Fauci pushes vaccines, waffles on locking down population

FPI / May 25, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the champion of the coronavirus lockdown, appears to have had a change of heart when it comes to extended stay-at-home orders. But he is adamant on the subject of vaccines.

“We can’t stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do irreparable damage and have unintended consequences, including consequences for health,” Fauci said in a Friday interview on CNBC. “We are enthusiastic about reopening. I think we can do it in pace that would be reasonable and would get us back as a society from a morale standpoint as well as the economy.”

Fauci continued: “I don’t want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for prolonged period of time is the way to go. We had to do that when we had the explosion of cases, but now is the time depending upon where you are and what your situation is, to look at reopening the economy, reopening the country to try to get back to some degree of normal. I’m totally in favor of that if it’s done in the proper way in the appropriate setting.”

Earlier this month, Fauci warned Congress that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks.

“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control and, in fact paradoxically, will set you back, not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery,” Fauci said.

Last month, Fauci said that without a vaccine, it's possible that the coronavirus could still come back every year, so the only way to completely protect the population is by developing a vaccine. Health experts have estimated it could take 12 to 18 months to create a vaccine.

Shun the shot?

Fauci told NPR that it was “conceivable” the U.S. could start to produce for consumer use a vaccine for the coronavirus by the end of the year. He said it would be a vaccine that would be “safe” to administer.

Washington Times columnist Cheryl K. Chumley noted: "That’s absurd. Absurd and false. And Americans concerned about their health should consider shunning this shot."

According to the HistoryOfVaccines.org, an educational website from The College of Physicians of Philadelphia: "Vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting 10-15 years and involving a combination of public and private involvement."

There’s the exploratory stage, “basic laboratory research” that “often lasts 2-4 years,” the website reported.

There’s the pre-clinical stage, involving “animal subjects” like “mice and monkeys,” that “lasts 1-2 years,” the website reported.

There’s the application stage, where the vaccine sponsor — “usually a private company, submits an application for an Investigational New Drug (IND) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” that carries a 30-day approval deadline for the FDA, the website reported.

And then come the trials.

The CDC explains the process for vaccine approval as a similarly complex and lengthy process that — as HistoryOfVaccines.org reported — starts with the exploratory and pre-clinical states, moves into clinical development, and then to regulatory review and approval, manufacturing and quality control.

But “clinical development is a three-phase process,” the CDC wrote.

There’s Phase I, where just a small grouping of people get the vaccine. There’s Phase II, where medical professionals administer the vaccine to the targeted group — the targeted ages, the targeted physical health, etc. There’s Phase III, where thousands of people get the vaccine, and the government keeps a tight check on side symptoms and adverse effects.

Moreover, CDC reports, “many vaccines undergo Phase IV formal, ongoing studies after the vaccine is approved and licensed.”

Chumley noted: "The whole process takes, well, forever. In other words: Fauci’s claim of a safe and effective vaccine for the coronavirus by year’s end is disingenuous to the point of la-la land."

"The American people are not guinea pigs," Chumley added. "The American people shouldn’t be sold on the idea of a vaccine that’s both 'effective' and 'safe' when it hasn’t undergone the normal processes of determining 'effective' and 'safe.' That’s not to say the government shouldn’t be full speed ahead with a vaccine for the coronavirus. By all means, go right ahead.

"But it is to say the vaccine should not be mandatory. It is to say that those who do opt in ought to be given a full reckoning of the health risks they’re taking."

Restaurant owner: 'Just because businesses can reopen does not mean they will survive'

Giving businesses permission to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic does not guarantee their survival, New Jersey restaurant owner Chris Clayton told CNBC on Friday.

"Just being open doesn't mean that you're not going to go under. You need to be open enough, especially for businesses that are ready to do volume, to make it worth it," said Clayton, owner of Margate Dairy Bar & Burger in Margate City, southwest of Atlantic City on the Jersey Shore.

"I have friends in the amusement park and theater business and they go, 'Listen, if we have to open at 25%, 50%, social distancing, we can't pay our electric bill," Clayton said.

Protocols issued under Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy's lockdown order, such as disinfecting pens and taking employees' temperatures, have brought added costs for supplies and hurt margins, Clayton said.

"We believe some of them will be temporary, but we will believe some of them will be more long term," he said. "If you're not watching the margins in the business, whether you're small, medium or large, you might be dead, just not hit the floor yet."

CNN's Chris Cuomo took 'less safe version' of hydroxy

After CNN on air personality Chris Cuomo mocked President Donald Trump for taking hydroxychloroquine, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany noted the CNN anchor had himself taken a less safe version of the drug.

“You had Chris Cuomo saying the president knows that hydroxychloroquine is not supported by science, he knows it has been flagged by his own people and he’s using it,” McEnany said at a White House press briefing last week.

“Cuomo mocked the president for this” but “it turns out that Chris Cuomo took a less safe version of it called quinine, which the FDA removed from the market in 2006 because it had serious side effects, including death. So really interesting to have that criticism of the president.”

The CNN host’s wife, Cristina Cuomo, who also came down with coronavirus, detailed his daily health regimen to treat COVID-19 in an article for her wellness publication Purist.

She wrote that his daily intake included “Potentized quinine (OXO); it’s derived from the nontoxic bark of Peruvian-grown quinine plants. It is a natural antibiotic (it’s being used in India with very good results). This is not on the market here; Dr. Lancaster has made this in her lab for 40 years, and I took this for my Lyme. (The medicine Plaquinol, which many doctors are using for COVID-19 is similar to quinine, but it has negative side effects.)”

By contrast, McEnany said, hydroxychloroquine is “a drug that has been in use for 65 years for lupus, arthritis and malaria. It has a very good safety profile.” Trump disclosed that he’s taking the drug to protect against contracting COVID-19. He previously touted anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness.

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