Free Republic

Yesterday we discussed the fact that the Governor of Rhode Island had sought legal advice as to whether or not she could close the borders of her state to people arriving from New York City, effectively instituting a travel ban on people who live in or had visited Gotham. That turned out not to be possible because of pesky constitutional considerations. But what if a governor wanted to set up such a ban inside of their own state? That’s a question that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo may have to deal with this week. It’s not just people in...

When John Sexton wrote about New York City residents failing at social distancing, I don’t think he expected it to go this far. Stopping New Yorkers from keeping the party going in the city that never sleeps is proving even harder than expected. As John pointed out, the Mayor still hasn’t closed the parks, so people are out there jogging, congregating and taking in the spring weather together. But that doesn’t hold a candle to Big Apple resident Lucian Wintrich, who you may remember as a reporter for the Gateway Pundit.Lucian decided to make the best of a bad...

FDA issues emergency use authorization for donated hydroxychloroquine sulfate, chloroquine phosphate The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division, and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, for possible use in treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or for use in clinical trials. These and other companies may donate additional doses, and companies have ramped up production to provide additional supplies of the medication to the commercial market. “President Trump is taking every possible step to protect Americans from the...

Looks like the party’s definitely over. A father in New York reportedly banned his son from the family home after the college student went on a spring break trip amidst the coronavirus pandemic. According to the father, it’s just too risky. I spoke with him every day and told him that maybe they should come home,” Peter told the New York Post. “I was aggravated. The news here was getting worse and worse. Matt sent me pictures of him and his friends congregating outdoors and listening to live music. It’s the scene you would not want to be in.” Matt and his friends apparently...

It is generally accepted that widespread testing will be key to successful control of Covid-19. Identifying where the virus has (and has not) spread, who is infected, and who may be immune are all important. The tracing and isolation of infected and potentially infected individuals is essential if quarantine and containment efforts are to be targeted. Yet as ProPublica reports: "The lack of testing continues to be a source of deep frustration across the country, with worried patients unable to find out whether they have the ordinary flu, the coronavirus or something else entirely. The availability of testing in regions...

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorization for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The drugs — which are used to treat malaria and other conditions — have been called game changers by President Donald Trump. But thus far, there is little scientific evidence that chloroquine, or its closely-related analogue hydroxychloroquine, are effective in treating Covid-19. What happened? The authorization came in a letter dated Saturday, but the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledged the FDA’s action in a Sunday news release. The FDA limited the...

Independent Chinese media outlet Caixin Global revealed that Chinese laboratories had in fact identified a mystery virus — later identified as COVID-19 — to be a highly infectious new pathogen by late December 2019. But they were ordered to stop further testing, destroy samples, and suppress the news to the fullest extent possible.

The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, decades-old malaria drugs championed by President Donald Trump for coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence. The agency allowed for the drugs to be "donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible," HHS said in a statement, announcing that Sandoz donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine. (Please see link, for full...

Federal law enforcement officials are reportedly investigating a series of stock market transactions that were made by U.S. lawmakers prior to the stock market tanking as a result of the coronavirus rapidly spreading throughout the U.S. “The inquiry, which is still in its early stages and being done in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has so far included outreach from the FBI to at least one lawmaker, Sen. Richard Burr, seeking information about the trades, according to one of the sources,” CNN reported. “Public scrutiny of the lawmakers’ market activity has centered on whether members of Congress sought...

With all the bad news and negativity during this time of crisis, I'm confident that some of us have experienced kind words and deeds from our fellow human beings. I'd like to start a post documenting common (or uncommon) acts of kindness amid the chaos. Please share your experiences here. I'm sure there are many. I'll start with a video.Creativity and Kindness amid Coronavirus Pandemic Music, humor, scripture, uplifting quotes and stories are all welcome here. Just no negativity. (There is plenty of that on other threads.) We can get through this with faith, hope, love, and good cheer.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his Sandoz generics unit's malaria, lupus and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine is the company's biggest hope against the coronavirus, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million doses and is supporting clinical trials needed before the medicine, which U.S. President Donald Trump also has been promoting, can be approved for use against the coronavirus. Other companies including Bayer and Teva have also agreed to donate hydroxychloroquine or similar drugs, while Gilead Sciences is testing its experimental drug remdesivir against coronavirus. (Please see link, for full story)

Italy Has Been Chastised. But by Whom? As things now stand, worldwide the number of reported cases of the viral disease misdescribed as “the coronavirus” — there are many coronaviruses circulating in the world, including the one that causes the common cold — stands at 576,000, while the fatalities attributed to the disease stand at 26,000. That’s a fatality rate of 4.5%, but that is based on a tiny sample of the world’s population of 7 billion with a large selection bias in favor of those who are sick or very sick and have sought medical attention. In fact, among...

Watchman on the wall. Weekly prophecy update.

Very enthused for Trump: 52% Very enthused for Biden: 24%

March 30 2020 Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent Reading 1 Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62 In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he was the most respected of them all.That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said, “Wickedness has come out...

Doctors in Italy have finally began widely prescribing hydroxychloroquine in certain combinations in Rome and the wider region of Lazio with a population of around six million. According to Corriere della Sera, a well known Italian daily newspaper, Dr. Pier Luigi Bartoletti, Deputy National Secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners, explains that every single person with Covid-19 that has early signs, like a cough or a fever for example, is now being treated with the anti-malaria drug. The drug “is already giving good results,” Bartoletti says while Malaysia reveals they have been using it since the very beginning....

I am issuing this challenge to the President: in the next 48 hours, direct the production and distribution of respirator masks, gloves, protective face shields and gowns to fill every supply request made by a governor to the federal government. Lives are at stake.— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 30, 2020

New York State and in particular, New York City, have been the hardest-hit regions in the U.S. as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. But recent data suggests that the area might be starting to see a turn that infections are slowing. Farzad Mostashari, the founder of primary care start-up Aledade and the former national coordinator for health information technology at the Dept. of Health and Human Services, tweeted that there "may" be some early signs of promise in recent data.

Alan Merrill, the former Arrows bandmate who co-wrote and sang "I Love Rock 'N' Roll," died on Sunday at age 69 from the coronavirus, his daughter confirmed. “The Coronavirus took my father this morning. I was given 2 minutes to say my goodbyes before I was rushed out. He seemed peaceful and as I left there was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be a ticker on the right hand side of the CNN/Fox news screen,” his daughter, Laura Merrill, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “I walked 50 blocks home still with hope in my heart....

A top medical executive at a Buffalo hospital was fired this weekend after demanding that supporters of President Donald Trump renounce ventilators if they become critically ill with coronavirus. In a Facebook exchange, Laura Krolczyk, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center's now former vice president for external affairs, wrote, "Trump supporters need to pledge to give up their ventilators for someone else ... and not go to the hospital." Krolczyk also said Trump supporters should "barricade themselves" inside churches to ride out the coronavirus. "Also don't cash your stimulus check. It's all a hoax. Chew some ibuprofen and be on with...