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The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that refusing to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment. The court ruled on cases involving individuals who claimed retaliation by school boards for not wearing masks at public meetings. The court emphasized that disobeying a masking requirement does not fall under protected speech, comparing it to other forms of non-compliance with the law. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, “A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear...

A discarded mask lay on a sidewalk in Orange, Calif., on June 19, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)People who wore protective masks were found to be more likely to contract COVID-19 infections than those who didn't, according to a recent Norwegian study.The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection on Nov. 13, analyzed mask use among 3,209 individuals from Norway. Researchers followed them for 17 days, and then asked the participants about their use of masks. The team found that there was a higher incidence of testing positive for COVID-19 among people who used masks more frequently.Among individuals...

More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents, specifically former military members, for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau. A Marine and other military veterans at the FBI have been accused of disloyalty to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. The Washington Times obtained copies of the disclosures. The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section...

Anthony Fauci has sparked a backlash from politicians and commentators after saying that wearing face masks protects individuals from spreading coronavirus, but that there was inconclusive evidence to suggest it prevented a pandemic spiraling at a whole population level. The former chief medical adviser to the president, who was regularly the face of the government's response to the pandemic, told CNN on Saturday that "an individual protecting themselves or protecting them from spreading it, there is no doubt that masks work," amid a spike in infections of the virus and speculation that fresh COVID restrictions could be on the horizon....

The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous. “There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.” But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks? “Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson. What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers...

Nearly every adult ICU bed in Oregon is occupied, driven by an uptick in respiratory viruses. Portland-area hospitals are operating at a “crisis” level for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The dire picture has prompted state health officials to implore people to slap their masks on, once again, to protect against a triple threat of covid, flu and RSV as people travel and gather indoors this holiday season. But like nearly every community confronting a third pandemic winter, the entreaty is just that — a plea. Not a mandate. Health officials in a state that was among...

Masks are back, and, this time, they’re not just for Covid-19. A “tripledemic” of the coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, known as R.S.V., sweeping through the United States has prompted several cities and counties, including New York City and Los Angeles County, to encourage people to wear a mask in indoor public spaces once again...... There is strong evidence that masks help to reduce the transmission of several respiratory viruses. One paper published in 2020 by researchers in Hong Kong showed that people sick with either Covid-19 or the flu breathed out fewer viral particles when they were wearing...

A North Carolina father-of-one spent 24 hours in jail for refusing to wear a mask as ordered by a judge despite no state or county mandates in place. Gregory Hahn, 47, a US Navy veteran, was among several of 98 jury duty candidates called to Harnett County court who showed up not wearing a mask because there were no such rules or warnings in place, WRAL reports. Despite the fact that masks aren't required in the building, Judge Winston Charles Gilchrist mandated that everyone in his courtroom wear a mask.

Alghabra says government decision is based on science and data Transport Minister Omar Alghabra is giving no indication his government plans to drop its masking requirement for air and train passengers in Canada in the near future. "We constantly consult our experts and whenever the advice we receive changes because the circumstances change, we will change our regulation," he said Tuesday. But for now, it is what it is" His comments came after a federal judge in Florida stuck down a Biden administration requirement that passengers wear face coverings on airliners and mass transit...

Gathering in front of Skyview High School came three days after Clark County Superior Court Judge Suzan Clark granted a Vancouver School District request for an injunction against protests near its schools About 30 protesters showed up at Skyview High School Friday afternoon in defiance of a Clark County Superior Court judge's decision earlier this week to grant the Vancouver School District's request for an injunction near area schools. In addition to the protesters, a handful of counter protesters showed up to express support for the school district and its injunction. On Tuesday Judge Suzan Clark granted an injunction prohibiting...

Governor Tom Wolf to announce later Tuesday that masks will be required in all public and private schools starting Sept. 7 HARRISBURG- Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania K-12 schools, Gov. Tom Wolf is set to announce later Tuesday, reversing course amid a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds just as students return to class. The state Department of Health order will take effect Tuesday Sept. 7--the day after Labor Day--and will require students, teachers and staff to wear masks when inside, according to two people briefed on the plan....

“It’s not law, she’s going to phone the police over a policy.”... British supermarket Morrisons called the police on a disabled man who was medically exempt from wearing a face mask after attempting to make him wear a yellow sticker. Yes, really. The clip shows the man involved in a confrontation with a security guard and staff as they try to make him wear the sticker. The man calls them out by asking how a sticker could stop the spread of coronavirus. When he refuses to wear the sticker, he is asked to leave the store as staff claim they...

"In 1989 I took Rush Limbaugh's radio show off the air in St. Louis..." Jeff Long had his first "encounter" with Rush way back in the early days of his syndicated radio show. But there was more to come. Jeff would end up working in Rush's home town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He would meet Rush in person but there's more. And at the link below what Paul Harvey used to call on the radio "the rest of the story"... So many memories of Rush that for me include memories of the music that Rush loved. He would play songs...

Shirts and shoes are still required, but you don’t need masks to enter one Florida restaurant. Or “face diapers,” as the restaurant calls them. BeckyJack’s Food Shack in Spring Hill, Fla., shared a Facebook post Sunday that reminded potential patrons that the only things they need to bring are an appetite and a wallet. And if they decide to bring a smile, by golly, people would actually see it. “Howdy Folks! Happy Valentine’s Day A friendly reminder that we DO NOT require Face Masks,” the post read. BeckyJack’s also posted a sign in its window that garnered some attention. “Face...

Dr. Steve LaTulippe is a family physician in Dallas, Ore., who specializes in pain management that bypasses reliance on opioids. He has practiced family medicine at his small-town clinic for over 20 years with what he describes as a spotless record with the Oregon Medical Board. So it came as quite a shock to him when the medical board suspended his license to practice medicine over a viral video of his speech at a Stop the Steal rally on November 7. Now, Dr. LaTulippe is sounding the alarm over the consequences of exercising his First Amendment rights, and how politics...

George Clooney wants you to know that if you don’t agree with his stance on mask etiquette, you are a “dumba**.” The Batman star told radio shock jock Howard Stern all about how the government forcing anyone to cover up their face is NOT a violation of their freedom. Clooney has a long history of “Hollywood-splaining” to the average American. The Hollywood elite likes to fancy himself as an average guy from Kentucky, but the basic fact is that he is all left coast liberal.

Day 265 Of The Dictatorship Of COVID-19: Tyranny Came Before The Election Welcome to the weekend. This post title about "Game Over" in Venezuela once the late Hugo Chavez was elected President in 1998 the freedom of the country and its economy doomed to their eventual fate. We've experienced this tyranny before our 2020 election that is said to have elected Joe Biden as our President here in the USA. The COVID-19 tyranny first unleashed in March and then lessened for a bit back again. Big Government like colleges, universities, public schools being kept open and Big Business like chain...

The nerves of the world frayed by an authoritarianism imposed on all of us by the forces of Big Government (All Major Established Political Parties Worldwide) and Big Business in the name of "health and safety" and the drama of politicians demanding money so we can elect US Senators who will supposedly defend our freedom from a "socialist, communist President Joe Biden". The socialism and communism is already here, the whole world is Venezuela... God forbid you would learn of the Danish study of six thousand, a real scientific study. It revealed that the difference between wearing the face diaper...

FLORIDA — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that while vaccines for COVID-19 are coming soon, he won’t require anyone to get vaccinated if they don’t want to. But a GOP state lawmaker said that state law, as currently written, could allow him or any other governor to mandate vaccinations, and he will file legislation in the coming days to repeal that law. “Right now in Florida, under the public health emergency statute chapter 381, they can literally take you, test you, quarantine you, but also force you to take a vaccine. They can restrain you and force you to...

I've been working like crazy 'in the front line' of coronavirus transmission this week and forgetting to accurately chronicle the tyranny imposed on us using COVID-19 as an excuse. Today is Day 251 of the Dictatorship of COVID-19 as measured here in Pennsylvania. And here he is the man who would have been America's first President of Jewish heritage had he been elected in 1964. A man whose ancestors were Russian Jews demonized as a "hater" and an "anti-Semite" and an admirer of Hitler's Germany, a "racist" Barry Goldwater speaks of defending "liberty" and "justice". "extremism in the defense of...