Scientists Say They’ve Identified Mutated COVID-19 Strain — and Issue a Dire Warning About New Contagion; Your Genes Could Determine Whether Coronavirus Puts You in the Hospital

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By The Blaze. Scientists say they have discovered what they believe is a mutated strain of COVID-19 — and are now warning that this new strain could be way more contagious than plain old coronavirus. . .

According to a Tuesday report in the Los Angeles Times, researchers say that a new “mutant” strain of coronavirus has emerged. (Read more from “Scientists Say They’ve Identified Mutated COVID-19 Strain — and Issue a Dire Warning About New Contagion” HERE)

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Your Genes Could Determine Whether Coronavirus Puts You in the Hospital — and We’re Starting to Unravel Which Ones Matter

By Market Watch. . .Could genetic differences explain the differences we see in symptoms and severity of COVID-19?

. . .When a virus infects human cells, the body reacts by turning on what are essentially antivirus alarm systems. These alarms identify viral invaders and tell the immune system to send cytotoxic T cells — a type of white blood cell — to destroy the infected cells and hopefully slow the infection.

But not all alarm systems are created equal. People have different versions of the same genes — called alleles — and some of these alleles are more sensitive to certain viruses or pathogens than others. . .

Based on our study, we think variation in HLA genes is part of the explanation for the huge differences in infection severity in many COVID-19 patients. These differences in the HLA genes are probably not the only genetic factor that affects severity of COVID-19, but they may be a significant piece of the puzzle. It is important to further study how HLA types can clinically affect COVID-19 severity and to test these predictions using real cases. Understanding how variation in HLA types may affect the clinical course of COVID-19 could help identify individuals at higher risk from the disease.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the relationship between viral proteins across a wide range of HLA alleles. Currently, we know very little about the relationship between many other viruses and HLA type. In theory, we could repeat this analysis to better understand the genetic risks of many viruses that currently or could potentially infect humans. (Read more from “Your Genes Could Determine Whether Coronavirus Puts You in the Hospital — and We’re Starting to Unravel Which Ones Matter” HERE)

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WATCH: Trooper Stops ‘Impaired Driver’ Who Turns out to Be a 5-Year-Old on His Way to Buy a Lamborghini

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When Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Rick Morgan pulled over a swerving vehicle near Ogden Monday afternoon, he expected to find an impaired driver at the wheel — not a 5-year-old boy on his way to buy a Lamborghini.

Morgan said the boy, Adrian, didn’t initially respond to lights but pulled over immediately as soon as he hit the siren. He was heading southbound on Interstate 15, heading to California, where his sister lives.

“I approached the vehicle and I was expecting to find somebody who needed an ambulance or paramedics,” Morgan said, adding that when the window came down who he actually found was “a very underaged driver who was behind the wheel.”

“Where did you come from? How did you get this car?” a baffled Morgan is heard saying to Adrian in dashcam video of the incident. . .

KUTV-TV reported that Adrian grabbed the keys to the family’s Dodge Journey and drove the care two miles through downtown Ogden and then onto Interstate 15 while his sister Sidney Estrada took a nap. She told the outlet that she was watching her little brother while their parents were at work.

(Read more from “WATCH: Trooper Stops ‘Impaired Driver’ Who Turns out to Be a 5-Year-Old on His Way to Buy a Lamborghini” HERE)

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California Begs Trump for Help After Illegal Aliens Spill Into U.S. COVID Units

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It’s hard not shake your head at California officials asking the Trump administration for help after illegal aliens with coronavirus began spilling into hospitals on the US side.

Avoiding disease as well as the social and literal costs of supporting millions of noncitizens are among the chief reasons why President Trump won the election and promised to build a wall.

Fox News reports that the San Diego County city of Chula Vista is seeing a “sudden influx of critically ill patients from Mexico.”

Kristin Gaspar, San Diego County’s Third District supervisor, sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence in April saying that medical professionals were “increasingly worried about the rapid spread of COVID-19 in northern Mexico” and that there had been “a sudden influx of critically ill patients from Mexico” in Chula Vista, Calif. Gaspar asked for senior Trump administration officials to speak with local hospital executives and medical professionals to address the issue

Additionally, Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder and Sharp HealthCare COVID‐19 Strategic Response Executive Consultant Daniel Gross wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf asking for help in dealing with coronavirus cases at the border.

(Read more from “California Begs Trump for Help After Illegal Aliens Spill Into U.S. COVID Units” HERE)

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RNC Chairwoman: Networks That Ignored Biden Allegation Should Be Barred From Presidential Debates

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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is calling for the networks that ignored the sexual assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden to be barred from hosting any 2020 presidential debate.

Biden has been accused of both sexually harassing and sexually assaulting Tara Reade, a woman who worked in his Senate office in the 1990s. She alleges that Biden pushed her up against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers without her consent, but he has denied the allegation.

McDaniel, in a Sunday morning appearance on ABC News’s This Week, brought up the lack of media coverage surrounding the allegation early on, contrasting the matter with coverage of sexual misconduct allegations levied against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process.

“Brett Kavanaugh, every accuser was put on TV. It was wall-to-wall coverage. They went into his high school yearbook. They said he needed an FBI investigation … And then you go to Joe Biden. Five weeks of silence, 19 interviews without a single question. He won’t let people go into his records in the University of Delaware. They’re calling on the DNC to do the investigation,” she explained.

“I think any outlet that conducted those 19 interviews and didn’t ask a single question should be disqualified from conducting any part of a presidential debate,” she added. (Read more from “RNC Chairwoman: Networks That Ignored Biden Allegation Should Be Barred From Presidential Debates” HERE)

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Text Message in Mueller Report Has Proved Expensive for Ex-Trump Business Partner

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Giorgi Rtskhiladze’s text message to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen days before the 2016 election has been an expensive one.

The Georgian-American businessman says he has spent more than $100,000 on legal fees, on top of the damage to his reputation and businesses, as a result of the Oct. 30, 2016 text message to Cohen.

The message is quoted in the special counsel’s report, and was interpreted by President Trump’s critics as a possible reference to the Steele dossier’s most salacious allegation: that the Kremlin has video tapes of Trump with prostitutes in Moscow.

“Stopped flow of some tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so u know,” Rtskhiladze wrote in the text message cited in the special counsel’s report.

While liberal commentators like MSNBC host Rachel Maddow seized on the text message, Rtskhiladze says that he had no direct knowledge of Trump-related tapes and that his full exchange with Cohen shows it. (Read more from “Text Message in Mueller Report Has Proved Expensive for Ex-Trump Business Partner” HERE)

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Your Guide to the Obama Administration’s Hit on Michael Flynn; Flynn Bombshells Cast Doubt on Mueller Prosecutor

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By The Federalist. The unsealing last week of a series of documents in the Michael Flynn criminal case cemented the reality that a small cadre of high-level FBI agents set a perjury trap for President Trump’s then-national security advisor. Beyond exposing the depth of this despicable personal and political hit job on a 30-year military veteran, the newly discovered documents hold great legal significance. Here’s your legal primer.

The Russiagate special counsel’s office charged Flynn with violating 18 U. S. C. § 1001, which makes it a federal crime to “knowingly and willfully” make a false statement of “a material fact” to a federal official. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team claimed Flynn violated Section 1001 by lying to FBI agents Joe Pientka and Peter Strzok—the latter of whom has since been fired—when the duo questioned Flynn on January 24, 2017, about Flynn’s December 2016 telephone conversations with the Russian ambassador. . .

In fact, this scenario makes more sense than the “Flynn lied” script: Flynn, who had served in the Obama administration as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was well-versed in intelligence and would have known that his conversation with the Russian ambassador had been recorded. Flynn would have known that the FBI either already knew or could have easily learned the content of Flynn’s conversations. Flynn also violated no law in speaking with the Russian ambassador, so there was no reason to lie about the conversation.

Evidence that has trickled out over the last two years also indicates that the FBI agents did not believe Flynn had lied to them. Nearly two years ago, Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, testified in an executive session of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that “the two people who interviewed [Flynn] didn’t think he was lying.”

Since then, we have learned from Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse that, prior to interviewing Flynn, FBI Agent Pientka had attended a briefing with then-candidate Trump and Flynn to assess Flynn’s demeanor. Pientka explained to the IG that he took “the opportunity to gain assessment and possibly have some level of familiarity with [Flynn],” such as learning “Flynn’s overall mannerisms.” (Read more from “Your Guide to the Obama Administration’s Hit on Michael Flynn” HERE)

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Flynn Bombshells Cast Doubt on Mueller Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack’s Compliance With Court Order

By Fox News. Explosive, newly unsealed evidence documenting the FBI’s efforts to target national security adviser Michael Flynn — including a top official’s handwritten memo debating whether the FBI’s “goal” was “to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired” — calls into question whether Brandon Van Grack, a Justice Department prosecutor and former member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Team, complied with a court order to produce favorable evidence to Flynn.

Since February 2018, Van Grack has been obligated to comply with D.C. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s standing order in the Flynn case to produce all evidence in the government’s possession “that is favorable to defendant and material either to defendant’s guilt or punishment.”

The order also requires the government to submit favorable defense evidence to the court, including possible “impeachment evidence” that could undermine witnesses, even if the government believes the evidence “not to be material.”

Van Grack has long informed Sullivan that the government’s so-called “Brady” obligations, referring to prosecutors’ duty to turn over exculpatory materials to defendants, have been met. In an October 2019 filing, Van Grack denied governmental misconduct and assured the court that the government “has complied, and will continue to comply, with its discovery and disclosure obligations, including those imposed pursuant to Brady and the Court’s Standing Order.”

In that same October 2019 motion, Van Grack elaborated on those claims, telling Sullivan that the government had not “affirmatively suppressed evidence” or hid Brady material. He denied that government was “aware of any information that would be favorable and material to [Flynn] at sentencing.” (Read more from “Flynn Bombshells Cast Doubt on Mueller Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack’s Compliance With Court Order” HERE)

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Top Social-Distancing Scientist Resigns After Breaking Lockdown to Meet Lover

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The epidemiologist who pushed social distancing over herd immunity, leading to a national lockdown in Britain to fight coronavirus, is resigning his government position after allegedly breaking social-distancing rules to meet his lover, a married woman with children.

Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, resigned Tuesday from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, or SAGE, after admitting he made an “error of judgment.”

“I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in SAGE,” Ferguson told the Daily Telegraph.

“I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms.

“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. (Read more from “Top Social-Distancing Scientist Resigns After Breaking Lockdown to Meet Lover” HERE)

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Fauci Contradicts Mike Pompeo on Coronavirus Origin; Trump Says Fauci Will Testify Before Senate, Blasts House ‘Setup’

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By WND. At odds with the statments of President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview he believes the coronavirus did not originate in a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic magazine.

“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” he said.

Fauci said he also does not believe “an alternate theory — that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.” (Read more from “Fauci Contradicts Mike Pompeo on Coronavirus Origin” HERE)

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Trump Says Fauci Will Testify Before Senate, Blasts House ‘Setup’

By Politico. President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed Dr. Anthony Fauci would testify before the Senate in the coming days and defended his decision to block America’s top infectious disease expert from appearing before what he called the “Trump haters” in the House.

“The House is a setup. The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They put every Trump hater on the committee. The same old stuff,” the president told reporters outside the White House, adding that Fauci “will be testifying in front of the Senate, and he looks forward to doing that.”

Trump went on to accuse congressional Democrats of hoping for his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to falter, claiming those lawmakers “want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death,” and “want us to fail so they can win an election which they’re not going to win.”

The president’s comments corroborated previous reports that Fauci would likely testify before the Republican-controlled Senate sometime next week, as well as House Democrats’ statement last Friday that the White House had halted Fauci from appearing before the House Appropriations Committee this week. (Read more from “Trump Says Fauci Will Testify Before Senate, Blasts House ‘Setup’” HERE)

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Asia’s Giant ‘Murder Hornet’ Found in the U.S. for the First Time (VIDEO)

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In case you doubted that 2020 couldn’t get worse, I have two words for you: “murder hornets.” The deadly Asian giant hornet, the largest sized species of hornets in the world, has been discovered in the United States for the first time ever.

The Asian giant hornet is also known as “murder hornets,” the “Giant Sparrow Bee,” and the “yak killer.” The species is native to temperate and tropical Eastern Asia. However, beekeepers in northwestern Washington state and Canada have found hundreds of decapitated honey bees, pointing to the presence of Asian Giant Hornets in North America.

The Asian Giant Hornet preys on larger insects, such as praying mantises, wasps, other hornets, as well as bees. The murder hornets are so lethal that in a matter of hours, they can wipe out entire colonies of eusocial insects, including bees. An individual hornet can kill 40 European honey bees in one minute.

“With queens that can grow to two inches long, Asian giant hornets can use mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young,” the New York Times reported. “For larger targets, the hornet’s potent venom and stinger — long enough to puncture a beekeeping suit — make for an excruciating combination that victims have likened to hot metal driving into their skin.”

WATCH a praying mantis devour a murder hornet:

(Read more from “Asia’s Giant ‘Murder Hornet’ Found in the U.S. for the First Time (VIDEO)” HERE)

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WATCH: Joe Biden Claims ‘600,000 Dead’ From Coronavirus, Accuses Trump of Not Having ‘Intercourse’ With World; Trump Says Biden’s VP Pick Should Be Warren

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By Breitbart. Joe Biden’s mental blunders during a Friday MSNBC appearance were overshadowed by his denial of Tara Reade’s sexual assault claims, but they continue to underscore his apparent cognitive decline.

Biden twice told Morning Joe that 600,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

“Over 600,000 dead, many of them who are those workers, those nurses, doctors, some of them,” he said. . .

For a second time, he awkwardly used the word “intercourse,” when he seemingly wanted to say “discourse” or “interaction.”

“The pandemic is that the president has no intercourse whatsoever with the rest of the count— uh, the world,” he said.

(Read more from “Joe Biden Claims ‘600,000 Dead’ From Coronavirus, Accuses Trump of Not Having ‘Intercourse’ With World” HERE)

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Trump says Warren ‘responsible’ for Biden’s candidacy, should make her VP pick

By New York Post. President Trump has announced his unlikely pick for Joe Biden’s veep: Elizabeth Warren.

In an interview with The Post in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he believed the presumptive Democratic nominee “owes” the Massachusetts senator the top spot on his ticket because he never would have gotten this far without her help.

“I think Elizabeth Warren is responsible for Joe Biden’s win because she didn’t drop out and [Vermont Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] would have won every single state on Super Tuesday,” Trump said, claiming Warren split the progressive vote.

“I think he should pick Elizabeth Warren because Elizabeth Warren, more than any other person, including [South Carolina Rep.] Jim Clyburn and including anybody you can name, is responsible for the win of Joe Biden,” he continued, referring to Clyburn’s campaign-reviving February endorsement of Biden. (Read more from “Trump says Warren ‘responsible’ for Biden’s candidacy, should make her VP pick” HERE)

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