May 14 (UPI) — The European Court of Justice Wednesday ruled there was no plausible reason to block The New York Times from getting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s texts with a Pfizer executive.

The commission blocked the texts from being released to the newspaper, claiming it did not hold them.

“The Commission decision refusing a journalist of The New York Times access to the text messages exchanged between President von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer is annulled,” the court ruling said.

The court said Matina Stevi, a journalist with The New York Times, requested access to all text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla between Jan. 1, 2021, and May 11, 2022.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/05/14/EU-Pfizer-EU-texts-release/2681747226926/

The post ECJ: Ursula von der Leyen’s Pfizer texts must be released to New York Times first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Last night an ambush video was aired showing an alleged Pfizer executive boasting that variants were being created with a vaccine ready to go, or words to that effect.  That’s before he realized that he’d been recorded and went full blown loony tunes. Surely the company will fire the guy and say they barely knew him.  But he did have an impressive title.  If he wasn’t talking through his hat, gain of function research is on the table, which doesn’t look right for the company selling vaccines.  He called the ploy “directed evolution.”   That’s before he called the police and then started rushing people.  We may see a lot of this before it’s over.  Newsweek has already published a “fact check” attempting to discredit the whole episode.  Pfizer has yet to comment. 

We found out this week that the United States is sending Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine.  Purely a defensive measure mind you.  It’s been explained that the U. S. had to send a battalion of tanks so Germany could in turn send twice as many Leopard tanks.  Is that how diplomacy works?  The argument is that Putin is on the ropes, and if he doesn’t win in Ukraine something will happen internally to take him down.  Apparently there isn’t any anti-war movement in Russia.  Putin’s successors might be even more aggressive.  His popularity doesn’t seem to be suffering, assuming you believe the polls.  But the tanks.  That seems to be ratcheting up our involvement in something that could turn ugly, as if it’s not ugly enough.  

The whole thing seems an exercise in playing chicken with W. W. III.  But nobody asked us.  Did they ask somebody?  Somebody’s going to have to tell me what the pretender said, because trying to decipher words and meanings has become impossible.  Who’s making these decisions, and are they the right ones?  The guys standing in the backdrop in uniforms and medals don’t inspire a lot of confidence either.

Where does this end up? Or does it? There are some things yet to happen. If the Davos crowd gets it’s way it would all happen at once.  It looks like they want to have the power over what people think, publicly at least.  Nobody would dare question global warming without severe punishment.  Or for that matter entertain any of the “conspiracy theories,” especially those that turn out to be true. If the media is any gauge, we must all believe the same things and speak with the same voice.  They’ve gone to great lengths already, but some of us aren’t buying in.

It’s not like the public doesn’t already know too much, on a whole range of subjects.  But the mainstream keeps banging on like the public agrees with their conventional wisdom.  Polls are conducted and released to banish any question about what the public believes.  We’ve got “analysts” that come on television to tell us what we believe.  It’s enough to make you talk back.  

Mark 

__________________________________________________________________

[Disclaimer]

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – January 27, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As in 55 years beyond.

That’s how long the Food & Drug Administration in court papers this week proposes it should be given to review and release the trove of vaccine-related documents responsive to the request. If a federal judge in Texas agrees, plaintiffs Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency can expect to see the full record in 2076.

The 1967 FOIA law requires federal agencies to respond to information requests within 20 business days. However, the time it takes to actually get the documents “will vary depending on the complexity of the request and any backlog of requests already pending at the agency,” according to the government’s central FOIA website.

Justice Department lawyers representing the FDA note in court papers that the plaintiffs are seeking a huge amount of vaccine-related material – about 329,000 pages.

The plaintiffs, a group of more than 30 professors and scientists from universities including Yale, Harvard, UCLA and Brown, filed suit in September in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeking expedited access to the records. They say that releasing the information could help reassure vaccine skeptics that the shot is indeed “safe and effective and, thus, increase confidence in the Pfizer vaccine.”

But the FDA can’t simply turn the documents over wholesale. The records must be reviewed to redact “confidential business and trade secret information of Pfizer or BioNTech and personal privacy information of patients who participated in clinical trials,” wrote DOJ lawyers in a joint status report filed Monday.

The FDA proposes releasing 500 pages per month on a rolling basis, noting that the branch that would handle the review has only 10 employees and is currently processing about 400 other FOIA requests.

“By processing and making interim responses based on 500-page increments, FDA will be able to provide more pages to more requesters, thus avoiding a system where a few large requests monopolize finite processing resources and where fewer requesters’ requests are being fulfilled,” DOJ lawyers wrote, pointing to other court decisions where the 500-page-per-month schedule was upheld.

Civil division trial lawyer Courtney Enlow referred my request for further comment to the DOJ public affairs office, which did not respond.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that their request should be top priority, and that the FDA should release all the material no later than March 3, 2022.

“This 108-day period is the same amount of time it took the FDA to review the responsive documents for the far more intricate task of licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine,” wrote Aaron Siri of Siri & Glimstad in New York and John Howie of Howie Law in Dallas in court papers.

“The entire purpose of the FOIA is to assure government transparency,” they continued. “It is difficult to imagine a greater need for transparency than immediate disclosure of the documents relied upon by the FDA to license a product that is now being mandated to over 100 million Americans under penalty of losing their careers, their income, their military service status, and far worse.”

They also argue that Title 21, subchapter F of the FDA’s own regulations stipulates that the agency “is to make ‘immediately available’ all documents underlying licensure of a vaccine.”

Given the intense public interest in the vaccine, the plaintiffs’ lawyers say that the FDA “should have been preparing to release (the data) simultaneously with the licensure. Instead, it has done the opposite.”

Siri declined comment.

To meet the plaintiffs’ proposed FOIA deadline, the FDA would have to process a daunting 80,000 pages a month. But the plaintiffs note that the FDA has 18,000 employees and a budget of $6 billion and “has itself said that there is nothing more important than the licensure of this vaccine and being transparent about this vaccine.”

To be sure, most people — including many who sanctimoniously proclaim “I do my own research” — lack the expertise to evaluate the information.

But the plaintiffs, who also include overseas professors from the UK, Germany, Denmark, Australia and Canada, appear to be well-positioned to do so.

As Siri and Howe argue, “Reviewing this information will settle the ongoing public debate regarding the adequacy of the FDA’s review process.”

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman has set a scheduling conference for December 14 in Fort Worth to consider the timeline for processing the documents.

Opinions expressed here are those of the author. Reuters News, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence and freedom from bias.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jenna Greene
Jenna Greene writes about legal business and culture, taking a broad look at trends in the profession, faces behind the cases, and quirky courtroom dramas. A longtime chronicler of the legal industry and high-profile litigation, she lives in Northern California. Reach Greene at jenna.greene@thomsonreuters.com

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/wait-what-fda-wants-55-years-process-foia-request-over-vaccine-data-2021-11-18/

The post Wait what? FDA wants 55 years to process FOIA request over vaccine data first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Over 92 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the United States as of Monday, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are currently three vaccines approved by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, which were manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.

Ticker             Security                                 Last                        Change                       Change %
PFE                PFIZER INC.                        52.78                       +0.70                          +1.34%
BNTX             BIONTECH SE                     257.68                     -26.53                         -9.33%
MRNA            MODERNA INC.                   257.06                      -15.15                        -5.57%
JNJ               JOHNSON & JOHNSON       165.49                       -0.41                         -0.25%

Here’s a FOX Business roundup of the profit each company’s vaccine is expected to bring in:

Pfizer and BioNTech
Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine, the first to receive an emergency use authorization from the FDA in December after it was found to be 95% effective, currently accounts for more than 46.8 million of the total vaccine doses administered in the United States, according to the CDC.

Pfizer’s latest earnings report notes that Comirnaty profits are split 50-50 with BioNTech. The companies expect the vaccine to bring in revenues of approximately $15 billion in 2021. Pfizer and BioNTech plan to supply up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine worldwide by the end of 2021. The vaccine, which requires two doses, costs $39 in the United States and £28 in the EU.

Following Comirnaty’s approval, the United States agreed to pay the companies $1.95 billion upon the receipt of the first 100 million doses. The agreement also allowed the federal government to purchase an additional 50 million doses. Later that month, Pfizer, BioNTech and the federal government reached a second agreement for 100 million more doses for the same $1.95 billion price tag. Under the second agreement, the companies will deliver at least 70 million of the additional doses by June 30, with the remaining 30 million doses to be delivered no later than July 31. The government also has the option to acquire up to an additional 400 million doses.

Pfizer and BioNTech also announced an agreement in November with the European Commission for 200 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed to the European Union’s 27 member countries, with the option to request an additional 100 million doses. The European Comission made that request in December, Pfizer said.

Last month, Pfizer said the European Commission had reached a second agreement for an additional 200 million doses, 75 million of which will be supplied in the second quarter of 2021. The total number of doses to be delivered to the E.U. member states by the end of 2021 is now 500 million, with the potential to increase to 600 million based on the option granted in the new agreement.

Moderna
Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, the second to be approved for emergency use by the FDA after it was found to be 94.5% effective, accounts for more than 44.9 million of the total vaccine doses administered in the United States, according to the CDC.

The company noted in its fourth quarter earnings report that it expects $18.4 billion in anticipated product sales related to advanced purchased agreements for its vaccine. Moderna remains on track to deliver the first 100 million doses in the first quarter of 2021 and the second order of 100 million doses in May 2021. The company is aiming to build supply up to 1 billion doses in 2021, and 1.4 billion doses in 2022.

Moderna has reached an agreement with the United States for 300 million doses, with the option to purchase an additional 200 million doses. In addition, the company reached agreements with the European Union (310 million doses with option to purchase an additional 150 million doses in 2022), Japan (50 million doses), Canada (44 million doses), the Republic of Korea (40 million doses), the United Kingdom (17 million doses), Switzerland (13.5 million doses), Colombia (10 million doses), Israel (6 million doses) and Taiwan (5 million doses).

Moderna charges $30 for the required two shots in the U.S. and $36 in the E.U.

Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, manufactured by its pharmaceutical subsidiary Janssen, was given an emergency use authorization by the FDA on Feb. 27 and an official stamp of approval from the CDC a day later.

According to an analysis by the FDA, the Janssen vaccine was about 67% effective in preventing moderate to severe cases within 14 days after dosing and 66% effective against severe to critical cases after 28 days. In addition, the vaccine was approximately 77% effective in preventing severe or critical COVID-19 occurring at least 14 days after vaccination and 85% effective in preventing severe or critical COVID-19 occurring at least 28 days after vaccination.

The company is currently working to deliver its initial supply of 3.9 million vaccine doses to state health departments, pharmacies, federally qualified health centers and community vaccination centers across the country. Johnson & Johnson expects to deliver enough single-shot vaccines by the end of March to vaccinate more than 20 million Americans, and 100 million single-shot vaccines by June. Unlike the other two available vaccines, the Janssen vaccine requires a single dose.

The company is on track to produce 1 billion doses for global distribution by the end of 2021, which would generate up to $10 billion. In August, Johnson & Johnson reached a more than $1 billion agreement with the United States for 100 million doses of its vaccine, with the option to purchase an additional 200 million doses, for $10 per shot. In addition, Johnson & Johnson reached an agreement with the E.U. for up to 400 million doses.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the United States has surpassed 29 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020, with over 525,000 related deaths.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/heres-how-much-money-pfizer-moderna-and-johnson-johnson-could-make-from-covid-vaccines

The post Here’s how much money Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson could make from COVID vaccines first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved requests by COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer to expand the administration of their booster shots to all U.S. adults.

In a release announcing the news, biotechnology company Moderna said the FDA extended the emergency use authorization of a booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the 50 µg dose level to all adults aged 18 and older.

The booster can be used in all individuals 18 years and older who have completed a primary vaccination with any other authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.

“This emergency use authorization comes at a critical time as we enter the winter months and face increasing COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations across the country,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “We thank the FDA for their review, and are confident in the robust clinical evidence that a 50 µg booster dose of mRNA-1273 induces a strong immune response against COVID-19.”

Pfizer, which partnered with BioNTech on the vaccine, said its booster dose is to be administered at least six months after completion of the primary series and is the same dosage strength as the doses in the primary series.

“With boosters, more adults will now have the opportunity to help preserve a high-level of protection against this disease,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. “We are grateful to the FDA for their rigorous review, and the action taken today that we hope will help accelerate our path out of this pandemic.”

“Today’s FDA decision is supported by clinical data showing robust immune responses following a booster dose of our vaccine, exceeding what has been seen even after the completion of the highly-effective two-dose primary schedule,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said. “These data suggest a booster dose of our vaccine has the potential to maintain a high-level of protection against tested variants, including Delta.”

Later Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet to discuss a potential recommendation for the rollout of COVID-19 boosters to the U.S.

CDC data shows that more than 32 million Americans have already received a booster dose.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/moderna-pfizer-covid-boosters-approved

The post FDA clears Moderna, Pfizer COVID-19 boosters for all US adults first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“The stock of the world’s largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that ‘competing’ brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren’t really competitors, at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments.

The smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only two companies whose names we have often seen …They are Vanguard and BlackRock.

The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly.

A Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028, together will have investments in the amount of 20 trillion dollars. That means that they will own almost everything.’”

Who Are the Vanguard?

The word “vanguard” means “the foremost position in an army or fleet advancing into battle,” and/or “the leading position in a trend or movement.” Both are fitting descriptions of this global behemoth, owned by globalists pushing for a Great Reset, the core of which is the transfer of wealth and ownership from the hands of the many into the hands of the very few.

Interestingly, Vanguard is the largest shareholder of BlackRock, as of March 2021. Vanguard itself, on the other hand, has a “unique” corporate structure that makes its ownership more difficult to discern. It’s owned by its various funds, which in turn are owned by the shareholders. Aside from these shareholders, it has no outside investors and is not publicly traded. As reported in the featured video:

“The elite who own Vanguard apparently do not like being in the spotlight but of course they cannot hide from who is willing to dig. Reports from Oxfam and Bloomberg say that 1% of the world, together owns more money than the other 99%. Even worse, Oxfam says that 82% of all earned money in 2017 went to this 1%.

In other words, these two investment companies, Vanguard and BlackRock hold a monopoly in all industries in the world and they, in turn are owned by the richest families in the world, some of whom are royalty and who have been very rich since before the Industrial Revolution.”

While it would take time to sift through all of Vanguard’s funds to identify individual shareholders, and therefore owners of Vanguard, a quick look-see suggests Rothschild Investment Corp. and the Edmond De Rothschild Holding are two such stakeholders. Keep the name Rothschild in your mind as you read on, as it will feature again later.

The video above also identies the Italian Orsini family, the American Bush family, the British Royal family, the du Pont family, the Morgans, Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, as Vanguard owners.

BlackRock/Vanguard Own Big Pharma

According to Simply Wall Street, in February 2020, BlackRock and Vanguard were the two largest shareholders of GlaxoSmithKline, at 7% and 3.5% of shares respectively. At Pfizer, the ownership is reversed, with Vanguard being the top investor and BlackRock the second-largest stockholder.

Keep in mind that stock ownership ratios can change at any time, since companies buy and sell on a regular basis, so don’t get hung up on percentages. The bottom line is that BlackRock and Vanguard, individually and combined, own enough shares at any given time that we can say they easily control both Big Pharma and the centralized legacy media — and then some.

Why does this matter? It matters because drug companies are driving COVID-19 responses — all of which, so far, have endangered rather than optimized public health — and mainstream media have been willing accomplices in spreading their propaganda, a false ocial narrative that has, and still is, leading the public astray and fosters fear based on lies.

To have any chance of righting this situation, we must understand who the central players are, where the harmful dictates are coming from, and why these false narratives are being created in the first place.

As noted in Global Justice Now’s December 2020 report “The Horrible History of Big Pharma,” we simply cannot allow drug companies — “which have a long track record of prioritizing corporate profit over people’s health” — to continue to dictate COVID-19 responses.

In it, they review the shameful history of the top seven drug companies in the world that are now developing and manufacturing drugs and gene-based “vaccines” against COVID-19, while mainstream media have helped suppress information about readily available older drugs that have been shown to have a high degree of efficacy against the infection.

BlackRock/Vanguard Own the Media

When it comes to The New York Times, as of May 2021, BlackRock is the second-largest stockholder at 7.43% of total shares, just after The Vanguard Group, which owns the largest portion (8.11%).

In addition to The New York Times, Vanguard and BlackRock are also the top two owners of Time Warner, Comcast, Disney, News Corp, four of the six media companies that control more than 90% of the U.S. media landscape.

Needless to say, if you have control of this many news outlets, you can control entire nations by way of carefully orchestrated and organized centralized propaganda disguised as journalism.

If your head is spinning already, you’re not alone.  It’s difficult to describe circular and tightly interwoven relationships in a linear fashion.  The world of corporate ownership is labyrinthine, where everyone seems to own everyone to some degree.

However, the key take-home message is that two companies stand out head and neck above all others, and that’s BlackRock and Vanguard.  Together, they form a hidden monopoly on global asset holdings, and through their influence over our centralized media, they have the power to manipulate and control a great deal of the world’s economy and events, and how the world views it all.

Considering BlackRock in 2018 announced that it has “social expectations” from the companies it invests in, its potential role as a central hub in the Great Reset and the “build back better” plan cannot be overlooked.

Add to this information showing it “undermines competition through owning shares in competing companies” and “blurs boundaries between private capital and government affairs by working closely with regulators,” and one would be hard-pressed to not see how BlackRock/Vanguard and their globalist owners might be able to facilitate the Great Reset and the so-called “green” revolution, both of which are part of the same wealth-theft scheme.

(Culled from The Indian’s Waking Times)

Source: https://americanfaith.com/the-same-shady-people-own-big-pharma-and-the-media/

The post The Same Shady People Own Big Pharma and the Media first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

TOKYO — Japan suspended use of about 1.63 million doses of Moderna vaccine Thursday after contamination was found in unused vials, raising concern of a supply shortage as the country tries to accelerate vaccinations amid a COVID-19 surge.

The health ministry said contamination was reported from multiple vaccination sites. Some doses might have been administered, but no adverse health effects have been reported so far, officials said.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., a Japanese drugmaker in charge of sales and distribution of the vaccine in Japan, said it decided to suspend use of doses manufactured in the same production line as a safety precaution.

It asked Moderna to conduct an emergency investigation and told medical institutions and organizers to stop using the vaccine produced in Spain and shared the production numbers that may be affected.

The health ministry and Takeda did not give details on the type of contamination or if the doses in question may have been distributed outside Japan.

The Moderna vaccine problem came just as Japan struggles with surging infections, with daily new cases hitting new highs in many parts of the country and severely straining the health care system.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters the government and Takeda are discussing ways to minimize the impact on Japan’s vaccination progress.

“We will do utmost in order to avoid any impact on vaccination progress, especially at worksites and large-scale centers,” Kato said.

Japan relies entirely on foreign-developed vaccines by Moderna, as well as Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca. Moderna has been since mid-June at large-scale centers and workplace inoculations and has helped speed up Japan’s rollout.

About 43% of the Japanese population have been fully vaccinated, with daily doses of about 1 million.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/08/26/1031208526/japan-suspends-1-63-million-doses-of-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-over-contamination

The post Japan Suspends 1.63 Million Doses Of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Over Contamination first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel was the first country on Earth to fully vaccinate a majority of its citizens against COVID-19. Now it has one of the world’s highest daily infection rates — an average of nearly 7,500 confirmed cases a day, double what it was two weeks ago. Nearly one in every 150 people in Israel today has the virus.

What happened, and what can be learned about the vaccine’s impact on a highly vaccinated country? Here are six lessons learned — and one looming question for the future of the pandemic.

1. Immunity from the vaccine dips over time.

Israel had fully vaccinated slightly over half its population by March 25. Infections waned, venues reopened to the vaccinated and the prime minister told Israelis to go out and have fun. By June, all restrictions, including indoor masking, were abolished.

But Israel paid a price for the early rollout. Health officials, and then Pfizer, said their data showed a dip in the vaccine’s protection around six months after receiving the second shot.

2. The delta variant broke through the vaccine’s waning protection.

It was a perfect storm: The vaccine’s waning protection came around the same time the more infectious delta variant arrived in Israel this summer. Delta accounts for nearly all infections in Israel today.

“The most influential event was so many people who went abroad in the summer — vacations — and brought the delta variant very, very quickly to Israel,” said Siegal Sadetzki, a former public health director in Israel’s Health Ministry.

3. If you get infected, being vaccinated helps.

The good news is that among Israel’s serious infections on Thursday of this week, according to Health Ministry data, the rate of serious cases among unvaccinated people over age 60 (178.7 per 100,000) was nine times more than the rate among fully vaccinated people of the same age category, and the rate of serious cases among unvaccinated people in the under-60 crowd (3.2 per 100,000) was a little more than double the rate among vaccinated people in that age bracket.

The bad news, doctors say, is that half of Israel’s seriously ill patients who are currently hospitalized were fully vaccinated at least five months ago. Most of them are over 60 years old and have comorbidities. The seriously ill patients who are unvaccinated are mostly young, healthy people whose condition deteriorated quickly.

Israel’s daily average number of infections has nearly doubled in the past two weeks and has increased around tenfold since mid-July, approaching the numbers during Israel’s peak in the winter. Deaths increased from five in June to at least 248 so far this month. Health officials say that currently 600 seriously ill patients are hospitalized, and they warn they cannot handle more than 1,000 serious infections at the same time.

4. Israel’s high vaccination rate isn’t high enough.

The country jumped out ahead of all other countries on vaccines, and 78% of eligible Israelis over 12 years old are vaccinated.

But Israel has a young population, with many under the eligible age for vaccination, and about 1.1 million eligible Israelis, largely between the ages of 12 and 20, have declined to take even one dose of the vaccine.

That means only 58% of Israel’s total citizenry is fully vaccinated. Experts say that’s not nearly high enough.

“We have a very large fraction of our population who are paying the price for a small fraction of the population who did not go to get the vaccine,” said Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science, who advises the Israeli government on COVID-19.

Unvaccinated people helped fuel the rapid spread of the virus while the country remained open for business in recent months with few serious restrictions.

“That will lead to mass infection, which is exactly what we are seeing now,” said Segal.

5. Vaccinations are key, but they are not enough.

Israel is trying to slow the wave without resorting to a new lockdown, which Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says would take an economic toll and “destroy the future of the country.” The country is placing caps on gatherings, increasing hospital staff and pleading for unvaccinated people to get immunized.

On Israel’s doorstep, the vaccination rate is much lower in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Only around 8% of Palestinians have been fully vaccinated. Palestinians are wary of certain brands of vaccine in ample supply, like AstraZeneca’s, while Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine is in shorter supply for Palestinians. But the Palestinian population is not a source of transmission in Israel. Only vaccinated Palestinians are given permits to enter Israel and Israeli settlements.

As for the low rate of vaccination in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, “we don’t have a shortage of vaccine. It is the hesitancy,” said Randa Abu Rabe, a local World Health Organization official working in the Palestinian territories.

An Israeli health worker administers a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a vaccination center in Jerusalem. Israel is the first country to launch a national booster campaign for the Pfizer vaccine.  Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

6. Booster shots offer more protection — if you are one of the world’s lucky few to get them.

Israel is the first country to offer a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine in a nationwide booster campaign. Preliminary research in Israel suggests booster shots significantly increase protection against the coronavirus a week after a person receives the third dose.

Israeli national HMO Maccabi Healthcare Services, which conducted the preliminary study of 149,144 Israelis who received three Pfizer shots, said for Israelis above age 60, a Pfizer booster shot reduced the chances of infection by 86% and reduced the chances of severe infection by 92%.

The early data reflects studies by vaccine-makers Pfizer and Moderna and provides a glimpse at boosters’ effects in a real-world setting.

After reviewing data on breakthrough infections in Israel, the U.S. announced a booster shot campaign beginning in late September for anyone eight months after their second shot. The U.K. has promised boosters soon, and Turkey is offering Pfizer shots to those immunized with the Sinovac vaccine to help citizens planning to travel, since some countries will not recognize the Chinese vaccine.

Israel has lowered the minimum age for boosters to 40. “The triple dose is the solution to curbing the current infection outbreak,” Anat Ekka Zohar of Maccabi said in a statement.

Boosters are not being offered in the Palestinian territories yet, and the World Health Organization has called on countries to stop giving COVID-19 booster shots in order to help poorer countries get vaccinated.

“Israel very much respects the World Health Organization but acts according to local considerations and the interests of Israeli citizens. We help the world a lot,” an Israeli health official told NPR, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. “If the U.N. didn’t secure enough vaccines for Chad, Mali, Myanmar and Guatemala, that doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t seek to prevent a pandemic from happening here.”

Experts warn if countries do not vaccinate their populations, more variants will develop, threatening even vaccinated nations.

The post Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New COVID Cases. Here’s Why first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump says he ‘probably won’t’ get a COVID-19 booster shot after denouncing them as a money-making ploy for pharma companies: WSJ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Those who completed the two-dose regimen for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine will likely need a third shot within 12 months, CEO Albert Bourla said.

There is also a chance people will need to receive an annual COVID-19 vaccine thereafter, he said.

“It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus,” Bourla told CNBC’s Bertha Coombs in a CVS Health Live event, “Race to Vaccinate.”

HOSPITALIZED JOHNSON & JOHNSON COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT DOESN’T REGRET SHOT, REPORT SAYS

Pfizer recently announced updated results indicating its vaccine was highly effective up to six months after the second dose, with findings stemming from over 12,000 participants in a late-stage trial. Findings included a 91.3% vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 and over 95% efficacy against severe disease.

In February, the company began testing whether a third shot could offer greater protection against emerging strains of the virus, like the concerning strain first detected in South Africa. The recent data released also included findings from 800 participants in South Africa, and nine COVID-19 cases occurred, all in the placebo group.

“None of the 400 vaccinated got infected, very very good news,” Bourla said. Based on the data, the CEO said there was a need for re-vaccination between six and 12 months and also an annual re-vaccination.

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However, this needs to be confirmed, Bourla said.

“There are vaccines that are like polio that one dose is enough, there are vaccines like a pneumococcal vaccine that one dose is enough for adults and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year,” Bourla said. “The Covid virus looks more like the influenza virus than the poliovirus.”

The post Third Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose ‘likely’ needed within year, CEO says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.