Category: Health & Medicine
Senate passes Kennedy amendment protecting veterans’ Second Amendment rights
The Senate passed an amendment introduced by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that protects veterans’ Second Amendment rights if the Department of Veterans Affairs steps in to manage their financial benefits.
The Senate voted 53 to 45 Wednesday in approval of the amendment.
“Veterans who sacrificed to defend our Constitution shouldn’t see their own rights rest on the judgment of unelected bureaucrats—but right now, they do,” Kennedy told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“My amendment would prevent government workers from unduly stripping veterans of their right to bear arms. Every veteran who bravely serves our country has earned VA benefits, and it’s wrong for the government to punish veterans who get a helping hand to manage those resources.”
Under current law, the Department of Veterans Affairs reports a veteran’s name to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System when they seek help managing their finances in a conservatorship.
“If a veteran who defended this country has to go to the VA and ask for help managing his or her financial affairs, the VA automatically reports that veteran to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System . . . and that veteran loses his firearm,” Kennedy said on the floor of the Senate Wednesday. “Automatically. No due process.”
The amendment was spearheaded by Kennedy and fellow Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, who championed the measure in June as one that would “would prevent government workers from unduly stripping veterans of their right to bear arms.”
“All our amendment would do, would be able would be to say: The VA, just because you’ve asked for help with your money, can not automatically take away your firearm or report you to [the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System] unless a judge has ruled that that veteran is a danger to himself or to others,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
The executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the gun rights group’s lobbying arm, applauded the amendment’s passage and Sens. Kennedy and Moran for leading the charge on the bill.
“The men and women who volunteer to defend the Constitution deserve to be protected by the same Constitution for which they risk life and limb,” NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch exclusively told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
“It is a national embarrassment that anti-gun bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., have gotten away with unilaterally stripping veterans of their rights for decades. On behalf of millions of NRA members, many of whom are veterans, we applaud Senators Kennedy and Moran for leading on this important issue,” Kozuch continued.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy argued against the amendment Wednesday, claiming it would arm “mentally incompetent” veterans and lead to “a death sentence for scores of deeply mentally ill veterans.”
The passage comes after Kennedy said last week that he had struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the amendment after holding up the bill funding the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and military construction, the Hill previously reported.
“The original position was they wanted me to pull my amendment down, and I said ‘No,’” he told the Hill.
Maine Mass Shooting Doesn’t Justify More Gun Control. Here’s Why.
On Wednesday night, there was a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that has left at least 22 people dead, and many more injured at various locations. The suspect in the shooting, Robert Card, remains at large, and a manhunt is underway. According to reports, the suspect went to multiple locations, including a bar and a bowling alley.
Naturally, Democrats were quick to jump in with calls for more gun control. But make no mistake about it, this incident doesn’t prove the need for more gun control at all. It actually proves that existing gun control measures aren’t being enforced. How so? Well, according to information released to the public so far, we know that the suspect has severe mental health problems and was previously known to law enforcement.
According to a Maine law enforcement bulletin, Card “recently reported mental health issues including hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco.” Card was also reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer.
Let that sink in for a moment. Here’s a man with mental health problems who threatened to shoot up a base. Can anyone explain why he was a free man in the first place, let alone still in possession of firearms?
As Tom Knighton at our sister site Bearing Arms notes, “Maine has their own version of a red flag law. This is the kind of stuff we’re told red flag laws are for, and yet it doesn’t seem anyone bothered to use it.”
It’s inevitable that Joe Biden will deliver remarks at some point about the shooting, and it’s a safe bet he’ll blame the NRA and congressional Republicans—his favorite scapegoats for gun violence. But the NRA has consistently called upon the federal government to tackle the issue of mental illness and violence. In 1966, the NRA stated, “The time is at hand to seek means by which society can identify, treat and temporarily isolate such individuals,” because “elimination of the instrument by which these crimes are committed cannot arrest the ravages of a psychotic murderer.”
As Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms notes, if the suspect “was involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, that would have precluded him from legally purchasing or possessing a firearm. A voluntary commitment, on the other hand, wouldn’t necessarily have resulted in a NICS denial after he was released.” However, if Card “did self-report mental health issues including a threat to shoot up an army base and was committed to a mental health facility, that likely would have been seen as ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that he presented a danger to himself or others.”
When existing mechanisms to keep guns away from the mentally ill aren’t used, that’s not a reason for more gun control that won’t actually solve the problem.
Oklahoma Ban on Sex Changes for Minors Upheld by Federal District Court
Judge has ruled that the state law banning procedures or therapies for children under 18 doesn’t violate parents’ constitutional rights
U.S. District Court Judge John F. Heil has ruled that an Oklahoma state law banning sex-change procedures on children was constitutional and therefore could be enforced.
The ruling on Oct. 5, 2023, came as a result of a motion for injunctive relief to restrain the state from implementing the law.
Five young people identifying as transgender and in some degree of transition, their parents or legal guardians, and a health care provider are the plaintiffs in the case.
The defendant is Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican.
Top Doctors Raise Alarm over ‘Permanent’ Vax-Induced ‘Heart Damage’
“It took my breath away.” —Dr. Drew on the new study shows 50% of young men who got myocarditis after the vaccine now have permanent heart damage and he doesn’t understand why this isn’t front page news. And he recommends injured students sue any school that mandated it. pic.twitter.com/rlUgKhCS2l
— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) October 19, 2023
Two prominent American doctors have spoken out to warn the public after a recent study found that young people have “permanent heart damage” after receiving Covid mRNA shots.
The disturbing study was published in the renowned peer-reviewed scientific journal Circulation.
Researchers found that 50 percent of young men who developed Covid vaccine-induced myocarditis were left with permanent heart damage.
I’m not exactly sure what this means, but it sounds important.
The CDC has stopped printing COVID vaccine cards. Here’s what to do with your old one.
The article says to keep it in your records. Hmm, maybe not a bad idea.
I have another
Lies, Narratives, and Selling Your Children’s Graves
Transgenderism is an incredibly violent phenomenon.
Genital mutilation is labeled “gender-affirming care,” while the mainstream media constantly reminds attempts to frame anti-trans legislation as a matter of “survival.” From self-harm to self-deception, the transgender community is plagued by depravity and violence. Yet every step of the way, the Biden administration has sought to hamper any laws that would curb this violence.1 For the federal government, downplaying the violence of transgenderism is just as crucial as skewing statistics on firearm deaths. Creating the illusion that transgenderism and violence are separate issues is a task that never ends, resulting in confusion and false impressions. After all, without mountains of rhetoric and manufactured evidence, the average person would be inclined to assume transgenderism is a “red flag” for gun ownership.
As it is, sifting through these statistics on transgenderism is a bit of a challenge. Selective data collection has plagued transgender crime statistics for quite some time.2 Some studies believe that transgender people are being misgendered at death and that they are actually four times more likely to be a victim of violence.3 Further complicating the matter, the FBI crime statistics currently list almost 10% of murder offenders as “unknown gender.”
Despite our limited studies, the information we do have indicates the transgender community has an intense predisposition to violence.
- Transgender individuals consider and attempt suicide at extremely high rates.4
- Sexual minorities are 3x more likely to be incarcerated5
- Transgender individuals experience a “dramatically higher” prevalence of intimate partner violence.6
- Gay and Transgender Youth are 2x more likely to be in the juvenile justice system7
Even though the studies are scarce, the association between transgenderism and violent offenses is inescapable. To those who have already made this connection, the shooting at Covenant School was a tragedy, not a surprise.
Scientists ‘shocked’ and ‘alarmed’ at what’s in the mRNA shots
Early in 2023, genomics scientist Kevin McKernan made an accidental discovery. While running an experiment in his Boston lab, McKernan used some vials of mRNA Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines as controls. He was ‘shocked’ to find that they were allegedly contaminated with tiny fragments of plasmid DNA.
McKernan, who has 25 years’ experience in his field, ran the experiment again, confirming that the vials contained up to, in his opinion, 18-70 times more DNA contamination than the legal limits allowed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In particular, McKernan was alarmed to find the presence of an SV40 promoter in the Pfizer vaccine vials. This is a sequence that is, ‘…used to drive DNA into the nucleus, especially in gene therapies,’ McKernan explains. This is something that regulatory agencies around the world have specifically said is not possible with the mRNA vaccines.
Knowing that the contamination had not been disclosed by the manufacturers during the regulatory process, McKernan raised the alarm, posting his findings to Twitter (now X) and Substack with a call-out to other scientists to see if they could replicate his findings.
Other scientists soon confirmed McKernan’s findings, though the amount of DNA contamination was variable, suggesting inconsistency of vial contents depending on batch lots. One of these scientists was cancer genomics expert Dr Phillip Buckhaults, who is a proponent of the mRNA platform and has received the Pfizer Covid vaccine himself.
In September of this year, Dr Buckhaults shared his findings in South Carolina Senate hearing. ‘I’m kind of alarmed about this DNA being in the vaccine – it’s different from RNA, because it can be permanent,’ he told those present.
‘There is a very real hazard,’ he said, that the contaminant DNA fragments will integrate with a person’s genome and become a ‘permanent fixture of the cell’ leading to autoimmune problems and cancers in some people who have had the vaccinations. He also noted that these genome changes can ‘last for generations’.
Dr Buckhaults alleges that the presence of high levels of contaminant DNA in the mRNA vaccines ‘may be causing some of the rare but serious side effects, like death from cardiac arrest’. He added, ‘I think this is a real serious regulatory oversight that happened at the federal level.’
Cancers Appearing in Ways Never Before Seen After COVID Vaccinations: Dr. Harvey Risch
There is evidence that cancers are occurring in excess after people receive COVID-19 vaccinations, according to Dr. Harvey Risch.
here is difficulty in observing whether a vaccine can cause cancer, because cancer usually takes time to develop, Dr. Risch said. It can take anywhere from two years to 30 years, depending on the different types of cancer, from leukemia to colon cancer.
“What clinicians have been seeing,” said Dr. Risch, “is very strange things: For example, 25-year-olds with colon cancer, who don’t have family histories of the disease—that’s basically impossible along the known paradigm for how colon cancer works—and other long-latency cancers that they’re seeing in very young people.”
He said this is not how cancer normally develops.
“There has to be some initiating stimulus to why this happens,” he said.
Observation O’ The Day
Providers are moving very quickly from denying they ever did these kinds of things to sounding resentful that they’re no longer allowed to.
-Stephen Green
St Louis Children’s Hospital will no longer perform sex changes on minors.
The Washington University Transgender Center at Saint Louis Children’s Hospital will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or sex hormones to minors for purposes of gender transition, as a result of a new law in Missouri.
In a letter to staff obtained by The Post Millennial, Dr. David H Perlmutter, the executive vice chancellor for medical affairs of Washington University’s School of Medicine told staff at the center that following a review, “We have now reached a point where we can no longer continue to operate the center in the same way.”
He specifically cited “Missouri’s newly enacted law regarding transgender care” that has “created a new legal claim for patients who receive these medications as minors. This legal claim creates unsustainable liability for healthcare professionals and makes it untenable for us to continue to provide comprehensive transgender care for minor patients without subjecting the university and our providers to an unacceptable level of liability.”
“For this reason, we have made the difficult decision to no longer allow Washington University physicians to prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors for purposes of gender transition.”
Pearlmutter did note that the transgender center “…will continue to offer other services including education and mental health support for all patients and medical care for patients over the age of 18.”
Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature passed two bills, one which banned sex changes for minors and prohibited biological men from competing in women’s sports.
The legislation was signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Parson and bans giving minors puberty blockers, hormones, and sex change surgery. It also blocks prisoners and inmates from receiving surgical sex changes. Additionally, the bill prevents Medicaid from covering the cost of these surgeries in the entire state.
In April, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey signed an emergency order placing restrictions on experimental sex changes following an investigation into the whistleblower accusations of malpractice at the center.
What physicians get wrong about the risks of being overweight.
In fact, a 2013 paper—which analyzed nearly 100 studies that included more than 2.8 million people—found that being overweight slightly reduced mortality risk. (That wasn’t the case for those considered obese, with a BMI at or above 30.) A 2016 analysis of around 240 studies did find a link between being overweight and higher mortality, but the effect was small.
Mathur felt that both studies had methodological problems, such as not controlling well for factors such as diet and physical activity.
“My own exposure to public health messaging suggested that an overweight BMI was a risk factor for mortality,” she said. But after reviewing the research she concluded, “That’s just not an evidence-based perception, considering the literature as a whole.”
"…the bivalent-vaccinated group had a slightly but statistically significantly higher infection rate than the unvaccinated group in the statewide category and the age ≥50 years category."
There is no benefit to risking this poison. https://t.co/x7pyNVJGpo
— TraderJill (Leigh) Pronouns: Wtf/Is/Wrong/With/You (@LadyJustice4512) September 8, 2023
In June 2022 Pfizer Was Asked By the FDA VRBPAC Committee How Much Spike Protein Their Vaccine Causes Cells to Produce & For How Long
“Obviously we don't have a complete understanding of the way the vaccine works…It’s somewhat academic in the setting of what we are trying to… pic.twitter.com/kOEMJw8wIz
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) September 4, 2023
Weren’t we told that getting the vaxx would stop this?
Double Vaxxed and Double Boosted Jill Biden Tests Positive for COVID–Again.
The White House announced Monday evening that Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 while on vacation in Delaware and is “experiencing only mild symptoms.” Jill Biden is double-vaxxed and twice boosted. Jill previously tested positive in August 2022 and again that month in a rebound case after treatment with Paxlovid. Jill’s case comes as a new wave of COVID hysteria has started with the emergence of a new variant (Pirola).
A follow-up statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden tested negative for COVID Monday evening.
The Bidens were on vacation this weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Joe returned to the White House on Monday after giving a Labor Day speech in Philadelphia. Jill remained behind in Rehoboth Beach.
FDA, CDC Hid Data on Spike in COVID Cases Among the Vaccinated: Documents
COVID-19 cases among vaccinated seniors soared in 2021, according to newly disclosed data that was acquired by U.S. health agencies but not presented to the public.
Humetrix Cloud Services was contracted by the U.S. military to analyze vaccine data. The company performed a fresh analysis as authorities considered in 2021 whether COVID-19 vaccine boosters were necessary amid studies finding waning vaccine effectiveness.
Humetrix researchers found that the proportion of total COVID-19 cases among the seniors was increasingly comprised of vaccinated people, according to the newly disclosed documents.
For the week ending on July 31, 2021, post-vaccination COVID-19 cases represented 73 percent of the cases among people 65 and older, the company found. The elderly were 80 percent fully vaccinated at the time.
Breakthrough infection rates were higher among those who were vaccinated early, the researchers found. They estimated that the rates were twice as high in those who had been vaccinated five to six months prior, when compared to people vaccinated three to four months before.
These days, you can’t go and call this the rambling of a crackpot
If I were only slightly more paranoid, I’d think that the CDC had weaponized AGS and launched a test run for making us proles allergic to red meat. But give it a day or two and I might get there. Stephen Green
Mysterious, Unexplained Red Meat Allergies Reportedly Explode in Virginia.
I have reported previously at PJ Media that the CDC has been warning lately of an unexplained rise in what was previously a rare red meat allergy called alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) that develops in humans by way of a molecule passed into the bloodstream by a species of tick called the Lone Star Tick.
Via CDC (emphasis added):
During January 1, 2017–December 31, 2022, a total of 357,119 tests were submitted from residences in the United States, corresponding to 295,400 persons. Overall, 90,018 (30.5%) persons received a positive test result in the study period, and the number of persons with positive test results increased from 13,371 in 2017 to 18,885 in 2021.
Among 233,521 persons for whom geographic data were available, suspected cases predominantly occurred in counties within the southern, midwestern, and mid-Atlantic U.S. Census Bureau regions. These data highlight the evolving emergence of AGS and can be used to help state and local health agencies initiate surveillance and target public health outreach and health care provider education to high-risk localities…
The number of AGS cases in the United States is predicted to increase during the coming years, presenting a critical need for synergistic public health activities including 1) community education targeting tick bite prevention to reduce the risk for acquiring AGS, 2) HCP education to improve timely diagnosis and management, and 3) improved surveillance to aid public health decision-making.
Taking the CDC’s claims of rising AGS at face value, the crucial piece of information is that neither the agency nor any Public Health™ authority has offered a viable explanation for why cases would suddenly explode. So we are left to speculate as to why.
Related: NYU Bioethicist Hints at Triggering Red Meat Allergies in Entire Human Population
Now Public Health™ officials in Virginia are reporting similar concerns to the CDC.
Via Fox News (emphasis added):
A public health concern with potentially deadly consequences is on the rise in Virginia, health officials said, as people are testing positive for alpha-gal syndrome.
Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is a little-known meat allergy that is contracted through tick bites and can be life-threatening. It primarily causes hives, angioedema, upset stomach, diarrhea, stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, headaches and a drop in blood pressure, and it can even cause death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued a warning about the syndrome last month.
It is known to spread through tick bites, specifically from the lone star tick, which is prevalent in Virginia, according to Julia Murphy, a state public health veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).
“We do have a lot of lone star ticks here in Virginia, so we think that’s driving a lot of what we are seeing in Virginia when it comes to alpha-gal and people testing positive for alpha-gal,” she said, according to WSET.
This, again, is a totally insufficient explanation. It is already established that lone star ticks, which have been present in North America for thousands and possibly millions of years, transmit the molecule that causes AGS. The disease itself — the symptoms of which are usually very obvious — has been identifiable and testable for decades; all that’s required is to test for the presence of the antibody to the alpha-gal molecule. So there is no real argument here that it’s just more diagnosable now than before.
From my perspective, there are only two real possibilities:
- Alpha-gal syndrome is not any more prevalent than it previously was, and this is an anti-meat fearmongering campaign.
- There is something else in the environment besides lone star ticks causing alpha-gal syndrome.
Now, if they’d have OTC Epi
Over-the-counter Narcan to hit drugstore shelves next week.
Narcan, a lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdose, will be available on U.S. drugstore shelves and online starting next week.
People who want to carry Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, will be able to find it at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart and CVS for a suggested retail price of $44.99 for a box of two doses, the drug maker reported Wednesday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Emergent BioSolutions’ overdose antidote in March in response to record numbers of overdose deaths, largely due to powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
“We think really everyone should be thinking about putting this into their first aid kit,” Walgreens chief medical officer Dr. Kevin Ban told CNN. “It’s really unlimited in terms of the folks who should make sure that they get some naloxone in the off chance that they come across someone who was experiencing an overdose. This is a way to reverse that overdose. It’ll save people’s lives.”
Most U.S. states already had standing orders to allow pharmacies and other qualified organizations to provide this antidote without a prescription for those at risk, but this provides even more availability. The drug can revive a person who is overdosing within minutes.
“It is excellent news that there’s an over-the-counter naloxone product,” said Maya Doe-Simkins, co-director of Remedy Alliance/For the People, which aims to increase access to affordable naloxone.
Yet Doe-Simkins noted that most people get naloxone from organizations and governments who buy it in bulk, CNN reported.
“This is the evidence-based model that is proven to save lives,” she said.
Community groups, first responders, state and local governments and harm reduction groups will be able to purchase Narcan for a cheaper price than the general public, $41 per two-dose carton starting Thursday, the manufacturer said.
Narcan could soon be joined by another naloxone nasal spray, called RiVive. The nonprofit Harm Reduction Therapeutics will sell it at cost – $36 for a two-pack – starting in early 2024, CNN reported.
There may still be some barriers to accessing Narcan. CVS plans to offer it for sale behind its pharmacy counter, as well as at the register and for order via pickup and delivery. Walmart and Rite Aid plan to sell it on pain care aisles. Walgreens will stock shelves with cards that someone can bring to a register to access the actual medication, CNN said.
That allows there to be sort of easy requests without having to ask for it,” Ban said. “That’s one of the things we wanted to remove. We realized that a lot of people just don’t want to ask for the medication. So we came up with that mechanism to grab this card, then you can either bring it to the front of the store or the back of the store.”
Any barriers may still deter people from accessing the medication, Doe-Simkins said.
“Anything that’s layered on to naloxone access is a barrier,” she said, noting its over-the-counter availability is something the community has waited for.
“We’ve been advocating for that for well over a decade,” Doe-Simkins noted. “It’s about time.”
Injectable naloxone is still available by prescription at a much lower cost.
United States ‘experiencing a crisis of early death.’
BOSTON — A recent study is revealing the dire state of public health in the United States. In comparison to other wealthy nations, the U.S. death rate far outpaces America’s peers — leading researchers to say that the country is actually “experiencing a crisis of early death.”
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) found that more than one million U.S. deaths a year — including many young and working-age adults — could be avoided if the country had mortality rates similar to other high-income nations.
In 2021, 1.1 million deaths would have been averted if the U.S. had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations. The study refers to these excess deaths as “Missing Americans,” because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if the U.S. death rate was equal to its peer countries.
“The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented in modern times,” says Dr. Jacob Bor, the study’s lead and corresponding author and associate professor of global health and epidemiology at BUSPH, in a media release.
Nearly 50 percent of all Missing Americans died before age 65 in 2020 and 2021. The study found that the level of excess mortality among working-age adults is particularly stark.
“Think of people you know who have passed away before reaching age 65. Statistically, half of them would still be alive if the U.S. had the mortality rates of our peers,” Dr. Bor said. “The U.S. is experiencing a crisis of early death that is unique among wealthy nations.”
To be frank, our doctors did and were too.
In Wuhan, Doctors Knew The Truth. They Were Told To Keep Quiet.
In the first weeks of 2020, a radiologist at Xinhua Hospital in Wuhan, China, saw looming signs of trouble. He was a native of Wuhan and had 29 years of radiology experience. His job was to take computed tomography (CT) scans, looking at patients’ lungs for signs of infection.
And infections were everywhere. “I have never seen a virus that spreads so quickly,” he told a reporter for the investigative magazine Caixin. “This growth rate is too fast, and it is too scary.”
“The CT machines in the hospital were overloaded every day,” he added. “The machines are exhausted and often crash.”
But this tableau of chaos was hidden from the Chinese people — and the world — in early 2020. Chinese authorities had acknowledged on Dec. 31, 2019, that there were 27 cases of “pneumonia of unknown origin,” and 44 confirmed cases on Jan. 3, 2020. The Wuhan health commission reported 59 cases on Jan. 5, then abruptly reduced the number to 41 on Jan. 11, and claimed there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission or any signs of doctors getting sick.
That claim was a lie. The coronavirus was running rampant. Doctors at the radiologist’s hospital, and other hospitals, were getting sick. But China’s Communist Party leaders prize social stability above all else. They fear any sign of public panic or admission that the ruling party-state is not in control. The authorities in both Wuhan and Beijing kept the situation secret, especially because annual party political meetings were being held in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, from Jan. 6 to Jan. 17.
Secrecy has long been a major tool of the governing Communist Party. It suppresses independent journalism, censors digital news and communications, and withholds vital information from its people. Doctors in Wuhan who knew the truth were afraid to speak out. China did not reveal human transmission of the virus until Jan. 22, and by then, the pandemic had been ignited. In 3½ years, covid-19 has taken nearly 7 million lives by official counts. The true death toll is probably twice or three times that number.