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Johns Hopkins professor rips CDC for ‘absurdly restrictive’ guidelines for vaccinated people

Johns Hopkins professor rips CDC for ‘absurdly restrictive’ guidelines for vaccinated people: Agency is ‘paralyzed by fear’

Dr. Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, so he knows a thing or two when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus.

And he is none too impressed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest recommendation for Americans who get the vaccine. He made his disdain for the agency’s latest “absurdly restrictive” guidelines clear in a Wednesday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, “Covid Prescription: Get the Vaccine, Wait a Month, Return to Normal,” in which he noted that though the CDC claims to be “following the science,” the truth is “its advice suggests it’s still paralyzed by fear.”

What did he say?

In the wake of the CDC’s announcement that it’s now safe for fully vaccinated people to mingle indoors with some other people without masks or social distancing — a move CNN described as the agency “giving limited freedoms” to people — but not to travel, Makary stated that this is just another instance of the CDC being late or wrong when it comes to COVID-19. Which fits a pattern, the doctor said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lost a lot of credibility during the Covid-19 pandemic by being late or wrong on testing, masks, vaccine allocation and school reopening. Staying consistent with that pattern, this week—three months after the vaccine rollout began—the CDC finally started telling vaccinated people that they can have normal interactions with other vaccinated people—but only in highly limited circumstances. Given the impressive effectiveness of the vaccine, that should have been immediately obvious by applying scientific inference and common sense.

Parts of the new guidelines are absurdly restrictive. For example, the CDC didn’t withdraw its advice to avoid air travel after vaccination. A year of prevaccine experience has demonstrated that airplanes aren’t a source of spread. A study conducted for the defense department found that commercial planes have HEPA filtration and airflow that exceed the standards of a hospital operating room.

Makary added that instead of running scared from encouraging a return to normal, the agency should take a look at the available data, including that vaccination reduces transmission 89% to 94% and almost totally prevents hospitalization and death, according to a study from Israel.

Full immunity kicks in around the four-week mark after the first dose, he added, making the vaccinated patient “essentially bulletproof.” Combine that with wearing a mask indoors “for a few more weeks or months,” and there is “little a vaccinated person should be discouraged from doing.”

Instead, Makary said, the CDC has been wasting time and tests and is being “ridiculously cautious” about the virus while ignoring the dangers that come from the isolation that has been forced on the American people:

On a positive note, the CDC did say that fully vaccinated people who are asymptomatic don’t need to be tested. But that obvious recommendation should have come two months ago, before wasting so many tests on people who have high levels of circulating antibodies from vaccination.

In its guidance the CDC says the risks of infection in vaccinated people “cannot be completely eliminated.” True, we don’t have conclusive data that guarantees vaccination reduces risk to zero. We never will. We are operating in the realm of medical discretion based on the best available data, as practicing physicians have always done. The CDC highlights the vaccines’ stunning success but is ridiculously cautious about its implications. Public-health officials focus myopically on transmission risk while all but ignoring the broader health crisis stemming from isolation. The CDC acknowledges “potential” risks of isolation, but doesn’t go into details.

It’s time to liberate vaccinated people to restore their relationships and rebuild their lives.

Being too cautious about the virus has been the hallmark of “authorities” as hospitals stood in the way of family members being with loved ones as they suffered and died, Makary said, calling the separation of families “excessive and cruel, driven by narrow thinking that focused singularly on reducing viral transmission risk, heedless of the harm to the quality of human life.”

The doctor urged the CDC to not repeat its mistakes. Instead of exaggerating the public-health threat that crushes the human spirit, he said, it’s time to use “common sense” and tell Americans to “go back to normal” a month after they have received their first shot.

Michael Youssef: ‘Woke’ culture creeping into evangelical church is ‘deadly’ for the Gospel of Christ

Egyptian-American Pastor Michael Youssef has issued a strong condemnation of “woke” pastors within evangelical churches, warning that spewing far-left ideology from the pulpit is “deadly as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned.”

In an interview with The Christian Post, the 72-year-old pastor of the 3,000-member Church of The Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, recalled how, as an Episcopal priest in the 1980s, he watched with dismay as the mainline Episcopal denomination slowly moved away from biblical principles, eventually voting to approve same-sex marriage in the denomination.  

But in recent years, Youssef told CP that he’s seen the same subtle bend toward leftist ideology slowly permeating the wider evangelical church. 

“Those same battles that I fought in the mainline denominations are now invading the evangelical churches,” he said. “It’s the same arguments, the same lingo, and the same words repeating themselves with such precision I am deeply, deeply concerned.”

According to Youssef, who also founded the Leading The Way television ministry, more and more pastors are “falling into the trap” of woke culture because it’s “popular and appeals to the flesh.”

“Bowing to woke culture allows you to avoid rejection by culture and society,” he said. “It’s a very, very popular message that is now being preached from many evangelical pulpits; traditionally Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching churches. We have gone so far that it just grieves me to the point that I literally sometimes just weep tears.”

“I’ve always believed, as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. As goes the pew, so goes the culture,” he continued. “As a pastor, I put the full blame on us, right in our laps, because we want to be liked, loved, and followed on social media by millions of people. Pastors are the culprits. We need to be about Jesus, not about being liked, because that is deadly as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned.”

In his latest book, Hope for This Present Crisis: The Seven-Step Path to Restoring a World Gone Mad, Youssef provides a diagnosis of the insanity of the culture and a concise seven-step prescription for restoring sanity to a world gone mad. 

His heart, he told CP, is especially burdened for young pastors and ministry leaders who are tempted to waver from biblical truth amid societal pressure. 

“Young pastors must realize that this is a deception. It’s very subtle and very clever, but it’s a deception nonetheless,” he continued. “And that is the burden that God laid on my heart to such a point I just couldn’t sleep. I had to address it. I believe people are in a state of confusion and need a clear word from Scripture.”

Youssef, who was born on the African continent, said that one example of bowing to woke culture is the increased popularity of Critical Race Theory, even in the Church. The theory utilizes race as the lens through which every area of life is examined, categorizing everyone into oppressor and oppressed groups.

“It’s a very Marxist ideology that people are taking very seriously,” he said. “The idea of the oppressed and the oppressors is not that simple. Now we have private Christian schools here in Atlanta where white children are apologizing to black kids. Apologizing for what? They are innocent; they haven’t done anything. It’s crazy; it’s just going insane.”

The pastor identified several “signs” a pastor is abandoning biblical truth, from failing to preach the whole Word of God to bowing toward moral relativism and demonstrating hesitation to “offend” anyone.

“If someone is saying, ‘There are many ways to God, you run out of there as fast as you can,” he said. “If they say, ‘We need to ditch the Old Testament,’ you need to run out of there as fast as you can. Because the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the inspired Word of God.”

A grandfather of 11, the pastor warned that if the Church fails to adhere to biblical truth, the consequences will be devastating for future generations. He compared child-rearing to a “three-legged stool,” stressing the importance of a healthy home, church, and school environment.

“The home is number one, the church is number two and school is number three,” he said. “Even if the school is working against the kids, if they have the strength in the home and in the church, they will make it. But when the church avoids talking about issues or goes along with culture, then kids are confused.”

Satan is “working overtime” to deceive children,” Youssef said, adding: “If these words are terrifying, I’m glad they are because it’s time for us to build the fences around our children and their hearts and seal them with the Holy Spirit.”

“Children must know that there is a Satan and he hates God, he hates God’s children, and he’s conspiring against them every minute of every day. Therefore, they have to galvanize themselves with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, in order to fight.”

Youssef understands firsthand the pressure to bow to culture. Growing up in Egypt, Christianity was under “severe persecution” from Islamic extremists, he said. As a result, he was “continually trained at home for how to stand up for the faith and not be deceived.”

“I knew that, though they might offer me jobs, money, prestigious scholarships to convert to Islam, I had to stand strong,” he said. “So I grew up with it. And what I’m trying to do is say to the next generation, ‘Expect to be aliens and sojourners. This is not our home. Jesus places us here to be a light to this dark world, not to be part of the darkness.’”

Through his book, Youssef hopes to encourage those who love Jesus to be “encouraged and motivated to stand up and not to be afraid,” and compel those “teetering” to find the strength and courage to stand for the truth of the Gospel.

“We must take charge,” he said. “Christians have abandoned so many areas of society, from media and the classroom. Instead of withdrawing, we need to go and invade these areas and take them for Christ and not be afraid. We are on the right side. We have read the last chapter, and it says we will win.”

Hope for This Present Crisis is available now through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BAM, and ChristianBook.com.

The Miseducation of America’s Elites

Affluent parents, terrified of running afoul of the new orthodoxy in their children’s private schools, organize in secret.

The dissidents use pseudonyms and turn off their videos when they meet for clandestine Zoom calls. They are usually coordinating soccer practices and carpools, but now they come together to strategize. They say that they could face profound repercussions if anyone knew they were talking.

But the situation of late has become too egregious for emails or complaining on conference calls. So one recent weekend, on a leafy street in West Los Angeles, they gathered in person and invited me to join.

In a backyard behind a four-bedroom home, ten people sat in a circle of plastic Adirondack chairs, eating bags of Skinny Pop. These are the rebels: well-off Los Angeles parents who send their children to Harvard-Westlake, the most prestigious private school in the city.

By normal American standards, they are quite wealthy. By the standards of Harvard-Westlake, they are average. These are two-career couples who credit their own success not to family connections or inherited wealth but to their own education. So it strikes them as something more than ironic that a school that costs more than $40,000 a year—a school with Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right hand, and Sarah Murdoch, wife of Lachlan and Rupert’s daughter-in-law, on its board—is teaching students that capitalism is evil.

For most parents, the demonization of capitalism is the least of it. They say that their children tell them they’re afraid to speak up in class. Most of all, they worry that the school’s new plan to become an “anti-racist institution”—unveiled this July, in a 20-page document—is making their kids fixate on race and attach importance to it in ways that strike them as grotesque.

“I grew up in L.A., and the Harvard School definitely struggled with diversity issues. The stories some have expressed since the summer seem totally legitimate,” says one of the fathers. He says he doesn’t have a problem with the school making greater efforts to redress past wrongs, including by bringing more minority voices into the curriculum. What he has a problem with is a movement that tells his children that America is a bad country and that they bear collective racial guilt.

“They are making my son feel like a racist because of the pigmentation of his skin,” one mother says. Another poses a question to the group: “How does focusing a spotlight on race fix how kids talk to one another? Why can’t they just all be Wolverines?” (Harvard-Westlake has declined to comment.)

This Harvard-Westlake parents’ group is one of many organizing quietly around the country to fight what it describes as an ideological movement that has taken over their schools. This story is based on interviews with more than two dozen of these dissenters—teachers, parents, and children—at elite prep schools in two of the bluest states in the country: New York and California.

This is an excerpt from a longer article appearing on City-Journal.org.

Read the full article here.

NYC school encourages kids to stop using words like ‘mom,’ ‘dad’ in ‘inclusive language’ guide

A Manhattan private school aiming to use more “inclusive language” is encouraging its students to stop using the terms “mom,” “dad” and “parents” because the words make “assumptions” about kids’ home lives.

The Grace Church School in Noho — which offers academic courses for junior kindergarten through 12th grade — issued a 12-page guide to students and staff explaining the school’s mission of inclusivity.

The detailed guide recommends using the terms “grown-ups,” “folks,” “family” or “guardians” as alternatives to “mom,” “dad” and “parents.” It also suggests using “caregiver” instead of “nanny/babysitter.”

“Families are formed and structured in many ways. At Grace Church School, we use inclusive language that reflects this diversity. It’s important to refrain from making assumptions about who kids live with, who cares for them, whether they sleep in the same place every night, whether they see their parents, etc.,” the guide reads.

The document also states how to use appropriate terms relating to gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.

Instead of asking a person, “What are you? Where are you from?,” the query should be, “What is your cultural/ethnic background? Where are your ancestors/is your family from?,” according to Grace’s guide.

The school defended the guide, telling City Journal that its goal is to “promote a sense of belonging for all of our students.”

“Grace is an Episcopal school. As part of our Episcopal identity, we recognize the dignity and worth common to humanity,” the Rev. Robert Pennoyer, assistant head of school, said in a statement to the outlet.

In Nevada, 92,000 mail-in ballots went to wrong addresses in 2020 election

An analysis compiled by a conservative watchdog group shows that over 90,000 ballots were mailed to the wrong addresses in Clark County, Nevada, in the 2020 presidential election.

“Clark County 2020 General Election data show that 92,367 mail ballots were returned undeliverable to wrong or outdated addresses,” the Public Interest Legal Foundation wrote in a research brief released Wednesday. “For a sense of scale, Former Vice President Joe Biden carried the whole of Nevada with a final lead of 33,596 votes.”

Clark County, home to most of Las Vegas, automatically sent mail-in ballots to every “active” voter registered on file during the 2020 presidential election due to coronavirus fears at polling places.

Trump’s legal team alleged a variety of significant voting issues in the state, including over 1,500 ballots from dead voters and tens of thousands of people potentially voting multiple times.

“In my years of experience in politics, I have never seen the amount of illegal voting like we have documented in Clark County, Nevada,” Trump surrogate Matt Schlapp said. “It is a level of corruption I didn’t think could happen in a modern, free country.”

The Supreme Court of Nevada upheld a district court’s order dismissing claims of election fraud.

The foundation also warned that pending legislation in Congress, the voting rights bill known as H.R. 1, would make mail-in ballots even more of a concern.

“Mass-mail balloting is a step backward for American elections,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said. “There are millions of voter registration records with unreliable ‘active’ address information that will ultimately send ballots to the wrong place in a mail election. H.R. 1 does more harm than good for the American people and will leave them at a constant disadvantage to correct election system errors which ultimately impact their abilities to vote in a timely manner.”

Dozens of Democrats Demand Cuomo’s Resignation

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A group of 59 Democratic lawmakers demanded New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation Thursday in the wake of an allegation that he groped an aide at the Executive Mansion last year.

The letter released by the group comes as Cuomo’s grip on power in the state appeared increasingly tenuous. The top Democrat in the state Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie, said he will meet with members in conference today on “potential paths forward” in light of mounting allegations.

In New York, the Assembly is the legislative house that could move to impeach Cuomo, who has faced multiple allegations that he made the workplace an uncomfortable place for young women with sexually suggestive remarks and behavior, including unwanted touching and a kiss.

At least five accusers — Charlotte Bennett, Lindsey Boylan, Ana Liss, Karen Hinton and the latest one — worked for the governor in Albany or during his time in President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet. Another, Anna Ruch, told The New York Times that she met Cuomo at a friend’s wedding.

The Times Union of Albany reported Wednesday that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her after summoning her to his official residence.

Nineteen senators and 40 Assembly members said in a letter Thursday that it was time for Cuomo to go.

“In light of the Governor’s admission of inappropriate behavior and the findings of altered data on nursing home COVID-19 deaths he has lost the confidence of the public and the state legislature, rendering him ineffective in this time of most urgent need,” the letter said. “It is time for Governor Cuomo to resign.”

Cuomo has repeatedly said he won’t resign and urged the public to await the outcome of an investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James into his conduct. Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Cuomo has denied inappropriately touching anyone but has said he is sorry if he made anyone uncomfortable and didn’t intend to do so.

The Times Union of Albany reported that the governor had summoned the aide to the Executive Mansion in Albany last year, saying he needed help with his cellphone.

The aide, whom it did not name, was alone with Cuomo when he closed the door, reached under her shirt and fondled her, the newspaper reported. The newspaper’s reporting is based on an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the woman’s accusation.

“I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said through a spokesperson Wednesday evening.

“The details of this report are gut-wrenching,” Cuomo said, adding that he would not speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation, given an ongoing investigation overseen by the state attorney general.

Video: Fauci Admits There Is No ‘Science’ Behind Continued Lockdown

“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call”

In a rare moment of truth of CNN Wednesday, Anthony Fauci admitted that there is no scientific reason why people who have had the COVID vaccine are still having their freedoms restricted.

CNN host John Berman asked Fauci “What’s the science behind not saying it’s safe for people who have been vaccinated – received two doses, to travel?”

“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call,” Fauci replied, declaring that Americans will just have to trust the CDC:

As we reported this week, CNN announced that the CDC is graciously allowing vaccinated Americans some ‘limited freedoms’, prompting a huge backlash on social media where people pointed out that the health body doesn’t grant anyone their God given freedoms.

So, there is no science and the CDC is making a judgement call about how ‘free’ Americans can be. Hmmm.

Texas Gov. Abbott Sending 500 Guard Troops to Secure Border

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called out President Joe Biden’s lack of attention to the resurgent border crisis, and now is taking the matter into his state’s own hands.

The Texas National Guard will be deploying 500 troops to the southern border with Mexico to stem the illegal activity at the border, Gov. Abbott announced.

“We will work to step up and try to fill the gap that the federal government is leaving open by making sure we deploy every resource, whether it be Department of Public Safety or Texas National Guard, whatever we need to do,” Abbott told reporters at a news conference Tuesday in Mission, Texas.

“Texas is going to fight for the safety and security of our state.”

Also, the DPS is adding about 1,200 state police officers to the region, and the bolstered National Guard forces will arrive by the end of the week, Stars and Stripes reported.

The National Guard has already been training for the deployment, according to Texas Military Department Maj. Gen. Tracy Norris.

“We have been supporting the border for our governor and our federal and state partners for over 15 years,” Norris said, per the report.

Abbott has a $800 million budget for border security in his state, which will fund the extra forces. About 100 of them were used on similar missions last year, and 1,000 used in 2019, per the report.

Thee 500 troops are in addition to the 3,600 U.S. National Guard already deployed to the border under the Trump administration and remain active under President Biden.

“There is a crisis on the Texas border right now with the overwhelming number of people coming across the border,” Abbott told reporters, per the report.” This crisis is a result of President Biden’s open border policies. It invites illegal immigration and is creating a humanitarian crisis in Texas right now that will grow increasingly worse by the day.”

The news comes one week after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rejected claims there was an immigration “crisis” at the southern border.

“I think there is a challenge at the border that we are managing, and we have our resources dedicated to managing it,” Mayorkas said. “The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are working around the clock, seven days a week, to ensure that we do not have a crisis at the border, that we manage the challenge as acute as the challenge is, and they are not doing it alone.”

50 days in, still no Biden news conference

Joe Biden Just Reached an Embarrassing Milestone in His Presidency.

President Joe Biden has reached his 5oth day in office. While he has certainly made noise with many of his actions, he has yet to hold a formal news conference.

Biden’s early days have been characterized by an unprecedented number of executive orders and the fight to pass his $1.9 trillion stimulus package even as the COVID-19 crisis winds down.

Many Americans have questions about these moves, and yet Biden has not provided much of an opportunity for reporters to ask those questions.

Biden occasionally has answered questions after his White House appearances, but those instances are short and informal. Sometimes, the White House just decides to cut off the feed before he even has the chance to speak with reporters.

Ten days ago, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had not yet made plans for a news conference, but she signaled it could be coming soon.

“We will definitely have one, we’ll schedule it, and you’ll be the first to know, because you’re pivotal participants in that,” she said.

When she originally made that comment, many wondered whether the White House was shielding him from the public as much as possible.

At this point, that is definitely still a strong possibility. After all, Biden did forget the names of both the Pentagon and his secretary of defense this week.

However, with each day that passes without a formal news conference, more serious questions arise. One of the most important questions is how he will be held accountable.

ABC News reported that every president in the last 100 years has faced “extended questions from reporters” earlier than Biden has.

Biden’s failure to hold a formal news conference is “raising questions about accountability with the White House under increasing pressure to explain why,” it said.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News that while Biden’s failure to hold a formal news conference is disappointing, she saw it coming.

“It is extraordinary but predictable,” she said. “I remember I warned reporters, in a joking way, when it was clear Biden was the incoming president, they should get used to the feeling of not seeing a president regularly.”

Joe Concha, a media and politics columnist for The Hill, went even further.

“Everybody else before him, at least in the modern era, got their ducks in a row weeks ago in terms of meeting with the press,” he told Fox News’ John Roberts.

“What that tells me, John, is that this team, as far as those handling the president, have zero confidence that this president can handle questions outside of … handpicked reporters.”

Psaki and the rest of Biden’s administration have argued that he is too busy dealing with the COVID-19 crisis to hold a formal news conference.

“This president came in during a historic crisis,” Psaki said Monday when asked about his lack of news conferences.

“So I think the American people would certainly understand if his focus and his energy and his attention has been on ensuring we secure enough vaccines … and then pushing a rescue plan that will provide direct checks to almost 160 million Americans.”

In contrast, McEnany argued that this crisis is the exact reason that Biden should be holding news conferences.

“Part of your responsibility during a pandemic is communicating with the American people,” she said. “They want to hear from who they voted for. The press secretary briefings are not enough.”

No matter what the true reasoning is, the fact is that Biden has failed to face a formal period of questioning from reporters as his presidency reaches its 50th day. That is a milestone no president in the last 100 years has reached.

Exclusive: Biden directing $2.5B to address mental health and addiction crisis

President Biden is directing $2.5 billion in funding to address the nation’s worsening mental illness and addiction crisis, an official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells Axios.

Why it matters: Confronting the mounting mental health and substance abuse crisis will be an imperative for the Biden administration, even as its primary focus is on combating the broader COVID-19 pandemic.

  • The funding announced today is designed to increase access to services for individual Americans.
  • The funding surge comes as the president has yet to fill several key permanent positions in agencies that would lead the charge in combating the drug epidemic, including the Food and Drug Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
  • His pick to lead HHS, Xavier Becerra, is expected to be confirmed by a close vote.

Between the lines: The funds will be broken down into two components by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

  • $1.65 billion will go toward the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which gives the receiving states and territories money to improve already-existing treatment infrastructure and create or better prevention and treatment programs.
  • $825 million will be allocated through a Community Mental Health Services Block Grant program, which will be used by the states to deal specifically with mental health treatment services.

By the numbers: A survey conducted last year published in August 2020 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 41% of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse related to the pandemic or its solutions, like social distancing.

  • Before the pandemic, over 118,000 people died by suicide and overdose in 2019. An HHS official says the administration is expecting that number to increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Preliminary data out of the CDC indicates that the number of drug overdoses through July 2020 increased by 24% from the year prior.

Flashback: On the campaign trail, then-candidate Biden often spoke about the need to address the mounting mental health and substance abuse crisis in America, an issue that hits close to home. His son, Hunter, has openly discussed his own struggles with addiction.

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