Free Republic

A healthcare AI company has spotted several unexpected, off-label drug combinations that may do the job against COVID-19. In any case, the company is offering its complete AI toolkit free of charge to drug developers working on COVID treatments. In announcing its work, Germany-based Innoplexus, which specializes in AI-based drug discovery and development, says the promising combos emerged from its processing of hundreds of studies covering thousands of patients. Most of the findings mentioned in the announcement involve the potential of the decades-old, much-discussed malaria fighter Hydroxychloroquine as used with other drugs. For example, the analysis showed that combining Chloroquine...

Donald Trump has extended America’s national shutdown for a month, bowing to public health experts, and scientific reality, and warning that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the US president claimed that, if his administration keeps the death toll to 100,000, it will have done “a very good job” – a startling shift from his optimistic predictions of a few days ago when he said he hoped to restart the economy by Easter. Trump also undermined his plea for unity by uttering falsehoods, verbally abusing reporters and making incendiary...

Although the Greek Orthodox Church earlier agreed to limit its services to just one-hour Divine Liturgies on Sundays, the state was not content, and on March 16 it banned all services until March 30, in an effort to contain the highly contagious coronavirus. However, while understanding the need to protect the faithful and all people, the Church also understands the need for the Divine Liturgy to be served. Thus, the Church has petitioned the Ministry of Education and Religion to make an exemption and allow the Divine Liturgy to be served according to the normal schedule, albeit behind closed doors,...

A REMNANT INTERVIEW: Archbishop Viganò on COVID-19 and the Hand of God In the face of this chastisement, when so many bishops have fled and taken our Sacraments with them, we're so grateful that at least a few good shepherds have broken the chains of collegiality in order to bring to  us the consolation of Christ's truth and call the scattering sheep back into the protection of the fold. Clearly, we are not alone. God is again raising up his prophets. Millions of Catholics are struggling to assimilate everything that has happened in the last few weeks. On this First Sunday of...

Moscow, March 29, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has addressed believers and called on them to pray at home rather than in churches to protect themselves from getting infected during the coronavirus pandemic. "I call on you, my dear, to refrain from visiting churches in the coming days, until there's a special blessing from the patriarch, and if someone says anything to you, remind them of the example of Mary of Egypt," the patriarch said following the liturgy at the Christ the Savior Church on Sunday. The patriarch said that this decision was difficult for him....

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at nought all my counsel,...

Video

An Australian astrophysicist who hoped to create a device to help stop people catching the coronavirus has ended up in hospital - after getting magnets stuck up his nose. Dr Daniel Reardon came up with a plan to create a necklace which would react if your hands were near your face. Unfortunately, the device did not work quite as planned.

You might want to practice VERY CAREFUL self-quarantine if you've got diarrhea, if I'm right in the way I'm connecting news stories. (You might say that's a "big if," but from predicting the 2010 landslide to the election of Pope Francis to the peaking of China's and then South Korea's coronavirus, I think my track record on FR is pretty good. On the other hand, if some sizeable portion of the coronavirus tests being used are serological, I'm prepared to say "oooooops.") See, a study from the American Journal of Gastroenterology found that of 200 studied patients in Hubei, 50%...

By WMBF News Staff | March 30, 2020 at 6:29 PM EDT - Updated March 30 at 7:30 PM COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) – South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order on Monday that closes all public access points to the state’s beaches. The executive order also closes all public boat ramps, landings and other access points on the state’s lakes, rivers and waterways. “As a result of behavior observed this past weekend by the Department of Natural Resources and SLED, it has become necessary to close public access to our state’s beaches, and to close boat ramps and...

WARNING! This thread contains spoilers for: Better Call SaulBreaking Badand El CaminoProceed at your own risk. ~ For the Visually Impaired ~⠎⠏⠕⠊⠇⠑⠗ ⠺⠁⠗⠝⠊⠝⠛

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for a pair of anti-malaria drugs to treat COVID-19 patients. The authorization will allow for 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate to be donated to the strategic national stockpile. According to the FDA, the drugs would only be distributed and prescribed "when a clinical trial is not available or feasible." UNM Hospital said it expects to have a supply of the anti-malaria drugs soon. While there is still no approved treatment for COVID-19, the department said anecdotal reports suggest the drugs may offer some...

A judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals is being nominated to serve on a federal appeals court that handles cases for Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, the White House announced Monday. Cory Wilson joined the 10-member state court in February 2019 after being appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican. Before that, Wilson was a first-term Republican member of the Mississippi House. President Donald Trump announced in August that he was nominating Wilson to become a federal district judge in southern Mississippi. The state’s two Republican U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, introduced Wilson to the Senate Judiciary Committee...

**SNIP** The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issued an order Wednesday warning physicians against writing prescriptions “without a legitimate medical purpose” and instructing pharmacists to evaluate the “legitimacy” of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine prescriptions. **SNIP** “[I]f you live in Michigan, and you or a loved one is infected with this potentially lethal disease, you’re out of luck,” said Kathy Hoekstra, who has written for conservative, in a Thursday op-ed for the Detroit News. “Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs literally threatened all doctors and pharmacists in the state who prescribe or dispense hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.”...

America is in crisis, but the celebrities are thriving. They are beaming into our homes, reminding us to stay indoors and “stay positive,” as “we’re all in this together.” When I watch their selfie public service announcements, I find my attention drifting to the edges of the frame: to the understated wall molding visible behind Robert DeNiro’s shoulder; to the Craftsman beams on Priyanka Chopra’s balcony; to the equine wallpaper framing Zoë Kravitz’s crackling fireplace. “Staying home is my superpower,” the “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot reported from her walk-in closet. Ryan Reynolds urged his fans to “work together to...

In 2008, in the midst of our financial meltdown, future-Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel infamously proclaimed: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. I mean, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Following Rahm Emanuel’s playbook today, Big Tech is attempting to capitalize on the coronavirus, the Wuhan-originated pandemic which may cause the biggest public-health and financial crisis we’ve ever faced, by making wholly unrelated demands for: (1) blanket amnesty from antitrust laws; and (2) continued coddling by Uncle Sam (since 1996) in the form of the...

During Monday evening's White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, President Donald Trump highlighted a number of companies that have stepped up to the plate to help provide necessary medical supplies, like personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Jockey CEO Debra Waller said her company made parachutes during previous wars. Now, they're making between 30,000 and 50,000 medical gowns a week.United Technologies Corporation will donate more than 1 million pieces of PPE next week. The company has sent out 90,000 pieces this week alone.Ford Motor Company bill be making 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days.My Pillow shifted 75 percent of...

Ever one to see the humor in even the worst circumstances, I set out to try to lighten hearts with a little COVID-19 humor.I authored these:China got this virus right off the bat. I now wash my hands, shower daily, and keep my house disinfected. All it took was the end of the world to become a human being. With all the airports shut down or travel-restricted, CNN's viewership is now nearly 5 people.

After being absent for much of the last two weeks, Jim Acosta reappeared at today’s Coronavirus Task Force press conference. As he always does, Acosta failed to ask anything relevant, instead attempting to engage the President of the United States in a debate. He failed miserably. Here’s the clip – watch as Trump brutalizes the preening little peacock and the airport-based CNN: Caleb Hull ✔ @CalebJHull Trump blasts CNN: "Instead of asking a nasty, snarky question like that, you should ask a real question and other than that, I’m going to go to somebody else." Embedded video 430 5:08 PM...

The Pentagon has ordered military bases and combatant commands to withhold coronavirus case numbers, citing operational security concerns. “As we continue to grapple with the novel nature of COVID19, we are constantly assessing and adapting not only how we respond to combatting the virus, but also how we share critical public health information with our communities,” Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said in a statement on Monday. “We will not report the aggregate number of individual service member cases at individual unit, base or Combatant Commands. We will continue to do our best to balance transparency in this crisis with operational...