavage sites, short sequences of amino acids e.g. proline-arginine-arginine-alanine or PRRA, long-known to increase infectivity and lethality of coronaviruses.

The enzyme furin is ubiquitous in the human body, found in multiple organ systems including lungs, heart, kidneys, brain and blood vessels.

The PRRA sequence found in COVID-19, does not exist in any of hundreds of close bat coronaviruses relatives from which COVID-19 could have evolved.

The 2018 DARPA research application proposed to artificially insert furin polybasic cleavage sites, like PRRA, into low-risk bat coronaviruses and then testing the ability of those laboratory-created viruses to infect human cells.

That application was ultimately rejected by DARPA because it involved dangerous “gain of function” experiments creating new human-infecting viruses, which also have the potential for dual use as bioweapons.

It is important to note that the section of the COVID-19 genetic code (CGG-CGG) that produces the “RR” segment of the PRRA sequence is extremely rare.

The two tandem CGG codons do not appear anywhere else in the COVID-19 genetic code, nor does it exist in that context in any close bat coronavirus relative of COVID-19.

Thus, CGG-CGG is a unique marker both as an indicator of its laboratory origin and its potential role as a designed feature of the disease process.

According to a 2020 scientific article, the COVID-19 furin polybasic cleavage site (PRRA) and its surrounding structures may be far more toxic than first realized.

The approximately 20 amino acids surrounding COVID-19’s furin polybasic cleavage site possess sequence and structural elements comparable to those of Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).

SEB acts as a “superantigen” and immune system activator stimulating the release large amounts of cytokines, often called “cytokine storm” and capable of producing multi-organ hyperinflammation similar to toxic shock syndrome.

The authors also state that COVID-19 mutations strengthen its “superantigen” character.

COVID Shots Are the Deadliest ‘Vaccines’ in Medical History

Mercola – Data suggest 1 in 317 boys aged 16 to 17 will get myocarditis from the COVID shots, and after a third booster, that number may be even higher.

VAERS reporting is likely underreported by a factor of 41. Since there are over 8,000 domestic deaths reported to VAERS, and 98% of those deaths are “excess deaths,” this suggests that as many as 300,000 Americans may have died from the COVID shots thus far.

Calculations based on government data from 35% of the world’s population suggest we’re killing approximately 411 people per million doses on average. Moderna and Pfizer are both two-dose regimens, which pushes this to 822 deaths per million fully vaccinated. And that’s just the short-term mortality. We still have no concept of how these shots might impact mortality and morbidity in the longer term.

An Italian investigation found that if the COVID mortality definition were changed to only include those cases where there were no preexisting comorbidities, the mortality from COVID comes out to just 2.9% of the overall reported number. This suggests that if a COVID death was redefined to being a death actually “from” COVID rather than “with” COVID, the death count could be substantially smaller than 760,000 deaths and may be smaller than the number killed by the vaccines.

The deadliest vaccine ever made is the smallpox vaccine, which killed 1 in 1 million vaccinated people. The COVID shots kills 822 per million fully vaccinated, making it more than 800 times deadlier than the deadliest vaccine in human history

Critical Race Theory Serves to Usher in Communist Agenda in America, Says Philosophy Professor

Epoch Times – Critical race theory has become the philosophic foundation supporting a Marxist communist agenda sweeping American society, according to philosophy professor Jason Hill.

Acting as racial managers or agents for African-Americans, practitioners of critical race theory (CRT) are after power and aim to “destroy all those foundational values, all those codified values, and principles that we use in times of crisis,” Hill said in a recent interview with Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

Critical race theorists “want to first erase personal identity, then erase history, erase those codified values to usher in a new, what I would call, Marxist communist agenda in our society,” he added.

CRT’s view of America as systemically racist is “a misperception of reality,” Hill said. This central proposition—that the oppression of African-Americans still persists today—is then used to justify CRT practitioners speaking on behalf of all black Americans, depriving the community of their own agency, according to Hill. But these activists don’t actually care about uplifting the black population, he added.