Free Republic

WASHINGTON - What if the real “invisible enemy” is the enemy from within - America’s very institutions? When the coronavirus pandemic came from distant lands to the United States, it was met with cascading failures and incompetencies by a system that exists to prepare, protect, prevent and cut citizens a check in a national crisis. The molecular menace posed by the new coronavirus has shaken the conceit of “American exceptionalism” like nothing big enough to see with your own eyes. A nation with unmatched power, brazen ambition and aspirations through the arc of history to be humanity’s “shining city upon...

SEATTLE — As critically ill, elderly patients streamed into his emergency room outside Seattle, Dr. Ryan Padgett quickly came to understand how deadly COVID-19 could be. Of the first two dozen or so he saw, not a single one survived. It took longer for Padgett and his colleagues at EvergreenHealth Medical Center — the first hospital in the country to treat multiple coronavirus patients — to learn how easily the disease could spread. At first, the medical workers wore only surgical masks and gloves. Later, they were told to wear respirators and other gear, but the equipment was unfamiliar and...

The first person in Sadad Dakhare’s two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, Norway, to show symptoms was his 4-year-old niece. Next, his mother, his sister and he himself fell ill. Then, about a week after his niece became sick, Dakhare heard his 76-year-old father coughing heavily. He found his father lying in bed, gasping for air. “Just call an ambulance,” the father told Dakhare. At an Oslo hospital, Dakhare’s father tested positive for COVID-19 and was treated for a few days before he was discharged to finish his recovery at home. The Dakhare family’s story is a familiar one among Somalis in...

Pass the word. Lets make this go viral, and turn our national message of “END THE SHUTDOWN!” with a display of The Flag on you, on your lawn, on your car. Let this sacred symbol of Liberty and Freedom be our silent message to ALL that we want this tyranny to END NOW!!

Paris (AFP) - The coronavirus pandemic blindsided international organisations, prompted individual states to unilaterally strike out alone and heralded a new chapter in the 21st century's chief geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. In the post-COVID-19 era, will multilateralism be dead? Regional and international organisations from the European Union to the United Nations have not managed to muster a coordinated response to the pandemic, while even economic organisations like OPEC have failed to halt the slide on markets. The United States, meanwhile, is halting payments to the UN's World Health Organization (WHO), the only body equipped to deal...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Calls mounted Thursday for an investigation into the ouster of a senior government scientist who says he's being punished for opposing widespread use of an unproven drug President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, says he was summarily removed from his job earlier this week and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by Trump. On Thursday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., joined in calling for...

Remember the USNS Mercy? The one that the CIC had to get prepped and deployed to Gavin Newsom in an eye blink to prevent all of the hospitals from a massive overload that never happened? How come it’s impossible to get any information about how many patients have been treated on the Mercy or how many are currently in the hospital? Some crew members have tested positive for CV19, *but*, according to NYT, that will *not* affect Mercy’s ability to treat patients. What is up with the secrecy, Gav? Contrast with the USS Comfort stationed in NY, at the behest...

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As California tries to ramp up coronavirus testing as an essential step toward lifting stay-at-home restrictions, it faces significant hurdles that have been a problem from the start. Bottlenecks in the supply chain. Delays getting results. Areas without testing sites. Despite those challenges, Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out ambitious goals to quadruple current testing in the coming months. Newsom expects the state to go from offering 16,000 tests a day, as of Wednesday, to 25,000 per day by May 1. He won’t consider reopening businesses at large until 60,000 to 80,000 people are tested a day, which could be months...

President Donald Trump ripped Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker on Thursday after Rucker questioned the president about encouraging people to go outside. After the White House released a study showing that warm weather and sunlight can significantly reduce the risk of the coronavirus, Rucker asked the president if it was “dangerous” for him to encourage people to go outside. (RELATED: Democrats Plan To Censure Michigan State Rep. Karen Whitsett Who Credited Trump With Saving Her Life) “Here we go. The new headline is Trump asks people to go outside, that’s dangerous,” the president said. “I hope people enjoy the sun,...

Whether you're barbequing chicken this weekend, putting a pork roast in the oven or grilling steaks, meatpackers are the people who put the food on your table. On Thursday came a warning from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union: if its workers can't stay healthy in processing plants across the country, there could be food shortages. "America's food supply depends on these workers. They feed America," Marc Perrone, the union's president told us. A handful of packing plants across the country already have closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, including a Smithfield Plant in South Dakota. The union...

With potentially record-setting heat on tap for the weekend, local officials have urged residents to avoid flocking to closed beaches and trailheads to take advantage of the taste of summer — which would defy COVID-19 social-distancing mandates. “It’s getting warmer in Los Angeles — and when it gets warmer in Los Angeles, we are a coastal city, we tend to head to the beach, we tend to head to the trails,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said. “We like to be outdoors. And yet, as we know, in the nonessential activities, we’ve needed to close trailheads. We’ve needed...

News outlets are receiving tens-of-millions in federal stimulus money as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that President Trump signed into law, among them such venerable newspapers as The Seattle Times and Tampa Bay Times. The money is coming through forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans under the CARES Act that Congress passed last month. According to the Small Business Administration, businesses with under 500 employees can apply for PPP loans, which are forgivable if they are used for qualifying expenses such as payroll costs and rent. However, it's unclear whether any of the news outlets intend to repay...

Former President Obama on Wednesday called out the Trump administration's failure to form a "coherent national plan" as it navigates the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The former president hailed states that are developing their own strategies despite a unified plan, specifically citing Massachusetts's statewide effort. "While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus––before it's too late," Obama said on Twitter, linking to a New Yorker article that details Gov. Charlie Baker's (R)...

China has often been accused of luring the poor African countries in its debt-trap by providing them loans for much-needed infrastructure projects and then control them when they fail to pay off their debts. Tanzania President John Magufuli has cancelled a Chinese loan worth $10 billion signed by his predecessor Jakaya Kikwete to construct a port at Mbegani creek in Bagamoyo over terms and conditions that, he said, beat the logic. Magufuli said that the terms of the Chinese loan agreement could only be accepted by a drunken man. His predecessor, Jakaya Kikwete had signed the deal with Chinese...

Researchers in The University of Texas at El Paso's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have developed a nanohybrid vehicle that can be used to optimally deliver drugs into the human body. The research was published in April 2020 in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Leading the study are Mahesh Narayan, Ph.D., professor, and Sreeprasad Sreenivasan, Ph.D., assistant professor, both from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Border Biomedical Research Center (BBRC) in UTEP's College of Science.

April 24 2020 Friday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 5:34-42 A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up, ordered the Apostles to be put outside for a short time, and said to the Sanhedrin, “Fellow children of Israel, be careful what you are about to do to these men. Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing....

A technique that zaps airborne viruses with a narrow-wavelength band of UV light shows promise for curtailing the person-to-person spread of COVID-19 in indoor public places. The technology, developed by Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research, uses lamps that emit continuous, low doses of a particular wavelength of ultraviolent light, known as far-UVC, which can kill viruses and bacteria without harming human skin, eyes and other tissues, as is the problem with conventional UV light. “Far-UVC light has the potential to be a ‘game changer,’” said David Brenner, professor of radiation biophysics and director of the center. “It can be...

We’re all homeschoolers now. Schools have closed for more than 55 million students nationwide, and at least 34 states have shuttered schools for the rest of the academic year. Just in time, our media and academic elites are coming out swinging against homeschooling. The Washington Post and ­Salon have raised questions about the practice lately. More alarming, Harvard Magazine this week unleashed a thoroughly unfounded attack on homeschooling, drawing on the work of Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Bartholet. The article cited Bartholet’s call for “a presumptive ban,” because homeschooling supposedly “violates children’s right to a ‘meaningful education’ and their...

The president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, has officially launched a local herbal remedy he claims can prevent and cure coronavirus in seven days. The beverage, called COVID-Organics and developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), contains Artemisia, a plant used to treat malaria. “Tests have been carried out – two people have now been cured by this treatment,” Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and the media at the IMRA on Monday. “This herbal tea gives results in seven days,” he said. Drinking a bottle of COVID-Organics, he said: “I will be the first to drink this today, in front...