The Congressional Subcomm has finished it's questioning of Deborah Birx, whose most damning comments were directed at Dr. Scott Atlas.
Atlas testified in closed session -- transcript was released: coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrat…
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2/Key points of Atlas testimony:
- "investigation uncovered internal memoranda used by Dr. Atlas to push the #Trump Admin to jettison proven mitigation measures & deliberately reduce testing—months before the first #coronavirus#vaccines were available to the public."
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3/ - "memo criticized #pandemic resp strategy advocated by mainstream publ hlth officials: 'Stopping all cases is not necessary, nor possible. It instills irrational fear into the public.' And "widespread testing 'sets up an unattainable goal that is harming this president.”
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4/Atlas
- "In email to #WhiteHouse officials on Oct4, 2020, Atlas mocked then-candidate @JoeBiden : 'Joe Biden’s policy is mask mandates & lockdowns. That is also the CNN and MSNBC attack narrative.' And 'the best data indicates that general masks are not effective'.”
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5/Atlas
- Atlas also used his [#WhiteHouse ] position to recruit #HerdImmunity proponents to meet w/ Admin officials, including President #Trump, VP #Pence, & Sec Azar. Director Redfield said that Atlas arranged these meetings..."
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6/Atlas
“'to convince people that #HerdImmunity was going to save us, and this thing was going to go bye-bye.' Following 1 of these mtgs, Sec Azar tweeted that the herd immunity proponents provided 'strong reinforcement' of the #Trump Administration’s ongoing response strategy."
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2/ It begins with a June 8 press release investors.modernatx.com/news/news-deta…
which describes a "bivalent #COVID booster candidate, mRNA-1273.214, containing mRNA-1273 (Spikevax) and a vaccine candidate targeting the #Omicron variant."
Further details about this Spikevax are proprietary.
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3/ Now @moderna_tx tells us in only 3 paragraphs of real info that this mysterious ultra-booster #Omicron#vaccine in clinical trial, " mRNA-1273.214 boosted neutralizing titers against BA.4/BA.5 by 5.4-fold above baseline"
Sounds exciting...BUT:
- what's the "baseline"
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While the Jan6 hearing is underway, other members of #Congress released dox proving that #Trump admin delayed actions to control #COVID19 because they were pushing bogus "herd immunity" schemes. coronavirus.house.gov
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2/ "The embrace of this strategy enabled #Trump Admin officials to justify forgoing meaningful action to curb the spread of the virus when no #Vaccines were available & treatments were limited, likely contributing to many preventable deaths in the fall & winter of 2020-21."
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3/ "senior officials in the previous Admin embraced a dangerous & discredited herd immunity via mass infection strategy promoted by non-expert advisers like Dr. Scott Atlas & recklessly allowed the #coronavirus to infect Americans before vaccines were widely available."
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LIVE now: U.S. Senate
Update on the Ongoing Federal Response to #COVID19: Current Status and Future Planning
Witnesses:
Rochelle Walensky @CDCDirector
Anthony Fauci @niaid director
Robert Califf @US_FDA commissioner
Dawn O'Connell @HHSGov assist secretary help.senate.gov/hearings/an-up…
Tough questions from Sen. Burr -- "Tell me what the plan is for ending this epidemic."
Action steps?
As usual, @SenRandPaul is asking #Fauci hostile questions. His issue today is questioning whether there is any evidence that any #COVID19#vaccines benefit children in any way. "Where is the proof?"
And now he's onto side effect risks...
I pulled that chart, @dominiqus -- forgetting it was from a David Leonhardt @nytimes column that @gregggonsalves correctly disputed. I acted hastily and apologize.
But many public health leaders, from the @WhiteHouse down, have been fighting to address..
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2/...the racial & economic divides in US healthcare & social determinants that are at the root of wide disparities, to our collective national shame. #COVID19 lifted some eyelids, but as you said, we need to tackle far more.
Do you think any PH efforts have helped at all?
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Stalemate on figuring out the origins of #SARSCoV2 -- from @WHO :
A team of scientists convened by the WHO to determine the origins of #COVID19 & future outbreaks says a theory that the virus escaped from a lab merits “further investigations.”
BUT...MORE washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/…
2/ The WHO-backed team said they had not received any new data that would allow them to better evaluate the lab-leak theory, & #Brazil#China & #Russia objected to further investigation.
Meanwhile, the report said avail data show that #SARSCoV2 had a zoonotic origin.
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3/ "which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could currently be identified."
Which REALLY means that debate over the origins of #SARSCoV2 remains a political football.
3/ #Covaxin can be stored at 47 degrees F, unlike the super-cold required for mRNA vaccines. That's a big plus.
Still, head-on-head independent comparisons of #COVID19#vaccines against #Omicron found the Bharat-made Covaxin performed poorly. nature.com/articles/d4158…
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