First lady Jill Biden will be in South Florida for two days starting on Sunday, the White House announced Thursday.
She will be traveling with Veteran Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough.
Biden and McDonough will arrive at Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday evening.
On Monday morning, as part of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, the first lady and McDonough will speak at a Cancer Survivorship Summit in Davie hosted by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.
On Monday afternoon, as part of the first lady’s Joining Forces initiative and continued support for the military community, Biden and McDonough will visit Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County to meet with military spouses and families.
The lives of both Biden and Wasserman Schultz have been touched by cancer.
Wasserman Schultz is a breast cancer survivor.
Beau Biden, the first lady’s son, died of an aggressive brain tumor known as glioblastoma in 2015.
President Joe Biden was vice president at the time, and then-President Barack Obama asked him to lead the cancer moonshot, a White House initiative aimed at accelerating progress in fighting cancer.
Jill Biden will be the keynote speaker at the Cancer Survivorship Summit, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Rick Case Arena at Nova Southeastern University, 7200 Mary McCahill Drive.
Survivor Martina Navratilova will also deliver remarks.
Top national medical experts, advocates and survivors will also speak at the summit to address the challenges for those emerging from a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
President Bola Tinubu has finally appointed Bayo Onanuga, one of the spokespersons in his presidential campaign organization, as a special adviser.
Onanuga, who had served as the Director of Media and Publicity in Tinubu’s campaign team, was notably one of the members of that campaign organization yet to receive an appointment in the president’s administration.
While aides like Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo, who had played key roles in the campaign, were appointed as ministers, Onanuga had to patiently wait for his turn.
The wait came to an end on Friday night as the Presidency announced the appointment of Onanuga as the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu’s media adviser, made the announcement late Friday.
Ngelale further revealed that Ms. Delu Bulus Yakubu was also named as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
A veteran in media management, Onanuga is the Managing Director of The News/PMNews and former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Ngelale said the appointments were “part of efforts to prioritize effective and efficient working synergy between the Presidency and Federal Ministries” that the appointees “have prior working experience within the architecture of the Federal Ministries they will be coordinating with, in addition to duties that will be carried out at the President’s discretion.”
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who served in Tinubu’s campaign organization as Director of New Media, has yet to be considered for appointment.
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Quick Take
Since fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas militantson Oct. 7, misinformation about the war has circulated online. But a widely viewed and shared video supposedly correcting “three lies about Palestine” and “atrocity propaganda” being spread by Israel and its supporters also gets some of the facts wrong.
Full Story
Social media platforms have hosted a flood of questionable information — some of it unverified and some of it intentionally misleading — since war broke out between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
As of Oct. 12, according to the United Nations, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals had died and at least 1,100 Palestinians had died in the fighting — many of them civilians on both sides.
We’ve written about some claims related to the war already. Below we’ll lay out what we know about three major issues that have been the subject of many false, misleading or unsubstantiated social media posts: Claims that Hamas beheaded babies, raped women, and killed hundreds of people at a music festival.
One video that’s been shared on Facebook and Instagram includes claims about all three issues, so we’ll use that as our example. The video is presented as though it is fact-checking the claims, but it gets some things wrong, and it presents assumptions as fact.
In this particular video, the narrator tries to make the case that there is no evidence of mass shootings by Hamas “resistance fighters,” or atrocities like rape or beheading babies, and Israel and its supporters are spreading propaganda to justify Israeli plans to commit atrocities against Palestinians.
The events in Israel and the Gaza Strip are still unfolding, and the facts underlying many claims remain unclear. We’ll update this report if more information becomes available.
More Than 200 Killed at a Concert in Israel
At least 260 people were killed at an outdoor concert in southern Israel on Oct. 7, but the video falsely claims that it didn’t happen. This is a claim that the video gets completely wrong.
The narrator says: “250 people were killed at a concert. False.”
But there’s plenty of evidence. There is video of the aftermath, news reports about the attack, interviews with survivors, and reports about the number of victims from an Israeli rescue organization.
“Saturday’s attack on the open-air Tribe of Nova music festival is believed to be the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history, with at least 260 dead and a still undetermined number taken hostage,” the Associated Press reported.
Unsupported Claim of 40 Beheaded Babies
The narrator of the video says that “no evidence has been provided” for the viral claim that “40 babies” were “beheaded” by Hamas. That is true.
The Israeli government has posted graphic photos that purportedly show babies who were killed and/or burned by the militant group, but there were no photos showing decapitations.
Israeli rescue teams wait next to ambulances parked just outside the southern city of Sderot to evacuate the wounded after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images.
The unsupported claim about dozens of child beheadings gained traction after live news reports from Nicole Zedeck, a correspondent forIsrael-based i24NEWS, who was reporting from the scene of an attack near the Israel-Gaza border. In videos the news service posted to X on Oct. 10, Zedeck said Israeli soldiers told her what they witnessed.
In one clip, she said “about 40 babies at least,” who were dead, according to a commander, “were taken out on gurneys.” In another clip, she said babies had “their heads cut off, they said” – but she never mentioned a number.
The claim about “40 babies beheaded” appears to be a combination of those two separate details that Zedeck relayed during the live broadcasts. She did not make that claim herself, as the social media video wrongly asserts.
In fact, CNN reported on Oct. 12 that an unnamed Israeli official told the news outlet that the Israeli government had not confirmed claims, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson, that babies were beheaded.
“There have been cases of Hamas militants carrying out beheadings and other ISIS-style atrocities. However, we cannot confirm if the victims were men or women, soldiers or civilians, adults or children,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
The White House also has walked back President Joe Biden’s false suggestion that he saw photographic evidence of children with their heads cut off.
“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” Biden said in an Oct. 11 meeting with Jewish community leaders.
Biden administration officials later told reporters he was referring to unconfirmed reports from news outlets and Israeli officials about alleged child decapitations.
Claims of Suspected Rapes
The video says that allegations of rape by Hamas militants are “false,” adding, “There is no evidence of this whatsoever.”
It’s true that there is limited evidence of specific cases of rape during the attack by Hamas. The Los Angeles Times, for example, removed a reference to rape from an Oct. 9 opinion piece because the reports hadn’t been substantiated.
However, some elected officials have referred to rape in their remarks about Hamas militants in Israel. Biden, for example, listed rape among the war atrocities suffered by Israelis after he’d been advised about it on a phone call with Netanyahu.
There has also been at least one news article, from the Times of Israel, reporting that two videos “have raised concerns of sexual assault against women.” One video shows a woman who has blood on her pants being taken out of a vehicle in Gaza, according to the article, and the other shows a woman in her underwear lying face down in a truck. The article did not link to the videos.
Rape is often used as a tactic of war and has a long history as such, although there are no publicly confirmed examples of sexual assault.
Sources
Ohlheiser, A.W. “Don’t believe everything you see and hear about Israel and Palestine.” Vox. 12 Oct 2023.
Reuters. “What’s the Israel-Palestinian conflict about and how did it start?” 11 Oct 2023.
United Nations. Press release. “Israel/occupied Palestinian territory: UN experts deplore attacks on civilians, call for truce and urge international community to address root causes of violence.” 12 Oct 2023.
Zinsner, Hadleigh. “Viral Video Clip Misrepresents Trump Remarks on Israel.” FactCheck.org. 10 Oct 2023.
Farley, Robert and Lori Robertson. “Republican Claims on Hamas Attack and Iran Funds Distort the Facts.” FactCheck.org. Updated 12 Oct 2023.
Farley, Robert. “Post Paints Misleading Picture of Biden’s Financial Support for Israel and Palestinians.” FactCheck.org. 11 Oct 2023.
Hale Spencer, Saranac. “Posts Share Bogus Memo to Falsely Claim U.S. Is Sending Additional $8 Billion to Israel.” FactCheck.org. 12 Oct 2023.
Tenbarge, Kat and Melissa Chan. “Unverified reports of ’40 babies beheaded’ in Israel-Hamas war inflame social media.” NBC News. 12 Oct 2023.
Chance, Matthew, et al. “Israeli official says government cannot confirm babies were beheaded in Hamas attack.” CNN. 12 Oct 2023.
Izso, Laurena and Mostafa Salem. “Babies and toddlers were found with ‘heads decapitated’ in Kfar Aza, Netanyahu spokesperson says.” CNN. 11 Oct 2023.
White House. “Remarks by President Biden and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at Roundtable with Jewish Community Leaders.” Transcript. 11 Oct 2023.
Alexander, Peter, et al. “White House clarifies Biden’s claim he saw photos of terrorists beheading children in Israel-Hamas war.” NBC News. 11 Oct 2023.
Liptak, Kevin. “White House says Biden’s remark on photos of children was intended to ‘underscore the utter depravity’ of Hamas attack.” CNN. 12 Oct 2023.
Goldberg, Jonah. “Column: Who’s to blame for the Hamas attack on Israel? That debate is already going off the rails.” Los Angeles Times. 9 Oct 2023.
Biden, Joe. “President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Terrorist Attacks in Israel.” YouTube. 10 Oct 2023.
Sharon, Jeremy. “Footage of Hamas assault on civilians shows likely war crimes, experts say.” Times of Israel. 8 Oct 2023.
U.N. Women. “Rape as a Tactic of War.” Accessed 13 Oct 2023.
Gillet, Francesca and Alice Cuddy. “Israeli music festival: 260 bodies recovered from site where people fled in hail of bullets.” BBC. 9 Oct 2023.
Debre, Isabel and Michael Biesecker. “Israeli survivors recount terror at music festival, where Hamas militants killed at least 260.” Associated Press. 9 Oct 2023.
Media Line (@themedialine). “Survivors From the South: Victims of Hamas’ Terror Speak From Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.” YouTube. 9 Oct 2023.
Chris Rock is deeply ‘frustrated’ at being dragged into Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s ongoing marital crisis.
According to insiders, Rock would prefer it if the actress kept his name out of her mouth as she continues to promote her tell-all book.
The comedian, 58, was slapped across the face by Will live on stage at last year’s Oscars after he made a ‘G.I. Jane’ joke about Jada’s bald head after she revealed she was suffering from alopecia.
Now, the stand-up comic has been dragged back into their troubled union after the Girls Trip actress, 52, claimed Chris once asked her out on a date when she and Will were previously at the center of divorce rumors.
‘Chris has said his piece on the entire Will Smith slap, but now with these new revelations from Jada that her and Will have been living separate lives it is just another WTF moment in the whole saga from these past few years between Chris, her, and Will,’ a source exclusively told DailyMail.com.
Chris hates that she keeps bringing it up and bringing up the other revelations about Chris asking her on a date and all of that.
‘He is a relatively private person and was just getting to a point where people may have started to move on, but now it is back in the limelight, and it’s just frustrating that everything is coming back to the forefront.’
The insider added: ‘Chris is over it and would actually love for her to keep his name out of her damn mouth.’
Will told Chris to ‘keep my wife’s name out of your f*****g mouth’ – before going on to win Best Actor for his role in King Richard that night.
Jada, who said she was shocked that he had referred to her as his ‘wife’, claimed that after Chris cracked the joke, he leant over to her to apologize – which infuriated Will even further.
Explaining the fallout, she said: ‘Will’s still talking cause now he’s mad because Chris is talking to me, and I go “Chris, this is about some old s**t.” That’s all I could think to say. It’s not him whatsoever.’
Jada also revealed she quietly separated from Will seven years ago and claimed Chris had once called her up to shoot his shot.
‘I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce,’ Jada told People. ‘And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce.
So he called me and basically he was like, “I’d love to take you out”. And I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?” I was like, “No, Chris, those are just rumors.
‘He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.’
Jada also addressed the Oscars slap, revealing she hasn’t spoken with Chris since.
‘[Do I have] any desire to talk to Chris? Here’s my desire: I just hope that all the misunderstanding around this can be cleared up and that there can be peace,’ she told the publication.
‘I talk about this in the book, I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars.
‘I think that he might’ve taken offense, which I meant no harm in offending. That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there.’
Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) would have regained his freedom but for Imo State politics and the forthcoming governorship election in the state, SaharaReporters can exclusively report.
Kanu, the leader of the separatist group was on June 19, 2021, abducted from Nairobi airport in Kenya and then detained and tortured for about 10 days in Kenya.
Under Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Kanu was subsequently flown by private plane from Kenya to Nigeria later in June 2021.
Since Kanu was brought to Nigeria to face trial for terrorism charges, he has been detained in solitary confinement at the headquarters of the Department of State Services, Nigeria’s secret police, in the capital city, Abuja.
Mr Kanu, a British citizen, has requested consular assistance from the British government, but the appeals failed.
However, sources in the Presidency told SaharaReporters on Friday that President Bola Tinubu would have ordered the release of Kanu but he was advised against doing so at this time by some politicians close to him.
SaharaReporters learnt that Tinubu was advised to hold on till after Imo State governorship election scheduled for November 11, 2023, as Kanu’s release before then could have political implications in the Southeast region.
“The release of Nnamdi Kanu was stalled by the Southeast politics of Imo. They claimed to Tinubu that his release might affect the election in Imo so the President waited,” one of the sources told SaharaReporters.
On Sunday, another separatist leader Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, who was in Cotonou, Republic of Benin capital, said that he was now legally free to return to Nigeria, after two years.
Igboho, who has since left the Republic of Benin to see his family in Germany, disclosed that he was now free to return to Nigeria and visit any country in the world.
The Yoruba Nation agitator said he had “fulfilled all the legal conditions attached to my bail few years back and I am coming home to Nigeria, my country of origin, any moment from now”.
Igboho was arrested on July 20, 2021, at Cardinal Bernardin International Airport in Cotonou, while trying to travel to Germany three weeks after he was declared wanted by Nigeria secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS).
Nigerian government made efforts to have Igboho expedited to Nigeria from the Republic of Benin like it was done in Kanu’s case but failed.
He was later granted bail by a Benin Republic court and was allowed to remain in Cotonou.
Igboho commended some prominent Yoruba indigenes, politicians, the media, academia and monarchs for the support he enjoyed in Cotonou.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Court of Appeal in October 2022 discharged Kanu of the counts filed against him. The appellate court subsequently barred any further arrest, detention and trial of Kanu by the agents of the government.
The Nigerian government later appealed against the judgement at the Supreme Court and subsequently got another panel of the Court of Appeal to stay the judgement of the appellate court.
Despite the judgements in favour of Kanu, he has remained in solitary confinement at the facility of the DSS.
On Tuesday, Kanu, through one of his lawyers, Aloy Ejimakor, said the Court of Appeal should not consider adjourning the hearing on IPOB’s appeal challenging its proscription as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government.
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal in March fixed October 16 to hear the appeal filed by IPOB to challenge its proscription as a terrorist organisation.
The Nigerian government under former President Muhammadu Buhari proscribed IPOB over its alleged killings and other atrocities in its agitation for the actualisation of the Biafra Nation.
On January 18, 2018, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja held that the proscription of IPOB by former President Buhari’s government was in order.
Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court proscribed IPOB based on the ex parte motion filed by the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on behalf of the Nigerian government, specifically declaring as illegal, all IPOB’s activities, particularly in the Southeast and South-South regions of Nigeria.
But the group approached the Court of Appeal insisting that the trial court erred in law. It pleaded with the court to set aside the order of the lower court and the motion ex parte.
IPOB in its five grounds of appeal contended that Justice Abdu-Kafarati erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice, when he ruled that the mandatory statutory condition requiring Buhari’s approval, under Section 2 (1) (C) of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act, 2013, was satisfied, on the authority of a Memo the AGF issued on September 15, 2017.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has set up two joint security task forces to ensure the safety of residents in the nation’s capital.
The Commissioner of Police in the FCT, Haruna Garba, disclosed this while briefing journalists on the outcome of Friday’s Security Council meeting held in Abuja.
He said one of the JTFs is expected to check the activities of “one chance” criminals in the FCT.
The meeting took place a few days after a victim of “one chance” criminals, Greatness Olorunfemi, died at the Maitama District Hospital in Abuja.
The CP said: “The FCT security council meeting, headed by Wike, met this afternoon and discussed ways and means of ensuring safety and security in FCT.
“Two task forces were set up at the meeting. The first is expected to check the activities of ‘one chance’ criminals, while the second will curtail the activities of armed robbers, kidnappers, and other criminals within the FCT and its environment
“Some of the ‘one chance’ operators have been arrested and would be prosecuted after investigations are concluded.
“The goal is to flush out criminal elements from the FCT, stop cross border crimes, and curb ‘one chance’ in the FCT.
“Residents will see significant improvement in the coming days.”
Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of a Women Affairs Secretariat to address women’s issues in the FCT Administration.
Mr Wike disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abuja on Friday, saying the move was part of Mr Tinubu’s commitment to inclusive governance that carried everyone along.
“As I am talking to you, My president has approved that we have a mandate secretary for women,” the minister said.
He said that FCTA currently has secretariats addressing most development issues but no specific one that addresses women’s issues.
The minister said women are critical to the country’s development process, stressing the need for a conscious step towards addressing their issues.
Mr Wike said, “In the world that we are in today, how can you talk about good governance and development without including women?
“I say look, you must create a secretariat that would take care of women like what we have in other states as commissioner of women affairs.
“So, there must be that in FCT to give them that inclusivity.”
The minister said the mandate secretary for women’s affairs would likely be inaugurated on Monday.
During a recent interview, iconic action film actor Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed that Democrats “want to f-ck up every city in America.”
Schwarzenegger, who was the governor of California from 2003-2011, shared his perspective of how the Democratic Party seems to be trying to “ruin” American cities on a recent episode of “Literally! With Rob Lowe.”
During the interview, Lowe asked Schwarzenegger what it means for a person to be considered a Republican. As an example, he pointed to comments by former Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.).
“Okay, let me ask you this, and I ask people this all the time,” Lowe said. “David Dreier, good friend of ours and a good man. Surfer for many, many, many years. He used to have the greatest, ‘what makes me a Republican,’ and he had I think four or five things. I think it was, in no particular order, strong military, low taxes, less government, more personal freedoms. There might have been one more, but it makes sense to know…”
READ MORE: Schwarzenegger owns up to ‘failures,’ apologizes for affair and groping scandal in new docuseries
Schwarzenegger quickly interjected that “strong law enforcement” was the other major policy platform supported by Republicans. After Lowe agreed with Schwarzenegger, he continued, “And then I’d like to know, I always ask Democrats what it means to be a Democrat in that way…”
Before Lowe could finish his train of thought, Schwarzenegger interrupted, suggesting that Democrats would answer the question by saying, “ruin your cities.” When asked again what Democrats would say, Schwarzenegger repeated that he believed Democrats would answer, “ruin your cities.”
Schwarzenegger went on to say, “That’s what the Democrats would say. We are about ruining the cities. We want to f-ck up every city in America. That seems to be the theme right now.”
When asked why Democrats are trying to ruin American cities, Schwarzenegger replied, “I have no idea.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Enugu Command has secured the conviction of three alleged internet fraudsters.
According to the EFCC, the convicts were first arraigned on September 29, 2023, before Justice Nnadi O. Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Awka, Anambra State on one -count separate charges bordering on impersonation and attempt to obtain money by false pretences.
The suspects are: Anyanwu Prince Uzoma, Okume Clinton Chukwuemeka and Jude Onyecachi.
The lone-count reads: “That you, Jude Onyekachi, sometime in the year 2023 at Enugu State, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, fraudulently impersonated one Wilfred Baston from United States by means of your IPhone 11 via fake Google chat account with the intent to gain advantage for yourself from unsuspecting foreign nationals and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(3) (a) & (b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22(4) of the same Act”.
The suspects all pleaded guilty to their respective charges and were convicted by Justice Dimgba and sentenced to one year imprisonment each.
The Judge however, gave them an option of N150, 000 each , and also ruled that all the recovered items from the convicts be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The convicts’ journey to the Correctional Centre began when they were arrested for internet-related offences, They were charged to court and convicted.
Inhalable or spray versions of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are still in development and don’t have regulatory approval. Posts online are distorting recent research from Yale University to falsely claim that governments have approved such products to mass vaccinate people without their consent in a plot involving Bill Gates.
Full Story
Some scientists are working on creating inhalable or nasal spray mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Such vaccines have the potential to better prevent infection or transmission of the virus than more typical vaccines that are injected. These vaccines, once authorized or approved, would be taken just like any other vaccine, with a person choosing to be vaccinated.
But posts online are falsely claiming that Bill Gates is behind an effort to use inhalable mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to blanket the air and forcibly vaccinate large numbers of people without their consent.
“Bill Gates mRNA ‘Air Vaccine’ Approved for Use Against Non-Consenting Humans,” reads one false headline from the People’s Voice, a dubious website we’ve fact-checked in the past.
“The air vaccine will ‘indiscriminately’ force jab the entire planet with mRNA, delivering the toxic chemicals straight into a person’s lungs,” the post continues.
As we have explained before, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have a good safety profile and aren’t “toxic.”
The article proceeds to weave together a few true things — including the existence of some basic research at Yale University on an mRNA nasal vaccine in mice — to falsely suggest a Bill Gates-backed conspiracy is about to begin.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation told us in an email that the claims in the article were “false.”
Other posts have highlighted the same research to suggest the possibility of forced vaccination, sometimes without invoking Bill Gates.
In reality, no mRNA versions of an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine have been approved in any country, according to our research, although some non-mRNA designs have been rolled out in places such as China. And scientists say it’s not possible to spray such a vaccine into the air and vaccinate people unwittingly.
“It is not possible to do that and achieve vaccination, and it is not what we tested in our studies,” W. Mark Saltzman, a biomedical engineer and one of the scientists leading the work at Yale, told us in an email.
The posts also sometimes cite a bioethics paper entitled “Compulsory moral bioenhancement should be covert” to argue that the conspiracy is more plausible. But the paper, which was written by a single academic, is specifically about moral bioenhancement, which the author defines as “the potential practice of influencing a person’s moral behavior by way of biological intervention upon their moral attitudes, motivations, or dispositions.”
This is a theoretical concept, as currently there is no biological way to modify a person’s moral behavior. Moreover, the article is only arguing a conditional — that if moral bioenhancement is compulsory, then it should be covertly administered. It is not directly relevant to COVID-19 vaccination.
The post “cuts up different pieces of information and pieces it together into a Frankenstein theory,” Dr. Angela K. Shen, a vaccine and public health expert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard David Institute of Health Economics, told us. “But it doesn’t really work that way.”
Misinterpreted Yale Study
As supposed evidence of the plot, the People’s Voice article cites an August study published in Science Translational Medicine by researchers at Yale University. “A team from Yale University developed the method for delivering the dangerous chemicals into people’s lungs,” the post incorrectly claims.
But the study, which was performed in mice, is only evidence that scientists are working on developing an mRNA nasal vaccine.
“This basic science study found that mRNA molecules delivered intranasally to the lungs of research animals can be used to effectively vaccinate against the COVID virus,” Saltzman said.
“Contrary to reports on social media,” Saltzman said, spraying the vaccine in the air to mass vaccinate non-consenting people “would not work in humans and this study did not involve humans. Humans must receive a controlled dose that is administered directly into the nose.”
Shen also noted that “when something goes airborne, it dilutes things,” making the prospect of trying to forcibly vaccinate a population by spraying a vaccine highly implausible.
Photo by stock.adobe.com
The Yale paper’s main innovation is the polymer nanoparticles used to deliver the mRNA into the lung. Alone, mRNA is very unstable, and won’t get past layers of mucus inside the body or into cells and do anything. At the same time, previous delivery systems scientists have tested have caused lung inflammation.
This design appeared to balance those concerns, at least in mice. But more testing is needed, including in humans, before the vaccine, if successful, would ever become available. Shen, who is also a retired captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, estimated it would take closer to eight to 10 years for such a vaccine to get to market.
Saltzman added that there was “no funding from Bill Gates or his foundation,” consistent with the funding sources listed in his study.
The only connection to Bill Gates we were able to find is a general interest in nasal spray vaccines, which generally are not mRNA-based. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped fund other research into nasal vaccines and participated in a virtual workshop about such vaccines for COVID-19 in November 2022, for example.
But as we said, the foundation called the allegations in the posts false, and as we’ll explain in more detail below, there are good public health reasons to want to invest in nasal vaccines. This interest is not evidence of a conspiracy to forcibly vaccinate anyone.
Promise of Nasal Spray Vaccines
Scientists are interested in nasal spray and other so-called mucosal vaccines primarily because by targeting the mucosal tissues where respiratory infections first take hold, they might better prevent infection than injected vaccines.
As pointed out in a summary of the November 2022 workshop on mucosal vaccines for COVID-19, even if such vaccines aren’t able to prevent infection entirely, they may still reduce viral shedding more than injected vaccines, which would reduce transmission of the virus. This, in turn, would more effectively limit surges of disease, lower the number of people who develop long COVID and reduce the risk of creating new COVID-19 variants.
Another advantage of mucosal vaccines is that they are easier to administer. This is helpful to everyone, but could be especially valuable in poorer parts of the world.
“A needleless delivery device is a better delivery method for lower and middle income countries,” Shen told us from Sierra Leone, where she is doing some work.
Since many people are afraid of needles, a needle-free vaccine is also likely to appeal to many people who would like to be vaccinated, but can’t get over their fear.
Relatively few mucosal vaccines exist, however, especially for respiratory illnesses. There is only one Food and Drug Administration-approved nasal spray vaccine. That vaccine, FluMist, uses weakened flu viruses to protect against seasonal influenza.
There are no inhalable or nasal spray COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved in the U.S. The government, however, is putting money behind at least two designs, neither of which use mRNA — again, with the hope that these easier-to-administer vaccines would also better reduce spread of the coronavirus.
Outside the U.S., there are a few non-mRNA designs from India, China, Russia and Iran with authorizations or approvals.
China authorized the world’s first inhalable COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in September 2022. It is an aerosolized version of the company’s injectable vaccine, which uses an adenovirus — not mRNA — to deliver instructions for making the coronavirus’ spike protein. The inhalable vaccine uses an individual cup dispenser to transform the vaccine liquid into a mist that can be breathed in.
Sources
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Jaramillo, Catalina. “COVID-19 Vaccine-Generated Spike Protein is Safe, Contrary to Viral Claims.” FactCheck.org. 1 Jul 2021.
Saltzman, W. Mark. Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University. Emails to FactCheck.org. 10 and 13 Oct 2023.
Crutchfield, Parker. “Compulsory moral bioenhancement should be covert.” Bioethics. 29 Aug 2018.
Shen, Angela K. Senior Fellow, Leonard David Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 9 Oct 2023.
Suberi, Alexandra et al. “Polymer nanoparticles deliver mRNA to the lung for mucosal vaccination.” Science Translational Medicine. 16 Aug 2023.
“An mRNA COVID vaccine (and potentially more) with nanoparticles, no shot needed.” Press release. School of Engineering & Applied Science, Yale University. 16 Aug 2023.
Ndeupen, Sonia. “The mRNA-LNP platform’s lipid nanoparticle component used in preclinical vaccine studies is highly inflammatory.” iScience. 20 Nov 2021.
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