Free Republic

Because virtually all the polling firms publish essentially the same results, there is little doubt that if an honest election were held today Donald Trump would handily defeat Joe Biden in the Electoral College vote. Further, as long as an increasingly senescent, unpopular, and compromised Joe Biden remains the Democrat nominee, Trump should win at least 270-290 electoral votes (270 needed to win the presidency) in November despite the inevitable Democrat duplicity, lawfare, and voter fraud and machinations. If faced with the potential scenario of not being able to replace Biden, the Democrats are going to single-mindedly focus on races...

A section of Dr. Colleen Huber’s introduction to her very important book, “Neither Safe Nor Effective 2nd Edition: The Evidence Against the COVID Vaccines,” is worth quoting before looking at the book as a whole:“Dr. Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist, called the COVID vaccines, ‘the worst pharmaceutical development idea in the history of mankind.’”“It often comes as a surprise to people that mRNA-type medical interventions and coronavirus vaccines had plenty of red flags through their history prior to December 2020. The ingredients used were already known to be toxic: Cationic lipids injure the nervous system, lungs and liver, as well...

A study released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine lose substantial effectiveness after about four months but still provide protection against hospitalization.According to the study, researchers found that boosters were effective against cases of moderate and severe COVID-19 for two months after the dose. The effectiveness dropped by the fourth month after the booster dose. But, the booster shots still provided protection in keeping people out of hospitals during the Delta and Omicron variant surge.The booster was 91 percent effective in preventing a vaccinated person...

We are trying to locate a precise report regarding vaccine effectiveness and negative effectiveness. We were listening to WBAP (AM 820), Dallas this morning from southern Indiana. The reception was slightly fair. WBAP broadcast mentioned a report in the Wall Street Journal as follows: Regarding the Omicron Variant: 30 days after being vaccinated, the vaccine is not effective at all. 90 days after, the vaccine has a NEGATIVE effectiveness, making it more likely that a vaccinated person will contract Covid than an unvaccinated person. Has anyone seen the pertinent WSJ report?

The neutralizing ability of even three shots of the Pfizer corona vaccine is four times less against the Omicron than the Delta variant, according to researchers at Sheba Medical Center. The team looked at the ability of serums of 40 vaccinated healthcare workers at Sheba to neutralize the Omicron variant – 20 who received the booster shot within the last month, and 20 who had only received two shots, the last one five or six months ago. The study is based on the exclusive data available in Sheba as part of the large serology study conducted among health workers at...

A few days ago, researchers in South Africa shared data from a preliminary study showing that the Pfizer vaccine is less effective at blocking the omicron variant than earlier variants like beta and delta. Now, the team is telling us exactly how much less effective the vaccine is.According to the same data gleaned from the blood plasma taken from 12 patients who tested positive for omicron, the team found that a two-shot course of Pfizer's vaccine has just 22.5% efficacy against symptomatic infection with the omicron variant, though it can thwart severe disease, according to laboratory experiments in South Africa,...

The effectiveness of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States has declined in recent months, with protection against infection falling under 50 percent for two of them after six months, according to a new study.Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine dropped to 58 percent in September from 89.2 percent effectiveness in March, researchers found. During the same time frame, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine fell to 43.3 percent from 86.9 percent, and Johnson & Johnson’s shot declined to 13.1 percent from 86.4 percent.Dr. Stephen Hahn, head of the Food and Drug Administration during the final portion of the Trump administration, said last year...

Vaccine efficacy refers to how well a vaccine performs in a carefully controlled clinical trial, and effectiveness describes its performance in real-world observational studies. Evidence demonstrates that the approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccines are both efficacious and effective against symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, including severe forms of the disease. In addition, as shown below, a growing body of evidence suggests that COVID-19 vaccines also reduce asymptomatic infection and transmission. Rhesus macaque challenge studies provided the first evidence of the potential protective effects of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection, including both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection. Vaccinated macaques developed...

Just a week ago, a CDC study prompted MSM headlines such as "New study finds unvaccinated are 11 times more likely to die from Covid, CDC says." Last Friday, the CDC published the latest MMWR report, which stated, "Real-world studies of population-level vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 hospitalizations are limited in the United States." Later in the same report it revealed some details: "[t]he ratio of hospitalizations to cases was moderately lower among fully vaccinated (13.3 hospitalizations per 100 cases) compared with unvaccinated (17.1 hospitalizations per 100 cases) groups" under the delta variant dominant environment. Yes, that's...

The Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine is a single-dose vaccine that can help prevent COVID-19. It’s the third COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use in the United States.Large-scale clinical trials in several locations across the globe found that a single dose of the J&J vaccine was effective at preventing COVID-19. They found that the vaccine can also protect against several viral variants.Below, we’ll break down everything we know so far about the efficacy of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine. Continue reading to learn more.How effective is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?The efficacy of the...

If you’re thinking about getting a flu shot this year, you might want to do some rethinkingIf it’s too late and you’ve already got one or have been doing so regularly for years, you might want to take a deep breath. The information you’re about to receive may cause outrage.Most people who get a flu vaccine probably assume that it’s going to… you know… prevent them from getting the flu. I mean, why would you go through the trouble and incur the risk of a serious adverse reaction that attends taking any vaccine if you didn’t think it would be...

How Do We Measure the Cost of Effectiveness? Illegal immigration prompt discussions about increasing border security. If the lack of adequate border control is the problem then increasing border security would seem the solution. Many people are against added border security simply because President Trump feels he needs it to enforce immigration law. These people have to rationalize that it cost too much because they already know barriers work. The empirical information regarding the effectiveness of a border barrier is clear but information on the cost effectiveness is missing. How is the cost effectiveness of a barrier determined? One way...

A new drug compound can recharge a class of antibiotics used to fight superbug bacteria, improving the antibiotics’ effectiveness 16-fold. It’s another volley on the part of humans in the ongoing battle between new drugs and bacterial resistance. This new compound doesn’t fight the bacteria itself — it just makes the antibacterial drugs more potent, and better able to fight the bacteria despite the bugs’ resistance. The compound, developed at North Carolina State University, could help researchers fight an emerging problem with a tricky bacterial enzyme. The enzyme is called New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase, or NDM-1, and it has been found...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – With flu season in full swing and the threat of H1N1 looming, demand for vaccines is at an all-time high. Although those vaccines are expected to be effective, University of Missouri researchers have found further evidence that some over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin and Tylenol, that inhibit certain enzymes could impact the effectiveness of vaccines. “If you’re taking aspirin regularly, which many people do for cardiovascular treatment, or acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain and fever and get a flu shot, there is a good chance that you won’t have a good antibody response,” said Charles Brown, associate professor...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2007 – As ground forces in the U.S. troop surge in Iraq make more progress against insurgents, Army aviation assets back them up with crucial mobility, medical and combat support, an officer in charge of a deployed aviation brigade said today. The combat aviation brigade of 3rd Infantry Division has been deployed since May in support of Multinational Division Center. The brigade’s 128 helicopters have flown more than 65,000 hours in support of many different missions, Army Col. Daniel Ball, the brigade commander, told military analysts in a conference call from Iraq. The aviation brigade has conducted...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2007 – In recent weeks, Iraqi security forces have been proving their effectiveness and expanded capability in operations that are increasingly yielding results, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said today. (Video) Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, highlighted several recent operations by Iraqi forces, including the discovery of a large weapons cache, the thwarting of several car bombs, and the prevention of a carjacking and kidnapping involving two busloads of Iraqi citizens. Violence has increased in the past few days, but that was expected because, historically, the Islam holy month of Ramadan...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aid to poor countries has little effect on economic growth, and policies that rely on such claims should be reexamined, two former International Monetary Fund economists wrote in a paper released this month. "We find little evidence of a robust positive correlation between aid and growth," wrote Raghuram Rajan, who stepped down as IMF chief economist at the end of 2006, and Arvind Subramanian, who left the IMF this year, said. "We find little evidence that aid works better in better policy or institutional environments, or that certain kinds of aid work better than others," they added....

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor behind the scare over a potential link between the MMR jab and autism in children, is to face four charges relating to unprofessional conduct at the General Medical Council, it is reported today... Following the publication of a research paper in the Lancet by Mr Wakefield and colleagues in February 1998 - which suggested a tentative link between the immunisation at the age of 18 months, a bowel disorder called Crohn's disease, and autism - many parents became anxious over the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.... At the press conference to...

THE reaction of the UN to the nuclear crisis in Iran will be a test for the international body, Prime Minister John Howard says. Mr Howard said those critical of the US, UK and Australian governments for invading Iraq would see for themselves how effective the UN was when it decided what action to take against Iran. Ahead of a visit to Australia next week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Iran is the number one challenge for Washington and would be a major threat to US Middle East interests if it acquired atomic weapons. Iran says its...

Each night on local newscasts all across the country, we hear this same old story. Well, maybe not quite like this. Two men broke into the home of Gayle Martin—an elderly Kentucky man who lived alone—on Saturday. The men smashed Martin’s door open and entered the house shortly before 5:00 AM, intent on doing him harm. Like every other violent news story, this one involves guns, a frantic 911 call, serious injuries, and hospitals. Unlike most others, it also has a moral and a happy ending. It seems that 79-year old Gayle Martin had himself a 357 Magnum. Author’s note:...