Free Republic

Mandatory mask wearing saw more than 90% of deaf people struggle to communicate during the pandemic, University of Essex research has revealed. It also discovered that 76% missed vital information and 59% felt disconnected from society due to the face coverings. This is because masks restrict the ability to read lips and judge expressions. It also emerged that over-55s who became deaf later in life found communication using masks more challenging. And profoundly deaf people and signers experienced more disconnection from society and negative effects on their well-being. Dr. Eva Gutierrez-Sigut, from the Department of Psychology, led a team of...

NY Counties shown in orange are where the CDC advises wearing masks indoors. Yellow counties are places in which those at high risk for severe disease should be cautious, and in green counties, indoor masking is not necessary. Photo Credit: CDCThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending mask-wearing in some New York counties for the first time in months as a result of an uptick in COVID-19 cases.The CDC displays counties in orange, yellow, or green on a color-coded map shown in the image above to guide local residents and authorities:Counties shown in orange are where the...

They’re the Green Goblin Gang — and the furious mom of one of their victims says the fiends were “complete animals,” randomly attacking her daughter on her birthday. Newly released video captured the bizarre group of female robbers wearing full-body, neon green leotards as they punched and tossed around two 19-year-old women on a Times Square subway train about 2 a.m. Sunday. The victims were robbed of a cellphone and handbag, cops said. “She said she was attacked by aliens, and I didn’t know what she was talking about,” the mother of one of the victims told The Post on...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quietly dropped its universal masking recommendation for healthcare workers last week. According to the federal health agency, which updated its guidance September 23, the changes were made “to reflect the high levels of vaccine-and infection-induced immunity and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools.” The guidance emphasizes that it is applicable to United States healthcare settings before clarifying that areas without high transmission levels of the Chinese coronavirus “could choose not to require universal source control.”

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank said the city's vaccine mandate was invalid "to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment" for members of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the largest union to which NYC police belong. A Manhattan supreme court judge ruled on Friday that cops who were fired because of the city's Covid vaccine mandate had to be reinstated. According to the New York Post, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank said the city's vaccine mandate was invalid "to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment"...

The federal government says it's dropping all COVID-19 measures at borders on Saturday, meaning travellers will no longer need to provide proof of vaccination when entering Canada or wear masks on planes and trains. As of Oct. 1, all travellers, regardless of citizenship, will no longer have to:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a change to its guidance late last week and will no longer require nursing homes and hospitals to require masking in some areas. In a revision on Sept. 23, the CDC said that nursing home facilities and hospitals in a number of areas without “high” community transmission can choose not to require” all doctors, patients, and visitors to wear masks. It’s one of many changes to the CDC’s COVID-19 guidance since August when the agency’s leadership announced an overhaul of how it responds to pandemics. “Updates were made to reflect...

A Louisiana federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the federal government from enforcing its mask and vaccine mandates for children and teachers in public preschool. The Head Start program, which provides early education to infants, toddlers, and kids preparing for kindergarten, cannot require that any adults or students in the applicable centers or daycare be vaccinated against Covid-19 or wear masks, U.S. District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty ruled. The regulation applied to children as young as two years old, Doughty noted, both indoors and outdoors during activities that involve close contact with other people. The court rejected the argument...

The Biden administration mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates for the Head Start program have been blocked in additional 24 states by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump nominee, granted a preliminary injunction on Jan. 1 to Georgia and 23 other states against the mandates. Doughty said he thinks the government lacks the authority to impose the mask mandate on all children two years and older and the vaccine requirements on all workers and many volunteers and contractors. The law in question does not mention masks or vaccines, leaving the administration reliant on the health secretary’s ability...

The mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed on the federal Head Start program was struck down on Sept. 21 by a U.S. judge who said the mandate is clearly outside the power of the agency that promulgated and enforced it. “The Court finds the Agency Defendants have exceeded their authority by implementing the Head Start Mandate because Congress only gave Agency Defendants the power to ‘modify’ Head Start performance standards. The Head Start Mandate is not a modification,” U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, said in a 27-page ruling. Federal law says the government can impose standards on...

Dr. Anthony Fauci crassly mocked “ass-backwards” restaurant patrons who removed their coronavirus masks when seated — and laughed at the absurdity of his own idea for anti-COVID-19 goggles, according to a new book. The inside account is included by former White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern in “Vignettes & Vino” — out Oct. 25 — which calls Fauci “awful” and an “egomaniac.” “[I]n January 2020, [Fauci] said the virus was nothing to worry about for the American people. Then in the months that followed, he said that people should not wear masks and that they were ineffective. By June or July,...

Joe Biden got in a lot of trouble for his disastrous “60 Minutes” interview with Scott Pelley. Even though it was probably one of the most softball interviews that you’re ever going to see on “60 Minutes,” Biden still stepped into trouble with his remarks. The White House immediately had to walk back his remarks about Taiwan — that U.S. troops would be deployed if China attacked the island nation. But among the other remarks that got him in trouble was his declaration that “the pandemic is over.” That infuriated some of the people on the left for whom masking...

Critics roasted President Biden after the commander-in-chief declared the Chinese coronavirus pandemic “over,” contending that, if it is true, then emergency powers should be “voided” and all vaccine mandates should be lifted moving forward. During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Biden stated that the “pandemic is over.”

Biden declared the coronavirus pandemic “over” in an interview that aired Sunday, pointing to the return of large events and the lack of masking and other public health measures in place nationwide. “The pandemic is over,” Biden told “60 Minutes” from the Detroit auto show last Wednesday, the first time the even has been held since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. ... the pandemic is over. if you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.” ......

New Zealand will be retiring its COVID-19 traffic light system and significantly scaling down COVID restrictions from Sept. 13 so Kiwis could “move forward with certainty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.“It’s time to safely turn the page on our COVID-19 management and live without the extraordinary measures we have previously used,” New Zealand will be retiring its COVID-19 traffic light system and significantly scaling down COVID restrictions from Sept. 13 so Kiwis could “move forward with certainty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.“It’s time to safely turn the page on our COVID-19 management and live without the extraordinary measures we have...

The phenomenon, speech pathologist Nancy Polow says, is part of a concerning trend in kids born during or shortly before the pandemic Compounding the crisis, when parents sought help, they were met with lockdown-related roadblocks, such as mask restrictions and telehealth meetings Now the restrictions have lessened, Polow says, parents are scrambling to address these failures, signing up for pricey speech therapy sessions A growing body of academic research also supports Polow's claim that children born over the past three or so years possessing weaker verbal skills

A year after attending a Pennsylvania school board meeting about requiring students to wear COVID-19 masks, three people are still in court trying to get the charges dropped for alleged criminal defiant trespass. The charge is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Their cases could have statewide legal implications, potentially giving school boards more power over the public. Katherine Detwiler, Elaine Barnhart, and Gary Krum of Columbia County attended the Southern Columbia Area School District board meeting on Sept. 13, 2021. The meeting was held in the school library, and the board was discussing...

Washington State, under Gov. Jay Inslee, will end the state of emergency and all remaining COVID-19 emergency proclamations by Oct. 31st.... The statewide Face Covering Order issued by the state Department of Health will remain in place for health care and long-term care settings, as well as correctional facilities under certain circumstances after the state of emergency ends.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Gov. Kathy Hochul has lifted the requirement to wear masks while riding mass transit during a news conference on Wednesday. New signs will be displayed throughout the mass transit system letting riders know that masks are encouraged but optional. The new guidance is effective immediately. Hochul also stressed the importance of respecting the choices of others.

A new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on behalf of a group of parents seeks to immediately halt any plans to bring back an indoor mask mandate on school children, claiming that the Los Angeles Department of Public Health “is using erroneous hospitalization metrics,” the Globe reported in July. “On behalf of @LACountyParents, I filed a petition for writ of mandate and complaint against @lapublichealth, Ferrer and Davis. We cannot live like this anymore. If she proceeds with the new mask mandate on Friday, we will immediately seek a TRO,” attorney Julie Hamill announced on Twitter. Hamill’s lawsuit names defendants:...