The success of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) and U.S. development of mRNA vaccines is a profound public health achievement. Under President Trump's leadership, American innovation led the world, helping prevent economic collapse and saving more than 14 million lives globally. Operation Warp Speed restored consumer confidence, saved over $1 trillion in health care costs due to reductions in serious illness and avoidance of hospitalizations, and rapidly scaled up domestic production.
Beginning 4:00 am Wednesday, the Oakland Police Department will be removing the public's access to its radio communications for the first time in more than 100 years. This raises concerns about transparency and accountability since the department has been marred with scandals over the past few decades. There are currently two unclaimed Powerball lottery tickets worth $1.16 million that were purchased in the Bay Area. One ticket was purchased at a 7-11 in Milpitas and the other at a Mobil gas station in Pleasant Hill.
In the past week, however, the efforts escalated: Kennedy, who rose to fame in part owing to his conspiracy theories about vaccinations, pushed to fire Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is part of H.H.S. This came after Monarez refused to follow the lead of Kennedy's advisers, who have tried to restrict vaccine access.
What we're seeing now is an ideological decision about what the answer should be and then a backfill of individuals on the advisory committee and working groups, and so forth, to get to that decision about what we want the answer to be, on a question of vaccine safety, and then let's manipulate the data to get there,
It's been a tumultuous week for US health agencies, with the departure of several top officials, uncertainty around new Covid vaccine restrictions, and even more experts calling for the removal of top health official Robert F Kennedy Jr. The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, was fired by the Trump White House after some controversy, and four other top officials also resigned.
She had been in the position for just a month. In the wake of her apparent ouster, several other CDC leaders have resigned. Named acting CDC director in January, Monarez was officially confirmed to the position by the Senate on July 29 and sworn in two days later. During her brief tenure, the CDC's main campus in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman who blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed.
