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US cuts estimate for Omicron prevalence to just over half of Covid cases . . . US health officials have sharply cut their estimates for how much of the country’s Covid-19 wave has been caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant, underlining the uncertainties about the pandemic response. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said they believed the highly transmissible strain was responsible for just over half of the country’s Covid infections, rather than three-quarters, as estimated a week ago. The change to CDC’s estimates came after the agency received more sampling information from previous weeks, officials said. Financial Times

 

Is Fluvoxamine the Covid Drug We’ve Been Waiting For? . . . 
A 10-day treatment costs only $4 and appears to greatly reduce symptoms, hospitalization and death. The Food and Drug Administration last week authorized two oral antiviral medicines for the early treatment of Covid-19. But don’t get too excited. The U.S. will still have a meager treatment arsenal this winter. The U.S. has been relying on monoclonal-antibody treatments, but most don’t hold up against the Omicron variant. One, by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, does better at neutralizing the variant, but supply is limited. Pfizer’s newly authorized antiviral pack Paxlovid will also have to be rationed. There will be more of Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ newly authorized antiviral, molnupiravir, but patients may be reluctant to take the drug. Some scientists worry it could cause DNA mutations in people, though the FDA determined that the likelihood of this was low when used on a short-term basis. Wall Street Journal

 

US troops will receive pay cut in 2022 when factoring inflation . . . The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Biden Monday included a 2.7% raise for service members in the U.S. military, which amounts to a pay cut when factoring inflation. The 2.7% rise in pay comes as prices continue to surge for American consumers, with the latest statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the Consumer Price Index has risen 6.8% over the last 12 months. Increases in prices have been especially steep in goods Americans consume most, with the price of food rising 6.1% and the price of gasoline rising 58.1% over the last 12 months. Fox Business

 

Syria Accuses Israel of Striking Its Main Commercial Port . . . Israeli missiles struck Syria’s port of Latakia early Tuesday, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry, causing large fires and major damage in the second such attack on the vital facility this month. The missiles were fired from the Mediterranean and targeted the commercial port’s container yard at around 3 a.m. local time, the Syrian Defense Ministry said via the state news agency SANA. No casualties were immediately reported from the strikes, which activated Syrian air defenses, according to SANA.
Israeli analysts said the Israelis had likely targeted a military consignment. A Syrian government adviser said a shipment of Iranian military spare parts was targeted in the strike. Wall Street Journal

 

 

Russia will strike Ukraine soon -- Putin is playing with Biden and NATO . . . Analysis by Rebekah Koffler. Do not be distracted by Russia’s announcement on Sunday of a troop withdrawal from the Ukrainian border. It may appear that Moscow is signaling, ahead of the just announced U.S.-Russia talks early next year, that it favors a diplomatic approach to resolving the current standoff with the U.S. and NATO over Ukraine. But in all likelihood it is just a ruse. There’s a more than 50% chance that Putin will attack Ukraine in the coming weeks, regardless of the outcome of another round talks between Moscow and Washington planned for January 10 through 13. Fox News

 

 

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Dies at 82 . . . Harry Reid, the pugnacious son of a Nevada hard-rock miner who rose from poverty to become the U.S. Senate majority leader and earned a reputation as a fierce partisan fighter during an era of political gridlock in Washington, died on Tuesday. He was 82. Reid, a former amateur boxer who represented Nevada in the U.S. Congress as a Democrat for more than three decades, died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, his wife of 62 years, Landra, said in a statement. Washington Free Beacon

 

Strict gun laws aren’t helping during a national crime wave, most voters say . . . A new poll finds that more than eight of 10 U.S. voters believe strict gun control laws in major cities either make no difference in the current retail crime surge or make it worse. The survey by the Trafalgar Group revealed that 47.1% of respondents from all political affiliations said that “the strict gun laws in most major cities” make “no difference” in the current retail crime surge and 37.3% believe they make it “worse.” Just 15.6% of voters said they believed the gun laws make the retail crime surge “better.” Pollster Robert Cahaly, who founded Trafalgar Group in 2016, said the findings echo a recent polling trend that shows a growing voter backlash against progressive police reform policies. Washington Times

 

 

 

 

Rebekah Koffler

Editor, White House Dossier and Cut to the News

Author of Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America, to be released July 27, 2021

 

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