Free Republic

It's time to stop throwing money at an obsolete form of travel and focus on the transportation system that is already moving more than 80 percent of passenger travel in the U.S. When most of the nation’s governors shut down nonessential businesses and directed people to stay at home, they made the mistake of keeping urban transit systems running despite a 2018 study showing that mass public transportation systems expedite the spread of infectious diseases in communities. Further, a 2011 study found that people who ride urban transit are nearly six times more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections...

A woman who survived a close-range gunshot wound to the chest was saved because of her silicone breast implants, doctors believe. In a case study published to the SAGE medical journal last week, doctors described how a silicone breast implant deflected a bullet away from a 30-year-old woman’s vital organs. The incident, which took place in 2018 in Toronto, Canada, is one of only a handful of instances recorded in medical literature where a breast implant played a role in saving a patient’s life, and the first recorded instance of a silicone implant doing so, surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue told CNN....

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reportedly in “grave danger” following surgery, CNN reported on Monday evening, citing an anonymous U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation. There have been rumors of the dictator’s declining health in recent days, after he reportedly missed the country’s most important political holiday last week — the birthday celebration of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and founder of the communist tyranny. NBC’s Kathy Tur sparked further speculation after deleting a tweet citing two U.S. officials who purportedly claimed that the authoritarian is “brain dead.” “North Korean leader Kim ing Un is brain dead,...

If you or your loved one has just had a diagnosis of COVID-19, your chances of surviving the illness will depend on your ability to gather your resources, make a plan, and adapt. As told to her daughter, Carrie Severino. This article is personal information, not medical advice. Please consult your doctor with any health questions and decisions.The past two weeks have been a rollercoaster as my husband and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary, learned we were both COVID-positive, spent multiple nights we thought could be our last ones together, and finally received a surreal email from the Kent...

It is untenable to lock down much of the country until a proven-safe vaccine is available in a year or more. Thus, we need to adapt and prepare for life in the time of coronavirus. By the time we get back to normal, normal will be different. The Chinese coronavirus is a once in a generation plague, perhaps once in a century. Humanity is better equipped to respond to it than at any time in history, but there is still no easy way through this pestilence. A time of death and economic hardship was inevitable once the Chinese communists tried...

New York doctors are seeing marked improvements in COVID-19 patients by utilizing one simple technique: flipping them on their stomachs. Doctors treating coronavirus patients have begun laying them on their stomachs to help them breathe, a technique known as prone positioning, according to CNN. The practice is particularly effective on patients with COVID-19, caused by a virus that attacks the respiratory system, by increasing the amount of oxygen in their blood by more than 10%.

MADISON — A northern Illinois man with fast-growing leg and abdominal aneurysms was forced to cancel his scheduled surgery. His doctor told him the operation, although very necessary, was a “nonessential” procedure in the COVID-19 era. If left unattended, the aneurysms could cause blood clots, blocking blood flow. If the bulges burst in his stomach, they could cause severe pain, an extreme drop in blood pressure, shock, even death. But the man, who lives near the Wisconsin border, said his doctor had no choice but to postpone his surgery to free up resources for coronavirus patients. Concern has risen in...

Ninety-one people in South Korea believed to have been cured of COVID-19 have tested positive again, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts are trying to figure how this could have happened, and a few theories seem to be sticking. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, medical director of CityMD and a Fox News contributor, chalks many of those potential reinfections up to human error. It's possible, she explained on Monday's "Outnumbered," that the medical workers who administered the original tests did not take enough specimens in their swabs, potentially resulting in false negatives. David Kelvin, a professor of microbiology...

Have you ever been COVID-shamed online? Maybe you posted pictures of you and your family at a park and got reamed by someone for not being at home. Maybe, heaven forbid, you even dared to express a view on social media that strays from the ‘accepted opinion’ of months of mandated quarantine and government-enforced shutdowns until not a single solitary individual is infected with the virus. If the wrong people get wind you’ve expressed such an opinion, you’ll reap the whirlwind, I can promise you that. I’ve been there and done that. Fortunately, however, my work in conservative and right-of-center...

Pseudo-frostbite, hives and redness may appear with or without respiratory symptoms. The novel coronavirus may cause dermatological symptoms such as pseudo-frostbite, hives and persistent, sometimes painful redness, as symptoms that affect the body outside the respiratory system continue to be found that may be associated with coronavirus infections, according to the French National Union of Dermatologists-Venereologists (SNDV – skin and sexually transmitted disease doctors). The organization received numerous reports of cases with these symptoms in COVID-19 patients. They may also appear without respiratory symptoms, according to a press release by SNDV. A WhatsApp group of over 400 dermatologists has been...

"TheDepartment of Health and Human Services is cutting red tape to begin rolling out mass testing for COVID-19. One America’s Jack Posobiec spoke to the CEO (Steve Anderson) Associations of Chain Drug stores to learn more." Check the CDC Website to learn who qualifies to be tested.

In videos posted Thursday night, far-left U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar push for a seemingly socialist overhaul of the U.S. government in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak. The first-term progressive Democratic congresswomen, from New York and Minnesota, respectively, call for the removal of a “profit motive” from lawmakers’ decisions and the “nationalization” of the nation’s health care system. They and other Democrats have been critical of President Trump’s decision to allow the governors and legislatures of the nation’s 50 states, as well as U.S. territories, to largely set their own strategies for reacting to the virus - which...

For three years, critics of President Donald Trump have claimed that he arrogantly refuses to listen to his experts and that his exaggerated sense of self prevents him from accepting his limitations. Applying that narrative to Trump's initial failure to appreciate the gravity of the coronavirus, NBC host Chuck Todd recently asked former Vice President Joe Biden, "Do you think there is blood on the president's hands, considering the slow response? Or is that too harsh of a criticism?" Even Biden called the criticism a "little too harsh." "A little too harsh?" Trump, neither a doctor nor a scientist, merely...

The theologian and author C.S. Lewis identifies three enemies we face during crises such as ours and mental exercises to defend against each. In the autumn of 1939, as Nazi Germany invaded Poland and ignited the fuse of World War II, the great British theologian C. S. Lewis preached a sermon called “Learning in War-Time.” Although written 81 years ago, his advice is perhaps more relevant today than ever.Lewis identifies three enemies facing students during crises such as ours and mental exercises to defend against each. His thought are also helpful to those who are not students.The first enemy is...

Focusing only on coronavirus deaths and illnesses doesn’t tell the full story of what is happening in America. Other patients, waiting with no end in sight, deserve not to be forgotten. I’m one of many Americans waiting in limbo for a surgery because of coronavirus. I have a hip problem that cannot be solved with physical therapy, and my quality of life is miserable while I wait for the hospital — cleared out to make way for potential COVID-19 patients — to reschedule my procedure.Each step I take is a deep, painful grinding feeling that makes my leg ache, and...

Like Bob Geldof, Bono, Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, that British guy Gwyneth Paltrow is married to and just about every other wealthy liberal in the world, the Episcopal Church thinks that the way to help Africa is to send it a whole lot of money:“We believe the time is now to stand together as communities of faith, and people of conscience, and embrace our poorest sisters and brothers in the global community,” reads a portion of the petition published on the internet. The petition states further that its principles apply “both [to] those living in well-run economies and those not so...

The ketogenic diet -- which for people includes meat, fish, poultry, and non-starchy vegetables -- activates a subset of T cells in the lungs not previously associated with the immune system's response to influenza, enhancing mucus production from airway cells that can effectively trap the virus, the researchers report. ...researchers found that the ketogenic diet triggered the release of gamma delta T cells, immune system cells that produce mucus in the cell linings of the lung -- while the high-carbohydrate diet did not.

Critics worry about a Patriot Act for health care, raising concerns about patient privacy and civil liberties. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. The proposed national network could help determine which areas of the country can safely relax social-distancing rules and which should remain vigilant. But it would also...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - If Wisconsin was a test case for voting in the age of coronavirus, it did not go well for many voters. Thousands were forced to congregate for hours in long lines on Tuesday with no protective gear. Thousands more stayed home, unwilling to risk their health and unable to be counted because requested absentee ballots never arrived. Voters reported being afraid, angry and embarrassed by the state’s unwillingness to postpone their presidential primary elections as more than a dozen other states have already done. Neither Joe Biden nor Bernie Sanders will be declared a winner at...

It struck me today that what is completely different about what we are currently doing with the COVOD19 Virus is completely different from all other diseases of the past. In the past when a pandemic occurred in history, health authorities in the past quarantined the SICK who threatened the healthy population. That is not what we are doing today. Turning aside from what worked in the past, sequestering the ill and sick in their homes, providing the needs in a safe manner, our authorities, or at least the progressive versions of authorities that masquerade as our Health Authorities and experts,...