Free Republic

Four years after the pandemic hit, officials are just starting to tell the truth about their panicked and destructive reaction to it. The lockdowns that were imposed worldwide (with the exception of Sweden and a few other countries) ran contrary to the longtime conventional wisdom that the main responsibility of the public-health system in a pandemic is to keep people calm and society functioning. Our public-health officials did the opposite. Intentionally. The hysteria they generated led to hundreds of thousands of non-Covid excess deaths, massive economic and social harms, and, worst of all, an unprecedented disaster in education. Francis Collins,...

When the COVID-19 vaccines emerged, the narrative started out as a suggestion that people get should the vaccines (and what would apparently become endless boosters) .... It didn’t take long for the narrative to turn to “get the shot — or else” for far too many people. Vaccine mandates hurt employees across many sectors of the economy, but those vaunted “essential workers” often bore the brunt of them. First responders lost their jobs, and when teachers weren’t having to educate kids remotely, many of them faced unfair mandates. Now, three Rhode Island teachers who lost their jobs under a vaccine...

B.C. joins the growing number of Canadian provinces that have strongly changed their tune on COVID policies since the Freedom Convoy reached Ottawa with overwhelming grass-roots support. VICTORIA, British Columbia – The province of British Columbia announced that its mask mandate is ending immediately and that vaccine passports will be gone in less than a month. The move comes despite recent statements that the Province of British Columbia would be living under draconian COVID measures until at least the summer. The immediate termination of mandatory masking was announced yesterday and pushes B.C. ahead of Ontario, which still has making in...

The iconic CBS Sunday morning news show “Face the Nation” edited out a network correspondent’s passionate criticism of COVID-19 policies for the harm they have caused children and teenagers who have a minuscule chance of suffering serious illness or death from the disease. Newsbusters reported the remarks of CBS correspondent Jan Crawford were axed seconds before they would have aired Sunday. “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, in a special year-end show with a reporter roundtable, pivoted the discussion, saying, Well, I want to get to underreported stories as well, Jan?” Crawford immediately responded, saying her to underreported story centered...

So you may not have noticed because the people in charge of diverting your attention are working overtime right now, and honestly, they're pretty good at their jobs, but if you look around, pay a little closer attention, you will notice that Joe Biden's political support is in the process of collapsing completely. The new Marist polls out, it shows that only 29% of independents support Joe Biden. That is a very bad number. How bad is it? For perspective, in the last election, Donald Trump took 41% of independent voters and lost. So if you're a political consultant, a...