A Crisis of Confidence

 America’s Crisis of Confidence Rising Mistrust, Conspiracies, and Vaccine Hesitancy After COVID-19

Americas-Crisis-of-Confidence-Rising-Mistrust-Conspiracies-and-Vaccine-Hesitancy-After-COVID-19.pdf (aei.org)

Looking back on Covid and all the What-ifs

What if doctors had been allowed to treat the disease that condemned millions to death in 2020-2022 with their own basic knowledge learned through experience and medical school? 

What if they'd started treatment early, instead of waiting to hospitalize until there was no hope? 

What if they hadn't been forced to follow WHO and CDC, which are heavily politicized and Big Pharma which had strong financial interests? 

What if they'd been allowed to follow common sense and years of studies on masking? 

What if the populace had been encouraged to lose weight, exercise, get out in the sun and fresh air, instead of locking them down in despair and harmful environments? 

They wouldn't have paid attention to weak studies about two drugs, very safe but effective, and used them to treat the symptoms. 

They wouldn't have put very sick people on ventilators. 

They would have tapered patients with inflammation off steroids. 

Fewer would have died. 

Our economy wouldn't have tanked. 

Doctors wouldn't have lost their careers and the thousands of years of combined experience which now makes us all weaker.

 It was a coup against medicine, science, common sense, and history.

Please listen to Dark Horse podcast and others in alternative sources (there are many) look back on all the mistakes Big Gov and Big Pharma made (or maybe they weren't mistakes since it put Biden in office). Politicians in all nations, all parties, now know how to completely bring a country to its knees, and that knowledge is the power to do it again. To be used in the U.S. by either party.

Most recent podcast I recommend https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pharma-not-their-first-rodeo-umberto-meduri-paul-marik/id1471581521?i=1000623539019

Excess deaths not related to Covid. Many are reporting on this.

https://youtu.be/hHXICFnF-do

This research is from England. Dr. John Campbell

https://youtu.be/CROf3xmGzYI

This is from Korea, myocarditis. COVID-19 vaccination-related myocarditis: a Korean nationwide study | European Heart Journal | Oxford Academic (oup.com) It's not mild. Over 44 million people in the study. Given  vaccination-related myocarditis cases including deaths (VRM)  why is the CDC recommending the vaccine for everyone ages 6 months and older in the United States for the prevention of COVID-19, asks the author.

https://youtu.be/FxIug6k1mso

This is from Australia. 12% higher than normal. 34% of excess deaths not related to Covid.

These videos June 16 and 17, 2023.

NIH is "bat crazy"

Heard this on Megyn Kelly's podcast. She must have some great researchers. They turned this up and she mentioned it in her podcast interview with Robert Kennedy Jr.

Biden Admin Grants Another $2.3 Million to EcoHealth Alliance for Bat Coronavirus Research - American Faith

"The non-profit organization, led by British zoologist Peter Daszak, was at the center of the COVID-19 lab leak theory when former President Donald Trump suspended the grant in April 2020.

The grant was initially terminated after it was discovered that NIH had funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars through EcoHealth to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

The WIV is known for conducting gain-of-function research, a process that involves the intentional alteration of viruses to make them more infectious or deadly.

According to U.S. intelligence assessments, the COVID-19 virus likely originated from the Wuhan lab, Daily Mail notes.

Three years after the suspension, the Biden administration has decided to renew the NIH grant, allocating $2.3 million in taxpayer funds to EcoHealth over the next four years for bat-origin coronavirus research.

This decision has been met with strong criticism from members of Congress." 

Go to the link to see the rest of the story. 

Covid Student Loan Relief

You know, of course, about Biden's plan to forgive students loans and make people who never went to college or who already paid for their college (like the Bruces) pay for those who did borrow. But did you know how much the "pause" or Covid Emergency Relief and Federal Student Aid is costing us? $255 Billion as of March. The good thing is, it makes the $75 billion given to Ukraine not look so bad, right? President Trump began the pause, to last through December 30, 2020. Biden continued it, even though he says the pandemic is over, and even though employers can't find workers to earn the money to pay their loans. It's all part of the inflation which caused the Fed to raise interest rates to cool the economy, which in turn is helping create the bank crisis (and bad management, but that's another story). Everything is connected to everything else. The lockdown's damages in increased death, debts, and divisions among families and friends will not be known for years.

Trump Suspends Student Loan Payments Through December 31 (forbes.com)

Student Loan Forgiveness Debacle Has Already Cost $255 Billion in Lost Federal Revenue - Minding The Campus

In May 2020 silencing alternate viewpoints was a threat

In May 2020 when our alliance between government and academe was leery of Trump and his populism/power, Harvard International Review could publish this: 

"In a time when accurate, scientific information is vital to the well-being of populations around the world, silencing independent media and dissidents is counterproductive. Since the pandemic has hit, the International Press Institute has reported hundreds of violations of media freedom. Radical transparency in communication should be the norm; part of the success of countries like Taiwan and Canada stems from their clear communication about government efforts."

Canada? What a joke.

Later with Biden in power, transparency and independent media were a threat to his freedom strangling administration, and all alternate viewpoints had to be fired, deplatformed or tracked for being against "democracy."

https://hir.harvard.edu/covid-authoritarianism/?

Who governs? Emergency powers

I don't know if this book addresses how churches responded to the government lockdowns, but someone should.

"Overview
In a democracy, a government's authority derives from the consent of the governed. When emergencies hit—such as the COVID-19 health crisis—how are authorities, both elected and unelected, empowered to act? Experts in political science, democratic governance, and jurisprudence examine the wave of executive orders that followed the onset of this pandemic in 2020, as well as the legal and public responses to them, to consider what is right, lawful, and just."

Who Governs? Emergency Powers in the Time of COVID | Hoover Institution Who Governs? Emergency Powers in the Time of COVID

Who Governs? | Hoover Institution Press (ipgbook.com) check out for book order

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty , former hero of the pandemic,

Jeffrey Tucker comments on our intellectual class: "It’s a terrible reality now that you are far more likely to get clear thought from anyone who is not dependent on the system they are denouncing. A chef at a restaurant, a specialist in dry-wall installation, a barber, or a bartender is freer to tell the truth than the faculty of Harvard, Yale, and Oxford. I have no fix for this problem. I’m merely observing it."

https://aaronkheriaty.substack.com/p/what-has-the-last-three-years-done?

Interim Report on the Origins of Covid-19

 Report An Analysis of the Origins of COVID-19 (senate.gov)

"A Senate investigation into the origins of COVID-19 has concluded that the virus most likely leaked out of a Chinese laboratory.

The interim report, released by Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday, found a lack of evidence supporting the theory that COVID-19 was passed from animals to humans, and named China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as the likely source of the virus." NY Post

What would be the motives of Democrats who refused to even consider the lab leak theory?  Fear of attacks by China?  Fear of loss of business if the Chinese were offended? Afraid Trump was right and they'd look even more stupid than they already do?  Or. Maybe they just didn't care.

The new bivalent dose isn't catching on

Remember how everyone was trying to get the first dose of the vaccine? We went out in blizzards and stood in lines in February 2021. 80% of Americans trusted the CDC, President Trump, Fauci, and our local governors to keep us well. Now only 5% have received the latest bivalent dose that's been available for a month. But when the Democrats who had bad mouthed its development in 2020 did a flip and started pushing it while destroying the careers of medical people who suggested treating the disease and confining only those most vulnerable, and demanding lockdowns and school children get it when they weren't in danger, distrust of any politicians hawking the wares of Big Pharma set in.

The lived experience of Don Lemon

When Don Lemon of CNN says he knows Hurricane Ian was caused by climate change because he lived in Florida as a child, he's using the typical "lived experience" theory of the Left. Of course, the "lived experience" of the right doesn't count. Especially that which shows two well known FDA approved safe drugs can help treat a modern disease developed in a lab in a country on the other side of the ocean which spread and killed millions around the world.

National Hurricane Center chief shuts down CNN's Don Lemon trying to link Hurricane Ian to climate change | Fox News

News about the new booster from OSU

I have received an Ohio State News Alert:

"Individuals can receive the new COVID-19 booster two months after completing any primary series or any previous COVID-19 booster dose. The Pfizer bivalent booster is APPROVED for people who are 12 or older."

Approved? So I looked that up. It hasn't been approved by any agency that I can find in the Pfizer notice. It clearly says it's a permit for an unapproved product. And it also says this product is to prevent Covid-19, which the previous 4 shots haven't done, nor does the CDC say it prevents Covid.

Is this misinformation or mixed messaging or carefully worded warning not to sue?

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to permit the emergency use of the UNAPPROVED PRODUCT, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 12 years of age and older."

So I continued browsing and on p. 19 (about which OSU doesn't warn it's 50,000 students and probably that many staff and faculty)

"Postmarketing data with authorized or approved monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines demonstrate increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly within the first week following receipt of the second primary series dose or first booster dose, with most booster doses likely administered at least 5 months after completing primary vaccination. For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, the observed risk is higher among adolescent males and adult males under 40 years of age than among females and older males, and the observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age. Although some cases required intensive care support, available data from short-term follow-up suggest that most individuals have had resolution of symptoms with conservative management. Information is not yet available about potential long-term sequelae. The CDC has published considerations related to myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination, including for vaccination of individuals with a history of myocarditis or pericarditis (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical considerations/myocarditis.html).
Revised: 31 August 2022

And another fully vaxxed pooh-bah gets Covid

Rep. Liz Cheney ("R" - Deep State) announced on Wednesday morning that she tested positive for COVID-19, despite getting fully vaccinated and boosted. The Wyoming lawmaker has promoted COVID vaccines. Four other vaccinated Congress reportedly announced positive diagnoses over the weekend, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, as did Reps. David Price, D-N.C., and Susie Lee, D-Nev.

Vaccines were not effective for Omicron variant

"The currently available 2-dose COVID-19 vaccines were not effective in preventing symptomatic disease caused by the omicron variant, as determined according to data from more than 800,000 omicron-infected individuals. . . . Boosters created a short-term improvement in vaccine effectiveness against the omicron variant, but this effect also declined over time."

Read the whole article. It's complex with percentages and number of weeks following the vaccine. But clearly, there is a long way to go.

https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/971927?

Political homelessness, those who've left the Left

 https://youtu.be/DQpic6cPwRY

Political homelessness

This discussion is co-sponsored by Tablet and is part of their monthly series called “The Turn,” which focuses on the political homelessness of our current moment. One guest says, "It gets hard to lie after awhile." I couldn't find the term "political homelessness" without finding dozens of articles on homelessness and politics. "When Tablet editor at large Liel Leibovitz saw the left giving up on everything he believed in, he changed politically, a shift he detailed in his recent article, "The Turn." Liel was joined in this video by writer Walter Kirn and Tablet's Editor in Chief Alana Newhouse for this December 27, 2021 conversation about The Turn and what to do next now that so many of us feel politically homeless."

"You may be among the increasing numbers of people going through The Turn right now. Having lived through the turmoil of the last half decade—through the years of MAGA and antifa and rampant identity politics and, most dramatically, the global turmoil caused by COVID-19—more and more of us feel absolutely and irreparably politically homeless. Instinctively, we looked to the Democratic Party, the only home we and our parents and their parents before them had ever known or seriously  considered. But what we saw there—and in the newspapers we used to read, and in the schools whose admission letters once made us so proud—was terrifying. However we tried to explain what was happening on “the left,” it was hard to convince ourselves that it was right, or that it was something we still truly believed in. That is what The Turn is about."

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz

Lockdowns had little affect on mortality

A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf (jhu.edu)

“A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality” By Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke

About the Series The Studies in Applied Economics series is under the general direction of Prof. Steve H. Hanke, Founder and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise (hanke@jhu.edu). The views expressed in each working paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the institutions that the authors are affiliated with.

Lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little or no impact in reducing deaths from COVID-19, according to a new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies. Sheltering in place, about 2.9%

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

Truckers or the ladies in pink hats or the J-6 rioters: who is a bigger threat?

The truckers are 90% vaxxed as are most of the people supporting them. This has gone way beyond the vaccine. So now you hear all the media and political lies about Confederate flags, racism, and insurrections. I’m vaxxed too, although losing faith in it daily. Today I learned that a friend of mine who is vaxxed and boosted, has had Covid twice, which means she also has natural immunity, and she is extremely sick. (She also works with animals, and increasingly we see items about them being vectors). I have another friend who has had cancer, heart surgery, and hepatitis flares before 2020 when Covid started—she’s now had her fourth shot, which means they are rolling that out for the extremely immune compromised and we’ll all be next. She’s now having many incidents of A-fib, a known hazard/outcome for the vaccine. She’s 65, and in precarious health. I’m sure she decided to take the risk, but others should have that choice too without having their lives destroyed by the media and government. Also, although there are required vaccines in many places, there have been exemptions in the past, and also there definitely should be health exemptions, like young men with heart problems should be able to decide their risk. They know the natural immunity is real, they know there are test for natural antibodies, so why are the refusing to consider it. There are many things to protest. As in the 16th century. It's why millions of Christians are called "Protestants."

And it’s possible for 8,000 truckers to stop a government, but not a few hundred yahoos, unarmed in silly costumes. This “insurrection” and “take over the government” meme is just pandering to the worst sort of Democrats, the totally unhinged ones. Half a million women in pink hats on Trump’s inauguration day milling around and screaming in DC were far scarier.

Old drug shows some promise in fighting lung damage of Covid, Disulfiram

But will Disulfiram be able to survive the politics of the Democrats in the lap of Big Pharma?

https://udumbara.net/decades-old-drug-may-help-protect-against-severe-covid-19-symptoms-study

Other drugs approved for different uses have shown some success against COVID-19, including ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and fluvoxamine, though U.S. health officials primarily recommend ones such as paxlovid that are specifically approved for combating the illness.

I looked at one of the studies on Ivermectin (a meta-analysis of published articles) and found something in the small print. Note: Ivermectin must be used in the very early stages of the disease and symptoms.

"Conflicts of interest.
Pharmaceutical drug trials often have conflicts of interest whereby sponsors or trial staff have a financial interest in the outcome being positive. Ivermectin for COVID-19 lacks this because it is off-patent, has many manufacturers, and is very low cost. In contrast, most COVID-19 ivermectin trials have been run by physicians on the front lines with the primary interest of finding the best methods to save human lives and minimize the collateral damage caused by COVID-19. While pharmaceutical companies are careful to run trials under optimal conditions (for example, restricting patients to those most likely to benefit, only including patients that can be treated soon after onset when necessary, ensuring accurate dosing), many ivermectin trials do not represent the optimal conditions for efficacy.
Two ivermectin trials to date involve very large financial conflicts of interest [López-Medina, Together Trial] — companies closely involved with the trial or organizers stand to lose billions of dollars if ivermectin efficacy becomes more widely known. The design of these trials favors producing a null outcome as detailed in [López-Medina, Together Trial]. Note that biasing an RCT to produce a false positive result is difficult (suppressing adverse events is relatively easy [Evans]), but biasing a trial to produce a false negative result is very easy — for example, in a trial of an antiviral that works within the first 24 hours of symptom onset, trial organizers only need to avoid treating people within the first 24 hours; or with a disease like COVID-19, organizers only need to select a low-risk population where most people recover quickly without treatment. We note that, even under the very suboptimal designs, these trials produced positive results, although without statistical significance.

Designed to fail. Additional upcoming trials including ACTIV-6, COVID-OUT, and PRINCIPLE have been designed in a way that favors finding no effect, with a number of methods including late treatment, selecting low-risk patients, fasting administration, very high conflict of interest medication sourcing, and dosing below current clinical practice. For discussion see [Goodkin].

One patient reported their experience with one of the remote outpatient ivermectin/fluvoxamine trials: they were offered enrollment 7 days after symptoms (receipt of medication would be even later), were offered $400 to participate, and reportedly target healthy people [twitter]. ACTIV-6 also reportedly does not ship study medications on the weekend, adding additional delays [twitter (B)]. https://ivmmeta.com/ivm-meta.pdf

Fentanyl poisoning

It's not an "overdose," or an "addiction," it is poisoning and some people should be held accountable.. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and up to 50 times more potent than heroin. Even tiny doses, as little as two milligrams, the size of two grains of salt, is a fatal dose for most people. Teen don't have a fully developed brain for the problems of risk taking, and are accidentally poisoned. And the origin is China, just like Covid. Why does the president not act?

https://www.rand.org/blog/2019/09/tackle-fentanyl-like-a-poisoning-outbreak-not-a-drug.html

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/teens-tragic-tales-meet-some-of-children-who-died-from-fentanyl-poisoning

https://www.foxnews.com/us/fentanyl-poisoning-deaths-double-30-states

Fentanyl, Covid-19 and Public Health   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wmh3.355

Why are effective therapeutics denied in the USA?

The charts below are the COVID case and death count as reported by the World Health Organization for India and the United States. The WHO is certainly not an Alt Right, anti-VAX, conspiracy theory organization. The first graph shows reporting for India, the second is the good old USA. You may need to click on the image and expand it to see the full graph for the United States.

India was in the news daily in April of 2021 because of a sharp spike in cases and deaths. You can see the spike clearly on the India graph. Then in early May 2021 you can see a sharp reversal of trend followed by a steady decline to nearly no new cases in December for India. On the USA graph you can see a less radical ebb and flow of cases and deaths but since the Summer of 2021 you will notice a steady increase in both cases and deaths culminating in a sharp increase in cases and somewhat less sharp increase in deaths from late 2021 to present. In contrast India had nearly no new cases or deaths in the summer and fall of 2021 and only recently has had a spike in cases but the death count is remaining flat for India.

So, you may be wondering what happened in India in late April and early May of 2021. Well, India decided to ignore WHO guidance and began a massive program to treat COVID with a cocktail of drugs which included Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. They have also been using these drugs as a preventative for COVID. The results cannot be denied. The numbers tell the truth. You may argue that these results do not prove causation but hopefully you will agree they justify giving these drugs a chance here in our land.

In the USA and around the world there has been a concerted effort to deny the usefulness of Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin for` treatment of COVID. Doctors in the USA are being threatened with loss of license to practice medicine if they prescribe these drugs for COVID. Social media and legacy media are censoring affirming information for these drugs. If you Google Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin the first page of results will all be articles in opposition to these drugs, containing many lies I will add. They are saying that use of these drugs is unsafe but both drugs are on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children – 8th List (2021). Both are approved for off label use a further indication that they are safe. If you post articles affirming the effectiveness of these drugs on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter you will be censored, and your posting will be pulled down. You have to search for it to find it as I have done with these WHO graphs.

The question we need to be asking is, why is there such organized opposition to safe drugs which may be effective in treating COVID? Ask your doctor now if he/she will prescribe Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin for treatment of COVID if you should come down with the disease. If their answer is no find a different doctor with the courage to do the right thing regardless of the threats. If we follow India's lead, we can beat this disease.

If you have Spotify please listen/watch the Joe Rogen podcast interviews with Dr. Peter A. McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone.  From FB post by Marty Evans (1) Fans of Best of the Web Today | The charts below are the COVID case and death count as reported by the World Health Organization for India and the United States | Facebook