Myopic pandemia

We are undergoing our fourth pointless “shut down” chasing an airborne pathogen, something epidemiologically until February 2020, and in most of the rational planet today, was considered pointless and almost incoherent – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

We are constantly being hectored by “experts” about locking down at every surge, every variant, and we are always being told “two weeks,” and this becomes “three weeks” and then morphs into “four to five weeks” while the already besieged economy continues to crumble, and we wonder how any of these “biologically alive” people are supposed to “survive” in the aftermath. If every pathogen, much less one with such a high global recovery rate, had frozen our lives otherwise, we truly still would be “in” the Middle Ages.

You see, the problem with this playbook, which no one will ever mention, is that it’s NOT “two weeks or three”. What they are saying is, “three to four weeks this time,” and then next surge or variant, “another four or five weeks” and then over the holidays, “another five weeks” …never-ending. Put that across, and the insanity of the proposition and so-called prescription is evident. We are undergoing our fourth pointless “shut down” chasing an airborne pathogen, something epidemiologically until February 2020, and in most of the rational planet today, was considered pointless and almost incoherent.

The only sane incarnation of this was, as a temporary measure, if there are a few infections confined to specific towns or neighbourhoods. Once broader regions or cities are implicated, only mitigation can make any sense. Namely, minimal measures to “slow the spread” and keep hospitals at capacity. A focus on early treatment, the most bizarrely ignored aspect of this escapade (now recently in evidence here, mercifully), limitations on mass gatherings, and increased work-from-home is all, for a brief period, that such “mitigation” was ever rationally mandated for, prior to 2020 after centuries of pandemic experience.

And for those who say, “No, this is what is holding things together, until we get enough vaccinated,” we should realise the vaccinations are not a protection against “reinfection” or “transmission” but make serious disease less likely for a period. So, there is no off-ramp there. 

Pfizer recently suggested three to four booster shots may be needed, Israel is heading towards its fourth booster with the highest number of cases globally on a population adjusted basis and swelling deaths from the vaccinated. Vaccines certainly can help the vulnerable, and that is where WHO recommends they be focused globally, not re-jabbing people locked away in some economic dystopia.

A COVID primer…yet again

Very likely, human agency was involved here. The Huanan Seafood Market is not the origin of the 2019 pandemic. Viruses from the Seafood Market outbreak were sequenced early on and found to be genetically subsequent to other virus samples from elsewhere in the world. This, at least, is settled science. Curiously, this was well known even as politicians were hyperventilating about a “novel” coronavirus.

The best estimate from antibody and other research is September or October 2019. By November 2019 there was already community spread in northern Italy, by December around Europe and the US, and certainly China which had huge respiratory pathogen related spikes in December 2019. 

China was well aware, as they had corona sequenced before January 2020, which is how the snake charmer German medical charlatan Christian Drosten had the first PCR test ready before any sequences had been published, said test being rushed through so called “peer review” in two days (by a journal he sat on the editorial board of), and said test template now having its EUA revoked by the US, because among other sins, it could not differentiate between C-19 and influenza!

COVID-19 is almost exclusively dangerous for the elderly and those with chronic illnesses. These subpopulations are where the mortality spikes have been globally, and we are seeing the same here now in Sri Lanka. For children, COVID is less dangerous than influenza. The false positive riddled PCR tests have magnified the seeming prevalence of COVID, and poor treatment, over-hospitalisation (causing many additional infections) and scandalously rigged death certificates that conflated a “positive test” of someone who died “with” COVID versus it being the primary cause of death, swelled seeming deaths.

The UK recently released a tally of their excess deaths ascribed to C-19 from March 2020 to August 2021 – 61% died at home! Lockdown inevitably exacerbated this. The balance is an even split between care homes and normal hospitals. How is this “saving the NHS” which is the one refrain British politicians seem to regurgitate most reflexively?

A leading doctor’s testimony

One of the world’s leading cardiologists, certainly the most published cardiologist in the world, and the author of the only peer reviewed papers on actual “COVID treatment” Dr. Peter McCullough and I recently spoke at length. Dr. McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist. He has been one of the true champions of early treatment, and we have had him present to Lanka policymakers on several occasions. A total of 20,000 patients have been through his early treatment protocol, with four fatalities!

I asked him how unusual it was not to have early treatment front and centre in a response to an illness or pandemic. He replied that there are in fact a few medical conditions where the best course is not to treat. “To my knowledge every single one of those conditions though is not fatal and reasonably minor.”

In other words, when minor, leaving it alone can make sense. But Dr. McCullough confirmed that there was not any potentially fatal illness where the best course was not to treat it until it reaches the point of requiring hospitalisation or where the patient is close to death. And yet that has been the therapeutically nihilistic “protocol” re COVID virtually everywhere. With outpatient care now established in Sri Lanka, we are indeed fortunate to have transcended that.

We then touched on the different phases of the COVID illness, “biphasic” or perhaps even more accurately “triphasic” (viral, inflammation, thrombosis): “Yes, there are definitely tools in the tool kit, and they overlap. But very importantly, the sequence to death is thrombosis or blood clotting. So, I still to this day, see errors. When the patient has a low oxygen saturation, has difficulty breathing, that’s actually blood clotting in the lungs, it’s micro blood clotting in the lungs.” Autopsies and other studies have confirmed this. Therefore, using anti-virals in hospitals backfire or misfire, as they are being given too late, instead of a full dose of aspirin and full dose blood thinners.

One of the most promising tools, and there is a EUA for them in Sri Lanka (via Roche), is for monoclonal antibodies. But each day these are delayed in the early viral phase, the benefit is reduced. These too are more expensive than other more readily available early remedies, but they make a huge impact. 

Ideally, a “cocktail” of remedies. Dr. McCullough explained, “Most of the virus is inside the cells. The monoclonal antibody is outside the cells, so they can only attack the viruses outside the cells. But our human cells can get loaded with SARS-CoV-2, so we need drugs that can get inside the cell to work on the virus. These include HCQ, Ivermectin, Doxycycline and others. It’s that class of drugs.” He said we should usually deploy two out of that class because we want to impair the virus at least on two different levels inside the cell. 

Using multiple drugs though is not an outlier approach he clarified, we do this for all “serious infections”.

Before getting onto the recent Ivermectin controversy, I asked about “Lockdowns” and this allegation that each week we’re committing economic suicide is at least somehow saving lives.

He first reminded us to focus on “excess deaths” not “positive tests” posing as “cases.” Again, UK has 37,000 daily positive tests, and about 200 daily deaths, in the same vicinity as being recorded in Lanka. “The real issue is, how does the virus spread? Almost every study shows that 85% of the spread occurs within the house or domicile. So, because people lockdown together, they spread the virus together, so there is very little impact on spread for an airborne virus that’s already everywhere.”

Dr. McCullough agreed that the evidence is overwhelming. We need wide open economies, transportation, travel, education, government and business all functional, with some prudence. Only focus on the acutely ill and ensure sick people (he confirms the “asymptomatic” are a myth, are actually healthy, and should not be tested) don’t go to work or travel or enter group settings. “Only a sick person can transmit the virus to someone else.” He continues, “If you have two people who are well, there is no reason to lock them down. There’s no reason to have them wear masks because they’re both well.”

He concurs Sweden clearly got it right. No locking down, schools open, prudent distance, and as of 2021, negative excess deaths! Denmark is now joining them, saying they agree the Swedish model is the one to emulate for its economic, social and medical sustainability.

We also spoke of how there is no outdoor transmission. “That’s a very important point, and it was reconfirmed in a major Singapore study. The virus essentially does not transmit outdoors. If people are conducting their business, traveling, even dining and otherwise outdoors, no reason to be concerned.” Public restrooms are probably of greater concern than open air markets, because of dense air and poor air flow.

I mentioned my stupefaction at the theory that someone not at risk, and not ill, being locked away, is somehow supposed to save the life of say a 70-year-old with chronic illnesses? Why not shelter-in-place the vulnerable?  Agreeing, Dr. McCullough pointed out natural immunity once you’ve been infected and recovered, is long lasting, sturdy and fully reliable. 

“So, the real strategy is to feature the COVID recovered health care workers to take care of the seniors in care homes because we know they can’t acquire or transmit the virus, so they are the safest of all care givers.” He suggested all the Sri Lankan health care agencies should have an inventory of their COVID recovered workers, again because they can’t be infected a second time. “They have a negligible chance, it can’t be improved by vaccination, which becomes irrelevant here.” Dr. McCullough has been advising the military as well as professional sports teams, and he always starts with, “Who is COVID recovered?” That’s how you can safely run your business, schools and health care agencies. One of the leading US hospitals, Cleveland Clinic found that COVID recovered workers, unvaccinated, are not getting reinfected. Hence, they will not impose any “passports.” By contrast, we have a report that Cornell University, with a 95% vaccination rate, has five times more COVID cases than it did this time last year. 

That changing science

Ivermectin, called by some the equivalent of “Penicillin” in terms of potential COVID impact, is now being attacked in vile ways, with a “reality disconnect” that is no less than larcenous.

Dr. Tess Lawrie in a presentation together, had us look at the WHO website, comparing Ivermectin, Remdesivir and the mRNA vaccines. On WHO’s website, there were perhaps 30 or so instances among billions of dosages since 1995 for Ivermectin. Remdesivir was in the thousands already, the mRNA numbers (even back then) were above 6,500 associated deaths in the VAERS (US adverse effects government database). And so, she asked with unanswerable logic, “Why are we worried about Ivermectin?”

Meanwhile, 3.7 billion doses have gone in African countries and beyond, since 1987, considered one of the greatest cure stories in human (not horse) medical history. And they all know this. After the initial animal applications as an anti-parasitic, Merck and WHO conducted seven years of clinical trials to demonstrate that “Mectizan” the derivation of Ivermectin being utilised, was safe for humans. 

Donated by Merck to humanity, it essentially eradicated river blindness (which an estimated 50% of males 40 years and older in some countries had been blinded by). Merck’s own 2017 press release celebrated the eradication of a parasitic pandemic by Ivermectin, having saved, quoting Merck, “more than 250 million people in 32 countries.” Hardly the kind of medicine we should be quaking in terror from, if we find its uses extend beyond its already spellbinding original repertoire.

And its success with RNA viruses had been noted and was being medically investigated well before C-19. Not surprising given its anti-inflammatory properties. It is a Nobel Prize winning drug for its human applications and noted as one of WHO’s ‘Model List of Essential Medicines’ for 2019. These are just facts, jumping up and down squealing, “horses” and “trail worms” shows perhaps a parasitic infestation of that person’s own critical faculties.

The 21 August 2021 “news” articles (The Empire Strikes Back), were about poison control centres in Mississippi from people who took IVM in unspecified animal formulations. But no hospitalisations resulted. There was static re side effects, but the reporting distorted the distinction between human and veterinary applications (some of the latter are not for internal use).

Data scientist David Schein of MIT reports, “Cancer patients who were administered ivermectin at five times that standard dose daily for 180 consecutive days had no serious adverse side effects from it…” Those attempting suicide applying 1,000 times the recommended dose, recovered.  “Only one 72-year-old male who took 440 times the standard dose died.”  This madcap attack comes on the cusp of high priced anti-virals being prepared for release by (wink, wink) Merck itself (Molnupiravir), Pfizer and others. Billions are at stake, so why let this cheaply available, humanitarian “off label” breakthrough, with a better safety profile than Tylenol, ride to the rescue?

For anyone that says it is not FDA approved, it is, just not for COVID. And all but one of the current C-19 drugs are also not FDA approved for COVID and are off label, as are 21% of all drug prescriptions in the US. So, might we get a grip somehow? Again, though, ideal as part of a multi-drug cocktail for prophylaxis or early treatment.

Speaking of shifting science though, we can look at Dr. Fauci, as a spokesman of ‘The Science,’ and his predilection for inaccurate predictions. As commentator Alex Berenson writes, who has catalogued the below, “Hedge fund managers sometimes joke the stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions.”

After 12 November 2020, after the Pfizer proclamation of 90% efficacy (one of the most misleading headlines in recent memory), Fauci proclaimed: “End of pandemic in sight thanks to vaccines.” A month later, this became more granular with this: “Fauci predicts US could see signs of herd immunity by March or early April.”  However, once there, we saw the goal posts were sprinkled with pixie dust.

Fast forward to that heralded March 2021, a period of herd immunity rejoicing? Not quite. Here is the next Fauci headline, with no explanation for why he is so consistently, catastrophically wrong: “Fauci gives sunnier outlook for end of pandemic: US will see “big, big difference” by summer or early fall.”

Well, now that we are just past late summer, we must be ready for heady times ahead! Alas, no, “Dr. Fauci says no end to COVID pandemic before Spring 2022 – at the earliest.” How about, “We haven’t a clue, clearly baffled by why you keep asking me, but I shall put the sacramental robes on and infuse my bafflement with the sanctimony of “medical wisdom.” To folks in Sri Lanka, is any of this sounding at all familiar?

Time to outgrow this

Look, we have the answer. Apply the early treatments, focus on the symptomatic, stop mass testing. Live life fully. As the two biggest comorbidities are obesity and anxiety as per the US CDC, we can improve our odds even there!

Imagine, says Margaret Anna Alice, you were your 2019 summer self again. What were you doing then? How the world seemed rich and inviting! A passport, a small bag, and you could just head out. You could love, live, study, extend. And there were still illnesses aplenty, but we were larger than that. That 2019 self, ablaze with life, a few thousand inflationary dollars later, would not recognise any of us today.

They would be shell-shocked that we stood by as too much of the world became an open-air prison, as we went sleepwalking into being ordered whether to live, or to sit mutely awaiting orders, as our world disintegrated. That 2019 self if asked would have been outraged at the suggestion that we would so readily forfeit our rights, terrorised by “models”. That we would have started perceiving our fellow humans as bioweapons, with the full extent of the social, economic and educational impact of asserted invasions into our rights likely invisible for decades.

A protest, an elderly woman with a sign, “I’d rather die from COVID than loneliness.” And that is what we are killing them with, with boredom, isolation, lack of human contact. Would this 2019 self, Margaret Anna Alice asks, have been likely to believe that hugging, kissing, smiling, even speaking could be “criminalised” or at least become anathema? When we can be ordered to revile, when Twitter can determine what “truth” we can read, when experts who disagree can be shamed or expelled from the public sphere, should we not realise, no virus is worth all this?

We have been living and adapting to viral, bacterial and other phenomena and their countless variations for millennia. A nonagenarian Holocaust survivor, Inge Ginsberg wrote a poem and recorded her protest by overlaying her poem with a heavy metal band (Tritone Kings). In the end, not COVID, but solitary confinement took her. Her message, “You can’t avoid death, so laugh about it.” And I might add, ensure you “live” all the days of your life (as Jonathan Swift urged).

For all of us who love this resplendent isle, let’s not go back to the 2019 spirit even, but create a new 2021 and beyond, spirit, enhanced and emboldened. Inge’s other message to us was and is, “Don’t destroy what you can’t replace.” 

Amen.