Important Takeaways:
- AstraZeneca admits for first time its Covid vaccine CAN cause rare side effect in tense legal fight with victims of ‘defective’ jab
- AstraZeneca has admitted in court for the first time that its Covid jab can cause a deadly blood clotting side effect.
- The exceedingly rare reaction is at the heart of a multi-million-pound class action by dozens of families who allege they, or their loved ones, were maimed or killed by the pharmaceutical titan’s ‘defective’ vaccine.
- Lawyers representing the claimants believe some of the cases could be worth up to £20m in compensation.
- Cambridge-based AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, acknowledged in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February that its vaccine ‘can, in very rare cases, cause TTS’.
- TTS is short for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome – a medical condition where a person suffers blood clots along with a low platelet count. Platelets typically help the blood to clot.
- AstraZeneca’s admission could lead to pay-outs on a case-by-case basis.
- Although accepted as a potential side effect for two years, it marks the first time the company has admitted in court that its jab can cause the condition, The Telegraph reports.
- Taxpayers will foot the bill of any potential settlement because of an indemnity deal AstraZeneca struck with the Government in the darkest days of Covid to get the jabs produced as quickly as possible while the country was paralyzed by lockdowns.
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Important Takeaways:
- World leaders are set to meet this week to talk out concerns about the potential for a future pandemic that could cause 20 times more fatalities than Covid.
- Disease X represents a hypothetical, currently unknown pathogen.
- Experts do not yet know what type of virus will trigger the next pandemic, but scientists have warned for decades that bird flu is the most likely contender.
- Others have long speculated Disease X would more generally come from zoonotic transmission — an animal virus or bacteria that jumps to humans.
- Some have even warned Disease X could be sparked by a biological mutation, an accident or a terror attack that catches the world by surprise and spreads fast.
- They said the infamous Disease X would most likely appear after a farm worker is infected with an animal-borne disease that mutates, but said they could not rule out the disaster would be sparked by a lab leak, a main theory as to the origin of the Covid pandemic.
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Important Takeaways:
- Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit why perceptions of the economy are poor in recent polling, despite some positive indicators, Dimon said inflation and other issues are holding it back, and again at the expense of lower earners.
- “If you look at the U.S., yes, you know, almost all-time low unemployment, but inflation is hurting people,” he said. “The bottom third, I kind of think they have a right to be p—ed off. I would probably be a little p—ed off if I were them.”
- “You’re all wealthy and have money and stuff like that, but their average wages are $15 to $20 [an hour]. They’re the ones who lost their jobs in COVID,” he said. “They’re dying five or six years younger than the rest of us. They’re the ones who don’t have medical insurance. They’re the ones where their schools don’t work. They’re the ones dealing with crime. What the hell have we done as a nation?”
- “Yeah, corporate profits are up because people are spending a lot of money. Where do they get the money? The government gave it to them. Well, of course, profits are up,” he added. “So, I’m quite cautious about the economy… I would just be a little careful about that just because it feels pretty good today.”
- The Biden administration has repeatedly touted low unemployment and declining rates of inflation, but a majority of Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and the economy is viewed as a place of vulnerability for the White House going into 2024.
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Important Takeaways:
- 36-hour shifts, 80-hour weeks: Workers are being burned out by overtime
- Virginia Beach firefighter Max Gonano was coming off a 24-hour shift on Father’s Day when he was told he’d have to work another 12 hours to cover for a staffing shortfall. By the time he got off work at 8 p.m., he’d missed the day with his 2-year-old and 4-year-old children and spent 36 hours straight at work.
- Long shifts with little rest and last-minute schedule changes have become a routine occurrence for Gonano and his colleagues, who have worked six times the amount of mandatory overtime hours this year that they did before the pandemic.
- From firehouses and police stations to hospitals and manufacturing plants, workers say they are being required to work increasing overtime hours to make up for post-pandemic worker shortages — leaving them sleep-deprived, scrambling to cover child care duties, and missing birthdays, holidays and vacations. While the extra hours can provide a financial boost, some workers say the trade-off is no longer worth it as they see no end in sight to a problem that has now lasted for several years.
- Staffing shortages have plagued the economy since the start of the pandemic, with many leaving the workforce to retire or take over child care needs, while others have switched professions, often to careers with better work-life balance or higher salaries. As a result, the number of open jobs has outstripped the number of workers willing or able to fill them. In August, employers reported 9.6 million job openings, an increase of 700,000 from July.
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Important Takeaways:
- A late-summer surge in new COVID cases has meant the return of face masks in some parts of the country, reigniting a political battle that quickly became the centerpiece of a broader fight over the response to the pandemic during the last two elections.
- President Joe Biden is at the center of the storm. Again.
- Biden, who wore a face mask throughout the 2020 presidential campaign and was constantly mocked by Donald Trump for doing so, donned a black face mask at a White House Medal of Honor ceremony for a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot on Tuesday. The day before the event, first lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID.
- “Don’t tell them I didn’t have it on when I walked in,” he joked.
- COVID mandates aren’t in the top five election issues right now but… it could come back up into the top three as something that motivates people to vote if he does this during an election year
- No matter what Biden does, the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps taken by the states and federal government are “more than likely going to be part of next year’s presidential campaign,”
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Important Takeaways:
- “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back covid lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear mongering about the new variants that are coming,” Trump said in a video message released on Thursday. “Gee whiz, you know what else is coming? An election.”
- “They want to restart the covid hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election,” he continued, adding “does that sound familiar?”
- “To every Covid tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply, so don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools; we will not accept your lockdowns; we will not abide by your mask mandates; and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates,” Trump continued in Thursday’s video.
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The American Heritage Dictionary “plagues”
- A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
- A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
- A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
Important Takeaways:
- As COVID cases flare, some schools and businesses reinstate mask mandates
- A familiar pandemic-era safety measure is making a comeback as new COVID-19 variants surface and cases of the disease flare in some parts of the U.S.: Mask mandates.
- The number of COVID-19 cases has climbed for several weeks, with health authorities saying they’re tracking the spread of three new variants.
- Morris Brown College in Atlanta this week announced that the small liberal arts school is reinstating its mask mandate for two weeks, citing COVID cases among students. As of Tuesday, the school required that all students and staff members wear masks, according to a statement from college president Dr. Kevin James. The college is also imposing restrictions on event sizes, including parties, and is resuming efforts to trace infections
- The latest CDC data shows that COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 30% across Georgia, driven by the spread of new variants.
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The American Heritage Dictionary “plagues”
1. A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
2. A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
3. A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
Important Takeaways:
- Biden Administration to Urge All Americans: Get a Coronavirus Booster Shot Now
- All Americans will be urged by the Biden administration to get a coronavirus booster shot this autumn ahead of what it claims is a new wave of infections, a White House official said Sunday.
- Reuters reports the official said while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an increase in infections and hospital admissions from the virus, overall levels remain low, however caution is urged.
- Moderna and other coronavirus vaccine makers Novavax, Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE have all reportedly created versions of their shots ready and aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant.
Read the original article by clicking here.
The American Heritage Dictionary “plagues”
- A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
- A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
- A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
Important Takeaways:
- ‘Disease X’: UK scientists begin developing vaccines against new pandemic
- UK scientists have begun developing vaccines as an insurance against a new pandemic caused by an unknown “Disease X”.
- The work is being carried out at the government’s high-security Porton Down laboratory complex in Wiltshire by a team of more than 200 scientists.
- They have drawn up a threat list of animal viruses that are capable of infecting humans and could in future spread rapidly around the world.
- Which of them will break through and trigger the next pandemic is unknown, which is why it’s referred to only as “Disease X”.
- Originally, it was focused on COVID and testing the effectiveness of vaccines against new variants.
- But scientists at the center are now involved in monitoring several high-risk pathogens, including bird flu, monkeypox and hantavirus, a disease spread by rodents.
- Bird flu is currently thought to be the most likely pandemic threat.
- The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says at least 30,000 seabirds have died around the UK this summer as a more virulent strain of the H5N1 virus has swept around the world.
- There is also evidence of limited spread in some mammals.
- And four people working on poultry farms in the UK have also tested positive, but were only mildly affected.
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