Dec. 5, 2021 - Epoch Times
17:20
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| Good evening. | |
| Over in Japan, the Ministry of Health has now suspended close to 3 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. | |
| They are citing concerns of possible contamination. | |
| This came not only after a foreign metallic substance was discovered inside of the doses, but also, more tragically, after two men in their 30s died shortly after getting the shot. | |
| Although at the moment, according to Moderna, Meanwhile, over in Europe, Sweden has just become the second nation in the European Union to ban Israelis from entering their country. | |
| They're doing this over concerns of COVID, even though Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries on the face of the earth. | |
| And lastly, two days ago over at the U.S. Supreme Court, they just ruled that Texas' anti-abortion bill can now, in fact, go into effect. | |
| This means that as of this moment, abortions after six weeks are essentially outlawed in the state of Texas. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And to begin with, I would just like to apologize about that modern art on the wall behind us. | |
| We're currently in a Texas hotel room. | |
| For the last week, we've been going back and forth to Louisiana in order to report on the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. | |
| And in fact, it's pretty brutal. | |
| If you take a look at some of the footage we're able to get, what you're looking at there is an exit off of the highway into New Orleans. | |
| And as you can see, it's still totally flooded. | |
| It's been about a week after the storm. | |
| And you can see two semi-trucks that are overturned, covered in water. | |
| You've got downed power lines. | |
| You've got a gas station over there that's not functioning. | |
| And my favorite part is when you look down right below the overpass, you've got an alligator right there swimming around. | |
| And when you look over to the left, You've got his buddy just floating around waiting for his next meal. | |
| So, suffice it to say that it's a disaster here in New Orleans. | |
| A lot of damage. | |
| And over the next few days, when I'm able to compile the footage and the interviews that we've been able to compile, I'll be putting out a full episode about that. | |
| Meanwhile, let's move on over to Japan. | |
| You might remember how exactly one week ago, Japan suspended over 1.6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine after there were reports which came out saying that they might be contaminated. | |
| Specifically, Japan's Minister of Health, he said that foreign materials were found in at least 390 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which came from eight different vaccination sites across the country. | |
| Now, in terms of what this foreign substance actually was, Well, the health ministry wasn't exactly sure. | |
| Although one official from the ministry, he said that it was likely metallic since, quote, it's a substance that reacts to magnets. | |
| Now, the reports of this particular contamination involved a batch that had a total of 565,000 doses. | |
| And so, the Japanese health ministry, they said that as a precaution, they decided to suspend the entire lot. | |
| And so in total, the three batches of the Moderna vaccine that they wind up suspending contained 1.63 million vaccine doses, and it had been distributed to 863 vaccination centers across the entire country. | |
| Now Moderna, which is of course the vaccine manufacturer, they acknowledged what was happening over in Japan, and they released this as a part of their statement. | |
| Quote, They further said as a part of that statement that whatever this particulate matter is, whatever this foreign substance is inside of the vaccines, it does not pose a safety risk. | |
| And then in terms of where it ultimately came from, one of the Moderna spokespeople, he said that they believed it was a manufacturing issue at a plant over in Spain that was the origin of these foreign metal substances inside of the vaccine. | |
| And so again, that was about a week ago. | |
| However, since then, Japanese officials have reported that two men who are in their 30s have unfortunately died after receiving a Moderna shot from one of these contaminated batches. | |
| Specifically, Japan's Ministry of Health, they said in a news release that these two men, both of whom received their second dose of the Moderna shot, they both experienced a fever and then sadly died two days afterwards. | |
| However, Moderna is urging people not to jump to conclusions. | |
| Upon the release of this news, upon the release of the news of these two men who died, Moderna, in conjunction with their Japanese distribution partner, which is a company called Takeda Pharmaceutical, they released a joint statement saying that while it's a tragedy, there's no current evidence suggesting that the Moderna shot is the cause of death. | |
| Here's part of what they said in their statement. | |
| At this time, we do not have any evidence that these deaths are caused by the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and it is important to conduct a formal investigation to determine whether there is any connection. | |
| It's also worth noting that even though Moderna said that this contamination likely came from a manufacturing issue at one of their manufacturing plants over in Spain, specifically the plant in Madrid operated by a company called Rovi, well, that plant is still in operation. | |
| In fact, the European Medicine Agency, they instructed the Spanish plant to continue producing the Moderna vaccines. | |
| Here's specifically what this European Commission told Reuters in a statement last Friday. | |
| COVID-19 vaccine production in Rovi is able to continue. | |
| However, Japan is taking a more hardline approach. | |
| That's because 5 days ago, Japanese authorities suspended another 1 million doses of Moderna's COVID vaccine, once again due to concerns of contamination. | |
| Specifically, over in Okinawa, as well as Gunma prefectures, they are suspending over a million doses in total. | |
| Here's what one official over from Okinawa said in a statement. | |
| Specifically, the officials over in Okinawa, as well as Gunma, they said that they found spotted tiny black substances inside of the syringes. | |
| And in terms of what they are, it's not exactly clear yet. | |
| So I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the official report comes back with, what these tiny little black substances are, as well as whether there are any official connections between the two men who died over in Japan and their receiving of the Moderna shot. | |
| If you'd like to go deeper into the story, into anything that we've discussed thus far, I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check out, and all I ask in return is that you take a quick moment to smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And now, while we're on the topic of the vaccine, let's move on over to Sweden. | |
| Just yesterday, Sweden issued a ban on Israeli residents from entering their country due to a rise in COVID cases in Israel, despite the fact, by the way, that Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries on the face of the planet. | |
| And this then highlights a very important reality, which is that according to Israeli officials, half of the adults who were infected in the most recent COVID outbreak, well, they were fully vaccinated. | |
| Furthermore, Israeli officials have said that about 90% of the new COVID infections were caused by the so-called Delta variant. | |
| And so about half of the adults which were infected, they were already fully vaccinated. | |
| However, the Delta variant was able to break through. | |
| Here's a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister. | |
| Our goal at the moment, first and foremost, is to safeguard the citizens of Israel from the Delta variant that is running amok in the world. | |
| And so, despite the fact that Israel is, again, quite literally one of the most, if not the most vaccinated country on Earth, they are still having problems with the virus, with cases right now rising significantly. | |
| As of Monday, which is just a few days ago, their 7-day average of COVID infections was over 1,000 cases per 1 million people, which is double the rate of numbers that you're seeing in places like the US and the UK, which is again, despite the fact that Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries on Earth. | |
| Now, interestingly, Sweden's Minister of the Interior, he said that despite Israel's successful vaccination campaign, the country is still home to large groups of unvaccinated people, which has allowed the outbreak to spread. | |
| That's his take on it, at least. | |
| And by the way, this ban in Sweden includes other countries as well, among which is the United States. | |
| Here's part of a press release from the Swedish government. | |
| Regarding foreign citizens traveling to Sweden from the US, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, as of September the 6th, only those covered by another exemption from the entry ban may enter Sweden. | |
| And by the way, the situation you're seeing playing out in Israel is not an isolated incident. | |
| You might have heard how several weeks ago, over in Massachusetts, there was also an outbreak of COVID, and out of the people who were infected... | |
| Close to three-fourths of them were fully vaccinated. | |
| Now, if you'd like to read more about this travel ban over in Sweden, I'll throw the links to that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now, before we move on over and discuss how the Supreme Court has upheld Texas' anti-abortion bill, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth. | |
| That's right Roman, although today we're not in the sound booth, we're in a living room looking area. | |
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| Now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now let's move on over to Texas. | |
| You might remember how back in May of this year, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 8, which is also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. | |
| Here's what he said upon signing that bill. | |
| Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion. | |
| And so, this new Texas law allows private citizens, private Texans, to file lawsuits against physicians who perform abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. | |
| And so essentially, this new bill outlaws abortions in Texas after a heartbeat has been detected, which usually comes at about the 6-week mark into the pregnancy. | |
| And so what this means is that if a physician here in Texas performs an abortion after the 6-week mark, they can be sued by a plethora of people to the tune of $10,000 per abortion. | |
| And while the Heartbeat Act drew a lot of praise from the pro-life advocates, saying that essentially it's going to save millions of unborn babies, it also, as expected, drew a lot of opposition from abortion providers. | |
| They said that this new Texas law would essentially overturn Roe v. | |
| Wade, which is of course the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the first place back in the 1970s. | |
| And these opponents of this law, they said that it would undermine Roe vs. | |
| Wade in kind of a roundabout way. | |
| For instance, Planned Parenthood, they said that this new law could lead to abortion providers being, quote, Furthermore, the ACLU, they said that this bill would effectively outlaw between 85-90% of the abortions here in Texas, Since many people don't even realize that they're pregnant within the first six weeks. | |
| Also, in a statement, the ACLU said that the way that this law is set up creates a bounty hunting scheme that encourages the general public to bring costly and harassing lawsuits against anyone who they believe has violated the ban, including a person who drives their friend to obtain an abortion, abortion funds providing financial assistance to patients, health center staff, and even a member of the clergy who assists an abortion patient. | |
| And so, the ACLU, alongside several abortion providers, they filed for an injunction against this law, saying that it was unconstitutional. | |
| And with this injunction, they were trying to stop this anti-abortion bill from going into effect while the longer legal battle was playing out in the background. | |
| However, two days ago, the Supreme Court ruled against this group, and they denied their attempt to stop this abortion ban from going into effect. | |
| The decision in the court was split 5-4, with five conservative-leaning justices voting in favor of the heartbeat bill, while the three liberal-leaning justices, who were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, voting in favor of allowing abortions to continue. | |
| Here's an excerpt from the majority opinion. | |
| The applicants now before us have raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue. | |
| But their application also presents complex and novel antecedent procedural questions on which they have not carried their burden. | |
| Now that's a little bit legalese, but what it's essentially saying in that opinion statement is that this battle is far from over. | |
| The constitutionality of this law is still up in the air. | |
| The only thing that has been decided thus far is that this injunction has been denied. | |
| Meaning that for the time being, Texas can, in fact, ban abortions after six weeks while more legal battles are playing out in the background. | |
| In fact, the majority opinion said that their decision is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas' law, and it still allows for legal challenges to move forward. | |
| Now, in the dissenting opinion, here's what the liberals on the court, alongside Chief Justice John Roberts, here's what they said in opposition: Now naturally, this decision was met with split opinions from the public. | |
| For instance, a pro-life organization called the Texas Alliance for Life, they welcomed the Supreme Court's decision. | |
| Here's what they said in a statement. | |
| We celebrate the lives of unborn children who will be protected from abortion as a result. | |
| Hundreds of pregnancy centers and maternity homes throughout Texas are expanding their capacity and resources to meet the needs of women facing unplanned pregnancies who may seek pregnancy. | |
| Also, the state of Texas has increased funding for the highly successful Alternatives to Abortion program to $100 million for the biennium to provide services to 150,000 clients per year. | |
| Furthermore, Texas Right to Life, which is another pro-life group, wrote this on Twitter following the Supreme Court decision. | |
| The Supreme Court denied abortionists' plea to stop the Texas Heartbeat Act. | |
| We will protect unborn babies. | |
| This decision is a huge victory for the pro-life movement. | |
| Texas Right to Life hopes to replicate our success across the nation. | |
| And indeed, that is very likely what will happen. | |
| Because if this anti-abortion bill is found to in fact be constitutional, then versions of it will likely spring up across the entire country, particularly in red states. | |
| If you'd like to read more about what's happening over in Texas with this new anti-abortion bill, which now can officially go into effect, I'll throw the links to that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And lastly, as we've already mentioned in several previous episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube, they made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program. | |
| On YouTube, at least, we can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after episodes, which is sort of a way that YouTube has been using to snuff out our independent journalism. | |
| But we here at the Epic Times, we did not take it lying down, and instead we created something very cool. | |
| It's called EpicTV. | |
| It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times video programs like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, Life in Times, China in Focus, as well as our show Facts Matter. | |
| And on there we'll publish exclusive content, that due to the censorship here on YouTube, We frankly do not feel comfortable publishing on this platform because even though everything is factual and well-researched, it doesn't matter because the algorithm might just detect certain words and kick us off this platform and maybe even delete our channel. | |
| I hope you check out Epic TV. I'll put a link to it right there at the top of the description box. | |
| I hope you click on it. | |
| I hope you subscribe. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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