Dr. Anthony Fauci is admitting that the coronavirus could have come from a “lab leak” — as emails released through the FOIA show he was told of “unusual features of the virus” at the beginning of the pandemic — but is blaming criticism of his shifting positions on “people out there” who “resent” him.
Amid new calls for a transparent investigation into the origin of COVID-19, a parallel situation is unfolding in both Canada and the United States, where lawmakers are seeking clarity on how their federal resources provided to the Wuhan virology research facility were used.
In the United States, the controversy is around a US$3.7 million grant given by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance for “understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence,” of which US$600,000 was channelled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) over a period of five years.
It’s taken over a year, but most people in the United States now agree with former President Donald Trump’s claim that the coronavirus was developed in China, and a quarter believe that it was “released on purpose” to infect the world.
In the latest Economist/YouGov survey, 58% believe that the COVID-19 virus was developed in a Wuhan, China, lab. That is up from 49% a year ago.
Ontario reports 870 new COVID-19 cases; 10 more deaths
Ontario reported 870 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths on Thursday, as the number of known active infections across the province fell below 10,000 for the first time in nearly seven months.
GOLDSTEIN: Booking a second AstraZeneca dose is like The Hunger Games
To begin, I should tell you that I had my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 31 at a neighbourhood pharmacy and that I can’t book my second— not get it, just book it — because of the lack of supply.
This so you’ll know where I’m coming from when I say that, between them, the Trudeau and Ford governments could not have screwed up the AZ rollout any worse if they’d tried.
Israel says ‘probable’ link between Pfizer COVID-19 shot, heart inflammation cases
Israel’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday it found the small number of heart inflammation cases observed mainly in young men who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in Israel were likely linked to their vaccination.
Pfizer has said it has not observed a higher rate of the condition, known as myocarditis, than would normally be expected in the general population.
New emails obtained by Buzzfeed through a Freedom of Information Act show National Institute of Health Director Dr. Anthony Fauci was told by NIH scientist Kristian Andersen on January 31, 2020 that Wuhan coronavirus looked “potentially engineered.” In other words, it was manipulated in a lab through gain of function research.
The suspension of social life has done enormous harm.
Numerous Western governments, with the blessing of their scientific advisers, have suspended basic civil rights and effectively placed government ministers above their own constitutions – purportedly in order to protect public health. Instead of improving and expanding hospital facilities, fast-tracking the development of promising treatments and offering focused protection to the elderly and vulnerable, governments have confined citizens to their homes, shut down businesses, heavily restricted public gatherings and attempted to regulate the internal life of households.
The State of California agreed to enter into permanent injunctions that prohibit the State from imposing discriminatory restrictions on all houses of worship statewide and also agreed to pay $2,150,000 in attorneys’ fees to settle two religious liberty cases.
The settlements, secured by attorneys for the Thomas More Society, resolve the cases they brought on behalf of South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Father Trevor Burfitt against Democratic California Gavin Newsom.
In new emails published by Buzzfeed, the public now has a better view of how media tramp and alleged Wuhan coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci knew masks were not as effective as he later publicly said.
Ontario elementary and secondary students will not be returning to class in-person anywhere in the province before September 2021, Premier Doug Ford confirmed Wednesday.
After weeks of encouragement from the outgoing chief medical officer of health, a collaborative of epidemiologists and most local medical officers of health to return some or all schools to in-person learning in June, Ford said it just wasn’t worth it.
OTTAWA — Parliamentarians on Tuesday argued that collaborations between a Canadian infectious disease lab and Chinese military researchers raises critical questions of national security and said Ottawa should be compelled to provide more details about the facility’s operations.
Over hours of debate in the House of Commons, Conservative, NDP and Bloc Québécois members repeatedly called on the Liberal government to provide details as to why two scientists were fired from Winnipeg’s high-security National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) earlier this year, amid an RCMP investigation into the matter.
Ont. reports just over 700 new COVID-19 cases today as daily average drops to lowest level in 7 months
Ontario is reporting a daily COVID-19 case count of just over 700 today as the rolling seven-day average of new infections dips below 1,000 for the first time in nearly seven months.
Provincial health officials logged 733 new COVID-19 cases today, up slightly from the 699 reported on Tuesday but down significantly from the 1,095 infections confirmed one week ago.
Why COVID vaccination progress at home risks being undone by spread of variants abroad
Variants of the coronavirus sweeping through parts of the globe are a stark reminder that despite the increase in vaccinations in North America, there are still millions of people at risk of infection.
Allowing the virus to run amok in other countries also risks putting the entire world in jeopardy and losing any gains made through COVID-19 vaccinations, some scientists suggest.
That’s because the more opportunities the virus has to spread, the more likely it is to mutate, said Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, chair of infection prevention and control at the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic.
According to the program website, a claim will be considered if the individual received a Health Canada-authorized vaccine in Canada; it was administered on or after the date outlined above; and the individual experienced a serious and permanent injury or died as a result of receiving the vaccine.
There was a time when the Covid pandemic seemed to confirm so many of our assumptions. It cast down the people we regarded as villains. It raised up those we thought were heroes. It prospered people who could shift easily to working from home even as it problematized the lives of those Trump voters living in the old economy.
Like all plagues, Covid often felt like the hand of God on earth, scourging the people for their sins against higher learning and visibly sorting the righteous from the unmasked wicked. “Respect science,” admonished our yard signs. And lo!, Covid came and forced us to do so, elevating our scientists to the highest seats of social authority, from where they banned assembly, commerce, and all the rest.
The China class will make sure nothing comes between them and their “investments,” China will not suffer and everything else will remain the same but especially a deeply held contempt for the our media and the governing class. That’s no earthquake that’s the norm.
With evidence mounting that SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government could find itself in a very awkward position if the American intelligence report ordered by U.S. President Joe Biden into the origins of the virus ends up uncovering previously undisclosed information about the connections between Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory and the Wuhan lab.
Ontario reports 699 new COVID-19 cases and 9 more deaths; lowest case count since Oct.
Ontario is reporting a significant day-over-day drop in new COVID-19 infections with fewer than 700 cases and nine more deaths on Tuesday, marking the lowest daily case count since October.
Provincial health officials logged 699 new cases on Tuesday, the lowest number of new infections reported since October 18 when 658 infections were reported.
Is it all Greek to you? Coronavirus variants get new names
Coronavirus variants with clunky, alphanumeric names have now been assigned the letters of the Greek alphabet to simplify discussion and pronunciation while avoiding stigma.
The World Health Organization revealed the new names on Monday amid criticism that those given by scientists to strains such as the South African variant – which goes by multiple names including B.1.351, 501Y.V2 and 20H/501Y.V2 – were too complicated.
Canada to recommend mixing and matching AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
Canada is changing its guidelines on mixing and matching second doses of COVID-19 vaccines and will advise Canadians to combine either the AstraZeneca-Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots interchangeably in certain situations.
