Free Republic

A current global myth alleges that America under the Trump administration is not leading the world fight against the coronavirus in its accustomed role as the postwar global leader. Yet the U.S. was the first major nation to issue a travel ban on flights from China, with Donald Trump making that announcement on Jan. 31. That was a bold act. It likely saved thousands endangered by Chinese perfidy and soon became a global model. None of the ban's loud critics are today demanding it be rescinded. In typically American fashion, as we have seen in crises from Pearl Harbor to...

Spain has suffered another record-breaking day of coronavirus deaths, with 950 people killed by the disease in the last 24 hours. It marks the country's third consecutive day of record death totals, with 849 dead on Tuesday, 864 killed Wednesday and 950 dying between Wednesday and today. The new toll also brings the country's total fatalities above 10,000, rising from 9,053 on Wednesday to 10,003 on Thursday. The number of new cases also increased by 8,102 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total from 102,136 to 110,238, but marks the lowest percentage increase in cases yet - in a...

We Americans are truly blessed by having a mainstream media full of brilliant renaissance men, women, and gender non-specific entities who are masters of so many varied and intermittently useful skills and who are eager to share their knowledge with us benighted souls. The pandemic has revealed that every urban Twitter blue check scribbler, MSNBCNN panelist, NYT/WaPo doofus, and barely legal “senior editor” of a website you never heard of, is a Nobel Prize-winning epidemiologist, a master logistician, and a diversity consultant too boot.They may all be lousy journalists, but damn it, they are also lousy at other jobs that...

Click on link

Italy has extended its lockdown until 13 April but recorded its lowest death toll in more than a week, reinforcing indications that the coronavirus epidemic both there and in Spain may be reaching a plateau. “Experts say we are on the right track and the drastic measures we have taken are starting to yield results,” said the health minister, Roberto Speranza. He warned, though, that it would be “unforgivable to assume this was a definitive defeat” of Covid-19 and it would be “a long battle”.

MILAN—In the town of Coccaglio, an hour’s drive east of here, the local nursing home lost over a third of its residents in March. None of the 24 people who died there were tested for the new coronavirus. Nor were the 38 people who died in another nursing home in the nearby town of Lodi. These aren’t isolated incidents. Italy’s official death toll from the virus stands at 13,155, the most of any country in the world. But that number tells only part of the story because many people who die from the virus don’t make it to the hospital...

The internet is the only thing binding Americans right now and I am really concerned what would happen if it drops. If there were ever a perfect storm and and easy opportunity for a take over of America it is now. This is how it will be done—lock us in, remove communications and it's over. Simple.

The new coronavirus has struck hardest in working-class neighborhoods in New York City’s outer boroughs, city data shows, underlining how the pandemic has ravaged densely packed lower-income areas where social-distancing guidelines have proved difficult to implement. Two areas of Queens—Corona and Elmhurst—have led the city in reported infections, with 947 and 831 as of March 31, respectively, the data show. Both neighborhoods are heavily populated by immigrants who live in close quarters, often with multiple families sharing a dwelling, said City Councilman Francisco Moya. Dr. Mitchell Katz, the chief executive and president of NYC Health + Hospitals, said it is...

If the U.S. economy were to collapse, it would happen quickly. No one would predict it. The surprise factor is, itself, one of the causes of a collapse. The signs of imminent failure are difficult for most people to see.

ATHENS - Greece has quarantined a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive for coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Thursday, its first such facility to be hit since the outbreak of the disease. Tests on 63 people were conducted after a 19-year-old female migrant who gave birth in hospital in Athens was found infected, becoming the first recorded case among thousands of asylum seekers living in overcrowded camps across Greece. None of the confirmed cases showed any symptoms, the ministry said, adding that it was continuing its tests. Greece, which recorded its first coronavirus case at the end...

BRUSSELS - The European Union’s top court ruled on Thursday that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic had broken the law by refusing to host refugees to help ease the burden on southern states such as Greece and Italy after a surge in migrant arrivals from 2015. The ruling underscores Europe’s bitter divisions over migration, though the three ex-communist nations face no immediate penalty as the relocation of tens of thousands of people agreed by the EU was only envisaged until 2017. “By refusing to comply with the temporary mechanism for the relocation of applicants for international protection, Poland, Hungary...

Please FReep Mail me regarding the ping list for these reports. Thanks. COVID-19 Update As of 04/01/2020 22:52 PDT (taken at 23:59) To the report... The following addresses the United States exclusively Impressive Growth Again Today COVID-19 is back to breaking new ground. Today's growth in the U. S. and elsewhere was pretty amazing. Here we are doing our best to make ourselves miserable, being cooped up inside, and the virus is going as strong as ever it seems. One wonders if it is worth it, but then who knows how bad it would be if we didn't shelter in...

An 86-year-old woman awaiting treatment for bowel blockage at a Brooklyn hospital yesterday died after being punched by a fellow patient — for not engaging in “social distancing” amid the coronavirus, law enforcement sources told The Post on Sunday. The death of Janie Marshall of Williamsburg appeared to be the first potential crime in the city sparked by fears over the deadly contagion. Marshall was in the emergency room at the city-run Woodhull Medical Center when she was smacked in the face by a 32-year-old patient, who was awaiting psychiatric treatment and got out of her nearby bed to launch...

YouTuber laowhy86 claims that a Chinese science lab that was doing research on bats is located less than 1 km from the Chinese food market where the COVID-19 virus had allegedly originated I don’t think this is an April Fool’s joke. If it is, then shame on me for thinking that it’s not.I don’t know if this is true or not, but YouTuber laowhy86 claims that a Chinese science laboratory that was doing research on bats is located less than one kilometer from the Chinese food market where the COVID-19 virus had allegedly originated.laowhy86 also says that lab workers came in...

Today’s CG is from The Arkansas Gazette. PEPXBNJP CAUDGZ GTCG SNEP DZ VNJAPXWKS CJA JPYPZZCXB, RKG JN NJP YCJ CFXPP NJ VTCG DG DZ. —ADCJP CYHPXUCJ

Globalisation has been one of the buzzwords of the past 25 years. It may seem a rather strange concept, since any economic historian will tell you that people have been trading across vast distances for centuries, if not millennia. Easier travel, the world wide web, the end of the Cold War, trade deals, and new, rapidly developing economies, have all combined to create a system that is much more dependent on what is happening on the other side of the world than it ever was. Which is why the spread of coronavirus, or Covid-19 to be specific, has had such...

So, yesterdays’ question was masks in public.

There are many drastic changes being made to our lives as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But what few people appreciate is that Britain has embarked on one of the greatest educational and social experiments in our history. In any normal year, schools would reconvene in two weeks' time after the Easter holidays for the summer term. Not this year. Millions of children of school age, with the exception of those who are considered vulnerable or whose parents are in key jobs, will have to adjust to working from home for as long as six months. It is an...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — “Please help!” KXAN has heard frustrated pleas from gym members running into problems trying to cancel memberships. “Gold’s Gym is still charging people for gym memberships and the only way you can cancel is to send a certified letter where no one is working,” writes a KXAN News viewer. “When you don’t have a job because of this pandemic every dollar counts!” Another viewer tells KXAN, “Members must go to a location in person to cancel or suspend membership. Very unethical in time of crisis.” The state ordered all gyms and fitness centers to close because of...

As the state remains under a stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, first responders are among those who are on the front lines. The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has donated more than 50,000 cookies to San Francisco, Alameda and San Mateo county first responders this week. The company posted photos of the cookies on their Instagram and said, “COVID19 is tough, but we are tougher and like my fortunes, we will persevere.” To thank the healthcare workers, the company also sent cookies to UCSF Oakland Benioff Children’s Hospital for the staff and doctors. More cookies will be sent out...