Data: Schools Aren’t COVID-19 Super-Spreaders

Some new evidence is showing Elementary and high schools do not appear to be super spreaders of COVID-19, according to new data.

The New York Post reports, Brown University economics Professor Emily Oster and data scientists at the technology company Qualtrics collected data on COVID-19 in schools. The data collected on almost 200,000 kids in 47 states from the last two weeks of September revealed an infection rate of 0.13 percent among students and 0.24 percent among staff.

Read More

UIUC Student Kicked off Campus for Refusing Quarantine After Testing Negative for COVID-19

A University of Illinois student was evicted from his dorm and fired from his job as a resident assistant after refusing to quarantine per orders of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department. He told CBS 2 in Chicago and Campus Reform that he has never tested positive for COVID-19 and that this is all a mistake.

Read More

Commentary: Five Charts Showing Sweden’s Strategy Worked

Government officials in Sweden announced this week that the government expects to maintain its mild restrictions on gatherings “for at least another year” to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Unlike most other European countries and nations around the world, Sweden declined to initiate a nationwide lockdown or mask mandates, opting instead for a policy that restricted large gatherings and relied on social responsibility to slow transmission of the virus.

Read More

Commentary: Health Professionals Say Lockdowns Were a Massive Mistake

President Trump caused a bit of a commotion this week when he didn’t die from the coronavirus. Much to the dismay of many folks on the left, he seems to be making a nice recovery from his illness. Perhaps what has offended people more than his continued life is the bravado that he is projecting post-hospitalization at Walter Reed. On Monday, he tweeted in part, “Feeling really good. Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” You can almost imagine the blood vessels popping in folks’ eyes over at CNN and MSNBC. In these politically polarized times, while half the country mourns the commander-in-chief’s apparent survival, perhaps it’s worthwhile for all Americans (and indeed, folks all around the world) to reconsider the level of pure panic and fear that our governments and the media have instilled in us.

Read More

Trump Official Says Vaccine Expected Starting in January

A Trump administration official leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine starting in January 2021, despite statements from the president that inoculations could begin this month.

And a growing, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, experts and public health officials says the country is ill prepared for a projected winter surge of COVID-19.

Read More

Steve Bannon Presents: America Confronts CCP Bioweapon Virus

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

Read More

Commentary: Trump Is Now One with Countless Essential Workers

Joe Biden has redefined mask wearing. It is now the thinking man’s patriotism, what every “scientific” and “refined” mind naturally does.

Biden, the media, and the progressive party all blame the now ill Trump for becoming infected. They accuse the president of becoming sick because he was selfish. You see, he was not always wearing a mask, or not always isolating in social-distancing fashion, or not always staying inside except for essential expeditionary trips.

Read More

Pelosi Says No Standalone Stimulus Bills, Democrats Will Be ‘Talking’ About 25th Amendment Friday

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she won’t agree to “standalone” bills for an airline bailout, direct payments or more stimulus funding for small businesses without an agreement on a “bigger” stimulus bill.

“The only point about negotiations is there ain’t going to be no standalone bill unless there’s a bigger bill and it could be part of that or it could be in addition to that,” said Pelosi, the leader of the Democrat-controlled House, who is negotiating with the White House on another coronavirus stimulus package.

Read More

About 840,000 U.S. Workers File New Claims for Unemployment Benefits

An additional 840,000 American workers filed initial unemployment claims in the week ending Oct. 3, down about 9,000 from the previous week’s revised number but still well above pre-pandemic levels.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the advance seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.5 percent for the week ending Sept. 26, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the prior week. Unemployment rate data lags the new initial claims report by a week.

Read More

White House to Block FDA Vaccine Guidelines That Would’ve Delayed Approval Past Election

The White House blocked new vaccine guidelines proposed by health officials within the Trump administration, which likely would have pushed the approval of a coronavirus vaccine past the election.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is in charge of approving vaccines, proposed the guidance on Sept. 21, according to The New York Times. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows raised concerns with one provision of the guidelines which said vaccine trial subjects should be examined for two months following their final dose, a senior administration official told the Times.

Read More

Trump Administration to Sharply Limit Skilled-Worker Visas

The Trump administration announced plans Tuesday to sharply limit visas for skilled workers from overseas, a move officials said was a priority amid job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor officials said new rules for what’s known as the H1-B program will restrict who can obtain a work visa and will impose additional salary requirements on companies seeking to hire foreign workers.

Read More

Commentary: Biden Is Behind the Curve in Fighting COVID

To hear former Vice President Joe Biden tell it, in January, he had perfect knowledge about the Chinese coronavirus, what its mortality would be and all the actions that would be necessary to save American lives.

On July 20 on MSNBC, Biden claimed, “I, all the way back in January, warned him this pandemic was coming. I talked about what we needed to do,” referring to President Trump and a Jan. 27 oped he wrote on the virus.

Read More

Gov. DeWine on CNN: President Trump’s COVID Diagnosis is a ‘Cautionary Tale’ for Mask Wearing

In an appearance of CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine appeared to “mask-shame” President Trump, saying that the Chief executive’s diagnosis of the potentially deadly disease serves as a “cautionary tale” for people who are reluctant to wear masks.

DeWine, a fairly frequent guest on the news program told host Jake Tapper that “this should be kind of an alert to everybody that anybody can get the virus, even president of the United States can get the virus.”

Read More

Guatemala Says it Will Detain Around 2,000 Migrants Bound for the U.S.

Guatemala says it will detain and return a migrant caravan of around 2,000 that entered the country from Honduras on Thursday, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei vowed the caravan would be sent back to Honduras over concerns about coronavirus, the AP reported. The caravan overpowered Guatemalan border guards who reportedly made little attempt to control the situation, according to the AP.

Read More

‘I Think I’ll Be Back Soon,’ President Trump Says in Optimistic New Video Message from Hospital

“I think I’ll be back soon,” President Trump said Saturday evening in a four-minute video from Walter Reed Medical Center, where the president is being treated for COVID-19.

Seated at a desk flanked by flags, the president offered words of guarded confidence, optimism and reassurance — about his own heath and the state of the larger national and international battle against the global pandemic.

Read More

Commentary: President Trump and the COVID Uncertainty

Yesterday, President Trump announced via Twitter that his assistant Hope Hicks tested COVID positive. He then appeared on Sean Hannity’s show to discuss the campaign and debate. Not too long after that, the president tweeted that he and his wife, Melania, both tested positive for COVID-19.

Read More

Chris Christie Hospitalized with ‘Mild’ Virus Symptoms

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tweeted Saturday that he’s checked himself into a hospital, hours after he announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Christie said that after consulting with his doctors, he went to Morristown Medical Center on Saturday afternoon. He said he’s only experiencing mild symptoms.

Read More

‘I Think I’ll Be Back Soon,’ President Trump Says in Optimistic New Video Message from Hospital

“I think I’ll be back soon,” President Trump said Saturday evening in a four-minute video from Walter Reed Medical Center, where the president is being treated for COVID-19.

Seated at a desk flanked by flags, the president offered words of guarded confidence, optimism and reassurance — about his own heath and the state of the larger national and international battle against the global pandemic.

Read More

New York City Could Lose Half of All Bars, Restaurants

The Daily Caller reports, New York City could see up to half its restaurants and bars close permanently in the next six months because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new audit released Thursday from the New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

“New York City’s bars and restaurants are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods. The industry is challenging under the best of circumstances and many eateries operate on tight margins. Now they face an unprecedented upheaval that may cause many establishments to close forever,” DiNapoli said, according to an official statement.

Read More

Biden Says He and Jill Tested Negative for COVID-19

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has tested negative for coronavirus, following President Donald Trump’s announcement that both he and First Lady Melania Trump were positive for the virus.

Both Joe and his wife, Jill Biden, have not been infected by COVID-19, according to a Friday afternoon tweet from the candidate.

Read More

Steve Bannon Presents: President Trump and the CCP Virus

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

Read More

High Profile Dems Openly Pine for the Death of Trump and Melania in Wake of COVID Diagnoses

Two high profile Obama flunkies, and countless other Democrats have allowed their masks to slip, exposing their hateful and deranged characters in the wake of news that the president and first lady tested positive for COVID-19.

Ironically, the former Obama staffers—both of whom specialize in strategic communications—deleted their tweets.

Read More

Chinese-State-Run Media Chief Says Trump and Melania ‘Paid The Price’ for Downplaying Coronavirus

The editor-in-chief of a Chinese state-run media outlet said in a tweet Friday that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump “paid the price” for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic after both tested positive.

“President Donald 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,” Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said in a Twitter post on Friday.

Read More

‘Out of an Abundance of Caution:’ Trump Goes to Walter Reed Medical Center

President Donald Trump will spend a “few days” at a military hospital after contracting COVID-19, the White House said Friday, as the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans spread to the highest reaches of the U.S. government. Trump “remains fatigued,” his doctor said.

Trump was to depart the White House by helicopter late Friday for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House said the visit was precautionary and that he would work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to continue his official duties.

Read More

NFL Postpones Steelers-Titans After Two More Positive Tests

The NFL postponed Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers game at Tennessee until later in the season after one additional Titans player and one personnel member tested positive for COVID-19.

The announcement Thursday came one day after the league said it hoped to play the game on Monday or Tuesday. The NFL said a new game date would be announced “shortly.”

Read More

Fox 17 Reports Nashville Bars and Restaurants Account for Less Than One-Half of One Percent of Virus Cases

Dennis Ferrier of Fox News 17 continues his reporting on Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s overreach in closing restaurants and bars, which account for only a fraction of coronavirus cases even as that industry continues to suffer.

Ferrier has been digging into the story for some time to gain the actual number of cases.

Read More

Fox 17 Reports Nashville Bars and Restaurants Account for Less Than One-Half of One Percent of Virus Cases

Dennis Ferrier of Fox News 17 continues his reporting on Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s overreach in closing restaurants and bars, which account for only a fraction of coronavirus cases even as that industry continues to suffer.

Ferrier has been digging into the story for some time to gain the actual number of cases.

Read More

Engineering Professor Under Investigation for Referring to COVID as the ‘Chinese Virus’

by Matt Lamb   The University of Cincinnati placed an engineering professor on administrative leave and launched an investigation into him after he referred to coronavirus as the Chinese virus. The public university told Professor John Ucker that he is on administrative leave with pay as of September 18 after…

Read More

Steve Bannon Presents: The CCP as a Demonic Force with Miles Guo

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

Read More

Health Officials Seek to Block Trump Rally in Virginia

A Virginia health official is warning of a “severe public health threat” if a planned campaign rally for President Donald Trump goes forward Friday evening.

Dr. Natasha Dwamena, a Department of Public Health district director, said in a letter Thursday that the 4,000 people expected to attend Trump’s rally at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport would be breaking Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order generally banning gatherings of more than 250 people. She said the rally should be canceled, rescheduled or scaled down to comply with the governor’s order.

Read More

Martha Boneta Commentary: Let’s Do Talk About President Trump’s Coronavirus Response—It’s Actually Quite a Success

Talk in Washington has turned to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what President Trump will do to replace her—and Democrats aren’t happy about it.  

First, they know Republicans probably have the votes to approve a qualified nominee if the president appoints one. Second, they don’t like that it takes the focus off what they see as a winning campaign issue—President Trump’s response to covid-19. 

Read More

Data Proves That Most Newly-Reopened Schools Are Safe from Coronavirus

The latest data from health experts seems to be proving that reopening schools is not nearly as dangerous as some fearmongers warned, and that newly-reopened schools are not nearly as likely to experience surges in the coronavirus, as reported by the Washington Examiner.

The data comes from the National COVID-19 School Response Data Dashboard, which is run by researchers at Brown University. Their research showed that in the period from August 31st to September 13th, there were only about 230 new coronavirus cases for every 100,000 students, and about 490 new cases for every 100,000 staff members. The study sample consisted of over 550 schools, with 300 of them featuring in-person classes.

Read More

Johnson & Johnson Begins Final Stage of Testing for Its Single-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine

Johnson & Johnson began its final round of testing for its COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday.

The study is one of the most expansive to occur so far, involving 60,000 volunteers across the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico and South Africa, the Associated Press reported. The vaccine is the latest to begin its final testing phase, joining candidates developed by Moderna and Pfizer, and is the only vaccine that would be administered as a single dose.

Read More

Commentary: COVID Authoritarians Got the Science Wrong

A dozen generations or so ago, the scientific method gradually began superseding the method of authority as the most reliable way of knowing the world. We no longer had to accept without question what powerful individuals and institutions asserted; we could observe and test and measure, relying on a more objective approach. This profound shift in focus helped the human family take steps away from darkness and toward light. But apparently the light was too bright.

Read More

Metro Nashville Coronavirus Task Force Chair Dr. Alex Jahangir on July 2: ‘Saturday I Got A Call . . . 30 People Confirmed That Have Tested Positive . . . So This Was Atypical, Right?’

As The Tennessee Star reported on Monday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced at a July 2 press conference he was turning the city back to Phase Two from Phase Three, shutting all bars down for 14 days, temporarily shutting down all entertainment and event venues, and reducing restaurant capacity from to 75 percent to 50 percent due to “record numbers” of COVID-19 cases traceable back to bars and restaurants.

Mayor Cooper did not provide any specific details to substantiate his assertion of “record numbers.”

Read More

CDC Removes COVID-19 Transmission Guidance it ‘Posted in Error’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday removed updated COVID-19 airborne transmission guidance that it says was “posted in error.”

The transmission guidance was updated on the CDC’s website on Friday, and said that “droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet,” according to CNN. The guidance posted Friday has been removed from the agency’s website.

Read More

No Credible Evidence to Support Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s July Shutdown of Bars and Reduction of Restaurant Capacity, Despite Bullying Tactics by His Administration

When Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced at a July 2 press conference that he was shutting down all the city’s bars for 14 days, reducing restaurant capacity from 75 percent to 50 percent, and temporarily closing event venues and entertainment venues, all due to “record” cases of COVID-19 traceable to restaurants and bars, he apparently knew that his own Metro Health Department said less than two dozen cases of COVID-19 could be traced to those establishments. But he failed to disclose that the “record” of bar and restaurant traceable cases to which he referred to was about one tenth of one percent of Davidson County’s 20,000 cases of COVID-19.

Read More

Students Call Out Tuition Theft as Gettysburg College Tells Most to Go Home

After quarantining students in their dorms for days, Gettysburg College decided to send most of its resident students home in early September.

On September 4, Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano sent a message announcing that the Pennsylvania institution would implement a “de-densification” plan, citing high rates of COVID-19 transmission. More than 1,000 students were required to move off-campus, according to Gettysburg’s administration.

Read More

Commentary: NYU Prof Says More Than 20 Percent of Universities Could Fail Because of the Lockdowns

As bad as the COVID-19 lockdown has been in any number of sectors of the US economy, colleges and universities have been hit particularly hard. Restaurants and movie theaters have physical plants that continue to cost them money regardless of whether they are serving food or showing movies. Hotels have it even worse, because they are far more expensive to maintain. But colleges and universities have it worse still. Their physical plants include not only housing and dining facilities, but also recreation areas, classrooms, and expansive grounds. In addition, colleges and universities have staff that often number hundreds of times that of hotels.

Read More

Governor Walz Sets First-Ever Standards for ‘Really Good Chance’ of Lifting Emergency Executive Orders

In an interview with The Star Tribune, Governor Tim Walz set the first standards for possibly lifting Minnesota’s emergency executive orders. His statement didn’t promise total relinquishment of his executive powers.
According to Walz, under 20 percent community spread and 4 percent test positivity rate would give Minnesota “a really good chance of doing most things.” The governor balked when questioned whether some of the restrictions were too harsh. Walz stated that his state has endured COVID-19 better than many states.

Read More

Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

Read More

America’s Marathon: Chinese Hegemony Inevitable Only If Cowardice Prevails

Much has been said and written about Thucydides’ Trap of late, ever since Graham Allison thoughtfully addressed it in his 2015 Atlantic article “Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?” and in his follow-up best-selling book in 2018 concerning that same question, Destined For War. The premise is that China has overtaken the United States and is in the process of edging it out, economically, politically, and militarily. There is a parallel between China and America’s dynamic now, with Pericles’ Athens and Archidamus’ Sparta in the 440s BC (where the former began to outgrow and out-power the latter), as well as with Germany outpacing England at the turn of the 20th Century, and in fourteen other major historical cases, the vast majority of which resulted in war. Whenever there has been discombobulation as a result of a rising power displacing a ruling power, fear results, and when a capable military power is fearful and unwilling to bend a knee to the new, war becomes inevitable.

Read More

More Than Half of Business Closures Caused by Economic Lockdowns Are Permanent, Yelp Data Show

More than half of American businesses that closed down due to economic lockdowns are permanently shuttered, according to data Yelp published Wednesday.

There’s been a 23% increase in the number of business closures since mid-July, with the number of permanent closures reaching 96,966, representing 60% of closed businesses that will not be reopening, the data show.

Read More

Birx Visits Virginia Tech to Discuss COVID-19 Issues

On Wednesday, Dr. Deborah Birx – a key part of the Trump Administration’s vaulted Coronavirus task force – arrived in Blacksburg to meet  with state and local officials, faculty, students and health care professionals on the Virginia Tech campus to discuss Covid-19 and the response to reopening schools safely.

During a brief press conference, the White House coronavirus response coordinator had high praise for the school as she stated that a great amount of research had been done at the facility including animal and waste water testing to better understand the asymptomatic spread rate of the virus.

Read More