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Poll: Most Americans Fear Coronavirus Is Forever

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A full 83 percent of Americans feel the coronavirus pandemic will only be over when the virus mutates to become a “mild illness” or humans build an immunity – which could be never – an AP-NORC poll released Thursday reveals.

The survey was conducted between the 13th-18th of January 2022 by AP-NORC, consisting of 1,161 adults. It found most Americans are still very concerned about coronavirus, with only 15 percent of those polled saying they’ll consider the pandemic over when coronavirus is largely eliminated.

Despite scientists suggesting Omicron is a milder variant of coronavirus when compared to previous strains, 65 percent of Americans are now suggesting they wear face coverings around other people, and 64 percent say they are often avoiding large groups of people, which is an increase from the 57 percent of people who said the same for both in December 2021.

Another 60 percent of Americans are also saying they are regularly avoiding non-essential travel a seven percent increase from December 2021.

A total of 59 percent of Americans also firmly believe it is vital they are vaccinated against coronavirus – regardless of their age or health status – to be able to participate in public activities.

This number however drops by 12 percent with 47 percent of Americans who believe it is essential they get the booster shot additionally to the double jab course.

Americans do become less cautious in regards to their children with just 37 percent of parents considering it essential that their children are vaccinated before society returns to normal.

School buses at the Arlington County Bus Depot, on January 26, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia. Driver shortages due to Covid-19 are having a ripple effect on schools, students and families across the country and have already forced schools in at least nine states to request assistance from the National Guard. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

The results come from the Chicago-based National Opinion Research Center (NORC).

Participants were selected from NORC‘s probability-based ‘AmeriSpeak Panel’ which is said to be representative of the entire U.S. population – however, those surveyed (1,161 people) are only a tiny representative fraction of America’s 325 million population.

U.S. Navy Begins Discharging Sailors Who Refuse Coronavirus Vaccine

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The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday it has discharged 45 service members who refused to accept inoculation with the coronavirus vaccine.

The personnel were released after failing to meet the November 28 deadline set by the Pentagon for the injection. Twenty-three active duty sailors were amongst those let go.

UPI reports the Navy said in a statement of those discharged, 22 were considered entry-level separations as they occurred during the initial training periods within their first 180 days of active service.

“It is my responsibility to deliver the most capable force and this guidance helps us maximize mission readiness,” Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the deputy chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy, said in explaining the move. “The Navy continues to execute its mission around the world while we work through the challenges of this pandemic.”

People expelled for refusing the vaccine will receive a general honorable discharge, but could lose certain benefits or be forced to repay the cost of training and education in some cases, the Navy explained last year when announcing the compulsory vaccination program.

Incoming U.S. Navy plebes, or freshmen, wait to receive their name tags on Induction Day at the U.S. Naval Academy on June 30, 2021 in Annapolis, Maryland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Naval Academy’s Class of 2025 arrived over a two-day period. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty)

Navy personnel who can claim an exemption from mandatory vaccines, for health or other reasons, can be reassigned from their current duties.

As of Thursday, there were still 5,035 active-duty sailors and 2,860 reserve service members who were unvaccinated, the official notification read.

Of unvaccinated active-duty sailors, ten have permanent medical exemptions and 259 have temporary medical exemptions with 59 administrative exemptions awarded.

The Marine Corps, as of late last week, had discharged 334 Marines, and the Air Force, as of this week, had discharged 111 airmen for refusing to get the shots.

The Army is the only remaining service yet to have discharged any active duty personnel for refusing to have a mandatory shot, the Army Times notes.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: [email protected]

House anti-China Bill Encourages Hiring of Chinese Scientists

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House Democrats have drafted a bill to counter China’s technological gains — but their bill encourages universities and companies to fill research jobs with more Chinese migrants instead of innovative Americans.

“They’re doubling down on the same failed policies that have gotten us to where we are today,” said Kevin Lynn, the founder of U.S. Tech Workers. He continued:

This investing in foreigners versus our own citizenry, this [corporate] efficiency model that is looking to always improve that bottom line, the profit margins, and not doing the things necessary to train the [American] people that will be innovative and more productive, has actually made our companies and the country less productive and less innovative.

These immigration provisions represent an investment in foreigners versus an investment in Americans, and none of that should be done with taxpayer dollars.

The House bill is titled the America COMPETES Act of 2022 and is a version of the Senate-passed Competes Act.

The Senate bill was widely panned for dodging core problems about the corporate transfer of research and manufacturing to China. It passed in June and promises to spend $250 billion on subsidies to help shore up U.S. competition with China. But the Senate bill does little to reduce growing U.S. reliance on Chinese labor in U.S. laboratories or the movement of manufacturing — and the entwined science and expertise — into China.

The bill also does little to counter Chinese government spying, technology theft, or market manipulations. “We have to have safeguards,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Breitbart News in November.

The House bill version of the bill, introduced January 25, adds immigration measures to help universities and investors.

The House bill allows foreigners who get PhDs to ask the DHS secretary for green cards. The PhDs would have to be from a “program of study involving science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, the bill says. However, the eligible PhDs include accounting, taxation, conservation, and agriculture, the draft bill says on page 1,710.

The foreigners would first have to pay for their PhDs at qualified universities. The bill suggests that at least 266 U.S. universities would be eligible to put their customers on a fast track to citizenship. But the bill also puts Historically Black Universities and other minority-serving universities on the list.

The Democrats’ bill also allows some foreign universities to put their graduates on a fast track to U.S. citizenship and U.S. science careers. Forty-nine of the world’s top 100 universities are located outside the United States, including three universities in China, according to one rating system.

The bill also allows the DHS secretary to import “refugees” from Hong Kong and to give green cards to 5,000 people from Hong Kong each year. “The Secretary of Homeland Security may, in consultation with the Secretary of State, prioritize the issuance of visas to individuals with a bachelor’s or higher degree in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine, or health care,” the bill says.

The bill also allows the homeland defense secretary to award work permits to people who ask for a “start-up visa” and who can claim an up-front investment of $250,000 from “qualified investors. This rule has been pushed by investment groups — such as FWD.us — since at least 2015, and it would give investors the ability to import foreign professionals and get huge leverage over their inventions.

The immigration changes would push Americans out of Fortune 500 jobs — and out of university science jobs — by allowing universities and companies to hire more indentured foreigners for jobs, said Lynn.

You’ve got to look at who the beneficiaries are. First, the universities … in the face of declining [American] enrollment, they’re going to have an eager body of foreign students looking to [pay tuition to] get a degree from their university, get an [jobs via the Optional Practical Training {OPT} program or J-1 work permit] and then a green card, and then citizenship. So that’s the payback to them.

Also, it’s companies. We see this currently with the OPT and H-1B  [visa worker programs, where companies are] getting foreign nationals [and] if they’re not working at that company, they could be deported. So it makes them more compliant [and cheaper] workers. That’s not what we want.

The U.S. already has an O-1 “genius visa” for accomplished foreign professionals, Lynn said. But the large new programs in the House bill would gradually import an “overclass” of credentialled foreign scientists and managers, Lynn added:

We would be importing a class of people that will ultimately be the managerial class who will oversee Americans, because that’s what higher education does in America, that’s what skills do in America. This is dangerous … it will actually make America less competitive because it’s hollowing out the citizens who are part of the social fabric of this country

Roughly half of the skilled workers in U.S. laboratories are foreign “postdocs,” often on OPT or J-1 work permits. They are favored over many Americans because laboratory directors can work them harder than U.S. citizens and pay them with hopes of government-provided green cards. The huge number of foreign postdocs ensures that are many young Americans are denied places in academic research.

“The root of the problem is the academic power structure,” Yale scientist Akiko Iwasaki wrote in Nature.com: in April 2020:

[Laboratory chiefs, or Principal Investigators] PIs can hold trainees hostage through letters of recommendation and publications. International trainees are even more vulnerable, because PIs can hold them hostage with their visas. I have seen numerous DMs describing PIs saying “if you don’t work harder, I will not be writing a good letter of recommendation for you” or “since you took the weekend off, I am tempted not to renew your visa” (paraphrased). Other PIs simply do not care about their trainees at all.

“Academic science is a breeding ground for toxic dynamics, mainly because lab heads have so much power over their trainees,” Sherry Moss said in Nature.com. “In many ways, lab members are captive, making them more vulnerable to abuse [because] Ph.D. students and postdocs depend on supervisors for publications, funds and letters of recommendation,” Moss wrote in 2018.

The abuse pressures many young scientists out of academia, according to a November 2020 report in Nature.com. A survey of worldwide 7,600 postdocs showed:

51% of respondents said that they had considered leaving science because of mental-health concerns related to their work … Some groups are especially likely to have such doubts. Fifty-five percent of female respondents said that they had considered quitting science, compared with 46% of male respondents.

One U.S. researcher responded:

Academia has truly ruined my life. All of my peers are either married with kids or they’re making six figures at their job with only a Bachelor’s degree. I am still single, no kids, have depression and extreme anxiety, and I’m still poor.

But Democrats are touting their hire-Chinese bill — partly because it delivers much money to HBCUs.

“The America COMPETES Act of 2022 is the boldest, best option we have to stand up to China’s harmful actions and support American workers,” said a January 25 statement from Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) the chairman of the House tax-writing committee.

“The success and competitiveness of the American economy depends on the strength of our nation’s workforce,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). “The America COMPETES Act will connect our nation’s students and workers with the skills they need to succeed in high-tech industries while keeping our economy competitive in the years ahead.”

So far, House GOP leaders are giving thumbs down to the Democrats bill — but not because of the migration changes.

“The COMPETES Act isn’t serious legislation – it is a façade to cover up the Democrats’ reluctance to actually do anything to hold China accountable and their desperation to do something to distract from their domestic crises,” said a statement from GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

What the House wants to do, said Lynn, “is to invest in foreigners that come to America under the delusion that it will make ultimately make America more competitive.” He continued:

What they don’t understand is that if you invest in Americans, invest in their education, invest in their skills training, it’s going to create stronger families here in America, which will create stronger communities, which will create a stronger country, a more competitive country. If the intent is simply to invest in an overclass of foreigners … it will actually make America less competitive.

On January 21, Biden’s deputies announced they would invite more foreign workers to get the U.S. white-collar jobs needed by U.S. graduates, despite massive evidence of widespread fraud, anti-American discrimination, stalled wages, and exploitive corporate management.  Breitbart News reported:

Current rules allow companies to keep a population of more than 1.5 million mid-skilled, non-immigrant, foreign white-collar workers in jobs sought by the large population of skilled U.S. graduates. That huge population is more than enough to prevent a tight labor market in white-collar professionals, so tilting the playing field towards the Fortune 500’s executives and shareholders.

[….]

The new policy expands the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, the J-1 visa, the O-1 visa and opens a path for additional foreign graduates to apply for green cards from their homelands.

Since the 1990s, U.S. innovation has slowed because the Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley firms, and universities prefer to displace American professionals in favor of compliant, cheaper, no-rights foreign workers, Lynn said.

“We saw it initially in the late 1990s and 2000s… Now with so many foreigners here on an OPT or an H-1B, we’re seeing many Americans coming out of college are having a hard time getting a job. So this is something that’s only going to increase.”

DeSantis: Biden Focused on Withdrawing Coronavirus Treatment Instead of Addressing His Failing Administration

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The Biden administration is focusing on withdrawing lifesaving coronavirus treatment from the American people rather than addressing the problems plaguing his administration — such as inflation and the “disaster” on the southern border — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday.

DeSantis addressed the decision of U.S. health regulators to revoke emergency use authorization (EUA) for Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments in the country — a decision he said is “wrong,” as thousands of Floridians had their appointments for treatment abruptly canceled.

“You have so many problems with this administration. You look at inflation spiraling out of control, and yet they’re doing things to fuel it. You look at the southern border which has been a total disaster and continues to be to this day,” DeSantis said.

“You look at what’s happening in the gathering storm abroad, whether it’s Russia, China, America’s adversaries. You have huge, huge problems going on. You have infective COVID restrictions and mandates that are being championed in other states that are inhibiting our supply chain and contributing to economic problems,” he said, noting these are all issues that “could be addressed,” yet the administration chooses to “pull the rug out [from] elderly patients, most of whom, almost all of them have been vaccinated and say you don’t have access to this treatment.”

“So we’re going to fight back against this,” he said.

During the press conference, DeSantis claimed the decision to revoke EUA for the treatments was based on a single non-peer reviewed, non-clinical study.

“This is not based on a clinical trial. This is not even peer-reviewed. And so this is something they claim shouldn’t be used, because we have omicron, and what we would say in Florida is we have had people use it, and we’ve had good results,” he said.

Breitbart News reached out to the FDA to confirm whether the decision to revoke EUA for these treatments was, in fact, based on a single, non-peer reviewed study. Breitbart News specifically asked if the decision was based on a “single non-peer reviewed non-clinical study that was actually done by a consultant for a rival company to the other two monoclonal antibody treatments,” asking for the federal health agency to confirm whether DeSantis’s assertion was correct. Instead of providing a direct answer, however, the FDA sent Breitbart two fact sheets provided to healthcare providers. One of the fact sheets for the EUA of Bamlanivimab and Etesevimab states the updates are “based on latest viral surveillance report and additional sequencing data from Phase 3 study PYAB.” Similarly, the fact sheet for REVEN-COV states the updates are also “based on latest viral surveillance.”

WATCH:

“It’s not 100 percent. We understand that. But you also don’t know when someone goes in whether it’s omicron or still the delta. Yes, still in Florida, it’s going to be mostly omicron at this point, but it’s really a reckless decision to be able to take this option away from patients when we’ve had the sites set up,” he said, noting they had distributed it to different medical groups and hospitals. Because of the emergence and widespread availability of the treatment, Florida saw a “huge decline” in hospitalizations, the governor explained.

DeSantis pointed out that even if the treatments were half or 25 percent as effective against omicron, “that’s better than nothing for people.”

“And I’ve said, anecdotally we’ve had people that have had their symptoms resolved after doing it just in the last month,” he said. “So this is wrong what they’re doing.”

When asked what fighting back against this decision looks like, DeSantis said they plan to expose what this decision actually means for people, as Florida has had patients who received the treatment and had their symptoms resolved in the last month. He also noted that Israel is on its fourth shot, yet continue to see infections rising. That, he suggested, means people should also consider a more holistic approach to the virus.

The Biden administration, he continued, had months to stockpile the treatment, but he suspects that this decision is based, at least in part, on that it did not sufficiently prepare.

“So I think part of it is, I think there’s politics at play, but I think part of it is, I just don’t think they have enough treatments to go around. And I think they realize that, and I think it would look very bad to be able to admit that, so instead they’re saying this is revoked,” he said, noting the administration does not have the same standard for other treatments such as Remdesivir and noted the “vaccines were created for an old variant too.”

Poll: Most Americans Reject Indefinite Coronavirus Booster Shots

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Most Americans reject the idea of receiving an indefinite number of booster shots for the Chinese coronavirus, a Convention of States/Trafalgar Group survey released Wednesday found.

The survey asked respondents, “How many COVID-19 booster shots would you be personally willing to take?”

Overall, a combined 60.3 percent said they would take no more than two, but of those, 30.9 percent said they would take “none,” compared to 17.8 percent who said one and 11.6 percent who said two. According to the survey, an additional 39.7 percent said they would be willing to take three or more. 

A majority of Democrats, specifically, said they would take three booster jabs or more — 52.3 percent. However, nearly half of Republicans, 49.5 percent, said they would take no booster shots at all. Independents are relatively scattered in their opinions, as 43.2 percent said they would take three boosters or more, while one-third, 33.3 percent, said they would take none at all.

Registered nurse Liana Paris (L) gives Elizabeth Tanaka a booster shot as her dog Silly Boi barks at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club on December 21, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

 The survey, taken January 12-14, 2022, among 1,081 likely general election voters, has a margin of error of +/- 2.98 percent.

 The poll comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opting to limit the use of certain monoclonal antibody treatments, citing “the most recent information and data available” claiming that it is not as effective against the omicron variant.

That move set up a battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who said thousands of Floridians had their scheduled treatments canceled abruptly due to the administration’s action.

People line up outside of a free COVID-19 vaccination site that opened today in the Hubbard Place apartment building on December 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. The DC Department of Health is stepping up vaccination and booster shots (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, DeSantis noted that even if the treatments were half or 25 percent as effective against omicron, “that’s better than nothing for people.”

“And I’ve said, anecdotally we’ve had people that have had their symptoms resolved after doing it just in the last month,” he said. “So this is wrong what they’re doing.”

Meanwhile, the administration is instead pointing to booster shots as the prime answer in light of the waning effectiveness of the shots.