BlackMask Breaking News

The latter goal is a secondary endpoint, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The primary thing you want to do is that if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick, and if you prevent them from getting sick, you will ultimately prevent them from getting seriously ill,” Fauci said at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit Monday. “What I would settle for, and all of my colleagues would settle for, is the primary endpoint to prevent clinically recognizable disease,” he said. That level of protection would be the ultimate goal to diffusing the crisis, but is hard to do with companies facing an immediate demand for some sort of solution. While no vaccine is 100% effective, having a majority of the population inoculated and higher percentages of efficacy is the best to hope for. The most effective vaccine is the measles vaccine, which elicits an antibody response 98% of the time. Currently AstraZeneca (AZN), developing Oxford University’s vaccine; Pfizer (PFE) with partner BioNTech (BNTX); Moderna (MRNA); and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) are all in-late stage trials. Among them, Pfizer and BioNTech are in the lead to provide a first look at the vaccine’s effectiveness in the second half of November. At best, the duo could be the first to receive emergency use authorization and the only ones to do so by the end of the year. But there are still other vaccine candidates in the pipeline — many in early or pre-clinical stages. If their slower trajectory puts them in a situation of testing the vaccine when the outbreak lessens, it could make it harder to test the potential effectiveness of a candidate. For this reason, the U.K. is looking at challenge trials, which intentionally infect a smaller group of participants with the virus in an effort to test a vaccine’s or treatment’s efficacy. Fauci said the U.S. is not anticipating such a move because the rate of spread is so high in the country that it’s sufficient enough of an environment to test the vaccine. The daily case count for the U.S. in the past few days has reached a new record of more than 80,000 cases. “So although you can get some good information from a challenge trial, the real-world information that you want is out in the field when someone is actually being exposed to natural infection, and to determine if the vaccine prevents against that,” Fauci said. “So right now we’re not planning any challenge studies because we have so much infection going on.” Nick Note: Please note how the good doctor is scaling back expectations. The vaccine is not going to prevent the plague, Fauci says “The primary thing you want to do is that if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick” SO you will get infected with the vaccine but HOPEFULLY will not get sick. Unfortunately he does not define sick. Call me stupid i think a vaccine is supose to prevent you from getting he illness you are getting vaccinated for. But call me old fashioned.

https://youtu.be/DzMCzbTFpVQ

President Donald Trump on Monday claimed the worsening coronavirus outbreak in the United States is a “Fake News Media Conspiracy,” saying the nation has the most cases in the world only because “we TEST, TEST, TEST.” “Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high,” Trump said in a tweet Monday morning. “On November 4th., topic will totally change,” he added, referring to the day after the presidential election.

Trump’s tweet came as the U.S. is reporting a record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases. On Sunday, the country reported a weekly average of about 68,767 new cases every day, the highest seven-day average recorded yet, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data. The U.S. reported 60,789 new Covid cases Sunday after daily cases reached 83,757 on Friday, passing the last record of roughly 77,300 cases seen on July 16, according to Hopkins data. Trump, who tested positive for the virus earlier this month, has repeatedly downplayed the virus and insisted that the U.S. has more cases than any other country only because the nation tests more people. But public health officials and infectious disease experts dispute that claim, saying the rate of tests that are positive and hospitalizations are both on the rise in several states.

The overall U.S. positivity rate, or the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive, is at 6.2%, up from around 5.2% last week, according to Hopkins. Illinois, where businesses are bracing for new coronavirus restrictions amid a rise in new Covid cases, has a positivity rate of 6.3%. Wisconsin, which hit a record high in average daily cases Sunday, has a positivity rate of 16%. Kentucky, another state that hit a new high, has a positivity rate of 8.4%. Additionally, Covid-19 hospitalizations were growing by 5% or more in 34 states as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by the Covid Tracking Project. Fifteen states hit record highs in hospitalizations. El Paso County in Texas enacted a curfew after ICUs in the area reached full capacity. The increase in hospitalizations could be especially dire as the nation enters flu season and more people seek treatment, medical experts warn. ″Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases, and that’s now leading to hospitals and ICU running close or above capacity, and we’re still only in October,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a press briefing Friday. “We are at a critical juncture in this pandemic, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere,” he added.Tedros said, “Now is the time to double down” and to take quick action for arising clusters. “We urge leaders to take immediate action to prevent further unnecessary deaths, essential health services from collapsing and schools shutting again,” he added. “This is not a drill.” Trump’s former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, warned that the U.S. is “at a tipping point” in its pandemic. “We’re likely to see a very dense epidemic. I think we’re right now at the cusp of what is going to be exponential spread in parts of the country,” Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.Public health officials and medical experts also say an uncontrolled virus through the fall and winter months could lead to a sharp increase in deaths. A coronavirus model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, once cited by the White House, now projects more than 385,600 Covid-19 deaths by Feb. 1. The projection could worsen if states ease on mandates that enforce the wearing of face masks. “I recognize that we are all getting tired of the impact Covid-19 has had on our lives,” Jay Butler, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director for infectious diseases, told reporters on a call Wednesday. “We’re tired of wearing masks, but it continues to be as important as it has ever been and I would say even more important than ever as we move into the fall season.” Nick Note: Trump is holding out hope for a vaccine that will never arrive in time. Biden’s solution is a paper mask that will not work and social distancing instead of isolation. You better save your self because these political hacks are clueless.

https://youtu.be/-M1LVDVnhqw

Months of mixed messages, political pressure and public gaffes about COVID-19 have caused morale at the Centers for Disease Control to turn “toxic,” say four current and two former CDC staffers, with one saying the election could be a “tipping point” for a mass exodus if President Donald Trump wins. “The house is not only on fire,” said a veteran CDC staffer who did not want to be named for fear of retribution. “We’re standing in ashes.” Current and former CDC employees tell NBC News that career staffers are still struggling to influence key decisions on the pandemic as new daily COVID cases soar nationwide , but are overruled by Trump appointees when politics intrudes.

Most recently, they said, they wanted to extend the “No Sail” order for cruise ships through February. It had been set to expire four days before the Nov. 3 election. Instead, they say Vice President Pence’s office pushed for the order to expire, which stands to benefit 21,000 cruise industry workers in the swing state of Florida.

A White House official told NBC News that when the CDC proposed an extension to the “no sail” order it seemed “arbitrary” and “they provided no metrics or data as to why.” The White House official added that two or three weeks ago the vice president, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield hosted a call with the cruise lines to discuss their plan and “discussions about lifting no sail are currently in front of them, but no decision made yet. The political pressure has taken its toll on CDC employees, said the current and former staffers. One current staffer said that during a recent Zoom call, a supervisor went so far as to instruct CDC staff to be loyal to the Constitution, not to the president. Another current employee told NBC News, “I don’t know if the damage to our reputation can be overcome with a new administration. I worry it’s a permanent problem.” White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern denied that political pressure had influenced decisions about pandemic response. “President Trump’s coronavirus response is about saving lives, not politics,” he said. “The CDC occupies a critical seat on the Task Force, which provides appropriate attention, consultation, and input on coronavirus-related matters. Through the administration’s historic efforts, we are delivering testing and supplies to protect vulnerable populations, PPE and ventilators across the country, guidance to schools and businesses, and safe and effective treatments and vaccines in record time.” Prior to the pandemic, according to one former official, the CDC would regularly post guidance about public health issues on the agency website without White House approval. After the pandemic was declared in March, White House staffers got on the phone to CDC headquarters in Atlanta demanding web administrator credentials to independently edit the CDC website, said the former official. According to the former official, the CDC ultimately denied access, but officials have since then been consistently overruled as they push agency guidance through the Washington approval process. One current CDC staffer who did not want to be named out of fear of retribution said that the administration pushed CDC staff in mid-April to say that reopening churches was safe. “I told them I will not be involved in putting out [church] guidance where we have evidence that [Covid-19] can be transmitted by passing a collection plate and singing — as we knew had happened in Chicago,” said the staffer. According to the staffer, members of the relevant team took a firm stance against interference. “If the guidance gets changed, it gets changed above us — that’s the line — we said that,” recalled the staffer. “We said we have scientific basis that it’s not safe to reopen churches.”

By Saturday, April 25, White House staff told CDC staffers, Office of Management Budget and HHS officials to get on a conference call to discuss reopening guidelines, including those involving houses of worship, where they were “screamed at by White House deputies,” according to an official who was on the call. While the call addressed a number of reopening guidelines about which the White House was concerned, the official said White House deputies were especially worried about guidance that could upset churches and the president’s church-going base.

“I’ll never forget the shrill voice screaming at me, ‘My job is to protect the president from pissing off his constituency,” said the official. The official said a White House deputy took CDC officials to task for their wish to advise houses of worship to refrain from singing and standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Additional internal emails reviewed by NBC News show that CDC staffers were admonished for early drafts of guidelines penned in the spring that advised against houses of worship holding in-person gatherings. “This declaration/command in a CDC doc will be read as authoritative by local enforcers and could cause people of faith to be vilified/prosecuted for exercising their faith,” representatives of HHS wrote to the CDC in April. “The federal government has no authority to do so. … The CDC must be more vigilant to not burden the free exercise of religion.” The push on the part of White House officials for politics over public health throughout April stunned career CDC staffers. “I fear we are bordering on not following the science,” wrote one concerned staffer in an internal CDC e-mail in April, referring to White House pressure to refrain from offering churches specific guidelines. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifies at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, on Capitol Hill, on Sept. 16, 2020.Anna Moneymaker / Pool via AP The dispute over public health guidance for churches was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal.  Nick Note: From sports arenas to airlines, bus companies, restaurants, hotels, theaters, resorts, shopping centers and everywhere people collect their is a massive lobbying effort by the industry lobbyists to let them open up their virus spreading venues. I hope YOU at least understand you need to stay hundreds of feet away from people. Unless you are wearing the RIGHT mask and soon you will need a hazmat suit. As you are seeing your leaders and public health organizations have been co-opted. Shit they cannot even tell you the truth about toilet and coffee filter paper masks. See i freely admit I have a vested interest here. To keep you alive…. And i have a little voice, no lobbyists nor even and social mdeia that will run my stories. Shit I cannot even send a email without the spam filters  blocking my content. So take me out back and shoot me! Because if you want to stop me from speaking truth that is what you will have to do.

Continue reading “‘Toxic’: CDC staffers say morale inside the public health agency has plummeted during the pandemic”

Throughout 2020, America has faced a global pandemic, civil unrest after the death of George Floyd and a contentious election. As a result, an influx of fear about the possibility of the invocation of martial law or unchecked military intervention is circulating around the internet among scholars and civilians alike. “The fear is certainly understandable, because as I’m sure you know, martial law isn’t described or confined or limited, proscribed in any way by the Constitution or laws,” Bill Banks, a Syracuse professor with an expertise in constitutional and national security law, told Military Times. “If someone has declared martial law, they’re essentially saying that they are the law.” In short, martial law can be imposed when civil rule fails, temporarily being replaced with military authority in a time of crisis. Though rare, there have been a number of notable U.S. cases where martial law came into play, including in times of war, natural disaster and civic dispute — of which there has been no shortage in 2020.

While no precise definition of martial law exists, a precedent for it exists wherein, “certain civil liberties may be suspended, such as the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, freedom of association, and freedom of movement. And the writ of habeas corpus [the right to a trial before imprisonment] may be suspended,” according to documents from JRANK, an online legal encyclopedia.

Martial law may be declared by both the president and by Congress. State officials may also declare martial law, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, however, “their actions under the declaration must abide by the U.S. Constitution and are subject to review in federal court.” “Notorious examples include Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese descent during World War II and George W. Bush’s programs of warrantless wiretapping and torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the Atlantic reported. “Abraham Lincoln conceded that his unilateral suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War was constitutionally questionable, but defended it as necessary to preserve the Union.” Throughout the course of U.S. history, federal and state officials have declared martial law at least 68 times, according to Joseph Nunn, an expert with the Brennan Center for Justice.

Martial law does have limits. The Posse Comitatus Act, passed on June 18, 1878, prevented federal troops from supervising Confederate state elections during Reconstruction. Though initially it only applied to the Army, it has been amended to include the Defense Department and, of course, the other service branches. That act prevents troops from enforcing domestic law, preventing such actions as searching and seizing property or dispersing crowds. However, National Guard units, which take their direction from state governors, are exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act.

One exception to Posse Comitatus, however, is the Insurrection Act, which allows the use of active-duty or National Guard troops for federal law enforcement in cases when “rebellion against the authority of the U.S. makes it impracticable to enforce the laws of the U.S. by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings,” according to U.S. Northern Command.

The text of the Act reads:

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect.”

Continue reading “How the president could invoke martial law”

The two opposing sides in Libya’s conflict signed a permanent cease-fire on Friday after nearly a decade of violence. The agreement followed five days of negotiations in Geneva, where the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and rival government backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar participated in the mediation. The development was quickly hailed by acting U.N. Special Representative Stephanie Turco Williams, who led the talks and said the deal will contribute toward “a better, safer, and more peaceful future for all the Libyan people.”“The road was long and difficult at times, but your patriotism has been your guide all the time, and you have succeeded in concluding an agreement for a successful and lasting cease-fire,” she continued.  Signing the cease-fire marks a significant step toward finding a permanent solution to the longstanding conflict that broke out in 2011 after a NATO-backed uprising quashed the government and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Several attempts have been made in the past to strike a cease-fire, but the efforts have repeatedly collapsed. It was not immediately clear how the cease-fire will be enforced, but Ms. Williams said that foreign mercenaries will leave “all Libyan territories land, air and sea” within three months. The deal, which will soon be sent to the U.N. Security Council, will also lead to a joint military force and a solution to monitor future violations. European partners quickly welcomed the ceasefire agreement as a spokesperson for the European Union called the development “key for the resumption of a political dialogue.”“It’s very important, as well, to see this accord put into effect,” EU foreign policy spokesperson Peter Sano said. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement that the agreement “finally promises a change of course from military to political logic.” “This news is the first ray of hope for the people of Libya in a long time,” he said. Despite the optimism from some, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised questions about the viability of the deal. “Today’s cease-fire agreement was actually not made at the highest level, it was at a lower level. Time will tell whether it will last,” said Mr. Erdogan, whose government supports the GNA. “So it seems to me that it lacks credibility.”  Nick Note: Its all about the oil. In short order if their is peace Libya could add 1 million barrels per day to a already oversupplied market. Libyan crude is highly prizes. This is a potential oil market FURTHER  disrupter because Libya is a hop skip and jump away from 2 million barrels per day in production. And OPEC needs this like being on a ventilator. As we know Mr Corona is back sucking shut the world economy…..Again

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s and Democratic rival Joe Biden’s campaigns are assembling armies of powerful lawyers for the possibility that the race for the White House is decided not at the ballot box but in court. They have been engaging in a lawyer’s version of tabletop war games, churning out draft pleadings, briefs and memos to cover scenarios that read like the stuff of a law school hypothetical more than a real-life case in a democracy. Dozens of attorneys for the Republicans and the Democrats are already clashing in courts across the U.S. over mailed-in ballot deadlines and other issues brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. And as Trump tries to sow doubt in the legitimacy of the Nov. 3 election, both sides have built massive legal operations readying for a bitterly disputed race that lands at the Supreme Court “We’ve been preparing for this for well over a year,” Republican National Committee Chief Counsel Justin Riemer told The Associated Press. “We’ve been working with the campaign on our strategy for recount preparation, for Election Day operations and our litigation strategy.” On the Democratic side, the Biden campaign’s election protection program includes a special national litigation team involving hundreds of lawyers led by Walter Dellinger, acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration, and Donald Verrilli, a solicitor general under President Barack Obama, among others. Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel to Obama, and Biden campaign general counsel Dana Remus are focused on protecting the rights of voters, who have been enduring long lines at polling places around the country on the belief that the presidential election will be decided by their ballots. Both sides are informed by the experience of the 2000 election, which was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. But this year, because Trump has pushed unsubstantiated claims about the potential for voter fraud with increased voting by mail, sewing doubt about the integrity of the result, has lawyers are preparing for a return trip before the high court. And, in an extraordinary twist, the president has pushed for his nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, to be seated as soon as possible if she is confirmed as expected on Monday, saying it’s important to have a ninth justice to decide any election disputes. The race is already thought to be the most litigated in American history, with some 260 lawsuits arising from the coronavirus by one tally. Behind the scenes, Trump and Republicans have been putting together a legal team that includes Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s lead attorneys during the impeachment trial and the special counsel’s Russia investigation, who is an experienced litigator before the Supreme Court. Republicans have hired dozens of attorneys and retained prominent national firms to challenge Democratic efforts to expand ballot access in key battleground states.

Thousands of volunteer lawyers have signed up to assist with Election Day operations and poll watching and other issues, Riemer said. A group called Lawyers for Trump, whose advisory board includes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, is recruiting retired lawyers and law students. Jones Day is among the prominent global law firms expected to play a role. Attorney Will Consovoy, who has represented Trump in such cases as his long-running fight to prevent a top New York prosecutor from getting his tax returns, is also likely to be a key player in any election legal fights.

Riemer said it’s not as though the party is going to call up a random attorney on Election Day and say, “Hey, are you busy? Do you want to litigate a recount?” Biden has also created a legal war room that his campaign says is focused on combatting voter suppression at the polls and ensuring votes are correctly counted. Another team that’s fighting voter access issues in courts across the country is headed by well-known election lawyer Marc Elias of the law firm Perkins Coie, who is prominent in Democratic circles and has become a bête noire of Republicans. “When Democrats want to tilt elections in their favor outside the ballot box, who do they call? Marc Elias and Perkins Coie,” an RNC website says. Republicans accuse Elias and Democrats of trying to use the coronavirus pandemic to rig the election by doing away with safeguards against fraud. Elias and his team at have filed lawsuits seeking to force states to extend mailed-in ballot collection deadlines and other things. In one of those cases, the Supreme Court this week allowed Pennsylvania to count mailed-in ballots received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election, rejecting a Republican bid to block the extension. Elias has long been the public face of Democratic legal contests, serving as general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and John Kerry’s in 2004. He pushes regular updates about developments in his lawsuits to nearly 150,000 followers on Twitter, as well as guidance for voting and the occasional jibe at the president and his Republican counterparts. “Being called a ‘partisan hack’ by a lawyer for Donald Trump is a badge of honor I will wear proudly for a lifetime,” he wrote in a tweet this week. But lawyers on both sides say they are preparing to be ready for much more than a fight on Twitter. Nick Note: This  election is very very close. THe issue is we have 2 very dark candidates. Reality is sleepy Joe has been co-opted by the commies. Trump once a liberal has sold out to the fascists. The truly ugly part of what we face is their is a third person in the room. Mr Corona and his is the dominate voice. America cannot survive another lock down. All All the politicians strategy is to support the economy for a year.  While they await the vaccine and their will not be an effective one for years into the future. Reality is Mr Corona is not leaving town any tine soon. Social distancing with the new strain means COMPLETE distancing. No 10 feet 50 feet but hundreds of feet. All masks unless they are a powered air suit or a P4 nanometer filter will not work. Around the world in societies which did social distance and did mask up infections and DEATHS are at records. I need no more prrof then that. The vaccines even the best of them are a 90 day protective measure at best. Bottom line is we are FUCKED. Well not you and me but the masses. Unless they use a proper ULPA mask, Extreme isolation and build their immune system they are in big trouble. We are headed for a global depression with the masses rioting in the streets, As bad as it will be the elections are little more then the warm up to the main event