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Vaccine could work worse against S. African strain – UK’s Vallance

https://youtu.be/nHqRgNgkJq8

  • Oxford’s Sir John Bell said African strain is more concerning than the Kent one
  • Vaccines believed to be effective against infectious UK variant VUI-202012/01 
  • But South African variant has substantial changes in the structure of the protein’

 Coronavirus vaccines could be ineffective against the highly-infectious South African mutation, a scientist who helped develop the Oxford jab has warned. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, said the African strain is more concerning than the Kent one. Vaccines are believed to be effective against the highly-infectious UK variant VUI-202012/01 currently causing a massive spike in cases across the country. But he said the South African variant 501.V2 – detected in two locations in Britain – has ‘really pretty substantial changes in the structure of the protein’ meaning vaccines could fail to work. The Covid vaccine protects against the disease by teaching the immune system how to fight off the pathogen. It creates antibodies – disease-fighting proteins made and stored to fight off invaders in the future by latching onto their spike proteins.  But if they are unable to recognise proteins because they have mutated, it means the body may struggle to attack a virus the second time and lead to a second infection.

Sir John told Times Radio: ‘The mutations associated with the South African form are really pretty substantial changes in the structure of the protein.

‘My gut feeling is the vaccine will be still effective against the Kent strain ‘I don’t know about the South African strain – there’s a big question mark about that.’  Britain first sounded the alarm about the variant VUI-202012/01 in December after an explosion of cases were linked to the strain. Top virologists in the US since admitted the strain – which was first seen in a patient in September – could have emerged there and went undetected because America’s genomics scheme is ‘sporadic’.  Australia, Italy, Iceland, Spain and the Netherlands are among the countries who have since reported cases of the UK variant.  Other Covid strains with near-identical genetic make up have also been reported in South Africa – with strain 501.V2 – and Nigeria – who detected strain P681H.  South Africa detected 501.V2, which is feared to be more extreme than the UK’s VUI-202012/01.                Several countries have banned travellers from South Africa to try and contain the spread of the new strain, including the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.  But the variant has already been detected in two locations in Britain in contacts of people who had recently visited the African nation.  On Christmas Eve, another new variant called P681H was detected in Nigeria.  Scientists say it is different to the other two but  they do not currently believe the Nigerian strain is more infectious than previous strains.   Concerns about vaccine ineffectiveness comes ahead of a major rollout of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine on Monday. Nick Note: Looks like the Astra vaccine is a flop. The Phizer has a chance

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Ambulances In LA Ordered Not To Transport Patients With Slim Survival Chances

The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) told ambulance crews not to transport patients with low chances of survival to hospitals and to try and conserve oxygen if possible, according to directives issued Monday.

With L.A. hospitals at capacity, many facilities no longer have space to take in patients who do not have a chance of survival, according to CNN. If EMS workers are unsuccessful in resuscitating a patient whose heart has stopped while in the field, the agency says the patient should not be taken to a hospital, according to the memo.“Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and non traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) should not be transported [if]return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field,” the agency said.

EMS workers are ordered to try and resuscitate a patient for at least 20 minutes. If the patient is stabilized, guidelines say they can be taken to a hospital. If EMS workers are unable to restore a pulse, paramedics are directed in the memo not to transport them to a hospital. To combat the shortage of space, officials have created temporary “ambulance receiving spaces” which are set up outside emergency room entrances. EMS workers can monitor patients until resources are available. Ambulance crews are also pressured to limit their use of oxygen tanks given the shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.  “Given the acute need to conserve oxygen, effective immediately, EMS should only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90%,” the memo said. Hospitals in the region “have reached a point of crisis and are having to make very tough decisions about patient care,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, the L.A. County director of health services said Monday at a briefing reported by the Los Angeles Times. Nick  Note: Their comes a time when you have to cast the fools in you life adrift. We are in a great plague and its about to get a LOT worse!

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Pfizer’s Vaccine Offers Strong Protection After First Dose

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group. The finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials, which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from Pfizer. Last month, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their two-dose vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 percent after two doses administered three weeks apart. The new analyses show that the protection starts kicking in far earlier. What’s more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer’s race, weight or age. While the trial did not find any serious adverse events caused by the vaccine, many participants did experience aches, fevers and other side effects.

“This is what an A+ report card looks like for a vaccine,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

Pfizer and BioNTech began a large-scale clinical trial in July, recruiting 44,000 people in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. Half of the volunteers got the vaccine, and half got the placebo. New coronavirus cases quickly tapered off in the vaccinated group of volunteers about 10 days after the first dose, according to one graph in the briefing materials. In the placebo group, cases kept steadily increasing. The vaccine’s swift impact could benefit not just the people who get it but the country’s strained hospitals, curbing the flow of new patients into intensive care units. Despite the early protection afforded by the first dose, it’s unclear how long that protection would last on its own, underscoring the importance of the second dose. Previous studies have found that the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine gives the immune system a major, long-term boost, an effect seen in many other vaccines.

The efficacy of the vaccine after the first dose is about 52 percent, according to Dr. William C. Gruber, senior vice president of Pfizer Vaccine Clinical Research and Development. After the second dose, that rises to about 95 percent. “Two doses of vaccine provide maximum protection,” he said.

Nick Note: Time to stat setting your sights on this vaccine. Ill explain in great detail later today

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UK’s Johnson announces nationwide lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a new national lockdown for England until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading new version of the coronavirus. Johnson said the country is at “a critical moment,” with cases rising rapidly in every part of the country. Under the new rules, which are set to come into effect as soon as possible, primary and secondary schools and colleges will be closed for face to face learning except for the children of key workers. University students will not be returning until at least mid-February. All nonessential shops and personal care services like hairdressers will be closed, and restaurants can only operate takeout services. As of Monday, there were 26,626 COVID patients in hospitals in England, an increase of more than 30% from a week ago. That is 40% above the highest level of the first wave in the spring. Nick Note: within a month you will be able ti inset US in total lockdown in place of UK!

(AP)

 

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UK scientists worry vaccines may not protect against S.African coronavirus variant

by Reuters
Monday, 4 January 2021 14:58 GMT

* UK says worried about S.African variant

* Mutations include extensive alterations to spike protein

* Changes could lead to “escape from immune protection”

* Vaccine makers are testing shots against new variants (Recasts with quotes, details from scientists)

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – UK scientists expressed concern on Monday that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa and has spread internationally. Both Britain and South Africa have detected new, more transmissible variants of the COVID-19-causing virus in recent weeks that have driven a surge in cases. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday he was now very worried about the variant identified in South Africa. Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while both variants had some new features in common, the one found in South Africa “has a number additional mutations … which are concerning”.

He said these included more extensive alterations to a key part of the virus known as the spike protein – which the virus uses to infect human cells – and “may make the virus less susceptible to the immune response triggered by the vaccines”.

Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at Warwick University, also noted that the South African variant has “multiple spike mutations”.

“The accumulation of more spike mutations in the South African variant are more of a concern and could lead to some escape from immune protection,” he said.

Scientists including BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin and John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, have said they are testing the vaccines against the new variants and say they could make any required tweaks in around six weeks. Public Health England said there was currently no evidence to suggest COVID-19 vaccines would not protect against the mutated virus variants. Britain’s health ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The world’s richest countries have started vaccinating their populations to safeguard against a disease that has killed 1.8 million people and crushed the global economy. There are currently 60 vaccine candidates in trials, including those already being rolled out from AstraZeneca and Oxford, Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm .

Scientists say both the South African and UK variants are associated with a higher viral load, meaning a greater concentration of virus particles in patients’ bodies, possibly contributing to increased transmission.

Oxford’s Bell, who advises the UK government’s vaccine task force, said on Sunday he thought vaccines would work on the British variant but said there was a “big question mark” as to whether they would work on the South African variant. BioNTech’s Sahin told Germany’ Spiegel in an interview published on Friday that their vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the human immune system to fight the virus, should be able to protect against the UK variant. “We are testing whether our vaccine can also neutralise this variant and will soon know more,” he said. Nick Note: The beauty of RNA vaccines is they are easy to change and FASSST to produce. So if the present vaccines based on this technology do not work the drug companies will be more then happy to mix up a new batch and charge everyone again!

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Iran Seizes South Korea-Flagged Oil Tanker In Persian Gulf

Bloomberg) –Iran has claimed responsibility for seizing a tanker, used to carry oil products and chemicals, after it veered into its territorial waters.

The semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported Monday that Iran has seized the South Korea-flagged Hankuk Chemi vessel due to “environmental and chemical pollution in the Persian Gulf,” citing sources with knowledge of the matter. The vessel was carrying 7,200 tonnes of ethanol and the arrested crew members were from Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, according to Tasnim.

The seizure follows a series of shipping security incidents in the Persian Gulf. The region and the Red Sea have been a hotbed for attacks on vessels in recent years, with tensions flaring between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The semi-official Fars News Agency reported the seizure being due to “oil pollution” and that naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were responsible for seizing the vessel and bringing it to Bandar Abbas port in Iran. The UK Maritime Trade Operations, which serves as a link between the Royal Navy and commercial vessels operating in high risk areas, said there had been “an interaction” between a merchant vessel and the Iranian authorities at around 6:15 a.m. local time in the Strait of Hormuz. The Hankuk Chemi was sailing to the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah after loading at Jubail, Saudi Arabia on Jan. 2, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. It veered off course in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water between the tip of Oman and Iran, and headed toward Bandar Abbas. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which operates in the region, is “are aware and monitoring the situation,” said spokeswoman Commander Rebecca Rebarich. The incident follows the discovery of a mine attached to the hull of an oil tanker off Iraq on December 31, near the Iranian border. A ship at the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah was hit by an explosion earlier last month too, which Saudi authorities labeled an act of terror.

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Trump said he wants to ‘find’ 11,780 votes in GA – report

In an hour-long phone call on Saturday, Donald Trump pressed Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to overturn Joe Biden’s victory there in the election the president refuses to concede. Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” He also insisted: “There’s no way I lost Georgia. There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.” Trump did not win Georgia, which went Democratic for the first time since 1992. Its result has been certified and will stand. Attempts to pressure Republican officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania, other battleground states, have failed, as have the vast majority of challenges to results in court. Despite promised objections from at least 12 Republican senators and a majority of the GOP in the House, Biden’s electoral college victory will be ratified by Congress on Wednesday and will be inaugurated as the 46th president on 20 January. Trump will then leave the White House – where he remained, tweeting angrily, all weekend. News of the call prompted widespread outrage. Speaking to the Post, Edward B Foley, an Ohio State law professor, said the call was “‘inappropriate and contemptible’ and should prompt moral outrage”. Trump’s behaviour was “already tripping the emergency meter,” Foley added. “So we were at 12 on a scale of one to 10, and now we’re at 15.” In an email to the Guardian, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said: “The conduct that the press has reported might place Trump in legal jeopardy after Biden is inaugurated. “For example, if the justice department or US attorneys believe that Trump violated federal law or if local prosecutors in states, such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trump may have engaged in similar behaviour with state or local election officials, believe that Trump violated state election laws, the federal or state prosecutors could file suit against Trump.” Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, went further, calling for Trump to be impeached a second time, even though he has little more than two weeks left in office. “The president of the United States has been caught on tape trying to rig a presidential election,” Bookbinder said. “This is a low point in American history and unquestionably impeachable conduct. It is incontrovertible and devastating. “When the Senate acquitted President Trump for abusing his powers to try to get himself re-elected [in February last year, regarding approaches to Ukraine seeking dirt on Biden], we worried that he would grow more brazen in his attempts to wrongly and illegally keep himself in power. He has … Congress must act immediately.” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Cleta Mitchell, a Republican lawyer, were also on the call, during which the president ran through a laundry list of debunked claims regarding supposed electoral fraud and called Raffensperger a “child”, “either dishonest or incompetent” and a “schmuck”. Characteristically, Trump also threatened legal action. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” he said. “You know, that’s a criminal offence. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan [Germany], your lawyer. That’s a big risk.” Referring to Senate runoffs on Tuesday that will decide control of that chamber, Trump said Georgia had “a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president – you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam.

“Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.” Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, seeking to beat Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, have ranged themselves behind Trump. But Georgia Republican officials fear his attacks could suppress his own party’s turnout as Democrats including former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams work hard to boost their own. Early voting has reached unprecedented levels and on Sunday, Abrams told ABC’s This Week: “What we’re so excited about is that we haven’t stopped reaching those voters. Millions of contacts have been made, thousands of new registrations have been held. We know that at least 100,000 people who did not vote in the general election are now voting in this election.” Trump told Raffensperger: “Stacey Abrams is laughing about you. She’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.’ What she’s done to this party is unbelievable, I tell you.” Trump also said he knew the call wasn’t “going anywhere”. Raffensperger ended the conversation. On Twitter on Sunday, Trump said Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” Twitter duly marked the president’s message with its standard disclaimer: “This claim about election fraud is disputed.” Raffensperger also responded: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.” Nick Note; This is a very desperate and dangerous man!

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What are the ingredients of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine?

n the face of rumors suggesting that Bill Gates has installed tracking microchips in the shots, or that the inoculations contain luciferase, a glowing chemical from fireflies whose name makes some people think of the devil, the company suggested it would be policing such claims by making reference to the “official vaccine ingredient list.” What’s actually on the official ingredient list? This week an elderly UK woman became the first person outside of a trial to get the newly approved vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the US could greenlight the same inoculation as soon as Thursday, December 10. Along with the regulatory actions over the last week have come the most detailed disclosures yet of the new vaccine’s makeup. Here, for instance, is what the US Food and Drug Administration says is in Pfizer’s vaccine:

  • Active Ingredient
    • nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) encoding the viral spike glycoprotein (S) of SARS-CoV-2
  • Lipids
    • (4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis (ALC-3015)
    • (2- hexyldecanoate),2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide (ALC-0159)
    • 1,2-distearoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine (DPSC)
    • cholesterol
  • Salts
    • potassium chloride
    • monobasic potassium phosphate
    • sodium chloride
    • basic sodium phosphate dihydrate
  • Other
    • sucrose

Reading the ingredient list is like looking at the side of a cereal box, except that you need a degree in organic chemistry to understand it. We got help from various scientists and biotech entrepreneurs to understand what each of the ingredients does and make some educated guesses about others.

Pfizer’s vaccine is the first on the market that consists of actual genetic information from a virus in the form of messenger RNA, or mRNA, a type of molecule whose usual job is to transport copies of genetic instructions around a cell to guide the assembly of proteins. Imagine an mRNA as a long ticker tape carrying instructions. It’s fairly delicate stuff, and that’s why Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept at around -100 °F (-73 °C) until it’s used.

The new vaccine, delivered as a shot in the arm muscle, contains an RNA sequence taken from the virus itself; it causes cells to manufacture the big “spike” protein of the coronavirus, which the pathogen uses to glom onto a person’s cells and gain entry. On its own, without the rest of the virus, the spike is pretty harmless. But your body still reacts to it. This is what leaves you immunized and ready to repel the real virus if it turns up. The mRNA in the vaccine, to be sure, isn’t quite the same as the stuff in your body. That’s good, because a cell is full of defenses ready to chop up RNA, especially any that doesn’t belong there. To avoid that, what’s known as “modified nucleosides” have been substituted for some of the mRNA building blocks.

But Pfizer is holding back a little. The spike gene sequence can be tweaked in small ways for better performance, by means that include swapping letters. We don’t think Pfizer has said exactly what sequence it is using, or what modified nucleosides. That means the content of the shot may not be 100% public.

The lipids

The Pfizer vaccine, like one from Moderna, uses lipid nanoparticles to encase the RNA. The nanoparticles are, basically, tiny greasy spheres that protect the mRNA and help it slide inside cells. These particles are probably around 100 nanometers across. Curiously, that’s about the same size as the coronavirus itself. Pfizer says it uses four different lipids in a “defined ratio.” The lipid ALC-0315 is the primary ingredient in the formulation. That’s because it’s ionizable—it can be given a positive charge, and since the RNA has a negative one, they stick together. It’s also a component that can cause side-effects or allergic reactions. The other lipids, one of which is the familiar molecule cholesterol, are “helpers” that give structural integrity to the nanoparticles or stop them from clumping. During manufacturing, the RNA and the lipids are stirred into a bubbly mix to form what the FDA describes as a “white to off-white” frozen liquid.

Salts

The Pfizer vaccine contains four salts, one of which is ordinary table salt. Together, these salts are better known as phosphate-buffered saline, or PBS, a very common ingredient that keeps the pH, or acidity, of the vaccine close to that of a person’s body. You’ll understand how important that is if you’ve ever squeezed lemon juice on a cut. Substances with the wrong acidity can injure cells or get quickly degraded.

Sugar

The vaccine includes plain old sugar, also called sucrose. It’s acting here as a cryoprotectant to safeguard the nanoparticles when they’re frozen and stop them from sticking together.

Saline solution

Before injection, the vaccine is mixed with water containing sodium chloride, or ordinary salt, just as many intravenously delivered drugs are. Again, the idea is that the injection should more or less match the salt content of the blood.

No preservatives

Pfizer makes a point of saying its mixture of lipid nanoparticles and mRNA is “preservative-free.” That’s because a preservative that’s been used in other vaccines, thimerosal (which contains mercury and is there to kill any bacteria that might contaminate a vial), has been at the center of worries around over whether vaccines cause autism. The US Centers for Disease Control says thimerosal is safe; despite that, its use is being phased out. There is no thimerosal—or any other preservative—in the Pfizer vaccine. No microchips, either.

The vaccine is still known by the code name BNT162b, but once it’s authorized, expect Pfizer to give it a new, commercial name that conveys something about what’s in it and what it promises for the world.

We thank the following people for explaining the vaccine ingredients: Jacob Becraft and Aalok Shah, Strand Therapeutics; Yizhou Dong, Ohio State University; Jason Underwood, Pacific Biosciences; Andrey Zarur, Greenlight Biosciences; Charles L. Cooney, MIT; and the communications staffs of Pfizer and Moderna Therapeutics.

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Put disease ‘carriers’ in DETENTION CENTERS, proposed New York law suggests

A New York state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow the government to detain people deemed a potential public health risk, amid concerns that the Covid-19 crisis is being allegedly used to usher in authoritarianism.

Authored by a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly N. Nick Perry, Bill A416 calls for the “removal and/or detention” of individuals who are identified as a “case, contact or carrier” of a contagious disease.

Such person or group of persons shall be detained in a medical facility or other appropriate facility or premises.

The sweeping powers would be employed in the event of the state government declaring a health emergency due to an epidemic of any communicable disease, the bill proposes. The legislation states that the government must provide “clear and convincing evidence” that the health of others is in danger before ordering a person or group to be detained. People being “removed” will have the right to legal representation and are allowed to supply the telephone numbers of friends or family to receive notification of the individual’s detention.

Read more

New York lawmakers introduce bill to make Covid-19 vaccine MANDATORY. What about ‘my body, my choice’, critics wonder New York lawmakers introduce bill to make Covid-19 vaccine MANDATORY. What about ‘my body, my choice’, critics wonder

The law apparently allows the governor or health official to unilaterally approve such detentions but a court order is required within 60 days of confinement, and judicial review is also required if the individual is still in detention after 90 days.

Citizens that are placed in detention will be released once health authorities determine that they are no longer contagious, the proposed law states.

The bill also allows the governor or relevant health authorities to require people deemed potential health risks to submit to medical examinations as well as undergo a “prescribed course of treatment, preventative medication or vaccination.”

The law does not specifically mention coronavirus. On his website, Perry says A416 “Relates to the removal of cases, contacts and carriers of communicable diseases who are potentially dangerous to the public health.”

In fact, the Democratic lawmaker introduced a nearly identical bill during the 2015-2016 legislative session, but it appears to have gone nowhere.

The current iteration of the proposed law will be reviewed by the assembly’s health committee next week.

Although the legislation is still a long way off from adoption, it caused considerable consternation on social media.

“I knew Cuomo was a bit of an authoritarian anti-Semite but I never thought the state would go literal Nazi,” Conservative commenter Ian Miles Cheong wrote, referring to New York governor Andrew Cuomo. The governor has previously been accused of imposing draconian crackdowns on New York City’s Jewish community, which has resisted many of the Covid-19 restrictions imposed across the state.

“This was a conspiracy theory, like many other things, 9-10 months ago,” noted a similarly outraged Twitter user.

This isn’t the first time that New York state lawmakers have been accused of promoting naked authoritarianism. Last month, Manhattan Democrat Linda Rosenthal introduced legislation that makes Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory “in certain situations.” It was specified later that any such mandate would apply to “all individuals or groups of individuals who, as shown by clinical data, are proven to be safe to receive such vaccine.”

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Cruz to call for rejection of Electoral College

Nearly a quarter of Senate Republicans are officially preparing to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6, a stunning development that demonstrates just how far some in the GOP will go to align themselves with President Donald Trump’s flailing claims that the election was stolen from him.    Joining Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), eleven more Republican senators announced Saturday they will challenge Biden’s election victory next week when Congress gathers to certify the Electoral College vote. The movement is led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who circulated the idea among Senate Republicans of voting against certification of the election unless there’s an election audit. The move is opposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), though the GOP leadership is not whipping against the effort to prevent the certification of Biden as president. In a statement on Saturday afternoon, 11 current and incoming GOP lawmakers said they intended to reject the electors from states where they claimed “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law” arose until a 10-day audit of the election results in each state has been completed. “Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed,” the group said. “By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.” The group of Republicans insisted their effort wasn’t an attempt to thwart Biden or overturn the election, but rather aimed to protect “election integrity.” Likewise, Hawley said he was not trying to overturn the election. “These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to us to defend,” the Saturday statement read. “And every one of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our Democracy.” The faction of GOP lawmakers includes Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Cruz (Texas), Steve Daines (Mont.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), John Kennedy (La.) and James Lankford (Okla.), as well as Sen.-elects Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.). Lankford, Johnson and Kennedy are all up for reelection in 2022, and the vote will effectively become a wedge issue within the Republican Party. Republicans who vote against Trump and allow the certification of Biden’s election could find themselves with primary challenges. Trump has already endorsed a primary challenge to Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). But many Republicans say the effort to challenge the election results doesn’t make a ton of sense. “There’s good constitutional and other legal grounds to say: You had your day in court, 60 different lawsuits in state courts, you had a chance to appeal those to the Supreme Court, and as I read the law once a state certifies its electoral vote its conclusive. So that’s sort of the lay of the land,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an interview on Friday. But the 11 GOP senators said the courts should have examined the issue more closely: “Ideally, the courts would have heard evidence and resolved these claims of serious election fraud. Twice, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so; twice, the Court declined.” Hawley pledged on Wednesday to challenge Biden’s win in Pennsylvania and other states when Congress convenes on Jan. 6 to certify the results of the 2020 election. Nick Note: this looks like its going no where