Shots generated an ‘inferior’ immune system response in comparison with natural infection
Vaccine manufacturer Merck has abandoned development of two coronavirus vaccines, saying that after extensive research it was concluded that the shots offered less protection than just contracting the virus itself and developing antibodies.
The company announced that the shots V590 and V591 were ‘well tolerated’ by test patients, however they generated an ‘inferior’ immune system response in comparison with natural infection.
The company stated that instead it will focus on research into therapeutic drugs labeled as MK-7110 and MK-4482.
The drugs aim to protect patients from the damage of an overactive immune response to the virus.
“Interim results from a Phase 3 study showed a greater than 50 percent reduction in the risk of death or respiratory failure in patients hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19,” the company’s statement noted of the MK-7110 drug.
Merck is to receive around $356 million from the US government to fast-track production of the potential treatments under Operation Warp Speed.
Thirty-three members of Congress and their immediate family members collected a total of nearly $16 million in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2020, according to updated data from EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database.
The total includes $1.3 million that went to 11 members from the Trump administration’s Market Facilitation Program, or MFP, launched in 2019 to help farmers hurt by the administration’s trade war with China.
(click on the link at the bottom to go to the full article and view this entire list)
No lawmakers received funds from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, created to help farmers through the Covid-19 pandemic. For the complete list of subsidy and MFP recipients, click here.
The data are drawn from Department of Agriculture subsidy records, MFP records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and additional information from the members’ public financial disclosures, and are through June 30, 2020. Some members’ disclosures say how much of their family’s farm operation they control, but in other cases that information was not available.
The biggest windfall from taxpayers’ pocketbooks went to the family of Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), who received nearly $5.5 million in commodity subsidies for rice and wheat. LaMalfa holds a third of the family’s farm partnership, making his share almost $1.8 million.
Rep. LaMalfa is one of 13 congressional recipients who sit on the House or Senate Agriculture Committee, which determine the amount and distribution of farm subsidies. The LaMalfa farm partnership also received more than $54,000 in MFP payments.
The second-largest congressional recipient was the family of Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Her father, mother, brother and sister-in-law received more than $3.4 million in subsidies for corn, soybeans, wheat and oats, and her brother and sister-in-law received a total of $750,000 in MFP payments.
According to her publicly disclosed financial records, Sen. Loeffler has financial interests in her family’s farm operation, and she has received thousands of dollars in income in land rental from the farm. The records do not say what share of the farm she holds.
By Steve Watson
The PPJ Gazette 