White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued scathing advice to Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis (Fla.) and Greg Abbott (Texas): Get control of the Delta variant in your states or “get out of the way.” Both of the Republican leaders have been outspoken in their opposition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly updated guidelines recommending universal masking in schools and high-transmission areas.
A Wednesday report from Yahoo! News detailed Psaki’s Tuesday press briefing from the White House, as COVID-19 case counts in Florida and Texas have risen to the point that they currently account for one-third of all infections across the United States. Psaki, who insisted that the Biden administration has offered assistance to both governors to get the spread under control, appeared to suggest that the states’ leaders have yet to accept the White House’s help.
“But if you aren’t going to help, if you aren’t going to abide by public health guidance, then get out of the way and let people do the right thing to lead in their communities, whether they are teachers, university leaders, or private sector leaders or others who are trying to save lives,” she said Tuesday in response to the questions about the rising confirmed COVID-19 case numbers in both Florida and Texas.
The outlet added, “Asked to clarify what she meant by having the two governors ‘get out of the way,’ Psaki elaborated, ‘That means don’t ban, don’t make it harder for people to put requirements on masks — or asking for vaccination status — into law.”
She added, “Leaders are going to have to choose whether they’re going to follow public health guidelines or they’re going to follow politics.”
Elsewhere in her Tuesday remarks, Psaki said that President Joe Biden would likely speak directly to DeSantis about the state’s rising COVID-19 numbers — but only if they “thought it would make a difference.”
“But I don’t have any expectation or prediction of a call between them,” she hastily added.
In a statement on Psaki’s remarks, the DeSantis administration said:
She might want to brush up on the Constitution and learn more about the role of a state governor. As it turns out, freedom matters. Every day, nearly a thousand Americans relocate to Florida — mostly fleeing from the ever-changing, contradictory COVID restrictions pushed by federal bureaucrats on lockdown states. By contrast, Governor DeSantis keeps up with the latest research and makes data-driven decisions. If he had ‘gotten out of the way’ as Psaki suggested, and let the CDC run our state, many of those lives might have been lost — as we saw with the tragic situation in New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, where the age-adjusted death rates are significantly higher than in Florida.
A spokesperson for the Abbott administration in Texas has yet to issue public remark on Psaki’s admonitions.
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For over a year, the boot-licking media and corrupt public health officials have shilled for the Chinese, saying that the Covid-19 virus had nothing to do with the Wuhan lab and instead spread to humans through bats a local wet market.
Now, the over 70% of Americans who didn’t buy their lies are being validated.
An investigation by the House Foreign Affairs Committee into the origin of the Covid-19 outbreak has concluded that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology sometime just before September 12, 2019.
“It is the opinion of Committee Minority Staff, based on the preponderance of available information; the documented efforts to obfuscate, hide, and destroy evidence; and the lack of physical evidence to the contrary; that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory sometime prior to September 12, 2019.”
“We now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source.”
After the release of the report, McCaul called on Congress to sanction scientists at the Wuhan lab and also Chinese Communist Party officials for their role in withholding crucial information that killed over 4 million as part of the “greatest coverup of all time.”
He also asked them to subpoena Peter Daszak, the scientist who was involved in the research and development of the coronavirus in the US and China, for knowingly making false claims. Daszak ridiculously claimed the lab leak theory was xenophobic in a public letter at the beginning of the year.
“Now is the time to use all of the tools the U.S. government has to continue to root out the full truth of how this virus came to be.“
“That includes subpoenaing Peter Daszak to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to answer the many questions his inconsistent — and in some instances outright and knowingly inaccurate — statements have raised. It also includes Congress passing legislation to sanction scientists at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials who participated in this coverup. This was the greatest coverup of all time and has caused the deaths of more than four million people around the world, and people must be held responsible.”
It was also confirmed that dangerous gain-of function research, which genetically alters a virus and can turn it into a bio-weapon, was being conducted at the lab under inadequate safety and security protocols. Once the virus had escaped the lab, public transport spread the virus throughout Wuhan and it rapidly made its way outside china due to the World Military Games taking place. Many of the athletes at the games reported feeling sick with flu like symptoms and returned home to their countries after the event which became early breakout hotspots.
“Many of the athletes at the games reported feeling sick with flu like symptoms and returned home to their countries after the event which became early breakout hotspots.”
“Its release was due to poor lab safety standards and practices, exacerbated by dangerous gain-of-function research being conducted at inadequate biosafety levels, including BSL-2. The virus was then spread throughout central Wuhan, likely via the Wuhan Metro, in the weeks prior to the Military World Games. Those games became an international vector, spreading the virus to multiple continents around the world.”
“The virus was then spread throughout central Wuhan, likely via the Wuhan Metro, in the weeks prior to the Military World Games. Those games became an international vector, spreading the virus to multiple continents around the world.”
Despite the unacceptable conditions at the lab and the research being banned by the US, the controversial practice was being funded by Dr. Fauci and the National Institute of Health using US taxpayer dollars – Which Fauci was just busted for lying about on capitol hill by Senator Rand Paul.
The report also found evidence that the virus jumped to humans much earlier than originally thought. It is now believed that the first lab workers were infected in late August or early September 2019, and spread the virus to central Wuhan. This is the earliest outbreak date given so far. Previously, the virus was thought to have originated sometime in November 2019.
The committee’s findings have confirmed the obvious: that Fauci and the other corrupt public health officials have been lying for over a year to downplay communist Chinas role in unleashing this pandemic on the rest of the world.
Fauci deserves to be more than fired, this megalomaniac and the rest of these sellouts should in jail already.
Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand competes during the Weightlifting – Women’s 87kg+ Group A on day 10 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo International Forum on August 02, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. | Getty Images/Chris Graythen
A biological male who identifies as female was eliminated from women’s weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics after failing three attempts in the women’s 87+ kilogram competition but still made history as the first trans-identified individual to compete in the Olympic Games.
Laurel Hubbard, a 43-year-old transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, failed three attempts in the snatch category and was knocked out of the competition as a result, reported Yahoo Sports on Monday.
“Thank you so very much for your interest in my humble sporting performance tonight,” Hubbard told reporters. “I know from a sporting perspective I did not live up to the standards I put upon myself.”
“[The International Olympic Committee has] been extraordinarily supportive and I think that they have reaffirmed the principles of the Olympics that sport is something that all people around the world can do, that it is inclusive and successful.”
Hubbard, who has competed against biologically female athletes for years, made headlines in June for reportedly being the first trans-identified athlete to qualify for the Olympics. Hubbard transitioned to a female at the age of 35. New Zealand Olympic Committee CEO Kereyn Smith said in a statement at the time that Hubbard had met the qualifications to join the South Pacific nation’s weightlifting team.
“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play,” stated Smith.
“We are committed to supporting all eligible New Zealand athletes and ensuring their mental and physical wellbeing, along with their high-performance needs, while preparing for and competing at the Olympic Games are met.”
At the 2019 Pacific Games, Hubbard won gold by defeating two women from Samoa by lifting 268 kilograms, 7 kilograms more than the silver medal winner.
Beth Stelzer, a weightlifter and founder of Save Women’s Sports, an activist group opposed to allowing biologically male athletes to compete in female athletic competitions, denounced the decision to allow Hubbard to compete against women at the Olympics as “shameful” and “a mockery of the sport.”
“Identities do not play sports; bodies play sports. The rights of females should not end where the feelings of a few males begin.”
News of Hubbard’s elimination comes as the IOC is considering revisions to its policy regarding the participation of transgender athletes, especially biological males participating in women’s competitions. Hubbard qualified under the IOC’s 2015 guidelines, which allowed the lifter to compete without a sex change surgery as long as drugs are taken to lower testosterone to below 10 nanomoles per liter for 12 months.
IOC’s medical and science director Dr. Richard Budgett recently said that 2015 guidelines were no longer backed by science, according to The Guardian.
“At the time the 10 nanomoles per liter was set because we thought that was the lower level for men,” Budgett was quoted as saying. “We know now that they go down to seven and women can be higher as well. Agreeing on another number is almost impossible and possibly irrelevant. You can debate that endlessly.”
Budgett said that the IOC wants to “increase inclusion in sport as one of the fundamentals, but at the same time our highest, highest priority is fairness.”
Katie Mascagni, the IOC’s head of public affairs, told Yahoo Sports that in some sports, “testosterone or other aspects come into play in order to justify the reasons there is a disproportionate advantage.” But in other contexts, she said those factors might “be totally irrelevant.”
On social media, LGBT activist and bestselling author Amanda Jetté Knox used Hubbard’s Olympic result to bash arguments from those who oppose trans-identified individuals competing in women’s sports. She stated that Hubbard “was eliminated from competition after not performing as well as the cis athletes who will be competing in the Olympic finals.”
“B-b-but how is she going to grab all the gold medals with her ‘unfair advantage’?!” Knox wrote on Twitter.
The activist group Fair Play for Women stressed, however, that Hubbard’s ability to qualify for the Olympics resulted in a biological female not having the opportunity to participate in the Tokyo Games.
“This is Roviel Detenamo. She should be at Tokyo 2020 today but she’ll be watching the games from home because the IOC rules allowed a male person to compete in her female category,” the organization tweeted Monday.
Could Howard Rubin end up tainting George Soros like Jeffrey Epstein tainted so many other billionaires?
Rubin is a top money manager who was a “right-hand man” for the leftist billionaire, according to the New York Post. He worked at the Soros Fund from 2008 to 2015, having come out of retirement to take the job, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. Now, he’s the subject of a court case — accused by multiple women of engaging in sadistic sex-for-hire practices that went way beyond what they had consented to.
And while he was known to be volatile professionally, it’s not the kind of headline Rubin’s career would suggest.
During 30 years on Wall Street, Rubin established a solid record working at other high-end investment firms. He was immortalized in “Liar’s Poker,” the debut book by Michael Lewis of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short” fame. In it, Rubin described how “the trading floor at Salomon Brothers felt like a Las Vegas casino. You made your bets, handled risk, in the midst of a thousand distractions.” Even then, some viewed him as an out-of-control Wall Street type.
“I saw him throw a chair on the trading floor,” a former co-worker said, according to the Post. “He said, ‘F***. I just lost $50 million!’ and threw a chair at his computer. Then he came back and threw it a second time, even harder. That sums up Howie: High strung, aggressive, does not hold back his feelings. He was a trader whose ego was tied up in being the biggest swinging d*** on Wall Street.”
Others saw a man who was perfectly average for someone in his position.
“I thought he was a nice guy,” one of his co-workers at Soros Fund Management told the Post. “He was a nebbishy Jewish guy and totally normal. I was surprised to hear about him having that apartment.”
“That apartment” refers to a hidden real-estate acquisition of Rubin’s: A “luxurious midtown Manhattan penthouse,” the Post reports, that functioned as a BDSM sex “dungeon” in which Rubin is accused of sexually assaulting and abusing numerous women, among them Playboy playmates.
In November, Rubin’s purported proclivities will be on full display as six of his seven alleged victims will have their day in court, suing the 66-year-old Rubin for $18 million, according to the Post. The women were sex workers — but the abuse they endured, they said, wasn’t what they were hired for.
“[Rubin] is alleged to have paid his partners as much as $5,000 for each BDSM session. But, the women claim, they did not agree to the degree of abuse and degradation Rubin inflicted,” the Post reported Saturday.
“One of the plaintiffs claims that, while she was bound and vulnerable in Rubin’s lair, he told her ‘I’m going to rape you like I rape my daughter’ and then, according to the complaint, forced sex on her against her will. (Rubin has three children with his estranged wife, including at least one daughter.)”
It’s worth noting, however, there are no accusations he sexually abused his daughter — merely that he told a woman that during a forced sex act.
The women say that after they were hired, they “wound up in Rubin’s dungeon, with its red walls and white carpet. Sex toys were alphabetized and an X-shaped ‘St. Andrews cross’ — a device on which submissives are restrained, spread-eagle, at the wrists, ankles and waist — took pride of place.”
Two of the women — Playboy international playmates Mia Lytell and Amy Moore — said they thought Rubin intended to engage in “some mild fetish games and perhaps take photos, neither expected to be restrained in this manner [bound with rope and tape and gagged] or to be actually beaten.”
The lawsuit states that when one of the women “screamed or protested [during a session], Rubin would simply become more violent.” It also accuses Rubin of “beat[ing a woman’s] breasts so badly that her right implant flipped.” The injury was so serious, court documents said, that the woman’s “plastic surgeon was not even willing to operate on her breasts.”
“In short, they are each alleging that they were brought to New York and taken advantage of,” said John Balestriere, who represents the women. “Allegations come down to [the women] saying they were physically and sexually abused.”
Rubin’s defense comes down to informed consent — indicating that, yes, he had engaged in some of the lowest forms of degeneracy imaginable, but it was done with the women’s consent.
A motion for summary judgment filed by Rubin attorney Edward McDonald states that the women “signed strict non-disclosure agreements, with penalties of at least $500,000 if broken, and acknowledgment that violent sex, with a risk of injury, is what they were consenting to and being paid for,” the Post reported.
“Each of the women, all adults, had explicit knowledge of the highly paid sexual arrangements for which they willingly traveled,” McDonald told the Post in a statement.
“Multiple women confirmed consent through text messages before and after their encounters, returned for multiple encounters, arranged for their closest friends to engage in the same sexual activity and repeatedly solicited Mr. Rubin long after their final encounters.”
Balestriere argued the women had little opportunity to review the non-disclosure agreements they signed, nor did they understand the implications therein.
“They did not have lawyers on call,” he said, adding that Rubin’s “encounters” went far beyond consensual activity and into the realm of sexual violence.
“None of these women came to New York knowing that they would be physically and sexually abused. They did not consent to what did end up happening. The key factor is that Mr. Rubin said these individuals consented to the physical and sexual violence perpetrated against them. Our six clients say they did not consent.”
“Some of our clients say they were in no position to speak or leave,” he added.
There are a whole litany of stomach-churning details in the article that are best left unsaid. At present, Rubin is no longer renting the penthouse, although some of the sexual devices have been put into storage by Rubin “so he doesn’t get accused of disposing of evidence,” a source told the Post.
Even though the scandal has been slowly unfolding for years, Rubin’s wife of 36 years — Mary Henry, another Wall Street fixture — just filed for divorce on July 7, according to the Post.
Beyond the sordid nature of the case, the first question involves how true the accusations are and what evidence can be produced. If things begin looking grim on that front, attention then turns to what everyone around Rubin knew and when they knew it.
Lytell and Moore, along with a third woman, first came forward with allegations of assault, battery and human trafficking in 2017, according to the Post. This was two years after Rubin quit working for George Soros, but it’s a good chance his proclivities were established long before that. And that could mean at least a hint of trouble for the infamous financier of liberal causes.
While there are plenty of Wall Street figures and sundry financiers that have come into Rubin’s orbit, most don’t pretend to be moral exemplars and sociopolitical supermen the way Soros does. And, while the alleged sexual assaults and extreme fetish behavior Rubin engaged in wasn’t publicly known before 2017, others said the financier had a history of ethical lapses. One former executive at Merrill Lynch Mortgage Capital Markets, where Rubin worked in the 1980s, noted Rubin was fired after he made an unauthorized trade that cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars. Without providing details, the unnamed executive said this was a part of a pattern of behavior on Rubin’s part.
“[The dungeon] was just Howie being a lowlife — again,” he said, although he added, “I never knew about the sexual deviations.”
Nevertheless, after the news broke, “people were calling me and saying he’s a sleaze … but Howie has no morals. While at Merrill Lynch, he was morally bankrupt.”
It’ll be interesting to find out who was willing to tolerate that kind of degenerate bankruptcy, and whether Howard Rubin ends up tainting reputations the way Jeffrey Epstein did.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.@CillianZealFacebook
Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly plans to announce Tuesday the city will begin requiring proof of vaccination at certain indoor businesses like restaurants, gyms and performance venues.
The mandate will go into effect later in August and will also apply to employees of said indoor businesses, a city official told The New York Times. With the announcement, New York City will become the first city in the United States to implement a government-mandated vaccine passport.
De Blasio has taken other measures in recent weeks to try and increase the city’s vaccination rate, including mandating proof of vaccination or weekly testing for city employees and a $100 payment to members of the public who get the jabs. Roughly two-thirds of adults in the city are currently vaccinated.
The outgoing mayor stopped short of reinstituting an indoor mask mandate Monday when he announced a new “recommendation” to wear them. Other cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have reimplemented mask mandates since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course last week on its mask guidance for vaccinated individuals.
New York’s vaccine passport will be known as the “Key to NYC Pass.” It will reportedly be modeled off of similar passes used in foreign countries like France and Israel. In France, the vaccine passport sparked a new wave of vaccination, but also brought with it widespread protests and rioting in opposition.
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A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.
A new video shows up to 1,000 illegal immigrants were held for processing outdoors under a bridge near the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday as the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas continues to experience a surge of people crossing the border.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted, “This is the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX. Looks like it could be up to 1,000 people. We can only get a look at the area with our drone. There’s a popular Rio Grande crossing area nearby.”
NEW: This is the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX. Looks like it could be up to 1,000 people. We can only get a look at the area with our drone. There’s a popular Rio Grande crossing area nearby. @FoxNewspic.twitter.com/AsAygsO966
Townhall.com reporter Julio Rosas also shared photos of the scene on Twitter, saying, “I’ve seen Border Patrol’s processing site underneath the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, TX off and on since March.
“I can say this is the most illegal immigrants I’ve seen at the site at one time. It’s close to 100 degrees out right now.”
Rosas also shared a video from Sunday night of another group, saying, “Another night in La Joya, TX another large group of illegal immigrants turning themselves over to Border Patrol. There are well over 150 people here. There is also a lot of sneezing and coughing among the group.”
Another night in La Joya, TX another large group of illegal immigrants turning themselves over to Border Patrol. There are well over 150 people here. There is also a lot of sneezing and coughing among the group. pic.twitter.com/cFkwdD8qnT
“Can’t stress enough that I’ve never seen such a large group at one time who have as many individuals who appear/sound to be sick,” he said.
The report comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus has led to a spike in new cases in recent weeks while President Joe Biden’s administration welcomes illegal immigrants into the country. Last week, authorities said a charity in the border town of La Joya had rented an entire hotel to house illegal immigrants who have tested positive for COVID-19, giving no notification to the local community.
“Police in La Joya, TX, a Border town, announce a charity has rented an entire hotel here for COVID-positive migrants,” Fox News State Department Correspondent Rich Edson tweeted Wednesday night. “They say they only found out when a family, showing symptoms and staying there, ate at a restaurant next door. A customer flagged down a police officer.”
A later post added, “They’re advising La Joya to mask up and distance.”
“The La Joya Police Department said a patrol officer was waved down Monday by someone concerned about a group that appeared to be sick at a Whataburger fast food restaurant,”Fox News reported late Wednesday night.
“The officer found a family inside who were coughing and sneezing and not adhering to health guidelines, including the wearing of masks, authorities said during a news conference,” the report said.
La Joya Police Sgt. Manuel Casas said his department and the city had not been notified of the situation.
“We did not know this,” he said. “No one told the city of La Joya. No one told the police department that these people were here, and no one told us that these people were possibly ill.”
The reported individuals were staying at Texas Inn & Suites after being released by Border Patrol.
The Treasury Department will conduct emergency cash-conservation measures starting Monday to avoid busting the U.S. debt ceiling after a two-year deal to suspend the federal borrowing limit lapsed at midnight Sunday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter July 23 that the Treasury would invoke the “extraordinary measures” if Congress didn’t raise the debt ceiling. Yellen noted that trillions in federal spending and COVID-19 response laws made it difficult to estimate how long the Treasury would sustain its measures.
“The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty due to a variety of factors, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government months into the future, exacerbated by the heightened uncertainty in payments and receipts related to the economic impact of the pandemic,” she wrote.
The debt ceiling prevents the Treasury from issuing new bonds once a certain limit is reached. Congress had suspended the debt limit for two years as part of a budget deal in August 2019, when the ceiling reached $22 trillion, according to Bloomberg. A new debt ceiling would include additional borrowing since, reaching $28.5 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office.
President Joe Biden sits alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as he holds a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House February 9, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Yellen’s cash-conservation measures would allow the Treasury to redeem certain investments in federal pension programs and halt new investments in order to generate revenue, CNBC reported. But payments on entitlement programs and interest on federal debt, among other things, would stop unless the federal government floats new Treasury bonds.
Economists said the measures allow the Treasury to pay off federal government obligations without accruing new debt for two to three months, CNBC reported. But Congress must raise or suspend the debt ceiling or risk the U.S. defaulting on its debt.
The federal government has never defaulted, as such a move would have far-reaching consequences for the economy. Although economists said they’re optimistic Congress will reach a deal on the debt ceiling, the prospect appears less certain in Washington.
An aide to House Democratic leadership told CNBC that discussions about the ceiling are ongoing and congressional leaders do not want to risk the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government.
President Joe Biden’s administration, on the other hand, may not get involved in discussions about the debt ceiling. A White House official told CNBC that “it is Congress’s responsibility to raise or suspend the debt limit in order to pay for the spending it has already authorized over the years.”
There’s something in the air this week. Can you feel it?
It’s not just the super-duper scary Delta variant — it’s the rising consternation of Americans who are being told that, despite the willingness of millions to submit themselves to the novel COVID-19 vaccine so life could “get back to normal,” they’re now being told they need to mask up, regardless of vaccination status, even at home around their own children — some of whom may even be diving into yet another semester of distance learning, if things keep up, all thanks to said Delta variant.
While COVID-19 cases have indeed risen in the U.S. in recent weeks, which is being blamed on Delta, there’s a good chance that the media and health officials may be blowing its long-term impact on daily life out of proportion. Shocking — I know
According to the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, the Delta variant may actually be more widespread than is being reported, but this could signal that hope is right around the corner.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained while speaking with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he believes we are “much further” into the resurgence of COVID-19 than we realize, but, based on the trajectory seen in the United Kingdom just a few weeks ago, we might just have a few more weeks ourselves before cases once again decline.
“I believe there’s more virus than we’re picking up right now,” he said, noting that cases detected by at-home antigen tests or infections among younger Americans who might be asymptomatic won’t show up in government data.
“If you look at the U.K. in the last seven days, they do appear to be turning the corner,” Gottlieb explained.
He said that while it’s “unclear” if this downward trajectory is going to be sustained as the U.K. only recently lifted mitigation measures that were previously in place, if our friends across the pond are any indication, “we are perhaps further into this epidemic and hopefully going to turn a corner in the next two or maybe three weeks.”
He repeated his prediction for CNBC’s Squawk Box later in the week while discussing transmission between and mask guidance for vaccinated individuals.
“The bottom line is, the vaccine does not make you impervious to infection,” Gottlieb explained. “There are some people who are developing mild and asymptomatic infections even after vaccination.”
Although the Delta variant is indeed “much more transmissible” than the previous strain, Gottlieb said, and vaccinated individuals should still consider wearing masks, particularly around the vulnerable, he also noted that this shouldn’t necessarily “translate into general guidance” for mask-wearing and vaccine requirements.
“I don’t think we’re going to get enough bang for our buck by telling vaccinated people they have to wear masks at all times to make it worth our while,” he said. “I think we’re further into this Delta wave than we’re picking up. I think in another two or three weeks we’ll be through this.
"If you are vaccinated in a high prevalence area, in contact with virus, you think you might have the virus because you have mild symptoms–be prudent, get tested, maybe wear a mask especially if you are around a vulnerable person," says @ScottGottliebMD. pic.twitter.com/LFlMffkfe9
It’s also worth noting that “this,” i.e. a resurgence of COVID-19 cases as compared to previous months, isn’t anywhere near as scary as the Chicken Little state and media establishments seem to want us to believe. While cases are indeed rising, deaths due to COVID-19 remain at a 16-month low, as Harvard Medical School professor Martin Kulldorff recently tweeted.
No one wants to hear about packed ICUs or young people on ventilators, and there is not a single life in this nation that needs to be reduced to a mere statistic. But since, pragmatically, the statistics are both what public health guidance should be based on and what we’re told it is based on, it’s pretty safe to conclude that there simply may not be a reason to panic. Certainly, there’s no telling what the next few weeks will bring, and Gottlieb was merely making predictions based on the trajectory of cases in a different country than our own.
If we can look at declining case rates in the U.K. as an indication that we may see the same trajectory here at home, perhaps we should also look to their “keep calm and carry on” attitude when it comes to examining the data. But will Americans keep calm as officials seem ready to send us into a new wave of lockdowns and school closures? That, just like the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, remains to be seen.
Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.@crunchyconmama
Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated– $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.
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American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Bible Gateway
The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and researching scripture online — all in the language or translation of your choice! It provides advanced searching capabilities, which allow readers to find and compare particular passages in scripture based on
What Did You Say? 
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