Free Republic

Stricter COVID-19 restrictions could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the states that refused to institute them, though efforts to close nursing homes and schools likely caused more harm than good, a new study has found. Between 118,000 and 248,000 more Americans would have survived the pandemic if all states had followed some restrictions practiced in Northeastern states, according to findings published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The most effective responses were mask mandates and vaccine requirements, the JAMA study found. “COVID-19 restrictions saved lives,” the researchers wrote. “The death toll was probably...

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the GOP has a problem, and they know it. "Areas where we should be winning, like in Ohio, and in Michigan, places where the economy is not strong, where the Obama administration policies have hurt there ... they're not voting for us," says Santorum, author of the new book "Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works." Establishment Republicans "realize we have a problem there. I don't think they have any clue how to fix it," says Santorum. "The tea party realizes, that's who they are, these are conservatives who don't think...