Free Republic

Protection of the surgeon An increasingly prevalent belief, in favour of mask usage, is the idea that they also confer some degree of protection to the operating staff from patient-derived infectious material.18 Most obviously, they can act as a physical barrier against blood and bodily fluid splashes during surgery. One prospective study revealed that facemasks prevented blood/bodily fluid splashes that would have otherwise contaminated the surgeon’s face in 24% of procedures.19 The incidence of blood/bodily fluid splashes varies substantially between settings and between individuals. T

Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, is the end goal for many thru-hikers. COVID-19 restrictions caused many to postpone their hike in 2020. Fewer than 1,000 thru-hikers each year successfully complete the 2,190 miles stretching from Georgia to Maine that make up the Appalachian Trail (AT). In early March of 2020, scores of hikers descended on Georgia’s Amicalola Falls State Park—the southern terminus of the AT—eager to join those ranks and attempt the popular Northbound journey that they had spent months or even years planning. But as news of the COVID-19 outbreak spread in the spring, The Appalachian...

Georgette Gomez, president of the San Diego City Council, was born and raised in the city she now serves, just 15 miles from the Mexican border that her parents, Eusebia and Miguel Ángel Gomez, crossed without documents in 1973. Her parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and instilled in their daughter a dual sense of industriousness and hope. “I don't take that for granted that they left their own country, their own language, their culture, their family, just to create a better path for us, and when they came here it wasn't easy,” said Gomez, 43, the youngest...

VeggieTales creator, Phil Vischer, has done some wonderful videos over the years. See what you think about this new 14-minute video he just put out on abortion. Now, before we analyze the content, what do you think is the main goal of this video? Is it to urge Christians to not merely focus on overturning Roe to reduce abortions? Or, do you think the main goal of the video is to give Christians supposed intellectual and moral justification to vote against Trump and for Biden in 2020?Since “vote” is in its title, it appears to be a thinly veiled attempt...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday on a key concern surrounding an avalanche of mail-in ballots in the presidential battleground state, prohibiting counties from rejecting ballots because the voter’s signature on it may not resemble their signature on their registration form. Two Republican justices joined five Democratic justices in the decision. The verdict was a victory for the state’s top election official, Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat who had asked the court to back her up in a legal dispute with President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican lawmakers. “County boards of elections are prohibited from rejecting absentee or...

Green Bay Packers legend Brett Favre waded into rough terrain this week when he tackled the topic of politics in sports.

OAKMONT, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s son Eric made a surprise visit to one of Allegheny County’s most popular spots Thursday morning: Oakmont Bakery. But it’s the nature of the visit that has sparked controversy. Trump wore a mask into the building but removed it when interacting with supporters. Channel 11 News' exchange partners at TribLIVE were there as Trump spoke to supporters at the popular bakery. He handed out cookies that featured images of his father, which is part of the bakery’s traditional cookie poll leading up to an election. Trump is in the lead, with 13,656 cookies sold,...

A gun violence counselor and employee with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office shot and killed an armed man who tried to rob him at gunpoint, officials confirmed with NBC10. On Tuesday, shortly before 10 a.m., an armed 31-year-old man tried to rob another man on the 2600 block of North Napa Street in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood, Philadelphia police said. The second man fired his own weapon, shooting the 31-year-old once in the chest. The 31-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. The man who shot him was not injured during the incident and has not been charged. Wednesday...

U.S. Postal Service records show delivery delays have persisted across the country as millions of Americans are voting by mail, raising the possibility of ballots being rejected because they arrive too late. Postal data through Oct. 9, the latest numbers available, show nearly all the agency’s delivery regions missing its target of having at least 95% of first-class mail arrive within five days. Parts of the presidential battleground states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio fell short of delivery goals by wide margins as the agency struggles to regain its footing after a tumultuous summer. The districts that included...

A young couple who once dined at the Big Apple’s iconic Balthazar couldn’t bottle up their emotions after ordering an $18 Pinot Noir — but being served a $2,000 Mouton Rothschild instead by accident, the eatery’s owner recounted this week. ...the restaurant’s night manager said the host of the business meeting actually praised the purity of the cheapest wine on the list, while the lucky couple “jokingly pretended to be drinking an expensive wine,” “The young couple were ecstatic by the restaurant’s mistake, and told me it was like the bank making an error in their favor,” said the red-faced...

PHILADELPHIA - Here in the birthplace of American democracy, election officials are scrambling to prepare for a presidential vote they fear could plunge the nation into a historic political crisis. Philadelphia’s Board of Elections plans to move its counting operations to a 125,000-square foot space in the city’s convention center. Dozens of staffers, feeding expensive new machines to open envelopes and process mail-in ballots, will spend days tallying hundreds of thousands of votes - under intense scrutiny from partisan observers. The workers likely will discard thousands of ballots that are not properly completed or do not arrive in a special...

President Trump has more information on Joe Biden to get a fisa warrant on his entire family then Obama had on Trump

Infection as a result of mask wearing — Girl got staph and is critical condition from wearing a mask. Examination of mask from commuters in Germany found 70% Staph…: https://amp.blick.ch/wirtschaft/gebrauchte-exemplare-getestet-so-gruusig-ist-ihre-corona-maske-wirklich-id16096358.html

The decision many have been waiting for has arrived: on Thursday, the California Court of Appeals ruled that Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. must now classify their drivers in California as employees. This was the final mile in the courts. In 11 days, California voters get to decide their fate. The ballot measure Proposition 22 will be the last stand for app-based rideshare and delivery drivers who wish to remain independent. If it passes, the prop will codify app-based driversÂ’ ability to choose to work as independent contractors with control over where, when, how long and for whom they...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has no health issues of concern — despite sporting bruises and bandages on his hands this week. The 78-year-old Kentucky senator dodged questions about his health from reporters in the Capitol Thursday, CNN reported. Asked whether he had any health issues, McConnell answered, “of course not,” and then didn’t respond when asked if he was being treated by a doctor. Later, McConnell — who is up for re-election — said there were “no concerns” when asked by the network about the bruises on his hands and whether he had any other health issues

The biggest October surprise of the 2020 elections came in the form of a laptop, reportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, discovered in a Delaware computer repair shop. The device, and its damning contents, have grown into a campaign-killing scandal for Hunter’s father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. ... Unfortunately, not everyone in Washington, D.C., is itching to get to the bottom of this case. Some, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are actively working to suppress an investigation into the laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden. “We write regarding press reports concerning materials allegedly describing activities by Hunter Biden, and...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump was “delusional” when he says America is turning the corner on the coronavirus pandemic. Pelosi said, “In our legislation which I hope that the administration is just on the verge of accepting, they would, they must follow the science. They must allocate the resources in a way that, again, follows CDC guidelines to crush the virus. Everything else we’re talking about will just continue and perhaps worsen unless we crush the virus."

The reviews we’ve seen of last night’s debate seem to suggest that President Trump got the better of Joe Biden by a handy margin, and that’s more or less what we saw. ... We noticed throughout that the provably false statement was a stock in trade for Biden. This is a man who has what comes off as a visceral contempt for the American people. He thinks we are gullible morons who can be told whatever he wants to tell us and we’ll believe it, and he’s been lying for so long that he doesn’t even have the ability to...

Li Xueren/Xinhua via APAs more and more information comes to light about Hunter Biden, so do many of the questionable business dealings in which Hunter had engaged. While Burisma has made headlines for the last several years, recently much more has been revealed about Hunter’s engagement in Chinese business dealings – and they’re infinitely more troubling than anything having to do with Ukraine or Burisma. Prior to his tagging along on the Big Guy’s trip to China in December 2013, Hunter Biden and his associates Devon Archer, James Bulger, and Michael Lin had held numerous meetings with executives from Bohai...

The New Jersey Laborers PAC, a super political action committee (PAC) that represents the interests of the influential Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), gave on October 13 a $455,000 donation to Better Future Puerto Rico (PRMF), an independent-expenses committee that has been promoting the candidacy of Carlos “Charlie” Delgado Altieri for the [Puerto Rico] governorship. Cirilo Tirado, Campaign Director for Popular Democratic Party (PPD) candidate Delgado, assured that any work PRMF does is completely separate from the candidate’s political committee. Independent-expenses committees – Puerto Rico’s equivalent of the mainland Super PACs – such as PRMF are prohibited from...