Newsweek reported: Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical advisor during the Covid-19 pandemic, and his wife saw their net worth go up $5 million from before the start of the health crisis through 2021, according to financial disclosures from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NIH financial records obtained by the website OpenTheBooks show that the couple’s net worth increased by approximately $5 million from 2019 through 2021, from about $7.6 million to over $12.6 million. Fauci and his wife, Christine Grady, a bioethicist who heads the Bioethics Department at the NIH Clinical Centre, had a net worth that exceeded $11 million in 2022, according to the UK’s Daily Mail.

“During the pandemic years, the Faucis became deca-millionaires, with their household net worth exceeding $10 million,” OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski told Fox News. “Last year was a tough year in the markets. However, Fauci’s net worth is still up sharply from $7.6 million in 2019.”

Fauci is estimated to be collecting a federal pension that rivals a presidential salary, Andrzejewski added, calling it “the largest federal retirement package in history.”

Politico reported: “A Biden administration that vowed to restore Americans’ faith in public health has grown increasingly paralysed over how to combat the resurgence in vaccine skepticism.

And internally, aides and advisers concede there is no comprehensive plan for countering a movement that’s steadily expanded its influence on the president’s watch.

“There’s a real challenge here,” said one senior official who’s worked on the Covid response and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “But they keep just hoping it’ll go away.” And the impact is clear: As another Covid vaccination campaign gets underway, fewer Americans than ever have kept up to date on their shots. Child vaccination rates against the flu are measurably lower than before the pandemic.

Even standard childhood inoculations to prevent diseases like measles are subject to deepening partisan divisions, with recent polling showing Republicans are now more than twice as likely to believe the shots should be optional than they did in 2019. Democrats, by contrast, remain overwhelmingly in favour of childhood vaccine requirements.

The Boston Globe via MSN reported: Northeastern University has been selected for a leading role in a new national network formed to better forecast the spread of a future pandemic.

The university announced on Tuesday that the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded it $17.5 million over the next five years to develop a centre focused on detecting and preparing for the next outbreak of infectious disease, especially in rural areas.

Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, is leading the project called “Epistorm: The centre for advanced epidemic analytics and predictive modelling technology.”

The money comes through the CDC’s Centre for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which was formed last year with the goal, Vespignani said, of creating “what would be a National Weather Service for epidemic threats.” NU is among 13 centres in the CDC’s new outbreak response network. Boston University is a subcontractor working with NU.

Reuters reported: The US government is awarding $45 million in grants to help clinics treating long Covid develop new models of care and expand access, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Wednesday.

Nine clinics will receive $1 million in grants annually over the next five years through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) within HHS, the department said.

President Joe Biden had tasked HHS last year with developing a national action plan to tackle long Covid, a complex, multi-symptom condition that arises months after a Covid-19 infection and leaves many of its sufferers unable to work.

The funding will be used for increasing in-person and virtual visits, establishing new satellite clinics, and an education initiative aimed at growing referrals. Limited knowledge and acceptance among clinicians have contributed to delays in diagnoses and referrals.

NBC News reported: Wastewater data suggest that the recent uptick in Covid cases may have peaked, at least in some areas.

Biobot Analytics, a company that tracks wastewater samples at 257 sites nationwide, said that the current average Covid levels across the United States are approximately five per cent lower than they were last week.

“All fingers crossed,” Cristin Young, a Biobot epidemiologist said, “this wave is plateauing and may be declining.”

After a mid- to late-summer rise, the CDC’s Covid wastewater surveillance now shows declines in mid-Atlantic states, such as Virginia and Maryland. Wastewater collection sites in the Midwest and the Northeast, however, show a steady uptick in Covid spread.

Reuters reported: Moderna said on Tuesday it will cut production of mRNA drug substance for its Covid-19 vaccine at Lonza’s facility in Switzerland this quarter as part of a plan to align manufacturing of the shots with lower post-pandemic demand.

The US company had said last week it was in talks with its partners that fill vials and syringes globally to downsize vaccine production. Such a move will help Moderna adjust to the sharp fall in demand for Covid vaccines as payers cut back orders for the shots, partly following the end of the public health emergency for the disease.

• The Defender report
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