Free Republic

I should add that Viva Frei is a Candadian lawyer who seems to be on the side of freedom. Ivory Hecker was fired as a newscaster for stating on air what Fox was doing to her.

Viva Frei has lots of interesting videos on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGiDDKdphJ0GFvEd82WfYQ

This interview with Ivory Hecker was helpful in seeing how even Fox News presents “the news” as narrative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKBiMUap-5I

Both public and private students at “elementary and secondary schools” will be required to be vaccinated for in-person learning starting the academic term or semester following full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the vaccine for their grade span – 7-12 and K-6.

That could mean vaccination requirements taking effect on Jan. 1 or July 1 for grades 7-12, whichever date comes first following approval.

Approval for grades K-6 is expected to come later in a second phase of requirements, the governor added.

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As I understand it, the only FDA approved vaccine is COMIRNATY. But (1) COMIRNATY is only approved for ages 16 and above, so it can’t be administered to children K-6 and 7-whenever the student turns 16. And (2) I don’t think COMIRNATY is presently given in the US. COMIRNATY will be produced and distributed by Pfizer, but they are at present (again, as far as I know) only using the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid 19 vaccine, which, (again as far as I know) is only presently given to ages 12+. Probably this will be reduced to a lower age, but in any case the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is only administered under the Emergency Use Authorization and does not carry FDA approval. Things can change, but at this time I don’t see how the governor’s order can be put into effect.

I’m basing my answers on the two letters the FDA send to Pfizer and BioNTech on August 23. See https://www.fda.gov/media/150386/download and https://www.fda.gov/media/151710/download

I have a friend who didn’t understand the differences between the two vaccines. Here’s my response to him:

On 23 August 2021 the FDA sent out two letters, one to Pfizer (https://www.fda.gov/media/150386/download) and one to BioNTech (https://www.fda.gov/media/151710/download). What follows is my summary of the letters.

Pfizer (U.S.) and BioNTech (Germany) trade as separate companies on the stock markets. The two companies have partnered with one other on vaccine development, and each has a COVID vaccine. The two vaccines, while not exactly the same, are similar. The Pfizer vaccine is available in the United States, but the BioNTech vaccine (now called CORMIRNATY) has yet to be marketed in the United States. When COMIRNATY becomes available the manufacturing and marketing will be done by Pfizer. The FDA letter to Pfizer makes clear (footnote 8) that the two vaccines are “legally distinct.” That is an important point.

The letter to Pfizer extends the EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) to their vaccine, which is identified by the name “Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.” It will continue to be made available to those over 12 years old. Under the EUA Pfizer has a liability waiver (or shield), meaning that you cannot sue them if you are adversely affected by the vaccine. According to the two letters, the supplies of the Pfizer vaccine will be exhausted before we get to the COMIRNATY vaccine. Thus, at least in the near future, the vaccines and boosters given will be the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and will be given under the EUA with the liability waiver. In this letter (and also the one to BioNTech) the FDA provides a warning about myocarditis, pericarditis, and other complications. The letter does NOT give full FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine. (See page 12 in the Pfizer letter: “This product has not been approved or licensed by FDA, but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA, under an EUA...”)

The letter to BioNTech approves the biologics license application (BLA) submitted by BioNTech, meaning that it has “full FDA approval” and can be given to those aged 16 and over. The official name of the vaccine seems to be “COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA).” The FDA bypassed the normal advisory committee and public comment process for this license. It is not clear when this vaccine will be available, but when it is there will be no liability shield. That is, the vaccine providers can be sued if something goes wrong.

Most likely, Pfizer will not make the COMIRNATY vaccine available until they can somehow arrange for a legal shield from liability. So it appears that the Pfizer vaccine will continue to be given for some time. It seems to me that under this arrangement people are likely to misconceive that the vaccine has been fully approved, and Pfizer can rest assured that they won’t have to go to court to defend their product.

Conclusion: Any claim that the Pfizer vaccine (i.e., the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that has been given over the last year and will continue to be given) has “full FDA approval” is blatantly false, as evidenced by the letters from the FDA to the two companies. The COMIRNATY vaccine does have FDA approval, but at this time it is not available in the United States. It will not become available until either Pfizer gives up its liability waiver or somehow manages to have its waiver extended to the COMIRNATY vaccine. My understanding is that this extension would be difficult to obtain.

Please put me on the ping list too.

Thanks.

I checked the questions, and I can confirm that I was one of the 750 polled last night. I chose Santorum.

My preferences at this point are:

1. No to Obama
2. No to Romney
3. Yes to Santorum
4. Yes to Gingrich
5. Yes to SOC - “some other candidate”

I’m not likely to change my mind about 1. and 2. (Although I will vote for Romney with less enthusiasm than I voted for McCain.) But I could change my mind concerning 3. 4. and 5.

That makes at least two of us who did graduate work in mathematical economics and general equilibrium theory. Are there others?

The last line of the posted article says they “study” financial mathematics and material science and engineering at Stanford. Google them. I get their fraternity web pages. I think they are undergraduates.

If I understand correctly, the authors are students at Stanford and not professors.

The real problem is referring to the song as the “Alma Mater,” a term that means “nourishing mother.” To be gender neutral, it should be called the “Alma Neuter.”

My first class was at 9:10. Before class I was reading Free Republic and came across the thread, “Plane Crash - World Trade Center” - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/520260/posts

I emailed the thread URL to my son, who had recently started working in midtown Manhattan. Then about two minutes before class I checked Free Republic again and found that another plane had hit.

When I came back to my office at 10:00 I received the following email from my son: “We have a clear view of the towers from our building and we didn’t see the
first one, but as we watched we saw the second. This is crazy.” From the email I knew my son was OK, but I didn’t know about my future daughter-in-law, who had just moved to New York to be closer to my son. And it was her first day of work.

When my wife and I came home for lunch, we listened to 10 or 15 messages on our answering machine saying people were thinking about or praying for my son and his fiance. Either before or after we turned on tv and watched the pictures of the towers falling. Both of us had tears in our eyes.

By the middle of the afternoon my son reached me by phone. He told me how he was with one of his coworkers when she found out her boyfriend had died in the towers. (Her boyfried had placed a cell phone call to his parents, telling them he loved them.) My future daughter-in-law was fine. She showed up for work and was promptly sent home. I think both of them walked to Brooklyn.

I’ll never forget that day, the video of the towers falling, the flags, and the feeling of unity across the country. I’ll also never forget something I read soon after, I think on another free republic thread: There are no unsinkable ships. There are no invulnerable nations. The only eternal security is Jesus Christ.

I don't know the SMALL function. That looks simpler than what I would have done.

I would have used the MIN function to find the lowest score. Then I would find the second lowest by taking the MAX of the 6 values which are the minimums of all but the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and six scores.

I remember this too. I must have seen it on Rush Limbaugh's tv show.

I just got back from a week-long cruise to Alaska. I had three sources of news - CNN on the television, a New York Times Summary of the News delivered every morning, and internet access at $.75 per minute.

I haven't listened to CNN in a long time. The posted article here pretty much captures the essence of their coverage - extreme bias. Almost every story started out with a headline immediately followed by some expert giving a one-sided commentary.

The NY Times was bad too, but not as bad as CNN. Usually there were three stories on the front page, all of them "commentary" as opposed to news. At the airport yesterday I picked up a Seattle paper. There was a full-page article about the Middle East on the second page with a subheading beginning "Some say..." I stopped right there.

By comparison, at $.75 per minute the internet was a bargain.

The cruise was great, by the way. On my evaluation the only negative comment I made was about the limited sources of news available and how they were from places with a decided "point of view."

Try XM 132. It's on C-SPAN radio.

There are some linux tools that can help you. You can download a copy of Knoppix at http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-info/index-en.html and boot it from your CD or DVD drive. This will run linux from the CD and won't do a thing to your windows system. If you can see your hard disk drive as an icon on the desktop and can view your files by clicking on it, then the files can be retrieved.

Knoppix is not only a good rescue disk; it is a fun way to try out a different operating system.

The entire series is available on dvd for a reasonable price at http://www.ideachannel.com/shop/shopftc.htm. The discussions were updated in 1990. The shorter 1990 set is also available at the same url.

I've watched these many times, and I recommend them highly.

From www.despair.com

Cluelessness: There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.

Don't you mean Sunday 14 August instead of 14 June?