The quest for truth-in-COVID did pick up some steam in late spring 2021.
Not about the vaccine, though.
About the origins of the virus.
From the first days of the epidemic, strong circumstantial evidence suggested Sars-CoV-2 had leaked from a Chinese lab. Both the virus itself and the facts around its emergence pointed to human intervention.
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Michigan may never know the actual number of deaths resulting from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order to place COVID-19 patients in long-term care (LTC) facilities.
That conclusion was the only verifiable takeaway from Thursday’s Senate and House Joint Oversight Committee meeting, where state senators and representatives grilled Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler, Deputy Auditor General and Director of Audit Operations Laura Hirst, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel.
The committee meeting spotlighted sharp differences between the Democratic Whitmer administration and the nonpartisan Auditor General (AG). It also brought into stark view thepartisan divisions between Senate and House legislators; namely, Democrats who either disparaged the AG’s methodology or defended Whitmer’s EO 2020-50; and Republicans, who argued the governor erred when she issued the order, and depicted the administration’s underreporting of the number of LTC deaths as a cover-up for her failed policy.
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The federal government has spent an astounding $42,000 per federal taxpayer on so-called “stimulus” efforts since the pandemic began. Where did all that money go? Well, as it turns out, one of the biggest stimulus programs, the Paycheck Protection Program, failed miserably.
At least, that’s the finding of a new study from MIT economist David Autor and nine coauthors. They examined the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which gave “loans,” most of which won’t have to be paid back, to businesses. It was created by Republicans and Democrats in Congress alike in hopes of helping businesses preserve their employees’ jobs for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
The study tracks the money to see where it ended up and what it achieved. The results… aren’t pretty.
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A Circuit Court Judge on Wednesday denied Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop a mask requirement approved by the St. Louis County Council on Jan. 5.
Democrat Rita Heard Days, chair of the Council, didn’t know what to expect from the court.
“At this particular point, I’m not surprised about anything,” Days told The Center Square after an event in Hazelwood on Thursday. “This thing has taken a life of its own. People are trying to cope with all of this. We just hope we can get over this and move on.”
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It is hard to know which is more frightening: the Australian radicalism about COVID-19, the Austrian effort to coerce its citizens, or the attitudes of American Democrats who regard extreme sanctions as reasonable behavior toward the supposedly bad people who don’t get vaccinated or wear masks.
Let’s consider each one.
In Australia, the government felt so threatened by the best tennis player in the world that it intervened decisively to block him from entering the country and competing in the Australian Open.
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) ordered nursing homes statewide to provide on-site COVID-19 vaccines to residents within 30 days.
“With the Omicron variant rapidly spreading across our state and cases of COVID-19 continuing to remain high, we want to make sure our most vulnerable Michiganders are protected from the virus,” MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel said in a statement. “The COVID-19 vaccine is our best defense against the virus, and we want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to get up to date.”
Under the order, nursing homes must offer on-site doses of COVID-19 vaccines to residents who are not up to date as of Jan. 20, 2022. The order doesn’t force residents to get vaccinated.
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Virginia Capitol Police directed upset members of the public out of a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting after the committee killed Senator Amanda Chase’s bill aimed at protecting medical providers who prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19.
“This bill is about a patient’s right to life. A patient has a right to life and should not be prohibited from potential life-saving medication by a hospital, a pharmacy, or other administrative agency. Patients should be able to make decisions about their care and treatment in conjunction with the knowledge and expertise of their treating physician,” Chase told the committee on Thursday morning.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin announced a COVID action plan aimed at expanding healthcare facilities’ ability to respond to COVID-19 and coping with test shortages. The plan also includes COVID-19 vaccine outreach. Youngkin announced the plan during a stop in Roanoke.
“As your governor, I will not mandate the vaccine,” Youngkin said according to The Roanoke Times. “But as your neighbor and as your friend, I am strongly encouraging you to please get it.”
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Some of Virginia’s public universities have rescinded their vaccine mandates after Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) took office this week and signed a flurry of executive orders on his first day.
One of those orders banned vaccine mandates by employers.
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The Biden administration said Wednesday it is making 400 million N95 masks available free to the American public to protect against COVID-19 infection.
President Biden is expected to formally announce the initiative in a White House press conference related to his first year in office.
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Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Israel are backing away from COVID vaccine mandates amid increasing evidence that the leaky vaccines are making the pandemic worse.
It is becoming harder to deny the glaringly obvious facts that COVID infection rates are increasing worldwide in proportion with the rate of vaccination, and that the injections have dreadful adverse side effects which may be contributing to a marked increase in all cause deaths.
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For all the attention paid to wondrous technologies, lifesaving new treatments and drugs, medicine remains by, for and about people.
This is both a blessing and a curse.
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It’s time for Dr. Fauci to go.
That’s a tough sentence to write considering the important role he’s played in advancing crucial public health issues from advancing HIV/AIDS therapies to our battle against COVID-19. His Bobble Head was well-deserved. Please, don’t shoot the messenger.
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Emergency legislation enacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that changed the way municipal income taxes were handed out to cities is now in front of the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based policy group, originally filed suit in July 2020, challenging the state law that requires an employee to pay income taxes in the city where an employee works instead of where they live.
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Seattle-based Starbucks announced this week that is dropping its policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The coffee giant’s move comes in response to last week’s United State Supreme Court ruling to block the Biden Administration from requiring businesses in the private sector to put vaccine mandates in place.
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A recent report claims that the world’s top 10 richest men all saw their wealth double over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, while 99 percent of global income dropped dramatically during the same period.
As reported by ABC News, a study published on Monday by the group Oxfam showed that the collective wealth of the top 10 doubled from approximately $700 billion to over $1.5 trillion between March of 2020 and November of 2021. During that same time, over 160 million people fell into poverty as incomes plummeted. The increase for the top 10 in less than two years represented a greater increase for their wealth than their growth over the previous 14 years combined.
The 10 men who were the focus of Oxfam’s study were: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffett. The data for the study was gathered from the World Bank.
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Democrats were more than twice as likely as other voters to favor harsh government restrictions being placed on unvaccinated people’s lives, ranging from fines to loss of child custody, according to a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute.
Forty-eight percent of Democratic voters said the government should be able to fine or imprison those who publicly question the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy, while only 27% of all voters supported the proposal, according to the poll results.
Fines against those who refuse to take the vaccine were viewed favorably by 55% of Democratic voters and just 19% of Republicans, and 59% of Democrats favored a policy requiring unvaccinated people to stay inside their homes at all times, except for emergencies, the poll found. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans opposed a house arrest policy for unvaccinated people.
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Despite continued panic from some of America’s COVID-19 officials, and even though the Omicron variant has cause cases to skyrocket, Ohio’s seven day average for deaths is not much higher than it has been throughout the entire pandemic.
As of Jan. 17, Ohio’s seven-day average for COVID-19 was 121 deaths, or 17.2 deaths per day. For context, Ohio’s population is nearly 12 million.
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Newly inaugurated Gov. Glenn Yougkin (R) spoke about the future of Virginia Monday afternoon in his first address to the Virginia General Assembly.
In his speech, Youngkin said the sate is ready to be finished with the pandemic, noting that he was elected to “turn the page” on COVID-19.
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Clothing brand Carhartt, which primarily makes outdoor work clothes, caused a firestorm when a leaked email from its CEO saying that the company’s vaccine mandate would remain in place was circulated online.
Carhartt CEO Matt Valade’s email, sent Friday, said
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Members of the Tennessee Senate Education Committee are scheduled to consider a bill this week that would, if enacted into law, expand Educational Savings Accounts, also known as ESAs. Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville) said Monday that at least one school district in Tennessee, in Collierville, moved students to remote learning this month, as Chalkbeat Tennessee reported.
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In 2020, the federal government gave American colleges and universities approximately $14 billion in relief through the CARES Act. As part of the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, the CARES Act allocation mandated that approximately half its funds be used for emergency student aid.
Now, nearly two years after President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act in March 2020, numerous institutions that received aid are delaying in-person learning due to the Omicron variant.
By Jan. 7, seven out of 10 University of California campuses announced “revisions to their winter quarter or winter semester plans.” Winter sessions precede the spring semester, which traditionally starts in mid-to-late January.
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Several governors around the country are taking federal funds meant to combat the coronavirus and instead using the money to deal with so-called “global warming.”
Breitbart reports that, in addition to federal stimulus funds, such governors are taking advantage of budget surpluses as a result of tax collection and massive consumer spending following the end of most lockdowns. Among the most prominent governors engaging in such misuse of funds are Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).
“The climate crisis is not an abstraction,” Inslee falsely claimed. “It is something that I and every governor in the United States, almost on a weekly basis, have to deal with.” Newsom, who has incorrectly described global warming as an “existential threat,” has proposed spending of up to $24 billion over the next five years, for such projects as electric school buses, more electric vehicle charging stations, and additional “clean energy” development and storage projects.
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The Organizing Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which are just days away from starting, has announced that it will not be selling tickets to the general public due to COVID-19 concerns.
Initially, individuals living on mainland China were the only people allowed to purchase tickets for the event, but the committee has now revoked that plan, citing “the current grave and complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a statement, the committee wrote that the new policy is being put in effect to “ensure the safety of all participants and spectators.”
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Ohio U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance spoke with The Ohio Star Monday about anti-white discrimination in monoclonal antibody treatment for patients with COVID-19.
“You should not, in this country, have your fortune determined by your skin color,” he told The Star, noting the irony of having the discussion on Martin Luther King Jr. day. “It’s a fundamental principle of our Republic that we should not punish or reward people based on skin color, but we’re doing that right now.”
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Officials in Beijing have urged for an end to overseas deliveries, saying that the Omicron coronavirus variant can spread by opening packages that originate in other countries, BBC News reported.
The officials calling to end overseas deliveries cited the case of a woman who contracted the Omicron variant after opening a parcel later found to have traces of the variant on it, BBC News reported. The officials noted that the woman had no prior travel history.
The virus was discovered on the surface of a letter the woman received from Canada as well as on the inside of an unopened letter, health official Pang Xinghuo told reporters on Monday, BBC News reported. Dozens of letters from the same batch were tested, with five reportedly containing traces of COVID-19.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into its third year, William Paterson University is now laying off 100 full-time faculty over the next three years.
The university, located in Wayne, New Jersey, originally planned to let 150 professors go before union negotiations revised the number to 100, or 29% of the institution’s 340 faculty, reports Inside Higher Ed.
Thirteen tenured professors lost their job at the end of 2021, according to the outlet.
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I have received many requests from you regarding how Gov Youngkin’s order applies to school masking requirements.
For private schools – the answer is easy. Private schools were ordered by the former health commissioner to require masking in schools. That order is rescinded. Private schools should rely on the parental choice option and create a policy allowing mask wearing to be optional.
Public schools: This is more complicated. Last year a law was passed (SB1303) that requires public schools (only public – not private) to be open for in-person learning 5 days weeks while requires “ii) provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
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Governor Glenn Youngkin used his first State of the Commonwealth address to describe a Virginia in need of reform, with underfunded schools whose leaders are out of touch with parents, rising crime rates, rising cost of living, and a stalled economy. The Monday message contrasted with former Governor Ralph Northam’s State of the Commonwealth delivered last Wednesday, where Northam highlighted economic success, education that reckons with Virginia’s past, and progress on equity.
“From the perspective of everyday Virginia families, times are tough and the State of the Commonwealth is not what it should be,” Youngkin said. “The good news is that we have the ability to course-correct before this poor performance becomes permanent.”
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The University of Minnesota admitted in an email to its student body that the COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus — yet the school says it will “probably” require more boosters for its students.
Public Health Officer Jakub Tolar sent an email to the student body answering some frequently asked questions about the virus earlier this month.
“I’m vaccinated, does that mean I can’t get COVID-19?” one question reads. “No,” the school responds, stressing that omicron remains “easily transmissible” even among the university’s fully-vaccinated population.
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Given the Biden administration’s recent effort to prioritize COVID-19 treatments based on race, it is more important than ever that we remember – and practice – the teachings of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released new guidance to medical professionals which listed “race or ethnicity” as high risk factors for doctors to consider when prescribing a new monoclonal antibody known as Sotrovimab. Other high-risk factors included obesity, pregnancy, and other health conditions which would make a person less able to fight the virus. The new guidance means a person’s race could qualify him or her for treatment ahead of others who need the drugs.
Biden administration officials have cited high rates of diabetes and other health issues which are prevalent in non-white and non-Hispanic communities as reasons to include the new criteria. Officials in New York and Minnesota have also prioritized treating non-white patients, but they have more overtly cited historic health care disparities as a justification.
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Students across the U.S. are planning school walkouts in protest of in-person learning as COVID-19 cases spike amid the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
There are nearly 3,500 schools actively disrupted as of Friday, according to Burbio’s K-12 School Opening Tracker, which tracks school closures for 1,200 districts, including the 200 largest school districts in the nation.
On Tuesday, New York City students staged a walkout in protest of in-person learning over what they said were concerns about testing and safety mitigation measures. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said school was the “safest place” for children during a Friday news conference.
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One of the lawyers in the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on private business is warning it is only a preliminary victory and the larger constitutional issues about government-compelled inoculations must still be litigated.
“In some ways, yesterday was a win of a major battle, but still leaves the war to be fought,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which filed one of the original challenges in Texas against the vaccine mandate that was eventually consolidated before the Supreme Court.
“While it got to the right outcome for declaring the private employer vax mandate unlawful, it kind of misses the forest for the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved,” he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
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People keep asking me how we get back to normal. How do we return to the days before vaccine mandates and closed schools to a fully functioning military, secure borders, and a time when inflation wasn’t through the roof? I’ll give you the short answer: pure, unadulterated political power.
You can only get back to normal when political power is in the hands of the right people making the right policies that actually advance the country in a positive, beneficial way. And then you beat the Left and others who have gotten us here into unconditional surrender.
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Federal officials have sentenced a Jefferson County, Georgia woman to prison after she admitted she lied to obtain $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funding to spend on a vacation to Miami. That woman, Whitney Adwan Mack, 34, of Louisville, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and will serve 48 months in prison.
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Families who get their child in the 5- to 11-year-old age group vaccinated for COVID-19 are eligible for a new round of $200 incentives, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday.
Families will receive one $200 VISA gift card per child who receives both doses between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, the news release said. Registration for the gift cards, which is possible following completion of the series, opens at 10 a.m. Jan. 24 and closes at 11:59 p.m. Feb. 28.
“In light of the Omicron variant, there is a new sense of urgency in our response, and we are doing whatever we can to encourage Minnesotans to get their vaccine and keep themselves and their communities safe,” Minnesota Department of Health Information Officer Doug Schultz told The Center Square in an emailed statement Thursday. “Getting as many eligible Minnesotans vaccinated as possible is critical to helping curb the spread of COVID-19 and keep Minnesota families safe.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last week said he disagreed with former President Donald Trump’s (R) decisions to shut down the economy in the early stages of the COVID pandemic. The latest comments from the governor indicate a growing split between DeSantis and Trump as the rumors of the 2024 presidential election swirl.
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The recent arrival of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has, for far too many, reset the clock of our timeline for a return to societal normalcy.
Public health authorities in many countries reimposed loosened travel restrictions that had lapsed. Washington, D.C., under the mayorship of Muriel Bowser, passed a draconian private-sector vaccination mandate, the likes of which had previously only passed muster in iconic deep-blue metropolises such as New York City. The vacillating mandarins who constitute the “public health” apparatus in this country, such as Lord-Emperor Anthony Fauci, quickly began fearmongering about the need to avoid large gatherings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Restaurants and bars across the country that had shelved mask mandates suddenly deemed it necessary to make customers mask up again.
The sober reality, as should be obvious as we approach the two-year anniversary of “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” is that COVID-19 is simply not going anywhere; much like influenza or the common cold, it is now something humanity is simply going to have to deal with. Furthermore, at this point in the “pandemic,” it should be equally obvious that the COVID-19 vaccines are completely ineffective at preventing viral transmission. There is simply no compelling evidence that the vaccines are generally effective at slowing the spread. The vaccines often appear to be an effective symptom mitigation prophylactic for those who catch COVID-19, but that makes vaccination a quintessential private health decision with little-to-no relevance for public health authorities.
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A Philadelphia chef used his large Instagram platform to chastise Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) dining in Maryland, where COVID-19 restrictions are less stringent than they are in the City of Brotherly Love.
“Glad you’re enjoying indoor dining with no social distancing or mask wearing in Maryland tonight while restaurants here in Philly close, suffer and fight for every nickel just to survive,” Marc Vetri said, tagging Kenney in the post. “I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight.”
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American corporation General Electric this week announced that it would no longer require its 56,000 employees to undergo either the COVID-19 vaccination or regular testing after the Supreme Court struck down the White House’s employer vaccine mandate.
The company suspended its enforcement of that policy on Friday, one day after the court said the Biden administration could not force large U.S. companies to require vaccinations for their employees.
President Joe Biden has urged companies to continue with their own personal mandates after his administration’s own efforts were stymied by the Supreme Court.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin signed nine executive orders and two executive directives on Saturday shortly after the inauguration. Three of the orders focus specifically on school policy, banning the use of “divisive concepts,” allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask policies, and requesting Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate the Loudoun County Public Schools.
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration drastically undercounted COVID-19 nursing home deaths in the state, according to a state auditor general report reviewed by Fox News.
The damning report, which is expected to be released on Monday, reveals suspicious similarities to how former Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo hid nursing home deaths in New York.
Republican State Rep. Steven Johnson, the chairman of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, spoke with Fox News Digital in a telephone interview on Thursday. Whitmer [like Cuomo] is “well known” for her executive order “to place COVID-positive patients into nursing homes,” Johnson said.
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A Michigan professor has been placed on leave after an expletive-filled rant on a Zoom call, which he directed at students to open the semester.
The rant was largely centered around COVID-19 protocols.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate that would apply to large U.S. businesses. The mandate, which would have been enacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), could have forced businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate the vaccine or weekly testing.
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As Washington, D.C., prepares for its second winter storm in as many weeks, Democrats in Congress are all-in on their bid to pass their voting legislation and, if it fails, to abolish the Senate filibuster to advance it.
Their strategy has almost zero chance of success. Though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has brought his party’s voting bills to the floor throughout 2021, they have faced insurmountable opposition from Senate Republicans every time, who have relied on the filibuster to tank the legislation that they describe as a federal takeover of elections that could invite voter fraud.
In response, Schumer and most Senate Democrats have endorsed scrapping the 60-vote threshold, but in their way stand Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The two centrist Democrats have said time and time again that they will not support abolishing the filibuster, denying Democrats the unanimous support they need to adopt the change even though they support their party’s voting legislation.
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A U.S. Senator from Ohio released a statement Friday regarding Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling against President Joe Biden and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s attempt to mandate vaccines in the workplace.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) began his statement by saying that he is a strong advocate for COVID-19 vaccines.
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Parents are suing the North Allegheny School District over its decision to lift the district’s mandatory mask mandate beginning next week, a move they claim could be “a death sentence” for severely immunocompromised students.
Attorney and district parent Kenneth Behrend filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on behalf of about 1,500 students covered by protections in the American Disabilities Act in an effort to halt the Sunday expiration of the district’s mask mandate.
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The year 2021 saw the highest number of police officers killed in the line of duty in modern history, with 458 officers dying over the course of the year.
As reported by Fox News, the number is the highest since record-keeping first began, surpassing the previous high of 1930, which saw 312 officers killed on the job. The report was released on Tuesday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), pointing out that the numbers reflected an increase of 55 percent over the 2020 total of 295 deaths. The comprehensive report includes officers at every level, including municipal, county, state, and federal, as well as military, territorial, campus, and tribal law enforcement.
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From the moment COVID-19 appeared, the pandemic became inseparable from politics.
Political frenzy was inevitable since the SARS-CoV-2 virus likely escaped from a level-4 security virology lab in Wuhan, China.
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A report from Auditor General Doug Ringler scheduled for a Monday release is expected to show the state undercounted COVID-19 long-term care deaths.
On Wednesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff posted on Facebook:
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