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Perspectives From A Senior Staffer And NIH Loyalist: The Dark Side Of NIH Leadership

As someone who works directly with the NIH Director’s office, I am dismayed by the disingenuous coverage of NIH in places like the New York Times and Science Magazine. Very little of what I read comports with my own experience and I am worried that scientists and the general public are getting a false view of the real problems inside the world’s largest funder of biomedical research.

Every large institution is fraught with palace politics, but today’s NIH is suffering from a deeply entrenched senior leadership in the director’s office that is plagued by enmity, distrust and isolation. The NIH Director works in Building 1 and oversees 27 other Institutes that research various diseases—the one most people have heard of is the National Cancer Institute. But to most of these institute directors, Building1 is a dark hole they both fear and despise. If you’re a running a research lab in Wisconsin this probably doesn’t matter to you; if you’re bed ridden with an undiagnosed, complex neurological disease—a life put on hold—why would you care?

But at every level today NIH’s management is distanced further away from its overall mission to advance science that improves health.

NIH scientists are quite busy with their research and don’t always read news about NIH scandals. I don’t, because I don’t really have time, nor do I care. But turmoil from the recent election has caused me to read about the retirement of Dr. Lawrence Tabak, who served as Principal Deputy Director, the number two position at NIH. I have worked with and observed Dr. Tabak’s ascent to this commanding position at NIH, from which he weaponized systems and processes to harm those who disagreed with his views or decisions.

Yet, I saw none of this in a news account by the New York Times and much of the reporting seemed to describe a different person than the Larry Tabak that I know. According to this New York Times reporter, Tabak’s retirement was “surprising” as he was “long considered a steadying force” and “someone who could work across party lines.”

Tabak’s retirement was not “surprising.” After Trump won office, Tabak told senior NIH officials several times in private meetings that he might be forced to retire or step down. And he was only a “steadying force” if he liked you personally and you didn’t dare to question his decisions or those made by his favored staff.

I find it odd that the New York Times would report that Tabak was “someone who could work across party lines.” Like almost every NIH leader, Tabak is a committed Democrat who can work with Republicans if he holds his nose, but he despised President Trump. Several have heard Tabak say several times that he couldn’t stand to be in the same room as Trump.

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India’s First Transgender Clinic Shuts Down After Losing Its USAid Funding With ‘No Hope of Resuming’

India’s first transgender clinic has closed after losing its funding from USAid.

Mitr Clinic, located in the south Indian city of Hyderabad, had its USAid slush fund cut off as part of the recent 90-day freeze imposed by President Donald Trump.

All of the staff have been fired and customers have been urged to go elsewhere.

“We were informed that the funds had been cut off because president Trump ordered a freeze on our clinic’s funding,” a former clinic official told The Telegraph.

“We had been serving hundreds of transgender patients, providing mental healthcare and transition-related medical services.”

”We stopped operations in early February, with no hope of resuming.”

The clinic was founded in 2021 by USAID in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

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Pharma-Sponsored Media Launches Measles Fear Campaign Based on Distorted Science

A google search for ‘measles’ reveals the coordinated fear campaign propagated by pharma-sponsored mass media…

Is there a reason to cower in fear as the news suggests and rush to get MMR booster shots? No, especially not for healthy children. However, we must remember that children with multiple comorbidities can face serious outcomes, as with any disease. It’s important to approach these discussions with a level-headed assessment of individual risk rather than reacting to sensationalized headlines.

Measles outbreaks occur every year across the United States despite 90.8% MMR vaccine uptake…

Shedding of measles vaccine RNA is a recognized phenomenon, with detectable levels in nasopharyngeal samples for up to 29 days post-vaccination (Washam et al). This shedding results from the replication of the attenuated vaccine virus, which can be transmitted to close contacts.

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President Trump Says “Either Joe or Hunter” Left Cocaine at The White House, “I Think I’ll Look Into That”

President Trump, in his latest sit-down interview with The Spectator’s Ben Domenech, revealed either Joe or Hunter Biden left the cocaine that was discovered inside a bin at the White House’s West Wing.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, a bag of cocaine was discovered at the West Wing of the White House in July 2023.

Investigators had a partial DNA hit at the time.

The Biden Administration ended their investigation without finding the culprit.

The topic of the cocaine at the White House was brought up by Domenech, The Spectator’s editor at large when he asked President Trump, “Who actually left the cocaine in the White House?”

Trump, without any hesitation, responded, “Well, either Joe or Hunter. Could be Joe, too.”

The 47th President added, “OK, so that was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with… they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints.”

Domenech then followed up Trump’s remarks by sharing, “I was briefly a Bush speechwriter. And so I knew exactly what they were talking about. And I was like, ‘Those things are filthy.’ They’re filthy.”

Trump responded, “And there were fingerprints…. Everybody in there would leave a fingerprint when they went in and that thing was wiped out with, with the strongest form of alcohol.”

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From Epstein To Diddy: Spotlight Shines On James Comey’s Prosecutor Daughter

Speaking Jeffrey Epstein and things being kept under wraps (more on that later), a prosecutor with a famous last name quietly joined the sex trafficking case against Sean “Diddy Combs late last year…

In a thinly covered news story from December that’s suddenly relevant again (read on), New York Prosecutor Maurene Comey – whose father James Comey famously refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information & then participated in the Russia collusion hoax – joined the prosecution against Combs. The younger Comey has previously worked as lead prosecutor on both the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, as well as that of former Epstein cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione. More on that below…

Combs is currently facing multiple serious legal charges, including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. These charges stem from allegations that, from at least 2008 to the present, the impresario led a criminal enterprise aimed at exploiting and abusing women, protecting his reputation, and concealing his conduct. The alleged crimes encompass sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.

Multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors have been made. Last October, attorney Tony Buzbee announced he was representing 120 individuals accusing Combs of sexual misconduct; 25 of these accusers were minors at the time of the alleged incidents – while he’s also been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in a New York City hotel in 2005 and a 17-year-old boy in 2008 who aspired to be on the reality TV show “Making the Band.”

According to former dancer Adria Sheri English, who claimed she was “pimped out” by Diddy, the embattled rapper would hold sex-crazed “freak offs” that often took place away from the “main party” but were kept a secret.  

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Texas Reports Death of Child Who Tested Positive for Measles, But Releases Few Details

Texas health authorities today announced the death of a child who tested positive for measles, setting off a spate of media reports blaming the measles outbreaks in Texas in New Mexico on declining vaccination rates.

Some doctors and scientists pushed back, saying too little information about the child’s health has been released so far to assume that a measles vaccine would have prevented the death.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (Texas DSHS) reported what it called “the first death from measles in the ongoing outbreak in the South Plains and Panhandle regions.”

The health department said the child was “school-aged,” unvaccinated, had been hospitalized in Lubbock last week and “tested positive for measles.”

Texas DSHS did not disclose the child’s sex, age, general health status or medical history. The agency also did not say what course of treatment the child received after being diagnosed with measles, or what strain of measles the child had.

The Associated Press (AP), under the headline, “An unvaccinated child has died in the Texas measles outbreak,” reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the child’s death is the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015.

Other media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, reposted the AP’s report, which noted that vaccination rates have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are now below “the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks.”

But Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) chief scientific officer, said it’s too early to assume that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which targets measles, would have prevented the child’s death.

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Georgia Senate Launches Investigation Into Stacey Abrams and Her Nonprofit For Committing Election Fundraising Crimes

The Georgia Senate launched an investigation into Stacey Abrams and her nonprofit The New Georgia Project for illegal fundraising activity.

“Abrams and the New Georgia Project, from which she is no longer affiliated, are being investigated by the same Senate panel that has been examining Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ historic indictment of Donald Trump during the time he was out of the Oval Office,” Atlanta News First reported.

“The Senate committee will focus on alleged campaign finance violations and possibly the recent New Georgia Project firings allegedly tied to efforts to unionize the voting rights organization,” the outlet reported.

As previously reported, Francys Johnson, the head of Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit The New Georgia Project, announced he is resigning from his post after the firm was hit with a massive fine for committing campaign fundraising crimes.

Twice-failed Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams created the nonprofit in 2013 to get out the black vote.

Abrams has repeatedly claimed, without providing any evidence whatsoever, that Georgia Republicans engage in black voter suppression. She blamed her previous crushing election loss to Brian Kemp on black voter suppression.

The New Georgia Project was slapped with a $300,000 ethics fine for illegal campaign fundraising in January.

“The [State Ethics Commission’s] investigation, which lasted five years, revealed that the organization raised $4.2 million in dark money and spent $3.2 million on campaign activities,” Fox 5 Atlanta reported last month.

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“Bat Lady” Research Team In Wuhan ‘Find’ COVID-Like Virus That Can Infect Humans

Chinese researchers, led by a virologist whose work had fueled concerns about a possible COVID-19 lab leak, have discovered a new bat coronavirus that is similar to the one that causes COVID-19, and that is capable of infecting humans.

The virus, called HKU5-CoV-2, can enter human cells through the ACE2 receptor, the same gateway for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that sparked a global pandemic five years ago, according to a study recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Cell.

The lead researcher is Shi Zhengli, who, for years, led work on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab that has been under scrutiny amid ongoing questions about the origins of COVID-19.

The researchers collected nearly 1,000 anal swabs from pipistrellus bats across five Chinese provinces and took them to the state-owned Wuhan research institute.

The virus belongs to a distinct lineage of coronaviruses that also include the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus. Lab experiments indicate this virus strain may infect a wide range of mammals. The HKU5-CoV-2 has the potential to jump from one species to another, researchers said, noting the recent detection of viral sequences closely related to HKU5-CoV in farmed minks.

The virus doesn’t enter human cells as readily as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggesting the risk of its “emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated,” the paper states. The researchers also identified antibodies and antiviral drugs that target the virus.

Findings about the virus raised concerns from Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and laboratory director at Rutgers University’s Waksman Institute of Microbiology, who has been critical of the Wuhan Institute’s virus experiments.

“In nature, this virus poses minimal threat to humans,” he told The Epoch Times on Feb. 25.

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AG Pam Bondi Warns 3 States Over Transgender Sports Rules

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday warned Minnesota, California, and Maine that they need to comply with federal law to keep “men out of women’s sports,” according to a statement issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ said Bondi sent letters to the officials of those three states and said that they may be out of compliance with an order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month that makes it illegal for transgender individuals to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.

“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” Bondi said in the statement. “We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump’s executive order protecting women’s sports.”

Bondi sent letters to California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director Ron Nocetti, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Erich Martens, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League. She also sent a letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills.

Trump and Mills, a Democrat, were involved in a verbal altercation on Feb. 20 while the president was meeting with governors. The president told Mills that she needed to comply with the executive order or he would withhold education funding to her state.

“We are the federal law,” Trump told her at one point. “You‘d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”

“See you in court,” Mills said in response, according to a video recording of the exchange between the two.

Trump then told her: “Good, I’ll see you in court.”

In a statement on Feb. 21, Mills said that she and the state of Maine won’t “be intimidated” by Trump’s warning that federal education funding could be withheld.

“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she said.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a letter last week that Trump’s order “would violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” a state law that allows transgender individuals to compete in women’s sports.

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Washington State Launches Bullying Investigation into Teen Girl Who Refused to Play Against Trans Opponent

Officials of deep blue Washington State have launched a full-blown “investigation” alleging “harassment” against a teen high school girl who refused to take the court against a transgender player on an opposing girl’s basketball team.

The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) filed a complaint against the school for teen Frances Staudt, a girl who plays for the Tumwater High School girl’s basketball team.

At issue is Staudt’s refusal to play in a game on February 6 after she noticed that one of the players on the opposing team, Andi Rooks, is a transgender athlete and her subsequent accusations that the school district moved to punish her for her position on transgender athletes.

Staudt says she asked Principal Zach Suderman and Athletic Director Jordan Magrath to remove the male player or stop the game. However, Suderman noted that the state’s governing body for sports, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, has rules allowing students to participate under their chosen gender. Staudt also says that Rooks “brutalized” her teammates on the court during the game, and she offered a video to prove her point.

After stating her position, Tumwater school officials launched an investigation into the girl, accusing her of “harassment,” “bullying,” and “misgendering” against the visiting transgender student.

The Staudt family has countered by accusing Suderman of ridiculing the girl over her ideals. The family also says that school officials threatened Staudt’s brother for taking video of the game.

The Staudts also allege that school officials harassed them after they posted about the issue on their personal social media accounts. At one point, Rook’s father allegedly sent threatening text messages to the Staudt family, demanding that they remove the posts.

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