Free Republic

As scientists around the world race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, researchers at Oxford University have now pulled into the lead. The team recently began testing a vaccine candidate in people that—if effective—could possibly become available as early as September, the New York Times reported on April 27. That would be well before any other vaccine effort currently underway is expected to reach the finish line. The researchers were able to move swiftly because they had already developed a vaccine candidate for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a virulent respiratory disease caused by another member of the coronavirus family....

The availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will likely play a key role in determining when Americans can return to life as usual. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on April 30 announced that a vaccine could even be available by January 2021. Whether a vaccine can end this pandemic successfully, however, depends on more than its effectiveness at providing immunity against the virus, or how quickly it can be produced in mass quantities. Americans also must choose to receive the vaccine. According to some estimates, 50% to 70% of Americans...

“No idea.” That was the only answer state and local officials had. When a federal elections commission started asking questions, not one person had any explanation for the 28.3 million mail-in ballots that have gone missing since 2012. As far as they’re concerned, one in five absentee votes just vanished. No one knows if it’s fraud, system failure, general ineptitude, or a combination of all three. What we do know is that Democrats want us to trust this same process — on a national scale — this November. Thank you, but no thank you.

Sweden ranks seventh on the list of countries with most COVID-19 fatalities per capita. (I exclude microstates with populations under 100,000.) The six countries with more fatalities per capita are all in Western Europe. (I include the United Kingdom.) The fatality rate in the Netherlands is only slightly higher than in Sweden, but since April 1 it’s grown faster in the latter. Sweden appears to be on track to move up from seventh to sixth place before long. The United States should learn from Sweden’s response to the pandemic, John Fund and Joel Hay argue in their most recent article...

My RedState colleague Bonchie wrote over the weekend about the ridiculous suggestion made by the New York Times editorial board that the Democratic National Committee appoint an “unbiased, apolitical panel” to conduct an investigation into Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against their presumptive 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden. Just to recap for those who missed it, here’s what the paper had the audacity to publish (bolded emphasis added): His campaign, and his party, have a duty to assure the public that the accusations are being taken seriously. The Democratic National Committee should move to investigate the matter swiftly and thoroughly,...

Conventional wisdom fueled by the media is that the White House ignored the coronavirus threat in January and February. It is absolutely false.There are times in the life of a body politic when conventional wisdom grows out of falsehoods. The danger of such a situation is that once it takes hold few people will actually look beyond the deception to discover the truth. We are living through just such a moment as much of our news media perpetrates a lie that the Trump administration was doing nothing to combat the novel coronavirus during January and February.Last week, The Federalist obtained...

Lincoln Memorial Washington, D.C.May 3, 2020 7:14 P.M. EDTQ    Welcome back to our Fox News Virtual Town Hall: “America Together.  Returning to Work.”  Here tonight, live from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., we are joined now by President Donald Trump.Good to see you, sir.THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you both, very much.  We never had a more beautiful set than this, did we?Q    (Laughs.)  That’s right.Q    It’s amazing.Q    Thanks for doing this.THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.Q    This is a little different than our last town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania.THE PRESIDENT:  That’s true.  That was a beauty.Q    We’ll be taking questions...

AN antibody which prevents coronavirus from infecting human cells has been discovered by scientists. Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and the company Harbour BioMed (HBM), identified it as a potential method of neutralising Covid-19. And while the team's discovery was made on human cells grown in the laboratory - they are hopeful it will have the same effect on patients. The breakthrough offers hope of a treatment or even a vaccine for the deadly virus, which has infected more than 3.5 million people worldwide, and led to more than 248,000 deaths....

China's newest supersonic stealth bomber -- which doubles the country's strike range and completes its nuclear triad -- could be ready for rollout later this year but Beijing has purportedly been weighing the step and what it could mean for escalating regional tensions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The highly-hyped Xian H-20 puts Australia, Japan, and the Korean peninsula all within shot and could spell trouble for the United States down the line. "If the H-20 does have the range and passable stealth characteristics attributed to it, it could alter the strategic calculus between the United States and China...

A Washington barber defied Gov. Jay Inslee’s “stay-at-home” order on Saturday and opened his shop to a long line of supportive customers. Bob Martin, a former Marine who has operated the barbershop for over five decades, initially followed the directive and closed shop for about a month, Q13 FOX reported. As the order dragged on and money became tight, Martin said he reopened in secret and cut hair without turning the lights on. It appeared Martin would have to remain closed for the near future after Inslee on Friday extended the state’s stay-at-home order through May 31. Under his four-phase...

My Quest Diagnostics anti-body test was negative. I can't help but feel that there is something fishy with this and the other tests that are being pushed on us. It seems almost impossible to me that I was not exposed to the novel coronavirus. Here is why I feel that way: 1. About a week after sitting for 3 hours in an enclosed room to hear a young pastor's oral ordination exam, a fellow examiner alerted me that he had tested positive for the virus and his whole house was on lockdown (end of March). Three members of this pastor's...

A restaurant in Austin, Texas, was treated to a generous surprise after reopening its doors to customers on Friday. The excitement was felt not only by Frog & Bull — which had been posting about the then-upcoming event throughout the week on its Facebook page, including videos showing the staff setting up the dining room and pictures of its newest wine additions — but by the patrons, who had turned out to support the business as soon as shelter-in-place orders expired April 30.

Two teens have been charged with the unprovoked, fatal stabbing of a British health worker who was ambushed just days after his father died of coronavirus complications, according to a new report. David Gomoh, 24...who worked Barts Health NHS trust, was targeted in a random attack...according to initial reports. Muhammad Jalloh, 18 and a 16-year-old boy who was not identified because of his age were charged with murder Sunday, The Guardian reported.

In this Episode, we will take a look at the ongiong work by SpaceX in Boca Chica. We will look at Starship SN4 & SN5. Progress is continuing at an incredible rate. We will also take a look at the newly contracted Lunar Landers by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX. NASA has chosen to give the private sector an opportunity for their own Moon shots. SpaceX is contributing the Lunar Starship, which has quite a few differences compared to the Earth based variant!

25 second video of Trump (as Yoda) decapitating the media. Demands to 'deescalate the violent rhetoric' to follow.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that New York can begin to reopen as planned on a “region-by-region” basis once the state’s stay-at-home order expires on May 15 amid the coronavirus pandemic. “May 15 is when the state wide PAUSE order expires,” Cuomo said during his press conference on Monday. “On May 15 regions can start to reopen and do their own analysis.” “This is going to be region by region and each region has to put together the leaders in those respective areas and monitor this system literally on a daily basis,” Cuomo added.

President Trump took a shot at California for wanting to keep people from crossing over the southern border into the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, while normally welcoming and protecting undocumented immigrants via sanctuary policies. Mexico had a total of 22,088 COVID-19 cases as of May 2, and officials in southern California have sought assistance in reducing cases in the U.S. that stem from border crossings. "Mexico is sadly experiencing very big CoronaVirus problems, and now California, get this, doesn’t want people coming over the Southern Border," Trump tweeted Monday morning. "A Classic! They are sooo lucky that I...

Dulles, Virginia – Scott Zangas is in his junior year at the University of Pittsburgh, studying cyber security, but like most college students in America, he is doing so from home this semester. Scott’s father used to tell him to “hang on to your dreams.” It’s one of the few memories Scott has of his dad, Robert, a Marine who lost his life in Iraq 16 years ago. And the dream Robert had for his children, before he gave his life for our country, was that they would earn a college education that would help them realize their aspirations. This...

SANTA FE – An emergency declaration requested by the mayor of Gallup and authorized by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will be extended through noon, Thursday, May 7, per the mayor’s request. The action is intended to continue the aggressive physical distancing in the community and thus mitigate transmission of COVID-19. In response to an emergency request from Gallup Mayor Louis Bonaguidi, the governor at 12 p.m. on Friday, May 1, invoked the state’s Riot Control Act, authorizing her to enact further temporary restrictions to mitigate the uninhibited spread of COVID-19 in that city. An emergency declaration made under the act...

Well the new meme from the Left is compare the Deaths from Covid-19 to deaths in war, specifically the Vietnam War. That started I think at a Q&A at a Virus Press Conference last week when a reporter asked that question. First of all it's illogical to compare the two. War deaths have no relation to deaths by disease. War can be avoidable, getting a virus isn't. I would hazard to guess that disease and pestilence have killed more people than wars through out history. Witness the Bubonic Plague that killed an estimated 200 Million of the world's known population...