Now Duke is back again with a new unproven policy— a 2025 visitor restriction policy that lacks evidence and devalues human visitation. Take a look
What specifically are the restrictions?
Just think about how absurd these rules are. 13 year olds are permitted but 11 year olds are banned. Duke seems to think that turning 12 magically means a person is less likely to be an asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic viral carrier
Duke also thinks 2 people visiting is safe but 3 is dangerous. But if one goes to the car, a third can come up. In fact, twenty people can come up if they come in pairs.
Duke’s policy is not only not evidence based, it reveals a serious failure of basic common sense.
Here are some thoughts:
Duke should not be able to set capricious visitor rules. We need a Patients Bill of Rights that bans hospitals from setting infection control policies that lack data.
Duke will contribute to moral anguish. Kids will be denied access to sick parents. Sick grandparents are denied the joy of visitation
Here is how one doctor describes it.
I think this decision speaks to how poor the faculty and administrators are at Duke. They lack the ability to formulate sound policy and Duke has had some of the poorest covid policies throughout the pandemic.
CMS should penalize hospitals that participate in dehumanizing and unproven infectious control policies.
If Duke and other hospitals setting deranged rules (Dana Farber masking 2 year olds for instance) believes these policies works, why won't they randomize wards to the policy or a liberal policy as part of a cluster RCT? Why has public health repeatedly, for years, refused to conduct trials to test their conjectures.
Previously, we researched all of the evidence supporting these policies and found them lacking. There has been no new evidence since then.
In short, the American public should continue to distrust public health and hospital epidemiologists because these people make things up. Their policies are so illogical, they permit 13 year olds but not 11 year olds— a distinction that has no basis.
CMS should restrict payments to hospitals that engage in respiratory virus theater. And I will conclude with 2 more closing thoughts.
Disgraced ex-Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was awarded one of the highest civilian honors last week after House Republicans referred the vice chair of the since-disbanded Select Committee on Jan. 6 to the Justice Department for criminal charges.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden presented Cheney with the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the Democrats’ Soviet-style inquisition on the Capitol riot, for their work running the probe. In December, however, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., released a nearly 130-page review of the Jan. 6 Committee’s work, concluding Cheney should face a criminal investigation for “witness tampering.”
“Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge,” the report said. Cheney had coordinated to circumvent Hutchinson’s attorney even as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 panel threatened legal action against anyone who attempted to influence witness testimony. The textbook case of projection was just one in a series of episodes wherein House investigators deputized by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi concealed truths surrounding the riot on Jan. 6.
1. January 6 Was ‘Insurrection’
Democrats on the Jan. 6 panel and beyond deployed the term “insurrection” to characterize the two hours of violence at the Capitol like they collectively developed Tourette’s as a nasty side effect of Trump Derangement Syndrome. If what happened at the Capitol, however, were actually an attempted insurrection, then why weren’t any of the Jan. 6 defendants ever charged and convicted of “insurrection?” Because the term was used as nothing but a charged political phrase to frame Trump and his supporters as existential threats to democracy itself.
2. Democracy Almost Died
In her post-congressional memoir published in 2023, Cheney solemnly wrote “we almost lost our republic that day,” referencing the demonstrations on Jan. 6, 2021. At a public hearing in 2022, Chairman Thompson similarly said, “our system nearly failed and our democratic foundation” was almost “destroyed.” Except such hyperbolic claims never had any merit. Lawmakers were promptly escorted to secure locations after security at the Capitol was compromised, and Congress was able to reconvene just hours after. The continuity of government was never jeopardized, despite what the Jan. 6 Committee convinced themselves and their supporters to believe.
3. Trump Incited ‘Insurrection’
The Jan. 6 Committee concluded its investigation with criminal referrals for President Trump of having incited, assisted, or aided and comforted an “insurrection.” The recommendation for criminal charges rests on the conspiracy peddled by the Jan. 6 Committee that because Trump spoke at the White House on the day of the riot, he must have inspired his supporters to take over the Capitol during the joint session of Congress. An honest examination of the transcript from Trump’s Ellipse speech, however, shows the president explicitly demanded that his supporters protest “peacefully and patriotically.” The mob gathered at the Capitol, meanwhile, had already breached the first barriers before the president had even finished speaking.
4. Trump Enthusiastic On Violence
President Trump, the Jan. 6 Committee said, was not just apathetic about the violence, but was enthusiastic, according to testimony from the panel’s star witness, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Trump, Hutchinson said in her public testimony, approved of demonstrators who were demanding to “hang” the vice president. But House investigators who reviewed the Jan. 6 Committee’s charges found “no evidence that President Trump agreed with rioters chanting ‘hang Mike Pence.'”
5. Trump Tried To Hijack Limousine
One of Hutchinson’s most hysterical claims was that President Trump assaulted Secret Service personnel to take over a government vehicle and drive himself to the Capitol where he could join the rioters. Hutchinson, however, was immediately discredited by her own sources following her public appearance and was further undermined in the nearly 130-page review of the Jan. 6 Committee’s conduct last month. In fact, a new transcript with a Secret Service driver kept under seal by Cheney’s team directly contradicted Hutchinson’s tale.
“I did not see him reach. He never grabbed the steering wheel,” the driver had told investigators on the Jan. 6 panel. “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”
6. Trump Dismissed Need For Guard
In her memoir, Cheney characterized Trump as negligent in his role to deploy the National Guard ahead of electoral certification.
“To be clear, the issue was not that the Secret Service failed to brief those up the chain at the White House about the threat,” Cheney wrote. “It appeared to the Committee that this information was being conveyed up the chain, including directly to Mark Meadows and President Trump.”
“With the weight of the intelligence we received via Homeland Security, it is exceptionally difficult to believe that anyone in the White House with access to this information could have failed to recognize this obvious menace,” she wrote.
Except Trump was adamant about local and congressional officials preparing for mass demonstrations by demanding pre-emptive deployment of 10,000 troops from the National Guard. Cheney’s committee just covered up Trump’s plea by concealing another transcript from a witness lawmakers tried to discredit after Pelosi refused to accept federal reinforcements multiple times in the days leading up to the riot.
7. Demonstrations Mostly Violent
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson flipped the Jan. 6 Committee’s narrative of an excessively violent demonstration on its head when he aired additional footage from the Capitol released to his team by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy two years ago.
“These are the pictures you’ve seen of Jan. 6,” Carlson said on his now-defunct prime-time program. “But it turns out there’s quite a bit of video you haven’t seen. And that video tells a very different story about what happened on Jan. 6.”
Carlson’s producers reviewed more than 40,000 hours of security footage kept under seal by House Democrats revealing a far different demonstration at the Capitol than the few scenes exploited by the Jan. 6 Committee to depict what they claimed was an eruption of domestic terrorism.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah mocked the hysteria from the committee when Cheney reposted clips of the riot featuring the most turbulent scenes in response to Carlson’s program.
“Liz, we’ve seen footage like that a million times. You made sure we saw that — and nothing else,” Lee wrote on X. “It’s the other stuff — what you deliberately hid from us — that we find so upsetting.”
8. Capitol Police Officer Killed In Riot
The New York Times quietly corrected a story blaming Capitol rioters for the death of deceased officer Brian Sicknick, but members of the Jan. 6 Committee never have. In fact, during a hearing months after a report from the D.C. medical examiner’s office concluded Officer Sicknick died of natural causes, then-Rep. Elaine Lauria claimed he “succumbed to his injuries” from the riot “the night of January 7th.”
The only two people to die directly from the riot were female Trump supporters Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol police officer promoted two years after the riot, and Roseanne Boyland, who was trampled. Footage aired by Carlson in the Jan. 6 tapes show Sicknick, the officer allegedly bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher, vigorously walking around the Capitol following the hit.
9. Loudermilk Gave Rioters ‘Reconnaissance Tours’
In the summer of 2022, House Democrats accused Rep. Loudermilk of giving “reconnaissance tours” ahead of the “attack on the Capitol” after viewing security footage of the Georgia lawmaker escorting constituents around the building.
“The FBI totally cleared them,” Loudermilk told Carlson when the network host aired the Jan. 6 tapes. “The committee knew this before they actually made their accusations against me.”
10. The Jan. 6 Committee Was Legitimate
Then-Speaker Pelosi violated House rules when she banned minority representation on her Select Committee to investigate Jan. 6. The unprecedented move to bar Republican lawmakers from the committee meant Cheney had misled witnesses and federal agencies about the panel’s legitimate bipartisanship. Because House rules dictate that ranking committee members must be appointed by the minority party, Cheney, who was appointed by the Democrat speaker at the time, served as the panel’s vice chair.
The Select Committee was ostensibly established “to investigate and report upon” the objective “facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement” in the course of the Capitol riot as outlined by the committee’s establishing resolution. Yet Pelosi’s commission instead targeted private citizens who exercised their constitutional right of free assembly. The legitimacy of the committee’s actions has always remained in question, since Congress is not one of the branches of government tasked with investigating alleged crimes of private citizens.
Dura Medical, with initial clinics in Naples and Fort Myers, to anchor the HOPE network in Florida
Delivers a full range of precision psychiatry services, including Ketamine and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), to veteran and civilian residents of Florida
Stephen Durand, founder of Dura, to serve as Director of Clinic Growth for HOPE in Florida
Acquisition expected to be immediately accretive to revenue and EBITDA for NRx
During a Monday evening press conference, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed that the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) aircraft carrier with missiles and drones in the Red Sea area.
Saree claimed that the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted US warships to thwart an imminent US-led "attack against our country."
Here's the complete statement:
Triumphing for the oppression of the Palestinian people and their Mujahideen and in response to the massacres against our people in Gaza, and within the fifth phase of the supportive stages in the battle of the Promised Conquest and the Holy Jihad.
The missile and UAVs forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific and joint military operation targeting the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman using two winged missiles and four drones north of the Red Sea, while the American enemy was preparing to launch a major attack against our country, and the operation led to the failure of the attack.
The UAVs forces carried out two military operations this afternoon, the first of which targeted a military target linked to the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa with two drones.
The other operation targeted a vital target linked to the Israeli enemy in occupied Ashkelon with a drone.
In another context, the UAVs force carried out a third military operation this evening targeting a military target linked to the Israeli enemy in the occupied Yaffa with a drone. The operations of the Armed Forces have successfully achieved their objectives.
The Yemeni Armed Forces will continue their operations in support of the Palestinian resistance, and these operations will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.
US Carrier Strike Group locations as of Dec. 31.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) has not released a statement regarding the incident.
A California man allegedly told authorities that he flew to the East Coast to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to newly filed court documents.
Nicholas Roske flew across the country from California to Virginia on June 7, 2022, landing just before midnight.
He got into a taxi and instructed the driver to take him to a house in Maryland where Kavanaugh and his family resided.
Roske, who had allegedly brought weapons with him, was close to Kavanaugh’s home on June 8, 2022, but received a call from his sister, whom he had texted, “I love you.”
“I told her what I was doing, I was up to, and she told me that that wasn’t the way to go about trying to make the world a better place and, you know, that she didn’t want to, you know, she wanted to have me as a sibling for the rest of her life and not, you know, with that ending,” Roske said in the interview room inside a Montgomery County Police Department station.
Roske told police officers that he planned to break into the house, shoot Kavanaugh, and then shoot himself, according to a newly filed transcript
He chose to call 911 instead of going through with his plan.
“I need psychiatric help,” he told the dispatcher, in a call that was previously made public.
Officers rushed to the scene and arrested Roske. He is scheduled to go on trial later this year and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Roske’s lawyers filed the interrogation transcript, along with other documents, as part of motions seeking to suppress statements he made to law enforcement, as well as any mention of the items officers allegedly found in his suitcase and bag.
Officers illegally searched Roske’s belongings and failed to properly obtain a waiver of his rights before interviewing him, the lawyers said.
Federal agents who questioned Roske did obtain his signature on a form waiving his rights, but that waiver “was not made voluntarily and intelligently,” the lawyers wrote in one of the motions.
“At the time, Mr. Roske was acutely suicidal, visibly exhausted, and had repeatedly expressed his need for psychiatric care,” the motion states. “Because these latter statements were not preceded by valid Miranda waivers, they too must be suppressed.”
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motions.
Motivation
Elsewhere in the newly released interview transcript, Roske detailed his motivation for allegedly plotting to murder Kavanaugh, including the publication of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade, giving states the ability to more closely regulate abortion.
“I’ve been suicidal for a long time, and when I saw that the leaked draft, it made me upset and then it made me want to, I don’t know,” Roske said. “I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him.”
Nicholas Roske, center, is interrogated in Montgomery County, Md., on June 8, 2022. Nicholas Roske via The Epoch Times
Roske said another motivating factor was that he heard the Supreme Court was going to loosen gun restrictions, which would make it easier for people to acquire guns.
Roske agreed that it was ironic he was able to obtain a gun before he traveled to the Washington area.
He had several psychiatric holds placed on him in the past. However, since more than five years had passed since the last one, this did not prevent him from buying a firearm.
