Coronavirus: we separate myths from facts and give advice

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Natural immunity superior

to vaccine immunity

Johns Hopkins Doc Says Vaccine Mandates 'Ruin Lives' - And Natural Immunity Is 27 Times Better Than Jab

The Biden administration’s refusal to acknowledge the relevance of natural immunity in the fight against COVID-19 has become glaring.

The administration that constantly insists they are following the science is actually engaging in willful blindness.

Hell-bent on enforcing their COVID vaccine mandate, they deliberately ignore every scientific study that finds natural immunity to be superior to vaccine immunity.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary appeared as a guest on Thursday’s edition of “Morning Wire,” a podcast hosted by The Daily Wire.

“The data on natural immunity are now overwhelming,” Makary told the Morning Wire. “It turns out the hypothesis that our public health leaders had that vaccinated immunity is better and stronger than natural immunity was wrong. They got it backwards. And now we’ve got data from Israel showing that natural immunity is 27 times more effective than vaccinated immunity. And that supports 15 other studies.”

Despised by the left for his criticism of the vaccine mandate, Makary finds it bizarre that natural immunity is not seen as legitimate in the eyes of the U.S. government.

“It’s ruining the lives of people who are getting fired,” he said. “Nurses, who are heroes, are now getting laid off. Soldiers are getting dishonorably discharged. They’ve got immunity. It’s just not the type that our public health officials have sanctioned.”

“This is a failure of government, not a failure of science,” he declared. “But how about some flexibility? How about recognizing natural immunity and allowing those who have circulating antibodies to get credit? That’s how they do it in parts of Europe, and that’s how they do it in Israel.”

Makary said the recent drop-off in COVID cases can be attributed to both the tens of millions of Americans who have already had the virus and those who have been vaccinated.

Do you believe that the government's refusal to exempt those with natural immunity is wrong?

The government refuses to acknowledge that the natural immunity acquired from having had COVID has played any role at all in moving us closer and faster to the desired goal of herd immunity. Makary is essentially saying natural immunity has played an enormous role.

This point is compelling and has been underreported

“That decline [in new cases of COVID] is really natural immunity kicking in,” Makary explained. “What we’re seeing is that when a very few people in a population are susceptible, that is almost everybody has either had COVID or the vaccine. You do see this rapid decline. It’s basically a part of herd immunity kicking in.”

He believes “we’re done with the surges. What we may see is bumping cases, seasonally, depending on pockets of the country where there’s low immunity rates. And remember: breakthrough infections are real. They will happen, but they have downgraded COVID from a major public health threat to a mild, common, cold-like illness.”

Makary feels that the vaccines are safe and that complications are “exceedingly rare.” I know a few people who might disagree with that assessment.

At any rate, Makary told the Morning Wire, “When I talked to doctors nationwide, it’s pretty clear that the vaccine-related complications are exceedingly rare and the vaccines we have are safer than any other vaccine we’ve ever had in the past. And I think if you if you’re on the fence about getting vaccinated, you want to do it right now, like today, because we are getting to a point where it’s so contagious, it’s ripping through the population pretty quickly.”

The consequences of the government’s rejection of natural immunity as a valid reason to skip the vaccine have become apparent throughout the country, particularly in the health care industry and at all levels of law enforcement.

Democrats pushing Biden’s misguided blanket vaccine mandate all parrot the same old tired line: “We follow the science.” That’s nonsense. It has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics — the politics of power and control.

In a September Op-Ed published in The Washington Post, Makary wrote, “It’s okay to have an incorrect scientific hypothesis. But when new data proves it wrong, you have to adapt. Unfortunately, many elected leaders and public health officials have held on far too long to the hypothesis that natural immunity offers unreliable protection against COVID-19 — a contention that is being rapidly debunked by science.”

Makary argued that over 15 studies have confirmed the power of natural immunity

He cited the recent 700,000-person Israeli study which found that those who had recovered from COVID “were 27 times less likely to get a second symptomatic COVID infection than those who were vaccinated.”

The results of the Israeli study, Makary wrote, confirmed the findings of a Cleveland Clinic study released in June. None of the health care workers who had previously contracted the virus were reinfected. The research team concluded that “individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination.”

And the Cleveland Clinic’s results, he noted, affirmed the conclusions of a Washington University study conducted in May, which “found that even a mild COVID infection resulted in long-lasting immunity.”

Maybe it’s time for the Biden administration to take politics out of it and actually look at the science.

https://www.westernjournal.com/johns-ho ... e-vaccine/

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Worst of pandemic behind us

One of the UK’s leading vaccine scientists and the driving force behind AstraZeneca says that the worst of the Covid pandemic is behind us

Oxford University professor, chief investigator of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trials and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, Sir Andrew Pollard, helped to develop the AstraZeneca jab in 2020.

Speaking to The Telegraph a year on from the first time AstraZeneca was administered to a member of the public, Prof Pollard expressed optimism going forward – even as the Omicron variant continues to ravage the UK.

“The worst is absolutely behind us. We just need to get through the winter,” he told the newspaper.

As for Boris Johnson’s current handling of the crisis, with his relatively light restrictions across England Prof Pollard said: “(It) seems to be working so far. The system isn’t falling over. But it’s finely balanced.

“We can’t fully answer whether he’s got it right for some time.”

In the 12 months since AstraZeneca was injected into Brian Pinker, 82, a dialysis patient, nine billion Covid doses, including AstraZeneca, have been given worldwide.

In Britain alone, 90 per cent of over-12s have had their first vaccine and more than 80 per cent have had two doses, while 33 million boosters have been given.

According to Prof Pollard, when the Oxford Astra Zeneca trials were first started in April 2020, vaccine scientists and investigators were told it would be two years before the vaccine could be rolled out.

With so much of the UK and other richer nations now vaccinated, Prof Pollard has added his voice to calls to “open up”, despite the ongoing threat from Omicron – which the latest UK studies have suggested is milder than Delta.

Prof Pollard told The Telegraph: “At some point, society has to open up. When we do open, there will be a period with a bump in infections, which is why winter is probably not the best time. But that’s a decision for the policy makers, not the scientists.

“Our approach has to switch, to rely on the vaccines and the boosters. The greatest risk is still the unvaccinated.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/omic ... _content=4

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KRG's new COVID measures

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Supreme Committee to Combat COVID-19 on Tuesday issued new measures to curb the spread of the highly contagious disease, including a vaccine passport system

The new restrictions came after the body held a meeting chaired by Minister of Interior Rebar Ahmad and reviewed a Ministry of Health report regarding the latest COVID-19 developments in the region.

Per the new measures, a government deadline for civil servants and security forces to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 has been extended from Jan. 01 to Jan. 20.

Kurdistan Region's border authorities are now required to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests on entrants, including those who have vaccination cards. Those with a negative test within 48 hours of entry will be exempt.

Tourists coming from central and southern Iraqi provinces to the Kurdistan Region must present a COVID-19 vaccine passport or a document proving they had tested negative for the virus within the past 48 hours.

"Everyone should wear masks and abide by social distancing regulations" when visiting indoor public spaces, including government offices and non-essential businesses, per a KRG statement.

As of February, it added, Kurdistan Region residents will be required to either show a document proving they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 test to be allowed entry into government offices and non-essential businesses.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/26 ... -continues

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New IHU variant

A new Covid variant with 46 mutations has been detected in France

Researchers based at the IHU Mediterranee hospital in Marseille said the new variant was linked to a vaccinated man who had recently returned from Cameroon to his home in south-eastern France.

Tweleve people were later identified as having the new variant–five children and seven adults, researchers said.

The new strain has more variations than Omicron, at 46 mutations, several more than Omicron’s 37, according to the study which has not yet been peer reviewed.

The N501Y mutation was detected in the alpha ‘Kent’ variant which can cause the virus to bind better to human cells.

The E484K mutation can potentially lessen the effectiveness of Covid vaccines.

However, researchers stress: “It is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on these 12 cases”.

They added: “Overall, these observations show once again the unpredictability of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and their introduction from abroad, and they exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread”.

The study also adds that while the variant was first detected in a traveller from Cameroon, this does not mean it originated in Cameroon.

American epidemiologist, Eric Feigl-Ding, said: “There are scores of new variants discovered all the time, but it does not necessarily mean they will be more dangerous”.

The expert, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, added: “It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall.”

There are currently five variants designated of ‘concern’ by the World Health Organisation, including both Omicron and Delta.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/c ... _content=2

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Vaccinated people getting COVID

Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately?

A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places.

People might mistakenly think the COVID-19 vaccines will completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, says Louis Mansky, a virus researcher at the University of Minnesota.

And the vaccines are still doing their job on that front, particularly for people who’ve gotten boosters.

Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine still offer strong protection against serious illness from omicron. While those initial doses aren’t very good at blocking omicron infection, boosters — particularly with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — rev up levels of the antibodies to help fend off infection.

Omicron appears to replicate much more efficiently than previous variants. And if infected people have high virus loads, there’s a greater likelihood they’ll pass it on to others, especially the unvaccinated. Vaccinated people who get the virus are more likely to have mild symptoms, if any, since the shots trigger multiple defenses in your immune system, making it much more difficult for omicron to slip past them all.

Advice for staying safe hasn’t changed. Doctors say to wear masks indoors, avoid crowds and get vaccinated and boosted. Even though the shots won’t always keep you from catching the virus, they’ll make it much more likely you stay alive and out of the hospital.

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus- ... obal-en-GB

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Ways to Feel Happier

The COVID-19 pandemic has not, to put it lightly, been a happy time. But it has been and continues to be a rich period for scientists who study happiness. Researchers around the world have followed what happens to wellbeing during the biggest collective threat to happiness most of us have ever known

First, an obvious finding: the pandemic has clearly (and understandably) eroded happiness in the U.S. and globally. Since it began, four in 10 U.S. adults have reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, up from about 1 in 10 in 2019, the Kaiser Family Foundation found this year.

In the U.K., reports of anxiety and depression were at a high during lockdown restrictions in March 2020 and fell when restrictions were loosened later that spring, according to data published in April 2021 from the University College London’s COVID-19 Social Study, an ongoing study of more than 40,000 people.

But the pandemic isn’t the end of happiness. The COVID-19 Social Study also found that people’s sense of meaning—the feeling that life is worthwhile—stayed stable throughout the U.K.’s spring lockdown.

What makes people resilient in the face of such grim circumstances? Recent research highlights a few activities that seem to help the most.

Staying social, even while distancing

The positive effects of social connection hold true even when physical contact may be dangerous. Who you lived with was particularly important in the early months of the pandemic: the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics found in June 2020 that being married or cohabitating with a partner was among the most protective measures against loneliness during this time.

Various studies also found that when people felt connected to others during the pandemic, they tended to experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Since the start of the pandemic, people have done a “huge amount of coping” says Nancy Hey, the executive director of What Works Centre for Wellbeing, a U.K. company that gathers evidence about what works to improve wellbeing.

“In some ways, we come together more when there’s a crisis,” says Hey. “The best thing you can do… is to get on the phone with your family and friends. Knowing that there’s somebody there for you in times of trouble is really important.”

For many people, relationships increasingly went digital. Video calls surged during the pandemic; according to market research company Sensor Tower, usage of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet was almost 21 times higher during the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Digital interactions like these also appear to protect wellbeing. Some recent research has found that social contact, both in person and via phone or video call, was associated with fewer depressive symptoms.

Video calls eased some of the lockdown loneliness in a way not enough people appreciate, says John Helliwell, professor emeritus at Vancouver School of Economics and an editor of the World Happiness Report, an annual assessment of global wellbeing. “If this had happened 50 years ago, and everybody had been at home with no way of really being in contact with others, that would have been much, much more difficult,” says Helliwell. “The ability to work and socially connect without physical contact has been an enormously important support mechanism.”

Still, video calls can feel frustrating and inadequate, leading to mixed effects on wellbeing. One survey published in September 2021 of more than 20,000 people from 101 countries found that people who were dissatisfied with video calls were more likely to be lonely during the pandemic.

Daisy Fancourt, an associate professor at University College London and a leader of the COVID-19 Social Study, says that while video calls shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for in-person contact, in moderation they seemed to help people stay connected and happier. “We found that people who have used video calls, as well as regular phone calls, as a virtual means of staying in touch [for] limited amounts of time per day— that seems to have been beneficial,” says Fancourt.

Being neighbourly and volunteering

The pandemic drove people to find new ways to connect outside of their social bubbles. Many people became closer to their neighbors, for example, or took up volunteer work. The COVID-19 Social Study found in September 2021 that a third of respondents said they’d received more support from their neighbors during the pandemic than before it.

Volunteering also became more popular. In March 2020, the U.K.’s National Health Service asked for volunteers who would do tasks like shopping for people who were isolating or quarantining, transporting patients and moving equipment. It met its goal—250,000 volunteers—in less than 24 hours; two days later, it met its second goal of 750,000 people.

Those who stepped up likely received a happiness boost: Studies suggest that volunteering has a positive impact not only on the people who are the recipients of help, but also on the volunteers. A May 2021 analysis of more than 55,000 U.K. adults from the COVID-19 Social Study during 11 weeks of lockdown found that volunteering was one of the top activities associated with a rise in life satisfaction.

Doing hobbies and exercising

Not all helpful strategies are social. Activities that bring people outdoors, like gardening, and creative pursuits like making art and reading have also supported people’s wellbeing, says Fancourt. Unsurprisingly, another mood-boosting activity was exercise, which past research has linked to emotional benefits.

A survey of nearly 13,700 people from 18 countries published in Frontiers in Psychology in September 2020 found that people who exercised frequently during the lockdown reported more positive moods. Most people seem to have understood that exercise was an important way to keep their spirits up; the study found that people generally didn’t exercise less during lockdown than they did before, and nearly a third of people exercised more.

Of course, measures like these only go so far for people who lost a loved one to the virus or were dangerously ill themselves. One striking thing about the data surrounding wellbeing during the pandemic is that it’s inherently unfair; for instance, having a low income is associated with poorer mental health during the pandemic, according to the results of the COVID-19 Social Study.

However, if there’s any silver lining to the psychological upheaval of the pandemic, it’s greater mental health literacy, says Fancourt. People were forced to grapple with their own understanding of mental health, “their ability to talk about it with appropriate language, their ability to recognize their own symptoms and feelings or potential mental health problems,” she says. “COVID has been its own campaign about mental health.”

https://time.com/6130871/happiness-well ... obal-en-GB

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Kurdistan first cases of Omicron

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region on Thursday recorded the first cases of the new coronavirus variant following a decline in the rate of infections and deaths from the respiratory virus which began spreading across the world almost two years ago

Five cases of the Omicron variant were detected in Duhok province in the Region, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s health minister Saman Barzinji said in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The new infections were reported in one family after one of its members returned from abroad, infecting the rest, Barzinji told reporters.

Iraq also announced at the same time that a number of diplomats in Baghdad had tested positive for the Omicron variant, without disclosing how many.

Coronavirus infections in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region soared over the summer during a surge in Delta cases. Both areas registered high numbers of infections and deaths.

During the conference, Barzinji urged the Kurdistan Region’s population to get vaccinated, adding that the recently infected family had not received their jabs.

In early December, the health minister said the Kurdistan Region had not detected any cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Omicron variant was first reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24, and was designated as a variant of concern two days later as it spread to several countries.

The WHO has said evidence show that Omicron causes milder symptoms than the Delta variant, Reuters on Tuesday quoted a health official as saying.

Iraq warned of a new strain spreading through the country in late October, urging people to get vaccinated.

To date, Iraq has recorded 2,095,183 cases and 24,191 deaths since the start of the pandemic, including the Kurdistan Region.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/060120222

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Syrian suffering exploited

Fake news circulating on social media falsely attributing heartbreaking footage of young girl who was killed by the Syrian regime in Idlib in October to a fictitious story about a child dying after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has been condemned by the Syrian photographer who filmed the video showing a family member’s distressed response to her death last year

On October 20, Syrian-Russian forces launched an attack on the city of Ariha, south of the rebel-held city of Idlib, northwest Syria. Large-caliber artillery shells killed 12 civilians, including four children, as they targeted residential neighborhoods at the time students were leaving for school.

Ali Haj Suleiman, a Syrian photographer based in Idlib, filmed one of the young victim’s family members collapsing in grief as he sees her dead body as a result of artillery shelling by the Assad regime, telling Rudaw English on Friday that fake stories using his clip are “an exploitation of the suffering and oppression experienced by the Syrian people.”

A horrific massacre in the city of Ariha, south of the city of Idlib, northwest Syria, which killed 12 people, including four children, a woman,
Ariha 20-10-2021 pic.twitter.com/NG6w1iO37c
— Ali Haj Suleiman (@AliHajSuleiman) October 22, 2021

Suleiman explained how he had been browsing his Twitter account on Thursday, when he noticed that increasing numbers of people were tagging him in posts and comments on the social media site. Taking a closer look, he was shocked to see that they had been using his video to falsely claim it was footage of a child who had died from taking the vaccine.

The disinformation first originated in Brazil, Suleiman believes, but has since been shared beyond the South American country.

Quite how the blood-stained floor of the hospital can be explained in the false interpretation is unclear, but widespread circulation and comments appear to have taken the lie for fact. Contrary to other interpretations, the man who bids farewell to the child in the video is not her father, because he was also killed in the same attack, Suleiman said.

“Children are being murdered by pharmacists, corrupt politicians, the press, doctors,” reads a comment under one fake article. Under a different website, “Another person made angry enough to kill all who vaxx ppl and all who say this vaxx is ok.”

“It was very upsetting when I found out about this,” Suleiman admitted, adding that many others “have falsified the truth of the video, but their posts have been deleted.”

The Syrian photographer hopes that all of the fake stories will be removed, but he doesn’t expect the sites to do so of their own accord. Calling out the incorrect posts and articles, he says, is one way of restoring the truth.

Rumours, myths and misinformation about COVID-19 have spread as quickly as the disease itself, the AFP Factcheck seeking to debunk disinformation states.

In grim irony, Syria has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world. Compared to 49.8% of the world’s population, just 4.9% of the people still based in the country have been vaccinated by the health system ravaged by war for 10 years.

According to figures from the United Nations, over 350,000 people have been killed, and displaced around 12 million, in the decade-long conflict that began with the regime’s repression of anti-government protests. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has estimated that around 6.6 million Syrians are refugees.

The heavy cost of the Syrian war is felt across the Middle East region.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) published a report on Thursday into the humanitarian situation facing Syrians between July and September last year, noting its collaborative effort with local authorities in the Kurdistan Region’s Dohuk province to provide 41,938 refugees with access to water and sanitation. In Erbil, the report says, UNICEF worked in partnership with the city’s surrounding water directorate to secure access to safe water for 30,082 refugees in the province.

A Human Rights Watch report published in December into the October shelling which killed the young child presented evidence of the attack to push the international community to impose targeted sanctions on commanders implicated in war crimes, but this has not yet happened.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /070120221

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75% of COVID dying were already ill

CDC director says 75% of COVID-19 deaths 'had 4 or more comorbidities'

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said 75% of people who died of COVID-19 had at least four comorbidities, sparking an outpouring of commentary from people surprised by her statement and others saying, “I told you so.”

The top health official made the comment on ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday, days after Dr. Anthony Fauci said on TV that statistics on child hospitalizations are being overblown.

Vaccine mandate skeptics have said the COVID-19 death toll was inflated by people who died with COVID-19 as opposed to dying of COVID-19, and some of them claimed they were made into pariahs or punished on social media for making these claims.

“This is a stunning admission and one that is quite literally at the crux of my Facebook lawsuit against their fact-checkers,” conservative commentator Candace Owens tweeted. “I reported on the scam of them calculating deaths ‘with Covid’ years ago and fact-checkers called me a liar.”

“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities,” Walenksy said. She added that this was “encouraging news” considering the spread of the omicron variant, which health officials believe is more transmissible than other strains but causes less severe illness.

Although it is unclear what data the CDC director was citing, it is possible Walensky was citing a recent study of 40 vaccinated people, 78% of whom suffered from at least four comorbidities.

Some on Twitter took Walensky’s comment to indicate that if COVID-19 mainly kills people with comorbidities, it’s a good sign.

“It is ‘encouraging’ to (Walensky) that chronically ill and disabled Americans are dying … our deaths clearly don’t count,” tweeted Matthew Cortland, a lawyer who said he suffers from a chronic illness.

The CDC told the Washington Examiner that Walensky’s comment was not meant to marginalize people with existing health problems.

“She is deeply concerned and cares about the health and well-being of people with disabilities and those with medical conditions who have been impacted by COVID-19,” the CDC said. “The CDC director continues her commitment to protect all Americans in this next stage of the pandemic.”

The CDC did not address the Washington Examiner’s question on whether Walensky was referencing the study showing 78% of 40 vaccinated people suffering from comorbidities.

https://gazette.com/ap/cdc-director-say ... 0d909.html

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(Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include additional context and notes that CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky was speaking specifically about COVID-19 deaths among the vaccinated population.)

Even before the omicron variant, COVID-19 posed little risk of serious illness or death to the vast majority of the public. Those most at risk have always been the elderly and others with underlying conditions. But for the past two years, anyone who has made that point has been accused of downplaying the crisis and endangering the lives of others.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, learned that the hard way this weekend when she admitted during an interview that 75% of COVID-19 deaths among vaccinated people occurred in those with four or more comorbidities, or “people who were unwell to begin with.”

Unsurprisingly, Walensky was met with the typical “So you want people to die!” refrain, leading her to offer a halfhearted apology:

Walensky was right the first time, and her point proves just how important vaccination is for those with underlying conditions. But I'd also argue that the unvaccinated, as well as the vaccinated, face minimal risk from COVID-19 if they do not have comorbidities.

Just look at the death statistics. Healthy people without serious conditions, regardless of their vaccination statuses, rarely suffer serious cases of COVID-19. In fact, a recent study by the CDC found that only 5% of COVID-19 deaths listed the virus as the only cause of death. That means the other 95% were caused by some other condition, such as obesity, heart disease, or cancer, along with COVID-19.

The data prove an immune system that has not been compromised and is taken care of is capable of withstanding the virus. Those who are at risk are free to take whatever protective measures they feel are necessary. But everyone else needs to get on with their lives and stop letting fear of a virus paralyze society.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opin ... -of-people

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Eugenics at the White House

In remarks reminiscent of the darkest days of the eugenics movement, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Friday that the fact that COVID-19 predominantly kills people who are “unwell to begin with” is “encouraging news.”

As the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 reached a record high, the CDC director was asked in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” about “those encouraging headlines that we’re talking about this morning.”

Walensky replied:

The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities, so really these are people who are unwell to begin with, and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron

As a factual matter, the claim that COVID-19 in general, and the Omicron variant in particular, is only affecting the elderly and ill is false. The spread of the new variant has driven a record surge in hospitalizations of young people, and in particular children and infants. The long-term consequences for those who survive and suffer the consequences of “Long COVID” is still little understood.

However, the suggestion that the “overwhelming number of deaths” occur among the elderly and those with preexisting conditions (comorbidities) is “encouraging news” is shocking in its implications.

Walensky’s comments were broadly condemned by doctors, scientists and advocates for the disabled as an embrace of eugenics by the Biden administration.

“This is eugenicist,” lawyer and disability activist Matthew Cortland, who is chronically ill, wrote on Twitter. “The problem is that the people running @CDCgov, including @CDCDirector, **fundamentally believe** it’s ‘encouraging’ if disabled and chronically ill people die. And all of their decisions are informed by, and enact, that belief.”

None of this is hyperbole. Walensky’s comments express the turn on the part of the White House and dominant sections of the US political establishment toward an open embrace of the view that the lives of the chronically ill, the disabled, and the elderly are fundamentally valueless.

The leading advocate of this policy is Ezekiel Emanuel, the former Obama administration official and current Biden COVID task force adviser, who is now being promoted in a full court press in the US print and broadcast media.

On Wednesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a set of articles by Emanuel and other former Biden health advisors arguing for making COVID-19 the “new normal” and calling on states to “retire” the reporting of COVID-19 deaths. These articles were treated as gospel in the US media, with fawning front-page write-ups in the New York Times and Washington Post.

But this campaign went into overdrive on Sunday, with Emanuel serving as the unstated surrogate for the White House on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Emanuel’s call for a “new normal” was simultaneously hailed by the lead editorial in the Washington Post, which called it a “sensible strategy for living with covid,” presented by “experts.”

In reality, the call by Emanuel and his co-authors is nothing more than a recapitulation of the pseudo-scientific Great Barrington Declaration, stripped of the myth that “herd immunity” would lead to the end of the pandemic. It is a plan for COVID-19 in perpetuity, with wave after wave, variant after variant, taking countless lives each year.

Neither “Meet the Press” nor the Washington Post editorial mentioned that Emanuel is a leading advocate of reducing life expectancy and slashing the provision of medical care for the elderly and chronically ill.

Emanuel, in the words of University of South Carolina philosophy professor Jennifer A. Frey, “thinks of disabled and elderly people as useless and ineffectual; when we run the cost/benefit analysis they cost more than they are worth.” Emanuel believes “that life after 75 [is] not worth living and old people a drain on our resources,” she concluded.

Emanuel “has expressed his eugenicist ideas time and time again,” noted journalist and disability researcher Laura Dorwart.

Emanuel’s basic precept is that the fundamental determinant of medical care must not be the individual’s rights to decency and dignity, but rather a “cost-benefit analysis” driven by the costs to “society” of extending the lives of the ill and the elderly.

Emanuel claims—rightly—that the medical profession is averse to such cost-benefit analysis. But this is because the application of such an analysis to medicine and public health is informed by the legacy of eugenics and the German Nazi Party’s murder of tens of thousands of people with chronic illnesses whom the Nazis branded “unfit to live.”

A Nazi propaganda against the disabled. The caption reads - "A chronically ill person costs the nation 5.5 Reichsmarks. A healthy family can live for a day for the same amount.

In the bioethics textbook From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, professors Allen Buchman, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler note the legacy of “cost-benefit analysis” in the American eugenics movement.

They cite the “Eugenics Catechism of the American Eugenics Society” of 1926, which argues, “It has been estimated that the State of New York, up to 1916, spent over $2,000,000 on the descendants” of one family—the Jukes—claimed to be genetically deficient. “How much would it have cost to sterilize the original Jukes pair?” asked the society: “Less than $150.”

The book continues, “Similar examples abounded in the arithmetic books of German schoolchildren in the 1930s, extending to the cost of keeping institutionalized, handicapped people alive; not long afterward, tens of thousands lost their lives.”

“In the autumn of 1939, Adolf Hitler secretly authorized a medically administered program of ‘mercy death’ code-named ‘Operation T4,’ writes the US Holocaust Museum. “The killings secretly continued until the war’s end, resulting in the murder of an estimated 275,000 people with disabilities.”

Today, hundreds of thousands of elderly and chronically ill people are dying, not in gas chambers, but gasping for air in America’s hospitals. Seventy-five percent of those who have died from COVID-19 have been above the retirement age of 65, and 93 percent have been over the age of 50. In 2020, a year in which 373,000 Americans died from COVID-19, US life expectancy at birth fell by 1.8 years, from 78.8 years to 77.0, according to federal mortality data released last month.

But this reality is not, as Walensky says, “encouraging,” but a horrifying source of guilt and shame, a condemnation of an utterly inhuman society driven by the needs of enriching the few at the expense of the many.

Scientists and doctors have responded to Walensky’s remarks with the demand that she resign. Their anger is justified. But the fact is that Walensky was speaking not only for herself, not only for the Biden administration, but for the entire capitalist class.

For years, American think tanks and military strategists have systematically advocated reducing the life expectancy of American workers. The pandemic has created the means by which this policy could be implemented through seeming inaction and incompetence.

It is, in fact, a deliberate policy, driven by the diseased reliance of all aspects of American capitalism on the perpetual rise in the markets, fueled by the ever-greater immiseration and impoverishment of the working class. Having bled much of the working class dry, the capitalist oligarchy looks to the elderly and the disabled as a source of untapped “value.”

If they have their way, the cutting of outlays on Social Security and Medicare is to be accomplished not by politicians touching the “third rail” of American politics, but by allowing the pandemic to continue in perpetuity.

This filthy policy is accompanied by an equally filthy lie: That COVID-19 cannot be stopped. China has successfully executed a Zero COVID policy, with just 5,000 deaths in a country of 1.4 billion. If a similar policy had been carried out in the United States at the start of the pandemic, over 850,000 people would still be alive.

This homicidal “new normal” demanded by the capitalist oligarchy is being challenged by a growing movement of the working class to resist mass infection and mass death. Teachers in Chicago voted last week to oppose the resumption of in-person instruction, and teachers in Chicago, New York and San Francisco have launched sickouts. They will be joined this week with a wave of walkouts by students in opposition to the Biden administration’s homicidal drive to keep schools open no matter the costs in human lives.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/0 ... s-j10.html

[Anthea]

Philosophers Stone
Published by Phil Stone

Crime reference number. 6029679/21

For Misconduct in public office and Gross negligent manslaughter made at Hammersmith police station on Monday the 20th of December 2021

1, evidence is being sent by Philip Hyland PJH Law, Lois Bayliss Broad Yorkshire Law, Dr Sam White and myself to and collated by The Metropolitan police at Hammersmith CID.

2, the demand to stop the V program remains a priority and The police are reminded of this daily.

3, PJH Law with the help of a senior QC are preparing an injunction to apply to the high court to stop the V program.

4, a number of world renowned experts many of whom are known, doctors, lawyers, virologists, immunologists, scientists, professors, data and intelligence experts have added their names and offered assistance to The Metropolitan Police to support this criminal investigation.

5, all Chief Constables in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been contacted and made aware of the criminal complaint and the crime number allocation.

They have also been made aware of the ICC application and their subsequent acknowledgement.

6, the office of The Mayor of London and Police Crime Commissioner Sadiq Khan has been notified of the criminal investigation and the ICC application.

He has been asked and for him to instruct (as is his lawful duty), The Metropolitan Police to make a public announcement to stop the V program immediately. They have a duty to protect the public from death, harm, injury and loss.

7, the Superintendent to Cressida Dick is aware and has acknowledged the criminal complaint. Also the credible witnesses making contact with him have been acknowledged and their details and evidence forwarded to Hammersmith CID by the Superintendent.

8, some members of Parliament have been made aware of the criminal complaint and the ICC application.

9, from today’s live interview with Reiner Feullmich, Dr Sam White was joined by Advocate of the Indian Barr Association lawyer Dipali Ojha. She confirmed a petition was filed in the High court in Bombay on the 25/11/21 against the V manufactures.

They have also instructed the CBI in India (central bureau of investigation) to investigate the murders by the V of a number of victims.

They cite Bill Gates and other executive officers of the V companies who have collaborated together as being responsible. Applications for compensation in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been made.

10, there are a number of people including retired and serving lawyers and retired police now working flat out, to obtain statements from those damaged by the V or who have lost loved ones believed from the V.

11, due to the sheer volume of victims out there and those coming forward it is impossible to make contact with them all. We are now recommending all victims of the V make contact with their local police force.

Due to the evidence being submitted to The Metropolitan police we believe each individual has a right to be classed as a victim of crime.

The injuries attributed to the V must be documented by the police and an appropriate crime number issued.

It could be anything from actual bodily harm through to Grievous bodily harm , manslaughter and ultimately murder.

We now know those in government, the NHS and the MHRA knew about the dangers of the V, were made aware (and proof of this is provided to The Met) and did nothing to stop it. In fact they continue to promote it as the only safe remedy when it is not.

ALL U.K. CHIEF CONSTABLES HAVE BEEN CONTACTED, THEREFORE THIS INFORMATION SHOULD HAVE BEEN FILTERED DOWN TO ALL CONSTABLES AND CIVILIAN STAFF TO BE MADE AWARE AND TO DEAL APPROPRIATELY.

12, if any police force refuse to treat you as a victim of crime or provide a crime number remind them of the national crime recording standards as detailed below.
If you believe you are a victim of crime and there is no evidence to the contrary a crime must be recorded.

13, if they continue to refuse ask them to take a victim statement of complaint including a victim personal statement and request it is forwarded, on your behalf, to The Metropolitan Police, Hammersmith CID quoting the CRIME NUMBER;

6029679/21

This is the actual crime number allocated to this investigation.

14, CARE WORKERS, DOCTORS AND NURSES.

if you have already been sacked or forced to leave your job because you refused to take the V you have been blackmailed.

This is a criminal offence:

Nobody has a right to demand you take any kind of intrusive medication, V or gene therapy and then sack you or threaten you with losing your livelihood.

Again we are advising you to go to your local police station and make a criminal complaint as a victim of blackmail against the person who dismissed you. Saying it’s a government mandate is no excuse and this is unlawful. The individual is responsible for their actions in making unlawful demands causing you loss, not an organisation or government body.

Again, cite the crime recording standards. If that fails request that a victim statement is taken including a victim personal statement and ask for it to be forwarded to, The CID department at Hammersmith police station using crime reference number;

6029679/21.

15, it is not possible (due to the sheer volume) to respond to personal messages and requests.

We are working flat out with a large number of people to obtain as much evidence and information as possible in order to assist the Metropolitan Police with this massive criminal investigation.

Please remain positive and supportive, we know the nature of the beast and dismissive or negative comments don’t help. There is huge interest in this criminal complaint from many countries around the world and we are encouraging them to do the same.

Rest assured the work to stop this and bringing those responsible to justice will continue unabated.

We need everyone to pull together and work together, if you get knocked back be persistent and insistent and remember the police work for us.

We are also asking for now, avoid sending links, videos and documents because we have thousands of these already and they are very time consuming to go through.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 1348501653

https://pjhlaw.co.uk/coronavirus-dossiers/

This appears to be legitimate - I will be investigating this further

I have looked at pjhlaw's main website

I have read the source code

I conclude this is a genuine article

[Anthea]

Omi-gone?

Cases are now falling in 30% of England's boroughs

Daily Covid cases in the UK have fallen for a week straight and hospital admissions are plateauing, official data revealed today as an NHS leader admitted the health service is past the worst of the Omicron outbreak.

There were 129,587 new positive tests across the country in the last 24 hours, Government dashboard data shows, which marks a fall of a third compared to the figure last Wednesday.

It is the seventh day in a row that infections have fallen week-on-week and the UK looks to be following the same trajectory as South Africa, which became the epicentre and where cases collapsed in little over a month.

It came as MailOnline's analysis of separate Government data revealed 12million people are now living in areas where Covid cases are already falling. Outbreaks were shrinking in 95 of England's 315 local authorities by January 6, according to the UK Health Security Agency's weekly report.

Meanwhile, another 398 deaths were recorded today, up by about a fifth on last week. There are around five times fewer fatalities now than during the second wave last January.

But daily virus admissions appear to be flatlining, according to latest hospital data which shows there were 2,049 admissions on January 8, an increase of less than 1 per cent in a week.

Hospitalisations have fallen for 10 days in a row in former Omicron hotspot London, in a promising sign for the rest of the country.

The promising stats came as Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said it looked as though Omicron was peaking in terms of hospital pressure.

'Unless things change unexpectedly, we are close to the national peak of Covid patients in hospital.

'This is a significant moment but it's crucial we recognise that this will not be uniform - some parts of UK are still seeing rising patient numbers alongside staff absence.'

Meanwhile Dr Richard Cree, an intensive care consultant at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, said: 'The number of people being admitted hasn't risen as high as I feared it might and it may even be starting to plateau.

'I will admit that I thought things might be worse by now but I'm all too happy to be proved wrong. It's looking increasingly likely that we may be able to 'ride out' the Omicron wave after all.'

Even Sir Chris Whitty is now giving ministers 'optimistic signals' that the worst of Covid is over, Whitehall sources claim. Just last month, England's chief medical officer publicly dismissed South African doctors' claims that Omicron was mild and accused people of 'overinterpreting' data. He was accused of 'snobbery' by some experts.

No10 is under mounting pressure to announce a blueprint for learning to live with Covid, with scientists predicting that Britain will be one of the first countries in the world to tame the pandemic. Ministers are already pushing for the final Plan B restrictions to be lifted now there is such a big disconnect between infections and deaths.

A record 3.7million people were infected with Covid on any day last week in England — but cases were slowing nationally, the country's gold-standard Office for National Statistics' surveillance study has found

A maps show the Covid infection rate changes in England over the weeks ending December 30 and January 6, the latest two available. They indicate that the rate of growth is slowing down across the country

UK Health Security Agency data showed London recorded 12,000 cases yesterday, the least in a month. It was comparable to the total cases on December 13

The above figures show Covid infection rates across all regions except the North East fell on January 5. It could suggest the worst of the wave is over

Sajid Javid: Omicron hospitalisations 90 percent less than Delta

Meanwhile, a record 3.7million people were infected with Covid on any day last week in England — but cases were slowing nationally, the country's gold-standard surveillance study has found.

Analysts at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated roughly one in 15 people would have tested positive on January 6, up by about 14 per cent on the previous seven days.

That is the smallest increase since Omicron became dominant at the start of December and the ONS said it was 'encouraging' that infections are falling in the former epicentre London.

Latest Government dashboard data shows the capital recorded just 12,309 new cases yesterday — the lowest in a month.

The ONS' weekly infection survey is regarded as being the most reliable indicator of the outbreak because it uses random sampling of 100,000 people, rather than relying on people coming forward for tests. Despite promising signs, it still showed as many as one in 10 were thought to have had Covid in the North West and Yorkshire.

The ONS report, used by ministers to guide Covid policy, is normally published on Friday — but its release has been moved forward while infections run at unprecedented levels.

Before the emergence of Omicron, that figure rarely rose above 1million, but the ultra-transmissible variant has pushed the country's infection rate to astronomical levels.

The agency estimated there were 3.7million people infected on any given day last week, up from 3.3million during the previous spell.
Britain can 'ride out' Omicron wave, says intensive care doctor

Britain will be able to 'ride out' the Omicron wave without hospitals becoming overwhelmed, an intensive care doctor has said.

Dr Richard Cree, who works at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, had previously feared a major surge in admissions.

But writing in his blog yesterday, Dr Cree said: 'Across the country, the number of people being admitted to hospital following infection remains high.

'However, the number of people being admitted hasn't risen as high as I feared it might and it may even be starting to plateau.

'I will admit that I thought things might be worse by now but I'm all too happy to be proved wrong.

'It's looking increasingly likely that we may be able to "ride out" this Omicron wave after all.'

He also said there was 'no doubt' that Omicron is far less severe than its predecessors.

Hospitalisations in England have plateaued over recent days and in London — which was first to be hit by the variant — they are now falling.

Covid cases are also on a downward trajectory, prompting optimism in No10 that some restrictions could soon be lifted.

Some ministers are pushing for work from home guidance to be the first to go, fearing it will do the most damage to the economy.

The ONS measures the outbreak by looking at the number of active cases - known as prevalence - which always drops more slowly than incidence, how many people are catching the virus.

It found infections definitely increased across all regions of England except London, but the trend was uncertain in eastern England.

In the capital, one in 15 people were estimated to have had Covid in the week to January 6, down from one in 10 the previous week. In the East, the figure was about one in 20.

The highest regional rates are now estimated to be in the North West and Yorkshire/Humber, with one in 10 people testing positive. South West England has the lowest rate, at around one in 25.

Elsewhere in the UK, nearly 170,000 people were thought to be carrying Covid in Wales last week, nearly 300,000 in Scotland, and 100,000 in Northern Ireland. All three figures were the equivalent of one in 20.

Meanwhile, looking at more recent daily data shows infections in England are slowing massively. England yesterday posted 104,833 positive tests, down 29.5 per cent on the previous figure (148,725).

Daily case data is easily skewed by testing, making it hard to distinguish whether falls are genuine. Trends were especially hard to establish over the festive period because fewer people came forward to get swabbed.

But the number of PCR tests carried out in the week ending January 4 was 3.5million, similar to the levels seen before Christmas.

No PCR swabbing data has been released since then for England, so it is impossible to tell whether or not yesterday's plunge was swayed by testing levels.

But London's positivity rate — which experts argue is a more accurate way of tracking outbreaks when testing levels vary — has already started to fall.

London also saw just 12,309 cases logged yesterday, its fewest since December 13. It has sparked hopes that the rest of the country will follow suit, given that the capital was the first to be rocked by Omicron.

Covid cases are already falling in eight of England's nine regions, the figures suggest. The North East is the only one to see its infection rate plateau, although this may drop soon.

Lagged data — which accounts for the date all positive tests were actually taken, not recorded into the system — shows the same trend.

More tests were carried out in the week ending January 6 compared to the week before, bolstering hopes that the worst really could be over for much of the country.

Those figures, which only cover the week to January 6, show five of the ten areas with the fastest falling infection rates were in London.

Lewisham registered the biggest weekly drop (down 23.9 per cent, to 1464.4 cases per 100,000 people), followed by Rochford in Essex (down 21.7 per cent, to 1,673), and Bromley (down 20.3 per cent, to 1,557.3).

On the other end of the scale, no local authority saw its Covid infections double over the latest week. By contrast, over the previous seven-day spell, 46 areas saw their cases rise by over 100 per cent.

Middlesbrough again registered the biggest rise in infections (up 96 per cent, to 3,233.9), while Sunderland saw the second biggest rise (up 93.5 per cent, to 2,716.6) and neighbouring Hartlepool the third biggest (up 89.6 per cent, to 2,936).

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said that most of the country appeared to be 'past its peak' of infections, although he cautioned it was still 'early days'.

He told MailOnline: 'Altogether, I think we are all past the peak of infections, although some regions are later than others.'

Asked whether the return of schools could trigger an uptick in infections, he said that was 'possible' and it would take another week or so before it becomes clear in the data.

'I would not be surprised if we start to see cases increasing in children in the next week or two,' he said. 'Once it is in a school it is going to spread pretty rapidly whatever you do — regardless of masks, ventilation and opening windows.'

Professor David Heymann, a leading public health expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, yesterday said the UK is set to become one of the first country's to exit the pandemic thanks to its high immunity levels from vaccinations.

He told an event at Chatham House that infections would likely soon settle down and start spreading in a similar way to flu and other endemic illnesses. He also pointed out that it was no longer triggering serious illness or death in large numbers, unlike in March 2020 when the virus first arrived.

Yesterday it emerged that No10's Plan B curbs could start to be lifted this month, with some ministers pushing for the work from home guidance to go first.

Michael Gove, who has consistently argued for the toughest curbs, warned that there were 'difficult weeks ahead' for the NHS as the virus surges outside London. But he said there would be 'better times ahead' once the current surge in cases has passed.

'There are other coronaviruses which are endemic and with which we live – viruses tend to develop in a way whereby they become less harmful but more widespread,' he said.

'So, guided by the science, we can look to the progressive lifting of restrictions and, I think for all of us, the sooner the better. But we have got to keep the NHS safe.'

The Prime Minister has also asked the UKHSA to look again at whether the self-isolation period could be relaxed from seven days to five to ease crippling staff shortages in the economy and public services.

Today Health Secretary Sajid Javid signalled his support for the move, saying it would help to ease pressure on hospitals struggling against staff shortages.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... oughs.html

[Anthea]

CDC chief: Delta variant deaths

Delta variant NOT Omicron, is responsible for the 1,700 daily Covid deaths in the US

'The deaths that we're seeing now are still from Delta': CDC chief says the Omicron variant is NOT responsible for the 1,700 daily Covid deaths in the US

CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky says that the recent uptick in Covid deaths hitting America is caused by the Delta variant, not Omicron

Omicron is largely responsible for the recent tripling in daily cases in the U.S., making up 98% of cases

Delta, which makes up 2% of cases, may not be as infectious as Omicron, but dat from the summer shows it is much more deadly

Walensky did not say whether a recent increase in hospitalizations suffered by the U.S. was caused by Delta or Omicron

The United States is currently averaging 1,716 deaths per day from Covid, and Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), blames the Delta variant - not Omicron - for causing them.

Walensky said at a news conference Wednesday that the slight increase in deaths over the past two weeks - up 10 percent - are attributable to the little circulation left of the Delta variant, not Omicron.

According to most recent data released by the CDC, the Omicron variant makes up around 98 percent of sequenced cases, with Delta making up just under two percent.

As a result of the highly infectious variant taking over, cases in the U.S. have rocketed in recent weeks. In two weeks, new daily cases have increased from around 235,269 per day to 750,515 per day - a 184 percent jump.

Deaths have not followed though, mainly due to the mild nature of the Omicron variant when compared to other strains. The small growth in deaths that has occurred could be entirely separate from the recent surge being experienced nationwide.

The agency released data on Wednesday showing the variant is 50 percent less likely to cause hospitalization in people it infects, and a whopping 91 percent less likely to cause death.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/arti ... hs-US.html

[Anthea]

Biden's workplace vaccine mandate blocked

Americans have become intensely divided over Covid-19 vaccine mandates

The US Supreme Court has blocked President Joe Biden's rule requiring workers at large companies to be vaccinated or masked and tested weekly.

The justices at the nation's highest court said the mandate exceeded the Biden administration's authority.

Separately they ruled that a more limited vaccine mandate could stand for staff at government-funded healthcare facilities.

The administration said the mandates would help fight the pandemic

President Biden, whose approval rating has been sagging, expressed disappointment with the decision "to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees".

He added: "I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up - including one third of Fortune 100 companies - and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities."

Former President Donald Trump cheered the court's decision, and said vaccine mandates "would have further destroyed the economy".

"We are proud of the Supreme Court for not backing down," he said in a statement. "No mandates!"

The administration's workplace vaccine mandate would have required workers to receive a Covid-19 shot, or be masked and tested weekly at their own expense.

It would have applied to workplaces with at least 100 employees and affected some 84 million workers. It was designed to be enforced by employers.

Opponents, including several Republican states and some business groups, said the administration was over-stepping its power with the requirements, which were introduced in November and immediately drew legal challenges.

In the end, Joe Biden's vaccine mandates stood or fell based on judicial interpretations of federal statute, not principles of individual liberty or appeals to the greater good.

According to a majority of the Supreme Court, Mr Biden had the law on his side when ordering healthcare workers to get vaccinated, but using a 51-year-old workplace safety statute to implement a vaccine-or-test requirement on all large employers was a bridge too far.

Once again, the current balance of the Supreme Court comes into sharp relief, with four reliably conservative justices, three reliable liberal ones and two - Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh - at the ideological fulcrum.

This mixed judicial bag is just the latest setback for a presidential Covid-response plan that frequently has seemed a step behind the latest twists in the pandemic. The administration was slow to encourage boosters and caught flat-footed by the Omicron-induced surge in demand for testing.

Now Mr Biden will either have to convince Congress to act on mandates - an unlikely prospect given the brick wall the rest of his agenda keeps hitting in the Senate - or figure out new ways to shepherd the nation out of the pandemic gloom.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices agreed with that argument, saying that the workplace safety rule for large employers was too broad to fall under the authority of the Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration to regulate workplace safety.

"Covid-19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather," the court's majority wrote.

"That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases."

"This is no 'everyday exercise of federal power,'" they added. "It is instead a significant encroachment on the lives - and health - of a vast number of employees."

The more limited rule concerning more than 10 million staff at healthcare facilities that receive government funding did not pose the same concern, they decided, by 5-4.

That said imposing conditions on recipients of public money fit "neatly" into the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The rulings come as some parts of the policies were due to go into effect this week. The court heard arguments in the case on Friday.

The rulings reflected the political make-up of the court, which now has a majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents.

The court's three liberal justices opposed blocking the vaccine mandate, saying such a decision "stymies the federal government's ability to counter the unparalleled threat that Covid-19 poses to our nation's workers."

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, seen as moderates in the conservative majority, joined the liberals in allowing the healthcare rule to stand.

The decision comes as the US experiences another wave of Covid-19 infections, with the Omicron variant spurring record cases and hospitalisation rates.

The Biden administration had estimated that instituting a vaccine requirement at big employers would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospital admissions over six months.

More than 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated already. Independent of the government's regulations, some companies, including Google, Citibank and IBM, have started to move forward with their own requirements.

But the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a lobby group that was one of the lead plaintiffs challenging the government's workplace vaccine rule, had charged that it would burden small-business owners with new compliance costs, make it harder to fill positions and lead to lost profits and lost sales.

"Today's decision is welcome relief for America's small businesses, who are still trying to get their business back on track since the beginning of the pandemic," said Karen Harned, executive director of the group's legal arm.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59989476