Free Republic

After the 2020 election, government officials and their allies in the media repeated the mantra that the election was the “most secure in American history,” Dinesh D’Souza pointed out before the premiere of his new documentary film 2000 Mules at Mar-a-Lago, Wednesday night.But how would they know that? D’Souza wondered. Even if they couldn’t prove the election was rigged, “it still doesn’t follow that it was the most secure election in history,” he said. “The only way you could prove that would be if you were to compare the amount of fraud in 2020 with 2016, with 2012, with 2008,...

The Biden administration estimates 100 million Americans may become infected with Covid-19 in the fall and winter without additional funding to help combat the pandemic and buy new vaccines for a fall booster campaign

Deborah Birx, a leading member of the Trump administration’s White House coronavirus task force, said on Sunday the U.S. should be prepared for another potential COVID-19 surge after a recent uptick in infections in South Africa. “Each of these surges are about four to six months apart. That tells me that natural immunity wanes enough in the general population after four to six months that a significant surge is going to occur again. And this is what we have to be prepared for in this country,” she added. Birx specifically warned Americans should be “preparing right now for a potential...

After months of declining numbers, California has recorded a nearly 30% increase in coronavirus cases over the last week along with smaller rises in hospitalizations, causing some health officials to suspect that the state is headed into a new pandemic wave. The increase coincides with a loosening of COVID-19 restrictions such as mask mandates and vaccine verification rules as well as the rise of new subvariants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain. The question now is how much higher cases will go and whether new government intervention will be needed.

With US markets still in turmoil during Monday’s thin-liquidity sessions, more troubling COVID headlines added to the general downcast mood when NYC raised its alert level from “low” to “medium”. The shift comes as the number of new cases per 100K people over the past week has surpassed 200. The latest number of 209.02 cases per 100,000 is the highest since early February. Patients hospitalized with the virus also have increased over the last month, but still remain below 500. During the omicron-induced surge around the holidays, hospitalizations in the city peaked above 6,500 in January, per NY State data....

President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci predicted Wednesday that there will likely be a rise in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks as well as a potential surge in the fall. “I think we should expect, David, that over the next couple of weeks, we are going to see an uptick in cases – and hopefully there is enough background immunity so that we don’t wind up with a lot of hospitalizations,” Fauci told Bloomberg TV’s David Westin. Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the increase in infections could...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Wednesday that he thinks there will be an uptick in cases of Covid-19 over the next few weeks, and that it is likely that there could be a surge in the fall.

"We generally lag about three weeks or so behind the U.K. in the dynamics of what goes on with the outbreak," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "So if we are going to see an uptick, we should start seeing it within the next week or so."

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, warns that the Omicron variant may not spell the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, told the Davos Agenda virtual event Monday that 'natural vaccination' - or immunity via previous infection - might not be as effective as some believe. Like the emergence of Omicron, there is potential for a new variant to emerge in the future that can bypass the natural immunity provided by infection from the new strain.

President Joe Biden's decision to wait until Tuesday to address his plan to combat the rapidly spreading COVID Omicron variant has been met with incredulity as many criticized his apparent lack of urgency while he spends the weekend in Delaware. It comes after Vice President Kamala Harris admitted on Friday that the administration was not prepared for the variant as cases doubled over the past 24 hours, with all but six states confirming cases, stoking fears of shutdowns similar to the ones in 2020. Some have claimed that waiting till next week to outline a plan against Omicron is not...

Saturday night may not be so live from New York this week. The Post has learned that “Saturday Night Live” was on the verge of canceling tonight’s final episode of the iconic sketch show’s 2021 season due to an in-house outbreak of positive COVID-19 cases. A set insider has revealed that “four actors” have tested positive for coronavirus — and “three others” have called out because they are now “fearful” about coming to NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center, where the weekly sketch show is filmed in Midtown. Another insider claimed that executive producer Lorne Michaels had tested positive, adding...

New Yorkers are struggling to find COVID-19 tests as the city suffers a surge of infections driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. After New York recorded a record number of new cases on Friday, each new positive test is kicking off frantic text messages to friends and colleagues warning them to get tested, and the looming Christmas holiday is prompting scores more to seek the tests before they travel. The surge in demand has stretched the city's testing capacity to the limit, with wait times of more than two hours on Saturday at some city testing centers and pharmacies...

President Biden to announce fresh measures to combat ‘new phase of the pandemic,’ will issue “stark warning” to unvaccinated Americans

Kamala Harris on Friday took a swipe at Joe Biden for declaring 'independence' from Covid on July 4 - and appeared to blame scientists for the administration's failure to be better prepared for Omicron and Delta as the new strains threaten to send the country spiraling back to pandemic shutdowns. Harris, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, said: 'We have not been victorious over it. 'I don't think that in any regard anyone can claim victory when, you know, there are 800,000 people who are dead because of this virus.' -snip- The vice president insisted that the virologists...

Scientists say they have identified a “stealth” version of Omicron that cannot be distinguished from other variants using the PCR tests that public health officials deploy to gain a quick picture of its spread around the world. The finding came as the number of cases of the original Omicron variant detected in the UK rose by 101 to 437 in a single day and Scotland announced a return to working from home. The stealth variant has many mutations in common with standard Omicron, but it lacks a particular genetic change that allows lab-based PCR tests to be used as a...

Pfizer said results from an "initial laboratory study" showed that their COVID-19 vaccine neutralized the omicron variant of the coronavirus after three doses, or the full two-dose regimen plus a booster shot

Biden spoke in strained, hoarse voice during Friday speech about disappointing jobs report, coughed multiple times. President Biden said he doesn't have COVID-19 and his horse voice and coughing spells during a speech Friday are just a cold he picked up from family. Biden spoke in a strained, hoarse voice during a Friday speech about the disappointing jobs report, and coughed multiple times. Fox News' Peter Doocy asked the president about his health following the speech, prompting Biden to reply that he had picked up a cold from his grandson. "I'm OK, I have a test every day — a...

South Africa has practiced and modeled good science and good sense. Dr. Angelique Coetzee (pronounced koot-see-a) was among the first to alert South African epidemiologists to what has now been named the omicron variant of COVID-19. Or, as dubbed here, the “OMG! variant.” A calm clinician, Coetzee had deduced that what she was seeing in her patients—and successfully treating—was a heretofore unseen COVID variant with attendant mild disease. Quickly were South Africa’s skilled and responsible epidemiologists alerted and the genetic sequencing commenced. And, voila: A mutation! Also a completely unremarkable occurrence in the annals, and course, of epidemics. As molecular...

Colorado health officials on Thursday reported that the third confirmed U.S. case of the COVID-19 omicron variant has been detected in their state. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said in a statement that it has confirmed the first omicron case in Colorado. "The case was identified in an adult female resident of Arapahoe County who had recently traveled to Southern Africa for tourism," the CDPHE said. "She is experiencing minor symptoms and is isolated and recuperating at home. She had been fully vaccinated and was eligible for the booster vaccine but had not received it yet."

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said on Thursday that everyone who attended a recent anime convention in Manhattan should get tested for the coronavirus, after an individual who tested positive for the Omicron variant in Minnesota recently traveled to the conference. Ms. Hochul said the individual, a Minnesota resident who was vaccinated and suffered mild symptoms, had attended the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. She urged people who attended the event, which was held from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21, to get tested and said that health officials would be in contact with...