Pandemic is at a 'turning point' after Omicron cases nosedive in South Africa, says vaccinology prof.

A professor of vaccinology said that the declining cases in South Africa were a "turning point" in the pandemic as the region came out of lockdown without significant interruption to people's lives.

Professor Shabir Madhi told Debora Patta, the foreign correspondent for CBS News, that vaccines and high rates of previous infections had led to a precipitous drop in coronavirus cases.

"The Omicron wave now accounts for less than 5% of all of the deaths that have occurred due to COVID-19 [in South Africa] since the start of the pandemic," Madhi explained.

He went on to say that even if other variants arise, South Africa is likely to avoid the devastating death and hospitalization rates of earlier waves of the pandemic.

"I'm highly optimistic that we have reached a turning point in this pandemic," he said. "I can't see us revisiting what we experienced during the course of the first three waves in South Africa."

Many experts have voiced their hopes that the pattern of falling coronavirus cases seen in South Africa is just beginning in Britain and will soon follow suit in the United States.

“It’s going to come down as fast as it went up,” said Ali Mokdad, a health metrics sciences professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mokdad explained that the reason for this is very simple: "Everybody who could be infected will be infected."

One study found that while Omicron is far more infectious than other versions of the coronavirus, it results in far fewer hospitalizations and much less severe symptoms.

"We're almost there, it is now the beginning of the end, at least in the U.K.," said Professor Julian Hiscox, head of infection and global health at the University of Liverpool, to BBC News. "I think life in 2022 will be almost back to before the pandemic."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/south-africa-omicron-decline-pandemic

Ben Carson: Leftists Abuse Children with Masks, COVID-19 Fears, Racial Agitation, Sexual Confusion

Democrats abuse children with mask mandates, COVID-19 fear-mongering, racial agitation marketed as “critical race theory,” and “transgender” ideology, Dr. Ben Carson, retired pediatric neurosurgeon, former Housing and Urban Development secretary, and Secretary and founder of the American Cornerstone Institute, said on Tuesday’s edition of the Breitbart News Daily podcast with special guest host Jerome Hudson.

Carson described Democrat hostility to standardized testing in the context of education — ostensibly out of opposition to “racism” — as degrading of ethnic and racial minorities framed by the left as oppressed by “systemic racism.”

He said, “It’s really quite insulting when they say, ‘Well, let’s get rid of the standardized testing because minority students aren’t going to do well in that,’ and trying to be precise and accurate, that’s ‘acting white.’ What a bunch of garbage.”

Masking children in schools amounts to “child abuse,” Carson held, remarking on how masks obstruct a central element of human communication — facial expressions — and stultify social development and learning.

“It’s actually child abuse what they’re doing,” he said. “Can you imagine what it’s like to be a child today? A small child. You’ve got to wear a mask so you don’t get to see facial expressions. You miss out on a very important sociological development aspect of life.”

Carson warned of the dangers posed by COVID-19 fear-mongering and neo-Marxist narratives of racial hierarchies of victimization targeting children.

“Then you’re told you may be harboring some horrible disease, and even though you don’t feel bad, you may give it to your grandmother, and then grandmothers do get older and they do die,” he stated.” Now, you’re feeling guilty about that, and then if you’re white, you’re an oppressor, and if you’re black, you’re a victim, and all of this while you’re trying to develop self-image. Can you imagine what that feels like?”

Democrat and left-wing denial of human sexual dimorphism via implementation of “transgender” curriculum and indoctrination in schools confuses children, Carson noted.

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2022/01/18/ben-carson-leftists-abuse-children-masks-covid-19-fears-racial-agitation-sexual-confusion/

ALL Residents of Illinois Will Be INVOLUNTARILY Entered Into Vaccine Database If HB 4244 Passes On January 19

The Illinois legislature will vote to amend a law on January 19 that would authorize healthcare providers to involuntarily enter residents of the state into an “immunization data registry.”

Illinois House Bill 4244 would amend the state’s Immunization Data Registry Act to require “health care providers, physician’s designees or pharmacist’s designees” to provide the Illinois Department of Public Health with the private medical information and immunization records of every Illinois resident.

“Health care providers, physician’s designees, or pharmacist’s designees shall (rather than may) provide immunization data to be entered into the immunization data registry,” the proposed resolution states.

The amendment would essentially nullify the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects “all identifiable health information” from disclosure without a patient’s consent and violate the 1974 Right of Privacy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of personally identifiable information without the consent of the individual.

The measure assures residents who want their immunization data removed from the registry may request “immunization data exemption,” but it does not make clear what qualifies a resident for exemption.

According to HB 4244, immunization data exemption forms must include all of the following information:

(1) A description of the immunization data registry and its purpose.(2) That the health care provider shall report immunization data to the Department to be entered into the immunization data registry. 3) That the patient or the patient’s parent or guardian, if the patient is less than 18 years of age, has a right to exempt disclosure of immunization data to the registry and may prevent disclosure by signing an immunization data exemption form. (4) That the patient or the patient’s parent or guardian, if the patient is less than 18 years of age, may have the individual’s information removed from the immunization data registry. (5) Instructions on how to have the information removed.”

Democrat Rep. Bob Morgan introduced the bill on January 5 and if passed would take effect on January 1, 2023.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/residents-illinois-will-involuntarily-entered-vaccine-database-hb-4244-passes-january-19/