US cannot afford to give intellectual property rights to China

 Americans are tired of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) getting a free pass in world affairs. And why shouldn’t they be? In the past two years, the CCP has been a menace on the world stage. They have dodged any semblance of responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic by denying requests by the international community to discern the true origin of the virus. They have shown to be a growing threat to America’s allies in the Pacific, both politically and militarily. They have also openly denied the ongoing, state-sponsored genocide of minority populations throughout China, despite the recently leaked Xinjiang Police Files which reveal these horrific human rights abuses.

So, why should we be gifting China and other countries the intellectual property (IP) rights to American-developed COVID-19 vaccines? India and South Africa — with the support of the CCP and the Biden administration — have proposed to do just that by waiving certain provisions of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

While the Biden administration is proposing a compromise, in which it claims that China would be excluded from the patent waiver, there is still nothing preventing China from obtaining the IP from other countries that are included in the waiver.

Regardless of your opinion on whether or not to take a COVID-19 vaccine, anyone who values the concept of property rights should oppose this WTO proposal. Waiving the TRIPS agreement would set a terrible precedent.

Property rights are a cornerstone of free societies in which one has the right to the fruits of their labor. This is a safeguard against theft and state intrusion, because IP rights provide for recourse through the rule of law. IP rights and protections, therefore, are critical to economic development and serve as a hallmark of American ingenuity and progress.

Waiving IP rights under TRIPS would have a chilling effect on the domestic development of life saving treatments and drugs in the future. If an American company loses its guarantee to secure a return from its own investment, where is the incentive to innovate and create new products in the future?

If the Biden administration goes through with this proposal, it will seriously harm the American economy and American workers. IP rights are necessary for American businesses to operate successfully, and IP reliant industries accounted for upwards of 40 percent of 2019 U.S. GDP, while employing about a third of the U.S. workforce. What happens when Chinese firms flood the market and undercut U.S. companies? American companies, and American workers, suffer.

We’ve seen this before when it comes to products like solar panels, which rely on rare earth minerals. China deliberately crashed the market for rare earth minerals to ensure market dominance. Why should we risk the same thing happening when it comes to American health care innovations?

Beside setting a terrible precedent for the development of future treatment and drugs, waiving TRIPS Agreement protections would make it easy for geopolitical foes like China to access sensitive information belonging to American companies. The CCP is well known for its history of IP theft, whether it be for military technology or commercial products, so why should the Biden administration pave the way for them by granting them access to the United States’ No. 1 asset, our intellectual property?

Proponents of disseminating vaccine-related IP state that they are doing so in order to bolster stockpiles of COVID-19 vaccines around the world. This is not necessary, seeing as companies around the world have already built-up extensive stockpiles of vaccines. At the same time, demand for vaccines has slowed. This is not late 2020 anymore; there is no need for a massive recalibration of industry to produce additional COVID-19 vaccines.

Property rights are key to a healthy and free society, as well as economic progress. Intellectual property rights are no different. Waiving IP and giving additional production capabilities to bad actors like the CCP does not help end the pandemic. Instead, it only serves to weaken the United States economically and politically. We cannot set this precedent, and the Biden administration must cease its support for this disastrous WTO proposal.

Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/3511090-the-us-cannot-afford-to-give-intellectual-property-rights-to-china/

Axon Announces TASER Drone Development to Address Mass Shootings

 Remotely operated, non-lethal drones key in long-term plan to detect and stop mass shootings in less than 60 seconds

 Axon (NASDAQ: AXON), the global leader in connected public safety technologies, today announced it has formally begun development of a non-lethal, remotely-operated TASER drone system as part of a long-term plan to stop mass shootings, and reaffirmed it is committed to public engagement and dialogue during the development process. This includes accelerating detection and improving real-time situational awareness of active shooter events, enhancing first responder effectiveness through VR training, and deploying remotely operated non-lethal drones capable of incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds.

Conceptual Rendering of non-lethal TASER drone

"Today, the only viable response to a mass shooter is another person with a gun," says Axon CEO and founder Rick Smith. "In the aftermath of these events, we get stuck in fruitless debates. We need new and better solutions. For this reason, we have elected to publicly engage communities and stakeholders, and develop a remotely operated, non-lethal drone system that we believe will be a more effective, immediate, humane, and ethical option to protect innocent people."

"In my 2019 book, The End of Killing, I described in detail how such a system could work, as illustrated in this graphic novel. Now is the time to make this technology a reality—and to begin a robust public discussion around how to ethically introduce non-lethal drones into schools. I proposed the Three Laws of First Responder Robotics to lay the groundwork of an ethical and legal framework to safeguard these systems so that we can improve public safety and avoid misuse. Today is the next step as Axon will begin formal product development on technology centered around these ideas," continues Smith.

The non-lethal drone is part of a three-part strategy to stop mass shooter events:

1 - Integrate camera networks and other sensors into real-time communications with first responders.
Axon recently announced a partnership with Fusus, which allows schools, businesses or other enterprises to easily connect and share security camera feeds with local public safety and other security partners. With this integration, Axon body cameras, Axon Fleet dashboard cameras, and Axon Air-powered drones with the Fusus network will provide real-time access to a wide network of sensors during critical events. Fusus gives full and secure control of data sharing to the owner of each camera and sensor, so they can choose exactly when access is shared and with whom. This is available today through the partnership with Fusus.

"Trying to find and stop an active shooter based on the telephone game connecting victim 911 callers is antiquated," says Chris Lindenau, CEO of Fusus. "Fusus brings the ability to share any security camera to first responders, providing known locations and visual live feeds regardless of which security cameras they use. This network of cameras, with human and AI monitoring, together with panic buttons and other local communication tools, can detect and ID a threat before a shot is fired and dramatically improve response times and situational awareness."

2 - Enhance first responder effectiveness through immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Active Shooter Response Training. Axon recently launched Virtual Reality Simulator Training to provide highly immersive and engaging training experiences for public safety. Through partnerships with key expert and stakeholder groups, Axon will develop and deliver more effective training for responding to mass shooting events in the next 12 months.

3 - Enable immediate threat incapacitation through remotely operated, non-lethal drone capability.
Axon is actively developing a miniaturized, lightweight TASER payload capable of being deployed on a small drone or robot. Axon has begun collaborating with our partner DroneSense on a remote piloting capability and our imaging team will develop the targeting algorithms to assist operators in properly and safely aiming the device. Note that all use-of-force decisions will be made by an authenticated and authorized human operator who has agreed to take legal and moral responsibility for any force actions initiated. Axon is collaborating with a variety of drone hardware providers and will make a selection later this year on final development partner(s). Functional proof of concept will be available in 2023 with a full solution ready in 2024.

"In 2020, 3,500 people died in fires in the United States. That same year, 45,222 people died of firearm related injuries. There are over 10 million fire hydrants pre-emplaced in the United States, and every modern building has fire suppression systems to contain fires until fire-fighters can arrive," notes Smith. "I believe we can create systems that can detect, deter, and ultimately stop a shooter within a building for a comparable cost as, or less than, fire suppression systems."

Ethical and Regulatory Framework

To ensure the safe, responsible, and transparent deployment of this technology, Axon is integrating the Authentication, Authorization, and Accountability (AAA) Control System. This comprehensive framework ensures only approved and highly trained users can operate and activate the system, and that an end-to-end audit trail is retained, providing 100% transparency on the deployment and engagement of every remotely operated TASER system. The AAA Control System is key to implementing Axon's 3 Laws of First Responder Robotics. These three laws developed in discussions with various experts, stakeholders and the general public will continue to evolve to ensure Axon understands and mitigates risks associated with this new technology to the greatest degree possible.

Axon's Three Laws of First Responder Drones

1. Humans must own decisions and remain accountable. Robots must be controlled by authenticated human operators who accept legal and moral responsibility for any decision that impacts a human subject.

2. Drones should be used to save lives, not take them. Operators of drones who are not in immediate danger are duty bound to de-escalate whenever possible and deploy the minimal force necessary. Only non-deadly force should be used.

3. Agencies must provide rigorous oversight and transparency to ensure acceptable use. Institutions operating robots capable of deploying force must develop publicly available policies describing in advance the types of circumstances in which robots should be deployed. Every incident of force deployed from a robotic system shall be recorded with audio-video and operational data to be reviewed by an oversight committee.

Axon views the design and implementation of the regulatory, legal and ethical framework of equal importance to the technology development. We have begun and will continue collaboration with various regulatory agencies and legislative bodies to ensure these powerful new capabilities are appropriately regulated and controlled to maximize the life saving potential while minimizing the opportunity for misuse or abuse.

Public and Partner Engagement

"To make the future different than the past, we must try new approaches. I believe that a remotely operated, non-lethal drone is far safer than sending an armed human being into a volatile setting. I also realize this is a transformative change, and I am committed to listening to concerns and feedback over the next several years as we move through development," concludes Rick Smith.

The Axon AI Ethics Board has reviewed police use of remotely operated, non-lethal drones, prior to the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. The majority of the board voted to advise Axon not to proceed and plans to issue a report in the Fall of 2022. However, given these tragic mass shootings, Axon has asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability.

To evaluate this technology's impact on communities, Axon will work with its Community Advisory Coalition (CAC). Formed in 2021, the CAC brings together community leaders to share diverse perspectives and inform Axon's products and services.

The effort to detect and stop mass shooting events will require a wide range of partnerships to bring the best possible technology to bear. Companies interested in being considered as technology partners should email Partners@axon.com.

People or enterprises interested in receiving more information and updates as development progresses can email StopShootings@axon.com.

Rick Smith will also be hosting a Reddit AMA on Friday, June 3rd, 2022 at 1pm EST, to further discuss these ideas.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/axon-announces-taser-drone-development-113000730.html

Federal Investigators to Review FDA Response to Baby Formula Recall

 Federal investigators have launched a review into whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration properly inspected Abbott Laboratories' Michigan plant and how the agency oversaw the baby formula recall that led to severe U.S. shortages.

The review, which is expected to be completed in 2023, will be conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG), according to a notice posted on its website on Thursday.

OIG will investigate the FDA's actions leading up to the recall in February.

"We will determine whether FDA followed the inspections and recall process for infant formula in accordance with federal requirements," OIG said.

Lawmakers grilled FDA officials last week over what they saw as a lack of urgency in the agency's response to complaints about possible baby formula contamination at the Michigan plant.

The FDA started its inspection of the plant in late January following reports of bacterial infections in babies potentially linked to Abbott's formula.

Abbott subsequently closed the plant and recalled baby formula made there, deepening a nationwide shortage that has left parents scrambling to feed their babies.

U.S President Joe Biden has since invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to shore up supplies, and manufacturers have been importing baby formula.

Roughly 73% of baby products are out of stock nationwide as of May 22, according to data firm Datasembly.

The FDA said on May 19 it expects the plant to reopen within one or two weeks.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-06-02/federal-agency-to-review-fda-response-to-baby-formula-recall

California court says some bees are 'fish'

 A California appeals court has ruled that four species of bees are now legally considered fish.

The issue was whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish – a division in the list of endangered species and threatened species in the California Endangered Species Act.

The act identifies the protected species, in separate divisions, as “bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.”

It all started in a 2019 lawsuit between large agricultural groups in the state — such as almond and citrus growers — and the California Fish and Game Commission.

The lawsuit specifically set out to determine whether the commission exceeded its authority when it designated four bumble bee species as endangered species – the Crotch bumble bee, the Franklin bumble bee, the Suckley cuckoo bumble bee and the Western bumble bee – calling them invertebrates, therefore falling under CESA’s definition of fish.

In years past, fish were defined as “wild fish, mollusks or crustaceans, including any part, spawn or ova thereof.” But in 2015, the legislature modified the definition to read “ ‘[f]ish’ means a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”

In the ruling, the courts gave the commission the legal authority to list invertebrate species as endangered, even if they are not aquatic animals.

“We next consider whether the commission’s authority is limited to listing only aquatic invertebrates,” the ruling stated. “We conclude the answer is, ‘no.’ Although the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish in section 45 is not so limited.”

https://thehill.com/news/3511064-california-court-says-some-bees-are-fish/

Peer-Reviewed Studies Confirm Vaccine/Mask Mandates Did Not Stop COVID Spread In Schools

 by Enrico Trigoso via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

During the Covid-19 pandemic, school and university administrators have dogmatically, and in many cases forcefully implemented mask and vaccine mandates with the intention to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV2, however, these policies haven’t had much effect, according to recent peer-reviewed studies.

A research paper published on May 18 underscores the deficiencies of current mask and vaccination mandates, as these policies did not contain the spread of SARS-CoV2 at Cornell University.

Despite the university having required masks on campus, isolation, and contact tracing within hours of any positive result, the paper recognizes that: “Cornell’s experience shows that traditional public health interventions were not a match for Omicron. While vaccination protected against severe illness, it was not sufficient to prevent rapid spread, even when combined with other public health measures including widespread surveillance testing.”

Another study found that secondary transmissions were “markedly lower in school compared with household settings, suggesting that household transmission is more important than school transmission in this pandemic.”

Toward the end of the semester in 2021, the almost completely vaccinated Cornell University shut down its campus due to a surge in COVID cases.

“Mask mandates have failed to control the spread of infection in schools, as this analysis of schools with and without mask mandates demonstrates. Prior studies have demonstrated that COVID vaccines do not prevent the spread of transmission,” Dr. Sanjay Verma told The Epoch Times, referring to the May 18 study.

Dr. Verma, a cardiologist practicing in California who has seen a spike in heart problems since mass vaccine implementation, thinks that the mask and vaccine mandates were not the best way to handle COVID.

“There was little, if any, emphasis on other more effective mitigation efforts: Ventilation-filtration, exercise, weight loss, and personal responsibility would be far more effective.”

“So these school and university mandates beg the question: what are they hoping to achieve?” he asked rhetorically.

COVID-19 case trends and key events at Cornell University. (JAMA Network)

Former Pfizer VP Michael Yeadon, a toxicologist and allergy/respiratory research expert, maintains that since the infection fatality ratio (IFR) of COVID-19 has not been high, the vaccines should not have been mandated, and that the masks were known to be useless in stopping respiratory viruses from previous scientific literature.

“It was known long before COVID-19 that face masks don’t do anything,” Yeadon said in a statement he sent to The Epoch Times.

“Many don’t know that blue medical masks aren’t filters. Your inspired and expired air moves in and out between the mask & your face. They are splashguards, that’s all.”

“This is a good review of the findings with masks in respiratory viruses by a recognized expert in the field. No effect,” Yeadon added. “Neither masks nor lockdowns prevented the spread of the virus. [Here is] a review and summary of 400 papers.”

“We know from recent research that COVID vaccines increase the risk of myocarditis, especially in males 16–29 years old,” Dr. Verma further noted.

“The putative and unproven benefits of such school and university policies need to be balanced with the very real risks (no matter how rare they may seem). Also, we must not forget that CDC data reveals zero excess deaths in 0–24 [year olds] in 2020 and 2021 compared to prior years. The overall hospitalization rate and IFR for this age group are very low and do not seem to warrant such mandates, which seem to be ineffective in stopping the spread anyway. Public health officials would better serve the public by emphasizing N95 masks for all high-risk individuals, ventilation-filtration improvements, exercise and weight loss, and isolating when symptomatic.”

Another study from May 25 found “no significant relationship between mask mandates and case rates,” after replicating a “highly cited CDC study showing a negative association between school mask mandates and pediatric SARS-CoV-2 cases,” with a larger sample of districts and a longer time interval.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/peer-reviewed-studies-confirm-vaccine-and-mask-mandates-did-not-stop-covid-spread-schools

Dogs can detect Covid with high accuracy, even asymptomatic

 Questions about whether dogs can sniff out Covid — and how well — have intrigued researchers since early in the pandemic.

A study published Wednesday in the journal Plos One offers further evidence that dogs can indeed be trained to detect Covid. The dogs tested in the research accurately identified 97 percent of positive cases after sniffing human sweat samples. That made them more sensitive than some rapid antigen tests.

The samples were collected at community centers in Paris from a mix of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, as well as healthy people without Covid. The researchers found the dogs to be especially good at detecting asymptomatic infections, with a sensitivity nearing 100 percent.

Previous studies have also highlighted this canine skill: Researchers in Florida last year found that that dogs could predict positive Covid tests with 73 to 93 percent accuracy after a month of training. In a U.K. study, dogs accurately pinpointed 82 to 94 percent of positive cases.

The new study was conducted in early 2021, so the dogs were identifying the original coronavirus. Dominique Grandjean, one of the study’s authors and a professor at the Alfort National Veterinary School in France, said he’s now examining how well dogs pick up on variants.

Grandjean said his findings suggest that dogs might be useful for detecting Covid in airports, nursing homes, schools, or sporting events. Already, dogs have helped sniff out Covid at airports in Saudi Arabia, Finland and the United Arab Emirates.

Dogs "only need a few molecules" to identify a positive case, Grandjean said.

But Dr. Cynthia Otto, director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said it's difficult to train dogs to detect Covid in the real world.

"The ideal — and I would consider it the Holy Grail — is that the dog is just standing there, a person walks by, and they say, 'Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no,'" Otto said. "That eventually could be done, but making sure it’s done with all the proper controls and quality assurances and safety — it’s a big step. I haven’t seen anyone who has proposed how to make that transition in a way that’s scientific and safe."

A less invasive way to detect Covid?

For the new study, researchers trained five dogs by rewarding them with toys for detecting a positive Covid sample.

The dogs then sniffed 335 sweat samples, 109 of which were positive on PCR lab tests. Each sample was placed in a tiny box behind a cone, with the cones lined up in rows of 10. If a dog thought it detected a positive case, it would sit down.

Grandjean estimated that it took just 15 seconds for the dogs to analyze 20 Covid samples. When it came to categorizing negative samples — known as specificity in testing — the dogs were slightly less accurate. They identified 91 percent of the Covid-free samples correctly, meaning they gave some false positives.

Still, Grandjean said, dogs offer a couple advantages for Covid testing: They’re less invasive than a nasal or throat swab and provide more immediate results (not counting the training time).

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dogs-detect-covid-accuracy-rcna31438

Kidney injury hidden in COVID-19 patients

 Millions of COVID-19 patients may have an undiagnosed, potentially fatal acute kidney disease, according to a new study.

University of Queensland researchers say one in five virus patients admitted to hospital and two in five in intensive care develop acute kidney disease (AKI), a condition where the kidneys fail to filter waste from the blood.

University of Queensland PhD candidate and kidney specialist Dr Marina Wainstein says a new study indicates AKI rates in COVID-19 patients could be double that.

Doctors test for the disease by monitoring a patient’s urination and creatinine levels in their blood, but Dr Wainstein says if a patient’s creatinine levels rise before they’re hospitalised they may not be diagnosed with AKI.

She says monitoring creatine levels reveals that the rate of AKI in COVID-19 patients could be double the official figures.

“We can miss the AKI diagnosis and fail to manage the patient appropriately in those early, critical days of hospitalisation,” Dr Wainstein said in a statement.

“That was a pretty shocking finding.”

She said the finding is important because the research also showed that COVID-19 patients with acute kidney disease had worse medical outcomes in hospital and were more likely to die than other virus patients.

Dr Wainstein said proper AKI diagnosis was vital as there are relatively simply treatments for the potentially fatal disease, such as increasing a patient’s hydration level and stopping medications that can be toxic to kidneys.

UQ’s Dr Sally Shrapnel, who supervised the study, said analysing the data was difficult as it was collected by hospital staff worker under “extremely onerous conditions” in a range of settings.

However, she said the study included data from countries where people had limited access to healthcare and were more likely to present to hospital when the disease was advanced.

Dr Shrapnel said she hopes the study will create more comprehensive AKI definition and improve testing of patients for the disease.

“Now we have the data showing a large gap in AKI diagnosis exists, it’s time to test this definition in a clinical trial so we can identify all AKI patients early and hopefully prevent these awful outcomes,” she said.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/coronavirus/kidney-injury-hidden-in-covid-19-patients-c-7036607