Free Republic

As hospitals around the country desperately seek N95 respirator masks to protect health care workers treating COVID-19 patients, the federal government has blocked imports of what might be the world’s most abundant alternative. That mask is designed to filter out at least 95% of particles that are 0.3 microns or larger in size — the same measure used for the scarce N95 mask. Like the N95, it fits closely around the nose and mouth, creating a seal that decreases the risk of infection. And the Centers for Disease Control has said it’s as effective as N95, which is certified under...

President Trump took time during Tuesday’s coronavirus news briefing at the White House to acknowledge the job being done by the medical staff at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, N.Y. The hospital, located not far from the neighborhood where Trump grew up, has been among those overwhelmed as New York City and New York state handle the greatest number of coronavirus patients in the nation. “I watched the doctors and nurses walking into the hospital this morning and it is like military people going into battle, going into war. The bravery is incredible,” Trump told reporters. “If I were wearing a...

A California emergency management official basked in the sun during a family beach trip despite the state’s shelter-in-place order, he admitted this week. Chris Godley, the director of Emergency Management and leader of Sonoma County’s Emergency Operation Center, took a Saturday trip with his family to an unnamed, seemingly empty beach in Sonoma County. Photos of the family trip were posted to Facebook. “Road tripping up the coast. Beautiful drive and nice views. Family beach time together. Grateful for fresh air and the ocean,” the post read.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — With millions of people suddenly out of work and rent due at the first of the month, some tenants are vowing to go on a rent strike until the coronavirus pandemic subsides. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis are among many cities that have temporarily banned evictions, but advocates for the strike are demanding that rent payments be waived, not delayed, for those in need during the crisis. The rent strike idea has taken root in parts of North America and as far away as London. White sheets are being hung in...

California public school campuses are unlikely to reopen for the remainder of the academic school year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Tuesday in a letter to school district officials. “Due to the current safety concerns and needs for ongoing social distancing it currently appears that our students will not be able to return to school campuses before the end of the school year,” Thurmond wrote. Earlier, Thurmond had resisted suggestions that there was no hope for returning to campus. His letter represented a shift in direction and echoed views that Gov....

This is an uncanny prediction in a movie about the coronavirus, even in names the virus properly

<p>North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) & the US’ Northern Command (NORTHCOM) held a Facebook Live town hall meeting on Tuesday, March 24, informing the public how their essential teams in charge of homeland security are isolating at the Cheyenne Mountain bunker in Colorado amid the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Strong Memorial Hospital officials say a man who was feeling sick attempted to obscure his symptoms so he could join his expectant wife in the hospital’s maternity ward. Strong officials say the man admitted he was sick after his wife displayed COVID-19 symptoms after giving birth this past week. After the incident, University of Rochester Medicine and Rochester Regional Health officials announced that beginning Tuesday, universal masking procedures will take effect. The move is the latest of several actions local health systems have taken to help flatten the curve of COVID-19.

There may not be a physical Democratic national convention this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden suggested Tuesday. "It's hard to envision that," Biden told MSNBC's Brian Williams when asked whether he could see prominent Democrats from around the county gathering in an arena for the convention, which is scheduled for July. Conventions, primaries and elections have been held during times of national crisis in the past, said Biden, who said officials should listen to the scientists when making decisions. "The fact is, it may have to be different," Biden...

ll. What started as an early morning call with a friend to help get N95 masks to hospitals in desperate need turned into a roller coaster of contacts in a frenzied, pandemic-driven market. For the next 10 hours, I sat in on calls between brokers selling masks and potential buyers, watching the psychology of market pressures play out in real time as millions of masks changed hands in a matter of hours. The buyers—from state government purchasing departments and hospital systems representing facilities throughout the Northeast, Midwest and California—expressed desperation for masks to protect their healthcare workers, but in the...

What happens when we let anyone come in from anywhere. Look at her "husband", by the way.

April 01 2020 Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent Reading 1 Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 King Nebuchadnezzar said: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments; otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach,...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

So, I perused CDC site devoted to 2019-2020 flu rates, they are dropping like rocks, along with mortality rates. Meanwhile, the same population groups are suffering badly from covid19; is there any connection? I mean, are not the same folks who would suffer worst and possibly die from complications from the flu strains, suffer worst from covid19 as well? Is there an equilibrium if these two hazards after it is all over and done? 22k Americans died from flu this season so far, a bad season. When does the shift from flu to covid19 equate to a comparative total or...

I can't afford tv or tv services. Any suggestions?

The stockpile's 100 million supply of N95 respirator masks was never fully replenished after 2009 swine flu pandemic, experts say. The Strategic National Stockpile, America’s giant medical storage closet for a terrorist or biological crisis, once boasted more than 100 million respirator masks to protect doctors, nurses and other frontline health care workers in case of a contagion. But when the COVID-19 pandemic started a few months ago, the supply had dwindled down to just 12 million fitted masks, known as N95 respirators, and 30 million surgical masks, a supply deemed to be less than 2 percent of what the...

After a detective hunt across China, researchers chasing the origin of the deadly SARS virus have finally found their smoking gun. In a remote cave in Yunnan province, virologists have identified a single population of horseshoe bats that harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002, killing almost 800 people around the world. The killer strain could easily have arisen from such a bat population, the researchers report in PLoS Pathogens1 on 30 November. They warn that the ingredients are in place for a similar disease to emerge again. [....]...

Dow’s Union Carbide subsidiary in South Charleston has joined the war against the spread of COVID-19 by producing industrial scale quantities of hand sanitizer for free distribution to health care systems and government agencies. The first production batch of South Charleston-produced hand sanitizer is expected to be ready to be released for packaging Wednesday, according to Tim O’Neal, vice president and site director for Dow’s Union Carbide subsidiary. The sanitizer will be packaged by Total Distribution, Inc., of Nitro, and distributed by the West Virginia National Guard to health care workers and first responders across the state, O’Neal said. The...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A large earthquake struck north of Boise, Idaho, Tuesday evening, with people across a large area reporting shaking. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude 6.5 temblor struck just before 5 p.m. It was centered 73 miles (118 kilometers) northeast of Meridian, Idaho, near the rural mountain town of Stanley. Marcus Smith, an emergency room health unit coordinator at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, said the hospital, about 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of the epicenter, shook but the quake didn’t interfere with the treatment of any patients. The hospital in Blaine County is on...

Two U.S. states — Alabama and Massachusetts — have begun providing the addresses of those known to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to police in a bid to contain the spread and protect first responders who might answer a call where a coronavirus sufferer is involved. Alabama began providing the addresses — but not names — to police and other emergency responders starting more than a week ago. The information is being distributed to 85 emergency communications districts in the state, and is then relayed to police officers and other first responders when they go out on calls. “It’s only...