~ Published with research by CyberNews.com
As of 20 April, around 97 percent of Americans and nearly four billion people in some 70 countries were under shelter-in-place orders of some kind.
A number of countries in Asia and Europe have loosened restrictions and, to varying degrees, nations have let businesses reopen.
President Trump has encouraged governors to start reopening their economies, but a wide split remains on whether to loosen the restrictions and, if so, how to do it in stages.
Decisions to open up or stay closed are politically divided, rather than fact based, with Republicans pro “open” and Democrats pro “stay closed.”
What remains the main criterion being promoted by the media and politicians that will bring back “normalcy” depends on how long it will take to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
The European Union committed €80 million to biotech company CureVac to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
America’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has pumped $484 million into Moderna, a biotech company, to create a vaccine. The federal agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), announced nearly $1 billion for a vaccine development.
A Shot in the Dark
Whether or not a vaccine can kill the virus, commenting on the investment to find one, Richard Hatchett, a physician who worked with Presidents G.W. Bush and Barack Obama, said, “We want to make investments up front, at risk, even before we know the vaccines work, to be able to (immediately) manufacture them at a scale of tens or hundreds of millions of dose.”
As per the head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the company has raised nearly $1 billion to come up with a COVID-19 vaccination. CEPI is a vaccine development consortium supported by private donors and a number of governments including the UK, Germany, and Canada.
As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, Governor Cuomo stated that his control over the people of New York state would remain until a successful vaccine was proven … and that New Yorkers would be the guinea pigs: “It’s over when people know I’m 100% safe and I don’t have to worry about this. When does that happen? When we have a vaccine.”
The push for mass vaccinations before allowing citizens to get back basic constitutional rights, such as privacy and the right to assemble, etc., also is being trumpeted by dozens of influential “health experts” quoted repeatedly on mainstream media.
What these proponents are also understating is, according to many virologists, not only will a vaccine likely take well over a year to produce, there will be no guarantee it will be successful. This is due to the complexities of viruses such as COVID-19.
Thus, when and if a COVID vaccine does arrive, it may well be no more effective than the flu shot. From data collected to date, according to the CDC, the 2019-2020 influenza vaccine has a 45 percent effective rate.
More Questions
Viruses mutate, particularly RNA viruses such as COVID-19. As stated by Dr. Mark Schleiss, an infectious disease specialist with the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Minnesota, “In the world of RNA viruses, change is the norm. We expect RNA viruses to change frequently. That’s just their nature.”
So, to be effective, scientists not only have to find a vaccine that works on the current strain of coronavirus, but also correctly guess which strain it may mutate into in the near future.
As Dr. Perri Klass, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at NYU Langone Health, wrote on 16 March:
“I find myself fantasizing about a Covid-19 vaccine that will get us back to living our lives. About a triumphant announcement that the trial was a resounding success, and science has won, that there is a safe effective vaccine in production, and that we should all line up to get our shots – a vaccine that will give us back freedom of association, freedom of travel, freedom from the various kinds of worry, anxiety and fear that are filling our news cycles and our minds. It’s a comforting fantasy, but for now it’s just a fantasy.”
CyberNews.com asked Americans how they felt about possibly giving up their privacy during the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of their findings include:
- 89 percent of Americans either support or strongly support privacy rights.
- 52 percent believe retaining personal privacy is more important than surrendering it to the authorities in order to fight the spread of coronavirus.
- 65 percent would disapprove of the government collecting their data or using facial recognition to track their whereabouts.
- 27 percent would give an app permission to track their location.
- 30 percent would grant an app permission to display their location to others if they were infected.
- 79 percent were either somewhat worried or very worried that intrusive tracking measures enacted by the government would continue long after the pandemic subsides.
TRENDPOST: Politicians will continue to promote the “fantasy” of a perfect vaccine that will guarantee our safety. And, in doing so, it will increase their rapidly expanding authoritarian controls.
With the mainstream media continuing to turn up the fear and anxiety dial – and with over 80 percent of Americans identifying “Fear of the Virus” as their main concern – not only will basic constitutional freedoms remain in jeopardy, so too will be our right to choose whether or not we will get vaccinated.
Already, in many states and nations, anyone attending public and private schools, including infants, must be vaccinated.
TRENDPOST: With so much money at stake as to what company might win the “Successful Vaccine Sweepstakes,” political manipulation of science has already reared its ugly head.
Last Wednesday, Dr. Rick Bright was fired as director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Why? According to Dr. Bright, he was removed for advocating a thorough review of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which President Trump had been promoting as a potential coronavirus cure. Dr. Bright stated the White House advocated putting “politics and cronyism ahead of science.”
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: We are not advocating the use of any stated drug or “cures” for COVID-19. What we are noting is that political pressure, not solid science, will most likely determine what drugs the government will deem most effective to be injected into our bodies.
At this time, most Americans are looking forward to getting vaccinated. According to a Seton Hall University poll, 72 percent said they would not attend games until a vaccine is developed.