Free Republic

The Trump administration announced Monday night that it will ask Congress for "at least $2.5 billion" in additional funding to fight the coronavirus. The request indicates that the administration is seeking to step up its response to the virus as it spreads to more countries. However, the request met quick resistance from Democrats. Just $1.25 billion of the request is for new funding, with the rest requested to be taken from existing health programs, including $535 million from fighting Ebola. "The Trump administration’s request for emergency funding is woefully insufficient to protect Americans from the deadly coronavirus outbreak," said House...

...The bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, has been linked with at least two of the most devastating pandemics in recorded history. One, the Great Plague, which lasted from the 14th to 17th centuries, included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death, which may have killed nearly two-thirds of Europe in the mid-1300s. Another, the Modern Plague, struck around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, beginning in China in the mid-1800s and spreading to Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe and other parts of Asia. Although past studies confirmed this germ was linked with both of these catastrophes,...