Was the Threat Real?
I’ve been asked by skeptical friends whether COVID-19 was a hoax/conspiracy, or if this was a real threat. Based on what I saw firsthand practicing in the frontline medical specialty of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, the threat of this disease is very real. People indeed died, and the deaths were often particularly unpleasant.
The health, psychological, and economic impacts of this virus will be felt for years to come, and may impact the 2020 elections (with all of the subsequent consequences this will carry).
However serious the disease may be, it feels that we have now entered the “political” phase of the pandemic where the threats to our vulnerable populations remain at-risk, but it appears that healthy patients have a higher likelihood of surviving an infection. It has the appearance that it is now being used as a justification in many states to keep the economy shut down until after the November election, while many of the same politicians who issue shutdown orders simultaneously condone mass gatherings of protestors/rioters because of the “social good” that comes from them.
Why was COVID-19 Problematic?
While there were many similarities to influenza, there are several reasons that this virus had some concerning traits:
- For starters, there was fear of the unknown (it was a “novel virus”) that led to heightened concern….even to the point of inducing mass panic…leading our country to near-complete shutdown for two months. Healthcare workers such as myself had no idea what to expect and found ourselves bracing for the unimaginable. The Chinese government stifled the flow of early information about the disease from their country (hence, why President Trump is engaged in a standoff with China at the moment). When other nations who are more forthcoming, such as Italy, began to disclose the massive die-offs that were occurring in some of their cities, people in the medical community woke up and began to take notice.
- Its ease of transmission from person-to person, including without direct physical contact of people (ie- through the air and on surfaces) made the virus difficult to repress. This is especially pronounced in groups herded indoors (ie- nursing home residents, NYC urban dwellers, etc).
- The long latency period of approximately 14 days between infection and manifestation of symptoms led to a lot of asymptomatic carriers who were infectious to others during a time they could have no idea that they were carrying the virus. (This is similar to an HIV+ patient unknowingly carrying the disease for a long period of time, at risk of infecting partners long before they notice symptoms of AIDS.)
- Finally, the pulmonary, cardiac, and coagulation (blood clotting) effects in certain patients were particularly difficult to treat from a medical perspective and contributed to many of the deaths seen, especially until we learned more about how to appropriately treat infected patients. These patients often presented with “unique pathology” meaning it didn’t follow the textbook patterns of other viral diseases
- This “unique pathology” and viral behavior led many to question whether this virus could have been modified in a laboratory. Whether this was manmade is outside the realm of this discussion, but I will observe that this virus acted in strangely novel ways and presented with multiple pathologic methods to cause harm (cardiac, pulmonary, coagulation disorders, etc.). I certainly would not be shocked if we learn someday that it was generated in a bioweapons lab, and that a more deadly modification of the virus exists, or will be created in the future.
Were We Prepared for a Pandemic?
ABSOLUTELY NOT. Our governmental agencies…federal, state, and local governments as well as health departments…were largely caught off guard by this event. In the private sector, hospitals and businesses were often in the same boat of finding themselves underprepared for this “Black Swan” event. Sadly, with all the contingency planning and strategic exercises that have been done for other mass casualty scenarios over the years, very few exercises had focused on having our nation ready for a pandemic. Many dedicated people in hospitals, businesses, and governmental agencies worked very hard to scramble into more preparedness, but they were facing an uphill battle.
Compounding this lack of planning exercises was a lack of critical supplies when we most needed them. Our nation lacked the strategic stockpile and/or the ability to rapidly produce appropriate amounts of life-saving medications, ventilators, or PPE (personal protective equipment). Using a “Walmart mentality,” our governments and healthcare organizations had outsourced to China and other low bidders to manufacture critical amounts of these items, which came back to haunt us as the virus began to spread and China was consumed with containment on their own soil. This shortage worsened when China cut off many of the trans-Pacific supply chains once they were caught red-handed having covered up the early warnings about the Coronavirus. Without the ability to ramp up domestic production in a rapid fashion, resources were strained to the point of nearly breaking the entire healthcare system.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) frequently issued conflicting guidelines that changed nearly daily and often made no sense from a scientific perspective. The guidelines, which at times appeared to be politically, rather than scientifically driven, often abandoned healthcare workers on the front lines unprotected and vulnerable. This has left a very high level of lingering distrust in the credibility of these organizations amongst the people (healthcare professionals) who had previously relied on them for guidance in the fight against many other infectious diseases. This was especially true for the way the CDC frequently changed PPE advisories in an arbitrary and capricious manner which left healthcare workers unnecessarily exposed to pathogens, or faced with termination from their jobs for questioning these guidelines and bringing their own self-purchased PPE to work with them.
What Was the “Flatten the Curve” Concept All About?
From my observation inside the leadership of a community hospital, the premise of the “Flatten the Curve” mantra had its merits. The goal of allowing the healthcare system to have a chance to see more of a “stream” than a “gush” of patients allowed many systems to not exceed their capacity of ventilators and PPE. Obviously, places like New York City saw their capacity overwhelmed, but hospitals in the majority of the nation kept their hospital census manageable. Flattening the curve allowed the healthcare system to not be overwhelmed with too many critically ill patients all at once. Hospitals routinely care for critically ill patients, but there are finite resources that needed to be expanded to handle a massive surge of deathly-ill patients.6
Different states obviously chose to implement this “Flatten the Curve” policy differently, as they have done with reopening as well. Unfortunately, politics seems to be a large factor in the reopening disparities now. Many “red state” governors were more ambitious about reopening efforts; some “blue state” politicians openly campaigned to keep the economy shut down through the November 3, 2020 presidential election while paradoxically endorsing mass gatherings of rioters and looters for the “greater good of social change.”
A Doctor’s Medical Advice:
Even if we don’t see a second spike of COVID-19, we will probably face another pandemic in our lifetimes. It is very possible we may see another large COVID-19 spike in the Fall/Winter of 2020 when flu season normally hits. There are several things I’d recommend to readers in order to be prepared for a second wave of COVID-19, or any other future pandemic:
- Maintain your health as best as you can. Many healthy patients have become infected, recovered, and have very few lasting effects from COVID-19. In fact, they may actually be helping to create more “herd immunity” to the rest of the at-risk population. The fact is, the healthier you are, the more likely you are to survive COVID-19, the annual flu outbreak, or any other number of diseases. Schedule the next-available appointment with your PCP if you’re overdue for a health maintenance checkup.
- If you smoke, please stop today. Smokers have a much higher mortality rate with COVID, flu, and other infections due to their already compromised lungs….not to mention the COPD and cancer that cigarettes can cause. Some folks need a little pharmacologic assistance such as nicotine gum or Chantix. There is no shame in asking for some assistance in the battle to quit smoking and I would encourage you to take advantage of these medications your doctor may be able to prescribe you in this fight while you have that resource available.
- If you need any elective medical procedures, I would advise taking advantage of the window while facilities are opened to elective procedures. Should we see a second shutdown, this would be a most suboptimal time to be dealing with a meniscus tear in your knee crippling your ability to walk, or an infected gallbladder making you very sick. If you delay care until a second shutdown, medical resources may be scarce, elective surgeries postponed indefinitely, and should you become sick enough to warrant hospital admission or emergency surgery, you will be sharing space in a hospital also housing infected patients
- If you are due for any cancer screenings such as prostate exam, mammography, or colonoscopy, please go get these as soon as possible. Endoscopy centers were shuttered during the first pandemic shutdown, and are still running with many restrictions as these procedures are viewed as “aerosolizing.” Most endoscopy centers are only allowing half the capacity as they did pre-COVID, so appointments are very tough to come by. An early-detected breast or colon cancer can usually be dealt with very safely and simply in many cases, so this checkup might save your life before this screening tool is more limited once again.
- Dental and optometry offices were subjected to nearly complete closures during the first shutdown (even though some states allowed abortion clinics, marijuana dispensaries, and tattoo parlors to remain open…scratch your head at that one). If you wear eyeglasses and might need an updated prescription, or if you have any dental needs, schedule appointments and address these while the offices are open.
I know some preparedness-minded folks who are considering LASIK eye surgery to eliminate their dependency on glasses and contacts. I’d also encourage those who have cataracts impairing your vision to consider having these dealt with while elective surgeries of this nature are available.
You cannot afford the risk to your health if you suffer from a cavity or dental abscess during a pandemic; get any broken or rotten teeth addressed now.
- Stock up on any medications you might need for a prolonged period, especially the ones essential to life (ie- heart medication). Coordinate this with your PCP or specialist. Many doctors who had their offices closed during the COVID-19 shutdown will be more sympathetic with your request than they might have been prior to this societal shutdown. In the pre-Coronavirus era, this request for several months of medications ahead may have been viewed as a “paranoid request from a fringe prepper”…now many physicians have seen firsthand the needs their patients who were on their last few days of medication when the COVID-19 crisis erupted and pharmacies were closed or their patients were medically vulnerable and should not be exposed to diseases by going to the pharmacy in the midst of a global pandemic.
- For those readers who are immunocompromised or medically vulnerable, I recommend extra precautions. Avoiding crowds or known sick contacts is prudent. I recommend N95 masks in public (which protect much more than a paper or cloth mask) and carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer for frequent use. Statistically, other diseases probably pose more risk to an immunocompromised patient than COVID-19 does, so these prevention measures may save your life from other pathogens as well. One hidden blessing of COVID-19 is that now mask wearing is more mainstream than before, so hopefully the vulnerable no longer feel social stigma when they don a mask in public.
- Let me address folks with significant underlying chronic medical conditions, such as heart failure, COPD, or diabetes. PLEASE do not let a public health scare keep you from good management of your chronic conditions. If these serious conditions become untreated, they could ultimately pose more risk to your health than COVID-19; your risk of dying if you become infected with COVID-19 is also significantly higher when these diseases are unmanaged. If these are not managed well for even a few weeks at a time, you risk severe health consequences. A cardiologist friend of mine recently told me that he has never seen so many patients in severe, life-threatening heart failure as he has this past month. He attributes this to a lack of the normal management of many patients with heart failure that would have otherwise had an easily treated course. When addressed so late in the game, it is almost untreatable compared to what could have been a chronic manageable condition if things were acted on earlier.
- Telehealth may be one of the best things to come out of the COVID crisis. It had been used previously in limited applications, but this forced quarantine pushed its use at lightning speed. While I am a firsthand believer in the merits of face-to-face physician-patient interaction, there are many times a patient can probably achieve the same benefit using a telehealth platform, especially when this face-to-face relationship has already been established. Its role in managing chronic disease is particularly beneficial. Residents of rural areas will disproportionately benefit from telemedicine advancements as they live the farthest from many subspecialty medical resources and so their health maintenance visits become easier to attend virtually than if they have a multiple-hour round trip to a large medical center [full of infectious patients] in the distant city.
(To be concluded tomorrow, in Part 2.)
The Department of Health & Human Services has a budget of over 110 billion/year outside of Medicare & Medicaid. That’s almost 350$ per year per person in the country.
FEMA has a 28 billion/year budget, and pandemic influenza is literally number 2 on their list of 15 master planning scenarios.
You might think that all those resources would have led to some obvious preparations being made, but it wasn’t evident to me.
I’m not listening to any of y’all health “professionals” after this and everything that happened and still is. I’ll make my own decisions and live or die with it.
I think we all should keep in mind that no one can make their best decisions if they are being lied to, manipulated, politicized or propagandized. This includes our medical professionals. I understand the frustration with the seemingly contradicting info we are exposed to about CoVid . The medical community feels the same way, since they have the same thing to lose as we all do. As usual, however, we will probably never know the real origin of CoVid as well as any nefarious players being brought to task. A perfect example is the criticism this Administration receives that the previous administration has not: Solyndra, Benghazi, Fast & Furious, Uranium 1, the Iran deal, State Department $millions missing, Clinton email scandal…NOTHING DONE!
jima… agreed !!!
re:
Uranium scandals involving the ClintonCrimeSyndicate and Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge
Vlad Putin doesn’t call it ‘uranium’.
Nope.
He bought it fair-n-square.
He calls it ‘myranium’.
And you probably recall the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.
It was in AllTheNews…
You are my new best friend, Marge.
He calls it ‘myranium’.
Big chuckle.
Carry on in grace
And that good sir, is what the Freedoms America stands for is all about. Taking all the info you have available to you, deciding what you use, which you discard, evaluating it’s usefulness for you and your situation, making a decision, right or wrong for anyone else, and being responsible and accountable to live with the outcome, whatever it may be.
Like I said in my article, many of these taxpayer-funded agencies were wholly unprepared for the COVID pandemic. From a physician’s perspective, healthcare workers suffered a serious case of whiplash. The daily barrage of guidelines from the WHO, CDC, state health boards, etc was a moving target, often fully contradicting their own directives within a matter of days. It was a nightmare to keep updated on what “best practices” looked like, especially when many of the guidelines on PPE were based on a lack of resources from poor preparedness, not on common sense or good science.
Dr. Dan, thank you so much for this excellent article with its helpful, practical advice. I look forward to part 2 tomorrow.
Thank you!
Can anyone tell me how the CDC can patent a virus? And why, outside of Luciferian profit motive or culling of the heard? Seems to me a patent is an overt testimony of bio weapon research.
Thank you for writing a timely article with very sound advice. From a place of retirement, I have been able to follow this pandemic with more time to explore lots of information coming from many sources. The politics has been particularly painful, especially when lives could have been saved using inexpensive drugs. Getting healthy is one of the best lines of defense and good Vit. D levels is crucial. Taking one pill per day is not going to get that level up if you are low. Get your levels checked. I have been personally fighting this battle for years trying to get mine at optimal levels.
@ Matt in Oklahoma Bottom line, we all make our own decisions and live or die with it in everything we do in life. Hind sight is always 20/20.
Thank you!
From an ER doc here, you have written a spot-on article. You match my views on this almost exactly. Thanks for putting this down in writing.
Thank you Docbob!
Well written article Dr. Dan , but lets cut to the chase Covid-19 is a bio weapon period. It does not take scientist to figure this out, plus I had a good source. As one of the compromised people I have asked 3 of my doctors, heart, pcp, and cancer all three agree that the n95 mask that the public uses only offers little protection. All 3 have said n95 respirator offers greater protection, and people like us good luck getting.
The problem we have is no one believes what the medical society say’s because state to state, Government agency to CDC. to the WHO. All have different advice and things change daily. Plus you have false results, inflated numbers the Hospitals love that extra cash.
I am not going to say anymore, because care giver’s are about as clueless as the public when it comes to this illness, and until you get on the same page I will go stack bb’s and keep doing what I am doing to avoid this illness. Good day!
B. Rhoads,
It’s not that the Government, CDC, and WHO all have different advice. It’s that they all have differing agendas that cause them to contradict one another. These agendas are led by other agencies, personnel, even contriesare pressuring how these organizations represent covid-19 responses. Of course, this hurts everybody. But what can you do.?
Remember science is trying toprove something is right or wrong, sometimes today the knowledge you´ve seems to prove this, yesterday was different and tomorrow your knowledge is different from before.
a good , honest scientist will the give different advice any of these three days in good faith and the public information is a different matter, a loss of nuances and understanding is to be expected, not counting those who only read what fit their agenda.
Even the plain letters and words say the exacr opposite
I asked a doctor friend of mine why the hospitals ran out of PPE so fast. Don’t administrators have to prepare for medical emergencies?
He answered that hospitals stocked a 6 month supply of PPE, but only at their normal usage rate. The pandemic usage rate was 10 times normal. The 180 day supply was exhausted in just 18 days.
What a colossal oversight!
Tim, its worse than that. The Department of Health and Human Services ran an exercise called Crimson Contagion 2019 that involved all the Federal Departments and twelve states. There should have been no surprises on materials.
The Coordinating Draft of the After Action Report addressed PPE.
5. Resources
The current medical countermeasure supply chain and production capacity
cannot meet the demands imposed by nations during a global influenza
pandemic.
Exercise participants were not clear on the applicability or use of Title I Defense
Priorities and Allocations Authority , of the Defense Production Act to mitigate
medical countermeasure and ancillary supply shortages during an influenza
pandemic response.
Application of resource scarcity mitigation measures were not clearly
communicated
States experienced multiple challenges requesting resources from the federal
government due to a lack of standardized , well-understood , and properly
executed resource request processes.
Some states were not clear on pre-pandemic vaccine or the Strategic National
Stockpile asset distribution in response to an influenza pandemic .
States questioned federal resource allocation decisions in response to an
influenza pandemic.
They (hospitals) didn’t have stockpiles for pandemics. State and Federal EMA’s didn’t have a strategic stockpile. This was compounded by our nation being dependent on China for much of the PPE (rather than to be able to ramp up domestic production asap like we did in WW2).
Dr. Dan,
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to write this article. Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words.
Don’t wear a mask, we need them for health care “professionals”. Besides, they don’t work at stopping or preventing the Kung Flu.
“Then why do health care “professionals” need them?
“Uhhhh, wear a mask. Yeah, that’s it! Wear a mask”
How bad is the morbidity/mortality rate?
“ uhhh, we’re going to say it’s really high and spout off a bunch of numbers and statistics.” Then we’re going to revise that, then revise it again. Mostly because it’s all over the place.
Instead of saying “we just don’t know”, we’re going to create our own models for death, destruction and millions dying and dead. (Even though millions of you don’t know anyone who has gotten sick or died from “it”.)
Then we’ll tell you a vaccine is coming. What? AIDS? A virus?
Never mind the fact that we haven’t found a “cure” for AIDS in over 40 years. Put that back behind the curtain.
And in Oregon, if you die in a car crash, but test positive for beer flu, we are going to list your cause of death as Covid-19. Because we need numbers. Uhhhh, because we asked for several truck loads of ventilators from the feds, and after we got them, we shipped them off to NYC. Because, uhhhh, we flattened the curve! Yeah, that’s it!
Never mind the economy, millions out of work, stores/restaurants/businesses closing in unheard of numbers.
“Wear a mask. No, not that one, this one”.
“Don’t go to funerals.” Unless it’s this really popular person.
“Wear a mask”. Unless your at a restaurant or bar, then it’s ok to eat, drink, and be merry.
Just do as we say, because we’re doctors.
Thanks for the article!!
Thank you for such a practical article. I’d been thinking about getting an eye checkup, this has pushed me to making the appointment.
Thank you. I hope it helps you get “tuned up” in case we see a second wave of shutdowns and this isn’t available to you for a while.
Thanks, Doc, for the medical perspective. I am a chaplain at a children’s hospital and have heard much the same from my colleagues, although there tend to be divergent opinions even in the medical community.
I believe that most preppers’ initial assessment still holds true: The virus is real, it’s not something you want to contract, it is survivable in most cases, the immuno-compromised carry the greatest risk, and it is being used for political leverage.
Hello Dr. Dan! Our many and sincere thanks for your article on the important and timely subject of COVID-19. I’m looking forward to Part 2, and appreciate your sound and reasoned guidance on the subject. It’s great to hear your voice here.
1) The hundreds of healthcare workers dead from this disease can be laid at Obama and Joe Biden’s door. They and their CDC Director Tom Friedman used up 85 million N95 masks from the Strategic Stockpile in 2009 and failed to replace them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/face-masks-in-national-stockpile-have-not-been-substantially-replenished-since-2009/2020/03/10/57e57316-60c9-11ea-8baf-519cedb6ccd9_story.html
2) Obama and Joe Biden spent almost $1 Trillion a year on “defense” and “homeland security” but did nothing to defend America from this Chinese virus. Just as Clinton spent $Trillions but did nothing to defend us from Al Qaeda. Because the only thing that gets defended are the foreign investments and agendas of billionaire Democrat globalists.
3) Do you ever hear any criticism of that from the lying News Media? Instead we have staged riots to distract the voters. Notice how the two-faced paid activists yelling “Black Lives Matter” never mention that Democrat billionaires in Silicon Valley have been throwing resumes from black Americans
in the trash for decades — in favor of bringing in cheap labor from Asia.
Notice how the lying News Media never mention that we have almost 200,000 dead — many of them black Americans — from a virus springing up on the far side of the world because the globalists’ interwoven supply chains made it difficult to close our borders without crashing an economy still limping from the 2008 fraud.
4) You all face a far bigger , more lethal threat than this virus.
Greed Never Sleeps. It doesn’t feel kinship or pity or guilt or remorse. And it will never stop until you are slaves or are dead.
It is silly to believe that the medical community should have been prepared for something that no one could predict. The blame is appropriate once we were asked to flatten the curve so that hospitals could prepare and a month, two months, 5 months later they are still not prepared. As for the government doing something to prevent/cure/end the virus, what? There is nothing anyone can do. The virus can’t be stopped and there is little the government can do about it.
Dr Dan to further my claims in my previous comment, about an hour ago the CDC announced that if you have been around someone with covid-19 or exposed within six feet for 15 minutes you don’t necessarily need to be tested.
So as I have implied this changes almost daily, and I am not a sheep.
Nor will I take Moderna’s vaccine as George Soros, Bill gates, Dr Fauci and the departed Mr Epstein are all invested in this company. Gee two of them own the patent on the vaccine,Baa, Baaa for thee but not for me.
Dr. Dan
I am a retired Medical Technologist. I have followed this Pandemic since its start. One thing is you need to check out Dr. Ralph Baric who is an epidemiologist. He and his team created a chimeric corona virus with all the features of COVID 19. This was done in 2015. He published his research in a public research journal. He warned about up functioning viruses in his research paper. Someone could have used his work as a blueprint to produce COVID 19. In the paper Dr. Baric states that creating a vaccine to his chimeric virus did not work. In his research part of it was that if a chimeric virus was made then there was an effort to see if a vaccine could be produced against the chimeric virus. Dr. Baric works out of the Department of Virology at the University of North Carolina. Over half of the total COVID 19 deaths so far are from nursing home residents. As of even now most of the nursing homes do not have enough PPE. When this whole COVID 19 fiasco started there were two separate populations. There was the “main street’ population and the “long term care” population. The “long term care” population was isolated from the “main stream” population at the first of March. All the deaths in the “long term care” population occurred due to those residents being exposed to COVID 19 infected staff and vendors. Most of the hospitalizations early on were sick “long term care” residents and most died. The lock downs were supposed to protect the “long term care” residents and that was a failure. The lock downs destroyed our “main street” economy which did not even involve the “long term care” population. Having “Main street” people wear ineffective masks does not protect the “long term” term care population. The general public cannot get N95 masks. The most up to date information is that the death rate for COVID 19 is about equal to the flu. Take the death rate and divide it by the case number and multiply it by 10 as the 10 is a multiplier accounting for the positive cases that exist in the population which have not been found by testing at any one time. By doing the math that gives the death rate. Sweden is getting herd immunity. Arizona has 20 deaths so far in its population of <20 year old people. The population is being driven by fear thanks to the media. Doctors in general need to get more informed about COVID 19. We have a credible treatment with hydroxychloroquine, zinc and zythromax. There also is Ivermectin. If we get herd immunity we will not see a large spike in cases this fall. I agree that getting elective surgeries and procedures done is a good idea. AS of now there is no 14 day delay before symptoms occur. If you are exposed to COVID 19 then quarantine 14 days and if you do not get symptoms you are in the clear. That includes a negative virus test. We have destroyed the US economy for a pandemic equal to a bad flu season. That is a terrible thing to have happen to us as a nation.
.
Thanks Kelly. You brought up some very valid points.
An update to my earlier comment, About an hour ago the CDC announced that if you have been exposed to covid-19 or suspect that if you had 15 minutes within six feet of someone you think has it and you do not have any symptoms you don’t necessarily need to be tested.
As I said earlier this changes almost daily so who do you believe?
Life is risk. A lot of perfectly healthy people will die every day, despite having taken every precaution possible, and abiding by the advice of every health professional there is. We are mortal, which means every day we have to make a wager on what we can get away with doing vs. what calamity may beset us, even if we do nothing wrong. You may think that all your efforts toward staying healthy are mitigating your risks, right up to the point where something gets ya.
Live your life. When it’s your time, you probably won’t know it and you sure won’t be able to do anything about it. Everybody gotta die sometime.
It’s good to see such an article to that encourages us to remain vigilant. I still stay up to speed by listening to Dr. Chris Martensen. His latest video asserts that reinfection does occur. This means that herd immunity is less likely to be attained.
Much of what was discovered early on is proving out to be true, or partly true. The evidence strongly suggest that this is a bio-weapon. This possibility should not be down played as any threat should not be underestimated. It is taken the medical community much longer to understand this virus, because it was politicized, and because government involvement in medicine corrupted it. The process where hypothesis is eventually confirmed and established as fact, or dismissed, via science takes years, yet we must be bold and make educated guesses if we are to make a difference in the interim. We must allow doctors to be doctors, and not be controlled by Big Pharma. Alternative treatments that have been clinical established to work, that uses hydroxychoroquin and Ivermectin, should be widely available. We should take a stand on this issue, otherwise the virus will continue to be a tool of terror rather than taken seriously and sensibly.
Tunnel Rabbit–Just to further discuss the Chris Martenson series. When he discussed “reinfection” of those two cases, the main takeaways for me were the fact that they were positive for coronavirus but asymptomatic AND the coronavirus was a different strain when they did genome sequencing. There are two other pieces of information from his prior videos that supplement this and I also find encouraging:
1) the fact that he theorizes that a lot of places have achieved herd immunity divided amongst 3 populations (15% producing antibodies, 30% asymptomatic from prior exposure to a similar virus structure resulting in T cell immunity, and 40% symptomatic at some level with, again, T cell immunity–for a total of approx. 85% of the population) and 2) the fact that patients that were exposed to SARS cov1 back in 2003 still had T cell immunity in 2020.
The cases of reinfection, so far, appear to be rare, and I am curious about these other rare cases of reinfection being caused by the new D614G mutation that appeared in samples around Feb/March. So, folks who were infected around that time and then “got it again” in May or June, for example, probably were infected by the original virus and then later the mutation–just an educated guess. So, in terms of a “second wave”–I could maybe see this if there is some kind of more virulent mutation, but the current D614G mutation that has been burning through this country since about Feb/March appears to end in herd immunity and I haven’t heard of any confirmed reinfection with the same D614G virus. SO good news, I think–maybe there’s herd immunity if we don’t get some big bad mutation.
I have prescribed the HCQ/Zpack cocktail with Zinc etc. and have seen lots of patients turn the corner. It works. Unfortunately, there are apparatchiks that have already notified me for “education” on HCQ “dangers”. Looks like my future prescriptions will be ivermectin…
I’d find all this “COVID” stuff a lot easier to swallow if the “lockdowns’ weren’t so selective. The churches where I live are limited to 100 congregants, and services must be held OUTSIDE… in Southwest summer heat… … NO singing or chanting…
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart and the local casinos are good to go, with no limitations on “congregation.”
…Too many screen doors on this submarine to have any real credibility…
I agree Tom. The inconsistencies were so blatant they became cringe-worthy.
“It’s ok to riot en masse, but don’t you dare gather at a small church, even if you’re wearing your masks…after all rioting is exempted from lockdowns because it’s accomplishing a ‘social good’ but church is not.”
“Optometrists and Dentists…shut your offices down for months…but if you’re an abortion clinic or pot dispensary or liquor store then it’s ok to stay open…”
we´d a limit on how many people could go in a supermarket, grocery store, shop etc
Currently, I don’t believe the public has perspective. The news media has made certain they don’t.
According to one poll, most people believed that 9% of the population has died from Covid19. If true, that would have been 29,000,000 deaths. The current number is 175,000. Thank the media.
In 1968 we had something called the “Hong Kong Flu.” Approximately 100,000 people died of it, and that was WITH a vaccine. It mostly affected people over 65.
There were no masks, there was no economic lock down, the schools weren’t closed. There was no need to vote by mail. There was no panic.
The fear of Covid19 was understandable in the early days, as we saw pictures from China of people dying in the streets. There was a justifiable fear that this “novel corona virus” was a bio-warfare agent that had escaped a chinese lab. (I still personally believe that it was possibly a “tame” version of a virus the chinese were experimenting with). But as time passed, we learned more about it. We are constantly being told that we need to follow the “science” by people who couldn’t screw in a light bulb. The facts are, the average age of people who have died is 78 (similar to the flu). Children are far less likely to suffer the effects (unlike the flu). The death rate is actually exceedingly low at 0.05% (five hundreths of one percent). It mostly affects people with pre-existing conditions (diabetes, being over weight, respiratory problems, etc). Most healthy people have minor symptoms, or none at all.
The virus isn’t a “hoax,” it certainly exists. The “hoax” part is just how serious it is, and whether it was necessary to shut down the economy and destroy the integrity of the voting system. These are political tools meant to affect an election. This isn’t science any more than claiming an unborn child is not “alive.”
The masks perform the same purpose that garlic necklaces fulfill in keeping away vampires. Most people can attest to the fact that your breath blows out the top and sides. This is especially evident to people who wear glasses (fogging). If indeed the virus rides along micro vapor particles, you are still crop dusting the area with your breath regardless of the mask. I look at the mask as a sort of arm band you wear across your face. Its an indication that you are a member of the Party in good standing. That you implicitly agree with the official Party position that we are in the middle of a modern day plague and THAT makes it perfectly OK to destroy an economy and compromise the voting system.
I’ve come to refer to Covid-Wuhan virus as the “Donkey virus.” You can probably guess why.
I would give you 10 thumbs up if we had that option here. We’ll said and thanks for the chuckles.
And I’m right there with you Patti.
You look at one detail and ignore the most important detail, we´d a vaccine
I actually mentioned the irony that we HAD a vaccine for the Hong Kong Fluey… HAD one, but 100 thousand people still died anyway…
I just wonder why churches and voting booths need to be shut down, but Walmarts and casinos and marijuana dispensaries can stay open (this is the case in NV). Public protests and riots are perfectly OK. Apparently the virus knows if you are a Social Justice Warrior and will grant you an exemption.
Our Guv outlawed the use of Hydroxychloroquine because the Bad Orange Man said it might work and CNN said it would definitely kill you. Hydroxychloroquine is a member of a group of medications called sulfa drugs. These drugs were invented in the 1920s by German scientists and were used to fight infections before the invention of antibiotics. Its chemically similar to Atabrine, which was given to the troops in WW2 to fight off malaria. There are various theories about why it works in conjunction with azithromycin and zinc supplements.
The fact is, a number of anecdotal reports and studies show it can be effective especially when given early in the process.
But all the Nevada governor needed to hear was that the CNN (Noted authority on medical science) said it was a “fish tank cleaner” and that Trump was stupid. Nuff said.
I could be wrong, but none of this horse hockey sounds like “science” to me.
Yes, and ironically ignoring that this is one of the differences betwenn both
If somebody volunteered for the darwin award and got lucky, that is not a problem for society and does not endanger other people.
Walmarts: people need to eat, etc
Public Protest is a basic right, in Berlin the courts overruled the senator of the interior who refused to “allow” it.
The churches “closed” here not, they did service over the net
here is list of priests who died administering to the sick
https://www.zeit.de/2020/14/italien-priester-coronavirus-infizierte-tote-vorbilder
Honestly i´ve no bone in the decisions of your governor
——–
Its chemically similar to Atabrine, which was given to the troops in WW2 to fight off malaria.
———
that is an argument that is so wrong, i could only say that´s a very dangerous analogy, the structure of both is different and very little and subtle differences in such cases could be the difference between life threatening health risks or not
Doctor- If I may pose 2 questions? 1) Early on there was a report that Covid had a genetic chain similar to AIDS. I read there’s some role played in AIDS with regard to viral load that relates to chance virus will successfully infect you as well as varying states of shedding the virus that relates to how likely you will infect someone else. Does this also apply to Covid? 2) An infectious disease doctor in our church said there’s no such thing as being asymptomatic. I have wondered if the large percentage of the American people who regularly take medications-legal or illegal as well as drugs could be masking the sensing of covid-19 symptoms?
HI MamaLark,
The report early on that some of the chains of RNA were similar between AIDS and Covid-19 was bogus, or rather ignoring common sense and trying to grab some headlines instead of do good science. I am pretty sure they later retracted the paper.
Viruses are made up of chains of amino acids, with a bazillion amino acids in every virus. They look something like this: ACGGGACCCCGAAGCCCCGGGAGGACGGGAGCGCAGG but thousands of times longer than that. You can discover what exact chains are in Covid-19, then run those through a huge database for DNA and RNA researchers. It would be similar to you doing a google search for something, such as the word “score.” You’re going to get “About 2,030,000,000 results” according to google. That’s 2 billion. You’ll have to scroll through a heck of a lot of those “score” hits before you finally see the Gettysburg Address where it says, “Four SCORE and seven years ago…” Molecular biologists get lots of hits when they google (in their database) “GACCGCAAGC.” The hits will be listed in order of importance. What the dishonest scientists did who claimed that there were AIDS chains of amino acids in the corona virus was not tell everyone that the AIDS chains came up more than 1,000 hits down the list. There were thousands of other organisms where those chains showed us much more frequently. In forgetting to mention that, the scientists were dishonest and doing very bad “science”
Asymptomatic carriers are very common in many disease and for the common flu, it’s over 30% according to the CDC. There are two ways they test of Covid-19: they test for the virus to see if you currently have it, and they can test for antibodies in your system to see if you already had it. If you never got sick but you have antibodies in your system, that means you had the virus but never showed any symptoms, hence, asymptomatic.
I am aware the article wasn’t well received and retracted. My question was about 1) the role of viral load in severity of illness and whether there are peaks and valleys in shedding the virus 2) Are asymptomatic really asymptomatic or not just sensing the symptoms? If the RX you take for whatever dries your throat so you have a nagging cough, you may not think the cough you have at the outset is anything to worry about. I live in Omaha and the infectious disease doctor works at UNMC who said asymptomatic cases don’t exist.
I am trying to understand why cases in NYC were so severe and why all these big public health bureaucracies in NY & CA didn’t detect the virus until it was running wild.
Will someone in rural America who catches the virus from one individual be less affected than someone who is exposed to dozens of infected individuals living in a bigger city?
The deaths in NY, NJ, MA, etc. are extremely high when compared with rural areas for a number of reason. The most obvious reason is the crowding in large population centers. Another obvious reason is that large gatherings of old and compromised people in large cities. Most of the dead in NY, NJ and Italy for example are older people. The third reason is one that you need to understand because it will affect you and everyone else in rural areas. That is this isn’t over yet. Before this disease runs it’s course it will run rampant in your area too. When all is said and done it will be a horrendous death toll in big cities and little towns too. It is a mistake to try to draw conclusions from incomplete data.
Why could he, as long as it´s the same virus
Have to give the globalists credit. They ruined countless lives and yet nobody has caught on to their little scam . . . .yet.
Maybe that’s the plan as well ? The peasants revolt and the elites use that excuse to turn the screw a little bit tighter.
That’s what the so-called “pandemic” is all about. Controlling people. It’s the old battle Good vs Evil. For now the devil has cast his darkness upon the land. I pray good people will see the light.
It’s time to be Sweden.
You don’t quarantine healthy people.
We can still take care of the elderly and the infirm with comorbidities while opening schools and the economy.
Walmart never shut down while mom and pop small business owners have been locked out and locked up.
Comparing “Optometrists and Dentists” to “Pot Dispensaries and Liquor Stores” is plain nuts.
No one wants a covid smeared booger in their eye or their mouth from a dirty professional.
Marijuana and Alcohol have probably done more to keep this planet semi-sane in the past few months than any doctor.
It’s called stress relief. It’s not like the gyms were open.
Liberty and Freedom should be the order of the day.
No one gets out alive.
Until that last day, stop telling me what to do.
Cheers!
(Now re-read this while thinking about all of the f-bombs I had to refrain from typing)
1) Sweden is not doing that well.
Sweden’s population is 10.3 million, USA’s is 328 million –31.86 times Sweden’s. Multiply Sweden’s death toll of 5817 by 31.86 and you get 185,353 deaths — more than the 179,695 the USA has.
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
2) Sweden’s case incidence rate is about the same as US states (Minnesota, Vermont) having similar population density — 1000 to 1200 per 100,000. However, Sweden’s death rate is far worse — 7 to 10.4 % (depending on Swedish city) versus Minnesota’s 2.58% and Vermont’s 3.68%.
3) I should mention US SOUTHERN states also but first note that the incidence of Covid in the southern USA is TWICE the rate in the northern tier. From Maine to Minnesota to Montana to Washington, the rate is about 1100 per 100,000 population.
But in the warm Southern USA — from Arizona through Texas to Mississippi to Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, the incidence rate is 2000 to 2200 per 100,000. 3100 in Louisiana.
4) Mississippi and Arizona have similar population density to Sweden’s ( 60 to 64 people per sq mile) but have almost 2.5 times the infection rates (2700 cases per 100,000 people), However, the death rate in those states is only 3 and 2.5 % respectively.
5) As i have mentioned before, the massive failure of New York City to contain this virus has greatly increased the US death toll. The News Media seems strangely reluctant to hold Mayor Blasio and Governor Cuomo to account for that.
Looks like Sweden is comparable to the US of A according to your figures on #1.
Therefore I conclude that Sweden was correct not to shutdown and bankrupt their economy over a virus that would speed its way through us humans no matter what we did.
As for King Meatball Cuomo, he demanded New York State shut down for 2 weeks to “flatten the curve” – 5 months later and it’s still locked down. The incidence rate is 1%. The curve is flat as can be.
Why is NY still locked down? Why the continuance of draconian measures?
I reiterate, its time to be Sweden.
I’m going to save my comments until I have read both parts.
I had a good friend who died from COVID-19 a few weeks back. He was a 73 year old P.A. in excellent physical condition. He still went running everyday. I had supplied his office with 3M N-95 masks (yup, I had access to a stockpile). Office protocol which he established, was that suspected COVID patients would be screened in their cars (tested) by someone who was fully protected (disposable gown, gloves, booties, face shield or goggles, and N95 respirator). Two very good friends of his showed up at the office and they were very sick with COVID-19. He abandoned the office protocol and took them back into a small exam room. He was not wearing any protective gear and they were both coughing a lot. That was on a Friday. The following Monday he started with a dry cough (yup, back in the office working, no mask). By Tuesday he went home where his wife (also a P.A.) quarantined him to the basement. By Friday, they admitted him to a large and well equipped hospital because of low blood oxygen levels. He died the following week. Five people in the office were also infected by him (given the lag in their symptoms they were likely exposed on Monday in the office). All survived but two because very sick. Very sad. He was a good man and helped LOTS of people everyday. I am confident that had he followed the protocols that he himself had put in place it is likely he would still be alive. One of the office staff is in her sixties and has MS. She self treated at home and recovered. I wish my friend had followed the rules that could have saved his life.
Newell Franks… I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Sometimes we let our guards down, and in this case, the result was the tragic, tragic loss of life. Thank you for sharing this with all of us. We must remember to be vigilant and ever careful.
Doctor Dan; Question….how big/capacity are our hospitals? Why did we have to flatten the curve to begin with? Shouldn’t our hospitals be able to serve more people?
Hospitals deal with realities. The reality 24/7/365 is that hospitals do not need many quarantine beds. They need ER’s and regular beds. The covid virus was an anomaly and hospitals don’t put a lot of effort into preparing for a situation that happens every 100 years or so. Hopefully when this is all over there will be a wide ranging review of health care practices and methods to include changes for hospitals to allow them to quickly convert beds and hospital wings into quarantine care facilities. My gut tells me that we have crossed an event horizon and that pandemics may be making a comeback. This would be the result of our large and growing population, ease of travel and social policies that prevent any kind of meaningful screening of people as they travel.
Doctor Dan:
Great article. It’s good to know there are medical professionals that read, write articles, and comment here. I’ve had a few disagreements with some, not all. I mean disrespect to none that I have disagreed with.
Like others, I have my own opinions about this ridiculous virus. The virus is real, the disease it causes is also real. That being said, I have serious reservations concerning the people involved with the willful misinformation coming out of the CDC, WHO, Big Pharma, and the various foundations and think tanks that appear determined to kill as many Americans as possible. The special target of their evil desires are those American senior citizens and anybody else who may be considered to be “useless eaters”.
Anyway, looking forward to part 2 of this article. Thank you.
To all,
The lack of preparation by government agencies is not only in the medical arena. Most anyone at the Colonel level or above is a politician looking for the next promotion. The young troopers and junior officers are outstanding.
Nothing has changed in DoD since the Blizzard of 1977, when a cold weather unit from the south arrived in Buffalo with little or no antifreeze, no cabs on equipment or unheated cabs. Any equipment that failed was removed by C5A’s for repair as there was little mechanism to repair their equipment in Buffalo. Some troopers had very little cold weather clothing.
Great article, I will not be the first one to take the vaccine.
Francis… From your post: “The lack of preparation by government agencies is not only in the medical arena.”
This is true, and should strike fear in the heart of every person who reads it. The cupboards, as President Trump reminds us, were bare. …and not just those cupboards attached to PPE or other pandemic preparedness supplies (ventilators and more). We must all prepare as best we can for ourselves and our families and within our communities.
Doctor Dan,
Thank you very much for taking the time to write this article and to reply to various posts.
Looking forward to the next part of your post.
Thanks again.
Dear Dr.
Interesting timing of your post. I’m the head of a rural hospital board in Ca. (I know!).
We have been lucky that the area has only 200+ positive people. However we have had a dozen or so deaths from this. Or about 5% of known positive. As testing is totally random in this state who really knows.
Overall I agree with everything you have said so far. Looking forward to part 2.
A small group of leaders in our community started developing a plan “B” for our valley a few years ago. We looked at all the usual threats and have some plans for most of them. Since we started we have had the main highway through here closed by mudslide for two weeks, random power outages for up to 72 hours, the earthquake July 2019 and of course the random snow storm. To be honest, the pandemic was low on our radar and planning. We are encouraging people to have a min of two weeks supplies at home and look at longer term events. However a major event that takes out the power grid for the US is almost impossible to plan for. The year or so it would take to develop crops to feed people would eliminate 80% or more of the population. So most people won’t even consider that in their thinking.
That brings me to my point, that the pandemic and the shut down of our economy is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. The number of private sector employees out of work is going to have a huge effect on the country long term. In my opinion the economy is driven by the private sector jobs from mom and pop stores to employees of the major corporations. Their taxes are what primes the government pump. The taxes paid by gov employees or benefits are just recycled money. If we don’t get people back to work it won’t matter much who wins in November. The amount of debt the nation will generate trying to borrow our way back will be staggering. There is a great line in the book “Alas, Babylon” from 1959: it’s the day after and everyone who had money went out and bought everything they could in the small town. Then the shopkeeper notes that his stock is gone and all he has is a safe full of paper money and no place to spend it. It is almost like watching the same thing happening in slow motion today.
Keep up the good fight.
Mike
The latency period is up to 3-months during which time those infected with the virus are carriers that spread the virus.
No her-immunity is to be expected with this virus.
Those infected with this virus and recover will have life-long complications, an impulse-based continuation of the original infection after an unpredictable time, susceptibility to old diseases, and a shortened life-span.
… https://ca.figu.org/coronavirus.html
One Guy ….I think you nailed it. What will hospitals and health care learn from this?