Free Republic

We just passed the fourth anniversary of “15 Days To Slow the Spread,” the start of the COVID lockdowns that did damage from which we still haven’t recovered. ... Anthony Fauci, Nancy Pelosi and Bill de Blasio were telling us not to worry, to take cruises and go visit Chinatown ... They reversed course like a week later. ... Neither the lockdowns nor the masking requirements did any good, though they caused a lot of trauma, inconvenience and colossal economic destruction. ... Then there were the deaths caused by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s program of moving still-contagious COVID patients into old-folks’...

Some residents say the new regulation makes them feel safer, while others say it compromises their survival.For Leem Washington, ski masks aren’t just a fashion accessory that protects his face from the biting cold of Philadelphia winters — they also keep him from being a victim of mistaken identity. “In Philly, you have to pick your poison,” said Washington, 19, noting that growing up in West Philadelphia, one of the most crime-plagued parts of the city, has left him in a constant state of “paranoia.” Ski masks, he said, are a form of protection from being wrongly identified for a...

New Report Details Horrifying Cost of Fauci’s FailuresIn the post-pandemic period of Covid, there’s now a concerted effort to comprehend and explain the damage that was caused by our capitulating to the hysterical overreaction and overreach of the ‘experts.’ There’s a long list of policy failures to examine; mask mandates were a disaster that accomplished absolute nothing of value, but instead led to tremendous harms, many of which continue today.Children were forced into masks for years on end, millions of people still wear masks when traveling or inside stores and restaurants, permanently convinced of the deliberate falsehood that masks are...

Public health advocates are watching in growing alarm as former President Trump increasingly embraces the anti-vaccine movement. “I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump said in a recent campaign rally in Richmond, Va. It’s a line Trump has repeated, and his campaign said he is only referring to school COVID-19 vaccine mandates — but that hasn’t eased fears that the GOP leader could accelerate already worrying trends of declining child vaccination. Trump “is an important voice. He has a big platform. And he uses that platform, in this...

A federal court dismissed a case Tuesday against Republican Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds’ prohibition of mask mandate in school districts across the state, official documents showed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found “persuasive” the argument that “the general risks associated with COVID-19, even though COVID-19 remains an ever-present concern in society, are not enough to show ‘imminent and substantial’ harm,” court papers showed in part. The court also decided that “because Plaintiffs have only alleged the potential risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19 at school, the risk of harm is too speculative to satisfy...

TRENTON, N.J. -- A federal appeals court shot down claims Monday that New Jersey residents' refusal to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constituted protected speech under the First Amendment. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in two related cases stemming from lawsuits against officials in Freehold and Cranford, New Jersey. The suits revolved around claims that the plaintiffs were retaliated against by school boards because they refused to wear masks during public meetings. In one of the suits, the court sent the case back to a lower court for consideration. In...

Image Credit : National Geographic (Social) - RUBÉN SALGADO ESCUDERO Archaeologists have discovered an intact jade mask in the tomb of a Maya King at Chochkitam, a little-known Maya polity in northeastern Peten, Guatemala. Contemporary inscriptions indicate that Chochkitam was a royal city with a lineage traced back to Preclassic times. The site was first reported in 1909, with ongoing studies recording three main monumental groups connected by a long central causeway. In a recent announcement on National Geographic, excavations at Chochkitam have led to the discovery of an interlocking jade mask in the burial of a Maya King. Jade...

The FDNY has ordered all firetruck and ambulance personnel to mask up while rendering patient care due to outbreaks of infectious diseases, The Post has learned. The department-wide directive, issued Friday, comes amid an increase in COVID-19, flu and respiratory virus cases, officials said. Effective immediately, all those who provide pre-hospital emergency treatment in NYC must wear a surgical mask, preferably an N95.

The new year is kicking off with a spike in respiratory illnesses across the U.S., including COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus. Considering all the circulating illnesses right now, it might be time for masking to make a comeback, experts say. "We're certainly in the winter peak of respiratory viruses," Dr. Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Yale School of Public Health, tells TODAY.com. A post-holiday COVID spike alongside upticks of the usual winter illnesses, like flu and RSV, make this surge "very much expected," he adds. Amid this rise in the spread of illnesses, mask mandates...

MADRID, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Spain's government proposed a nationwide mandate for people to wear masks in hospitals and health clinics on Monday, and Italy said respiratory illness infection rates had hit a record, as flu and COVID spread across Europe. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended that people on the continent stay home if they feel sick, and consider wearing masks in crowds or healthcare settings, with flu spreading as it typically does this time of year but hitting some countries harder than others. It said Europeans should follow national guidelines on vaccinating vulnerable groups. Flu...

HONG KONG—For months now, I’ve been told that Hong Kong’s protests would end soon. They’ll end when school starts, I heard during the summer. School did start, but the protests wore on, only now I saw high-school students in crisp school uniforms joining the protesters’ ranks. Next, the mask ban of early October was supposed to slow protesters down, but the very first day after that ban, I watched streams of protesters in masks and helmets make their way to their usual haunts on Hong Kong Island. The government shut down many of the subway lines that day, a practice...

ST. LOUIS — City Hall ended a renewed mask mandate for city workers Friday afternoon, just hours after putting it into place. City spokesman Nick Dunne said in a press release that the health department now just "strongly recommends" employees mask up indoors, citing a recent rise in reports of respiratory illnesses in the region. The turnabout followed confusion about the numbers the health department cited to support the mandate, predictable outrage from conservative talk radio, and a lukewarm reception from employees at City Hall, some of whom noted that visitors weren’t required to mask up as well.

Mask mandates are back in Big Apple hospitals and other health facilities as cases of COVID and the flu have jumped in recent weeks, the city’s health department confirmed Wednesday. The requirement applies to all 11 hospitals across the five boroughs under the umbrella of New York City’s Health and Hospitals and went into effect just after Christmas. “As we’ve seen an increase in COVID, flu, and RSV, our priority is to protect our patients, staff, and the community,” a NYCH+H spokesperson told The Post Wednesday. “This applies to clinical settings such as our hospitals, community health centers, and nursing...

Los Angeles County has reinstated a mask mandate for all patients and staff at health care facilities heading into 2024, as a winter surge in coronavirus cases has reached key benchmarks. Local ABC affiliate KABC-7 reported Saturday: “Over the past week in Los Angeles County, there have been notable, yet not unexpected, increases in COVID-19 reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement. “While recent increases are significant, they remain considerably below last winter’s peak and common-sense protections are strongly recommended to help curb transmission and severe illness as the new...

Hospitals across the U.S. are reinstating COVID-19 mask mandates as the JN.1 variant becomes the dominant strain spreading throughout the country. Hospitals in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Washington D.C. have all brought back divisive rules meaning masks are mandatory for selected people in medical settings. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has recorded a 10.4 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations across America in the week leading up to December 16. There has been an increase of 3.4 percent in deaths related to coronavirus in the same period. Newsweek has contacted the CDC for comment via email. Mask...

Claim: Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks once said during a July 2020 interview, "If you can't wear a mask and wash your hands and social distance, I don't understand. I've got no respect for you man." Rating: In September 2023, users on X shared an old video and claimed that it showed Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks saying he had "no respect" for people who wouldn't wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most popular post from Sept. 19 earned millions of impressions. The video upload in the post was attributed to a January 2023 post made by the account @healthbyjames, which...

COVID is on the rise again, with a peak likely over the holiday season. Given this, health authorities in a number of Australian states have recommended people start wearing masks again. In Western Australia, masks have been made mandatory in high-risk areas of public hospitals, while they’ve similarly been reintroduced in health-care settings in other parts of the country. Hospitals and aged care facilities are definitely the first places where masks need to be reinstated during an epidemic. But authorities are differing in their recommendations currently. Calls to mask up, particularly in the wider community, have not been unanimous. So...

Some hospitals in South Australia have reintroduced face mask mandates to combat a new COVID-19 wave. The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, which includes the Lyell McEwin and Modbury Hospitals, have reintroduced mask wearing for all staff and visitors. It comes as the state endures another wave of the virus, with reported cases tripling since early October. "Last Friday it was 50 per cent higher than the previous week," South Australia's Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said today. The new mask rules apply in all clinical settings including emergency departments and wards, but not in public areas like hospital cafes...

The internet went crazy Wednesday night after footage of Joe Biden struggling to speak showed the puppet president sporting what many are calling, “chin balls.” The bizarre protrusions on Biden’s chin prompted others to suggest he was actually a person wearing a Joe Biden mask!

A family whose members are still "shielding" due to COVID more than three years after the pandemic started said they feel "forgotten" as the rest of the world moves on. Rob Boxall and his family, who live in the U.K., said that visitors have to isolate for two weeks before the family can see them, as SWNS, the British news service, reported. Boxall's wife, Mandy, has had seven COVID jabs — but still reportedly has no protection from the coronavirus.