Tag: Omicron

Ivy League Study: Boosters, COVID-19 ‘Rebounds’ Fuel Skepticism of Federal Narratives

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As the nation’s most powerful and twice-boosted infectious disease doctor battles a COVID-19 “rebound” two weeks after testing positive, new research from the public health schools at Harvard and Yale suggests the boosted fared worse against the first Omicron subvariant than the non-boosted.

The FDA is so alarmed by the “waning effectiveness” of boosters, whose formulation is still based on the ancestral Wuhan strain, that it asked manufacturers Thursday to add a “spike protein component” from the fourth and fifth Omicron subvariants to this fall’s boosters.

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Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board Revokes COVID-19 Regulations for Employers

Eric Burk
coffee shop with Edison lights hanging from ceiling

The Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board voted Monday to revoke standards regulating how businesses and employers must respond to COVID-19.

After the vote, recently-appointed Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) Gary Pan said, “At the beginning of this journey here through COVID, there was a lot of uncertainty and we didn’t really know what we were going to be facing, but we now have a lot of experience. And that’s important and we will be working vigilantly to make sure that we continue to protect our employees and employers in the workplace.”

“We are on the path to normalcy here in Virginia and throughout the United States,” Pan said.

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South African Doctor Who Discovered Omicron Refuses to ‘Create Fear’ by Hyping Variant’s Threat

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“I cannot make a disease worse, and create fear out there,” says Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who discovered Omicron.

In an interview on Just the News Not Noise, Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, described the pressure she faced from public health authorities worldwide to portray the now-dominant variant of COVID-19 as more severe than she was witnessing in real time.

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Commentary: The Best Path Forward for Omicron… Let It Rip

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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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Columbus Teachers Union Lobbying for Two Weeks of Remote Learning

Peter D'Abrosca

A Columbus Teachers Union wants two more weeks of remote learning as Ohio and the rest of the country deal with the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

“We know we keep asking the district what are the metrics and how is it determined whether schools are closed. And they can’t tell us what they use or how they close schools. There’s no metrics or data that they will share with us in how they determine whether or not a school closes,” Columbus Education Association (CEA) president John Coneglio reportedly said.

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Liberal Supreme Court Justices Show Weak Grasp of Basic COVID-19 Facts

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The liberal justices on the Supreme Court demonstrated a stunningly weak grasp of basic facts concerning the COVID-19 pandemic Friday, as they defended the Biden regime’s policies during oral arguments over vaccine mandates in the workplace.

The court heard separate oral arguments over federal vaccine mandates for employers with more than 100 employees, and for health care workers at facilities receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding.

Justice Stephen Breyer at one point seemed to suggest outrageously that the OSHA mandate would prevent 100 percent of daily US COVID cases. It is common knowledge now that the vaccinated people can still spread the disease.

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Just a Third of Americans View COVID-19 as a Top-Five Priority, Poll Shows

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Less than 40% of Americans view the coronavirus as a top-five issue to address in 2022, a new poll shows.

The Associated Press-NORC survey found that just 33% of Americans labeled virus concerns as a top issue, down 16 points from a year ago. On the other hand, 68% of respondents said that the economy was the top issue on which to focus this year, with subtopics ranging from inflation to unemployment and the national debt.

The results come as inflation has hit a multi-decade high and supply chain bottlenecks continue to affect Americans’ lives. However, it also comes as the Omicron coronavirus variant has fueled daily case counts near record-highs, with the U.S. now averaging over 650,000 new infections per day.

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Chicago Public Schools Forced to Cancel School After Teachers Union Votes to Move to Remote Learning

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The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted Tuesday to move to remote learning Wednesday, citing concerns over safety amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, the union said in a press release.

The CTU’s elected House of Delegates voted in favor (88%) of a resolution to return to remote education amid the surge of COVID-19 cases and the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant, citing a lack of safety guarantees, a union press release said. In the membership-wide vote, 73% of CTU’s members voted in favor of virtual learning, passing the two-thirds threshold required to enact the resolution.

The resolution outlines plans to work remotely until Jan. 18 or until the current COVID-19 wave falls below last year’s threshold for school closures, according to the resolution.

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Ohio State University Medical Center Opens Drive-Thru COVID Testing Site

Peter D'Abrosca
COVID Vaccine Parking sign

Ohio State University along with CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, teamed up to open a new drive-thru COVID-19 testing facility capable of administering 1000 tests per day to students at the school.

“We know that testing is an important tool in our battle against COVID-19,” said Dr. Andrew Thomas, interim co-leader and chief clinical officer at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center said in a press release. “We remain committed to supporting the central Ohio community and to meeting the increased demand for COVID-19 testing. At this point, our focus is testing individuals with COVID-19 symptoms and those with significant exposures to people known to have COVID-19. Knowing your COVID status can help prevent you from spreading this virus to family members, friends and others you come in close contact with.”

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Pennsylvania Sales Tax Exempts Many Medical Supplies, But Not COVID Tests; Bill Would Change That

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania already exempts many medical supplies from its sales tax, but not COVID tests, a discrepancy legislation by Sen. Mario Scavello (R-East Stroudsburg) would eliminate.

Scavello’s bill would except rapid at-home COVID-19 antigen tests from the state’s six-percent sales levy. Healthcare devices, services and substances all generally don’t get taxed in the Keystone State.

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Virginia College of Emergency Physicians Clarifies Statement About ‘Overwhelmed’ ERs

Peter D'Abrosca
Doctors talking with masks on

Contrary to some reports, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians (VACEP) confirmed Saturday that the state’s hospital emergency departments are not overflowing with COVID-19 positive patients, but rather people seeking COVID-19 tests and people who have other maladies. 

“The issue is the high volume of people coming to the [Emergency Departments], many of whom have minor conditions or are showing up for Covid testing (which is limited),” Jeff Kelley of VACEP told The Virginia Star.

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DeSantis Spokesperson Dismisses Criticism of Omicron Response

Grant Holcomb

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (D) criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week saying the governor has been absent from helping local communities against the fight from the omicron variant of COVID.

“Our residents, all Florida residents, should be outraged and they should ask the question, ‘Where is our state? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now?’ When is the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing on COVID-19?” said Jerry Demings.

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Official Washington Looks Ahead to a New Year with More COVID, Inflation, and Supply Chain Risks

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President Joe Biden walks along the Colonnade with the Combatant Commander nominees U.S. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson on Monday, March 8, 2021, along the Colonnade of the White House.

Inflation, “softness” in the White House, and pandemic uncertainty make up some of the biggest risks to the U.S. economy in 2022, according to a Washington consulting firm.

“Every quarter, I take a macro look at trends driving politics and policy looking both backward and forwards and identify where key political risks may lurk and where political opportunities may present themselves,” Bruce Mehlman, former assistant secretary of Commerce in the George W. Bush administration, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The most recent analysis targets 2022 and identifies the emerging risks business and government leaders should anticipate and prepare for.”

A founding partner of the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Mehlman advises prominent companies to understand and prepare for emerging trends and risks critical to the ever-evolving policy environment.

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Commentary: Omicron, a Variant of Control

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Last week, I dusted off my Chinese-flu soapbox and said a word or two about (cue the scary music) the Omicron variant. It sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel, doesn’t it? A friend told me about a parlor game that the journalist Christopher Hitchens and his pals used to play in which the object was to contrive names for Shakespeare’s plays that sounded like the title of a Ludlum novel. Hamlet was “The Elsinore Conundrum.” I am sorry that Hitch is not still with us to try his hand at the Omicron variant. 

So far, I have to say, it’s been pretty much of a dud—unless, that is, you’re the stock market, which has taken a beating this last week or so, in part because of this new kid on the medical block (there is also that much more toxic financial emergency, the Biden Administration, but that’s for another day). The new variant has also been a godsend for scolds, nags, bureaucrats, and meddlesome so-called public health officials nannies who are just itching for another excuse to lock down your world, introduce new travel restrictions, and impose new testing protocols.

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Georgia Department of Health Announces First Case of Omicron Variant in the State

Chris Butler

Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) officials said Sunday that they have confirmed the first case of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant in the state. “The individual recently traveled from South Africa and developed mild symptoms and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Genomic sequencing confirmed the presence of the Omicron variant,” DPH officials said in an emailed press release.

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Minnesota Democratic Lawmakers Respond to First Fully Vaccinated Omicron COVID Case: ‘Get Vaccinated’

Hayley Feland

Minnesota’s Democrat lawmakers responded to the first Omicron COVID case detected in Minnesota. To date, the case is only the second diagnosed case of the Omicron variant in the nation. The man who tested positive for Omicron was fully vaccinated and had just gotten his booster shot in early November. He contracted the virus while attending a conference in New York City in mid-November, Alpha News reported.

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