Today’s post is mainly about a couple of personal experiences. Both relate to the difficulty of getting truth and expressing truth. The first story relates to COVID-19. The second story relates to election integrity. I’d like to write an entire post on either, or both. There’s so much to say about either. But mainly today I’m concerned about being able to tell something related to these topics in a world that censors.
image found here
The COVID-19 Related Censorship Story
We have an extended family member who went through a struggle
with COVID-19 last month. Several people in his family—including wife and grown
children went through it. I’m going to use mainly his words, removing
identifiers for privacy. This family member is about 5 years younger than I am,
so, mid-50s.
He wrote this to us on Friday, October 2nd. It is
the same date that President Trump announced he was fighting it. The President was
treated over the weekend and felt practically recovered the following Monday.
Here’s our family member’s story:
Family,
I’ve been ill for several days and still getting worse and
not better. Yesterday I got my test results showing POSITIVE for active Covid
19. It’s just barely moving into my
lungs and, so far, has been like a bad flu.
It seems our big family and risky travels has caught up with
us! While we do take general precautions, we’ve also been very active with
multiple travels. A couple weeks ago Daughter and Wife flew to
Tampa to play with Other Daughter. One of their activities was a day at
Universal Studios Harry Potter World (their FIFTH theme park day since Covid
began!). All three of them got sick shortly thereafter. Daughter and Wife
brought it back to AZ and I soon got ill. So far the grandkids are unaffected
or simply headaches and very low fever.
I thought I was improving yesterday, but my symptoms are
worse today than yesterday. My doctor
won’t prescribe anything.....said to take Advil and cough syrup!
The only good news is that if I successfully beat this, then
I’ll be immune for our cruise through the Panama Canal next month!!! They still have not canceled that cruise(???
Not sure why it’s not canceled as I don’t know if the various ports are open
along the route).
I’ll keep you posted.
Hope you are all doing well.
John Locher/AP Photo found here
I emailed him, that same day, my little bit of advice:
Praying you get through this quickly and completely. In early
stages, hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc and an antibiotic such as
Zithromax has been shown effective all over the world. Also, I understand
there's a steroid nasal spray that has been effective. I don't understand why a
doctor would prescribe nothing when you're at an early stage when these things
work best. Find a doctor who does those sensible things. My opinion.
Another family member sent similar, but more detailed advice,
explaining why some of these supplements work, and linking to some online
sources. One paragraph he added was this:
I am not a doctor. I am not able to guarantee the
effectiveness of these products. However, physicians, most with foreign
experience in places like Africa and Asia, claim good success in treating
COVID-19 patients using these supplements (which aren't regulated). Successful
treatments have included oxygen plus budesonide (or another anti-inflammatory)
in a nebulizer to reduce the cytokine storm, which is often what really kills
the COVID-19 sufferer. The budesonide does require a prescription.
In phonecalls, he offered thanks for the concern and assured
us his son-in-law, studying to be a nurse practitioner, was keeping him
apprised of the protocol he was instructed to use, which was essentially what
his doctor was doing.
On October 7, about 5 days later, the ill family member emailed
this:
My condition kept getting worse and worse, however, yesterday
I had my first day of improvement. Today
is "Ok" as well. This has been
quite horrible.
I believe I'm on the mend, but it is not a FAST recovery at
all. My oximeter still shows my blood
oxygen levels are consistently LOW, but better than they were. I will likely have a long road back.
Even Wife has relapses whenever she exerts herself—and
she was very strong when she first got sick as she has been on a formal
exercise program for many months (her best friend is a physical trainer).
I'll keep you posted.
Then we got a follow-up on October 12, which he posted on
Facebook.
Covid-19 Follow-up. I'm pleased to report I am MUCH better.
HOWEVER—the government constrains on doctors is A SCAM. I suffered very badly
for many days. My primary doctor with Named Health Care (who was
amazing), quit practicing in the middle of Covid. I don't know if it was fear
of infecting her family, or if she was not allowed to treat patients properly.
I was assigned a new doctor. I WAS NOT ALLOWED ACCESS TO HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE and
other helpful products. I WAS TOLD TO TAKE ADVIL MORNING AND NIGHT AND USE
DELSYM COUGH MEDICINE. I did this for two weeks and got more and more sick each
day to the point my lungs were not processing oxygen well [I have a
pulse-oximeter to measure blood oxygen]. FINALLY—I FIRED MY DOCTOR and switched
to a local family practice with more proactive treatment. They assessed me for
possible contradictions to the treatment and then prescribed a simple
'cocktail' of Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc Sulfate, Azithromycin, and Prednisone.
All in relatively low doses for 7 days.
WITHIN 24 HOURS THE MAJOR SYMPTOMS HAD DEPARTED. Within 48
hours I was about 80% recovered and up and about doing chores and projects.
Now, at 4 days and am very strong and simply hoping my lungs can recover from
the damage.
Oh...and the medications only cost $40. If I had been quickly
evaluated and prescribed these simple medications on the day I tested positive
for Covid, I could have avoided a huge amount of suffering and possibly
permanent damage to my lungs.
I will NEVER TRUST the big government control of healthcare
again. They tried to kill me!
I’ve written multiple times (see here, here, and here) about the treatment that finally
worked for him. It has been known to work during most of the pandemic. But doctors
have been forbidden to use it in many places, and if you bring it up on social
media, you can be censored. I'd like to know why?
This is just one more personal anecdotal story. It just
happens to be the closest relative I have had suffering from a serious,
identified case of COVID-19. So my personal experience is, it works 100% of the
time, just like the censored doctors have said.
If I were doing a full post on COVID-19 today, I’d add the
following.
·
“FDA OKs first rapid home test” Houston Chronicle,
Nov. 19, 2020, p. A9.
·
“UT Analysis: 1 in 6 Texans, or 4.75M estimated
to be infected already” Houston Chronicle, Nov. 18, 2020, p. A1. Note
that this is intended to alarm us. But in the story it says, this is how many
total have caught it, knowingly or not, in the 8 months we have had known cases
in Texas. It’s four times previous estimates. That means the lethality is much
lower than previous estimates, and current immunity among the population, most
of whom have already recovered, is now much higher. And see the next story.
·
“Data: COVID Immunity Could Last for Years”
Houston Chronicle, Nov. 18, 2020, p. A6.
·
Multiple vaccines are expected to be made
available in the near future, with 95% efficacy rates.
·
Other treatments are being found effective, and
are being made available. Governor Abbott has approved dispensing of one. See
this story: “Gov. Abbott says COVID-19 antibody therapy drug to becomeavailable for eligible Texans” WFAA News, Nov. 19, 2020.
But,
·
There’s a rise in cases being called a surge,
and many areas are calling for more or extended lockdowns, with warnings
against Thanksgiving family gatherings. County Judge Hidalgo sent out a warning
to all residents, on our phones, on Tuesday.
·
Looking at the county health data shows almost
no surge.
Here’s the latest charts, made myself using Harris County and Texas data that I look up daily. This
first one is the 7-day rolling average of deaths in Texas.
data from Texas DSHS, which I've gathered daily
You can see that Texas has had some recent increase, but is
still well under half of when we had a surge in late July—which did not
overwhelm the healthcare system. Much of the Texas problem lately has been
related to El Paso, with cases crossing into Texas from over the border.
Here in Harris County, it’s hard to detect anything you
could call a surge. Maybe a slight bump.
data from Harris County Public Health, which I've gathered daily
I’m not graphing cases; I’m looking at deaths, which is a
lagging indicator. But they started saying there was a surge three or four
weeks ago, so the deaths would show up by now. There was a slight uptick, maybe already over. Enough
to give up seeing your family when you’ve all been safe and well—or maybe have
developed immunity? It doesn’t appear from the data that there’s anything to
panic over.
I do look at case data for my zip code, where it’s a little
more manageable, and maybe believable. The daily chart has been showing fewer
active cases each day for some time. On average, we have 6-8 fewer active cases
per day. We have a total of 11 deaths, which is about low-mid-range for Harris
County. But we haven’t had a new death in this zip code since October 26. The
one previous to that was September 27.
Here’s the Epi-Curve of cases for the county, as charted by
the county.
graph from Harris County Public Health
In sum, the data shows no need to panic. We should not be
Code Red; we should be Code Orange or maybe Code Yellow. The fact that the code
meter has never moved is odd, if you’re looking at the county’s actual data.
Maybe somebody ought to “follow the science.”
My recommendation, which I’m daring enough to say: As long
as you know your relatives are currently well, and you know you are, go ahead
and enjoy Thanksgiving together.
The Election Integrity Related Censorship Story
On November 4, the day after the election, this same AZ relative
posted some information about their voting experience in AZ. I reported it at
the time. He had taken his marked absentee ballot to the polling
place and turned in his vote, and it counted. His wife went to the same polling place
and used the Sharpie marker provided by poll workers to vote in person. A later check online
showed her ballot had been rejected. Multiple relatives around the state had
similar issues. By the time I wrote, she had been able to get her vote counted,
but at least three other relatives, all from Republican areas, had not. It made
them suspicious.
This issue, experienced by many, was called “Sharpie-gate.” Was there an issue?
Yes. Was he spreading rumors? No. He was telling his personal experience. There
were plenty of other issues in AZ, which is still unable to get a certifiable
count.
A few days later, November 9, this relative signed off Facebook with
this:
My dear friends. This will be my last Facebook post as I will
be deleting my account tonight. I have loved knowing more about your activities
and your feelings these past years....but I have personally experienced the
control and censorship of Facebook when I recently posted direct experiences at
our precinct polling station (there has truly been corruption in the vote this
year). Please feel free to reach out via email for new contact information.
I had signed up for a Parler account just a few days
earlier. I haven’t yet left Facebook, which has a format I’m used to, and still
many non-political friends I’d like to stay in touch with.
But here’s the issue I’m having. I think Facebook is keeping
me from getting seen.
I write this blog, posting twice a week, generally. I write
here on Mondays and Thursdays, sometimes not getting things posted until after
midnight, so you’re more likely to see them on Tuesdays and Fridays.
I don’t advertise. I’m not a business entity; I’m just an
individual writer. And I have things to say that I can more
easily do in this format than either speaking or in a short tweet. Some friends
find it valuable, and that is gratifying. And data shows I get found somehow by
people around the world. I am, as I’ve said, obscure. I do not have a big
enough following to make money at this. Maybe someday, if I complete a book I
want to sell, I’ll do what it takes to actually market.
I spent several years writing without hardly mentioning it.
A few years ago I started a pattern of linking my blog posts on Facebook. I try
not to be overly political there, at least in what I offer. I do follow a
number of political people and groups, where I react and occasionally comment.
But on my wall, I’m pretty mild. When I post one of my blogs, I try to say just
enough about it to pique interest, without being overtly political. Often you
have to go to the blog itself to understand what the topic of the day is. I sacrifice clarity for the sake of avoiding conflict among my friends. Still, there are a number of friends who follow me because of my Facebook posts.
I’ve written four posts on election integrity since the
election. It’s hard to concentrate on anything else. These are:
·
It’s Not Over, Nov. 6, 2020
·
Data Scientists Are the New Superheroes, Nov. 9, 2020
· Evidence of Voter Fraud Is Mounting, Nov. 12, 2020
·
More Data Scientist Heroics to Save America, Nov. 16, 2020
The first one got more than my average views. The second one
got much more. About my usual total views for three months for that single
post. It was a bit surprising to me. But I go on about my business. My next one
was still viewed, but more like the numbers of the first one.
Then I wrote the fourth one. And I got zero likes or
reactions at all on Facebook. And, beyond my own views for when I go check my blog
data, I got single digits of page views. I’m obscure. But not that obscure.
I checked with a friend that I know is a regular reader. Could
she see it on Facebook? She could, by going to my wall, but it did not come up
in her feed. Neither had the one previous.
So I did a little unscientific test. I wrote a post asking
friends to let me know if they could see that post. Plenty of friends did that.
(Thank you all. You made me feel loved. I love you too.)
So, OK, maybe it was a temporary thing. I wasn't in Facebook jail. I re-posted Monday’s
blog, the one that got no reactions. This time I got two reactions on Facebook,
from regular readers. (Thank you.) And a literal handful more on my data count
on the blog.
What I think is, Facebook did not like my posts. Without some exploration, it’s hard
to tell that they’re about the election, except that third one. I didn’t get a
warning that my information wasn’t in harmony with their community standards or
anything. I didn't see warnings come up about where to go for election information, which Facebook so "helpfully" provides.
I just got made actually obscure. My latest linked blog post, with
no indicator that it was about voter fraud, does not go to anyone’s feed. Or
almost no one’s, even on the second try.
So today I’m writing my own experience. Is it about
censorship? I think so. I’ve been posting this way for years. Maybe they’ve
been obscuring me off and on. How would I know? I don’t even know for certain
that the subject matter that was interesting to a record number of readers a
week ago is not worth reading this week. It couldn’t be a difference in writing
quality, because people would have to actually read it to learn that, and that
would show up as page views, so I’ll set aside that assumption for now.
I’ll be testing ways to get my rather quiet voice out there.
And we’ll see what happens. But I hate to think what would happen if the censorship
were to get governmental approval, as in a Biden presidency.
If I were writing about the election again today, I would
include these four (and if I were really writing about it, probably a lot
more).
One is today’s press conference with the President’s legal team—a must watch.
Two is a video I listed at the end of my last post, but I didn’t get to talk about this part. The data analyst showed what happened in the 2018 Kentucky Governor’s race. The feed comes in live to the news centers, and he showed a split second, frame-by-frame, of an update in the count. It was a moment when a vote switch was caught live onscreen, on CNN.
 |
| I took a screenshot from this video, and added the arrows and count comments |
Three, a friend sent me this Wimkin video earlier today. It’s a phone video of a phone showing a video that had been made unavailable—a less than high resolution way to share it, but the info is there. I know nothing about either the originator of video or of the guy who was passing it along on this Wimkin video, but it does align with the video in Two, above, showing the same type of switch. The narrator says, if you happened to record one of the main news reports on election night, you can take note of each data update and see when vote switches happened. I think there may be other sources for the data updates as well. There are people who have listed the places and times vote switches happened. This screenshot is poor quality, but you can see someone has listed various cities where they identify switched votes and lost votes. They add up to a lot of stolen votes.
 |
| screenshot from here, listing votes switched and lost |
This video also notes that, on election night, the President
was in the command center, watching the feeds happen, and noting each data update.
He has had the data showing the fraud all along.
Four, the President posted one of these Wednesday, one Thursday, using graphs provided by the New York Times. Those spikes that suddenly change the trajectory of the election—those aren’t possible in a natural world. They’re vote dumps for Biden, and they’re time stamped. The news media reported on this—without showing the NYT graph—claiming Trump made up stuff about voter theft. (I included Facebook’s “helpful” warning to me not to believe my lying eyes.)
 |
| The graphs are from the New York Times. President Trump posted these separately on Facebook, here and here. |
The more evidence that comes out, the more convinced I am that President Trump will remain in office in January.
Heaven help us all if the perpetrators of this crime of the
century are given power instead of prison sentences.
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