Commercial space clean-up service could be ready in 2024:

A space junk removal truck could start picking up dead satellites in 2024.

Japan-headquartered space services company Astroscale, which recently launched its ELSA-d space debris removal demonstrator, might be ready to start cleaning up the mess in Earth’s orbit by 2024.

The company, which has offices in the U.K., U.S., Israel and Singapore, has signed a $3.5 million deal with would-be megaconstellation operator OneWeb to work together on advancing debris-removal technology. OneWeb currently operates over 180 satellites in a constellation meant to reach about 650 satellites, but has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve over 6,300 satellites in its “Phase Two” strategy. OneWeb is partially owned by the British government.

Plans of companies such as OneWeb, SpaceX and Amazon to launch constellations of thousands of satellites cause serious concerns in the global space flight community as the already cluttered orbital environment is at risk of becoming overcrowded. Satellite operators already report a growing number of situations when two satellites come close to colliding. OneWeb’s cooperation with Astroscale might help attenuate some of the concerns.

“This partnership with OneWeb demonstrates their commitment to space sustainability and is the next step towards maturing our technologies to develop a full-service debris removal offering by 2024,” John Auburn, managing director of Astroscale U.K. and group chief commercial officer said in a statement.

The new service targets constellation operators and is called ELSA-M. The program would enable the removal of multiple retired satellites in a single mission, thus reducing cost for the client, the company said in the statement. The orbital junk collector would push each satellite into the atmosphere to burn up, then return for the next defunct piece.

“This funding will help us evolve key rendezvous and proximity operations technologies and capabilities beyond ELSA-d towards an end-of-life servicing offering for a range of constellation customers,” Jason Forshaw, Astroscale’s head of future business, Europe, said in the statement. “In parallel to this project, we’re developing our next generation docking plate (DP), which is fitted to clients before launch, and is designed to enable a servicer to grapple the client. We are encouraging constellation customers to fit DPs to future-proof their satellites in case of need for removal due to failure, or at end of life, or to provide future in-orbit servicing.”

Astroscale’s ELSA-d demonstration mission, currently in low Earth orbit, will carry out a series of rendezvous and close proximity debris capture and release manoeuvres this summer. The results of the test campaign will inform further work on the ELSA-M program, Astroscale said.

The funding is part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) program called Sunrise, developing flexible reprogrammable communication satellites.

Hello Texans. Ring up your Stunned Tater Cornyn and tell the RINO where he gets off.

A quiet bipartisan effort on gun background checks may have a path to a deal
Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican John Cornyn believe they may have landed on a new way to beef up background checks while attracting bipartisan support.

WASHINGTON — After years of failed attempts to pass a firearms background check bill, two senators think they have a path to agreement — at least on one key component of a deal.

Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been quietly negotiating a way to bolster background check rules by making a small but consequential tweak to current law, which they say would close an unintended loophole in the system that has led to preventable mass shootings.

House-passed legislation to require background checks on nearly all gun purchases has stalled in the Senate. But Murphy and Cornyn, who have been negotiating behind closed doors with little fanfare, believe they may have a formula that can attract broad support from both parties.

Specifically, they want to clarify who is required to register as a federal firearms licensee, or FFL, and thus conduct FBI checks on a buyer before selling a gun. The senators say an ambiguity in the law has enabled unlicensed sellers to transfer weapons to dangerous people who skirt the background check system.

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Grand jury doesn’t indict homeowner who shot burglar

The Wallace Avenue homeowner who fatally shot a burglar will not be charged in the incident, a Franklin Circuit Court grand jury decided Tuesday.

According to dispatch records, the homeowner called police at 9:35 a.m. on May 11 to report that someone had broken into his residence in the 300 block of Wallace Avenue and was still inside. While talking to the dispatcher, the homeowner reported he fired one shot with a 9-mm pistol that hit the perpetrator, who was later identified as Stephen Smallwood, 35, of Georgetown.

Smallwood was shot in the torso and treated at the scene by Frankfort EMS. He was transported to Frankfort Regional Medical Center, where he was stabilized for transport to the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He died from his injuries at UK around 5 p.m. May 11, which was also his 35th birthday.

On Tuesday, a grand jury returned a no true bill decision after being presented information about the incident from investigators. A no true bill is a legal procedure when the grand jury doesn’t find sufficient evidence to charge the defendant with violating a law.

FPD Assistant Chief Lynn Aubrey told The State Journal that the investigation of the incident is now closed.

Lee’s signature makes Tennessee a Second Amendment sanctuary

(The Center Square) – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill Wednesday that makes the state a Second Amendment sanctuary.

Senate Bill 1335 prevents any “law, treaty, executive order, rule, or regulation of the United States government” that violates the Tennessee Constitution or the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution from being enforced in the state.

That violation would have to be determined by either the Tennessee or U.S. Supreme Court. The stipulation was added during debate of the bill in the Tennessee House, and the Senate concurred.

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So, propaganda, right?

USA Today Prepares Fact-Challenged Hit Piece On Gun Industry Ahead Of ATF Director Nomination Hearing.

A USA Today reporter who has worked directly with a Bloomberg-funded anti-gun group is preparing an attack on a major gun industry trade group ahead of hearings for Biden’s ATF nominee.

USA Today is working with an anti-gun group funded by failed Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg to attack a major gun industry trade group ahead of a Wednesday Senate hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), The Federalist has learned.

Nick Penzenstadler, a USA Today reporter who has partnered with Bloomberg’s anti-gun publication The Trace, has peppered the National Shooting Sports Foundation with loaded questions and factually inaccurate assumptions about NSSF’s work, according to correspondence reviewed by The Federalist. NSSF is a Connecticut-based gun industry trade group that helps members navigate and comply with federal firearms laws and ATF rules and regulations.

The apparent premise of the still-in-progress USA Today attack is that NSSF, which works directly with ATF to advise federal firearms licensees (FFLs) on how to comply with the agency’s regulations, has never worked to help the ATF obtain the resources it needs to ensure compliance from gun manufacturers or dealers.

To support its narrative, USA Today interviewed Richard Marianos, a former ATF official who allegedly claimed NSSF had never sought additional resources for ATF.

“[Marianos] says, in short: The NSSF is like the [National Rifle Association], [NSSF] never once has said the ATF needs more money, help support, or resources,” Penzenstadler claimed in correspondence reviewed by The Federalist.

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Armed school employee stops alleged attempted kidnapping in Ogden

OGDEN, Utah (ABC4) – A 41-year-old man is in custody after allegedly trying to kidnap an 11-year-old girl in Ogden.

Ogden Police were called to a local elementary school Tuesday after an employee was able to stop the attempted kidnapping. Ira Cox-Berry allegedly approached and grabbed the young girl on the playground, pulling her away as if he intended to leave with her.

A nearby school employee confronted Cox-Berry and demanded he leave. When the man momentarily unhanded the student, the employee was able to usher the children into an adjacent classroom. Police say Cox-Berry then approached the building and began punching the window in an apparant attempt to force his way inside. That’s when the employee produced a firearm and held Cox-Berry off while calling 911.

Officers quickly arrived and took Cox-Berry into custody after a brief struggle. According to Ogden Police, the school employee is a Concealed Firearm Permit holder and was lawfully in possession of his gun when the incident occurred.

Investigators says they have not identified a link between Cox-Berry and the young girl.

Crook shot in face with his own gun by wounded victim in Bronx subway robbery gone wrong

A robber shot an unsuspecting victim inside a Bronx subway station but the stick up backfired when the victim fought back, grabbing his assailant’s weapon and shooting him in the face, law enforcement sources said.

The 21-year-old would-be robber pulled his gun on a 40-year-old man in the mezzanine of the B/D station at E. 182nd St. and the Grand Concourse in Fordham Heights, said authorities.

Jeremy Lynch, a neighborhood resident, was inside the station near the token booth when the struggle occurred on the other side of the turnstiles.

“I heard arguing. I took cover,” he said.

As the men fought, the 21-year-old suspect was shot in the face, while the 40-year-old man was shot in the torso, said sources. Lynch said he heard about three shots……….

Both men were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital. The 40-year-old man’s injuries were not deemed life-threatening, said law enforcement sources.

 

‘Replication’ means that with the same data provided by the original research, the same experiment will produce the same result, within a calculated variance. A problem is that a lot of that doesn’t happen, and the real problem is that this means a lot the money spent on research grants has been wasted and a lot of people know that, and it’s been ignored since that would otherwise mean the money would likely dry up and these ‘scientists’ would have to find another way to fund the lifestyle they’ve grown accustomed to.
In other words; “Can you say ‘Fraud‘? ……I knew you could!”

The ‘Replication Crisis’ Could Be Worse Than We Thought, New Analysis Reveals.

The science replication crisis might be worse than we thought: new research reveals that studies with replicated results tend to be cited less often than studies which have failed to replicate.

That’s not to say that these more widely cited studies with unreplicated experiments are necessarily wrong or misleading – but it does mean that, for one reason or another, follow-up research has failed to deliver the same result as the original study, yet it still gets loads of citations.

Thus, based on the new analysis, research that is more interesting and different appears to garner more citations than research with a lot of corroborating evidence.

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This happens in California; which has the laundry list of every kind of gun control law the gun-grabbers in Washingtoon want for the rest of the country. Well, we can easily conclude that the gun control laws they say will decrease whatever, won’t, so, they want gun control for another reason. Of course we know what this is: People Control, because the old line about them wanting to do things that will wind up making it worthwhile to shoot them, just might be true.

8 killed in San Jose shooting, suspect also dead

A shooting at a rail yard in San Jose, California, early Wednesday left eight people dead, not including the suspect, who was also declared deceased after taking his own life, authorities confirmed.

The suspect was identified as Samuel Cassidy, who was an employee at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), where the incident took place, according to authorities. No motive is known for the shooting at this time.

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said several explosive devices were found inside a building at the VTA control center. A bomb squad is at the scene and there is no present danger to the community, he said.

An investigation is also underway of an arson fire at what is believed to be the nearby home of the suspect. FBI agents and the San Jose Fire Department were at the second scene. Authorities say the house caught fire before the shooting at the VTA.

In Washington, D.C., principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House will continue to stay in close contact with local officials in San Jose, before using the shooting as an opportunity to call for Congress to strengthen background checks.

“The White House is monitoring the situation, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” Jean-Pierre said. “We still don’t have all the details, but what is clear, as the president has said, is that we are suffering from an epidemic of gun violence in this country, both in mass shootings and in the lives that are being taken in daily gun violence that doesn’t make national headlines.”

Deputies responded to multiple 911 calls around 6:30 a.m. local time about an “an active shooter” situation unfolding at a VTA facility in the area of 100 W. Younger Ave. and San Pedro Street in San Jose. VTA Chair Gel Hendricks confirmed that the shooting took place outside in the yard, not inside the control center. He said service would be suspended after the incident.

“It’s just very difficult for everyone to be able try to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened,” Hendricks said at a news conference………

The VTA provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest in the Bay Area and home to Silicon Valley.

The shooting took place at a light rail facility that is next door to the sheriff’s department headquarters and across a freeway from the airport. The facility is a transit control center that stores trains and has a maintenance yard. It’s also located just two blocks from county buildings, the main jail and a courthouse.

Below the Radar: Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) has always been a flashpoint of contention among Second Amendment supporters. “No compromise” types viewed the push for NICS in 1993 as a sellout, while those who were of the incrementalist school of thought pointed out – justifiably – that NICS prevented a permanent waiting period.

In this light, we come to S 1261, the Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act, introduced by Senator Tom Cotton, a Second Amendment champion. This bill is a narrower version of the NICS Denial Notification Act, since it is strictly aimed at those in the country illegally. This falls under the “enforce existing laws” argument that some Second Amendment supporters have successfully wielded to halt anti-Second Amendment efforts in the past – see Project Exile.

Under 18 USC 922, illegal aliens are prohibited from possessing any type of firearm.

Regardless of your opinion on whether or not illegal immigration is a threat to the Second Amendment, this is a law that should be enforced, if for no other reason than a conviction for a federal felony charge serves as grounds for deportation. But on a more important factor, this legislation could be an opening for Second Amendment supporters in places where MS-13 runs rampant.

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Charges against woman involved in gun-waving incident during George Floyd rally are amended

A special prosecutor said Tuesday he has amended the charges against a St. Louis woman who waved a gun at racial injustice protesters last summer, and he’ll decide soon if he’ll amend charges against her husband.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were indicted by a grand jury in October on felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering. Special Prosecutor Richard Callahan said in a statement that he filed a new indictment on Monday that would give jurors the alternative of convicting Patricia McCloskey of misdemeanor harassment instead of the weapons charge. Under that alternative, the evidence tampering count would be dropped.

The move essentially gives a jury the option of convicting Patricia McCloskey of the lesser misdemeanor charge if it sees evidence of a crime that doesn’t reach the level of the felony charges.

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Dumb, Disarmed and Diseased
Dumb, Disarmed and Diseased

Have you noticed how the elite is bent on creating the perfect serf? From ensuring we are unarmed to pushing pot – yeah, America needs more of a drug that makes people lazier and less interesting – to hyping the pandemic, everything the ruling caste has been doing lately seems focused on turning us into drones. And far too many people are just letting it happen.

And now the US government will be pimping BLM to foreigners. Great. How could that go wrong? Our nonpartisan government is now fully partisan – weren’t norms important just a few months ago?

Building The Perfect Serf

With a hat-tip to Aaron, whose tweet alerted me to the painfully dumb meme of the commie gov of Pennsylvania, the campaign to change Americans from proud, industrious citizens into submissive, dependent subjects is going full-throttle. The governor, recently rebuked by the citizens who voted away his dictatorial flu powers in a welcome bit of push-back, decried the fact people can buy guns from each other without his permission but can’t have dope without a medical ID card – I guess requiring ID for getting high is as onerous as it is for voting. So, in his optimal universe, people can’t get arms to protect themselves unless he thinks it’s okay and grants them a dispensation to do so, but it should be open season at the dope dispensary. And, of course, they have to be masked while doing it, at least until they wrap their lips around the bong.

Being able to defend yourself: Bad.

Being stoned on a couch watching Scooby-Doo: Good.

Being masked all the time: Better.

Guns allow people to break the monopoly on force held by the government, creating a limit to what the government can do. No wonder liberals hate that. This right gives people the impression that the consent of the governed matters. Bunch of wicked “insurrectionists” they are, daring to think they should possess some sort of ultimate veto power over their betters!

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The Truth (And Lies) About Texas’ Constitutional Carry Bill

Texas won’t become the first state in the nation to allow legal gun owners to lawfully carry without a license when Gov. Greg Abbott signs Constitutional Carry legislation into law in the next few days, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s the case if you’re only reading the mainstream media or following the Left on social media. Both groups are in full Chicken Little mode at the moment, squawking about the gunpocalypse to come once the bill becomes law, even though 20 states have already adopted permitless carry without issue.

Note the framing by the Associated Press, which is based on a falsehood. The Constitutional Carry bill approved by lawmakers in Austin on Monday doesn’t allow “people” to carry without a license, background check, or training. It allows those who can legally possess a gun to also legally carry one without having to first obtain a concealed handgun license. Those prohibited from owning a firearm, either because of a previous conviction or an adjudication of mental illness, are still going to be breaking the law if they possess a gun, much less carry one, but you’d never know that from much of the reporting out there.

As bad as the media coverage has been, the reactions from the Left have been even worse.

Yeah, you misread Texas lawmakers, Gonzo. In fact, you’d think the Left would be thrilled with this law, given that it will lead to fewer police stops and arrests of people who might be legally eligible to obtain a concealed carry license but haven’t done so. It’s funny how the Left believes that policing is inherently racist, yet they love the idea of putting more gun control laws in place for the supposedly racist police to enforce.

No good guy with a weapon? What about this guy? Or this guy? Or this guy? I could go on, but you get the idea. There are currently more than 20-million Americans who have a concealed carry license, and in 20 states that have already adopted Constitutional Carry, millions more are lawfully carrying without a license. Re-evaluate the Second Amendment all you want. The fact remains that the number of Americans exercising their right to bear arms is growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s virtually no chance that an attempt to repeal the Second Amendment would get the required support in Congress or in the states.

 

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California: Imam Says Jews Use ‘Religious Texts to Justify Criminal Activities,’ in Islam ‘We Don’t Have This’

Does the imam Salim Ammar Mohamed think his Muslim audience is stupid? Does he think that none of them have actually read the Qur’an?

He says Jews use their scriptures to justify criminal acts, but in Islam “we don’t have any of this.”

Reality:

“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies…” (8:60)

“When your Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; so strike the necks, and strike every finger of them!” (Qur’an 8:12)

“We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.” (Qur’an 3:151)

“And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out; persecution is worse than slaughter. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, kill them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is all-forgiving, all-compassionate. Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.” (Qur’an 2:191-193)

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Flint resident shoots and kills 19-year-old attempting to enter his home

FLINT, Mich. (WJRT) – Flint police are investigating after a homeowner shot and killed a 19-year-old man he said was attempting to enter his residence.

Flint police are investigating after a homeowner shot and killed a 19-year-old man he says was attempting to enter his residence.
Police say it happened at about 4 a.m. on Sunday in the 700 block of Campbell Street. The intruder was pronounced dead at the scene.

There were no arrests made and police are still investigating.

…enemies foreign, and domestic.
Appears this family was both.

American killed fighting alongside Hamas during recent war.

An American citizen was reportedly killed fighting for Hamas in the recent conflict with Israel. Joe Truzman, a contributor to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Long War Journal (FDD), wrote on Saturday that “an American citizen known as Osama al-Zebda was fighting with the Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades during the recent conflict.

The report notes that al-Zebda was on a US terrorist watch list. His son was featured in videos with Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar on Monday, in which the Hamas commander puts a rifle in the toddler’s hand. His death and the death of his father, a well-known Hamas engineer, have been featured on Palestinian media.

He was allegedly killed by an Israeli air strike on May 12, according to the article.

“This fits a pattern of Americans who joined Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), which is illegal pursuant to US law.” Over the last decades, numerous Americans have joined terrorist groups and some have been killed in fighting abroad. Most infamous is Adam Gadahn, killed in a US drone strike while working with Al Qaeda.

Truzman is a long-time expert on militant and terrorist groups, specifically covering Gaza. He notes that “Osama al-Zebda appears to have been the target of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military campaign against leaders and commanders of militant factions in Gaza. Multiple commanders and mid-level Hamas militants were reportedly killed during the 10-day operation.”

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License Required: The Alarming New Mantra from Gun Prohibitionists

ANALYSIS: Gun control proponents have latched onto a new mantra in their effort to reduce the number of guns—and gun owners—on the U.S. landscape, reluctantly recognizing that so-called “universal background checks” are not the solution to violent crime involving firearms, nor have they prevented criminals from getting guns.

The latter fact is underscored in a recent online GUNS magazine report covering incidents in several states where suspects have been charged with “felon in possession” of firearms. The “dirty little secret” is that criminals don’t obey gun control laws, a fact that seems elusive to gun control proponents.

So there’s a new strategy gathering momentum among anti-gunners, and according to Vox, this strategy comes from perennial gun control extremist Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who proposed on the 2020 campaign trail to require a license before purchasing a firearm.

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Bill That Would Make it a Felony for Texas Protesters to Obstruct Emergency Vehicles Heads to the Governor’s Desk

The Texas Senate voted 25-5 to pass a bill that would raise criminal penalties and require jail time for people who knowingly obstruct emergency vehicles from passing through a roadway or who block a hospital entrance. It now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

The bill is in response to last year’s nationwide protests against police brutality, which were sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Massive protests erupted in major cities across the country, including in Texas, where demonstrators were arrested for allegedly damaging property or blocking roadways.

House Bill 9, which now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott, would make it a state jail felony for people who knowingly obstruct an emergency vehicle that has its lights flashing and sirens turned on. People could also face felony charges for obstructing the entrance of a licensed hospital. The Texas House passed the bill, 90-55, a few weeks ago.

 

Texas Legislature Passes Constitutional Carry, Bill Now Goes to Gov. Greg Abbott

It wasn’t a smooth process and — no matter what he says publicly — Lt. Governor Dan Patrick had to be brought along kicking and screaming. But after the reconstituted version of HB 1927 passed in the house last night 82-62, the Senate just passed it this evening by a margin of 17-13.

The bill now goes to Governor Greg Abbott who has said for weeks that he’ll sign it into law. We understand the Governor’s office is looking for an appropriate location here in the Live Music Capitol of the World to affix his signature.

So with that, Texas will be come the 21st, and by far the largest state in the nation to enact permitless carry. As in virtually every other state where it’s law, constitutional carry passed over the loud objections of an assortment of chiefs of police, a minority of concealed carry permit trainers, the media, and the usual suspects from the civilian disarmament industrial complex.

Will it result in fender-bender firefights and shopping line shootouts as the bill’s hysterical opponents predictably predicted? It hasn’t in any of the other 20 states with constitutional carry and there’s no reason to think it will in the Lone Star State either.

Progress marches on.

CDC investigating cases of heart inflammation in teens, young adults who got two-shot COVID vaccine. Here’s what we know.

Health officials are looking into reports of heart problems occurring in young adults and teenagers who have received the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, according to a vaccine safety group with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a May 17 meeting, the group presented reports of the heart condition, called myocarditis, to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from safety data collected by the Department of Defense, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), and Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).

The news comes a few weeks after the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for minors 12 and older. Moderna’s vaccine is currently authorized for people 18 and older. The safety group did not specify which vaccine was given in these cases.

“It’s terrific that things are being transparent. … It shows the surveillance systems are working,” said Dr. Lawrence Kleinman, professor and vice chair of the department of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

While little is known, here’s what health experts say about these cases.

What we know

The vaccine safety group says the “relatively few” reports of myocarditis “appear to be mild” and are below the expected baseline rates.

That means these “scholars” expected myocarditis to be a possible side effect of the COVID vaccine?

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