‘Milestone’ surgery sees pig kidneys transplanted into human
RT – Doctors said the gene-edited organs functioned normally in the host body, potentially clearing the way for wider clinical trials with living patients
Surgeons in the US have announced the successful transplantation of kidneys from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead man’s body. The organs created urine for three days and showed no signs of being rejected by the host’s immune system before the study concluded.
The procedure, which was described in an American Journal of Transplantation paper on Thursday, marks another step towards overcoming major challenges to human xenotransplantation, or cross-species tissue transfer. It is thought that such implants could help solve the chronic shortage of donor organs.
Doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham conducted the surgery on September 30 last year on Jim Parsons, a 57-year-old man who had been declared brain dead after a motorcycle accident. After removing Parsons’ own kidneys while his blood was still circulating, the team inserted the pig organs. Within half an hour, they began filtering blood and producing urine.
“This game-changing moment in the history of medicine represents a paradigm shift and a major milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, which is arguably the best solution to the organ shortage crisis,” lead surgeon Dr. Jayme Locke said in a statement.
“We have bridged critical knowledge gaps and obtained the safety and feasibility data necessary to begin a clinical trial in living humans with end-stage kidney failure disease,” she added.
France to Impose COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate but Loosen Some Restrictions
Epoch Times – A new COVID-19 vaccine pass will go into effect in France on Jan. 24 as planned, severely restricting the public lives of people who have not decided to be vaccinated against the CCP virus. At the same time, some restrictions will loosen.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday that from Feb. 2, working from home at least three days per week will no longer be mandated, and there will be no more outdoor mask mandate. On the same day, caps on patrons at sports and entertainment venues will be lifted.
The government will allow nightclubs to open starting Feb. 16. Also, people will be allowed to eat popcorn and other snacks in cinemas.
Castex said France’s fifth wave of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, is showing signs of waning but pressure on hospitals remains high, which is why the government wants to keep current restrictions in place for 12 more days.
Meanwhile, a vaccine pass will go into effect on Jan. 24, severely restricting the public movements of people who are over 16 and unvaccinated—they will be barred from domestic flights and interregional trains, restaurants and bars, sports events, cinemas, theaters, and other venues.
Currently, unvaccinated people can enter these venues if they show results of a recent negative COVID-19 test. That will no longer be the case.
The French parliament gave approval to the new vaccine pass measure on Jan. 16 after weeks of contentious debate. It still needs final approval by the Constitutional Court, which will release its assessment on Jan. 21.
Former NBA Star Warned Over Social Media Post Calling for Aussie State Government to Be Voted Out
Censorship or Technicality?
Epoch Times – Victoria’s election watchdog has issued a warning to Australian NBA legend Andrew Bogut after he posted a video on social media calling for the public to vote out the state government as well as independent members of the upper house.
Bogut, who played in the National Basketball Association from 2005 to 2019 for teams such as the Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and Los Angeles Lakers, has been an outspoken critic of the Victorian state government and its handling of the pandemic.
In October, Bogut posted on Instagram an election-style video that included images of state Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, Labor MP Adem Somyurek, as well as crossbench members of the upper house, Fiona Patten (Reason Party), Samantha Ratnam (Greens), and Andy Meddick (Animal Justice).
The video was posted amid debate over the contentious Pandemic Management Bill and concluded with the words “vote them out,” directing people to a website by the same name.
The votes of Patten, Ratnam, and Meddick were crucial for the Andrews government to pass the Pandemic Management Bill, which set up a permanent structure for the government to deal with future pandemics, but also included sweeping powers and penalties.
Bogut revealed on social media on Jan. 18 that he received a letter from the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) in December saying his post was “intended or likely to affect voting in an election.”
“The VEC has assessed the post and determined that it likely constitutes an electoral advertisement, handbill, pamphlet or notice, as defined by Section 3 of the Electoral Act, as it contains electoral matter,” the letter read.
The body said the post needed to include the “name and address of the person who authorised the electoral advertisement” and called for immediate corrective action.
The VEC stated that if no changes were made, Bogut could be liable for a $1,817 fine (as an individual) or formal prosecution.
Bogut told The Epoch Times on Jan. 20 that he was part of a group of 30 to 40 individuals who all shared the same video and that he was the only one to receive the letter.
“It could be because of my following … there’s over a million people when you combine all the accounts together, the podcast, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Gettr,” he said.
The former NBA player has received legal advice telling him there was nothing “legally binding” in the VEC’s actions and that he was not breaking the law. But he was warned that he was “on the list” and down the line the issue could be a “thorn in his side.”
Austrian Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly to Introduce Mandatory Vaccination for All Adults
Breitbart – In a vote of 137 to just 33, the Austrian parliament has overwhelmingly voted to make vaccination against the Wuhan coronavirus mandatory for all residents over the age of 18.
The Austrian parliament voted to approve the new mandatory vaccination policity on Thursday night, which will include all adults over the age of 18 who have their primary or secondary residency in the country.
American Airlines plane turns around mid-flight over mask row
BBC – An American Airlines plane travelling from Miami to London has had to turn back because a passenger refused to wear a face mask, the airline has said.
American Airlines said flight AAL38 with 129 passengers on board returned to Miami where police were waiting.
They escorted a woman in her 40s off the plane, reports say.
She has been placed on a list of people barred from flying with American Airlines, pending further investigation, the airline said.
The Wednesday flight turned around about an hour into its journey, according to tracking service FlightAware.
The woman was sitting in first class, another passenger Steve Freeman told Miami’s Local 10 news.
25 Federal Agencies Tracking Employees With Religious Exemption Requests
Epoch Times – At least 25 federal agencies have implemented a system to track religious exemption requests for mandated vaccines, according to a review of Federal Register notices by The Epoch Times.
The agencies include the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, the Treasury, the Social Security Administration, the Federal Election Commission.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative group, earlier this week found that 19 agencies were either considering or have already implemented the tracking system. The group warned that the system may be a test pilot plan to monitor all federal workers.
An Epoch Time review of Federal Register notices identified six additional agencies and confirmed that a total of 25 are actively tracking religious exemption requests from employees of federal agencies along with any contractors, consultants, interns, and volunteers associated with them.
Epoch Times – America’s largest teacher unions have funneled millions of dollars to divisive political movements as well as mostly Democratic political candidates, using the pandemic and their political influence to advance policies outside of education—including election reform and COVID-19 policy.
This was among several findings in a new investigation into America’s two largest teacher unions focusing on how the unions “reward insiders, promote political activism, and push a divisive agenda.”
The report reveals that two of the largest and most powerful U.S. teacher unions; the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), have been using the COVID-19 pandemic to expand both their influence and planned agenda for radical changes to public schools, including pushing critical race theory and transactivism policies while simultaneously dismantling education standards by abandoning basic skills like math and reading.
In an interview with EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program, Eric Eggers, vice president of the Government Accountability Institute, which investigated this issue, said the unions have been funneling millions of dollars into political campaigns over the years while simultaneously increasing their political influence.
“I think the pandemic has exposed how powerful the unions have become,” Eggers said. “And with that power, you know, there’s the old phrase: ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.’ I think, unfortunately, unions are now actively exploring ways to leverage pandemic era education and the incredible influx of capital that’s going to schools, going to teachers, going to unions, in fact.
“So there’s a reimagining of what it may look like to have a post-COVID—and to be quite honest, I think a post-2020—social justice racial-awakening education environment,” Eggers said, noting that a number of phrases in resolutions that have been passed by both the AFT and NEA, and internal communications viewed by Eggers show that “one of the things that they say they want to do is move away from ‘a culture of whiteness’ and into stuff that emphasizes more equity.”
Oklahoma to Consider Holding Gold and Silver, Removing Income Taxes
Activist Post – An Oklahoma state representative introduced legislation this week that would enable the State Treasurer to protect Sooner State funds from inflation and financial risk by holding physical gold and silver.
Introduced by Rep. Sean Roberts, HB 3681 would include physical gold and silver, owned directly, to the list of permissible investments that the State Treasurer can hold. Currently, Oklahoma money managers are largely relegated to investing in low-yield, dollar-denominated debt instruments.
Other than Ohio, no state is currently known to hold any precious metals, even as inflation and financial turmoil accelerate globally. Yes, Oklahoma’s own investment guidance prescribes safety of principal as a primary objective for investment of public funds.
“Currency debasement caused by federal monetary and fiscal policies has created an imminent risk of a substantial erosion in the value of Oklahoma’s investment holdings,” said Jp Cortez, policy director of the Sound Money Defense League.
“With most taxpayer funds currently held in debt paper carrying a negative real return, Oklahoma would be prudent to hedge today’s serious inflation risks with an allocation to the monetary metals.”
HB 3681 simply adds the authority to hold physical gold and silver bullion directly – and in a manner that does not assume the counterparty and default risks involved with other state holdings. Rep. Roberts’ measure does not grant authority to buy mining stocks, futures contracts, or other gold derivatives.
Additionally, HB 3681 prescribes safekeeping and storage requirements. The State Treasurer would hold the state’s bullion in a qualifying, insured, and independently audited depository, free of any encumbrances and physically segregated from other holdings.
Oklahoma has become a sound money hotspot, already earning 11th place on the 2021 Sound Money Index.
WND – Buried on page 403 of the legislation, the provision requires “advance drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” to be built into all new cars.
This technology will be able to “passively monitor the performance” of all drivers, suggesting this system will be on at all times.
f the data indicate the driver is “impaired,” the system will “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation,” according to the legislation.
The measure is set to take effect in 2025.
Epoch TImes – Four prominent scientists who played key roles in shaping the public narrative around the origin of COVID-19 received substantial increases in grant money from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, in the subsequent two years, a review of funding data by The Epoch Times has found.
Three of these scientists—Kristian Andersen, Robert Garry, and Michael Farzan—were advisers to a teleconference organized by Fauci held on Feb. 1, 2020, in response to increasing public questions about the origin of the virus.
The scientists were also instrumental in the publication of Proximal Origin, a highly influential paper that promoted a natural origins theory for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and has been frequently cited by the government and media.
Emails released under Freedom of Information Act requests, showed that the scientists had told the senior members of Fauci’s teleconference that they were 60 to 80 percent sure that COVID-19 had come out of a lab.
School District Near Philadelphia Apologizes for Teacher Taping Mask to Student’s Face
Epoch Times – A Philadelphia-area public school district has apologized after a photo of a teacher taping a mask to a student’s face went viral on social media.
The image in question was first posted on Jan. 17 in the Facebook group North Penn Stronger Together. It appears to show a teacher applying tape to a mask on the face of a student, who was seated in a classroom.
The post alleged the photo shows “a Pennfield Middle School co-teacher taping a mask to a child’s face” and demanded an explanation from the North Penn School District, as well as from the Democrats who were reelected to the district’s school board in November 2021.
“Pro-mask or anti-mask, I hope we can all agree that taping masks to children’s faces crosses the LINE. This was not a joke for the child or the parents,” said North Penn Stronger Together, which was founded in support of Republicans seeking to unseat the Democratic school board members last fall.
In a statement released on Jan. 19, the school district said it was an isolated incident and didn’t involve malicious intent.
“An image taken in one of our classrooms last week and circulating on social media does not represent the universal values that the North Penn School District strives to instill in both our students and staff,” the district said. “After an immediate investigation, it was determined that while the incident was isolated and no malice was intended, the actions of the teacher were entirely inappropriate and unacceptable, no matter the context.”
The teacher and the student haven’t been identified, and it’s not known when the photo was taken. The school district said “all personnel and student matters are confidential” and that it could provide “no further information.”
The photo has also triggered a social media skirmish between North Penn Strong Together and its Democratic counterpart North Penn Neighbors for Progress, with the Democrats accusing the Republicans of engaging in “exploitation of a child and family on social media” for political gain.
“The continued exploitation of any piece of negative news to re-instigate the cynical, partisan rhetoric that fueled your failed campaign is exhausting,” said Neighbors for Progress. “Please stop demanding public comment on a matter that must be foremost dealt with internally.”
In response, Stronger Together said the group is “no longer tied with any political race” and that they were “told about and given permission to post the picture.”
“The parents and the child were not okay with that action, and were not happy with the administrations’ handling of the incident,” the group said. “While we respect the privacy of personnel issues, we are PARENTS NOT POLITICIANS seeking some kind of leadership that gives us confidence that that faceless child won’t be one of ours.”
White House Defends Biden After He Claims Midterm Elections Could ‘Easily Be Illegitimate’
Epoch TImes – The White House on Jan. 20 defended President Joe Biden after he claimed the upcoming midterm elections “easily could be illegitimate.”
“Lets be clear: POTUS was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election. He was making the opposite point: In 2020, a record number of voters turned out in the face of a pandemic, and election officials made sure they could vote and have those votes counted,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“He was explaining that the results would be illegitimate if states do what the former president asked them to do after the 2020 election: toss out ballots and overturn results after the fact. The Big Lie is putting our democracy at risk. We’re fighting to protect it,” she added, using a term Democrats have favored that attempts to tie claims that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud to Nazi propaganda.
Biden, in a lengthy press conference a day prior, said: “I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit. It’s—the increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these reforms passed.”
Biden and many Democrats in Congress support measures that would federalize elections, arguing the bills are needed as states pass legislation that tightens election security, describing them as hindering voting access.
The House of Representatives passed a bill that bundled the measures, but the Senate in a bipartisan vote late Jan. 19 blocked an attempt to change the voting threshold to 50 from 60, which may have enabled passage of the bill in the upper chamber.
Biden said Democrats wouldn’t give up on the effort.
The Virtual Gulag: Ultimate Technocrat Answer To Punish All Dissent
Technocracy News – Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events and host of Human Events Daily, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that “the new types of gulags are going to be virtual gulags” for those who engage in wrongthink, and they will be in the form of financial and service blacklisting.
Breitbart News editor in chief Alex Marlow sat down with Posobiec at Turning Point USA’s recent AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where he asked the following:
Do you think it’s a very long stretch from the virtual gulag that so many of us are in to a literal gulag? Because this is something that I think people are talking about more, particularly with regards to Australia.
“The idea is that they are, by and large, placed in either secret prisons — which is easier to do in China than it is here — or the idea of putting someone on house arrest,” Posobiec said.
Posobiec continued:
The new types of gulags are going to be virtual gulags, but not just in terms of speech, it’s going to be, “We’re going to de-bank you, we’re going to de-platform you, you’re not going to be able to have a payment processer, you’re not going to be able to make a living, you’re canceled from all of your jobs, you’re not going to be able to have any money, your bank account is going to be frozen.”
“You’ve got a guy now, Dominick Black — the guy that bought the gun that Kyle Rittenhouse used — well, they’ve raised money for his defense, I believe about $100,000,” Posobiec explained.
“Stripe — the last I talked to them, Stripe was not allowing the $100,000 that they raised online to be given, for a legal defense,” he added. “Not taking one side or the other, but the idea — that we used to think in this country — that everyone ought to be afforded a legal defense.”
“Imagine, you will not be able to participate in the modern world — Uber drops you, Lyft drops you, Uber Eats drops you, Door Dash, Postmates, whatever,” Posobiec said. “They all drop you, you are isolated, you are, essentially, at that point in a virtual gulag.”
Eye Spy: IRS To Require Facial Recognition To View Tax Returns
Technocracy News – The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has partnered with a Virginia-based private identification firm which requires a facial recognition selfie among other things, in order to create or access online accounts with the agency.
According to KrebsonSecurity, the IRS announced that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log into irs.gov will be through ID.me. Founded by former Army Rangers in 2010, the McLean-based company has evolved to providing online ID verification services which several states are using to help reduce unemployment and pandemic-assistance fraud. The company claims to have 64 million users.
Some 27 states already use ID.me to screen for identity thieves applying for benefits in someone else’s name, and now the IRS is joining them. The service requires applicants to supply a great deal more information than typically requested for online verification schemes, such as scans of their driver’s license or other government-issued ID, copies of utility or insurance bills, and details about their mobile phone service.
When an applicant doesn’t have one or more of the above — or if something about their application triggers potential fraud flags — ID.me may require a recorded, live video chat with the person applying for benefits. -KrebsonSecurity
For the sake of his article, Krebs made himself a guinea pig and signed up with ID.me to describe the lengthy process that “may require a significant investment of time, and quite a bit of patience.”
After uploading images of one’s driver’s license, state issued ID or passport.
If your documents get accepted, ID.me will then prompt you to take a live selfie with your mobile device or webcam. That took several attempts. When my computer’s camera produced an acceptable result, ID.me said it was comparing the output to the images on my driver’s license scans. -KrebsonSecurity
Once that’s accepted, Id.me will ask to verify your phone number – and will not accept numbers tied to voice-over-IP services such as Skype or Google Voice.
Krebs’ application became stuck at the “Confirming your Phone” stage – which led to a video chat (and having to resubmit other information) which had an estimated wait time of 3 hours and 27 minutes. Krebs – having interviewed ID.me’s founder last year – emailed him, and was able to speak with a customer service rep one minute later “against my repeated protests that I wanted to wait my turn like everyone else.”
As far as security goes, CEO Blake Hall told Krebs last year that the company is ‘certified against the NIST 800-63-3 digital identity guidelines” and “employs multiple layers of security, and fully segregates static consumer data tied to a validated identity from a token used to represent that identity.”
“We take a defense-in-depth approach, with partitioned networks, and use very sophisticated encryption scheme so that when and if there is a breach, this stuff is firewalled,” said Hall. “You’d have to compromise the tokens at scale and not just the database. We encrypt all that stuff down to the file level with keys that rotate and expire every 24 hours. And once we’ve verified you we don’t need that data about you on an ongoing basis.”
Krebs believes that things such as facial recognition for establishing one’s identity is a “Plant Your Flag” moment, because “Love it or hate it, ID.me is likely to become one of those places where Americans need to plant their flag and mark their territory, if for no other reason than it will probably be needed at some point to manage your relationship with the federal government and/or your state.”
Wife Stands Off With Hospital to Keep Her Husband Alive, and Wins
Epoch Times – Sentiments expressed in random phone calls for Anne Quiner as her husband Scott lay in a hospital bed breathing through a ventilator ranged from “I hope your husband dies a vegetable” followed by a litter of profanity, to “he should have taken the vaccine; I hope he dies,” before hanging up.
While not the traditional Hallmark expressions for one to get well soon, Quiner said it was a feeling shared among some of the doctors at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, where Scott had been hospitalized for COVID-19 complications in November.
In one recorded phone call with Dr. Linda Soucie in which Quiner was fighting to keep Scott on the ventilator, Soucie told Quiner, “Unfortunately, if we could turn back time and he had gotten the vaccine, then he wouldn’t be here,” just after Soucie had told Quiner, “After three years, I think we’ve gotten pretty good at determining who’s going to make it and who’s not, and unfortunately Scott’s in that range of the group that is not going to make it.”
In a recorded conference call, doctors told Quiner that they would be taking Scott off the ventilator on Jan. 13 because he would not recover due to what they said were his “destroyed lungs from COVID pneumonia,” and that their attempts at decreasing sedation only caused him pain.
Quiner told The Epoch Times that her petitions for alternative treatments, as well as to keep Scott on the ventilator, had been met with contempt.
With doctors determined to take Scott off the ventilator, Quiner sought legal counsel.
John Locke on the idea that “wherever law ends, tyranny begins” (1689)
OLL – Found in The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.)
John Locke states in Section 202 of Chap. XVIII “Of Tyranny” in Book II of the Two Treatises of Government that even magistrates must abide by the law:
Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another. This is acknowledged in subordinate magistrates. He that hath authority to seize my person in the street, may be opposed as a thief and a robber, if he endeavours to break into my house to execute a writ, notwithstanding that I know he has such a warrant, and such a legal authority, as will impower him to arrest me abroad. And why this should not hold in the highest, as well as in the most inferior magistrate, I would gladly be informed.
“Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins”. The equality of all citizens under the law is a lynch-pin of the modern notion of the rule of law in a democratic state. A revolutionary implication of this idea, well appreciated by Locke in the tumultuous 1680s, is that even rulers and their magistrates were also under the “sovereignty of the law”. Locke concludes that when any member of the state exceeds his legal authority or in any way violates the law, he ceases “to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.”
Is the right to assemble and demonstrate under threat?
ABA Journal – Nearly 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court established a key First Amendment precedent protecting protesters’ rights, the freedom to assemble and the right to protest have once again been called into question.
On March 2, 1961, a young James Clyburn and nearly 200 other young African Americans marched from Zion Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, to the statehouse grounds, protesting segregation.
Their own peaceful protests led to arrests for breach of the peace. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court vindicated Clyburn, who is now the U.S. House majority whip, and other activists in Edwards v. South Carolina (1963), ruling the First Amendment protected the right to peaceful protests.
“I wore that arrest like a badge of honor,” Clyburn says. “But I see many similarities between the protests in the ’60s and the social justice protests of today.
“Now, there are attempts to silence protesters again,” Clyburn adds, referring to an array of new measures that ostensibly seek to mute the voices of protesters or at least reduce their impact.
Social activism has escalated in recent years with the growth of women’s marches after the election of President Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement, and in reaction to mass shootings and the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement officials.
Legislators who are now seeking to restrict protesters say the measures are necessary to establish law and order; provide security; protect businesses; ensure the free flow of highways; and distinguish between peaceful protesters and rioters. But free speech experts warn that the legislative trend against protesting is harmful to fundamental First Amendment freedoms.
“Nonviolent protests have been central to social change in the United States, from suffrage to the civil rights movement,” says Nick Robinson, senior legal adviser for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law’s U.S. Program. “Anti-protest bills … undermine the ability of Americans to exercise their constitutional right to be heard and stifle this historical source of positive reform.”
Wave of protest legislation
The level of anti-protest legislation has spiked significantly since 2017. According to the ICNL’s U.S. Protest Law Tracker, there have been 230 anti-protest bills introduced in states since January 2017, with the legislative response escalating significantly in 2021.
“This was an unprecedented year,” Robinson says. In 2021, there have been “more bills introduced, and a broader range of tactics used to undermine the right to peaceful assembly.”
The tracker reveals 89 state and federal measures had been introduced so far in 2021 by press time. The measures fall into several categories, including:
- Charging fees for a permit to hold a public protest.
- Limiting where protests can take place or even eliminating protests in certain locations.
- Enhancing penalties for protesting near critical infrastructure areas, such as pipelines.
- Creating new crimes and/or enhancing existing definitions of crimes of disorderly conduct or rioting.
- Criminalizing the taunting of police officers.
- Granting immunity for drivers who injure protesters.
A handful of bills have passed, including a Florida measure passed in April 2021 called the Combating Public Disorder Act, which expands the definition of rioting and allows property owners to sue cities that fail to provide protection to property and businesses.
“This bill protects law enforcement and our residents by making it more difficult for local municipalities to defund their police and obligates municipalities to provide sufficient law enforcement to protect their residents in case of civil unrest,” says Florida Republican Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, the bill’s chief sponsor. “This legislation narrowly tailors the definition of ‘riot’ to apply specifically to violent participants and enhances criminal penalties for rioters, while at the same time protecting peaceful protesters.”
Epoch Times – News Analysis
New evidence has emerged that suggests that Dr. Anthony Fauci not only initiated efforts to cover up evidence pointing to a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 but actively shaped a highly influential academic paper that excluded the possibility of a lab leak.
Fauci’s involvement with the paper wasn’t acknowledged by the authors, as it should have been under prevailing academic standards. Neither was it acknowledged by Fauci himself, who denied having communicated with the authors when asked directly while testifying before Congress last week.
The article, Proximal Origin, was co-authored by five virologists, four of whom participated in a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference that was hastily convened by Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Jeremy Farrar, who heads the UK-based Wellcome Trust, after public reporting of a potential link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the COVID-19 outbreak.
The initial draft of Proximal Origin was completed on the same day the teleconference, which wasn’t made public, took place. Notably, at least three authors of the paper were privately telling Fauci’s teleconference group both during the call and in subsequent emails that they were 60 to 80 percent sure that COVID-19 had come out of a lab.
Until now, it wasn’t known what role, if any, Fauci played in shaping the contents of the article, which formed the primary basis for government officials and media organizations to claim the “natural origin” theory for the virus. While the contents of emails previously released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show the Proximal Origin paper clearly conflicts with the authors’ private views on the virus’ origin, it was unclear if the authors had preemptively reshaped their views to please Fauci or if Fauci himself had an active role in shaping the article.
As the head of NIAID, Fauci controls a large portion of the world’s research funds for virologists. At least three virologists involved in the drafting of Proximal Origin have seen substantial increases in funding from the agency since the paper was first published. Any interference by Fauci in the paper’s narrative would present a serious conflict of interest.
Natural Immunity Superior to Vaccination Against Delta Virus Variant: Study
Epoch Times – Protection from prior COVID-19 infection was better than the protection from COVID-19 vaccines against the Delta virus variant, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers analyzed health records from California and New York that were entered between May 30 and Nov. 20, 2021. They separated COVID-19 patients into four groups: unvaccinated with no previous COVID-19 diagnosis, unvaccinated with a previous COVID-19 infection, vaccinated with no prior COVID-19 infection, and vaccinated with prior COVID-19 infection.
Those who had not received a COVID-19 vaccine but were infected previously with the illness were much less likely to test positive for COVID-19 when compared to vaccinated people who had not gotten COVID-19, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
People who had not gotten a vaccine but did have a prior infection, also known as natural immunity, were also less likely to land in a hospital than the vaccinated without natural immunity, according to hospitalization records from California.
The unvaccinated without prior infection were by far the most likely to contract COVID-19 and require hospital care, the study found.
“These results suggest that vaccination protects against COVID-19 and related hospitalization and that surviving a previous infection protects against a reinfection. Importantly, infection-derived protection was greater after the highly transmissible Delta variant became predominant, coinciding with early declining of vaccine-induced immunity in many persons,” researchers, including Tomás Leon with the California Department of Public Health, wrote.
Because the time period studied only went through late November, more research is needed to examine whether vaccination and prior infection protects as well against the Omicron virus variant, which became dominant in the United States last month, the researchers said.
They also encouraged people to get vaccinated even if they have natural immunity, pointing to the finding that the vaccinated with prior infection were the most protected against infection and hospitalization, according to the health records.
Experts are divided as to whether the naturally immune should get a jab, with some noting studies that indicate the protection increases but others highlighting how the elevation is, in many cases, minimal, and pointing to other research that suggests side effects are more likely among naturally immune getting a vaccine.
Limitations of the report include the potential for bias related to unmeasured confounding and the analysis not including information on the severity of infection.
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a clinical professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California who was not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times in an email that the findings “strongly support the need to update our vaccination policy, work and school requirements,” with those who can demonstrate they have natural immunity being given equal access as those who are vaccinated.
“Vaccination is a much, much, safer pathway to immunity than getting infected, but in an otherwise healthy person who has recovered, they should have confidence that they [have] protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death,” he added.
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is a weekly publication from the CDC. Most studies are not peer-reviewed but the articles are reviewed by CDC officials before being published and the content, by the time it’s published, “constitutes the official voice” of the CDC, the agency has said (pdf).
Thousands of Canadian Truckers to Strike Over Vaccine Mandates, US Truckers to Join
Epoch Times – Following the Public Health Agency of Canada’s announcement that foreign truck drivers can only enter Canada if fully vaccinated starting Jan. 15, and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announcing similar requirements starting Jan. 22 for non-U.S. national truckers crossing into the United States, thousands of truckers decided to protest and will meet in Ottawa in an attempt to stop the mandates.
Canadian truckers, along with concerned citizens all over the country, decided to take action and plan to drive toward the Canadian Parliament with the intention of having thousands of vehicles pulling into Parliament and parking there, according to the organizers Canada Unity & Truckers United.
A similar action took place on Jan. 17 when a convoy of truckers protested against the mandates in Emerson, Manitoba, near the U.S.-Canada border.
U.S. truckers began to organize their own resistance on Tuesday. The Epoch Times is following the story and will be reporting on the developments.
Patty Every is a business owner in Nova Scotia and the founder of Atlantic Freedom Fighters.
“Through this pandemic, I’ve watched our government slowly destroy our economy, mental health, and the future stability of this country,” Every told The Epoch Times.
“Mandates that they continue to illegally impose on the people have done far greater damage than the pandemic itself. The Canadian government continues to use phrases and words to the Canadian people through the media that incite hate toward people who have decided to utilize their right to say no to a vaccine. And as a result, hate crimes against the unvaccinated are beginning to take place. What do we do to stop this when it’s our leaders that are doing it? The Canadian people have had enough. At first, we were complacent. But look where complacency got us. It’s time for us to stand up and protect what our country stands for: freedom. We are the ‘true north, strong and free’ and the people of Canada are ready to protect that.
“[A U.S. organizer] is going to create a movement called ‘Nations Unite For Freedom’ where Canada and The United States join each other to help each other,” Every said, unable to hold in her emotion. “We hope by doing this that other nations are going to follow the lead and join each other.
“Thousands and thousands of vehicles,” truckers and regular vehicles will be convoying from “every corner of the nation” to the capital beginning on Jan. 23.
“Multiple freedom organizations across Canada have come together to make a stand,” she said.
Each state or province’s protestors will leave at a specific time to reach the capital on Jan. 28. According to Every, there are already at least 2,000 trucks involved that started the drive to Ottawa before the designated commencement date.
Epoch Times – Tennis star Novak Djokovic and his wife own an 80 percent share in a Danish biotech firm developing a treatment for COVID-19 that does not involve vaccination, the company’s boss said on Wednesday.
The Serbian native 34, and his wife Jelena, 35, bought a majority stake in QuantBioRes back in June 2020, just months into the pandemic, the company’s chief executive Ivan Loncarevic confirmed to Reuters.
Loncarevic did not say how much the stake was worth but confirmed that Djokovic owns 40.8 percent while his wife owns 39.2 percent of the company.
Efforts to contact a Djokovic spokesperson for comment were unsuccessful.
QuantBioRes has about 12 researchers working in Denmark, Australia, and Slovenia, according to Loncarevic, and the company is developing a peptide that inhibits COVID-19 from infecting the human cell.
The CEO stressed that the company was working on a treatment and not a vaccine for COVID-19, and expects to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, according to Loncarevic.
The company’s website says it started developing a “deactivation mechanism” for COVID-19 in July 2020 and utilizes a “unique and novel Resonant Recognition Model (RRM).”
RRM is a “biophysical model based on findings that certain frequencies within the distribution of energies of free electrons along the protein are critical for protein biological function and interaction with protein receptors and other targets,” according to QuantBioRes.
These predictions can be used to help design treatments for viral diseases and resistant bacteria.
“With our innovative and insightful RRM technology, we strive to help humanity by developing treatment and cure for retroviruses and resistant bacteria,” the website states. “Our highly skilled team of biochemists, physicists, engineers, and programmers have worked tirelessly to bring QuantBioRes – QBR to the forefront of the industry.”
Djokovic flew out of Australia to his native Serbia on Jan. 17 after losing a legal challenge to overturn the cancellation of his visa by Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke.
DeSantis Signals He Would Sign Bill Stopping Abortions After 15 Weeks
Epoch Times – This legislative session could prove to be the one that transformed the abortion laws in Florida with Gov. Ron DeSantis signaling he would sign a law prohibiting terminations after 15 weeks as it passed through committee in a 12-6 party line vote on Jan. 19.
“I am supportive of 15 weeks,” DeSantis said.
“I think that’s very reasonable and very consistent with being supportive of protecting life. We’ll work with them as they kind of get through that process.
“I think that’ll be something we’ll be able to sign and I think a lot of people would be happy with that.”
Abortion bans have failed over the years in Florida with some never making it out of committee. However one law—HB 146, the Fetal and Infant Mortality Reduction Act—has the promise of making it to the governor’s desk and he has indicated he would sign it.
It does not provide exceptions for rape and incest, but does allow for a fetus that is found to have a “fatal fetal abnormality.” The condition would have to be certified by two doctors.
The bill’s sponsor Rep. Erin Grall said that abortion should be limited because of the medical changes that have taken place since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“This is not an abortion ban,” Grall told reporters on Jan. 19. “This is about 15 weeks. This is about having all of your available options at the ready for you for 15 weeks.”
Legislators will hear an abortion ban bill that would stop most abortions in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exception for rape or incest; currently the law allows abortions are legal through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
With the majority of conservative justices sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, the landmark Roe v. Wade is on the verge of being overturned and Florida pro-lifers see 2022 as the year to act.
Roe v. Wade was a 1973 case that “established a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable at around 24 weeks.”
Access Dr. Mercola’s Censored Libary Dr. Meryl Nass’ Testimony Against Vaccine Mandates
Mercola – January 11, 2022, the Health and Human Services Committee of the Maine legislature held a public hearing on LD867 “An Act to Prohibit Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccinations for 5 Years to Allow for Safety Testing and Investigations Into Reproductive Harm”
Dr. Meryl Nass, an internist with a special interest in vaccine-induced illnesses and expertise in anthrax and bioterrorism, testified in favor of the bill
All currently available COVID shots in the U.S. are experimental. None is licensed. Comirnaty, which has received full license, is not available in the U.S., and won’t be made available as long as doses of the Emergency Use Authorized Pfizer shot, BNT162b2, remain
Since the COVID shots are experimental, U.S. law requires potential recipients to have the right to refuse. Experimental drugs also cannot be mandated, and potential recipients must give written informed consent. Informed consent cannot be given when reports of side effects are censored and not disclosed
Some foundational safety studies are just now starting and won’t be completed until 2027
You Can Check in, but You Can Never Leave
Mercola – Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet from Truth for Health Foundation lays bare what’s been happening inside America’s hospital system over the last two years, bringing to mind the 1977 dystopian Eagles’ hit song, “Hotel California,” where people can check in, but they can never leave
Where once people could sign out of the hospital against medical advice (AMA), the Foundation’s COVID Care Strategy Team has sometimes needed a show of force from police, attorneys, media and family members to liberate patients from a hospital
Hospitals have good reason to want to keep patients from leaving since the government has incentivized them to keep you there and watch you die, paying bonuses for every patient tested, admitted or treated with remdesivir for COVID, for every COVID patient on a ventilator and every COVID death
Human rights attorney Thomas Renz estimates each of these bonuses can potentially add up to $100,000 extra per COVID patient; this may be one more reason why hospitals are not administering safe and effective medications like ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine
Vliet cautions people not to get overwhelmed by fear, and instead take action; get prepared with a COVID survival kit and make an action plan if you must be admitted to the hospital
Two Families Fought Hospitals to Allow Alternative COVID Treatments, Now Their Loved Ones Have Died
Epoch Times – Two men on ventilators—one in Florida and one in Arizona—died within 24 hours of each other, even as their families were still fighting with hospitals for the chance to try alternative treatments.
After all other treatments offered by the hospitals failed, both families had begged to try ivermectin and other alternative treatments for COVID-19, as outlined in a protocol by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.
Daniel Pisano, 70, had been fighting for his life in Mayo Clinic Florida since Dec. 11. His battle ended late Jan. 19.
Stephen Judge, 69, had struggled to overcome his illness in Banner Ironwood Medical Center in Queen Creek, Arizona, since Nov. 27. He died on Jan. 20.
Pisano had been on a ventilator for 36 days; Judge had been on a ventilator for 44 days.
Both hospitals repeatedly refused the families’ requests for alternative treatments, and have not responded to repeated requests for comment by The Epoch Times.
Mayo Clinic vigorously fought the Pisano family’s efforts in court and won, then won again when the family appealed the first judge’s decision. The family had filed a lawsuit requesting an emergency injunction ordering Mayo Clinic to allow treatment prescribed by an outside doctor they trusted.
In court filings the company had asked to have sealed, attorneys and a doctor for the hospital said it wasn’t clear what would happen to Daniel Pisano if the treatment requested by the family was used. The family had offered to sign a waiver releasing the hospital from all liability related to Pisano’s treatment.
The Judge family consulted with an attorney, but didn’t file a lawsuit because Arizona does not have a provision for expedited emergency hearing, and the family felt Stephen Judge didn’t have time to wait, said his daughter, Caitlin Judge Treister.
Even on the last day of his life, Treister was fighting to try a new drug for serious COVID-19 cases like her father’s. The drug, ZYESAMI, now is in Phase 3 clinical trials and is more widely available under the federal Right to Try Act, the company announced Jan. 18.
The 2018 legislation “is another way for patients who have been diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions who have tried all approved treatment options and who are unable to participate in a clinical trial to access certain unapproved treatments,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) informational page about the law.
But Banner Ironwood refused the family’s requests to initiate the process to obtain the drug for Stephen Judge.
Under Right to Try, NRx Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes ZYESAMI, now will provide the drug for just the cost to overnight it to the patient. Requests can be made through the form on the company’s website. The only catch is that the request must be made by the patient’s doctor, said NRx spokesman Jack Hirschfield.
“A family member or friend cannot make the official request to a Right to Try Program,” he said.
In case the company is flooded with requests,” we’re ready for that,” Hirschfield said. “The goal is to save lives.”
Upon their initial request to try the drug, the family of Stephen Judge was first told by a hospital representative that Banner Ironwood Medical Center “does not participate in clinical trials,” his daughter said. But using a drug under Right to Try is an option for patients who don’t qualify for clinical trials.
Treister submitted an urgent request in writing, formally asking for the hospital’s cooperation in initiating the Right to Try process.
“We are immediately requesting this treatment for my father and expect an expedited response as my father’s death without further treatment is imminent,” she wrote.
Hours later, the hospital responded with a letter stating, “We are unable to meet your request.”
The letter, signed by the hospital’s chief medical officer, George Figueroa, M.D., described Stephen Judge’s condition as “extremely critical” and stated, “Avidptadil (sic) is not FDA approved and there is no emergency use authorization for Aviptadil in a patient with this clinical condition at this time.”
That seemed to contradict NRx ’s Jan. 18 announcement that ZYESAMI now could be used by any COVID-19 patient with respiratory failure for whom all other treatments have failed.
The drug’s clinical trials, being conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are testing it as an intravenous treatment for “Critical COVID-19 with Respiratory Failure” and an inhaled treatment for “Severe COVID-19,” according to a January corporate document. The Radnor, Pennsylvania-based drugmaker’s report gives a comprehensive description of how the new drug works, and gives details on the development timeline.
Before her father died, Treister told The Epoch Times she was “questioning whether we did everything we could. It’s hard navigating a system that’s stacked against us.”
“This drug sounds like something that could really benefit him, if it’s not too late. I wish we would have known about it earlier, but that won’t stop me from fighting until the bitter end. Only my dad and God decide when it’s his time. Not this hospital.”
About five hours later, she told The Epoch Times, “My dad has officially gone to Heaven. Heaven just got a lot more fun.”
The drug she’d begged to try already has been used to cure critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Louie Anderson, comedian and ‘Coming to America’ actor, dies from cancer at 68
Yahoo – Louie Anderson, the Emmy-winning comedian and Coming to America actor, died Friday at age 68.
The Baskets star and Family Feud host had been battling diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the U.S., and was hospitalized in Las Vegas earlier this week. On Friday, his publicist announced his death.
More Stories
Today’s News: April 26, 2024
Today’s News: April 25, 2024
Today’s News: April 24, 2024