Free Republic

There is simply no other way to state this. Nearly everything we’ve been told about models, rates of infection, deaths, and recoveries was inaccurate. I’m not here to argue that it was malfeasance or ignorance — both are unacceptable. But the one thing that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s stunning announcement made clear on Thursday is that there are some pretty shocking — and what should be — reassuring truths. Cuomo announced that antibody testing in New York state, which only began four days previous, was already demonstrating that at minimum 13.9% of New Yorkers, had COVID-19 late stage antibodies. The implication...

This nation was totally shut down for ONE reason. That is what we were told at the time. That reason was to "flatten the curve", meaning to enable time for our medical capabilities to catch up with the need for treatment. There is ample evidence that even in our worst hit area of New York City that this in fact has been accomplished. The USS Comfort, provided as an overflow hospital option to the city in the heat of the battle, has been sent packing and according to New York is no longer needed.Across the country, hospitals have plenty of...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced that is authorizing the first coronavirus test that allows patients to collect samples at home themselves. The FDA said the emergency authorization would make coronavirus testing easier and smoother by allowing some patients to collect their test samples without having to leave home. The patients, after using the nasal swab, would then mail the sample to LabCorp, the company that makes the test, to be tested. “With this action, there is now a convenient and reliable option for patient sample collection from the comfort and safety of their home,” FDA Commissioner...

Researchers and clinicians who have ‘experimented’ with random mass testing for COVID-19 have made some pretty amazing – and amazingly depressing – discoveries. Yesterday, we shared a report about one sweeping antibody testing regime set up by researchers in Santa Clara County in California. The study found that the estimated level of novel coronavirus penetration in the county was “50-80% higher” than what had been recorded. If that isn’t enough to terrify every day trader who ratcheted up their exposure heading into the weekend, a news story about another surprising discovery – this time on the East Coast – has...

White House officials said Friday that states have enough COVID-19 tests to proceed to phase one of the Trump administration’s plan to restart the economy. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at a briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force that “our best scientists and health experts assess that states today have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase one if they choose to do so.” Pence’s remarks come as the administration faces pressure to increase testing capacity, seen as key to faster lifting of lockdowns. Meanwhile, protests have erupted across the country amid record job losses and...

Rome (AFP) - Testing is being held up as the world's best bet for ending the economically crippling -- and emotionally draining -- coronavirus lockdown. But some doctors at the Italian epicentre of the health crisis doubt that countries can test their way out of confinement. "It is a nonsense," Milan's Polytechnic Institute professor Davide Manca said. "Conceptually, I am sceptical." The reason for Manca's scepticism is plain to see in the math. Milan's Lombardy region has 10 million people and 11,142 officially registered COVID-19 deaths. The economically vibrant area the size of Belgium has been under one of the...

The Briarcliff Skilled Nursing Center in Carthage is now reporting two deaths related to COVID-19, as well as seven residents and five staff members who have tested positive, in an update Tuesday on their website. The facility has had 28 people tested for coronavirus. Five residents tested negative. The facility said eight residents and one employee had pending tests.

Ninety-one people in South Korea believed to have been cured of COVID-19 have tested positive again, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts are trying to figure how this could have happened, and a few theories seem to be sticking. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, medical director of CityMD and a Fox News contributor, chalks many of those potential reinfections up to human error. It's possible, she explained on Monday's "Outnumbered," that the medical workers who administered the original tests did not take enough specimens in their swabs, potentially resulting in false negatives. David Kelvin, a professor of microbiology...

A quick 5-minute coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories and introduced with considerable fanfare by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden news conference this week is giving state and local health officials very little added capacity to perform speedy tests needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. “That’s a whole new ballgame,” Trump said. “I want to thank Abbott Labs for the incredible work they’ve done. They’ve been working around-the-clock.” Yet a document circulated among officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week shows that state and local public health labs...

The most widespread testing so far shows that COVID-19 has a fatality rate of 0.004%. That’s lower than the flu. Should we start shutting everything down, every year, because of the flu? Iceland has tested 10% of its population for COVID-19, by far the largest percentage of any country.And it has discovered that the fatality rate is 0.004%.That’s lower than the flu.Should we start shutting everything down, every year, because of the flu?

... “Our choice is not whether we intervene or whether we go back to the normal economy,” says Emil Verner, an economist at MIT’s Sloan School who has recently looked at the flu pandemic of 1918 for insights into today’s outbreak. “Our choice is whether we intervene—and the economy will be really bad now and will be better in the future—versus doing nothing and the pandemic goes out of control and really destroys the economy.” Overall, Verner and his coauthors found that the 1918 pandemic reduced national manufacturing output in the US by 18%; but cities that implemented restrictions earlier...

Providers and public health officials hope that more COVID-19 testing will help contain spread of the disease. But efforts to get tests done faster and results quicker are hindered by how many tests can be quickly deployed and how accurate they prove to be.Three decentralized tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been granted Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the past 10 days. Decentralized molecular tests are meant to bring lab-quality test results while the patient is with the provider so that they can guide treatment decisions. These tests, and any accompanying equipment,...

Walgreens pharmacies in seven states will soon offer drive-thru coronavirus testing stations. The nationwide retailer announced on Tuesday its partnership with Abbott Laboratories to offer rapid-result coronavirus tests for patients in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas. The COVID-19 test produced by Abbott can deliver results in 13 minutes. In total, 15 stores will offer the testing services. Walgreens has yet to announce the exact locations for the drive-thru testing centers but noted that the company had been in talks with the Department of Health and Human Services to determine the best "hot spot" location for the centers...

...The Classic Learning test or CLT is not new. Founded in 2015 by Jeremy Tate, the test aims to “provide alternative standardized tests rooted in tradition and taking advantage of modern technologies,” according to the company’s website. Tate told The College Fix in an email that registration rate for the CLT exam had increased by 300 percent in the past week..The test derives its content from a broad range of authors and thinkers throughout history from religious and irreligious backgrounds alike..

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that improved coronavirus testing and tracing of infected people's contacts will help the country eventually be able to ease up on measures like stay at home orders. Fauci, a top official at the National Institutes of Health, said during a White House briefing that he would like to see enough capacity to test a wide range of people and the ability to determine who those that test positive have been in contact with. That would help create a targeted approach and allow the country to ease up on blunter efforts currently in place, like stay...

- The Abbott ID NOW™ COVID-19 test brings rapid testing to the front lines - Test to run on Abbott's point-of-care ID NOW platform - a portable instrument that can be deployed where testing is needed most - ID NOW has the largest molecular point-of-care installed base in the U.S. and is available in a wide range of healthcare settings - Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day - This is the company's second test to receive Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA for...

T This past Thursday, Donald Trump visited the National Response Coordination Center for a teleconference with the nation’s governors about how to handle the covid-19 pandemic. The center, which is situated inside the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, in Washington, is designed, in the agency’s words, to coördinate “the overall Federal support for major incidents and emergencies.” Trump—along with Mike Pence, and several other Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials—sat around a table in a gray-walled conference room, while the governors were patched in from around the country. The governors said their states needed personal protective equipment (P.P.E.) for health-care...

Doctor, former Kansas governor says coronavirus patients 'doing better' in testing with anti-malaria drug Dr. Jeff Colyer on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 President Trump calls the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine a ‘game changer’ in treating the coronavirus; reaction and analysis from former Kansas governor, practicing surgeon Dr. Jeff Colyer. Anti-malaria drugs ike hydroxychloroquine -- which are being used to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) patients -- are showing positive results, former Kansas governor and practicing surgeon Dr. Jeff Colyer said Wednesday. Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with host Ed Henry, Colyer said that data from testing at the University of Kansas...

........... But in the fact-challenged world of the coronavirus COVID-19, there are still actual facts out there, and Fox News analyst hit a homer with a single post on Twitter. “As the number of cases has expanded, the mortality rate has declined. It will likely decline even further if and when those without symptoms can be diagnosed and counted,” Hume tweeted. He included a tweet from another Twitter user that laid out the death rate in the U.S. from COVID-19. 4.06% March 8 (22 deaths of 541 cases) 3.69% March 9 (26 of 704) 3.01% March 10 (30 of 994)...

Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that he is keeping a running list of potential vice presidential picks that includes more than a dozen women. "There is a short list meaning somewhere between — there's about 12 and 15 women who I think would be qualified to be president tomorrow," Biden said during an appearance on ABC's "The View." "I think we're going to narrow to 11," he added. "We're going to start vetting soon." "We are going to start vetting soon and there is a shortlist," Joe Biden tells @TheView on female VP picks, adding they plan to...