'Dr. Lockdown': Ohio Democrat governor candidate's COVID tyranny comes back to haunt her — but she still may win



Amy Acton, the physician who served as director of the Ohio Department of Health in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running as a Democrat in hopes of succeeding her former boss, Gov. Mike DeWine (R).

Although the Republican governor has attempted to shield his former underling from blame over her efforts to curtail basic liberties during the pandemic in the name of public health, critics appear unwilling to forgive or forget, especially with the election shaping up to be a close race.

'Amy Acton shut down our society.'

The Ohio Republican Party, for example, recalled on Tuesday that Acton "installed an order during COVID to lock down nursing homes," adding that "visits were deemed permissible for loved ones and patients based on whether or not they were 'grieving.' Truly sickening."

The state GOP noted in a previous post that Acton — who has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and the Ohio Federation of Teachers — also saw to the closure of bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters, playgrounds, museums, libraries, fitness centers, and small businesses.

"She deemed her allies 'essential' — and left the rest to fend for themselves," said the Ohio GOP.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with whom Acton is poised to face off in November's general election, has dubbed her "Dr. Lockdown" and blasted the Democrat for her role in closing Ohio public schools — which she insisted in an interview last year was necessary — and businesses.

RELATED: Damning study of over a million kids finds myocarditis only in the vaccinated

Megan JELINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Hours before Ohioans were supposed to begin casting ballots in the state's March 2020 presidential primary, Acton ordered the closure of the polling locations. On the day of the punted vote, she ordered the closure of all Ohio bars and restaurants.

Days later, Acton issued a stay-at-home order, forbidding virtually all public and private gatherings occurring outside a single household; closing all "places of public amusement" including playgrounds; and prohibiting Ohioans from leaving their homes except for "Essential Activities, Essential Governmental Functions, or to participate in Essential Businesses and Operations."

Acton's actions prompted state lawmakers to introduce multiple bills aimed at reining in her power.

In the face of immense backlash and possible curbs on her authority, she resigned in June 2020.

"Amy Acton shut down our society," Ohio Senate President Rob McColley (R) tweeted on Thursday. "Then she walked away when Ohioans pleaded for help in getting back to normal. She quit on Ohio once and we won’t give her a chance to do it again."

Acton's campaign declined a request for comment from Blaze News about Republicans' recent criticism.

A Quantus Insights survey conducted last week found that 45.9% of respondents signaled support for Acton, 44.9% signaled support for Ramaswamy, nearly 6% said they were undecided, and 3.3% signaled support for some other candidate.

According to the survey, a plurality of respondents placed the economy, inflation, and the cost of living as the most important issues facing the state.

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'Hold Big Pharma accountable': Vaxx giants are sure to be nervous about Rand Paul's new bill



Vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer made record profits pushing experimental drugs during the pandemic that were nowhere near as "safe and effective" as marketed.

Although their vaccines allegedly left some Americans badly injured and allegedly killed others, Big Pharma giants were largely protected from civil lawsuits as the result of special liability protections that were repeatedly extended by the Biden administration.

'When it comes to vaccines, and in many cases the COVID vaccine, the rules are rigged.'

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) introduced legislation last week that would amend the Public Health Service Act to strip the liability shield from vaccine manufacturers.

"If a drug hurts someone, you can sue the company in court," said Paul, a licensed doctor of medicine. "You can hold them responsible through the normal legal process. But when it comes to vaccines, and in many cases the COVID vaccine, the rules are rigged: You're funneled into a federal no-fault program that limits damages, restricts your options, and — in many cases — leaves people without real justice. That's cronyism."

Presently, persons seeking compensation for injuries sustained as the result of a covered vaccine must file a petition with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which is touted as a "no-fault alternative to the traditional legal system for resolving vaccine injury petitions."

Those specifically injured by one of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines — which were in many jurisdictions required to remain employed, eat in public, stay in school, or visit loved ones — must file a petition with the related Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program.

RELATED: Finally: Vaccine guidelines that make sense for parents

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Parents, legal guardians, and legal representatives of those individuals who were killed by the vaccines — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admitted in December that "at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving COVID-19 vaccination" — can file on behalf of the decedents.

The catch is that suffering an injury or dying around the time of the receipt of a COVID jab "is not sufficient, by itself, to prove that an injury is the direct result of a covered countermeasure."

Since there is a high bar for proving causation, few Americans' petitions are successful.

'Pharma giants are hiding behind legal protections to avoid being sued.'

CICP data shows that as of Feb. 1, a total of 14,102 COVID-19 claims have been filed, 10,944 alleging injuries or death from COVID-19 vaccines and 3,158 alleging injuries or death from other COVID-19 countermeasures.

Of the total, 6,556 were rejected outright. Of the 6,649 for which decisions were made, only 93 claims were found eligible for compensation — and of the 93, only 44 petitioners have actually received compensation.

Sen. Paul's End the Vaccine Carveout Act, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and serves as a companion bill to the legislation of the same name introduced in the House in July by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), would reform the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program by allowing vaccine-injured individuals or the legal representatives of those killed by vaccines to pursue direct civil action in state or federal court without having to first try their chances at the no-fault federal system.

Presently, vaccine-injured Americans are generally required to file a petition through VICP before seeking judicial relief. The Republican bill would eliminate that barrier to possible justice.

The bill would also exclude COVID-19 vaccines from the definition of "covered countermeasures," thereby ending the immunity shield that has for years protected vaccine manufacturers, distributors, and administration from vaccine injury claims.

Lee stated, "Pharma giants are hiding behind legal protections to avoid being sued by Americans experiencing serious vaccine side effects."

"Many of these patients were forced to get vaccinated or lose their jobs during the pandemic and are now dealing with permanent and very serious complications," Lee continued. "Our bill will end these unconstitutional vaccine carveouts so that all Americans can receive the justice they deserve and hold Big Pharma accountable."

Weeks after the 2024 presidential election, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the liability shield for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers through Dec. 31, 2029.

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Cuomo Getting A Radio Show Instead Of Prison Proves There’s A Two-Tiered Justice System

Maybe we should wait until the criminal investigation is over before we hand out radio shows. Maybe facing consequences should come before rehabilitation tours.

Epstein files shine light on power networks: Revisit BlazeTV's 'The Coverup' on the same corruption web



On January 30, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped over 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents, as mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump in November 2025. This massive data dump includes roughly 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

These revelations seem to confirm what independent voices like Glenn Beck and Matt Kibbe have warned about for years: a shadowy cabal of insiders wield tremendous power to shape how we think.

As the dust settles around this 2026 bombshell, it's the perfect time to revisit BlazeTV’s docuseries "The Coverup” — Matt Kibbe’s deep dive into a similar web of corruption: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Months before this latest Epstein file dump, Glenn Beck sat down with Kibbe to dissect the insidious links between COVID mandates, Russiagate hoaxes, and censorship to pinpoint the very same shadowy forces now spotlighted in the Epstein files.

“The same people and the same machine that weaponized the Russiagate story and covered up the Hunter Biden laptop story are the same people in the [COVID-19] apparatus,” Kibbe told Glenn.

With the Epstein files shining new light on long-hidden networks of power and influence, now is the time to watch BlazeTV’s "The Coverup" series. Go to faucicoverup.com to access the full series.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

DNC Staffers Seethe at Full-Time Return to Office: ‘A Flurry of Thumbs-Down Emojis and Other Online Expressions of Discontent’

Years after the COVID-19 pandemic ended, Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin on Wednesday ordered staffers to work in-person at the office, prompting anger from employees and accusations from the committee's union that the decision is "callous" and "shocking."

The post DNC Staffers Seethe at Full-Time Return to Office: ‘A Flurry of Thumbs-Down Emojis and Other Online Expressions of Discontent’ appeared first on .

Pfizer COVID shot sales plummet after Trump administration ends universal recommendations



U.S. sales of Pfizer's Comirnaty shots have taken a nosedive since the Trump administration updated its immunization schedules last month and dropped the universal collective recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.

The pharmaceutical company's revenues for the third quarter of 2025 are down 6% — amounting to a $1 billion drop — compared to the same stretch the previous year.

'CDC's 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks.'

Pfizer indicated in its latest earnings statement that "the operational decrease was primarily driven by a year-over-year decline in COVID-19 product revenues largely due to lower infection rates impacting Paxlovid demand as well as a narrower vaccine recommendation for COVID-19 in the U.S. that reduced the eligible population for Comirnaty."

Sales of Comirnaty were down 25% in the United States, and sales of Paxlovid, an oral antiviral medication that treats mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults, were down 52%.

When his agency dropped the universal recommendation last month for Comirnaty — a controversial vaccine used at a time of population-wide immunity to treat an endemic virus fatal in roughly 1% of confirmed cases — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Jim O'Neill stated, "CDC's 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today."

RELATED: Naomi Wolf continues to expose COVID vaccine: 'A depopulating technology'

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

The CDC's decision came just months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced Pfizer to slap a damning warning on its Comirnaty vaccine noting the estimated unadjusted incidence of heart conditions following administration of the 2023-2024 formula of the shot, as well as the longitudinal results of a 2024 study concerning cardiac manifestations and outcomes of vaccine-associated myocarditis in American youths.

The FDA also required Pfizer to describe the new safety information in the adverse reactions section of its vaccine information insert such that it now notes that "the estimated unadjusted incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis during the period 1 through 7 days following administration of the 2023-2024 Formula of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was approximately 8 cases per million doses in individuals 6 months through 64 years of age and approximately 27 cases per million doses in males 12 through 24 years of age."

While the FDA has approved the drug for use in individuals who are 65 years of age and older or 5-64 years old who suffer from at least one underlying condition putting them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19, it revoked the emergency use authorization for the shot in August.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla reportedly suggested on a Tuesday call with analysts that the company is looking for opportunities outside the United States, stating that the company's catalog of vaccines constitute a "key area of focus in international markets."

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'Rest in peace, wheezy': Jimmy Kimmel's legacy of late-night demonization and hatred



The ABC television network nuked the poorly performing "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show on Wednesday after its eponymous host suggested that the homosexual leftist arrested for allegedly assassinating Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter and a member of the MAGA movement — an assertion that has no factual basis.

President Donald Trump congratulated ABC "for finally having the courage to do what had to be done" and called the show's cancellation "great news for America."

Liberal activist organizations, Democrats, and Hollywood script-readers who didn't make a peep when conservatives and populists were canceled in recent years rushed to condemn Kimmel's visitation by consequence, complaining of imagined government censorship and fascism.

RELATED: Vanity Fair smears Charlie Kirk — but race-hustling author just ends up attacking common sense

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The liberal X knockoff Bluesky — where some leftists have celebrated Kirk's assassination — teemed on Wednesday with hysterical hot takes and the mantra, "I stand with Jimmy Kimmel."

Critics cognizant of the great pleasure that Kimmel took in demonizing conservatives and vaccine skeptics and in celebrating their cancellation appear less than sympathetic over his ouster. They certainly aren't buying the line that the liberal host is "some kind of free speech martyr."

'We've still got a lot of pan-dimwits out there.'

Some might recall, for starters, when Kimmel — among the corporate late-night hosts who wept bitterly over Trump's 2024 election victory and long pushed the Russia collusion hoax:

  • insinuated that the president bore some blame for the alleged attempt on his life in September 2024 as well as for the 2018 Sante Fe High School mass shooting;
  • suggested that Trump was a Nazi and that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was a "Klan mom" in need of a slap;
  • gleefully championed the imprisonment of the president;
  • misrepresented HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements about the health consequences of the COVID lockdowns;
  • called UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's suspected murderer "the hottest cold-blooded killer in America" and shared messages supposedly penned by producers on his show expressing admiration for Luigi Mangione;
  • celebrated when Alex Jones faced potential ruin, having been ordered to pay $965 million in damages over his suggestion that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax;
  • smeared Tucker Carlson as a propagandist for the Kremlin, attacked Carlson for advocating against masking children outside, then joked at length about Carlson's exit from Fox News;
  • made light of the heavy sentences given to Jan. 6 protesters, then later criticized Trump's pardons for the protesters, whom he referred to as "simpletons"; and
  • condemned NBC for daring to host a Trump town hall event ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Other critics might recall when Kimmel joined Stephen Colbert and other willing Big Pharma propagandists in spending years not only fearmongering but mocking those Americans who expressed concerns about taking the experimental COVID-19 vaccines — vaccines that were neither as safe nor as effective as promised — or resisted the draconian pandemic health protocols.

RELATED: Scott Jennings obliterates liberal spin on Kirk's suspected assassin: 'The evidence here is overwhelming!'

Photo by 2022 Media Access Awards/Getty Images

In September 2020, he attacked a Utah woman who protested against wearing masks, calling her "the world's dumbest person" even though it was clear early in the pandemic that masking was more theater than science.

Kimmel said in a May 2021 monologue addressed to those Americans who refused to get the vaccine, "If we don't get more people vaccinated, we could see new mutations of this virus and go through this all over again." He then once again strongly suggested they take the shot "as a public service."

The host also ran condescending clips belittling vaccine skeptics, in one case stating, "Grow the f**k up and get the vaccine." The video concluded with the caption, "Brought to you by people who are smarter than we are."

In September 2021, Kimmel suggested that hospitals should not treat the unvaccinated, particularly those interested in taking ivermectin.

"Dr. Fauci said that if hospitals get any more overcrowded, they're going to have to make some very tough choices about who gets an ICU bed. That choice doesn't seem so tough to me," said Kimmel. "Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in, we'll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy."

Kimmel added, "We've still got a lot of pan-dimwits out there."

In January 2022, Kimmel ran a fake "anti-vaxx Barbie" advertisement that mocked Florida and Kentucky, insinuated a link between vaccine skepticism and anti-Semitism, and portrayed hesitancy about getting vaccines as moronic.

The ouster of a man who suggested health professionals should let the unvaccinated die, celebrated the financial and professional fall of those with differing viewpoints, and expressed delight over the potential imprisonment of his preferred candidate's rival appears to have earned him the disdain of some of those now happy to see his time slot freed up for a Charlie Kirk memorial.

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COVID wasn’t the only virus. Arrogance infected public health.



America doesn’t have a science problem. It has a trust problem.

The collapse of trust didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened because the people running our institutions — government agencies, public health bureaucracies, and elite media — chose fear over facts, power over principle, and silence over accountability.

Truth alone won’t restore trust. We need courage. We need accountability. And above all, we need to stop pretending that silence keeps the peace.

I’ve spent more than three decades in life sciences, investing in innovation and funding companies that bring real cures to market. Bureaucracy can slow progress. But during COVID-19, the damage went farther. It wasn’t just red tape. It was arrogance, censorship, and the collapse of debate inside institutions once devoted to transparency and truth.

We told Americans to “trust the experts,” then changed the story every few weeks. We locked down playgrounds while allowing political protests. We shut down small businesses while rewarding massive platforms. We punished skepticism, not misinformation. We arrested surfers, fired nurses, and drove policemen and military personnel out of their jobs for refusing a vaccine. Where were the “my body, my choice” voices then?

Now Americans don’t just question mandates — they question everything: the data, the motives, the science itself.

Who can blame them? Childhood vaccination rates are falling because public health failed. An entire generation lost precious developmental time in isolation. Families grieved alone. And the same bureaucrats behind those mandates persuaded us to blame COVID, when in fact it was their decisions that did much of the damage. No one has been questioned. No one has been punished. Not one county health official has been held accountable.

A recent Gallup poll showed trust in institutions like the CDC and FDA has collapsed by more than 30 points in just a few years. That trust won’t be restored by press conferences or new slogans. It will only be restored when real leaders tell the truth about what went wrong and take responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Dr. Scott Atlas put it plainly: The lockdowns weren’t the result of the virus. They were the result of decisions — decisions made by people who ignored known data, silenced dissent, and wielded authority like a weapon. And they got it wrong. Pretending otherwise only guarantees the disaster repeats.

So where do we start if we want to rebuild trust?

End the illusion of absolute authority. The CDC, NIH, and FDA must return to their proper role: advisory. They don’t make laws. They don’t issue mandates. They provide information — period.

Impose term limits on public health leadership. No more 30-year bureaucratic dynasties. Power without turnover hardens into ideology.

Ban conflicts of interest. No royalty payments to government scientists from the very companies they regulate. No revolving door between regulators and pharma.

Demand transparency. Every agency meeting, vote, and decision should be public and immediate. If they work for us, we should know what they’re saying.

These aren’t partisan talking points. They’re common-sense reforms. The stakes are too high to shrug and “move on.” Parents who lost a year of their children’s development, the elderly who died alone, the small business owners who lost everything — they deserve accountability. This isn’t about public policy. It’s about principle.

RELATED: No perp walks, no peace

Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

And here’s the deeper truth: Fixing this mess isn’t just government’s job. It’s up to us — the entrepreneurs, innovators, parents, doctors, investors, and voters — to become stewards of truth. Not because we crave power, but because we believe in clarity. Because we still believe in the ideals America was built on.

I came to the United States at 15 after fleeing war in Beirut. I’ve seen what happens when fear and control override freedom and reason. I’ve spent my life betting on better — on ideas, on people, and on this country.

Truth alone won’t restore trust. We need courage. We need accountability. And above all, we need to stop pretending that silence keeps the peace.

It doesn’t. It only postpones the next disaster.

West Texas Measles Outbreak Ends, Foiling Media’s Efforts To Make It The Next Pandemic

The West Texas measles outbreak that corporate media claimed would be the start of a national epidemic is officially over just eight months after it began. The Texas Department of State Health Services (TX DSHS), the agency responsible for publishing Lone Star State health statistics, announced on Aug. 18 that the measles outbreak that affected […]