Free Republic

President Joe Biden has a history of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus that spans years, making grandiose claims that vaccinated Americans would not contract the illness or spread the virus. It is a great irony, given that he has contracted the virus, and his wife, Jill Biden, tested positive for it for the second time on Monday. Both of them are vaccinated and boosted. “This evening, the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19,” the first lady’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement on Monday, adding that Jill Biden is “currently experiencing only mild symptoms” and staying at her...

New York Attorney General Letitia James is appealing a lawsuit that struck down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures” regulation, according to state Sen. George Borrello. In a March 13 press release, Borrello said that James, a Democrat, formally submitted an appeal of the State Supreme Court ruling on Monday. A New York judge in July overturned the rule allowing the Department of Health to place citizens exposed to or infected with highly contagious diseases such as COVID-19 in quarantine “locations” for an indefinite time without review. “It’s disappointing, but not a surprise, that state officials have chosen to...

Estimates from China’s top health authority say that nearly 37 million people were infected with COVID-19 in a single day on Dec. 20, according to a Bloomberg report. The report added that it is also likely that 248 million people contracted the virus in the first 20 days of the month. According to Bloomberg, the minutes didn’t note the number of deaths from COVID-19. Cases in China have surged just weeks after the country moved away from nearly three years of a strict “zero-COVID” policy. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday sounded the alarm over rising...

Flu season is intensifying in the U.S. with more than six million cases confirmed so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday. The federal health agency said in a weekly update it has already recorded more than 53,000 hospitalizations and 29,000 deaths from the flu this season, as of the week ending Nov. 19. Twelve children have died from the flu so far, the CDC said, and the cumulative hospitalization rate is the highest it’s been at this point in the flue season since the 2010-2011 one. The CDC recommends that everyone aged 6 months...

Former Democratic congressman and Texas gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke has canceled all further campaign events after being hospitalized, he announced on Twitter. O’Rourke announced his hospitalization on Twitter. He claimed that, after “feeling ill,” he was taken to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, on August 26th, where he was “diagnosed with a bacterial infection.” O’Rourke also confirmed that he was placed on an intravenous (IV) antibiotics dispenser. The procedure, where antibiotics are injected directly into the bloodstream, is used for serious infections when oral antibiotics cannot reach tissues quickly enough. O’Rourke had been discharged from Methodist Hospital Saturday and...

Most people infected by the omicron variant of COVID-19 were not aware they had it, according to a new study. “More than one in every two people who were infected with omicron didn’t know they had it,” the study’s first author and an investigator at Cedars-Sinai Sandy Y. Joung said in a media release. “Awareness will be key for allowing us to move beyond this pandemic.” Investigators conducting a study examining COVID-19 and the effect of vaccines identified nearly 2,500 blood samples from patients just before and after the start of omicron’s surge – identifying 210 people who likely had...

LONDON (AP) — The prevalence of COVID-19 in the U.K. has reached record levels, with about 1 in 13 people estimated to be infected with the virus in the past week, according to the latest figures from Britain’s official statistics agency. Some 4.9 million people were estimated to have the coronavirus in the week ending March 26, up from 4.3 million recorded in the previous week, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. The latest surge is driven by the more transmissible omicron variant BA.2, which is the dominant variant across the U.K.

Three people in Hawaii who were fully vaccinated have tested positive for COVID-19 — but health officials are still urging everyone to get jabbed. The individuals became infected after receiving both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, news station KITV reported.

GENEVA (AP) — The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said Monday its “best estimates” indicate that roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus — more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases — and warned of a difficult period ahead. Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking to a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board focusing on COVID-19, said the figures vary from urban to rural, and between different groups, but that ultimately it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” He said the pandemic would continue to...

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China's state-run Global Times newspaper, stated today that US President Donald Trump and the First Lady have "paid the price for his gamble to play down" the coronavirus pandemic and that this may also "negatively affect" his campaign. "President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19. The news shows the severity of the US' pandemic situation. It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the US, and may also negatively affect his re-election," ...

Almost 100,000 American children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July — an alarming 40 percent rise, according to new data. As officials continue to wrestle over the safest way to get kids back to school, a compilation of states’ data shows a clear increase in youngsters getting infected — with at least 86 dying since May. The true figures are likely higher, with some states not breaking down cases by age, and the only New York data available coming from the city, and not the rest of the Empire State.

A journalist who covered President Trump's rally in Tulsa, Okla., last week announced Friday he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Paul Monies, a reporter for Oklahoma Watch, said he got his positive diagnosis Friday, though he is not experiencing symptoms. "Friends, I tested positive for #COVID19. I'm pretty surprised. I have zero symptoms (so far) and I feel fine. In fact, I ran 5 miles this morning. I spent the last few hours calling people I know I've been in contact with in the last 14 days. Be safe out there," he wrote on Twitter.

LONDON — Two months ago, when there were roughly one million confirmed coronavirus cases and the primal politics of survival was sweeping the world, shutting down was the order of the day. This week, the number of cases soared past seven million, with 136,000 new infections detected on Sunday alone, the highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The order of the day? Reopening..... “This is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, warned at a news conference in Geneva this week. The...

(CNN)Dutch authorities believe a mink may have infected a human with Covid-19, and are instituting mandatory testing at all mink farms in the Netherlands. "On the basis of new research results from the ongoing research into Covid-19 infections at mink farms, it is plausible that an infection took place from mink to human," the Dutch government said in a statement late Tuesday night. "It also appears from this research that minks can have Covid-19 without displaying symptoms." The government said antibody testing of minks would be expanded to "all mink farms in the Netherlands and will become mandatory." The government...

George Stephanopoulos, chief anchor for ABC News, announced Monday he had tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest high-profile broadcast journalist to become infected with the disease. Stephanopoulos suggested he likely contracted Covid-19 from his wife, actress and comedian Ali Wentworth, who disclosed she had tested positive earlier this month.

Tucker Carlson reports latest statistics showing 86% of those infected DO NOT KNOW they are infected with COVID-19. So, if you've got it, but don't feel it, with no affects, what exactly is this all about ? Nothing. Nothing except carrying the disease to elders who are at much greater risk. That should be the focus. I chronologically qualify as one of those at greater risk, but still believe this is massively overblown. Certainly not worth shutting down the country and ruining life savings and the economy.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8089183/Americans-trapped-locked-northern-Italy-free-fly-home.html

The Northshore School District says all schools will be closed for up to two weeks beginning Thursday, March 5 due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid made the announcement in a letter to Northshore families, citing the "rapidly changing situation" with COVID-19. Reid said earlier Wednesday that a parent volunteer at the district's Woodmoor Elementary tested "presumptive positive" for coronavirus.

A Chinese doctor who warned about the coronavirus in December and was reprimanded by Chinese authorities for "spreading rumors" has been infected by the illness. “Today’s nucleic acid (novel coronavirus) test came back positive. Everything is settled now — it’s finally confirmed,” Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, wrote on Weibo, a Chinese social media app. Wuhan Central Hospital is ground zero for the epidemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 250 Chinese people and infected over 10,000. In late December, Li and eight other doctors reported sick patients with symptoms that bore a striking resemblance...

Hong Kong infectious disease experts are urging the government to take “draconian” measures against the spread of the deadly new coronavirus from the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, citing research estimating that 44,000 patients could be infected there – far higher than official figures. University of Hong Kong academics on Monday estimated that the number of patients in Wuhan had reached 43,590 by Saturday, including those in the incubation stage of the virus, which causes pneumonia. Mainland authorities have put the number of confirmed cases across the country at about 2,800 as of Monday, with the death toll at 82....