All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine

On June 26, a small South San Francisco company called Vaxart made a surprise announcement: A coronavirus vaccine it was working on had been selected by the U.S. government to be part of Operation Warp Speed, the flagship federal initiative to quickly develop drugs to combat Covid-19.

Vaxart’s shares soared. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase sixfold. And a hedge fund that partly controlled the company walked away with more than $200 million in instant profits.

The race is on to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and some companies and investors are betting that the winners stand to earn vast profits from selling hundreds of millions — or even billions — of doses to a desperate public.

Across the pharmaceutical and medical industries, senior executives and board members are capitalizing on that dynamic.

[Tami]

Sinclair gives “Plandemic" conspiracy theorists a platform to spread their lies about Dr. Fauci and the coronavirus

Baseless conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force, found a platform on the new episode of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s America This Week. The episode is available for streaming on Sinclair-owned or -operated television station websites and is set to air on dozens of Sinclair stations over the weekend.

Toward the end of his show, host Eric Bolling interviewed Judy Mikovits of the conspiracy theory video Plandemic and her attorney Larry Klayman about their plans to sue Fauci. He introduced the prerecorded interview by referring to her as “an expert in virology” who previously “worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Mikovits gained notoriety after she made multiple false and misleading claims about the coronavirus and public health in Plandemic. Mikovits argued that mandatory coronavirus vaccines will “kill millions as they already have with their vaccines,” and falsely claimed that "flu vaccines increase the odds by 36% of getting COVID-19" and are part of a plot against what filmmaker Mikki Willis called “natural remedies” for the virus. Mikovits also asserted that it’s "insanity" to close beaches because somehow the sand and “healing microbes in the ocean” will actually help treat the virus. She also touted antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus, despite multiple studies casting doubt on its efficacy, and she and the film pushed the false claim that the death count from COVID-19 is being inflated. The news magazine Science also reported that Mikovits made false claims about Fauci and her own credentials in the film, and FactCheck.org explained that she made false claims about face masks and Ebola. At the end of May, Mikovits also defended a bogus bleach product as a treatment for COVID-19. YouTube, Facebook, and multiple other platforms have removed Plandemic from their sites for containing potentially harmful misinformation about COVID-19.

But Bolling did not present any of this information, all widely available since early May, to Sinclair’s audience. Instead, Bolling gave Mikovits and Klayman -- who has peddled various conspiracy theories of his own in past decades -- free rein to make baseless accusations against Fauci, such as that he “manufactured the coronaviruses” and shipped them to Wuhan, China. Klayman said he’s “looking at a possible RICO case” -- a reference to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act -- against Fauci and said, “We know that $3.7 million was given as a grant during the Obama administration to that Wuhan laboratory. That’s not in dispute.” Except the amount is about $3 million less than Klayman said, as PolitiFact, USA Today, FactCheck.org, and BuzzFeed News have all explained. (Bolling attempted to rebut him later by saying the funding was for vaccine research, but failed to correct him on the figure he quoted.) Klayman then said “the Chinese then engineered it into a bioweapon,” a claim which has also been debunked.

[Tami]

The Amazon, Giver of Life, Unleashes the Pandemic

The virus swept through the region like past plagues that have traveled the river with colonizers and corporations.

It spread with the dugout canoes carrying families from town to town, the fishing dinghies with rattling engines, the ferries moving goods for hundreds of miles, packed with passengers sleeping in hammocks, side by side, for days at a time.

The Amazon River is South America’s essential life source, a glittering superhighway that cuts through the continent. It is the central artery in a vast network of tributaries that sustains some 30 million people across eight countries, moving supplies, people and industry deep into forested regions often untouched by road.

But once again, in a painful echo of history, it is also bringing disease.

As the pandemic assails Brazil, overwhelming it with more than two million infections and more than 84,000 deaths — second only to the United States — the virus is taking an exceptionally high toll on the Amazon region and the people who have depended on its abundance for generations.

In Brazil, the six cities with the highest coronavirus exposure are all on the Amazon River, according to an expansive new study from Brazilian researchers that measured antibodies in the population.

The epidemic has spread so quickly and thoroughly along the river that in remote fishing and farming communities like Tefé, people have been as likely to get the virus as in New York City, home to one of the world’s worst outbreaks.

[InformationGeek]

Tom Cotton is getting all pissy over the recent Supreme Court ruling.

John Roberts at his hearing: “If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy’s going to win in court before me.”

What happened to that judge?

He didn't mention his belief that casinos have more rights than churches.

https://t.co/KjpyLbkIMo

[PaulBullion]

Sinclair gives “Plandemic" conspiracy theorists a platform to spread their lies about Dr. Fauci and the coronavirus

I hope Fauci sues them. He is already getting death threats.

[A Small Talent For War]

I hope Fauci sues them. He is already getting death threats.

Too many hurdles. The irony would be that he'd have no time to sue anyone until after the pandemic is over. No one can really effectively manage a national crisis and engage in a lawsuit. Instead, the government - specifically the FCC - should simply shut them down. It is censorship, but there is no "freedom of electronic media" in the constitution. Television, radio and the Internet can all be regulated and news outlets can be shut down if they spread lies and misinformation with an intent to capitalize off encouraging ignorant and dangerous behavior.

[PaulBullion]

Too many hurdles. The irony would be that he'd have no time to sue anyone until after the pandemic is over. No one can really effectively manage a national crisis and engage in a lawsuit. Instead, the government - specifically the FCC - should simply shut them down. It is censorship, but there is no "freedom of electronic media" in the constitution. Television, radio and the Internet can all be regulated and news outlets can be shut down if they spread lies and misinformation with an intent to capitalize off encouraging ignorant and dangerous behavior.

It takes 15 minutes to call his lawyer and put him on the case.

[PwrdOn]

Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine

Just as a reminder, these are the people who are crying foul over intellectual property theft.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Just as a reminder, these are the people who are crying foul over intellectual property theft.

Both are wrong.

[The no face guy]

It appears Trump has just lost his number one financial backer who was crucial to getting him elected in 2016, no Mercer's no Bannon....only a matter of time now.


https://www.businessinsider.com/insi...a-donor-2020-7

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/n...qvEYrQ0hm9zlN/

[Kirby101]

It takes 15 minutes to call his lawyer and put him on the case.

Everybody doesn't have a personal Tort lawyer on speed dial like Trump.

[Robotman]

It appears Trump has just lost his number one financial backer who was crucial to getting him elected in 2016, no Mercer's no Bannon....only a matter of time now.


https://www.businessinsider.com/insi...a-donor-2020-7

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/n...qvEYrQ0hm9zlN/

The men who finance evil.

[Malvolio]

Sinclair gives “Plandemic" conspiracy theorists a platform to spread their lies about Dr. Fauci and the coronavirus

Sinclair Broadcasting: the syndicated version of FOX News

[MiddleMan]

Sinclair is the effing worst

[The no face guy]

The men who finance evil.

and in Trump's case...the unhinged.