COVID Vaccine ‘Adverse Events of Special Interest’ More Common than Expected: CDC-Funded Study

COVID Vaccine

Rep. Debbie Dingell developed a severe nerve condition from a mandatory swine flu vaccine, which initially made her “scared to death” to get a COVID-19 vaccine, she told a congressional hearing last week. 

The Michigan Democrat might want to reconsider her now-unquestioning enthusiasm for COVID vaccines, including those made through traditional methods, in light of a massive international study of “adverse events of special interest” funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and set to be published in the peer-reviewed Elsevier journal Vaccine.

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CDC Overrules Mask Advisers and Its Own Research Finding ‘No Difference’ Between N95, Surgical

Grocery Shopping Masks

Nearly a year ago, the respected research collaborative Cochrane drastically reinterpreted its own “systematic review” of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on masking in response to media pressure, deeming them “inconclusive” after the review team found that masks make “little to no difference” against COVID-19 or influenza.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is following Cochrane’s lead by publicly pressuring its advisers to revise their recommendations on masking in healthcare settings, which are based on its own systematic review that now undermines CDC preferences.

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Commentary: Gun Owners End 2023 Proving Gun Control Advocates Wrong

Hunting

As 2023 drew to a close, millions of peaceable Americans geared up for a new year that will bring with it many new limitations on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

In California, for example, Jan. 1 was the date to ring in the state’s plethora of new restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public, courtesy of SB 2, a law passed in the wake of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to punish concealed carry permit holders for having their rights vindicated by the Supreme Court.

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Commentary: CDC’s Latest Abortion Numbers Is a Sobering Reminder of Monumental Task Ahead

The most recent report on abortion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out and, as usual, it’s grim.

The number of abortions rose from 620,327 in 2020 to 625,978 in 2021. The key drivers in this depressing increase are a greater use of dangerous chemical abortion pills and weakened safety protocols governing the use of such pills.

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Prestigious Science Journals Confirm Censored Views: Masks at Best Don’t Reduce COVID Infection

The best-case scenario for one of the most common COVID-19 interventions may be that it has no measurable effect on infection, recent studies suggest.

A systematic review of studies of mask mandates for children, published Saturday in the British Medical Journal’s Archives of Disease in Childhood, found “no association” with infection or transmission in 16 of the 22 observational studies and “critical” or “serious” risk of bias in the six countervailing studies. It got the attention of Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter.

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‘Total Lack of Critical Thinking’: Experts Question COVID Vax, Mask Mandates amid ‘Surge’

by Greg Piper   Governments and private entities are using a small rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and new viral variants to juice interest in bivalent boosters that only 1 in 6 Americans have taken and to urge a return to routine masking, if not outright mandating new jabs and face coverings. What they aren’t providing is robust evidence for the effectiveness of the interventions against infection by a virus that has already provided natural immunity to an estimated 19 in 20 Americans as of November 2022, according to Harvard research published in this month’s journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. “If a tiny bump in the rate of new weekly Covid hospital admissions—that still is among the lowest rates over the last three years—relates to a surge, then what is an actual large rise called?” science journalist David Zweig wrote in an essay Thursday questioning explanations by public-health pundits for the increase. “The use of this hyperbolic language by so many media outlets that over-dramatizes risk skirts very close to misinformation,” said Zweig, known for his reporting on the Twitter Files and scrutiny of the evidence behind school mask mandates and the six-foot rule. Even President Biden acknowledged current COVID vaccines, which include original and Omicron variant strains, are not performing as hoped.…

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COVID Panic is Back with New Variants Discovered in Michigan and Elsewhere

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking a new COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, a highly mutated variant that was discovered in Michigan last week as the first case of its kind in the country. The variant has been spotted in the United States, Denmark, Israel and the U.K. This variant is described as being a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald Introduces Bill Taking on National Education Association’s Political Clout

U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) introduced a bill that would check the power of the National Education Association (NEA).

The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today (STUDENT) Act aims to reform the NEA’s federal charter and “rededicate the organization to the pursuit of increased student learning and quality education in schools across America,” according to the congressman.

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Federal Judge Denies Biden Admin’s Request to Keep Coordinating with Big Tech to Censor Americans

A federal judge denied the Biden administration’s attempt to pause an injunction that bars federal officials from communicating with social media companies for the purposes of censoring protected speech on Monday.

The Biden administration appealed Western District of Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty’s July 4 injunction on Wednesday, also requesting an emergency order to pause the injunction while the appeal is pending on Thursday night. Doughty denied the administration’s emergency order Monday, finding that plaintiffs would likely succeed in proving the government colluded with social media companies “to engage in viewpoint-based suppression of protected free speech.”

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Biden Picks Mandy Cohen to Serve as CDC Director

President Joe Biden on Friday announced that he had selected former North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen to serve as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Dr. Cohen is one of the nation’s top physicians and health leaders with experience leading large and complex organizations, and a proven track-record protecting Americans’ health and safety,” Biden said in a statement, pointing to her management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and her role in expanding Medicaid.

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Bill Banning Injection Sites Passes Pennsylvania Senate, Awaits House Consideration

Pennsylvania’s GOP-run state Senate this week passed legislation banning supervised injection sites, sending the bill to the state House. 

Such locations — also called “safe injection sites,” “safe consumption spaces” or “overdose prevention sites” — permit addicts to take illicit substances, mainly opioids, without fear of prosecution. Advocates of the injection centers say they are an important means of avoiding overdoses and drug-related disease transmission. The nonprofit Safehouse has been working to open such a location in Philadelphia. 

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Pennsylvania State Senator Introduces Ban on Kratom Sales to Minors

A Pennsylvania state legislator is spearheading a bill to more stringently regulate the sale of the painkiller kratom.

The Kratom Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by state Senator Tracy Pennycuick (R-Red Hill), would ban the substance’s purveyance to anyone aged 21 or younger. The legislation would also limit the product’s potency, bar its combination with controlled chemicals and require its display of “adequate labeling directions for… safe and effective use….” 

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Pennsylvania Senate Panel Passes Ban on Supervised Injection Sites

Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed legislation banning supervised injection sites anywhere in the Keystone State. 

Under the bill sponsored by Senator Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia), no locality in Pennsylvania could permit the operation of a center wherein people could take illegal substances without risking prosecution. Such locations which are also called “safe injection sites,” “safe consumption spaces” or “overdose prevention sites” aim to avert opioid overdoses and drug-related disease transmission. Opponents like Tartaglione say the sites more effectively worsen opioid addiction and the carnage it creates. 

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Biden Still Hasn’t Visited Derailment Area; Pennsylvania Legislators Wish He Would

Well over two months have passed since a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, less than a mile from Pennsylvania’s border, and President Joe Biden hasn’t visited affected communities in either state. Pennsylvania lawmakers are urging him to do so. 

Six weeks ago Biden said he would “be out there at some point.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether he has yet scheduled a visit. (Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg first went to the site more than two weeks after the derailment.)

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U.S. Senator JD Vance Wants National Institutes of Health to Look into Health Effects of East Palestine Train Derailment

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) wants the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to look into how residents of East Palestine and nearby towns are affected by the chemicals that were released during the February 3rd Norfolk Southern train derailment.

On Monday, Vance along with U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), and John Fetterman (D-PA) sent a letter to NIH Director Lawrence Tabak and NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Director Rick Woychik urging them to “help assess and mobilize existing assets and resources to respond to the community’s biomedical research needs.”

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Ohio Senators Ask Federal Agencies to Monitor Health of East Palestine Residents over Long Term

U.S. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) this week sent a letter to heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) urging long-term health monitoring of East Palestine, Ohio residents. 

Vance and Brown asked EPA Administrator Michael Regan and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to guarantee baseline medical testing for those living near the site of the February 3 train derailment. The rail company Norfolk Southern followed the incident with what the company termed a “controlled burn” of five cars containing vinyl chloride. 

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Cleveland Proposes Ban on Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products

Mayor Justin Bibb proposes banning the sale in Cleveland of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored vape products.

The Columbus City Council approved a similar law in December of last year, and it will go into effect on January 1, 2024. Also in December, a bill to ban local governments from outlawing the sale of flavored tobacco products was approved by both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly; however, Governor Mike DeWine vetoed the measure.

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Commentary: With Passenger Mask Mandate Gone, Flight Turbulence Stats Improve Markedly

The friendly skies too often resembled “season’s beatings” shopping brawls during the pandemic, as the number of arguments and even fistfights surged on-board. Viral videos of the flight-and-fight mayhem frequently had a common denominator – the federal government’s mask requirement. 

So it may come as little surprise that disruptions on commercial domestic flights have plummeted by 74% since the Biden administration’s mask mandate was  overturned by a federal judge in April. The current rate is 1.7 unruly passengers per 10,000 flights, down from 6.4 per 10,000 in February.  

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Columbus City Council Unanimously Approves Ban on Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products

The Columbus City Council unanimously passed a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products such as menthol cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and flavored vaping products on Monday.

City health officials say tobacco company marketing has historically targeted minorities and young people and most people who begin smoking do so before they’re adults or in early adulthood.

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Georgia Receives $100 Million Federal Grant for Health Care Infrastructure

The feds are sending roughly $100 million to the Georgia Department of Public Health to help it bolster its health infrastructure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the DPH $99.8 million over a five-year period for “strengthening public health infrastructure, work force and data systems,” Nancy Nydam, a DPH spokeswoman, told The Center Square. The agency will receive nearly $83.7 million in the first year, and the remaining $16.1 million will be awarded over five years.

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Top Epidemiologist Wants Pandemic Emergency Powers Ended, Insurer Death Data Released

One of the nation’s leading epidemiologists is declaring there is no basis for President Joe Biden to extend his emergency pandemic powers and that it is essential for insurers to release data showing deaths and injuries to those who have received COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus at the Yale University School of Public Health, told Just the News on Friday evening that federal agencies have epically mishandled the pandemic strategy by substituting theories and politics for science.

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Ohio Lawmaker Proposes Bill Prohibiting COVID-19 Vaccination Discrimination in Schools

An Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill that would prohibit a public or private school from discriminating against an individual based on COVID-19 vaccination status.

Republican Representative Scott Lipps (R-OH-62) put forward House Bill (HB) 739 earlier this month. Although the state does not mandate COVID-19 vaccines in schools, Lipps said HB 739 is a preemptive measure for future law changes.

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Ohio Lawmakers Look to Crack Down on ‘Hooning’

Ohio lawmakers proposed a new bill to curb reckless driving in the state.

State Representatives Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) and Kevin Miller (R-Newark) introduced House Bill (HB) 740, which would prohibit hooning on public roads or private property open to the public. Other things the bill would prohibit are speed racing, performing dangerous 360-degree “donuts,” and allowing passengers to ride outside of open windows.

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Commentary: American Fitness Has National Security Implications

Fiscal year 2023 is projected to be the most difficult year for military recruiting since the inception of the all-volunteer force in 1973. Every branch of the military is reporting extreme challenges in recruiting enough volunteers to fill their ranks. Not only are fewer people volunteering, but there are fewer eligible Americans to recruit as the prevalence of obesity grows and disqualifies an ever-increasing number from military service.

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

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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New York City Education Department Fires 850 More Teachers for Refusing COVID Vaccine

The New York City Department of Education has fired another 850 teachers and aides for refusing to comply with its COVID vaccine mandate, bringing the total number of school staff terminated over the mRNA shots that have not prevented the spread of infection to 2,000.

Some 1,300 department employees agreed to comply with the vaccine mandate by September 5 after taking a year of unpaid leave with benefits, the New York Post reported. The department informed personnel they would have to be vaccinated by that date or be “deemed to have voluntarily resigned.”

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CDC: Administrative Federal Agency Charged with Americans’ Health and Safety Flooded With Credibility Problems

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is only one example of an administrative federal agency run by unelected bureaucrats, it is one charged with ensuring Americans receive truthful health and safety information, a daunting role for an organization now engulfed with concerns about its credibility.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky wrote in a letter made public this week her agency did not conduct a type of analysis on reports made to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) regarding COVID shots during 2021. Her agency, however, indicated otherwise in its documents and through some of its other representatives.

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LGBT Activist’s Study About Transgender ‘Social Contagion’ Falls Apart Under Scrutiny

A study purporting to debunk the theory that social contagion contributes to transgender identity has several fundamental flaws, according to experts who reviewed the study.

The study — ‘Sex Assigned at Birth Ratio Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents in the United States’ — used findings from the flawed methodology to recommend that female adolescents who identify as trans be provided “gender affirming care,” a common euphemism in the activist community to describe chemical and surgical interventions for sex changes. The lead author of the study, Dr. Jack Turban, is himself a member of the LGBT community and an outspoken advocate for such interventions.

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Regulatory Relief for Home Health Care Becomes Permanent in Pennsylvania

Temporary regulatory relief for some health care workers during the pandemic has now become permanent, removing a burden of uncertainty and giving health groups more flexibility to care for patients.

The legislation gives home health care workers who aren’t physicians the ability to order or oversee orders for home health care and allows supervisory visits by registered nurses to be virtual.

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Guatemalan President Says Biden‘s ‘Confusing’ Border Messaging Is Encouraging Smugglers to Exploit Children

The Biden administration’s messaging on immigration has created “confusion” that human smugglers and traffickers have exploited, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

Giammattei said smugglers know it’s easier to get people into the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration as a family, and that smugglers have used children, whether biological or not, in order to get their clients across the border. He mentioned the Biden administration’s effort to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents migrants brought to the U.S. as children from being immediately deported, as exacerbating the problem.

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Doctors Question Kids’ Vax as U.K. Research Shows Minuscule COVID-19 Risk

The quality of evidence for the FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months is drawing scrutiny from high-profile doctors and academics, some of whom are asking the White House not to pressure parents to vaccinate.

With CDC seroprevalence data from February finding 75% of minors had natural immunity, more attention is going to the risk/benefit calculation of vaccines for the age group at lowest risk from COVID.

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Teachers’ Union Boss Raked In Massive Six-Figure Salary While Fighting to Close Schools

Randi Weingarten at AFGE

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was paid nearly half a million dollars during the 2021-2022 school year, a report from Americans for Fair Treatment stated Wednesday. Weingarten raked in six-figures while simultaneously pushing for schools to stay shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With teacher’s union dues, Weingarten is paid $449,562, the Americans for Fair Treatment report stated. Weingarten’s salary is about seven times more than the average high school teacher makes as of 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

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COVID Restrictions Stunted Kids’ Immune Systems, Could Explain Surge of Other Illnesses: Scientists

For two years and counting, the scientific and medical establishments have urged Americans at all risk levels to limit their exposure to the microbial world to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19, rather than focus on protecting the vulnerable.

The unexpected surge of other pathogens starting last summer, however, has challenged the wisdom of frequent sanitizing, social distancing, remote work and education, and routine mask-wearing, especially applied to children.

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Louisiana Judge Blocks Biden from Lifting Title 42 Immigration Rule

A Louisiana judge ruled Friday that President Biden must at least temporarily keep in place federal rule Title 42 that was activate by the Trump administration as a public health measure to limit immigration during the pandemic.

Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, imposed the preliminary injunction against the lifting of the order while the case advances through the court system.

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Primary Source of COVID Misinformation Is the Feds, Scientists and Scholars Tell Surgeon General

U.S Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently asked the public how COVID-19 misinformation “in the digital information environment” had affected health outcomes, trust in the healthcare system and “likelihood to vaccinate,” among other issues.

According to vaccine and healthcare policy experts who joined with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the misinformation is coming from inside the house.

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Commentary: Caught Between Science and Power

After losing in court and receiving a nationwide injunction against the institution of the mask mandate, the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had a decision to make: accept the court’s decision and move on to other means to combat Covid-19 without resorting to mask mandates; try to start from scratch and put a mask mandate rule in place that might conform better with statutory requirements; or appeal the case.

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Commentary: The White House’s Swift Surrender on Federal Mask Order Underscores the Tricky Politics of Mask Mandates

The Biden administration announced Monday it will no longer enforce a federal mask mandate on public transportation, including airplanes. The decision was announced after Federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that the directive was unlawful, noting that the CDC had not sought public comment prior to its order—issued 14 months ago—and did not adequately explain its reasoning.

Following the court’s decision, four major airlines immediately announced they would drop mask requirements on all domestic flights.

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Four Largest Airlines Drop COVID Mask Requirement Hours After Trump-Appointed Judge Strikes Down CDC Mandate

Four major U.S. airlines are ditching COVID-19 mask requirements after a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the Biden administration’s mask mandate for air passengers and others mass travelers.

Several airlines, including United Airlines, Delta, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines announced that they were dropping the mask requirements for passengers and employees.

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CDC Study: Remote Learning Hurt Kids’ Mental Health

When schools pivoted to remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the first casualty was kids’ mental health.

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed teenagers’ mental health from January 2021 to June 2021. Compared with 2019, the study found that the proportion of mental health–related emergency department visits in 2020 increased by about 31% among kids aged 12–17 years.

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Republican Report: CDC Official Confirms Teachers’ Unions Given ‘Unprecedented’ Status on Whether to Reopen Schools While Parents Not Consulted

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used “political science” and not “medical science” to collaborate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create guidance on the issue of reopening the nation’s government schools.

Appearing as a guest on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Scalise referred to a report released by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that revealed a CDC official’s testimony confirming the nation’s top health agency coordinated with teachers’ unions at an “unprecedented” level to craft school reopening guidance, despite the CDC’s earlier claims that their coordination with the unions was routine.

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Feds’ Pressure on Tech Platforms to Censor COVID ‘Misinformation’ Is Unconstitutional, Suit Says

The government’s sustained pressure on social media platforms to censor and report purported COVID-19 misinformation amounts to “state action” that violates the First Amendment, according to a lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of three Twitter users.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a frequent litigant against COVID-related administrative action, is representing theoretical cognitive scientist Mark Changizi, lawyer Michael Senger and stay-at-home father Daniel Kotzin.

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White House Belatedly Concedes COVID Spreads Primarily Through Aerosols

COVID-19 spreads primarily through aerosols, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said in a blog post Wednesday that puts it at odds with the CDC, according to a research center run by President Biden’s former COVID advisor Michael Osterholm.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) said the White House was “years” behind some experts worldwide in recognizing the primacy of aerosol transmission. “It’s worth noting there is no mention of droplets in the blog post,” George Washington University public health epidemiologist David Michaels told CIDRAP.

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Pfizer CEO Calls for Another Booster Shot for All Americans

On Sunday, the chief executive officer of Pfizer said that Americans should be prepared to receive a second booster shot of the Coronavirus vaccine, which would mark the fourth overall shot that has been forced on the American public.

As reported by Politico, Albert Bourla made his remarks in an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, where he said that his company was preparing to submit “a significant package of data about the need for a fourth dose” to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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