Free Republic

There’s this iconic scene in the 1984 “Footloose” where Kevin Bacon’s city-boy character Ren McCormack goes head-to-head with his macho antagonist Chuck Cranston to show who’s the bigger man in a game of “chicken.”The two young men mount tractors on opposite ends of a single-lane road facing each other and drive full speed ahead to see who flinches first. In this hazardous game, one of them must swerve off the path, or both could die in the head-on collision — but the first one to swerve will be dubbed the “chicken” for his cowardice. After Ren’s shoelace gets caught on...

Forcing children who are not at risk for serious illness to receive a vaccine of marginal benefit undermines confidence in legitimate vaccine programs.California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for schoolchildren age 12 and older — and other similar mandates popping up around the country — raises the question: For a patient population that predominately suffers only mild to no symptoms, is it ethical to coerce them to receive a vaccine that provides little benefit and causes rare but significant side effects?Why COVID-19 and Polio Aren’t The SameDuring the early 1950s, my parents waited and hoped that polio, an incurable,...

The Cleveland Clinic appears prepared to condemn some patients to death with its requirement that transplant donors accept a Covid-19 vaccination.The Cleveland Clinic, a world-renowned surgery center and provider of modern medical miracles, announced Friday that it will require both transplant donors and recipients to have received a Covid-19 vaccination.Michael Ganim is a 52-year-old man from Cleveland dying from kidney failure. He has been a Cleveland Clinic patient for years and on the organ donor transplant list since last October. Ganim’s polycystic kidney disease almost killed him in March 2020, and he and his family have ridden the emotional rollercoaster...