News 12 Staff
Oct 30, 2021, 10:39pm
Updated on: Oct 30, 2021, 10:39pm
On this weeks Connecticut Power & Politics, COVID-19vaccines for kids are just days away, but will it be required?
Also, Connecticut's attorney general is warning parents to watchout for cannabis candy this Halloween. And Sen. Richard Blumenthal is taking oneven more social media giants, but is Congress up to the job?
Republican Iowa Gov.Kim Reynoldson Friday signed a bill that allows residents to obtain unemployment benefits if they are fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Reynolds, whohas opposed other governmentvaccine mandates, said in a statement that "no Iowan should be forced to lose their job or livelihood over the COVID-19 vaccine," according to The Associated Press.
The Iowa legislature passed the bill in a one-day special session Thursday with a 68-27 vote.
The governor also announced Friday that she will join nine other states in suing the Biden administration over its vaccine requirement for workers, the Des Moines Register reported.
Reynolds is vaccinated and has encouragedIowans to get the vaccine but has stated she believes getting the shot should be a personal choice.
Nearly 7,000 Iowans have died as a result of the coronavirus, and Iowa is currently 23rd in the country for percentage of itsresidentsfully vaccinated at 55.4 percent, the AP noted.
In the latest of the ever-revolving door supposedly hiding the true purpose of the COVID-19 vaccines, TruNews founder and host Rick Wiles has once again unveiled what he believes the jabs do to people.
Forget his recent claims that its an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite or a bioweapon, Wiles now reveals what the vaccines really are, for real for real this time: they are an operating system, which takes control of your DNA once its in someones system.
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Wiles detailed the latest of his wild conspiracy theories on a recent episode of his networks eponymous show, as captured byRight Wing Watch.
The basis of this theory is that two of the three vaccines available in the United States are mRNA vaccines, mRNA standing for Messenger Ribonucleic Acid, which is a molecule found alongside DNA in genes. Wiles uses this basic fact to suggest that getting the vaccine takes control of your DNA, and changes you forever.
This fails to realize that mRNA are separate cells from DNA, and dont alter how DNA works in any way. mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell where our DNA (genetic material) is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes, the CDC states.
The mRNA vaccines work by teach our cells how to make a proteinor even just a piece of a proteinthat triggers an immune response inside our bodies. In other words, they learn to recognize a specific protein found in coronavirus strains and fight against it spreading.
According to Wiles, though, It is not a vaccine. Following the suggestion of an off-camera colleague, he calls it an operating system. It is a system suppressor. But more than anything else, it is changing your DNA.
I dont have anything against polio vaccines, measles vaccines, Wiles claims, those are vaccines. This is not a vaccine. This is changing your DNA. Its a mRNA its a messenger RNA vaccine but it takes control of your DNA. You will never be the same person that you were before you got vaccinated.
Wiles claims that they are putting something in you that changes your body.
He claims This is the beginning. Theyre not going to go back in time after this. Every year, theres going to be more messenger RNA vaccines that you are mandated to receive. Theyre changing the inner structure of the human body. It is from hell itself And I cant comprehend these pansy preachers that are endorsing it. God have mercy on your souls for what youre doing.
He then says, This is Satan himself bringing forth a diabolical scheme to alter the creation of mankind, basing his theory on the book of Genesis.
Earlier this month, Wiles claimed on his show that the vaccine is an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite. He said that the masses of people getting the shot is like a sci-fi nightmare. And its happening in front of us. This is a global coup dtat by the most evil cabal of people on the planet in the history of mankind.
Wiles has blamed the coronavirus pandemic on China,Jewish people,LGBTQpeople, andthe devil. But after he got the virus himself after refusing to get vaccinated, he blamed the highly infectious Delta variant on people who have gotten vaccinated, saying that theyre shedding the virus. He also claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines will kill 70% of peoplewho get them, calling attempts to vaccinate people a mass death campaign.
While mRNA-based vaccinations can be considered new, the CDC explains that Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades. Interest has grown in these vaccines because they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials. This means vaccines can be developed and produced in large quantities faster than with other methods for making vaccines.
They add, mRNA vaccines have been studied before for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). As soon as the necessary information about the virus that causes COVID-19 was available, scientists began designing the mRNA instructions for cells to build the unique spike protein into an mRNA vaccine.
While it sounds like Wiles is one of a very few people buying this, he has the attention of thousands every day with his online, White House-credentialed network. Milo Yiannopaulos and Lauren Witzke are recent co-hosts and frequent guests on Wiles show. Meanwhile, a Florida political candidate is embroiled in controversy for appearing on his program recently.
Most of those on social media are taking Wiles theory seriously.
A vial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. Rick Bowmer/AP Photo
A Maryland man pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy for his role in a COVID-19 scam.
Odunayo Oluwalade, 25, faced up to 20 years in prison, The Department of Justice said.
He admitted helping to set up a fake Moderna website that claimed people could buy the vaccine.
A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy for his role in a COVID-19 vaccine fraud scheme, after he allegedly worked with two others on securing a bank account for sales from a fake Moderna website.
Odunayo Oluwalade, 25, of Windsor Mill, a Baltimore suburb, entered a guilty plea for his role in the vaccine fraud on Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison but a sentencing date hasn't been set, the Department of Justice said in a press release.
Oluwalade was one of three people arrested in February for taking part in a scam that involved a duplicate website mimicking Moderna's modernatx.com.
The duplicate site was hosted at modernatx.shop, according to a federal complaint unsealed that month. The fake site used "the logo, markings, colors and texts" of the real site, investigators said in an affidavit unsealed in February.
But the fake Moderna website added the line in capital letters: "You may be able to buy a COVID-19 vaccine ahead of time," according to federal investigators.
The website provided contact info, which led investigators to Oluwalade and his alleged co-conspirators: his cousin, Olikatan Oluwalade, 22; and Kelly Lamont Williams, 22. The three were arrested and charged in February, investigators said.
"As the public seeks vaccines to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19, fraudsters are waiting to take advantage of their desperation," James R. Mancuso, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, said in a statement at the time.
The fraudulent Moderna vaccine website, modernatx.shop, has been seized by federal investigators. modernatx.shop
The investigation began in January, when an undercover HSI agent reached out to the contact number on the website.
Story continues
Within a few hours, the undercover agent was in an email conversation with sales@modernatx.shop, which sent an invoice for 200 doses of Moderna's vaccine at $30 a piece, or $6,000 in total, investigators said. The invoice called for half the payment to be sent upfront to a Navy Federal Credit Union account. The account belonged to Williams, according to an affidavit.
Investigators sent the $3,000, they said.
Four days later, with a warrant in hand, investigators seized the fake website's domain. They also seized Williams' phone. Investigators used that phone to text Oluwalade, they said in an affidavit, asking: "Yo where u want me send the bread."
"Yea send me some thru zelle and some through cash app," Oluwalade replied, referring to Zelle and Cash App, according to an affidavit.
Oluwalade admitted in his guilty plea that he knew Williams' account would be used as part of a fraud scheme, but "was not aware of the specifics of the scheme," the DOJ said. "The scheme called for Oluwalade to be compensated for his role in obtaining bank accounts for use in the scheme."
Read the original article on Business Insider
This story was updated at 8:10 p.m. Oct. 30, 2021, with new information about an indoor mask mandate being reinstated.
Montgomery Countys indoor mask mandate will be reinstated Wednesday unless the County Council, acting as the Board of Health, votes to change it Tuesday, according to the countys acting health officer.
On Saturday, James Bridgers, the acting health officer, sent a memo to County Council leadership and County Executive Marc Elrich. The notice says that because the county has entered substantial transmission, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the mask mandate would be reinstated, unless the Board of Health acts.
Effective November 3 at 12:01 a.m., subject to possible action by the Board of Health, all persons in Montgomery County over the age of two must wear a face covering in any location accessible to the public, Bridgers wrote, noting that there are exceptions to the mask mandate.
Those exceptions include:
The state reported 108 new positive cases of the coronavirus in Montgomery County on Saturday morning, which has the county in substantial transmission for the second straight day.
Senior officials said this week that the countys indoor mask mandate would be reinstated if the county sees just one day of substantial transmission.
An indoor mask mandate was lifted at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, after the county reported seven straight days of moderate transmission.
But County Council Vice President Gabe Albornoz told Bethesda Beat Friday evening that he and his colleagues were waiting on an order from Bridgers.
Council members passed the Board of Health order in early August, reinstating the mandate.
It was initially unclear on Friday whether the mask mandate would be reinstated by that Tuesday meeting, if at all. Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard told Bethesda Beat on Friday the mandate would likely not be reinstated over the weekend.
Stoddard did not immediately respond to a voicemail left on his cellphone Saturday morning.
Per CDC guidelines, substantial transmission is 50 to 99.99 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, over a seven-day period. Moderate transmission is defined as 10 to 49.99 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, over a seven-day period.
The county enters substantial transmission when it hits 50 cases or more per 100,000 people, calculated over a seven-day period. As of Saturday evening, the countys rate is listed as 53.3.
County Council Member Andrew Friedson wrote in a text message on Saturday that he had been working on proposing potential changes to the Board of Health order before the county entered substantial transmission on Friday.
Both he and Albornoz said the proposed changes to the Board of Health order are meant to avoid a yo-yo effect of the mask mandate being lifted and reinstated multiple times in a short time frame.
County officials have previously said they need to confirm state and local data with CDC data before determining which state of transmission the county is in, so there is a delay in making pronouncements, even after new numbers are released.
According to the CDC, 91.1% of the countys eligible population those 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, as of Saturday. Of the total population, 77.3% are fully vaccinated, and 85.8% had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
by: MARIA SANMINIATELLI Associated Press
FILE Italian sculptor Sergio Furnari poses for pictures in front of The Hero Monument heart sculpture that he made, a symbol of hope and love dedicated to health care workers around the world, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021, in Manhattans Grand Army Plaza in New York. The giant red heart sculpture installed this week as a tribute to health care workers and COVID-19 victims has been taken down an apparent casualty of confusion and red tape. Furnari says he was walking by the park Thursday, Oct. 28, afternoon with friends when he noticed that his Heroes Heart Monument was gone. (AP Photo/Dieu-Nalio Chery, File)
NEW YORK (AP) Have a heart, New York!
A giant red heart sculpture installed this week in Central Park as a tribute to health care workers and COVID-19 victims has been taken down an apparent casualty of confusion and red tape.
Italian sculptor Sergio Furnari says he was walking by the park Thursday afternoon with friends when he noticed that his Heroes Heart Monument was gone.
When he went to file a police report, he said, he was bounced from police station to police station until a police officer on Friday showed him video of people removing the 10-foot-tall, 3,000-pound (3-meter, 1,360 kilogram) monument and placing it on a truck.
They literally broke my heart, Furnari said when reached Friday night.
Furnari conceded he did not have a permit to place the heart in the park but considered a $4,000 grant he received from New York Citys government to be his permit for the temporary installation. He said he considered the removal of his memorial an abuse of power.
A message seeking comment was left with the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the park on behalf of the city. Furnari said he planned to go to the organization on Monday to find out what happened to his heart.
Furnari said he wanted the sculpture to be a place for emotional and spiritual solace in the bustling city and not just a popular spot for selfies, though he said he was cool with that, too.
The work was an extension of another piece he created earlier in the pandemic: a life-size sculpture of a health care worker kneeling with arms stretched to the sky.
In an interview prior to the sculptures removal, the artist explained his vision for the piece.
Everybody suffers in different ways and needs all different types of comfort, Furnari said. I hope this heart helps them remember their loved ones and cope with the grief. For a moment, they can forget about their problems.
Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo in Boston contributed to this report.
Treatment using the antidepressant Fluvoxamine, which is typically used to treat mental health conditions such as depression and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), reduced the risk of hospitalization among high-risk COVID-19 patients, a study published in The Lancet Global Health medical journal found.Fluvoxamine, sold under the brand name "Luvox," is a serotonin inhibitor that helps restore serotonin levels in the brain. Developed in the 1990s, Fluvoxamine is known to have anti-inflammatory properties, researchers believed studying the drug's effects on COVID-19 symptoms could lead to breakthroughs in COVID treatments. Several more severe COVID symptoms are caused by inflammation, as the immune system overreacts to the infection.
The test group for the study was 1,500 immunocompromised people in Brazil who had been recently infected with COVID-19 and were in the high-risk category for serious illness. Half the group took fluvoxamine at home for 10 days, while the rest received a placebo.
Among participants who received the antidepressant (100 mg twice daily for 10 days), 11% needed hospitalization or extended medical care, compared to 16% of those who received a placebo marking a 32% decrease in relative risk.
The promising results could be a boon in lower-income nations, where vaccine distribution has not been as swift as it has in wealthier countries and existing COVID treatments remain too expensive for the general population.
We hope it will lead to a lot of lives saved, Dr. Edward Mills, who helped lead the research, told the Associated Press.
Questions remain, however, about the proper dosage amount of the antidepressant for COVID symptoms. Researchers will also continue studying the efficacy of Fluvoxamine mixed with other generic and lower-cost treatments. Researchers added that further evidence was needed to establish its benefit in vaccinated people, as most of the study's participants were unvaccinated.
The researchers have shared their results with the US National Institutes of Health and hope to also receive a recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO) for Fluvoxamine treatment.
Thousands of under-15s will be offered the COVID-19 jab at school, with NHS teams visiting more than 800 schools.
Health teams are set to visit schools across England in the next week, as pupils return to school from half-term.
Jabs will be offered to unvaccinated 12-15-year-olds and students will be able to get the coronavirus vaccines at school, NHS England said.
Children can also make an appointment to visit a vaccine centre using the booking system.
More than 600,000 young people have been vaccinated since the jab rollout was extended to include 12-15-year-olds at the end of September, NHS England said.
Some 163,000 children in the age group took the jab in the week the booking system opened up for them on 22 October.
A further 140,000 have booked their jab for the next few weeks.
The government is making a push to get as many people vaccinated before the winter months set in.
Speaking from the G20 summit in Rome, Boris Johnson said that he does not anticipate another lockdown but urged over-50s to take the booster jab amid rising cases in England.
On 29 October, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said the high number of cases in schools where only some are vaccinated "provide the ideal conditions" for a new variant to emerge.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The vaccines are safe and will help keep children in the classroom - I encourage everyone to come forward for their jab to protect themselves and the people around them."
Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and deputy lead for the NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme, said: "As our children return to the classroom, our efforts to vaccinate children will not stop - hundreds of more schools will be vaccinating this week.
"It's really important that we continue with the same enthusiasm if we want to ensure children get to stay in the classroom with their fellow pupils this winter, and so I encourage all parents and guardians to head online and read the information on vaccinating your child, so you can make an informed decision."
Pupils are also being urged to get tested for coronavirus before returning to school to minimise disruption to lessons and ensure families can "enjoy the best" of the festive season.
Britain was last week presented with two differing pictures of Covid-19s spread across the country. Together they suggest infections have reached record levels since the pandemic began but have also raised hopes that the current high wave of cases across the UK may have peaked.
The first study is based on a random survey of households that showed about 1.28 million people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were infected with Covid-19 for the week ending 22 October, the highest number of infections to be recorded since the pandemic began in the UK. Carried out by the Office for National Statistics, this weekly survey is rated as the most reliable measure of British infection levels.
But a second analysis based on Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) reports of new cases for the week ending 29 October suggested there had since been a 14% decline in case numbers. However, these reports are considered to be a less reliable measure of Covid-19s case numbers, leaving some uncertainty over the diseases progress in the UK.
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia said it was too soon to say whether there was a real decline in infections, adding: If infections really are falling in line with the daily reports from the DHSC, then the earliest we would see any impact in the ONS dataset is Friday.
This point was backed by Professor Jim Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Oxford, who said he expected the prevalence in England to have peaked or to be close to the peak, adding: And if England has peaked, then other numbers will start to fall. I certainly hope so 1,000 people every day are ending up in hospital and 1,000 a week are dying.
Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at Reading University, also warned that the health service remained badly stretched, saying: If the situation were to deteriorate further, we risk creating pressure in the healthcare system leading to reduced access to care for the most unwell. Anyone in a crash on the motorway or whose routine operation has taken a turn for the worse could find themselves without access to the intensive care unit at their local hospital.
