Free Republic

The U.S. government's COVID messaging was in disarray on Friday night, as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that federal vaccination mandates were being considered - and then tweeted that they were not. Earlier on Friday, Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said that a federal vaccine mandate was being considered. Several hours later, she tweeted: 'To clarify: There will be no nationwide mandate. I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate.' Her backtracking came amid concern at the way...

A conservative talk radio host from Tennessee who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from COVID-19 now says his listeners should get vaccinated. Phil Valentine’s brother, Mark Valentine, spoke at length on WWTN-FM in Nashville on Thursday about his brother’s condition, saying he is in a critical care unit on supplemental oxygen, but not on a ventilator. Phil Valentine has had an afternoon talk radio show on the station for years. “First of all, he’s regretful that he wasn’t a more vocal advocate of the vaccination,” Mark Valentine said of his brother. “For those listening, I know...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell implored unvaccinated Americans Tuesday to take the COVID-19 shot, issuing a stark and grave warning of a repeat of last year’s shutdowns if people refuse to protect themselves from the coronavirus. McConnell urged Americans to ignore the “demonstrably bad advice” coming from pundits and others against the vaccines. As caseloads skyrocket, he noted that nearly all the new virus hospitalizations in the U.S. are among people who have not been vaccinated. “If there is anybody out there willing to listen: Get vaccinated,” McConnell, R-Ky., said at his weekly press conference at the...

Vaccines are the great success of the pandemic. Americans should be celebrating these breakthrough innovations that U.S. industry produced at breakneck speed. But instead even vaccines are becoming another front in the culture war. About 65% of Americans over the age of 12 and nearly 90% of those 65 and older have received at least one dose. Widespread inoculations have resulted in plunging cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent months even as most states lifted their lockdowns and mask mandates. Cases have fallen by some 90% and hospitalizations nearly as much since their January peak. Deaths are 95% lower, and...