Month: January 2022

Most of the following is from an article by Mark E. Meengs M.D, a cardiologist from Michigan and a video interview of Peter McCullough M.D., a cardiologist and epidemiologist. 

What you are going to read will probably shock most of you, as it did me. Both of these distinguished physicians basically are saying the same thing, namely that the reason that both Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are persona non grata with respect to treating Covid in the USA has much more to do with profit, or more precisely‘not making a profit.’ 

I can understand why major drug companies are not interested in doing studies on either cheap drug. Namely, lots of dollar investment with little chance for any monetary profit, as both drugs are dirt cheap. 

One might ask why these drugs have apparently successfully been used for Covid in many other countries, but not in the USA? Could the answer be related to the fact that the NIH, the FDA, and the CDC are all in America? And furthermore could this dichotomy be related to the eminent Dr. Fauci, who from the very beginning preached about ‘controlled double blind’ studies, knowing full well that these types of studies on both of these inexpensive, but potentially effective safe drugs would never, NEVER, be done. Insisting on studies that he knew would never be done, while many many people were and still are dying, is in my mind, the definition of a ghoulish hypocrite, and perhaps the devil incarnate.

By merely making both of these inexpensive and safe drugs available to practicing physicians in the U.S., could lives have been saved? At this point I guess we will never know for sure. However judging by results in Japan, Peru, and India (Ivermectin) and Iran (hydroxychloroquine), if I were to get covid, I would certainly like the chance to take either drug early on in my illness.

1/11/22

So here we are in the midst of another “surge.” This time due to the Omicron variant. As most of us are aware this variant most likely started in South Africa and from the beginning was deemed both more transmissible and less serious than prior variants.

Before going any further, let’s first hit ‘rewind,’ and look in general at past epidemics … those before the age of vaccines. Realistically back then it was quite simple. Either you were exposed to the culprit or you weren’t. If you weren’t exposed, you did not get sick, but at the same time remained vulnerable to that same culprit from then on.

If you were one of the unfortunate ones who were exposed to the culprit, basically you got sick (back then the concept of an asymptomatic infection was still in the future), and either lived or died. The culprit picked off the most vulnerable first, and continued to wreak havoc until basically the epidemic ran its course. Later we learned that the body’s defenses, mainly antibodies, B cells, and T cells were responsible for why some infected individuals had survived. Also these recovered individuals proved to be immune to subsequent infection with that same culprit.

Is it possible that the present Covid pandemic will turn out to have a similar course? Certainly in the beginning this pandemic, in general, killed the most vulnerable … the elderly, the sick, and the obese. Then came the miracle vaccines. However as many months went by, it became apparent that these vaccines were merely a way to flatten the curve, meaning that they did not prevent future infection with this virus forever, but merely delayed one’s susceptibility to what are now called breakthrough infections, which for the most part were less severe, especially for the vaccinated. In response to these breakthrough infections, next came the boosters(B), and now individuals are “breaking through” the boosters. Hypothetically will the next step be boosters for the boosters (B2), and will subsequent breakthroughs to B2 lead to B3? A purposely unanswerable question! Nonetheless what is happening now with this omicron variant is that more and more individuals are getting infected, and thus developing their own acquired immunity. Is it possible that this variant will actually provide the potential exit door to this pandemic?

Is it possible that getting the less severe Omicron version could be a good thing?

I was double-vaxxed and boosted … and got Covid anyway. Now while well on the road to recovery, I am becoming more convinced that my recent infection will turn out to be a good thing for me.

1/10/22

Today is Sunday and so per recent policy, I am devoting this piece to a single individual. Reed Charles O’Connor (born June 1, 1965) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. 

Why would I choose a judge to be recognized in my Sunday piece? After all judges have sworn to uphold the Constitution, and so when they do just that … what’s the big deal? As many of us are becoming more aware, there seems to be a cadre of “feel good judges” who seem to be pushing the Constitution into the background when they make their decisions. Not so, Judge Reed O’Connor, who issued a stay in response to a lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute in November on behalf of 35 active-duty SEALs and three reservists seeking a religious exemption to Biden’s vaccine mandates. 

“The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment,” O’Connor wrote in his ruling. “There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”

O’Connor’s ruling comes as potentially thousands of U.S Marines face potential discharge for refusing the vaccine after the Department of Defense’s mandate on all active-duty service members went into effect for the Marine Corps on Nov. 28.

O’Connor criticized the Navy’s 50-step process for evaluating religious exemption requests, writing that “the first fifteen steps require an administrator to update a prepared disapproval template with the requester’s name and rank. In essence, the Plaintiffs’ requests are denied the moment they begin.”

“The Navy provides a religious accommodation process, but by all accounts, it is theater. The Navy has not granted a religious exemption to any vaccine in recent memory. It merely rubber stamps each denial.”

O’Connor went on to say that it is not the duty of the court to decide whether these religious objections are sincere.

When asked about Judge Reed O’Connor, liberals will likely comment that he is a shill for conservatives, whereas I would instead say that he is a shill for the Constitution.

1/9/22

One would expect judges would at least have modicum of intelligence or at least a modicum of common sense. And furthermore this should hold true in spades when one is talking about a Supreme Court Justice. We are all aware that certain Justices have a liberal bent and that others have a conservative tendency. Perhaps naively, I had assumed that all of the Justices, at least, enter each case with an open mind … that was before I read some of the statements made during the 1/7/22 hearing about the constitutionality of President Joe Biden’s Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandates for private companies with more than 100 employees.

For instance:

During questioning, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a number of false statements about the vaccine’s ability to prevent transmission of the virus. While it may protect against death or hospitalization, the vaccine does not prevent transmission. (Speaking about vaccines CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in an interview with CNN over the summer, “But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.”)

But Justice Sotomayor wasn’t finished proving that she was not the smartest person in the room, when she falsely claimed the Omicron variant of the virus is just as deadly as the previous Delta version. (Everyone who can read realizes that this is blatantly false back from omicron’s beginning in South Africa.)

Subsequently Justice Sotomayor went for the trifecta when she said, “We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators.” (According to the data from the CDC, children are still at little risk for serious illness or death from the disease. The current national pediatric COVID census per HHS is 3,342.)

Not to be outdone:

Justice Breyer said there were 750 million new cases yesterday. (Considering that there are about 330 million people in the U.S, Breyer’s inane statement would imply that each person in the U.S had it twice!)

Come on, SCOTUS! Is it too much to expect even a modicum of intelligence from you?

1/8/22

From the Washington Post, 12/26/21:

Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb (D) introduced “parody” legislation this fall in response to the Texas law that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Rabb’s proposal would require men to get vasectomies after the birth of their third child or when they turn 40, whichever comes first. It would be enforced by allowing Pennsylvanians to report men who failed to comply, for a $10,000 reward.”

Vasectomy these days is a rather simple ten minute outpatient procedure. Reliable statistics on the number of men who have sought vasectomies since the Texas ban and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing aren’t available.

Dr. Shaw at the Austin Urology Institute in Texas, said his practice saw about a 15 percent increase in scheduled vasectomies after the Sept. 1 Texas abortion ban went into effect.

In that same WaPo article there was an anecdotal story about Andy Gress, a father of four who had a vasectomy on ‘National Vasectomy Day.’

“I’ve seen the miracle of life,” he said. “But I’ve also seen kids who are born into poverty and misery and don’t have a fair shot.”

This comment actually makes a lot of sense to me. Certainly most kids born on welfare are born into poverty and misery, and often don’t have a fair shot. Rather than aborting these fetuses, why not prevent them from ever being conceived by a prophylactic vasectomy. 

Keep in mind that despite the fact that this “parody” legislation was proposed by a Democrat, and even though stuff proposed by Democrats is often a paradigm for ludicrousness, there may be something to run with here. 

Perhaps certain men should be forced to have vasectomies, but I would not target either those over forty, or those who have fathered three children, like Rep. Rabb proposes. Rather I would aim to sterilize those men who have fathered multiple children who are now on welfare. By multiple here, I mean two. Whereas fathering one child is an unfortunate mistake, two would mean “snip & clip.”

1/7/22

On May 7, 2021, during the peak of India’s Delta Surge, The World Health Organization reported, “Uttar Pradesh (is) going the last mile to stop COVID-19.” 

(FYI: Uttar Pradesh is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world.)

The WHO noted, “Government teams are moving across 97,941 villages in 75 districts over five days in this activity which began May 5 in India’s most populous state with a population of 230 million.” 

The activity involved an aggressive house-to-house test and treat program with home medicine kits.

The Rapid Response Teams derive support from the United States CDC under the umbrella of the WHO. This fact further validates the Uttar Pradesh test and treat program and solidifies this as a joint effort by the WHO and CDC.

The home kit contained the following: Paracetamol tablets [tylenol], Vitamin C, Multivitamin, Zinc, Vitamin D3, Ivermectin 12 mg [quantity #10 tablets], Doxycycline 100 mg [quantity #10 tablets]. Other non-medication components included face masks, sanitizer, gloves and alcohol wipes, a digital thermometer, and a pulse oximeter. 

So what happened as a consequence of this test and treat program in Uddar Pradesh?

Just five short weeks later, on June 14, 2021, new cases had dropped a staggering 97.1 percent, and the Uttar Pradesh program was hailed as a resounding success. According to ZeeNews of India, “The strategy of trace, test & treat yields results.”

“The Yogi-led state has also been registering a steep decline in the number of Active COVID Cases as the figure has dropped from a high of 310,783 in April to 8,986 now, a remarkable reduction by 97.10 percent.”

By July 2, 2021, three weeks later, cases were down a full 99 percent.

On August 25, 2021, the Indian media noticed the discrepancy between Uttar Pradesh’s massive success and other states, like Kerala’s (34.6 million) comparative failure. Although Uttar Pradesh was only 5% vaccinated to Kerala’s 20%, Uttar Pradesh had (only) 22 new COVID cases, while Kerala was overwhelmed with 31,445 in one day. So it became apparent that whatever was contained in those treatment kits must have been pretty effective.

Now here’s where the Uddar Pradesh story gets even more interesting! More interesting because it was not publicized. It was not publicized even though this was a joint effort by WHO and CDC. I am ordinarily not a conspiracy theorist. However,  if it looks like a conspiracy, sounds like a conspiracy, and suspiciously acts likes a conspiracy … well, I will leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Hmmm!

1/6/22

Although I try not to do this, in today’s piece I have copied the entire summary from HealthDay News:

“The Test-to-Stay (TTS) strategy, whereby unvaccinated students, teachers, and staff members could remain in school with specific COVID-19-related exposure if specific conditions were met, seems effective for reducing lost in-person learning days, according to research published in the Dec. 17 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Natsumi Nemoto, M.P.H., from the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Corps in Waukegan, Illinois, and colleagues evaluated the TTS strategy after implementation in 90 schools in Lake County during Aug. 9 to Oct. 29, 2021. The researchers identified 258 COVID-19 cases reported during the implementation period. The secondary attack risk was 1.5 percent among 1,035 students and staff members enrolled in TTS. All 16 of these secondary cases were in students and none appeared to transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to other school-based contacts. Nine tertiary cases were detected among household contacts of the 16 cases, four of whom were fully vaccinated. Among TTS schools, up to 8,152 in-person learning days were saved, assuming a maximum of eight missed school days for every 10-day quarantine period.

“Kimberly Harris-McCoy, M.S.P.H., from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and colleagues evaluated a TTS strategy implemented by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. During Sept. 20 to Oct. 31, 2021, 432 of 2,067 schools implemented TTS. The researchers observed no increased incidence of COVID-19 in TTS schools after implementation of TTS; no tertiary transmission was identified in 20 outbreaks detected in TTS schools. Non-TTS schools lost an estimated 92,455 in-person school days while students were in quarantine, compared with no lost school days in TTS schools.”

Wow! 

Reread the last sentence in the last paragraph … 92,455 vs 0 lost school days! 

This is quite powerful evidence that TTS strategy worked, and the helter-skelter quarantine that was being followed in non-TTS schools was pure nonsense. As everyone is aware, every lost school day undoubtedly had and still has the biggest impact on children in the lower socio-economic groups, and the lost school days for these children will never be regained.

1/5/22

Longtime CBS reporter and chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford went viral on 12/26 & 12/27 on social media following comments, meant to air on Sunday’s CBS’ Face the Nation, that slammed our elected officials and public health experts for “the crushing impact that our COVID policies have had on young kids and children” and the subsequent mental health crisis.

“They will be paying for our generation’s decisions the rest of their lives”: 

@JanCBS explains why she thinks 2021’s biggest underreported story was the devastating impact of COVID policies on children.

“It’s the crushing impact that our COVID policies have had on young kids and children. By far the least serious risk for serious illness,” she began, adding that “a healthy teenager has a one in a million chance of getting, and dying from COVID, which is way lower than, you know, dying in a car wreck on a road trip.”

For the ideology that claims to represent the little guy and stand up for marginalized communities, what Crawford had to say was a direct repudiation:

“But they have suffered and sacrificed the most, especially kids and underrepresented at risk communities. And now we have the Surgeon General saying there’s a mental health crisis among our kids. The risk of suicide girl suicide attempts among girls now up 51 percent this year, black kids nearly twice as likely as white kids to die by suicide. I mean, school closures, lockdowns, cancellation of sports.”

(FYI: CBS skipped over her comments for the live viewing audience, although they could later be viewed on Facebook and YouTube.)

Yet now when we are being ravaged with the less serious Omicron variant, it appears that multiple school districts are planning the same deranged strategy. The Chicago school district just ordered 100,000 laptops … after ordering the same number last summer. Hmmm. Why would a school district do that? Perhaps because the Chicago Teachers’ Union is once again threatening another illegal strike in response to Chicago Public Schools’ plan to reopen with in-person learning. Even if the union does not strike, the school district itself is uncertain whether schools will remain open, depending on the positive test rate

Elsewhere a number of school districts in the Philadelphia area have already made the decision to close schools for in-person learning when classes resume after Christmas break next week, according to KYW-TV. 

Massachusetts has already seen a number of school districts announce that they will delay re-opening in January or open for remote learning only — notably, the teachers’ union called for every school in the state to be shut down, a call which even the Massachusetts state government rejected.

So get prepared as it appears that here we go again … at least in some blue states. Do these states really think that they can defy Einstein’s definition of ‘insanity?’ (“Repeatedly doing the same thing, and expecting a different result.”)

To close from BlazeNews:

A recent report from the United Nations indicated that school closures instituted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may have already cost today’s children as much as $17 trillion in potential future earnings.

1/4/22

These Ivermectin stories just continue to pop-up! I am not actively searching the literature, however when I see a reference to the use of Ivermectin for Covid, I look into it. Granted I am not doing randomized controlled trials (RCT), and most of what I am reading are not RCTs, however remarkably I have yet to read anything that definitively states that Ivermectin does not work, furthermore, similar to its use for parasitic diseases, I have not read anything that even infers that using Ivermectin in the treatment of Covid causes any harm. While RCTs are indeed the gold standard, how many different Ivermectin observational success stories does one need before saying, “Come on, man!”?

This latest story in the Ivermectin saga comes from the Dominican Republic. In fact there are two different ways to use Ivermectin for Covid in the Dominican Republic – one as early treatment and one as prophylaxis.

First, early treatment … from an Epoch Times article:

“One of the first case series, from the Dominican Republic, was published in June 2020. They treated 3,300 consecutive emergency room COVID patients with ivermectin. Of those, only 16 went on to be hospitalized and one died. That’s pretty profound, considering these were severely ill individuals.”

I then found a subsequent article from Dominican News Today dated Sept.29,2021 that was more recent and described the successful use in more than 6000 patients. The headline reads:

“Group of doctors highlight results of successes in more that 6,000 patients with COVID-19 treated with the drug ivermectin”

I know, I know, not a RCT, but even non-believers have to admit that 6000 patients is an impressive number. (FYI, I tried to copy and paste from this Santa Domingo, DR newspaper article, but to no avail. If you are really interested, Google ‘Ivermectin, Dominican Republic’ and read it yourself.)

The second usage of Ivermectin in the Dominican Republic had to do with Ivermectin prophylaxis in health care workers. I know, I know not a RCT, but impressive nonetheless.

This study was printed in Clinical Trials.gov in April, 2021 and was titled :

“SARS-CoV-2 Pre-exposure Prophylaxis With Ivermectin Retrospective Cohort Study”

A Brief Summary:

“This observational study, a multicenter retrospective cohort database study, carried out in two medical centers, Centro Medico Bournigal (CMBO) in Puerto Plata and Centro Medico Punta Cana (CMPC) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, sought to determine whether Ivermectin, at a weekly orally dose of 0.2 mg/kg, is an effective pre-exposure prophylactic method (PrEP) for the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in the healthcare workers. The study began on June 29, 2020 and ended on July 26, 2020 (4 weeks).”

There were 542 healthcare workers – 271 health professionals who voluntarily adhered to a PrEP program with ivermectin at a weekly oral (OV) dose of 0.2 mg/kg, and 271 health professionals who did not adhere to the program were assigned as a control group. The results were that the ivermectin group had a 74% lower risk of having symptomatic Covid-19 than the control group. 

There was a distinct emphasis in both of these studies that vaccination for prevention of Covid and Ivermectin for either prevention or treatment of Covid were complementary, not exclusionary. 

One wonders if, at some point, the Main Stream Media will open its eyes and look at the multiple areas around the globe where Ivermectin has been beneficially used and say, “Come on man!”

1/3/22

Going along with my Sunday’s theme today Mr. Kurt Beathard is featured. He was an assistant football coach at Illinois State University (ISU). In August 2020, he returned from bereavement leave following the death of wife from breast cancer. Then all hell broke loose.

The gist of what happened is summarized in a Chicago Tribune article from 9/5/21:

When he returned, he found a Black Lives Matter poster attached to his door. He took it down and replaced it with his own handwritten poster that said, “All Lives Matter to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” That poster was subsequently taken down after the head football coach told him to take it down. However, a colleague of Beathard’s shared a picture of the poster he took down. In response, some football players boycotted practice, and a campus wide boycott ensued and a list of demands was created by ISU students. One of the demands was for the department of athletics to publicly support the Black Lives Matter movement.

A few days later, Beathard was fired. He was dismissed on Sept. 2, 2020, by head coach Brock Spack, and the decision to terminate was authorized by then-athletic director Larry Lyons.

Beathard claims he was told he was fired because Spack did not like the direction of the offense. This is strange since Beathard set several records and the team achieved national ranking with his offense in 2014 and 2015 and again in 2018 and 2019.

Mr.Beathard is standing up for himself. He is suing the school’s head football coach and its former athletic director, claiming his First Amendment rights were violated after he replaced a Black Lives Matter poster from his office door with another poster.

Doug Churdar, Beathard’s attorney, maintains that Beathard’s views should have been respected in a public university.

“It’s come to this. If you put the government’s message on your door, you keep your job,” Churdar wrote in a news release. “If you replace it with your own message, you’re fired. That’s exactly what happened.

“There’s only one reason Beathard isn’t offensive coordinator at ISU: he did not toe the party line on BLM.”

So let’s cut to the chase here. The head football coach and the athletic director caved to the demands of the football team.(We won’t practice unless the athletic department backs BLM.) Because Kurt Beathard did not go along with this extortion, he was fired.

Certainly Kurt Beathard is not the only one who suffered because others caved to BLM demands, but Mr. Beathard is one of the few who said, in essence, “this is not right.”

To me this case involving an unknown assistant football coach in a relatively unknown State University in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois is very important. Why? 

I project that the defendants will be under a lot of pressure to settle by widespread entities both in and outside of Illinois. Can you imagine the tsunami of similar suits that will occur if Kurt Beathard wins in court against the bullies who basically say, “Do it my way … or else!”

Me? I am saying a prayer that Mr. Beathard wins big time!

1/2/22