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Almost immediately after his inauguration, President Joe Biden began creating new government dictates via executive orders. Many of these executive orders concern coronavirus, fulfilling Bidens promise to make ramping up a coronavirus-inspired attack on liberty a focus of his first 100 days.

One of Bidens executive orders imposes mask and social distancing mandates on anyone in a federal building or on federal land. The mandates also apply to federal employees when they are on-duty anywhere. Members of the military are included in the definition of federal employees. Will citizens of Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries where US troops are or will be spreading democracy be happy to learn the troops shooting up their towns are wearing masks and practicing social distancing?

Another one of Bidens executive orders forces passengers on airplanes, trains, and other public transportation to wear masks.

Bidens mask mandates contradict his pledge to follow the science. Studies have not established that masks are effective at preventing the spread of coronavirus. Regularly wearing a mask, though, can cause health problems.

Bidens mask mandates are also an unconstitutional power grab. Some say these mandates are an exercise of the federal governments constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. However, the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to regulate interstate commerce. The president does not have the authority to issue executive orders regulating interstate commerce absent authorization by a valid law passed by Congress. The Founders gave Congress sole law-making authority, and they would be horrified by the modern practice of presidents creating law with a stroke of a pen.

Just as important, the Commerce Clause was not intended to give the federal government vast regulatory power. Far from giving the US government powers such as the power to require people to wear masks, the Commerce Clause was simply intended to ensure Congress could protect free trade among the states.

Biden also signed an executive order supporting using the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of vaccines, testing supplies, and other items deemed essential to respond to coronavirus. The Defense Production Act is a Cold War relic that gives the president what can fairly be called dictatorial authority to order private businesses to alter their production plans, and violate existing contracts with private customers, in order to produce goods for the government.

Mask and social distancing mandates, government control of private industry, and some of Bidens other executive actions, such as one creating a new Public Health Jobs Corps with responsibilities including performing contact tracing on American citizens, are the type of actions one would expect from a fascist government, not a constitutional republic.

Joe Biden, who is heralded by many of his supporters as saving democracy from fascist Trump, could not even wait one day before beginning to implement fascistic measures that are completely unnecessary to protect public health. Biden will no doubt use other manufactured crises, including climate change and domestic terrorism, to expand government power and further restrict our liberty. Under Biden, fascism will not just carry an American flag. It will also wear a mask.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

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Ron Paul: When Fascism Comes, It Will Be Wearing A Mask - OpEd - Eurasia Review

The inauguration of our 46th president last week didnt feel like just a government function.

It was a mix between a Hollywood movie, a church service and an awkward family Zoom call. President Joe Biden was the superhero, the savior and the patriarch.

That fits into a larger phenomenon of Americans deifying our political leaders, and it seems to be getting worse. You can buy a wide variety of prayer candles depicting elected officials as literal saints.

Former President Donald Trumps movement demonstrates the point best of all. Right-wing social media is filled with images and animations idolizing Trump hanging out with George Washington or Jesus, sometimes with a halo; flanked by bald eagles and ripping off his shirt to expose big, sweaty pecs; committing violence against mock journalists in a professional wrestling match. People fly flags, get tattoos and paint their tractors and party barges to honor the one-term, twice-impeached president.

Political movements have long resembled pop culture spectacles, and U.S. government ceremonies have always had a weird air of religiosity. I thought this year might be different, what with everything weve been through.

Americans learned some hard lessons in the last four years. About the perils of presidential authority, especially when its cheered on by utterly submissive allies in the legislature and electorate. About the necessity of a skeptical and adversarial press. About the power of protest and citizen vigilance. Now that we have a shiny new president, will we forget all that?

As part of the inauguration festivities, three former presidents filmed a segment delivering their seemingly candid reflections on the transfer of power. The bipartisan trio featured Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

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It was just three chums, could have been your uncles, standing around and having a chat. Except those chums presided over deadly foreign policy disasters, a devastating drug war, mass incarceration and millions of deportations.

We can acknowledge that some presidents are better than others, and that Trump was uniquely bad in some important ways. But we can also admit that the office as currently situated is inherently brutal. Presidents are not our friends.

The problem with political heroes is that they lull us into complacency, or worse, complicity. I know because it happened to me.

I came up in politics as a follower of Ron Paul, the libertarian-Republican former congressman and three-time presidential candidate. My friends and I exchanged books, wore campaign T-shirts and spent weekend nights watching YouTube compilations of Pauls speeches from the House floor and the campaign trail. Ron Paul Republican was an easy shorthand to describe our political views.

When you bind your political identity to another person, you become willfully ignorant of their defects.

Confronted with evidence of Pauls connections to racists and corruption in his 2012 campaign, I ignored it or tried to explain it away. Until I couldnt anymore. I swore off political heroes, although its an urge I still have to check.

Its a very normal inclination to try to parse the world into good and evil. Just as sure as we invent heroes in our minds, we also conjure villains. Its tempting to think of political figures from opposing movements as irredeemables who can do no good.

That instinct, too, is hazardous. If we start with the premise that a politician is fundamentally evil, its easy to dismiss all their ideas and demonize their supporters without due consideration.

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The job of a citizen in a representative government is not to hold out for perfect politicians, nor to root out all the wrong-thinkers. Either would be impossible. Instead, our task is to create the conditions where politicians have incentives to do good. Make it uncomfortable to do the wrong thing, and easy to do the right thing, no matter what team theyre on.

Its hard work. Its not as sexy or instantly gratifying as falling in with the cheering masses. But its the only way our republic works.

If its a hero you want, choose a dead person or a fictional character. They cant kill you, put you in jail or deport your neighbor.

adam.sullivan@thegazette.com; (319) 339-3156

More here:
There are no heroes in politics - The Gazette

Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a covid shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.

In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred.

This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do, said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.

Anti-vaccine groups have falsely claimed for decades that childhood vaccines cause autism, weaving fantastic conspiracy theories involving government, Big Business and the media.

Now, the same groups are blaming patients coincidental medical problems on covid shots, even when its clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, Hotez said. They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine, Hotez said.

As more seniors receive their first covid shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

For example, in a group of 10 million people about the number of Americans who have been vaccinated so far nearly 800 people ages 55 to 64 typically die of heart attacks or coronary disease in one week, Osterholm said. Public health officials are not ready for the onslaught of news and social media stories to come, he cautioned.

The media will write a story that John Doe got his vaccine at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. he had a heart attack, Osterholm said on his weekly podcast. They will make assumptions that its cause and effect.

Public health officials need to do a better job communicating the risks real and imagined from vaccines, said Osterholm, who has been advising President Joe Biden on the pandemic since his election.

You get one chance to make a first impression, Osterholm said. Even if we come back later and say, No, [the deaths] had nothing to do with vaccination, it was coronary artery disease, the damage has already been done.

Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Childrens Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths mostly in Europe that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.

In a blog post, Kennedy scoffed at autopsy results that concluded a Portuguese womans death was unrelated to a vaccine. He cast doubt on statements by medical authorities in Denmark who said the deaths of two people there after vaccination were due to old age and chronic lung disease. In an interview, Kennedy said the post-vaccination deaths of some very frail and terminally ill nursing home patients in Norway are a danger sign. Norwegian officials have said the elderly patients died of their underlying illnesses, not from the vaccine.

Coincidence is turning out to be quite lethal to COVID vaccine recipients, Kennedy wrote. Kennedy described the deaths as suspicious, accusing medical officials of following an all-too-familiar vaccine propaganda playbook and strategic chicanery.

Here in the U.S., vaccine opponents have pounced on the tragedy of Dr. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old Florida obstetrician-gynecologist, to sow doubts about vaccine safety and government oversight. Michael died Jan. 5 after suffering a catastrophic drop in platelets elements in the blood that control bleeding suggesting he may have developed immune thrombocytopenia..

According to a Facebook post by his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, doctors tried a variety of treatments to save her husband, but none worked.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is investigating Michaels death, as it does for all suspected vaccine-related health problems. California authorities have recommended pausing vaccinations with a particular batch of covid vaccines made by Moderna because of a high rate of allergic reactions.

Were going to see these events happen, and we have to follow up on every one of these cases, Osterholm said. I dont want people to think that were sweeping them under the rug.

Many Americans were already nervous about covid vaccines, with 27% saying they probably or definitely would not get a shot, even if the shots were free and deemed safe by scientists, according to a December survey by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

These people may be particularly susceptible to vaccine misinformation, said Rory Smith, an investigator at First Draft News, a nonprofit that reports on misinformation online.

A Rare Condition

Seven experts in blood disorders interviewed by KHN said theres not enough information available to blame Michaels decline on a vaccine and that the demonstrated benefits of covid vaccinations vastly outweigh any potential risk of bleeding. Even if investigators conclude that Michaels vaccine caused his death, it would still be an incredibly rare event, given that more than 21.8 million doses have been administered.

It shouldnt give anyone pause about whether the vaccine is safe or not, said Dr. James Zehnder, a hematologist and director of clinical pathology at Stanford Medicine.

Michaels bleeding disorder could have been developing silently for some time, said Dr. Adam Cuker, director of the Penn Blood Disorders Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It could be a coincidence that Michael started showing symptoms shortly after vaccination, he said. About 30 Americans are diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia every day.

The timing of Michaels illness suggests it had another cause, doctors said. According to his wifes Facebook post, his bleeding problems began three days after his first covid shot. It takes the body 10 to 14 days after vaccination to generate antibodies, which would be needed to cause immune thrombocytopenia, said Dr. Cindy Neunert, a pediatric hematologist at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

In most cases, the cause of thrombocytopenia is never known, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.

Immune thrombocytopenia is linked, rarely, to certain vaccines, with about 26 cases for every 1 million doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.

But it can also be caused by viruses themselves, including measles and the novel coronavirus, said Dr. Sven Olson, an assistant professor of hematology-medical oncology at Oregon Health & Science Universitys school of medicine.

Many patients with immune thrombocytopenia are now wondering if they should be vaccinated against covid, Cuker said. Cuker said he urges nervous patients to be vaccinated, noting that any problems could be managed by closely monitoring their platelet levels and adjusting medication if needed.

Even in patients with underlying bleeding conditions, its still safer to get vaccinated than to get covid, Zehnder said.

If you give a vaccine to a large enough number of people, there are going to be rare adverse events but there are also going to be coincidental events unrelated to the vaccine, Cuker said. If an anti-vaccine group uses a single case, where no link has been proven, to discourage people from vaccination, thats terrible.

Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, said her site provides balanced information from reputable news sources, including CNN, CBS and the Miami Herald, as well as Pfizer and the CDC.

In an interview with KHN, Kennedy said he questions why government officials have been so quick to dismiss connections between vaccinations and deaths. How in the world do they know if its a vaccine injury or not? he asked.

We dont discourage anybody from getting vaccinated, Kennedy said. All were doing is conveying the data, which is what the government should be doing. We print the truth, which is what the medical agencies ought to do.

Alternative Facts?

Opponents of vaccination have belittled concerns about the novel coronavirus for months, opposing masks and fighting stay-at-home orders and contact tracing, said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California-Riverside.

They have come out against every public health measure to control the pandemic, Carpiano said. They have said public health is public enemy No. 1.

Recently, anti-vaccine activists have been so eager to discredit immunizations that they have blamed covid for the deaths of people who are very much alive.

Social media users selectively edited a video of a Tennessee nurse, Tiffany Dover to make it appear as if she dropped dead after being vaccinated, when in fact she simply fainted, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Although Dover quickly recovered, social media users posted a fake death certificate and obituary. Anti-vaccine activists also harassed Dover and her family online, said Reiss, who chronicled Dovers ordeal in a blog post.

Anti-vaccine activists are adept at manipulating video, Smith said.

They are notorious for using videos and images purportedly showing the adverse effects of vaccines, such as autism in children and seizures in other vaccine recipients, Smith said. The more emotive and graphic the videos and images irrespective of whether its actually linked at all to vaccines or not the better.

In December, multiple Facebook posts falsely claimed that an Alabama nurse died after receiving one of the states first covid vaccines. One Twitter user went so far as to identify the nurse as Jennifer McClung, who worked at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama. In fact, McClung died of covid. Social media posts spread so widely that Alabama health department officials contacted every hospital in the state to confirm that no vaccinated staff member had died.

Anti-vaccine groups often build fables around a tiny, tiny grain of truth, Smith said. This is why misinformation, specifically vaccine misinformation, can be so convincing. But this information is almost always taken completely out of context, creating claims that are either misleading or outright false.

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity twisted a news story about the deaths of 24 people at an upstate New York nursing home, incorrectly blaming their deaths on covid vaccinations. The original article noted, however, that a covid outbreak at the nursing home began in late December, before residents received any vaccines. Covid vaccines, which require two doses for full protection, did not arrive in time to save the residents lives.

Kennedy repeated the misinformation again incorrectly blaming the residents deaths on vaccines in his blog, although he linked to a local news station that reported the information correctly.

Distorting facts to discourage vaccination, Cuker said, is very irresponsible and damaging to public health.

Liz Szabo: lszabo@kff.org,@LizSzabo

Excerpt from:
Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That Covid Shots Are Deadly, Undermining Vaccination - Kaiser Health News

If you evidence that the GOP has fallen is about the Oregon and Arizona parties, it seems to me to be a little soon to say that it has already fallen.

Its not great that we have a lunatic fringe, just as it wasnt when they were led by Buchanan, or Ron Paul, or Ted Cruz, or Robert Welch, Jesse Helms, or any of the other past eras of crazy.

Its a great, great, loss to the Republic that Rob Portman, one of the 21st Centurys most talented and honorable Republicans, whether as a Representative who did sterling work improving legislation and passing conservative reforms in a bipartisan manner, an OMB director who was able to send budgets that balanced to Congress in the last moment of fiscal hope before the 2006 elections, the USTR who was able to bring sufficient agreement around his FTAs that Obama merely delayed signing off on them rather than sacrificing them, and a Senator who continued the work he did as a Representative, finding areas of bipartisan reform that could pass a Senate where there was little interest in cooperation.

But its not new that maybe Ohio would select an enthusiast for the Senate. Its not new that that might cause a loss; its as much Josh Mandel as Sherrod Brown that has kept Brown in the Senate. The Ohio party in general is pretty strong; 2/3 of the house and 3/4 of the Senate, the governor, and a Senator, with the party infrastructure and the elected officials generally being fairly sensible people.

In general, if you look around the country, the Republican Party is in relatively healthy shape. Its not great at dealing with Trump, just as political parties generally arent good at dealing with their own bad members. But most of them are, for the most part, not Cruz or Paul. By and large the crazies arent totally without power (Cruz and Paul exist, as do the AZ and OR state parties), but even areas where the crazies dominated for a while are showing signs of hope. The California Republican Freshmen are generally pretty sensible. The party across the North East is flourishing with few conspiracy theorists. West Virginia is just killing it.

If you treat every example of a bad republican as indicative of the death of the party, the party will always disappoint. But take a step back, stop joining the media pile on that makes the worst person of the moment the face of the party, and the picture will become a lot brighter very quickly. Although it is sad about Portman.

Read more:
The Inmates Are Running the Party - The Dispatch - The Dispatch

Just after the sacking of the U.S. Capitol, a friend of mine sent me a typical post found on the MAGA45 page of the emergent social network MeWe:

Military arrests and takedowns begin this weekend and continue for the next 13 daysInternational raids have already begun. Italy has also been found complicit in our election fraud.DO NOT travel to any large cities (especially Philadelphia) for the rest of the month. Military operations will be taking place in many of the major corrupt cities. He only has 13 days to put this corrupt dog down.

This sounds like the ravings of a delusional fool, and it is. (The person must be deeply unfamiliar with the bumbling Italian government.) But its no less frightening for being so.

The online fantasies of crackpots can easily migrate into real life, shepherded across by reckless political operators and right wing media, as weve seen repeatedly in recent years. Recall the President Donald Trump super fan who sent pipe bombs to Democrats and media figures. Or the man who drove 11 hours to kill Latinos at an El Paso Walmart. Or the attempt to kidnap and murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Which takes us to the recent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Some of the Trumpists looked feral, delirious as they smashed through windows, dragged a Capitol police officer down stairs and pushed ahead in search of the traitorous Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Once inside, they vandalized and stole and smashed and in one case smeared feces.

I get the political operators and right wing media and what they have to gain political power and money. But its the crowd that I havent been able to fathom. What would possibly motivate someone what grievance, what sense of injustice to travel to Washington to betray their own country, leading to their arrest and national shame?

Watching videos and looking at pictures, however, I recognized the look of euphoria in their eyes. They were drunk on the conspiracy disinformation they were fed, celebrating communally with other lost souls.

I use the word drunk purposefully here. If youve had a good drunk and I dont mean tipsy on your birthday you may understand my meaning.

Consider the similarities between intoxication from drugs and alcohol and from conspiracy-laden propaganda on display Jan. 6: Euphoria. Loss of judgment. And for many of them, alienation from friends and family.

I asked Mark Thomas, a professor of neuroscience and director of the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction at the University of Minnesota, about this analogy.

Thomas told me he tries to remain scrupulously in his scientific lane and avoid speculation. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought there may be something there, he told me recently.

The key neurotransmitter to consider is dopamine, which is widely misunderstood. Weve all read stories about the opioid epidemic, and dopamine as a chemical messenger of pleasure.

But thats not quite right, Thomas explained. Its actually more like the signal in your brain that says, Do this again it is important for survival!

The addicts brain might tell him to get more booze or dope because he needs it to survive, but there are other circumstances in which dopamine signals are induced: Theyre there for a reason from evolution, to motivate behavior that would bring natural rewards, like food, sex and social networks.

And a couple others, Thomas said. Solving puzzles and predicting the future, which are obviously important for survival.

That may be where conspiracy theories fill a neural need.

For people who are prone to going down this road, it is like solving a puzzle. They must think, Aha, Ive got it. The pieces all fit together. Its not hard to imagine a brain stamp of approval when that happens, Thomas said.

Then they go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole: If it happens again and again and its strong enough, it could promote seeking that activity over and over and lead to a sort of addicted state.

Whats particularly dangerous is that now its available at the click of the finger, like an open-air drug market outside your house. Conspiracy disinformation was once whispered from neighbor to neighbor, or maybe went out through former Rep. Ron Pauls newsletter. It was like moonshine. But Facebook, YouTube and other social networks have mass produced it, for great profit. And their algorithms are designed to encourage addiction, like tobacco companies maximizing nicotine delivery in their cigarettes.

The number of adherents has grown exponentially. Before the major social media companies finally purged QAnon which has been called a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI the conspiracy theory was booming on Facebook. As the Wall Street Journal reported last summer, Average membership in 10 large public QAnon Facebook groups swelled by nearly 600% from March through July, to about 40,000 from about 6,000. (Thats 40,000 times 10 groups.) Instagram followers quadrupled.

Although everyone is responsible for their own behavior and must be held accountable, thinking of conspiracy disinformation like drugs and alcohol forces us to empathize with its consumers, just as we do people suffering from whats now called substance use disorder.

In other words, our society is in some ways complicit in these lost souls staring at YouTube with their mouths open, trying to fill the hole in their soul.

Im unsure what or who is to blame: The radical individualism of libertine pop culture and the Ayn Randian right, the empty promises of dead-eyed consumerism, or the fraying of family and civic and religious bonds? People seek meaning, and America gives them none.

If we cant reach them, they will continue to be prone to the Dionysian frenzy, and tear our republic limb by limb.

J. Patrick Coolican is Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Reformer, which first published this essay.

Visit link:
What drugs can tell us about the delusions of the pro-Trump extremists who stormed the Capitol | The Progressive Pulse - The Progressive Pulse

Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a COVID-19 shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.

In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred.

This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do, said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.

Anti-vaccine groups have falsely claimed for decades that childhood vaccines cause autism, weaving fantastic conspiracy theories involving government, Big Business and the media.

Now, the same groups are blaming patients coincidental medical problems on COVID-19 shots, even when its clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, Hotez said. They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine, Hotez said.

As more seniors receive their first COVID-19 shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

For example, in a group of 10 million people about the number of Americans who have been vaccinated so far nearly 800 people ages 55 to 64 typically die of heart attacks or coronary disease in one week, Osterholm said. Public health officials are not ready for the onslaught of news and social media stories to come, he cautioned.

The media will write a story that John Doe got his vaccine at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. he had a heart attack, Osterholm said on his weekly podcast. They will make assumptions that its cause and effect.

Public health officials need to do a better job communicating the risks real and imagined from vaccines, said Osterholm, who has been advising President Joe Biden on the pandemic since his election.

You get one chance to make a first impression, Osterholm said. Even if we come back later and say, No, [the deaths] had nothing to do with vaccination, it was coronary artery disease, the damage has already been done.

Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Childrens Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths mostly in Europe that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.

In a blog post, Kennedy scoffed at autopsy results that concluded a Portuguese womans death was unrelated to a vaccine. He cast doubt on statements by medical authorities in Denmark who said the deaths of two people there after vaccination were due to old age and chronic lung disease. In an interview, Kennedy said the post-vaccination deaths of some very frail and terminally ill nursing home patients in Norway are a danger sign. Norwegian officials have said the elderly patients died of their underlying illnesses, not from the vaccine.

Coincidence is turning out to be quite lethal to COVID vaccine recipients, Kennedy wrote. Kennedy described the deaths as suspicious, accusing medical officials of following an all-too-familiar vaccine propaganda playbook and strategic chicanery.

Here in the U.S., vaccine opponents have pounced on the tragedy of Dr. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old Florida obstetrician-gynecologist, to sow doubts about vaccine safety and government oversight. Michael died Jan. 5 after suffering a catastrophic drop in platelets elements in the blood that control bleeding suggesting he may have developed immune thrombocytopenia..

According to a Facebook post by his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, doctors tried a variety of treatments to save her husband, but none worked.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is investigating Michaels death, as it does for all suspected vaccine-related health problems. California authorities have recommended pausing vaccinations with a particular batch of COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna because of a high rate of allergic reactions.

Were going to see these events happen, and we have to follow up on every one of these cases, Osterholm said. I dont want people to think that were sweeping them under the rug.

Many Americans were already nervous about COVID-19 vaccines, with 27% saying they probably or definitely would not get a shot, even if the shots were free and deemed safe by scientists, according to a December survey by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

These people may be particularly susceptible to vaccine misinformation, said Rory Smith, an investigator at First Draft News, a nonprofit that reports on misinformation online.

Seven experts in blood disorders interviewed by KHN said theres not enough information available to blame Michaels decline on a vaccine and that the demonstrated benefits of COVID-19 vaccinations vastly outweigh any potential risk of bleeding. Even if investigators conclude that Michaels vaccine caused his death, it would still be an incredibly rare event, given that more than 21.8 million doses have been administered.

It shouldnt give anyone pause about whether the vaccine is safe or not, said Dr. James Zehnder, a hematologist and director of clinical pathology at Stanford Medicine.

Michaels bleeding disorder could have been developing silently for some time, said Dr. Adam Cuker, director of the Penn Blood Disorders Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It could be a coincidence that Michael started showing symptoms shortly after vaccination, he said. About 30 Americans are diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia every day.

The timing of Michaels illness suggests it had another cause, doctors said. According to his wifes Facebook post, his bleeding problems began three days after his first COVID-19 shot. It takes the body 10 to 14 days after vaccination to generate antibodies, which would be needed to cause immune thrombocytopenia, said Dr. Cindy Neunert, a pediatric hematologist at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

In most cases, the cause of thrombocytopenia is never known, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.

Immune thrombocytopenia is linked, rarely, to certain vaccines, with about 26 cases for every 1 million doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.

But it can also be caused by viruses themselves, including measles and the novel coronavirus, said Dr. Sven Olson, an assistant professor of hematology-medical oncology at Oregon Health & Science Universitys school of medicine.

Many patients with immune thrombocytopenia are now wondering if they should be vaccinated against COVID-19, Cuker said. Cuker said he urges nervous patients to be vaccinated, noting that any problems could be managed by closely monitoring their platelet levels and adjusting medication if needed.

Even in patients with underlying bleeding conditions, its still safer to get vaccinated than to get COVID-19, Zehnder said.

If you give a vaccine to a large enough number of people, there are going to be rare adverse events but there are also going to be coincidental events unrelated to the vaccine, Cuker said. If an anti-vaccine group uses a single case, where no link has been proven, to discourage people from vaccination, thats terrible.

Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, said her site provides balanced information from reputable news sources, including CNN, CBS and the Miami Herald, as well as Pfizer and the CDC.

In an interview with KHN, Kennedy said he questions why government officials have been so quick to dismiss connections between vaccinations and deaths. How in the world do they know if its a vaccine injury or not? he asked.

We dont discourage anybody from getting vaccinated, Kennedy said. All were doing is conveying the data, which is what the government should be doing. We print the truth, which is what the medical agencies ought to do.

Opponents of vaccination have belittled concerns about the novel coronavirus for months, opposing masks and fighting stay-at-home orders and contact tracing, said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California-Riverside.

They have come out against every public health measure to control the pandemic, Carpiano said. They have said public health is public enemy No. 1.

Recently, anti-vaccine activists have been so eager to discredit immunizations that they have blamed COVID-19 for the deaths of people who are very much alive.

Social media users selectively edited a video of a Tennessee nurse, Tiffany Dover to make it appear as if she dropped dead after being vaccinated, when in fact she simply fainted, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Although Dover quickly recovered, social media users posted a fake death certificate and obituary. Anti-vaccine activists also harassed Dover and her family online, said Reiss, who chronicled Dovers ordeal in a blog post.

Anti-vaccine activists are adept at manipulating video, Smith said.

They are notorious for using videos and images purportedly showing the adverse effects of vaccines, such as autism in children and seizures in other vaccine recipients, Smith said. The more emotive and graphic the videos and images irrespective of whether its actually linked at all to vaccines or not the better.

In December, multiple Facebook posts falsely claimed that an Alabama nurse died after receiving one of the states first COVID-19 vaccines. One Twitter user went so far as to identify the nurse as Jennifer McClung, who worked at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama. In fact, McClung died of COVID-19. Social media posts spread so widely that Alabama health department officials contacted every hospital in the state to confirm that no vaccinated staff member had died.

Anti-vaccine groups often build fables around a tiny, tiny grain of truth, Smith said. This is why misinformation, specifically vaccine misinformation, can be so convincing. But this information is almost always taken completely out of context, creating claims that are either misleading or outright false.

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity twisted a news story about the deaths of 24 people at an upstate New York nursing home, incorrectly blaming their deaths on COVID-19 vaccinations. The original article noted, however, that a COVID-19 outbreak at the nursing home began in late December, before residents received any vaccines. Covid vaccines, which require two doses for full protection, did not arrive in time to save the residents lives.

Kennedy repeated the misinformation again incorrectly blaming the residents deaths on vaccines in his blog, although he linked to a local news station that reported the information correctly.

Distorting facts to discourage vaccination, Cuker said, is very irresponsible and damaging to public health.

(Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

2021 Kaiser Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Anti-vaccine activists peddle theories that COVID-19 shots are deadly, undermining vaccination - The Bakersfield Californian

The American Right looks primed to splinter. In the next election cycle, progressives and leftists should run candidates in red districts to exploit the divisions on the right.

Early into Obamas first term, the Tea Party gained prominence in Republican politics, while liberals sat back and watched the American right fight amongst itself. The winners of that infighting consolidated power and brought us President Trump.

Over the course of my own lifetime, the Republican Party has changed dramatically. The first time I realized that there was a thing called a President, the man in the oval office was George W. Bush.

The Republican Party of my early childhood was that of neo-conservatism and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2008 was the first presidential election I followed, and its what sparked my interest in politics. After 2008, neo-conservatism was more or less dead and buried, but a new movement began to grow.

In the wake of the election of our first black president and the financial crash of 2008, the Occupy movement took America by storm. It is important to note that Occupy was not specifically ideological; for many on both the left and the right Occupy was a catalyst for political action and development.

In the latter half of Obamas first term, a new faction within the Republican Party began to pick up steam. The Tea Party was, on its face, a populist, fiscal libertarian movement against the perceived socialism of the Obama administration. In point of fact, however, the activism of the Tea Party was less populist and more of a corporate front for lower taxes and fewer regulations on the oil industry.

This movement culminated in Ron Pauls failed 2012 bid for the presidency. It is important to note that while the goals of the movement were largely a corporate sham, the anger of the movements marchers was real. That anger was something that would come to be molded into a weapon of hatred by Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016.

This is where we need to backtrack and take a look at the American far right. In his audiobook The War on Everyone, Robert Evans outlines the evolution of the American far right from George Lincoln Rockwell to Donald Trump. Prior to 2016, the high point for American fascists was in the early to mid 1990s, when American conservatism was gripped with an intense anxiety and loss of direction after the Cold War.

Following Ruby Ridge and the siege of Waco, Texas, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680. This act of terror, meant to inspire a right wing uprising against the federal government, largely ended what mainstream appeal the far right had.

In the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the threat posed by the fascism of our current day could hardly be clearer. Ever since the Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, I have dedicated a sizable chunk of my free time to studying fascisms past and present and analyzing the best ways to defeat it.

A common through line in the study of fascism is the part that liberals and conservatives play in its rise. The part conservatism plays in the rise of fascism is plain enough the concept of socialism or even modest social democratic reforms scares them and their wealthy backers, and they fool themselves into believing that the fascists are the lesser evil.

The part played by liberals and liberalism is a bit more obscure, partially because American political terminology is so vastly different from the rest of the world. Liberals are, for the most part, socially permissive if not progressive and believe in free market capitalism with moderate restraints.

One of the core principles of liberalism is that of free speech, and in many cases, a near absolutist approach to freedom of speech. While in theory freedom of speech is great, when confronted with the challenge of fascism, that very virtue is used as a bludgeon by the fascist. By tolerating intolerance one perpetuates it.

Another key component to the rise of fascism is a growing leftist movement which causes the middle class to feel threatened. The majority of people who stormed the Capitol were undoubtedly middle class. We know this because they were there, from all over the country, on a Wednesday, in the middle of an economic crisis. These people were by and large economically comfortable. The middle class in America is made up of two primary groups: the small business owner and the educated professional. In the language of Marxists, these are the petty bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy, respectively.

This is not to say that fascism does not find support amongst the white working class, simply that the core of fascist support is drawn from the middle class. The Nazi Party billed itself as the party of the middle class, staunch opponents of the left and big business. While big business was at first hesitant to support Hitler and the Nazi Party, preferring less radical nationalist parties, they eventually saw which way the wind was blowing and sided with the Nazis.

If American fascism is to outlive the Trump presidency, then it will adopt what is known as the Third Position. The Third Position blends the bigotry of fascism with the economic populism of socialism to form a grotesque chimera of an ideology that poses a serious danger to us all.

The fascist gang of Proud Boys has already begun to call for an embrace of the Third Position. As the caustic effects of neoliberalism further degrade our society, economic populism will only grow increasingly appealing to those left behind in an ever globalizing economy. Some will find socialism, but the results will be biased in favor of the Third Position.

Decades of anti-communist propaganda has brainwashed generations of Americans into believing that anyone left of liberal is an agent of the devil working to destroy the country. Most people born before the 90s have been culturally conditioned to outright reject socialism, and of that group, a number of them will simply accept the bigotry of the Third Position as the price of admission.

In order to defeat fascism, we must all work together to build a culture of anti-fascism. From a very young age, all Americans learn that the Nazis are the bad guys, and this simple fact is perhaps the greatest advantage that anti-fascists have in the struggle.

When David Duke ran for Senate and Governor in Louisiana in the early 90s, one of the most damaging things to his campaign was not that he had been the leader of the KKK the Klan was seen as a part of the Southern political tradition. Instead, the piece of Dukes past that harmed him the most was a photo of him wearing an SS uniform in college.

Likewise at Charlottesville, the flying of Nazi flags and chanting of Nazi slogans shattered any mainstream support the fascists had. Since 2017, the fascists seem to have somewhat learned to keep the swastikas at home. The attack on the capitol featured a noticeable absence of Swastika flags, although plenty of other Neo-Nazi imagery was proudly displayed. This adaptation to the broadly anti-Nazi cluture that already exists in America poses a challenge for anti-fascists as new symbols take the place of the swastika.

Fascism draws its name from the fasces, a bundle of sticks with an axe head. Alone, fascists are weak and pathetic, relying on race or ethnicity to define themselves rather than actual personality traits. When put together, they pose a grave danger to any who do not conform to their hateful ideology.

The American Left must go on the offensive. Allowing the right to fight amongst themselves may provide some smug sense of satisfaction, but the winner of this conflict will consolidate the party and be stronger for it if left to their own devices. When liberals and progressives fight amongst themselves, much of that fighting is encouraged and stoked by the right wing media, thus dividing the Democratic Party.

This divide and conquer strategy is crucial to Republican success. There are 12 million more registered Democrats than registered Republicans. When coupled with nearly half of all independents leaning towards the Democrats. The balance of power is roughly 48% Democrats or Democrat leaning, with only 39% Republican or Republican leaning. As the smaller of the two parties, the only way that the Republican Party can achieve power is through a divided Democratic Party.

I acknowledge that the term antifa is optically poisoned. Part of that is because it obfuscates the fa, fascism, this is why I much prefer the term Anti-Fascist, or Anti-Fascist activist. The opposition to Antifa'' comes out of the destruction of property that can happen during black bloc actions. The combination of being in a crowd of people, the majority of whom would describe themselves as anti-capitalist as well as anti-fascist, and the anonimity black bloc tactics provide can lead to participants becoming excited and damaging property.

While protecting ones identity is important, I believe that black bloc tactics ultimately do more harm to the cause of anti-fascism than good. When a group of leftists get into a street fight with a group of fascists, if the leftists are dressed in all black then the corporate media has a far easier time labeling the story as a simple partisan street brawl without analyzing the nuance of the anti-fascist position. If, however, you have a bunch of normal people defending themselves against a group of fascists, the narrative practically writes itself.

With Trump reportedly considering the formation of a third party, Leftists and Democrats should seize the opportunity to widen the gulf between the main-line Republicans and the more fascistic elements of the party. With a Patriot party splitting the vote the Democrats could seize a commanding majority in the House and the Senate to push forward an agenda that works for the many and not the few.

When campaigning, Democratic candidates should highlight the ideological distance between main-line Republicans and the Patriots. Anything that can be done to stoke resentment between these two factions will help splinter the American right and allow Democrats to gain a healthier majority in both houses of Congress.

Nick Finan is a junior political science major. Reach him at nickfinan@dailynebraskan.com

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FINAN: Democrats must work together to break right wing factions apart - Daily Nebraskan

MLB Network has been ranking the top ten players at each position entering the 2021 season and along with each list, they have been ranking the top ten players at each position in the divisional era, or since 1969.

Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado was ranked third on the active list of third baseman for the third straight year but he ranged from first to sixth among host Brian Kenny, former All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell, and the sabermetric panel of Sarah Langs, Vince Gennaro, and Mike Petriello.

But for the historical list, Nolan Arenado appeared on Bob Costas list as the seventh-best third baseman in the divisional era. Brian Kenny did not have him on his list at all.

Before you say Coors bias! this is a cumulative list. Arenado could top the list by the end of his career but Arenado has played parts of eight seasons. Many players on each of their lists ended up playing more than 2,000+ career games and Arenado is at half (or less) than that, as he has 1,079 career games.

So, with that do you think he is in the top ten since 1969? For me, I consider since 1969 as a player that played half or more of their career from 1969 on. Therefore, guys like Brooks Robinson and Ron Santo dont make the list.

By WAR on Baseball-Reference, here are the top20third basemen in the divisional era.

Notice, Arenado is not even in the top 20. Hes actually 23rd on the list. For WAR7 (which is WAR in a players seven best seasons), heres the top 20 in the divisional era.

Table

It should be noted that Nolans rookie season through 2019 was his seven best seasons (his first seven seasons). Some of those players would qualify as a DH if there was such a show for MLB Network, like Edgar Martinez and Paul Molitor. But either way, Arenado is, again, not in the top ten.

Lets look at JAWS, which is Jay Jaffes system that combines cumulative WAR and WAR7 but also compares to the average Hall of Famer at the position.

Table

Arenado squeaks in at number 20 on this list. Obviously, those three stats are not the be-all, end-all but is 23rd, 16th, and 20th, enough to overcome.

It should be noted that one of the other players on Costas list was Bill Madlock, best known for playing with the Pirates on their 1979 World Championship team and into the 80s. Is the four-time batting champion in any of the top 20 above? No.

Its obvious that at least entering 2021, Arenado is not the top nor is he in the top five or ten of cumulative stats but do you think that Arenados stellar offensive and defensive play warrant him being in the top ten since 1969, like Bob Costas, or outside of the top ten as Brian Kenny believes and as the numbers seem to indicate.

Let us know what you think on our Twitter page, @RoxPileFS, or elsewhere on social media.

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Colorado Rockies: Is Nolan Arenado one of the top 10 third basemen since 1969? - Rox Pile

With less than two weeks separating us from Super Bowl LV next Sunday, we will sadly have to manage without any televised games this weekend.

Luckily, RedBox recently released its Top 10 list of greatest football movies on its website/app -- and weve opted to re-rank them with our own take on it.

Check out the RedBox Top 10 (in our order) below -- and be sure to grab some popcorn and throw your favorite teams jersey on while watching these films this weekend!

10) Draft Day

Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner star in this modern film about the NFL draft and life in the 'war room'.

Film synopsis: One of pro footballs most important days, NFL draft day, is drawing near, but Sonny (Kevin Costner) has much more on his mind than just which players to recruit. His lover (Jennifer Garner) is pregnant, and the teams owner (Frank Langella) wants to fire him. After Sonny accepts a deal with Seattle that nets him that teams first-round pick, he immediately wonders if he has made the right choice for himself and the Browns.

WATCH IT HERE.

9) Varsity Blues

CAST PHOTO OF VARSITY BLUES. (CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM CENTER:) JAMES VAN DER BEEK AS MOX, AMY SMART AS JULIE, ELIEL SWINTON AS WENDELL, PAUL WALKER AS LANCE, ALI LARTER AS DARCY, RON LESTER AS BILLY BOB AND SCOTT CAAN AS TWEEDER.

Film synopsis: In West Canaan, Texas, high school football reigns supreme. When starting quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) turns up injured, the Coyotes ruthless coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight), must promote benchwarmer Jonathon Mox Moxon (James Van Der Beek) to lead the team in its quest for a divisional title. Suddenly thrown into the spotlight, Mox must deal with the pressure of carrying the aspirations of an entire town on his shoulders, as he struggles to pursue his own very different dreams. WATCH IT HERE.

8) The Blind Side

Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side." (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Film synopsis: Future Super Bowl champion Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a homeless black teen, has drifted in and out of the school system for years. Then Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband, Sean (Tim McGraw), take him in. The Tuohys eventually become Michaels legal guardians, transforming both his life and theirs. Michaels tremendous size and protective instincts make him a formidable force on the gridiron, and with help from his new family and devoted tutor, he realizes his potential as a student and football player.

WATCH IT HERE.

7) Little Giants

Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill star in this family fun film.

Film synopsis: Ever since childhood, nerdy Danny OShea (Rick Moranis) has felt inferior to his brother, Kevin (Ed ONeill), a former college football star. Danny runs a gas station, while Kevin coaches the local youth football team. When Kevins team rejects Dannys daughter, Becky (Shawna Waldron), because shes a girl, Becky convinces her dad to start a rival team, though the city can support only one. To prove himself against his brother, Danny begins coaching his team of misfits for a playoff game.

WATCH IT HERE.

6) Jerry Maguire

Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire." (Sony Pictures)

Film synopsis: When slick sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) has a crisis of conscience, he pens a heartfelt company-wide memo that promptly gets him fired. Desperate to hang on to the athletes that he represents, Jerry starts his own management firm, with only single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) joining him in his new venture. Banking on their sole client, football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Jerry and Dorothy begin to fall in love as they struggle to make their business work.

WATCH IT HERE.

5) The Longest Yard

Quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler, center) and some of his fellow convicts and teammates (left to right) Torres (Lobo Sebastian, left), Turley (Dalip Singh, center left), Switowski (Bob Sapp, center right), and Cheeseburger Eddy (Terry Crews, right) prepare to take on the guards in the comedy, "The Longest Yard."

Film synopsis: Disgraced pro football quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) lands in jail, where manipulative Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) recruits him to advise the institutions team. This turns into a lead role quarterbacking a crew of inmates in a game against a team of prison guards. Aided by incarcerated ex-NFL coach Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds), Crewe and his team must overcome not only the bloodthirstiness of the opposition, but also the corrupt officials trying to fix the game against them.

WATCH IT HERE.

4) We Are Marshall

Matthew Fox and Matthew McConaughey in "We Are Marshall." (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Film synopsis: In 1970, Marshall University and the small town of Huntington, W.Va., reel when a plane crash claims the lives of 75 of the schools football players, staff members and boosters. New coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) arrives on the scene in March 1971, determined to rebuild Marshalls Thundering Herd and heal a grieving community in the process.

WATCH IT HERE.

3) Any Given Sunday

JAMIE FOXX, AL PACINO and LL COOL J star in Oliver Stone's sweeping drama, 'ANY GIVEN SUNDAY.' BPI DIGITAL PHOTO 1999 WARNER BROS. CR: ROBERT ZUCHERMAN

Film synopsis: Four years ago, DAmatos (Al Pacino) Miami Sharks were at the top. Now, his team is struggling with three consecutive losses, sliding attendance, and aging heroes, particularly 39-year-old quarterback Jack Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid). Off the field, DAmato is struggling with a failed marriage and estranged children, and is on a collision course with Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), the young president/co-owner of the Sharks organization.

WATCH IT HERE.

2) Friday Night Lights

"Friday Night Lights." (Universal Pictures)

Film synopsis: A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the towns dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) to instill in the other team members -- and, by proxy, the town itself -- a sense of self-respect and honor.

WATCH IT HERE.

1) Rudy

Sean Astin in "Rudy." (TriStar Pictures)

Film synopsis: Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Astin) wants to play football at the University of Notre Dame, but has neither the money for tuition nor the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Rudy redoubles his efforts to get out of the steel mill where his father works when his best friend (Christopher Reed) dies in an accident there. Overcoming his dyslexia thanks to his friend and tutor, D-Bob (Jon Favreau), Rudy gains admission to Notre Dame and begins to fight his way onto the schools fabled football team.

WATCH IT HERE.

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Ten great football movies to watch leading up to Super Bowl Sunday - SILive.com