Senate Votes Unanimously To Declassify COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Leak Intelligence

 by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

A pair of Republican senators on Wednesday night declared the U.S. Senate had unanimously passed their bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19.

The bill, known as the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, specifically aims to investigate the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Republican Sens. Mike Braun and Josh Hawley reintroduced the bill on Monday after the Department of Energy (DOE) provided a classified intelligence report to the White House and certain members of Congress, which concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak. The FBI had previously come to a similar conclusion.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) made a request for unanimous consent of the bill, which was granted “without objection.” Unanimous consent enables a bill to pass without a recorded vote.

“Tonight the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed my bill to declassify all the intelligence the government has on #covid origins. Let the people see the truth!” Hawley wrote on Twitter.

In further comments during an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Hawley cited the importance of transparency and accountability in allowing the public to understand the origins of the pandemic.

Hawley told Watters that the bill needs to pass in the House of Representatives, “and then we can get this thing done.” They previously introduced a similar bill which passed unanimously in 2021.

The bill would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify the information in the U.S. government’s possession on the most likely origins of COVID-19.

“Listen, the American people—it’s past time—let’s show them what the government has. Let everybody see for themselves. Let everybody read it,” he told Fox News after the vote.

Braun also declared the unanimous passage of the motion, likewise calling on the House to pass the bill.

“The House needs to pass this bill to let the American people see the facts! President Biden can’t ignore this: time to let Americans decide for ourselves,” he wrote on Twitter. 

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (L) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on May 13, 2020. (Hector RETAMAL /AFP via Getty Images)

‘Skeptics Stand Vindicated’

On Monday, Hawley expressed concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the pandemic’s origins, saying that for “nearly three years,” those questioning the Wuhan lab leak theory were “silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist.”

However, the DOE’s report supports oft-maligned hypotheses that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is located nearby to a wet market broadly cited as the pandemic’s ground zero.

“Now, these prudent skeptics stand vindicated,” Hawley said in a statement.

“The Biden administration must immediately declassify all intelligence reports pertaining to the origins of COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The American people deserve to know the truth.”

Braun also criticized the Biden administration for its posturing on the lab leak theory.

“The Biden administration has called the lab leak theory a conspiracy theory from the beginning, and has only started to publicly admit they were wrong as the evidence becomes overwhelming,” Braun said in a statement.

Braun said that the Biden administration had kept information about the origins of COVID-19 a secret despite an earlier version of this bill passing the Senate unanimously in 2021.

“The American people deserve transparency, free from government censors or media spin. It’s time to declassify everything we know about COVID’s origins and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, now,” he said.

...

The Chinese regime has long dismissed the possibility of a lab leak, saying the virus’s origins “should not be politicized.” Its efforts to suppress the theory recently included warning Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX, not to share the lab leak report.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senate-votes-unanimously-declassify-covid-19-wuhan-lab-leak-intelligence

Apple blocks update to email app with ChatGPT tech

 Apple Inc has delayed the approval of an update to an email app with AI-powered tools due to worries that it may generate inappropriate content for children, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing communications between the iPhone maker and the app developer.

An update to the email app, BlueMail, which uses a customized version of OpenAI's GPT-3 language model, was blocked last week, Ben Volach, co-founder of BlueMail developer Blix Inc, told the Journal.

Volach in a Twitter post said Apple was unfairly targeting BlueMail and that the app has content filtering. Plac­ing a higher age restric­tion on the app could limit dis­tri­b­u­tion to po­ten­tial new users.

"We want fair­ness. If we're re­quired to be 17-plus, then oth­ers should also have to," he tweeted, adding that many other apps that advertise ChatGPT-like features listed on Apple's app store do not have age restrictions.

Apple, which said it was looking into the complaint, said developers have the option to challenge a rejection through the App Review Board process.

Blix and Volach did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

OpenAI's ChatGPT, which can generate content in response to user prompts, has captivated the tech industry.

Microsoft and Alphabet Inc's Google both announced their own AI chatbots earlier in February.

While AI-powered chatbots are a nascent field, early search results and conversations have made headlines with their unpredictability.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/APPLE-INC-4849/news/Apple-blocks-update-to-email-app-with-ChatGPT-tech-WSJ-43140429/

Walmart To Double Health Clinic Footprint As Amazon And Rivals Buy Doctor Offices

 Walmart will nearly double the number of new doctor-staffed “Walmart Health” centers it operates next year, announcing plans to add 28 new locations in 2024 alone.

Walmart, which has 32 Walmart Health centers and is opening 17 more in Florida this year, Thursday said it will add 28 new locations in 2024, deepening its presence in Texas while opening new sites in Missouri and Arizona. By the end of 2024, the company will have more than doubled the number of Walmart Health centers it has today to nearly 80 in seven states, the company said.

“These are serious efforts at delivering a broad set of healthcare services,” Walmart’s senior vice president of omnichannel care, Dr. David Carmouche, said in an interview. “These aren’t just urgent cares. They aren’t just for acute episodic care.”

To be sure, Walmart’s new centers build on the first 10,000 square foot facility that opened in 2019 in Dallas, Georgia, where Walmart shoppers and patients in the community have taken to the concept.

In the new Walmart expansion, the centers will each be about “5,750 square feet, located inside Walmart Supercenters, and will feature Walmart Health’s full suite of health services,” the company said. “The range of services include primary care, dental care, behavioral health, labs and X-ray, audiology and Walmart Health Virtual Care telehealth services.”

Walmart last year opened six doctor-staffed Walmart Health centers in Florida and two in Arkansas as the retail giant looks to expand low-cost healthcare services to tens of thousands of its customers. Walmart says it now has 32 Walmart Health centers across Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois and Texas.

Walmart’s latest Walmart Health expansion comes as Amazon enters the business of operating doctor practices with the closing last month of its acquisition of One Medical and retail rivals CVS Health and Walgreens spend billions of dollars adding more healthcare services to existing in-store clinics or attaching new primary care facilities to drugstores.

In the case of Walgreens, the company is opening hundreds of doctor-staffed clinics through its multi-billion-dollar investment in the primary care company VillageMD while CVS has an array of outpatient expansions in the works including its proposed acquisition of Oak Street Health to creating in-store HealthHubs with hundreds of new items to adding new healthcare services to the more than 1,100 CVS MinuteClinics across the U.S. that are staffed by nurse practitioners.

Walmart said the first of the new Walmart Health locations will open in the first quarter of 2024. Over the course of the year there will be: 10 locations in the Dallas area; 8 locations in the Houston area; six locations in the Phoeniz area and four locations in the Kansas City area.

“With these new locations, we will bring to life some of the feedback we’ve heard from listening to our patients,” Walmart’s Carmouche said.

“For example, we are changing the physical footprint and layout of the center so patients spend less time in the waiting room and more time with their doctor,” Carmouche added. “We’ve also integrated modern equipment and technology to enable our providers and patients alike to experience best-in-class healthcare technology. This includes integrating Epic’s electronic health record system across our Walmart Health locations. One important element that will remain the same is our commitment to addressing a patient’s whole health needs, and that’s why our centers will continue to be staffed with qualified doctors, dentists, behavioral health specialists, community health workers and more.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2023/03/02/walmart-to-double-health-clinic-footprint-next-year-as-amazon-and-rivals-buy-doctor-offices/

Checkpoint Therapeutics : FDA to Review Application for Skin Cancer Therapy

 Checkpoint Therapeutics Inc. on Thursday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted for review its application seeking approval of its lead drug candidate cosibelimab in certain patients with the second most common type of skin cancer in the U.S.

The Waltham, Mass., said the application covers cosibelimab as a treatment for patients with metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma or locally advanced cSCC who aren't candidates for curative surgery or radiation.

Checkpoint said the FDA set a target action date of Jan. 3, 2024, for the application, adding that the agency has indicated that it doesn't currently plan to hold an advisory-committee meeting.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/CHECKPOINT-THERAPEUTICS-35939980/news/Checkpoint-Therapeutics-FDA-to-Review-Application-for-Cosibelimab-43138019/

CVRx awaits a regulatory verdict

 The failure of CVRx’s Barostim Neo to prove a mortality and morbidity benefit in its postmarket trial last week leaves the company’s plan to expand the use of the heart failure device in tatters. Whether the product might actually be withdrawn from market, however, is unclear. Barostim Neo was approved by the FDA in 2019 based on six-month data from the Beat-HF trial, showing that it improved patients’ quality of life, exercise capacity and blood biomarker levels. As part of the approval the FDA required that CVRx expand Beat-HF, enrolling more patients with the aim of proving that Barostim Neo could cut death rates, hospitalisations and ER visits. CVRx's share price has fallen 36% since 21 February in the wake of the study's failure. The group plans to submit the new data to the FDA in the hope that subgroup analyses might persuade the agency to add the claim anyway. CVRx expects the agency’s verdict in seven or eight months’ time. An FDA spokesperson declined to comment when asked whether the Beat-HF failure would mean Barostim being pulled from market entirely, but added: “The FDA is aware of these results and will determine what actions may be warranted.”

Bipartisan senators introduce bill to close pharma competition loophole

 Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) on Wednesday reintroduced legislation intended to close a loophole that drug companies can exploit to block competition, including from lower-cost generic drugs.

Federal regulators will sometimes require that drug manufacturers have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program for potentially dangerous medications

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), REMS are not designed to mitigate all the adverse events of a medication, but are focused on preventing, monitoring or managing a specific risk — for instance, requiring training for doctors to prescribe the drug. 

But some pharmaceutical companies patent their REMS program as a way to delay or block alternate versions of the medication from entering the market, in order to stop competition and keep prices high. 

The lawmakers cited a report published Monday in The New York Times detailing how Jazz Pharmaceuticals used the strategy of patenting its REMS program for a narcolepsy drug in order to block the release of a similar drug from a competitor.

“Our bipartisan bill would finally close this absurd loophole that big pharmaceutical companies, such as Jazz, can use to slow down the release of better, cheaper drugs in order to line their own pockets,” Hassan said in a statement.

“For too long, Big Pharma has artificially inflated drug prices at the expense of patients, but it doesn’t need to be this way. I will continue working across the aisle to take on Big Pharma and lower health care costs for all Americans.”

The Prescription Drug Competition Act would allow the FDA to immediately approve drugs — instead of the normal 30-month approval stay — if the only barrier to approval is a REMS patent.

Additionally, if a drug company sues to stop a generic over a REMS patent, the bill would allow the sale of the generic drug to go forward while the lawsuit proceeds. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3879959-bipartisan-senators-introduce-bill-to-close-pharma-competition-loophole/

LAPD may no longer send armed officers to these 28 types of police calls

 The union representing officers of the Los Angeles Police Department has released a list of calls for service that it believes can be handled by responders who are unarmed.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League released a list of 28 potential calls that could warrant an alternate response from unarmed officers or service providers, rather than the typical armed police response.

Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said police officers are often sent to respond to too many calls that would be better suited for unarmed service providers.

The union said it’s been working collaboratively with the City of Los Angeles to develop the list and is set to formally announce the proposals on Wednesday.

The list in its entirety can be found below:

1. Non-criminal and/or non-violent homeless and quality of life-related calls
2. Non-criminal mental health calls
3. Non-violent juvenile disturbance or juveniles beyond parental control calls; (won’t go to school)
4. Calls to schools unless the school administration is initiating a call for an emergency police response or making a mandatory reporting notification
5. Public health order violations
6. Non-violent calls for service at City parks
7. Under the influence calls (alcohol and/or drugs) where there is no other crime in progress
8. Welfare check – WELCK
• Non-criminal
• Courtesy request from doctors/hospitals
9. Non-fatal vehicle accidents
• Non-DUI/non-criminal: property damage only (including City property), verbal disputes involving non-injury traffic collisions, refusing to share ID at traffic collisions
10. Parking violations
11. Driveway tow
12. Abandoned vehicles
13. Person dumping trash
14. Vicious and dangerous dog complaints where no attack is in progress
15. Calls for service for loud noise, loud music, or ‘party’ calls that are anonymous or have no victim
16. Landlord/tenant disputes
17. Loitering/trespassing with no indication of danger
18. Code 30 Alarm Response (except 211 silent alarm)
19. Syringe disposal
20. DOT stand-by
21. Homeless encampment clean-ups, unless officers are requested or prescheduled
22. Panhandling
23. Illegal vending
24. Illegal gambling
25. Fireworks
26. Defecating/urinating in public
27. Drinking in public
28. Suspicious circumstances-possible dead body, where no indication of foul play

Union reps said the establishment of an unarmed response protocol will help with the Police Department’s “chronic understaffing” and allow police to focus on responding to emergencies. The union also said these changes could ease concerns from the general public regarding armed officers responding to any and all calls for service.

The decision to trim back armed responses by sworn officers is an alternative policing approach that has been deployed in other major cities to varying levels in the wake of wide-scale civil unrest caused by deadly police slayings of civilians.

In 2020, after weeks of demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that non-criminal calls would be handled by “trained, unarmed professionals,” rather than armed police officers. That program was said to be modeled after a similar program that’s already been established in Eugene, Oregon.

In Virginia, armed officers have responded less frequently to low-risk mental health emergencies, in favor of “community care teams” made up of police and mental health professionals, according to NPR.

Vice president of the union in Los Angeles, Jeretta Sandoz, said now was the time to “roll up our sleeves” and start implementing an alternative model for police response.

“We are prepared to enter into an expedited dialogue to take action,” Sandoz said in a news release, adding that it is time to “end the debate” regarding the topic.

The union has agreed to stop providing a sworn police response to the complaints included in the list, and said it will work with the city and the police department to develop protocols if an armed response becomes necessary after the first unarmed response has already been deployed.

Lally said it was important that the initial list of calls be “robust.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when armed officers would stop responding to these calls, or which unarmed responders would be sent to the calls moving forward.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3879333-lapd-may-no-longer-send-armed-officers-to-these-28-types-of-police-calls/