Free Republic

… While some families never stopped masking, a recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey of 1,665 adults in the U.S. found that just 12% had practiced regular mask-wearing outside of the home over the previous week. … Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix in Nashville, says he doesn’t believe that families should overreact to the uptick in COVID-19 cases just yet, though it is worth monitoring. … If your family decides to return to masking, Amodio suggests including kids in any discussions. “Help them to understand the reasons behind the choice, and be sure to validate their emotions...

America’s top doctor and his wife – the chief ethicist – were the administrative state’s pandemic dream team. It's the Washington, D.C. power couple that cost taxpayers nearly $1 million per year. While Dr. Anthony Fauci gave the nation its pandemic public policy prescriptions, his wife, Dr. Christine Grady, the Chief Bioethicist at Fauci’s employer, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided the moral framework. The Faucis are important to the center-left, because they represent the pinnacle moment of the administrative state – top-down public policy run by an elite group of government scientists. Conversely, to the center-right, the Faucis...

When many people feel disconnected from their social environment they become prone to fanatical belief in an unreasonable narrative, creating favorable conditions for the emergence of a totalitarian state, said Mattias Desmet, a professor of clinical psychology. The psychological phenomenon where individuals who feel disconnected from their natural and social environment and experience purposelessness in life start to fanatically believe in a certain narrative—even if it is absurd—is a specific kind of group formation called mass formation, Desmet told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program on June 16. The individuals in the grip of the mass formation are blind to the...

The coronavirus is bringing about a strange revival of neighborhood life, which has been atrophying for a half-century. We should pay attention. Something unexpected has happened to neighborhoods across the country in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns and business closures: they’re coming to life.With schools and restaurants closed, and a huge swath of the workforce stuck at home either working remotely or not working at all, usually quiet and empty neighborhoods are suddenly bustling. Patterns of life and work that have become entrenched in American society over the past half-decade—kids in school and both parents away at jobs during...

Bill Gates has reportedly ordered himself a gigantic yacht. According to the The New York Post, the Telegraph reported that Gates had ordered the $644 million Aqua yacht from the Dutch design firm Sinot. However, Sinot told the New York Post no deal has been done just yet. Still, if something is in the works, the yacht sounds absurd. Whether or not Gates ever takes control of Aqua, it’s such a power move to even consider spending $644 million on a boat. I’ve always been obsessed with yachts. I’m not even sure why, but I just think they’re awesome. A...

As of this writing, 6,400 people all over the world have died from the coronavirus. In the United States, 68 people have died. Some perspective: Chinese deaths (3,217) account for half of the worldwide total. If you add Italy (1,441) and Iran (724), two countries where many Chinese were allowed in until recently, that totals another 2,165. In other words, outside of China, Italy and Iran -- with 5,382 deaths collectively -- 1,018 people have died. There are 7.8 billion people in the world. Regarding Italy, the Jerusalem Post of March 16 reported that according to Nobel Prize-winning chemist Michael...

There are certain issues that you’d expect to be top-of-mind for older Americans, whether it be Social Security, Medicare, or scams that target seniors. But as I traveled through my district this year and held workshops for seniors across Maryland, there was one topic that I was surprised came up again and again: loneliness. The crisis of social isolation and loneliness currently affects almost half of our population, and seniors are front and center. In 2018, a national poll revealed that nearly half of all Americans suffer from social isolation and chronic loneliness. That’s almost 164 million people – across...