Biotech company Moderna reported early signs of success in developing a vaccine against the coronavirus on Monday, announcing that in a small trial the vaccine appeared to inoculate recipients against the virus.
Moderna  is using a relatively new technique to construct a vaccine using the virus’s genetic code. The technique is faster than others, but has not yet resulted in any approved vaccine.
Moderna’s team conducted Phase 1 tests on eight people, giving each doses of the vaccine and testing whether the vaccine caused the recipients to develop a natural immunity to the coronavirus. The researchers said that all participants tested positive for antibodies against the coronavirus 15 days after their first dose.
“These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection starting with a dose as low as 25 µg,” Moderna chief medical officer Dr. Tal Zaks, said in a <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-positive-interim-phase-1-data-its-mrna-vaccine">statement</a>. “When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”
Moderna’s Monday announcement sent the company’s stock price leaping 25% and, partnered with an announcement from the Federal Reserve that it would continue lending to banks, drove the stock market to its highest point in six weeks, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/coronavirus-vaccine-moderna.html">The New York Times</a>.
Hundreds of vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus are going through similar tests across the world, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-coronavirus-drug-vaccine-status/?sref=vuYGislZ">Bloomberg</a>. Remdesivir, a drug treatment being developed by Gilead Sciences, was fast-tracked by the Food and Drug Administration after initial testing showed signs of success at helping coronavirus patients recover faster.
Hydroxychloroquine is a drug touted by President Trump, who said on Sunday he has been taking doses of the drug for over week. Developed decades ago to combat malaria, hydroxychloroquine is not being tested in over 100 clinical trials after a French researcher reported that it had helped several patients recover from the virus.
The Chinese state-owned company China National Biotec Group began conducting vaccine trials on people in April and is attempting to position itself as the eventual savior of the world by being the first to create a viable vaccine. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-working-to-steal-u-s-research-on-virus-vaccine-report-says">Reports</a> say that Chinese agents are attempting to steal U.S. research into a vaccine.
United States and British intelligence agencies issued a warning on May 5 that that they are “currently investigating a number of incidents in which threat actors are targeting pharmaceutical companies, medical research organizations, and universities.”
“[Advanced persistent threat (APT)] groups frequently target such organizations in order to steal sensitive research data and intellectual property for commercial and state benefit. Organizations involved in COVID-19-related research are attractive targets for APT actors looking to obtain information for their domestic research efforts into COVID-19-related medicine,” the warning said.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Moderna

Moderna Vaccine Shows Success In Early Clinical Trials

Coronavirus

Vaccines

According to the latest <a href="https://morningconsult.com/form/coronavirus-outbreak-tracker/#section-99">Morning Consult</a> weekly coronavirus survey tracker, a full 14% of American adults stated that they would not get vaccinated against COVID-19 if a vaccine is created and made available.
64% of those surveyed said they would get the vaccine, while 22% “don’t know” or have “no opinion.”
Broken down by ideology and political party, the results display an interesting divide. Republican-identifying respondents are less likely to get vaccinated than Democrat-identifying respondents at 61% to 71%, respectively.
The percentage of independent-identifying respondents who would be vaccinated are even lower, at 58%.
20% of Republicans say they would not get a vaccine, while 7% of Democrats and 16% of independents say the same.
Those 65+ are the most likely age group to get the vaccine at 80%, while those 35-44 are least likely at 53%.
The survey also gauged concern over the “economic impact of the outbreak.” Here as well, a political divide is even more stark.
While 51% of Republicans said they are “more concerned about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak than the public health impact,” only 18% of Democrats said the same. Independents sat right in the middle at 34%.
Republican concern regarding the economy has grown, according to the survey, while Democratic concern has remained flat. On March 26, just 39% of Republicans surveyed were “more concerned about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak than the public health impact,” while 19% of Democrats felt the same.
Independents have remained similarly flat, moving from 31% “concerned” to 34% “concerned” over the last month and change.
COVID-19 has infected more than 3.8 million worldwide, and led to the deaths of approximately 269,000 people, <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">according to data</a> from the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) Global Cases map. More than 1.2 million people have recovered.
In the United States, there have been over 1.2 million confirmed cases, and over 75,500 deaths as of publication. Approximately 195,000 have recovered from the illness in the U.S.
During a recent virtual town hall on Fox News, President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-we-think-were-going-to-have-a-vaccine-by-the-end-of-this-year">said</a> that he believes a vaccine will be ready “by the end of this year.”
“We think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of this year, and we’re pushing very hard. You know, we’re building supply lines now – we don’t even have the final vaccine,” the president stated. “You look at, Johnson &amp; Johnson is doing it. We have many companies are, I think, close because I meet with the heads of them and I find it a very interesting subject because it’s so important, but I think we’ll have a vaccine by the end of the year.”
The president was likely referring to the administration’s alleged “Operation Warp Speed,” which would reportedly fast-track multiple vaccine candidates.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-we-think-were-going-to-have-a-vaccine-by-the-end-of-this-year">Trump: ‘We Think We’re Going To Have A Vaccine By The End Of This Year’</a>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Doctor&#8217;s hand holding a syringe of covid-19 vaccine and vaccine vial

POLL: Only 64% Of Americans Say They Would Get COVID-19 Vaccine, 14% Would Decline

COVID-19

Israel&#8217;s Ministry of Defense released new details on a &#8220;groundbreaking&#8221; discovery that Israeli scientists have made in finding an antidote to the coronavirus that came from China.
&#8220;In the past two days, the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), has completed a groundbreaking scientific development, determining an antibody that neutralizes the corona virus (SARS-COV-2),&#8221; Israel&#8217;s Ministry of Defense said in a statement. &#8220;Based on comprehensive scientific publications from around the globe, it appears that the IIBR is the first institution to achieve a scientific breakthrough that meets all three of the aforementioned parameters simultaneously.&#8221;
The statement listed the following &#8220;3 key parameters&#8221; on the scientific discovery:
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>The antibody is monoclonal, new and refined, and contains an exceptionally low proportion of harmful proteins</li>
<li>The antibody is able to neutralize the corona virus</li>
<li>The antibody was specifically tested on the aggressive corona virus</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
The announcement was originally made yesterday after Defense Minister Naftali Bennett visited the IIBR labs where he was reportedly shown an “antibody which attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill,” according to a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-minister-claims-israels-biological-institute-developed-virus-vaccine/">statement</a> from his office.
“I am proud of the Biological Institute staff, who have made a major breakthrough,” Bennett <a href="https://www.jpost.com/health-science/iibr-completes-development-phase-of-covid-19-vaccine-626913">said</a>. “The Jewish creativity and ingenuity brought about this amazing achievement.”
Officials <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-confirms-breakthrough-with-virus-antibody-but-says-months-till-cure/">cautioned</a> that Israel&#8217;s discovery would go toward developing therapeutics but not a vaccine and that they were still a few months away from having a medication ready for people to take.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-antibody-testing.html">reported</a> on Tuesday that Israel &#8220;is readying a nationwide serological test of 100,000 citizens to see how widely the virus has spread across its population and how vulnerable it may be to a new wave of the contagion.&#8221;
&#8220;The survey, to be conducted at clinics run by Israeli H.M.O.s beginning in a week or two, is one of the largest efforts yet to determine the prevalence of antibodies to Covid-19,&#8221; the Times added. &#8220;The results could aid in deciding how quickly businesses and schools should be allowed to return to normal operations.&#8221;
Recent numbers published by a Johns Hopkins University &amp; Medicine coronavirus tracker showed that Israel had over 16,000 confirmed cases and 238 deaths.
The Netherlands have also reportedly made scientific progress in the fight against the coronavirus.
The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/05/israel-netherlands-studies-claim-progress-in-covid-19-antibody-trials">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The research, published in the Nature Communications journal on Monday, looked at antibodies developed to combat the 2002-04 Sars outbreak, also caused by a coronavirus. It said it identified one antibody that was also effective against the current virus, officially called Sars-CoV-2.
Scientists at Utrecht University, Erasmus Medical Center and the global biopharmaceutical company, Harbour BioMed (HBM), described it as “an initial step towards developing a fully human antibody to treat or prevent” Covid-19.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

ISRAEL-HEALTH-VIRUS-SCIENCE

Israel Releases Info On ‘3 Key Parameters’ Their ‘Groundbreaking’ Coronavirus Antidote Has

Israel

On Sunday, President Trump participated in a Fox News virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial. The event was hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and featured questions from Americans across the country.
39-year-old Danny Lemos, who survived a harrowing battle with COVID-19 and <a href="https://www.ketv.com/article/i-was-scared-for-my-life-covid-19-survivor-describes-waking-from-medically-induced-coma/32309833#">credits</a> the drug remdesivir with his recovery, asked President Trump the following: “With the FDA approving remdesivir as a drug of choice to help fight this, which is the drug I was on, what are we gonna do and put in place to make sure that there&#8217;s enough of this drug available for everybody?”
Trump replied:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s a great question because it&#8217;s a very hard drug to make, and it takes a period of time, and is made by Gilead, and I know that &#8230; Danny, I believe, gave a lot of credit to that drug for saving his life. We are pushing it really hard. We&#8217;re also pushing something else, the vaccines. We are very confident that we&#8217;re going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year, have a vaccine.</blockquote>
After Baier pressed him on the vaccine claim, the president repeated himself:
<blockquote>We think we&#8217;re going to have a vaccine by the end of this year, and we&#8217;re pushing very hard. You know, we&#8217;re building supply lines now – we don&#8217;t even have the final vaccine &#8230; if you look at, Johnson &amp; Johnson is doing it. We have many companies are, I think, close because I meet with the heads of them and I find it a very interesting subject because it&#8217;s so important, but I think we’ll have a vaccine by the end of the year.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: President Trump: &#8220;We think we&#8217;re going to have a Vaccine by the end of this year.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Pw1QSnzrwY">pic.twitter.com/Pw1QSnzrwY</a>
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1257091628923269120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
President Trump is likely referring to the administration’s alleged “Operation Warp Speed,” which would fast-track multiple vaccine candidates.
According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-29/trump-s-operation-warp-speed-aims-to-rush-coronavirus-vaccine">Bloomberg</a>, the operation “will use government resources to quickly test the world’s most promising experimental vaccines in animals, then launch coordinated human clinical trials to winnow down the candidates. The best prospective vaccines would go into wider trials at the same time mass production ramps up.”
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-on-remdesivir-trial-clearly-positive-but-modest-a-first-step-to-better-drugs">spoke about</a> the “Warp Speed” vaccine process with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.
“The question is, you always have to say you want to get a vaccine that is safe, and that&#8217;s effective, and that you could scale up rapidly,” Fauci stated.
<blockquote>So what the plan is right now &#8230; we’re in the early phases of a trial, Phase 1. When you go into the next phase, we&#8217;re going to safely and carefully, but as quickly as we possibly can, try and get an answer as to whether it works and is safe, and if so, we&#8217;re going to start ramping up production with the companies involved, and you do that at risk.</blockquote>
“In other words, you don’t wait until you get an answer before you start manufacturing. You, at risk, proactively start making it assuming it’s going to work, and if it does, then you could scale up and hopefully get to that timeline,” Fauci added.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

President Trump

Trump: ‘We Think We’re Going To Have A Vaccine By The End Of This Year’

Donald Trump

A major Indian company said on Sunday that in anticipation of the clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University, they are going to start producing the vaccine in two to three weeks so if the vaccine is successful, they will have millions of doses ready by October.
Serum Institute India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla said, “Our team has been working closely with Dr. Hill from Oxford University, and we are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in 2-3 weeks and produce 5 million doses per month for the first six months, following which we hope to scale up production to 10 million doses per month, according to the <a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/science/science/260420/indian-firm-to-test-covid-vaccine-in-3-weeks-if-successful-drug-won.html?utm_source=vuukle&amp;utm_medium=talk_of_town">Deccan Chronicle</a>.
Poonwalla continued, &#8220;We expect the (COVID-19) vaccine to be out in the market by September-October, only if the trials are successful with the requisite safety and assured efficacy. We will be starting trials in India for this vaccine hopefully over the next 2-3 weeks&#8217; time … Following that, we have undertaken the decision to initiate manufacturing at our own risk. The decision has been solely taken to have a jump-start on manufacturing, to have enough doses available, if the clinical trials prove successful … Keeping the current situation in mind, we have funded this endeavor at a personal capacity and hopefully will be able to enlist the support of other partners to further scale-up vaccine production.”
Serum Institute India has stated they will not patent the vaccine; Poonwalla explained, &#8220;We will not patent Serum&#8217;s vaccine for COVID-19 and will make it available for all to produce and sell, not just in India but across the world … I hope that whichever company develops the vaccine does not get it patented and makes it available based on royalties or a commercial understanding to as many manufacturers across the world to make billions of dosages at a fast pace.”
In mid April, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oxford-professor-leading-britains-search-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-says-one-might-be-ready-by-autumn">The Daily Wire</a> reported that Oxford University professor Sarah Gilbert had informed The <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-vaccine-could-be-ready-by-september-flmwl257x">Sunday Times</a> of London that human trials for a possible vaccine were scheduled to begin before the end of April and she was &#8220;80% confident&#8221; that her team could find a successful one by autumn. She stated, &#8220;I think there&#8217;s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine. It&#8217;s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 percent, that&#8217;s my personal view.&#8221;
The British government indicated &#8220;that it would be willing to fund the manufacture of millions of doses in advance if results looked promising. This would allow it to be available immediately to the public if it were proven to work,&#8221; according to the Times. Gilbert pointed out, &#8220;We don&#8217;t want to get to later this year and discover we have a highly effective vaccine and we haven&#8217;t got any vaccine to use. We don&#8217;t think we need facilities built, there are facilities that can be switched over.&#8221;
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

Serum Institute Of India Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla Interview

Indian Company Will Start Producing Virus Vaccine In 2-3 Weeks So If Trials Work, They’ll Be Ready By Fall

India

Attorney General William Barr told Fox News&#8217; Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night that he was &#8220;very concerned&#8221; about billionaire Bill Gates&#8217; apparent desire to have &#8220;digital certificates&#8221; to show if people have been vaccinated against viruses.
&#8220;Bill Gates, the Gates Foundation are in favor of developing digital certificates that would certify that individuals, American citizens, have an immunity to this virus and potentially other viruses going forward to then facilitate travel and work and so forth,&#8221; Ingraham said. &#8220;What are your thoughts from a civil libertarian point of view about these types of – what some would say tracking mechanisms that would be adopted going forward to reopen our broader economy?&#8221;
&#8220;Yeah, I’m very concerned about the slippery slope in terms of continuing encroachments on personal liberty,&#8221; Barr responded. &#8220;I do think during the emergency, appropriate, reasonable steps are fine.&#8221;
&#8220;But a digital certificate to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has – of people who’ve received it,&#8221; Ingraham continued. &#8220;That’s his answer in a Reddit ask me anything. They had a little forum.&#8221;
Barr answered, &#8220;Yeah, I’d be a little concerned about that, the tracking of people and so forth, generally, especially going forward over a long period of time.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bill Gates apparently favors digital certificates to show an American citizen has immunity to a virus. 
Doesn&#39;t that raise civil liberty concerns? 
AG Bill Barr says: &quot;I’m very concerned about the slippery slope in terms of continuing encroachments on personal liberty.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/8IK1OxfDcu">pic.twitter.com/8IK1OxfDcu</a>
&mdash; (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1248095946585473024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>LAURA: Bill Gates, the Gates Foundation are in favor of developing digital certificates that would certify that individuals, American citizens, have an immunity to this virus and potentially other viruses going forward to then facilitate travel and work and so forth. What are your thoughts from a civil libertarian point of view about these types of – what some would say tracking mechanisms that would be adopted going forward to reopen our broader economy?
BARR: Yeah, I’m very concerned about the slippery slope in terms of continuing encroachments on personal liberty. I do think during the emergency, appropriate, reasonable steps are fine.
LAURA: But a digital certificate to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has – of people who’ve received it. That’s his answer in a Reddit ask me anything. They had a little forum.
BARR: Yeah, I’d be a little concerned about that, the tracking of people and so forth, generally, especially going forward over a long period of time.
LAURA: Are you surprised at how wildly partisan a response to this pandemic has become in the United States? I know everything’s political, but this is about saving lives and saving the broader life of America, and yet from a drug like hydroxychloroquine that’s been around for 65 years, 70 years, to other measures the president’s taken, working with Democrat governors quite well, looks like, it never seems to be good enough.
BARR: No, I have been surprised at it. In fact, it was very disappointing because I think the president went out at the beginning of this thing and really was statesman like, trying to bring people together, working with all the governors, keeping his patience as he got these snarky, gotcha questions from the White House media pool. And it – the stridency of the partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher, and it’s really disappointing to see. And the politicization of decisions like hydroxychloroquine has been amazing to me. Before the president said anything about it, there was fair and balanced coverage of this very promising drug, and the fact that it had such a long track record, that the risks were pretty well known, and as soon as he said something positive about it, the media’s been on a jahad to discredit the drug, it’s quite strange.
LAURA: There&#8217;s a lot of concern now, given the &#8212; again, the length of this time, the concern when you hear Dr. Fauci say, well we probably can&#8217;t go back to normal life until a vaccine, would be like 12 months, 18 months, that if things don&#8217;t open up pretty soon, over some gradual reopening with new protocols and all that, there&#8217;s a concern about social unrest. You&#8217;re seeing a lot of stores boarded up in San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and you&#8217;re seeing more of that, small businesses affected, especially by theft and &#8212; and other criminal activity. How concerned are you about the social unrest and criminal activity in an ongoing shutdown?
BARR: I mean, I think if we extend a full shutdown, that&#8217;s a real &#8212; that&#8217;s a real threat in some of our communities. But, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s limited to that. I think the president&#8217;s absolutely right, we cannot keep, for a long period of time, our economy shut down. Just on the public health thing, you know, it means less cancer &#8212; cancer researchers are at home. A lot of the disease researchers, who will save lives in the future, that&#8217;s being held in abeyance. The money that goes into these institutions, whether philanthropic sources or government sources, is going to be reduced. We will have a weaker healthcare system if we go into a deep depression. So, just measured in lives, the cure cannot be worse than the disease. But when you think of everything else, generations of families who have built up businesses, for generations in this country &#8212; and recent immigrants who have &#8212; who have built businesses, snuffed out. Small business that may not be able to come back if this goes on too long. So, we have to find, after the 30 day period, we have to find a way of allowing businesses to adapt to this situation and figure out how they can best get started. That&#8217;s not necessarily instantaneously going back to the way life was &#8212;
LAURA: Well, people are going to be afraid to go out for a long period of time.
BARR: A period of time.
LAURA: And they&#8217;re going to be afraid to restaurants, not &#8212; maybe won&#8217;t go to the re-up at their health club &#8212;
BARR: Right. Right.
LAURA: &#8212; but people have to have confidence that it&#8217;s decently safe out there to move around.
BARR: Right. And that&#8217;s why they have to be given accurate information. But also we have to make PPE more broadly available. Restaurants have to change their protocols, perhaps, or other businesses &#8212;
LAURA: A lot of them can&#8217;t stay in business if they can&#8217;t pack it in. You know D.C., and they&#8217;ve got to pack &#8212; that&#8217;s the only way they make money paying these jacked up rents.
BARR: That&#8217;s &#8212; right, that&#8217;s a danger. That&#8217;s a danger. So, I think we have to allow people to figure out ways of getting back to work and keep their workers and customers safe. I&#8217;m not suggesting we stop social distancing overnight. There may come a time where we have to worry less about that. So, you know, I don&#8217;t know when that will be.
LAURA: One question I didn&#8217;t ask before &#8212; federalism, states rights, the president has been very clear on that during this health crisis. Are you surprised that certain states, New Jersey, in particular, had come in to say that gun stores are nonessential, gun shops are nonessential, but abortion facilities are essential, given &#8212; given what we&#8217;re facing?
BARR: Well, I&#8217;m not surprised. I mean, that&#8217;s where our politics are these days. But, obviously, the federal government agreed that gun stores are essential.
LAURA: And abortion facilities in Texas deemed nonessential by the governor, lieutenant governor very strong on that, that saw a lot of legal challenges. Do you foresee &#8212;
BARR: I think it was just upheld.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Will you &#8212; do you foresee that continuing those types of challenges going forward, against what is essential in a crisis?
BARR: Well, I mean, again, after this &#8212; this period where we&#8217;re &#8212; we have very strong restrictions in place, hopefully there won&#8217;t be a need for those kinds of distinctions to be made.
LAURA: Oh, you think the people are going to have the benevolent approaches? I mean that &#8212; the left is clearly trying to use this to reshape American society. This is &#8212; never let a crisis go to waste. Now we&#8217;re going to do climate change policy and a massive wealth redistribution for the disparities in healthcare. That&#8217;s what all the Democrat politicians are now talking about going forward.
BARR: Yes, I&#8217;m concerned about that.
INGRAHAM: How has this changed your daily life? I mean, it&#8217;s changed everybody&#8217;s lives. We&#8217;ve never lived through anything like this. Just personally reflect on it.
BARR: I still come in most days, and we sit at the conference very spread out when we&#8217;ve &#8211; when we need a meeting. We do more by telephone and by a group teleconference and video conference than we have before. And &#8212;
INGRAHAM: Do you take your temperature when you come in? Do you &#8212;
BARR: I take my temperature. I was &#8212; I&#8217;m tested occasionally at the White House when I&#8217;m going in to see the president. And, you know, we&#8217;re starting to wear more &#8212; as PPE becomes available beyond the healthcare industry, we&#8217;re wearing more PPE.
INGRAHAM: Will you wear a mask going out in public if you just had to go to the grocery today? I know you don&#8217;t go to the grocery store, but if you had to go to the grocery store, Mr. Attorney General &#8212;
BARR: Yes, I actually wear a mask &#8212;
INGRAHAM: &#8212; would you?
BARR: &#8212; I wear a mask and my security detail wear masks when we go in every morning and when we go home, and frequently I&#8217;ll wear it here in the office. I didn&#8217;t think you&#8217;d let me wear it on this show (laughter).
LAURA: Yes, would you &#8212; is there a little &#8212;
BARR: Although maybe it would be better.
LAURA: &#8212; is there a little design or anything? Or is it just classic &#8212;
BARR: Yes, you have to put a little smiley face on it. (laughter)
LAURA: Yes, you don&#8217;t have anything good. OK. All right, Mr. Attorney General, thank you so much for joining.
BARR: Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.
LAURA: We appreciate it.</blockquote>

Attorney General William Barr discussing the counting of

AG Barr On Bill Gates Wanting ‘Digital’ Vaccine ‘Certificates’: I’m ‘Very Concerned About’ Slippery Slope

Bill Gates

William Barr

On Thursday, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where Dr. Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine for polio, announced they have created a potential vaccine for the coronavirus.
Researchers gave the vaccine to mice through a patch in the skin, and say not only that the vaccine proved effective, but that producing similar patches with a vaccine for humans is scalable and can be produced in large quantities, according to <a href="https://kdkaradio.radio.com/articles/potential-coronavirus-vaccine-developed-at-upmc">KDKA radio</a>, which notes, “It is the first study to be published after it was critiqued by other scientists ‘at outside institutions that describes a candidate vaccine for COVID-19.’”
Co-senior author Andrea Gambotto, M.D, who is an associate professor of surgery at the Pitt School of Medicine, stated, “We had previous experience on SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014. These two viruses, which are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, teach us that a particular protein, called a spike protein, is important for inducing immunity against the virus. We knew exactly where to fight this new virus. That’s why it’s important to fund vaccine research. You never know where the next pandemic will come from.”
Co-senior author Louis Falo, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of dermatology at Pitt’s School of Medicine and UPMC, echoed, “Our ability to rapidly develop this vaccine was a result of scientists with expertise in diverse areas of research working together with a common goal.”
In the paper describing their work, the authors, who are waiting for approval from the FDA to quickly start human trials, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/home">write</a>:
<blockquote>Genomic analyses indicated that SARS-CoV-2 shares genomic similarities with SARS-CoV within the receptor-binding motif that directly contacts the human receptor ACE2. This has important implications for vaccine design and for predicting pandemic potential. Human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has now been established, and the situation with SARS-CoV-2 is evolving rapidly with the numbers of verified cases growing into the thousands.
Another recently emerged coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first isolated in 2012 in Saudi Arabia … For both these coronaviruses, the spike (S) protein is crucial for viral transmission and infection, and determines the tropism of the virus and host cell entry. SARS-CoV-2 binds the ACE2 receptor as MERS-S binds to the cellular receptor dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) via the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the N-terminal surface subunit (S1), and then employs its C-terminal transmembrane subunit (S2) to fuse with the host cell membrane. [
Due to this vital functional property and established antigenicity, the S protein is an important target for vaccine development. Our previous studies have shown that adenoviral vaccine candidates expressing SARS-CoV-S1 and MERS-S1 subunits induced more efficacious antibody-mediated neutralizing activity than full-length S1, suggesting the subunit immunogen as an ideal vaccine candidate.
… The skin is an ideal target for immunization. It contains a rich population of antigen presenting and immune accessory cells capable of inducing a proinflammatory microenvironment favoring the induction of potent and durable adaptive immunity.
… Although the stability of each vaccine candidate in MNAs needs to be validated at different temperatures for varying storage periods, the available literature indicates that MNA-embedded vaccines have the potential to remain stable for an extended period of time without expensive “cold chain” requirements. Further, previous animal and clinical studies suggest that MNAs could provide a safe and well-tolerated delivery platform for efficacious immunization strategies.
… Driven by the promising immunogenicity of MNA-MERS-S1 vaccines and the urgent need to respond to the recent coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), we rapidly (within 4 weeks of the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 S1 sequence) designed and produced MNA SARS-CoV-2 S1 vaccines and tested their immunogenicity in mice. We describe the rapid development of MNA embedded SARS-CoV-2-S1 subunit vaccines using clinically-applicable MNA production methods by relying on our experience with clinical trials utilizing MNA delivery. Taken together, our results support the development of MNA delivered recombinant coronavirus vaccines for clinical applications.
… Taken together, our studies demonstrate the speed at which vaccines against emerging infections can be designed and produced using the recent advances in recombinant DNA technology. Combining emerging biotechnology methods with bioengineering advances in vaccine delivery strategies, it may now be possible to rapidly produce clinically-translatable vaccines against novel pathogens for human testing and subsequent global distribution in time to significantly impact the spread of disease.</blockquote>
The University of Pittsburgh <a href="https://www.225.pitt.edu/story/ending-polio%27s-reign-terror">writes</a> of Salk:
<blockquote>In 1947, the University of Pittsburgh recruited Jonas Salk—an expert in influenza whose flu vaccine is still in use today—to develop a virus program at Pitt. For more than seven years, his team worked tirelessly to develop an effective killed-virus vaccine &#8230; The efforts of Pitt&#8217;s polio research team culminated in the largest national controlled field trial in history. At the trial’s successful conclusion, the federal government approved the vaccine for the public on April 12, 1955, an action that Newsweek called “a summit moment in history.”</blockquote>
&nbsp;

Cathedral of Learning through the branches

University Where Polio Vaccine Was Created Says They Have Potential Vaccine For Coronavirus

University of Pittsburgh

Several researchers from across the globe are hoping to dramatically downgrade novel coronavirus (COVID-19) fatalities with the use of a decades-old vaccine for tuberculosis, the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine (BCG).
&#8220;Researchers in a handful of countries are testing a century-old tuberculosis vaccine to see if it can give a boost to the immune system to help it fight off the novel coronavirus now causing the COVID-19 pandemic,&#8221; a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2020/03/31/a-vaccine-from-the-1920s-could-help-fight-the-coronavirus-pandemic/#62df8ad61220">Forbes</a> report outlined Tuesday.
The vaccine would potentially boost protection of the respiratory tract with regard to viral infections, seemingly lending itself a defense against severe COVID-19 symptoms.
As noted by Forbes, &#8220;Italy and the United States, two of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, do not have universal BCG vaccination policies.&#8221;
Clinical trials for BCG are expected to soon take place in Europe and Australia, with a particular focus on health care workers, who are at higher risk to catch the infection than the general population.
“This trial will allow the vaccine’s effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers,” said a <a href="https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/healthcare-workers-to-trial-tuberculosis-vaccine-f">statement</a> from MCRI Director Professor Kathryn North, referencing a planned trial in Melbourne.
Though the increasingly controversial World Health Organization (WHO) has previously given a &#8220;low confidence rating&#8221; for the potential boosting agents of BCG, Gonzalo H. Otazu of New York Institute of Technology’s Department of Biomedical Sciences had a more optimistic take.
“There has been a long history of reports of BCG producing a series of beneficial immune responses,” Otazu explained to Forbes. “For instance, a study in Guinea-Bissau found that children vaccinated with BCG were observed to have a 50 percent reduction in overall mortality, which was attributed to the vaccine’s effect on reducing respiratory infections and sepsis.”
“We found that there was a reduction in the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 per million inhabitants in countries that have universal BCG vaccination (usually at birth) compared to the countries that never established such policy,” Otazu added. “The earlier the establishment of such policy, the stronger the reduction in mortality, consistent with a protection to the elderly population which is more severely affected by COVID-19.”
&#8220;Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology developed the vaccine candidate VPM1002 based off of BCG earlier this century,&#8221; Forbes noted, &#8220;which will be used for the trial starting soon in Germany. VPM1002 has been shown to protect the respiratory tracts of mice from viral infections.&#8221;
Adar C. Poonawalla, CEO and Executive Director of Serum Institute of India, said in a statement that VPM1002 &#8220;can be manufactured using state-of-the-art manufacturing methods which would make millions of doses available in a very short time.&#8221;
In other optimistic news, the French government earlier this week officially sanctioned chloroquine, a drug often used to fight malaria, for certain patients infected with the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
France made the move after infectious diseases specialist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/french-peer-reviewed-study-our-treatment-cured-100-of-coronavirus-patients">Didier Raoult</a> announced new clinical results, which can be accessed <a href="https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-IHU-2-1.pdf">here</a>, that show 78 out of 80 patients treated with chloroquine recovered within five days, reported <a href="https://www.trustnodes.com/2020/03/28/debate-ends-over-chloroquine-as-france-officially-sanctions-usage">Trustnodes</a>.
On Sunday night, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-fda-issues-emergency-use-authorization-of-trump-touted-drug-to-treat-coronavirus">issued</a> an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/france-officially-sanctions-drug-after-78-of-80-patients-recover-from-covid-19-within-five-days">France Officially Sanctions Drug After 78 Of 80 Patients Recover From COVID-19 Within Five Days</a>

Vaccine From 1920s Being Tested To Fight Coronavirus

One surefire way to ensure your cause doesn’t look serious is to throw bodily waste around during a protest. One woman who allegedly threw menstrual blood at lawmakers during a protest is finding out the hard way what is and isn’t an acceptable form of protest.
“Rebecca Dalelio, 43, has been charged with one felony count of assault on a public official and one felony count of vandalism. If convicted, she could face up to three years in county jail,” The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-10/charges-filed-against-vaccine-protester-accused-of-throwing-blood-onto-california-state-senators">reported</a>.
In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a bill that all but eliminated exemptions to the state’s laws regarding mandatory vaccinations for children. The Daily Wire at the time <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-passes-stringent-new-vaccine-emily-zanotti">reported</a> that some “California residents, however, who say that the bill represents a shocking governmental overreach that threatens their personal autonomy, are pushing to have the law included on the November ballot.”
The bills that Newsom signed last year (there was a package) where designed to keep doctors from giving parents fraudulent medical excuses for children’s vaccinations. California’s childhood vaccination rate has been falling in recent years, which has led to multiple outbreaks of completely preventable diseases, such as the measles. The drop in the vaccination rate is occurring largely within the white, upper-middle-class areas of the state.
“This legislation provides new tools to better protect public health, and does so in a way that ensures parents, doctors, public health officials and school administrators all know the rules of the road moving forward,” Newsom said in a statement released when he signed the bills.
When lawmakers were heading to the State Capital after Newsome signed the bills, protesters showed up outside. One protester allegedly threw menstrual blood on legislators on their way into the statehouse. That person was identified as Dalelio, who is now accused of throwing a full menstrual cup onto the lawmakers.
“The complaint lists 10 senators whom Dalelio is accused of assaulting. The count of vandalism refers to a separate offense that involves graffiti, though additional details were not immediately available, according to Sacramento County district attorney’s office spokeswoman Shelly Orio. At the time of the incident, California Highway Patrol officers said a bathroom near the Senate chamber was found to have writing on the wall,” the Times reported. “The fluid hit multiple people and splashed onto desks and the carpet, forcing the chamber to be cleared. As the contents of the cup were thrown, a voice in the crowd was heard saying the action was ‘for the dead babies.’”
The Times reported that some “lawmakers left to shower and at least one legislator was treated for blood exposure the next day. Senators moved to a nearby hearing room hours later, and worked until 3 a.m.”
Dalelio was initially booked just after the incident on six charges of assault, vandalism, and disorderly conduct, but she was released the next day. The California Highway Patrol then conducted an investigation of the incident, resulting in the new charges against Dalelio late last week.

Rebecca Dalelio

Anti-Vaxxer Who Allegedly Threw Menstrual Blood At Lawmakers During Protest Has Been Charged

California

Three women were interviewed during a recent Fox News segment regarding the potential exposure to measles at five major U.S. airports. One of the women said she was “pro-vaccination,” and another said she was troubled by the news regarding the highly contagious disease.
The third woman made quite a different statement:
<blockquote>Measles is not a big deal to me at all. When I was a child I had the measles. It’s an insignificant disease, and I think it’s stupid that people are making such a big deal out of it.</blockquote>
<iframe style="width: 720px; height: 385px; border: 0px;" src="https://embed.air.tv/v1/iframe/4n-c5t9vSbS_S5FAXEFpWQ?organization=USHo_KSKQauEPLjqYOGOMA" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The woman for whom measles is “not a big deal” isn’t alone.
The modern anti-vaccine movement was, in part, sparked by a 1998 Lancet paper by former doctor Andrew Wakefield and a dozen colleagues in which it was proposed that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine might lead to autism in children.
According to a 2011 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/#!po=62.5000">article</a> by T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao and Chittaranjan Andrade, following the publication of the Lancet article, it came to light that Wakefield had not only received funding from “lawyers who had been engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies,” but that the purported study on which his paper was based was significantly flawed.
Wakefield was later found to be “guilty of deliberate fraud,” having cherry-picked data and “falsified facts,” reports Rao and Andrade. According to journalist Brian Deer, the Lancet <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347">retracted</a> the controversial paper in 2010, and Wakefield, as well as colleague John Walker-Smith, were “struck off the medical register” in the U.K.
Moreover, the study has since been debunked multiple times over. Despite this, several high-profile celebrities, like pop-culture guru Jenny McCarthy, have pushed anti-vaccine talking points for years, helping to keep the small but vocal anti-vaccination community alive.
Here are the facts.
According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">CDC</a>, there have been 1,276 cases of measles in the United States in 2019. This is the highest number of cases in a single year since the disease was “declared eradicated” in 2000.
The CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">notes</a> that in 2018, there were 17 measles outbreaks in the United States, and “three outbreaks in New York State, New York City, and New Jersey, respectively, contributed to most of the cases.”
<blockquote>Cases in those states occurred primarily among unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities. These outbreaks were associated with travelers who brought measles back from Israel, where a large outbreak is occurring. Eighty-two people brought measles to the U.S. from other countries in 2018. This is the greatest number of imported cases since measles was eliminated from the U.S. in 2000.</blockquote>
“Over the last 18 years, measles vaccination alone is estimated to have saved more than 23 million lives,” <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/05-12-2019-more-than-140-000-die-from-measles-as-cases-surge-worldwide">reports</a> the World Health Organization (WHO). Even with the proliferation of the vaccine, in 2018, approximately 140,000 people across the world died from measles.
Prior to the development of the measles vaccine in 1963, the annual <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf">death rate</a> from the disease in the United States was between 400 and 500.
The potential complications from measles are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf">numerous</a>, including ear infections that “can result in permanent hearing loss,” pneumonia, and encephalitis.
Despite the abundance of evidence regarding the efficacy of vaccines and the repeated studies debunking the notion of vaccine-caused autism, the anti-vaccine community continues to keep a death grip on a number of people in the United States.
For a more detailed examination of the vaccine/autism hoax, check out this video by Dr. Aaron Carroll of Indiana University:
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Vaccines.

WATCH: Woman Says It’s Dumb To Make A ‘Big Deal’ Over ‘Insignificant’ Measles. The Facts Paint A Different Picture

anti-vax

Measles

California&#8217;s governor signed a first-of-its-kind bill late last week, dramatically limiting — if not completely erasing — exemptions to the state&#8217;s mandatory vaccination law for children.
Some California residents, however, who say that the bill represents a shocking governmental overreach that threatens their personal autonomy, are pushing to have the law included on the November ballot.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-governor-signs-bills-crack-down-fraudulent-vaccine-exemptions-n1051756">NBC News reports</a> that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills designed to &#8220;crack down on doctors who write fraudulent medical exemptions for school children&#8217;s vaccinations,&#8221; in order to re-establish California&#8217;s falling childhood vaccination rate, which has given rise to a number of outbreaks of preventable diseases — including the measles — over the last several years.
&#8220;This legislation provides new tools to better protect public health, and does so in a way that ensures parents, doctors, public health officials and school administrators all know the rules of the road moving forward,&#8221; Newsom wrote in a statement to press accompanying the bill.
California already outlaws non-medical exemptions for vaccinations but lawmakers say parents who claim to be skeptical about the number and necessity of childhood vaccinations are obtaining fraudulent doctors&#8217; notes, allowing their children to attend school without being fully vaccinated, even though they aren&#8217;t actually medically fragile.
CNN reports that California&#8217;s vaccination rates have fallen dramatically over the course of the last decade, particularly in largely white, upper-middle-class enclaves where an anti-vaccination movement has taken root. The decision to require children to be immunized against specific diseases in order to attend school in the state has slowed the trend somewhat, but lawmakers feel making doctors who collude with patients who want to avoid vaccination, but aren&#8217;t actually medically fragile, responsible will stem the tide further.
&#8220;Under the new laws,&#8221; CNN reports, &#8220;the state will issue a standardized medical exemption certification form for doctors to complete and send to a child&#8217;s school. The form would outline the details of the exemption and include information about the medical basis for the exemption.&#8221;
Doctors who &#8220;grant five or more exemptions in a year&#8221; could find themselves subject to a state investigation, as could school districts where vaccination rates fall below 95% — the lowest rate necessary to preserve herd immunity and protect medically fragile children who legitimately cannot be vaccinated.
The bills are likely to go into effect January 1, 2020, but some anti-vaccination activists say they&#8217;re going to push for the measure to be included on the November ballot, because they believe punishing doctors who give false cover to anti-vaccine parents is a huge government overreach. Opposition to the bill has been strong, and anti-vaccine parents have hosted large protests at the California state capital building, calling in reinforcements from across the country in order to help preserve their ability to leave their children unvaccinated.
In one particularly disturbing incident, protesters <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/anti-vaccine-protester-menstrual-cup-blood-california-senate.html">threw what appeared to be menstrual blood</a> on legislators headed to a vote.
Three protesters, who all consider themselves members of an anti-vaccine movement, have submitted a request to put the issue to a referendum, which would force the state to defend the measure at the ballot box, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article234989047.html">according to the Sacramento Bee</a>, which has followed the controversy surrounding the vaccine bill closely.
&#8220;Documents released by the Attorney General’s Office say the petition was submitted by Denise Aguilar, Heidi Munoz Gleisner and Tara Thornton. It was sent from a postal office near the Capitol,&#8221; the Sac Bee reports. &#8220;Aguilar, Munoz Gleisner and Thornton protested the vaccine bill throughout August and September. They temporarily shut down an Aug. 30 Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing where they stood on chairs and chanted after lawmakers advanced the bill.&#8221;
The legislator who drafted the bill says he&#8217;ll oppose the referendum measure.

vaccination_vaccine_gi.jpg

California Passes Stringent New Vaccine Requirements But Voters May Get Final Decision

Science

On Thursday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed a bill into law that will immediately end religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.
Cuomo said he signed the bill in order to protect the public in the midst of one of the worst measles outbreak in decades, which he categorized as a &#8220;public health crisis,&#8221; <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/06/14/new-york-ends-religious-exemptions-for-measles-vaccinations/">reported</a> CBS New York.
The outbreak first sparked in October, the outlet noted, and spread in parts of New York City, particularly among Orthodox Jewish communities.
&#8220;Rockland County declared a countywide State of Emergency relating to the ongoing measles outbreak,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rockland-County-State-Emergency-Measles-507672921.html?ff">reported</a> NBC in March. &#8220;Effective at the stroke of midnight, Wednesday, anyone who is under 18 years of age and unvaccinated against the measles will be barred from public places until this declaration expires in 30 days or until they receive the MMR vaccination.&#8221;
With the passing of the law, parents will be forced to vaccinate their children before they can attend school in the state, and religious exemptions won&#8217;t get them out of it. Parents and teens have <a href="http://objection%20to%20its%20apparent%20ties%20to%20abortion">morally objected</a> to certain vaccines based upon ties to abortion. Now, the only acceptable exemptions from the mandate will be for medical reasons, such as a child&#8217;s weakened immune system.
While opponents of the legislation protested in Assembly chambers on Thursday, sponsors of the bill praised its passing as a measure of protection for children.
&#8220;If your kid is immunocompromised and going to school or a day care center, you want to know that they&#8217;re going to be safe,&#8221; said State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a sponsor of the legislation, according to CBS New York.
&#8220;It&#8217;s our obligation to act,&#8221; State Sen. David Carlucci said. &#8220;We have to do everything we can to get the number of people vaccinated up.&#8221;
&#8220;The government does not have the right to interfere with my personal religious beliefs,&#8221; said one woman protesting the law. &#8220;We will not vaccinate. What&#8217;s going to happen is we&#8217;re going to either home school or we&#8217;re going to move out of state.&#8221;
Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, a Democrat, noted that he is pro-vaccine but could not vote for the bill out of &#8220;constitutional duty.&#8221;
&#8220;Despite my pro-vaccination stance and despite my beliefs that there are no religious restrictions, it is my constitutional duty to vote in the negative,&#8221; he said.
California is headed the way of New York when it comes to vaccines via SB 276. Actress Jessica Biel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48355/jessica-biel-branded-anti-vaxxer-after-meeting-ca-amanda-prestigiacomo">sparked</a> debate over vaccines earlier this week when she met with some 15 California legislators to discuss her concerns about the bill and advocate for parental rights.
Biel said she is &#8220;not against vaccinations&#8221; but supports &#8220;families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill,&#8221; she wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. &#8220;I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state,&#8221; the post continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment.&#8221;
Proponents of vaccination mandates claim SB 276 &#8220;will have minimal impact on those with valid reasons for exemption, citing medical authorities like the bill&#8217;s prominent co-sponsors: the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, California,&#8221; The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jessica-biel-comes-out-as-anti-vaxx-activist-joins-robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-lobby-against-ca-vaccination-bill?via=twitter_page">reported</a>.
As reported by The Daily Wire in April, a judge told a Catholic teenager from Kentucky, Jerome Kunkel, that he is not allowed back in school after morally objecting to receiving a vaccination for the chicken pox due to its apparent ties to abortion.
&#8221;It&#8217;s my understanding that the vaccine is derived from aborted fetal cells,&#8221; said Kunkel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">according</a> to WLWT. &#8220;And it is against my religion. Abortion is against my religion.&#8221;
As <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/catholic-church-has-given-green-light-to-using-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-fetal-cells-but-one-family-is-still-suing-over-beliefs/">noted</a> by KHN Morning Briefing, &#8220;The Varicella vaccine, specifically, is derived from the cell lines of two fetuses that were electively aborted in the 1960s.&#8221;

New York Ends Religious Exemptions For Vaccine Mandates

Andrew Cuomo

New York

Actress Jessica Biel recently met with some 15 California legislators to discuss concerns about a vaccination bill and advocate for &#8220;parental rights.&#8221; Some of the legislators the actress met with have publicly supported the bill in question, SB 276, while others have voiced opposition to the legislation due to its lack of acceptable medical vaccination exemptions. Notably, Biel was photographed in the California State Assembly alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an activist &#8220;skeptical&#8221; of vaccinations.
The news of Biel&#8217;s apparent activism landed her the &#8220;anti-vaxxer&#8221; label from the media, starting with The Daily Beast.
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EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Biel comes out as an anti-vax activist, joining RFK Jr. to lobby against the California vaccination bill <a href="https://t.co/kqbpZuncKX">https://t.co/kqbpZuncKX</a>
&#8212; The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1138937351336615936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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According to The Daily Beast, Kennedy would not confirm to the outlet that Biel, wife of superstar Justin Timberlake, was a so-called &#8220;anti-vaxxer.&#8221;
&#8220;I would say that she was for safe vaccines and for medical freedom,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My body, my choice.&#8221;
&#8220;Please say thank you to the courageous [Jessica Biel] for a busy and productive day at the California State House,&#8221; Kennedy captioned a photo of the duo posted to Instagram.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Byl1y56lLOO/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Please say thank you to the courageous @jessicabiel for a busy and productive day at the California State House.</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/robertfkennedyjr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> (@robertfkennedyjr) on Jun 11, 2019 at 6:27pm PDT
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&#8220;Biel and Kennedy&#8217;s primary concern with the bill stems from what they deem bureaucratic &#8216;red tape,&#8217; which they believe would force kids to receive vaccinations,&#8221; reported The Daily Beast.
&#8220;The biggest problem with the bill, which is something I think Jessica is concerned with, is that a doctor who has made a determination&#8212;if he has found children in this state whose doctors have determined that they&#8217;re too fragile to receive vaccinations&#8212;this bill would overrule the doctors and force them to be vaccinated anyways,&#8221; said Kennedy.
&#8220;She was a very effective advocate,&#8221; he praised Biel. &#8220;She was very strong and very knowledgeable. Extremely well-informed. An extremely effective advocate. She knows what she&#8217;s talking about&#8230; She&#8217;s upset about this issue because of its particular cruelty. She has friends who have been vaccine-injured who would be forced to leave the state.&#8221;
Though he rejects the term &#8220;anti-vaxxer&#8221; as &#8220;propaganda,&#8221; Kennedy is known for his activism against vaccines. &#8220;Kennedy has stirred controversy by writing articles and publishing books on the claim that vaccinations cause autism, a claim refuted by scientists,&#8221; Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/jessica-biel-anti-vaxx-robert-f-kennedy-jr-california-vaccine-bill-1203241577/">reported</a>. &#8220;In May, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy and Maeve Kennedy McKean publicly stated that their relative &#8216;has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.&#8217;&#8221;
Biel also posed alongside a string of politicians, including Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a Republican representing California&#8217;s 36th District. &#8220;[Jessica Biel] came by the State Capitol yesterday to chat about parental rights,&#8221; he said, posting a photo of the two on Twitter. &#8220;I was impressed by her sincerity.&#8221;
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. <a href="https://twitter.com/JessicaBiel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JessicaBiel</a> came by the State Capitol yesterday to chat about parental rights. I was impressed by her sincerity. <a href="https://t.co/hWHbEhsAzb">pic.twitter.com/hWHbEhsAzb</a>
&#8212; Assemblyman Lackey (@TomLackey36) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomLackey36/status/1138808481949949954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Biel has since responded to the reports directly, noting that she is &#8220;not against vaccinations&#8221; but also supports &#8220;families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.&#8221;
&#8220;This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians,&#8221; she wrote in an Instagram post. &#8220;My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state. That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB277. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!&#8221;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BypmonrBzwS/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations &#8212; I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians. My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family&#8217;s ability to care for their child in this state. That&#8217;s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don&#8217;t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what&#8217;s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB277. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jessicabiel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Jessica Biel</a> (@jessicabiel) on Jun 13, 2019 at 5:32am PDT
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In 2015, reports claimed Biel and Timberlake planned to bypass vaccinations for their son, though the stars have never confirmed the reports. &#8220;She feels that vaccination could cause complications,&#8221; a Touch Weekly source claimed at the time.
As noted by The Daily Beast, vaccination advocates claim SB 276 &#8220;will have minimal impact on those with valid reasons for exemption, citing medical authorities like the bill&#8217;s prominent co-sponsors: the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, California.&#8221;

Media Brand Jessica Biel ‘Anti-Vaxxer’ After Meeting CA Legislators. Here’s Her Response.

Children

Health

Hollywood

<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798">Writing in Politico</a>, the extended family of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begged the public to ignore his anti-vaccination stance and instead vaccinate their children.
Kennedy&#8217;s sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, his brother Joseph P. Kennedy III, a former member of Congress from Massachusetts,and his niece, Maeve Kennedy McKean, the executive director of Georgetown University&#8217;s Global Health Initiatives, joined to issue a plea to the public, starting by writing, &#8220;We love Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he is part of a misinformation campaign that&#8217;s having heartbreaking&#8212;and deadly&#8212;consequences.&#8221;
The trio continue: &#8220;Americans have every right to be alarmed about the outbreak of measles in pockets of our country with unusually high rates of unvaccinated citizens, especially children. Right now, officials in 22 states are grappling with a resurgence of the disease, which was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. With over 700 cases already reported and indications that more outbreaks will occur, 2019 will likely see the most recorded cases of measles in decades.&#8221;
The authors note that measles is not the only disease that is spreading as a result of non-vaccinations, pointing out that Maine health officials acknowledged in March there were 41 new cases of whooping cough, double the number from the same time period in 2018.
After quoting the World Health Organization reporting a 300% increase in measles cases over last year, with over 110,000 people dying annually, they write bluntly, &#8220;Most cases of preventable diseases occur among unvaccinated children, because parents have chosen not to vaccinate, have delayed vaccination, have difficulty accessing vaccines, or the children were too young to receive the vaccines.&#8221;
The authors say of RFK Jr., &#8220;He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines &#8230; his and others&#8217; work against vaccines is having heartbreaking consequences.&#8221;
They continue: &#8220;The fact is that immunizations prevent some 2 million to 3 million deaths a year, and have the potential to save another 1.5 million lives every year with broader vaccine coverage, according to the WHO. Smallpox, which plagued mankind for thousands of years, has been eradicated through vaccines. Because of immunizations, no cases of polio have been reported in the United States since 1979. &#8220;
After citing their family&#8217;s efforts on behalf of vaccinations, the authors conclude:
<blockquote>
Those who delay or refuse vaccinations, or encourage others to do so, put themselves and others, especially children, at risk. It is in all our interests to make sure that immunizations reach every child on the globe through safe, effective and affordable vaccines. Everyone must communicate the benefits and safety of vaccines, and advocate for the respect and confidence of the institutions which make them possible. To do otherwise risks even further erosion of one of public health&#8217;s greatest achievements.
</blockquote>

Kennedy Family Asks Public To Disregard RFK Jr. On Vaccines

A cruise ship, used as a floating command center, recreational facility, and training ground for the Church of Scientology, has reportedly been quarantined in St. Lucia over concerns that a passenger on board has the measles.
<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/441738-cruise-ship-appearing-to-be-owned-by-church-of-scientology-quarantined-due?fbclid=IwAR1VPLxP_rmCfih2C8LpfqOGzeT7cLyUiW8cYX5OiWLj446u6m7bWX3RqFA">The Hill reports</a> that authorities in St. Lucia have the ship, the &#8220;Freewinds,&#8221; in port there and have prohibited anyone from disembarking &#8212; possibly for three weeks &#8212; for fear they may put island residents in danger.
&#8220;Because of the risk of potential infection, not just from the confirmed measles case but from other persons who may be on the boat at this time, we made the decision to not allow anyone to disembark,&#8221; St. Lucia&#8217;s chief medical officer told media in a videoed statement.
The Church of Scientology has refused to confirm to media outlets that their 440-foot, 300-person &#8220;floating religious retreat,&#8221; the Freewinds is, indeed, the same ship stuck in dock in St. Lucia, but <a href="https://tonyortega.org/2019/05/02/what-its-like-on-the-scientology-measles-ship-right-now-according-to-former-crew/">Scientology-focused reporter Tony Ortega</a> says he&#8217;s been able to confirm from a handful of social media posts from the Church&#8217;s clergy &#8212; members of the so-called &#8220;Sea Organization&#8221; (or &#8220;Sea Org&#8221;) &#8212; that it is the same Freewinds, and that the outbreak started with a passenger.
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Update: Freewinds passenger claims measles was brought aboard by UK passenger, not a crew member. Caution, the source is a Scientologist and this may be a &#8220;shore story.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/BOQflBRPkI">https://t.co/BOQflBRPkI</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Scientology?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Scientology</a> <a href="https://t.co/Xc8OcZnqBd">pic.twitter.com/Xc8OcZnqBd</a>
&#8212; Tony Ortega (@TonyOrtega94) <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyOrtega94/status/1123970188473503745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
That Sea Org member says that only one person was infected and that the &#8220;outbreak&#8221; was contained. NBC News says authorities believe that the infection has spread to others onboard.
Scientology&#8217;s Freewinds is a former cruise ship, purchased in the mid-1980s and rechristened as a floating training facility where high level Scientologists &#8212; those who have achieved the level of OT7 (or, &#8220;operating thetan seven&#8221;) &#8212; could study to achieve OT8, the highest level of the religion. The cost to reach such a level is reportedly between $800,000 and $2 million, according to former Sea Org members.
The Freewinds also serves as a recreational destination for Scientology bigwigs, including leader David Miscavige, and celebrity mega-Scientologist, Tom Cruise.
The United States is current experiencing once of the worst measles outbreaks in years, since the disease was reported as &#8220;eliminated&#8221; in the year 2000, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/health/measles-outbreak-record-us-bn/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
&#8220;Overall,&#8221; the outlet reports, &#8220;there have been 681 measles cases across 22 states this year, according to CNN&#8217;s analysis of data from state and local health departments.&#8221;
Many of the outbreaks are happening in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated communities. In New York, the governor has even declared a state of emergency and imposed a series of restrictions on several communities outside New York City where vaccinations rates are low and measles outbreaks have been reported. Often, the outbreak starts with someone from that community who brings the disease back from an under-vaccinated location outside the United States, spreading it to unvaccinated individuals here.
The World Health Organization <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/30/717473521/u-s-measles-outbreak-is-linked-to-global-surge-in-the-virus">also says that measles is on the rise globally</a>, and that 2019 has seen a 300% rise in the number of reported cases compared to this time in 2018.
The disease is highly contagious and someone suffering from measles can spread the disease not just by coughing or sneezing, but by touching surfaces. The disease can also &#8220;hang around&#8221; after an infected person has left a location, leaving anyone who passes through an area exposed if they aren&#8217;t up to date on their vaccinations.
There is little concrete data available on the passenger who caused the Freewinds outbreak. Scientologists are not necessarily anti-vaccine, but as Ortega reports, many are skeptical of western medicine, and that may have led to under-vaccination within Scientology&#8217;s ranks.

REPORT: Scientology Command Ship, The ‘Freewinds,’ Quarantined Over Measles Outbreak

Scientology

What&#8217;s decades worth of progress and science compared to some dedicated kooks on the internet?
Well, thanks to those kooks, the U.S. has had outbreaks of diseases that are completely preventable by vaccines, including measles. The Associated Press reported:
<blockquote>
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 695 cases had been reported in 22 states this year as of Wednesday afternoon. That was up from 626 reported Monday and makes this the nation&#8217;s worst year for measles since 1994, with eight months still to go in 2019. There were 963 cases in 1994.
Roughly three-quarters of this year&#8217;s illnesses in the U.S. have been in New York state, mainly in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County. Most of those cases have been in unvaccinated people.
</blockquote>
While the AP tried to blame the outbreak on Orthodox Jewish communities, Brooklyn officials place the blame mostly on voluntarily unvaccinated children, mostly from upper-class white residents of Brooklyn, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46284/new-york-courts-mandatory-measles-vaccination-not-emily-zanotti">previously reported</a>.
The AP reported the number of cases could climb even higher thanks to misinformation and fearmongering about vaccines causing autism. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has been around since the 1960s, and measles had been essentially wiped out by 2000. But then the claims about the vaccine causing autism started and the disease has come back.
The Associated Press mentions New York State as being the major offender, but there is also an outbreak in Washington State. Back in February, hundreds &#8212; hundreds &#8212; of people gathered in the state capitol <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43272/theres-measles-outbreak-washington-state-these-ashe-schow">to protest a bill</a> that would have required parents to get their children the MMR vaccination.
&#8220;Measles is so contagious that an unvaccinated person has a 90 percent chance of catching the disease if they&#8217;re near someone who has it. The virus can survive for up to two hours in a room where an infected person sneezed,&#8221; CBS <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/measles-outbreak-2019-northwest-measles-outbreak-prompts-look-at-vaccine-exemptions-2019-02-01/">reported</a> at the time.
New York residents have also attempted to protest a requirement for the vaccine, by way of a legal complaint. On Monday, a New York City judge dismissed the complaint, which was filed on behalf of parents who didn&#8217;t want to vaccinate their children, Zanotti reported.
New York had issued an emergency order for children in multiple zip codes to get vaccinated to try and stop the spread of the disease. Parents who objected to the order claimed it violated their Constitutional rights but a judge dismissed that argument.
&#8220;A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire. Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion,&#8221; the New York City judge wrote.
Constitutional experts <a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/cuomo-measles-vaccination-schools-1.29957224">told Newsday</a> that sometimes serious health concerns can outweigh certain Constitutional rights.
&#8220;There has never been a state [mandatory vaccination] law struck down because of the freedom of religion aspect of the First Amendment,&#8221; a law professor told Newsday. &#8220;A century of jurisprudence continues to support mandatory vaccines in a variety of contexts.&#8221;

Cases Of Measles In The U.S. Climbs To Highest Level In 25 Years

A New York City judge has dismissed a complaint from parents who objected to the city&#8217;s emergency vaccine order meant to immediately curb a dangerous measles epidemic threatening the city&#8217;s vulnerable.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/measles-nyc.pdf">issued the order in early April</a>, commanding that unvaccinated children living in several zip codes in the Brooklyn are be immediately vaccinated, in response to a sudden and alarming rise in the number of measles cases reported in the hipster-occupied borough of Manhattan.
NBC News reports that, as of Sunday, Brooklyn doctors have counted an astounding 626 cases of measles, more than the number of cases reported in the entire year 2014, when the city suffered a measles outbreak. Brooklyn officials blame the current outbreak on a rash of voluntarily unvaccinated children, kids of upper-class white residents of Brooklyn, and of a handful of Orthodox Jewish enclaves in the area.
City officials said the order, which explicitly mandates that all individuals who can receive the vaccine receive it immediately, was absolutely necessary to controlling the outbreak and rebuilding &#8220;herd immunity&#8221; in Brooklyn neighborhoods.
<blockquote>
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that any person who lives, works or resides within the 11205, 11206, 11221 and/or 11249 zip codes and who has not received the MMR vaccine within forty eight (48) hours of this Order being signed by me shall be vaccinated against measles unless such person can demonstrate immunity to the disease or document to the satisfaction of the Department that he or she should be medically exempt from this requirement.
</blockquote>
City officials in Rockland, New York, one of the areas hardest hit, have also issued a 30-day ban on unvaccinated children going out into public.
Parents of voluntarily unvaccinated children immediately sued the state, claiming that the mandatory vaccination order was not the &#8220;least restrictive means&#8221; of controlling the outbreak, <a href="https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/04/new-york-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-measles-vaccine-order/">according to Jurist.org</a>, but a Brooklyn judge issued a <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/brooklyn-measles.pdf">ruling late last Thursday</a> confirming that Constitutional rights are not violated by orders mandating vaccines in emergency situations.
The judge also took the parents to task for claiming that the MMR vaccine is somehow ineffective, that receiving the vaccine puts a child at greater risk than contracting the measles, and that the MMR vaccine itself is responsible for the outbreak, noting that none of these assertions is supported by any scientific study or piece of medical literature. Instead, the judge noted that the current measles outbreak represents the &#8220;most significant spike in incidences of measles in the United States in many years and that the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is at its epicenter,&#8221; and that, uncontrolled, the disease will begin to spread to &#8220;remote locations.&#8221;
Quick, decisive action on the part of the state to prevent unnecessary deaths, in this case, is warranted.
&#8220;A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire. Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion,&#8221; the judge wrote.
<a href="https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/cuomo-measles-vaccination-schools-1.29957224">Newsday confirms that Constitutional experts agree</a>: temporary, exigent public health concerns generally outweigh some Constitutional rights, at least where the need is immediate and the order is temporary and explicitly date restricted.
&#8220;There has never been a state [mandatory vaccination] law struck down because of the freedom of religion aspect of the First Amendment,&#8221; one law professor told the outlet. &#8220;A century of jurisprudence continues to support mandatory vaccines in a variety of contexts.&#8221;
Decisions on the issue, she says, date back more than 100 years.
The Constitutionality of another measure &#8212; a bill in the New York leigslature that eliminates conscience and other non-medical exemptions to vaccination requirements &#8212; may not be as clear cut. Three states &#8212; California, West Virginia, and Mississippi have eliminated all non-medical vaccination exemptions &#8212; but those laws have yet to be challenged in any meaningful way.

New York Courts: Mandatory Measles Vaccination Is Not A Violation Of The Constitution

Religion

A Catholic teenager who has never received a vaccination for the chicken pox out of moral objection to its apparent ties to abortion is not allowed to go back to school, a judge <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">ruled</a> Tuesday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s my understanding that the vaccine is derived from aborted fetal cells,&#8221; said plaintiff Jerome Kunkel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">according</a> to WLWT. &#8220;And it is against my religion. Abortion is against my religion.&#8221;
Christopher Wiest, Jerome&#8217;s lawyer, said his client was &#8220;devastated&#8221; by Tuesday&#8217;s ruling, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/02/judge-ruling-due-kentucky-youths-suit-against-chickenpox-vaccine-boone-county-catholic-abortion/3348359002/">according</a> to USA Today.
The teenager was banned from attending classes and extracurricular functions, such as athletic events, after a chicken pox outbreak occurred at his high school Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky.
The Kunkel family did not vaccinate Jerome due to moral objections after finding out about a link between aborted fetal matter and the chicken pox vaccine. As <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/catholic-church-has-given-green-light-to-using-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-fetal-cells-but-one-family-is-still-suing-over-beliefs/">noted</a> by KHN Morning Briefing, &#8220;The Varicella vaccine, specifically, is derived from the cell lines of two fetuses that were electively aborted in the 1960s.&#8221;
The Northern Kentucky Health Department intervened on March 14 to ban unvaccinated students, such as Jerome, from such school functions.
&#8220;Chickenpox is raging through Assumption Academy in the Boone County city of Walton. Since early February, more than 30 students, or 13 percent of the student body, have developed the highly contagious illness,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/03/19/chickenpox-vaccine-and-abortion-link-1960-s-brings-lawsuit-religious-objection-catholic/3213271002/">reported</a> the Cincinnati Enquirer in mid-March. &#8220;Officials with Northern Kentucky Health Department ordered school events canceled until the outbreak is brought under control.&#8221;
Though Jerome was still handing in his school assignments, he was losing out on the full learning experience by being barred from the classroom, he said. And as the varsity basketball team&#8217;s starting center, he missed a season-ending playoff loss by one point, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">according</a> to The Washington Post.
The family filed suit, arguing their son&#8217;s First Amendment rights were infringed, and, as noted by the Post, the suit alleges that the health department &#8220;violated due process when officials enacted the extracurricular and school attendance bans without declaring an official emergency.&#8221;
Wiest noted that the department&#8217;s rationale for banning unvaccinated students was ineffective. &#8220;The chickenpox order makes no sense,&#8221; he argued. &#8220;They all go to daily and weekly mass. The parish receives communion on the tongue. Communion-age kids are going to spread chickenpox. That testimony was unequivocal.&#8221;
&#8220;This is tyranny against our religion, our faith, our country,&#8221; Bill Kunkel, Jerome&#8217;s father, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">told</a> the outlet.
<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">According</a> to Law &amp; Crime, parents in the state are permitted to opt out of such vaccines for religious reasons, but with the disclaimer that their child &#8220;may be subject to exclusion from school, group facilities or other programs, if the local and/or state public health authority advises exclusion as a disease control measure.&#8221;
Fifteen years ago, the Catholic Church permitted Catholics to use the vaccine if there&#8217;s a threat to public health. &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t mean nothing to me. I follow the laws of the Church, and I know what&#8217;s right and wrong,&#8221; the boy&#8217;s father said of the Church&#8217;s stance, before adding that abortion is a &#8220;moral absolute,&#8221; according to the Post.

Judge Issues Ruling In Case Of Catholic Teen Who Refused Vaccination Over Abortion Concerns

Education

Kentucky

A Midwest mother of three young boys faced the ultimate nightmare: A child&#8217;s death.
Her 4-year-old son contracted the flu and died. She cared for her two younger sons to make sure they remained safe and healthy. On Facebook, she hoped to find support during her tragedy, but instead found comments from anti-vaxxers telling her she caused her child&#8217;s death or that he deserved to die or that she was lying about even having a son.
CNN spoke to this mom and others <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/19/health/anti-vax-harassment-eprise/index.html">who have experienced similar treatment</a> by online anti-vaxxers. The media outlet reports that members of anti-vax groups &#8220;encourage each other&#8221; to go to the Facebook pages of parents who have just lost children and accuse them of making up a non-existent child, blaming the parent for the child&#8217;s death, claiming vaccines were to blame, &#8220;or some combination of all of those.&#8221;
&#8220;Nothing is considered too cruel. Just days after their children died, mothers say anti-vaxers on social media called them whores, the c-word and baby killers,&#8221; CNN reported.
The outlet also reached out to Larry Cook, who founded the group Stop Mandatory Vaccination. He said harassment of parents happens but is rare.
&#8220;Any discussions about parents who lose their children after those children are vaccinated would be minor in number, and even smaller would be the number of members reaching out to parents in private message to share their concerns that vaccines may have played a role in a death,&#8221; Cook told the outlet in an email.
He added that he does &#8220;not condone violent behavior or tone and encourage decorum during discussion,&#8221; but said that those who advocate for vaccines &#8220;can expect push back and resistance.&#8221;
He also said his own members have been targeted for harassment and threats on social media.
Another anti-vaxxer, Del Bigtree of the Informed Consent Action Network said he tells his members to &#8220;look at the person you&#8217;re talking to and those on the other side of this discussion and recognize that they care about children, too.&#8221;
Studies repeatedly show that vaccines don&#8217;t cause autism, despite anti-vaxxers claiming otherwise. The World Health Organization has labeled &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42393/world-health-organization-anti-vaxxers-threat-paul-bois">vaccine hesitancy</a>&#8221; as a <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019">global threat</a>:
<blockquote>
Vaccine hesitancy &#8211; the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines &#8211; threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease &#8211; it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved.
Measles, for example, has seen a 30% increase in cases globally. The reasons for this rise are complex, and not all of these cases are due to vaccine hesitancy. However, some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence.
</blockquote>
Washington State is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43272/theres-measles-outbreak-washington-state-these-ashe-schow">currently experiencing a measles epidemic</a> due to a lack of vaccinations. More than 50 cases were being treated in early February, as anti-vaxxers protested state lawmakers who were trying to remove parents&#8217; ability to decline vaccination over philosophical concerns.
New York is also experiencing a measles outbreak, as are California, Illinois, and Texas, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">according to the Center for Disease Control</a>.

Anti-Vaxxers Are Harassing Parents Who Just Lost Their Children: Report

According to a newly released <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6809a3.htm?s_cid=mm6809a3_w">report</a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2017, a six-year-old Oregon boy was hospitalized for 57 days following a diagnosis of tetanus.
The boy, who allegedly never received a tetanus vaccination, reportedly cut his head &#8220;while playing outdoors on a farm.&#8221; He was not taken to any medical facility, and his would was cleaned and sewn up at home.
Less than a week later (approximately 6 days), the boy began exhibiting symptoms of tetanus, including &#8220;jaw clenching, and involuntary upper extremity muscle spasms, followed by arching of the neck and back,&#8221; according to the report.
When he began to have trouble breathing, the boy was taken to a hospital, where he received care.
His wound was cleaned, damaged tissue was removed, and he was given a DTaP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), as well as &#8220;tetanus immune globulin.&#8221; The boy reportedly suffered high blood pressure and his temperature reached 104.9 degrees. Five days into the boy&#8217;s hospital stay, doctors resorted to using a tracheostomy.
The report continues:
<blockquote>
Starting on hospital day 35, the patient tolerated a 5-day wean from neuromuscular blockade. On day 44, his ventilator support was discontinued, and he tolerated sips of clear liquids. On day 47, he was transferred to the intermediate care unit. Three days later, he walked 20 feet with assistance. On day 54, his tracheostomy was removed, and 3 days later, he was transferred to a rehabilitation center for 17 days.
</blockquote>
In total, the &#8220;inpatient charges&#8221; alone cost more than $800,000. Following the boy&#8217;s recovery, the family allegedly refused further DTaP.
The report notes that &#8220;this is the first pediatric tetanus case in [over 30] years in Oregon.&#8221;
According to the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tetanus/symptoms-causes/syc-20351625">Mayo Clinic</a>, &#8220;tetanus is caused by a toxin made by spores of bacteria, Clostridium tetani, found in soil, dust and animal feces. When the spores enter a deep flesh wound, they grow into bacteria that can produce a powerful toxin, tetanospasmin.&#8221;
While a tetanus vaccine was in development as early as the 1920s, it wasn&#8217;t given to children regularly until the late-1940s. From the late-1940s to today, tetanus cases have <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/tetanus.html#toxoid">dropped</a> from between 500 and 600 annually to an approximate annual rate of 29, reports the CDC.
Of the 197 reported cases of tetanus in the years 2009 &#8211; 2015, 16 people <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt16-tetanus.html#f2">died</a>. That&#8217;s an 8.1% mortality rate.
According to the CDC, 2016 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/adultvaxview/pubs-resources/NHIS-2016.html#tetanus">data</a> show that 62.2% of adults were up-to-date on their tetanus vaccination. A great majority of young children and babies are sufficiently vaccinated.
The modern anti-vaccination movement appears to have been sparked by a 1998 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/">paper</a> by Andrew Wakefield and a dozen colleagues which claimed that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine might be linked to autism in children. The findings were later and repeatedly debunked, but the myth has persisted.
As it turns out, Wakefield &#8220;had been funded by lawyers who had been engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/">paper</a> published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry in 2011. Additionally, the paper reports that Wakefield and others &#8220;were guilty of deliberate fraud (they picked and chose data that suited their case; they falsified facts).&#8221;

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Menu

Vaccines

Moderna Vaccine Shows Success In Early Clinical Trials

POLL: Only 64% Of Americans Say They Would Get COVID-19 Vaccine, 14% Would Decline

Israel Releases Info On ‘3 Key Parameters’ Their ‘Groundbreaking’ Coronavirus Antidote Has

Trump: ‘We Think We’re Going To Have A Vaccine By The End Of This Year’

Indian Company Will Start Producing Virus Vaccine In 2-3 Weeks So If Trials Work, They’ll Be Ready By Fall

AG Barr On Bill Gates Wanting ‘Digital’ Vaccine ‘Certificates’: I’m ‘Very Concerned About’ Slippery Slope

University Where Polio Vaccine Was Created Says They Have Potential Vaccine For Coronavirus

Vaccine From 1920s Being Tested To Fight Coronavirus

Anti-Vaxxer Who Allegedly Threw Menstrual Blood At Lawmakers During Protest Has Been Charged

WATCH: Woman Says It’s Dumb To Make A ‘Big Deal’ Over ‘Insignificant’ Measles. The Facts Paint A Different Picture

California Passes Stringent New Vaccine Requirements But Voters May Get Final Decision

New York Ends Religious Exemptions For Vaccine Mandates

Media Brand Jessica Biel ‘Anti-Vaxxer’ After Meeting CA Legislators. Here’s Her Response.

Kennedy Family Asks Public To Disregard RFK Jr. On Vaccines

REPORT: Scientology Command Ship, The ‘Freewinds,’ Quarantined Over Measles Outbreak

Cases Of Measles In The U.S. Climbs To Highest Level In 25 Years

New York Courts: Mandatory Measles Vaccination Is Not A Violation Of The Constitution

Judge Issues Ruling In Case Of Catholic Teen Who Refused Vaccination Over Abortion Concerns

Anti-Vaxxers Are Harassing Parents Who Just Lost Their Children: Report

Unvaccinated Boy Spends 57 Days In The Hospital After Reported Tetanus Infection

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