Today’s News: March 21, 2022

WORLD NEWS

Boeing 737 crashes in China

China’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed 132 people were aboard the China Eastern Airlines aircraft

China’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed on Monday that a Boeing 737 had crashed in a mountain range in Tengxian, Guangxi, in the country’s south.

The plane was carrying 132 people at the time of the crash, including 123 passengers and 9 crew members, the aviation authority revealed in a brief statement.

Chinese state media outlet CCTV stated that rescue efforts are currently underway and a mountain fire has been reported following the accident. It is not yet known how many people have been injured, or if there are any fatalities.

Footage reportedly showing the downed aircraft is circulating on social media, but its veracity has not been confirmed.

The Boeing 737, Flight MU5735, had been traveling from Kunming to Guangzhou before it experienced difficulty, according to flight tracking data sites.

Huge Chinese city goes into lockdown over Covid-19

Some 4.5 million residents of China’s northeastern city of Jilin will have to follow a stay-at-home order starting Monday night as China announces a three-day lockdown to curb the spread of the virus, amid the country’s largest Covid-19 outbreak in two years. 

On Sunday, China recorded over four thousand new Covid cases, the highest number since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago. Two-thirds of the recorded deaths occurred in China’s Jilin province, which borders Russia and North Korea

On Saturday, Beijing reported the deaths of two covid-positive patients in Jilin province. Both fatalities, according to Chinese authorities, had underlying health conditions and didn’t die due to their coronavirus infections. Before that, not a single covid-related death had been registered in China in more than a year.

Since March 11, Changchun, Jilin Province’s capital, has also been under restrictions. Its nine million people are only allowed to leave their houses to buy groceries, and not more often than once every two days. 

Russia–Ukraine (March 19): Mariupol Says Russia Forcefully Deported Thousands of Its People

Mariupol Says Russia Forcefully Deported Thousands of Its People

The city council of Ukraine’s Mariupol said Russian forces forcefully deported several thousand people from the besieged city last week, after Russia had spoken of “refugees” arriving from the strategic port.

“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported onto the Russian territory,” the council said in a statement on its Telegram channel late on Saturday.

“The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhniy district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing.”

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the claims.

Zelensky Announces Ban on 11 Political Parties

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a measure that bans 11 opposition political parties, alleging they have ties to Russia, he announced in a Telegram video posted on March 20.

“Any activity of politicians aimed at splitting or collaborating will not succeed,” he said.

Zelensky also said that “wartime exposes quite well the paucity of personal ambitions of those who try to put their own ambitions” or “their own party or career above the interests of the state,” according to a translation.

The parties that have been banned, he said, include “Opposition Platform—For Life, Sharij’s Party, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, Derzhava, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Socialists, and Volodymyr Saldo’s Bloc,” according to Ukrinform.

The National Security Council agreed to suspend the parties, Ukrinform reported, citing Zelensky’s video address.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice has been told to immediately take measures to ban those political parties, he said. Zelensky didn’t provide evidence that linked the 11 opposition parties to the Russian government.

At the onset of the Feb. 24 invasion, Zelensky signed a measure that established martial law and general mobilization.

Zelensky said on March 20 that “activities by politicians aimed at discord and collaboration will not succeed,” adding that alleged links between Russia and “some political structures, the activities of a number of political parties are suspended for the period of the martial law.”

The president also signed a decree that would combine all national TV channels into one platform, citing the martial law provision.

Ukraine Sees Signs of Another Neighbor Planning ‘Direct Invasion’

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on Sunday claimed that Belarus is preparing its military to invade Ukraine before warning Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There are “signs of preparation” that Belarus will carry out the “direct invasion of the territory of Ukraine,” the Defense Ministry wrote on social media, according to a translation. It did not provide evidence for its claim, nor did it provide other details.

“The direct involvement of Belarusian troops in Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, against the will of ordinary soldiers and the vast majority of the Belarusian people, will be a fatal mistake for Alexander Lukashenko,” the ministry added.

Officials in Belarus have not issued a public comment in response to Ukraine’s allegations.

Russia–Ukraine (March 20): Chernobyl Staff Rotated out for First Time Since Site’s Capture

Ukraine Refuses Russia’s Demands to Lay Down Arms in Mariupol

Ukraine said there is no question of surrendering the city of Mariupol after Russia called on Ukrainian forces on Sunday to lay down arms in the besieged port city.

“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,” the Ukrainska Pravda news portal cited Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying. “We have already informed the Russian side about this.”

Russia said a “terrible humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding in Mariupol.

“Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defense ministry.

“A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed,” Mizintsev said. “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.”

Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Many of its 400,000 residents remain trapped in the city with little if any food, water, and power.

Mizintsev said humanitarian corridors for civilians would be opened eastwards and westwards out of Mariupol at 10 a.m. Moscow time on Monday.

Ukraine has until 5 a.m. Moscow time to respond to the offer on humanitarian corridors and laying down arms, he said.

Vereshchuk said Russia’s actions are “a deliberate manipulation.”

“Instead of spending time on eight pages on letters, just open the corridor,” she said.

EU stockpiles iodine pills and nuclear-protective gear

In light of the Ukraine conflict, the European Commission has hastened plans to improve the bloc’s incident response mechanisms

As the conflict in Ukraine continues to rage, the European Commission has urged EU member states to stockpile iodine pills, other designated drugs, and nuclear-protective suits. It is also stepping up preparations for dealing with the aftermath of a possible chemical or biological attack.

“The commission is working to ensure it enhances preparedness in the area of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats generally, and this predates the war in Ukraine,” a spokesman told the Financial Times on Monday.

Russia put its nuclear weapons on high alert a few days after launching its military operation in Ukraine in late February, citing what it described as the “aggressive statements” made by NATO and the draconian financial sanctions imposed by the West.

In early March, there was a fire at Ukraine’s Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, which has been seized by Russian forces. The blaze was swiftly extinguished, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying there had been “no critical impact on safety” at the plant.

A few days later, Moscow announced it had prevented an attempt by what it called Ukrainian radicals to cut power to the former Chernobyl nuclear power station, which became the site of the world’s most devastating nuclear disaster in 1986.

The two incidents have led to a spike in demand in the EU, Russia, and even the US for potassium-iodine pills, which help reduce the impact of radiation on the human system. Earlier in March, pharmacies in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere reported that they has run out of the medication.

The EU’s preparations for nuclear incidents are being led by the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), which was established last September after the bloc was caught off guard by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, European lawmakers have insisted that HERA needs to work faster in order to keep up with the pace of events in Ukraine.

“We need to draw strong lessons from Covid. We require specific measures for nuclear sites. We are not ready. We do not have the stocks,” Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, a European parliamentarian representing French president Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party, said, adding that the bloc also had to develop a system of alerts and monitoring.

Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on 24 February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

‘We’re Going to Ban Huawei,’ Says Tory Leadership Candidate Jean Charest

Conservative Party leadership candidate Jean Charest says he would ban Huawei from participating in Canada’s 5G wireless networks if he becomes leader, staying in line with his party’s position.

Speaking at a Calgary event on March 10, where he announced his leadership bid, the former Quebec premier and deputy prime minister of Canada had said that he is “very proud” of his work for Huawei “helping to sort out the situation of Ms. Meng Wanzhou.”

In an interview with CBC’s Vassy Kapelos on March 18, Charest said his work with Huawei never contradicted Canada’s national interest. He did not directly respond to Kapelos when she asked whether he had regarded the Chinese company as a national security threat to Canada at the time.

“Any of the work I did was never in contradiction with the national interest of Canada. I would not have accepted to do that. And and that’s the way that I’ve conducted myself ever since I’ve left office,” he said.

“The position that you have just reported is my position as a leader of the Conservative Party and a prime minister of Canada. And when I’m in that job, I’m representing the interest of Canada, period, period, full stop, period.”

Charest later reiterated that point in a Twitter post, saying that “We’re going to ban Huawei,” the position of the Conservative Party that he said he will defend.

We’re going to ban Huawei. That’s the position of the @CPC_HQ, that’s the position that I’m going to defend. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/nThZyViacK

— Jean Charest (@JeanCharest_) March 19, 2022

Charest was part of a team at the McCarthy Tétrault law firm that was hired in January 2020 to provide strategic advice to Huawei on the Meng, The Globe and Mail reported.

U.S. NEWS, POLITIC & GOVERNMENT

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Hospitalized

One of the oldest Supreme Court justices has been hospitalized since March 18, the court announced on Sunday.

Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington on Friday evening after experiencing flu-like symptoms, the court said in a statement.

Following testing, Thomas was diagnosed with an infection.

Patricia McCabe, a court spokeswoman, told The Epoch Times in an email that the infection “is not COVID related,” adding that Thomas “does not have COVID.”

Ginni Thomas, the justice’s wife, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thomas and all other eight members of the court have received a COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose.

Thomas is being treated with intravenous antibiotics, according to the court.

“His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two,” the court said.

Judge strikes down 4 Arkansas voting laws as unconstitutional

Four laws passed by the General Assembly last year affecting voters in Arkansas were struck down Friday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled that all four of the laws violated the Arkansas Constitution by placing undue burdens on voters.

In granting the permanent injunction, Griffen said legislative fears of voter fraud could not justify passing laws restricting voting in the absence of any proof of conduct the laws were purportedly passed to address.

“In the judicial sphere you don’t prove something is illegal just because you’re afraid something might happen,” Griffen said. “That’s speculation.”

The four laws at issue are Act 249, involving voter identification; Act 728, regulating campaigning around the polls; Act 736, affecting how ballots are validated; and Act 973, which sets deadlines for mail-in absentee ballots.

Supporters of the Republican-sponsored laws say they strengthen Arkansas’ election integrity and bolster public confidence in the system.

Opponents said the laws deliberately make voting harder — and sometimes impossible — for voters who are poor, members of minority groups, or have certain health problems.

In making his ruling, Griffen said attorneys for the state were unable to produce evidence beyond allegations of voter misconduct.

Ex-lawmaker Pleads Guilty to Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Charges

An ex-lawmaker from West Virginia, who was at the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 breach, has pleaded guilty to a felony charge on March 18.

Derrick Evans, 36, from Prichard, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia. He has been accused of trying to commit “an act to obstruct, impede, or interfere with a law enforcement officer from the United States Capitol Police, lawfully engaged in the performance of his or her official duties” during a civil disorder.

According to court documents, Evans made his way to the East Side of the Capitol on Jan. 6 where he observed the crowd build up. Around 1:45 p.m., Evans saw and captured on video rioters breaching the barriers blocking the East Plaza, overwhelming law enforcement officials.

Following the crowd, he headed toward the Capitol building. In a livestreamed video on his Facebook account that was later deleted, Evans was seen around 20 feet away from the Rotunda Doors before they were breached.

“He narrated what he saw and heard, making remarks such as ‘Here we go! Here we go! Open the doors’, and ‘The door’s cracked We’re goin’ in!’ Once he made it through the doors, Evans exclaimed, ‘We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!’” according to a March 18 press release by the U.S. Department of Justice. Evans entered the building around 2:40 p.m. and left roughly 10 minutes later.

The ex-lawmaker was arrested two days after the incident. He is facing a potential prison term of up to five years and could be fined up to $250,000. Evans is due to be sentenced on June 22. The case is being prosecuted by the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors indicated that there was a loose agreement based on which Evans would cooperate with the police. “It is accurate as part of the plea agreement that he agreed to sit down with law enforcement if requested, but there’s no formal cooperation agreement with Mr. Evans and the government,” the prosecutors said, according to WV Metro News.

Due to the guilty plea, multiple other charges against Evans will be dropped, one of them being felony obstruction to an official proceeding that could have resulted in a 20-year prison term.

Questions Linger About Pennsylvania’s 2020 Election Results and GOP Response

The certified 2020 election results in Pennsylvania show Joe Biden won with 80,555 more votes than Donald Trump. But when then-Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar certified the vote on Nov. 24, 2020, the state had 784,752 more ballots than voters; nearly ten times more than Biden’s margin of victory.

There are legitimate reasons for over-votes; for example, a voter may make a mistake and ask for a new ballot. But Pennsylvania law specifically says when the ballots exceed the total number of persons who voted, “such excess shall be deemed a discrepancy and palpable error, and shall be investigated by the return board, and no votes shall be recorded from such district until such investigation shall be had.”

Put simply, over-votes can’t be counted until they are investigated.

But they weren’t investigated before the election was certified. The Pennsylvania Department of State did not respond to questions for this story.

It is worth noting that governments don’t keep records forever. They have retention schedules that guide when to destroy documents to make room for new ones.

In Pennsylvania, as of September 2022, counties can legally destroy the paper ballots and documentation related to the 2020 election, ending any chance of explaining election irregularities that have troubled so many voters, and spurred many to rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

US Army Announces First Separations Over COVID-19 Vaccine Refusals

The U.S. Army announced its first separations of soldiers for refusing the coronavirus vaccine on Friday.

In addition to the three soldiers who have been separated, the Army has relieved six Regular Army leaders, two of whom were battalion commanders, and it has issued 3,251 reprimands for refusing it.

Each of the other military branches began separations for vaccine refusal weeks ago. To date, the Navy has discharged 544 sailors, the Air Force 212, and the Marines 1,038. Each of the services has a vaccination percentage rate in the mid-90s, leaving thousands unvaccinated and facing possible separation, though they represent a small percentage of the whole military.

Service members who don’t want to take the vaccine have the ability to seek a religious, medical, or administrative exemption. There have been thousands of medical and administrative requests that each branch has approved. The Marines have approved 992 such requests, the Navy 250, and the Air Force 571, while the Army has granted 4,397 temporary exemptions.

Religious exemptions have been much harder to come by for service members. The Marines has approved six of 3,653 religious exemption requests, and the Air Force has done the same with 23 of 7,503. The Army has granted two such requests out of 3,943. The Navy has not granted any of the 4,171 requests to avoid the vaccine on religious grounds from active-duty or reserve sailors.

Dozens of service members who unsuccessfully sought religious exemptions have filed lawsuits against the Department of Defense, with varying degrees of success.

Earlier this month, the Department of Defense asked the Supreme Court to allow its coronavirus vaccination requirements to apply to Navy SEALs who have refused on religious grounds after a federal judge blocked their ability to stop their deployments. The legal challenge to the mandates was brought by nearly three dozen Naval Special Warfare Command service members, including 26 Navy SEALs, who object to receiving the vaccine on religious grounds.

Secret Service Agent Must Answer Questions About Location of Pence on Jan. 6: Judge

A Secret Service agent will have to answer questions about the location of then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, during questioning in an upcoming trial of a defendant, a judge ruled on March 18.

U.S. prosecutors moved in January to bar lawyers for Couy Griffin, the defendant, from asking questions about Pence’s location, arguing that the information isn’t relevant to the case.

Lawyers for Griffin asserted the questions should be allowed because the government’s earlier claims that Vice President Kamala Harris was in the U.S. Capitol when Griffin entered the building on Jan. 6 were false and because it’s not clear where exactly Pence went after being evacuated from the Senate chamber that day.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sided with the defendant.

The latest version of the charges say Griffin entered and remained in a restricted building and grounds, or the Capitol and the surrounding area, where Pence was.

“Whether the Vice President was present on the Capitol grounds is thus an essential question in Griffin’s prosecution,” McFadden wrote in an order.

The U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment guarantees a person accused of a crime to confront witnesses, meaning Griffin, through his lawyers, must be allowed to cross-examine the agent about Pence’s location, according to the judge.

“To mount a meaningful defense Griffin must be allowed to test the veracity of the government’s contention that Vice President Pence was on the Capitol grounds during the relevant period,” he said.

The U.S. government has said Pence left the Senate chamber at approximately 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, shortly after the first protesters and rioters barged into the building. Prosecutors have alleged Pence went to “a secure location within the Capitol complex” before returning to the chamber about four hours later.

Harris was not in the building or on the grounds from before noon until 7 p.m., prosecutors recently acknowledged.

Griffin is accused of entering the Capitol at approximately 2:28 p.m. on Jan. 6.

Jan. 6 Suicide Victim Was Told ‘He Would Not Receive a Fair Trial in This Town’

The 14-month ordeal battling charges from his time at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 put so much accentuate on Matthew L. Perna, he commenced throwing up blood. When the U.S. Department of Justice asked to delay his sentencing and promulgated it would seek more prison time, it was a bridge too far. Perna took his own life on Feb. 25 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. He was 37.

“Worry, solicitousness, stress had worn him down,” his aunt, Geri Perna, verbally expressed at a Capitol Hill news conference on March 17. He suffered constant nightmares and commenced throwing up blood. He was no longer comfortable leaving his abode.

Former Virginia Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Jan. 6 Conspiracy Charge

A former Virginia police officer who took a selfie-style photo of his middle-finger salute along with a coworker inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy charge on March 18.

Jacob Fracker, 30, formerly with the Rocky Mount Police Department, took a plea deal under which several other charges will be dismissed at sentencing. Fracker admitted to conspiring with co-defendant Thomas Robertson to obstruct the counting of Electoral College votes at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“In his plea, Fracker admitted that by the time he and Robertson entered the Capitol, they had agreed to attempt to impede, stop, or delay the proceedings going on before Congress and that they aided, assisted, encouraged, and facilitated each other in the conduct,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Fracker and Robertson were both Rocky Mount police officers when they traveled to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s rally at the Ellipse. They entered the Capitol about 2:15 p.m. and posed for a selfie in front of a statue of John Stark in the Capitol Crypt. Fracker made a middle-finger gesture in the photo.

Fracker shared the middle-finger photograph with police colleagues, some of whom posted it online. In a Facebook post, Fracker wrote: “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around. Sorry I hate freedom? … Not like I did anything illegal, way too much to lose to go there, but y’all do what you feel you need to, lol.”

He sent another photo and two videos to a friend on Facebook, writing, “Don’t share these. Just thought you should know there’s hitters out here trying to make a [expletive] difference at any cost,” according to prosecutors.

Fracker and Robertson were fired from the Rocky Mount Police Department after their involvement in Jan. 6 events came to light.

Fracker could be called to testify against his codefendant at Robertson’s upcoming trial. In court filings, Fracker said he views Robertson as “a father-figure and mentor” with whom he worked closely and socialized frequently.

Fracker pleaded guilty to conspiracy, although the obstruction of a government proceeding issue on which it rests has come under increased scrutiny in other Jan. 6 cases. District Judge Carl J. Nichols threw out obstruction charges in two cases in March.

Air Force Veteran Forced to Choose Between Getting Vaccine or Dying

Chad Carswell was barely 18 when insurgents during Operation Enduring Freedom took aim at his KC-135—a giant gas tank with wings—with him and other Air Force crewmen inside.

He described a chaotic scene in an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times and the moment he realized the only way to thwart a deadly and fiery explosion was to try to get to the guns that were locked up in a vehicle 10 feet away.

“It was a pretty intense moment,” recalled Carswell who recounted the days he served at the border of Qatar during U.S. airstrikes on Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in America’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Carswell admittedly didn’t expect to find himself in combat just weeks into boot camp. Others newly enlisted left before finishing training, but Carswell said humanitarian work with refugees “made him realize how blessed he was”—and so he stayed in to help.

Sadly, some Americans have not shown Carswell the same compassion. 

When the 39-year-old Air Force veteran went public recently about being turned away by a North Carolina hospital for a desperately needed kidney transplant because he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine, he was attacked on social media—with some even expressing their hope that he would die.

The good news is as many people posted support for Carswell, enough for the coordinator at the Medical City Fort Worth Transplant Institute in Texas to learn about Carswell’s plight and offered to get him on her facility’s candidate list for a transplant.

The hospital is now going through the process of finding a donor match for Carswell, whose kidneys have slipped down to just 4 percent functionality over the course of time he has searched for a hospital that would accept him without a COVID vaccine. 

The Fort Worth transplant facility’s support is a far cry from the unwavering position the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center took in Winston-Salem, that it would not consider Carswell for a transplant until he was vaccinated against COVID-19.

“They told me either take the vaccine or you’re going to die,” Carswell told The Epoch Times.

Other hospitals have made similar decisions.\

Hope and Freedom Draw Supporters to People’s Convoy

Hagerstown, Md.—It’s day 16 since the People’s Convoy arrived at Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Maryland, on March 4. The base was quiet on Saturday morning after trucks and cars left before 10:30 a.m. to circle the Capital Beltway again.

They made rounds on the highway to raise awareness of their demands: to end the national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and restore freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution. The emergency declaration was declared in March 2020 under then-President Donald Trump and has since been extended twice by President Joe Biden in February 2021 and March 2022.

A “call to action” board at Hagerstown Speedway tells truckers to call their congressional representatives twice a day to urge them to push for ending the national emergency and remind them that primaries were near in this election year. House representatives will be in their districts during the week of March 21 and will resume voting in Washington the week after.

The Senate earlier this month approved legislation to declare an end to the emergency, but the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives isn’t expected to take up the measures. The White House said on the same day that the bill would be vetoed if the House did approve it.

On March 8, the convoy met with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Capitol Hill to discuss the group’s concerns over government restrictions encroaching on the personal freedoms of Americans. That was followed by further discussions with several members of the House of Representatives.

Sitting in a camping chair, Steven McLeod from Texas, a sales representative for a software company servicing the trucking industry, was chatting with his new friend Elise from Delaware. Next to him was a big container with some free beer donated by his company.

McLeod firmly believed that all the mandates would be lifted soon. However, that wouldn’t fully address his concerns. He worries about the government gradually taking away people’s choices under the excuse “it’s good for everybody.”

“The mechanism has been installed now. That’s the problem,” McLeod told The Epoch Times.

“At a certain point, everybody thought it would be crazy that you’re not allowed to go to work. Your kids can’t go to school. That would have been insane five years ago. Now it’s commonplace,” he added.

“So, at what point do you take away those rights and those freedoms for the majority of people?”

McLeod was in Pennsylvania on business travel and came over to the convoy in Hagerstown last week. He had arranged for a food truck, an ice cream truck, and free beer for the truckers. His employer, a software company with logistics products serving the trucking industry, donated the money.

He said he thought the truckers’ fight was long-term and didn’t expect results or changes right away. But, to him, it’s essential to “do the right thing” at this moment to support truckers’ cause of defending freedoms.

McLeod’s 20-year-old daughter, whom he calls his “best friend,” is one of the reasons prompting him to take a stand. She’s attending a college in Texas, on her way to becoming a nurse practitioner. A fiscally-responsible person, she wrote a check of $18,000 to buy a car in the past six months. McLeod said she had been working since she was 14 without him asking her to.

He said his daughter embraced the idea that vaccine mandates were for the good of everybody and didn’t question any potential loss of freedom. “[They’re] impressionable. You beat that into the younger generation,” said McLeod.

“We’re one generation away from all of our freedoms from the Constitution just being garbage,” he added. “The consequences of their [his daughter’s generation] decisions will be something we all have to deal with. And they don’t understand it well enough.”

Florida: Illegal Alien Charged with Slashing Bike-Riding Couple to Death

An illegal alien is charged with brutally murdering a couple who were riding bikes back to their home in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Jean Robert Macean, a 32-year-old illegal alien, was arrested and charged late last week for the murder of a husband and wife — 55-year-old Brenda Aultman and 48-year-old Terry Aultman.

According to the Daytona Beach Police Department, the Aultmans were riding their bikes back to their home following a day at the Bike Week festival when they were encountered by Macean.

Police said the Aultmans were found in a grassy area next to a sidewalk with slashes and stabs all over their bodies. Both were declared dead at the scene. Police took Macean into custody late last week and charged him with two counts of first-degree murder.

The Aultmans’ bikes were also recovered from the scene.

Arizona Moves to Require Keeping Public Record of Illegal Alien Crimes

A plan advancing through the Arizona state legislature, introduced by Arizona State Rep. John Kavanaugh (R), would require the state to keep a record of crimes committed by illegal aliens.

Kavanaugh introduced the plan, known as H.B. 2326, in January. Essentially, the plan would require all superior court probation departments in Arizona to keep a record of illegal alien criminals with identifying information and specifics on the crimes they committed.

An illegal alien who commits a crime in Arizona would have their name, the crime they were convicted of, their date of conviction, their subsequent criminal sentence, their booking photo, as well as their height and weight turned over to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC).

The ACJC would then be required to publicly post the information to their website.

Democrat State Rep. Alma Hernandez joined every Republican state representative to pass the plan out of the state House on February 23. On March 10, the plan was passed out of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee and now is awaiting passage by Republicans who have a majority in the Arizona State Senate.

The plan needs the backing of State Senate President Karen Fann (R) and Gov. Doug Ducey (R).

Passing the plan would be a historic achievement for Angel Families, who have fought to keep records of illegal alien crimes. Currently, the federal government and most states do not keep a daily or annual record of crimes committed by illegal aliens.

The lack of transparency has ensured that American citizens are unaware of the extent to which illegal aliens commit crimes after their entry to the United States either through overstaying a visa or illegally crossing international borders.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) has long estimated that about 2,000 Americans are killed by illegal aliens across the U.S. every year.

White House alters its transcript to cover for Kamala’s ‘stupidity’

The White House has edited the transcript of a speech given by Vice President Kamala Harris after she wrongly said that Ukraine is part of the NATO alliance.

It isn’t.

Robert Spencer in a column at PJMedia pointed out the correction to Harris’ comments.

She had said, “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”

On the transcript, later, the White House posted that she said, “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO alliance.”

Explained Spencer, who characterized her flub as “stupidity,” “You heard it. I heard it. The whole world heard it. Even CNN reported it. … At the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington on Saturday, Kamala Harris said: ‘The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.'”

Spencer explained, “Now, Ukraine is not actually in NATO, and so standing firmly with the Ukrainian people would not actually be an act in defense of the NATO alliance, and of all people, the person pretending to be vice president of the United States should know that. So over at WhiteHouse.gov, the ever-helpful anonymous wonks who record every august word and deed of the socialists, clowns, puppets, freaks, and saboteurs responsible for this period of American misrule knew that they had to do something to prevent the American people from realizing just how oblivious and out of touch our putative vice president really is.

“Voilá! Now it has her saying: ‘The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO Alliance.'”

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

How Schools’ COVID-Aid Joy Ride Could Send New Hires Off a Fiscal Cliff—Again

As school districts across the country grapple with declining enrollments induced by the pandemic, many are engaged in spending sprees like those of the past leading to widespread layoffs and budget cuts when federal money ran out.

Bolstered by $190 billion in pandemic relief funding from Washington, the nation’s public schools are hiring new teachers and staff, raising salaries, and sweetening benefit packages. Some are buying new vehicles. Others are building theaters and sports facilities.

Using such temporary support for new staff and projects with long-term costs is setting the table for perilous “fiscal cliffs” after COVID funding expires in 2024, some education budget analysts say. And that’s on top of doubts about whether money to battle the pandemic is being properly spent in the first place.

The latest round of pandemic relief for K-12 schools—the 2021 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER—provided $122 billion to help school districts “safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”

In a January press release hailing what it called the success of the program, the Department of Education highlighted vaccination programs, tutoring, retention bonuses, and new hires. But it neglected to mention numerous other perks and frills that districts are bankrolling with that money.

Creston Community School District in Iowa used $231,000 of COVID relief to expand its sports stadium bleachers to make them compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The school board in Fort Worth, Texas, in October approved spending $171,000 of the district’s pandemic money for five vans to transport the district’s gifted and talented students.

Moore County Schools in North Carolina is already asking the county for more money after exhausting its pandemic account, which funded expenditures including the installation of two new running tracks and gym lockers.

The McAllen, Texas, school district, which has lost 15 percent of its enrollment since 2011, approved using relief funds for a project that critics contend is not connected to education: a $4 million expansion of a nature park on city property. That was permissible under the spending rules, so long as the state education department approved the construction project.

In an email, Texas Education Agency spokesman Frank Ward said approval of ESSER-funded construction projects “only certifies that the school system has met the minimum requirement for prior approval,” but declined to elaborate on individual projects. “Ultimately, allowable uses of ESSER funds will be determined by auditors,” Ward wrote.

Education analysts say the spending free-for-all is occurring precisely because of such murky, open-ended guidance from Washington. Each state was required to file a general spending plan for its share of ESSER funding—but not to provide specifics.

The “current wave of funding is all over the place,” said Chad Aldeman, policy director at Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, which conducts research on the economics of education. “There is not a clear articulation of what this money is for.”

Immigration-Driven Population Growth Claiming Vast Swaths of Open Space: Report

A new report from NumbersUSA has revealed that 17,800 square miles of open space in the United States were claimed by development between 2002 and 2017.

That area is about as large as Connecticut and Maryland put together.

“The rate of sprawl in this century has slowed down fairly substantially from what it was in the ‘70s through the 1990s. That’s the good news, and it’s for a variety of reasons, some of which are not so good—the 2008 meltdown, for example,” said Leon Kolankiewicz, scientific director for NumbersUSA and the lead author of “From Sea to Sprawling Sea,” in an interview with The Epoch Times.

“The bad news, if I could put it that way, is that population growth represents an ever-larger share of the forces driving that urban sprawl.”

Population growth accounted for 60 percent of sprawl over the larger 30-year period between 1982 and 2017. Yet, during the period between 2002 and 2017, fully 67 percent of sprawl was due to population growth, rather than other factors.

In a 2015 report, Pew found that 55 percent of population growth in the U.S. between 1965 and 2015 stemmed from immigrants or their descendants.

Pew projected that 88 percent of U.S. population growth from 2015 through 2065 will result from immigrants and their descendants.

A 2019 report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows an even more dramatic trend. CIS’s analysis of data and projections from the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that future immigration could drive 95 percent of U.S. population growth between 2017 and 2060.

The year starting July 2020 and ending July 2021 marked a watershed in immigration-driven population growth. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it was the first year on record that net international migration directly accounted for a greater proportion of population growth than natural increase.

NumbersUSA’s interactive online map shows new development has been dominated by population growth in many of the states with the largest foreign-born populations.

In California, for example, where roughly a quarter of the population is foreign born, 86 percent of the open space lost from 2002 through 2017 was lost because of population growth.

Texas, home to fully 11 percent of the nation’s immigrants according to Pew, sacrificed a staggering 2,616 square miles of open space to development during that 15-year period, with 73 percent of that sprawl chalked up to population growth.

Florida, home to another 10 percent of the U.S. immigrant population per Pew, stands out even more starkly. Population growth claimed fully 95 percent of the 1,065 square miles of open space lost from 2002 to 2017.

Kolankiewicz told The Epoch Times that most anti-sprawl activists “don’t want to touch the population issue with a 10-foot pole, because it’s mostly immigration driving it right now.”

“They prefer to deal with those things that are more politically correct—forcing people to live in higher-density residential areas,” he added.

“Recognition by scholars that population growth is a major (not the only) driver of urban land expansion and sprawl is sharply at odds with the way the news media and anti-sprawl activists in the United States have tended to portray the causes of sprawl,” the report states.

“The news media and anti-sprawl activists have chosen to accept that rapid, unending U.S. population growth on the order of 20 to 30 or more million new residents per decade is a given and a fait accompli. They have no intent of questioning or challenging it.”

The report points out the tension between politicians’ actions or commitments on immigration and, on the other hand, the conservation of American open lands.

The Biden administration, for example, has promoted a 30 by 30 initiative aimed at protecting 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030.

“Many of the same politicians and groups who are ambitiously calling for protecting 30 percent of the United States land area from development by 2030 are also advocating large increases in immigration that would swell the U.S. population even further,” the report states.

“Most fail to even recognize that U.S. population growth is a major factor in causing the loss of open space and natural habitat in the United States. The White House “30×30” plan, for example, does not have a single reference to U.S. population growth.”

Sprawl is also a major cause of habitat loss and fragmentation.

Barcoding Nature: The Largest Global Land Grab In Human History

By Meleni Aldridge & Melissa Smith

“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” — Aldo Leopold

Have you ever heard of a natural asset company or NAC in short (and we’re not referring here to the glutathione precursor, N-acetyl-cysteine)? It won’t surprise us if you haven’t. We’ve only recently come across the term ourselves and we’re coming to the view that it may facilitate the biggest corporate land grab in recent history. That’s if we, the people, don’t put a stop to it.

If you believe that Nature should never become a commodity that’s bought and sold by a powerful few, read on. The fact that the moneyed minority feel that they have a right to effectively barcode Nature is quite breathtaking in its greed and arrogance. Though not all that surprising when you look at what’s been happening over the past 2 years. We really are being called to ‘clean house’ on so many levels.

We’ve created an infographic (see below) to summarise the plans for the exploitation of what’s now being termed, Nature’s Economy. You can see at a glance the price tag that’s been placed on her head and why suddenly traditional philanthropy — based on giving — has been declared ‘a total failure’ and is being replaced by ‘investment philanthropy’. You’ll be familiar with the names involved in kicking off this new kind of non-giving (aka taking) philanthropy. If you were wondering how philanthropic investing could be declared a failure, look no further than André Hoffmann, the vice chairman of pharmaceutical giant, Roche.

Please download and share as far and wide as you can. This is a message that needs to take flight rapidly.

NOAA Warns US Megadrought Will Persist; May Impact Food Supply Chains

Abnormally dry to exceptional drought conditions are expected to persist across 60% of the continental U.S. as spring in the Northern Hemisphere begins. Forecasters expect little to no rain for certain parts of the western U.S. through June.

From April to June, above-average temperatures are expected from the Southwest to the East Coast and north through the Midwest, according to a new outlook published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA’s map shows a greater than 50% chance of drought persistence for nearly 60% of the continental U.S.

“Severe to exceptional drought has persisted in some areas of the West since the summer of 2020, and drought has expanded to the southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief, Operational Prediction Branch, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

 “With nearly 60% of the continental U.S. experiencing minor to exceptional drought conditions, this is the largest drought coverage we’ve seen in the U.S. since 2013,” Gottschalck said. 

The outlook also noted more than 50% of the U.S. will experience above-average temperatures this spring, with the greatest chances in the Southern Rockies and Southern Plains.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, at least 90% of nine western states are plagued with dry conditions, including all of California, Nevada, and Utah, and 99% of New Mexico.

—> The Grow Network has a free webinar on how to grow food.  Register for free at www.PowerHourFood.com “

HEALTH

5 Foods That Destroy Your Immune System

A strong immune system is vital for staying healthy. Getting enough sleep, exercising, and good nutrition are all things that support your immune system. Conversely, running on a sleep deficit, living a sedentary lifestyle, and eating unhealthy foods will make your immune system weak. Let’s take a look at some of the absolute worst types of food for your immune system.

Foods That Destroy Your Immune System

Nutrition is a factor when considering the strength or weakness of your immune system. Eating whole, organic foods that are free of additives and chemicals provide the best nutrients without any toxins. This is the food that nourishes your body and supports immune function. But not all foods do that, let’s look at the 5 that are the worst for immune function.

1. Red Meat

Red meat can trigger a dangerous reaction that can weaken the immune system.[1] The issue comes from a natural sugar in red meat that our bodies can’t digest. The sugar is believed to cause a host of other health concerns — a higher risk of cancer being one of those.

2. Fried Foods

In addition to being full of fats that could increase your “bad” cholesterol, fried foods can also trigger inflammation, leading to reduced immunity. Cutting back on fried foods — or better yet, getting rid of them altogether — could help restore the body’s natural defenses.[2] Plus, fried foods accumulate acrylamide — a dangerous carcinogen.

3. Soda

If you’re drinking soda — it really doesn’t matter what it’s sweetened with — you’re likely harming your immune system. Even diet soda is a bad option. Because soda has no beneficial nutrients, drinkers are less likely to get enough vitamin A, calcium, and magnesium — all necessary for an optimum immune system. And, if that wasn’t enough, phosphoric acid (found in sodas) can also deplete calcium and magnesium in the body.

4. Sugary Snacks

Some sugars — refined ones are the absolute worst — can actually suppress the immune system. Refined sugar actually targets the cells that attack bacteria.[3] And the effect can even last for hours after you eat something sugary.

5. Processed Foods

One of the most dangerous foods to immune health, in my opinion, is processed foods. How come? Because there are many food companies out there who are using the terms “natural” to describe their product, even though their foods may have a hefty amount of refined carbohydrates, sugar, and hidden flavorings. Even organic processed foods, like cereal and bread, can contain immune-suppressing sugar. Processed foods are basically anything that comes in a package, contains more than one ingredient, and has been cooked and modified mechanically. Eating processed foods can lead to chronic irritation in the body. The toxins of a modern diet completely outweigh the possible nutritional gains.[4] All this is leading us to weaker immune systems, higher rate of illnesses and diseases, and all-around poor health.

Natural Immune System Support

If you want a healthy immune system, in addition to getting rid of these foods, you could also try eating some that boost your immunity instead. These include vitamin C-rich foods like green vegetables and citrus. Exercise is also a healthy component, as is stress reduction and vitamin D supplementation. Oregano oil is also a powerful harmful organism cleanser and may have some benefit for immune health.

Chaga Mushrooms: A Powerhouse of Healing

The mysterious Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) is a non-toxic, medicinal mycelium with a propensity for birch bark. If you were to spot it while roaming through a birch forest in the Northern hemisphere, you’d probably assume (based on its rather unappealing appearance), that it was some kind of tree infection. But Chaga is a whole lot more than just an unsightly forest blemish.

The chaga mushroom is actually a treasure trove of science-backed healing potential that’s been a prominent feature in folk medicine for thousands of years.

Chaga’s reputation as a powerful natural remedy for everything from gastrointestinal disease to tuberculosis to cancer spans at least as far back as the 16th century when botanical artisans are said to have figured out that it could be steeped as a tea for a variety of therapeutic purposes.1

The historical record suggests that, even prior to this, natural healers in Asia were likely among the first to document Chaga’s medicinal potential more than 4,600 years ago. They observed that the strange fungus has a unique ability to extract nutrients from its hosts and concentrate them into itself. Hence the chaga mushroom’s incredible density of B vitamins, antioxidants, trace minerals, enzymes, and more.

Since these ancient times, science has taken our understanding of Chaga to a whole new level, and the West is finally catching on to what this amazing mushroom is capable of. Just in the last century the Chaga mushroom’s antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, cardio-protective, anti-hyperglycemic, and anti-cancer properties have become more widely known.

Prominent authorities including the International Society for Mushroom Science (ISMS) have declared it to be a worthwhile dietary supplement that may be useful as a first-line nutraceutical remedy. This means it’s a functional food that exhibits significant medicinal and/or tonic qualities from which humans can derive benefit.

How Chaga Helps Support a Vibrant Immune System

You probably already know that the primary means by which the human body avoids disease is through the immune system, a complex network of organs, cells, and proteins that actively wards off foreign invaders. Without an immune system, our bodies would quickly succumb to harmful pathogens like bacteria, viruses, parasites, and malignant fungi, leading to serious illness and eventually death.2 This is why it’s critically important to support the immune system with immunomodulatory nutrition like the kind found in Chaga.

A natural Biological Response Modifier (BRM), Chaga mushroom is rich in a class of polysaccharides known as Beta-D-Glucans that help to balance the body’s immune system response, boosting or slowing it as needed for optimal function.

Chaga also possesses key nutrient compounds that give it the ability to activate an array of immune cells, including lymphocytes, macrophages, and natural killer cells. These cells allow the body to suppress the formation of chronic health conditions like autoimmune disease, allergies, and cancer.

The immunomodulatory effects of Chaga appear to extend even further than this, with investigatory research suggesting benefits in the remediation of both food and asthma allergies, atopic dermatitis, inflammation (including autoimmune inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis), atherosclerosis, thrombosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), listeriosis, septic shock, and perhaps most prominently, cancer.

While science has yet to uncover every precise mechanism behind how Chaga performs these functions, it’s clear from what’s already been uncovered that Chaga is a powerful potentiating and immune-enhancing “superfood” with vast healing potential.3

Inflammation is No Match for Chaga Mushroom

In addition to Beta-D-Glucans, Chaga mushrooms contain a variety of other polysaccharides that have been scientifically shown to help boost energy levels and promote mental clarity, while protecting the various organs of the body against damaging inflammation. Particularly in the area of cardiovascular health, Chaga exhibits a type of soothing effect that’s been shown to help relax blood vessels and improve blood flow. This in turn delivers more oxygen throughout the body.

Patients suffering from chronic pain, neuropathy, and even diabetes are strong candidates for Chaga’s use in this regard, as the mushroom’s constituents have further been shown to help modulate platelet aggregation.4

Heart disease is another area where Chaga has shown pronounced benefits. It contains high levels of a triterpene substance known as betulinic acid, as well as its precursor betulin, that studies show is a powerful weapon against high cholesterol. Researchers from Jiangnan University in China found that a culture broth containing dry matter of Chaga extract exhibited both anti-hyperglycemic and anti-lipid peroxidative effects, helping to break down damaging LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol in the bloodstream.5

Chaga’s diverse antioxidant profile is even more impressive, as it bears the highest ORAC score of any known superfood. (ORAC is a measure of antioxidant potency.) According to research compiled by Tufts University, Chaga has three times the antioxidant power of wolfberries (aka goji berries), which is the next strongest known food. One could argue that this makes Chaga the world’s number one source of inflammation-fighting antioxidants.6

Chaga mushroom contains high amounts of Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD), a powerful class of enzymes that contributes to its robust antioxidant defense against oxidation and free radical damage. Chaga’s natural black pigmentation is indicative of its high content of melanin, a polyphenol-rich “super” antioxidant that protects against DNA damage.7 Melanin is the same antioxidant naturally found in human skin that protects against sun damage.

—> Check out ChagaMax (90 CT) available at thepowermall.com

COVID RELATED NEWS

Fauci Says He’s Considering Stepping Down

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a new interview that he is considering stepping away from the position he’d held since 1984.

Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was asked during a podcast released March 18 whether he was mulling retirement or transitioning to a less-demanding job.

“I certainly am because I’ve got to do it sometime,” Fauci, 81, said.

“I can’t stay at this job forever, unless my staff is going to find me slumped over my desk one day. I’d rather not do that,” he added.

Fauci was appointed to his position in 1984 during the Reagan administration.

Fauci’s comments came after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) failed in his effort to get support for a measure that would eliminate the NIAID and create three new institutes in its stead.

Paul, who has clashed with Fauci during multiple congressional hearings, said Fauci has become has become a “dictator-in-chief.”

“No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans,” Paul, a doctor, said.

Fauci and his agency had not responded to requests for comment on the measure.

Fauci: US Not Likely to See Surge From New COVID-19 Subvariant

Chief White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he doesn’t believe the United States will see another surge of the CCP virus due to the spread of a subvariant of Omicron.

The subvariant, known as BA.2, has been blamed by some officials for an uptick in cases across Europe and the United Kingdom in recent days.

“Hopefully, we won’t see a surge. I don’t think we will. The easiest way to prevent that is to continue to get people vaccinated. And for those who have been vaccinated, to continue to get them boosted, so that’s really where we stand right now,” Fauci told ABC News in a televised interview, adding the United States will see an “uptick” in COVID-19 cases.

When asked about whether the United States should relax its COVID-19 measures, Fauci said he doesn’t believe so. However, he suggested that officials may have to implement COVID-19 rules and restrictions in the future.

“I don’t think so … not right now. I don’t see us going back into any more really very restrict[ive] kinds of restrictions. But you always have to have the flexibility,” said Fauci, who has headed the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

“So the bottom line is we likely will see an uptick in cases as we’ve seen in the European countries, particularly the UK, where … they have BA.2,” he added. “They have a relaxation of some restrictions such as indoor masking and there’s a waning of immunity.

Fauci’s remarks on Sunday come as he told a podcast last week that he’s considering leaving his position in the federal government.

New York City to Indefinitely Continue Vaccine Mandate for Private Sector

School mask mandate for those aged 5 and under to also remain in place

New York City’s new health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, said on Friday that the city’s vaccine mandate for private-sector workers who work on-site will continue indefinitely. The city’s school mask mandate for children aged 5 and under will also remain in place.

At his first COVID-19 press briefing, when asked whether there were any specific benchmarks that would enable the city to decide to lift the vaccine mandate for private-sector workers, Vasan did not initially provide a direct response.

“I would love to sit here and say I can give you a date or a data point to say when we would lift those things. Right now, we are in a low risk environment and we will continue to evaluate that data,” he said.

When pressed further about whether there were any specific metric in mind for which the city government would lift the mandate Vasan responded: “I think it’s indefinite at this point.”

“People who have tried to predict what will happen in this future for this pandemic have repeatedly found egg on their face, as they say,” he added. “And I’m not going to do that here today.”

He noted that the city’s color-coded risk alert system provides the government with “very clear benchmarks,” with COVID-19 cases, hospitalization rates, and bed occupancy rates being the “pillars” of the alert system.

The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the private sector workers was announced in December 2021 under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, requiring all private employers to require their employees to have proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Prior to that, de Blasio announced in October 2021 a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all public sector workers.

The latest announcement by Vasan comes as a new form of the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading in New York—the BA.2 subvariant, accounting for about 39 percent of the cases in the state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CDC Responds After Reporting Fewer COVID-19 Pediatric Deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says its removal tens of thousands of deaths it had attributed to COVID-19 happened because the agency was mistakenly counting deaths not related to COVID-19.

The CDC removed 72,277 deaths, including 416 among children, that were said to have been from COVID-19 from its data tracker webpage this week.

“CDC constantly reviews our COVID-19 data to ensure its accuracy,” Jasmine Reed, a spokeswoman for the agency, told The Epoch Times in an email, adding that the adjustment was made “because CDC’s algorithm was accidentally counting deaths that were not COVID-19-related.”

The CDC had not announced when the change was made. On its website, the agency described the update as a statement from the resolution of a “coding logic error.”

The Epoch Times has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for internal communications relating to the change, which included the removal of some 24 percent of pediatric deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Reed said the CDC often has incomplete data when figures are first reported to the agency from states.

“Our rigorous quality control measures help us identify when new information changes our understanding of data that has previously been reported,” she wrote.

The data tracker now reports 782,371 deaths from COVID-19. The deaths are reported.

That’s different from a separate measure, compiled from death certificates and managed by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The NCHS currently lists 967,748 deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying or contributing cause of death. However, its death count for those under 18 is actually lower than the data tracker figure.

“Death data on the COVID data tracker are real-time and subject to change,” Reed said. In contrast, the NCHS tracker “is the most complete source of death data, including COVID-19 deaths, as they have a robust and rigorous process for reviewing death certificates in determining the official cause of death.”

Some of the pediatric deaths attributed to COVID-19, according to a search of the CDC’s Wonder system, include deaths where drowning or drug use was listed as the primary cause of death.

The data tracker numbers are cited widely in media and by experts, including CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. The Guardian, among those citing the number, corrected an article after the latest update, noting the downwards correction by the CDC of the death figure.

Some defended the CDC, arguing that the agency’s website says the data are estimated and subject to change.

Doctor: What to Do After COVID Vaccines

What can people who have health problems linked to the COVID-19 vaccine do to help themselves?

STORY AT A GLANCE

• Dr. Ann Corson summarizes reported side effects of COVID vaccines
• How big a role nutrition plays and why
• Best foods to consume and what to avoid, and supplements to take and when
• What lifestyle has to do with immunity

Ask a Doctor: “What can people who have health problems linked to the COVID-19 vaccine do to help themselves?”

If you believe your COVID-19 vaccination may be responsible for certain conditions that developed afterward, you could be right, and you may need to take measures to recover.

As information and data surrounding the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines have become increasingly available, scientists and doctors continue to express concerns regarding the negative health effects being documented around the world, including in Germany, Israel, Scotland.

In May of 2021, Drs. Stephanie Seneff and Greg Nigh published a comprehensive overview of the potential problems associated with the COVID-19 vaccines.

“In this review, we first describe the technology underlying these vaccines in detail. We then review both components of and the intended biological response to these vaccines, including production of the spike protein itself, and their potential relationship to a wide range of both acute and long-term induced pathologies, such as blood disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmune diseases.”

What Mothers Should Know About COVID and COVID-19 Vaccine for Children

Public health officials want doctors to give the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to the most vulnerable age group, tiny babies and young children under 5 years old

It is the fastest development and mass administration of an experimental vaccine to healthy humans in history, and the first vaccine to be distributed and recommended for mass use under an Emergency Use Authorization

In June 2020, Congress completely shielded vaccine manufacturers and anyone administering the COVID vaccine from product liability and malpractice lawsuits in civil court

Studies have shown that most healthy infants and children with COVID disease either have no symptoms or much milder symptoms than adults, which last about a week

As of February 4, 2022, there were over 1.1 million adverse event reports following COVID-19 vaccinations filed with the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)

You have the moral right and must have the legal right to gather information, consult with a health professional and follow your gut instincts when making a decision about whether or not your child should get vaccinated — without being coerced or sanctioned by anyone for the decision you make

Woman Died of Rare Brain Bleed After Getting COVID-19 Vaccine: Coroner

A coroner in the United Kingdom has determined that a woman died from a side effect caused by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The woman was identified as 34-year-old Kim Lockwood, who had complained of a headache eight days after taking the shot in March of 2021, South Yorkshire Coroner Nicola Mundy told the BBC in a statement on March 16.

The coroner said her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was pronounced dead 17 hours after being admitted to the hospital, eight days after getting the shot.

Mundy said Lockwood was “extremely unlucky” in developing a “sudden and catastrophic” bleed on her brain. Her death was recorded at the Doncaster Coroner’s court as Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT), officials told the broadcaster.

An article published by the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information says VITT is “defined as a clinical syndrome” that entails the “development of thrombosis at uncommon sites” that include cerebral venous sinus thrombosis or splanchnic venous thrombosis. Thrombosis occurs when blood clots block veins or arteries.

The American Society of Hematology in January 2022 stated that VITT is marked by low platelet count, known as thrombocytopenia, and blood clots that usually occur in the splanchnic veins located in the abdomen and stomach or the cerebral veins located in the brain.

Lockwood’s husband, Damian, told news outlets that his wife, a mother of two, had complained that “her head felt like it was going to explode,” while her father, Wayne Merrill, recalled her last words, which he said were that her headache was “actually killing her.”

“Kim’s pain wasn’t appropriately managed, and the family should have been listened to,” Mundy said.

Fact-Checker Falsely Accuses Mercola of Misleading Claims

According to a fact-checking organization called Health Feedback, COVID-19 deaths have not been overcounted; rather, they’ve been undercounted. As “evidence,” they cite a study from India, which concluded that they’ve undercounted cases

Health Feedback is part of a World Health Organization project called Vaccine Safety Net, and is a fact-checking service under the umbrella of Science Feedback. Partners and funders of Science Feedback include Facebook and the Google News Initiative

Health Feedback relies on semantics to debunk my statement that “most early COVID patients were killed from ventilator malpractice.” The article I cited did not use the term “malpractice,” but routinely using a treatment known to be harmful and/or deadly can rightfully be called malpractice

The fact checker also claims that financial incentives given to hospitals for positive cases, treatments and deaths have had no impact on statistics because of “strict rules” on reporting

Such “strict rules” have included counting “assumed” COVID cases and deaths, and counting cases where people were admitted to the hospital and/or died from other causes but had a positive test, either at death, post-mortem, or within a month of death

Clueless CDC Admits They Never Suspected Waning Vaccines

March 3, 2022, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky answered questions at Washington University, revealing she learned of the Pfizer shot efficacy data from CNN, which was a republished press release from the pharmaceutical company

Walensky was unaware that the virus may mutate, or that the vaccine would not be effective against mutations, which was a question a financial analyst was astute enough to ask Pfizer

Many of the talking points from the CDC originated from the same company that did President Biden’s polling in the 2020 election, which indicates that at least some of the “science” driving public health policy came from Impact Research, who are the “proud pollsters for President Joe Biden”

Walensky admits that half the country doesn’t believe what she’s saying and that she’s been warned not to predict what’s happening next. She predicts the coronavirus will kill people every year and we’ll learn to live with it and masks will be here for a while since she hasn’t had a cold “in a really long time”