Healthcare
Buttigieg claims mask mandates on planes are just a ‘matter of respect’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg echoed President Biden’s stance on masks during an interview with ABC’s This Week. Host Martha Raddatz pressed him on public transportation mask mandates Sunday.
“Health experts have told us there’s really no difference between an airplane or a restaurant or gym where vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks,” Raddatz said. “Why not institute that same policy on airplanes?”
“Well, some of the differences have to do with the physical space, some of them have to do with it being a workplace where in some of these transit and travel situations people don’t have a choice,” Buttigieg responded. In the end, he said the mandate really is “a matter of safety but it’s also a matter of respect.”
This comes after Biden himself said that those vaccinated persons who continue to wear masks are keeping a “patriotic responsibility.”
On the other hand, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced weeks ago that they removed the mask requirement for the vaccinated. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases also said he will not be wearing a mask, admitting he only wore one previously as to not give mixed signals.
You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.
China
House Report Uncovers DOJ Secretly Investigated Nonprofit Accused of Channeling Taxpayer Funds to Wuhan Lab
A bombshell House committee report released Monday, after a two year investigation, revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly initiated a grand jury investigation into EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit accused of channeling taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the lab suspected of causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, prepared by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, highlights concerns about EcoHealth’s grants, which allegedly funded gain-of-function research at the Chinese lab. Such research, aimed at enhancing viruses to study their potential risks, has been linked to theories suggesting the virus may have escaped from the lab. Efforts to access related records were reportedly obstructed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Internal emails and documents included in the report reveal that the grand jury issued subpoenas for genetic sequences and correspondence between EcoHealth Alliance’s president, Dr. Peter Daszak, and Dr. Shi Zhengli, a WIV scientist known as the “bat lady” for her work on coronaviruses. One email from EcoHealth’s legal counsel advised omitting references to the DOJ investigation when addressing congressional document requests, underscoring the probe’s secrecy.
The report also criticizes EcoHealth Alliance’s failure to comply with grant requirements. NIH funding facilitated a $4 million project on bat coronaviruses, $1.4 million of which was funneled to WIV. NIH deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak admitted the grant supported gain-of-function research, leading to highly infectious virus modifications.
The committee’s findings claim these experiments violated biosafety protocols, and Daszak failed to adequately oversee the research. Calls to bar Daszak and EcoHealth from future funding were reinforced by bipartisan agreement within the subcommittee.
The New York Post writes that the report also evaluated U.S. pandemic response measures, describing prolonged lockdowns as harmful to the economy and public health, especially for younger Americans. Mask mandates and social distancing policies were criticized as “arbitrary” and unsupported by conclusive scientific evidence. Public health officials’ inconsistent messaging, particularly from Dr. Anthony Fauci, contributed to public mistrust, according to the subcommittee.
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