Vaccine & COVID News
The Daily Signal provides explore reporting and analysis on vaccines, from COVID mandates to public health controversies, with a focus on personal liberty and informed choice.
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- Opinion
Without Proper Context, Leaked COVID-19 Data Is Worse Than Misleading
What’s the No. 1 coronavirus hot spot in America? Is it Los Angeles County, which led the nation with nearly 200,000 confirmed cases on Aug. 2, according to Johns Hopkins University? Is it Miami-Dade County, Florida, which ranked second with more than 121,000 cases? Or is it Houston/Harris County, Texas, where nearly 75,000 cases have…Doug Badger -
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How Oklahoma Is Making the Best of a Bad Situation With COVID-19 Education Funding
A long-standing problem in education is the academic achievement gap. Children of lower-income families typically lag far behind their counterparts from families with greater incomes. While that gap has many causes, a significant contributor is the lack of educational options available to low-income families whose children are often consigned to the worst public schools. In…Jonathan Small -
- Opinion
In Michigan, Governor’s COVID-19 Orders Crush Businesses
Probably no topic since World War II has dominated the news as long as COVID-19 has. Many articles have focused on the policy differences between states and countries. When focusing on the policies of my home state of Michigan, one should ask: Are these policies keeping people safe? Are these policies helping people to flourish?…Dale Murrish -
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How Much Do You Know About COVID-19? Take This Quiz
1. True or False: COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in the U.S. False. It’s not even close. As of July 25, the most recent date for which Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data is available, there were 135,579 deaths related to the contagion, less than 10% of the more than 1.5…Doug Badger -
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Protectionism and the Pandemic Are Curtailing Global Trade. Policymakers Must Act Accordingly.
According to the latest semiannual trade monitoring report by the World Trade Organization, recent data indicates an 18% decline in trade over the past year. The recessionary impact of COVID-19 is largely responsible for the decline, although world trade had already stagnated in 2019 due to slowing world growth and new protectionist measures around the…Anthony B. Kim -
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What We Know Now About Hydroxychloroquine to Treat COVID-19
Early in health officials’ response to the pandemic, one drug offered hope of a safe, widely available, and cheap therapeutic that would break the death grip that COVID-19 held on the world. However, after its promised efficacy didn’t materialize in large, statistically significant numbers, enthusiasm for the drug, hydroxychloroquine, quickly waned. Why, then, has it…Kevin Pham -
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The COVID-19 Double Standard
Decent Americans who are feeling perplexed today shouldn’t be ashamed about it. There is good reason to be perplexed. On the one hand, in the name of health and safety, we are being asked by government to compromise personal freedoms that we have always taken for granted: going to work, going to church, sending our…Star Parker -
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63% of US Counties Still Have 5 or Fewer COVID-19 Deaths
As Heritage Foundation researchers have demonstrated throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been heavily concentrated in a small number of states—and among a small number of counties within states. Even though the U.S. has seen a rapid rise in cases during the past month, the overall levels of concentration…Norbert Michel -
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Herman Cain, Business Executive and Conservative Favorite, Felled by COVID-19
Herman Cain, who rose from working-class beginnings in Georgia to become an admired pizza magnate, popular political commentator, and leading Republican presidential contender, has died of COVID-19, his website announced Thursday. He was 74. Along the way to national prominence, Cain was a Navy specialist in ballistic missiles, ran some 400 Burger Kings around Philadelphia,…Ken McIntyre -
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What States Can Learn From Texas’ COVID-19 Response
Texas has seen a surge of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, prompting the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, to call the state one of “three New Yorks.” Some have even blamed the state’s early attempt to reopen as the cause of surge. While the surge needs to be taken seriously, there…Amy Anderson -
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Why COVID-19 Eviction Moratoriums Are Unnecessary, Unfair, and Economically Harmful
Government-mandated shutdowns and restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused unemployment to soar from near-record lows in January to levels unseen in our lifetimes just months later. With the threat of evictions rising, the federal CARES Act in March imposed a four-month eviction moratorium—along with a ban on late fees—on the more than 28%…Joel Griffith -
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Senate GOP Coronavirus Bill Has Some Good Provisions but Needs Serious Work
Congress has already authorized more than $3.7 trillion of immediate coronavirus relief spending, going to individuals, businesses, and state governments. The response should continue to be targeted at the health crisis and provide necessary protections for the coming economic recovery. The Senate GOP coronavirus bill, entitled the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools Act,…Adam Michel -
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In COVID-19 Bill, Schools Need Funding Flexibility, Not Another Federal Bailout
Congress is considering spending an additional $105 billion on education as part of a Phase IV COVID-19 relief package called the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act. The Senate proposal would authorize $70 billion in additional bailout money to be spent on K-12 schools, two-thirds of which would be reserved for schools…Lindsey Burke -
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COVID-19 Has Led to an Increase in Human Trafficking, Experts Say
The sexual exploitation of women and children has likely increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say. Groups such as Polaris and International Justice Mission work to fight human trafficking and to free the estimated 40 million victims of modern-day slavery. Their work has not slowed down during the global pandemic. Sadly, experts say, the virus…Virginia Allen -
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When It Comes to COVID-19 Deaths, Florida Is No ‘New York’
“I just want to make it clear to the American public,” proclaimed Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force head, on July 24, “What we have right now are essentially three New Yorks, with these three major states.” The three states in question—Florida, Texas, and California—all have seen sharp increases in COVID-19 infections in…Doug Badger -
- Opinion
Why Mail-In Voting Is a Bad Idea, Even During a Pandemic
There is currently a debate raging over how elections are to be held in the fall amid the coronavirus. Is a pandemic reason to hold an election by mail? Would widespread mail-in voting lead to voter fraud and skew election results? Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a former…Virginia Allen -
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How Close Are We to a COVID-19 Vaccine? Here’s What to Know
The United States has been grappling with a response to the COVID-19 pandemic for more than six months, but now, a series of published results from vaccine developers raises the hope that a definitive end to the pandemic might be in sight. The race for a COVID-19 vaccine began at the end of January, and…Kevin Pham -
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UN Human Rights Council Exploits COVID-19 Pandemic to Support Funding for Abortion
The United Nations Human Rights Council last week concluded its most recent session in Geneva. True to form, the council adopted a resolution promoting abortion under the guise of responding to COVID-19. The U.N. Human Rights Council advanced the resolution July 17 under the topic of ending discrimination against women and girls. It made the…Elyssa Koren -
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The Effect of Coronavirus on the US Military
When most people think about the military and the coronavirus, they think of stories such as the hospital ship, USNS Comfort, deploying to New York City, or the National Guard helping with test sites, or the Army Corps of Engineers erecting temporary hospitals this past spring to handle an overload of sick patients. We’re fortunate…Peter Brookes -
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African Nations Shouldn’t Let COVID-19 Sink Continental Free Trade Agreement
What would have been the world’s most extensive free trade zone since the formation of the World Trade Organization was supposed to go into effect July 1. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the launch date into doubt. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement is an ambitious attempt to reduce trade restrictions among all 55…Joshua Meservey