As it turned out, the ‘war’ was actually a ‘war of words’. In one sense, Trump turned out to be the greatest proponent of Article 19, then our own American Press.
| Obama, who campaigned on a promise to protect government whistle-blowers, made greater use of the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers and menace journalists than all other presidents combined.
Obama’s Justice Department accessed the personal email of a Fox News reporter and surveilled the reporter’s parents and colleagues. They seized the home, work and mobile phone records of journalists at the Associated Press.
Risen, who fought the administration to protect his sources, got so deep in his own legal battle with Obama that he selected a reading list for prison before the government finally backed off.
White House officials subverted the press in a number of ways while touting themselves as the most transparent in history.
Obama routinely banned news photographers from official events. He went months between press conferences and used social media to circumvent reporters.
First lady Michelle Obama took policy trips overseas with no press on her airplane. The White House scrubbed public visitor logs of names it didn’t want in the news.
The Obama administration posted the worst record in history for fulfilling requests for public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a bleak episode of unintended irony, an open-government group gave Obama an award for transparency in an Oval Office ceremony closed to the press.
Trump may well end up being worse on press issues than Obama, and today’s White House reporters could be picking out their prison reading lists eventually.
But for now, those on duty there are guardedly hopeful. | ~ Paragraph 8 on, Variety
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Top Researchers Are Calling For A Real Investigation Into The Origin Of Covid-19
Photo By REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A group of prominent biologists say there needs to be a “safe space” for asking whether the coronavirus came out of a lab.
A year ago, the idea that the covid-19 pandemic could have been caused by a laboratory accident was denounced as a conspiracy theory by the world’s leading journals, scientists, and news organizations. But the origin of the virus that has killed millions remains a mystery, and the chance that it came from a lab has become the theory that cannot be put to rest.
Now, in a letter in the journal Science, 18 prominent biologists—including the world’s foremost coronavirus researcher—are lending their weight to calls for a new investigation of all possible origins of the virus, and calling on China’s laboratories and agencies to “open their records” to independent analysis.
“We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data,” the scientists write.
Full Article: [Top researchers are calling for a real investigation into the origin of covid-19]
Pentagon Withdraws 120 US Troops From Israel
The Department of Defense confirmed it is pulling 120 troops from Israel amid a flare-up in tensions between Jerusalem and designated terrorist groups in Gaza. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters that U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command staff flew on a C-17 military plane from Israel and arrived at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base on Thursday. “We made this decision to remove these individuals in coordination with our Israeli counterparts,” Kirby said, adding that the military staff “were in Israel for a routine planning event” before the fighting escalated. The move was done as a precaution, Kirby said. Israel carried out a number of airstrikes on targets in Gaza in recent days, including hitting buildings that were reportedly being used by Hamas—the group that rules over Gaza and was designated as a terrorist group by the State Department in 1997. The airstrikes were in response to Hamas and other groups …
Roger Waters, Sitting by Poster Comparing America to Nazis, Trashes Israel
Former Pink Floyd frontman Rogers Waters used a poster linking America and Nazism as a backdrop during an interview with RT on Friday.
Waters spoke with RT — formerly known as Russia Today, a English-lnguage news media outlet run by the Russian government — about ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
The poster had the message “USSA,” with the two ses, referring to the Nazi Germany’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary, commonly referred to with the acronym “SS.” Waters joined RT remotely from his apartment in New York City.
Biden’s overtures to Iran undercut US bid to end Hamas-Israel conflict
With rockets flying and violence escalating in the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration announced Wednesday that it dispatched Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to the region, in an effort to broker calm between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. The likelihood of a successful mission is low. But that’s not Amr’s fault; it’s President Joe Biden’s. His Middle East foreign policy is simply out of sync with this mission.
In past conflicts, senior American officials often found ways to steer both sides to a ceasefire, even when Israel wasn’t quite satisfied with the results on the battlefield. But Jerusalem always acquiesced to Washington in the end, out of deference to the close ties between the two nations.
Given America’s foreign policy these days, it’s not clear how that will fly. Israeli officials are not exactly eager to hear America’s view of Iranian-backed terrorists like Hamas. Tensions are at a zenith, thanks to the Biden administration’s stubborn insistence that now is the time to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the flawed 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Israeli military accused of using media to trick Hamas
Militaries around the world have long used deception and trickery against their enemies.
JERUSALEM — Early Friday, just after midnight, the Israeli military put out an ominous statement to the media: “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”
The terse statement set off frenzied speculation that Israel had launched a ground invasion of Gaza — a much-feared scenario that would mark a bloody escalation of this week’s operation against Hamas militants. Some reporters were even told outright the incursion had begun.
Hours later, the military issued a “clarification.” There were no troops inside Gaza. But by then, several major news outlets had erroneously reported the ground offensive was under way.
While the army attempted to play down the incident as a misunderstanding, well-placed Israeli military commentators said the media had been used as part of an elaborate ruse to lure Hamas militants into a deadly trap that may have killed dozens of fighters.
“They didn’t lie,” said Or Heller, a veteran military correspondent on Israel’s Channel 13 TV. “It was a manipulation. It was smart and it was successful.” . . .
Deadly Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Continues
Tensions between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group continue with no end in sight. On Friday, Israel bombed Gaza with artillery fire and airstrikes, and Hamas has fired almost 2,000 rockets at Israel in the last five days.
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Israeli Strike on Gaza Kills 10, Unrest Spreads to West Bank
Gaza City, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli air raid in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike since the battle with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers erupted earlier this week. Both sides pressed for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gathered strength.
Israel flattens media building in Gaza, destroying offices of Associated Press, other outlets
The Israeli military destroyed a Gaza building on Saturday containing the offices of several international media outlets including those of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, both organizations confirmed following the strike.
The Israeli Defense Forces airstrike leveled Jala Tower in Gaza, flattening the building “that house[d] Al Jazeera and other international media outlets in Gaza City,” Al Jazeera said in a tweet on Saturday morning.
The Associated Press, meanwhile, confirmed in a news report that the building that had been destroyed “housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets.”
More than 15,600 East Coast gas stations report out of fuel, after pipeline cyber attack
U.S. officials anticipate the gas situation will return to normal by the weekend.
FARRELL: Democrats Have Decided Every Part Of Their Big Government Agenda Counts As Infrastructure
From Chris Farrell’s Op-Ed for The Daily Caller:
Wednesday’s White House summit with congressional leaders on the $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, officially known as the American Jobs Plan, made little headway in forging bipartisan consensus. A large part of the problem is that President Biden and Congressional Democrats have decided that virtually any aspect of their big-government agenda can be redefined as infrastructure and tossed in the mix.
For example, fighting climate change is now part of infrastructure. The bill would fund a “Civilian Climate Corps,” a nod to the old Civilian Conservation Corps from the FDR era, which seeks to “put a new, diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, and advancing environmental justice.” In other words, it will spend billions to underwrite make-work jobs with full health benefits for environmental activists who can’t find gainful employment in the private sector. There are also $175 billion in subsidies for electric vehicles, which could very well be a replay of the Solyndra solar panels debacle. And throughout the bill are nods to promoting green best practices and “environmental justice,” whatever that is.
Education is now part of infrastructure. There is $100 billion devoted to public schools, on top of the $128 billion from the COVID-19 relief bill. A further $12 billion goes to community colleges, in addition to the planned $109 billion in the American Families Act to provide two years of tuition-free education. And other billions are devoted to reducing “racial and gender inequities” in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. . .
Guantánamo Detainee Agrees to Drop Call for C.I.A. Testimony
Under a deal with the military court, Majid Khan, who has admitted being a courier for Al Qaeda, will give up his chance to call witnesses to his torture in return for being released as soon as next year.
Psaki: Teaching ‘1619 Project,’ Critical Race Theory in College is ‘Responsible’
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday said it is responsible for colleges to teach the idea that racism is embedded in the American system, dismissing criticism that such teaching aims at indoctrinating American youth. . . .
Legacy Media Finally Calls Out the Experts for Their COVID-19 Misrepresentations
The coverage on COVID-19 has taken a strange turn in the legacy media. For a while now, cable news anchors have been pressing Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, and other administration members about continued mask-wearing and other restrictions for vaccinated individuals. Quite frankly, their answers never made any sense after the CDC put out guidance that vaccinated individuals who were exposed to a COVID-19 positive individual did not need to quarantine if they did not have symptoms.
That guidance meant that the vaccines effectively prevent illness from COVID-19, and data on breakthrough infections supported that idea weeks ago. The risk is approximately one in a million that a vaccinated individual will become ill and die from COVID-19. The CDC also noted in the reporting that the risk for this is in the expected demographic. That means the elderly with pre-existing conditions. So if you are under 65 and healthy and this news scares you, don’t ever get in your car, cross a city street, or use stairs or climb a ladder. Your lifetime odds of dying doing one of those is well under one in a thousand. . .
Covid UK: SAGE says Indian variant could lead to 1,000 deaths and 10k hospital admissions a day
SAGE says it’s a ‘realistic possibility’ the Indian variant is 50% MORE infectious than dominant Kent strain and could lead to 1,000 Covid deaths and 10,000 hospital admissions a day by summer
- SAGE model warns that up to 10,000 people per day could be hospitalised in summer in worst-case scenario
- But scientists are optimistic vaccines will work against the strain and still no evidence it is more dangerous
- Public Health England report showed cases in the UK more than doubled in a week from 520 to 1,313
‘Foot soldiers’ of Birmingham to BLM: ‘Keep on keeping on’
Veterans of the campaign that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead to eradicate racial segregation in Birmingham nearly 60 years ago remain firmly in the corner of racial justice now that they’re old and gray.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Charles Avery had barely started marching when police arrested him, forced him into a police vehicle and took him to jail for participating in landmark civil rights protests that helped change the nation in 1963. He spent days in custody and then lived decades haunted by a conviction for the most innocuous of offenses — parading without a permit — that he saw as noble yet others questioned with suspicion.
“I had to explain what it was, that it was from Birmingham,” said Avery, 76. “It always came up.”
Yet Avery said he’d do it again all these years later, and he has a message for the thousands of demonstrators who have been arrested nationwide during the months-long uprising over police violence and racism: Keep going. A lifelong mark in the name of justice is worth the trouble.
Veterans of the campaign that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead to eradicate racial segregation in Birmingham nearly 60 years ago remain firmly in the corner of racial justice now that they’re old and gray, with some joining in protests that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police last year and others watching at home on TV.
Nonviolence was King’s way, and some are put off by scenes of burning buildings and rioting that accompanied some protests, including one in Birmingham. But foot soldiers who first advocated for the idea that Black lives matter decades ago now support the movement of the same name; The Associated Press interviewed some of them ahead of an online commemoration of the ‘63 Children’s Crusade protests held Friday that focused on challenges facing young people today. . .
Democrats Press Forward to Create a Commission on the Capitol Riot
House Democrats are pressing forward with a bipartisan proposal to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, after reaching agreement with a key Republican to drop his party’s demand to look into left-wing violence at racial justice protests.
The deal announced on Friday between Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Representative John Katko of New York, the panel’s senior Republican, could break a partisan logjam that has persisted for months around the commission.
It was not clear whether Republican leaders would support it after insisting that any investigation into the deadly riot at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob also look at violence by Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, said shortly after the announcement that he had not signed off on the plan and still needed to review its details.
Mosques disappear as China strives to ‘build a beautiful Xinjiang’
In recent months, China has stepped up a campaign on state media and with government-arranged tours to counter reports that say thousands of mosques have been targeted in a crackdown on the region’s mostly Muslim Uighur people.
A Look Back, November 20, 2020 | “Rep. Devin Nunes on the Election: ‘Biden Team Is Putting on a Facade That They’ve Won’ | American Thought Leaders” | Video: 36 Minutes 27 Seconds
Big tech and corporate media played an outsized role in the 2020 election, says California Congressman and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes. And based on how the Biden team is responding to evidence of election irregularities and potential fraud, former Vice President Biden does not seem confident in victory, Nunes says (November 20, 2020).
[This is part of the Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” excellent ongoing discussions on important issues. Epoch TV]
BREAKING: Trump Responds To 17.5% Ballot Discrepancy In Arizona, Claim That Biden Likely ‘Did Not Win’ The State
President Donald Trump issued a statement after it was reported that up to 17.5% of the ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona do not match the totals provided to auditors by the Maricopa County election officials. In the statement, President Trump slammed the election as “corrupt” and from the “third world.”
“A devastating letter written by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann on voting irregularities, and probably fraud, in Maricopa County during the 2020 Presidential Election. Even the database was illegally deleted after the subpoena to produce the information,” wrote President Trump, referring to the letter where it was revealed that there was a 17.5% discrepancy in the number of ballots provided versus the number of ballots listed in at least one instance. “Senate President Fann has invited Maricopa County officials to a public hearing on May 18 to allow them the opportunity to try to explain what happened to the missing databases, ballots, and other significant issues.”
President Trump added, “The Fake News and Lamestream Media is doing everything they can not to cover this major story. They just refuse to talk or report about it. They don’t want the United States or World to see what is going on with our corrupt, third world election.” President Trump also added a link to the letter written by Senate President Karen Fann.
As National File reported, this nearly-20% gap is far beyond what the Federal Elections Commission legally allows. According to political strategist Boris Ephsteyn, “It’s absolutely mind boggling, anything above a tiny fraction of a percentage is unacceptable, by the way, unacceptable according to the Federal Elections Commission.”
“We now know why the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have been fighting this subpoena so hard, why Perkins Coie has come in, why the Democrats are pushing back, why you’ve got mainstream media melting down,” he explained, “Because they’re hiding this. They’re hiding the disaster in which they handled this election, and likely, the fact that Joe Biden did not win in Arizona.” (READ MORE: Mark Kelly Hires Perkins Coie To Sue National File, Here’s How You Can Help)
President Trump also referred to the directory full of election databases deleted by Maricopa County officials, while under subpoena, only days before the electronic equipment was delivered to the Arizona auditors. The official Maricopa Arizona Audit Twitter account, controlled by former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said this constitutes “spoliation of evidence.”
Jim and Joe Hoft React to Criminal Destroying of Voting Machine Evidence in AZ | Video: 11 Minutes 10 Seconds
Jim and Joe Hoft, of the Gateway Pundit, react to the bombshell breaking news out of Maricopa County.
Wisconsin Gov. rips Sidney Powell’s lawsuit filled with factual errors in court filing
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) lambasted former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell in court filings on Wednesday, stating that the attorney filed a suit with factual errors. The state of Wisconsi…
Two climbers, an American and a Swiss, die from exhaustion in first fatalities on Everest this year
Puwei Lui, 55, from the US, and Abdul Waraich, 41, (pictured) from Switzerland, collapsed while descending the slopes of the mountain on Wednesday, hiking company officials said.
Over 15,000 Gas Stations Out of Fuel Nationwide
Gas shortages eased slightly overnight in some states but worsened in others as Colonial Pipeline works to bring one of the nation’s major fuel conduits back online. More stations were out of gas in Florida, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi early Thursday compared to Wednesday night, according to GasBuddy. In Florida, 30 percent of […]
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Rep. Liz Cheney Leaves Door Open for 2024 Presidential Run, Won’t Leave GOP
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), after she was ousted from her House Republican leadership position, said Thursday that she won’t leave the GOP and did not rule out running for president. In an interview with “Today,” Cheney, now the former House Republican Conference chair, was asked several times about whether she wants to run for president in 2024 to prevent former President Donald Trump from winning the presidency again. “I’m going do everything that I can—both to make sure that that never happens, but also to make sure that the Republican Party gets back to substance and policy,” Cheney said, adding that she will “absolutely” again run for Wyoming’s lone House seat in 2022. Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, also said that she will not leave the Republican Party. House Republicans in a Wednesday morning voice vote stripped Cheney of her position following her repeated public criticism …
BREAKING: Maricopa County Elections Officials DELETED ENTIRE DATABASE from Voting Machines – Including “All Election Information” from Main Database
Last week, the Gateway Pundit reported about the emergency meeting that was called by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, after the County was reportedly unable to provide passwords to the auditors performing an audit of the county’s 2020 Election results. They also did not provide access to the routers which were requested in the audit as well.
This afternoon, it was discovered that “the entire database” for the 2020 General election, showing the “Results Tally and Reporting,” has been deleted!
‘American Idol’ finalist Caleb Kennedy out after KKK-themed video surfaces
“American Idol” top-five finalist Caleb Kennedy has left the show after a video surfaced showing him next to someone wearing what appears to be a Ku Klux Klan hood.
A representative for the show confirmed to The Post that Kennedy will no longer be moving forward in the competition.
The singer, 16, posted a statement about his departure on Instagram Wednesday.
“Hey y’all, this is gonna be a bit of a surprise but I am no longer gonna be on ‘American Idol,’” he wrote. “There was a video that surfaced on the internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way. I was younger and did not think about the actions, but that’s not an excuse. I wanna say sorry to all my fans and everyone who I have let down. I’ll be taking a little time off social media to better myself, but saying that, I know this has hurt and disappointed a lot of people and made people lose respect for me. I’m so sorry! I pray that I can one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect! Thank you for supporting me.”
Over A Year Into The Pandemic, Politicians Are Still Getting Caught Ignoring Their Own COVID Restrictions
- Many lawmakers who have ordered or urged citizens not to leave their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic have not followed their own advice.
- Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for example, repeatedly implored residents not to travel but ignored her own advice, attended President Joe Biden’s inauguration, and visited her father.
- “Like a lot of children of parents who have health issues or relative who have health issues, I showed up when I was needed,” she said Wednesday. “I did a lot of cooking, a lot of cleaning.”
Former Ellen producer SLAMS DeGeneres for ‘duping fans into believing she’s a nice person’
A producer who worked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has come out swinging against her former employer – after the talk show host, 63, announced on Wednesday she was ending her program after 19 seasons.
Award-winning producer Hedda Muskat said DeGeneres’ show was destined for failure because she’d misled her fans into believing she was a ‘nice person’.
‘The viewers have spoken. Her ratings have been in the toilet for a long, long time now, her show has not been fun, it has not been interesting,’ Ms Muskat said on Australian breakfast show Sunrise.
Facebook board upholds Trump suspension
By BARBARA ORTUTAY, The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Former President Donald Trump won’t return to Facebook — for now.
The social network’s quasi-independent Oversight Board voted to uphold his ban from the platform after his account was suspended four months ago for inciting violence that led to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
While uploading the suspension, the board faulted Facebook for the way it made the decision.
“It was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension,” it said.
The board says Facebook has six months to reexamine the “arbitrary penalty” it imposed on Jan. 7 and decide on another penalty that reflects the “gravity of the violation and the prospect of future harm.”
Newsmax Apologizes for False Claims of Vote-Rigging by a Dominion Employee
The right-wing news site said it had found “no evidence” for pro-Trump conspiracy theories about Eric Coomer, who was Dominion’s director of product strategy and security.
Robert Downey Junior Discusses The Movie Tropic Thunder | Video: 10 Minutes 54 Seconds
On the Joe Rogan Show, Robert Downey, Jr. discusses whether or not Tropic Thunder could be made today.
Medical Racism: The New Apartheid | Video: 3 Minutes 38 Seconds
Medical Racism: The New Apartheid – From post-Civil War era and the Tuskegee Experiment to the present, explore the medical experimentation on Blacks in this unprecedented journey to unearth the truth.
Biden Admin To Resume Construction On Border Wall Amid Crisis
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will resume construction on part of the border wall in the Rio Grande, according to Fox News.
Construction is set to resume on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall after complaints from local residents and politicians, according to the report.
BREAKING: .@FoxNews has confirmed via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley will *RESUME* after pressure from local residents & politicians.
The Biden admin previously halted all wall construction in Jan.— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 12, 2021
USACE announced it has “resumed DHS-funded design & construction support on approx. 13.4 miles of levee in the Rio Grande Valley that were partially excavated or at various levels of construction when work on the wall was paused for review.”
The statement said USACE had started work to repair the Rio Grande Valley’s flood levee, but “this remediation work will not involve expanding border barrier.”
The Biden administration had previously halted the border wall construction in January, saying the wall was “not a serious policy solution.”
San Diego Sector Border Patrol has apprehended dozens of sex offenders so far in fiscal year 2021
San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents have arrested more than three dozen sex offenders so far during fiscal year 2021.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that authorities apprehended a man on Sunday and discovered via records checks that “the Mexican national had been previously convicted of Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree by Forceable Compulsion.” The individual was a registered sex offender in the state of New York.
He was subsequently removed to Mexico, according to CBP.
“This year there has been an alarming uptrend in the apprehension of convicted sex offenders,” U.S. Border Patrol San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke said. “Thankfully, our agents are continually on the alert for bad actors who attempt to cross the border illegally.”
Santa Clara U. President Resigns After Inappropriate Behavior, Officials Say
A Jesuit priest who delivered the homily at a Mass for the inauguration of President Biden has resigned as the president of Santa Clara University after he engaged in inappropriate behavior, university officials said on Wednesday.
An investigation by the Jesuits West Province found that the priest, the Rev. Kevin O’Brien, “engaged in behaviors, consisting primarily of conversations, during a series of informal dinners with Jesuit graduate students that were inconsistent with established Jesuit protocols and boundaries,” the chairman of the university’s board of trustees said in a statement to the university community.
“The Province also advised the Board that alcohol was involved and that no inappropriate behavior was found in any settings outside of these dinners,” the statement said.
The statement, which did not elaborate further on the behavior, said that Father O’Brien, who had been placed on leave in March, notified the board of trustees that he was resigning on Sunday, and that the board accepted his resignation on Monday.
“The Board of Trustees takes this situation very seriously and fully supports those who came forward to provide their accounts,” said the statement from the board chairman, John M. Sobrato.
Children could soon get a COVID vaccine after Maryland kids pave way in trial
Brothers Christian, 8, and Gerald Mugera, 11, volunteered for a clinical trial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children … (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)
Eight-year-old Christian Mugera went first, extending his arm for a blood draw and then a needle stick for a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. His brother, 11-year-old Gerald, wanted to follow, but staff struggled to get a blood sample.
Their father, Dr. Charles Mugera, called them stoic in their potential contribution to science, as they were among the first scheduled to participate in a trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. The study is assessing the safety and efficacy of the Moderna vaccine in young children.
“We did explain to them about the trial,” Mugera said. “But more importantly for them, they think getting the vaccine will bring life back to normal. That’s more convincing for them. They know they get to go to school and see their friends.” While Christian got a shot Tuesday, Gerald wasn’t able to because the staff never could obtain his blood sample. That’s needed to test participants for antibodies.
Scientists running the trial say it’s important both that individual kids and society are protected. Children are the last and potentially pivotal group in the vaccination effort to end the pandemic.
“Without children, we are unlikely to have enough people vaccinated to completely turn the epidemic,” said Dr. James Campbell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in the medical school and the site’s principal investigator.
Cryptocurrency market tanks after Tesla suspends bitcoin transactions
The global cryptocurrency market lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company was suspending the use of bitcoin for vehicle purchases, a report said.
Musk made the announcement via tweet just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, at which point the entire cryptocurrency market was valued at about $2.43 trillion, CNBC reported, citing data from Coinmarketcap.com.