Free Republic

America’s three most recent former presidents have reportedly all said they would publicly take a COVID-19 vaccine once one is approved to help promote the drug’s safety. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton told CNN of their intentions — while former President Barack Obama said in an interview set to air Thursday he may end up taking a COVID-19 vaccine on TV. Bush has even reached out to White House coronavirus task force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx to volunteer to help encourage US citizens to take the vaccine, the former president’s chief of staff,...

Hundreds of people on Wednesday night — including members of the right-wing group Proud Boys — protested the closure of a Staten Island bar that ignored COVID-19 restrictions. “Proud Boys in the house,” a handful of people chanted outside Mac’s Public House — the defiant pub that was shut down by authorities Tuesday night after operating without a license and in violation of health orders. One speaker led the crowd through the Proud Boy credo — “I am a proud Western Chauvinist” — before segueing into Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” The entrance of the pub was blocked on Wednesday...

In 2020, a set of oppressive restrictions were imposed on the American people in response to COVID-19 that had never before been so much as suggested, let alone witnessed, in all of human history. Our businesses, schools, churches, and even doctors’ offices were peremptorily shut down by government fiat. We were forbidden from leaving home for activities deemed inessential and from commiserating with friends and family in groups deemed too large. When, after months, a return to some skeletal semblance of normal human life was finally permitted, for many it was only on the condition that they never appear in...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly said the platform is trying to work with Joe Biden on a joint Facebook-Biden administration push for Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. During a livestream interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Facebook founder mentioned a “push around authoritative information on vaccines,” though he did not elaborate on what that would entail. “You and the rest of the government have an important job ahead,” Zuckerberg told Fauci during the interview. “I know our team at Facebook has already reached out to the incoming administration to help with the COVID response in any way that we...

A celebration of 2020? Many might think we should just hold our breath and say good riddance to what has been the most challenging year of this century. But I think we still have things worth raising a glass to. This year we have all made sacrifices; we’ve had our endurance tested. Yet we’ve found ways to help our neighbors, local businesses, and frontline workers. That spirit is behind this, our second annual People of the Year issue, which celebrates four individuals (with four covers!) who have not just wowed us with their talent but been forces for good in...

Americans should push back on mask mandates and broad lockdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Rand Paul said on Tuesday, arguing that policymakers need to "reassess" the effectiveness of such actions. “We have mask mandates in dozens of states and countries and every — without fail, every time we’ve instituted a mandate the actual incidence of the disease has risen. So there is no evidence that these mandates are working and we’re crippling the economy. Maybe we ought to reassess what we’re doing,” Paul told “America’s Newsroom.” “I think there are reasonable things you can do in school. For the...

Yesterday, RedState reported on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s sudden change of heart about opening schools (see The Exalted Doctor Fauci Changes His Mind Again Because Our Experts Are Cowards). That came after he spent most of the year refusing to back President Trump’s calls to do just that. It’s almost like so much of Fauci’s advice was politically time, right? None of that sat well with Tucker Carlson. He went on air last night and unleashed a blistering monologue targeting Fauci, Nancy Pelosi, and our expert class in general. Tucker: Experts finally admit they were wrong from the beginningCarlson begins by...

Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the NFL could have full stadiums again at the start of the 2021 season. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comments during an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Monday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci praised Ron Klain on Monday, the person selected by former Vice President Joe Biden to be his White House chief of staff. “I know him well and his style and he did an absolutely terrific job with Ebola,” Fauci said, praising Biden’s choice in a video conversation with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Pro-China WHO boss Tedros is key figure in Tigray Peoples Liberation Front. “Scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra, a town in the South West Zone of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,” Amnesty International is confirming. The human rights organization verified “photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.” Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for east and southern Africa, “confirmed the massacre of a very large number of civilians, who appear to have been day laborers in no way involved in the...

Better late than never. Perhaps because he believes Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Dr. Fauci is finally admitting that children do not get terribly ill from or transmit COVID-19 in any significant way. Weird, since Switzerland figured this out in April. Detailed genetic studies in Iceland showed that children were not passing the virus to adults in any significant numbers in June. And German researchers asserted that children could actually act as a brake on transmission within the community. ... Senator Paul correctly noted Sweden’s experience, which never closed their primary schools and did not see a spike...

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said bars should be closed in order to prioritize getting children back in school in New York City and other regions that have experienced rising COVID-19 cases. “Close the bars and keep the schools open,” Fauci told ABC anchor Martha Raddatz on “This Week.” “The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school or to get them back to school.” The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added that schools haven’t played a significant role in driving community spread of the...

In yet another move that seems to indicate that COVID-19 is unlike any virus that has ever existed, Dr. Anthony Fauci told McClatchy DC that people previously infected with and recovered from COVID-19 should get the vaccine anyway:“I believe they should” take the vaccine, Fauci said, addressing concerns among individuals who have already recovered from infection. “The final decision is going to be awaiting both FDA input, because we know that there were a certain percentage of the people who were in the original vaccine trial that had evidence they had been previously infected. So we need to see what...

Public health officials are bracing for a new round of COVID-19 case spikes as many Americans traveled and held large family gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday in defiance of mitigation guidance from the government, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned that as the nation heads into December, officials expect “we might see a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in.” “I don’t want to frighten people except to say it’s not too late at all for us to do something about this,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Fauci urged...

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Supreme Court ruling that religious gatherings cannot be restricted in New York State was a “considerable risk for acquisition and spread” of the coronavirus pandemic. Guest host Martha Raddatz said, “The Supreme Court struck down New York’s COVID restrictions on religious gatherings in the state. How concerned are you about legal challenges to pandemic restrictions going forward?

An elderly Canadian woman was killed by her doctor because she would rather be dead than go through another COVID lockdown. When it looked like she would have to be confined to her room for two weeks, she asked for — and received — the lethal jab due to declining mental health and vitality. From the CTV story: Nancy Russell, described by her family as exceptionally social and spry, was one such person. Her family says she chose a medically-assisted death (MAID) after she declined so sharply during lockdown that she didn’t want to go through more isolation this winter…...

Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that Thanksgiving could mark the beginning of a bleak winter, warning that the pandemic could worsen throughout the holidays and encouraging Americans to “be careful” as Christmas approaches, though he is personally looking forward to “Christmas in 2021.” In an interview with USA Today, Fauci explained that he will more than likely forgo his traditional Christmas plans, as he did for Thanksgiving. According to the outlet, he spoke to his three daughters virtually and enjoyed dinner with his wife. “For my own family, I’m saying we had a really great Thanksgiving and Christmas last year. We’re...

You’ve seen the photos. Airports are packed. Millions have traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s not nearly as bad as last year, a sign that there are Americans staying put—but did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the rest of the COVID Nazis think that America was not going to celebrate Thanksgiving? I mean, Fauci again went on Good Morning America Wednesday to give one last piece of advice:Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks to our @GStephanopoulos about small gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving and a possible surge in coronavirus cases.“A sacrifice now could save lives and illness...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), representing more than 14,000 active and retired FBI Special Agents, will hold the association’s seventh annual G-Man Honors: A Salute to FBI Heroes event virtually tonight, Thursday, November 19, at 7:00pm eastern. All proceeds from the event benefit FBIAA’s two charitable funds, the Memorial College Fund and the Membership Assistance Fund.

In a tragic irony, the prospect of another 'life-saving' lockdown has drained some senior citizens of their will to live. Assisted suicides and depression are up.An elderly woman who had experienced strict confinement and isolation in a Toronto nursing home under a previous COVID lockdown has narrowly avoided reliving that experience, although at a horrible cost. Toronto went into Ontario’s most restrictive “grey” tier on Monday, including a near-complete ban on social gatherings. Unlike many others in North America who have packed up their belongings and relocated to less restrictive areas during the COVID-19 outbreak, however, her “escape” from lockdown...