Free Republic

ATLANTA, GA — The Center for Disease Control warned Americans this week to resume all contact precautions due a new and rapidly-spreading "Electionyearicron" Covid variant. CDC director Bob Cohen spoke with reporters Wednesday to announce the new variant. "'Electionyearicron' is thought to be the most disruptive variant yet, and will be here all through 2024 until approximately November sixth," said Mr. Cohen. "So everyone, stay home and get ready to vote by mail!" The White House hosted an immediate press conference to address the dangerous new variant. "We're thrilled - I mean, um, alarmed - to hear of this deadly...

A highly mutated new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 has countries on alert as scientists scramble to understand how far it has spread and how well our immunity will defend against it. The new variant, called BA.2.86 and nicknamed Pirola by variant hunters on social media, has more than 30 amino acid changes to its spike protein compared with its next closest ancestor, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, according to Dr. Jesse Bloom, who studies viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. “This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally...

To mask, or not to mask? That is the question facing many doctors, public health officials and concerned citizens worldwide, as cases of COVID-19 once again tick upward. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Thursday that there’s a new, “highly mutated variant” of the coronavirus named BA.2.86 that’s spreading worldwide. Recent data from the New York state Department of Health, released Aug. 2, showed that COVID cases spiked by 55% over the prior week, with an average of 824 reported cases per day across the state. The rise in COVID-19 cases isn’t limited to New York:...

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19. The lineage is named BA.2.86, and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel, the CDC said in a post on messaging platform X. “As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC’s advice on protecting yourself from COVID-19 remains the same,” the agency said. The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier on Thursday said in a post on X that it had classified BA.2.86 as a “variant under monitoring” due to the large number of...

A new COVID-19 variant has been identified amid a rise in hospitalizations and cases being reported by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).COVID hospital admissions during the week ending Saturday, July 29, increased 12.5 percent over the previous week, according to CDC data.In addition, visits to the emergency room were up more than 21.8 percent, and the positive test percentage increased 1.3 percent.One of the causes of the trend could be excessive heat, which is sending people indoors into air-conditioned settings.The US has seen increases in COVID each of the last three summers, and this year's increases in...

A new subvariant of COVID-19 is increasing in the US and is now responsible for nearly 10% of all new cases, according to alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. The CDC estimates that omicron strain XBB.1.16 — more commonly known as “Arcturus” — was the cause of 9.6% of new infections this week. That represents an increase from nearly 6% last week and about 3% the week prior. Because of the spike in infections, the World Health Organization is warning the public of the possibility that the new strain could become the dominant...

A new COVID-19 variant fueling a rise in cases is causing a new symptom that has not been associated with the virus during the three-plus years of the pandemic.The so-called Arcturus strain — officially known as XBB.1.16 — is believed to be one of the most infectious versions of the Omicron variant to date. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) variant tracker, XBB.1.16 United States cases have doubled in the last week. Itchy, red eyes not seen in earlier waves "are symptoms of the new Omicron variant," according to a brand-new report by the Mayo...

A new COVID-19 variant fueling a rise in cases is causing a new symptom that has not been associated with the virus during the three-plus years of the pandemic.The so-called Arcturus strain — officially known as XBB.1.16 — is believed to be one of the most infectious versions of the Omicron variant to date. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) variant tracker, XBB.1.16 United States cases have doubled in the last week.Itchy, red eyes not seen in earlier waves "are symptoms of the new Omicron variant," according to a brand-new report by the Mayo Clinic."One new...

Just when we start to think the pandemic may be ending, the CDC is tracking another new potentially dangerous coronavirus variant called Orthrus CH.1.1. It got its name from a variant tracker in Australia. Orthrus in Greek mythology was a two-headed cattle dog. It looks very unique. So, does this new CH 1.1 variant. As of this week, it's at just under two percent of cases in the United States. While it comes from Omicron, the concern is that it has a mutation seen in Delta and that was a potentially deadly and dangerous strain. "Delta seemed to be a...

The only thing not going viral in China is the truth. Chinese officials are spewing lies to cover up the massive COVID outbreak there. Worse, U.S. public health officials dawdled for a week, allowing air travelers from China in without testing, while other countries immediately blocked infected travelers from entering. Aerial photos and videos from China show body bags stacked outside hospitals and crematoria, funeral home parking lots full and hospitals overwhelmed with COVID patients jammed into hallways. In Beijing and Sichuan, over 50% of the population is infected, according to internal government documents. Yet the Chinese government officially claims...

The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant is raising concerns of a potential surge in COVID-19 cases as it sweeps across the Northeast. Officials have warned in recent weeks that the strain is highly transmissible, can more easily evade the immunity offered by vaccines or prior infections than past variants — and is likely to drive cases up around the country.

The promise of more lockdowns, more government handouts, and more control — the left can barely contain their excitement. Reports indicating that COVID-19 cases are surging in China are causing concern that a potentially deadly new virus variant could emerge, even as genetic sequencing to detect and catch such a threat is dwindling. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is relatively blind to what exactly is taking place in China because its government is no longer releasing detailed Covid data. But the apparent spread has medical experts and political leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere worried about the possibility that...

The omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 has rapidly spread to become the dominant COVID-19 mutation in the U.S., now accounting for 40.5 percent of all cases. The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant as of this week has pushed out the BQ.1 and the BQ.1.1 subvariants from their previous positions as the most detected coronavirus mutations, according to surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The XBB subvariant, from which XBB.1.5 descends, is a recombinant of two subvariants that descended from the BA.2 omicron subvariant. That means it carries genetic data from two versions of the coronavirus that originated from the...

Amid warnings from health officials and the White House over a new COVID-19 surge coming this winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a new variant is now dominant in parts of the Northeast. The Omicron subvariant XBB accounts for about 52.6% of all cases in New England between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24, according to the CDC. XBB constitutes 18.3% of cases across the country. “It looks like it’s just going to blow the other (variants) away in a very short period,” Jeremy Luban, professor of molecular medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biotechnology at UMass Chan Medical...

A new study conducted by scientists at the University of Colorado confirms that the COVID-19 “vaccines” have been shedding and transmitting antibodies to those who chose to avoid the injection via aerosols. These findings should not come as a surprise though, because a confidential Pfizer document had already confirmed that exposure to the mRNA injections was perfectly possible by skin-to-skin contact and breathing the same air as someone who had been given the Covid-19 jab. This means that the vast majority of humanity has had absolutely no choice in the matter of whether they wish to get the Covid-19 injection...

The European Medicines Agency says a new wave of COVID-19 infections will hit the continent in the coming weeks as we move towards winter. The EMA held a press conferenc in the Netherlands where officials said the pandemic is not over and that the Omicron variant continues to mutate and therefore to cause concern. "Last week one of these new Omicron variants that is called BQ.1 has been identified in at least five countries in the European Union and European Economic Area," explained Dr. Marco Cavaleri, Head of Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy. "According to the ECDC BQ.1 and each...

(NEXSTAR) – On Nov. 26, 2021, the World Health Organization gave omicron its name, designating it a “variant of concern.” It was the day after Thanksgiving, and the first omicron-caused case of COVID-19 had just been confirmed in the U.S. One month later, on Christmas, nearly 200,000 new cases were being confirmed daily. On Jan. 3, more than a million people tested positive, and the U.S. found itself in the biggest COVID-19 surge of the pandemic’s history. Nearly a year after omicron first landed in America, we have seen sublineages of omicron spread left and right – BA.2, then BA.4...

A new subvariant of the novel-coronavirus called XBB dramatically announced itself earlier this week, in Singapore. New COVID-19 cases more than doubled in a day, from 4,700 on Monday to 11,700 on Tuesday—and XBB is almost certainly why. The same subvariant just appeared in Hong Kong, too.A highly mutated descendant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that drove a record wave of infections starting around a year ago, XBB is in many ways the worst form of the virus so far. It’s more contagious than any previous variant or subvariant. It also evades the antibodies from monoclonal therapies,...

Dr. Anthony Fauci has a sober warning for Americans: Don’t be surprised if a new, more dangerous Covid variant emerges this upcoming winter. “We should anticipate that we very well may get another variant that would emerge, that would elude the immune response that we’ve gotten from infection and/or from vaccination,” Fauci said at an event with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism this week. Statistically, pandemic trends like hospitalizations and deaths are currently down nationwide: The seven-day moving average of new Covid deaths in the U.S. is 323 as of Wednesday, for example. That’s far lower than the...

Pfizer CEO Bails On EU Testimony After Report Highlights 'Secretive' Vaccine Deal Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has bailed on an appointment to testify before the European Parliament's special committee, where he was expected to face tough questions over secretive vaccine deals ... Bourla was scheduled to appear before the panel on Oct. 10, alongside key officials involved in the EUs vaccine procurement process, in order to discuss how to respond to future pandemics. According to the report, "Other pharmaceutical executives have addressed the committee, including the CEO of Moderna and senior officials from AstraZeneca and Sanofi." Bourla? Not so much....