Free Republic

NEW JERSEY (WABC) -- Five New Jersey hospitals are reinforcing mask mandates due to a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Stafford, Carrier Clinic in Montgomery and Old Bridge Medical Center will be going back to their pandemic protocols in regards to mask-wearing. These five hospitals are run by Hackensack Meridian Health. New Jersey has seen a spike in COVID-related hospitalizations and 558 people were hospitalized this week.

People are becoming more concerned about COVID-19 amid the recent uptick in cases and new variants, according to Gallup’s latest quarterly poll. Gallup polled more than 5,000 U.S. adults between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5. Thirty percent of respondents said they believe the pandemic is getting worse — up from 5% in late May/early June and 8% in February, according to a news release on Gallup’s website.

New mask mandates have been imposed in health care facilities and other places in at least three states in recent days. COVID-19 hospitalizations have been rising since late summer, as new variants circulate. According to the latest data from the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 20,538 hospital admissions in the week ending September 9, up 7.7 percent from the previous week. In an effort to help avert another "tripledemic" like last year when hospitals were overwhelmed with flu, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and coronavirus cases, the U.S. this month approved updated COVID-19 vaccines. The...

MARTINEZ, Calif. - Health officials in several Bay Area counties have issued new mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continued to rise and in preparation for the upcoming respiratory virus season. This week, Contra Costa, Sonoma, and San Mateo counties all issued mask orders for health care personnel in hospitals and other patient care facilities. All three orders were set to go into effect on Nov. 1 and last through April 30. On Tuesday, director of Contra Costa Health Services, Anna Roth, told the county Board of Supervisors that since July, hospitalizations numbers due to COVID-19 have increased from 8.1 per...

Some California college students are fighting to have mask mandates reinstated amid ongoing discussions around the return to some COVID-19 precautions. Last week, the Disabled Students Union (DSU) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), announced on Instagram that a proposed resolution titled "A Resolution to Mandate Masking, Weekly PCR testing, and Upcoming COVID-19 Vaccines, and to Improve Ventilation, and Reinstate the COVID-19 Task Force" failed to receive enough votes from the university's Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC). Some of the main aspects of the resolution proposed by the DSU included mask requirements for indoor and crowded outdoor spaces,...

A Tecumseh, Ont., native who brought awareness to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by running a marathon while wearing a hospital gown is now dealing with the effects of long COVID. Evan Ubene, who's set to graduate with a master's in chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, says last year he was also trying to highlight the need for proper personal protective equipment for health-care professionals. Wearing the hospital gown ended up breaking a Guinness World Record at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

A medical group issued a warning this week about wearing masks for respiratory viruses such as COVID-19, arguing that studies show they don't prevent their spread and instead violate patients' rights to informed consent. "As mask mandates are contrary to the fundamental medical principle of informed consent, all masking mandates currently in place must be rescinded, and no future mandates should be imposed," the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a longtime conservative-aligned medical group, said in a statement, likely responding to recent hospital mask mandates that were reimposed in August. The group made reference to research, including a recent...

Esparto High School near Sacramento confirmed it canceled a game after it said six players tested positive for COVID-19. Two California high schools have confirmed that they canceled football games because of COVID-19 cases among students. Esparto High School near Sacramento confirmed that it canceled a game after it stated that six players tested positive for COVID-19. It also stated that multiple players were also injured and that it didn't have enough players for a game. This comes as there have been concerns that virus-related rules might be reimplemented in the coming months. ... Hundreds of miles away, a high...

Former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the uptick in COVID-19 cases will likely not result in federal mask mandates. As summer is drawing to a close, the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise. Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” that the risk of a surge of new cases and hospitalizations is low, citing widespread immunity due to vaccines and previous infections.

While a new subvariant is causing increasing hospitalizations across the country and we await the updated Covid-19 vaccines, now may be a good time to put your mask back on, doctors say. Especially in certain settings like on plane rides and trips on the subway. The percentage of people who said they wore a mask outside of their home in the U.S. decreased from about 57% in January 2022 to around 27% in January of 2023, according to data compiled by the Covid States Project.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said Tuesday he will introduce legislation dubbed the “Freedom to Breathe Act” which will effectively ban federal mask mandates. The act would prohibit President Joe Biden and federal agencies from implementing face mask requirements requiring submission from public transit passengers or students in schools. “The bill, if passed into law, would prevent the reimposition of federal mask mandates in the United States — particularly in public schools and on airplanes and public transportation systems. It would only apply through the end of 2024.

COVID is endemic. People are still going to get it, regardless of vaccination status. And many more will contract the virus multiple times. It will be like flu season, folks, which also has a vaccine that can prevent severe illness or death but is not a silver bullet against infection. It’s not being reported anymore, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the COVID and influenza vaccine efficacy is similar, around 40-50 percent. Take the shot, don’t take the shot, but the experts self-immolated when they said if you take the vaccine, you’d be shielded forever. And we’re back to the...

President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday and will wear a mask while around others indoors after first lady Jill Biden tested positive for the virus a day earlier, the White House said. The first lady is experiencing “mild symptoms” after testing positive Monday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She will remain in Delaware to quarantine. The president was tested for the virus Monday and again Tuesday, and he tested negative both days. He is not experiencing any symptoms, Jean-Pierre said. Biden “will be masking while indoors and while around people, in alignment with CDC guidance,” Jean-Pierre said,...

School is back across the country, so let's survey the landscape of both higher and lower education. At the University of Michigan, students who test positive for COVID are being forced into off-campus quarantine -- like something out of 2021. They may not attend classes, and they may not remain in their dorm rooms, "even if they are in a single room." Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford writes, "students testing covid positive must leave their dorms for 5 days & live in the community. A hotel room or a relative's house is ok. This cruel policy is designed to spread...

The Atlanta college that reinstated its mask mandate in August confirmed that it has ended the rule after two weeks. Morris Brown College, described as a historically black liberal arts college, stated in mid-August that it would reimpose mask mandates amid what it said was a rise in COVID-19 cases on campuses near where it’s located. That rule was scheduled to end on Sept. 3. In a statement to Newsweek, college President Kevin James confirmed that the rule had ended. However, the school will still “have several safety protocols in place,” he said. Parties and large events will still be...

In a blow to the COVID-19 "silent spreader" narrative that has been used to push for universal masking, including controversially among schoolchildren, a recent study published in The Lancet suggests that people who are non-symptomatic rarely have the ability to infect others. Silent transmission is the idea that those who are infected with COVID-19 but show no symptoms can still spread the virus to other people. While all relevant studies show that presymptomatic and asymptomatic "silent spreaders" account for some proportion of infections in other people, the degree of silent transmission is less clear. A number of early studies—in some...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has responded to speculation that the agency could be bringing back mask mandates on public transportation or in federal officials. A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times on Aug. 29 that COVID-19 hospital admission levels "are currently low for more than 96 percent" of the United States, but that the agency recommended that transportation workers, travelers, passengers, and others get the COVID-19 vaccine "before they travel." "Anyone may choose to wear a mask in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor areas, including on public transportation and in transportation hubs at...

the incredible dumbing down of the American public ... Masks ... Nothing sums up the dumbing down of America better than the image of a person driving alone in his car, all masked up. Vaccines.. The COVID vaccines were — and remain — experimental. First we were told that if you take the vax, you can't get COVID. That was wrong. Then we were told that if you take the vax and a booster, you can't get or transmit COVID. That was wrong. Then we were told that if you get double-boosted, you'll be protected from all future variants. That...

COVID cases are on the rise in Illinois and across the U.S., and while that has led some to bring back mask requirements or mandates, could public health guidance soon follow? Already, some U.S. schools and businesses have started bringing back mask mandates. Morris Brown College in Atlanta announced last week that it was reinstating its mask mandate "due to reports of positive cases among students." A mask mandate was also reinstated for several employees at Lionsgate headquarters in Santa Monica, according to an internal memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The Illinois Department of Public Health warned Friday...

(NEXSTAR) – The COVID-19 public health emergency may be over, but the spread of the virus sure isn’t. COVID hospital admissions jumped another 21% last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The summer surge has some people – who haven’t donned a COVID mask in months – wondering if they should dust off their N95s. We asked three medical doctors if they thought the rising cases and hospitalizations meant masks are needed now. For Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, the rationale hasn’t really changed. “Masking remains an inexpensive and portable way to reduce risk...