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The liberal media are urging Joe Biden to form a shadow government to upstage President Donald Trump's crisis response effort, which illustrates its consuming partisanship -- and its insufficient attention to the health and welfare of the American people. MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle floated the idea during an interview with former Barack Obama staffer Jim Messina. Referring to Trump's COVID-19 daily press briefing, Ruhle asked, "Should Joe Biden be counterprogramming that? Should he be creating his own shadow government, shadow Cabinet, shadow SWAT team, and getting up there at a podium every night, saying, 'Here's the crisis we're in. Here's...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Healthcare, Government, Family, Military, Business, Farmers, Sanctity of Life, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

This is how the loss of our liberties begins. – It begins not with the clatter of gunfire but with 300 million citizens timidly holed up in their homes watching TV 18 hours a day, hoping for permission from some unelected bureaucrats at the NIH and the CDC to go to the grocery store or maybe to see a doctor to check out that disturbing mole on our back after putting it off for two months . It begins not with tanks rolling into downtown Lansing, but with the power-mad Michigan Governor with the plastic face ordering you to keep...

Beijing (AFP) - China on Friday denied Western suggestions it had covered up the extent of its coronavirus outbreak and rejected US allegations it has an overly cozy relationship with the World Health Organization. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian acknowledged that the virus's rapid spread had contributed to undercounting that resulted in China raising its death toll earlier Friday, but added "there has never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment." The allegations China is too close to the World Health Organization (WHO), were an attempt at "smearing" Beijing, Zhao said. US President Donald Trump has questioned China's...

The forced coronavirus closure of small businesses throughout our great country has resulted in mass panic among business owners. For over a month now, most small businesses have been forbidden from operating. In a desperate attempt to avoid an irreversible financial crisis, the federal government extended an olive branch — they set aside some bread for businesses in the form of forgivable business loans. The government bread truck parked somewhere far away from business owners and their banks, and mass confusion immediately erupted. Eventually, business owners figured it out and started lining up for some gluten, in hopes of keeping...

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Wake County is relying on cell phone data to see if people are social distancing and following the stay-at-home order. “We have various metrics that we use including anonymous cell phone data that shows that the overwhelming majority of Wake Couny residents are staying at home,” said Wake County Commissioner Chairman Greg Ford. Wake County’s Emergency Operation Center is keeping track by monitoring public websites from Google and Unacast. They compile anonymous cell phone data and break it down by each individual state to track where people go, for how long, and with how many people....

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WUHAN, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Wuhan municipal headquarters for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic prevention and control on Friday issued a notification on revising the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the city. The following is the full text of the notification. In accordance with the fourth paragraph, Article 38 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, which stipulates that "information on epidemic situation of infectious diseases shall be released in a timely and accurate manner"; the third paragraph, Article 25 of the Regulations on Preparedness for...

Amazon said in a letter to investigators on Thursday that more than 6,000 seller accounts were suspended due to price gouging amid the CCP virus pandemic. The company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, said the firm also removed more than 500,000 listings on its website for price gouging. “Amazon turned over information about sellers we suspect engaged in price gouging of products related to COVID-19 to 42 state attorneys general offices,” Bezos wrote in a filing. “To accelerate our response to price-gouging incidents, we created a special communication channel for state attorneys general to quickly and easily escalate consumer complaints to us.”...

Sen. Joe Manchin, the independent-minded West Virginia Democrat who sometimes irks his party by siding with Republicans, intends to back fellow Democat Joe Biden for president, according to a report. Manchin, 72, who has served in the Senate since 2010 after previously serving as West Virginia’s governor, was unequivocal about his plans Thursday in an interview with Politico. “I will, absolutely,” Manchin said when asked if he will support Biden.

The first outbreak of the coronavirus could have happened further south than the central Chinese city of Wuhan as early as September, according to a team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge. Researchers investigating the virus’ origin analysed a large number of strains from around the world and calculated that the initial outbreak occurred in a window between September 13 and December 7. “The virus may have mutated into its final ‘human-efficient’ form months ago, but stayed inside a bat or other animal or even human for several months without infecting other individuals,” University of Cambridge geneticist Peter...

Five tons of the malaria-fighting medication called chloroquine was sent recently from India to Greece, after the Greek government managed to secure this enormous quantity of the drug to equip its National Health Service. The use of chloroquine has been described by the World Health Organization as ”promising” in combatting the COVID-19 coronavirus. ”Chloroquine is a drug that has been tested and its early results suggest that it may have a positive effect on the treatment of patients with coronavirus infection,” said Dimitris Philippou, president of the Greek National Medicines Agency, or EOF. The Greek medical industry has already begun...

Foreign government hackers have broken into companies conducting research into COVID-19 treatment and the U.S. healthcare sector, an FBI official reportedly said. Tonya Ugoretz, the FBI Deputy Assistant Director, told participants in an online panel discussion on Thursday that the bureau has seen state-backed hackers looking at a series of healthcare and research institutions. She didn't specify what countries backed the hackers or what organizations were targeted.

PING LIST Some of you have asked to be placed on the COVID-19 Update Ping List. Those who give me a request, will be placed on the list before the next Update is posted. If a person has expressed an appreciation for the data I'm presenting, I may add that person to the Ping List. Some folks don't like to be on ping lists, and I won't mind if you would rather I remove your name from the list. COVID-19 Update As of 04/16/2020 23:59 PDST Good morning everyone. Thank you for stopping by to check out the COVID-19 Update....

A possible showdown is brewing in Sussex County over Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders ending public gatherings in New Jersey amid the coronavirus outbreak. The president of the Skylands Tea Party, William J. Hayden, said the local police chief warned he would be arrested if he went ahead with a protest at the county-owned Newton Green on Saturday. If Hayden moves forward anyway — he was noncommittal in an interview Thursday — it might be the first protest in New Jersey targeting the directives from Murphy, a Democrat. Protests against stay-at-home orders have taken place in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota,...

Centers for Disease Control (CDC-Taiwan) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo yesterday said that a post on Professional Technology Temple (PTT) was what on Dec. 31 last year alerted him about a disease outbreak in Wuhan, China. At about 3am, a CDC doctor specializing in disease prevention had shared information from a post on PTT, the nation’s biggest online academic bulletin board system, in a private chat group, said Lo, who is also an official at the Central Epidemic Command Center. The original post was made on PTT at about 2am, he said, adding that as he was CDC spokesman at the...

Eric Holder, who served as former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, said the quiet part out loud this week and admitted he saw coronavirus as “an opportunity” to permanently change the way Americans voted. “Coronavirus gives us an opportunity to revamp our electoral system so that it permanently becomes more inclusive and becomes easier for the American people to access,” Holder said in an interview with TIME magazine. He called for a “sea change” in voting systems, allowing Americans to vote from home, using prepaid mail-in ballots and unlimited absentee voting. Holder did not discuss concerns about voter fraud in...

A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found. '''

President Trump's guidelines on reopening the country leaves much up to governors, states and businesses as they look to find ways to restart their economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a copy of a White House "Opening Up America Again" document obtained by CBS News. The plan is expected to put much of the onus on states to develop sufficient testing and contact tracing systems. The 18-page document, which resembles a detailed PowerPoint presentation, lists basic "gating" criteria a state or region should reach before beginning to send people back to work and school. Mr. Trump relayed the guidelines...