Free Republic

The coronavirus outbreak came in the middle of flu season in the Northern Hemisphere. Many people have highlighted the overlapping symptoms of the flu and COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Even President Donald Trump asked pharmaceutical execs if the flu vaccine could be used to stop the coronavirus. But Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, warned against taking such comparisons too far. "This virus is not SARS, it's not MERS, and it's not influenza," Ghebreyesus said in a press conference on Tuesday. "It is a unique virus with unique characteristics." The most crucial difference...

In September 1978, American singer Donna Summer released a multi-million selling vinyl single disco version of "MacArthur Park". The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of November 11, 1978, for 3 weeks, and earned Summer her first nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She became the first female artist of the modern era to have the number one single and album simultaneously on the Billboard pop charts (the week of November 11, 1978). Donna Summer - McArthur Park (Live in Antwerp, Belgium 2005)

In the autumn of 1348 a ship glided into the port of Southampton in England, carrying a disease from the east that had already ravaged the western world. It had killed men, women and children in their thousands quickly and mercilessly. This was the bubonic plague, identified by the blackening ‘buboes’ that formed within the joint area of an infected person – the groin or armpit were the most common places. These were accompanied by bodily aches, cold, lethargy and a high fever. When the infection got into the blood stream it effectively poisoned the blood, leading to probable death....

AUSTIN, Texas — Wendy Davis has won the Democratic nomination in Texas’ Congressional District 21. She will run against incumbent Chip Roy in the general election on Nov. 3 to determine who will represent the district in the U.S. House of Representatives. AP called the race as Davis was ahead by a wide margin over her opponent, Jennie Lou Leeder. Davis rose to fame after delivering a nearly 13-hour filibuster as a Texas State Senator in 2013. In 2014, Davis lost to Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas’ gubernatorial race. Texas’ Congressional District 21 spans from Austin to San Antonio and...

Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar said Wednesday that he is encouraged by the proposed timeline for a coronavirus vaccine. In an interview on "America's Newsroom," Azar said that the doctors President Trump met with Tuesday, including NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, had designed a vaccine within three days of getting the genetic sequence to the virus from China. "Then, just two days ago the FDA granted approval for the NIH [National Institutes of Health] -- that's Dr. Fauci's group -- to begin what's called 'phase one' clinical testing in about five weeks," he explained. "That's where we're...

The pundits and newspapers pushed Warren, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg, but Super Tuesday voters just wanted boring old Biden and Bernie As Super Tuesday finally transfigures the Democratic presidential nomination process into a binary choice between two old, occasionally problematic white men whose enduring popularity is consistently underrated by a baffled mainstream press, it's worth reflecting on just how poorly the media's preferred candidates performed in the 2020 race.In the end, The New York Times' dual Democratic presidential endorsements—bestowed upon both Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D–Minn.)—were like the points on Whose Line Is It Anyway?: They just didn't...

Vice President Pence will travel on Thursday to Washington state, which is grappling with an increasing number of coronavirus cases. Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tweeted that the vice president will travel to Olympia. He will meet with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and other state and local officials in the capital city. Pence told reporters during a meeting with medical lab executives on Wednesday that a 10th American has died from coronavirus. Nine deaths have been reported in Washington, where state officials have confirmed 27 total cases of the coronavirus. The vice president was previously scheduled to travel to...

One thousand people who may have come into contact with a New York attorney who infected his wife, two children and a neighbor with coronvirus have been ordered to self-quarantine as the US death toll rises to 11. In total, 11 people have now died from the COVID-19 coronavirus across the country as the number of confirmed cases has soared to more than 150. Nine of the deaths have occurred in Washington state while California recorded its first death on Wednesday. Health officials in Los Angeles County - which has about 10 million residents - also declared a health emergency...

This left a mark. Last Tuesday Chelsea Clinton decided to lecture President Trump on the coronavirus. It still is not clear why Chelsea sees herself as an expert on the subject. The tweet was completely ratioed. (SEE GREAT TWEETS BACK AT HER)

The Democratic push to haul former national security adviser John Bolton before the House has fizzled out roughly a month after the Senate acquitted President Trump. Bolton had emerged as an alluring figure in the Democrats’ Ukraine investigation following revelations that his forthcoming book includes firsthand accounts that Trump withheld security aid to Kyiv to secure political favors — the crux of the Democrats’ impeachment case. After Senate Republicans refused Bolton’s offer to testify in January, Democratic leaders floated the idea of reclaiming the baton and issuing their own subpoena to compel his appearance before the House — a strategy...

In which Chuck Schumer threatens TWO sitting Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States............(tweet below says) For context: Here’s Schumer, referring to #prolife counterprotesters as “the bad guys” prior to threatening two Supreme Court justices.

Nicolas Maduro, appearing in a televised event promoting a women’s health care plan, instructed them to “give birth, give birth” and have six children – all for the “good of the country.”

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003, with respect to the actions...

"President Donald J. Trump meets World War II Iwo Jima veteran John J. Sheridan, 95, and his daughter Dianne Fairbaugh on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House." "President Donald J. Trump salutes World War II Iwo Jima veteran Ira Rigger, 97, and his wife Yong Rigger during their visit Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House."

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Tourism season 2020 is fast approaching — Visit Rapid City already has plans to help make this season a strong one. Last year with the national cap on immigrant visas in the H1B [sic] program, the tourism industry which is heavily reliant on the foreign workers, struggled to find employees. Visit Rapid City has continued to work with the state’s congressional delegation to encourage President Trump to allow more workers in this year. “We need to do better, we need to have more able to come here,” Julie Jensen said. “These people that are coming across...

The deep East Bay locale, 30 miles from the city, has a different air. It's far removed from the bustling vainglory of San Francisco, the excessive hipness of Oakland and the poshness of the North Bay. Concord is just Concord, your friendly neighborhood suburb, simple but replete with land and history and families. It’s one of the most populous cities in the Bay Area, credited with gifting the world Tom Hanks, Dave Brubeck, at least two of the Workaholics, Waterworld (or whatever it's called now) and the area’s great culinary contribution, the cheese zombie. I recall zombies clearly from my...

CHICAGO — With all the fear and panic over COVID 19, some basic questions remain: how likely are you to get sick, should you be worried and how can you protect yourself? Currently, there is no treatment for COVID 19 and there is no vaccine. But how does it compare to a major health problem we’re all familiar with, like the flu? “People should not worry any more about this than the flu,” said Dr. Ernest Wang, Chief of Emergency Medicine at NorthShore University HealthSystem. There’s a vaccine to fight the flu, but many Americans choose not to get it....

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy ousted Oleksiy Honcharuk as prime minister after just six months in a reshuffle on Wednesday, saying that “new brains and new hearts” were required to revive the economy and tackle corruption. At a special parliament session, lawmakers voted to accept the resignation of Honcharuk, 35, who left as Ukraine’s youngest and most short-lived prime minister since independence in 1991. He was replaced by Denys Shymgal, who said his immediate challenge was to stave off an economic and budget crisis. He wanted to revise the 2020 budget, cut the salaries of ministers and some officials, and also...

"What a Fool Believes" is a song written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. The best-known version was recorded by The Doobie Brothers (with McDonald singing lead vocals) for their 1978 album Minute by Minute. Debuting at number 73 on January 20, 1979, the single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1979 for one week. The song received Grammy Awards in 1980 for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The song was one of the few non-disco No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 during the first eight months...

People in Ontario living with HIV had a 34 per cent higher incidence rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and were diagnosed with the disease about 12 years younger than HIV-negative individuals, according to a study led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and ICES. Researchers analyzed incidences of COPD among adults 35 years and older who were living with and without HIV between 1996 and 2015 in Ontario - where over 40 per cent of Canadians living with HIV reside. People with HIV were diagnosed with COPD at a mean age of 50 years...