Free Republic

The Air Force Academy is easing up on social distancing restrictions following two suicides that occurred less than a week after the measures were implemented to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, The Colorado Springs Gazette reported on Tuesday.In the wake of the ongoing pandemic, the academy had sent freshman, sophomores, and juniors home but kept nearly 1,000 seniors on campus in an effort to push the students to graduation with just a few weeks left in the school year. The remaining students were separated across vacated dorm rooms with strict rules to keep the virus from rapidly spreading...

In New England Journal of Medicine, nation's infectious disease chief suggests COVID-19 mortality rate may end like bad seasonal flu. But among his learned colleagues in academia, he has provided the more conservative analysis.“ [T]he case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%,” Fauci wrote in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 26. “This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and...

A drug hailed by US president Donald Trump as a potential treatment for coronavirus appears to be safe but its effectiveness is still unknown, according to an Oxford-led research team. Hydroxychloroquine is one of the medicines undergoing clinical trials to assess its safety and efficacy. It is used as a treatment against malaria and certain autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. More than 300 researchers from the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) international community, including a team from the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, have been investigating whether there are serious side effects from the...

Whistleblowers silenced by China could have stopped global coronavirus

CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, known for his rough-and-tumble verbal battles with President Donald Trump, likely raised eyebrows among CNN viewers on Tuesday night when he praised the president’s new tone at the latest White House press briefing, claiming “this was a different Trump.” During the briefing, Acosta asked whether projections of up to 200,000 deaths would be lower if Trump had acted sooner, prompting the president to insist that he did act early. Trump did not spar with his longtime nemesis, even noting at one point that Acosta’s question was “fair.” “This was a different Donald Trump...

Shortly after President Trump touted chloroquine as a potential cure for COVID-19, the media triumphantly reported that a man died from taking homemade chloroquine due to Trump’s recommendation. It turned out that the man’s wife fed him some fish tank cleaner. She even partook of it with him, except that he died while she didn’t. As a dedicated murder mystery reader, I didn’t blame Trump. My suspicions were focused elsewhere. It turns out my instincts may have been right on the money. Here’s the story the drive-by media didn't tell you: On March 20, President Trump expressed his hope...

More voters say the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to combat the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. The survey, conducted immediately before President Donald Trump announced a 30-day extension of his physical and social distancing guidelines “to slow the spread” of Covid-19, shows 47 percent of voters feel the administration isn’t doing enough in response to the outbreak, greater than the 40 percent who feel the administration is doing the right amount. Two weeks ago, 43 percent said the administration wasn’t doing enough in the days following the initial measures deployed to reduce the impacts of...

As Coronavirus Deniers Katherine Stewart couldn’t be bothered to find out, as a good journalist would, what the Cornwall Alliance or plenty of other conservative, evangelical Christians think about the coronavirus. Slander sufficed. “Stop denying science!! … There is a special place in hell for you folks!! If any of your ilk get COVID-19 I hope you stick to your ‘non-science’ beliefs and let someone else have a ventilator.” These are examples of messages the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation received recently. What could stir up such anger?These and similar messages were prompted by Katherine Stewart’s March 27...

The University of California system has issued a set of guidelines directing students and employees how to speak about the coronavirus from Wuhan, China.The document directly tells students what names they should use for the virus.One student responded by pointing out that “The Chinese government has actively contributed to the spread of this deadly virus." The Council of Chief Diversity Officers at the University of California released a “guidance document” to announce “supportive positive and inclusive campus climates during the COVID-19 crisis.” The list begins by telling students to “reject racism, sexism, xenophobia and all hateful or intolerant speech, both...

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause” (Proverbs 1:10-11 KJV).

Audio at link.

While this shutdown has already done enormous damage, it is the uncertainty about when and how it will reopen that could prove far more destructive in the long run. Our leadership class responded to the outbreak of the coronavirus by shutting down the economy on a nationwide scale. While this will mitigate the loss of life the virus might otherwise have caused, it’s clear we’re also confronting a challenge no medical innovation can cure. We face an unprecedented situation — not a global pandemic, we’ve seen those before, but a modern capitalist economy that turned itself off for potentially more...

Marylanders already have faced penalties for violating Gov. Larry Hogan’s ban on gatherings and could face stiff consequences for flouting the stay-at-home order that went into effect Monday night. “A lot of it is just to ensure compliance. You have to have some kind of penalty to associate it with an order,” Mr. Hogan said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day” of the $5,000 fine or one-year jail sentence that could come with violating his order. clip The stay-at-home orders direct residents to leave home only to get food or supplies, do essential work and travel, and participate in activities like...

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Taiwan will donate 10 million face masks to countries that are being seriously affected by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Wednesday. In a speech delivered at the Presidential Office, Tsai said Taiwan has increased its production of face masks, giving the country the ability to provide masks to countries that are experiencing major escalations in the COVID-19 contagion. On Tuesday, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs announced Taiwan's daily surgical mask output has hit 13 million.

We messed up Monday and missed Tuesday. No Swingin' Monday so we'll have a Swingin' Wednesday with Sons of the West - Mama Inez. The tune was recorded in Dallas on Sept. 16, 1938. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

The Monthly Fiber Arts Thread is a monthly gathering of people that love yarn and fabric of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first project, to experienced fiber artists and beyond, we would love to hear from you. It is impossible to hijack the Monthly Fiber Arts Thread. Knitting, crochet, quilting, weaving, general crafting - there is no telling where it will go, and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our Fiber Arts...

U.S. stocks are poised to start a new quarter on a grim note Wednesday, with futures markets tanking after President Trump told the country to prepare for “a hell of a bad two weeks” as deaths from the novel coronavirus accelerate. “Stock investors are starting the second quarter bracing for a tsunami of terrible news on the health and economic fronts of the war against the virus,” Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told The Washington Post. “The White House warned yesterday that the number of deaths will rise sharply over the next two weeks. The next batch of economic...

Hard to get excited about April First when the whole year has felt like April Fool’s day.Still, pranksters gotta prank. Take Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer - aka Caitlyn Jenner – for example: she recently pranked her state.Separated at birth? Twin sistas of another mother?Here’s Gretchen doing her 100-meter dash: On Friday March 27th Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer threatened to revoke the medical licenses of doctors and pharmacists who prescribe hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus in Michigan.  Four days later, March 31st, the same governor asks the federal government to send her hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. Go figure. – Treehouse Good...

Airline stocks were taking a dive in premarket trading Wednesday, as part of a broad stock market selloff in the wake of the White House's grim warning on the coronavirus pandemic. Analyst Joseph DeNardi at Stifel Nicolaus said the "near worst-case scenario" is playing out for airlines, with more stringent travel restrictions and quarantines being implemented are resulting in further demand weakness, and with concerns that COVID-19 will re-emerger later in the year. DeNardi expects airlines to suspend flying for a period this summer.

Morning "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." Song of Solomon 1:2 For several days we have been dwelling upon the Saviour's passion, and for some little time to come we shall linger there. In beginning a new month, let us seek the same desires after our Lord as those which glowed in the heart of the elect spouse. See how she leaps at once to him; there are no prefatory words; she does not even mention his name; she is in the heart of her theme at once, for she speaks of him who was the...