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Scientists have discovered a gene that more than doubles the risk of becoming severely ill with Covid. Researchers from the Medical University of Bialystok in Poland found that the gene is the fourth most important factor determining how seriously a person suffers from Covid, after age, weight and gender. The gene is present in around 14 per cent of the Polish population, compared to 8-9 per cent in Europe as a whole and 27 per cent in India, they say. Its discovery could help doctors identify those who are most at risk from the disease and prioritise them for vaccinations....

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for a wide-ranging one-on-one interview with TODAY’s Craig Melvin, discussing the progress made against COVID-19 during this administration and responds to why updated guidance on masks hasn’t been given yet as public health officials acknowledge cloth masks are not as effective as KN95s and N95s. Harris also talks about the focus on voting rights, saying, “I don't think anyone should be absolved from the responsibility of preserving and protecting our democracy.” She also weighs in on a talks of a change to the presidential ticket in 2024: "We are thinking about today."

Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins reportedly pressured a group of scientists to abandon a paper they were authoring on the origins of COVID-19 and the possibility that COVID-19 was “genetically manipulated” and could have leaked from the Wuhan Insitute of Virology (WIV). “Neither Drs. Fauci or Collins edited our Proximal Origins paper in any way. The major feedback we got from the Feb 1 teleconference was: 1. Don’t try to write a paper at all — it’s unnecessary or 2. If you do write it don’t mention a lab origin as that will just...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two brand-new COVID-19 pills that were supposed to be an important weapon against the pandemic in the U.S. are in short supply and have played little role in the fight against the omicron wave of infections. The problem, in part, is that production is still being ramped up and the medicines can take anywhere from five to eight months to manufacture. While the supply is expected to improve dramatically in the coming months, doctors are clamoring for the pills now, not just because omicron is causing an explosion of cases but because two antibody drugs that were...

Of the four restaurants Rick McQuaide owns across several counties in Western Pennsylvania, one is barely making a profit, two are losing money and the fourth has been “temporarily” closed for far longer than he ever anticipated. ... White House and much of the national media .. are wildly out of touch with the struggles of the average American and small business person,” McQuaide adds. “That isn’t political, that is ­reality.” ... there isn’t an aspect of his business that has not been upended by inflation. Fewer people are applying for jobs, driving up wages. Then there is the price...

New polling from Quinnipiac released on Wednesday showed how President Joe Biden's approval numbers continue to fall faster than when he ran up the steps to Air Force One.Overall, only 33 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden has done while being in office for under a year. 53 percent of Americans disapprove. But broken down into racial demographics, Latinos are among the group who dislike Biden the most.Only 28 percent of Hispanics approve of the job Biden is doing as president. 61 percent of Hispanics disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy with 59 percent of Hispanics saying...

In a report that advocates governments using “psychological operations” against their own population, the Financial Times asserts, with no proof, that Russia and China are responsible for pushing “anti-vax sentiment” and criticism of lockdown measures in the west.The article quotes Mikael Tofvesson, head of the Swedish Navy’s new Psyops division, who says “foreign aggressors” are trying to “sow division by targeting areas of public concern such as crime, Covid vaccinations, the government’s response to the pandemic, and immigration.”“The most important task in psychological defence is to inoculate the population against believing false information,” states the article, which is written by...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Thursday that she will not vote to weaken the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold, bucking her party leaders yet again and dealing a major blow to Democrats' election reform effort. The comments, which match Sinema's long-held stance on the filibuster, are effectively the final nail in the coffin of Democrats' longshot effort to pass two elections bills over unified Senate GOP opposition. "There's no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal...

A woman in Texas was arrested after police say she hogtied a 1-year-old girl and imprisoned a 2-year-old boy in a playpen that was covered “like a cage,” then left both toddlers in a locked in a bedroom. Priscilla Ann Salais, 37, was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with two counts of endangering a child, San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT reported.

Software Update Apple on Wednesday released iOS 15.2.1 and iPadOS 15.2.1 to the public with minor bug fixes and other improvements.Wesley Hilliard for AppleInsider:Apple says that the release addresses a HomeKit denial of service issue, a problem where third-party CarPlay apps may lose touch sensitivity, and a bug where Messages may not load photos sent using an iCloud link.The HomeKit DDoS attack was revealed by a researcher on January 1 and could be executed by entering a device name of over 500,000 characters. Devices that tried to load the device name could be placed into a reboot cycle and made...

Unvaccinated conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck revealed he has contracted COVID-19 for a second time but is doing 'great' despite the virus spreading to his lungs. Beck, 57, confirmed he contracted coronavirus again during an appearance on Mark Levin's podcast on Wednesday. 'I am great, Mark. I am great, Mark,' Beck told Levin. 'Despite having COVID and seeing the destruction of our country.' Beck told Levin he caught the Omicron variant last week and has been taking two controversial medications - the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine - to treat the virus. 'It's starting to go into my lungs...

ight rockets targeted the US Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone late Sunday, Iraq's military and Iraqi officials said, sparking fears of renewed unrest as next month's anniversary of the US slaying of an Iranian general draws near. An Iraqi military statement said an 'an outlawed group' launched eight rockets targeting the Green Zone, injuring one Iraqi security person manning a checkpoint and causing material damage to a residential complex and some cars. The residential complex is usually empty. The US Embassy's C-RAM defense system, which is used to destroy missiles in mid-air, was activated to deflect the attack,...

Professor Ehud Qimron, head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University and one of the leading Israeli immunologists, has written an open letter sharply criticizing the Israeli – and indeed global – management of the coronavirus pandemic. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ministry of Health, it’s time to admit failure In the end, the truth will always be revealed, and the truth about the coronavirus policy is beginning to be revealed. When the destructive concepts collapse one by one, there is nothing left but to tell the experts who led the management of the pandemic – we told you so....

You knew it was coming...Two weeks after Joe Rogan interviewed mRNA inventor Dr. Robert Malone on his Spotify podcast - which boasts 11 million viewers on average - an angry letter brigade of 270 doctors and scientists have written an open letter to Spotify to demand they censor Rogan and implement a Covid-19 "misinformation policy," so that people, even highly trained virologist-immunologists such as Malone, can't contradict 'the science.'Getting down to their core argument:In episode #1757, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote...

Prince Andrew was today stripped of his military titles and royal patronages by the Queen, who said he will have to face his sexual assault lawsuit as a 'private citizen'. The Duke of York will no longer be allowed to use the styling 'HRH' in any capacity, signalling the royal family's attempt to distance itself from the ninth in line to the throne as he faces a humiliating trial in the US. The move to shred his ties with the military is likely to be particularly painful for Andrew, a military veteran who served as a helicopter pilot for the...

Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that Democrats looking at a midterm abyss want an actual, coherent strategy from Joe Biden on COVID-19. Politico reports that grumbling has grown so loud from Biden’s allies on Capitol Hill that a few of them are willing to state on the record that whatever Biden’s doing on the pandemic isn’t working — medically or politically.The problem is that Biden’s continually playing checkers in a three-dimensional chess world, and it shows:Record hospitalizations. A nationwide scramble for tests. Entire school districts forced to shutter.As a brutal surge of Omicron infections hits an exhausted...

Russia on Thursday sharply raised the stakes in its dispute with the West over Ukraine, with a top diplomat refusing to rule out a Russian military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States mount. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation in Monday’s talks with the U.S. in Geneva, said he could “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if the talks fail and U.S. pressure on Russia mounts. The Russia-U.S. negotiations in Geneva and a subsequent NATO-Russia meeting failed to narrow the gap on...

The armorer for doomed western 'Rust' - where a cinematographer was shot dead by a live bullet in October - is laying part of the blame on gunman Alec Baldwin for failing to attend a training session. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed a lawsuit in a Bernalillo County, New Mexico court on Wednesday that claims Baldwin, 63, ignored a request to attend a 'cross draw' session about a week before the tragedy. The rookie armorer also faulted assistant director David Halls for failing to follow set protocol when he allegedly handed Baldwin the weapon without first calling on her to inspect it,...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham sent GOP Leader Mitch McConnell a very clear message Wednesday night: Get on board with Donald Trump or get out. Asked by Fox's Sean Hannity about the "swampiness" of the Kentucky senator, Graham answered this way: "Elections are about the future. If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Donald Trump. Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the leader of the Republican party, Donald Trump? He is the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan. It's his nomination if he wants it....

U.S. Army commanders have relieved six soldiers from positions of leaderships and issued 2,994 general officer written reprimands in response to soldiers who have refused to comply with the COVID-19 vaccination order. Among the six relieved from leadership positions were two battalion commanders, the Army said in a Wednesday press release. But the service so far has not involuntarily discharged any soldiers solely for refusing the vaccine. The Army will be issuing guidance for discharging vaccine holdouts later this month, with the press release saying that 3,611 soldiers are still refusing to get the vaccine and have not received an...