Journal changes status of submitted India study from "reject" to "revise" after CDC highlights it.

Quote:The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited an unpublished study from India to justify its recommendation Tuesday that fully vaccinated people "wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission" of COVID-19.

That study, which claimed the Delta variant produced an unusually large viral load in more than 100 vaccinated healthcare workers with "breakthrough infections," was listed as having failed peer review in the journal Nature when the CDC cited it.

Archives of the study's page on Research Square, a preprint server for unpublished research, show that it was marked "reject" on July 9 and remained so at least through the evening of July 26, Eastern Daylight Time.

That version was still live early Wednesday morning, the day after the CDC cited the study in its July 27 updated science brief, according to a Twitter user who posted a screenshot.

The "reject" status and review notes were removed by mid-morning and replaced with "posted," suggesting Nature had approved the paper without revisions, which drew controversy on Twitter. The notes were quickly restored and status changed to "revise," bearing the same date — July 9 — as the original "reject" status.

Quote:CDC Director Rachelle Walensky said fully vaccinated people "have just as much viral load as the unvaccinated, making it possible for them to spread the virus to others," which is why all children should wear masks in schools, NBC News reported. The White House announced it would start requiring masks in its buildings Wednesday.

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw was among those calling out the CDC for the quality of research informing its policy decisions. "The 'game changer' data the CDC used for the mask mandate is from a single study from India," he tweeted. "The study was rejected in peer review. But CDC used it anyway."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/...ing-peer?u

Does anyone other than some of our soy loving liberals on this site believe the CDC isn't completely politicizing the issue for someone's gain?

Let me guess, the "study" was done by a porn star wannabe.

(07-29-2021 11:28 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Let me guess, the "study" was done by a porn star wannabe.

I thought Avenetti was in jail?

(07-29-2021 12:15 PM)Eldonabe Wrote:  

(07-29-2021 11:28 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Let me guess, the "study" was done by a porn star wannabe.

I thought Avenetti was in jail?

Dont laugh, that may be his next line of work.

Biden Mask-erade Hits Pentagon: ‘All Individuals’ Ordered to Mask Up Regardless of Vaccination Status


‘No One Knows Anything’: Experts Ask CDC To Release Data On Revised Mask Mandates

Quote:The Washington Post reports Thursday that “outside scientists” are asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to release the “new data” cited in their announcement revising mask mandates for areas at high risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Republican legislators and some commentators noted Wednesday that the CDC did not provide an explicit scientific rationale for returning to indoor masking, even though the group’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, cited “new data” in her press conference announcing the change.

It turns out, though, that political figureheads are not the only ones asking questions.

The CDC’s report, experts noted to the Washington Post, cites only “CDC COVID-19 Response Team, unpublished data, 2021,” as the agency’s scientific justification for directing even individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 to mask up when indoors if they live in a county with high rates of the disease’s delta variant.

The Post notes that the CDC justified its revised mandate by noting that “[p]eople who have had their shots and become infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus can harbor large amounts of virus just like unvaccinated people. That means they could become spreaders of the disease and should return to wearing masks indoors in certain situations, including when vulnerable people are present.”

But the CDC “did not publish the new research” and now “outside scientists,” who spoke to the Post are curious.

“They’re making a claim that people with delta who are vaccinated and unvaccinated have similar levels of viral load, but nobody knows what that means,” Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, told the outlet. “It’s meaningless unless we see the data.”

“When CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spoke to reporters Tuesday, she cited the ‘new scientific data’ but provided limited details about how the research was done,” the Post added. “She said the data comes from outbreak investigations in which researchers compared delta infections among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”

The data, a “federal official” told the outlet, will be “published immediately,” but it was convincing enough that the CDC “saw the data and thought it was urgent enough to act,” even without publishing the information.

“Three senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said the new research convinced health officials that it was time to update the agency’s guidance. When scientists compared viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with an earlier variant of the virus — the alpha variant, which was dominant in the spring — there were considerable differences in the amount of virus each carried,” the Post added.

It is not clear whether the CDC is relying on peer-reviewed studies or its own collected data, either, leaving experts concerned.

The CDC’s updated guidance directs individuals to mask up indoors if they are in an area where the delta variant is spreading, but it also directs all individuals in a K-12 institutional setting to mask up, regardless of vaccination status and, it appears, regardless of location — a change from previous CDC guidance which suggested that each educational institution could make decisions on masking based on local rates of transmission.

OPINION: With COVID-Positive Illegal Immigrants Flooding Across The Border, Don’t Fall For Biden’s Tricks

Quote:If you were to take Democrats at face value, you’d conclude that they’re deeply concerned about the continued spread of COVID-19. In particular, the spread of the “Delta variant.”

The expression of such concern comes as the federal government both promotes vaccination and declares that the vaccinated should continue to wear masks.

“Nobody likes wearing a mask,” Kamala Harris says. “Get vaccinated,” like that makes a difference to mask wearing.

And those who point out the obvious confusion sparked by such comments are immediately rejected as the real source of the confusion.

“We have a pandemic, because of the unvaccinated and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” President Biden declared, while also labeling anyone who doesn’t get vaccinated as stupid.

The reality here is that COVID-19 is simply the latest outer skin applied to the Left’s template of demonization. After spending months decrying the validity of the miraculous COVID-19 vaccines developed under the Trump administration, Democrats have pivoted to act as if the vaccine appeared like manna falling from an atheistic sky on January 20.

Suddenly, the people who voted for the man whose leadership helped fuel the rapid development of these vaccines are the “dumb” ones, with the lazy conclusion that those who aren’t Trump supporters are therefore “smart.”

Nothing better encapsulates the absurdity of the Democratic Party’s “smart vs. dumb” COVID-19 position than the U.S.-Mexico border. As reported by Fox News, authorities in South Texas announced that COVID-positive illegal immigrants were released from federal custody, left free to rush to the local Whataburger and enjoy a feverish burger with a side of phlegm.

Not only is the federal government apparently ignoring COVID-positive illegal immigrants who cross the border (while legal travel remains under heavy restrictions), they have no interest in acknowledging that black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately under-represented among the vaccinated — and disproportionately Democrat.

But if the danger of COVID-19 is tied inextricably to those who have not been vaccinated, then why is the focus falling squarely on MAGA-hat wielding conservatives?

There is only one logical conclusion here: fighting COVID-19 is not as important to the Democratic Party as politics.

If it was, they would close the border to COVID-positive illegal immigrants. If it was, they would acknowledge the vaccination gaps in politically-inconvenient communities. If it was, they wouldn’t have undermined public faith in COVID-19 vaccines in the first place.

Joe Biden is arguing that getting vaccinated is a way for “dumb” Americans to prove their intelligence. But we must understand that there is no single “test” which will prove our “intelligence” to Biden and the Democratic Party. Just an endless series of cynical and loaded hoops through which we must jump.

If we fail, it’s because we’re wrong. If we pass, it’s on to the next test.

Why? Because this is not, and will never be, about COVID-19. It’s about their complete disgust for conservative America.

COVID-Positive Illegal Immigrants Given Hotel Rooms In South Texas, Authorities Not Informed

Quote:Police in South Texas were surprised to discover that illegal immigrants had been put up in hotels after being released from federal custody – and that these immigrants had possibly tested positive for COVID-19.

Fox News reported that the immigrants had been turned over to a Catholic charity after they were released from federal company, and the charity booked them hotel rooms. Local authorities, however, weren’t informed.

“The La Joya Police Department said a patrol officer was waved down Monday by someone concerned about a group that appeared to be sick at a Whataburger fast food restaurant. The officer found a family inside who were coughing and sneezing and not adhering to health guidelines, including the wearing of masks, authorities said during a news conference,” Fox reported. “A manager told the officer they wanted the people to leave the establishment because they were making everyone inside ‘uneasy.’ When the officer approached the migrants, they said they had tested positive for the coronavirus and had been apprehended by Border Patrol agents several days prior before being released. “

La Joya police Sgt. Manuel Casas told the outlet that the family didn’t have documentation to prove they had tested positive for COVID-19.

“We did not know this,” Casas told the outlet. “No one told the city of La Joya. No one told the police department that these people were here and no one told us that these people were possibly ill.”

Further, the immigrants told the officer who responded to the Whataburger concerns that they had been booked a room at the Texas Inn & Suites down the road after they had been released from Border Patrol and that the rooms had been booked by the Catholic Charities of The Rio Grande Valley.

“We have an understanding based on what was told to us that the hotel in totality has already been rented out,” Casas told Fox. “The information we have is that everyone that is staying in that hotel is COVID-19 positive because it’s being rented out for them.”

Casas also told the outlet that police can’t keep the immigrants from leaving the hotel and going elsewhere in the U.S.

News of the COVID-19-positive immigrants comes at the same time that whistleblowers said they were told to downplay a COVID-19 outbreak among migrant children at a shelter set up at Fort Bliss in Texas. NBC News reported that two new whistleblowers had come forward to discuss the conditions of children being kept in migrant facilities under the Biden administration. The new whistleblowers said in a complaint: “Covid was widespread among children and eventually spread to many employees. Hundreds of children contracted Covid in the overcrowded conditions. Adequate masks were not consistently provided to children, nor was their use consistently enforced.”

The whistleblowers, Arthur Pearlstein and Lauren Reinhold, added that HHS public affairs officials told them “when asked, to make everything sound positive about the Fort Bliss experience and to play down anything negative.”

Whistleblowers Accuse Biden’s HHS: Efforts Made To ‘Downplay The Degree Of COVID Infection’ At Migrant Children Site

Quote:Two whistleblowers have accused members of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of directing them to minimize the size of a coronavirus outbreak among migrant children housed in detention facilities.

Arthur Pearlstein, a director at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and Lauren Reinhold, an attorney-adviser at the Social Security Administration, wrote in their complaint regarding the Fort Bliss Emergency Intake Site, near El Paso, Texas, between April and June of this year, “COVID was widespread among children and eventually spread to many employees. Hundreds of children contracted COVID in the overcrowded conditions. Adequate masks were not consistently provided to children, nor was their use consistently enforced. Every effort was made to downplay the degree of COVID infection at the site, and the size of the outbreak was deliberately kept under wraps.”

The complaint continues, “At a ‘town hall’ meeting with detailees, a senior U.S. Public Health Service manager was asked and refused to say how many were infected because ‘if that graph [of infections] is going to The Washington Post every day, it’s the only thing we’ll be dealing with and politics will take over, perception will take over, and we’re about reality, not perception.’ All the manager would acknowledge is that several children had to be hospitalized. The manager also dismissed a detailee’s concern that the children in the COVID tents were wearing basic disposable masks instead of N95 masks. The manager said N95 masks were unnecessary for the infected – even though uninfected detailees were working with the infected children.”

“Federal detailees witnessed significant waste, fraud and abuse,” the complaint alleges. “When they attempted to express their concerns to federal managers they were told — time and again — it was the contractors that were in charge and government employees needed to be responsive to the contractors’ needs. The contractors ignored or rejected most detailee concerns.”

“For example, the shortage of underwear and other clothing for children has been widely reported,” the complaint notes. “The problem persisted for weeks and months. Countless children reported these shortages to detailees. Boys said they had no underwear at all, while most simply had only one pair with nothing to change into. Detailees insisted that the children be supplied with underwear. Each time the answer was that shipments had not come in. Whenever detailees brought it up, they were told it was the contractor’s responsibility. Detailees, private contractors and managers were well aware of the problem.”

The complaint concludes:

Detailees were frequently reminded that everything at Fort Bliss was confidential. This ensured no effective oversight or accountability. Especially noteworthy was the fact that the identity of the federal contracting officer — responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts handed out to the private contractors — was never provided to the detailees (they repeatedly asked). Yet perversely, the detailees were also told that the contracting officer was the only federal employee authorized to bring any significant issues to any Fort Bliss private contractor.

In other words, other than the useless “Suggestion Box” (discussed at length in our July 7 letter), detailees had no internal recourse. Complementing the penchant for secrecy was management’s reflexive aversion to bad news. For example: Regularly, when detailees reached the end of their term, a sheet was passed around with detailed instructions from the HHS Public Affairs Office on how, when asked, to make everything sound positive about the Fort Bliss experience and to play down anything negative.

“The tents, officially referred to as Emergency Intake Shelters, were set up at Fort Bliss in El Paso in March to house unaccompanied migrants amid an influx arriving at the US-Mexico border. The only images of the tents that have been made public have come from two lawmakers who visited Fort Bliss to inspect the intake shelters in the spring,” The Daily Mail noted.