Free Republic

With so much of the workforce going remote this past year, there has been a huge shift in the way many people view pet ownership. In fact, the national pet adoption rate jumped more than 30% at the beginning of the pandemic, and animal rescue organizations reported an overall increase in adoptions of 30 – 50% in 2020. Not only has the spread of remote work helped match pets to homes, but we know that animals have been shown to reduce stress and provide much needed comfort and social support to many workers during the pandemic. The shift to work-from-home...

On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading expert in infection diseases in the U.S., testified before Congress amid growing alarm surrounding the 80% spike in confirmed COVID-19 infections in the past two weeks. About halfway through the session, Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked Fauci for a direct assessment of where the country could be headed if the surge in cases is not abated. He did not mince words. “We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day,” Fauci said. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Friday that he will roll back some of the state’s reopening as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to rise.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has warned that the state’s phased reopening may have to be reversed after tens of thousands of complaints of violations of social distancing and other emergency requirements were received statewide.The governor revealed June 14 during a daily press briefing that more than 25,000 complaints were made against businesses in New York—the state hardest hit by the CCP virus—with the majority of the complaints in Manhattan and the Hamptons, affluent beach communities on the east end of Long Island. We have received 25,000 complaints of reopening violations.Bars or restaurants that violate the law can lose...

The legislature on Tuesday passed a resolution directing Gov. Tom Wolf to end the COVID-19 disaster emergency, and reopen all businesses.

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to announce which counties will be next to move into the green phase of his coronavirus reopening plan on Friday. Who could make the cut? As of 12:01 a.m. today, Friday, June 5, every county has exited the state’s complete stay at home order, otherwise known as the red phase. That means 33 counties are in the yellow phase, where aggressive mitigation must be practiced, while 34 are in the green, or the least restrictive phase of Wolf’s plan. Under it, all businesses can open again as long as they follow CDC and Pa....

As governments continue to ease restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the burden of managing risk is shifting to people. Experts have advised people for months to wear masks, wash their hands and stay 6 feet apart. But now that some public places are reopening, individuals must decide for themselves which ones to continue to avoid and which ones pose little risk of spreading the virus. MLive spoke to the following four public health experts in Michigan, asking them to assess the risk various activities pose to spreading coronavirus. Dr. Matthew Sims, Beaumont Health director of infectious disease research Dr. Dennis...

The beginning of phase 2 has NOT been given the green light from Governor Cuomo. This revelation comes after hours of mixed messages from local leaders and state officials late Thursday night. Governor Cuomo seemed to contradict the idea that Phase 2 was a natural two-week progression from Phase 1 in a radio interview Thursday afternoon with WAMC in Albany. In it, he spoke about sending state data to international researchers for analysis.

Casinos in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities can reopen next Thursday for the first time since the coronavirus forced the gaming industry to shut down more than two months ago, Gov. Steve Sisolak says. The state plans to revive its gaming industry nearly a week after it starts Phase 2 of its reopening this Friday. "We continue to see a consistent and sustainable downward trajectory of percentage of positive COVID-19 cases and a decrease in the trend of COVID-19 hospitalizations," Sisolak said Tuesday night. Casinos are forming plans that they hope will entice customers to return. As Nevada Public...

Today, Vice President Mike Pence led a discussion with the chief executives of approximately 50 States, territories, and the city of Washington, DC, and the White House Coronavirus Task Force to discuss best practices and continue the dialogue on the important Federal-State partnership on COVID-19 response, recovery, and re-opening efforts.  Vice President Pence led a discussion of best practices from our Nation’s governors on re-open strategies, expanding testing capacity, and supply chain management. In addition to the Vice President, governors heard from White House Coronavirus Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on maximizing testing and outbreak modeling, Centers for Medicare &...

How we respond to the novel coronavirus should be based on emerging evidence about the danger posed by the virus — a reasonable road. Despite what many people hoped, COVID-19 is clearly worse than the seasonal flu. But despite what other people feared, it doesn’t seem to be nearly as lethal as the Spanish Flu of 1918, which killed about 0.7 percent of the total US population — the equivalent of more than 2 million people today. As we move from lockdowns to something more closely resembling normal life, the emerging evidence about the threat posed by COVID-19 should inform...

Adams County district attorney Brian Sinnett told The York Dispatch that “appropriate enforcement action will take place” if Lincoln Speedway runs another dirt track racing program in violation of Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus reopening plan orders. It sets up what should be an interesting couple of days ahead, as Lincoln already has announced plans to hold 410 and 358 sprints this Saturday after running a program on Memorial Day in front of fans despite being in the yellow phase of Wolf’s plan, which doesn’t allow for gatherings of more than 25 people and also doesn’t give a green light...

Pa. bars, restaurants, and retail food service businesses now have a game plan for what will be allowed when they reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. New guidance released by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration on Wednesday offers a detailed list of how many people can visit a spot at one time, whether or not masks will be mandated, and what the rules are in specific counties. Here’s everything you need to know. What can reopen, and when? Bars, restaurants, and retail food service businesses located in a green county of Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan can offer limited dine-in options indoors and...

WILLIAMSPORT — The chairman of the Lycoming County board of commissioners wants to know what is needed to get the county into the “green” phase of Gov. Wolf’s COVID-19 reopening plan. “What aren’t we passing?” Commissioner Scott L. Metzger asked after Wolf at his Wednesday news conference with Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said the county was not ready to leave the “yellow.” “The Wolf Administration’s job is to ensure our residents’ safety,” a spokesperson for Levine said later. “We were not confident that Lycoming was ready to go from yellow to green.” The commissioners by letter Tuesday asked Wolf...

Gov. Tom Wolf announced a series of reopening guidelines for professional sports and their teams in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Most professional sports leagues have been on hold since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the announcement, professional sports are allowed to resume practices and events or games without spectators in counties in the yellow or green phase of reopening if the team or league has developed a coronavirus safety plan. The coronavirus safety plan must be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and “include, among other requirements, testing or screening and monitoring of all on-venue players and...

The owner of a Lehigh County gym who opened Sunday in defiance of the shutdown of non-life-sustaining businesses received two summary citations, making it the first Lehigh Valley business cited during the coronavirus pandemic. Ed G. Frack opened his gym, SuperSets in Hanover Township, and encouraged other struggling small-business owners and anyone who supported them to join him outside the gym.

In mid-April, 69 percent of 2,394 registered U.S. voters polled said it is “necessary” to develop a coronavirus vaccine “before we reopen the economy.” Politicians are beginning to shift the goalposts in this direction as well, from “flattening the curve” to avoid overwhelming hospitals with COVID-19 patients to restricting social and economic activity “until we have a vaccine.”For example, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that Californians will not be allowed to get “back to normal…until we get to immunity and a vaccine.” This while he unveiled “Depression era” job losses that have already cost California taxpayers billions in unemployment...

How does one define an economic “reopening”? I think most people would say that a reopening means that everything goes back to the way it was before the crisis; or at least as close as possible. Most people would also say that a reopening is something that will last. Simply declaring “America has reopened” while keeping many restrictions in place in certain parts of the country is a bit of a farce. And, reopening with the intention of implementing lockdowns again in a matter of weeks without explaining the situation to the public is a scam of the highest order....

Two Round the Clock Diner locations in York County were told their business licenses are revoked as of Friday. Written warnings were issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on May 14 to both locations at 222 Arsenal Road and 145 Memory Lane, according to the department’s spokeswoman Shannon Powers. But, because they reopened ahead of Gov. Tom Wolf’s timeline, the state revoked both business licenses. Powers wrote in an email, "The Agriculture Department’s food safety inspectors did follow-up inspections on May 20 and found the businesses still in violation of Governor Wolf’s March 19 executive order. Both locations were...

In a call with reporters Thursday, Wolf said his administration planned to announce “a whole range” of counties would move to the yellow phase. He also hinted that he may announce some counties will move to the “green” phase, or the final phase of reopening under which there are no restrictions on which establishments can and can’t be open, but social-distancing guidelines and other safety precautions remain in place. The administration had established metrics to determine when counties would move from the red to the yellow phase, and the administration did so largely by region. Among those metrics were testing...