Free Republic

As you send your kids off to college, you might be apprehensive about them getting killed. But if you follow the data instead of the media, you will understand that they are exponentially more likely to die from a car accident or from getting convinced to drink or shoot up drugs than from COVID-19. ... What is shocking and laughable, yet tragic at the same time, is the lack of recognition that not wearing masks (even assuming they work) is the least of the “high-risk” behavior on campuses. ... Drugs, alcohol, and deadly car crashes, unfortunately, are not limited by...

Conservative writer Bre Payton died suddenly Friday at age 26 after being diagnosed with an illness. Payton, a writer at The Federalist, was discovered unconscious by friend Morgan Murtaugh, early Thursday morning and was taken to a San Diego hospital. Murtaugh shared on Twitter that Payton had been diagnosed with H1N1 flu, commonly known as swine flu, before she died suddenly on Friday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A study of antibodies from people infected with H1N1 swine flu adds proof that scientists are closing in on a "universal" flu shot that could neutralize many types of flu strains, including H1N1 swine flu and H5N1 bird flu, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said people who were infected in the H1N1 pandemic developed an unusual immune response, making antibodies that could protect them from all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the deadly "Spanish flu" strain from 1918 and even a strain of the H5N1 avian flu. "It says that a universal...

NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 1, 2009 – Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team servicemembers recently took to the airwaves to combat misinformation about the spread of the H1N1 flu virus here. Navy Lt. Jennifer Dreiling, a senior medical officer for the Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team, records a radio message on Radio Kalagush, a U.S.-funded Afghan radio station that broadcasts from Forward Operating Base Kalagush in eastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, educating locals about the H1N1 flu virus, Nov. 19, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Natassia Cherne  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Lt. Jennifer Dreiling, team senior medical officer...

Chile detected the H1N1 swine flu virus in turkeys, authorities said, the first time the virus has been found outside humans and pigs, but said there was no indication the disease had spread to other parts of Chile. The country's farming and livestock agency SAG said yesterday the flu outbreak had been controlled at the two farms 120 km west of the capital Santiago and notified the World Organization for Animal Health. "We call on the public to consume turkey products with confidence," a SAG statement said. It added that laboratory results ruled out the presence of H5N1 or bird...

A/H1N1 pandemic spreads at unprecedented speed, says WHO 2009-07-17 06:10:40 GENEVA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The A/H1N1 influenza pandemic has been spreading at an unprecedented speed, much faster than other pandemics in history, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. "In past pandemics, influenza viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks," the UN agency said in a briefing posted on its website. The new flu virus has caused more than 94,500 laboratory-confirmed infections in more than 130 countries and regions, with more than...

[J]ust recently Scientist Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an television interview with Bloomberg news that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint. *** [It was no accident and it didn't just evolve. This new "reassortant" virus was made and experimented with by the...

A Mexican defender caused outrage by coughing and spitting in the face of a Chilean opponent after growing tired of swine flu jibes.   Chivas' Hector Reynoso also emptied his nose on Sebastian Penco after allegedly being called a leper by the Everton Vina del Mar forward.  The Mexicans were in Chile for a tie in the Copa Libertadores - Latin America's equivalent of the Champions League - and had reported discrimination from locals when they went out shopping in the run-up to the match.   Reynoso, 28, said: 'In the market place, people got out of our way,...