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A Swiss study found that after a COVID-19 booster, less than 3% of people briefly had a slightly elevated blood level of a protein that can be a marker of heart injury. No one in the study had any serious heart damage, and other experts say the findings are unlikely to be clinically significant. Viral posts, however, are spinning the results to falsely claim that the study shows the vaccines risks are off the scale.

Multiple studies have shown that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in protecting against severe disease and death. While myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and its surrounding tissue, have been identified as rare serious side effects of the vaccines, the benefits of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination still outweigh the risks across all age groups.

Myocarditis is a potentially serious condition that can be triggered by a viral infection, including an infection with the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. As weve written, studies have shown that even though both the vaccine and COVID-19 can cause myocarditis, the overall risks associated with COVID-19 are higher. Vaccine-associated myocarditis is rare, occurring most frequently in young males after a second dose, and is usually mild and resolves quickly.

Areviewof studies on the topic published in May in the American Heart Associations journal Circulation Research found that in people 12 years and older, the frequency of myocarditis after two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is estimated at 3.5 cases per 100,000 people, and 1.9 per 100,000 people for those 16 years and older.

But viral social media posts, including one by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, misrepresent a recent study published by Swiss researchers to say it proves mRNA vaccines are too risky.

Two USC basketball players experience cardiac arrest in the past year and both almost certainly were forced or misled into taking a vaccine never proven to meaningfully benefit young, healthy people, but definitely proven to cause cardiac injury, Ladapo posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 27. Florida data and a new Swiss study show it, he added, linking to the study, and referring to a flawed Florida analysis that weve written about before.

There is no evidence to suggest that the cardiac arrests suffered by University of Southern California basketball players Vince Iwuchukwu in July 2022 and Bronny James, LeBron James son, in July 2023 were due to the vaccines.

John Campbell, a nurse educator in the U.K. who often spreads misinformation on his YouTube channel, said the risk shown by the Swiss study was off the scale. The only way you would take this kind of risk in health care is if the alternative was certain death, he said in a video that has over a million views.

An Instagram user posted a snapshot of a headline from the conservative news site the Gateway Pundit that reads: KILL SHOT: Recent Peer-Reviewed Report Finds 1 in 35 People Who Took Moderna COVID Shot Had Signs of Heart Damage.

But these claims are distorting a study published by researchers at the University Hospital of Basel in the European Journal of Heart Failure in July. It found mild and transient levels of a protein that can be a marker of heart injury, but no cases of myocarditis or other serious cardiac events, among 777 hospital workers who received a booster of the Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

No patient had electrocardiographic changes, and none developed major adverse cardiac events within 30 days, the abstract reads, referring to changes in an electrocardiogram. No definitive case of myocarditis was found, the study continues, although there were two probable cases.

The study measured the volunteers levels of cardiac troponin three days after they received a Moderna booster. Cardiac troponin is a protein that exists inside heart muscle cells. Normally, only tiny amounts of it circulate in the bloodstream. But when cardiac muscle cells are injured, more troponin is released into the blood.

The University of Basel researchers wanted to find out if myocardial injury was more common after vaccination than reported if they proactively looked for indicators of possible injury, instead of relying on passive surveillance that mostly detects myocarditis cases that require hospitalization. To do so they measured high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, using a test that can detect very low levels of troponin that go undetected in regular tests.

The results did show a small, temporary, above-average presence of troponin in 22 of the 777 hospital employees, or about 1 in 35 people.These people did not report more symptoms than those who did not have elevated troponin levels. The median age of the participants in which troponin was detected was 46 years, and 20 of the 22 cases occurred in women. Troponin levels decreased in all but one patient in a follow-up visit.

These increases in cardiac troponin are not clinically significant and would not be associated with any quantifiable effect on the heart using imaging, Dr. Nicholas Mills, professor of cardiology at the University of Edinburgh, who studies troponin, told us in an email.

The principle conclusion that if you look really hard for minor amounts of injury after vaccination you can find it is likely true, Dr. James de Lemos, a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, told Lead Stories. But, he said, the results were overplayed and the levels of troponin found were trivial.

These small troponin elevations are not likely events of clinical significance, he said.

Mills explained that troponin elevation is not always an indication of consequential damage it also occurs in healthy people after exercise, where it is not thought to have any pathophysiological consequences, he said, pointing us to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.He also said the fact that the study showed higher troponin elevation among women, contrary to the existing evidence on vaccine-associated myocarditis, is counter-intuitive and suggests troponin elevations were less likely to be a consequence of subclinical myocarditis.

Mills, who has collaborated with the University of Basel researchers but had no participation in this study, said the results merit further study. But the study had an important limitation, he said, since it didnt measure troponin levels prior to vaccination, and the researchers attempts to address this limitation werent adequate.

It is therefore not possible to determine whether troponin elevation was a consequence of vaccination or occurred at this frequency in this population prior to vaccination, he said.

According to the authors, their findings confirm their hypothesis. mRNA-1273 booster vaccination-associated elevation of markers of myocardial injury occurred in about one out of 35 persons (2.8%), a greater incidence than estimated in meta-analyses of hospitalized cases with myocarditis (estimated incidence 0.0035%) after the second vaccination, the study reads.

Yet, that doesnt mean the vaccines are harmful or should be avoided.

[A]ll cases were mild with only a transient and short period of myocardial injury, the study reads. COVID-19 associates with a substantially higher risk for myocarditis [than] mRNA vaccination,and myocarditis related to COVID-19 infection has shown a higher mortality than myocarditisrelated to mRNA vaccination, the study adds.

Dr. Christian Mueller, director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Basel and the senior author of the study, told us in an email that even though his study found myocardial cells were severely injured, the results have to be considered taking into account all the benefits of vaccination. To do so, we would need to know the prevalence and extent of myocardial injury after COVID-19 infection with the strain circulating at that time and the (possible) reduction in the likelihood that people get infected and/or get ill from infection, he said.

Furthermore, the authors explain that even though the long-term consequences of the low and temporary troponin elevations they found are unknown, good long-term outcomes can be expected.

As we said, Mills and de Lemos said the troponin levels werent likely to be clinically significant.

In an interview published in November 2022 on the University of Baselswebsite, Mueller explained that the marker they used is extremely sensitive and emphasized that the damage to the cardiac muscle is mild. People should not be skeptical about mRNA vaccination based on these results, he added. mRNA vaccination technology is a fantastic development The vaccines saved millions of lives, he said.But he said the findings could help improve vaccination in the future.

A spokesperson for Moderna told us the company has a robust pharmacovigilance function and makes sure all adverse events are reported to regulators.

mRNA-1273 has been administered to hundreds of millions of people worldwide and has been shown to reduce severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths caused by COVID-19. Regulatory agencies around the world have stated that the benefits of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines significantly outweigh the risk across all age groups, Luke Mircea-Willats, senior director of media relations and communications, told us in an email.

Editors note: SciChecks articles providing accurate health information and correcting health misinformation are made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation has no control over FactCheck.orgs editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.

Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines. CDC. Updated 7 Mar 2023.

Altman, Natasha L., et al. Vaccination-Associated Myocarditis and Myocardial Injury. Circulation Research. 11 May 2023.

Goddard, Kristin, et al. Risk of myocarditis and pericarditis following BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine. Jul 12 2022.

Klein, Nicola.Myocarditis Analyses in the Vaccine Safety Datalink: Rapid Cycle Analyses and Head-to-Head Product Comparisons. PowerPoint presentation for Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 04 Feb 2022.

Jaramillo, Catalina. Benefits of COVID-19 Vaccination Outweigh the Rare Risk of Myocarditis, Even in Young Males. FactCheck.org. Updated 5 Apr 2022.

Purtill, Corinne. Q&A: Why would a young, healthy athlete go into cardiac arrest? Los Angeles Times. Updated 26 Jul 2023.

Trela, Nate. No evidence Bronny James, other athletes, were injured by COVID-19 vaccine | Fact check. USA Today. 28 Jul 2023.

Thompson Payton, LOreal. Bronny Jamess cardiac arrest reignites rumors linking rare instances of myocarditis to the COVID-19 vaccine. Fortune. 25 July 2023.

Buegin, Natacha, et al. Sex-specific differences in myocardial injuryincidence after COVID-19 mRNA-1273booster vaccination. European Journal of Heart Failure. 20 Jul 2023.

Troponin Test. Cleveland Clinic. 17 Mar 2022.

Mehta, Parang. What Is a Cardiac Troponin Test? WebMD. 28 Apr 2022.

Mills, Nicolas. Professor of cardiology at The University of Edinburgh. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 4 Aug 2023.

Payne, Ed. Fact Check: Video, Swiss Study Do NOT Prove 1 In 35 Given COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Develop Heart Injury. Lead Stories. 31 Jul 2023.

Middleton, Natalie, et al. Cardiac troponin T release is stimulated by endurance exercise in healthy humans. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 25 Nov 2008.

Mueller, Christian. Director of Cardiovascular Research Institute Basel. Email to FactCheck.org. 29 Jul 2023.

Jacobs, Angelika. Temporary mild damage to heart muscle cells after Covid-19 booster vaccination. University of Basel. 9 Nov 2022.

Mircea-Willats, Luke. Senior director ofmedia relations and communications at Moderna. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 5 Aug 2023.

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Posts Exaggerate Significance of Swiss Study on Heart Risk and ... - FactCheck.org

WASHINGTON Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) is examining potential waste and abuse of pandemic-era education funds designed to address historic learning loss, reopen schools safely, and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Chairman Wenstrup is requesting data from the Department of Education detailing the use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds by state and local education agencies to evaluate any academic benefit stemming from the program and investigate the reported misuse of tax-payer dollars on unrelated, non-academic programming or politically motivated pet projects. Americas children continue to experience historic learning loss, higher rates of psychological distress, and decreased physical well-being as a result of COVID-19 related school closures and federal policies. The Select Subcommittee is concerned that instead of utilizing ESSER funds to alleviate the harm caused to children, education agencies used the funds to forward a leftist agenda.

[M]any criticsincluding concerned parentshave questioned the efficacy of the program and how much of these funds went toward helping students succeed in the classroom. This is especially concerning in light of mounting evidence that Americas students are continuing to fail academically and struggling to recover pandemic-related learning deficits. Troublingly, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently reported that 13-year-olds performance in math and reading had declined to their lowest recorded levels since 1990 and 2004, respectfully. For example, none of the eighth-grade students enrolled at Lebron James I Promise School in Akron, Ohio have passed the states standardized math test in three years. This is unconscionable and unacceptable, said Chairman Wenstrup.

Previous COVID-19 education related hearings conducted by the Select Subcommittee revealed conclusive evidence that the science never justified prolonged school closures and political leaders, including teachers union head Randi Weingarten, exerted uncommon influence over supposedly scientific school reopening guidance. Investigating whether political activism played a role in the misuse of COVID-19 education funds is essential to address the academic well-being of children should another pandemic arise. The Select Subcommittees request for ESSER data will shed light on any fraudulent use of these funds and bring accountability to American families and students who deserve answers.

Unfortunately, the funds seemingly few restrictions, coupled with the Departments limited accounting, has meant that Congress has largely been without the information necessary for it to assess the programs benefit for students academically (if any) and ensure that funds were neither wasted nor abused. Still, theres been numerous credible reports of funds being expended for questionable programs and projectsnot related to academic success in the classroomincluding for upgrades to sports facilities and to indoctrinate children in core tenets of leftist ideology, continued Chairman Wenstrup.

Read Chairman Wenstrups letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona here.

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Wenstrup Presses Department of Education for Answers on Misuse ... - House Committee on Oversight and Reform |

The Biden administration has missed theJune 18 statutory deadlinefor delivering U.S. intelligence information on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to Congress. Despite the missed deadline, the information about its origins is becoming clearer. This is due, in large part, to vigorous congressional oversight and the outstanding work of independent journalists in search of the truth.

In March, President Joe Biden signed into law Sen. Josh Hawleys, R-Mo., COVID-19 Origins Act. The act requires the administration to declassify any and all information relating to the outbreakand to ChinasWuhan Institute of Virology within 90 days of the laws passage.

Regardless of the administrations stalling, here are the key questions about the outbreaks origins and the mounting evidence that can answer them.

First, Were Chinese Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Among the First Persons Infected by COVID-19?

Credit the excellent work of independent journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag, who, with the help of multiple government sources,identified three patients zero: Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhuall Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Hu was a close associate of Shi Zhengli, the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the institute (also known as the Bat Lady), and worked in gain-of-function research on coronavirusesthe research designed to increase a pathogens lethality and transmissibility.

If the institutes researchers were the first, or among the first, infected with COVID-19, that fact would lend further credence to the argument that the deadly pandemic originated from a Chinese laboratory leak.

Shellenberger and his colleagues also reinforce the conclusion of the most detailed examination of the topic yet: the exhaustive January 2023 Senate Republicanstaff reportcompiled by Dr. Robert Kadlec and a multidisciplinary team of scientists and analysts. After conducting 18 months of painstaking research into the topic, they concluded: The preponderance of circumstantial evidence supports an unintentional research-related incident.

WhileChinese Communist officialsand several prominent Western virologists funded by the National Institutes of Health insisted that COVID-19 had a natural origin, other American officials expressed concerns about Chinas lab safety well before the outbreak.

As noted in theSenate report, Shi herself admitted in an interview in Science (published in July 2020) that some of the institutes coronavirus research was being conducted under substandard safety conditions.

Again, according to the Senate report:

At least until the COVID-19 pandemic, it is apparent that researchers at the WIV were working with SARS-related coronaviruses in inappropriate biosafety levels. One goal of this research was to identify and evaluate SARS-related viruses that were more capable of infecting human cells. In the two years leading up to the pandemic, publications by and interviews with WIVs researchers attest to increasingly sophisticated coronavirus experiments using humanized mice, bats, and palm civets to achieve this goal.

In other words, gain of function research.

Second, When Did the First COVID-19 Outbreaks Occur?

The timing of the first COVID-19 infections is a crucial piece of the origins puzzle. Communist Chinas regime insists that Dec. 8, 2019, was the date of the outbreak, and Shi publicly declared that there was no COVID-19 infection among the staff at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan reported during the fall of 2019 that residents in Wuhan were suffering from a particularly bad flu season, visiting athletes were getting sick, and there was a spike in hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19-like symptoms.

Based on their analysis of the epidemiological data, the authors of the Senate staff report concluded that COVID-19 infections emerged in China between early October and mid-November of 2019, a discovery that comports with the finding of Shellenberger and his colleagues that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had developed the COVID-19-like illness in November 2019.

The Senate report concludes:

Based on Chinese presentations, there is no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation in people prior to December 2019. These findings are inconsistent with COVID-19 outbreak modeling, reports from U.S. Consulate officials in Wuhan, leaked PRC [Peoples Republic of China] government documents identifying cases in November 2019, and other media reports of COVID-19 cases prior to December 2019.

Third, How Did the Outbreak Happen, and How Was the Virus Transmitted?

The assumption underlying a natural (zoonotic) origin for the outbreak is that the bat coronavirus probably jumped to a susceptible animalan intermediate host to a human. Human infection, proponents of zoonotic origin posited, resulted from contact with some animal species in the Huanan Seafood Market in densely populated Wuhan. A curious fact, however, is thatonly 28%of the earliest known cases had direct exposure to the Huanan market.

Over the past three years, certain candidates for the intermediate host have been suggested, such as pangolins andraccoon dogs, but thus far, none have been identified. Given the party line that the pandemic had a natural origin, this failure to identify an intermediate host is unexpected. Historically, Chinas public health authorities demonstrated a rapid capacity to identify the zoonotic origins of previous viral infections.

But as the authors of the Senate staff report observe:

To date, China has not acknowledged the infection or positive serological sample(s) of any susceptible animal prior to the recognized outbreak. Genetic analysis of published SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the early outbreak does not show evidence of genetic adaptation reflecting passage through a susceptible animal species such as a palm civet raccoon dog or mink. To this end, no intermediate host has been identified.

They further note, The failure to find any animal infected with a SARS-CoV-2 variant or closely related virus that lacks mutations found in human SARS-CoV-2 viral isolates is a significant evidentiary gap in the natural zoonotic hypothesis.

A Deeper Probe

This evidence is further bolstered by analysts with the Department of Energy and the FBI. Theirassessments conclude, with different degrees of confidence, that the deadly virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory.

In April of 2020,State Department personnelhad determined that the likely origin of COVID-19 was the Wuhan lab and that research staff had gotten sick and one sick employee disappeared.

Shellenberger and his colleagues note, It is unclear who in the U.S. government had access to the intelligence about the sick WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) workers, how long they had it, and why it was not shared with the public.

Many of these answers should come from the Biden administration, and Congress should hold the administration responsible to deliverin fullall of the intelligence information that the COVID-19 Origins Act requires to be released.

Congressional investigators must continue to follow up on the stellar work of these independent journalists, secure sworn testimony from the anonymous federal officials, collect the hard evidence, and finally get to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19.

The deadly pandemic has thus far killed more than 1.1 million Americans and nearly7 millionpersons worldwide. Determining the true origins of COVID-19 is non-negotiable. It is a crucial piece of information we need to avoid a replay of this tragedy, to avoid repetition of our mistakes in responding to it, and to ensure that our country is better prepared to respond to the next global pandemic.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal

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Biden Administration Fails to Share Intel on COVID-19 Origins, but Independent Evidence Is Piling Up - Heritage.org

In early 2021, recommendations about COVID vaccines were pretty straightforward get two doses, as soon as you are eligible. A year later, we knew getting a third dose was important for protection against the new Omicron variant.

Today, though, the situation is far more complex new updated vaccines are available, the majority of Australians have likely been infected at least once with an Omicron strain, and waves of infection continue to occur.

So how should you manage and time your booster shots?

Read more: Over half of eligible aged care residents are yet to receive their COVID booster. And winter is coming

Vaccines work by training our bodys immune system to react harder, faster, stronger and better when we get infected by a pathogenic virus or bacteria.

Unfortunately, this protective benefit is not permanent and immunity tends to wane over time. The extent to which vaccine protection wanes is a function of two main factors.

First, your immune system (in the form of antibodies, memory B cells and T cells) is not infinite, and the levels of vaccine-induced immune responses will gradually decline over time. Second, pathogens circulating in the community can mutate, which enables escape from being recognised by the immune system. The more the virus escapes, the less protection the vaccine can give you.

Read more: Why does my back get so sore when I'm sick? The connection between immunity and pain

Not all pathogens have the same ability to create or tolerate mutations. For viruses that change little (such as measles), your childhood vaccines remain highly protective and you might never need a booster.

In contrast, some viruses can rapidly and dramatically change (looking at you, influenza), quickly rendering our vaccines outdated and making updates necessary.

Read more: I need a flu shot and a COVID booster. Can I get them at the same time?

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has demonstrated an ability to rapidly change since emerging in 2019. Although the early pandemic in Australia featured vaccine supply constraints, we now lucky to have many different vaccine options.

Recommendations currently favour updated mRNA bivalent boosters from Pfizer or Moderna, each containing equal parts of the original virus strain and an Omicron strain.

But the virus continues to change (currently XBB strains are dominant, and further updates to the composition of the vaccine are to be expected in the future (most likely to target XBB.1.5).

Are you sure? Queuing for a PCR test seems like a fever dream from the past. Now, many of the RATs stacked in our cupboards are rapidly expiring. Influenza and RSV are back with gusto (and cause similar symptoms).

If you did have confirmed COVID, our research shows the majority of people mount a strong immune response following each infection.

This means that once you recover, your immunity has been updated to reflect the virus variant that caused your infection and you will have higher protective antibody levels in your blood.

There are a couple of things to consider here.

Firstly, there is no such thing as too much immunity. Beyond the regular side-effects of a vaccine, there are no known additional risks to being re-vaccinated soon after an infection.

On the other hand, getting vaccinated quickly after recovery will not do much to further boost your immunity. Current recommendations are to wait six months after infection or your last dose before seeking another booster.

This allows your immune system time to rest, so that it can be effectively re-activated by vaccination. If youd prefer to minimise your risk of COVID, and you dont know what caused a recent illness, topping up your immunity via a booster may be the way to go.

The short answer is, we need more information and time to figure that out.

Our communities now have high immunity (from both vaccines and infections), so balancing the risks and rewards of COVID boosters is increasingly complex.

Ultimately, your personal health care provider is best placed to offer specific advice. Generally however, those who are vaccinated (with three or more doses), younger (64 and under), and otherwise healthy have the least to gain.

For those who are older (especially over 65s) or who have health complications, regular COVID boosters are likely to be an important tool for staying healthy, especially over the winter season. While we still need more data, multiple studies suggest booster vaccines can reduce the risk of developing long COVID, providing another reason to keep up-to-date.

Unfortunately, COVID is among us and likely here for good. But like old mate influenza, we now have effective tools to blunt the impacts of COVID, and even better options will come through the pipeline to unlock further health improvements (like the transformative new vaccines for RSV).

For now, stay tuned to the latest advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) about additional vaccine boosters and rest assured scientists and public health officials are still working to better understand how best to maintain high levels of population immunity via regular immunisation.

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Do I need a booster vaccine if I recently had COVID? What if I'm not sure what I had? - The Conversation

Long gone are the days families would spend Saturdays at the shopping mall, lounging near the fountain with an Orange Julius or flitting from Thom McAn to Cavages to Waldenbooks.

Edie Lee creates a variety of paintings of artifacts and pop culture figures at Cool Ass Art inEastern Hills Mall.

Most of the stores shoppers remember visiting in malls arent there anymore. If they havent gone out of business, they have headed for greener pastures in strip malls or other non-enclosed locations.

Sure, malls still have their stalwarts such as Spencers Gifts, Hot Topic and Bath and Body Works. And Walden Galleria and Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls USA are in a league of their own.

But youll have as much of a chance of finding a psychic or a wrestling match or even a church in todays malls as you would a food court or a shoe store.

As online shopping slowed foot traffic to a crawl and Covid-19 put the nail in its coffin, the Boulevard, Eastern Hills and McKinley malls have had to get creative to fill a growing amount of vacant space and lure people in. Even the Walden Galleria is branching out into more of a shopping and entertainment mix.

Empty storefronts are the reason why malls are adapting. And it is still an uphill struggle. Around 44% of the space in the McKinley Mall remains vacant.

With fewer shoppers, malls have cut their hours. They have also had to be less strict about requiring shops to stay open during all mall hours which means you might be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of shops open on a Monday or outside of peak hours.

Things have been especially complicated as Boulevard Mall and Eastern Hills Mall wait in limbo to be transformed into outdoor, walkable town centers, and McKinley goes through another ownership change.

If you havent been to a mall in a while, you might not recognize it.

Spiritual adviser and artist Edie Lee organizes tarot cards on a table in her store, Cool Ass Art, in Eastern Hills Mall. We havent even advertised, and people are coming in, Lee says.

New ways to keep cash registers ringing

Nickel City Wrestling, owned by Steven Stroh Sr., held its practice at Dipson Theatre in Eastern Hills Mall on Thursday, June 8, 2023. This is

Im not looking for your traditional mall tenant, said Dalton Drake, events coordinator at Eastern Hills Mall. Im looking for a business that doesnt mind being in a mall and can work with any event we bring in.

In the absence of traditional mall traffic drawn by long-gone anchor stores such as Sears and AM&As, Drake works to stage events that bring in people who might stick around to visit other tenants afterward.

Roughly 30% of tenants at Eastern Hills have contract agreements to pay the mall a percentage of their sales, on top of their monthly rent, so higher foot traffic is in everyones best interest.

The immersive Beyond Van Gogh exhibit in the Eastern Hills Mall parking lot drew half a million visitors in 2021.

The immersive Beyond Van Gogh exhibit in 2021 drew a half million people. The annual Off-Broadway Farmers and Artisans Market, which started as a way to scoop up displaced Broadway Market vendors, regularly brings in more than 1,000 shoppers. And an animal adopt-a-thon brought in 1,400 people a day, leading to 500 adoptions and plenty of runoff traffic for tenants. Other events bring in numbers just as strong: car shows, festivals, carnivals and, soon, the Worlds Biggest Bounce House.

Tenants said they can rely on events to keep cash registers ringing and for nonprofit organizations donations flowing. But often, as was the case with such tenants as New Age shop Alchemy of Spirits, events sometimes bring new tenants.

I love to watch people go from a 6-foot table at an event to a 1,000-square-foot store and then keep building and taking off, Drake said.

Edie Lee has been serving as a spiritual adviser and selling art professionally since she was 14. At Eastern Hills Mall, she has a combination gallery space where she sells paintings ranging from $300 to $2,000 and a curtained reading corner where she reads clients tarot cards. She is part of a wave of psychics, mediums and Wiccans that have set up shop at area malls with their crystals, candles and New Age philosophy.

Edie Lee poses for a portrait beside David Bowie and disco ball paintings she made in her store, Cool Ass Art, on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.

Typically, Lee had made her living at home, doing commissioned pet portraits and selling at art fairs and craft shows on the weekends. At one such event, Drake coaxed her into taking on her own space in the mall. Just 20 days into her soft opening, she sold 14 paintings, covering her lease payment in just one sale.

We havent even advertised, and people are coming in. And in this area, they buy, Lee said, referring to the surrounding affluent demographics in Clarence and Williamsville.

Lee organizes the malls popular psychic fairs that bring in dozens of psychics and thousands of people for on-the-spot readings. She does paint nights, where groups paint while she takes them aside for one-on-one life readings; and shes in the process of setting up after-hours ghost hunting walks in the mall with paranormal investigator and star of Travel channels Ghost Adventurers Nick Groff.

Edie Lees store at Eastern Hills Mall offers paint nights and life-readings and she is in the process of setting up after-hours ghost hunting walks in the mall.

Not in the mood for a medium? How about a punch in the face?

At McKinley Mall, Schaffer MMA offers a variety of mixed martial arts and muay thai classes those that get athletes ready to beat each other senseless in cage fights.

McKinley Mall is also home to Red Dragon School of Martial Arts, a tamer, more traditional martial arts dojo.

Eastern Hills Mall boasts not one, but two professional wrestling companies. Nickel City Wrestling and Buffalo Wrestling Academy.

Owner/head trainer Steven Stroh Sr. jumps off ring rope while being guided by Brad Barringer during a Nickel City Wrestling practice on Thursday, June 8, 2023.

Nickel Citys wrestlers have been known to jog around the mall in character and one pair even crashed through the malls fountains during a sold-out match in the main concourse.

We were looking for a permanent home, and we found it at Eastern Hills, said Steve Stroh, Nickel Citys owner.

The company was formerly based in warehouse spaces in North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls.

Its affordable and its a more comfortable experience for fans, Stroh said.

In this February photo, Weldon Jones skates at the future location of Food Court Skatepark at the McKinley Mall.

Malls wide-open spaces make them a perfect fit for other types of athletes looking to practice their sports, too. McKinley Mall will soon host Food Court Skate Park a 16,000-square-foot, indoor skateboarding park designed by San Diego-based Ramp Carnies, the same company that builds courses for the X Games and pro skater Tony Hawk.

Sports Performance Park in the Eastern Hills Mall has a bricklike faade that looks like a baseball stadium. The interior is nearly as cavernous. At roughly 60,000 square feet, it boasts two baseball diamonds with AstroTurf, a dozen batting cages and six pitching mounds.

It started as a baseball and softball facility where athletes could practice their skills, and has now branched out into other sports, including pickleball. It also has chiropractic services, training schools and a crossfit gym on site, as well as a pro shop selling sports gear.

At roughly 60,000 square feet, Sports Performance Park in Eastern Hills Mall boasts two baseball diamonds, a dozen batting cages and six pitching mounds.

The fun and games dont stop there.

McKinley Mall has Bison City Cornhole, which hosts leagues and individual play of the game that involves tossing a bean bag through a hole in a wooden board.

Boulevard Mall has Buffalo Bridge Center, a nonprofit social club that hosts bridge card games sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League. It also offers bridge lessons and supervised play.

Eastern Hills Mall has Bison Billiards, a lavish pool hall with 18 tables of varying styles.

Western New York Garden Railway Society couldnt have found a better way to showcase its members meticulous train displays than its glass-front spot at McKinley Mall. Even when the space is closed, a bright red button invites passersby to press it and activate the trains down the track.

Consumerism gives way to community and collectibles

The McKinley Mall, where shoppers can visit Tabby Town, a no-kill cat adoption shelter. Around 44% of the space at the mall remains vacant.

Nonprofit organizations have found a good fit in malls which put them closer to the communities they serve. Rather than hiding their message in an office park, they directly reach people who might be willing to donate time or money, or might need to use the services themselves.

Tabby Town at McKinley, a no-kill cat adoption shelter, brings its furry fosters up close and personal with those who might be able to provide them a forever home.

Most people have never heard of Sleep in Heavenly Peace a volunteer organization that builds and delivers beds to families who need them unless they have walked past their storefront at Eastern Hills.

The Hope Project of WNY looks like a home store, but its another nonprofit organization that lets those in need shop for housewares, clothing and other basic necessities for free. And Mats for a Mission weaves sleeping mats for the homeless using donated plastic bags.

Its been a wonderful opportunity for the community to check us all out while shopping at the mall, said Gail Potter, Mats for a Missions founder. Weve had so many people walk in to learn more about what we do because of it. Weve actually gained quite a few new volunteers because of that opportunity.

The Eastern Hills Mall contains multiple churches, including Epic Church, housed in a former Sears Auto Center, and Vessel Church, in a former Brooks Brothers store.

Malls have been accused of being shrines to consumerism now they have actual shrines. Epic Church, led by Free Methodist-ordained Pastor Mark Rouse, has made its home in the former Sears Auto Center at Eastern Hills. Vessel Church, with its rousing music and Jesus-centered message, fills a former Brooks Brothers store. The arrangement works: Churches bring their flocks, and the faithful hopefully flock to the malls stores and eateries after service.

Buffalonians love their thrift stores, and new Google search data pulled by EmpireStakes.com shows the Buffalo region is near the top of the list when it comes to the number of thrift stores it has and the frequency it searches for thrift stores.

Western New Yorkers love to go thrifting and antiquing. As a result, consignment and collectible shops at community malls are thriving. Niagara Emporium at Eastern Hills Mall has 75,000 square feet filled with everything from like-new furniture and decor to rare Hot Wheels cars, metal Genesee beer trays and taxidermied animals in the former Macys department store. Vaughn Collectibles Rising Sun, with its giant collection of Funko Pops and sports memorabilia, is about to nearly triple its space at Eastern Hills. And Whats in Your Attic? has enough business to support two locations, at Eastern Hills and McKinley malls.

The consignment model works even for nonconsignment stores. Some shops will often take on extra merchandise from outside vendors for a price when theyve got extra space, then take a portion of the profits when the merchandise sells.

Collectibles shops, which buy and sell things such as Pokmon cards, action figures and other collectibles, are thriving at community malls. Because they also do swift business online, they need affordable space to store and ship their goods. Hobby Spirit, which specializes in Japanese imports, also hosts Dungeons and Dragons tournaments; and Pallet Town Poke Shop at Boulevard Mall specializes in Pokmon trading cards and all things Pokmon.

People love that collectible merchandise, said Russell Fulton, Eastern Hills Mall manager.

Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy.

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Psychics, wrestlers and churches: How online shopping and Covid changed mall tenants - Buffalo News

By Sarah Roebuck Corrections1

NEW YORK CITY A report released by the Vera Institute of Justice shows that the number of people incarcerated remains on the rise.

The increase is primarily driven by significant growth in local jail populations, as efforts to reduce incarceration due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been reversed, according to the People in Jail and Prison in 2022report. The report analyzes incarceration trends in federal, stateand local facilities from 2019 to fall 2022, using the most recent available data.

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the total number of incarcerated individuals in the United States dropped from 2.1 million in 2019 to 1.8 million by mid-year 2020. Local jail populations neared full recovery by mid-year 2021, while state and federal prison populations continued to decline, resulting in an overall incarcerated population of 1.76 million individuals. However, the latest data shows a rebound in both jail and prison populations, bringing the number of incarcerated individuals to 1.82 million.

Infall2022, the number of individuals in local jails was 24% higher than in mid-2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although jail populations have not yet reached 2019 levels, they did grow by 7% between mid-year 2021 and fall 2022.

On the other hand, state prison populations remain 8% lower than in mid-2020 and 15% lower than in 2019. They experienced only a slight increase of 1.3% between 2021 and 2022. The federal prison population is also 1.8% lower than in mid-2020 and 9% lower than in 2019. However, the recent trend shows relatively rapid growth, with a 3.3% increase between mid-year 2021 and fall 2022.

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Report: Incarcerated populations up 4% post-COVID - CorrectionsOne

NEW YORKThe national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, June 12 18, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 7 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 25) when compared with last year (2022), 11 points above the same period in 2021, 10 points above 2020, and 17 points above 2019, according to Jobsons most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories were down or flat last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of -1 index point for gross revenue, 0 index points for exams/refractions, 0 index points for frame units, -1 index point for lens pairs and 0 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last weeks optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were up besides one, ranging from the highest increase of 7 index points for gross revenue to the only decrease of -1 index point for contact lenses.

With all optical sales categories decreasing or remaining flat last week, only one of the categories still reached a level above an average week in 2019the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 116 index points for gross revenue to a low of 95 index points for contact lenses.

The other three categories reached 99 index points for exams/refractions, 98 index points for frame units and 98 index points for lens pairs. The other categories increased at rates of 5 index points for exams/refractions, 4 index points for frame units and 4 index points for lens pairs.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker

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The National Average for Gross Revenue at ECP Locations Decreased for the Week of June 12 18, Jobson's Latest ... - Vision Monday

The Intelligence Community Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity (EEOD) Office is responsible for the overall management of the ODNI EEO and Diversity Program, and provides IC-wide oversight and guidance in developing, implementing, and measuring progress in EEO, diversity, and inclusion.

The IC EEOD Office is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants based on merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disability.

Applicants or employees who believe they have been discriminated against on the bases of race, color, religion, sex/gender (sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history) and/or reprisal for prior participation in the EEO process may raise their concerns to the IC EEOD Office.

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ODNI Releases Report on the Potential Links Between the Wuhan ... - Office of the Director of National Intelligence

For three years, the U.S. government has been tied in knots over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, frustrated that Chinas hindrance of investigations and unwillingness to look critically at its own research have obscured what intelligence agencies can learn about whether the virus escaped from a lab.

Inquiries during the Trump and Biden administrations have yielded no definitive answers. The Energy Department and the F.B.I. favored the theory that a laboratory leak may have caused the pandemic. Five intelligence bodies considered theories of natural transmission that the coronavirus developed naturally and was transferred to humans at an animal market or other location more likely. But the C.I.A., the nations leading spy agency, would not make an assessment with even a low level of confidence.

This week, intelligence agencies are expected to release declassified material on what they have learned about Covids origins, a subject of intense interest and scrutiny among American lawmakers. But people briefed on the material say there is no smoking gun, no body of evidence that sways the intelligence community as a whole, or top C.I.A. analysts, that a lab leak was the more likely origin of the pandemic than natural transmission, or vice versa.

In fact, senior intelligence officials remain more convinced than ever that the agencies are not going to be able to collect a piece of evidence that solves the puzzle. Local and national authorities in China, U.S. officials say, destroyed some virus samples and used up others in research, all of which might have helped answer the questions over Covids origins. But those officials also caution against overstating the importance of the destroyed samples.

American intelligence officials also believe the Chinese government impeded the international communitys efforts to better understand the coronavirus in the early months of the outbreak and refused to gather other information that could have aided the investigation. In essence, there appears to be no secret to steal now.

Chinese officials, according to American intelligence assessments, are either convinced the virus was caused by natural transmission or do not want to investigate further out of fear that it could hurt their international reputation if, for example, evidence emerged that would illustrate sloppy practices or unsafe experiments at one of their labs. In 2021, China also sought to influence an investigation by the World Health Organization, angering the Biden administration.

The declassified material is unlikely to satisfy the debate over Covids origins. Some lawmakers and experts have argued that Chinas failure to open its labs up to outside investigators is evidence of a cover-up and suggests the coronavirus may have leaked from a lab accidentally.

A Government Accountability Office report released last week highlighted the Wuhan Institute of Virologys failure to provide information to the National Institutes of Health on research it had done on potentially dangerous pathogens. The report found that U.S. government funding had gone to the Wuhan lab, one of the labs that has been a focus of investigations into Covids origin. The lab had exceeded the safety threshold in some research, but the N.I.H. or its contractor had not properly monitored the work, the report said.

The report raised questions about the effectiveness of government restrictions designed to prevent scientists receiving U.S. funding from creating more deadly viruses, but it did not provide evidence that the Wuhan lab had made a more dangerous coronavirus, much less the pathogen that caused Covid.

Recent news reports have unearthed new information about researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology who became sick in 2019. The news reports suggested that one of them could be patient zero. The information about the sick workers was first discovered at the end of the Trump administration. By August 2022, however, intelligence analysts had dismissed the evidence, saying it was not relevant. Intelligence officials determined that the sick workers could not tell them anything about whether a lab leak or natural transmission was more likely. Intelligence agencies view the information about the cases neutrally, arguing that they do not buttress the case for the lab leak or for natural transmission, according to officials briefed on the intelligence.

U.S. officials also caution that their intelligence collection is imperfect. Before the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention were not a priority collection target for American intelligence agencies. And China quickly locked down sources of information that might have been able to provide evidence.

Further complicating the picture is intelligence collected by U.S. agencies that illustrated a high level of tension between local officials in Wuhan and leaders in Beijing, particularly at the start of the pandemic. Local officials, trying to save their jobs and cover up the seriousness of the pandemic, obscured what was happening in Wuhan. Chinese officials have not acknowledged such tensions.

To protect their methods of gathering information, U.S. officials declined to discuss how they had collected intelligence on Chinese officials or their discussions about the Covid pandemic.

American officials say it is still possible that some new evidence comes to light, something like a trove of data a scientist has hidden away or a new source of information to help provide more insight. But as more time passes, that becomes less likely, especially as memories fade or sources move out of reach.

As an intelligence matter, officials said, the trail has run cold.

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U.S. Intelligence Agencies May Never Find Covid's Origins, Officials ... - The New York Times

The virus that drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The departments finding a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged came in an update to a document from the office of national intelligence director, Avril Haines, the WSJ reported. It follows a finding reportedly issued with moderate confidence by the FBI that the virus spread after leaking out of a Chinese laboratory.

The conclusion from the energy department which oversees a network of 17 US laboratories, including areas of advanced biology would be significant despite the fact that, as the report said, the agency made its updated judgment with low confidence.

Conflicting hypotheses on the origins of Covid-19 have centered either on an unidentified animal transmitting the virus to humans or its accidental leak from a Chinese research laboratory in Wuhan.

The spread of Covid-19, just one in a line of infectious coronoviruses to emerge, caught global health bodies unawares in early 2020. It has since caused close to 7m deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and disrupted trade as well as travel.

Former US president Donald Trump politicized the issue, calling it the China virus, triggering a racialization of a pandemic that his Democratic successor Joe Biden has sought to avoid. But political polarization remains under the surface of efforts to establish its origins.

The energy departments updated findings run counter to reports by four other US intelligence agencies that concluded the epidemic started as the result of natural transmission from an infected animal. Two agencies remain undecided.

US officials, the Journal said, also declined to expand on new intelligence or analysis that led the energy department to change its position. They also noted that the energy department and FBI arrived at the same conclusion for different reasons.

The CIA remains undecided between leak and natural transmission theories, according to the National Intelligence Council study. But while the initial 2021 report did not reach a conclusion, it did offer a consensus view that Covid-19 was not part of a Chinese biological weapons program.

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, acknowledged on Sunday that there are a variety of views within US intelligence agencies on the issue.

Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other, and a number have said they just dont have enough information to be sure, Sullivan told CNN.

But he said that the Biden administration has directed repeatedly every element of our intelligence community to put effort and resources on getting to the bottom of this question.

Sullivan added that Biden had specifically requested that the National Laboratories under the energy department be brought into the assessment. He wants to put every tool at use to figure out what happened, Sullivan said.

Right now there is not a definitive answer to emerge from the intelligence community on this question, he added, referring to eight of 18 agencies along with the National Intelligence Council that have looked in Covid-19s origins.

A previous report by the energy departments Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in May 2020 concluded that a lab-leak theory was plausible.

The updated, five-page NIC assessment, the Journal reported, was done in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government and comes as Republicans in Congress press for more information.

A spokesperson for the energy department wrote in a statement that the agency continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of Covid-19, as the president directed.

Chinese officials have disputed that Covid-19 could have leaked from its labs, among them the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.

According to the initial US 2021 intelligence report, Covid-19 first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, when three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology reportedly involved in coronavirus research were sick enough to seek hospital care.

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Covid-19 likely came from lab leak, says news report citing US energy ...