CDC boss’ utterly laughable exit warning on politicized ‘science’

 Physician, heal thyself.

Outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky departed with a warning that we should beware of politicized science and misinformation. 

She should know.

In recent months, we’ve seen a lot of public-health folks quietly rowing back their once-apocalyptic COVID advice and asking for forgiveness for the mistakes they made.

Well, to make mistakes is human, and to forgive them is divine. 

But it’s easier to forgive human mistakes that aren’t pronounced using the Voice of God.

And deliberate misrepresentations don’t count as mistakes. Those count as lies, because that’s what they are.

In the early days of COVID, Anthony Fauci told the public that masks didn’t work.

It turned out that wasn’t based on the science of masks and COVID (there wasn’t any) but rather on a desire to preserve mask supplies for health workers.

In the early days of COVID, Anthony Fauci told the public that masks didn’t work.

REUTERS

A laudable goal, perhaps, but still a lie. And when the lie was uncovered, it cost credibility.

The “masks don’t work” line was then followed almost immediately by an equally draconian pro-masking rule. 

And this wasn’t based on science either (there still wasn’t any), but anyone who disagreed was accused of “spreading misinformation” and treated as an accomplice to the deaths of old people everywhere.

(Plus, as this was happening, then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was actually killing grandmas by putting still-infectious COVID patients in New York nursing homes. He was made a hero of CNN, of course.)

Public-health officials then championed strict lockdowns, because letting people leave their homes was a deadly threat to public health.

It was so deadly that bicyclists, beach-walkers and even ocean paddleboarders were ticketed for posing a public danger.

Birthday parties were canceled, churches shut down, small businesses closed and neighborhood parks padlocked, all in the name of health and safety.

(Big Box stores stayed open, though, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom still hosted lavish, unmasked dinners at otherwise-closed French restaurants, but hey, rules are for the little people).

Then came the Black Lives Matter protests, and suddenly those same public health people who’d been closing parks told us it was OK for tens of thousands of people to march together in the streets, because, you see, “racism is a public-health problem.”

No, it isn’t.

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an order to send sick COVID patients to nursing homes during the pandemic.

AP

Gavin Newsom was accused of having lavish unmasked parties.

AP

And even if it were, nobody was relaxing the rules for marches about STDs or measles, which are public-health problems.

The truth was, when it came to a collision between public-health and liberal politics, liberal politics won.

That’s where the priorities were, despite calls to “follow the science.”

Lefty Glenn Greenwald afterward observed, “This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic’s history: For four months, the message was clear and unrelenting: Everyone must stay home.

“Those who leave — even to go to a deserted beach — are reckless sociopaths.

“It flipped overnight to endorse a mass-protest movement liberals liked.”

Follow the science, indeed.

Meanwhile, despite repeated denials from Fauci, it turned out that the United States did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Experts within the public-health community had suspected a lab release from the beginning, but the public was quickly told that any suspicions aimed at China were somehow racist, and such statements were censored on social media and ridiculed in the press. 

That wasn’t about science but about politics, and about avoiding accountability.

Now emails obtained by congressional investigators shed more light on efforts to cover up such connections, and on the use of private email accounts by public-health people so as to dodge Freedom of Information Act requests.

Such behavior would violate federal law, but hey, laws are for the little people.

There was an effort by public-health “scientists” to pressure Pfizer into not releasing its COVID vaccine until after the 2020 election, so that President Donald Trump wouldn’t be able to take credit with voters.

Getty Images

Then there was the successful effort by public-health “scientists” to pressure Pfizer into not releasing its COVID vaccine until after the 2020 election, so that President Donald Trump wouldn’t be able to take credit with voters.

It’s not a problem limited to COVID, but that’s enough for one column.

What we’ve seen repeatedly is the use of “science” as an excuse for bullying people into going along with leftist policies, when there’s not any actual science involved.

A statement isn’t “science” just because people who call themselves scientists make it.

If it’s not supported by data and replicable research, it’s just opinion. And, sometimes, just bullying.

Walensky is right that we need to beware of politicized science and misinformation.

It’s just too bad that so much of it has come from our own government and the people it funds.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/05/cdc-boss-utterly-laughable-exit-warning-on-politicized-science/

What really happens when you stop taking Wegovy

 When Eli Diaz lost 22 pounds in three months from taking diabetes drug Wegovy for weight loss, she thought she had found a miracle fix. She felt more confident than ever in form-fitting leggings and sleeveless tops. 

Diaz, 36, a mom of three who runs a Naples, Florida, construction company with her husband, was desperately trying to get back to her pre-baby weight of 145 pounds. 

She went from weighing 244 pounds in February 2022, to 222 pounds by May, taking weekly injections of Wegovy. Then, after three months and paying around $3,000 out of pocket for the drug, which was not covered by her insurance, her doctors discovered an unrelated thyroid issue, and told her to stop.

It was then that the “miracle” drug became her worst nightmare, because she put on more weight than she had lost.

Eli Diaz, 36, before she went on Wegovy. She took the diabetes drug for weight loss and lose 20lbs in the space of just under three months.

Courtesy of Elizabeth Diaz

Diaz, who runs a construction company with her husband.

Courtesy of Elizabeth Diaz

“I started eating my meals completely again – and more sugary desserts and cookies. I felt more hungry [after eating a full meal],” Diaz said. Diaz’s experience is far from unusual. In fact, people who were prescribed Wegovy regained two-thirds of the weight they lost back once they went off the drug, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from 2021.

And doctors say without the proper lifestyle changes once an individual gets off the medication — like portion control, diet and exercise — weight gain is nearly inevitable. 

Semaglutide drugs, which also include Ozempic, are becoming ubiquitous for mainstream consumers and celebrities like Elon Musk, Sharon Osbourne and Lauren Manzo, daughter of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Caroline among others.

Patented to treat diabetes, it is their weight-loss effect which has made them massively popular.

Eli Diaz, 36, lost 22 pounds in three months from taking diabetes drug Wegovy. Then she gained all the weight back shortly after going off of injection for weight loss.

Jeffery Salter for NY Post

But many users, like Diaz, are experiencing an alarming boomerang effect once they go off the drug, gaining all their weight back and often, much more.

In Diaz’s case, she had been on the drug for three months when she felt major side-effects. “On my third month, I became very sick. I started feeling tired, nauseous, throwing up. I went to the hospital because I started having heart palpitations,” Diaz told The Post.

While in the hospital doctors discovered she had a hyperactive thyroid – something, she said, had never been an issue prior to taking the diabetes drugs for weight loss. Wegovy’s serious side effects can include thyroid tumors, and her doctor told her to come off the drug.

But then her weight skyrocketed up to 254 pounds – 10 pounds heavier than when she started the drug.

Individuals who were prescribed Wegovy regained two-thirds of the weight they lost back once they went off the drug, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from 2021.

REUTERS

“Most people –  if they have not addressed the underlying cause of the weight gain –  will gain the weight back. It’s a Band-Aid,” Dr. Caroline Messer, an endocrinologist at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital, told The Post, of working with patients to get to the root cause of their obesity or weight gain.

“If you’re just losing weight and you’re not working out then you will have a slower metabolism and you will experience a boomerang effect when you stop,” Messer said.

Semaglutide medications like Ozempic and Wegovy mimic the GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) hormone released in the gut after eating, triggering the body to create more insulin and reducing blood sugar.

It also works as an appetite suppressant by communicating with parts of the brain that signal feelings of fullness. And many who stay on the drugs have seen big results – weekly semaglutide injections  in overweight or obese adults has proven to reduce body weight by 15%, clinical trials suggest.

The drugs for weight loss are becoming even more accessible with drug makers announcing a daily pill form of the active ingredient semaglutide rather than injecting the drugs on a weekly basis.

Patients experience heightened hunger once they come off of Ozempic and similar diabetes drugs for weight loss, Mary Anne Cohen, director at the New York Center for Eating Disorders, told The Post.

REUTERS

But those who stop taking the drugs for weight loss can expect a spike in hunger levels to return – sometimes at a greater rate than before going on the drug, Mary Anne Cohen, director at the New York Center for Eating Disorders, told The Post. 

“Once the patient comes off Ozempic, their hunger, which was suppressed by the medication, reasserts itself with a vengeance. This has nothing to do with their lack of will power, but a genuine biological backlash to having had their hunger suppressed,” Cohen explained. 

“All the emotional issues that have caused overeating in the first place will once again trigger the eating response: depression, anxiety, restrictive dieting, boredom, sexual conflict, grief [or] trauma,” she continued. 

Diaz said she spiraled into a deep depression after gaining the weight back. One year later she even considered going back on the medicine. 

Diaz weighed 244 in February, 2022 before taking Wegovy. She gained 10 pounds more after going off the diabetes drug. Today, she is 212 after undergoing gastric sleeve surgery.

Jeffery Salter for NY Post

“I felt very defeated; I felt very sad. Plus, I was having these health issues,” she said.

“After a year passed by, I was feeling better. I thought of going back on it,” she said, noting that because of her thyroid issues, her doctor advised against it. 

“In my case it [Wegovy] worked but, I had a lot of health issues afterwards. It wasn’t the best experience,” Diaz said. 

Losing the 10 extra pounds she put on after going off the weight loss drugs felt like an uphill battle.

“I tried everything. I was so desperate. I saw myself in the mirror. I said, ‘this isn’t me.’ I was so unhappy with myself. It’s so tough. I was not the type of person to give up,” Diaz said. 

“People make the mistake thinking they take this [Wegovy] and it’s a miracle drug; that when you stop you’ll continue to lose weight,” she said, explaining she feels she wasted a lot of money and time on the drug that left her feeling worse when she went off it.  

Diaz celebrated her weight loss after a gastric sleeve, which her doctor recommended.

Courtesy of Elizabeth Diaz

Diaz made the decision to undergo gastric sleeve surgery, a bariatric surgery procedure that removes a large portion of your stomach to restrict calories and reduce hunger, after consulting her doctor about a long-term healthy weight loss solution.  

“He [my doctor] said, ‘I support the gastric sleeve more than the drugs,’” Diaz said.

She’s lost 40 pounds since undergoing the surgery in March. Today, she weighs 212 and says she’s feeling more like herself again. 

https://nypost.com/2023/07/05/i-went-off-wegovy-heres-what-really-happens-when-you-stop-taking-the-weight-loss-drug/

Russia: US Complicit In Major Drone Attack On Moscow

 by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow and other areas inside Russia would not be possible without support from the US and NATO.

The comments came after the Russian military said it downed five drones that attacked Moscow on Tuesday morning. No casualties were reported in the attack.

"These attacks would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and its NATO allies," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry added that the US and NATO were "training drone operators and providing the necessary intelligence to commit such crimes."

It’s not clear if the US and NATO are enabling drone attacks inside Russia, but there are signs the Western powers are involved in some way.

Following drone attacks on Russian airbases in December 2022, an Asia Times report cited military sources in NATO countries who said the drones used US satellite GPS data to hit their targets.

US military equipment has also been used in attacks on Russian territory despite Ukrainian assurances. A cross-border attack in Russia’s Belgorod region was launched on May 22 using US armored vehicles and NATO rifles.

One of the groups involved in the attack armed with US weapons, the Russian Volunteer Corps, includes members who are open neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

The New York Times reported last month that the Biden administration is no longer concerned about Ukrainian attacks inside Russia escalating the war. The administration previously worried that such operations could lead to a Russian attack on NATO. But if Russia perceives that the US and NATO are enabling these attacks, the risk of escalation is very high.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-us-complicit-drone-attack-moscow

US Navy says it prevented Iran from seizing tankers in Gulf of Oman

 The U.S. Navy said it had intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, in the latest in a series of attacks on ships in the area since 2019.

In a statement, the U.S. Navy said that at 0100 local time (2100 GMT), an Iranian naval vessel had approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman.

"The Iranian vessel departed the scene when U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived on station," the statement said, adding that the Navy had deployed surveillance assets including maritime patrol aircraft.

The Navy said that around three hours later it received a distress call from Bahamas-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager while the ship was more than 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of Muscat, Oman, and transiting international waters.

"Another Iranian naval vessel had closed within one mile of Richmond Voyager while hailing the commercial tanker to stop," the Navy statement said, adding that the McFaul directed course towards the merchant ship at maximum speed.

"Prior to McFaul’s arrival on scene, Iranian personnel fired multiple, long bursts from both small arms and crew-served weapons," the Navy said.

"Richmond Voyager sustained no casualties or significant damage. However, several rounds hit the ship’s hull near crew living spaces. The Iranian navy vessel departed when McFaul arrived."

U.S. oil major Chevron confirmed that it managed the Richmond Voyager, that crew onboard were safe and the vessel was operating normally.

The TRF Moss' manager is listed in public database Equasis as Singapore-based Navig8 Chemicals Asia, but Navig8 told Reuters it was not connected with the tanker. The vessel's manager could not be immediately located.

NO IRANIAN COMMENT

Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Wednesday that Iranian authorities have not commented yet on the matter.

"The United States will respond to Iranian aggression together with our global allies and our partners in the Middle East region to ensure the freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and other vital waterways," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said.

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, cited "the exceptional effort by the McFaul crew for immediately responding and preventing another seizure".

Since 2019, there has been a series of attacks on shipping in strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran.

Iran seized two oil tankers in a week just over a month ago, the U.S. Navy said.

"Since 2021, Iran has harassed, attacked or seized nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels, presenting a clear threat to regional maritime security and the global economy," the Navy statement added.

About a fifth of the world's supply of seaborne crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint between Iran and Oman, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.

Refinitiv ship-tracking data shows the Richmond Voyager previously docked in Ras Tannoura in eastern Saudi Arabia before Wednesday's incident in the Gulf of Oman.

The Richmond Voyager was now leaving the Gulf with Singapore listed as its destination, Refinitiv ship tracking showed.

Top ship registries including the Marshall Islands and Greece have warned in recent weeks of the threat to commercial shipping in the Gulf including the Strait of Hormuz.

In another point of tension, the U.S. confiscated a cargo of Iranian oil aboard a tanker in April in a sanctions enforcement operation, sources told Reuters.

That vessel, the Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan, is anchored outside the U.S. Gulf of Mexico terminal of Galveston waiting to discharge its cargo, according to Refinitiv ship tracking.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/shots-fired-oil-tanker-gulf-114859318.html

C4 Lung Cancer Drug Application Receives FDA Clearance

 Shares of C4 Therapeutics are trading higher Wednesday after the company said regulators cleared the investigational new drug application for its non-small cell lung cancer treatment.

The stock is up 18% at $3.35 in early trading. Shares have fallen by more than 43% since the start of the year.

The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company said Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration greenlit its application for CFT8919, an orally bioavailable BiDAC degrader designed to target EGFR L858R gene mutations in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

C4 Therapeutics said this is its fourth clearance from its proprietary Torpedo platform.

In May, the company signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Betta Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialization of CFT8919 in China, where about 693,000 patients were diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer in 2020. About 40% of those cases were driven by an EGFR mutation.

C4 Therapeutics expects to start clinical trial activities for CFT8919 outside China after Betta completes its Phase 1 dosing escalation study in the country.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/C4-THERAPEUTICS-INC-113170543/news/C4-Therapeutics-Shares-Up-18-After-Lung-Cancer-Drug-Application-Receives-FDA-Clearance-44271716/