Category: Vaccines

CDC Drafted, Held Back Myocarditis Alert on COVID Vaccines

There’s a new report from The Epoch Times which seemingly reveals the CDC drafted an alert for state and local health authorities about myocarditis and other complications relating to the COVID vaccine but, for reasons unknown, did not send it. … The CDC acknowledged for the first time that reported cases of myocarditis existed after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination, and that those levels were higher than expected. However, the agency still recommends that most Americans 12 and older get vaccinated.

Sharyl Attkisson: COVID Vaccine Trials

Florida’s Surgeon General recently called for a halt in COVID vaccines due to safety questions, while the federal government continues to heavily promote them for adults and kids alike. Today we begin with a little-told story about COVID vaccine injuries. It’s the story of Maddie, one of the children who took part in Pfizer’s vaccine study on children. It’s a remarkable account of what happened when Maddie got very, very sick, leading to accusations that Pfizer, the FDA, and the study leaders tried to bury her case.

Doctors Are Not Trained To Heal The Population: John Abramson, MD

Doctors are trained to read and understand medical science and evolving medical science—the articles that come out in the medical journals and the guidelines. That’s their job. As they have been taught, that’s how they do their job. But the fact is that 96 percent of medical research is about new drugs and medical devices. In other words, 96 percent of research is about expensive new products that will generate the maximum return on investment to investors and to the executives of the drug companies who get paid in stock options… about 60 percent of their remuneration is in stock options.

“Needle-Free” Vaccines Pushed by Gates Foundation, U.S. Government

  • by Marco Cáceres
microarray vaccine patch

The pharmaceutical industry is continuing to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. government to develop vaccines that can be administered without using a syringe. Last month, the Gates Foundation awarded a $23.6 million grant to Micron Biomedical, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia to manufacture needle-free vaccines. This was followed by two separate $3 million grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Orlance, Inc. of Seattle, Washington to create needle-free vaccine delivery systems, and a $5.5 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to Lumen Bioscience, Inc. of Seattle to make needle-free shots.1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A Child Can Be Vaccinated “Within Minutes” Using Needle-Free Technology

The grant to Micron Biomedical is for the mass production of dissolvable microneedles attached to the skin on a “patchlike device” that would make it more efficient to transport, store and administer vaccines than use of traditional syringes to inject vaccines. According to the company, its dissolvable “microarray technology” will be applied specifically to measles-rubella (MR) vaccine and “reduces the need for a cold chain and allows a community health worker to vaccinate a child within minutes by applying the technology to the skin and pressing a button that confirms administration.”1 2 3

Micron Biomedical notes that another advantage to its product is that it makes the process of vaccination “virtually pain-free” and can be self-administered. The “peal and stick” microneedle patch essentially works like a Band-Aid.2 8 9

Gates Foundation Awards Millions to Speed Up Development of Needle-Free Vaccines

The Gates Foundation has previously given money to Micron Biomedical to develop its needle-free vaccine technology. On June 1, 2017, the organization gave Micron $2.2 million to fund the first clinical trial of its new vaccine delivery technology on children. Micron received another $900,000 from the Gates Foundation in 2022 to design manufacturing facilities to make needle-free vaccines.2 10 11

In recent years, the Gates Foundation has awarded millions of dollars to other pharmaceutical companies to develop needle-free vaccines, including Vaxess Technologies, Inc. of Boston, SK bioscience Co. Ltd. of South Korea and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. of Australia.12 13 14

NIH Awards Grants to Drug Companies to Manufacture Microparticle “Gene Gun” Vaccine Delivery Systems

NIH has also given millions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies for development of needle-free vaccines. The two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to Orlance on Nov. 28 were to help advance development aned production of a microparticle “gene gun” technology for a universal influenza vaccine and a vaccine against melanoma. The vaccines would deliver DNA or RNA vaccine-coated microparticles directly into cells of the outer layer of the skin (epidermis).4 5

Last year, NIH awarded a grant worth more than $800,000 to PharmaJet, Inc. of Golden, Colorado to evaluate needle-free delivery system for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. NIH has also been working closely with PharmaJet for several years on a needle-free Zika vaccine.15 16 17

DoD Awards Grants to Drug Companies to Make Needle-Free Malaria, Anthrax and Encephalitis Vaccines

DoD’s grant to Lumen Bioscience on Nov. 29 was to support development of a Module Dual Scaffolded Adjuvent (MoDuSA) needle-free vaccine technology which builds on Lumen research that is creating an intranasal malaria vaccine against. “This new technology could expand access and ease vaccine production, storage and administration in future public health emergencies,” said Nhi Khuong, vice president of preclinical development at Lumen.6 7 18

In the past, DoD has awarded a grant of $943,856 to Iomai Corp. of Gaithersburg, Maryland to help develop a needle-free anthrax vaccine. DoD has also been working with PharmaJet on development of a needle-free DNA Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) vaccine. On Mar. 17, 2020, PharmaJet received a $9.6 million multi-year contract from the Joint Science and Technology Office of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for work on the VEE vaccine.19 20 According to a PharmaJet press release:

DTRA, through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), is funding the use of needle-free technology to further progress promising nucleic acid vaccines, while also funding the development of PharmaJet’s next generation needle-free devices.21

COVID Pandemic Fuels Research to Fast Track Creation of Needle-Free Vaccines

For several decades, scientists have been developing needle-free vaccines, specifically microarray patches (MAPs) that are applied to the skin, but it appears now that the COVID-19 pandemic has given this effort more urgency. Needle free vaccine research is on a fast track, fueled at least in part by government public health policies promoting mass use of new vaccines that support the strategic business interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

Officials at the public-private business partnership known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance believe that the COVID pandemic experience has “reinvigorated interest and investment in the [MAP] technology.” It is anticipated that the first pre-licensure clinical studies for vaccine MAPs could begin by 2026 and that the first of these needle free biological products could be made available for public distribution by 2028.22

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Click here to view References:

1 Pharmaceutical Technology. Micron Biomedical receives funds to produce needle-free vaccines. Nov. 17, 2023.
2 Press Release. Micron Biomedical Receives $23.6 Million to Accelerate Commercial Manufacturing of Needle-Free Vaccines and to Help Eradicate Measles. Micron Biomedical Nov. 16, 2023.
3 Rigby J. No more needles? Gates Foundation funds patch-style vaccine technology. Reuters Nov. 16, 2023.
4 Orlance. Orlance Inc. Awarded NIH SBIR Grant for Next Generation Gene-Gun Delivered DNA and RNA Immunotherapeutic Vaccines for Melanoma. Cision PR Newswire Nov. 28, 2023.
5 Orlance. Orlance Inc. Awarded Pivotal $3M NIH SBIR Grant for Advancing MACH-1™ Needle-Free, Powdered Universal Influenza Vaccine to the Clinic. Cision PR Newswire Nov. 28, 2023.
6 Cameron I. Lumen Bioscience bags $5.5 million to develop needle-free vaccines. BioPharma Reporter Nov. 30, 2023.
7 Press Release. Lumen Bioscience Announces $5.5 Million Funding to Support New Research Program for Mucosal Vaccine Platform Technology. Lumen Bioscience Nov. 29, 2023.
8 Beanz T, Edwards M. Gates-Funded Needle-Free Drugs & Vaccines Are On The Horizon. The Highwire May 30, 2023.
9 Micron Biomedical. Technology.
10 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Micron Biomedical, Inc. June 2017.
11 Press Release. Micron receives $2.2M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Micron Biomedical June 1, 2017.
12 SK bioscience. SK bioscience and Vaxxas Enter Joint Development Agreement for Needle-Free Patch Delivery of Typhoid Vaccine. Cision PR Newswire Aug. 23, 2023.
13 Transnational Research Institute. Aussie Invention Propelling Needle-Free Vaccine Delivery. Sept. 10, 2020.
14 TVR Staff. Needle-Free Vaccines Backed by Gates Foundation. The Vaccine Reaction Mar. 21, 2017.
15 Whooley S.  PharmaJet wins NIH grant to evaluate needle-free delivery of HPV immunization. Drug Delivery Business News Nov. 29, 2022.
16 Business Wire. Using PharmaJet In DNA Vaccine Clinical Trial For Zika Virus. BioSpace Aug. 9, 2016.
17 Press Release. NIH Zika Vaccine Initial Trial Results Encouraging. PharmaJet Jan. 4, 2017.
18 Lumen Bioscience. Lumen Bioscience Announces Publication in NPJ Vaccines of Preclinical Data Demonstrating Needle Free, Spirulina-produced Vaccination Offering Protection Against Malaria. Cision PR Newswire Oct. 4, 2022.
19 Schnirring L. DoD funds development of anthrax vaccine patch. CIDRAP Apr. 8, 2008.
20 PharmaJet. First Human Clinical Study to Assess U.S. Department of Defense DNA Vaccine Candidate against Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Delivered with PharmaJet Precision Delivery Systems. Business Wire Nov. 16, 2023.
21 Press Release. PharmaJet Received Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Award to Support Next-Generation Needle-free Delivery Devices. PharmaJet Mar. 17, 2020.
22 Geddes L. Needle-free vaccines could be available within five years, but investment is needed. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance May 17, 2023.

COVID Vaccine Skepticism Censored After Virality Project Complained to Social Media

A Stanford University group helped the United States government censor COVID-19 dissidents, then they lied about it. The Twitter files published by journalist Matt Taibbi in March revealed the Stanford’s Internet Observatory initiative, also known as the Virality Project, pushed platforms to treat user concerns about vaccine mandates as disinformation and to consider stories of true vaccine side effects to be actionable content on social media.

CDC Reports Largest Increase in U.S. Infant Mortality Rate in Two Decades~15-Month-Old Girl Dies Two Days After ‘Well-Baby Visit’ Vaccinations

The United States is seeing an increase in infant deaths. That’s the headline from a new report from the CDC. It says there’s been a year-to-year increase in the infant mortality rate—the first in about 20 years. The report caused concern at the CDC. They’re worried that the back-to-back increase might become a trend. … Losing a child is a terrible grief that more and more parents are experiencing in the U.S., according to new data from the CDC. The report shows the infant mortality in 2021 was 5.44. In 2022, it was 5.6—a three percent increase.

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15-Month-Old Girl Dies Two Days After ‘Well-Baby Visit’ Vaccinations

  • by TVR Staff
Melody Rain

A 15-month-old girl died in Warwick, New York on Oct. 19, 2023, two days after receiving three shots of five vaccines during a routine well-baby visit with a pediatrician at the Herbert Kania Pediatric Group. Melody Rain Palombi-Malmgren was a “perfectly healthy child,” according to her mother, Katherine Palombi. She was administered varicella (chickenpox), DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and acellular Pertussis) and Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria) on Oct. 17, and two days later suffered a heart attack and stopped breathing.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Hospital records show that the child also suffered liver and kidney failure.1 2 5

Melody was being cared for by her grandmother when her symptoms began. The grandmother called Palombi and told her that Melody was having trouble breathing. “I just kept saying, she just had vaccines, she just had vaccines,” Palombi recalls.1 2 3 4 5 8

The grandmother then called 911 and was instructed to perform CPR until the paramedics could arrive. Melody was subsequently transported by ambulance to St. Anthony’s Community Hospital where EMTs and medical staff tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate her.3 4 5 8

“By the time I got to the hospital, they put me in a room,” Palombi said, “and they just kept saying, ‘We’re working on her.’”3 5

“They were going over everything from that morning because she’d gotten into something,” she said, and “I just kept saying, ‘She had vaccines. A couple of days before this, she had vaccines.’”3 5

Child Had Previously Been Hospitalized Soon After Vaccinations

Palombi said that her daughter had been hospitalized before with a fever of 104° and a body rash all over her body that she developed within 24 hours after being vaccinated when she was two months old. Palombi said that the doctors had told her they did not think the symptoms were an allergic reaction to the vaccines but rather were caused by a virus. But she believes that, in both cases, the vaccines were too much for her daughter’s body.1 3 4 5

Palombi said she believed the five vaccines her daughter got were too much for her daughter’s body to handle. In an interview with News 12 Westchester, Palombi advised other parents, “Trust your gut and don’t let them push anything on to your children that you don’t want to do.”1 3 4 5

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a total of 10 shots of 16 vaccines for a 15-month-old child. In addition to the ones Melody received, the CDC recommends  the following shots: the HepA (Hepatitis A), Influenza, MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella), PCV (Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine), IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) RV (Rotavirus Vaccine) and COVID-19.9

“I just want to spread awareness in Melody’s name,” Palombi said. “Maybe she can save other children.”1 3 4 5

In an interview with The Defender, Palombi recounted how a mother had recently reached out to her when her two-month-old child suffered a reaction to a vaccine…

The baby was passing blood in the stool and everything else. So I told her, ‘You need to get the baby back to the emergency room immediately.’ And she did. The pediatrician admitted to this mom, ‘If you didn’t bring the baby in, the baby would have been dead by Monday.’3

Palombi also recalled how another woman had reached out to her to share how her grandson had died at six months old following a well-baby visit. “They told her it was SIDS,” she said. “That’s not what it is. It’s so sad to keep hearing that I’m not the only one.”3

“I just want to keep educating parents on the dangers of vaccines, encourage them to spread them out, give them when the child is older, or get tested for the [methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase] gene,” Palombi said. Some physicians believe that the “MTHFR” gene places certain children at higher risk for serious reactions to vaccines.3

If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.

Click here to view References:

1 Adl-Tabatabai S. Toddler Suffers Agonizing Death Two Days After Getting Jabbed. The People’s Voice Nov. 13, 2023.
2 Circle of Mamas. 15-Month-Old Toddler Dies 2 Days After ‘Well-Visit’ Vaccinations. Nov. 9, 2023.
3 Dumais JM. ‘Perfectly Healthy’ 15-Month-Old Girl Dies Two Days After Routine Vaccination. The Defender Nov. 13, 2023.
4 Gomez B. Orange County 15-month-old dies 2 days after ‘well-visit’ vaccinations. News12 Westchester Nov. 8, 2023.
5 Hoft J. Tragic: 15-Month-Old Girl Dies from Organ Failure and Cardiac Arrest Two Days After Receiving Three Vaccines During Routine Visit. Gateway Pundit Nov. 12, 2023.
6 Kyrylenko V. Healthy Toddler Dies Days After Routine Vaccinations. New American Nov. 13, 2023.
7 Possumkicker Catch-22. 15 Months Old Melody a recently vaccinated Baby Dies After Liver & Kidney Failure! BitChute Nov. 12, 2023.
8 Truth Press. 15-Month-Old Girl Dies From Organ Failure And Cardiac Arrest Two Days After Receiving Three Vaccines. Truth Press Nov. 12, 2023.
9 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recommended Vaccinations for Infants and Children, Parent-Friendly Version. Feb. 10, 2023.

 

 

Fauci-Run Lab In Montana Experimented With Coronavirus Strain From Wuhan A Year Before Pandemic

Director Anthony Fauci speaks during the daily press briefing. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
12:48 PM – Friday, November 3, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/fauci-run-lab-in-montana-experimented-with-coronavirus-strain-from-wuhan-a-year-before-pandemic/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

A recent investigation has revealed that coronaviruses from the Chinese facility in Wuhan, which is now understood to be the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, were experimented with a little over a year before the worldwide pandemic. These efforts were also funded by U.S. taxpayers.

In 2018, a “SARS-like” virus known as WIV1 was introduced in a lab in Montana, infecting 12 Egyptian fruit bats under the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.

The WIV1 coronavirus was reportedly tested on bats obtained from a “roadside” Maryland zoo and was transported from the Wuhan facility, where the FBI now suspects the COVID-19 pandemic originated.

According to data that was made public this week by a campaign organization, the unique virus was unable to generate a “robust infection.”

However, the study provides additional proof of the connections between the U.S. government, the Wuhan lab, and the tax-payer-funded risky virus research.

In 2018, the publication of the study was completed, showing that the “SARS-Like Coronavirus WIV1-CoV Does Not Replicate in Egyptian Fruit Bats.” DRASTIC, an online activist organization that looks into the origins of COVID-19 and the lab leak scenario, initially brought attention to the study.

The White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog group, is currently requesting further information on the experiment under the Freedom of Information Act. The group has been campaigning to prevent American tax funds from being sent abroad to finance controversial virus research.

The 2018 study was conducted under the direction of Fauci, the former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at the NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, a partner with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories also collaborated on the study.

Twelve Egyptian fruit bats were taken from a Maryland zoo by scientists, who then injected the animals with the WIV1-coronavirus, which was initially identified in Chinese rufous horseshoe bats.

Every day, they examined the bats and took their temperatures and body weights. Researchers also collected samples from the mouths and nostrils of the animals.

Four of the bats were put to sleep on days three, seven, and 28, and their heart, liver, kidney, spleen, bladder, reproductive organs, eyes, and brain were taken out for examination. Antibodies and white blood cell counts were also examined by researchers.

The WIV1-coronavirus did not create “a robust infection,” according to the researchers, who also found “very limited evidence of virus replication.”

The WCW said that the zoo’s curator and director of animal health, who had previously worked at the NIH’s own animal testing labs from 2003 to 2012, had shipped the bats from a “roadside” Maryland zoo to the Montana facility.

The Catoctin Wildlife Preserve (CWP), which is situated in Thurmont, Maryland, less than 15 minutes from Camp David, has a history of violating animal welfare laws. In 2012, the CWP was fined $12,000 for providing subpar care and shelter for animals that was deemed unsafe and negligent.

As of April 2023, records indicate that of the 523 federally controlled creatures housed in the preserve, 241 were bats, 41 of which were Egyptian fruit bats.

“I left heartbroken and sad. The enclosures are so small and not well kept. This place is so unkempt. It’s awful. It needs to be shut down. You can see the pain in these animals eyes. Something has to be done about this place,” said one reviewer of the establishment.

The United States conducts the majority of gain-of-function virus research across the globe. In gain-of-function trials, pathogens are rendered more lethal or contagious.

Proponents of the experiments argue that they help scientists anticipate future outbreaks, while detractors contend that the hazards of a leak exceed any possible advantages. Due to these concerns, U.S. officials discreetly terminated a $125 million study last month that searched for novel viruses using public funding.

“Our investigation has uncovered the real-life horror story of how a shady roadside zoo whose curator was an NIH animal experimenter shipped off bats to a deadly government virus lab overseen by Dr. Fauci to be infected with a coronavirus obtained directly from the Wuhan lab that experts believe caused COVID,” said the founder of WCW, Anthony Bellotti.

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Pfizer Implements $3.5 Billion Cost-Cutting Program Amid Lagging COVID Injection Sales

BY BEN BARTEE 2:17 PM ON OCTOBER 21, 2023
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/10/21/auto-draft-11-n1736986;Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Pfizer Implements $3.5 Billion Cost-Cutting Program Amid Lagging COVID Injection Sales
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Pfizer’s latest COVID booster isn’t going super well. Only about 2% of the entire American population has been successfully injected, and it appears to not be in the cards that that figure will appreciably rise anytime soon. The “safe and effective” façade is wearing thin.

Pfizer is instituting a “cost realignment program” as a consequence, in an attempt to stem the bleeding for shareholders – the fiscal health of which, not actual health, is its only true passion.

Via Forbes (emphasis added):

Pfizer is implementing a “cost realignment program” expected to save the pharmaceutical giant at least $3.5 billion as it prepares for revenue drops for its Covid-19 vaccine and Paxlovid, a prescription pill for treating Covid-19, according to its updated full-year guidance…

The company also expects full-year revenues for its vaccine and Paxlovid to be about $12.5 billion—$9 billion lower than what was anticipated…

Paxlovid full-year revenue expectations were lowered by about $7 billion while vaccine revenue expectations were reduced by approximately $2 billion because of “lower-than-expected vaccination rates.”

The “lower-than-expected vaccination rates” were not for lack of trying on the part of the pharmaceutical-funded corporate state media, which launched an all-out terror campaign in August ahead of a mid-September booster rollout to force-feed more vaxxes to the public and justify new mandates in schools and offices.

Related: Making a Killing: Americans Shelling Out up to $190 for COVID Boosters

Anyway, here’s a better idea: let’s save Pfizer executives the fiscal trouble by confiscating their ill-gotten gains obtained through documented fraud, liquidating them and distributing them to the victims of their mandated shots, and then putting them on trial for their crimes, possibly using RICO statutes to do it. They deserve it way more than any mafia racket ever did.

The ”documented fraud” accusation isn’t just hyperbole. Pfizer and the Public Health™ authorities literally committed documented, provable fraud in multiple regards, including:

  • The organized demonization and suppression of effective pre-existing therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, as their existence would preclude the emergency use authorization Pfizer and Moderna desperately needed to get their shots pushed through the regulatory process and into the market. If it were acknowledged that prior therapies existed, the COVID-19 shots would never have been mandated and, in fact, would not have even been available until they went through the same 10-15-year vetting process that every vaccine in history has gone through – by which time the cost-benefit analysis would have been much clearer to anyone paying attention and much harder to muddy by the media.
    Of course, Pfizer and the Public Health™ authorities knew very well that the inefficacies and dangers of their product would come to light and sales would suffer, assuming it ever made it to market in the first place – which it would not have were Pfizer unable to rig the trials.
  • Pfizer used a separate and significantly riskier manufacturing process for its publicly available shots than the one it used to get regulatory approval in the trials.
  • Pfizer gave its Australian employees a separate vaccine batch from the one distributed to the public.
  • Pfizer never bothered to test whether its leaky vaccine stopped transmission (it doesn’t) in its clinical trials, despite public proclamations to the contrary.

The $350 Billion COVID Bailouts of States Were Entirely Unncessary

BY RICK MORAN 2:46 PM ON OCTOBER 14, 2023
Get Very Mad. The $350 Billion COVID Bailout of States Was Entirely Unncessary
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
We’re two years removed from the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the $2 trillion “stimulus” measure that Congress passed in March of 2021, and the verdict on much of that spending can now be delivered.

The biggest line item in the bill was the $350 billion given to state and local governments to deal with revenue shortfalls and other pandemic-related expenditures — like golf courses.

But here we are two years later, and, astonishingly, only 45% of the $350 billion in funds to bail out states has been spent. Local governments had reported to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that they spent just 38% of their funds received through ARPA.

“The new GAO study confirms that the ARPA spending was not needed,” Chris Edwards, chair of fiscal studies at the Cato Institute, tells Reason. “By the fall of 2020, it was clear that the states were in good fiscal shape and not facing Armageddon as many policymakers were claiming. They did not need federal handouts.”

It would be more accurate to say that most states did not need federal handouts. That was one of the primary objections to the bill. By March 2021, there may have been a dozen states — most of them blue states — whose finances were so mismanaged that it was possible that they would have to declare bankruptcy. Many states like Illinois, used the ARPA money to rescue their failing pension systems. Others spent the cash on frivolous extras.

Did the money do any good?

Reason:

The effectiveness of that spending has been repeatedly called into question. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper published in June 2022, a trio of researchers found that pandemic-era aid distributed to state and local governments had cost taxpayers about $855,000 per job saved. The stimulus spending had only “a modest impact on government employment and has not translated into detectable gains for private businesses or for states’ overall economic recoveries,” concluded University of California, San Diego economists Jeffrey Clemens and Philip Hoxie and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Stan Veuger, the paper’s three authors.

“Even the unstated assumption behind these handouts — that Washington should step in if there are dips in state revenue — is badly flawed,” wrote David Ditch and Richard Stern, policy analysts at the Heritage Foundation. “Many states are fiscally mismanaged, and federal bailouts enable them to avoid much-needed discipline.”

Tourism is nice and roads are in some ways an essential government function, but the emergency COVID spending was meant to help states address an immediate public health crisis—or to offset the costs of it. It’s not at all clear how highway construction was a victim of the pandemic, and “travel marketing” is something that shouldn’t be funded with taxpayer dollars no matter where they come from.

If there ever was a need for emergency aid to states and localities, it has obviously long since passed. Edwards points out that state and local tax revenue in the first quarter of 2023 was up 25 percent over the first quarter of 2020—which immediately preceded the onset of the pandemic.

Perhaps a lot of those states should give the unspent money back to the U.S. treasury.
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