Tag: Big Pharma

Commentary: Trump’s Wild Bunch Is Ready for Action

RealClearWire
Donald Trump

If for no other reason than that it will elicit fear in the hearts of autocracy-phobics, I propose that Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet be known as “The Wild Bunch.”

The name is best known as the title of Sam Peckinpah’s classic 1969 western featuring a colorful cast of aging outlaws – William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson – who give it their all as they battle bounty hunters, the Mexican Federal Army, and the passage of time in order to make their mark while they still have a chance.

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Commentary: The Uniparty Establishment War on MAHA Heats Up

American Greatness
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

by Brian Robertson   “Trump really could empower RFK Jr. to wreck public health” proclaims the headline in Vox. “RFK Jr. Wants to Reshape US Health Policy. Good Luck With That” mocks a banner in Wired. Likewise, the Wall Street Journal joined the frenzy, noting that “industry, doctors, and their supporters in Congress probably will resist Kennedy’s unconventional health ideas.” The alarmist reporting exposes the strategy to discredit Kennedy, claiming he’s a “conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic” who supports “dubious and unproven therapies,” and if Trump follows his dangerous agenda, “preventable diseases like measles and polio could make a comeback.” These hit pieces against the Make America Healthy Again – MAHA – movement backed by Kennedy, the first two dropping a week before Trump’s victory, were a red light flashing the abject fear of the revolving-door lobbyists and their corporate media allies over the prospect of  the former Democrat ending the K-Street scam that has led to the capture of our federal agencies by the very industries they are supposed to be regulating. The palpable fear crosses party lines. As the Washington Post notes: “The prospect of Kennedy holding any senior administration role has increasingly alarmed public health leaders and federal workers who say that he…

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Commentary: Protect Georgians’ Prescription Drug Access

Admin
Greg Tapley

As the vice president and Chief Financial Officer of a Middle Georgia ambulance service, I’ve seen firsthand how the exorbitant cost of healthcare is a heavy burden on Georgians from all walks of life. This isn’t just a problem for the sick or the elderly, it’s a shared struggle we must all confront together. 

A recent study ranked Georgia as the worst state in the nation for healthcare, a stark reminder of the urgent need for change. The study cited high costs, the lack of doctors (particularly specialists), and unaffordable insurance as the prime reasons for this designation. Nearly fifteen percent of Georgians deferred seeing a doctor within the last twelve months due to concerns about costs, and almost one in seven residents lacked health insurance. 

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Commentary: Vaccine Ad Blitz Sidestepped Transparency Rules

RealClearWire
COVID Shot

“A bun in the toaster oven,” a woman exclaims off-camera, handing an ultrasound image to family members who erupt into tearful emotion over the news. “Oh my God!” 

The touching baby announcement video then gets down to business as text appears on the screen amidst the ongoing celebration, suggesting the best way to stay alive for this joyous birth is by becoming vaccinated against COVID-19. “Why will you get vaccinated? …  Because some people you just want to meet in person.” 

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Commentary: Thank You Congresswoman Harshbarger for Opposing the Inflation Reduction Act

Admin

Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger was right to vote against the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – which ironically enough has caused record and historic inflation. According to the Heritage Foundation year-over-year inflation reached a 40-year high at 9%. This hurts everyone, but especially seniors living on fixed incomes.

All Americans are feeling the pinch of the IRA with real spending power declining at rapid rates. According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator $1,000 in 2020 now takes $1,215.33 in 2024 dollars to have the same amount of purchasing power – this is a 21.5% cumulative rate of inflation since President Biden won election. No wonder the American people are suffering over the past four years. 

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Commentary: Pharmacy Benefits Are Essential for Tennesseans’ Well-Being

Admin

In Tennessee, the battle to protect pharmacy benefits is not merely a matter of policy, but a battle to protect our country from unnecessary government overreach by the extreme Left. I am deeply troubled by recent attempts at the federal level that target pharmacy benefits and our free market – all in one swoop.

People across our state are already experiencing immense financial strain as they grapple with the soaring costs of inflation and prescriptions, and we need to advocate for policies that will effectively lower these prices through free market competition.

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Commentary: Big Pharma’s Wokeness

Admin
Pfizer Vaccine

Big Pharma is not your friend. Whether it’s hiking up drug prices or bribing the Swamp, the pharmaceutical industry works against the people’s interests. Many Americans are aware of Big Pharma’s greed and the power it wields over Washington, D.C., but fewer are aware of just how left-wing the industry is. It serves as a cash cow for the left and pushes woke ideas on its employees and the country at large. This may explain why Democrats, who act like they hate Big Pharma, serve the industry’s interests.

While the drugmakers spread their cash around all of DC, they overwhelmingly prefer Democrats. In recent elections, Big Pharma donated significantly more money to Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. From 2016 to 2022, the industry gave a whopping $29 million to Democratic candidates. This trend stands true for the current election cycle, with more cash going to Democrats once again. This favoritism extends to the presidential race. The drug lobby has donated four times more money to Joe Biden than it has to Donald Trump. And the industry’s generosity to Team Blue doesn’t end with individual candidates. Its chief lobby, PhRMA, also gives millions to liberal campaign arms like the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

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Activists Sheila Matthews and Amy Miller Detail Legislative Win on Tennessee Bill to Help Determine Link Between Mental Health Drugs and Mass Shooters

Kaitlin Housler
pills

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, and activist Amy Miller with the Reform Pharma initiative of Children’s Health Defense, detailed the progress a bill that would help determine the link between Big Pharma drugs and mass shooters has made in the Tennessee General Assembly since its introduction.

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Amy Miller Details Work with the Children’s Health Defense Reform Pharma Initiative

Kaitlin Housler
Reform Pharma

Activist Amy Miller with Reform Pharma, the newest initiative of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s non-profit organization Children’s Health Defense, said she is a “mama bear on a mission” to remove the “corruption of Big Pharma.”

“Children’s Health Defense has a new initiative called Reform Pharma, and that’s who we are. We’re systematically removing the corruption of Big Pharma. It’s a large project to tackle. They’ve been doing this for decades, you know, interweaving their so-called help and corruption into our education system, our government, just basically any part of your life, but we want to remove and basically separate pharma and state. It’s, it’s much needed,” Miller explained during Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.

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Co-Founder of AbleChild Sheila Matthews Details Work on Tennessee Bill to Help Determine Link Between Psychotropic Drugs and Mass Shooters

Kaitlin Housler
Sheila Matthews

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, detailed her work on crafting an “outstanding” bill recently filed in the Tennessee General Assembly that is focused on reforming the process medical examiner’s offices must follow in terms of testing for psychotropic drugs when performing autopsies on the bodies of mass shooters.

HB 2933, if enacted, would require a medical examiner’s office or regional forensic center to determine and document current both psychotropic and prescription drug use from the past 10 years by a deceased individual who died under “suspicious, unusual, or unnatural circumstances.”

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Big Pharma Raises Hundreds of Drug Prices Despite Biden Admin Efforts to Keep Costs Down

Admin
Pharmacist

Top pharmaceutical companies raised the list price on 775 brand-name drugs in just the first half of January, even as President Joe Biden aims to keep prices low, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The median price hike of the drugs was around 4.5%, with some rising by 10% or more, despite an inflation rate of 3.4% year-over-year in December, according to data from 46brooklyn Research acquired by the WSJ. The price hikes are in contrast to the president’s efforts to tame rising drug prices, taking actions such as imposing automatic rebates to Medicare for drugmakers that raise their prices faster than the price of inflation, which first went into effect in December, affecting 48 drugs covered under Medicare Part B.

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Americans Sour on Big Pharma After Pandemic, Opioid Crisis: Poll

Admin
COVID Pfizer

Public opinion on the pharmaceutical industry has declined sharply over the past decade, according to new polling released by Gallup.

The proportion of Americans who believe pharmaceutical companies provide good or excellent services declined 21 points between 2010 and 2023, according to a poll released Monday. Public controversies over COVID-19 vaccines and the opioid crisis have implicated the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.

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Big Pharma is Giving Away Americans’ Medical Info to Law Enforcement with No Warrant, Lawmakers Say

Admin

Big pharmacies are distributing Americans’ private medical information to law enforcement agencies without a warrant, lawmakers said in a Tuesday letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Law enforcement agencies discreetly get a hold of thousands of Americans’ prescription records per year with no warrant, and often with no legal review, according to Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Democratic California Rep. Sara Jacobs. The lawmakers are pushing HHS to increase its regulations to protect Americans’ data and require a warrant to obtain it.

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Commentary: Republicans Must Not Surrender to Bernie Sanders on Healthcare

Admin

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the GOP needs an effective healthcare agenda. There are many policies and programs they could be championing to help families deal with rising costs — especially now with control in the House and a slim Democratic majority in the Senate — but unfortunately, they’ve failed to capitalize on this issue so far.

Republicans are missing an important opening; last year 90 percent of voters said a candidate’s plan for reducing the cost of healthcare would be important to them and 39 percent went so far as to say they would likely cross party lines to vote for a candidate who makes reducing healthcare costs their top priority!

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Louisiana Republican State Senator Joins Democrats to Kill Bill to Protect Minors from Gender Transition Hormone Drugs and Surgeries

Susan Berry, PhD

Louisiana State Sen. Fred Mills (R-Acadiana), a former Democrat and a pharmacy owner backed by the pharmaceutical industry, joined with Democrats of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee to kill a bill, already passed by the state House, that would have protected minors from life-altering gender transition procedures.

HB648, a bill that would “prohibit certain procedures to alter the sex of a minor child,” including providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as elective double mastectomies and castrations, was killed in committee, by a vote of 5-4, with Mills, the GOP chair of the committee, breaking the tie to side with the Democrats.

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Commentary: For High Healthcare Costs, S.127 Is Bad Medicine

Admin

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly considering bringing a Big Pharma-backed bill to the Senate floor for a vote that would result in higher healthcare costs for everyday Americans. The so-called Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act (S.127) was written and pushed by special interests. If it passes, it will hurt all of us both in our wallets and in terms of the quality of our healthcare.

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Commentary: The Real Pandemic in America Today Is Obesity

Admin

According to the mainstream media, the most important health crisis in the world today is either COVID-19 or mental health. We all know why they say that; money. Money is the most important factor deciding what is and is not important in America today. Hundreds of billions of dollars are up for grabs yearly from these two “pandemics,” and companies like Pfizer are only too eager to profit from them. 

Pfizer boasts on its website that the company has “successfully manufactured more than 3 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in 2021 and expects to manufacture 4 billion doses in 2022.” Looking a little deeper, we can also see that hundreds of millions of prescriptions are written yearly for drugs that treat mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. Pfizer sells a lot of those as well. In 2020 alone, more than 20 percent of U.S. adults had been issued a prescription for such drugs. Those are frightening numbers. 

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Commentary: The American Medical System Is Broken

Admin

Anyone who’s recently visited a hospital in America knows the system is broken. Prices are outrageous, answers are slim, and insurance companies are insufferable. Each time I think about how the medical system in America is terrible, one of the only small comforts is that Canada’s healthcare situation is worse.

Still, we didn’t arrive here without a string of bad decisions leading to an overpriced, unhelpful, and increasingly woke medical system. So how did we get here?

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Pfizer Executive Heard Claiming Company Considering Mutating COVID Virus Itself to Continue Profiting Off Vaccines, Later Seen Assaulting Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe

Susan Berry, PhD

A top-level Pfizer executive revealed to an undercover Project Veritas (PV) journalist that the pharmaceutical giant is considering the possibility of mutating the COVID virus itself via “directed evolution” in order to keep profiting off a continued stream of vaccines. Following the release of the first video, which was published Wednesday, Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations – mRNA Scientific Planner, is seen in a second video assaulting PV founder James O’Keefe and his staff in a restaurant, and destroying the iPad showing the undercover video recordings.

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Wall Street Journal Rips Vaccine Makers: ‘Designed Studies to Get the Results They Wanted’

Susan Berry, PhD

Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board member Allysia Finley took to task both the federal government and the pharmaceutical giants profiting from the sale of their COVID mRNA booster shots for a “deceptive advertising” push for Americans to continue taking boosters without proof of their safety or effectiveness.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its health and regulatory agencies are engaged in a “deceptive advertising” campaign, wrote Finley Sunday, suggesting the pressure tactics “shouldn’t come as a surprise,” since the federal government “took the unprecedented step of ordering vaccine makers to produce them and recommending them without data supporting their safety or efficacy.”

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CDC Immunization Advisory Panel Likely to Weigh Recommending Routine COVID Shots for Children

Susan Berry, PhD

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) may have scheduled in its meeting agenda for Wednesday and Thursday a vote on whether to recommend adding COVID-19 shots to the standard Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule.

The agenda’s wording is ambiguous, as Children’s Health Defense (CHD) President and General Counsel Mary Holland noted.

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‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ Documentary Set to Debut October 18

Peter D'Abrosca

A documentary about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of America’s COVID-19 lockdowns, mandates, and restrictions, is set to debut in only a few days.

“The Real Anthony Fauci, the latest film from documentary filmmaker Jeff Hays exposes the motivations behind “America’s Doctor” to issue unquestioned edicts that upended everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic,” according to a press release. “Fauci has drawn criticism from a number of fronts. The film is based on the runaway bestselling book The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.”

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Biden FDA Approves COVID Booster Shot for Children 5-11 Years Old Without Testing

Susan Berry, PhD

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech announced Wednesday the Biden Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for their “bivalent” mRNA COVID-19 booster shot for children aged 5-11 years without having completed clinical trials.

“As families across the country take part in fall festivities and plan for the upcoming holiday season, we aim to provide school-aged children with additional protection against the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants, which continue to account for more than 80% of cases in the U.S.,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. “Anticipating this need, we manufactured millions of booster doses, which will be made available, pending CDC recommendation, to help families stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Documentary Exposes ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ in Free October 18 Viewing

Susan Berry, PhD

The anticipated documentary based on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s New York Times bestseller exposing the influence White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has had on government policy, the pharmaceutical industry, and Americans’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be available for free viewing for 10 days, beginning October 18, on the film’s website.

In The Real Anthony Fauci, filmmaker Jeff Hays seeks to reveal Fauci’s motivations behind his authoritarian decrees that kept Americans separated, businesses upended, and children out of schools – all without pushback from the establishment media.

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Sen. Rand Paul: ‘Dr. Fauci Continues to Lie, Cover-Up, and Deny the Science to Promote Himself’

Susan Berry, PhD

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) once again battled with White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci Wednesday about whether children with natural immunity from a prior COVID infection should be injected with the mRNA shots the government has referred to as “vaccines.”

“Dr. Fauci continues to lie, cover-up, and deny the science to promote himself,” tweeted Paul about his tense exchange with Fauci during a Senate committee hearing whose central focus was the federal response to monkeypox.

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Woke Pfizer Policy Prohibits Whites and Asians from Applying for Fellowship

Susan Berry, PhD

Drug giant Pfizer says its top-level “Breakthrough Fellowship Program” that prohibits whites and Asians from applying is a “Bold Move” that promotes “a more inclusive workplace,” and will have Pfizer led by “a new generation” of minority fellows by 2025.

“One of Pfizer’s Bold Moves is to create a workplace for all, and we are committed to increasing diversity by fostering a more inclusive workplace,” says Pfizer, one of the Big Pharma companies at the center of the controversial COVID-19 vaccines.

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OH-13 Democrat Nominee Emilia Sykes Receives Donations from Pharmaceutical Companies

Aaron Gulbransen

OH-13 Democrat Nominee Emilia Sykes has criticized Republicans for voting against capping costs for life saving drugs, and has promised to fight to lower drug costs but has taken over $12,000 from pharmaceutical companies that have raised the prices of lifesaving drugs, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 3, 2022, Emilia Sykes tweeted that as an elected official, she “will fight to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”

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FDA Vaccine Panel Recommends COVID Shots for Babies and Toddlers

Susan Berry, PhD

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory panel unanimously voted Wednesday to recommend the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for infants and young children despite an abundance of calls from physicians, children’s health organizations, and members of Congress to refrain from approving the shots for a population that shows the least risk for serious disease from COVID.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted, 21-0, in favor of recommending Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID vaccines for infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children.

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Thousands of Medical Professionals Demand Accountability for COVID ‘Corrupt Alliance’ Causing ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Susan Berry, PhD

More than 17,000 physicians and medical scientists have joined together in a “declaration” that demands an end to the COVID-19 medical emergency and accountability for those in the “corrupt alliance” of Big Tech, media, academics, and government who, they say, committed “crimes against humanity” by profiting from ineffective and dangerous COVID vaccines while banning early treatment drugs.

The statement, released Wednesday during a press conference of the Global COVID Summit, calls for a restoration of “scientific integrity, and a move to address the corrupt alliance’s “catastrophic decisions” which, the medical professionals assert, were orchestrated “at the expense of the innocent, who are forced to suffer health damage and death caused by intentionally withholding critical and time-sensitive treatments, or as a result of coerced genetic therapy injections, which are neither safe nor effective.”

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Trans Activists Funded by Big Pharma Push Biased Research Promoting Medical Transitions for Children

Admin

Researchers are churning out biased studies promoting medical gender transitions for children, often supported by pharmaceutical companies and activist organizations, and the media frequently promotes the conclusions uncritically.

A March 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence comprehensive review of nine studies failed to find evidence that hormonal therapy and puberty blockers were helpful. The review pointed out common flaws in transgender treatment research, such as confounding variables and bias resulting from observational studies that lack control groups.

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Dr. Oz’s Ties to Pharma, Tech Complicate Anti-Corporate Campaign Claims

Admin

While Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz has billed himself as a staunch opponent of big corporations, his ties to major technology and pharmaceutical corporations complicate his campaign rhetoric.

Oz, who announced his candidacy in late November, is running for the empty Senate seat left by retiring Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey. The celebrity doctor has made opposition to major technology and pharmaceutical companies a hallmark of his campaign, pitching his experience working in television and exposing scams as an example of his anti-corporate positions.

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson: Biden’s Failure to Promote Early Treatment ‘Cost Hundreds of Thousands of Lives’

Susan Berry, PhD

President Joe Biden boasted in his State of the Union address Tuesday his administration “will continue to combat the [COVID] virus as we do other diseases,” but Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and numerous physicians say the suppression of early treatment by Biden and his political, media, Big Tech, and Big Pharma allies has already “cost hundreds of thousands of lives” in America.

Johnson said in a statement following the address Biden “seems oblivious to the harm his administration and policies have caused” Americans.

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Dr. Robert Malone: ‘COVID Cartel’ Lied to Scapegoat Unvaccinated Americans in Effort to Divide Nation

Susan Berry, PhD

Wisconsin. Senator Ron Johnson (R) and Dr. Robert Malone wrote in an op-ed at The Federalist Thursday the “COVID cartel” – federal health agencies, Big Pharma, establishment media, and Big Tech – lied in order to scapegoat unvaccinated Americans in a campaign to divide the nation.

Johnson, who has spearheaded efforts to break the silencing of physicians and scientists on the issue of early treatment for COVID-19, and Malone, a pioneer in the development of mRNA technology, wrote Americans have been deceived for the sake of covering up government fraud and incompetence, while likely thousands have died unnecessary deaths.

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Commentary: Anthony Fauci and the Creation of the Bio-Security State

The Epoch Times

A new populist spirit, represented by Donald Trump, among others, has led to a reshuffling of seemingly settled ideological alliances.

The reshuffling is ongoing.

I know this because I find myself approving of at least parts of “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health,” the new bestseller book by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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Biologically Male Athletes Have Unfair Advantage Over Women, Major Review Finds

Admin

Biologically male athletes have unfair advantages over women, a report from the Sports Councils’ Equality Group released Thursday found.

The Sports Councils’ Equality Group (SCEG) found that there are “retained” differences in an average woman’s strength, stamina and physique compared to the average transgender woman “with or without testosterone suppression.”

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Commentary: Our Public Health Bureaucracy Can’t Be Dismantled Quickly Enough

Admin

Earlier this week, the estimable Robert Stacy McCain delivered a quite spot-on assessment of the terrible science behind the Centers for Disease Control’s guidance on masks, vaccinations, and the Delta variant of COVID-19. That guidance has thrown the entire country into a fresh panic about the virus, so much so that in places like Nevada, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. there are now mask mandates in place even for people vaccinated against the virus.

It seems the CDC had two sources for upsetting the national applecart. According to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, it relied on a study of a vaccine in use in India which apparently was less than effective in warding off the Delta variant — but that vaccine isn’t used in the United States because our authorities weren’t satisfied as to its effectiveness, period.

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Bill Allowing Religious Exemptions to Vaccines Regardless of a Public Health Emergency Lives on as Potential Amendment in a Senate Bill

Corinne Murdock

Through amendment, another legislator is seeking to revive a bill affording religious or conscientious exemptions for vaccines during a public health emergency. As The Tennessee Star reported, the original bill seeking to provide those protections was killed by the House Health Subcommittee earlier this month.

The bill carrying this amendment originally only sought to prohibit state or local governments from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations. State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) announced the amendment during the Senate Health and Welfare Committee hearing on Wednesday.

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Bill to Allow Tennesseans Freedom of Choice for Vaccinations Dies in House Subcommittee

Corinne Murdock

The House Health Subcommittee killed a bill allowing exemptions for vaccines based on religious or conscientious objections, especially during pandemics. Lawmakers voted against the bill, 7-3. Committee members that voted against the bill were State Representatives Bob Freeman (D-Nashville), Darren Jernigan (D-Old Hickory), Sabi Kumar (R-Springfield), Pat Marsh (R-Shelbyville), Bob Ramsey (R-Maryville), Paul Sherrell (R-Sparta), and Robin Smith (R-Hixon); those for the bill were State Representatives Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon), Mark Hall (R-Cleveland), Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro).

Opposition to the bill raised issue with the possibility of its public health impact, citing the risk posed by non-vaccinated individuals in areas such as schools, daycares, and restaurants. State Representative Jay D. Reedy (R-Erin) had proposed the bill in November initially, several weeks after the general election. Its companion bill was filed shortly after by State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), who didn’t respond for comment by press time.

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Ohio Attorney General Pushes to Reform Drug Pricing By Focusing on Middlemen

Andrew Shirley

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost blasted the middlemen responsible for negotiating drug prices on behalf of the state Monday, calling for immediate legislative action. The move comes a month after the state formally launched a lawsuit against the pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) responsible for the negotiations. Currently, Ohio cannot directly negotiate with major prescription drug manufacturers. The only means by which the prices of prescription drugs can be addressed in the Buckeye State is through PBMs or drug negotiators. Since they are compensated by the state, it’s expected of them to put the priority of Ohioans above all else. In June of last year, then Attorney General Mike DeWine, now governor, formally launched an investigation into the organizations, alleging that they were putting their own interests before the state. DeWine noted: Since the end of 2017, my office has been reviewing and investigating issues regarding PBMs and their contracts with Ohio agencies, such as the Ohio Department of Medicaid, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, and our numerous pension systems. It is clear that the conduct by PBMs in these areas remains a major concern, and we anticipate that our investigation will result in…

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Tennessee Atty Gen Hebert Slatery Withdraws from District Attorneys’ Case Against Opioid Manufacturers

Admin
Tennessee Star

A conflict brewing between state and local prosecutors over a slew of lawsuits filed against drug manufacturers ended Thursday as Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery abruptly terminated any role his office might play in the legal actions by those jurisdictions seeking to recover costs associated to the opioid crisis. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Attorney General Herbert Slatery’s move was carried out in Campbell County Circuit Court in front of Judge John McAffey. During proceedings, a representative from the Attorney General’s office read a statement culminating in the handover of a signed order that reflected the understanding that the state would not be involved in the suits, nor would the District Attorneys would not try to legally commit the state to their lawsuit against opiate makers and distributors. “The proposed order results from our joint commitment to the people of Tennessee and recognizes that state and local cooperation is essential to combat the opioid epidemic ravaging our state,” Knoxville News Sentinel reported the statement read. Attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV also submitted to Judge McAfee an order in which the DAs he represents agree they will not try to legally commit the state to their lawsuit against opiate makers and distributors.…

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