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Sen. Portman enrolled in Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine trial

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Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told CNBC on Tuesday that he enrolled in Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial 12 days ago, CNBC reports.

Portman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he signed up for the clinical trial because he wanted to demonstrate that vaccines are important to ending the ongoing pandemic.

“The most important thing we can do right now is get these vaccines out and on the market, and we’ve got to ensure people are actually going to get vaccinated,” the junior senator from Ohio said, on camera from Capitol Hill while wearing a mask. He also emphasized the importance of wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

“It’s one thing to have the vaccines, which I think will be ready by the end of this year, so really in just a month and a half, but we’ve got to be sure that people are willing to be vaccinated,” Portman continued. “So the reason I participated in this trial was because I think the vaccines are so important.”

This comes as virus cases across the United States continue to surge and as vaccine developer Moderna on Monday announced promising preliminary results from its vaccine trial. The recent spike in cases has prompted governors around the country to toughen restrictions on various aspects of life such as restaurants, the size of gatherings, and gyms.

The Buckeye State senator additionally voiced concerns about public opinion polls saying that millions of Americans are skeptical of coronavirus vaccines and thus might hesitate to receive them if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) okay the vaccine candidates for distribution to the public.

“These are FDA professionals. These are scientists that are taking extraordinary measures to be sure that it’s safe,” Portman said. “So, I want to encourage everyone to participate in the trials, if you’re comfortable doing that, but certainly to get the vaccine when it’s available.”

Furthermore, Portman said that so far he feels “great” after enrolling in the trial. He noted, however, that he is unsure whether he received the vaccine or a placebo. “A key attribute of double-blind clinical trials,” CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz writes, “is that participants remain unaware of which group they are in, so they do not change their behavior.”

Portman then mentioned that he keeps a diary for tracking symptoms during the trial, urging more people to participate in the clinical trials for the vaccines.

“I keep a diary. Every Monday and Thursday now I report back as to whether I have symptoms,” he added. “It’s easy to go through, and again, I encourage people to do it because the more people that participate in the trials, the sooner they can get to the FDA for emergency use authorization and the quicker we can get it out to the American people.”

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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Former Harvard medical professor says he was fired for opposing Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates

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“My hope is that someday, Harvard will find its way back to academic freedom and independence.” That is the heartfelt message from Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a former Harvard University professor of medicine since 2003, who recently announced publicly he was fired for “clinging to the truth” in his opposition to Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

Kulldorff posted the news on social media alongside an essay published in the City Journal last week. The epidemiologist and biostatistician also spoke with National Review about the incident. Kulldorff says he was fired by the Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham hospital system and put on a leave of absence by Harvard Medical School in November 2021 over his stance on Covid.

Nearly two years later, in October 2023, his leave of absence was terminated as a matter of policy, marking the end of his time at the university. Harvard severed ties with Kulldorff “all on their initiative,” he said.

The history of the medical professional’s public stance on Covid-19 vaccines and mandates is detailed by National Review:

Censorship and rejection led Kulldorff to co-author the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020 alongside Dr. Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University. Together, the three public-health scientists argued for limited and targeted Covid-19 restrictions that “protect the elderly, while letting children and young adults live close to normal lives,” as Kulldorff put it in his essay.

“The declaration made clear that no scientific consensus existed for school closures and many other lockdown measures. In response, though, the attacks intensified—and even grew slanderous,” he wrote, naming former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins as the one who ordered a “devastating published takedown” of the declaration.

Testifying before Congress in January, Collins reaffirmed his previous statements attacking the Great Barrington Declaration.

Despite the coordinated effort against it, the document has over 939,000 signatures in favor of age-based focused protection.

The Great Barrington Declaration’s authors, who advocated the quick reopening of schools, have been vindicated by recent studies that confirm pandemic-era school closures were, in fact, detrimental to student learning. The data show that students from third through eighth grade who spent most of the 2020–21 school year in remote learning fell more than half a grade behind in math scores on average, while those who attended school in person dropped a little over a third of a grade, according to a New York Times review of existing studies. In addition to learning losses, school closures did very little to stop the spread of Covid, studies show.

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