Merriam-Webster dictionary publishing company <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/28/1139384432/its-no-trick-merriam-webster-says-gaslighting-is-the-word-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that its word of the year for 2022 is “gaslighting.” 
The company <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gaslighting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> “gaslighting” as “psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one&#8217;s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
A second definition is provided as “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one&#8217;s own advantage.”
Merriam-Webster <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the word was looked up 1,740% more this year and there was a lot of interest over the course of the year. 
The word is derived from the title of a play from 1938 and two films that were based off of the same drama where a man tries to make his wife think that she is becoming insane as she notices the gas lights of the house growing fainter. He tells her that the lights are not fading, but rather that she is unable to trust what she is seeing. 
In the modern age, the term has become more political in use, specifically regarding social issues. The use of “gaslighting” can at times be used in place of argument or debate, as some people will instead push their own agenda by trying to convince others that what they are witnessing taking place is not happening or is unimportant. 
Merriam-Webster pointed out that “gaslighting” is different from either outright lying or committing fraud, which either take place between individual persons or with regards to organizations. Gaslighting, instead, can happen in a political form or through personal conduct. 
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/word-of-the-year-2022-80d02a3e0a347e542466571ca9cdb2ef" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in an interview with The Associated Press. “It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year.”
“There is this implication of an intentional deception,” Sokolowski said. “And once one is aware of that deception, it’s not just a straightforward lie, as in, you know, I didn’t eat the cookies in the cookie jar. It’s something that has a little bit more devious quality to it. It has possibly an idea of strategy or a long-term plan.”
The other top ten words of the year were “oligarch,” “omicron,” “codify,” “Queen consort,” “raid,” “sentient,” “cancel culture,” “LGBTQIA,” and “loamy.”

open brown book on white background

Merriam-Webster’s 2022 Word Of The Year Is ‘Gaslighting’

Merriam-Webster's 2022 Word Of The Year Is ‘Gaslighting’

Cancel Culture

language

Omicron

Social Issues

U.S.

A panel of independent advisers that works with the Food and Drug Administration (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fda">FDA</a>) has recommended producing new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19">COVID-19</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19-vaccine">vaccines</a> to target the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/omicron">Omicron</a> variant.
By a 19-2 vote, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) approved a plan to have new vaccines ready by early October. The panel said the newly formulated vaccines are needed because new subvariants of the Omicron strain appear to be able to bypass antibodies delivered via previous vaccines.
That would mean Americans could be urged to take a fourth shot, with fifth shots for the immunocompromised and people over 50 years old.
&#8220;The FDA is expected to follow the lead of its advisors and issue emergency use authorization to the new jabs at some point this week,&#8221; the Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10962801/FDA-panel-recommends-new-COVID-19-shots-target-Omicron-variant.html">reported</a>. &#8220;After the FDA, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will also likely authorize the shots.&#8221;
The move comes as a new COVID wave is starting in New York City, and a top epidemiologist there says it’s from one of the stronger subvariants of Omicron.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-doc-new-covid-19-wave-starting-worst-version-of-omicron">BA.5 subvariant</a>, which first emerged in South Africa, is considered by some experts to be the &#8220;worst version&#8221; of Omicron that has been seen. The strain can bypass prior immunity, be transmitted more easily, and unlike like some other subvariants of Omicron, appears to target the lungs.
Dr. Jay Varma, a Weill Cornell epidemiologist who served as a top public health adviser to the New York City mayor during the pandemic, said &#8220;infections appear to have stabilized at a high level in the city, rather than dropping,&#8221; NBC New York <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/top-ny-doctor-new-covid-wave-is-starting-with-the-worst-version-of-omicron/3752858/">reported</a>.
Scientists have become increasingly worried about a couple new strains of SARS-CoV-2. The subvariants of the now-dominant Omicron variant — BA.4 and BA.5 — &#8220;seem to partially dodge antibodies from past infection or vaccination, making them more transmissible than other forms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,&#8221; the Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-may-be-the-covid-variant-scientists-are-dreading?source=articles&amp;via=rss">reported</a>. &#8220;There are also some suggestions that the new subvariants have evolved to target the lungs — unlike Omicron, which usually resulted in a less dangerous infection of the upper respiratory tract.&#8221;
The Omicron variant has proven more contagious than earlier strains of the virus, but symptoms are most often far less severe. Scientists are hopeful the same holds true for the new subvariants, and so far in the United Kingdom, where the variants have been found, hospitalizations and deaths are down.
“This could mean higher transmissible variants, BA.4 or 5, are in play, [and] these variants are much less severe,” Edwin Michael, an epidemiologist at the Center for Global Health Infectious Disease Research at the University of South Florida, told the Beast.
Still, the new subvariants appear able to sneak past antibodies that have been built up either via vaccines or having been infected with COVID.
&#8220;The grandchildren of the basic Omicron variant that first appeared in the fall of 2021, BA.4 and BA.5 both feature a trio of major mutations to their spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it to grab onto and infect our cells,&#8221; the Beast reported. &#8220;Eric Bortz, a University of Alaska-Anchorage virologist and public-health expert, described BA.4 and BA.5 as &#8216;immunologically distinct sublineages.&#8217; In other words, they interact with our antibodies in surprising new ways.&#8221;
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

vaccine

FDA Panel Recommends New COVID-19 Shots To Target Omicron Variant

Food and Drug Administration Panel Recommends New COVID-19 Shots To Target Omicron Variant

COVID

A new subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, this one dubbed BA.2, has taken over from all the other strains in the U.S., <a class="link " href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:according to" data-rapid_p="8" data-v9y="1">according</a> to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to a recent <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-we-know-about-omicrons-ba-2-variant-so-far1/">article</a> in the Scientific American, BA.2, currently &#8220;accounts for nearly <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">55 percent</a> of all new SARS-CoV-2 infections in the U.S., according to latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.&#8221;
The good news, according to the outlet, is that the &#8220;disease symptoms caused by BA.2 are not more severe than those caused by BA.1 in vaccinated people or people who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.&#8221; This data came from Ram Sasisekharan, a MIT biological engineer who spoke with the outlet.
The more contagious subvariant is raging across the U.S., but Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who served on former President Trump&#8217;s White House Coronavirus Task Force and is now President Biden&#8217;s chief medical adviser on COVID-19, doesn&#8217;t expect a huge surge in cases.
“The bottom line is we’ll likely see an uptick in cases, as we’ve seen in the European countries, particularly the U.K.,” Fauci said last week on ABC. “Hopefully we won’t see a surge — I don’t think we will.”
Several studies have found that BA.2 is even more transmissible than an earlier variant, BA.1, but still most scientists are not concerned.
&#8220;In early 2022, BA.2 was growing more common in a number of countries,&#8221; The New York Times recently <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/stealth-omicron-stealthy-no-more-151845760.html">reported</a>. &#8220;By February, it had become dominant worldwide, driving down the once-dominant BA.1. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that BA.2 jumped to 11% in early March from 1% in early February. It could soon become dominant in this country as well.&#8221;
&#8220;But that does not mean that Americans are riding a new BA.2 wave that is infecting a lot of new people. As BA.2 became more common in the United States, the total number of new cases fell by about 95%. Worldwide, the number of daily new cases had fallen to half of what they were at their peak in late January,&#8221; The Times reported.
Others have echoed that sentiment.
&#8220;Cases of this particular omicron subvariant, one of a few, keep popping up and have roughly doubled the past few weeks in the U.S., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data estimates,&#8221; the Miami Herald <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article259243535.html">reported</a> last Wednesday. &#8220;It now makes up 11.6% of overall virus cases as of March 5 since it began doubling as of Feb. 5.&#8221;
“All in all, I think we’re really gonna be OK and I don’t think BA.2 is gonna be problematic like omicron,” said Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease doctor and professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Buffalo, according to the Herald.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

New year 2022 written in 3D with Coronavirus omicron variant instead of zero.

New BA.2 COVID-19 Subvariant: Symptoms ‘Not More Severe’ Than BA.1

One scientific model for COVID-19 cases now estimates that some 73% of Americans are currently immune to Omicron, and that figure could jump to 80% by the middle of next month, according to a new report.
&#8220;About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported,&#8221; <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-united-states-3e7ab3f74080bac8480aa6de3e65ecce">according</a> to the Associated Press.
“We have changed,” Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington, told the wire service. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”
&#8220;&#8216;I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not,&#8217; said Mokdad, who works on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model, which calculated the 73% figure for The Associated Press,&#8221; the AP wrote on Thursday.
But the once dreamed-about idea of “herd immunity” &#8212; when enough of a population has been exposed to a single virus and built up immunity, which eventually ends its spread &#8212; does not seem possible as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, keeps mutating into different variants. Omicron is the latest, but while it is more infectious, data shows that the strain is far less lethal.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first swept the U.S. beginning in January 2020, immunologists and scientists hoped America could reach herd immunity. While experts didn’t know exactly how many Americans would need antibodies to reach herd immunity, the number ranged from more than 50% to upwards of 70%.
Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist, put the number at 60% to 70%, but he later started upping that number, saying in an <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/cnbc-transcript-dr-anthony-fauci-speaks-with-cnbcs-meg-tirrell-live-during-the-cnbc-healthy-returns-livestream-today.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview</a> with CNBC News that it would be “75, 80, 85 percent.”
But by May 2021, experts began saying we may never reach herd immunity. “Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/reaching-herd-immunity-is-unlikely-in-the-u-s-experts-now-believe/">reported</a>.
“The virus is unlikely to go away,” Emory University evolutionary biologist Rustom Antia told the Times. “But we want to do all we can to check that it’s likely to become a mild infection.”
“We will not achieve herd immunity as a country or a state or even as a city until we have enough immunity in the population as a whole,” Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the Covid-19 Modeling Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Times.
Fauci sought to explain the new pessimistic predictions.
“People were getting confused and thinking you’re never going to get the infections down until you reach this mystical level of herd immunity, whatever that number is,” he told the paper. “That’s why we stopped using herd immunity in the classic sense. I’m saying: Forget that for a second. You vaccinate enough people, the infections are going to go down.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by becoming a Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Covid-19 Omicron sign

Nearly Three-Quarters Of Americans Immune To Omicron

Anthony Fauci

As Omicron case counts and deaths have spiked and then plummeted across the United States and the rest of the world, many nations like England and Denmark — which throughout the pandemic have had the most draconian public health mandates — have realized that they have been futile or are simply no longer needed, and have begun to abandon them to restore normality to citizens’ lives. 
Despite this, the federal government — most notably members of the Biden administration — still seem intent on travel restrictions, requirements for boosters, and for many schoolchildren, firm mandates for both vaccinations and medical-grade masks. At every school board meeting I attend, I hear hundreds of parents desperately demanding an end to mandates after describing their severe psychological, social, health, and academic impact on their children, while a very small but vocal minority of parents insists on keeping mask, vaccination, distancing, testing and quarantine mandates in place as part of an effort to “stop the spread” of COVID-19. As a doctor, I have been devastated to hear numerous stories of unvaccinated schoolchildren being shunned and ridiculed by their own friends and classmates, who accuse them of being “murderers” and “selfish”. 
Nearly two years of COVID has sharply divided our society along new tribal lines: those who want their lives, as well as those of others, to revolve around a “new normal” of avoiding COVID infection at all costs (the “Covidians”) versus those who are ready to accept what, for most, is now a very small risk to go back to their pre-COVID lives. This division has also normalized an unfortunate and immature culture of virtue signaling, shaming, humiliation, censorship, and physical separation, not limited to schools, that has torn apart families, destroyed friendships, and pitted complete strangers against one another based on nothing more than outward expressions of COVID avoidance. 
We are not in a civil war, as some have argued, but we are in a civil cold war in which tensions are high and everyone is on edge, waiting to be insulted or attacked by someone who disagrees with their level of COVID anxiety. We cannot continue to function as a civil society unless we reverse this tribalism, end the civil cold war, and live together harmoniously and respectfully. While I favor making most COVID measures optional now that the pandemic has evolved, I respect opposing beliefs and believe that our only alternative to constantly fighting is to peacefully coexist. Many feel this conflict is hopeless, but our challenges are not unprecedented. In 1787, the framers of our Constitution had to resolve a fierce division between smaller states, which wanted equal representation, and larger states that wanted proportional representation. In what is known as the Great Compromise, they decided to do both, giving us the House and Senate.  
It is now time for a 2022 version of the Great Compromise. We must acknowledge that there are many who, for their own personal reasons which are not necessarily grounded in science, will always retain a significant fear of infection or death from COVID, however improbable it might be, and accommodate those who are guided by fear and media soundbites (plus those who are legitimately at risk due to age or medical comorbidities) in a manner that respects everyone else’s freedom to enjoy their lives. How can we achieve this? By bringing back the antiquated “smoking section” to every aspect of society that would require maximal COVID precautions, Los Angeles-style, including vaccinations (including all boosters), rapid antigen testing, and a professionally fitted N95 mask worn at all times: 
Schools: Designate one classroom per grade level, or one entire K-12 campus per district, that would maintain post-exposure quarantining, daily testing, plexiglass barriers between students, and a ban on group play, sports, or singing — all things that local schools here in Santa Monica have done.
Restaurants: Create a special section, blocked off by plexiglass partition, where eligible customers must wear an N95 mask all times except while the mouth is transiently open to consume food or beverage, but not while chewing or swallowing. 
Theaters, Stadiums, Planes, Trains, and Buses: Have partitioned sections for eligible customers and ban any food or drink so that masks are never taken off. 
Stores: Establish a designated shopping hour, early in the morning so the air hasn’t been tainted by the unmasked and unvaccinated, for eligible customers to shop fully distanced, among N95-wearing employees. 
Once we take these measures, we should finally be able to drop the shaming and humiliation by allowing every person to choose whether to live normally or live as a Covidian whose life is dominated by COVID avoidance. And perhaps, over time, the number of Covidians will shrink or disappear as they see their neighbors living normal, healthy lives, so we can all go back to normal.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://twitter.com/houmanhemmati">Houman David Hemmati</a>, M.D., Ph.D. is a board-certified ophthalmologist and biomedical research scientist in Santa Monica, California. Dr. Hemmati earned a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, an MD from UCLA School of Medicine, and a PhD from Caltech, and completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Stanford Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a postdoctoral research fellowship in chemical engineering at MIT, and a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He has co-founded and helps run two pharmaceutical companies developing treatments for eye diseases like macular degeneration, and has published extensively in the areas of stem cell research and blinding eye diseases. You can follow him on Twitter: @houmanhemmati

Compromise

The COVID Compromise That Would End The Pandemic

COVID-19

Readers Pass

As the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread across the U.S., new data shows that booster shots specifically targeting the more transmissible strain are no better than boosters of the original vaccines.
While the studies on animals are small &#8212; one was tested on just eight primates &#8212; and have not been reviewed by peers, as is common in scientific studies, the early data are not promising.
“What we’re seeing coming out of these preclinical studies in animal models is that a boost with a variant vaccine doesn’t really do any better than a boost with the current vaccine,” says David Montefiori, director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research and Development at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, who has been researching COVID-19 vaccines, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00003-y?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_campaign=nature&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1644879093">according</a> to Nature magazine. The magazine reported:
<blockquote>One study examined the immune responses of eight rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that received three doses of vaccine: two doses of Moderna&#8217;s original vaccine and a booster of either the same shot or a version that incorporated Omicron&#8217;s heavily mutated spike protein, which the virus uses to enter human cells. The authors found that monkeys boosted with either vaccine mounted a broad antibody response against all variants of concern, including Omicron. &#8230;
Consistent with the primate results, a study in mice found that giving an Omicron-matched booster after two doses of mRNA-based vaccine offered no more benefit than a standard booster. The study also looked at the Omicron-specific vaccine in &#8216;naive&#8217; mice — those that had not previously been immunized — and found that the rodents produced high levels of potent antibodies against Omicron. But those antibodies had a limited ability to inhibit other key variants of COVID-19. A separate study in naive mice immunized with an Omicron-matched mRNA vaccine reported similar results.</blockquote>
The new data comes as scientists are warning that the next SARS-CoV-2 variant to emerge could well be more dangerous than the latest strain to emerge, Omicron.
Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University said it is unknown where the next variant will come from but noted that Omicron did not emerge from the previous variant, Delta.
Omicron &#8220;came from a completely different part of the virus’s family tree. And since we don’t know where in the virus’s family tree a new variant is going to come from, we cannot know how pathogenic it might be. It could be less pathogenic but it could, just as easily, be more pathogenic,” he told The Guardian.
The scientist&#8217;s opinion was supported by Professor Lawrence Young of Warwick University.
“People seem to think there has been a linear evolution of the virus from Alpha to Beta to Delta to Omicron,” he told <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/next-covid-variant-may-be-more-dangerous-than-omicron-say-scientists-453061">The Observer</a>. “But that is simply not the case. The idea that virus variants will continue to get milder is wrong. A new one could turn out to be even more pathogenic than the Delta variant, for example.&#8221;
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com.
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by becoming a Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

BRITAIN-HEALTH-VIRUS

Omicron-Targeted Vaccines Do No Better Than Original Jabs, Early Tests Suggest

COVID-19 Vaccine

Garbage collection is becoming increasingly difficult for cities across the United States.
Certain deep-blue cities in deep-blue states — San Francisco, for example — have reputations for trash-filled streets. However, the Omicron variant is prompting sanitation workers to remain at home amid an already-tight labor market.
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-lifestyle-recycling-louisville-102ea8cdc6a38f01a54816d9f0780aa1">The Associated Press</a> reported:
<blockquote>Cities including Atlanta, Nashville and Louisville are so shorthanded they have temporarily stopped collecting things like recyclable bottles, cans, paper and plastic, yard waste or oversized junk to focus on the grosser, smellier stuff. The delays are more than an annoyance to residents, creating problems such as clogged storm drains and blocked sidewalks.</blockquote>
Indeed, the phenomenon is evident throughout the entire country, the Associated Press highlighted:
<blockquote>In Louisville, Kentucky, sanitation workers stopped picking up yard waste in early January until further notice. Residents can drop off branches and clippings at Christmas tree collection sites.
New York City, which boasts the largest municipal sanitation force in the world, had around 2,000 of its 7,000 workers out because of the latest round of the coronavirus, but the rest are working long hours to clear a backlog of waste. The city has not suspended any services.
In Philadelphia, sometimes called Filthadelphia because of the condition of its streets, around 10% to 15% of the 900-person sanitation workforce is out on any given day, leading to delays in waste collection, according to Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams.</blockquote>
Sanitation is far from the only industry impacted by the Omicron variant. Over the holiday season, airlines canceled thousands of flights as pilots and crew members reported symptoms. Some airlines even began doubling and tripling pay for those <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/airlines-triple-pay-for-pilots-double-for-flight-attendants-amid-widespread-cancellations">willing</a> to cover extra trips.
However, worker shortages are quickly becoming a permanent fixture in the American economy. The Department of Labor’s most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/there-are-now-3-6-million-more-jobs-than-people-willing-to-take-them">analyzed</a> data from October, showed that there are 11 million job openings in the United States — exceeding the number of people actively searching for work by 3.6 million.
Business leaders are pointing to federal handout programs as one possible culprit. Goya Foods chief executive Bob Unanue, for instance, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-are-heading-for-hard-times-goya-ceo-blasts-government-for-becoming-the-competitor-of-private-businesses">blasted</a> the government for stepping in as a “competitor” to private companies by “incentivizing” people to quit their jobs.
“Last year with COVID, we were working and we were a capitalist society,” he explained during an interview with Fox Business. “When the government stepped in and started printing money and giving it out and telling people, you don’t need a reason to get up in the morning.”
“We are heading for hard times,” Unanue added. “We are dismantling this country. We’re getting soft. We have the government as our biggest competitor. Government needs to get out of the way and let us work.”
An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-welfare-is-encouraging-able-bodied-men-to-stay-voluntarily-out-of-work">analysis</a> from Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee said that a large share of the young men who receive welfare from the government are “voluntarily disconnected” from work.
“Only 12 percent of inactive, prime-age, able-bodied men said they wanted a job or were open to work,” the report explained. “Among men who are inactive for reasons other than disability, retirement, education, or homemaking, 41 percent personally receive government assistance.”

Trash

Worker Shortages Cause Garbage Buildup — And Not Just In Blue States

Two compounds found in cannabis prevented the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, from penetrating healthy cells in humans, according to a new report.
The two compounds in hemp &#8212; cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, or CBDA — &#8220;were identified during a chemical screening effort as having potential to combat coronavirus, researchers from Oregon State University said. In the study, they bound to spike proteins found on the virus and blocked a step the pathogen uses to infect people,&#8221; according to a laboratory study published in the Journal of Nature Products, Fortune <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/01/12/cannabis-compounds-stop-covid-virus-infecting-human-cells-lab-study/">reported</a>.
&#8220;The researchers tested the compounds’ effect against alpha and beta variants of the virus in a laboratory. The study didn’t involve giving the supplements to people or comparing infection rates in those who use the compounds to those who don’t,&#8221; the report read. Hemp is type of cannabis, but unlike marijuana, it has small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that gets you high. It is used in food and animal feed, while other extracts can be found in cosmetics and body lotions.
“These compounds can be taken orally and have a long history of safe use in humans,” said Richard van Breemen, a researcher with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center. “They have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2,” he said in a statement to Fortune.
The new lab study comes shortly after another found the risk of winding up in the intensive care unit or dying from the Omicron variant is 83% less compared to the Delta strain. In addition, the risk of hospitalization or death for an Omicron infection is 65% less than Delta, the Canadian <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.21268382v2.full.pdf">study</a> found.
Despite the seemingly good news, the researchers still had a warning. &#8220;While severity is likely to be reduced, the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the healthcare system may nevertheless be significant due to the increased transmissibility of Omicron.&#8221;
&#8220;Nevertheless, Omicron appears to demonstrate lower disease severity for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. While severity is likely to be reduced, the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the healthcare system is likely to be significant due to the large number of Omicron infections,&#8221; the study says.
The Canadian study mirrors findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The rate of hospitalizations of Americans with COVID-19 has dropped 50% amid the new Omicron variant compared to record highs seen a year ago, new CDC data shows.
Even though the rate of cases has has more than tripled in since Omicron emerged around Thanksgiving — earlier this week there were more than 1 million new cases diagnosed on a single day — just 3% of people with the virus are being admitted in hospitals, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html#more-info">data</a> from the CDC shows.
That rate is less than half the 6.5% of cases that needed hospitalization exactly a year ago, when the average daily case count was about 250,000, the data shows. Deaths from the virus are less than a third of what was recorded last January at about 1,200 per day, far fewer than the record high of 3,400 a year ago, CDC data shows.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com.

Hemp production

Cannabis Prevents COVID Infection In Lab Study

Marijuana

Natural defenses provided by the common cold may give some level of protection against COVID-19, according to new research.
“The small-scale study, published in Nature Communications, involved 52 individuals who lived with someone who had just caught COVID-19,” the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59911257">BBC</a> reported. Based on the research, those who had developed a so-called “memory bank” of certain immune cells following a common cold infection appeared to be less likely to contract COVID-19.
“But the experts caution that it would be a &#8216;grave mistake&#8217; to think that anyone who had recently had a cold was automatically protected against COVID-19 — as not all are caused by coronaviruses,” the BBC added.
The University of Reading’s Dr. Simon Clarke said that this small study could improve researchers’ understanding of immune system response, as well as adding to the development of future vaccines.
&#8220;These data should not be over-interpreted. It seems unlikely that everyone who has died or had a more serious infection, has never had a cold caused by a coronavirus,” Dr. Clarke said. &#8220;And it could be a grave mistake to think that anyone who has recently had a cold is protected against COVID-19, as coronaviruses only account for 10-15% of colds.&#8221;
This news follows multiple claims that the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant — Omicron — could also be a turning point when it comes to the ongoing pandemic.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/omicron-may-be-first-ray-of-light-against-covid-u-k-scientist">The Daily Wire</a> reported, amid a growing body of evidence that the new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 appears to be milder than the Delta strain, one scientist in the United Kingdom went so far as to call Omicron “a ray of light” in the two-year battle against the pandemic.
 “The thing that might happen in the future is you may see the emergence of a new variant that is less severe, and ultimately, in the long term, what happens is Covid becomes endemic and you have a less severe version. It’s very similar to the common cold that we’ve lived with for many years,” Dr. Mike Tildesley told Times Radio on Saturday, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/omicron-maybe-first-ray-of-light-against-covid-19-says-uk-scientist/articleshow/88793902.cms">according</a> to The Economic Times.
“We’re not quite there yet, but possibly Omicron is the first ray of light there that suggests that may happen in the longer term. It is, of course, much more transmissible than Delta was, which is concerning, but much less severe,” said Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modeling and a University of Warwick professor.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal recently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-makes-bidens-vaccine-mandates-obsolete-covid-healthcare-osha-evidence-supreme-court-11641760009">reported</a> that the morphing situation caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant makes vaccine mandates “obsolete.”
“Because some of Omicron’s 50 mutations are known to evade antibody protection, because more than 30 of those mutations are to the spike protein used as an immunogen by the existing vaccines, and because there have been mass Omicron outbreaks in heavily vaccinated populations, scientists are highly uncertain the existing vaccines can stop it from spreading,” the Journal stated. “As the CDC put it on Dec. 20, ‘we don’t yet know … how well available vaccines and medications work against it.”
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at<a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth"> @ighaworth</a>.

Common Cold

Common Cold May Give Some Protection Against COVID-19: New Study

For several weeks, much of the world has been obsessed with the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. What initially started as a trickle of media reports about a highly-mutated and rapidly-spreading “variant of concern” that originated in Africa quickly transformed into a global hysteria that once again closed borders, disrupted global stock markets, switched countless schools and universities to virtual learning, triggered broadening of vaccination and booster mandates, and persuaded some officials in the United States government to predict a “winter of death” and caution families not to gather over the sacred holiday period. Is this fear and isolation truly warranted?
This panic has been fueled solely by rising COVID case counts (some of which could be attributed to increased testing) coupled with the government’s and mainstream media’s addiction to fostering fear and hysteria. As both a physician and scientist, I believe it is essential that we take a measured, evidence-based approach to dealing with Omicron. And when we look at the totality of the emerging facts, there is a very real possibility that Omicron could lead us into light instead of darkness. Here’s why:
To understand why the Omicron variant could be a blessing in disguise — and possibly usher in the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by acting as Mother Nature’s vaccine — we must examine what makes this virus unique. The Omicron variant has over 26 mutations in its RNA sequence, which is a tremendous number of changes in the genetic sequence of the virus. Among these many mutations is an “insertion” where a new letter is inserted into the gene sequence. Interestingly, this sequence resembles that of another coronavirus, which causes the common cold. The Omicron variant may have picked up genetic sequences from a common cold coronavirus in someone who was infected with both viruses and, in doing so, become weakened. 
Because of the enormous number of mutations, the Omicron variant is in many ways a totally new virus. It appears that it has become more transmissible (doubling in just 1-2 days), in part due to its ability to evade immunity, while becoming a lot less deadly. While the case numbers have spiked, data from South Africa and the UK have suggested that the chance of becoming very sick or dying has plummeted by 80% or higher. 
Why is this so important? Because viruses compete with one another, and the Omicron variant is rapidly replacing the more dangerous Delta variant. Soon, it could become the only COVID virus around, causing no more than a bad cold in most people, particularly the vaccinated. And as it rapidly spreads throughout this holiday season as we all travel and congregate — even with vaccinations and masks — the Omicron variant is effectively giving every person it touches a type of immunity that no COVID vaccine has yet given us: a robust, possibly long-acting immunity against the entire virus, rather than just the spike protein. We know from many other vaccines that exposing the body to a weakened or attenuated version of a live virus can produce the most effective protection. Anyone who has been vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, rotavirus, chickenpox, smallpox, or yellow fever has actually been injected with a live, attenuated version of the very same virus that causes disease. 
So, if the Omicron variant acts like a live, attenuated COVID vaccine that rapidly spreads in the air, rather than through a needle, we might very well emerge from this holiday season finally facing an end to the deadly phase of pandemic. And if you add to this the widespread availability of vaccinations for those at risk and two newly FDA-approved oral treatments for COVID-19 that can reduce hospitalization by yet another 80%, there is indeed a very bright light at the end of this long and dark tunnel. Let’s look forward to 2022 with hope and view it as an opportunity to heal, rebuild, and move on. 
Happy New Year.
Houman David Hemmati, M.D., Ph.D. is a board-certified ophthalmologist and biomedical research scientist in Santa Monica, California. Dr. Hemmati earned a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, an MD from UCLA School of Medicine, and a PhD from Caltech, and completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Stanford Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a postdoctoral research fellowship in chemical engineering at MIT, and a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He has co-founded and helps run two pharmaceutical companies developing treatments for eye diseases like macular degeneration, and has published extensively in the areas of stem cell research and blinding eye diseases.

Readers-Pass—Hemmati—Omicron–Nature’s-COVID-Vaccine

The Omicron Variant: Mother Nature’s COVID-19 Vaccine?

The risk of winding up in the intensive care unit or dying from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is 83% less compared to the Delta strain, according to a new <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.21268382v2.full.pdf">study</a>.
In addition, the risk of hospitalization or death for an Omicron infection is 65% less than Delta, the Canadian study found.
Despite the seemingly good news, the researchers still had a warning. &#8220;While severity is likely to be reduced, the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the healthcare system may nevertheless be significant due to the increased transmissibility of Omicron.&#8221;
&#8220;Nevertheless, Omicron appears to demonstrate lower disease severity for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. While severity is likely to be reduced, the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the healthcare system is likely to be significant due to the large number of Omicron infections,&#8221; the study says.
The Canadian study mirrors findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The rate of hospitalizations of Americans with COVID-19 has dropped 50% amid the new Omicron variant compared to record highs seen a year ago, new CDC data shows.
Even though the rate of cases has has more than tripled in since Omicron emerged around Thanksgiving — earlier this week there were more than 1 million new cases diagnosed on a single day — just 3% of people with the virus are being admitted in hospitals, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html#more-info">data</a> from the CDC shows.
That rate is less than half the 6.5% of cases that needed hospitalization exactly a year ago, when the average daily case count was about 250,000, the data shows. Deaths from the virus are less than a third of what was recorded last January at about 1,200 per day, far fewer than the record high of 3,400 a year ago, CDC data shows.
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 now accounts for nearly every new case of the virus blanketing the U.S., according to the CDC.
The new strain represented 95.4% of sequenced COVID-19 cases during the week ending on New Year’s Day, while the once-dominant Delta variant made up just only 4.6% of sequenced cases, the CDC said.
Omicron took over in just a matter of weeks. At the beginning of December, the variant accounted for less than 1% of sequenced cases, with Delta making up 99% of them. By the week ending on Christmas Day, the CDC estimated the variant to be 58.6% of all new cases.
While data are still being studied for the fast-moving variant, some researchers say Omicron taking over could be good news.
Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban recently conducted a small study that found people infected with Omicron — and especially those who have been fully vaccinated — developed a higher immunity to Delta.
&#8220;The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, involved 15 vaccinated and unvaccinated Omicron patients in South Africa, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-28/world-hits-record-daily-covid-cases-as-omicron-mars-christmas" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to Bloomberg News, which noted that two were excluded because they didn’t detectably neutralize Omicron,&#8221; the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/12/28/south-africa-study-suggests-omicron-infection-could-boost-immunity/">reported</a>. &#8220;The authors, led by Alex Sigal and Khadija Khan, found that while the neutralization of Omicron increased 14-fold over 14 days after the enrollment, there also was a 4.4-fold increase in neutralization of the Delta variant.&#8221;
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com.

Risk Of ICU Admission Or Death From Omicron 83% Lower Than Delta: Study

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that he plans to “ride out” Omicron, and that he is not looking to roll out further restrictions on citizens, despite other European nations imposing strict lockdowns and other measures.
“The prime minister said there was a ‘good chance’ he would not impose fresh measures and would recommend continuing the government&#8217;s ‘Plan B’ strategy in England to ministers on Wednesday,” the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59870825">BBC</a> reported.
Johnson also announced a daily testing regime for 100,000 so-called critical workers.
“The testing regime from 10 January will be for key industries including food processing, transport and the border force, in order to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues,” the BBC explained.
However, Johnson acknowledged that parts of the National Health Service (NHS) would feel “temporarily overwhelmed” by a surge of Omicron cases, and that those who believe the pandemic to be over are “profoundly wrong.”
“The NHS is under huge pressure. I won’t provide a definition of what being overwhelmed would constitute because I think that different trusts and different places, at different moments, will feel at least temporally overwhelmed. And hospitals at the moment are sending out signals saying that they are feeling the pressure hugely. I understand that, and I thank them for the work that they are doing. It is absolutely fantastic,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/jan/04/uk-covid-coronavirus-live-news-omicron-may-have-plateaued-amongst-under-50s-in-london-top-scientist-says">Johnson</a> said. 
“I’ve just got to say to people, as I said yesterday, there will be a difficult period for our wonderful NHS for the next few weeks because of Omicron. I just think we have to get through it as best as we possibly can. We will give the NHS all the support that we can,” Johnson added.
Johnson also said the country had a chance to &#8220;ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again,” and that “We can keep our schools and our businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus.&#8221;
&#8220;It has to balance the effect on people&#8217;s lives and livelihoods of lockdowns, which are painful, which take away people&#8217;s life chances and which do a great deal of social damage, damage to people&#8217;s mental health as well as damage to the economy,&#8221; Johnson said of his government’s “Plan B” restrictions, which include working from home where possible, mask wearing and COVID passports for some venues.
&#8220;We&#8217;re mobilizing our volunteers — the emerging territorial army of the NHS — and we&#8217;re working to identify those NHS trusts which are most likely to need actual military support, so this can be prepared now,” Johnson <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/covid-boris-johnsons-balancing-act-between-nhs-medics-and-rebel-tory-mps-as-he-resists-new-restrictions-12509175">explained</a>. &#8220;As our NHS moves to a war footing, I will be recommending to cabinet tomorrow that we continue with Plan B, because the public have responded and changed their behavior, your behavior, buying valuable time to get boosters in arms and help the NHS to cope with the Omicron wave.&#8221;
Johnson also promoted booster shots as a way to “contain the virus.”
“The freedoms that we are able to maintain in the teeth of this Omicron wave have been made possible by the number of people getting boosted,” Johnson tweeted. “It&#8217;s the best way to contain this virus, help our NHS, and keep our country open – so please Get Boosted Now.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The freedoms that we are able to maintain in the teeth of this Omicron wave have been made possible by the number of people getting boosted.
It&#39;s the best way to contain this virus, help our NHS, and keep our country open – so please Get Boosted Now.<a href="https://t.co/VKGvuQ4lzq">https://t.co/VKGvuQ4lzq</a> <a href="https://t.co/IdB0l2wjqu">pic.twitter.com/IdB0l2wjqu</a>
&mdash; Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1478447270467190788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at<a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth"> @ighaworth</a>.

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