Free Republic

The stay-at-home order issued by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker realistically will extend “deep into April,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters on Friday. Asked whether she’s talked with Pritzker about extending his stay-at-home order, which he issued a week ago for the entire state through at least April 7, Lightfoot said she doesn’t want to get ahead of the governor but said it’s realistic that it would “stretch deep into April.”

How can we square the government’s willingness to ask us about race and origin with its unwillingness to ask about something as fundamental as citizenship? Your government cares about how you “identify,” but not whether you are a citizen. This asinine fact is illustrated by a single question in the 2020 U.S. census, just another sign of the administrative state run amok. As fellow Federalist contributor Kyle Sammin highlights in a recent article, question No. 9 of the census asks for respondents’ race and origin. That a society that has at least strived for color-blindness abides the federal government asking...

Bengaluru based oncologist is hopeful of finding potion that could be useful in treating COVID-19 patients. Dr. Vishal Rao said, “Human body cells release interferon chemical to kill viruses. But it can't be released by cells in the case of COVID-19 cases, leading to weak immune system. We got hold of some preprint suggesting that interferon is effective in COVID-19.”

Police in China clashed with each other and with people trying to cross a bridge between Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, according to footage uploaded to Chinese social media on Friday. Video taken at the bridge Friday afternoon at the Yangtze River shows the escalation of violence as people try to leave Hubei, while police on the other side in Jiangxi try to block their passage, Canada's Globe and Mail reported. The skirmish was filmed two days after Chinese authorities lifted travel restrictions against Hubei residents. China has resumed operations of trains and buses out of the coronavirus-hit province. On Friday,...

An Update on My Health and Treatment Mar 27, 2020   RUSH: I wanted to update you on my health. And the first thing to tell you is I’m fine. I’m sitting here at my official home library desk, and I am fine. Now, here’s where my problems began. The cancer I have, the lung cancer I have involves the mutation of a gene that occurs in 1 to 5% of lung cancer patients. Now, ordinarily that would be very bad news because it would be something that maybe there’s no medicine for or that there’s no targeted treatment...

The sheriff's department previously suspended enforcement of its decision after the county counsel's office declared gun stores essential businesses. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is closing gun stores Thursday in unincorporated areas of the county and the 42 cities where it provides law enforcement, after suspending efforts earlier this week following the county counsel's office declaring gun stores essential businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Of all the answers that surprised the survey gatherers for the Brooklyn Health Improvement Project, the most surprising one was also the simplest: It was easier and more convenient to sit in an ER waiting room than to try and find a doctor who would see them and help them the same day. It was easier to sit and wait in one place than to be bounced around by phone, put on hold or put off entirely. The added benefit of the ER waiting room: It was near the hospital specialists, labs, pharmacies and outpatient clinics. Rather than travel all...

China's Communists are lying about their China Virus deaths. By conclusively proving the lie with, for and to the Chinese people, we can bring down the regime. Here's how. Provide the Chinese people with a database into which they can log their loved-ones' deaths. It will quickly and reliably exceed the regime's numbers, proving the big lie. Make each death unique with name, date and place of birth, parents and next of kin. Provide space for the horrific details and ChiCom government malfeasance. Make the data searchable, summarizeable, backed up multiply in the cloud, with ever changing URLS to evade...

Miami (AFP) A customer left a $10,000 tip to be divided among the employees of a Florida restaurant, a day before it was forced to close because of the coronavirus outbreak, the owner said. Ross Edlund, the owner of Skillets in Naples, Florida, said on the restaurant's Facebook page on Thursday that the gesture shows there are still "truly fantastic people in the world." "We have an amazing Skillets family that extends to our guests as well," Edlund said. "We couldn't be happier to be a part of a community where this type of generosity exists." Edlund told the local...

The heroic and pioneering American spirit that the world has known for centuries is on full display during the coronavirus outbreak. Our nation’s doctors and nurses—risking and sacrificing their own health—are on the frontlines in the global battle against a viral respiratory disease that still has no cure or vaccine. Cases continue to rise as the virus is highly contagious, but it is all-hands-on-deck at our local hospitals: medical professionals, usually in understaffed rural areas, are working long hours to curb the rise of the disease within our own borders. Medical supplies and protective gear are in short supply, yet...

The Rotterdam Philharmonic teamed up with a Dutch healthcare provider to film the finale of Beethoven’s 9th with all the musicians playing their parts by video from their homes. It’s an extraordinary achievement, overwhelming in the final minutes. If ever a video deserved to go viral, this is it. Share like crazy, please.

President Trump signs into law the bipartisan $2 trillion coronavirus economic aid bill.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Josna Begum lives with her son in a house with four other families in a slum in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, the world’s most densely populated city. “Distancing is impossible for us,” she said. The 35-year-old, who occupies a single room with her 12-year-old son and earns $100 a month as a domestic worker, shares the single kitchen in the house with 22 other residents. The Bangladeshi government this week ordered a nationwide shutdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in a country considered at high risk because hundreds of thousands of overseas workers have...

Gov. Ralph Northam said Friday the country needs a “national solution” to address the critical shortage of masks, gloves and other protective equipment.

Layoffs, stay-at-home mandates and the closing of non-essential businesses as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus roil the nation. Not surprisingly, the automotive industry faces its own upheaval. Production is suspended as companies and states order workers and the public to stay at home. And while there are still plenty of vehicles for sale on dealer lots, many showrooms are closed. For those remaining open, sales suffer as potential car buyers heed warnings of social distancing by distancing themselves from car dealerships. ........................SNIP........................ If you’re in the market for a car or plan to be soon, there...

Commentary on these uncommon times. COVID-19 Blues . To save myself from the virus condition I’m on the hunt for toilet paper and ammunition Before all the stores are stripped bare… But the only thing I could buy there… Was the last old bottle of booze Don’t know if I can lose… these COVID-19 blues. . Everyone’s in a panic, running around all frantic To keep away the manic, got my semi-automatic… that I hope… I’ll never have to use. No matter what channel you choose… It’s the only thing on the news… Don’t know if I can lose… these...

sanctuary area map

Officials are working out final details in plans to begin clinical trials next week for a malaria drug combination that appears to hold some promise for confronting the coronavirus pandemic. New York state Health Department officials are making arrangements to determine what patients at which hospitals will be allowed to participate in trials with hydroxychloroquine, Zithromax and chloroquine, a senior official at the department with knowledge of the plan told ABC News. The bulk of the patients are expected to be in the New York City metro area because the region has the biggest cluster of cases. [snip] New York...

The economy isn’t helped by rushing back to work in the face of a pandemic, according to a new study by Federal Reserve researchers. At a time when the lieutenant governor of Texas has said senior citizens would be willing to sacrifice their lives for a better economy and when President Trump has fretted that the cure may be worse than the disease, a new research paper looked at the impact of the 1918 Spanish flu on the U.S. economy. Far from hurting the economy, what are called nonpharmaceutical interventions — for example, shutting schools, establishing quarantines and restricting business...

If there's one thing the coronavirus experience has taught us, it's that bureaucracies don't function as well as they're supposed to. In New York, the bureaucracy opted to spend $500 million on illegal aliens instead of on ventilators. Likewise, during the Obama administration, after the 2009 H1N1 epidemic, the Obama administration, despite warnings, never bothered to replenish stockpiles of N95. It turns out now that the NIH was also doing the bureaucratic equivalent of twiddling its thumbs when it should have been acting to prepare America for the next pandemic. It's sheer luck — mixed in with Trump's foresight about...