Center For Individual Freedom

We are a few days away from a rendezvous with some tough conclusions about COVID-19. A number of concurrent developments are coming to a head. Most will bring light where so far there was only heat. [Read More]

The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) this week joined a coalition of nearly two dozen organizations, led by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, on a letter urging Congress to support stronger liability protections for businesses, healthcare professionals and other essential workers on the frontlines of the nation’s coronavirus response and relief efforts. [Read More]

Thursday's unemployment update confirms that over the last three weeks, nearly 17 million Americans have been laid off because of the shutdown. That's one-tenth of the nation's workforce. It's not just an economic fact. It's a public health disaster. If the shutdown is dragged on, as many public health experts recommend, it is almost certain to kill more Americans than coronavirus. [Read More]

Post-virus America can awake from this epidemic and economic shutdown in one of two different ways. We can scapegoat and play the blame game. Or we can have bipartisan commissions decide how best to return key industries to the U.S., prepare for the next epidemic, and pay down the enormous debt we have incurred to defeat COVID-19. In other words, the choice is ours whether America awakens as a roaring giant or a crying baby. [Read More]

Fox News is being sued by a nonprofit in Washington state, accusing the major news network of violating a consumer protection law by engaging in a “campaign of deception” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. “Wrong on the facts, frivolous on the law. We will defend vigorously and seek sanctions as appropriate,” Fox News Media general counsel Lily Fu Claffee countered. [Read More]

At this rate, guns and ammunition will soon be harder to find than toilet paper. And justifiably so. Across America, authorities are increasingly responding to the coronavirus pandemic by releasing inmates from jails and prisons, and ordering law enforcement to avoid arresting violators who would otherwise be detained. Exacerbating matters, many among the law enforcement and emergency responder community find themselves falling victim to coronavirus due to their ongoing interaction with the public and elevated levels of stress placed upon them under perilous conditions. [Read More]

The World Health Organization and other sensitive souls have instructed us to stop referring to the new strain of coronavirus as the Wuhan or Chinese flu because of the racist connotations. I'm disinclined to curb my speech to placate Chinese propagandists, and it seems to me the aversion to those terms is less about racism than about averting blame. But in the spirit of comity, and avoiding disparaging an entire nation, I'm happy to call it the ChiCom Flu moving forward. It's important to stress that it's not the Chinese people who are the problem. Just look at their success in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States. The ChiComs are the problem. If the Chinese government spent as much time working on educating its people and regulating dangerous markets as it does on secrecy and propaganda efforts, maybe it wouldn't have to worry as much about diseases being named after it -- or about the catastrophic death and economic pain their negligence helps cause. [Read More]

Surprise Medical Billing Coronavirus [Read More]

Regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the most salient public policy issue today, Biden has once again managed to expose his incompetence and outright dishonesty. [Read More]

We all probably could have guessed it was coming: a lawsuit related to coronavirus. The state of Missouri is suing televangelist Jim Bakker and his production company in an effort to stop them from advertising or selling Silver Solution, a product touted on Bakker's show to treat COVID-19 disease. [Read More]

COVID-19 believes our progress, confidence and sophistication are not our strengths but rather our greatest weakness, as our vanity and assumed invulnerability render us ripe for panic. The battle is upon us. But if we stay calm and rational, we can easily defeat the enemy, whose reputation is likely far scarier than its reality. [Read More]

The first nine coronavirus deaths in the U.S. show the biggest risks are not traveling internationally, riding mass transit or attending a crowded event. The most dangerous place to be is in a rehab or nursing home. The second-most dangerous is a hospital. [Read More]

With outbreaks raging in Italy, Iran, South Korea and other countries, U.S. authorities now predict coronavirus will strike Americans here, causing significant disruptions to our lives. The warning came from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Nancy Messonnier at a Tuesday briefing. If the virus - now dubbed COVID-19 - starts to infect large numbers of people inside the U.S., here's what you need to know. [Read More]

Federal health bureaucrats deserve an F grade for preparedness. Despite years of warnings about America's overdependence on China for medicines, masks and other equipment, these officials did nothing to remedy the situation. Now, these same officials tell us we're facing an unprecedented public health threat from coronavirus, now COVID-19. [Read More]