Free Republic

Professional discussion of the harms and benefits of masks and mask mandates cannot even happen privately among doctors without vitriol. This kind of atmosphere kills science.My 18-year-old son, who has Down Syndrome, had a dental procedure last week. We were supposed to have it done in March, but due to the cancellation of outpatient procedures, it was postponed until then. His teeth needed major cleaning, and since he has a ton of oral sensory issues, sedation has become necessary. All went well, thankfully. However, that night the dentist called and talked with my husband, who is an urgent care physician,...

Public health officials are bracing for a new round of COVID-19 case spikes as many Americans traveled and held large family gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday in defiance of mitigation guidance from the government, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned that as the nation heads into December, officials expect “we might see a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in.” “I don’t want to frighten people except to say it’s not too late at all for us to do something about this,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Fauci urged...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) opened up on the viral confrontation caught on tape between his maskless dinner party and bystanders, who heckled him for dining out after he moved to retighten coronavirus restrictions and encouraged people to make their Thanksgiving plans “as small as possible.” “There’s no reason we should have to be having a political discussion about whether or not you’re wearing a mask. We were dining outdoors in the middle of our meal,” he said in a Tuesday appearance on CBS This Morning.

In a tragic irony, the prospect of another 'life-saving' lockdown has drained some senior citizens of their will to live. Assisted suicides and depression are up.An elderly woman who had experienced strict confinement and isolation in a Toronto nursing home under a previous COVID lockdown has narrowly avoided reliving that experience, although at a horrible cost. Toronto went into Ontario’s most restrictive “grey” tier on Monday, including a near-complete ban on social gatherings. Unlike many others in North America who have packed up their belongings and relocated to less restrictive areas during the COVID-19 outbreak, however, her “escape” from lockdown...

Life is too short to live it in fear of dying.More than eight months after “15 days to flatten the curve,” our so-called medical experts, politicos, and pundits are bidding us to avoid our family at all costs over the holidays, lest we die. This Thanksgiving week, family separation is the name of the game, with governors and local authorities implementing onerous restrictions to discourage people from leaving their homes.“If you are planning to spend Thanksgiving with people outside your household, we urge you to reconsider,” wrote a group of governors in the pages of the Washington Post. These authors...

Keeping people from their suffering loved ones does not safeguard them. It merely subjects them to a different kind of suffering — one for which there might be no recovery.One year ago today, my father died following a 10-year battle with cancer. Our family’s final weeks with him likely mirrored those of many other families. With a new wave of COVID-19 lockdowns beginning, however, I feel compelled to share our story because that journey convinces me that we, as a nation, are subjecting the dying to physical and psychological torture in the name of fighting a pandemic.Caring for FamilyI’m not...

So, here is my question. Would you be willing to risk catching Covid if it would mean that your kids and grandkids would have a "normal" life? I am 65, but otherwise I have no co-mobidities, and I am very healthy. I don't want to get the disease, but I would rather be sick for a few weeks if it would mean that life could get back to normal for my family. I am sick of my kids suffering inadequate online classes (for college and graduate courses), of cancelled weddings (twice for us thus far), of cancelled summer plans to...

Power-hungry elites seek to destroy Scott Atlas because he and the scientific coalition he represents makes it clear that these public health emperors may have plenty of masks, but no clothes.The evidence continues to accrue that the dominant policies sold to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak were catastrophically wrong, yet those who pointed this out early on continue to be reputationally crucified by media and Democrat elites. A premiere case in point is White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Scott Atlas, who has been making science-based arguments against locking down healthy people since the earliest months of the pandemic. Because...

I will not be lectured by people who say that eating in a restaurant with health protocols is riskier than shutting down the largest economy in the world.My parents and in-laws haven’t seen their grandkids in nearly a year. Because we live states apart, the most time we spend together is during the holidays and a week in the summer. Due to the lockdown this year, the grandparents have only been able to see our kids during video calls. It could be worse; some dear friends of ours buried a parent during the lockdown with no guests or funeral, and...

While there are real concerns about rising cases and hospitalizations, a national lockdown is a terrible idea, no matter how much money the government borrows to pay for it.In the United States, one size does not fit all, even during a pandemic. Yet some of Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force members have endorsed a national lockdown. While there are real concerns about rising cases and hospitalizations, a national lockdown is a terrible idea, no matter how much money the government borrows to pay for it. In fairness, “lockdown” is a slippery term. Even Sweden, which has been much-praised by those...

Gov. Tom Wolf will meet with the governors of New York, New Jersey and other northeastern states this weekend to discuss possibly coordinating new restrictions to help curb COVID-19 spread as as a second wave of the coronavirus grips the region. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the “emergency summit” on Friday. Gov. Phil Murphy’s office confirmed the meeting to NJ Advance Media, saying the discussion will be held virtually. “Governor Murphy looks forward to continuing our work with our regional partners to address the public health crisis,” spokesman Mahen Gunaratna said. The summit will also include the governors of...

Her Activities Are ‘Essential’ Through her chief of staff, Mayor Muriel Bowser claimed her trip to a political rally constituted ‘essential travel,’ which therefore exempted her and her staff from her own quarantine order. Talk about the D.C. Swamp: Mere days after issuing a revised order regarding quarantines after travel to coronavirus “hot spots,” the mayor of the nation’s capital openly ignored the rules she established.While many will decry Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) for violating the travel restrictions, they shouldn’t feel surprised by her double standards. After all, Bowser and the Washington City Council have compelled D.C. residents with...

Pennsylvania reported nearly 16,000 additional cases of COVID-19 over the last week. The rate of positive tests are increasing and hospitalizations are on the rise. The state is in the midst of a fall resurgence, says Dr. Rachel Levine, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, but is better prepared to deal with the novel coronavirus than it was in the spring. On Monday, Pfizer announced its vaccine shows positive results, and the company plans to request emergency authorization later this month. Levine says Pennsylvania is already putting infrastructure in place to distribute vaccines when they come available.

The couple whose October nuptials on Long Island turned into a COVID-19 superspreader event — sickening at least 34 and resulting in the venue getting its liquor license yanked — has been identified, according to a report. Cydnie Piscatello and James Rugnetta tied the knot on Oct. 17 at North Fork Country Club in Suffolk County in front of 113 guests — more than double the legal limit for events during the pandemic, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday. Photos from the couple’s big day show the bride dressed in a white gown and groom in a navy tuxedo at the...

Volunteers on the Pfizer vaccine trial have compared the jab's side effects to a 'severe hangover' and said it left them with headaches, fever and muscle aches similar to the flu vaccine. One 45-year-old volunteer said the first dose left her suffering side effects similar to the flu jab but that her symptoms were 'more severe' after her second jab. Another volunteer, 44-year-old Glenn Deshields, said Pfizer's vaccine made him feel like he had a 'severe hangover' but that symptoms quickly cleared up. Carrie, a publicist from Missouri who asked for her last name not to be used, said she...

One of Joe Biden's first priorities as president-elect will be implementing mask mandates nationwide by working with governors. The future 46th president, however, says if they refuse than he will go to mayors and county executives and get local masking requirements in place.

Given the ongoing nature of the pandemic, it may seem senseless to make a two-hour film that looks back on how the coronavirus ran rampant in the U.S. And yet, Totally Under Control—from the Oscar-winning writer-director Alex Gibney and his co-directors, Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger—not only documents the chaos of 2020 with clear-eyed precision, but also successfully argues for its own existence.

China's economy is leading the charge for a global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, overshadowing the United States which continues to reel from a rising number of COVID-19 cases. The world's second-largest economy grew 4.9 percent between July and September compared to the same quarter last year, according to government data. But economists had expected growth of 5.2 percent. During the first quarter of the year, China's economy shrank by 6.8 percent as the pandemic closed factories and manufacturing plants. It was China's first economic contraction since the recording of quarterly GDP data began in 1992. Yi Gang, China's central...

As Covid-19 cases continue to jump during the fall surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci says there's little chance of normalcy on the horizon. The US will have a vaccine in the next few months, but there's a chance a "substantial proportion of the people" won't be vaccinated until the second or third quarter of 2021, Fauci said. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reiterated caution on the nation's outlook. "I think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality," Fauci...

Germany will be plunged back into lockdown with restaurants, bars and theaters closed for a month to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19, officials announced Wednesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors said the partial shutdown will go into force Monday, saying it’s needed after a recent surge in new infections. “We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency,” Merkel said in a videoconference.