The Democrats’ Holy Grail

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made certain she was on hand to question the lawyer for the Little Sisters of the Poor this week. Democrats want to force them to provide coverage with free contraceptives and an abortifacient. Read more at Churchmilitant.com | The oral arguments transcript at SupremeCourt.gov

Is Ella Considered Abortion?

The FDA under Obamacare considers Ulipristal Acetate (nicknamed “Ella” to make it seem less murderous) to be a contraceptive. Congressional testimony by Jane Belford of the Archdiocese of Washington described it as “being able to disrupt an already implanted pregnancy by blocking progesterone. This effect, confirmed in various animal studies, would be an abortion by anyone’s definition.” Read more at The Washington Examiner.

Illustration courtesy the talented Pat Cross.

Coronavirus Case Study of One Family’s Infection

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A coronavirus study done by researchers at University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital studied a family of seven after their visit from Wuhan, China between Dec 29, 2019 and Jan 4, 2020, who then returned to Shenzhen.

None of the family members had contacts with Wuhan markets or animals. Two had visited a Wuhan hospital. Six of the seven were infected.

Read details at The Lancet, which is doing a great job of tracking the coronavirus.

Whistleblower death

Chinese citizens were allowed by the communist government to see a rare negative update this week, after an original coronavirus whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang, died from the coronavirus. He had been reprimanded for “severely disrupting social order.” Read more at The Epoch Times

100 Million Projected Coronavirus Infections

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100 million people could be infected with the Wuhan coronavirus by Feb. 20, 2020, using a conservative 2.5 infection rate geometric projection. (not the worse 3.8 infection rate projected for coronavirus).

This is not a prediction, since successful quarantines and possible vaccines could slow the spread.

Blue line: Actual number of reported cases at 4,515 as of January 27.

Feb. 6 UPDATE: 31,525 cases. (South China Morning Post)

Orange line: Progression if 1 person infects 2-2.5 people.

Spanish flu infection rate: 1.4 – 2.8.

Coronavirus projected infection rate: 3.6-4.0, according to a report by UK researcher Jonathan Read available in PDF from Medrxiv.org.

Chart created by Bianco Research.

Health Outcomes Compared to Healthcare Spending

Socialized Medicine’s Report Card

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Spending more money per capita on health care does not equal better outcomes, much like education, or anything else the government decides to control.

A case can be made that higher rates of cancer is byproduct of increased life expectancy, but the U.S. is falling behind in both categories. Read more at The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

Three deep-red states vote to expand Medicaid (Washington Times)