Month: March 2023

Many of us surely remember the Limbo … a popular game, based on traditions that originated on the island of Trinidad, originally as  an event that took place at wakes. In the 1950s, the Limbo dance was popular – the aim to pass forwards under a low bar without falling or dislodging the bar. The refrain from the Limbo song is “how low can you go?” I was reminded of this refrain as I listened to Stuart Varney during his latest “My Take,” “Varney & Co,” as he discussed the costly California exodus as more residents flee the “formerly Golden State,” arguing the state isn’t “bad enough yet” to turn itself around. 

Barney pointed out that California’s population dropped by more than 500,000 people between July 2020 and July 2022. That’s a real danger to the state because those who leave, take their money with them. 

Two thirds of California’s income tax revenue come from people making over $200,000 a year, and those are the people who are leaving. 

The exodus is costing the formerly golden state billions of dollars: the deficit is over $22 billion and rising rapidly.

High cost of living, increasing crime, homelessness, high taxes and chronic educational decline, and you have a recipe for an exodus. Some say that the exodus is now up to 700,000. If 700,000 ex-tax-paying residents isn’t enough, how high can it go? What will it take to reverse the present trend toward oblivion?

Will the policies of California’s Democrats eventually kill the goose that laid the golden egg? 

Stuart Varney thinks that things have not gotten bad enough. He feels that things will have to get significantly worse, before policy changes will occur. “Don’t hold your breath waiting for a California turn-around. It’s not quite bad enough, yet.”

I am too old to move out of California, and even though I was never much good at doing the limbo, I do need to ask, “California, how low can you go?”

3/3/23

Yes, CBS News has a “medical spokesperson” who has suggested that heart disease is an infectious disease. Even though she did not come right out and say those specific words, she did say that  the increase in heart disease during Covid was because individuals did not wear masks!

This is amazing in more ways than one!

CBS News’ medical contributor Celine Gounder M.D.  insinuated on 2/13/23 that the young people who suffered an unprecedented spike in lethal heart attacks during the first two years of the pandemic might only have themselves to blame.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is among the agencies and experts that have acknowledged a link between the COVID-19 vaccines and heart issues, Gounder suggested that the spike in heart attacks was instead likely resultant of young people with generally stronger immune systems not getting vaccinated and failing to wear masks.

On Twitter, she said:

“How can you reduce your risk of heart attack from COVID?

-getting vaccinated

-wearing a mask, especially in indoor public spaces during COVID surges

-ventilation & air filtration.”

By saying that wearing a mask and improving ventilation and air filtration would have prevented this increase in young people with heart attacks, she is insinuating that heart attacks are caused by some infectious agent. Because this blog is rated G and is for children as well as adults … “poppycock!”

She made this inane statement despite the recently published article out of Israel that said basically the opposite. 

From the abstract from SciRep:2022 Apr 28;12:

“Using a unique dataset from Israel National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from 2019 to 2021, the study aims to evaluate the association between the volume of cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome EMS calls in the 16-39-year-old population with potential factors including COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. An increase of over 25% was detected in both call types during January-May 2021, compared with the years 2019-2020. Using Negative Binomial regression models, the weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group but were not with COVID-19 infection rates. (emphasis, mine)

It’s amazing that Celine Gounder is supposed to be some sort of expert medical contributor, but then again, she is on CBS!

3/2/23

I have written many pieces concerning the benefit of Ivermectin to treat Covid in many places throughout the world. 

Last week I was sent an abstract of a JAMA published study that did not support the use of ivermectin among outpatients with COVID-19.

I guess I could go back and find the details of my many prior pro-Ivermectin pieces, however, at this point what purpose would that serve? For all intents and purposes, Covid is basically over. Whether this recent JAMA study that demonstrated no benefit for Ivermectin, is correct, I am not sure we will ever know … “ no me importa.”

To me more important is the heavy handed way that Ivermectin and those who wanted to prescribe it were treated. If Ivermectin was a person, this would indeed be a case of racial profiling. Let’s be perfectly clear, Ivermectin has been used in millions of people, especially in Africa to successfully treat River Blindness, and it is remarkably safe … in fact, overwhelmingly safe!

The off-label use of drugs in the U.S. is done many, many times each day, but yet Ivermectin could not be used off-label to treat Covid. Hmmm! Prescriptions for Ivermectin were not filled because of dictates from those, many of whom were either not physicians, or who were physicians who had not actually seen a live patient in years.

Last week someone called me an “anti-vaxer,” and because I had been double vaccinated in addition to being boosted, I rightfully objected. I said that I was not an “anti-vaxer,”  but rather I was a “pro-choicer.” In other words, let each individual decide if he/she was going to receive the vaccine. 

I say the same thing about physicians prescribing and patients taking Ivermectin for Covid. If the physician wants to prescribe it, and the patient trusts his physician and wishes to take it, so be it. In a free country, the real point is that both the physician and the patient should be allowed to exercise freedom of choice!

3/1/23