Let's take a look at the latest nonsense being shoveled by anti-vaxxers this week... Fact Check-COVID-19 vaccines do not add a ‘third strand’ of DNA https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N34I2RC Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine does not alter human DNA or add a third strand to people’s DNA, as claimed in a video circulating on social media and viewed more than 400,000 times on Twitter. The brief video makes claims about the religious significance of the order of bonds holding together the double-stranded DNA molecule inside human cells, and references a Moderna Inc patent to suggest that the company’s COVID vaccine has the ability to add a third strand to DNA. “From the biology side, this isn’t how the vaccines or biology work,” Dr. Tara Kirk Sell, senior scholar at John Hopkins Center for Health Security and associate professor in the Environmental Health and Engineering department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Reuters via email. “From the misinformation side, claims like these hook into existing false narratives related to conspiracies and gain a lot of traction though fake science talk.” The circulating clip is labeled with the TikTok user handle @jaxlovesjesus_, but a search on the platform did not return this profile (bit.ly/3wHCldB). Users have shared the video on Twitter (here) and on Facebook (bit.ly/3jf0tkv) with comments such as, “What if the Covid vaccine really is giving us a third strand of DNA? This gave me chills.” However, the video offers no evidence for its claim about the vaccine altering human DNA. The video includes a brief screenshot of a page from a broad 2020 Moderna patent on its method of synthesizing RNA strands in order to manufacture proteins (here). A circled passage on page 25 of the patent document in the screenshot refers to the possibility of making synthetic RNA that encodes instructions for manufacturing other types of medically useful RNA, including an RNA triple helix formation. The passage does not refer to the mRNA used in the company’s existing COVID-19 vaccine or to DNA. The messenger RNA (mRNA) in approved COVID-19 vaccines does not interact with human DNA inside cells, and does not enter the cell nucleus where DNA is housed. The vaccine contains synthetic mRNA molecules encoding a version of the coronavirus spike protein. The vaccine mRNA enters the cell’s cytoplasm, where our own cellular machinery will read these instructions and manufacture the spike protein, which our immune system will learn to recognize so it can fight off the coronavirus in the future, as explained in a National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) graphic (here). Our own cells also manufacture mRNA every day, as illustrated by NHGRI (here). Inside the cell nucleus, the DNA double helix unwinds just enough for a specific gene to be “transcribed” into a single-stranded RNA molecule, which is then edited down into a shorter mRNA version. The mRNA leaves the nucleus to have its message read by cellular machinery in the cytoplasm, which “translates” it into a protein. Once the message has been read, the mRNA molecule quickly breaks down and has no further function. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other outlets have previously explained that vaccines do not enter the nucleus of the cell where DNA is located, so they “cannot change or influence our genes” (here) and (here). Reuters has also addressed other false claims that mRNA vaccines alter human DNA (here, here, here). Mark Lynas, a visiting fellow at Cornell University’s Alliance for Science group, previously told Reuters (here) that no vaccine can genetically modify human DNA. “That’s just a myth, one often spread intentionally by anti-vaccination activists to deliberately generate confusion and mistrust,” he said. VERDICT False. COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA do not alter human DNA or add a third strand to the DNA double helix. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
The Covid conspiracy theorists are back with the 5G nonsense. Laughable. Fact Check: American govt DID NOT admit to link between Covid-19 and 5G, old conspiracy theory viral again An article is going viral on social media with the claim that the US government has finally admitted that 5G radiation is connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. AFWA’s probe found that the US government made no such revelation. https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-chec...spiracy-theory-viral-again-2330240-2023-02-03 An article claiming that the US government admitted that 5G radiation causes Covid-19 is circulating on social media. American founding father Benjamin Franklin once famously said that in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Had Franklin lived in the age of the internet, he’d definitely have added conspiracy theories to that list. And two particular topics that are plagued with conspiracy theories are 5G and Covid-19. Unsurprisingly, there are also conspiracy theories that tie both topics. Take for example an article titled, “U.S. Government Admits ‘5G Radiation Causes COVID-19’ – Stunning Admission” that was tweeted by many people in late-January and early-February. The archived version of one such tweet can be found here. The article claims that the US government has finally admitted that 5G radiation is not only connected to the Covid-19 pandemic, rather, it actually induces the body to create new viruses and illnesses, including coronaviruses. The article further alleged that the US government made these profound revelations in a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the National Institute of Health, the US government responsible for biomedical and public health research. The article was published on a website called Newspunch.com and was written by Baxter Dmitry. It featured a picture of the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, and a tweet allegedly from the official NIH account, which read: “Exposure to 5G radiation can induce COVID-19 in humans.” AFWA’s probe found that the NIH did not publish any such revelation. Also, there is no scientific basis for claiming 5G causes Covid-19. AFWA Probe We first searched the official NIH Twitter account for the tweet featured in the article. Our search did not yield any results. We then searched for the scientific paper referred to in the article in question and claimed to be published on the NIH website. We found the research paper does exist. We, however, found a paper authored by Beverly Rubik and Robert R Brown that aimed to "explore the scientific evidence suggesting a possible relationship between Covid-19 and radiofrequency radiation related to wireless communications technology including fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications technology." The paper concluded, "None of the observations discussed here prove this linkage. Specifically, the evidence does not confirm causation." It further added, "Clearly Covid-19 occurs in regions with little wireless communication. Furthermore, the relative morbidity caused by Wireless Communications Radiation (WCR) exposure in Covid-19 is unknown." It is noteworthy that the viral claim has been already debunked by Unicef and fullfact.org. The World Health Organisation has also clarified: "Unlike ionising radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays, the electromagnetic fields created by mobile networks such as 5G can "neither break chemical bonds nor cause ionisation in the human body." Also, similar 5G-Covid-19 conspiracy theories have been afloat since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, including one that claimed that the pandemic was faked to cover up the public health crisis caused by the 5G roll-out in Wuhan in 2019." This was fact-checked, among others, by Politifact. What is NewsPunch.com? Newspunch.com formerly known as YourNewsWire, rebranded itself to circumvent fact-checkers. A detailed scrutiny of Newspunch.com (YourNewsWire) suggests that the site has been one of the biggest injectors of conspiracy theories in the world. A July 2018 Poynter report alleges that fake news stories published by this site have been debunked at least 80 times, after being fact-checked by independent fact-checker organisations.
You need to reach the point where you're laughing at these idiot conspiracy theorists and then not care what they post and not care which ET idiot is following them or reposting the bullshit here at ET...a trading forum that allows it ad nauseam just to keep the thread click counts up. It's all entertainment posting that makes no difference in life. By the way, sometimes with the right lighting or the angle of the captured image of Fauci... It looks like former Vice President Mike Pence...the guy in charge of Operation Warp Speed for the Covid vaccines. wrbtrader
Once again... Republicans in Congress shoveling fabrications and lies. Republicans Assail Vaccine and Mandates With Misleading Claims The House debated for hours on Tuesday before voting for measures that would end a public health emergency and a vaccine mandate for some health care workers. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/us/politics/republicans-covid-vaccine-mandate-fact-check.html WASHINGTON — As the House debated for hours over pandemic measures, Republican lawmakers on Tuesday repeatedly misled about the efficacy of vaccines, the rationale behind vaccine mandates and their effects. Two measures, introduced by Republicans, would end a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers as well as the public health emergency declared at the start of the pandemic. The House approved the two bills, largely along party lines, on Tuesday. Still, they do not have the votes to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, let alone receive approval from President Biden. Here’s a fact check of some of their remarks. What Was Said “Dr. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said in August 2021, quote, ‘What they can’t do’ — they being the vaccines — ‘What they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.’ The C.D.C.’s own website says right now the vaccine does nothing for transmission. Zero. Yet that was the whole basis of the vaccine mandate.” — Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas This is misleading. Mr. Roy is referring to — and cherry-picking — comments made by Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the agency’s guidance on Covid-19 vaccines as well as the rationale behind the vaccine mandates for federal workers and certain health care professionals. In August 2021, when a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the more infectious Delta variant prompted the C.D.C. to encourage wearing masks in public again, Dr. Walensky appeared on CNN to explain the updated guidance. Asked about “breakthrough cases” — fully vaccinated people who nonetheless catch the virus — Dr. Walensky stressed the importance of inoculation despite the fact that the vaccines did not appear to prevent breakthrough infections. “Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. They continue to work well for Delta. With regard to severe illness and death, they prevent it,” she said. “But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.” Jason McDonald, a spokesman for Dr. Walensky, noted that at the time of her remarks, the agency was still studying the effectiveness of vaccines against the Delta variant. But, he added, “at no point did Dr. Walensky say or suggest that vaccines are no longer effective or unnecessary, and to suggest otherwise is misleading.” A few weeks after Dr. Walensky spoke, the C.D.C. released a study that found that the vaccines were still 66 percent effective in preventing infections from the Delta variant, a decrease from the 91 percent rate before that variant became dominant. Dr. Walensky’s comments were in line with guidance from other public health officials and experts. Research at the time of Delta’s surge showed that unvaccinated people were still more likely to contract and spread the disease, despite some breakthrough infections among vaccinated people. Mr. Biden’s executive order, issued in September 2021, requiring vaccination for all federal workers noted that vaccines are “the best way to slow the spread of Covid-19 and to prevent infection by the Delta variant or other variants.” But it did not claim that the vaccine was completely effective in stopping transmission. Rather, the executive order noted that vaccines “significantly reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and death” and help decrease, but not eliminate,infections. Similarly, the Biden administration issued a regulation in November 2021 requiring vaccination for workers at health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. That regulation noted that vaccination can reduce transmission, but also reduce “associated morbidity and mortality across providers and communities” and the risk to both health care workers and patients alike. (The regulation is tied up in the courts.) The C.D.C.’s website still strongly encourages vaccinations, including booster shots, against Covid-19. One page explains that “vaccination remains the safest strategy for avoiding hospitalizations, long-term health outcomes, and death.” Another page debunking “myths” also noted that “high vaccination coverage in a population reduces the spread of the virus and helps prevent new variants from emerging.” And the latest data from the C.D.C. shows those who are unvaccinated are 12 times as likely to die from Covid-19 as the those with updated booster shots and three times as likely to contract a case. What Was Said “The next lie: that vaccines can’t cause any harm.” — Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky This is misleading. Mr. Massie said a vaccine mandate for health care workers was “predicated on lies,” including what he described as a claim that vaccines have no side effects or adverse reactions. But no such claim was ever made. Contrary to Mr. Massie’s claim that the mandate promised that the vaccines would cause zero side effects, the November 2021 regulation clearly stated that such effects were possible. In fact, part of the initial draft of the regulation required facilities to support vaccination by “providing reasonable time and paid leave for employees to receive vaccines and recover from side effects.” It also stated that “side effects following vaccinations often include swelling, redness, and pain at the injection site; flu-like symptoms; headache; and nausea; all typically of short duration.” It also acknowledged the possibility of “serious adverse reactions” but noted correctly that these are rare. Still, the government has said, the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death outweigh the possible risks. And hundreds of millions of Americans have safely received Covid shots. A completed memorandum, released in October, outlined how different facilities should comply with the rule and provided exemptions for medical and religious reasons. What Was Said “We have a severe shortage of health care workers, many of whom were heroes that worked on the front lines, saving lives throughout this pandemic who have said they don’t want a vaccine. They do not want to take it. They want to trust their own natural immunity.” — Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia This is misleading. The medical industry and research has long warned that the number of health care workers was not keeping up with demand for health care, even before the pandemic began. While the pandemic certainly exacerbated those labor shortages and the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates spurred some resignations, the mandates do not appear to have been a major factor in the shortage. A May 2022 report from the Department of Health and Human Services noted that even before the pandemic, burnout, exhaustion and mental health concerns were “significant problems” for health care workers. The pandemic put additional stress on workers and exposed them to the disease. Mr. Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care facilities that received federal funding led to reports of additional staffing losses. But employment figures overall have not experienced a drastic shift, with hospitals across the United States employing 5,121,50 workers in September 2021 (when the mandate was announced), 5,137,600 in March 2022 (the deadline for compliance) and 5,279,300 in December 2022 (the latest month of available data). The industry website Fierce Healthcare listed about five dozen hospitals across the country that had announced departures, suspensions or resignations typically ranging from less than 1 percent to 5 percent of their work force. In a May 2022 analysis of government data on nursing facilities, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “the vaccine mandate has not exacerbated staffing shortages to the extent initially hypothesized since shortages have actually fallen nationally since January 2022.” Additionally, Ms. Greene’s reference to natural immunity could misleadingly suggest that being infected by Covid-19 negates the need to get vaccinated. While recent infection can provide protection, experts still recommend vaccination for more complete protection.
Yeah... go try to convince the families of over 7 million dead from Covid around the globe of this. And the over a million families of the dead from Covid in the U.S. Tell us, how many people died from the flu worldwide since 2020.