Free Republic

innesota hospital leaders are warning in a full-page newspaper ad that they are “overwhelmed” amid a COVID-19 surge and are urging the public to take action. “Our emergency departments are overfilled, and we have patients in every bed in our hospitals,” write the leaders of nine hospital systems in the state, including the Mayo Clinic and North Memorial Health. The hospitals warn that because their capacity is strained, care for non-coronavirus medical events, like heart attacks, is also threatened.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that hard-hit states should not be moving forward with reopening, but stopped short of calling for full shutdowns. "I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that," Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told The Hill's Steve Clemons. "I don't think we need to go back to an extreme of shutting down." Fauci struck a different note than he did a day earlier in an interview with The Wall...

President Trump on Monday claimed that an inspector general report finding "severe" shortages of supplies at hospitals to fight the novel coronavirus is "just wrong." Trump did not provide evidence for why the conclusions of the 34-page report are wrong. He implied that he is mistrustful of inspectors general more broadly. He recently fired the inspector general of the intelligence community, which has drawn outrage from Democrats. "Did I hear the word inspector general?" Trump said in response to the reporter's question about the findings. "It's just wrong," Trump said of the report. The inspector general report, released earlier Monday,...

President Trump vowed in a video message to the March for Life on Friday to veto any legislation that “weakens the protection of human life.” “If they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto and we have the support to uphold those vetoes,” Trump said in the message displayed to a crowd gathered for the annual anti-abortion march in Washington. “Every child is a sacred gift from God,” Trump said in the message. Vice President Pence spoke in person at the march, calling Trump a “champion” for abortion opponents....

Democrats are planning to force a vote in the Senate this week on overturning a Trump administration rule expanding non-ObamaCare insurance plans. The Democratic resolution, which will likely get a vote on Wednesday, would overturn a rule finalized in August that expanded the availability of short-term health insurance plans. Democrats decry the plans as “junk” insurance because they does not need to cover pre-existing conditions or follow other ObamaCare rules. Republicans argue the plans provide a cheaper option alongside ObamaCare plans. The resolution, which is supported by all 49 Senate Democrats, is unlikely to pass given that it would need...