Germany recommends AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot only for under 65s

“There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age,” the committee, also known as Stiko, said in a draft resolution made available by the German health ministry on Thursday.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine, unlike the mRNA vaccines, should only be offered to people aged 18-64 years at each stage,” it added.

Stiko’s assessment was based on the same trial data published by medical journal The Lancet on Dec 8.

The European Union approved a vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in late December, and gave the green light to a shot made by Moderna in early January.

AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Norway May Refine Vaccine Strategy After Elderly Deaths, PM Says

The Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, says her country may fine-tune the vaccination of its oldest, sickest citizens as it tries to make sense of a recent spate of deaths.

Having weathered the pandemic better than most, Norway suddenly made international headlines this month after revealing that more than 30 people — all over 70 and all already sick — died not long after being vaccinated against Covid-19. Solberg says the intense global interest in the news was “exaggerated” as she tries to ensure the development doesn’t put people off inoculation.

“We don’t believe there’s any problem with the safety of the vaccines,” Solberg said in an interview with Bloomberg Live that aired on Tuesday. “But we will maybe not give them to the most vulnerable of the elderly, because that might speed up a process where they were what we would say at the end of life phase anyway,” so, “that probably is not what we will continue to do.”

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39-year-old nurse aide dies ‘within 48 hours’ of receiving mandated COVID-19 shot

A 39-year-old woman with no known comorbidities died unexpectedly in northern Ohio within 48 hours of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, which was reportedly required by her employer.

Janet L. Moore, a nurse aide at Admirals Pointe Nursing Home (APNH) in Huron, was found unresponsive in her car outside her apartment complex on December 31 around 8:00 p.m., her brother Jacob Gregory told LifeSiteNews.

“She was coming home from work and as soon as she drove into her parking lot she passed away,” he said. “According to her neighbors she wasn’t feeling good directly after the vaccine, and then ever since the vaccine she was actually feeling nauseated, she’d have like migraines and stuff like that. And then, within 48 hours, she ended up passing away.”

When asked if he knew the brand of the vaccine, Gregory, who lives in Akron, said, “According to my brother, it was by Pfizer, but I’m not absolutely sure on that.”

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Proud Boys leader was ‘prolific’ informer for law enforcement

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.

In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.

Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”

Law-enforcement officials and the court transcript contradict Tarrio’s denial. In a statement to Reuters, the former federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case, Vanessa Singh Johannes, confirmed that “he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes.”

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Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign

The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).

As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the “Candidate”) to “vote” via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting.

For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign.  The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] and be a part of history.”  The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Candidate] for President 2016.”

The tweet included the typed hashtags “#Go [Candidate]” and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “[Candidate’s first name]” or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.

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