Free Republic

Gathering in barns, cafes and bookshops, worshippers are flocking to illegal services around the countryIt sounds like the build-up to an illegal rave. Invitations are passed by word of mouth to trusted people. Minimal information – time, directions – is quietly given with pleas for discretion. Once everyone is assembled in a barn on a remote farm – “away from prying eyes,” says the organiser – it begins. This is no rave, but an English church service under lockdown, and the organiser is a Protestant pastor. The Christians who will gather illegally in the west of England on Sunday morning...

A caravan of flag-fluttering Trump partisans motored into the parking lot at the Gateway Center in Marin City on Sunday morning, with some members hurling racial epithets at bystanders (Didn't happen) in what is Marin County’s only predominantly minority community, according to two witnesses and reports on the social media website Nextdoor.A woman was caught on camera throwing eggs at a car participating in a Trump caravan Sunday in Marin City.(How adult of you)The caravan started in Santa Rosa and arrived at about 11 a.m. at the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center in Novato. It ended at the Marin Gateway Shopping Center...

Although there is still much we don’t know about the coronavirus, we know enough to say that it is far more dangerous and deadly than the flu. It took twelve months and 61 million infections for the H1N1 swine flu to kill 12,500 Americans in 2009–10. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that the seasonal flu killed 34,200 Americans during the 2018–19 flu season. In 2019, car crashes killed 38,800 Americans. As for the new coronavirus? On March 20, the death toll in the United States was 225. By April 20, the coronavirus had killed more than 42,000 Americans.

SEPTA says it will no longer enforce a short-lived policy requiring riders to wear facial coverings after a widely shared video showing a man being dragged off a bus, allegedly for not wearing one, prompted confusion about whether masks were mandatory while riding public transit. The video shows several Philadelphia police officers forcibly removing the man, who is later heard saying he was taken off the bus for not wearing a mask.

<p>After months of fear, media coverage and government warnings there wasn't as much demand for the swine flu vaccine in New York state as expected.</p> <p>Truckloads of swine flu vaccines are being returned by counties that say the expected demand for the shots never happened.</p>

A "worst case scenario" could see around 6,000 people die from swine flu across the country this season, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says. Over 10,000 Australians have contracted the virus, 22 have died and almost 60 are in intensive care. There were predictions yesterday that between 10,000 and 20,000 people could die from swine flu, but the Health Minister was quick to dismiss those numbers as "ludicrous". Ms Roxon has told Radio National that projections show that if no action was taken against the disease, such as use of a vaccine and anti-virals, around 6,000 deaths would be expected. "The...

GENEVA (BNO NEWS) -- The World Health Organization concluded an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon and is expected to declare a full scale swine flu pandemic within hours, BNO News has learned. "The emergency meeting has finished," Sarah Russell, who is a spokeswoman for the health organization, told BNO News. Russell, who was not able to provide details on the outcome of the meeting, said Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan would be holding a press conference at 12 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. Geneva time). "The Director-General has decided to give a press conference at six so she can explain what is...

The World Health Organization this morning formally declared that swine flu had reached the level of a full-blown pandemic, moving the viral outbreaks to phase 6 on the pandemic alert scale. WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan met with flu experts at 6 a.m. ET today in Geneva to discuss the spread of the novel virus, and since Wednesday the escalation to the highest level of pandemic alert had been widely anticipated. The move reflects the continued spread of the virus around the globe, despite quarantines, school closings and other measures designed to keep it in check. Swine flu is the...

GENEVA – The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere. In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of swine flu has begun.

Thousands of schools could be forced to close for weeks on end to stem the spread of swine flu, scientists say. ...the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said that “several million” Britons would fall ill with the H1N1 virus. Sir Liam Donaldson predicted a “huge surge” of cases when children go back to school in the autumn. Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College, London, who advises the Government and the WHO, said that widespread illness could lead to schools closing for several weeks, and extensive disruption to businesses and the wider economy... ...Professor Ferguson said that the pandemic could mean...

ATLANTA – The swine flu virus that has frightened the world is beginning to look a little less ominous. New York City officials reported Friday that the swine flu still has not spread beyond a few schools. In Mexico, very few relatives of flu victims seem to have caught the virus. One flu expert says there's no reason to believe the new virus is a more serious strain than seasonal flu. And a federal health official said the new flu virus doesn't appear to have genes that made the 1918 pandemic flu strain so deadly. ...