Free Republic

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said, “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this." It is interesting sometimes that a brief comment can reveal the heart and mind — and in this instance, a special degree of tone deafness. Two weeks ago, at least 3.3 million people filed for unemployment benefits. Last week, 6.8 million more joined the ranks of the unemployed. On Thursday, an additional 6.6 million workers were added to the rolls of the unemployed. For Fauci, is it merely a societal or economic...

John P.A. Ioannidis is professor of medicine and professor of epidemiology and population health, as well as professor by courtesy of biomedical data science at Stanford University School of Medicine, professor by courtesy of statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) at Stanford University. The current coronavirus disease, Covid-19, has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also be a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco. At a time when everyone needs better information, from disease modelers and governments to people quarantined or just social distancing, we lack reliable evidence...

I never have posted an original thread or vanity, but I thought some might be interested in following the mission of Apollo 13 in real time. https://apolloinrealtime.org/13

This guy is sketchy. Sometimes within a 24 hour period Fauci will make a statement, then contradict the initial assertion, then attempt to cloud his own conflict with obtuse and wordy explanations. After watching for several weeks, we called it out HERE. In an interview Friday night with Martha MacCallum Dr. Fauci now claims the now collapsing coronavirus prediction models never influenced national health policy. It’s a rather disingenuous claim given everything that has taken place. There’s been a debate about possible political motives surrounding the panic he has created; the massive economic damage he has inflicted; and the conflicting...

President Trump on Friday joked that he asked Dr. Anthony Fauci to move to New York and run against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because he could “win easily.” “I told Tony Fauci, why don’t you move to New York, run against AOC, you will win easily,” Trump quipped during the daily briefing of his Coronavirus Task Force.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

Depression, suicidal thoughts and self-injury are common among U.S. transgender teens, new research shows. The study also found that hormone therapy leads to significant improvements in gender dysphoria -- the feeling of being uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth. For the study, the researchers analyzed the medical records of 158 transgender teens treated at a pediatric endocrinology clinic between 2014 and 2019. The patients included 107 affirmed males (female to male), 47 affirmed females (male to female), and four who considered themselves non-binary. Affirmed gender is an individual's declared gender identity. Overall, 78.5 percent had a mental...

“He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace” (Proverbs 11:12 KJV).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly every afternoon just before 12:30, the sisters of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará leave their Capitol Hill convent to greet Monsignor Charles Pope at Washington’s Holy Comforter – St. Cyprian church. Together, they circle the popular Lincoln Park praying the rosary, an ancient and beautiful Catholic devotion. It’s a contemplative prayer, rooted in scripture; a meditation on the sacred mysteries of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that’s been prayed through many centuries and plagues before our own. “The church remains open during the day for private prayer; people come and go...

MANY people could already be immune to coronavirus - with 15 per cent found to be carrying antibodies, experts claim. Scientists studying the town at the epicentre of Germany's first big outbreak suggest that mainland Europe isn't far off achieving herd immunity needed to relax lockdown measures. The experts, from the University of Bonn, said that their initial findings show that as many as 15 per cent of the town of Gangelt - dubbed the 'German Wuhan' - had antibodies to Covid-19. These people had not shown symptoms and were not previously thought to have been infected, they added. That...

Many critics allege Dr. Anthony Fauci is recklessly damaging the economy and blocking supposed wonder treatments like hydroxychloroquine. Those reports are labeled as a conspiracy by Fauci’s friend the mainstream media. When a crisis sprouts, one can bet the conspiracy theorists will have their day. While such people used to get relegated to the fringes where they belonged, the current political environment allows such baloney to have a home within certain quarters of the mainstream Right. But what if some so-called conspiracies are real? President Donald Trump said on Friday he will listen to the advice of doctors when deciding...

Dr. Ben Carson says there is not enough attention being paid to the “number of people who have recovered” from coronavirus, noting that the number “is going to be about 98 percent of all the people who get it.” Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon who serves as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also said the one-quarter to fully one-half of all people who will get SARS-CoV-2 will show no symptoms at all. “You probably do know someone that has it, you may have it, who knows?” Carson told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday. “But people have been...

The medical director at a Texas City nursing home says some COVID-19 patients on an unproven drug are showing signs of improvement and that he’s prescribed it to another dozen patients. Dr. Robin Armstrong said the first group of nine patients at The Resort at Texas City — where 56 residents and employees have tested positive for the disease — finished their five-day treatment with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine on Wednesday and are stable. “It seems like the patients are maintaining pretty steady and not having any difficulty, so that’s good,” Armstrong said, though he added that he can’t determine...

The costs of the pandemic keep piling up. Hundreds of millions of Americans are on lockdown, a record 16.8 million have filed unemployment claims, nearly 15,000 Americans have died so far and the death toll is growing exponentially by the day. Congress has passed three coronavirus relief bills totaling $2.3 trillion, and more might soon be in the works. Somebody has to pay for this unprecedented damage. That somebody should be the government of China.

We report the first presumptive case of COVID-19–associated acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalopathy, a rare encephalopathy that has been associated with other viral infections but has yet to be demonstrated as a result of COVID-19 infection.

The Spanish government has announced it will be launching a clinical trial into whether hydroxychloroquine and certain antiretrovirals can prevent frontline health workers from contracting COVID-19. The research, dubbed the Clinical Trial for the Prevention of Coronavirus Infection in Health Workers (EPICOS) will study 4,000 health workers, from wardens to doctors, at 62 hospitals in 13 regions in Spain. The EPICOS investigation will evaluate to what extent existing medicines may offer protection against coronavirus. One group of participants will be given the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, while another will take a combination of the antiretroviral medications emtricitabine and tenofovir, a medication...

Dozens of new clinical trials into the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine have been registered with the U.S. government since President Trump first advertised it as a potential “game changer” against the coronavirus via March 21 tweet. In the weeks after, the number of COVID-19 drug trials in the U.S. National Institute of Health registry nearly tripled, from 66 to 183, with dozens of new hydroxychloroquine trials driving the uptick. Before the president’s tweet, roughly 1 in 10 trials studied hydroxychloroquine as an intervention. After, 1 in 3 new trials involve hydroxychloroquine. Trump’s rhetoric around the drug is likely behind the...

Calculating Second-Quarter Unemployment Rate These two numbers were obtained by applying different methodologies and classifications to two different datasets. This means that while there may be significant overlap, each measure will also be capturing some aspects that the other ignores.For this reason, we simply took the average of those two numbers as a point estimate for the total number of workers who will be laid off during the second quarter. This resulted in 47.05 million people being laid off during this period.Summing to the initial number of unemployed in February, this resulted in a total number of unemployed persons of...

Call the moving company, Washington’s picking up the tab. The same day Japan announced that it would spend upwards of $2.2 billion to get its corporations out of China and either back home or spread throughout southeast Asia, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said the U.S. should “pay the moving costs” of every American company that wants out of China. “I would say, 100 percent immediate expensing across the board for plant, equipment, intellectual property, structures, renovations... In other words, if we had 100 percent immediate expensing, we would literally — literally pay the moving costs of...

“This was a big storm and he might as well enjoy it. It was ruining everything, but you might as well enjoy it” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls I don’t easily buy into conspiracy theories; anyone with a creative mind and active imagination can connect dots and propose a plausible theory involving good guys and bad guys. The internet can take something that is simply the result of wrongheaded people making bad decisions and turn it into an elaborate theory overnight. On the other hand history provides ample enough evidence of absolute evil to justify keeping...