Not Like the Others

 

 

This meme is perhaps a tad unfair. Three of these quotes were given during speeches designed to inspire, such as in an inaugural address. And the odd one is given simply in a Christmas greeting to the people, on December 20, 2021. Plus the photo (found here) is less than inspiring. Rather, it is intended to inspire fear.

Viva Frei, observing from Canada, heard of Biden’s statement and thought it must be a parody, so he looked it up, and wasn’t convinced until he found it on the White House’s official site:

This shouldn’t be another dark winter, however. There’s plenty of good news surrounding this virus the president wants us to remain panicked over.

We’ve already gone over some of the data relating to the Omicron variant. As more data comes in daily, here’s what we think we know:

·        It is definitely less severe than Delta and other previous variants. This appears to be true not just for younger people, but for all demographics.

·        It is quickly overtaking Delta and becoming the dominant variant as it spreads around the globe.

·        It doesn’t much care whether a person has been vaccinated or not, although people with a recent third shot (booster) may be better at preventing serious infection.

·        Death is very rare from this variant; it is unclear whether any cases died of this disease or only died with it (meaning they died of some other cause while also testing positive for the infection).

·        A much smaller percentage have an infection that progresses to need hospitalization. Those that do, by some reports, have a similar later progression of the illness as other variants; however, anecdotal evidence shows a much shorter hospitalization stay, down to 2-3 days, rather than weeks.

·        South Africa has already passed through its spike of Omicron cases; new cases are now down. Their spike began around November 23, so it lasted a month. Places experiencing a current spike are likely, then, to be through it by a month from now. (By my reasoning, if you were to get vaccinated now, or get a booster, the Omicron surge will have passed before you get any positive effect.)

·        This illness, while mild, is also very amenable to treatments.

·        Loss of smell and taste is not a common symptom for this variant, which may mean less neurological damage. Also, it seems to affect only the upper respiratory areas, rather than causing COVID-pneumonia as previous variants.

·        In Great Britain, a person with cold symptoms has about a 50% chance of actually having the Omicron variant of COVID-19. While no one recommends risking the illness to get immunity, getting this weaker variant is likely to give immunity.   

One of the good things we’re learning is how to treat. These things probably also work on previous variants as well, but it turns out practically anything kills this virus. Doctors are recommending a sinus wash. You can use a neti pot or a spray bottle. The solution is 2 teaspoons of betadine in 6 ounces of water. As one experienced with a neti pot, I recommend using distilled water; regular filtered water will sting. Even distilled water stings; I use a teaspoon of salt and baking soda in a cup of water to get a saline solution (I buy little packets for the purpose, for convenience, but making your own is fine). Add the betadine to that. Alternatively, you can use hydrogen peroxide (get the kind meant for human use rather than just for stain cleaning). 

A sinus wash and/or a mouthwash can help
kill the virus in the mouth and sinuses.

For your throat, use some of the solution and swish it around and gargle with it. Or use a typical mouthwash. The most data is coming in about Listerine Cool Mint but just about any mouthwash will do. Even a saline mouthwash helps, although not as completely.

So, if you clear out your sinuses and mouth/throat 2-3 times a day, or particularly when you’ve been out among a crowd, you can prevent the replication of any virus particles you may have picked up during the day.

This is long-known information for fighting respiratory infections. There’s just now data showing that, of course, it works for COVID-19 as well, which is a respiratory infection. Dr. Peter McCullough last week referenced nine studies showing these nose and mouth virucidal washes work. This simple thing could either help you avoid the illness altogether or make it much milder than it would have been.

This practice should be on top of taking zinc, Vitamin D 3, and anything else you may need to boost your immune system. And have a plan for early treatment in case you get the illness. With the Omicron variant, unless you’re in a high-risk group (elderly or with multiple co-morbidities), you’re unlikely to need even the typical medical interventions like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, fluvoxamine, or monoclonal antibodies.

The point here is, you’re in control. You don’t have to live in fear of an illness that is now about as high risk as getting a cold.

If you’ve had COVID-19 before, can you get this new variant? There are mixed messages on this. Dr. McCullough, just before Christmas, still believes there is virtually zero reinfection. He tells this about what the CDC finally admitted:

You know, our CDC was pressured on this by a Freedom of Information Act request that basically said, listen, if someone really can get it twice, show us the case. The CDC must have a case of someone who’s really gotten it twice, and they’ve spread it, and this is all verified with basically confirmatory testing. We’d have to see a patient who’s PCR-positive, who’s sick with COVID-19, has signs and symptoms, chest x-ray, laboratories everything fits COVID-19. And they have a PCR at a low-cycle threshold, and a confirmatory antigen, and confirmatory sequencing. And the same person gets the same serious illness, let’s say six months later. And the CDC doesn’t have a case, thankfully. And they’ve certainly never had a case where someone has gone on to spread it on a second occurrence.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mobeen Syed reports—simply passing along reports he’s reading—that this new variant has a reinfection rate about 5 times that of Delta. Are they screening the way Dr. McCullough says must be done? Doubtful. And the supposed reinfection rate before was very low, about one in a thousand, so five times that would be only five in a thousand. In other words, if you’ve had COVID-19 previously, you don’t need to worry about getting it again even as this mild strain.

And if you’re one of the surging cases getting this Omicron variant—whether you were vaccinated or not—afterward you’ll have lifetime immunity.

This will hold true until the variations are no longer COVID-19, but have varied enough to become an unrecognized new virus.

By the way, there is no mechanism for this Omicron variant to mutate into a more dangerous strain. Dr. Mobeen Syed goes over that discussion here. 

We are coming out the other side of this pandemic. Give it a month or two.

But the real plague hasn’t been this highly treatable illness; it has been authoritarian control. And there is no guarantee that will let up. Biden’s Christmas warning hints at that.

Here’s an anecdote for the day. This just happened last night. A friend here has relatives elsewhere who go on a bi-annual trip to Hawaii with all the kids and grandkids. They were flying out of Los Angeles and had done all they were required to do—and there were a lot of hoops to jump through. All the adults were vaccinated. In fact, if I understood correctly, all were vaccinated but one seven-year-old boy. Oddly, when they all had their pre-flight PCR tests done, this boy's result didn’t show up with the rest of them. It was obvious he wasn’t sick. It was obvious he’d been tested—because he was with the whole family who was tested. But a glitch in the system prevented his result from showing up. At the airport, they went through all of this, and the officials there thought this shouldn’t be a problem and let them fly to Hawaii. But in Hawaii they were not allowed to leave the airport. None of them. They were not allowed to get the boy an additional test. They were not allowed to do anything but fly back to LA in the middle of the night.

This was a family where they had been perfectly willing to go along with whatever was required of them. Only the grandmother had been skeptical, but even she had been willing to get vaccinated. Now there’s a whole extended family that has been red-pilled. The boy wasn’t sick; he couldn’t spread anything. He had been tested, and results are somewhere, just not where they belong—because of some bureaucrat somewhere making an error, or maybe a machine making the error. That error cost this family thousands of dollars and the loss of a much-anticipated holiday vacation. This is not OK.

Add to that, the family doesn’t like the idea of vaccinating a seven-year-old for an illness that will not harm him, while the vaccine risk is unknown for children. But California is requiring school children to be vaccinated in order to return to school in January. The family had been considering homeschooling for that reason; this experience may settle it. As if there weren’t already hundreds of reasons to homeschool in California to prevent anti-family and anti-American indoctrination there.

The summary today is, a month from now the pandemic may be over. In the meantime, while we may not be able to do much to prevent exposure, we can take actions that may prevent any infection at all, and will at least make serious infection much less likely. That’s great news for us, but it’s bad news for authoritarians. They're likely to double down on the fearmongering. Their plague on us may not let up for some time.

Dr. Alfred Johnson (left) talks with Dr. Peter McCullough
screenshot from here

Some Resources

·       “Covid-19 and the Holidays” on Real News Communication Network, Dr. Alfred Johnson interviews Dr. Peter McCullough, December 22, 2021. 

·       “Omicron—70 Times More Infectious than Delta and Significantly Less Severe (Study from HKUMed)” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 16, 2021. 

·       “COVID and Vaccine Policy Dangerous” Bret Weinstein talks with Dr Peter McCullough on DarkHorse Podcast Clips, December 18, 2021. 

·       “Cancel Culture Tactics Being Used against Unvaccinated (from Livestream #109)” Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on DarkHorse Podcast Clips, December 26, 2021. 

·       “Documentary Maker Reveals His Experience of COVID in Australia” Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on DarkHorse Podcast Clips, December 27, 2021. 

·       “Simultaneous Reinfection and Breakthrough Case Report” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 20, 2021. 

·       “Omicron—Good News Continues (60% Less Risk of Hospitalization by Omicron)” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 23, 2021. 

·       “UK Common Cold Maybe Omicron, South Africa—Peak Is Over” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 24, 2021. 

·       “Omicron, Half of Common Colds” Dr. John Campbell, December 24, 2021. 

·       “Mouth Washes that Inactivate Coronaviruses” Dr. Mobeen Syed, October 21, 2020. 

·       “Mouth Wash, Colchicine and Vitamin D” Dr. John Campbell, February 2, 2021.

·       “STUNNING—No Reinfection in Previously Infected (Harvard Preprint Study)” Dr. Mobeen Syed, November 22, 2021. 

·         “Dr. Peter McCullough on NFL Protocols, Pregnancy, Omicron and More” Teryn Gregson talks with Dr. Peter McCullough, December 17, 2021. 

·       “(Dec 15, 2021) Omicron—Prof. Dr. Terrence Kommal Shares South Africa Cases and Hospitalizations” Dr. Mobeen Syed talks with Dr. Terrence Kommal, December 15, 2021. 

·       “Omicron Spike Protein is Less Efficient—Random COVID Questions with Dr. Been (#162)” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 17, 2021. 

·       “Will Omicron Mutate Back to a More Lethal Variant?” Dr. Mobeen Syed, December 11, 2021.  

I Have More Questions

I write on the interrelationships of the political, economic, and social spheres. So why do I write so much about COVID-19? It has to do with the effect this illness—and the response to it—have had on our freedoms, our economy, and our social interactions.

I’m interested in treatments—and I wonder why they aren’t more widely known. And I’d really like to know why they have been so often censored. 

And I’m interested in mandates. Especially when the things being mandated go against science and everything we’ve known about treating disease for over a century. This seems to me to be very much related to our freedoms and threatens to affect them even more. The very idea of a vaccine mandate—knowing what we know about this one—troubles me greatly. I’m in a category of should-hesitate-to-get-the-vaccine, according to the WHO. So does that mean I should be prevented from travel and entering certain places or doing certain things, like I’m a pariah? I’m a supposed danger to society because I have a preexisting health condition that puts me at greater personal risk but no added risk to society?

The more I look at this pandemic—as it becomes endemic—the more questions I have.

Dr. Peter McCullough answered questions recently,  updating us on current COVID-19 treatments. He made three main points:

·       The virus does not transmit asymptomatically. (Since June, no more asymptomatic testing.)

·       The Delta variant is not stopped by the vaccine.

·       Early treatment is needed.

Let’s cover the relatively good news first, combining early treatment news and lack of asymptomatic transmission.

 

TREATMENTS

Dr. McCullough offers some general suggestions. He says you should evaluate yourself and your children when you get up in the morning. It used to be that we’d go to work or school with what we thought was “just a cold.” Don’t do that now. Stay home. If you isolate yourself as soon as you have symptoms, that is much more effective at stopping the spread than either masks or lockdowns. If you haven’t yet experienced symptoms, you’re not going to spread the virus.

Dr. Peter McCullough in interview with Dr. Al Johnson
screenshot from here

The good news is that the FDA has given emergency use approval for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ—which should be given along with zinc and azithromycin) and ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment. (I have read contrary information on this, so it may be that the news hasn’t yet spread.) So doctors shouldn’t fear giving it as an early treatment. HCQ appears to have a better response to the Delta variant than ivermectin. But early treatment is key. One proviso Dr. McCullough mentioned is, for African-Americans, ask if they have the genetic deficiency G6PD, which causes a blood disorder called hemolytic anemia. In any other case, use HCQ. With pacemakers, with all different types of disorders; it’s safe. It has been proven in over 65 years of use. It’s similar to Benadryl or Seldane in safety. There are over 250 studies showing it’s safe and effective as the go-to drug for COVID-19. 

Children are generally safe and don’t need treatment (drugs). If they’re healthy to begin with, they’re likely to experience no more than general cold symptoms for a few days. Last year, worldwide, there were 300 child deaths reported as COVID-19; only one had been considered a healthy child.

However, if there’s a persistent fever, they could use a child-adjusted dose of aspirin for a few days (yes, aspirin, as you would for acute rheumatic fever). Also, if the child has asthma, budesonide is the COVID-19 treatment of choice. Or they may need an oral prednisone, or maybe a Z-pak (azithromycin, an antibiotic).

Because healthy children risk only a couple of days of cold-like symptoms, there is nothing to gain from vaccination. There is much greater risk to children from a vaccine than from the virus.

Nutraceuticals are helpful for everybody: zinc, Vitamin D, Vitamin C. Also, “there’s a polyphenol supplement called quercetin,” about 500 mg daily. Those are good for everybody.

The Delta variant is the mildest so far. (New fears are out now about the Mu variant; if it has gone as others, it is milder but more contagious. However, there’s also fear it may be more vaccine resistant. He didn't comment on this.)

When you notice symptoms, he suggests getting a Sofia test.  It’s not as sensitive as the PCR test, which means, when it shows up positive, the virus is really there. No false positives, which have been a persistent problem.

And there are a couple of surprising suggestions. He has learned from oral hygienists, who have long known how to prevent the spread of viruses, you can brush your teeth with yellow Listerine, and rinse your mouth with it. You could also use a dilute human-safe hydrogen peroxide, or an ozone nasal spray. 

A nasal saline irrigation helps a couple of times a day too. That’s a neti pot. (Use distilled water, not just purified water; the minerals in non-distilled water sting. But once you’ve dissolved in the little packet of saline to distilled water, it doesn’t sting anymore. Personal experience.) It not only rinses out allergens, but also viruses and other pathogens.

He didn’t go into great detail, but there’s a solution you can use (I’m not certain how) of 1 teaspoon bleach in dilution with 500cc water.

So, a nutraceutical bundle and nasal and oral hygiene make a difference in prevention.

The treatment protocols, he reminds us, can be found at AAPSonline.org and Truth for Health Foundation, which publishes an updated list of treating physicians. Also, Dr. Al Johnson, who interviewed Dr. McCullough, has a protocol for treating long haul COVID-19, available at CovidRecoveryTreatment.com.   

The very few telemed centers have been overtaxed lately. Dr. McCullough says we need to push doctors to treat. They’ve been afraid to treat, and may not be aware of the many treatment options, or changes in FDA approvals. Give them the protocols, and insist on early treatment.

Treatment is probably not necessary for the healthy under-50—unless and until their symptoms show severity. For the over 50 or those with co-morbidities, early treatment is called for, as soon as the illness is identified.

Monoclonal antibodies, as are being done all over Florida, are useful. Regeneron is a brand name. But Dr. McCullough suggests getting this done as an outpatient. Call ahead to the ER and order it, so that you remain an outpatient. And make sure the IV is administered slowly; it must take a full hour. Too quick an infusion leads to a cytokine storm, the very thing you’re trying to prevent.

Convalescent plasma is being phased out. The problem was, they didn’t separate the vaccinated from the unvaccinated when collecting blood; the vaccinated don’t have enough antibodies to be useful in the production of this treatment.

 

NATURAL IMMUNITY vs. VACCINATED IMMUNITY

Now for the questions that came up for me as I listened to Dr. McCullough and others.

He cited Israel, Singapore, and Iceland, where, during the latest surge, more than 75% of COVID-19 cases and 65% of those hospitalized are fully vaccinated. He concludes from that, it’s clear the vaccines are failing against the Delta variant. He said it’s possible, but unproven, that the vaccine helps mitigate against virulence. But there are patients dying who have been fully vaccinated.

Chart found in Epoch Times article, here.

Dr. McCullough notes the lack of attention for those who have had the illness and therefore have natural immunity. He says,

Once you’ve had it, you have full immunity. There’s never been a bona fide second case. Analysis by Murchu and colleagues in Ireland showed in 615,000 individuals, 11 studies, that even poorly defined cases that didn’t catch the original illness, if they had antibodies or some other indication that they’ve had it before, the chances of COVID-19 were way less than 1%. So, natural immunity is robust, complete, and durable. And it cannot be improved upon with vaccination.

I wondered about the “never been a bone fide second case” followed by the “way less than 1%.” While searching for the analysis by Eamon O. Murchu and colleagues, I came upon an article reprint, original by Daniel Horowitz for The Blaze, citing the Israel report in July. (And this week their report was verified by Bloomberg News. Incidentally, this fact check framed comparing getting immunity by getting ill or by getting the shots, and says getting ill is a riskier way of getting immunity. But that’s not the actual question. The real question is, for people who have natural immunity because they’ve already had the illness—219,017,517 globally as of today—is there any reason to also get the shots? And the answer is clearly no.)  

Israel National News reported: 

With a total of 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus, the 72 instances of reinfection amount to 0.0086% of people who were already infected with COVID.

By contrast, Israelis who were vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with over 3,000 of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave.

Recurring cases (those believed to be) are not zero; it’s 8.6 cases per 100,000. Almost none requiring hospitalization, and no deaths. Breakthrough cases (cases after vaccination) are still considerably lower than those with neither prior infection nor vaccination. But clearly the vaccine does not really prevent infection. In fact, now they’re not calling for vaccination to prevent infection; they’re calling for it to hopefully prevent serious infection. (Which, of course you could do with the nutraceuticals and other recommendations, just saying.)

In the article Horowitz offers Dr. McCullough’s more complete explanation of zero cases:

Despite the endless search by the media to find cases of severe reinfection, they have failed to find it. Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist and vice chief of medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, told me in an interview that “there has never been a confirmed second infection beyond 90 days with similar or worse cardinal symptoms and confirmed PCR/Antigen/Sequencing test” in a case where the patient already had a well-documented case with acute illness. He notes that most database studies that attempt to quantify reinfection “are not sufficiently reliable to declare recurrent cases” and usually contain a false positive PCR on one or more occasions.

When I looked up the study and a couple of associated articles (such as this one), the explanation is that it’s difficult to differentiate between a new infection and persistent viral carriage (a sort of semi-dormant condition with occasional flare-ups, as is common in Epstein-Barr virus, for example). There would need to be a comparison between the genome sequencing of a banked sample from early in the illness and another sample at the time of what appears to be reinfection. That banking is almost never done, nor is the genome sequencing, because there is no reason other than to answer the question of whether it’s actually a reinfection or not in the rare instance when these cases turn up. In many “reinfection” cases, it’s often hard to determine whether the original infection was actually COVID-19, or a false positive test or misdiagnosis (or failure to accurately diagnose).

I’ve known of a number of people who say they have gotten it more than once. I know they believe so.  But my question is, did they really?

I came upon this comment in a Facebook group. Not someone I know.

Horowitz provides an explanation about the power of natural immunity from Idaho physician/researcher Dr. Ryan Cole:

Dr. Ryan Cole, a Mayo Clinic-trained pathologist who runs the largest independent laboratory in Idaho, explained to me how infection-induced immunity is much deeper and broader. “A natural infection induces hundreds upon hundreds of antibodies against all proteins of the virus, including the envelope, the membrane, the nucleocapsid, and the spike,” said Dr. Cole, who has spent the past 16 months examining and culturing SARS-CoV-2 specimens. “Dozens upon dozens of these antibodies neutralize the virus when encountered again. Additionally, because of the immune system exposure to these numerous proteins (epitomes), our T cells mount a robust memory, as well. Our T cells are the ‘marines’ of the immune system and the first line of defense against pathogens. T cell memory to those infected with SARSCOV1 is at 17 years and running still.”

However, in vaccine-induced immunity, according to Cole, “we mount an antibody response to only the spike and its constituent proteins.” He explains how this produces much fewer neutralizing antibodies, and “as the virus preferentially mutates at the spike, these proteins are shaped differently and antibodies can no longer ‘lock and key’ bind to these new shapes.”

Further down in the article he adds this additional explanation from Dr. Cole:

The media has focused incessantly on antibody levels and the observation that they often drop months after the infection; however, as with other viruses, that does not indicate waning immunity. “Yes, our antibody levels drop over time; however, scientifically, the memory B cells that make antibodies have been proven to be present in our lymph nodes and bone marrow,” explained Dr. Cole. “They are primed and ready to produce a broad array of antibodies upon viral pre-exposure. It would be physiologically, energetically impossible to maintain high antibody levels to all the pathogens we are constantly exposed to, and we would look like the ‘swollen Stay-Puft marshmallow man’ of lymph nodes, constantly, if the immune system were required to do that.”

This coincides with an explanation I heard from Dr. Mobeen Syed.   He was looking at this article and this study it related to.   He adds helpful little cartoon drawings to illustrate. 

Dr. Mobeen Syed explains about bone marrow plasma cells (BMPC) and long-term antibodies.
screenshot from here

So, what we know is that natural immunity gained from getting the virus and recovering is both long-lasting and robust. Immunity gained from the vaccines is somewhat helpful for a time, but less so to variants. And natural immunity is several times more powerful than vaccine immunity.

What did Israel do upon finding the vaccine was failing against the Delta virus? Decided to require more boosters, including for the previously infected. I’m baffled.

The reasons could be a difference in interpretation of the studies. Or it could be ignoring the studies for some other reason.

 

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW

I’ve been writing about treatments for COVID-19 since March 2020. While a lot of this information was censored for a long time, the truth has a way of seeping to the surface. It’s surprising to me that the standard treatment is still, “Stay home and rest until you’re sick enough for the hospital.” That makes no sense.

I’ve put a fair amount of faith in the treatments I’ve learned about. So, I’d like to know if they’re being used and people are still being hospitalized, or are these hospitalized patients still being deprived of early treatment?

We’ve just gone through our third surge, now waning I believe. By now I have known a number of people who’ve had the illness. Except for a couple overseas, I haven’t been closely acquainted enough to anyone hospitalized to ask the questions I want to know. I feel like I would be intruding into their privacy to ask these questions.

I’m not an investigative journalist. And I’m certainly not a medical researcher. But I have to wonder why someone doesn’t ask and get answers to the questions I have about treatments, about vaccine efficacy, and about natural immunity.

If I had the power to do it, I would ask the following questions of people hospitalized for COVID-19 (if the patient died or is a child, then a spouse, parent, or loved one could answer these questions for them):

THE SURVEY

1.     What was your experience when you first noticed symptoms?

a.     What were the symptoms you noticed?

b.     Did you get tested? On which day of symptoms? And on which day of symptoms did you get results? What type of test was it?

2.     Did you receive at-home treatment instructions when you got your test and/or results?

a.     What were you instructed to do?

b.     Were you prescribed or recommended to take any medications and/or supplements?

3.     Were there preventative steps you took prior to your illness (other than vaccination, which is asked below)? What were they? (Possibilities might include healthy diet and exercise, supplementing with Vitamin D, zinc, and/or Vitamin C; under a doctor’s care these might include a prophylactic dose of a drug such as hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. Or you may have tried something not listed here.)

4.     Do you know where you were exposed to the illness? (by a particular person, in a particular setting, at work for example, or at an event?)

a.     Did anyone else in your household get the illness? Were their symptoms mild or required hospitalization? List the various persons and the severity of their illness (ex: spouse—hospitalized, teenage son—mild).

5.     On what day of symptoms did your situation worsen enough to require hospitalization?

a.     Describe the worsened/new symptoms.

6.     What was your sequence of treatments and their results in the hospital?

7.     How long were you hospitalized?

8.     How long until you were considered over the illness—no longer contagious, and no longer in danger of succumbing to symptoms?

9.     Did you have symptoms that persisted after your apparent recovery? Such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, brain fog, fatigue.

a.     What symptoms continued and for how long (so far, if they are still present)?

b.     Did you have symptoms that began after you thought you had fully recovered? What were they? (For example, some healthy fit patients go back to full activity and then find themselves relapsing or having the varied symptoms of long-haul COVID-19.)

c.     What treatment did you receive for long-haul COVID-19 (persistent symptoms)?

10. What was your vaccination status?

a.     Unvaccinated?

b.     One shot but not second?

c.     Two shots, but not more than 2 weeks before onset of symptoms?

d.     Two shots from 2 weeks to 6 months or longer (how much longer?) prior to onset of symptoms?

e.     Two shots plus a booster shot?

11. Had you been diagnosed with COVID-19 before?

a.     If yes, go through the above questions for that infection as well.

                                             i.    Do you have certainty—based on symptoms and/or testing and doctor’s care—that what you had previously was definitely COVID-19?

                                           ii.    When did you have the previous illness (months, weeks, and/or days before your current illness)?

12. What is your age?

13. Do you have any co-morbidities? (Common ones are obesity, diabetes, active cancer, atrial fibrillation, COPD, dementia, heart disease, hypertension, chronic liver disease, chronic renal failure, stroke.)

Have a Plan

I’m not an expert. I’m not a scientist. But I am pretty good at gathering information and passing it along in a way that I hope is understandable. And I try to get my information from truthful, reliable sources, which is often very different from sources that never get censored. Mostly today I'll use information from government data sources and from doctors who are treating patients.

Here is some COVID-19 data, taken from what I hope are reliable data sources—worldwide, US, Texas, Harris County: 

As of August 16, 2021	Total Population	Total Immunizations	Total Cases	Total Deaths
Worldwide	7,886,704,175+	3,756,996,198	207,557,304	4,367,023
US	331,000,000+	169,304,497	36,741,697	621,876
Texas	29,145,505	13,111,970	2,813,831	53,100
Harris County	4,798,048	2, 186,864	454,009	5,151
My Zip Code	34885	19,079	3449	27

The data offers a look at progress toward herd immunity. It’s muddied up, because you get immunity from two sources: recovering from the illness or getting the “vaccines.” But the drive to get everyone vaccinated has not excluded those who already had immunity from their recovery. Also, total case data is a specific measure, based on official testing and reporting. Some areas add a measure called “probable cases.” In other words, you can’t use cases and deaths to measure fatality of the virus; it’s much lower, because of the additional cases not counted because they are not known. Nor can you add cases and immunizations and then divide by population to figure percentage of the population that is immunized. (If you could, though, Harris County would be at 55% of total population, including the under 12 who aren’t being vaccinated. My zip code would be at 65%.)

What we know, from data—and ongoing testing—is that immunity from recovery is relatively permanent. (There’s a good explanatory video from Dr. Mobeen Syed here.) And it extends to variants—on up and until the SARS-COV-2 virus becomes some other virus entirely. Variants of SARS-COV-2 are still SARS-COV-2. You will know when it becomes a different virus, because it will be called something new, like possibly SARS-COV-3. In the meantime, you’re covered.

Dr. Mobeen Syed discusses evidence that natural immunity to COVID-19 is long-lived.
screenshot from here

Are there breakthrough cases among the recovered? Yes. Some of them may relate to misdiagnosis during the first round—testing has been notoriously faulty—but there are still likely some real breakthrough cases among the recovered.

Among the fully vaccinated, according to data out of Israel, where a very high percentage of the population have been vaccinated and herd immunity was declared, breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated are 6.72 times more common than among those with natural immunity. Over 50% of current cases are among the fully vaccinated. News from Iceland and other locations are seeing similar numbers.

For those who have been calling this recent wave the “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” CDC data says otherwise. In a Massachusetts analysis, for example, the CDC data shows that 74% of those who tested positive for Covid-19 had been fully-vaccinated.

Some say breakthrough cases are still rare (usually the same people who say vaccine injuries are rare, despite record numbers on the CDC VAERS site). My personal guess is that the Texas Democrats who ran away to Washington are probably typical: about 10% among the fully vaccinated contracted the illness. None were hospitalized. They all had mild cases, although there’s no guarantee of that outcome for all the vaccinated. It’s unclear in this case whether all were exposed. You don’t get the illness at all unless you’re exposed to it, which makes it difficult to gauge effectiveness.

While COVID-19 seems to be spreading in a “third wave” right now, that means more and more people are recovering and have lasting immunity. Add the somewhat marginal protection from those getting the vaccine, and it means herd immunity is nigh. Until another variant finds a way around that—the way the Spanish flu has become simply endemic, one of the ever-present risks we just get used to.

If you thought getting vaccinated meant overcoming this disease, that was never realistic. There are only two diseases ever eradicated by vaccine: smallpox (assuming it never escapes from a lab), and rinderpest, a disease in cattle. We haven’t even eradicated polio, let alone measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus….

And this mRNA “vaccine,” which isn’t actually a vaccine (see explanation here) by the traditional definition, is intended only to make a person somewhat less likely to contract the virus, and if contracted to be milder than it would have been. That is, if all goes well, without reaction.

If you’ve been pressuring your family, friends, and neighbors to get the vaccine—especially if you’ve been doing that regardless of their recovered status or risk of reaction to the shots—you’re not doing that for their health or yours; you’re likely doing it because you want everything to get back to normal, the way it was, which is understandable. And you’ve been willing to accommodate the powermongers who took away your freedoms in the hopes of making that happen. But that loss of freedom has very little to do with eradicating a disease and very much to do with tyrants asserting control over the populace.

For those of us who are trying to understand the situation and make wise decisions for ourselves, please do us the courtesy of trusting us to make the decision that is best for us. We could say, “My body; my choice,” to which you’ve been saying, “Not if you can spread it to grandma.” But, if I’m not ill, I can’t spread it to grandma or anyone else. And if I’ve managed not to spread it to a single person through three waves and counting, maybe I deserve to choose to keep doing what I’m doing.

It all comes down to this: there’s an ongoing risk of contracting SARS-COV-2, what we’ve been calling COVID-19. But there are ways to prevent it, or at least prepare for it. And since getting vaccinated cannot and will not eliminate the risk of contracting the illness and/or passing it along to others, no matter how many shots you’re willing to submit to, we really ought to be looking at how to treat it—which is information that has been available all along, and data and methods continue to grow.

So, here are some suggestions on how to be prepared.

 Have a Plan for before Infection—to Improve Your Immune System

·       Maintain or move toward appropriate weight.

o   Have a healthy diet; losing weight is stressful on the body, so consider that before doing a weight loss program during a pandemic. Emphasize healthful fresh foods high in nutrients.

·       Exercise regularly.

·       Get enough Vitamin D. (Dr. Ryan Cole talks about this here. Dr. Roger Seheult talks about this here.) 

o   20-30 minutes a day of sunshine—before putting on sunscreen.

o   Vitamin D supplement—4,000 IU daily is maximum without a doctor; but you may need 5,000-10,000 IU daily—get a blood test to identify your need.

o   Pretty much everyone needs to supplement Vitamin D in winter; no amount of sunlight will be adequate, especially northern areas. (Another discussion here.)

o   Vitamin D is fat soluble; it tends to hang out in fat cells where it is not easily accessible/useful. Overweight tends to coincide with low usable Vitamin D (unclear whether one causes the other). It appears supplementation can help.

o   Darker skin absorbs less Vitamin D from sunlight than lighter skin. Adjust according to your needs.

·       Get enough Zinc.

o   30-50 mg high quality zinc supplements daily.

·       Get enough Vitamin C.

o   1000 mg daily.

·       Find a doctor or treatment source that you know you can turn to for successful treatment options. (There are suggestions below, in the next section.)

·       Consider using low-dose (one pill a week or so) hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin prophylactically (as a preventative) for any crucial period of time (like before your child’s wedding, or some other time-sensitive event you don’t want to miss because of illness). You can probably do this safely for several months, or longer. But, still, since all medicines have side effects, less medicine is better when you have a choice.

·       You might want to add an oximeter to your first-aid kit; it can take a while to get one, so you’ll want to have it in hand before you need it. It’s for checking oxygen levels, to identify when you’re at a more serious stage of the illness.

 Have a Plan of Action in Case of Infection in the Household

·       Figure out how to isolate and sanitize yourself or a sick family member while still providing needed care for the sick.

·       Keep your food and supplies stocked up, so you don’t have to run to the store after you notice symptoms.

·       Contact your doctor-willing-to-treat and get tested.

o   If you don’t have such a doctor locally, try these online resources, which may even prescribe and ship medications:

§  FLCCC—Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (Physicians list here.)

§  AAPSonline—Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (Physicians list here.)

o   Start medications right away; early treatment is key. And some of the most effective treatments are appropriate mainly during the first stage of the virus.

§  If you’re young and in very good health, you might fight this off just fine without treatment. The Delta variant seems more likely than previous strains to affect younger ages, but it is not more virulent. However, if you’re unsure about fighting it off on your own, the medicines being used have a very long safety history and growing clinical evidence of efficacy.

·       Try some pre-antibiotic (i.e., from before 1928) nursing treatments to boost your immune system.

o   Hydrotherapy—this is a hot water bath for about 20 minutes, with a cold wrap around your neck to keep your head cool; followed by about 5 minutes of cold bath. Then rest. Do this 3-4 times a day. Avoid aspirin and other anti-fever medicines; at this stage, you’re trying to allow the fever (plus the fever-boosting baths) to work as your immune system is designed to do. (Dr. Roger Seheult discusses this here. There’s more on this website. The original 1923 book by Dr. J. H. Kellogg is available to read online here.)

o   Get sunshine, at least 20 minutes a day, but rest outside in sunlight when possible. This boosts Vitamin D.

o   Keep up the Vitamin C and Zinc as well as healthy diet, etc., that you were doing to prepare your immune system.

·       The likely early treatments might be hydroxychloroquine with zinc and azithromycin (all three); or ivermectin.

o   Dr. Peter McCullough and AAPSonline has a protocol and patient guide. 

o   FLCCC has a list of suggested protocols. 

o   Dr. Shankara Chetty has a protocol he has used in South Africa among the rural poor—with no hospitalizations or deaths. (He talks with Dr. Mobeen here.) 

o   Florida recently set up monoclonal antibody treatment centers. I’ve seen mixed comments on this treatment, but it is what Pres. Trump was given last October and seems to work quickly and prevents hospitalization.

Dr. Mobeen Syed talks with Dr. Shankara Chetty
screenshot from here

 

Have a Plan in Case Your Illness Worsens

·       Dr. Chetty suggests that on day 8 of the illness, some patients seem to move into a more difficult phase. He sees this as a histamine reaction. He treats with an antihistamine. He uses promethazine and/or montelukast, which is the generic of Singulair, an inexpensive and common prescription antihistamine. If needed, he may add a steroid.

·       Dr. Richard Bartlett in Texas, has a protocol for using nebulized budesonide. It’s a steroid that hasn’t suffered the antagonism that early treatments such as HCQ and ivermectin have. And he finds it useful at every stage—even hospitalized with severe breathing problems.

 

Have a Plan in Case of Hospitalization

·       Avoid hospitalization if you can. But if you do need a hospital, know that there are treatments. And you can ask for them. If they are legal, the hospital is supposed to accommodate you. So have a list of treatments you believe work. Budesonide, for example.

o   Carry a treatment plan from AAPSonline or FLCCC, or another doctor’s plan.

·       Some hospitals use remdesivir. There is some evidence of its effectiveness—very early, as in the first couple of days of symptoms. The way it works actually interferes with healing once the illness has progressed to a later stage. So, in the hospital, refuse remdesivir. (Read more here.)

·       Refuse—and make sure your family knows to refuse—any movement toward hospice—i.e., palliative care in expectation of death. Dr. Bartlett tells a story (in this panel discussion) of a woman who required her husband to promise her, when they took her to the hospital, not to give up, because her children needed her. The husband three times refused the hospital’s push to put her on hospice. When he finally learned to ask for budesonide, she immediately improved and was home to finish healing within a week.

Have a Plan in Case of Long COVID

·       Long COVID (sometimes called Long Haul COVID) means symptoms that remain well after the initial healing. These might include lung problems or heart problems, or an array of other symptoms brought on by the illness.

·       Long COVID can affect the young as well as the old. In fact, it often affects people who regularly exercise and eat healthy. If it is a histamine reaction, it is hard to predict who will be affected, just as it is hard to predict who will be affected by other common allergens.

·       One trigger for Long COVID appears to be exercise too soon. Dr. Syed Haider recommends waiting 4-6 weeks after healing before returning to exercise that raises the heart rate over 140 or so. It seems to be heart rate elevation that triggers the problem. (He discusses this in a video with Dr. Mobeen Syed.  )

·       Many Long COVID symptoms can be treated with the earlier drugs—ivermectin, followed by fluvoxamine (a serotonin reuptake inhibitor) some days later, for example. Budesonide, or possibly another similar steroid, seem to be bringing success, according to Dr. Bartlett. Or it can prevent Long COVID.

o   Dr. Mobeen Syed has developed a protocol for long COVID, in conjunction with FLCCC. 

·       Some vaccine injuries can be treated in the same ways as long COVID. If these are indeed an allergic reaction, as Long COVID appears to be, then treating for the reaction seems appropriate.

 

Have a Plan if You Face Repercussions for Not Getting the Shots

·       If society moves toward mandating the vaccines, there will be consequences. These might include hindering travel, entrance into certain spaces or gatherings, or other market privileges. While none of these pass the Nuremberg Code or the Constitution, freedoms are trampled nevertheless. Know that’s what you may be facing.

·       There are two legal defenses for refusing to get a mandated vaccine—if these shots become mandatory: health and religious belief.

o   There are valid health reasons. One is a previous vaccine reaction. A doctor seeing to your care may advise you not to get it, knowing your history. But don’t count on this. Doctors are pressured not to allow anyone to be exempted. And some are threatened with reprisals for making a no-vaccine recommendation.

o   Religious belief does not have to be based on the beliefs or statements of your religious affiliation. It is based on your personal religious beliefs. The most common objection to these vaccines—all three in the US, if I understand correctly—is that aborted fetal tissue is used in their production.

o   If you plan on using a legal defense, look ahead for good counsel. Robert Barnes provides a standard approach. (I wrote about it here. He has an “advice” letter on his locals.com site. There’s a good discussion with him here.)