Free Republic

Finding the origin story for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for nearly 3.9 million deaths worldwide, has been largely hampered by lack of access to information from China where cases first popped up. Now, a researcher in Seattle has dug up deleted files from Google Cloud that reveal 13 partial genetic sequences for some of the earliest cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Carl Zimmer reported for The New York Times. The sequences don't tip the scales toward or away from one of the many theories about how SARS-CoV-2 came to be — they do not suggest the virus leaked from a...

CANBERRA (Reuters) -The Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of World Heritage Sites that are "in danger", a United Nations panel said on Tuesday, drawing an angry response from Australia, which called the recommendation politically motivated. ...Defending Australia's efforts to protect the reef, Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Canberra would challenge the recommendation, saying some hidden agenda had influenced its findings. ...China chairs the UNESCO committee, but when queried in parliament, Ley declined to say if she was pointing the finger at Beijing. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a government official told Reuters that China had been...

The Trudeau government is proposing legal changes intended to curb online hate speech and make it easier for the victims of hate speech to launch complaints. The proposed Bill C-36 includes an addition to the Canadian Human Rights Act that the government says will clarify the definition of online hate speech and list it as a form of discrimination. "These changes are designed to target the most egregious and clear forms of hate speech that can lead to discrimination and violence," said Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti at a Wednesday evening news conference. "They do...

If there was ever fodder for conspiracy theorists to sink their teeth into, this is it. John McAfee, who reportedly committed suicide today, posted a “Q” on his Instagram page. Well, someone did. By the time the post was live, McAfee had already been reported as deceased. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t post it through a scheduler or proxy.The prevailing conspiracy theory is that someone he trusted was given access to his account with instructions to post the cryptic message, obviously referencing QAnon, in the event he is reportedly killed or “suicided” while in a Spanish prison. If...

Join together with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

LOS ANGELES—Late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted a temporary restraining order that stops the government from using civil forfeiture to take the contents of safe deposit boxes seized in the FBI’s raid on Beverly Hills company U.S. Private Vaults. Jeni Pearsons and her husband Michael Storc, along with Joseph Ruiz and Travis May, teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to fight that unconstitutional seizure and the FBI’s attempt to take their cash and valuables forever.In May, the FBI sent a 19-page forfeiture notice to the attorneys for U.S. Private Vaults, informing the company the FBI...

Many patients tell us that their doctors are pressuring them to get the COVID jab. The American Medical Association (AMA) claims that 96% of doctors are themselves fully vaccinated. So, if 9.6 out of 10 and not a mere 4 out of 5 doctors recommend something, it must be "right for you."As far as I have heard, the message from state and local medical societies is "take the lead, get your shot, volunteer at a vaccination center, educate your hesitant patients."There is probably some person with an M.D. degree backing up your employer's threat to fire you, or a college's...

A water tank exploded in a Central Valley community, lifting 70 feet into the air, killing a man and prompting a state of emergency in the city of Lemoore this week. The incident was captured on astonishing surveillance video. When the 1.5 million-gallon city water tank ruptured Monday afternoon, the massive container flew into the air, then crumpled on impact, authorities said. City officials released new footage Tuesday night that captured the moment the tank exploded, hurting a city employee and killing a contractor.

<p>Lately we’ve witnessed states’ attempts to address voter fraud concerns from November as Maricopa County, Arizona, wraps up an election audit; Michigan residents took thousands of signed affidavits to state officials, citing voter fraud; let us not forget Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the state’s controversial election integrity bill into law earlier this year.</p>

Scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic might be working with the wrong samples, because some early samples of the virus submitted by a Chinese researcher were deleted from a shared database, an expert in the evolution of viruses says. Jesse Bloom, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said he found genetic sequences taken from early coronavirus cases in China that were deleted from a US National Institutes of Health database. Examination shows some of the early cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan are different, genetically, from the variants that eventually spread to cause...

Americans were asked to cover their mouths and noses for more than a year to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. Now, the mouth might be the surest path forward to save lives with oral antiviral pills becoming the next focus of the U.S. government’s response. The U.S. government is pumping up to $3.2 billion into the antiviral program, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Thursday. The Biden administration wants the program, part of the American Rescue Plan, to have a longer-term impact to discover and create antivirals for other potential pandemic viruses.Those who are unvaccinated or...

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of six medical and consumer-related non-governmental organisations has urged the government to immediately approve the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients in Malaysia. The group, known as Malaysian Alliance for Effective COVID-19 Control (MAECC) claimed Ivermectin is a very safe drug that has recently been noted to have very useful and powerful benefits in the treatment of COVID-19. The group is of the view that treatment using Ivermectin is among the alternatives to treat the virus, especially patients in the early stages "We urge the government to position this drug and repurpose it as first-line...

The coming flu season may be a doozy. Even as coronavirus was devastating populations around the world, killing 3.7 million people globally, doctors and public health officials noticed something else was missing: There was almost no flu. One child died from flu this year in the US. In 2019-2020, there were 199 flu-related deaths in children and 144 the season before that. Flu cases, usually counted in the tens of millions, only accounted for a few thousand this year in the US. "Flu hasn't been anywhere, with the exception of some reasonable activity in western Africa," said Richard Webby, an...

The University of Oxford announced Wednesday it is investigating antiparasitic drug ivermectin as a possible treatment for Covid-19, a trial that could finally resolve questions over the controversial medicine which has been widely promoted around the world despite warnings from regulators and a lack of data supporting its use. KEY FACTS * Ivermectin will be assessed as part of the U.K. government-backed Principle study, which assesses non-hospital treatments against Covid-19 and is a large-scale randomized control trial widely considered the “gold standard” in evaluating a medicine’s effectiveness. * While studies have shown ivermectin to inhibit virus replication in a lab,...

The antivirus pioneer reportedly killed himself after he was prepared to be extradited to the United States, and within 30 minutes after a news outlet shared the news, McAfee's Instagram uploaded a photo of the capital letter Q. The 75-year-old tech mogul is reported to have taken his own life in prison in Barcelona, according to local paper El Pais. And the "Q" photo on his social media appears to be a reference to QANON, the bizarre conspiracy theory that was tied to the fortunes of former President Donald Trump. McAfee's latest Instagram post was shared without a caption and...

SHENZHEN, China—Direct flights from the southern city of Shenzhen to Beijing have been suspended until at least July 1, booking apps showed, ahead of celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party’s founding in the capital on that date.China’s most populous province Guangdong is battling a COVID-19 outbreak, with 170 confirmed local cases between May 21 and June 21. No new confirmed local cases were reported for June 22.Of the cases, eight were recorded in Shenzhen, while 146 were reported in the provincial capital Guangzhou, though direct flights were still available to Beijing as of Wednesday, booking apps such as CTrip and...

A new study suggests that COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance are broadly effective against the highly contagious Delta and Kappa strains of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.The Oxford University study, of which a peer-reviewed pre-proof has been published in Cell (pdf), sought to gauge the ability of blood serum from people vaccinated against COVID-19 and from those who recovered naturally to neutralize the Delta (B.1.617.2) and Kappa (B.1.617.1) variants, formerly referred to as the “Indian” variants as that is where they were first observed.While the researchers found that both the...

The president of the largest union of health care workers in the United States says the organization will fight against companies requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for employees.George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East—which describes itself as the largest health care union in the country—said hospital systems don’t have the right to mandate vaccines for employees. The union, which is based in New York, also represents hundreds of thousands of nurses and caregivers in New Jersey, Florida, Washington, Maryland, and Massachusetts.“Whether there is a legal challenge that we can make, or whether it’s just a pure organizational challenge that...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said at a House committee hearing on June 23 that the Biden administration has no plan to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling on federal land. “Gas and oil production will continue well into the future,” Haaland said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. “I don’t think there is a plan right now for a permanent ban.”Haaland’s comments came after a federal judge on June 15 blocked the Biden administration’s temporary ban on new leases to drill for oil and gas on public lands and waters. The Biden administration in January suspended new...

We reported on how the Biden/Harris people have finally caved and said that Kamala Harris will be going to the border (now that President Donald Trump is going).Jen Psaki was doing her best to spin Harris’ trip to the border, but in the process, she basically admitted the border was out of control. She also claimed falsely that they were making progress when the number of people detained or encountered at the border is at its highest in 21 years.But there’s a problem even now that Kamala has finally decided to go to the border. It’s as to where on...