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Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on coronavirus crisis

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on coronavirus crisis

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coronavirus crisis Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon

CNBC transcript: Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon Speaks with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” today on coronavirus crisis

WHEN: Today, Thursday, April 2, 2020

WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street

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Watch CNBC’s full interview with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on coronavirus crisis

 

DAVID FABER: So, very happy, as well, that this morning we are now joined by David Solomon, of course, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who joins us from the company’s headquarters, where I would assume it’s a fairly lonely place. David, it’s great to have you this morning. Thank you for being with us.

DAVID SOLOMON: Good morning, guys. And thank you. Thank you for having me. And it is relatively quiet here at 200 West. We have about 98% of our employees working from home, working remotely. But there are some people that do have to be in the building to move money and for processes. And so, I have been making my center of operations from here. There are other people in the building. I feel like I should be here. And it’s certainly a very, very safe place to operate with so few people in the building.

DAVID FABER: Yeah. We are following similar protocols at CNBC. David, so much to ask you about. But let me just start off, broadly speaking, in terms of how you’re viewing risk right now at Goldman Sachs? A company that has been known, of course, for managing risk better than perhaps any of your peers. What is, right now, a real focus for you at Goldman Sachs in terms of what represents the biggest risk? Is it perhaps the CNBS market and real estate, is it private equity? I don’t know, but I’m curious as to where your focus is.

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: When you have a change, when you have a change in the economic environment, and especially one that’s happening as swiftly as this change has happened, it creates a real change in the perception of the risks that we all hold across all asset classes. And so, one of the things that we have been trying to with our clients across banking, market clients, asset management clients, is be in a position to talk to them about how they can manage, pare risks, think about risks on an ongoing basis. And I think one of the things that makes this difficult is the uncertainty that exists. It’s very easy to think about the direction of things when it’s easier to plot a course.

And obviously here, the uncertainty is very high, so we have been advising clients, and we’ve thought about this ourselves, you have got to be very, very prudent and thoughtful about the risks you’re taking. And try to weight and evaluate and understand how confidence will reoccur and how we’ll ultimately get the economy going again.

DAVID FABER: Yeah, I would assume one thing you’re advising, as I hear from so many other bankers, is if you have an opportunity to raise cash, you probably should do it. Do you agree with that? Are you seeing a lot of your companies trying to increase the liquidity, certainly those that are investment grade, hitting the capital markets, if possible?

DAVID SOLOMON: I think there’s no question, if you’re running a company, and in my discussions with CEOs running companies, one of the risk management perspectives at every company, every business, even small businesses, has to focus on is do I have enough liquidity to weather the economic environment we’re faced with. And so certainly, if you have an opportunity to increase your liquidity, to access the markets, to work with banks, to access liquidity, it’s very important that you re-underwrite your plan and have adequate liquidity to weather through this. We will get to the other side of this, but you have to be in a position where you have adequate liquidity and make sure you can manage through.

We’re spending a lot of time with clients helping them. As you referenced, David, the investment grade market opened up quite strong over the course of the last two weeks. I think you have heard this from a number of guests. Record issuance last week, record issuance for the month, record issuance for the quarter.

And so, high-grade companies have had access. But one of the things now that’s going to be important is to try to provide opportunities for other companies that are below investment grade, for smaller businesses to have access for capital, and that’s something we’re very, very focused on.

DAVID FABER: You know, David, you mentioned, of course, getting to the other side of this. Goldman has always been fairly good at adapting to changing positions. I can recall in 2009 after the financial crisis, the company had I think what still stands as your record year, $13.4 billion in profits. What are you doing right now to position the company for what you believe will be certainly a changed environment once we are past the coronavirus?

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: Well, I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion coming out of this crisis, as there is coming out of any crisis, as to what has to change, what adapts in society, how we change in society, so more people can participate, how things can be better, what can we learn from this? There will be a lot of that. For us, at the moment, we’re extremely focused in a different environment where people are working from home, how do we serve our clients?

How do we make sure that we can show up for our clients and help them at this difficult time? And also, because this is such a humanitarian crisis, how can we as an organization be helping those in need? How can we find ways to support those that are vulnerable and underserved? And so, at the moment, we’re focused on our people, we’re focused on our clients, and we’re focused on helping those that need. I think there’s plenty to do on those three things. And there will be plenty of time when we come out of this to focus on the way we and all other businesses will need to evolve.

DAVID FABER: David, I know you have had people there, of course, giving the ability you have to analyze things, analyzing the virus, trying to understand the progression, the spread. What are your best guesses in terms of when we will get to the other side of this? We’re obviously in the midst right now of unprecedented conditions. This unemployment claims number we got an hour or so ago was truly just shocking in so many ways, and many are preparing for what they believe will be a very deep recession. What are your views on that and on how quickly we’re going to come out of this?

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: So, I’m obviously not a medical expert, although I find myself, you know, talking to lots of medical experts, and I think it’s important, you know, to listen and to try to learn and try to understand. But things are still very uncertain. And so, I think it’s very hard to predict. I do personally think we will move forward as we continue to build more confidence around our health care resources, and so I think it’s very, very important that the focus that’s now on improving our health care resources throughout the country, so that we can help people in need right now, it’s super important.

Testing is very, very important. There are a lot of advances in testing that are coming very, very quickly, but creating better access to testing, which creates better information and better data. These are the things, kind of the underpinning of the health care services we’re providing, that will allow us to build confidence and then, ultimately as that confidence is built and we have a better understanding of the trajectory of the virus, it will give us the opportunity to start to slowly open up parts of the economy to find ways to have people back participating safely so that we start to get things going again.

You know, there’s no question, David, that we were late to this. We were slow to adapt. But I really see now lots of focus. I see focus from government. I see enormous focus from the private sector. And I know with the resources we have, the ingenuity we have, the creativity, I’m very optimistic that we’ll make progress. It’s hard to predict, but I’m optimistic we’ll make progress and start to plot a path forward in the coming weeks.

JIM CRAMER: David, it’s Jim.

DAVID SOLOMON: Hi, Jim.

JIM CRAMER: How are you doing?

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: I’m good. How are you?

JIM CRAMER: Last time I saw you was Super Bowl weekend, I think it was the last weekend in this country—the last weekend we’ll ever remember –

DAVID SOLOMON: It seems like a long time ago. And I’m glad you can see me because I can’t see you.

JIM CRAMER: I wanted to ask you, I mean, look, full disclosure, I worked at Goldman and it’s a huge position in my travel trust. You announced a stunningly big dividend hike last summer. Can you tell me whether that’s now under reevaluation or can you reaffirm your commitment to the dividend?

DAVID SOLOMON: Sure. Sure, Jim. When we announced our dividend hike last summer, you know this and you’ll recognize this, we were in a place where our dividend, as a portion of our return of capital, was out of sync with where the rest of the industry was. We were much lower. And we had always relied very, very heavily, almost entirely, on share repurchases, our form of capital return. And we thought there needed to be more of a balance.

So, we brought our dividend up so it was closer to, but not quite where the rest of our peer group would be. You know, I think the discussion about dividend right now is a discussion about capital return, and one of the things I know you saw because as an industry, the banking industry wants to be in a position to lend, to provide liquidity, to support our clients.

The group of large banks made a collective decision to stop our capital return through buybacks right now, which is a significant portion of our capital return. I know dividends are getting a lot of attention because over in Europe there’s been quite a bit of attention, and European banks are in a different place than U.S. banks. And European banks also have dividend, which is paid once a year, as a vast majority of their capital return, and a very, very significant part of their earnings. You know, here in the United States, it’s a much smaller part of capital return. We’ve already, as an industry, stopped the significant part of capital return so we’re in a position to lend to our clients. But it’s my expectation we’ll continue to pay our dividend.

JIM CRAMER: Okay. And the Goldman I know, it’s still the same Goldman I believe. There was only 900 people when I was there—know everyone’s name. But the commitment to the employees was always extraordinary. Can you take a pledge that you won’t lay anybody off in the next three months?

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: I have been very, very clear to our people that during our crisis, people’s jobs are safe. We’re incredibly focused, Jim, on our employees and our community. We’re trying to find ways to add support that we’re giving. We made an announcement earlier this week that we’re increasing the amount of emergency home leave to two weeks that people can take. People have parents or family members, they need emergency home leave. So, we have increased that. You know, I have been personally focused on the fact there are all sorts of people in our Goldman community that might need support.

We have people that are security guards that work for us that work in the cafeteria and food service, that work in cleaning, these are people that are Goldman employees but they’re part of the Goldman family and community, and we’re working with the vendors and the unions to make sure that because of what’s going on, their incomes have been affected, we’re making up the difference. So, we care deeply about our employees, and we’re very, very focused on their safety, their security, and their wellbeing during this crisis.

CARL QUINTANILLA: Hey, David, it’s Carl.

DAVID SOLOMON: Hi, Carl.

CARL QUINTANILLA: You rolled out this morning a plan–good to see you—a plan to give aid to small business. $300 million, act as a complement to the federal program. There’s a report out of Reuters that some banks are nervous in participating in the program for fear of legal risk, financial risk. What are you telling small businesses about the opportunity to get loans and how to navigate what is going to be an enormous amount of red tape?

DAVID SOLOMON: Sure. First, we have been very focused on small businesses at Goldman Sachs for quite some time because we think small businesses are such an important part of the overall economy. I think you’re all aware of our 10,000 small business program, which has given us great insight into small businesses for a number of years, over the course of the last decade. I participated earlier this week in what I call a town hall session where we had 1500 of those small businesses on a conference call with myself and Senators Cardin and Rubio, who as I think you know, lead the small business subcommittee that was very, very involved in the small business provisions that are in this bill.

This bill obviously provides $350 billion, which I know we all want to get quickly into small businesses that need help, that need support. And we’re committed to do that. A lot of small businesses will access that through their existing banks. They’ll go to their existing banks where they have checking or they have got a relationship. We have always been focused on community development financial institutions, which are kind of a layer below banks, that in particular serve small businesses that might not have the same access to the banking system in more vulnerable communities, we have supported these CDFIS for a long, long time.

And so as a part of our effort to participate in this and get capital to these smaller businesses quickly, especially in these more vulnerable areas where they might not be as connected to the banking system, we pledged in that pledge $25 million that will go to supporting the infrastructure around CDFIS, to give CDFIS the opportunity to ramp up quickly and get more money deployed. And in addition, we pledged $250 million of our balance sheet that can be deployed through these CDFIS to small businesses.

So, from our perspective, we’re excited to play our role in helping get our capital and our balance sheet deployed out to these small businesses that are in such need right now. And so that’s a focus, and we have been working hard at that.

DAVID FABER: David, you also have insight into the consumer now that I think you might not have had as an institution not that long ago, given your efforts in retail. Of Marcus is a name we know at this point that is a part of that. What are you seeing on that front in terms of balances, in terms of need on the credit side, and what are your expectations there for that business given this economic turmoil?

DAVID SOLOMON: Sure. We obviously are focused on our Marcus platform and our consumer business. You know, I would start by saying, and I know you all recognize this, it’s still a relatively small business when you think about the big consumer businesses that are out there. But I think for one, on the deposit side, we offer a very, very attractive offering. Right now, an overnight government guaranteed deposit on Marcus is 1.7%. A twelve-month CD is higher than that – I think 1.8 or 1.85.

What we’re seeing, because people are raising cash and they have cash, we’ve actually seen during the course of the last few weeks, people coming to Marcus at an increased pace. And so we’ve seen our deposit flows have increased in Marcus, because we think we have a compelling offering.

On the lending side of Marcus and our credit card business, we’re certainly seeing change in behavior very quickly. Through the credit card, we have insight. And as you would expect, spending particularly around travel and leisure and restaurants and you know, being out and entertainment has plummeted. But you’ve seen some pick up in spending on staples, food services, those kinds of things. Obviously given the pressure that’s on everyday individuals, because of this crisis, you know, there will be pressure on those businesses. And one of the things we’re very focused on is helping consumers.

We have a program where people can opt in to defer their interest payments on their Marcus loans or their credit card loans and it’s simple. You just text to Marcus or just text into Apple Card and you can defer your interest at this point in time, your interest in payments. And so, we’re very small in that space, but we’re trying to do our part. And we’re watching it quickly. It’s very early to see big, big patterns with our small data set.

DAVID FABER: You know, speaking of numbers and data, David, you mentioned the top of the interview, 98% of your employees are not working from your headquarters or are working remotely or from home. Once we get through this, is that going to become more the norm? Are you expecting significant changes in sort of work behavior? And how would you approach it at Goldman Sachs?

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO DAVID SOLOMON: So, the first thing I have to say is I’m so proud of our people at Goldman Sachs. If you had told me, David, you know, even a couple months ago that we would have 98% of our employees working remotely and we’d be able to serve our clients, take care of our people, participate in the economic system, play our role as smoothly as it’s going, and I won’t say it’s perfect, there’s certainly bumps in the road.

But their commitment, their flexibility, it’s really been awesome. And I’m so, so proud of our team and what they’re doing. Now, obviously when you go through something like this, you know, it forces you to ask questions and think about things differently. We’ve certainly had certain parts of our business where people travel and they work remotely regularly. But I think what’s interesting is it creates a new lens to think about things that can continue to make this a very attractive place for people to work. It can change the way we have our real estate footprint over time. But I think those are longer-term things. I’m not at this point a big believer that the shakeup or the change once we get to the other side will be swift and dramatic.

But it will be gradual. And, you know, it will, I assume, increase the amount of video conferencing. It will make us more comfortable with tools like that. It will make us more comfortable in providing more flexibility to employees which, by the way, makes this a more attractive place for people to work. We’re trying to act on those things. But I think those, David, are more down the road things to think about. Right now, again, focused on our people, their safety, their health. How do we help in communities? And how do we help people in need? How do we serve our clients? There will be lots of time when we get through this to the other side to think about those other things.

DAVID FABER: Yeah. And we hope there’s going to be time between for you to join us again, David, as we continue to obviously watch an unfolding -- well, very difficult time here in the United States and around the world. But thank you for taking some time. David, the CEO of Goldman Sachs joining us.

DAVID SOLOMON: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me guys. Please stay safe, stay healthy. And I appreciate you having me today.

The post Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on coronavirus crisis appeared first on ValueWalk.

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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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Fauci Deputy Warned Him Against Vaccine Mandates: Email

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.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, ex-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID. in Washington on Jan. 8, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

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.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 17:40

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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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Trump "Clearly Hasn't Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

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.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mitch Ranger for The Epoch Times)

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.

Vice President Mike Pence (L) and President Donald Trump deliver an update on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Nov. 13, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

President Donald Trump greets the crowd before he leaves at the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in Washington on Dec. 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

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.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 17:00

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Aging at AACR Annual Meeting 2024

BUFFALO, NY- March 11, 2024 – Impact Journals publishes scholarly journals in the biomedical sciences with a focus on all areas of cancer and aging…

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BUFFALO, NY- March 11, 2024 – Impact Journals publishes scholarly journals in the biomedical sciences with a focus on all areas of cancer and aging research. Aging is one of the most prominent journals published by Impact Journals

Credit: Impact Journals

BUFFALO, NY- March 11, 2024 – Impact Journals publishes scholarly journals in the biomedical sciences with a focus on all areas of cancer and aging research. Aging is one of the most prominent journals published by Impact Journals

Impact Journals will be participating as an exhibitor at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024 from April 5-10 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. This year, the AACR meeting theme is “Inspiring Science • Fueling Progress • Revolutionizing Care.”

Visit booth #4159 at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 to connect with members of the Aging team.

About Aging-US:

Aging publishes research papers in all fields of aging research including but not limited, aging from yeast to mammals, cellular senescence, age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s diseases and their prevention and treatment, anti-aging strategies and drug development and especially the role of signal transduction pathways such as mTOR in aging and potential approaches to modulate these signaling pathways to extend lifespan. The journal aims to promote treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging, validation of anti-aging drugs by treating age-related diseases, prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. Cancer and COVID-19 are age-related diseases.

Aging is indexed and archived by PubMed/Medline (abbreviated as “Aging (Albany NY)”), PubMed CentralWeb of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (abbreviated as “Aging‐US” and listed in the Cell Biology and Geriatrics & Gerontology categories), Scopus (abbreviated as “Aging” and listed in the Cell Biology and Aging categories), Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science).

Please visit our website at www.Aging-US.com​​ and connect with us:

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Click here to subscribe to Aging publication updates.

For media inquiries, please contact media@impactjournals.com.


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