Genomics Analysis Moves to the Next Level
Innovative genomic methods are looking beyond raw DNA sequences and surveying areas such as haplotype phasing, epigenetics, and structural variants.
The post Genomics Analysis Moves to the Next Level appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotech
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Science fair projects presenting complicated genomic analyses. Smartphones displaying personal genome sequences. Treatment plans specifying genomic modifications. These are just a few of the “bold predictions” outlined in the new strategic vision developed by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). These, in addition to the more attainable near-term goals, hinge on the fundamental technology of DNA sequencing.
There is little doubt that genomic sequencing technologies will continue to advance, scrutinizing ever longer base sequences, operating ever more accurately, and generating the information ever more quickly. And all these boons will be delivered at ever lower costs. During 2020, encouraging developments included the arrival of the “$100 genome” (as announced by MGI, a company that introduced a new high-throughput sequencing platform) as well as a study reporting the first complete, gapless reconstruction of a human chromosome sequence.
But when some genomicists look into their crystal balls, increasingly they see beyond the strings of As, Ts, Gs, and Cs. Rather, they focus on the other, perhaps underappreciated aspects of DNA structure that can manifest as health or phenotypic changes. These include the role of structural variants (SVs), the phasing of chromosomes, and DNA modifications—the epigenome. These aspects of genome biology are of tremendous importance to obtain a more complete understanding of the information held in DNA.
Up until now, the excitement in the genomics field, explain Trey Foskett and Brian Kudlow, PhD, co-founders of Watchmaker Genomics, has largely centered around the development of tools for generating high-quality sequences. Those tools have arrived. As a result, Foskett and Kudlow suggest, increasingly more, and diverse, areas of biology will be tagged and sequenced. The two scientists propose the idea of “sequencing as a universal readout.” They suggest that sequencing could be used to measure different aspects of biology in a more high-throughput and multiplexed way. Examples of this can be seen in the work SomaLogic does to measure protein concentrations using aptamers, or in one of the hottest new technologies to enter the genomics space—spatial transcriptomics. According to Watchmaker’s founders, sequencers producing more varied biological readouts will drive the most exciting developments in genomic analysis.
Using a sequencer to probe different aspects of biology takes the development of a new, complementary set of tools. One of the toolmakers is Ivan Liachko, PhD, CEO of Phase Genomics. Liachko tells GEN that he “fell in love” with the work he does using Hi-C—a technique that identifies DNA interactions in the cell—because of the ways the technique opens up new ways to explore the genome. Liachko explains that success in this type of genomic discovery does not depend on additional horsepower. Rather, it relies on “clever tricks.” That, Liachko adds, “is what invention is all about.”
Cutting and running with DNA-binding proteins
A 2017 eLife paper described a new way to profile where proteins interact with DNA called CUT&RUN, which stands for Cleavage Under Targets and Release Using Nuclease. The method described in the paper, “An efficient targeted nuclease strategy for high-resolution mapping of DNA binding sites,” serves the same purpose as chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP–seq), the current standard for protein-DNA interaction analysis, but without some of ChIP-seq’s pitfalls.
The paper’s authors, Peter J. Skene, PhD, director of bioinformatics and computational biology at the Allen Institute in Seattle, and Steven Henikoff, PhD, a scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, described how they developed CUT&RUN around a micrococcal nuclease—an enzyme that is brought to the DNA when an antibody binds to a known target. In CUT&RUN, the nuclease cleaves DNA to release fragments that can be sequenced. The paper’s authors noted that CUT&RUN allows for both quantitative, high-resolution chromatin mapping and probing of the local chromatin environment.
Associate Professor
Whitehead Institute
“I do think CUT&RUN will overtake ChIP and is already doing so,” Mary Gehring, PhD, associate professor of biology at the Whitehead Institute, tells GEN. As researchers become more focused on understanding transcription and epigenetic dynamics in specific cell types or even individual cells, methods that scale down to really low input become increasingly important. “CUT&RUN works really well with few cells, which is a major advantage over ChIP,” she says. For Gehring’s work with Arabidopsis thaliana seeds, the new method proved to be “much easier and more fruitful than ChIP ever was for us.”
The CUT&RUN technology was licensed by the North Carolina–based company EpiCypher, founded in 2012 with a focus on epigenetics. Bryan Venters, PhD, director of genomic technologies at EpiCypher, tells GEN that the founders’ goal was to address the longstanding problem of poor antibody specificity to chromatin modifications. EpiCypher focuses on antibodies—the “coin of the realm” in the epigenetics field.
The company moved into the genomics space with these immune-tethering approaches when it licensed the CUT&RUN technology. CUT&RUN sidesteps the problems of ChIP-seq, reduces sequencing costs, and requires less starting material. By commercializing the reagents needed for CUT&RUN, EpiCypher would like to increase the accessibility of the technology and disrupt the ChIP-seq market.
Finishing chromosomes
Earlier this year, the first end-to-end human chromosome sequence was published—an enormous effort by the Telomere-to-Telomere consortium, which relied heavily on the value of long-read sequencing, the forte of the Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore sequencing platforms. With short reads, many DNA fragments need to be assembled to build the full chromosome sequence. And in humans, where there are two copies of each gene, knowing which version (allele) belongs on which chromosome is important. This process, known as haplotype phasing, is particularly important in the clinic to establish, for example, if an allele in a child came from mom or from dad.
But not everyone who needs phased chromosomes has the technological power of large, multi-institutional sequencing programs. Creating enough long reads to be able to choose the longest, best ones, requires a lot of sequencing horsepower—which is not economically viable for many users. An alternative is to use the molecular biology technique known as Hi-C, which identifies sequences of DNA that are physically close to each other in the cell.
Hi-C has been particularly useful in the microbiome field, as researchers sift through large mixtures of chromosomal and plasmid DNA from hundreds of species in a single analysis. Hi-C can identify which DNA came from the same cell, allowing for the tracking of antibiotic resistance and other traits. Originally launched to make Hi-C easier for people to use, Phase Genomics has recently uncovered, in collaboration with Pacific Biosciences, that its Hi-C kits can be used to create high-quality, phased diploid genome assemblies. Phasing is difficult to do alone. Hi-C, says Liachko, is the “little thing at the end that snaps it all together.”
The technique is called FALCON-Phase, which integrates long-read sequencing data and ultra-long-range Hi-C chromatin interaction data from a diploid individual. The method was recently published in Nature Communications in the paper, “Extended haplotype-phasing of long-read de novo genome assemblies using Hi-C.” In the paper, the method was evaluated by application to three datasets, including human, cattle, and zebra finch datasets. The result? High-quality, fully haplotype-resolved assemblies.
Will more accessible, long-read sequencing make a tool like FALCON-phase unnecessary? Liachko maintains that the opposite is the case—more long-read sequencing has increased the need for scaffolding technologies. Even though some sequencing technologies produce reads that are very long, “the chromosomes still need to be finished,” insists Liachko. One reason why people are adopting Hi-C technology more for phasing, he points out, is that these long, “platinum genomes” are within their reach.
Large genomic rearrangements hint at COVID-19 susceptibility
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple large, international working groups have been established to analyze the host response to a SARS-CoV-2 infection. These include the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, which was organized by researchers at the Broad Institute, and the COVID Human Genetic Effort, which was established by Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD, PhD, professor at the Rockefeller University, and his colleagues. These groups are working to uncover the genetic basis for the severity of COVID-19.
Another group seeking answers to this question is taking a different approach. This group, the COVID-19 Host Genome Structural Variant Consortium, was formed by Ravindra Kolhe, MD, PhD, director of the Georgia Esoteric and Molecular Laboratory at Augusta University. The goal is to bring researchers together working on the contributions of genomic SVs to immunity and response to infection. This COVID-19 SV consortium, with members from more than 50 institutions, hopes to uncover genomic factors that contribute to SARS-CoV-2 infection, progression, or recovery by analyzing SVs in the genomes of COVID-19 patients.
Alka Chaubey, PhD, chief medical officer at Bionano Genomics, a genome imaging company that uses optical mapping to identify SVs, tells GEN that previous work has associated SVs with host genome immune responses in other infectious diseases. This served as the basis to investigate the role of large SVs in the host genome immune responses to COVID-19.
SVs include deletions, duplications, inversions, translocations, mobile element insertions, and complex alterations that can span tens of thousands of bases. They account for a large amount of human genomic variation and are “a subject of intense interest in the sequencing world,” according to Keith Robison, PhD, a genomics blogger.
Because they are large and can occur in repetitive regions, SVs are often undetectable using typical sequencing methods. As Robison explains on his blog, “Experimentalists develop new protocols for DNA isolation to drive read lengths higher, and the computationalists generate new algorithms to use that data to more precisely and sensitively detect SVs.”
CEO, Bionano
“When it comes to genome analysis,” notes Erik Holmlin, PhD, CEO of Bionano Genomics, “sequencing or even microarray technology leaves a ton of information uncovered.” The missed information includes structural details such as location, quantity, and orientation. Such information, Holmlin asserts, reveals critical aspects of a genome that a sequencer alone cannot measure.
“There are fewer SVs than single nucleotide variants (SNVs), but the impact of SVs is generally greater,” Kolhe tells GEN. For example, he continues, an entire gene can be deleted or broken by an SV, while most single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) have no measurable effect unless they change the coding sequence.
Clinically, SVs are known to play a role in intellectual disabilities, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Holmlin tells GEN that the traditional techniques used to analyze them in patients, such as chromosomal microarray analysis and karyotyping, “really suck.” Bionano Genomics’ mission is to make Saphyr the next-generation equivalent of cytogenetics. “If you’re doing a genome analysis without getting an accurate structural picture,” he advises, “you’re not doing a deep enough analysis for 2020.”
The Saphyr platform, developed by Bionano Genomics to detect SVs, images DNA fragments that are, on average, 350,000 base pairs long—long enough to span repetitive sections. The Saphyr uses imaging of the whole genome, at high resolution, to detect SVs. The process starts by enzymatically attaching fluorescent labels to high-molecular-weight DNA at specific sequences throughout the genome. The labeled DNA is put into a chip where it is linearized—threaded into nanochannels which hold them as elongated straight molecules—and imaged, capturing labeling patterns. Imagine “taking a bowl of rotini and tricking it into being dried spaghetti,” says Robison. This builds a map of the entire genome, a process that, Robison declares, is “pretty amazing.”
via optical mapping.
The genomics field, observes Liachko, has long been using two-dimensional readouts such as genomic sequences to discover three-dimensional information. But new technologies are starting to unpack more of the information—and the different types of information—held in the genome. In doing so, these technologies are ushering in the next generation of genomic analysis.
The post Genomics Analysis Moves to the Next Level appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
International
Red Candle In The Wind
Red Candle In The Wind
By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank
February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by…
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By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank
February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by printing at 275,000 against a consensus call of 200,000. We say superficially, because the downward revisions to prior months totalled 167,000 for December and January, taking the total change in employed persons well below the implied forecast, and helping the unemployment rate to pop two-ticks to 3.9%. The U6 underemployment rate also rose from 7.2% to 7.3%, while average hourly earnings growth fell to 0.2% m-o-m and average weekly hours worked languished at 34.3, equalling pre-pandemic lows.
Undeterred by the devil in the detail, the algos sprang into action once exchanges opened. Market darling NVIDIA hit a new intraday high of $974 before (presumably) the humans took over and sold the stock down more than 10% to close at $875.28. If our suspicions are correct that it was the AIs buying before the humans started selling (no doubt triggering trailing stops on the way down), the irony is not lost on us.
The 1-day chart for NVIDIA now makes for interesting viewing, because the red candle posted on Friday presents quite a strong bearish engulfing signal. Volume traded on the day was almost double the 15-day simple moving average, and similar price action is observable on the 1-day charts for both Intel and AMD. Regular readers will be aware that we have expressed incredulity in the past about the durability the AI thematic melt-up, so it will be interesting to see whether Friday’s sell off is just a profit-taking blip, or a genuine trend reversal.
AI equities aside, this week ought to be important for markets because the BTFP program expires today. That means that the Fed will no longer be loaning cash to the banking system in exchange for collateral pledged at-par. The KBW Regional Banking index has so far taken this in its stride and is trading 30% above the lows established during the mini banking crisis of this time last year, but the Fed’s liquidity facility was effectively an exercise in can-kicking that makes regional banks a sector of the market worth paying attention to in the weeks ahead. Even here in Sydney, regulators are warning of external risks posed to the banking sector from scheduled refinancing of commercial real estate loans following sharp falls in valuations.
Markets are sending signals in other sectors, too. Gold closed at a new record-high of $2178/oz on Friday after trading above $2200/oz briefly. Gold has been going ballistic since the Friday before last, posting gains even on days where 2-year Treasury yields have risen. Gold bugs are buying as real yields fall from the October highs and inflation breakevens creep higher. This is particularly interesting as gold ETFs have been recording net outflows; suggesting that price gains aren’t being driven by a retail pile-in. Are gold buyers now betting on a stagflationary outcome where the Fed cuts without inflation being anchored at the 2% target? The price action around the US CPI release tomorrow ought to be illuminating.
Leaving the day-to-day movements to one side, we are also seeing further signs of structural change at the macro level. The UK budget last week included a provision for the creation of a British ISA. That is, an Individual Savings Account that provides tax breaks to savers who invest their money in the stock of British companies. This follows moves last year to encourage pension funds to head up the risk curve by allocating 5% of their capital to unlisted investments.
As a Hail Mary option for a government cruising toward an electoral drubbing it’s a curious choice, but it’s worth highlighting as cash-strapped governments increasingly see private savings pools as a funding solution for their spending priorities.
Of course, the UK is not alone in making creeping moves towards financial repression. In contrast to announcements today of increased trade liberalisation, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has in the recent past flagged his interest in tapping private pension savings to fund state spending priorities, including defence, public housing and renewable energy projects. Both the UK and Australia appear intent on finding ways to open up the lungs of their economies, but government wants more say in directing private capital flows for state goals.
So, how far is the blurring of the lines between free markets and state planning likely to go? Given the immense and varied budgetary (and security) pressures that governments are facing, could we see a re-up of WWII-era Victory bonds, where private investors are encouraged to do their patriotic duty by directly financing government at negative real rates?
That would really light a fire under the gold market.
Spread & Containment
Fauci Deputy Warned Him Against Vaccine Mandates: Email
Fauci Deputy Warned Him Against Vaccine Mandates: Email
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Mandating COVID-19…
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Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Mandating COVID-19 vaccination was a mistake due to ethical and other concerns, a top government doctor warned Dr. Anthony Fauci after Dr. Fauci promoted mass vaccination.
“Coercing or forcing people to take a vaccine can have negative consequences from a biological, sociological, psychological, economical, and ethical standpoint and is not worth the cost even if the vaccine is 100% safe,” Dr. Matthew Memoli, director of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases clinical studies unit at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Dr. Fauci in an email.
“A more prudent approach that considers these issues would be to focus our efforts on those at high risk of severe disease and death, such as the elderly and obese, and do not push vaccination on the young and healthy any further.”
Employing that strategy would help prevent loss of public trust and political capital, Dr. Memoli said.
The email was sent on July 30, 2021, after Dr. Fauci, director of the NIAID, claimed that communities would be safer if more people received one of the COVID-19 vaccines and that mass vaccination would lead to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re on a really good track now to really crush this outbreak, and the more people we get vaccinated, the more assuredness that we’re going to have that we’re going to be able to do that,” Dr. Fauci said on CNN the month prior.
Dr. Memoli, who has studied influenza vaccination for years, disagreed, telling Dr. Fauci that research in the field has indicated yearly shots sometimes drive the evolution of influenza.
Vaccinating people who have not been infected with COVID-19, he said, could potentially impact the evolution of the virus that causes COVID-19 in unexpected ways.
“At best what we are doing with mandated mass vaccination does nothing and the variants emerge evading immunity anyway as they would have without the vaccine,” Dr. Memoli wrote. “At worst it drives evolution of the virus in a way that is different from nature and possibly detrimental, prolonging the pandemic or causing more morbidity and mortality than it should.”
The vaccination strategy was flawed because it relied on a single antigen, introducing immunity that only lasted for a certain period of time, Dr. Memoli said. When the immunity weakened, the virus was given an opportunity to evolve.
Some other experts, including virologist Geert Vanden Bossche, have offered similar views. Others in the scientific community, such as U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists, say vaccination prevents virus evolution, though the agency has acknowledged it doesn’t have records supporting its position.
Other Messages
Dr. Memoli sent the email to Dr. Fauci and two other top NIAID officials, Drs. Hugh Auchincloss and Clifford Lane. The message was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, though the publication did not publish the message. The Epoch Times obtained the email and 199 other pages of Dr. Memoli’s emails through a Freedom of Information Act request. There were no indications that Dr. Fauci ever responded to Dr. Memoli.
Later in 2021, the NIAID’s parent agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and all other federal government agencies began requiring COVID-19 vaccination, under direction from President Joe Biden.
In other messages, Dr. Memoli said the mandates were unethical and that he was hopeful legal cases brought against the mandates would ultimately let people “make their own healthcare decisions.”
“I am certainly doing everything in my power to influence that,” he wrote on Nov. 2, 2021, to an unknown recipient. Dr. Memoli also disclosed that both he and his wife had applied for exemptions from the mandates imposed by the NIH and his wife’s employer. While her request had been granted, his had not as of yet, Dr. Memoli said. It’s not clear if it ever was.
According to Dr. Memoli, officials had not gone over the bioethics of the mandates. He wrote to the NIH’s Department of Bioethics, pointing out that the protection from the vaccines waned over time, that the shots can cause serious health issues such as myocarditis, or heart inflammation, and that vaccinated people were just as likely to spread COVID-19 as unvaccinated people.
He cited multiple studies in his emails, including one that found a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in a California health care system despite a high rate of vaccination and another that showed transmission rates were similar among the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Dr. Memoli said he was “particularly interested in the bioethics of a mandate when the vaccine doesn’t have the ability to stop spread of the disease, which is the purpose of the mandate.”
The message led to Dr. Memoli speaking during an NIH event in December 2021, several weeks after he went public with his concerns about mandating vaccines.
“Vaccine mandates should be rare and considered only with a strong justification,” Dr. Memoli said in the debate. He suggested that the justification was not there for COVID-19 vaccines, given their fleeting effectiveness.
Julie Ledgerwood, another NIAID official who also spoke at the event, said that the vaccines were highly effective and that the side effects that had been detected were not significant. She did acknowledge that vaccinated people needed boosters after a period of time.
The NIH, and many other government agencies, removed their mandates in 2023 with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
A request for comment from Dr. Fauci was not returned. Dr. Memoli told The Epoch Times in an email he was “happy to answer any questions you have” but that he needed clearance from the NIAID’s media office. That office then refused to give clearance.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, said that Dr. Memoli showed bravery when he warned Dr. Fauci against mandates.
“Those mandates have done more to demolish public trust in public health than any single action by public health officials in my professional career, including diminishing public trust in all vaccines.” Dr. Bhattacharya, a frequent critic of the U.S. response to COVID-19, told The Epoch Times via email. “It was risky for Dr. Memoli to speak publicly since he works at the NIH, and the culture of the NIH punishes those who cross powerful scientific bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci or his former boss, Dr. Francis Collins.”
Government
Trump “Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes”, RFK Jr. Says
Trump "Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says
Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
President…
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Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
President Joe Biden claimed that COVID vaccines are now helping cancer patients during his State of the Union address on March 7, but it was a response on Truth Social from former President Donald Trump that drew the ire of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During the address, President Biden said: “The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer, turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does.”
President Trump wrote: “The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The VACCINES that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer—turning setback into comeback. YOU’RE WELCOME JOE. NINE-MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU.”
An outspoken critic of President Trump’s COVID response, and the Operation Warp Speed program that escalated the availability of COVID vaccines, Mr. Kennedy said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Donald Trump clearly hasn’t learned from his COVID-era mistakes.”
“He fails to recognize how ineffective his warp speed vaccine is as the ninth shot is being recommended to seniors. Even more troubling is the documented harm being caused by the shot to so many innocent children and adults who are suffering myocarditis, pericarditis, and brain inflammation,” Mr. Kennedy remarked.
“This has been confirmed by a CDC-funded study of 99 million people. Instead of bragging about its speedy approval, we should be honestly and transparently debating the abundant evidence that this vaccine may have caused more harm than good.
“I look forward to debating both Trump and Biden on Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas.”
Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination before declaring his run as an independent last October, claiming that the Democrat National Committee was “rigging the primary.”
Since the early stages of his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has generated more support than pundits expected from conservatives, moderates, and independents resulting in speculation that he could take votes away from President Trump.
Many Republicans continue to seek a reckoning over the government-imposed pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
President Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed, the program he rolled out in May 2020 to spur the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines amid the pandemic, remains a sticking point for some of his supporters.
Operation Warp Speed featured a partnership between the government, the military, and the private sector, with the government paying for millions of vaccine doses to be produced.
President Trump released a statement in March 2021 saying: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”
President Trump said about the COVID-19 vaccine in an interview on Fox News in March 2021: “It works incredibly well. Ninety-five percent, maybe even more than that. I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.
“But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”
On many occasions, President Trump has said that he is not in favor of vaccine mandates.
An environmental attorney, Mr. Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that aims to end childhood health epidemics by promoting vaccine safeguards, among other initiatives.
Last year, Mr. Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan that ivermectin was suppressed by the FDA so that the COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization.
He has criticized Big Pharma, vaccine safety, and government mandates for years.
Since launching his presidential campaign, Mr. Kennedy has made his stances on the COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general, a frequent talking point.
“I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they [vaccines] caused a lot more problems than they averted,” Mr. Kennedy said on Piers Morgan Uncensored last April.
“And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates, they had the lowest COVID and infection rates.”
Additional data show a “direct correlation” between excess deaths and high vaccination rates in developed countries, he said.
President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have similar views on topics like protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
COVID-19 is the topic where Mr. Kennedy and President Trump seem to differ the most.
Former President Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” when he took office in 2017, but he was “intimidated by bureaucrats” at federal agencies and did not accomplish that objective, Mr. Kennedy said on Feb. 5.
Speaking at a voter rally in Tucson, where he collected signatures to get on the Arizona ballot, the independent presidential candidate said President Trump was “earnest” when he vowed to “drain the swamp,” but it was “business as usual” during his term.
John Bolton, who President Trump appointed as a national security adviser, is “the template for a swamp creature,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Scott Gottlieb, who President Trump named to run the FDA, “was Pfizer’s business partner” and eventually returned to Pfizer, Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Kennedy said that President Trump had more lobbyists running federal agencies than any president in U.S. history.
“You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do something different,” Mr. Kennedy said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump “did not ask the questions that he should have,” he believes.
President Trump “knew that lockdowns were wrong” and then “agreed to lockdowns,” Mr. Kennedy said.
He also “knew that hydroxychloroquine worked, he said it,” Mr. Kennedy explained, adding that he was eventually “rolled over” by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his advisers.
MaryJo Perry, a longtime advocate for vaccine choice and a Trump supporter, thinks votes will be at a premium come Election Day, particularly because the independent and third-party field is becoming more competitive.
Ms. Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, believes advocates for medical freedom could determine who is ultimately president.
She believes that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling votes from Trump” because of the former president’s stance on the vaccines.
“People care about medical freedom. It’s an important issue here in Mississippi, and across the country,” Ms. Perry told The Epoch Times.
“Trump should admit he was wrong about Operation Warp Speed and that COVID vaccines have been dangerous. That would make a difference among people he has offended.”
President Trump won’t lose enough votes to Mr. Kennedy about Operation Warp Speed and COVID vaccines to have a significant impact on the election, Ohio Republican strategist Wes Farno told The Epoch Times.
President Trump won in Ohio by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed President Trump for the nomination in 2024.
“The positives of a Trump presidency far outweigh the negatives,” Mr. Farno said. “People are more concerned about their wallet and the economy.
“They are asking themselves if they were better off during President Trump’s term compared to since President Biden took office. The answer to that question is obvious because many Americans are struggling to afford groceries, gas, mortgages, and rent payments.
“America needs President Trump.”
Multiple national polls back Mr. Farno’s view.
As of March 6, the RealClearPolitics average of polls indicates that President Trump has 41.8 percent support in a five-way race that includes President Biden (38.4 percent), Mr. Kennedy (12.7 percent), independent Cornel West (2.6 percent), and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (1.7 percent).
A Pew Research Center study conducted among 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (42 percent) are more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (15 percent) to say they have received an updated COVID vaccine.
The poll also reported that just 28 percent of adults say they have received the updated COVID inoculation.
The peer-reviewed multinational study of more than 99 million vaccinated people that Mr. Kennedy referenced in his X post on March 7 was published in the Vaccine journal on Feb. 12.
It aimed to evaluate the risk of 13 adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccination. The AESIs spanned three categories—neurological, hematologic (blood), and cardiovascular.
The study reviewed data collected from more than 99 million vaccinated people from eight nations—Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, and Scotland—looking at risks up to 42 days after getting the shots.
Three vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines as well as AstraZeneca’s viral vector jab—were examined in the study.
Researchers found higher-than-expected cases that they deemed met the threshold to be potential safety signals for multiple AESIs, including for Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), myocarditis, and pericarditis.
A safety signal refers to information that could suggest a potential risk or harm that may be associated with a medical product.
The study identified higher incidences of neurological, cardiovascular, and blood disorder complications than what the researchers expected.
President Trump’s role in Operation Warp Speed, and his continued praise of the COVID vaccine, remains a concern for some voters, including those who still support him.
Krista Cobb is a 40-year-old mother in western Ohio. She voted for President Trump in 2020 and said she would cast her vote for him this November, but she was stunned when she saw his response to President Biden about the COVID-19 vaccine during the State of the Union address.
“I love President Trump and support his policies, but at this point, he has to know they [advisers and health officials] lied about the shot,” Ms. Cobb told The Epoch Times.
“If he continues to promote it, especially after all of the hearings they’ve had about it in Congress, the side effects, and cover-ups on Capitol Hill, at what point does he become the same as the people who have lied?” Ms. Cobb added.
“I think he should distance himself from talk about Operation Warp Speed and even admit that he was wrong—that the vaccines have not had the impact he was told they would have. If he did that, people would respect him even more.”
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Uncategorized3 weeks agoAll Of The Elements Are In Place For An Economic Crisis Of Staggering Proportions
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Uncategorized3 weeks agoCalifornia Counties Could Be Forced To Pay $300 Million To Cover COVID-Era Program
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International4 days agoEyePoint poaches medical chief from Apellis; Sandoz CFO, longtime BioNTech exec to retire
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Uncategorized2 weeks agoApparel Retailer Express Moving Toward Bankruptcy
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Uncategorized4 weeks agoIndustrial Production Decreased 0.1% in January
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International3 days agoWalmart launches clever answer to Target’s new membership program
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Uncategorized3 weeks agoRFK Jr: The Wuhan Cover-Up & The Rise Of The Biowarfare-Industrial Complex
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Uncategorized3 weeks agoGOP Efforts To Shore Up Election Security In Swing States Face Challenges