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CDC Aware Of Reports Of ‘Debilitating Illnesses’ After COVID-19 Vaccination: Official

CDC Aware Of Reports Of ‘Debilitating Illnesses’ After COVID-19 Vaccination: Official

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis…

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CDC Aware Of Reports Of 'Debilitating Illnesses' After COVID-19 Vaccination: Official

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are aware of reports of long-lasting problems following COVID-19 vaccination, an official recently disclosed.

“With respect to reports of people experiencing debilitating illnesses, we are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following COVID vaccination,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, said on Jan. 26.

In some cases, the clinical presentation of people suffering these health problems is variable and no specific medical cause for the symptoms have been found,” Shimabukuro added. “We understand that illness is disruptive and stressful, especially under those circumstances. And we acknowledge these health problems have substantially impacted the quality of life for people and have also affected those around them. And we hope for improvement and recovery, and we will continue to monitor the safety of these vaccines and work with partners to try to better understand these types of adverse events.”

In this image from video, the CDC's Dr. Tom Shimabukuro speaks during a virtual meeting on Jan. 26, 2023. (FDA via The Epoch Times)

Shimabukuro was speaking during a Jan. 26 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meeting that discussed COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Dr. Hayley Gans, a pediatrics professor at Stanford University Medical Center, had asked how federal authorities were tracking problems that have cropped up after vaccination and might not be “amenable” to rapid cycle analysis, or one way of monitoring vaccine safety.

Shimabukuro noted that any person, including health care workers, can submit reports of adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which the CDC manages, “and we accept all those reports without judging the clinical seriousness or how plausible the adverse event may be with respect to causation.” Other systems also monitor safety beyond the rapid analysis, he added.

We take vaccine safety very seriously,” Shimabukuro said.

Shimabukuro’s comments are unusual among federal officials, who have been reluctant to connect adverse events with the COVID-19 vaccines.

Brianne Dressen, who was injured by AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, said that the response was welcome but wondered whether it was enough.

“This was an unprecedented move but also was a carefully worded response. Instead of a little whisper in an FDA meeting, this really needs to be communicated to the medical community,” Dressen, co-founder of the support group React19, told The Epoch Times in an email. “They have said these very words to us privately so it’s good they are finally leaning in the right direction to start the conversation publicly, but is it too little too late?”

“Injured Americans have been begging these agencies for acknowledgement for over two years. This small utterance should have happened long ago. By now we should be openly discussing and researching these Covid vaccine reactions,” she added.

Few Events Acknowledged

U.S. officials have only acknowledged a handful of serious adverse events as being caused by one or more COVID-19 vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine causes a combination of low platelet levels and blood clotting known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, the CDC says on its website. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines cause severe allergic shock, or anaphylaxis, as well as a type of heart inflammation called myocarditis.

The CDC and FDA primarily monitor safety by examining data from surveillance systems to see whether adverse events are happening at high rates.

Both agencies have withheld or delayed disclosure of the results of some of the monitoring.

Hundreds of events met the safety signal criteria in VAERS, according to CDC records recently obtained by The Epoch Times. The CDC pointed to studies showing research is being done on some of the signals. It has also said the CDC analyses were done to corroborate results from analyses the FDA performed and that the CDC analyses revealed “no additional unexpected safety signals.” The FDA has refused to release the results from its analyses. A lawsuit was filed for the records on Jan. 26.

Another system, called V-safe, features surveys sent to Americans who received a COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC knew that some serious events like myocarditis could be linked to the vaccines but chose to leave those events off of the surveys, newly disclosed documents showed.

Nicole G., a nurse who was injured by a Pfizer vaccine she received due to a vaccine mandate and asked that her full last name not be used, told The Epoch Times in an email that the CDC did not prioritize patient safety, pointing to the delay in conducting the VAERS analyses and the fact that vaccine recipients were not told about the adverse events authorities were expecting after vaccination.

“The censorship around the COVID vaccine has left us suffering and dying in silence with limited access to treatment,” the nurse said.

While Shimabukuro claimed that “no specific medical cause” was found for some of the injuries after vaccination, doctors have diagnosed Dressen, Nicole, and others with vaccine injuries, and medical literature has linked the vaccines with a range of issues.

Nicole called on the CDC to implement a plan to change the situation. “You need to do more than hope,” she said.

The nurse spoke during the public comment portion of the recent meeting, along with multiple others who said they were left injured by the vaccines.

“The only thing more humiliating than losing my bodily function is your complete disregard for the vaccine injured,” Danielle Baker, one of the speakers, said.

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Tyler Durden Wed, 02/01/2023 - 15:05

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International

Who Owns The Most Satellites?

Who Owns The Most Satellites?

Nearly 7,000 satellites orbit the Earth, serving vital functions such as communication, navigation, and scientific…

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Who Owns The Most Satellites?

Nearly 7,000 satellites orbit the Earth, serving vital functions such as communication, navigation, and scientific research.

In 2022 alone, more than 150 launches took place, sending new instruments into space, with many more expected over the next decade.

But who owns these objects? In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti and Miranda Smith utilize data from the Union of Concerned Scientists to highlight the leaders in satellite technology.

SpaceX’s Dominance in Space

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is unquestionably the industry leader, currently operating the largest fleet of satellites in orbit—about 50% of the global total.

The company has already completed 62 missions this year, surpassing any other company or nation, and operates thousands of internet-beaming Starlink spacecraft that provide global internet connectivity.

Starlink customers receive a small satellite dish that self-orients itself to align with Starlink’s low-Earth-orbit satellites.

Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

In second place is a lesser-known company, British OneWeb Satellites. The company, headquartered in London, counts the UK government among its investors and provides high-speed internet services to governments, businesses, and communities.

Like many other satellite operators, OneWeb relies on SpaceX to launch its satellites.

Despite Starlink’s dominance in the industry, the company is set to face intense competition in the coming years. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to deploy 3,236 satellites by 2029 to compete with SpaceX’s network. The first of the fleet could launch as early as 2024.

The Rise of China’s Space Program

After the top private companies, governments also own a significant portion of satellites orbiting the Earth. The U.S. remains the leader in total satellites, when adding those owned by both companies and government agencies together.

American expenditures on space programs reached $62 billion in 2022, five times more than the second one, China.

China, however, has sped up its space program over the last 20 years and currently has the highest number of satellites in orbit belonging directly to government agencies. Most of these are used for Earth observation, communications, defense, and technology development.

Satellite Demand to Rise Over the Decade

Despite the internet being taken for granted in major metropolitan areas and developed countries, one out of every three people worldwide has never used the web.

Furthermore, the increasing demand for data and the emergence of new, more cost-effective satellite technologies are expected to present significant opportunities for private space companies.

In this context, satellite demand is projected to quadruple over the next decade.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/28/2023 - 19:20

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NIH Doctor Flagged Wuhan Virus Lab Safety Problems As Early As 2017

NIH Doctor Flagged Wuhan Virus Lab Safety Problems As Early As 2017

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

A doctor working for the…

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NIH Doctor Flagged Wuhan Virus Lab Safety Problems As Early As 2017

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

A doctor working for the U.S. government in 2017 visited the China-based virus research facility that may have leaked the pathogen that causes COVID-19, and sounded the alarm on safety issues at the lab earlier than previously reported, according to documents obtained by The Epoch Times.

Dr. Ping Chen, who worked for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in October 2017 and prepared a report for her superiors after her visit.

While a version of her report obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was fully redacted, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and his team were granted an opportunity to carry out an in-camera review of the report that had some of the redactions removed.

“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that certainly there is a need for training support” at the Wuhan lab, Dr. Chen wrote in the report, parts of which were attached to a letter sent by Mr. Johnson to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Sept. 21.

The letter, which was obtained by The Epoch Times, includes fragments of Dr. Chen's report and suggests that HHS and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) were aware of safety issues at the Wuhan facility as early as October 2017.

The P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 13, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier reporting based on two State Department cables and correspondence records obtained by Judicial Watch indicate that NIH was made aware of safety problems at the Wuhan lab in 2018, the year after Dr. Chen's report.

“I think the institute would welcome any help and technical support by NIAID,” Dr. Chen wrote in her 2017 report.

Mr. Johnson wrote in his letter to Mr. Becerra that Dr. Chen's 2017 report partially served as the basis for a Jan. 19, 2018, State Department cable that raised safety concerns about the Wuhan virus lab.

Evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, leaked from the Wuhan facility before spreading across the world. According to the so-called lab leak theory, the deadly pathogen that caused the pandemic escaped the Chinese facility, which was conducting risky gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that was partially funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Demands

Mr. Johnson demanded that HHS provide a version of Dr. Chen's 2017 report that contains fewer redactions in order to scrutinize its contents more closely and determine how closely it aligned with the cable.

“In the public FOIA document, HHS redacted Dr. Chen’s entire report claiming that it contains privacy and deliberative information,” Mr. Johnson wrote.

“It seems apparent that the only reason that HHS redacted this information was to hide the report’s contents from the American people. Perhaps HHS did not want the public to fully understand the fact that NIH and NIAID officials were aware of safety concerns at the WIV dating as far back as 2017,” he added.

Mr. Johnson also accused NIH and HHS of obstructing his probe.

"HHS and NIH continue to obstruct my oversight efforts," he wrote. "It is unacceptable that HHS and NIH had Dr. Chen's report in its possession and only provided a slightly less redacted version for my staff to review in camera."

He demanded that HHS provide unredacted copies of Dr. Chen's report and all documents and communications relating to the report and to the Wuhan lab.

Mr. Johnson also asked for Dr. Chen to sit before a congressional panel and testify.

He set an Oct. 5 deadline for HHS to comply with his request.

HHS officials didn't immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli is seen inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

'Preponderance of Evidence' for Lab Leak

In August 2021, a report by Republican lawmakers noted a "preponderance of evidence" that the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from the Wuhan lab.

Chinese officials have denied the lab leak claim, insisting that the virus made a natural jump from animals to humans.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in testimony before the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee Republicans that evidence points to a lab leak as the likely origin of the virus, saying that "it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak" and "the preponderance of the evidence that it came from the lab is very convincing."

U.S. intelligence agencies later said in a report that a natural origin and a lab leak are both plausible hypotheses but that a lack of evidence makes a definitive conclusion either way impossible.

It's a sentiment echoed by Mr. McCaul in his testimony.

"Unfortunately, we may never know for certain because the Chinese Communist Party went to great lengths to cover up this outbreak," he said. "They detained the doctors in order to silence them. They disappeared journalists. They destroyed lab samples. They hid the fact there was clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. And they have refused to allow a real investigation into the origins."

Wuhan Lab Funding Controversy

The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded a total of $1.1 million to the WIV between October 2009 and May 2019, the agency wrote in a May 2021 letter (pdf) to Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).

Mr. Reschenthaler alleged that the funding was used for a study that used gain-of-function research to create "a hybrid, man-made virus by inserting a spiked protein from a wild coronavirus into a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone, which could infect human airways."

The agency said the funds were channeled through EcoHealth Alliance and were meant for the purpose of advancing research on critical viruses that could pose a threat to humans. It also denied claims that the money was used for gain-of-function research, which seeks to boost viral lethality for the purpose of studying it.

In June 2022, the House Appropriations Committee approved a ban on sending any further funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

More recently, the NIH quietly removed the WIV from a list of foreign facilities that are eligible to receive U.S. taxpayer funds to conduct animal experiments.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/28/2023 - 19:40

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Government

Murder Crisis Plagues DC As Mayor Begs For More Officers After ‘Defunding Police’

Murder Crisis Plagues DC As Mayor Begs For More Officers After ‘Defunding Police’

How it started. 

How it’s going? 

#NEW – Mayor Bowser…

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Murder Crisis Plagues DC As Mayor Begs For More Officers After 'Defunding Police'

How it started. 

How it's going? 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a former supporter of the 'defund the police' movement, urgently calls for increased policing as the nation's capital faces an out-of-control murder crisis. 

"What I can say is this: To me, numbers are just numbers. When we lose one person — whether it's one or 200 — that's too many," Bowser said at a press conference earlier this week. 

Of course, Bowser, like many Democrat mayors, blames firearms as the issue, deflecting any possibility her disastrous social justice reforms only embolden criminals - while punishing law-abiding taxpayers -across the imploding Washington, DC metro area. 

Even the Washington Post can't ignore the murder crisis: 

For the first time in a quarter-century, the year's homicide toll in Washington has surpassed 200 before October — a mark of surging violence that has angered and distressed local leaders, drawn scrutiny from Congress and made some residents question whether they can safely live in the nation's capital.

WaPo added:

The last time D.C. logged its 200th homicide before October was Aug. 12, 1997, in a year that ended with 303 people slain, according to police data. After that, annual totals generally trended downward, staying below 200 from 2004 to 2020, with a low of 88 in 2012. But the killing pace has picked up again, reaching 226 in 2021.

Heading into the 2024 presidential election cycle, Democrats will never admit their social justice reforms have failed. They conveniently blame guns. 

Directly north of D.C. lies another crime-ridden metro area: Baltimore City. And this week, mass looting was seen in Philadelphia. And just north of Baltimore and Philadelphia, New York City's progressive mayor recently warned of financial ruins due to a migrant crisis. 

Democrats have transformed cities into absolute messes. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/28/2023 - 20:00

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