Free Republic

Trump meets with recovered coronavirus patients © Getty President Trump on Tuesday met with eight people who have recovered after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, including a Michigan state lawmaker who says her condition improved after taking an anti-malaria drug the president has touted as a potential cure. The eight attendees came to the White House from California, Michigan and Arkansas, and the White House arranged their travel to Washington, D.C., according to an administration official. Federal social distancing guidelines urge Americans to avoid discretionary travel. Among the guests was Karen Whitsett, a Democratic state representative who has expressed gratitude...

A COVID-19 patient at St. Luke’s Hospital in Phillipsburg was taken off a ventilator following an experimental blood plasma treatment. Convalescent plasma, in this case plasma from survivors of COVID-19, is being used to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients. ---SNIP--- The Lehigh Valley’s Miller-Keystone Blood Center is collecting plasma, the liquid component of blood, from people who have recovered from COVID-19 for convalescent plasma programs.

“Until we get a vaccine, which is a while off, this is going to be our new normal and we need to adapt and protect ourselves,” state Surgeon General and Florida Department of Health Secretary Scott Rivkees told reporters. When asked to explain his remarks, Rivkees said, “As long as we are going to have COVID in the environment, and this is a tough virus, we are going to have to practice these measures so we are all protected.” There is no vaccine to prevent infection with the novel coronavirus, which causes the deadly COVID-19 respiratory disease. Dr. Anthony Fauci,...

Carving the path for India’s foray into medical diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out the first consignment of drug hydroxychloroquine to 13 countries, including neighbouring nations and the United States. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is keeping an eye out for the drug requirements of Gulf countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic. It is believed that by stepping up to bail out nations facing a shortage of life-saving drugs during a global health crisis, India would be able to establish itself as a reliable international power. For live updates on coronavirus, click here Huge consignments of hydroxychloroquine and...

A recent headline in the dead tree edition of the Opinion section inThe Washington Post bore the ominous headline, "Coronavirus is Killing You, but Climate Change is Killing Us!" I figured this would be an entertaining read, and of course it did not disappoint. When I searched for the ones and zeroes version for blog purposes, the title didn't come up. I finally found it, with the changed title of "Politicians blew off Gen Z’s climate goals. The coronavirus shows we can act fast." What is it with Lefty rags having to changing idiotic titles of their stories? Out of curiousity...

Two investigators in Gilead's Phase III remdesivir trials were unsurprised at recent protocol changes. However, they said enrollment in the moderate-disease study was slow due to difficulty capturing those patients, with one also citing publicity-driven interest in two unproven malaria drugs. Last week, Gilead Sciences made significant adjustments to the Phase III trials of its drug remdesivir in hospitalized patients with Covid-19, leading to some speculation that the company may have lowered its expectations for the drug. Two investigators in the trials weighed in on what the changes could mean, as well as some of the challenges they have encountered...

The Chinese industrial city of Guangzhou has become unsafe for black people. Visitors and workers from Africa were recently kicked out of their hotels and apartments because of the rumors that the coronavirus was sweeping through the black community. There have also been several racial incidents in the city as African nations and blacks in America have sounded an alarm about the racism. It's not a very well kept secret that Chinese society is racist. They are equal opportunity haters, seeing all races -- white, black, brown, red -- as inferior. They're usually much too polite and courteous to make...

Pope in Easter message: Pandemic should spur ‘humanist and ecological conversion’  Pope Francis called for a conversion that puts 'human life and dignity' at the center. ROME, Italy, April 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Amid the economic difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis in an Easter message has called for “a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money,” placing “human life and dignity” at the center.  Not once in his message to members of “popular movements and organizations” delivered on Easter Sunday — when Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus — did the...

NPR published a revealing story today about Bloomberg News, specifically it’s handling of a story which would have been critical of wealthy Chinese communists including Xi Jinping. Bloomberg killed the story over concern the entire news outlet would be kicked out of China if it were published. The story in question was actually a follow-up to a story published in 2012 which won the site awards. The follow-up gained steam in 2013 and suddenly the head office went silent. The story was killed and, officially, the excuse given was that it needed more reporting. But months later the editor-in-chief...

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. California newspapers are asking the state to help rescue their industry, as the economic crisis from the coronavirus slashes print advertising revenues, causing layoffs in an already battered industry, even as reporters are deemed essential workers during the pandemic. In a dire request this week from the California News Publishers Association to the governor and state lawmakers, the newspapers asked for tailored grants and loans, sales tax exemptions for local papers and tax deductions for subscribers and advertisers. “The COVID-19 virus has left the newspaper industry, already struggling financially, gasping for air,” wrote the group's president, Simon Grieve,...

A day after saying "I don't like what I do professionally," the host notes he recently signed a new contract with the network. On his radio show on Tuesday, CNN host Chris Cuomo clarified comments he made on Monday about his work as a cable news host. "Coronavirus-stricken Chris Cuomo trashes CNN gig during radio show meltdown," the New York Post wrote on Monday night, after Cuomo told viewers, "I don’t like what I do professionally. I don’t think it’s worth my time.” "It's not true," Cuomo said on Tuesday. "I never said it. I never meant it." Cuomo, who...

Pandemic: Vatican Faces Fiscal Black Hole Assets plummet under Pope Francis VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican is announcing draconian cost-cutting measures to stave off an impending financial meltdown triggered by the closure of the Vatican museums and other tourist sites following the pandemic.   On Wednesday of Holy Week, the Governorate of the Vatican City State issued an internal memo predicting "heavy repercussions" for "the economic and financial situation of the Holy See and of the State of Vatican City" which will "only become more serious with the passing of time."  The registered letter, signed by Cdl. Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican Governorate, warns of an "uncertain future"...

A 57-year-old man faces drunken driving charges after police said he fell out of his moving pickup truck along U.S. 6 and the vehicle crashed into a local business. A Portage police officer said he was watching the truck driven by Donald Phelps, of Union Township, around 2:30 p.m. Saturday when Phelps drove away from a McDonald's restaurant in the area of 6097 U.S. 6 and then turned east on to the highway. The officer said he lost view of the truck momentarily and then saw it driving over a sidewalk and grassy area south of U.S. 6, according to...

When prominent people die, the press publishes "obituaries," reports of their deaths and a summary of their lives. I recently read a New York Times obituary that accidentally summarized the last years of The New York Times, a once great newspaper. The Times obit was meant to be about Dr. S. Fred Singer, a noted scientist, prolific writer (including at American Thinker), and prominent critic of popular climate change models that contend that man has heated up the Earth. The entire N.Y. Times report — including a snooty and biased headline — was not a factual account, but an ideological...

Due to athletic department budget restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, Cincinnati has shut down its men's soccer program. Director of Athletics John Cunningham announced the university's decision Tuesday, which is effective immediately. Cincinnati will honor soccer players' scholarships for the duration of their academic careers and allow them to be released immediately from the Bearcats' roster if they wish to transfer to another program.

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Pell: ‘Senior people in Rome’ believe Vatican officials linked to my imprisonment AUSTRALIA, April 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal George Pell has said that senior people in Rome believe his conviction and imprisonment in Australia was related to the trouble he was causing to “corrupt officials in the Vatican” as he led the financial reforms. In an interview released today with Australia’s Sky News, host Andrew Bolt asks Pell whether he had ever considered that the trouble he was causing to corrupt officials in the Vatican was related to the troubles he has since experienced in Australia....

The COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than half a million Americans is killing people or causing them to become seriously ill at vastly different rates in different states, baffling scientists who are still learning about the coronavirus that causes the illness. The virus so far has killed at least 23,529 people in the United States, a case fatality rate of just over 4 percent. But the true mortality rate of COVID-19 is almost certainly much lower. Studies have showed that many infected with the virus show no symptoms, or nothing worse than a common cold, suggesting that the actual...

Loud mouth Paula Reid (CBS) has to be shoved out of Wuhan Flu Survivors’ discussion by Trump staff member.

With heroic imagination rivalling Don Quixote’s, our hysterical health technocrats are stuck in a time capsule in the middle of World War 1 from which they battle the most terrible pathogen of all time -- the original H1N1 flu virus. How else to explain why they have adopted precisely the public health tactics -- masking, social distancing, and quarantining -- that were used in 1918?

You can save the sentimental claptrap on turning 100 for some other centenarian. Hedi McKinley, who hits triple digits on Wednesday, is not interested in any sort of triteness. She is a Holocaust survivor and a woman who has looked evil in the eye and never blinked. “I didn’t expect to make it to 100, but here I am,” she said. “I don’t know why anybody wants to live this long. The world isn’t such a wonderful place, but I don’t know what the alternative is.” She spoke by phone Saturday from her apartment in Beverwyck, an independent senior community...