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Johnson & Johnson vaccine highly effective against severe Covid
February 24, 2021
The single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe Covid-19, including newer variants, according to documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.
The news came as the regulator was set to convene an independent panel Friday that will likely vote to authorize the vaccine, making it the third available in the country hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>In large clinical trials, the J&J vaccine's efficacy against severe disease was 85.9 percent in the United States, 81.7 percent in South Africa, and 87.6 percent in Brazil.</p><p>Overall, among 39,321 participants across all regions, the efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 85.4 percent, but it fell to 66.1 percent when including moderate forms of the disease.</p><p>Crucially, analyses of different demographic groups revealed no marked differences across age, race, or people with underlying conditions.</p><p>The vaccine was generally well-tolerated, with no reports of severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), which have been seen in rare cases for the Pfizer and Moderna shots. </p><p>Mild to moderate reactions, like injection-site pain, headache, fatigue and muscle pains were more likely to occur in younger participants than older.</p><p>There were no reported deaths in the vaccine group, but five in the placebo group.</p><p>"The analysis supported a favorable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA (emergency use authorization)," the FDA wrote.</p><h1>One dose, fridge storage</h1><p>A third vaccine is seen as a vital means to ramp up the immunization rate in the United States, where more than 500,000 people have lost their lives to the coronavirus. </p><p>Some 65 million people in America have so far received at least one shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines -- but unlike those, the J&J vaccine requires just one dose, and is stored at fridge temperatures.</p><p>The trade-off is slightly less protection against mild or moderate forms of Covid-19.</p><p>"The vaccine was effective in preventing COVID-19 using a less restrictive definition of the disease and for more severe disease, including COVID-19 requiring medical intervention, considering all cases starting 14 days after vaccination," the FDA wrote in its briefing document.</p><p>"Although a lower efficacy overall was observed in South Africa, where there was a predominance of B.1.3.5 lineage during the time period of this study, vaccine efficacy against severe/critical COVID-19 was similarly high across the United States, South Africa, and Brazil," it added.</p><p>There was a hint, based on preliminary data, that the vaccine might be effective against asymptomatic infection.</p><p>But "this finding needs to be further investigated with additional data," wrote the company in a separate document made available by the FDA.</p><p>The J&J vaccine uses a common-cold causing adenovirus, which has been modified so that it can't replicate, to carry the DNA for a key protein of the coronavirus into human cells. </p><p>This makes those cells produce that protein, which in turn trains the human immune system should it encounter the real virus.</p><p>Other adenovirus vector vaccines against Covid-19 include those made by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Russia's Sputnik V.</p>
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) revealed this week that he is "terrified" of Democratic proposals to improve election integrity.
During an interview on Fox Business, host Maria Bartiromo asserted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) "number one priority" is to allow mail-in voting.
<p>
"Are you worried in any way of future elections being fair?" Bartiromo asked.
</p><p>
"I'm terrified of election integrity," Paul replied, adding, "and I'm all for election integrity but the opposite of what Nancy Pelosi thinks that is."
</p><p>
"I think we need to have in-person voting and it needs to remain in control of the states," he remarked. "So I've been going around to each of the states, including my state, and trying to get election law reformed. I think you need to vote in person."
</p><p>
But Paul said that states should be barred from "using taxpayer money to go to your house with ballots and applications to vote."
</p><p>
"This idea of harvesting votes -- that's what Nancy Pelosi wants to do -- is wrong," he insisted. "And we need to make sure we stop that."
</p><p>
Paul also said that he opposes the federal minimum wage because it hurts the nation's children.
</p><p>
"The government shouldn't be in this," he argued. "And the people that get hurt the worst are those most disadvantaged. Black teenagers -- unemployment goes through the roof when you set minimum wage. And the most important thing for any teenager, white or Black, is that first job and they don't get it if you set the wage higher than what the market will set it at."
</p><p>
"It's a disservice to our youth," he concluded.
</p><p>
Watch the video below from Fox Business.
</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tFrHUHHQAko" width="560"></iframe>
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Marjorie Taylor Greene faces a potentially catastrophic 'bloodbath' in 2022: report
February 24, 2021
On Wednesday, Business Insider reported that organizers believe Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will struggle to win re-election to Congress in 2022.
"A dozen Democrats are already planning to run in Greene's district in 2022, the Atlanta outlet 11 Alive reported, but in this ultraconservative corner of Georgia, the best bet of removing Greene from office will most likely come from within her party, local leaders said," reported Ashley Collman. "'The next Republican primary is going to be a bloodbath,' David Boyle, the Democratic Party chair of Walker County, told Insider. 'The middle-of-the-road traditional Republicans are tired of all of this craziness. They're going to put out strong candidates.'"
<p>"Greene had an advantage in that she initially ran for another Georgia congressional district and started fundraising months before Rep. Tom Graves, the incumbent for the 14th, announced he was retiring in December 2019," said the report. "So when she switched races to the 14th, she wasn't starting from scratch like the eight other candidates in the Republican primary. She used that cash advantage to buy ad time around the district and become a well-known name." Ultimately, the GOP <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/09/republicans-marjorie-taylor-greene-392735" target="_blank">did little to intervene</a> in the primary, and she beat her main opponent, neurosurgeon Dr. John Cowan.</p><p>The next time is likely to be different, as Greene has generated months of constant negative press for advocating prominent Democrats be <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-shoot-democrats/" target="_blank">executed</a>, and spouting conspiracy theories about QAnon and <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-wildfires-space-laser-rothschild-execute.html" target="_blank">Jewish space lasers</a>. The House ultimately <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/politics/house-vote-marjorie-taylor-greene-committee-assignments/index.html" target="_blank">voted</a> to strip Greene of her committee assignments.</p><p>Democrats reportedly plan to recruit a serious challenger if Greene is not removed in the primary — something rarely attempted in this heavily conservative district.</p><p>"Tom McMahan, the Democratic Party chair in Dade County, said he thought a significant number of Republicans would switch sides if Greene were the Republican nominee in 2022," said the report. "He said the Democrats would need about a third of Republicans in the district to switch sides to pull off an upset, something he considered 'possible.' That is, if she even manages to keep her seat until 2022, McMahan said."</p><p>You can read more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-faces-2022-primary-bloodbath-district-oragnizers-2021-2" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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