The following is excerpted from article link HERE! “Under West Virginia Code §16-3-4, children entering state-regulated childcare centers or public, private, or parochial schools must be vaccinated against 10 diseases; chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough.“ (Author’s commentary – Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. Now little […]
No Religious Exemptions!
by Jim Hᴏft
Jul. 28, 2026 8:15 am
Former FDA Commissioner and current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb appeared visibly uncomfortable Monday as CNBC’s Joe Kernen repeatedly confronted him over Dr. Anthony Fauci’s conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The heated exchange unfolded on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” just two days before Fauci is scheduled to testify under subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Fauci will appear on Wednesday, July 29, at 8:30 a.m. ET before the committee chaired by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), according to the official hearing notice.
Paul subpoenaed Fauci after the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director reportedly backed out of an earlier agreement to testify voluntarily.
Kernen wasted no time putting Gottlieb on the spot.
“How about your buddy Fauci?” Kernen asked. “I’ve asked you about him in the past. You’ve defended him quite a bit.”
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By Misty Severi
Published: July 28, 2026 10:00pm
Updated: July 28, 2026 10:16pm
The State and Health and Human Services departments claim that although biomedical research has produced lifesaving vaccines and medical breakthroughs, it must never come at the expense of public safety or national security.
he Trump administration announced Tuesday it has officially banned gain-of-function research, claiming it has the potential to threaten lives and undermine national security if not properly restricted and controlled.
The State and Health and Human Services departments claim that although biomedical research has produced lifesaving vaccines and medical breakthroughs, it must never come at the expense of public safety or national security.
The policy change comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year that banned federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries like China, which is believed to be at the heart of the COVID-19 lab leak in Wuhan.
The two departments said in a joint statement that an “America First approach to scientific research means ensuring that taxpayer dollars are never used to support dangerous gain-of-function research … in the United States or abroad.”
The new policy also prohibits federal support for gain-of-function research, strengthens oversight of other high-risk life sciences research, and restricts funding for research conducted in countries that lack appropriate safety, security, and oversight standards.
“Scientific leadership requires both innovation and responsibility,” the departments said. “The United States will continue to support biomedical research that develops vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other lifesaving medical countermeasures while ensuring that the highest-risk research is subject to rigorous safeguards.
“We encourage our international partners to join us in ending dangerous gain-of-function research and adopting strong biosafety and biosecurity standards that make the world safer, more secure, and better prepared for future biological threats,” they added.
The policy was developed by top officials including Undersecretary of State Tom DiNanno and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.
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Lowell Cauffiel
26 Jul 2026
The COVID-19 pandemic has come back to haunt Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke as a grand jury has indicted the Democrat on bribery charges for allegedly securing funding for virus testing sites in exchange for campaign contributions.
The alleged pay-to-play scheme took place when Luke was a state lawmaker.
Friday’s indictment follows state and federal investigations into the campaign finance scandal that also resulted in the indictment of a lobbyist and four other officials.
Prosecutors accused Luke of accepting campaign finance contributions in 2022 while she was a state lawmaker in exchange for securing funding for COVID-19 testing sites.
The Hawaii grand jury returned a 12-count indictment that includes charging Luke with “criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports among other charges,” the Hill reported per the state’s Department of the Attorney General.
It’s alleged Luke accepted at least $35,000 in campaign contributions from lobbyist and businessman Tobi Solidum in exchange for supporting testing sites operated by the National Kidney Foundation.
Solidum, who was also indicted by the grand jury, was a lobbyist and consultant for the foundation.
According to court filings, Solidum forked two $5,000 campaign checks to Luke during a meeting at a Morton’s Steakhouse in January 2022 as they allegedly talked about state funding for COVID-19 testing sites.
Democratic Attorney General Anne Lopez said the indictments followed an investigation launched in January that followed a federal public corruption probe, according to news reports.
“From the outset of this investigation, I have repeated that we have a commitment to following the facts to where they lead, no matter how long it takes to get there,” Lopez told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) suggested Luke should resign.
“The Attorney General announced significant developments in her department’s corruption investigation and has provided an update on their findings,” he said in a statement to Politico on Saturday. “The Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward.”
Five other people were indicted on Friday. They are Solidum, former state Rep. Ryan Yamane (D), Hawaii Department of Transportation official Ford Fuchigami and former state Public Utilities Commission official Leo Asunción.
Voters elected Luke to serve as Green’s deputy in 2022. She took office in April when the campaign finance investigation first made headlines. She also ended her campaign for reelection at that time.
Governor Josh Green appointed Keith Regan, comptroller of the Department of Accounting and General Services, to serve as acting lieutenant governor in Luke’s absence.
The lieutenant governor has yet to comment on the charges.
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Sen. Ron Johnson said he expects little cooperation from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, when he testifies before the Senate this week, as Republicans prepare to question the longtime public health official about the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hill reported Sunday.
The Wisconsin Republican told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that “I don’t expect to get much out of him” during Fauci’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Johnson added, “I think [Fauci would] be very forgetful, completely unrepentant, arrogant — I mean, arrogant to the extreme.”
The senator said he intends to use Wednesday’s hearing to highlight what he views as failure in the government’s handling of the pandemic, stressing that “I’m going to try and lay out all the things that he did that were such a miserably failed response to COVID.”
The hearing comes after committee Chairman Rand Paul subpoenaed Fauci to testify as part of the panel’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the government’s involvement in research conducted in China.
The Kentucky Republican has alleged that federal officials concealed information about U.S.-funded viral research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where he and other Republicans argue the virus that caused the pandemic may have originated.
U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided over COVID-19’s origins, and no definitive conclusion has been reached about whether the virus emerged from a laboratory incident or through natural animal-to-human transmission.
Paul has repeatedly accused Fauci of misleading Congress regarding research funding and has argued the former NIAID director should face criminal charges.
During a 2021 Senate hearing, Fauci denied that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded gain-of-function research involving the virus that causes COVID-19 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In previous interviews, Paul has said he expects Fauci to be untruthful during his upcoming testimony.
“I don’t expect him to be honest; he hasn’t been honest in the last six years,” Paul said recently.
Paul also said negotiations with Fauci over documents and testimony had dragged on for months before the committee issued a subpoena.
“We’ve been negotiating with him for material and for testimony,” Paul told CNBC last month. “This has gone on for some time. He slow-walked us and slow-walked us. Finally agreed to come in voluntarily … then last week he says he’s not coming in. With this subpoena power, we will bring him in, unless he fights this in court.”
Fauci, who retired from government service in 2022 after advising seven presidents dating back to the Reagan administration, received a preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden before Biden left office amid concerns that the Trump administration could pursue legal action against him.
Wednesday’s hearing is expected to renew congressional scrutiny of the government’s pandemic response, including funding decisions, public health guidance, and investigations into the origins of COVID-19.
