Free Republic

No one wants their geographic region to be associated with a deadly disease. Unfortunately, this has happened in the past with diseases such as “German measles,” “Spanish flu” and “Asiatic cholera.” It happens today, too, even though the World Health Organization advises against naming pathogens for places to “minimize unnecessary negative effects on nations, economies and people.” By Feb. 11, 2020, the WHO had announced that the official name for the novel coronavirus just starting its spread around the world would be severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 – or SARS-CoV-2. The illness it caused would be called COVID-19, short...

China accused NATO on Thursday of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia, a reflection of its determination to oppose strengthening ties between NATO members and Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. The statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson came a day after NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. “NATO hyping up China’s responsibility on the Ukraine issue is unreasonable and has sinister motives,” spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing. He maintained that China has a fair...

China lashed out at NATO on Thursday, accusing it of smearing the country after the Western alliance called it a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine — the first time it has accused Beijing of involvement in the conflict. China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” NATO said in a communique Wednesday at its summit marking its 75th anniversary in Washington, D.C., hinting at unspecified consequences if Beijing continued its course. China’s response was swift and blunt. NATO’s statement was “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent...

A summer COVID surge is underway in the U.S., warns the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — so should you be concerned? As of June 25, 2024, the CDC estimated that COVID-19 infections are "growing or likely growing" in 44 states and territories, according to a news alert on its website. Despite the rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain low, the data shows. Given that the pandemic was declared officially over as of May 5, 2023, public health officials don’t collect the same amount of COVID data as they once did.

The coronavirus pandemic has become the deadliest disease outbreak in recent American history with tolls surpassing the estimated deaths of the 1918 flu. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 681,253 individuals in the United States have died from Covid-19 infections, while over a century ago, the country lost an estimated 675,000 people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, reports Holly Yan for CNN.

The FRONTLINE documentary China’s COVID Secrets tells the story of the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic that would overtake the world, and how Chinese doctors, scientists, health officials and political leaders responded. Here, we highlight some of the key moments in the earliest days of the outbreak.

(NEXSTAR) – Warning signs that could signal a rise in COVID infections are appearing in parts of the U.S. Wastewater testing, which can help detect the spread of a COVID in a community, has shown a significant uptick of the virus in several states. Testing sites in Montana and Florida are reporting “very high” levels of COVID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Levels are “high” in wastewater across Alaska, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland and New Mexico. Emergency room visits related to COVID-19 are also on the rise, the CDC says, spiking 12.6% in one week. The biggest...

If you or any of your friends have gotten sick with COVID-19 recently, you’re not the only ones: Case rates are rising in the Bay Area and the proof is in the pipes. According to the California Department of Public Health, the region now has the most viral wastewater than anywhere else in California. In an email to SFGATE, Amanda Bidwell, a wastewater researcher and data analyst at Stanford, said that over the past 21 days “consistently high concentrations” of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in wastewater samples collected across San Francisco. “Currently we are seeing some of the highest concentrations...

California’s COVID numbers are on the rise thanks, in part, to new subvariants, suggesting an earlier-than-normal start to the summer season.The percentage of COVID tests coming back with positive results in the state rose to 5.3% for the week that ended June 3, up from 2.2% the month before. The numbers are still relatively low — last summer’s peak positive test rate was 13.1% — but the increases have the attention of doctors and health officials as the summer travel season begins.“Numbers are definitely going up,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California....

(NewsNation) — Bonnie and Bob Krall are a married couple who got through the COVID-19 pandemic with relative ease. Bonnie had a couple of mild cases, and Bob had a case that brought no symptoms. “We were both healthy as can be,” said Bonnie Krall. “We had just finished a giant trip to the Western United States, we came back, and bam, Bob was diagnosed.” Bob didn’t have COVID but instead two very rare forms of cancer. Then, Bonnie got similar news. “I had an 8 1/2 pound tumor in my abdomen,” she told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “I was...

The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics.\ On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the halls of Congress and testified before the House subcommittee investigating the Covid-19 pandemic. He was questioned about several topics related to the government’s handling of Covid-19, including how the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he directed until retiring in 2022, supported risky virus work at a Chinese institute whose research may have caused the pandemic.For more than four years, reflexive partisan politics have derailed the search for the truth about a...

Singapore is experiencing a new wave of COVID-19, with authorities recording over 25,900 cases from May 5 to 11. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung advised the public to wear masks again on Saturday. “We are at the beginning part of the wave where it is steadily rising,” Kung stated. “So, I would say the wave should peak in the next two to four weeks, which means between mid- and end of June,” he told The Straits Times. The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported that the number of COVID-19 cases increased significantly, from 13,700 the previous week to 25,900 in the...

(1) “The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, the city where the world’s foremost research lab for SARS-like viruses is located.” the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hunting for SARS-like viruses for more than 10 years, led by Dr. Shi Zhengli ... (2) part of it comes down to a leaked 2018 grant proposal for a research project called Defuse, which aimed to create a SARS-like virus with a unique feature called a furin cleavage site that would enhance its infectiousness in humans. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has that feature, she says, and genetic data suggest it...

In new research, investigators show that the 100-year-old Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, originally developed to prevent tuberculosis, protects individuals with type 1 diabetes from severe COVID-19 disease and other infectious diseases. Two back-to-back randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trials found that the BCG vaccine provided continuous protection for nearly the entire COVID-19 pandemic in the US, regardless of the viral variant. The MGH Phase II and Phase III clinical trials testing BCG differed from other BCG trials in important ways. Instead of receiving one dose of BCG, participants received five or six doses of a particularly potent strain of BCG vaccine. The...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, remained steadfast that the "probability weighs much more heavily" that the COVID-19 pandemic was a "natural occurrence" and not a lab leak. Fauci also admitted that social distancing guidance "sort of just appeared" and that he "might have" seen studies to support masking children, but that he's not sure. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released transcripts of Fauci's testimony that he gave to the panel behind closed doors in January. Committee Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, released the trove of transcripts — and a 17-page...

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in congressional testimony that he reviewed no scientific evidence behind the specific recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distancing before advocating these policies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The revelations come from the full transcript, released Friday, of Fauci’s closed-door transcribed interview session in January before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The publication comes days before the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is slated to testify in his first public hearing since his retirement in December 2022.When asked about social distancing recommendations that were...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing related symptoms. Powell tested positive late Thursday. "Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, he is staying away from others and working at home,” a Fed spokesperson said.

At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?” “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”

After more than three billion doses, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is being withdrawn. However, its reputation was dented as unusual blood clots emerged as a rare side effect of the vaccine, and the UK turned to alternatives.