Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 7, 2023

Censored News: Who responds to our questions and who does not


Today, Dine' volunteer Bitahnii Wilson delivers water to a fellow Navajo in need. "We gave Grandma another 35-gallon and a 15-gallon barrel for her to use along with the other barrels and containers that she already had. She’s doing what she can to survive so we decided to assist her by delivering her water within the community of To'Nanees'Dizi, Tuba City."

Censored News: Who responds to our questions and who does not 

Brenda Norrell
Censored News
January 7, 2023

Who responded to Censored News questions over the past two years, and who refused?

Refusing to respond to questions were the Navajo Council, Navajo President's office and Johns Hopkins University.

Who did respond? The Nye County Sheriff's office provided us with the Sheriff and Nevada State Police reports of the head-on collision killing Paiute journalist Myron Dewey.

Also, the Indian Health Service responded to one question. IHS said it is not responsible for sickness or death resulting from Johns Hopkins medical experiments that are conducted in IHS hospitals.

Johns Hopkins took the lead in the research and response to COVID on the Nation, advocating for Pfizer and other vaccines, after the first deadly COVD cases spread from a church gathering in March of 2020.

Johns Hopkins refused to respond to questions about its COVID plasma experiments on Dine' that was funded by the U.S. Pentagon.

Johns Hopkins refused to respond to questions regarding its child vaccination experiments on Dine' and White Mountain Apache children for the past 40 years.

It was in 1982, while I was a reporter at Navajo Times when I first saw Johns Hopkins staff at Fort Defiance hospital. They refused to say what they were doing. The vaccine research using Navajo children is now on the Johns Hopkins University website.

The details of the Pentagon grant and Johns Hopkins COVID plasma research are online.

In these medical experiments, blood plasma from a person who recovered from COVID was transfused into a Navajo who had been exposed to COVID, or had a milder case. The plasma experiments were to research antibody response.

Today, Johns Hopkins is still being sued in U.S. federal court for knowingly infecting Indigenous in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases during its research.

Today, regardless of more than $2 billion dollars in federal virus relief funds, the Navajo government does not deliver water to the sick and dying, disabled and elderly Navajos. About one-third of Dine' do not have running water.

The Navajo Nation received $1.86 billion in May, 2021 from the American Rescue Plan, then an estimated $217.91 million on Aug. 16, 2021.

The Navajo government -- the Navajo Council and President -- gave $24 million of its CARES federal virus relief funds to its casino in August of 2020 while Dine' were in desperate need of water and food delivered to their homes.

The Navajo government invested in mining and expanded oil and gas fields, fracking, and helium mining during the pandemic. Currently, the Navajo Energy Transition Office plans to operate the lithium mine, planned by an Australian mining company,  that will devastate the Hualapai's Sacred Spring, used since time immemorial.

In the past six weeks, 42 Navajos have died from COVID.

High Rate of COVID Spread in Navajo Nation and region in November and December 2022

These CDC maps in November and December show the spread of COVID, which began on the Navajo Nation and Pueblos and spread through Arizona. In late December, the high rate of infection continued in the Navajo Nation. (Screen captures by Censored News.) CDC by country data tracker https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html

On Nov. 27, 2022, the CDC reported a high rate of COVID spread in the Navajo Nation, Pueblos, and southern Arizona.


(Above) A dangerous outbreak of COVID spread through Arizona in early December of 2022. This CDC map shows the spread on Dec. 14, 2022. It first spread through the Navajo Nation and Pueblos before spreading through the rest of Arizona, CDC data shows. Arizona has 22 federally-recognized Indian Nations. This COVID spread was greatest in the Phoenix and Tucson areas, with COVID more severe than in previous months, doctors reported.

(Above) The U.S. government's CDC map shows the high spread of COVID in Apache County, where the Navajo Capitol of Window Rock, Arizona, is located. on December 29,2022. The Navajo Nation, is located in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Now 1,994 Navajos have died from COVID

The Navajo Department of Health said on December 16, 2022, that there were 217 new COVID-19 cases and 13 recent deaths over a one-week period from December 9 – 15, 2022. On Jan. 5, it reported three recent deaths. The total number of Dine' deaths from COVID is now 1,994 The overall number of positive COVID-19 cases is now 80,305. The Navajo Nation also reports one of the highest COVID vaccination rates in the U.S. https://ndoh.navajo-nsn.gov/COVID-19/Data

Johns Hopkins receives $35 million from U.S. Pentagon for COVID experiments on Navajos

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/johns-hopkins-receives-35-million-in-funding-from-department-of-defense-for-covid-19-blood-plasma-trials

COVID Plasma experiments: 89 adverse reactions and one death

New England Journal of Medicine

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2119657

Guatemalans infected with sexually transmitted diseases sue Johns Hopkins

By The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/johns-hopkins-lawsuit-deliberate-std-infections-guatemala

About the author

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 40 years, beginning at the Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a correspondent for Lakota Times, Associated Press and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today she was censored and terminated. As a result she created Censored News, now in its 17th year with no ads, grants or salaries. She has a master's degree in international health focused on water, nutrition, and infectious diseases.


Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Content may not be used without written permission.

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