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Covid microchip developer explains why people want
vaccine passport implant
This is very close to what many Christians have been dreading rather anxiously
since Covid-19 started - The mark of the beast!
21 Dec, 2021 19:32
© Carl-Olof Zimmerman/TT News Agency/via REUTERS
A Swedish company has sparked debate after showcasing a microchip that can be implanted under the skin and scanned as proof of one’s Covid-19 vaccination status.
The microchip technology was developed by Stockholm-based startup Epicenter. The tiny chip stores a Covid-19 vaccine passport the likes of which are increasingly being mandated across the globe. It can be read by a device using a near-field communication protocol – the same tech used by credit cards and other digital payment systems.
The chip can be inserted either in one’s arm or between one’s thumb and forefinger, with the data readable through the skin. A unique code generates the individual’s vaccine passport file on a reader, as its makers displayed in the demo video distributed to multiple media outlets.
Epicenter’s chief distribution officer, Hannes Sjoblad, told the news agency AFP its microchip offered an efficient way to have one’s Covid status checked at a movie theater or shopping center without recourse to a cell phone.
“What matters to me is that the people who get chip implants, they do so on a voluntary basis,” Sjoblad said. “And because they are curious, and they want to work with this technology.”
The implants cost €100 ($113) a piece and the distributors describe the tech involved as “passive,” as it’s unable to generate a signal on its own – though this has not stopped the prospect of Covid chips raising red flags with activists.
“Remember when this was just a conspiracy?” US Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) tweeted in reaction to initial reports about the implants.
Rev 13:16-17 > He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Sweden announced in December that vaccine passports would be required at any venue or event with a capacity of more than 100 people. Some 6,000 people have reportedly opted to have an implant since then.
First Covid-19 pill treatment approved for emergency use in US
22 Dec, 2021 18:00
FILE PHOTO. Pfizer shows the making of its experimental Covid-19 antiviral pills, Paxlovid. © AFP / Pfizer
Pfizer’s Paxlovid tablets against Covid have been given emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The first pill treatment of this kind, it can be prescribed to high-risk patients aged 12 and older.
“Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for [Covid]-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally – a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
The combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir packaged for oral use will be available to treat mild-to-moderate Covid-19 in people who test positive and are at “high risk for progression to severe” disease, including hospitalization or death, the FDA said on Wednesday.
The drug is available by prescription only, and should be taken as soon as possible after diagnosis, and within five days of the onset of symptoms. It is not authorized for pre-exposure or post-exposure prevention, however, nor is it considered a substitute for vaccination.
According to the agency, the treatment is meant to last no longer than five days and consists of three pills: two tablets of nirmatrelvir and one of ritonavir taken twice daily. Nirmatrelvir is intended to stop the virus from replicating, and ritonavir slows the first drug’s breakdown to enable it to last longer.
While there are “no adequate, approved, and available alternatives” to Paxlovid, the FDA does warn that there are possible side effects. In addition to a risk of “impaired sense of taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure, and muscle aches,” there is potential for “significant” drug interactions with certain HIV medications. Paxlovid is also not recommended for people with liver and kidney impairments, as ritonavir may cause liver damage. The FDA has published a full list of potential drug interactions in a guide for healthcare providers.
The approval is based on a double-blind clinical trial of patients who had not been vaccinated or previously contracted Covid-19. According to the study, Paxlovid reduced Covid-related hospitalization or death by 88% compared to the placebo.
The White House has already announced it has purchased 10 million doses of the Paxlovid treatment, as well as three million doses of Merck’s Lagrevio, a molnupiravir-based pill, which is also expected to get the green light from the FDA this week.
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Millions of people sent into Covid lockdown in China
22 Dec, 2021 16:40
Authorities in China’s Xi'an have put the city on lockdown, closing all non-essential shops and barring all restaurants from opening, after reporting some 140 domestically transmitted Covid cases in the last 10 days.
In a press conference on Wednesday, officials in Xi'an announced the implementation of new measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. All non-essential shops will be temporarily closed, while dine-in eateries will not be allowed open until the number of coronavirus infections falls.
From Thursday, only one person in each household can leave their home to visit essential shops every two days. Everyone else must remain home unless they have jobs deemed essential by the government, official Zhang Fenghu said.
City authorities also called on people not to leave Xi’an unless they had taken a Covid-19 test and received a negative result. According to state broadcaster CCTV, local authorities had already persuaded some 7,000 people not to leave the city.
Large-scale conferences, training days, garden parties and dances are among a long list of events and activities prohibited by the local government in an effort to limit the spread of Covid. Businesses have also been encouraged to provide flexible work arrangements for employees.
Covid testing measures and temperature scanning will be stepped up, according to officials.
The northwestern city, home to 13 million people, has reported more than 140 locally transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms since December 12. The cluster was reportedly caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Beijing has signaled its desire to stamp out new Covid clusters as soon as they emerge. Recent research has also sparked concerns about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines against the latest variant of Covid-19, the highly contagious Omicron strain, compared to earlier versions of the virus.
France rejects 1,000s of doses of Covid anti-viral treatment
22 Dec, 2021 15:51
France has canceled its order for Merck’s new Covid-19 antiviral treatment molnupiravir due to its weak performance in trials, and ordered Pfizer’s Paxlovid instead, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday.
“With molnupiravir, we had to cancel the order,” Veran told BFMTV, explaining that the latest trial results of Merck’s treatment were “not good.” The cancellation of the 50,000 doses of the drug has incurred no costs to France, he stressed.
Instead of Merck’s pills, France has ordered a competing treatment, Pfizer’s Paxlovid, which Veran described as “extremely promising” in reducing the risk of developing serious forms of Covid-19. The minister said that the drug, which is awaiting approval by the European Medicines Agency, would become available by the end of January.
He did not specify how many doses of Paxlovid had been ordered.
Merck earlier reported that its pills reduced the risk of hospitalization and deaths by 30%, which is significantly less impressive than the 89% reduction reported by Pfizer.
France is the first country to announce cancellation of its Merck order. The UK and German governments are among those that have already bought doses of the drug.
Study estimates risk of Omicron causing severe disease
22 Dec, 2021 15:07
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is less likely to cause hospitalization and severe disease than the variants that preceded it, according to a non-peer-reviewed study in South Africa, where the virus was first isolated.
Speaking during a news conference on Wednesday, Professor Cheryl Cohen of the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said their data supported initial observations that Omicron was less virulent than previous strains.
“In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe,” said Cohen, who also co-authored the study.
The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that South Africans diagnosed with Omicron between October 1 and November 30 were 80% less likely to be admitted to hospital than people suffering from other variants of the virus during the same timeframe.
The study also discovered that people hospitalized with Omicron in October-November were 70% less likely to develop severe symptoms than South Africans admitted to hospital with Delta between April and November.
The researchers prefaced their findings by noting that higher levels of community immunity, provided both by vaccines and through prior infection, likely played a part in limiting the severity of infection.
An estimated 60-70% of people in South Africa have already been infected with Covid-19, according to the NICD. “It is difficult to disentangle the relative contribution of high levels of previous population immunity versus intrinsic lower virulence to the observed lower disease severity,” they wrote.
“Compellingly, together our data really suggest a positive story of a reduced severity of Omicron compared to other variants,” Cohen said in the press conference, adding that surveillance data suggests significantly lower hospitalizations and deaths in South Africa’s current Omicron-driven wave.
The Omicron variant has spread across the globe since it was first isolated by scientists in southern Africa in November. It has been responsible for soaring Covid-19 infections across the world and has demonstrated some capacity to evade the immune response provided by existing vaccines.
Don't forget, most Africans have a natural immunity to Covid-19 because of the absence of a Neanderthal gene.
Shocking scale of Covid relief fraud revealed
22 Dec, 2021 05:11
Nearly $100 billion in Covid-19 relief payments has been stolen by criminals since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Secret Service, which has launched a campaign to recover the money.
Almost $100 billion of the $3.5 trillion given out by the US government in programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program has been fraudulently taken, with just over $2.3 billion recovered so far.
The Secret Service – which has more than 900 active investigations into the stolen funds – appointed Special Agent Roy Dotson as its National Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator on Tuesday and the US government is now working with private companies, including PayPal, to recover the money.
Dotson told CNBC that it was “shameful to think that individuals would take advantage of these programs” and “target them for their own personal advantage.”
“I have been in law enforcement for over 29 years and worked some complex fraud investigations for 20+ years and I’ve never seen something at this scale,” Dotson insisted, noting that the loss is so high “because the pot was so big.”
“There’s no doubt that the programs were easily accessible online. And so, with that, comes the opportunity for bad actors to get into that mix,” he explained.
The bad actors allegedly include organized-crime groups, but also individuals who saw the relief programs as a get-rich-quick scheme.
One Texas man was arrested last week after he scammed the government out of $3.3 million in relief payments, which he spent on real estate, luxury vehicles, and private jets.
Another Texas man was sentenced to over nine years in prison in November for spending more than $1.6 million in relief payments on a life of luxury, including a $14,000 Rolex watch, a Lamborghini, and strippers.
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