Why scientists are worried about a 'Warp Speed' COVID-19 vaccine

By Mike Moffitt

Taking short cuts could have serious repercussions

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Here’s what worries scientists:

—FDA regulators will likely face enormous political pressure to approve a vaccine, even one that’s not proven safe and effective.

—A vaccine that’s less effective than billed could cause wider spread of the pandemic, Michael S. Kinch, director of the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Discovery at Washington University in St. Louis, writes in Stat News.

“A merely short-term effect could encourage vaccinated individuals to resume risky behaviors, which would all but guarantee that the epidemic endures,” argues Kinch, who is also a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics.

—A vaccine would likely erode compliance of social distancing and mask wearing, measures that are proven effective against spread of the virus.

“They automatically are going to say, ‘Oh great, I’m just going to get my little vaccine, and I can go back and do exactly the things I was doing last year’. That is absolutely not true,” Maria Elena Bottazzi, associate dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told Business Insider in an interview.

Read more: https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Why-scientists-worry-about-a-Warp-Speed-15458316.php

Republicans are trying to block mask mandates at polling places.

A group of voters backed by Republican legislators sued Gov. Tim Walz and other state and local officials Tuesday in federal court, aiming to block a face mask requirement at polling places.

Members of the Minnesota Voters Alliance and GOP lawmakers contend Walz’s mask mandate, intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, conflicts with a longstanding state law making it a misdemeanor for someone to conceal their identity with a mask. The 1963 law grants exceptions, including masks that are part of medical treatment.

More:

https://www.startribune.com/voter-suit-aims-to-block-mask-mandate-at-minnesota-polling-places/572006782/

WNBA Players Wear Shirts Endorsing Candidate Running Against Republican Kelly Loeffler

By KJ Edelman

WNBA players have begun wearing shirts endorsing Rev. Raphael Warnock, a challenger to Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), to protest Loeffler’s involvement in the league and her comments against the Black Lives Matter movement.

Before playing the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday — the team Loeffler is a co-owner of — players on the Chicago Sky wore shirts that read “Vote Warnock.”

The WNBA has dedicated its 2020 season to social justice, launching a platform titled the Justice Movement, which will “amplify the voices and leadership of WNBA players.” Loeffler opposed the plans in a scathing letter, claiming they were too political and exclusionary. Instead, she suggested players, coaches, and fans wear jerseys with the American flag printed on them.










More:

https://www.mediaite.com/sports/wnba-players-wear-shirts-endorsing-candidate-running-against-kelly-loeffler-co-owner-of-the-atlanta-dream/

Trump's Niece Says He Should Be Charged With Negligent Homicide Over His Mishandling of Coronavirus

President Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump said that her uncle should be charged with “negligent homicide” due to his mishandling of the coronavirus during an interview with Dean Obeidallah on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday.

“If you have it in your power to save somebody’s life but stand by and do nothing, isn’t that negligent homicide or something like that?” Mary Trump asked.

She questioned how the president got away with withholding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from certain blue states as a way to retaliate against Democratic governors — asking again how it wasn’t considered a crime.

https://www.mediaite.com/radio/audio-mary-trump-calls-for-the-president-to-be-charged-with-negligent-homicide-over-his-mishandling-of-coronavirus/

CNN's Acosta Corners Trump on Hydroxychloroquine: Why Is Your Task Force 'Contradicting You?'

LOL I love Jim Acosta.....

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By Ken Meyer

CNN’s Jim Acosta challenged Donald Trump on Monday over how many times the president’s coronavirus pandemic messaging has diverged from public health experts.

During a White House press pool spray, Acosta asked the president, “Can you explain why so many of the public health experts on the Coronavirus task force are contradicting you on things like why the virus is so widespread in this country…Why are so many of these people on your task force contradicting you?”

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Trump answered by once again claiming hydroxychloroquine has “tremendous support but politically it’s toxic because I supported it.”

“If I would have said ‘do not use hydroxychloroquine under any circumstances’ they would have said it’s a great thing,” Trump said.

More:
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/cnns-acosta-corners-trump-on-hydroxychloroquine-why-is-your-coronavirus-task-force-contradicting-you/

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Damn Trump is such a fucking baby.

Florida Trump supporter goes on wild rant, screams that he's a white supremacist and assaults woman

The people Donald Trump has unleashed on America....

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We pretty much have no words for an incident caught on tape in Sarasota County, Florida, but we’ll try. A man went on a curse-laden rant, saying he’s a white supremacist, and talking about President Donald Trump. Things escalate very quickly as he slapped a woman in the face, and apparently followed up with a punch. Bystanders intervened, however, and took him down.

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“I’m a white supremacist,” he said. “The Aryan nation will rule the world!” he yells at the camera. “People covered in tattoos are going to be my closest relatives, I promise you.”

“Hey, we’ve got children in here,” a bystander said.

“I don’t give a fuck,” the suspect said. “Call Donald Trump, please.”

More: https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/im-a-white-supremacist-man-goes-on-trump-rant-slaps-woman-then-gets-choked-video/

Trump was obviously trying to conceal his IV bruise by carrying newspapers.

Almost HALF of Trump Fans Think Hydroxychloroquine is 'Cure' for Coronavirus. It is Not.

By Tommy Christopher

Nearly half of President Donald Trump’s supporters believe that the unproven — and potentially harmful — drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for COVID-19, according to a new poll.

Support for Trump continues to have an outsize effect on attitudes involving the coronavirus. In a new Yahoo! News/YouGov survey, respondents were asked “Do you think the drug hydroxychloroquine is a cure for COVID-19?”

The vast majority — 83 percent — either correctly said it is not (52%) or said they didn’t know (31%), and only 17 percent mistakenly said it is a cure. The drug has not even been proven an effective treatment for the virus, and some studies have shown it to be potentially harmful. There is currently no cure for the coronavirus illness.

But among Trump supporters, a whopping 44 percent say Hydroxychloroquine is a cure for coronavirus, and less than a quarter of them correctly said that it is not.



Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/news/almost-half-of-trump-fans-think-hydroxychloroquine-is-cure-for-coronavirus-it-is-not/

Behold Impotus Americanus

Conservative propaganda has crippled the U.S. coronavirus response

By Ryan Cooper
July 30, 2020

Why does the United States have the worst coronavirus outbreak in the developed world? Part of the answer is surely that our basic state functions have been allowed to rot, or been deliberately destroyed, over the years. State capacity and competence have been shown around the world to be a key factor in whether nations can get a handle on the pandemic.

But another reason is conservative media. A small but nevertheless very loud and angry minority of Americans have had their ability to reason dissolved in a corrosive bath of crack-brained propaganda.

The flood tide of conservative lunacy is so overwhelming that it can be hard to process or even notice. A dozen things that would be a major scandal in any other rich country, or the U.S. itself in previous ages, fly by practically every day.

Let's review a few events just from the start of this week.

On Monday, President Trump retweeted a viral video in which crackpot doctors falsely asserted that hydroxychloroquine was a "cure for COVID," and that masks were not necessary to contain the virus. Among others, the video featured Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has previously claimed "gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches," and "the government is run in part not by humans but by 'reptilians' and other aliens," reports The Daily Beast.

Read more:

https://theweek.com/articles/928123/conservative-propaganda-crippled-coronavirus-response