From health
THE WORLD ORDER
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The War in Ukraine is not just about Ukraine. It is about preserving “The World Order.“ Ever since the end of World War II, it was clear there needed to be a “New Order.“ One nation could not decide to make new rules of how things are going to be. Germany could not march into Poland and take over their government. They could not decide that 6,000,000 people could no longer exist in this world and had to be exterminated. One Führer did not have the right to take those monstrous actions. It took six years, the cooperation of more than sixty nations, and the loss of 50,000,000 lives to establish that point. Something that has cost us too much to forget.
This is our situation now. Vladimir Putin has unilaterally decided that Ukraine should be part of Russia for reasons that are not documentable on solid historical evidence. Various reasons have been floated, none of which can pass the smell test. Ukraine needs to be de-Nazified when in fact, there are no Nazis to be found in Ukraine. Russia needs to protect Russians, the Russian language, and their culture in Ukraine from “genocide. “ No evidence exists that the Russian language or culture has been suppressed, and no genocide has been uncovered. Putin says that all he wants to do is to unite the Russian people. He claims that Ukraine has become a Nazi country. This is despite the fact that Zelensky is a Jew, who was democratically elected by a 73% majority of Ukrainians, and no one, including the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv, can find any Nazis anywhere. Putin claims that Ukraine is not a real country, despite centuries of Ukraine being its own country, with its own language, culture, food, magnificently decorated easter eggs (google pysanky), history, along with its own authors, and heroes.
My father was born in Ukraine over a century ago. He and millions of people thought it WAS a country then. A plebiscite (vote of the people) in 1991 was an overwhelming affirmation that the Ukrainian people wanted to be independent. Over 90% of the population voted for Independence.
Putin has delusions of grandeur and a perverted belief that he is the reincarnation of Peter the Great. The world cannot allow one man to look at his neighbor and decide that that country has no right to exist and then take “special military action“ to make that a reality. THAT VIOLATES THE WORLD ORDER! That illegal and irrational action requires the rest of the world to lead an intervention against the wayward country, not only to preserve a sovereign nation but to prevent us from being next!
If the world ignores that threat, where will it end? Putin will decide that Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania should also be part of Russia, and Sweden and Finland should not be part of NATO. Poland and Moldavia need to be demilitarized so as not to be a threat to Russia. The rest of Europe, Germany, France, England, and the other nuclear NATO countries need to hand over their nuclear weapons, as Ukraine was tricked into doing. In 1996 Ukraine was the third most powerful nuclear nation in the world. They gave all their nuclear weapons to Russia in return for security assurances. So much for assurances! Russia has proven itself to be dishonorable, perfidious, and not trustworthy. Have we not learned from Nevil Chamberlain, who tried to appease Hitler? It didn’t work. It just caused more lost lives when it became obvious that if we did not resist, we would all be speaking German.
It distresses me that the ultra-right does not want to support Ukraine. Are they so bamboozled by Putin that they do not realize that Ukraine is fighting for not only their freedom but ours as well? They have forgotten or are too ignorant to know who Nevil Chamberlain was. Do they not know what Russia did to the Lisbon Protocol, the Minsk Agreement, and the Budapest Memorandum (security agreements)? Let me give you a clue. Putin just trashed them. I would not be surprised if he plugged up his toilet with those Accords. In 2009, when Putin had already been President for nine years, the US and Russia signed one more agreement guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty and reaffirming the promises Russia made in the Lisbon Protocol, the Minsk Agreement, and the Budapest Memorandum. It, too, had the same fate as all the other Accords. Putin is not crazy (maybe), but he is fighting for his own existence. If it comes down to his existence, judging by the promises made in his other agreements and the lives of 100,000 Russian soldiers, do you think he has the scruples to care about your existence? He will not hesitate to take us with him, despite all the Accords signed by Russia.
It appears that Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Tucker Carlson are not readers of history. Perhaps someone should read those Accords to them in case they are illiterate. Maybe then they will realize that Vladimir Putin is not their friend, is not brilliant nor even clever. Maybe then they, too, will “quack” in their boots (MTG gets roasted). Putin is a homicidal monster similar to other monsters we have had, like Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. Is that not obvious from seeing the thousands of Russian soldiers that so far have been turned into corpses for Putin’s delusional and perverted interpretation of history?
Putin claims that he is ready to talk with all parties, but says that it is Kyiv that is refusing to engage in arbitration. This gives you a clue as to Putin’s arrogance and his failure to think like a normal person, and certainly shows the world that he has no serious intention of talking. Shooting Ukrainians and blowing up their country does not mix well with talking. Rule # 1 in negotiations: Stop shooting first, then start talking!
Besides not knowing the first rule of negotiation, Putin is also not known for keeping his word or Accords, for that matter, and he says whatever benefits his current position, which is often unrelated to the truth. He now threatens to start World War III and use nuclear weapons preemptively against the West. No one else to date has ever made such a threat since the first use of nuclear weapons 77 years ago. It gives you a glimpse of the man’s dark soul as if killing several billion people is just another minor thing on his “to-do list.” That alone is disruptive to the “World Order” and requires the world to understand that we have a serious problem.
In addition to threatening world annihilation, Putin wants to decide who can and cannot join NATO and has increased his military presence on the Moldavian border. Are they next? Putin’s advisers are bragging about how easily Germany can be defeated and are talking about a first strike at London. Ukraine is not the final goal of Putin! If London is in their sights, are you among the deluded that believe he will stop there?
Organic Farming
Pyrite, also called FOOL’S GOLD
Organic Farming is a scam! There is no evidence that organic is better, healthier, more nutritious, cleaner, safer, or more advantageous by any measure you can apply to it. This is a published fact supported by the government, science, peer-reviewed research, and common sense. It is, however, more expensive!
Take, for example, the organic restriction of using NH3 (ammonia) that is produced by the Bosh Haeber process (synthetic) from the air in favor of bat shit (guano) for fertilizer is mind-boggling. Bat shit is not cleaner than air. It never has been, will be, or can be. Yet that is what we are told by the organic crowd. Just remember Covid came from bats. I must admit that they do have fantastic PR and salespeople to convince many of us to accept this idiotic nonsense. I suspect that a few used car salespeople migrated into the organic farming business. Even the name, “Organic Farming” is a subterfuge. It supposedly means that they are producing food, both plant and animal, without being man-made and implies that standard farming practices are not organic i.e., using synthetic fertilizers, using herbicides, pesticides, radiation to kill bacteria, and genetically altering the DNA of a plant or animal. That is not entirely true. Organic Farming has a long list of “synthetic chemicals” that are allowed. Some are rather toxic substances, such as Ethanol, Ethylene, a hydrocarbon, Copper hydroxide, Chlorine dioxide, and many Sulfates, Carbonates, Oxides of zinc, iron, molybdenum, cobalt, and others are magically given dispensation. Which are OK or not OK is entirely arbitrary. They spray it with all those things they say are OK. Where are the studies published that detail the double-blind controlled test done on all those substances? If transferred to other fields of human endeavor, we would have to eliminate cancer treatments using radiation and “synthetic” chemotherapy, jet airplane transportation, a mode of transportation that is certainly “not natural,” and genetic manipulation to cure illness as is being done to prolong the life of leukemia, lymphoma, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma patients. Why it is OK to X-ray your leg to diagnose a fracture but not OK to kill lethal bacteria in food is a mystery.
Eating organic has failed to be helpful to you in any way, but it is also not harmful to you, that is, except in your pocketbook. There are, however, a few negatives to Organic Farming that are rarely brought up. Organic Farming takes more land, and more financing to produce the same amount of nutrition than standard agricultural practices. This is actually wasted money and wasted dirt to produce less. With many of the earth’s people starving, this is insane if not criminal. The restriction of pesticides has, in fact, caused more deaths than the pesticides themselves have caused. In 2021 there were 241,000,000 malaria cases worldwide with 627,000 deaths due to malaria, and 80% are in children under age 5 years of age. We owe this to Rachel Carson who wrote a book in 1962, “The Silent Spring,” in which she condemns the use of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). In 1972 DDT was banned worldwide, and malaria cases skyrocketed. In 2006 the Word Health Organization reconsidered its ban in view of the malaria come-back and now allows the use of this chemical in all areas that have a high incidence of malaria, which is the entire continent of Africa. For a variety of reasons is still not implemented throughout the world. Most herbicides are another forbidden substance. Interestingly “natural” substances are OK’d by the organic tribe, such as Nicotine, which we all know is a poison and should not be used for anything.
Using antibiotics is also frowned upon by Organic Farmers. I agree that mass utilization of antibiotics is counterproductive and brings forth resistant strains of bacteria that are almost impossible to kill, but not treating specific illnesses of animals with antibiotics is cruelty!
GMOs (Genetic Modified Organisms) are also forbidden by the Organic Farming religion. Norman Borlaug, a geneticist and plant pathologist, changed wheat to make it stronger to survive storms, more resistant to disease, and, most importantly, produce more grain per acre. It saved millions from starvation, and Norman got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Original wheat had fourteen chromosomes. Our genetically engineered bread now has 42 chromosomes (Franken-wheat). You can’t even get the old wheat anymore without paying a lot. Yet few of us have grown a tail or a third eye by eating the evil genetically engineered bread, which all of us do!
Another banned substance is nanoparticles. A nanoparticle is 1nM to 100 nM in any dimension. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. This is a relatively new restriction because the technology to make these particles is also relatively new. For that reason, there is still more science to investigate this, and an outright ban is premature, besides our own body reduces most all the food we consume to nanoparticles so that it can be absorbed. But as is typical of the science illiterates, their first reaction is to ban it.
Organic Farming is junk science based on irrational, illogical, and false assumptions with no evidence to show its value. If you believe the organic mantra, I have the Brooklyn bridge for sale at a bargain price. Organic Farming is a scam and not worth your money! It is because of “man-made” things we were able to come out of the cave. You might say Organic Farming is Fool’s Farming.
A THREAT TO OUR EXISTENCE
History has shown us indubitably that vaccination is the best weapon we have against most infectious diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, influenza, tetanus, hepatitis, pertussis, chickenpox, diphtheria, meningitis, and more to the point, Covid -19. The argument that “I am healthy, exercise every day, and eat right,” is not valid as that does not provide even a shred of protection for any infection, especially not Covid-19. The argument that having had Covid-19 should exempt you from vaccination is also flawed. Firstly there is very little data on immunity after infection. Fully one-third of people who had Covid-19 generated no antibody response. The immunity from the disease is variable and not as reliable as vaccine immunity. Another study out of Israel gives reason to have more doubts about the quality of that immunity. The breakthrough events, defined as getting infected again after either having had the disease or getting vaccinated, occur at twice the rate in natural immunity as in vaccine acquired immunity. This suggests that even though an individual has had the disease, immunization is still required, in opposition to the opinion of what one US Senator says.
Herd immunity is acquired by a population when there is no more of a reservoir for the virus to infect, and therefore the virus cannot multiply and cannot mutate. The risk of mutation is a major reason to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible to prevent the next, possibly more lethal virus that may or may not be susceptible to the vaccines. That level of immunity is said to be a minimum of 80%. Current worldwide immunity is at 35%, not even halfway there.
There are many reasons why worldwide immunity is so low. The poor nations do not have the infrastructure and funds. The wealthy nations have pushback from the people that are anti-vaxxers for a variety of reasons: lack of education, fear, religious objection, genuine medical contraindication to the vaccine, and just plain stubborn ignorance.
There are efforts to get the poorer nations to meet their needs through private and public actions. Vaccine hesitancy is another major obstacle. China, through mandates that only an autocratic government is able to muster, has reached the goal of herd immunity and is beginning to relax its mandated programs. It is now focusing on segments of the population that need more attention, such as those that were missed in the first round or need a booster.
To date, there are 21 countries that are in the process of various levels of mandates from rigorous, such as no vaccination no job, or the unvaccinated are simply shut out of their economy, including denial of hospital admission, to more lenient attitudes such as a vaccine passport or frequent testing. That list should give you a hint as to the conviction all these nations have of the need and urgency to do this! These countries all, by and large, are democracies and have public health agencies that have found it necessary, despite all the effort to do this on a voluntary basis, to implement methods that require a more aggressive demand for compliance:
Australia Indonesia Russia
Britain Italy Saudi Arabia
Canada Kazakhstan Sri Lanka
Costa Rica Lebanon Switzerland
Fiji Malta Turkey
France Micronesia Turkmenistan
Hungary Netherlands United States
It has become obvious that mandates will be necessary for most countries to achieve the herd immunity we need. I realize that this will bring much resistance and even potential violence. But this has been necessary for past situations, even in our Democracy. A threat to our existence is a powerful motivator. When we are threatened by annihilation from another country, for example, we will arm ourselves and shoot (to kill) the enemy. This is not the first time we have done this! People that refuse to participate (known as draft dodgers) are put in jail. When existence is at stake (and 700,000 deaths are getting very close to the level of an existential threat), we have in the past restricted civil rights, even imprisoned innocent people, with no due process whom we judged to be a threat.
To demonstrate what fear of a perceived threat can do, if you have not done so, I would suggest you visit Manzanar in central California, one of the prison camps for Americans of Japanese descent during WWII (120,000)– two-thirds of whom were born and raised in the United States of America!
Vaccine Hesitancy -2.0
My previous essay was entitled Vaccine Hesitancy. I follow that essay with a similar title, Vaccine Hesitancy 2.0, because I think this is a very important issue that needs urgent attention. The fourth surge can be entirely laid at the feet of the unvaccinated, as it is only the unvaccinated that require hospitalization and are the ones that are dying. Folks, there is no one else to blame. I am puzzled by this new phenomenon, which in my half-century experience in medicine and surgery has never come up, except in a group of people called anti-vaccers, who refuse to vaccinate their children for a variety of reasons, religion, fear of autism, and just general kookiness. But to see almost half the population fear vaccination is a new phenomenon. I have heard some pretty screwball reasons for not getting vaccinated. For instance I don’t want to become sterile, or they inject microchips into you so they can control you, or Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci created the virus so they could profit from the sale of vaccines. These are among many more crazy conspiracy theories that are just off the wall. Two main demographics are afraid to get vaccinated, white Republican males and people of color. There are not many characteristics linking these two diverse groups. But both have a deep-rooted distrust of big government. I think it is that issue that fuels most of the fear of vaccination.
Past vaccinations have mostly come from medical research and have been promoted by the medical profession. This is the first time that the government has been the agency that has promoted vaccination. I have given a lot of vaccinations over the last half-century and have not seen any serious consequences. I realize that bad things can happen, but they are extremely rare, like one in a million. The purpose of vaccination is to eliminate the much more serious consequence of the diseases that they are designed to fight. Those diseases have a mortality of a lot higher than one in a million.
When I was drafted into the military during the Vietnam conflict, I was the physician in charge of the vaccination program at my Base. I did not give the shots. My nurses did that, even though most of them outranked me. I was just a Captain then, and many of them had been in the military much longer and were Majors or higher, but I was professionally higher in rank. As soon as the FDA fully approves the Covid vaccines, the military will incorporate those vaccines in their mandated panel, as the danger of having the majority of the fighting force open to this plague is an untenable risk to national security. The matter is currently under consideration and it will soon be part of the military mandatory vaccinations against Covid-19 like the 25 other vaccines that are required.
Available vaccines
- Cholera
- COVID-19 (corona virus)
- Dengue
- Diphtheria
- Hepatitis
- Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
- Human papillomavirus (HPV)
- Influenza
- Japanese encephalitis
- Malaria
- Measles
- Meningococcal meningitis
- Mumps
- Pertussis
- Pneumococcal disease
- Poliomyelitis
- Rabies
- Rotavirus
- Rubella
- Tetanus
- Tick-borne encephalitis
- Tuberculosis
- Typhoid
- Varicella
- Yellow Fever
- Covid-19 still voluntary at this point but not for long
But in two years and thousands of doses, I did not have one serious event, including getting mine. The worst was a couple of recruits who fainted. See above for the shortlist of vaccinations that could be given depending on the deployment of the soldier. Working in emergency rooms for more time than I care to admit, I shot a lot of DPT, and DT (Diphtheria +Pertussis+ Tetanus and Diphtheria+Tetanus) vaccine into people’s arms, along with a lot of MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) and Trivalent Polio Vaccine during my days as a General Practitioner, again not one significant reaction. But a lot of kids did not get Measles, Mumps, Rubella, or Polio, all of which have serious consequences, including death, and Rubella can cause horrible heart defects, brain abnormalities, diabetes, and deafness if a pregnant mother should get it. Until Jonas Salk came up with his Polio vaccine, a lot of people got “Infantile Paralysis,” which destroyed their lives! I remember the braces that some of my schoolmates had to wear so they could walk. The “Iron Lungs” on the Polio wards at LA Couty Hospital during my Internship were a sad testament to those that did not get vaccinated.
The Covid vaccines are very safe and statically more so than all the ones I used, which have a risk ratio of 1 to 1,000,000 of serious reactions. The Johnson and Johnson, the supposedly most dangerous of the Covid vaccines, has a death risk of 1 to 3,500,000, making it three and one-half times safer than what I dished out. People please get a grip! Think and look at the evidence! It is not rocket science! The anti-vacc rhetoric is changing. More and more radio and TV personalities are promoting getting vaccinated in their message. Even Phil Valentine, a well known conservative Radio personality who is seriously ill with Covid, is pleading with his audience to go get vaccinated! Add to that Mitch McConnell (Senate Minority Leader), Steve Scalise (Minority Whip), Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy (both Fox TV hosts), every physician member of Congress on both sides of the aisle, 17 in all, except for Rand Paul who has had Covid, Kamala Harris, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Barack and Michelle Obama, Tyler Perry, Rupert Murdoch (conservative billionaire and owner of Fox), and many more.
All four million Federal employees must now be vaccinated or be tested twice a week and wear masks. 55 professional organizations produced a joint statement to demand all workers in health and long term care should be mandated to be vaccinated including: The American Academy of Family Practice (AAFP), the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Pharmacy, American College of Physicians, American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association (AMA), American Nursing Association (ANA), American Pharmacists Association, American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Society of Hematology (ASH), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), American Hospital Association (AHA), and more! All UC schools have just announced they will mandate vaccination and most colleges and universities across the country have done the same or are on the verge of mandating vaccinations. These are some of the smarter people we have on this planet. I leave it to you to decide what that makes you? If you do not believe our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and academics, nothing I say will change your mind. I feel sorry for you, and “MAY GOD HELP YOU!”
Even Donald Trump and Melania got their vaccination, for God’s Sake!
RUDOLF VIRCHOW
Most of you will not be familiar with the name. He influenced the course of health care, medicine, science, anthropology, biology, and politics. He was a personality of immense intellect and achievements who deserves our knowing who he was.
| Rudolf Virchow © Photos.com/Jupiterimages |
He was born on October 13, 1821, as Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow in Schivelbein, Prussia, now Poland. His parents were farmers. Rudolf was a brilliant student. In gymnasium (equivalent to high school) he became fluent in German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Italian, and Dutch. He was headed for a position in the clergy, but his uncertainty about God and his self-assessment that he had a weak voice made that an untenable career. He chose medicine instead. He studied at the University of Berlin. After graduation, he did an internship at Charité Hospital, the most prestigious hospital in Berlin. He introduced the use of the microscope to study diseases and developed a method for discovering the cause of death, the autopsy. Forensic medicine was another one of his creations, and he was often called as an expert witness in criminal cases.
In 1847 the Prussian government sent him to study a typhus epidemic in Silesia. It was there that he came upon the principles of public health for Germany and, eventually, the rest of the world. His theory was that medicine is the study of disease, and the enlightened government is nothing more than medicine expanded to the population. Because of his political activism, he lost his position at Charité. He left Berlin to be the chair of pathology at the University of Würzburg in Bavaria, the first such position in Germany. Eventually, he was invited to return to Berlin to become Charité’s director of pathology for the next 20 years.
He realized that all cells come from other cells (Omnis cellula e cellula). From this sprang his theory of cancer origin and how it spread. He discovered blood cancers that he was the first to call Leukemia, coining that word and many more, such as spina bifida, embolism, thrombosis, and others. The “Node of Virchow” is now recognized as a swelling in the left side of the neck that is the harbinger of the lethal spread of a gastrointestinal malignancy. “Virchow’s Triad” details the causes of blood clots in vessels due to one of three causes, stasis of blood, injury of the vessel’s inner lining, and blood that is hypercoagulable.
He discovered that many animal diseases could be transmitted to humans, from which he coined the term “zoonosis.” Coronavirus is a zoonosis that is said to have originated from bats. Virchow was ahead of his time. He found the cause of Trichinosis, the tiny parasitic larval form of worms, trichinella spiralis, that resided in the muscles of pigs and by eating insufficiently cooked pork, could infect humans. Introducing meat inspections in Berlin eventually wiped out that disease in Germany. The sewer system and water supply of Berlin were designed by him. Virchow managed to get himself elected to the German Reichstag (the Parliament) from 1880 to 1893, and often championed better sanitation, support for the poor, improvement of health care, and other issues that concerned the public good. The Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who acted as the head of state, often did not see eye to eye with Virchow, especially on excessive military spending. He irritated Bismarck to such an extent that Bismarck challenged Virchow to a duel. The rules of such a potentially lethal encounter required that the one who was challenged gets to choose the weapons. Virchow cleverly chose Kielbasa, Polish sausage, filled with trichinella spiralis worms. Bismark refused to do battle with him based on it being undignified as well as too dangerous!
History, anthropology, and paleontology were his passionate avocations. He accompanied Heinrich Schliemann to the site in Turkey, where he believed the city of Troy was formerly located, to help in the excavations there. Furthermore, Virchow was convinced that no Aryan race existed, by studying over 6,000,000 school children, concluding that the people of Europe belonged to a mixture of races that could not be sufficiently identified to be separated, much less considering any group as being superior. He is often mentioned as an opponent of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, but that is not entirely accurate. Virchow was just not convinced that it should be considered fully proven, but a hypothesis.
He was offered an aristocratic title but declined this as a privilege he deemed too snooty. He did, however, subsequently accept the title Geheimrat (Privy Councillor), a distinguished title of the highest advising official or high ranking academic professor who made outstanding contributions to science. Having published over 2,000 papers and books, he certainly qualified for the title.
Early in 1902, Virchow jumped from a streetcar and broke his thighbone. He never recovered from that accident and died later that year at age 80. For his liberal ideas, champion of freedom, and proponent of elected representational government by the German people, and his pronouncement that there was no such thing as a superior Arian race, his non-scientific books were burned by the Nazis, even though he had died decades before.
WE ARE AT WAR! (This Time with a Virus!)
It pains me to see the bitter divisiveness our country is undergoing, specifically understanding the current ad hominem attacks on President Trump. Ad hominem attacks, rather than attacking the substance of a position, attack the person’s character, his motives, or other personal attributes of the individual, and make the argument that because of these traits, his position is also wrong. It was Aristotle who first pointed out that such arguments are illogical and unsound. These attackers focus on Trump’s stupidity, his narcissism, his self-aggrandizement, his lack of humor, his small hands (and we all know what that is supposed to mean) etc. etc. Is this helpful? Does this add anything to the discussion? Will this change anything? Almost none of these tirades focus on meaningful critique as to what he should do differently. This makes me think the critics either don’t know what he should do differently or they are afraid to voice any opinion because they very well may be wrong.
Former Vice-President Biden was very critical of Trump about shutting down travel from China. He called him hysterical, xenophobic, and fearmongering. The spinmeisters claim those labels did not specifically relate to him closing travel from China, even though those critical remarks came right after the travel restrictions. If that is so to what did it refer? Ah! I know. He named the virus “the Chinese virus,” which called forth another straw man, the race card. Trump is a racist! But is that realistic? The fact that the epidemic started in Wuhan, China, ostensibly from Chinese bat soup, makes it relatively easy to call it a Chinese virus, just as the 1918 pandemic was called the Spanish Flu with much lesser justification. The first case of the 1918 Flu was actually in Kansas.
Biden’s fearmongering critique demonstrates how being critical too soon can backfire. The newest Biden critique complains the opposite, that Trump acted too slowly. Trump tends to be positive about opening up the country, about medications that may help, about the stock market coming back, about fewer deaths than the models predicted. He often puts the better spin on the message given by his consultant doctors; nevertheless, he does what they say to do. I might add that doctors are trained to hang black crepe. It is in their nature. I know, I am one. Trump does not want to be the fearmonger that Biden claims him to be. He wants to be reassuring but has not acted on that positivity, and sticks closely to what Dr. Anthony Fauci recommends. I am sure the President would like to be a cheerleader, and we certainly need one!
In a few months, we will have the chance to elect a new president. That will be the time to exercise your opinion, your rights as a citizen, and your wisdom. The word Democracy comes from two Greek words, Demos (the people) and Cratos (the power). We shall see what our Democracy will do, and then I shall support what the people decide, as our Founding Fathers envisioned, and I hope the rest of the country will also do as I do. In the meantime, I believe for the current COVID war, our Democracy has already spoken twice. For almost 250 years we have had certain rules for electing the President, and those rules have not changed. It is appropriate to go with the lawfully elected President, given our time of uncertainty and combat against an unseen enemy.
Ad hominem attacks lack style and put the attacker into a lesser class. If you can’t argue intelligently with facts and figures, don’t succumb to name-calling. It does not make you look classy. Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan, but he is our President, whether you like it or not. We are in a war, even though this enemy is a virus, and war demands we act on a war mentality that traditionally requires unity and civility. I plead that we keep our cool and act with style, intelligence, and wisdom, and listen to Aristotle!
THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
It has been a month now that the government edict to stay at home has been proclaimed. Many have lost jobs, and there is a natural resistance that is evolving among the restless among us. The question of individual rights and freedoms is raised. Is it not my right to control where I go and what I do? This philosophy has evolved into a political movement of Libertarianism that emphasizes freedom of choice, voluntary association, and holding the individual’s judgment as the holy grail of how we should live. There are right-leaning and left-leaning Libertarians. But both pit governmental authority against individual opinion. Why should I wear a mask when I am not sick, why should I vaccinate my children when vaccination has some risk and has in some cases shown not to be completely protective? Why should I stay at home when I need to get back to work? There are only two certainties, death and taxes. People die all the time, how is that different from this virus? The country’s and my personal economic condition is deteriorating while I sit at home bored out of my mind. It is my decision to risk my life if I deem it necessary? We live in a democracy. How can the government tell me what to do?
Those are the arguments I hear from friends, the radio, talk show hosts, and sometimes I even have these thoughts myself. There is, however, an overriding principle. Humans live in social groups. Only hermits can act out their fantasies. Our actions impact others. We have social responsibilities that go beyond our personal being. When our freedom impacts society adversely, society has a right to regulate what we do. Willie Sutten, when he was caught, was asked why he robs banks? His answer, “Because that is where the money is.” I have always wanted to be rich, but I can’t go to banks, like Willie, and take what I want. My right to be rich is infringed upon by other’s rights not to have their wealth stolen. My right to refuse vaccinations interferes with the population’s rights not to have a carrier of disease spread the plague and shorten their life span.
Mary Mallon was born in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She came to New York and was a cook working in restaurants, and also for a number of families that hired her to cook for them. Everywhere she went, people got sick with fever and diarrhea; some even died. The disease that caused this illness was determined to be from a bacteria, Salmonella Typhi. She was not ill and appeared perfectly healthy. At least 50 deaths from Typhoid fever were attributed to her.
She was held in quarantine from 1907 to 1910. But when released, she went back to her old job of cooking. This time she moved on, when people got sick, to the next cooking job. Authorities failed to catch her until 1915. She spent the rest of her life in jail and died in 1938 of pneumonia. History assigned the name “Typhoid Mary” to her.
It was Rudolph Virchow, a German pathologist of the 19th century, who gave us the word “zoonosis,” a disease that originates in animals and then is transmitted to humans. In its more aggressive form, it can then spread from human to human. There are many zoonoses, Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Ebola, Malaria, Anthrax, Trichinosis, Rabies, Plague, COVID-19, etc. Our close association with animals started with the domestication of animals, going back to the late Pleistocene, beginning 129,000 to 11,700 years ago during the last ice age. The Middle Ages brought humans and animals together even closer, when farmers brought their animals into their houses for warmth and to guard them. Because we lived in close proximity to animals, their bacterial, viral, and protozoan diseases could now jump to us quite easily.
When our freedom interferes with the freedom of others, a compromise must be negotiated. We can only exercise our freedom if it does not take away the freedom of others. That principle is what allows the imposition of shelter in place dictates, immunization mandates, social distancing rules, and the wearing of face masks. South Dakota resisted implementing social isolation for much too long in the name of freedom of choice, with many unnecessary deaths. This recent pandemic has been a new experience for us, but it is not unprecedented. 1918 gave us the Spanish Flu, named because of a misunderstanding. Spain was neutral in World War I. The first case of that Flu was actually March 11, 1918, in Kansas. Because there was censorship, as not to reduce the morale of the troops, it was not reported. Spain, on the other hand, was not bound by that censorship and reported all the gory details, including that their king, Alfonso XIII, came down with a severe case of it. That cinched it. From then on, it was “The Spanish Flu.” Quarantine and masks were the order of the day. There is nothing new under the sun!
THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR…
I confess I am a relentless optimist. The joke of the two boys, one an optimist and the other a pessimist, portrays the difference quite well. The pessimist got a pony for his birthday. He sat looking at his new pony with large tears running down his cheeks. “Why so sad?” he was asked. “All ponies eventually die!” he blurted out between the tears. The optimist was given a room full of manure. He was happily throwing the manure up into the air, giddy with joy. “Why so happy?” he was asked. “With all this horse poop around, there has to be a pony somewhere!”
Despite all the pessimism we are steeped in, I am optimistic. One of our biggest fears is fear itself, as said so well by one of the icons of our nation, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who uttered those words during another crisis our country faced, different but yet similar in terms of even greater risk to life, lifestyle, the economy, and need for regulation of its citizens. A lot of damage has been done by the panic of the coronavirus, which I feel has been whipped up by the media and a lot of craziness in the social media. The rumors that the virus was created by the Chinese, the Russians, the Martians, the Jews, or the US military, with one of their weaponizing projects gone rogue, is just insane. First of all, we are not that sophisticated to create viruses (yet), although the Martians might be if they existed. And this would be a totally new way of terrorism that has never been accomplished by humans before. The global stock markets have shed 6 trillion dollars, while the US markets own 2/3 of that loss i.e., 4 trillion. This seems like another over-reaction in my view. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is nowhere near the aggressiveness of other pandemics we have had. The mortality is going to settle out at less than 1%, and the older population, especially the ones with comorbidities, are at greatest risk. The 1918 Spanish flu, which was the H1N1 swine flu killed 100,000,000. Both MERS and SARS were more aggressive, but peaked out before widespread epidemics. China has peaked out and is on the other side of the curve both in terms of the disease and in terms of its economy. Even their domestic air travel is showing signs of recovery. South Korea is close behind in beating the epidemic. The warm weather is coming. All previous viral epidemics showed an amelioration when the temperature went up, and this will likely do the same with this epidemic (something good that can be said about global warming).
I do have concerns about the wisdom of shutting down the whole country with its obvious detrimental consequences to the economy, when isolating the likely susceptible at risk are the only ones that really need to be. The rest of the healthy younger population could be getting herd immunity. But all the smarter people than me with a lot of data from other countries that have gone through this seem to think that the social distancing, the school closures, limiting the number of people gathering at no more than ten, and working from home, etc. are what is necessary. In the meantime, there are at least ten vaccine candidates out there with Moderna, Inc (Nasdaq: MRNA) in Phase 1 trials that have started today. Several anti-viral drugs that are already available have proven some efficacy against the coronavirus, as does serum from recovered coronavirus patients. Our President and Chief of Optimism thinks by July this will be contained. I do believe that everything that can be done is being done, and a lot of very smart people are involved. There are reasons to be optimistic. There really are no other choices.
CORONAVIRUS FOR DUMMIES
My last two essays were, you guessed it, on COVID-19. That is all you hear on the radio or TV these days. In keeping with the trend, I am continuing to stir the pot. It has gone viral. Coronavirus, true to its name, is a virus that has gone viral!
Viruses grow exponentially (J-shaped growth curve), the fastest growth rate there is, the larger the growing population, the faster the growth, as long as the food holds out. When the food runs out, the curve then changes to a logistic curve (S-shaped growth curve). This curve shows a slowing down of growth. So what makes the curve slow down? There are only two things that make the curve slow down: #1 fewer in the susceptible herd are available (either through the susceptible making themselves less available or the process makes the susceptibles less available ). #2 the rate of growth slows down. This happens when it takes longer to infect the next person. This could be when people wash their hands more often, don’t go out to spread the virus, or at least sneeze into a napkin. Ultimately when the food supply runs out, both mechanisms are at work, reducing the susceptible and the rate of spread.
The number of new cases will slow down, guaranteed! But will we still be alive to talk about it? I think we will. There are several reasons I believe this. We are worried about it, in fact too worried! As evidenced by the stock market! The virus is not as dangerous as the news media tells us. The mortality rate is likely not 9% as SARS was, it is closer to 0.1% as the last flu outbreak was. The measures we are taking to reduce the number of people exposed, and the rate of spread will reduce the number of new cases. It is common sense not to go out and buy cruise trip tickets. It is common sense to limit your unnecessary exposure to large crowds. It is common sense to wash your hands often. It is common sense not to bring the virus close to the places the virus gains entry to your lungs, like your eyes, your nose, and mouth. The virus stays active for a couple of days on any surface, such as a door nob, so washing hands is not only hygienic but important.
I have been in the doctor business over two-thirds of my lifetime, and have washed my hands to the point that I have scrubbed off my fingerprints.
They always have trouble when I need to give a fingerprint for a passport or other ID, because I obliterated them off over the years. I first learned to scrub for surgery in my third year of medical school at UCLA from one of the icons of surgery. He put soot on our hands, then blindfolded us, gave us a brush and soap, and made us scrub our hands. You would be surprised how much soot stayed on our hands and the places that were most likely to remain black, the back of our hands, the webspace between the fingers, and the space between the wrist and the palm. For medical students, it was a minimum of ten minutes (first scrub of the day) to get our hands clean. But for our purposes, washing for 20 seconds is generally enough. I learned a nice little trick from my grandchildren’s primary school teacher, singing the “Happy Birthday” song twice (at regular speed) is precisely 20 seconds.
You get the virus from another person, either through direct contact or through a surface, the infected person has left some body fluids. Avoiding other people is one way to decrease contact. I believe that shaking hands was an ancient, rather strange custom. It goes back to the Middle Ages when you met someone in the forest. 
You extended your right hand, as did the other person, to show that they did not have a dagger in it. It was somewhat awkward standing there with both your and his hands extended, so grabbing and shaking seemed like the right thing to do. As we don’t carry daggers any more, this Middle Age custom has outlived its usefulness and needs to stop. I vote for the Mr. Spock handshake: right hand raised at your side with the index and middle finger spread form the ring and pinky finger in a V configuration. This is necessary because if you don’t spread your fingers, it looks like a “Heil Hitler.” And if you leave just your middle finger up, it changes the entire meaning.
Viruses, like white men, can’t jump. Therefore a yard distance between people should be enough although the CDC in an abundance of caution has now revised it to two yards unless they are coughing or sneezing. If they are, you need to get out of that room, because the sneeze generates particles that are as small as 5 microns in diameter that travel over 100 miles per hour, and can stay in the air indefinitely like any pollen sized or smaller particle.
Masks are not very helpful, except for the ill person who coughs and sneezes. It keeps the particles that are spewed out more confined. Regular masks, actually, are not very effective in preventing inhalation. For one thing, the sides allow fine airborne mist to enter the space behind the mask, which is inhaled. To be effective, it has to be a special mask fitted to the individual that allows only air that goes through the mask to get to the person using it. Those masks do not let fine mist or small particles to go through. These are called N95 masks.
Hugging is another one of those human customs that should go away. I won’t even discuss kissing. Hugging and kissing ought to go the way of arranged marriages and should be relegated to the XO on the written word.
Good Luck!! Gus Iwasiuk XOXO
LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS
Mark Twain by A.F.Bradley © Benjamin Disraeli Photos.com/Jupiterimages ©
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.” The phrase is often claimed to be one of Mark Twain’s quotes, who, in fact, attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, who served Queen Victoria as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This quote is not found anywhere in Disraeli’s writings, although he may have said those words. Regardless of who said it, the sentence argues that statistics are often the worst kind of misinformation because they have the authority of numbers; the sources are hard to pinpoint and dispute and therefore are believed.
I fell into this trap recently and exposed my ignorance by quoting the Coronavirus mortality statistics, as given in large part, by the Chinese government. The clue to me should have been “Chinese government.” The number of deaths I saw in the news was 3,132 deaths of a total of 92,303 (the newest numbers 3,886 deaths and 111,650 total cases). Nevertheless, mortality rates remain close to 3.4%. The number of people that died is probably accurate. It is hard to fake death, and counting the dead is likely to be reasonably precise. If they don’t move, they are probably dead. The denominator has grown to 111,650 people that have the disease and are almost certain to be undercounted. Mild cases are frequently not diagnosed or reported. A runny nose is a runny nose, not COVID 19, in most people’s judgement, but then again, it could be. The denominator is likely a much larger number judging from statistical analysis of previous epidemics. This would significantly revise mortality downward.
That, however, is not the essential source of misleading information. To accurately estimate disease mortality, raw numbers give the wrong impression. In the seasonal flu mortality, we see every year, and the numbers are more accurately reported remaining under 1% because:
- We are in the USA
- Our health reporting is mandated by governmental agencies (not necessarily a strong point)
- We try to be scientifically as honest as we can with checks and balances that report dishonesty or ulterior motives for inflating or deflating numbers
- The people in charge of reporting don’t have quite the hidden motives or pressures as an autocracy generates, who initially punished reporting physicians
- Our system has multiple sources of input that act as an automatic control mechanism
- Our math adds the mild cases and estimates of asymptomatic people to the calculations (although this has to be retrospective)
Almost all comorbidities affect mortality rates: heart disease, chronic lung disease, renal failure, liver failure, obesity, neurologic disease, diabetes, cancer, immune deficiency, pregnancy, age, etc.
Without knowing the demographics of the population under discussion, raw data mortality rates are almost meaningless. In the 2017-2018 flu season, which was one of the most severe epidemics in the last decade, if you were a healthy person, not pregnant, under 65 years of age, your risk of death was under 1%, but if you had a heart problem and were over 65 your mortality was over 10%.
How can we interpolate all this to the Coronavirus? The 3.4% mortality rate is a raw number for many (but not all affected people); the mild ones didn’t even get counted. I hate to use the term “fake news” because of its political overtones, but I think it is justified here. The news media has “hyped up” this issue with inflated numbers for reasons that are suspicious to me. To sell more newspapers? To be ahead in reporting doom and gloom? (which seems to be a habit of the news media culture). Or is it to affect elections? To create panic? To develop financial uncertainty? To…? A recently published editorial in the most prestigious medical journal in the world, The New England Journal of Medicine written by Anthony S. Fauci (the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases), H. Clifford Lane, and Robert R. Redfield, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387 has stated, and I quote, “the case fatality rate (of Covid 19) may be considerably less than 1% (the bold letters are mine). This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%).” So take everything with a grain of salt!
Gus Iwasiuk 
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