Free Republic

Singapore is experiencing a new wave of COVID-19, with authorities recording over 25,900 cases from May 5 to 11. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung advised the public to wear masks again on Saturday. “We are at the beginning part of the wave where it is steadily rising,” Kung stated. “So, I would say the wave should peak in the next two to four weeks, which means between mid- and end of June,” he told The Straits Times. The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported that the number of COVID-19 cases increased significantly, from 13,700 the previous week to 25,900 in the...

There was plenty of calculated strategy behind Western governments’ COVID madness. The COVID police state revealed Western governments’ zeal for totalitarianism. Forced masking, forced experimental injections, forced school and business closures, forced isolation, and forced compliance provided Western citizens an opportunity to see the tyrannical inclinations hiding just beneath the surface of their supposedly beneficent “democracies.” None of it was pretty. Mass propaganda disguised as medical expertise (remember when Joe Biden and his CDC army of Goebbels clones demanded that we wear three or more masks outside?) and mass censorship of social media conversations (because, we were frequently told, disinformation...

The first thing you see are the masks — the N-95s, the surgical masks, the patterned cloth masks, the bandanas — which largely vanished from American life over the last two years but are a defining feature of America’s swelling left-wing protest culture. Faculty members at New York University link arms to protect a “Gaza solidarity encampment,” most of them wearing face masks. Activists block travel across the Golden Gate Bridge, all of them in masks. Members of the March on DNC 2024 coalition show up to their Chicago press conference in face masks, removing them only when it’s their...

On Good Friday, March 29, 2024, I I cut my hand and had to go to the nearby Urgent Care her in Phoenix. They stitched up my hand and scheduled me to come back in a couple of weeks to get the stitches removed. When I went back, the Urgent Care center got masky in the meantime. I told them I would wait outside, and "You do know that the studies now show that the masks don't do anything useful." When I came in, I did put the mask on over my mouth, but not my nose. When I was...

Crises have the power to expose tensions within ideologies, and the current pandemic has made some of those in contemporary American conservatism vividly apparent. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas is not only fighting a COVID-19 infection—he’s also on the front lines of a clash within conservatism. The Republican has declared his state “the Freedom Capital of America.” He has consistently prioritized cutting regulations on business, and in a 2018 opinion column boasted, “Innovation and self-reliance are deeply rooted in the Lone Star State, and when freed from the stranglehold of over taxation and overregulation, new ideas flourish. By limiting...

Can I trust you? Wait … can I really trust you? What if you’d given me your word that you’d never betray me, but then you discovered that betraying me could make you really rich, or really successful, or even just a bit happier? A lot of us discover—sometimes too late—that verbal contracts aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. But, what about social contracts? What about the warp and weft of what keeps humans making moral sense to one another? This always matters. But, it matters especially at the moment, when we are all deciding how we should...

Protesters against the American response to the Israel-Hamas war shut down a pair of freeways in the Bay Area during the Monday morning rush hour, including blocking traffic on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Southbound U.S. Highway 101 across the bridge and northbound Interstate 880 in nearby Oakland were blocked starting around 7:30 a.m. PDT on Monday, California Highway Patrol said. Protesters carried signs reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Bay Area Demands No Murder for Profit,” in reference to American military support for Israel.

In 2020, Dr. Scott Atlas was an advisor to the president and a member of the White House COVID-19 Task Force. He was shocked to see how powerful figures in Washington, including Dr. Fauci, were incentivized to politicize and monetize the response to the pandemic. In this candid conversation with PragerU CEO Marissa Streit, Dr. Atlas reveals that many Americans may have died because of censorship, dishonesty, and the demonization of medical dissent. Will Americans allow this to happen again?

We just passed the fourth anniversary of “15 Days To Slow the Spread,” the start of the COVID lockdowns that did damage from which we still haven’t recovered. ... Anthony Fauci, Nancy Pelosi and Bill de Blasio were telling us not to worry, to take cruises and go visit Chinatown ... They reversed course like a week later. ... Neither the lockdowns nor the masking requirements did any good, though they caused a lot of trauma, inconvenience and colossal economic destruction. ... Then there were the deaths caused by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s program of moving still-contagious COVID patients into old-folks’...

Some residents say the new regulation makes them feel safer, while others say it compromises their survival.For Leem Washington, ski masks aren’t just a fashion accessory that protects his face from the biting cold of Philadelphia winters — they also keep him from being a victim of mistaken identity. “In Philly, you have to pick your poison,” said Washington, 19, noting that growing up in West Philadelphia, one of the most crime-plagued parts of the city, has left him in a constant state of “paranoia.” Ski masks, he said, are a form of protection from being wrongly identified for a...

New Report Details Horrifying Cost of Fauci’s FailuresIn the post-pandemic period of Covid, there’s now a concerted effort to comprehend and explain the damage that was caused by our capitulating to the hysterical overreaction and overreach of the ‘experts.’ There’s a long list of policy failures to examine; mask mandates were a disaster that accomplished absolute nothing of value, but instead led to tremendous harms, many of which continue today.Children were forced into masks for years on end, millions of people still wear masks when traveling or inside stores and restaurants, permanently convinced of the deliberate falsehood that masks are...

There is little doubt that the COVID-19 restrictions in place now have caused major disruptions in our daily life and have had negative economic impacts on California families, especially the working poor. But consider how much worse it would be if we in California hadn’t moved quickly to “flatten the curve.” An out-of-control pandemic would rage through our state at numbers unimaginable and would have much more severe consequences on the health of Californians, as well as the economy. Thankfully, California is once again leading the way by taking major measures such as shelter in place, physical distancing, orders to...

Francis: “We Must Obey The United Nations” “If we consider ourselves humanity, then our duty is to obey when international organizations make statements,” Pope Francis insisted during his September 10 press conference on board from Madagascar to Rome. He gave as examples the the United Nations (UN) and the International Crime Court (ICC) in The Hague. Francis added, that “we must obey international institutions.” And, “That is why the United Nations were created.” However, many UN policies are deeply immoral. They punish countries and institutions which do not bow to the demands of the abortion and gay tyranny. The ICC...

VIDEOUntil now I thought that the most RIDICULOUS Covid mask worn by a public figure was the Darth Vader double mask rig worn by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. However, it seems I will now have to revise that assessment due to the picture in this video which serves to reveal the inner Dork of its wearer, Naheed Nenshi, the former mayor of Calgary who is now running to become the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP). For those of you not living in Canada or down here in Baja Canada aka South Florida (now home to the best...

More than 17% of U.S. adults reported having ever experienced symptoms of long COVID as of February, according to the Household Pulse Survey. Much has changed since the World Health Organization first called COVID-19 a pandemic four years ago today. As the U.S. enters its fifth year with the coronavirus, vaccines are available and have been updated to more closely match the spreading variants. Treatments and tests for the coronavirus are accessible. The U.S. government relaxed its coronavirus guidance and officially ended its national emergency declarations in perhaps the largest symbolic step away from the pandemic.

A federal court dismissed a case Tuesday against Republican Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds’ prohibition of mask mandate in school districts across the state, official documents showed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found “persuasive” the argument that “the general risks associated with COVID-19, even though COVID-19 remains an ever-present concern in society, are not enough to show ‘imminent and substantial’ harm,” court papers showed in part. The court also decided that “because Plaintiffs have only alleged the potential risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19 at school, the risk of harm is too speculative to satisfy...

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that refusing to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment. The court ruled on cases involving individuals who claimed retaliation by school boards for not wearing masks at public meetings. The court emphasized that disobeying a masking requirement does not fall under protected speech, comparing it to other forms of non-compliance with the law. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, “A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear...

TRENTON, N.J. -- A federal appeals court shot down claims Monday that New Jersey residents' refusal to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constituted protected speech under the First Amendment. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in two related cases stemming from lawsuits against officials in Freehold and Cranford, New Jersey. The suits revolved around claims that the plaintiffs were retaliated against by school boards because they refused to wear masks during public meetings. In one of the suits, the court sent the case back to a lower court for consideration. In...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The 22nd Statewide Grand Jury on Friday released its first interim report a little more than a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis petitioned its formation. While the governor was primely targeting COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and their advertisement of vaccine efficacy, the first report drew conclusions mainly on lockdowns and masks, and the grand jury said the issue of the vaccines was far more nuanced and could not be answered in a “vacuum.” It also said that the Biden administration did not cooperate with efforts to obtain testimony from officials representing agencies like the CDC, FDA and U.S....