Free Republic

This is good news, although how good remains a matter of debate.The mystery at the heart of the epidemic is how many people have had coronavirus while experiencing few or no symptoms. The University of OxfordÂ’s model speculates that as many as half of all Brits might have it, which would be wonderful news. It would mean that virtually everyone who gets it shrugs it off with little difficulty; the people crowding hospitals are extreme outliers, prone to severe symptoms for reasons that arenÂ’t clear. It would also mean that weÂ’re much closer to herd immunity, in which 50-75...

While monitoring the latest on Fox News this morning, I heard an interesting interview with Sunday show anchor Chris Wallace. I was surprised to hear him admit that if public opinion holds as it is now with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and when the economic recovery begins that he doesn’t see Biden beating Trump in November.Why did Wallace, no fan of Trump, make this admission now? A new Fox News poll shows Trump and Biden tied at 42 – 42 percent after Biden consistently showing a lead over Trump of 8 to 9 points in past polls....

Kentucky State Police will record the license plates of residents who attend church on Easter — and report them to local health departments for quarantine, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday. Beshear, dropping the bombshell announcement halfway through a press conference late Friday, said that those who “make the decision” to be exposed to the deadly coronavirus are “not fair to those that you would spread it to.” “We’re having to take a new action, and I hoped that we wouldn’t, and it’s that any individual that’s going to participate in a mass gathering of any type that we know about...

"The world is wondering what Americans are going to do with their freedom" Dozens of people visible in the crowd in Emmett, Idaho as Ammon Bundy spoke last night at a people's meeting to defend Constitutional Rights. The meeting called to confront Republican Governor Brad Little's economy crippling "stay at home" order to deal with the coronavirus situation... Meanwhile Vice-President Mike Pence is telling people to stay home for Easter..... The US is joining other nations in cutting its oil production to stabilize world oil prices and markets... The bottom line tonight appears to be that while there is something...

Surgeon General Jerome Adams has become the latest member of the Trump administration to raise eyebrows during remarks at the daily coronavirus briefings. Speaking to reporters on Friday, and directing his comments at communities of color, Adams spoke about the social distancing guidelines, encouraging everyone to adhere to them for the time being. "If you must go out, maintain six feet of distance between you and everyone else and wear a mask if you're going to be within six feet of others. Wash your hands more often than you'd ever dreamed possible. Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs. And call your...

Origins of chloroquine in India (and also of Gin and Tonic): Fascinating story of the connection between Hydroxychloroquine, British India, Srirangapatna and Gin & Tonic....... As most of us are already aware, Hydroxychloroquine has taken the world by storm. Every newspaper is talking about it, and all countries are requesting India to supply it. Now, a curious person might wonder why and how this chemical composition is so deeply entrenched in India, and is there any history behind it. Well, there is an interesting history behind it which goes all the way to Tipu Sultan's defeat. In 1799, when Tipu...

Never knew that Carole King wrote this song. Epitomized the late 60's, and was a big hit for The Monkee's

A man who tried to burn down his ex-boyfriend’s house with a pot of boiling spaghetti sauce was arrested along with an accomplice in DeLand last week, according to Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Derrick Irving, 36 — who had an intimate relationship with the 50-year-old owner of the home on Evergreen Terrace — and John Silvia, 28, broke into the victim’s house and took a flat-screen TV, a vacuum, an air conditioning unit and a heater on March 13, according to an arrest report. The victim, who was at work, called authorities after getting an alert on his phone that...

“Hand-Washing Won’t Do--Blood Is Needed” (Matthew 27:11-50) Right now in the news we’re hearing about governors making life-or-death decisions. Should we be open? Should we be closed? How far can I go to protect people’s health? What about the loss of freedom? What about the loss of jobs? Governors are feeling pressure from all sides to make a decision one way or the other. And these decisions do affect people’s lives and their livelihood. No governor has ever made a more momentous life-or-death decision than the one we read about in today’s text, on this Good Friday. And that governor...

Tucker Carlson was in particularly high dudgeon Tuesday night, his brow wrinkled in rueful anger as he launched into a public scolding on his Fox News program. "It is probably the most shameful thing I, as someone who has done this for 20 years, has ever seen," he proclaimed. "It's making a lot of us ashamed to work in the same profession as those people. So reckless and wrong in the middle of a pandemic, it really is, for real." The source of Carlson's apparent regret? The fact that some "members of the media" - he didn't offer any specifics...

A majority of Democrats want to nominate New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for president instead of Joe Biden, according to poll results shared exclusively with The Post. The national poll found 56 percent of Democrats prefer Cuomo, with 44 percent wanting to stick with presumptive nominee Biden — a 12-point margin well outside the 4.8 percent margin of error for the Democratic sample. Hispanic voters, young people, women and self-identified liberals are most likely to favor dumping the former vice president for Cuomo. Among people of any party — including independents — who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016,...

Chicago Catholics pray outside cathedral on Good Friday to protest church closings during COVID-19 Event organizer Lisa Bergman said they that if shopping centers and liquor stores were open then churches should be as well. CHICAGO, Illinois, April 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Catholics from across the Archdiocese of Chicago gathered in prayer outside Holy Name Cathedral on the city’s near north side at noon today in an effort to raise awareness about how churches are and must be treated as “essential” during the COVID-19 outbreak. Liker other large cities, Chicago has been cracking down on public gatherings of any kind since pro-abortion Illinois...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) – In coordination with the Utah Department of Transportation, Governor Herbert issued an order Thursday requiring everyone who enters Utah by automobile or by truck by a major roadway to complete a travel declaration form.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) offered praise for President Trump’s efforts to help the state amid the coronavirus pandemic. Newsom, who has frequently clashed with the White House, credited Trump’s intervention in getting a Navy ship to California and expanding federal resources in the Golden State, which has grappled with a significant outbreak. “We have the USNS Mercy in California because of [Trump's] direct intervention and support. Two thousand of these federal medical stations because of his direct support," Newsom said on CNN. "So I can only speak for myself, but I have to be complementary. Otherwise I would be...

"Churchgoers who attended a drive-in service at a church in Greenville, Mississippi, were fined $500 for reportedly violating a curfew order from the mayor."

Still got the blues.

Vice President Joe Biden decided to make one more last-minute push to convince President Obama that the advice his generals were giving him was disastrously wrong. It was Thanksgiving weekend 2009, and Obama was on the verge of committing 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan. Biden was in Nantucket, Mass., with his family for the holiday. He pulled out a legal pad and began writing a memo for Obama in longhand that he hoped might limit the damage from the president’s decision. The memo summarized the arguments he had been airing for months to the growing irritation of the military’s top...

A doctor at the veterans home in Lebanon used a malaria drug to treat eight patients there for coronavirus, but said a state rule enacted last month would prevent him from treating any more veterans there. But after pushback against the Oregon Board of Pharmacy’s March 25 rule, the board amended it on Wednesday to allow the drug to be used not only in hospitals for confirmed COVID-19 cases, but also long-term care facilities like the Edward C. Allworth Veterans’ Home. Hydroxychloroquine and a similar drug, chloroquine, showed encouraging signs in small, early tests against the coronavirus but has not...

An experimental treatment for the coronavirus showed promise in an early analysis of the drug as the world scrambles for a cure to the highly infectious virus. According to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Gilead Sciences Inc.’s experimental drug remdesivir was able to effectively treat a number of patients in the U.S., Europe and Canada who needed respiratory support. The report tracked 53 patients, about half of whom needed mechanical ventilation and four of whom were on a heart-lung bypass machine. Of the 53 patients, 36 saw an improvement in oxygen-support class. Twenty-five people were...