US PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

The US government is expected to once again renew its determination that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a public health emergency, first set in January 2020. The current extension is set to expire on July 15, when the next extension is set to take effect. The emergency designation allows millions of low-income Americans who might not otherwise be eligible to access Medicaid coverage; US regulators to authorize vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for COVID-19; flexibilities around telehealth services; and states to access pandemic-related funds. The government has said it will give 60 days’ notice before ending the emergency designation to allow states and companies time to prepare. The US has averaged between 100,000 and 110,000 new daily COVID-19 cases and about 300 daily COVID-19 deaths since May.

REINFECTION RISK

The Omicron BA.5 subvariant has quickly become the most predominant circulating variant in the US due to its ability to evade immunity from either previous infection or vaccination, dashing hopes of a COVID-19 pandemic reprieve. The subvariant is more likely to cause reinfections and is driving a wave of new infections across the country, with official US CDC data showing a daily average of around 100,000 new cases. But experts warn this represents a severe undercount of new cases, as many people are using home tests and not reporting their results to health authorities. Notably, the Walgreens COVID-19 Positivity Tracker shows a weekly 41.6% positivity rate, up nearly 9% over the prior week and the highest since the tracker began.

<Source>

Fauci admits that COVID-19 vaccines do not protect ‘overly well’ against infection

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci conceded that COVID-19 vaccines do not protect “overly well” against infection Tuesday on “Your World.”

DR. FAUCI: One of the things that’s clear from the data [is] that even though vaccines - because of the high degree of transmissibility of this virus - don’t protect overly well, as it were, against infection, they protect quite well against severe disease leading to hospitalization and death. And I believe that’s the reason, Neil, why at my age, being vaccinated and boosted, even though it didn’t protect me against infection, I feel confident that it made a major role in protecting me from progressing to severe disease. And that’s very likely why I had a relatively mild course. So my message to people who seem confused because people who are vaccinated get infected - the answer is if you weren’t vaccinated, the likelihood [is] you would have had [a] more severe course than you did have when you were vaccinated. <Source>

CDC Emails: Our Definition of Vaccine is “Problematic”

CDC: Problematic Vaccine? No, Problematic Definition of Vaccine.

The prior CDC Definitions of Vaccine and Vaccination (August 26, 2021):

Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.

The CDC Definitions of Vaccine and Vaccination since September 1, 2021:

Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.

To many observers, it appeared the CDC changed the definitions because of the waning effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. For example, the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine falls over time, with an Israeli study reported in August 2021 as showing the vaccine being “only 16% effective against symptomatic infection for those individuals who had two doses of the shot back in January.” The CDC recognizes the waning effectiveness, thus explaining their promotion of booster shots.

CDC emails we obtained via the Freedom of Information Act reveal CDC worries with how the performance of the COVID-19 vaccines didn’t match the CDC’s own definition of “vaccine”/“vaccination”. The CDC’s Ministry of Truth went hard at work in the face of legitimate public questions on this issue.

In one August 2021 e-mail, a CDC employee cited to complaints that “Right-wing covid-19 deniers are using your ‘vaccine’ definition to argue that mRNA vaccines are not vaccines…”

After taking some suggestions, the CDC’s Lead Health Communication Specialist went up the food chain to propose changes to the definitions: “I need to update this page Immunization Basics | CDC since these definitions are outdated and being used by some to say COVID-19 vaccines are not vaccines per CDC’s own definition.” <Source>