Free Republic

01:36.02] JOHN: You mention in the piece that in fact you think containment would prolong the duration of the virus. Can you talk about that? [01:45.00] WITTKOWSKI: With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as...

The minister is the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Israel’s homophobic health minister Yaakov Litzman has tested positive for the novel coronavirus after flouting his own lockdown to attend group prayers despite the ban on the public congregations, as per the Times of Israel report. The minister who is now infected with the coronavirus had earlier claimed that the coronavirus was the divine punishment for homosexuality.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Just weeks ago, cities and even states across the U.S. were busy banning straws, limiting takeout containers and mandating that shoppers bring reusable bags or pay a small fee as the movement to eliminate single-use plastics took hold in mainstream America. What a difference a pandemic makes. In a matter of days, hard-won bans to reduce the use of plastics - and particularly plastic shopping sacks - across the U.S. have come under fire amid worries about the virus clinging to reusable bags, cups and straws. Governors in Massachusetts and Illinois have banned or strongly discouraged the...

Last Thursday, the scientific mastermind behind the economic carnage and spirit-crushing isolation now constituting the two main pillars of America's ingenious new public health strategy delivered some bad news. Dr. Fauci says we'll have to keep living like this until the virus is eradicated. Even if "virus" isn't his nickname for the American people, following his advice still means a long, grueling haul. The economic shutdown and social confinement oppressing us have to continue for at least the minimum estimated 18 months it will take to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. Longer, since the stipulation that our rights don't get...

The company, which suspended production at its San Francisco Bay Area vehicle and New York solar roof tile factories on March 24, said in the email the decisions were part of a broader effort to manage costs and achieve long-term plans.

This date in 1859 saw the joint hanging of youths from a notorious Baltimore gang, and in honor of the occasion thousands upon thousands of curiosity-seekers packed Charm City from “all parts of the State, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and even New York city and Buffalo” to throng the hills and high points overlooking the Baltimore City Jail, where a fine view could be had of the nominally private gallows...Gambrill, Crop, and Corrie were all stalwarts of the “Plug Uglies”, who were at once a street gang and a political goon squad, involved (with several similar entities)...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalms Psalm 149 1 Praise the Lord.[a] Sing to the Lord a new song,     his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;     let the people of Zion be glad in their King. 3 Let them praise his name with dancing     and make music to him with timbrel and harp. 4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;     he crowns the humble with victory. 5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor     and sing for joy on their beds. 6 May the praise of God be...

This is remarkable. Dr. Birx says here very plainly that anyone who dies “with COVID-19” is being counted as having died from COVID-19. She admits this is a “liberal approach” to recording mortality. The suspicions many of us had are now confirmed. https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1247672477498724352  

...Bill Bennett and Seth Leibsohn list some basic numbers in their column at RCP: “In any given month in America, we lose about 54,000 Americans to heart disease; 50,000 to cancer; 14,000 to asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema; 12,000 to stroke; 10,000 to Alzheimer’s; 7,000 to diabetes; 5,600 to drug overdoses; and 4,700 to influenza and pneumonia. Since February, in America, coronavirus: 9,500…Those deaths give us over 157,000 deaths a month.” No one will be seeing those numbers on CNN or MSNBC anytime soon. Revealing that 157k people die in this country every month would spoil their faux hysteria...

Plymouth Church is located in the City of Raleigh, which makes up much of Wake County, North Carolina. Plymouth’s pastor, Dr. Chris Partin, is struggling to assert his religious liberties in light of restrictions imposed by North Carolina’s Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper, and expanded on by local government. Recently, he came up with a creative idea to allow his congregants to have some semblance of religious freedom during Easter week. But government officials in North Carolina simply will not allow it. Dr. Partin’s idea was simple. He wanted to do a so-called drive-through church on Easter with church staff remaining,...

The unprecedented policy of mass quarantine to "flatten the curve" is only prolonging the coronavirus pandemic, contends a veteran scholar of epidemiology. The virus could be "exterminated" within weeks if people were allowed to lead normal lives and the vulnerable were sheltered until the virus passes, said Knut Wittkowski, Ph.D., the former head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City.

There’s a remarkable, and perhaps unbelievable turn of events happening right now in California where Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on April 6 that the state will start loaning ventilators to other states that are in need of them right now . . . to go from begging for machines on The Daily Show to giving them away in a week? How is that possible?

Faith-based organizations like churches and other houses of worship can be eligible to receive federally-funded, forgivable loans through the coronavirus stimulus package, authorities clarified this week.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the face of the White House's coronavirus response, predicted Tuesday night that the United States will be able to reopen its schools in the fall thanks to the expected progress by then in disease mitigation measures for the coronavirus.

Screen Shot of Rusk County statement showing First Amendment threat, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten On 30 March 2020, the Public Health Department of Rusk County, Wisconsin, issued a statement under the name of the County Sheriff and Dawn Brost, RN, of Rusk County Public Health. The statement appears to be a direct attack on First Amendment rights.  From the Rusk County web page: The Rusk County Sheriff’s Office and Public Health Department take coronavirus infection (COVID-19) seriously. We are informing the public that making false statements and spreading rumors about COVID-19 is a crime and will be prosecuted....

“Imagine being scared of living in your own home,” Phillips said. “I love my husband and it isn’t that I didn’t want him home, but I have an asthmatic son and a 6-month-old baby, so I was worried especially for them.” The couple began discussing ways for Jason to live elsewhere. Hotels weren’t an option because they didn’t want to risk exposing anyone there either, then Emily Phillips' mom made a suggestion. “It was giving us horrible anxiety ... But then one night my mom just called and said ‘Hey, why don’t you guys get a trailer or an RV?”...

Here are a few examples of headlines over recent weeks."Republicans exploit coronavirus to restrict abortions." -- Los Angeles Times "The Coronavirus Becomes an Excuse to Restrict Abortions," -- The New York Times "Texas women forced to travel 20 times farther for abortion under coronavirus ban." -- The Hill Five states -- Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi -- that are prohibiting nonessential medical procedures during the novel coronavirus health crisis have included abortion among these nonessential procedures. These measures have been taken with one objective in mind: saving lives. To suggest otherwise is cynical and obscene. The logic is straightforward....

Like me, Allie Beth Stuckey has spent too much time observing reporters at work in the daily White House coronavirus task force press briefings. Unlike me, Ms. Stuckey has made something of her observations. She calls the video below “Every. SINGLE. Coronavirus Briefing is Like This.” I can testify to that. The young lady deserves a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. In her own way, Ms. Stuckey amplifies the observations of Victor Davis Hanson in “Corona meltdowns.” https://youtu.be/B-iq32_KggE

However you feel about social distancing measures, I think most of us can agree that in some places around the country things are going way too far. Not a good look at all…especially with no response given by the police when asked by reporters. Man in Colorado was arrested while playing tee-ball with his 6-year-old daughter in the park for alleged violation of the social distancing order. KDVR reports: Matt Mooney feels Brighton police owe him a huge apology. The 33-year-old says he was handcuffed at Donelson Park in front of his 6-year-old daughter Sunday afternoon after police told him...

It's starting to sound like they are kicking around the idea that folks who have had corona already can get off the bench and get back into the economy. So basically we will be rewarded for contracting corona. I own a small business. Straight up... I'll find the damn virus and get infected if that's what it takes. I imagine I won't be the only one.