Free Republic

While Covid-19 rates have been increasing throughout much of the country, the message from many of our public health and political leaders has become one of minimizing and denial. This is happening nationwide, but some physicians at Boston’s preeminent hospitals are more often in the news. We know that high-quality masks work to prevent infection. But Boston area hospitals (among others) dropped masking requirements on May 12. Massachusetts General Brigham went so far as to tell patients they can no longer ask staff members to mask. This has understandably caused an outcry among immunocompromised patients who fear seeking care due...

A Texas man who had organized a “Freedom Rally” in protest of COVID-19 restrictions is now on a ventilator after becoming infected with COVID, according to his pregnant wife. ...The San Angelo Standard-Times had reported that Caleb had been hospitalized with COVID for more than a month, with Wallace telling the paper that her husband initially refused to get tested for the virus and tried his own vitamin regimen to treat himself rather than seeing a doctor. Most days his wife said that she and her three daughters FaceTime him in the hospital with the help of a nurse, though...

An anti-mask protester in California is under fire for more than just her unorthodox medical beliefs after she was caught on video striking a masked woman who identified herself as a breast cancer patient by hitting her in the chest during a heated demonstration outside of a treatment center. Anti-mask demonstrators appear to have been gathered outside of the Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services building in West Hollywood Thursday to protest the facility’s rule that all persons who enter building wear a mask, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says he’s not wearing a mask at the Capitol anymore, since he’s vaccinated against Covid-19. Cruz joined his Republican colleagues Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Ky., in ditching face coverings. In the House, members and aides are required to wear masks, but the Senate has no such rule. "At this point, I’ve been vaccinated. Everybody working in the Senate has been vaccinated," Cruz told CNN. A reporter told Cruz that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still recommends vaccinated people wear masks in public. "CDC has said in small groups, particularly...

Allen was thrilled when she was able to book an appointment for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the Javits Center on March 10. The sprawling convention space had just received new shipments of vaccine and was jabbing New Yorkers around the clock — Allen’s appointment was at 2 a.m. As a wine and spirits distributor, she was able to get a coveted early spot even while vaccines remained unavailable to most New Yorkers. Though she experienced a brief fever the next day, her side effects from the jab quickly resolved. Even after Allen was vaccinated, she was careful...

A rowdy group of anti-maskers marched through a Target in Florida and shouted at other shoppers to “Take off that mask,” viral video shows. Footage on Twitter Tuesday showed the crowd parading around the aisles of the store — located in Ft. Lauderdale, according to HuffPost — and disregarding the store’s face mask requirement as one of them exclaims, “We’re not going to take it anymore!” “Anti-maskers in Florida invade a Target,” wrote a user who shared the video, which has received more than 6.6 million views as of Wednesday afternoon. Another video posted to YouTube showed the same group...