People 'Up To Date' With COVID-19 Vaccines More Likely To Be Infected: Study

Vaccinated people who received one of the updated bivalent vaccines had a higher risk of becoming infected when compared to people who had not—a group that included both vaccinated and unvaccinated people—researchers with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio found.

The higher risk held even after adjusting for factors such as age and job location.

“This study highlights the challenges of counting on protection from a vaccine when the effectiveness of the vaccine decreases over time as new variants emerge that are antigenically very different from those used to develop the vaccine,” Dr. Nabin Shrestha and other researchers said.

The Omicron XBB subvariant became dominant in the United States in January. The bivalent vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer target BA.4 and BA.5, in addition to the old Wuhan strain.

The study, published on the medRxiv server (pdf) on June 12 ahead of peer review, included 48,344 employees of the Cleveland Clinic, 47 percent of whom had evidence of prior infection. Employees were included if they were employed in the fall of 2022, when the bivalent vaccines first became available, and were still employed when the XBB strain and its lineages became dominant. The study covered Jan. 29, 2023, to May 10, 2023. People whose age and sex weren’t available were excluded.

Analyzing the vaccine effectiveness with a Simon-Makuch hazard plot, the researchers treated each employee as “not up to date.” When a worker received a bivalent dose, they started counting as “up to date.” Employees stopped being counted if they were fired.

During the study period, 1,475, or 3 percent of clinic employees, became infected.

Being “not up to date” was associated with a lower risk of infection, with an unadjusted hazard ratio of 0.78 and an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.77. A hazard ratio under one means a smaller risk of infection.

Researchers did not provide vaccine effectiveness estimates because they did not calculate how many of the infected employees were unvaccinated, Shrestha told The Epoch Times via email. Most employees, 87 percent, had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

The Cleveland Clinic has been offering employees tests and vaccinations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The health care nonprofit started offering bivalent vaccine doses on Sept. 12, 2022, shortly after it was cleared by regulators and recommended for virtually all vaccinated people by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/people-date-covid-19-vaccines-more-likely-be-infected-study

Senate Democrats Introduce Bill to Spend $25 Million to Train More Abortionists

Senate Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Patty Murray have introduced a bill to spend $25 million training new abortionists.

The bill, called “The Reproductive Health Care Training Act,” was introduced on Thursday and would “provide for the establishment of an education program to expand abortion care training and access.”

“When Roe v. Wade was overturned, women in Wisconsin were sent back to 1849, living under a criminal abortion ban. But the impact didn’t stop there. Doctors have been barred from providing the care they have been trained to perform and medical students and faculty are being forced to travel out of state for training. In order for women to exercise their right and freedom to control their bodies, doctors need the proper reproductive health care training,” said Senator Baldwin in a press release about the bill. “The Reproductive Health Care Training Act will bolster the pipeline of these needed doctors by easing the burden that out-of-state training presents and supporting the medical programs that are seeing an influx of individuals that need training.”

The legislation will prioritize awarding the grants to “minority-serving institutions or institutions that provide training to increase underrepresented minority health professions.”

In a press release about the bill, Senator Murray said, “The nonstop Republican attacks on reproductive health care are having a chilling effect not only on patients seeking care, but also on the doctors and nurses who provide it. We need to make sure that health professionals in every state can receive critical training in reproductive health care—even if they have to travel to other states to get it.”

The senator’s office said that her state had been flooded with an influx of healthcare students from states where abortion is banned looking to receive the training.

“Funding could be used to support both medical programs with students traveling out of state, and programs in states accommodating an influx of students,” the press release said. “Grants would be available to accredited health professions schools, academic health centers, and other safety-net providers in all states to offset the additional costs associated with training providers in a post-Roe world. The Reproductive Health Care Training Act will help meet the current need for more women’s health care providers nationwide, especially in states with abortion restrictions.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Debbie Stabenow, Catherine Cortez-Masto, and Kyrsten Sinema. Companion legislation has been introduced in the House by Representatives Ami Bera, Kim Schrier, and Mark Pocan.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/senate-democrats-introduce-bill-spend-25-million-train/

Obama Appointed Judge Rules ‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS’ T-Shirt is Not a “Protected Speech”

A Federal Judge has ruled the First Amendment does not protect 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s right to express his opinion on a t-shirt while attending public school in Massachusetts.

In a June 16th ruling, Judge Indira Talwani said, “School administrators were well within their discretion to conclude that the statement ‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS’ may communicate that only two gender identities—male and female—are valid, and any others are invalid or nonexistent.”

The Obama appointee went on to support the Middleborough, Massachusetts school’s assertion that the message on Morrison’s t-shirt — a statement of biological fact — constituted an attack on the identities of other students.

As was previously reported by Gateway Pundit, the 12-year-old boy “went off on school board members after his school sent him home because he refused to change his T-shirt.”

On May 5, 2023, Morrison attempted an end-around to the rule by wearing the same t-shirt — this time, with the words “ONLY TWO” covered by a piece of tape with the word “CENSORED.” Once again, the school concluded he was bullying a “protected class.”

After failing to find an appropriate administrative remedy, Morrison’s father and stepmother assisted their son, Liam, in filing suit against the school district, Superintendent Carolyn Lyons, and Nichols Middle School Principal Heather Tucker.

The lawsuit alleged “violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights,” and pointed out that Nichols Middle School commonly “observes events like ‘Pride Month,’ and ‘Pride Day’ in support of the ‘LGBTQ+ community.’”

Judge Talwani ruled that “the original message of the Shirt was not protected speech” and went on to explain how “the Taped Shirt did not merely protest censorship but conveyed the ‘censored’ message and thus invaded the rights of the other students.”

Even though multiple students began wearing the same shirt in an apparent act of solidarity with Morrison, Judge Talwani ruled that injunctive relief “is not in the public interest.”

“By contrast,” Talwani explained, “Defendants point to statutes passed by the Massachusetts Legislature prohibiting discrimination, bullying, or harassment in schools based on gender identity or expression, as well as directives from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requiring that schools provide a safe environment to progress academically and developmentally regardless of gender identity.”

It remains to be seen if any further legal action will be taken by Liam Morrison and his family, but the message from Judge Talwani is clear: The First Amendment only applies when speech is sanctioned by the state.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/obama-appointed-judge-rules-against-first-amendment-video/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/obama-appointed-judge-rules-against-first-amendment-video/

Family Groups And LGBT Activist Uniting Against Bill That Could Make Pedophiles A Protected Class

In an unlikely alliance, Christian family values groups and an LGBT activist have signed a petition against a proposed Connecticut bill they say could make pedophiles a protected sexual minority.

The bill, HB 6638, would revise the language of the state’s anti-discrimination statutes.

The current definition of “sexual orientation” in Connecticut law excludes protections for “any behavior that is a sex offense crime.” An update to the law would remove that wording.

“If Governor [Ned] Lamont signs it, a person who admits they are a pedophile—even if they haven’t acted on it but just admit it—they could just go to an appeal board if they get fired from a job or denied housing near a school,” said transgender activist Christine Rebstock.

The bill would redefine sexual orientation as “a person’s identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are romantically, emotionally, or sexually attracted, including any identity that a person may have previously expressed or is perceived by another person to hold.”

Because of that critics are sounding the alarm, fearing the new legal language could make it unlawful to fire an employee with a sexual attraction for children—even one working at a business focused on serving minors.

“Employers are going to have to be more cautious about how they interact with potential employees,” Leslie Wolfgang, public policy director of the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), told The Epoch Times.

“They won’t be able to discriminate based on their sexual attraction.”

The new bill was sponsored by Rep. Dominique Johnson (D), Rep. Hubert Delaney (D), Rep. Jeff Currey (D), Sen. Gary Winfield (D), and Rep. Tom Delniki (R).

It has passed both chambers of the legislature and now awaits signing by Lamont, a Democrat.

The Epoch Times contacted the bill’s sponsors but received no response by publication time.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/family-groups-and-lgbt-activist-uniting-against-bill-could-make-pedophiles-protected

New Docs Reveal DHS Plot to Assign Social Credit-Like Scores to Americans

DHS plan would assign a "Risk Score" score to social media users.

In a sharp spotlight on the interplay between national security and individual privacy, newly disclosed documents have unveiled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered into a contract with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2018 to develop a project, dubbed “Night Fury,” designed to analyze and assign “risk scores” to social media accounts.

The Brennan Center for Justice procured these documents through a public records request, and Motherboard was the first to report on them. Project Night Fury aimed at utilizing automation to detect and evaluate social media accounts for connections to terrorism, illegal opioid distribution, but also disinformation campaigns.

The DHS document stated, “The Contractor shall develop these attributes to create a methodology for developing a ranking, or ‘Risk Score,’ associated with the identified accounts.”

Project Night Fury had also planned on incorporating involvement from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to provide “cross-mission operational context,” according to one of the documents.

Experts had warned DHS about the inherent difficulties and biases involved in automated judgment for these matters, citing that characteristics like being “pro-terrorist” have no concrete definition.

Notably, DHS terminated Project Night Fury in 2019. However, it underscores the agency’s continued interest in social media as a resource for analysis. This comes in the wake of earlier reports of CBP utilizing an AI-powered tool, Babel X, for analyzing travelers’ social media at US borders.

While Night Fury’s focus was initially on “counter-terrorism, illegal opioid supply chain, transnational crime, and understanding/characterizing/identifying the spread of disinformation by foreign entities,” the documents indicate that UAB’s work was intended to “scale to other DHS domains” and “build next generation capabilities.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/be-the-change/new-docs-reveal-dhs-plot-to-assign-social-credit-like-scores-to-americans

FDA Directs Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax to Update COVID-19 Vaccines to Target Current Dominant Variant

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers made a unanimous recommendation that updated COVID-19 shots, which are to be launched for a vaccination campaign this fall, are to target one of the dominant variants.

The shots are to be aimed at the XBB coronavirus variants, which are reportedly the current most dominant variants, according to the FDA, with a vote of 21–0 in favor.

A subsequent discussion by the committee hinted at a preferred strategy against the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant that, according to manufacturers, could be ready soonest for application.

Versions of the respective vaccines targeting XBB.1.5, as well as other current subvariants, are currently already being developed by COVID vaccine makers, including Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE), Moderna (MRNA.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O), based on preclinical data presented by all three manufacturers.

Melinda Wharton, vaccine policy official at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said shots aimed at XBB.1.5 to be the most feasible option without delays in availability.

If officials are to agree on targeting XBB.1.5 in this year’s campaign, it would prove most helpful to Novavax, due to the composition of its vaccine. Typically, protein-based vaccines require a longer manufacturing process than rival mRNA-based shots.

However, should officials decide to go in a different direction, it could mean that Novavax could once again be lagging behind its rivals.

FDA official Dr. Peter Marks indicated the agency was likely to settle on XBB.1.5, which manufacturers suggested could be ready for inoculations soonest.

“The fact that most of the manufacturers are ready to work on XBB.1.5 is an added reason to select this strain or this variant given the immunologic data,” said meeting chair Dr. Arnold Monto.

According to a release issued by Novavax after the meeting, it anticipates a timely delivery this fall on its BB-targeted COVID shots.

Documents released earlier this month by FDA staff reviewers also suggest this year’s target should be aimed at the XBB subvariant and subsequent offshoots. These allegedly account for most current U.S. infections, and are said to be descendents of the Omicron variant, which is claimed to have caused a massive spike in COVID cases early last year.

U.S. health regulators are aiming to more closely align the next COVID shots with the circulating virus.

https://www.ntd.com/fda-directs-pfizer-moderna-novavax-to-update-covid-19-vaccines-to-target-current-dominant-variant_926091.html