Dec. 26, 2021 - Epoch Times
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| Good evening. | |
| Over in several Nordic countries, which includes Finland, Norway, Sweden, as well as Iceland, they have either partially or completely suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine over concerns of potential heart inflammation. | |
| Meanwhile, over in Texas, Likewise, over in the state of New York, a federal judge there has just ruled in favor of 17 healthcare workers who were objecting to taking the vaccine under religious grounds. | |
| And then lastly... | |
| Despite the non-stop coverage of COVID by the media over the past year and a half, a new Gallup poll found that 92% of Americans, 92%, overestimate the hospitalization rate for those who are unvaccinated. | |
| 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 now let's begin today's discussion by talking about what's happening with the Moderna vaccine. | |
| And to start with, the health officials in several Nordic countries, including in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, they suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine for young people due to the risk of them developing myocarditis as a side effect. | |
| Now, in terms of who qualifies as a young person, well, that depends from country to country. | |
| For instance, in both Denmark as well as Sweden, they paused the Moderna vaccine for anyone under the age of 30. | |
| Here is in fact a statement from the Swedish Health Agency which explains their reasoning: "We've decided to pause the use of Moderna's vaccine, Spikevax, for everyone born in 1991 and later for precautionary reasons, given that there is an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or heart sac." Likewise, over in Finland, health officials there said that males under the age of 30 should not receive the shot. | |
| Here's a statement from the director of the Finnish Health Institute. | |
| A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark found that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna spike vax had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis. | |
| And then over in Iceland, well, they took a more hardline stance. | |
| That's because the health authorities over in Iceland, they suspended the use of the Moderna shot altogether for people of any age. | |
| Here's a statement from the Icelandic director of health. | |
| As the supply of the Pfizer vaccine is sufficient in the territory, the chief epidemiologist has decided not to use the Moderna vaccine in Iceland. | |
| This move was handed down due to the increased incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine, as well as with vaccination using Pfizer or Biotech. | |
| And so, as you can see by the statements that were given by these different Nordic countries, they have either partially or completely suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine due to the risk of developing heart inflammation that is especially present for young people. | |
| However, our own health agency here in America, the FDA, they seem to disagree with the conclusion that was reached by these Nordic countries. | |
| That's because after the Moderna vaccine was suspended, the FDA, which by the way still allows the use of the Moderna vaccine here in America under the emergency use authorization, they came out and they issued this statement right here, which says that the benefits that the shot offers greatly outweigh its risks. | |
| Here's specifically what an FDA official said in a prepared statement over the weekend. | |
| Quote, Furthermore, the vaccine manufacturer themselves, meaning Moderna, they came out as well and acknowledged what was happening in these Nordic countries, and just like the FDA, they defended their product. | |
| Here's what Moderna said in a statement. | |
| We're aware of the very rare occurrence of myocarditis and or pericarditis following administration of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. | |
| These are typically mild cases, and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest. | |
| The risk of myocarditis is substantially increased for those who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the best way to protect against this. | |
| Furthermore, notwithstanding what's currently happening in these Nordic countries, Moderna is now pushing to vaccinate American children. | |
| Specifically, children as young as five years old. | |
| And along that line, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization, they have officially set a date to come together and discuss vaccinating children using both the Moderna as well as the Johnson& Johnson vaccine. | |
| They'll also be discussing using booster shots for these two vaccines as well during those meetings. | |
| However, let's take a quick moment and circle back to the discussion of Nordic countries, because there is something there that we haven't touched upon yet, and that is how the New York Times covered that development. | |
| Last Wednesday, the New York Times published an article which was titled, A New Vaccine Strategy for Children, Just One Dose for Now. | |
| And in that article, which was talking about what was happening in these Nordic countries, they made two very interesting factual errors that seemed to obfuscate what was really happening. | |
| First of all, even though regulators in both Sweden as well as Denmark had actually suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine in children, the New York Times, they instead reported that they had begun giving children only one dose of the vaccine instead of two. | |
| They had to issue a correction about that. | |
| And then secondly, in that article, the New York Times wanted to give their readers a little bit of context. | |
| They wanted to tell the readers about how many children have been hospitalized with COVID since the start of the pandemic. | |
| And so in that article, the New York Times author, they wrote that since the start of the pandemic, 900,000 children have been hospitalized here in America due to COVID. | |
| Now, of course, that is a lot. | |
| I mean, 900,000 children is astronomical. | |
| However, the only problem with that statistic is that it's not true. | |
| In fact, the statistic that the New York Times published was 14 times, about 14 times greater than the real number. | |
| Eventually, the New York Times did publish a correction. | |
| Here's what it said. | |
| Think about that. | |
| 63,000 versus 900,000. | |
| That's a difference of 14 times. | |
| Now, I will give the New York Times the benefit of the doubt that this was an honest mistake. | |
| However, this does point to a greater issue that's worth discussing, and that is the role of the media in informing the public. | |
| Because, given the fact that COVID, the pandemic, hospitalizations, and so on have been the main topic of discussion for well over a year now in almost every media outlet across this country, you would assume that the general public will be very well informed about some of the basic statistics surrounding the virus. | |
| However, a recent Gallup poll found the exact opposite to be true. | |
| According to the survey, which by the way just came out about two weeks ago, it found that Americans in general, by and large, overestimate both the COVID hospitalization as well as the COVID death rates by a staggering margin. | |
| For instance, let's compare these two charts. | |
| The first chart, it shows what people thought the hospitalization risk was for unvaccinated people. | |
| And as you can see, it's broken down by political party. | |
| The red line is Republicans, blue is Democrat, and the white is Independents. | |
| And all the way on the right, it shows that 41% of Democrats, 22% of Republicans, and 26% of Independents, they believe that if someone is unvaccinated and they catch COVID, they have over a 50% chance of getting hospitalized. | |
| That is huge. | |
| They think that half of the people who are unvaccinated and catch COVID are going straight to the hospital. | |
| But do you know what the real number is? | |
| Well, according to Gallup, who cited federal health data, they found that the true rate of hospitalization for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people was less than 1%. | |
| Let me just repeat that. | |
| The true number here is less than 1% being hospitalized whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated. | |
| But if you go back to the chart, you'll see that only 16% of Republicans and only 2% of Democrats got the answer correct, whereas the vast majority of Americans, even across political lines, believe that it's higher. | |
| Here's part of the conclusion that Gallup wrote alongside their finding. | |
| Democrats are more likely to overstate hospitalization risks for unvaccinated people, which may fuel efforts often led by Democratic Party leaders to enforce both mask and vaccine mandates. | |
| Now interestingly, in that same survey, they published a second chart. | |
| Here it is right here. | |
| And this chart, it shows what people think the hospitalization risk is for vaccinated people. | |
| And as you can see, it's reversed, with many people believing that it's less than 1%. | |
| And they are in fact correct. | |
| According to federal data, it is in fact less than 1%. | |
| Here's how Gallup summarized their findings. | |
| Most Americans overstayed the risk of hospitalization for both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals. | |
| Roughly 92% overstayed the risk that unvaccinated people will be hospitalized, while 62% overstated the risk for vaccinated individuals. | |
| Can you believe these types of numbers? | |
| I mean, really, think about it. | |
| After a year and a half of constant news on this subject from almost every media outlet in this country, the overwhelming majority of Americans are just misinformed about the basic statistics of what is actually happening. | |
| It's really kind of amazing if you think about it. | |
| Regardless, if you'd like to read more about what's happening over in these Nordic countries, if you'd like to read more about this upcoming CDC meeting where they'll be discussing the possibility of vaccinating children as young as 5 years old, or if you'd like to read more about this Gallup survey, 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 second to smash I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check out, and | |
| And now, before we move on over and discuss how a federal judge over in New York ruled in favor of 17 hospital workers who are objecting to getting the vaccine under religious grounds, I would like to take a super quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which I will do from the sound booth. | |
| That's right, Roman. | |
| The sponsor of today's episode is an awesome company called AMAC. That's A-M-A-C. And it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens. | |
| Now, what I learned earlier today, though, is that you don't actually need to be a mature American citizen yourself in order to join AMAC, because even though they're an organization that's geared towards people who are 50 years of age and above, you can actually join at any age as long as you're an American-loving patriot. | |
| And so what they say is that as our fundamental freedoms here in this country are being threatened by politicians who don't even necessarily know how to balance their own checking accounts, And as there is a concerted effort to censor conservatives by this woke ideology, one thing that you can do to fight back is to join the two million people who are already members of AMAC. And by joining, you'll have access to three main benefits. | |
| The first benefit is the money-saving benefit because by joining, you'll have access to discounts on things like vitamins, restaurants, retail shops throughout the entire country. | |
| Second of all, you will gain access to the AMAC website The AMAC app as well as the AMAC magazine, which gives you something that the mainstream media doesn't, which is honest news that is grounded in facts. | |
| And third of all, and this is what a lot of people say is their favorite benefit, is that AMAC has your back over on Capitol Hill. | |
| Because with two million freedom-loving members, they are a voice for conservatives that cannot be ignored. | |
| And so, if you are a person who considers themselves a constitutional conservative, then I would consider joining AMAC. You can do so over at amac.us. | |
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| So AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode. | |
| Now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| And now let's move on over to New York. | |
| And to start with, I'd like to begin with a question. | |
| If you see disparities in a system, how do you deal with them? | |
| For instance, if you have an accelerated learning program, a gifted learning program for talented students, and you look at it and you find that Latino and Black students are underrepresented, well, what do you do? | |
| Well, you could look at the root cause of the problem. | |
| Maybe you can find some better ways to tutor those kids, see what's keeping them from joining the program, Maybe help the parents prepare the kids better? | |
| I mean, there are a lot of different possible solutions. | |
| However, Bill de Blasio, who is New York City's mayor, well, he decided to take a slightly different course of action. | |
| Seeing these racial disparities, he decided to cancel the accelerated learning program altogether. | |
| Let me just repeat that. | |
| New York City has decided to cancel the accelerated learning program in order to combat supposed discrimination because there were too many Asian and white kids and not enough black and Latino kids. | |
| Here's what Mayor Bill de Blasio said during the announcement of his new policy. | |
| The era of judging four-year-olds based on a single test is over. | |
| Every New York City child deserves to reach their full potential, and this new equitable model gives them that chance. | |
| Now, the new equitable model that he's referring to is called Brilliant NYC, and it's the name of the new framework which will replace the current talented program. | |
| In this new model, everyone will be kept in the same classroom, and then if a child is identified as being gifted, then the teacher can give that child some extra attention. | |
| Here's what the mayor said. | |
| Now, the reactions by New Yorkers to this announcement were mixed, as you can expect. | |
| For instance, a parent who called into WNYC, which is a local news outlet here in New York, she said that this was a good development and that the gifted program created a two-tiered world that I think needs to go. | |
| On the other side, a woman who actually has a child that's currently enrolled in one of these gifted programs, well, she had some choice words for Mayor Bill de Blasio. | |
| It is abominable that de Blasio is, in his final months in office, dismantling one of the few successful education programs in New York City, adversely impacting a swath of children. | |
| Now, what she's referring to there specifically is the fact that after eight years in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio only has three months left in his term. | |
| And so, we'll see whether these changes are actually implemented beyond his tenure, which frankly isn't very likely, since both Eric Adams as well as Curtis Sliva, who are the frontrunners in replacing Bill de Blasio, they are both opposed to scrapping the gifted program. | |
| And so we'll have to wait and see what happens after the election. | |
| If you'd like to read more about this new equitable model of education, I'll throw the links to it into the description box below this video so you can check them out. | |
| And I'll ask in return is that if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| However, since we're discussing New York, let's talk about the vaccine mechanism. | |
| And to start with, just yesterday, a federal judge ruled in favor of 17 healthcare workers who were objecting to taking the vaccine under religious grounds. | |
| What happened was that these healthcare workers, they were being forced to take the vaccine in order to keep their jobs. | |
| However, they did not want to take the vaccine because it went against their deeply held religious convictions. | |
| But in New York State, there was no religious exemption to the vaccine mandate that was being pushed upon healthcare workers. | |
| And so, these 17 employees, they filed a lawsuit against the state, and after several months of legal back and forth within the court system, they finally won. | |
| Yesterday, the federal judge in the case, he ruled that New York state officials, they did not adequately explain why these workers were denied a religious exemption to the mandate. | |
| Here's in fact what the judge wrote as a part of his official decision. | |
| And by the way, the judge in this case is David Hurd, who was appointed by Bill Clinton. | |
| And here's what he wrote. | |
| There is no adequate explanation from defendants about why the reasonable accommodation that must be extended to a medically exempt healthcare worker under provision 261 could not similarly be extended to a healthcare worker with a sincere religious objection. | |
| Now, specifically, the plaintiffs in the case, they were arguing that the vaccine mandate, as it was formulated, violated their constitutional rights because their employers were essentially forbidden from taking into account their religious accommodations. | |
| And this was exactly the crux of the case. | |
| In fact, the judge, he stated it very simply by saying that the... | |
| Principal question in this case was whether the New York City's mandate, quote, conflicts with plaintiffs and other individuals' federally protected rights to seek a religious accommodation from their individual employers. | |
| And in terms of the answer to this question, well, the judge said it unequivocally. | |
| Quote, The answer to this question is clearly yes. | |
| Plaintiffs have established that Section 261 conflicts with longstanding federal protections for religious beliefs and that they and others will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief. | |
| Now, the lawyer who is representing the plaintiffs in this case, well, he was naturally enough pleased with the decision from the judge. | |
| In fact, here's what he said as a part of his statement. | |
| This ruling is very clearly a decision supporting the constitutional rights of these medical workers whose requests for religious exemption to the vaccine mandate were rejected by Governor Hochul and her administration. | |
| On the flip side, however, the governor, she had a different take on the matter, saying that she not only disagreed with this ruling, but she will actually continue to fight it in court. | |
| Here's what she said. | |
| My responsibility as governor is to protect the people of the state and requiring healthcare workers to get vaccinated accomplishes that. | |
| I stand behind this mandate and I will fight this decision in court to keep New Yorkers safe. | |
| Now, by the way, in a previous episode, we already discussed some of Governor Hochul's views on the vaccine, including how she thinks it's actually a gift from God and that New Yorkers should become apostles for spreading the good word about the vaccine. | |
| Regardless, due to this ruling, New York healthcare workers can now be granted religious exemptions against the vaccine mandate. | |
| And for your reference, by the way, the reason that many devout Christians are objecting to the vaccine is because during its research and development, specifically of the mRNA vaccines, they employed fetal cell lines, which are cells that are grown in laboratory derived from aborted fetuses. | |
| If you'd like to read more about this decision over in the New York court, I'll throw a link to this lawsuit into the description box below this video. | |
| And again, all I ask in return is that you smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| However, since we're on the topic of vaccine mandates, let's move on over to Texas. | |
| Because while New York is pushing the vaccine mandates in all of their various iterations, the state of Texas is taking a much different route. | |
| And along that line, two days ago, the governor of Texas, Mr. | |
| Greg Abbott, he issued an executive order which bans any and all vaccine mandates in the entire state of Texas, including mandates which are enforced by private companies. | |
| In explaining his reasoning, here's what he said in a statement when he issued this executive order. | |
| The COVID vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced. | |
| Now, in terms of the scope of this executive order, it is actually very broad. | |
| Here's what it says in relevant part. | |
| Quote, So there you have it. | |
| It is a fairly unambiguous executive order, which covers pretty much anything. | |
| Furthermore, Governor Greg Abbott, he also said that he is adding this issue to the agenda item to the third special legislative session over in Texas, which will give Texas lawmakers an opportunity to pass an actual law to this effect. | |
| So that it's not just an executive order, but it will actually be a law on the books. | |
| However, we'll have to actually see what happens, because as you know, Joe Biden, he is pushing the federal government to institute rules which will mandate that all private companies throughout the entire country, with over 100 employees, they must have all of their workers vaccinated. | |
| And once that rule is actually formulated and goes into effect, well, you're going to have a very serious crash, because the federal government's rule will be in direct contradiction to the Texas rule. | |
| And so we'll have to see what happens. | |
| However, it's not necessarily the case that the federal government overrides the state government. | |
| Because you might think that, but when you take into account the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, well, it says clearly that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people. | |
| And that is straight out of the Bill of Rights. | |
| It's straight out of the Constitution. | |
| And so it will ultimately have to be decided by the courts as to who is going to be victorious in this case. | |
| Now some companies have already openly stated that they will be defying this new Texas regulation. | |
| For instance, a spokeswoman for American Airlines We believe the federal vaccine mandate supersedes any conflicting state laws and this does not change anything for American. | |
| Furthermore, Southwest Airlines, which is based out of Texas and is definitely not having a worker strike right now, they also came out in opposition to the Texas ban on vaccine mandates. | |
| Here's what the company said in a similar statement. | |
| And so, we'll have to see how this all ultimately plays out in the coming months. | |
| If you'd like to read more about this Texas ban on vaccine mandates or these different statements from these airlines, I'll throw all that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now lastly, since you've completed this episode of Facts Matter, I would highly, highly recommend that you check out an awesome episode of American Thought Leaders that you can find over on Epic TV, where Jan sat down with the man who actually created the mRNA technology that's now being used in all of these vaccines. | |
| Check out the trailer for that awesome episode. | |
| We need to confront the data as they are, not try to cover stuff up or hide risks. | |
| What does the most recent peer-reviewed research say about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines? | |
| The logic that supports mandatory vaccination, that's no longer tenable. | |
| In this two-part episode, I sit down again with mRNA vaccine pioneer Dr. | |
| Robert Malone for a comprehensive look at the vaccines, repurposed drugs like ivermectin, and the ethics of vaccine mandates. | |
| Look at the logic of what we're confronting. | |
| That juggernaut has gotten so wrapped up around a consensus set of truths that are failing now. | |
| This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Jan Jekalik. | |
| If you want to check out that great episode, as well as all the other phenomenal content over on Epic TV, I'll throw a link to it. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| Hope you click on it. | |
| Hope you check it out. | |
| Hope you subscribe. | |
| And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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