TallGuyJohninBKK

Analysis: Biden is alienating progressives yet again — but he may have no choice (CNN) -- Joe Biden is pushing progressives who are already sour on his presidency to the limit with a tough new executive action barring most asylum applications from migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally. But the president’s weakness on one of Donald Trump’s biggest campaign issues means it’s a risk that he has no option but to take. People familiar with Biden’s strategy pointed out privately that he was in the position of taking bold action on immigration after Republicans in Congress refused to act after killing a bipartisan immigration bill to please their presumptive nominee. If Biden wins November’s election, it will probably be because he was able to cement the most disaffected liberal Democrats behind him, while appealing to moderates and dissenting Republicans who reject Trump’s extremism. Many of the latter group feel that the border crisis is a matter of urgent national security, and Biden needs to show he takes the presidential duty of securing the homeland seriously. (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/politics/biden-progressives-immigration/index.html

Biden rolls out asylum restrictions, months in the making, to help ‘gain control’ of the border WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections. The long-anticipated presidential proclamation would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The Democratic president had contemplated unilateral action for months after the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at the behest of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Biden said he preferred more lasting action via legislation but “Republicans have left me no choice.” Instead, he said he was acting on his own to “gain control of the border” while also insisting that “I believe immigration has always been the lifeblood of America.” (more) https://apnews.com/article/biden-asylum-migration-immigration-mexico-border-dec5f83b468b5795479bf1f5e49799d5

Per the Associated Press: "A GOP-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started — yet found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing." ... Republicans repeated unproven accusations against the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist..." https://apnews.com/article/fauci-covid-pandemic-origin-congress-a66625482f25824476ee315484790230

This Dr. McCormick, before he became a member of Congress: Physician running for congress in GA comes under fire for spreading misinformation Updated: 6:42 PM EDT September 29, 2021 ATLANTA — Critics say a physician running for congress in Georgia has spread misinformation on masks and for some COVID vaccines. Dr. Rich McCormick is a physician who came close to winning the 7th district congressional race last year, and he's running for it again next year. ... Recently, McCormick has become somewhat regular on NewsMax, a cable channel that surged in popularity among conservatives in 2020. "I think the delta variant is being blown out of proportion. We're not seeing the mortality rate spike. We're not seeing people hospitalized en masse. We're not seeing them go to the ICU," McCormick told NewsMax on July 8, just weeks before hospitalizations and mortality started to surge. During the same NewsMax interview, he also falsely claimed that children are not at risk. (more) https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/critics-physician-running-for-congress-in-georgia-sidesteps-science/85-d6bf03d9-9efe-4a13-be81-074023b698f8

Key takeaways: Fauci defends against GOP claims on COVID origins, response Fauci called some assertions "seriously distorted" in public testimony. ... "Fauci rejected suggestions he used his private email in his official capacity, and both denounced and distanced himself from the adviser's actions. "Let me state for the record that to the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business via my personal email," Fauci said. ... Fauci told lawmakers he "knew nothing" of Morens' actions with Daszak or EcoHealth, denounced Morens' behavior as inappropriate and asserted Morens was not "an adviser to me on institute policy or other substantive issues." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republicans-poised-grill-anthony-fauci-covid-19-response/story?id=110677611

COVID!!! I know this may come as a surprise to some here, but we had a bit of a COVID pandemic during the past years since 2020 that officially killed 7+ million people based on official death reports, but based on rates of higher than normal deaths, probably killed somewhere between 20 and 30 million directly and indirectly. Per the New York Times from March: The true toll "Covid’s confirmed death toll — more than seven million people worldwide — is horrific on its own, and the true toll is much worse. The Economist magazine keeps a running estimate of excess deaths, defined as the number of deaths above what was expected from pre-Covid trends. The global total is approaching 30 million. This number includes both confirmed Covid deaths and undiagnosed ones, which have been common in poorer countries. It includes deaths caused by pandemic disruptions, such as missed doctor appointments that might have prevented other diseases. The isolation of the pandemic also caused a surge of social ills in the U.S., including increases in deaths from alcohol, drugs, vehicle crashes and murders. Globally, Covid ranks among the worst killers since 1900. AIDS, for example, is estimated to have killed about 40 million people, but over a half century rather than only four years. The 1918 flu killed somewhere between 20 million and 50 million people." https://archive.ph/niVyc The above cited study in the OP takes a partial look at the phenomenon of excess deaths during the COVID era, tallying excess deaths in 47 western countries by year for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 -- the years of the COVID pandemic with the highest death tolls thus far. Excess mortality across countries in the Western World since the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘Our World in Data’ estimates of January 2020 to December 2022 "Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic has been substantial. Insight into excess death rates in years following WHO’s pandemic declaration is crucial for government leaders and policymakers to evaluate their health crisis policies. This study explores excess mortality in the Western World from 2020 until 2022. ... Conclusions Excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. This raises serious concerns. Government leaders and policymakers need to thoroughly investigate underlying causes of persistent excess mortality." This issue has been examined previously by various reports and studies: Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950–2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 March 2024, The Lancet "An estimated 131 million (126–137) people died globally from all causes in 2020 and 2021 combined, of which 15·9 million (14·7–17·2) were due to the COVID-19 pandemic (measured by excess mortality, which includes deaths directly due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and those indirectly due to other social, economic, or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic). Excess mortality rates exceeded 150 deaths per 100 000 population during at least one year of the pandemic in 80 countries and territories, whereas 20 nations had a negative excess mortality rate in 2020 or 2021, indicating that all-cause mortality in these countries was lower during the pandemic than expected based on historical trends. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00476-8/fulltext# AND 14.9 million excess deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 The WHO, May 2022 "New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as “excess mortality”) between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million). “These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO is committed to working with all countries to strengthen their health information systems to generate better data for better decisions and better outcomes.” https://www.who.int/news/item/05-05-2022-14.9-million-excess-deaths-were-associated-with-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-2020-and-2021 Lastly, worth noting, the period of the OP cited study stops at the end of 2022, meaning nothing in their report deals with anything that's happened in the studied countries from 2023 and beyond. So it's not any kind of look at what's occurring in current times.

And remember this -- Bangkok, August 2021: https://www.scmp.com/video/asia/3143460/thailand-sees-overwhelmed-hospital-morgues-and-renewed-protests-amid-biggest

Speaking of "remember this" -- Bangkok, July 2021: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cases-surge-thai-hospital-uses-containers-store-bodies-2021-07-31/ or https://archive.ph/QgVdW

So I can't tell whether you're happy or complaining that a pair of small town doctors in a heavily Republican / conservative area of California decided they were going to flout the then current advice from both the Calif. Dept. of Health Services and their own Kern County Health Department. Either way, they were wrong. From your news report in early 2020: "In our ongoing effort to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on our residents and healthcare system, we continue to adhere to the guidance issued by Governor Newsom regarding the stay at home order. Kern County Public Health Services recommends the following protective measures: Stay at home except for essential needs. Practice social distancing. Wash hands with soap and water often. Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands. Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or your elbow. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Stay away from work, school or other people if you become sick. Wear face covering while in public if you are unable to maintain social distancing." All of the above was then good, legitimate public health guidance re COVID, and consistent with what many other public health agencies (including the state of Calif.) were advising at the time, notwithstanding what the two small town doctors thought.

Report on Fauci's testimony: "Most US intelligence agencies say the virus was not genetically engineered, but it is still not totally clear how the pandemic started. A US intelligence analysis released last year said either origin was possible, and the community remains split on the issue. ... “I cannot account nor can anyone account for other things that might be going on in China, which is the reason why I have always said and will say now, I keep an open mind as to what the origin is,” Fauci said Monday. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/03/politics/fauci-testimony-house-hearing-covid-19/index.html

Fauci was testifying yesterday before a House subcommittee, not the Senate. Takeaways from Fauci’s testimony at contentious House hearing on Covid-19 pandemic ... "Some of the world’s leading scientists have investigated the origins of the virus, including a committee of experts from the World Health Organization. Most scientists believe that the virus spread from animals to humans in China. Some studies have also said that the theory that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, cannot be ruled out. Most US intelligence agencies say the virus was not genetically engineered, but it is still not totally clear how the pandemic started." https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/03/politics/fauci-testimony-house-hearing-covid-19/index.html And sadly, the year-plus long spectacle by the Republican-led subcommittee brought no meaningful new insight into that question. New York Times, May 2024: "But in a report and in extensive questioning on Wednesday, the Republicans offered no new information suggesting that EcoHealth Alliance or Dr. Daszak were involved in the coronavirus outbreak. And they did not produce any evidence pointing directly to a coronavirus leak from a lab in China, with or without EcoHealth’s involvement, a hitch in their years-long effort to implicate Chinese and American scientists in the beginnings of the pandemic." https://archive.ph/Ho5gO#selection-7093.0-7097.432

From your source above: "Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?” “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.” [emphasis added] ... Tabak added that “this is research, the generic term [gain-of-function], is research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.” [emphasis added] Fauci on Monday addressed the gain of function claim regarding the research in China separately in comments not inconsistent with Tabak's reference to gain of function as a "generic term" involving non-harmful / no threat research: As the AP reported: "The definition of “gain of function” covers both general research and especially risky experiments to “enhance” the ability of potentially pandemic pathogens to spread or cause severe disease in humans. Fauci stressed he [in rejecting Republicans' claims] was using the risky experiment definition, saying “it would be molecularly impossible” for the bat viruses studied with EcoHealth’s funds to be turned into the virus that caused the pandemic." https://apnews.com/article/fauci-covid-pandemic-origin-congress-a66625482f25824476ee315484790230

Rand Paul has his dubious opinion, and that's all it is... His call for a criminal prosecution of Fauci in the cited Fox report went nowhere, because there was no credible criminal case to be made. Per the Associated Press: "A GOP-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started — yet found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing." ... Republicans repeated unproven accusations against the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist..." https://apnews.com/article/fauci-covid-pandemic-origin-congress-a66625482f25824476ee315484790230 Per the New York Times: "And for all the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and more than 100 hours of closed-door testimony that the panel reviewed, lawmakers produced nothing on Monday linking Dr. Fauci to the beginnings of the Covid outbreak in China...." New York Times https://archive.ph/Q2NKi Per subcommittee ranking member Raul Ruiz: Ruiz added that the evidence found that "Dr. Fauci did not fund research through the EcoHealth Alliance Grant that caused the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci did not lie about gain of function research in Wuhan China, Dr. Fauci did not orchestrate a campaign to suppress the lab-leak theory." https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/anthony-fauci-covid-origins-hearing-06-03-24/index.html

This Dr. McCormick, before he became a member of Congress: Physician running for congress in GA comes under fire for spreading misinformation Updated: 6:42 PM EDT September 29, 2021 ATLANTA — Critics say a physician running for congress in Georgia has spread misinformation on masks and for some COVID vaccines. Dr. Rich McCormick is a physician who came close to winning the 7th district congressional race last year, and he's running for it again next year. ... Recently, McCormick has become somewhat regular on NewsMax, a cable channel that surged in popularity among conservatives in 2020. "I think the delta variant is being blown out of proportion. We're not seeing the mortality rate spike. We're not seeing people hospitalized en masse. We're not seeing them go to the ICU," McCormick told NewsMax on July 8, just weeks before hospitalizations and mortality started to surge. During the same NewsMax interview, he also falsely claimed that children are not at risk. (more) https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/critics-physician-running-for-congress-in-georgia-sidesteps-science/85-d6bf03d9-9efe-4a13-be81-074023b698f8

Dr. Rich McCormick on COVID: March 10, 2020: "In historical context this virus is no different than the other coronaviruses we have had in the past decade." https://twitter.com/RichforGA/status/1237080333025267713 ------------------------- March 17, 2020: "My prediction is in about two months, it's going to be a bad memory." https://twitter.com/RichforGA/status/1239666281869127680

Georgia’s medical board mum as doctors spread COVID-19 misinformation With no consequences, some doctors promote vaccine hesitancy and encourage ditching masks Oct 29, 2021 ... "Documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show Georgia’s medical board received a complaint last year accusing a doctor running for Congress of publicly spreading false COVID information, but the board took no action. The board currently has two misinformation-related reports pending. One is a second complaint filed against the candidate, Dr. Rich McCormick, and the other involves Augusta pediatrician Dr. Alan Getts, involving the “COVID advice” letter to a family member." ... A Peachtree Corners resident who blogs on medical fraud filed the first complaint about McCormick in October 2020, saying the Republican candidate for the U.S. House’s 7th Congressional District had repeatedly promoted unproven drugs as COVID treatments and downplayed the severity of the virus. The statements were made in Twitter posts and during appearances on far-right media outlets known for promoting conspiracy theories about the pandemic and the 2020 election. https://archive.ph/DvL7Q#selection-1989.0-1993.258

Re current U.S. Rep. McCormick cited above, back when he was just a doctor and political candidate: Physician running for congress in GA comes under fire for spreading misinformation Updated: 6:42 PM EDT September 29, 2021 ATLANTA — Critics say a physician running for congress in Georgia has spread misinformation on masks and for some COVID vaccines. Dr. Rich McCormick is a physician who came close to winning the 7th district congressional race last year, and he's running for it again next year. ... Recently, McCormick has become somewhat regular on NewsMax, a cable channel that surged in popularity among conservatives in 2020. "I think the delta variant is being blown out of proportion. We're not seeing the mortality rate spike. We're not seeing people hospitalized en masse. We're not seeing them go to the ICU," McCormick told NewsMax on July 8, just weeks before hospitalizations and mortality started to surge. During the same NewsMax interview, he also falsely claimed that children are not at risk. (more) https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/critics-physician-running-for-congress-in-georgia-sidesteps-science/85-d6bf03d9-9efe-4a13-be81-074023b698f8

Fauci pushes back partisan attacks in fiery House hearing over COVID origins and controversies ... A GOP-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started — yet found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing. [emphasis added] He’d already been grilled behind closed doors, for 14 hours over two days in January. But Monday, Fauci testified voluntarily in public and on camera at a hearing that quickly deteriorated into partisan attacks. Republicans repeated unproven accusations against the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist while Democrats apologized for Congress besmirching his name and bemoaned a missed opportunity to prepare for the next scary outbreak. (more) https://apnews.com/article/fauci-covid-pandemic-origin-congress-a66625482f25824476ee315484790230

Fauci testified during Monday's hearing that he’s made “zero” dollars in pandemic royalties: Fauci Testimony Turns Chaotic: ‘Most Insane Hearing I’ve Attended’ ... "Whenever Fauci was actually allowed to respond to questions from Republican lawmakers, he took the opportunity to push back on many of the conspiracies about his role in the pandemic. When asked if he received any royalties from Big Pharma since 2021, Fauci responded that he’s made “zero” dollars in pandemic royalties. “I got $122 for a monoclonal antibody I created 27 years ago,” Fauci added, clarifying that the decades-old research was unrelated to the pandemic. " https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fauci-testimony-turns-chaotic-republicans-conspiracies-1235031827/ House Republicans’ Attempts to Attack Fauci Go Wildly Off Rails The House GOP struggled to find things to blame on Anthony Fauci. ... "In another embarrassing instance, New York Representative Nicole Malliotakis tried—and failed—to implicate the infectious diseases expert in a popular conspiracy theory, including that he had received royalties from pharmaceutical companies for coronavirus-related medications and vaccines. “How much have you earned in royalties from pharmaceutical companies since the pandemic began in 2021?” asked Malliotakis. “Zero,” replied Fauci." AND "The New York Republican then proceeded to read a headline in front of her, citing that an “NIH scientist had made $710 million from drugmakers.” “You’re saying that you did not receive any of the $710 million?” she pressed. Fauci knew exactly how much he had made: just $122 for a somewhat unrelated monoclonal antibody that he had patented decades prior." https://newrepublic.com/post/182187/house-republicans-attack-fauci-covid-hearing

"The majority wealth increase enjoyed by Fauci and his wife, chief bio-ethicist at the National Institutes of Health, Christine Grady, came from investment gains, gifts and awards, and federal employment compensation, according to the records." No mention whatsoever of NIH royalties.

The six-foot rule comes up again The GOP has repeatedly pressed Fauci about the six-foot distance recommendation imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier on Monday, Fauci explained that the six-foot rule came from the CDC. Rep Joyce asked, “what was your relationship with the CDC when you saw a regulation that was not based in the current science?” Fauci clarified that there wasn’t a clinical trial that concluded that six feet was more effective than three or 10 feet." https://www.yahoo.com/news/anthony-fauci-faces-congressional-grilling-141325329.html

The source that MTG appears to be citing (NY Post) doesn't actually say anything about Fauci himself receiving any the cited funds, or how much he may have received. It merely talks about money going NIH scientists as a group. It also is an article listed as an opinion piece, not a news report. https://nypost.com/2024/06/02/opinion/nih-scientists-made-710m-in-royalties-from-drug-makers-a-fact-they-tried-to-hide/ But that nothwithstanding, it also fails to reflect the following: Some Posts About NIH Royalties Omit Fauci Statement That He Donates His Payments May 20, 2022 "A nonprofit recently reported that, since 2009, the National Institutes of Health and many of its scientists received an estimated $350 million in royalties for developing experimental treatments. Some kept the money, but Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that he donates royalties he receives to charity — a detail left out of some online posts about the payments." ... But the post on OpenTheBooks.com, which is titled “Fauci’s Royalties And The $350 Million Royalty Payment Stream HIDDEN By NIH,” never mentioned that Fauci has said he donates his royalties to charity. (That piece of information is mentioned in a separate fact sheet about the group’s investigation.) ... We are not able to confirm whether Fauci donated his past royalty payments as he said, nor did the NIH or NIAID say what Fauci’s practices are now. https://www.factcheck.org/2022/05/scicheck-some-posts-about-nih-royalties-omit-that-fauci-said-he-donates-his-payments/

Fauci Grilled by Lawmakers on Masks, Vaccine Mandates and Lab Leak Theory Dr. Fauci testified before a House panel investigating Covid’s origins. The panel found emails suggesting that his aides were skirting public records laws. ... But the House panel rarely lingered over evidence that concerned the origins of the coronavirus, or responsibility for its brutal toll in the United States. Lawmakers never pressed Dr. Fauci over his reassurances early in 2020 that Americans needed not worry about the virus, which was then sweeping the globe. ... And for all the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and more than 100 hours of closed-door testimony that the panel reviewed, lawmakers produced nothing on Monday linking Dr. Fauci to the beginnings of the Covid outbreak in China...." (more) New York Times https://archive.ph/Q2NKi or https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/science/fauci-hearing-covid-origins.html

GOP subcommittee chair and ranking member wrap up hearing with closing statements "In his closing statement, Ranking Member Raul Ruiz thanked Dr. Anthony Fauci for his testimony and for his decades of service to the nation in dealing with various epidemics and pandemics. He also blasted Republicans for pushing extreme narratives for political gain. ... Ruiz added that the evidence found that "Dr. Fauci did not fund research through the EcoHealth Alliance Grant that caused the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci did not lie about gain of function research in Wuhan China, Dr. Fauci did not orchestrate a campaign to suppress the lab-leak theory." https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/anthony-fauci-covid-origins-hearing-06-03-24/index.html

Fauci testifies about possible origins of virus that caused Covid-19 .... "Fauci testified that in early 2020, he was informed through phone calls with two scientists — Jeremy Farrar, then the director of the Wellcome Trust in the UK and Kristian Andersen, a scientist at Scripps Research — that they and others were concerned that the virus that causes Covid-19 could have been manipulated in the lab. ... Fauci said the virologists on the joint call decided to more carefully examine the genomic sequence and after further examination, and said, “several who at first were concerned about lab manipulation became convinced that the virus was not deliberately manipulated.” Scientists found the most likely scenario, Fauci said, was a virus that transferred from an animal to a human, “although they still kept an open mind.” “The accusation being circulated that I influenced the scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false, and simply preposterous,” Fauci said, noting he had no input into the content on a paper published in March 2020 that discussed the possible origins of the virus." (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/03/politics/fauci-testimony-house-hearing-covid-19/index.html