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‘Zero-Covid is not going to happen’: experts predict a steep rise in US cases this winter

A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say. However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.

Evidence shows vaccine-conferred protection against hospitalization and death remains high several months after inoculation, vaccines for children older than five can reduce Covid transmission, and new antiviral medications hold the promise of making Covid-19 a treatable disease.

“I do expect to see cases increasing – we’ve started to see this in the last week or so,” said Dr David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. “I don’t think what we’re seeing in Europe means we’re in for a huge surge of serious illness and death as we [saw] here in the US,” last winter.

In the last three weeks, new cases have increased in several cold weather states across New England and the midwest. However, vaccines remain roughly 85% effective at preventing hospitalization and death. “Even if cases go up this winter, we’re very unlikely to see the overcrowded [intensive care units] and morgues of a year ago,” said Dowdy.

Vaccine-conferred immunity against infection may allow cases to rise, he said, but far fewer people will need hospitalization. The vast majority of people who were hospitalized or died from Covid-19 this summer, more than 90% in one CDC study, were not fully vaccinated.

Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna Are Raking in $3.9 Million in Profits Per Hour

Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech—the makers of the two most successful coronavirus vaccines—are raking in a combined $65,000 in profits every minute as they refuse to share their manufacturing recipes with developing countries, where billions of people still lack access to lifesaving shots.

According to a new People's Vaccine Alliance analysis of recent earnings reports, the three pharmaceutical giants have made a total of $34 billion in profits this year, which amounts to roughly $1,083 per second, $64,961 per minute, or $3.9 million per hour.

"It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour while just two percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus," said Maaza Seyoum of the People's Vaccine Alliance Africa. "Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low-income countries out in the cold."

Moderna—a Massachusetts-based company that developed its vaccine with the help of government research and around $10 billion in taxpayer funding—has delivered just 0.2% of its total vaccine supply to low-income countries, the People's Vaccine Alliance estimates. The coronavirus vaccine is Moderna's only product on the market.

Pfizer and its Germany-based partner BioNTech—whose vaccine was also helped along by taxpayer money—haven't done much better than their competitor, sending less than 1% of their supply to poor nations while profiting hugely from sales to rich countries.

"Predominantly, right now, we have already signed orders, and those are with high-income countries," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla recently said of coronavirus vaccine sales for next year, blaming poor countries for not ordering shots quickly enough.

"We are negotiating right now with few middle-income countries, and with even fewer low-income countries," Bourla said.

But public health campaigners argue that bilateral deals and vaccine donations are not sufficient to bring production and distribution into line with global needs. Instead, they say, pharmaceutical giants must relinquish their vaccine recipes and allow qualified manufacturers around the world to produce low-cost generic versions for their populations.

Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have thus far refused to do so—and lobbied aggressively against a World Trade Organization proposal to temporarily suspend vaccine patents. Bourla, for his part, has dismissed technology-transfer proposals as "dangerous nonsense."

"Contrary to what Pfizer's CEO says, the real nonsense is claiming the experience and expertise to develop and manufacture lifesaving medicines and vaccines does not exist in developing countries," Anna Marriott, health policy manager at Oxfam International, said in a statement Tuesday. "This is just a false excuse that pharmaceutical companies are hiding behind to protect their astronomical profits."

"It is also a complete failure of government to allow these companies to maintain monopoly control and artificially constrain supply in the midst of a pandemic while so many people in the world are yet to be vaccinated," she added.

Chris Arnade: What Elites REFUSE To Realize About Unvaxxed

Concerning New Covid Variant Spotlights Dangers of Vaccine Apartheid

The detection of an unusual—and potentially more contagious—Covid-19 variant is intensifying fears that denying vaccines to large swaths of the world's population could allow the coronavirus to mutate unabated, prolonging the pandemic indefinitely and adding to the staggering global death toll.

While the highly infectious Delta strain remains the dominant mutation around the world, the Jerusalem Post reported over the weekend that a variant known as B.1.640 has drawn the attention of experts "because there are changes to the coronavirus spike protein that have never been seen before."

The strain has thus far been detected in several European countries as well as on the largely unvaccinated African continent, where scientists say the strain may have originated.

"This lineage has a large number of recent sequences in France and the Congo with additional sequences in Switzerland, Italy, the U.K., and the USA," virologist Tom Peacock noted on Twitter.

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post, Bar-Ilan University Professor Cyrille Cohen warned that "this variant exemplifies that if you leave some of the world's population without access to vaccines, then the virus will continue to multiply and it will lead to more variants."

"Not giving vaccines to these countries may seem OK in the short term, but in the long term we might have new variants that are problematic that developed in unvaccinated countries," said Cohen. "I don't want to frighten people. There are just a few cases of B.1.640 now and it could very well be that in a month we could all forget about this variant."

"But it is an example of what could happen if there isn't access to vaccines for everyone," he added.

The World Health Organization is currently monitoring six coronavirus mutations that have been detected around the world, often emanating from countries—including India, Brazil, and South Africa—that have struggled to vaccinate their populations due to artificial shortages of doses or key materials.

While some middle- and low-income countries have ramped up their vaccination campaigns in recent months, much of Africa and other developing regions across the globe remain almost entirely without access to lifesaving shots.

Gates Foundation Grants MILLIONS To Newsrooms GLOBALLY, MSM FACT CHECKS Bill Gates Vaccine Comments

Amazon to pay $500,000 fine for failing to notify workers of Covid cases

Amazon has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and be monitored by California officials after the state’s attorney general said the company failed to “adequately notify” workers and health authorities about new Covid-19 cases.

Amazon employs about 150,000 people in California, most of them at 100 “fulfillment centers” – sprawling warehouses where orders are packed and shipped. The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, requires the Seattle-based retailer to notify its workers within a day of new coronavirus cases in their workplaces.

Amazon also agreed to notify local health agencies of new virus cases within 48 hours and will stop issuing notices that Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said do not adequately tell employees about Amazon’s safety and disinfection plan and workers’ rights related to the pandemic.

“As the company enjoyed booming and historic sales with its stock price doubling, Amazon failed to adequately notify warehouse workers and local health agencies of Covid case numbers, often leaving them unable to effectively track the spread of the virus,” Bonta told reporters in San Francisco at an event held across the street from an Amazon warehouse. ...

Bonta said the judgment is the first of its kind in the US and complies with a state “right-to-know” law that took effect last year.

Pfizer Anti-Viral & Ivermectin Science Based Comparison

Fauci: US can get Covid under control by next year with more jabs

Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases public official in the US, said on Tuesday that if America further ramps up vaccination rates and those already immunized take booster shots that it is feasible Covid-19 could be reduced from a pandemic emergency to endemic status next year.

More than 70% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated. Fauci said if a lot more Americans take the vaccines, and if the US makes boosters available for everyone, the country could get control of the virus by spring of 2022.

But with his forecast Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to Joe Biden, was acknowledging what experts now widely believe: that Covid-19 cannot be eliminated and will likely become endemic, meaning it will always be present in the population to some degree, such as the flu or chickenpox.

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US and UK Press Mock New Zealand’s Incredibly Successful Covid Response