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What Recent Developments in the Fintech Space Mean for Our Future

What Recent Developments in the Fintech Space Mean for Our Future

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There have been several significant movements forward for digital assets, and there are more to come. Here’s what to keep an eye on.

The fintech industry has been changing rapidly. Digital assets, distributed ledger technology and central bank digital currencies are gaining momentum. Multi-trillion-dollar United States Federal Reserve System money creation has increased demand for digital assets, particularly Bitcoin (BTC).

Banks, brokers, commercial lenders, investment advisors, private investment funds, family offices, mutual funds, fintech entrepreneurs, lawmakers and private citizens should take note of several developments in this space.

Old wine, new bottles

The use of ledgers to track events and transactions is of ancient origin. DLT and blockchain technology combine venerable record-keeping techniques with new technologies — like storing old wine in new bottles. 

A primary goal of DLT is the creation of records with entries that must be verified by several, distributed parties in close to “real” time, making forgery much harder to achieve. No trusted intermediary is needed. DLT and blockchain technology differ in some respects. For instance, blockchain technology is generally permissionless or public, whereas DLT is generally permissioned and not publicly accessible. The prospective benefits of implementing DLT and blockchain technology connect many industries and countless applications.

Background on digital assets

Bitcoin and other digital assets, as with gold and other commodities, are goods to which people ascribe value in market transactions. Unlike gold, however, one can send or receive digital assets to or from anyone, anywhere in the world, instantaneously. 

The demand for digital assets, such as Bitcoin and CBDCs, including U.S. digital dollars, reflects the changing needs and desires of computer-savvy participants in the 21st-century economy. Only some banks have accounts with the Fed. Digital dollars have the potential to change that by allowing or perhaps requiring companies and individuals to open and maintain Fed accounts.

Congress and the Fed take on digital dollars

Centrist members of Congress, notably Illinois Democrat Bill Foster and Arkansas Republican French Hill, have been prodding the Fed to develop digital dollars. In a letter to Fed Chairman Jay Powell dated Sept. 30, 2019, Foster and Hill posed several pointed questions about digital dollars. They emphasized that “the primacy of the U.S. Dollar could be in long-term jeopardy from wide adoption of digital fiat currencies” and that the “usage of digital assets may well increasingly align with that of paper money in the future.” 

Chairman Powell responded on Nov. 19, 2019, that the Fed would continue to consider a CBDC for the U.S. but that the process would take time and careful consideration. He added that the motivations of other countries for pursuing CBDCs, such as the lack of “fast and reliable digital payment systems,” is not particularly relevant to the U.S.

Building momentum for digital dollars

Contra the Fed’s go-slow approach, other financial leaders have been advocating for the adoption of digital dollars. Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair testified before the Senate on Sept. 25, 2019, that digital dollar technology has been developing quickly and offers many prospective benefits, including nullifying the need for intermediaries and avoiding centralized ledgers with single points of failure.

Politicians, professors, fintech leaders and out-of-office bureaucrats continue to push the conversation, too. Of particular note in this regard is the Digital Dollar Project, a partnership between Accenture and the Digital Dollar Foundation. Digital Dollar Project publications offer commentary on digital dollars, including a U.S. CBDC that would be tokenized.

Digital dollar legislation catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic

The conversation about digital dollars came to the forefront again during the COVID-19 pandemic through new pieces of legislation, including the “Banking for All Act” and the Automatic BOOST to Communities Act, or the “ABC Act” introduced in March and April 2020, respectively. Both the Banking for All Act and the ABC Act present digital dollars as a more efficient delivery mechanism for stimulus relief funds, among other pieces of legislation that discuss digital dollars. 

These pieces of legislation provide an important step forward, but implementing new technologies will not happen all at once. For example, the digital dollars issued under the ABC Act would not be crypto assets, would not be CBDC and would not be used on a DLT network. The digital dollars issued under the ABC Act would be debt notations on a centralized ledger held by Americans in digital dollar wallets. Both the centralized ledger and the digital dollar wallets would be maintained by the Fed. In other words, American citizens would have individual accounts with the Fed.

Even though digital dollars legislation has yet to proceed in Congress, the Fed and U.S. lawmakers seem to be paying close attention to the evolution of digital assets. For instance, under the ABC Act, the Fed would issue digital dollars alongside the minting of two $1-trillion platinum coins. This requirement reflects aspects of so-called stablecoins, which are crypto assets backed by other assets (such as U.S. dollars or precious metals).

If digital dollars legislation actually proceeds, the impacts on the lives of millions of Americans would be significant. Indeed, tens of millions of Americans are unbanked or underbanked. These Americans could benefit directly from improved access to stimulus funds and other forms of governmental assistance. Considering that penny production will cease as of April 1, 2022, it seems plain that the Fed intends to “go digital” over time and perhaps more quickly than might have been predicted even just a few months ago.

Uses and benefits of digital assets

Those who are “bullish” on Bitcoin and other digital assets largely reacted positively to the news about digital dollars. Even though digital dollars remain a developing concept, many view their prospective adoption as a legitimizing force for digital assets in general, including crypto, which might result in more mainstream adoption. With limitless design possibilities, digital dollars, CBDCs and similar digital assets could be structured to serve a variety of purposes, including:

  • Fraud and corruption prevention. Fraud and abuse of government grants and loans are a concern for many, especially after the bail-out programs associated with the great recession of 2008. If digital dollars were used, they could be tracked reliably and in real-time such that the legal restrictions on use could be enforced far more easily. For example, the design of digital dollars could prevent the purchase of non-essential items like tobacco, while simplifying purchases of food, mortgage payments or rent, as well as uses for other ordinary necessities. 
  • Data benefits. Data on digital asset use and currencies, like digital dollars, could be collected and analyzed to determine more accurately how much potential demand exists, so future issuances, laws, policies and regulations can be tailor-made.
  • Efforts to minimize inflation. Digital assets that are decentralized, or are outside the control of a central bank, may provide a hedge against inflation fears because the decision to introduce more of them into the economy would not be made by a single entity, nation or individual. The hedge against inflation, in theory, works especially well with digital assets that are hard-capped, or limited in supply, like Bitcoin. Greater global investment in and reliance on decentralized digital assets as stores of value could lead to a more inflation-resistant future. Also, the efficiency and access benefits of digital assets could mean that more people worldwide could participate in contributing to global investments and capital, particularly those from rural areas or living in less stable locales.
  • International trade. International, decentralized digital assets could facilitate the expansion of international trade and improved access to international markets for economies that are unbanked, underbanked, or forced to use weak currencies subject to extreme inflation. The economies of several African and Latin American countries would likely benefit from such digital assets. In the right international legal framework, a global market that is more resilient at withstanding future disasters, including pandemics, is possible, and digital assets may prove to be part of the solution. 
  • Bribery and corruption. Bribery and corruption are key issues for participants in cross-border trade. Again, digital assets can facilitate better oversight and transparency, mitigating the use of funds by criminals, terrorists and other compliance risks. In this connection, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act and related laws could be amended and strengthened by including or accounting for digital assets. Legitimate privacy concerns can be addressed by product design and lawmaking.
  • Cybercrime. With a global population increasingly enabled to “work remotely” or “work from home,” many fear an increase in cybercrime — particularly due to the typically weak infrastructure of the average home office. Increased use of digital currency could improve the security of a working society that is increasingly digital and decentralized, particularly since technology can be leveraged to identify, locate, and apprehend hackers and cybercriminals.

Financial and technological superiority

As other countries, especially China, research and develop their own CBDCs, pressure on the U.S. to respond and to lead continues to mount. The design of these assets is rightly a topic of wide-ranging debate, and, as discussed above, the emergence of legislation addressing digital dollars is a step in the right direction. 

Congress is nearly equally in favor of digital assets, like Bitcoin, and opposed to it. Some assert that digital assets need to be controlled by the Fed; others reply that the very point of digital assets is to escape the control of central authorities. 

Given the recent economic downturn largely associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, there has arguably never been a better time for entrepreneurs, governments and individuals to create currencies, technologies, laws and policies that will better ensure a more stable, resilient future.

Professional investment community sees value in digital assets

Helping to build the legitimacy of recent developments in the fintech industry and digital assets, many members of the professional investment community increasingly view certain digital assets, including hard-capped Bitcoin, as a hedge against the adverse monetary and fiscal consequences many fear will follow the Fed’s recent printing of trillions of dollars. Legendary investors Paul Tudor Jones and David Swensen have seen their investments appreciate at rates that exceed other asset classes, year-to-date. Tudor Jones and Swensen would likely add that the short-term performance of Bitcoin has been irrelevant, given the asymmetric upside and potential diversification benefits that Bitcoin provides.

Ray Dalio, the chief investment officer and founder of Bridgewater Associates — one of the largest and most successful hedge fund managers — also has concerns over the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, given the unprecedented and on-going increase in U.S. dollar creation. Dalio has noted that reserve currencies go through cycles and that, just as the British pound was the world’s reserve currency before the U.S. dollar, so too the dollar is now facing reserve status challenges by China. Challenges to the U.S. dollar’s world reserve status, which may result in decreased demand, may make diversification into gold and, increasingly, digital assets like Bitcoin, more appealing to other investors.

The past several months have resulted in a significant movement forward for digital assets. Continued growth and changes in this space are expected for the foreseeable future.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article was co-authored by Patrick Daugherty, Michael Bresnahan Jr. and Zane Hatahet.

Patrick Daugherty is a partner at Foley & Lardner where he directs a corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance, financial regulatory and fintech practice devoted to capital formation, innovation and return of and on investment. He also leads the firm’s blockchain practice.

Michael Bresnahan Jr. is an associate at Foley & Lardner. He counsels fund managers on the formation and operation of venture capital, private equity, private credit, real estate and hedge funds. Michael also advises on public pension plans, university endowments, fund-of-funds, family offices and other institutional investors, and advises other clients on securities and fintech issues.

Zane Hatahet is an associate at Foley & Lardner where he advises on a wide range of business matters, including securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance and governance.

Their fintech law practice encompasses SEC, CFTC, Treasury FinCEN and other financial regulatory matters, mergers and acquisitions, finance and corporate legal services for public companies, entrepreneurs, broker-dealers, exchanges, registered investment advisers, venture capital, private equity, private credit, real estate and hedge funds, exchange-traded funds, public pension plans, university endowments, fund-of-funds, family offices and other institutional investors.

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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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Red Candle In The Wind

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 19:00

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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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