The pandemic is the most important fundamental factor affecting the stock market and the economy
I have said this many times. Everyone is bored with the pandemic and eager for our lives to return to normal. But that may never happen. While we will find a new normal, the coronavirus might be with us for many years and possibly forever.
How does it affect the economy if no one cares about it anymore? Well, lots of us care and that is why I write these reports. Also, we just had the worst GDP reading in history. Even worse than in the Great Depression. That is a major economic consequence of the pandemic. Furthermore, the unemployment rate is still at 11%, which is 3 times worse than just 6 months ago. We all have changed our lifestyles and how we spend our money. All of this is because of Covid-19.
If the coronavirus is so terrible, how can the stock market be up? It is up exactly because of the pandemic. The Fed reacted quickly. It announced that it had infinite cash and it would not let the economy die. What stock investors heard was that the Fed was guaranteeing that stock losses would not be dangerous. They will do anything needed, including buying ETFs, to protect the economy. Also, many of the trillions of dollars that Congress is spending because of the pandemic are directly or indirectly ending up in the stock market.
Because the pandemic has had such a major impact on the economy, the Wall St. Journal, Forbes, Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, and every other financial news outlet are covering coronavirus news extensively. I am providing what I think, as a physician, are the most important stories of the past week.
More dangerous than reports indicate
Heart damage
I have mentioned a few times that Covid-19 often damages other organs. It is a virus and it passes through the bloodstream.
While it has an affinity for lung tissue, it can infect any tissue. There have been many studies that have found damage to the lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys.
The Journal of the American Medical Association this week published a study of 100 patients who recently recovered from Covid-19. They used cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and found that 78% of the patients had heart involvement and that 60% had ongoing heart inflammation.
90% of US deaths could have been avoided
The US is the richest country in the world and it has the best health care system in the world. Therefore we should expect far fewer problems than the rest of the world. Instead, we have 4% of the world’s population and 25% of the Covid-19 deaths. We are not just a little behind the other countries… we are doing 6 times worse than an average country!
If we only had 4% of the world’s deaths, there would “only” be 30,000 dead Americans, 120,000 fewer than what we currently have.
Since we are the richest country in the world with the best health care in the world, we should have half as many deaths as average. That means 2%, not 25%. Two percent is about 90% less than what we have. Therefore, if we had average leadership, we might have 135,000 more people alive today. In 4 months, we needlessly lost more people that we did in World War I. In addition, we would have saved hundreds of thousands from needless suffering and possible lifelong organ damage.
Excess death data show the under-count
We actually have had tens of thousands more Covid-19 deaths than what has been reported. Simply compare the total number of deaths in the US from March through July this year to last year. The increase over past years is called “excess deaths.” A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the monthly excess deaths caused by Covid-19 is averaging around 28%. That means the current total number of death caused by Covid-19 is probably around 190,000, not the reported 150,000. Many people are dying from it without every getting diagnosed.
Are these deaths simply due to testing? Whether or not you do any testing, anyone looking at the data can see that far more Americans are dying this year compared to the past several years. If not from Covid-19, then from what? It’s Covid-19.
Several years from now, scientists will come up with an accurate total for the number of deaths in the US from the pandemic. It will be hundreds of thousands of people, which is far greater than what people suspect today. Back in February before there was a single death in the U.S., I wrote that the pandemic could cause 500,000 or more. I still believe that is the path we are on.
Biggest medical blunder in history
Think about this. The number of Americans who died needlessly is staggering. This absolutely shocking fact shows just how badly we’ve bungled the pandemic. History will talk about this blunder for centuries as one of the most horrendous decisions ever made by an advanced country.
Yes, the President will get the blame, and he should, but where are the democrats? The democrats should be aggressively swaying public opinion by hammering the point every day that we are losing 10 times more people than we would be with just a minimal national plan.
It’s the number of deaths, stupid!
Stop talking about the number of people infected or the number of tests. It is a distraction that misses the point and it minimizes the gravity of this pandemic. Please only talk about the number of deaths. That has nothing to do with testing and it is something neither side can deny. It is a starting point for a united attack against the virus.
Why isn’t someone on TV every day insisting that we follow the simple guidelines repeatedly given to us by epidemiologist and virologists? Why is Washington still not demanding that everyone wear masks when in public?
The public is looking for leadership and it is not coming from either party. This is resulting in America passively letting the pandemic go unchecked and relentlessly ravaging our society.
I understand the democrats’ strategy. When an opponent is destroying himself, the best political approach is to stay out of the way and let him complete the job. But we are losing tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of people needlessly because of election year politics on both sides. The democrats should be demanding an end to this insanity. Their lack of leadership is enabling this ongoing disaster.
Damage from Covid-19 will be with us for decades
One of the consequences of our disastrous handling of the pandemic is that at least a third of the country will get infected before there is a vaccine. Since February, I have been writing that about half of the country could get infected.
The US now has 4 million confirmed cases. Since only 10 to 20% of cases get confirmed, there are 20 – 40 million people in the US who have been infected. By the time there is a vaccine, it might be 100 million.
If a significant number gets damage to other organs, those people will have less healthy tissue later in life. As we age, we lose function in every organ. If the function falls below a certain level, the organ fails.
I believe that 20 years from now, millions of Americans will develop serious medical problems because their government did not protect them in 2020. It will be such a common problem that when a person goes to the doctor in 2040 and the doctor diagnoses a heart problem or any other organ problem, the doctor will ask the patient if the patient had Covid-19 back in 2020. He will ask because he will know that millions of Americans sustained permanent organ damage because of the biggest medical blunder in history.
Drunk drivers and smokers
Some supporters of the President’s approach to the pandemic argue that they do not want the government to tell them what to do. It’s un-American. They want to make the decision about masks and social distancing themselves.
I do not see how this is different from allowing drunk drivers decide if they are too drunk to drive or allowing smokers decide when and where they can smoke. Drunk drivers and smokers endanger other people. I want the government to protect me from them. Let someone get drunk at home, but keep him off public roads. Let the smoker smoke at home, but not in public places. Let Americans go without masks at home, but not in public.
What is different about the masks is that you do not know if you are infected or if you are infecting and ultimately killing someone else. Many of the deaths are several people removed. You infect someone who infects someone else, and eventually someone gets permanent lung or heart damage or even dies.
That victimized person and his family would not have that suffering if you were forced by your government to wear a mask. Since you don’t see the people you are killing, it is easier to deny your responsibility and therefore not wear a mask. It allows you to be comfortable making the specious argument that this is an issue about the government micromanaging your life and not about your indifference to your fellow man.
We can easily end the pandemic in a month
I have written many time that if the President wrote an executive order mandating that everyone must wear a mask outside of the home and insisting that this is the patriotic thing to do, the pandemic would end in a month. Our lives and the economy would soon get back to near normal. It is as simple as that. But politics in an election year prevent even a simple solution from becoming a reality.
If our leaders in Washington united in putting the welfare of the American people ahead of their political goals, as they would during a military war (this is a medical war, but a war nonetheless), most Americans would eagerly rally around the cause.
It would not take much to end the pandemic
I have often written since February that just 4 weeks of a unified effort would end the pandemic. Look at South Korea. We have 6 times more people and 500 times more deaths. Who thinks we could not do much better?
That would also save the more than 100,000 people who will die over the next year from our insane, defenseless approach in a war against a virus. So simple, but an admission that the policy from the outset has been a disaster. Better to stick with the policy and hope for a vaccine so that the dying finally slows down ahead of the election.
Russian vaccine approval on August 10, 2020
Russia announced this week that it completed its trials of a vaccine. The Russians claim it is safe and effective, but have not shared their data. They expect approval on August 10.
Like all countries, they will first vaccinate people in the medical community who are at the greatest risk of getting Covid-19. They expect to release it widely in September.
Russia announced that India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries have expressed an interest in this vaccine. Several US companies have also contacted Russia to get information about the vaccine.
The US government cannot ask for Russia’s help. It would be a huge embarrassment ahead of an election to concede that we have to rely on Russia for our healthcare.
Why is Russia so much ahead of us?
It is important to note that Russia has not even completed phase 2 of its testing. They expect to complete it by August 3. They will conduct phase 3 in parallel with the vaccination of its medical workers. It should not surprise anyone that Putin’s friends reportedly started getting vaccinated in April.
Russia claims that they have been able to develop the vaccine so quickly because it is similar to one they are already using for another disease. Moderna has been working with the US government on its vaccine, which also relies on the structure that they developed for the coronavirus that causes MERS. Therefore, that is not the true reason why Russia is so much ahead of everyone else.
The main reason why Russia is able to release the vaccine so much earlier than everyone else is that they are short-cutting the safety and effectiveness testing. The US will not do that. As bad as Covid-19 is in the US, it is not bad enough for the American public to accept a vaccine that has not been proven to be safe and effective.
Treatment is as important as a vaccine
You might have sensed that something is not right when experts talk about a vaccine for Covid-19. Why are they not constantly comparing Covid-19 to measles, mumps, chickenpox, and polio, which are diseases that vaccines completely prevent? Maybe it’s because they expect that a vaccine for Covid-19 will not be nearly as effective.
Why is that? Because it is caused by a coronavirus, and we have lots of experience with coronaviruses. All of us have had coronavirus infections. How do I know? Because coronaviruses are one of the 4 major viruses that cause the common cold. We all have had many colds, especially when we were kids. And there is no vaccine for the common cold. This is because the immunity that we develop after catching a cold goes away within a few months.
The fear of researchers is that the immunity from a coronavirus vaccine might not last a year. It might not even last 6 months.
Last week, I wrote that there was a study that showed that the half-life of antibodies against the coronavirus after Covid-19 is 73 days. Every 73 days, the level drops by 50%. There might not be enough left in your blood to protect you from another infection 6 – 12 months out.
That is why all of the Covid-19 vaccine trials are using a booster shot a month later. Scientists are afraid that a vaccine will not be enough to eradicate the virus. That means we might have to live with it, like the HIV virus.
Covid-19 might be with us for decades
So if the coronavirus turns out to be more like HIV than measles, treatment becomes more important than a vaccine. We will find out over the next year.
It took decades to develop very effective treatments for HIV. Treatment is not getting enough attention for Covid-19. But if the vaccine is inadequate, there will be much more interest in treatments.
I currently believe that we will find vaccines to be less good than what the media is making sound like they will be. “Don’t worry, science will save you!” This is especially true in the elderly and sick who need them the most. These are the very people who have weak immune systems and do not produce high levels of antibodies after getting vaccinated.
However, like with HIV, I believe that there will be effective treatments coming out over the next decade. Implicit in this comment is that I believe Covid-19 is going to be with us a long time, not just a couple years.
The end of the hydroxychloroquine hoax
Anyone who has been listening to the President would conclude that there is strong scientific evidence to support the treatment of Covid-19 with hydroxychloroquine.
In Congressional testimony of Friday, Dr. Fauci made his clearest statement yet on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19:
“The overwhelming cumulative evidence of properly conducted randomly controlled trials indicate no therapeutic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine.”
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) this week published a definitive study on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. The conclusion is that it is useless and possibly dangerous.
The NEJM is the most respected medical journal in the world. It is very difficult to get them to publish your research. They have very strict standards and demand the highest quality research from reputable medical scientists. Their track record is excellent.
The researchers conducted a multicenter, randomized controlled study of hydroxychloroquine. Fifty-five hospitals in Brazil participated and there were 667 patients. The patients either received standard care, hydroxychloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin.
After 15 days, the doctors assessed the patients. They found that there was no benefit from hydroxychloroquine with or with azithromycin. However, they did find that the hydroxychloroquine patients often developed abnormal EKGs and had elevated liver enzymes. It is therefore potentially dangerous.
No serious scientist is going to spend any more time on hydroxychloroquine
There is now a clear scientific divide. Either you believe in science or in hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19. Physicians will accept this report as definitive unless there are at least a couple comparable high quality reports that show otherwise.
You can bet that there won’t be. No reputable scientist will now spend any more time on this after it has been so thoroughly studied and proven to be useless. They will move on to study other treatments that will come along, hoping to find one that science will show is effective. Hydroxychloroquine has had its day and science has exposed it as a hoax. It is no more effective than ice cream or a slice of pizza.
Please, no more Dr. Risch
Dr. Harvey Risch, a Yale epidemiologist, has been a notable proponent of hydroxychloroquine. Being on Yale’s faculty automatically gives him credibility. Unfortunately, he relied on weak science to make his argument. After this NEJM article, I do not see how he can continue to promote hydroxychloroquine and maintain any credibility among his peers at Yale. Even his boss has distanced himself from him by saying that Yale values diverse opinions.
I want to translate the comments by Risch’s boss. What he is actually saying is that he and other members of the department are embarrassed by Risch’s ignorance, and Risch’s comments are hurting the credibility of the department. Guilt by association. Since the boss cannot fire a tenured professor, even though the guy is clearly an idiot, the boss felt compelled to make it clear to those who can read between the lines that he and the rest of the faculty believe Risch is an ignorant fool. It’s time to give up on hydroxychloroquine, Harvey, and move on.
Years ago, I was a budding medical scientist. One of the surprising things that I discovered was that some of the most highly respected doctors from the top universities in the countries were liars, frauds, or racists, just like you can find in any profession and in any location. Never assume that a PhD or MD degree is a certification of morality, integrity, or genius.
Finally, I can definitively say hydroxychloroquine is useless and dangerous
I have written several times that the reports showing the benefit of hydroxychloroquine were from sources that I did not trust. However, I also have been saying that there was no good scientific research showing that it was not helpful. Well, now there is.
I strongly believe hydroxychloroquine is useless in the treatment of Covid-19 and it is potentially dangerous. I would not use it and I am telling my family and friends to avoid any doctor who recommends it.
The face of hydroxychloroquine treatment is now only President Trump and Dr. Immanuel
President Trump this week tweeted a report about Dr. Stella Immanuel to support his strong recommendation of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. She said that face masks are unnecessary because she cured 350 Covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine.
Several websites that support President Trump wrote faux erudite, persuasive articles supporting her research, making her appear reputable and trustworthy. It is all politically motivated sophistry designed to make gullible people believe that our nation’s approach has been reasonable when it so clearly has been disastrous. This is therefore harmful to people who follow these leaders.
This glowing coverage unfortunately gave her undeserved credibility and it will lead to desperate patients continuing to pursue dangerous alternative healthcare. People will die because of this.
Facebook took down Dr. Immanuel’s profile
If the President or those media outlets who support his belief in hydroxychloroquine looked into Dr. Immanuel’s background before attaching themselves to her, they probably would not be using her to support their unfounded recommendations. For example, she also believes that medical problems like cysts, endometriosis, infertility, and impotence are caused by women having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. Furthermore, she thinks that doctors are using alien DNA in medical treatments and that scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent people from being religious.
When Facebook took her profile down, she tweeted, “Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do. You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up Facebook will be down in Jesus name.” I don’t know how Zuckerberg will be able to sleep at night.
Don’t assume that an MD degree makes you an expert
Dr. Fauci this week correctly said that she is wrong and that hydroxychloroquine has been shown by many studies to be useless in the treatment of Covid-19. Yet, President Trump and his supporters continue to hurt their credibility by still promoting her as their medical expert.
I believe that the average American would see her as a charlatan who is enjoying her 15 minutes of fame and not as a medical authority. Remember the Bell curve. There are people at the extremes. You can always find an “expert” to validate any outrageous claim.
California jury instructions include this sentence: “If you decide that a witness did not tell the truth about something important, you may choose not to believe anything that witness said.” I am choosing to believe nothing that Dr. Immanuel says.
It is sad that politicians and their supporters in the media are willing to have people die for their political benefit. I just don’t see Kennedy, Reagan, George Bush senior, or Obama doing that.
Dr. Brooks’s earlier special reports on the Covid-19 pandemic:
- Many Covid vaccines and treatments, and less flu
- Covid-19 pandemic vaccine and its euphoric market impact
Update…
Twitter.com: Doctor claims chloroquine causes virus cells to attack cancer cells.
The most striking thing in your report to me is ” …That means we might have to live with it, like the HIV virus…” Sadly, I think it is correct – but hope not. That would change the system of everything social and educational,etc. for decades. As a mom that wants to watch her children grow, learn and play basketball with their friends, that is a hard possible reality for the future.
Hello Al,
I know your time is valuable but I am very interested in your take on a more holistic approach to the issue. I have attached a link to a Zach Bush MD (practitioner and researcher) video. The science starts at the 10:45 mark with a hydroxychloroquine comment (at the 29 min mark) and an alternate, but related, currently available medical solution. So hopefully max 20 min of your time.
YouTube: Zach Bush MD (practitioner and researcher) video
Because of my medical background, I have seen lots of things good and bad when it comes to treating problems. I have also met many famous doctors with excellent reputations who were frauds.
I long ago concluded that I can only trust something that has been shown to be 95% certain to be beneficial. I need the researchers to be reputable and I need many to participate in the trial. Also, I want the study to be randomized and controlled with a lot of patients.
I was open to hydroxychloroquine being possibly effective until that study last week in the NEJM. For me, it has been shown to be ineffective. Most researchers will not spend any more time with it.
This is because there almost certainly will be several clearly effective treatments in the next several years and they want to be looking for them and getting ready to study them.
There are ethical issues as well. You cannot just go out and study a group of patients. You need approval by the ethics committee at your hospital. That will now be more difficult to get for hydroxychloroquine. The hospital does not want to get a reputation for studying disproved ideas. It is bad for them and for their patients.
Instead, they want to be on the vanguard and will prefer to wait whatever is next. And there will be some very good, clearly effective treatments coming out.
Medcram.com: Coronavirus outbreak symptoms treatment
Go here. Enroll in free account. You can follow all the research and results from the beginning to current from around the world.
Unbiased analysis. Try it. Can also be found on YouTube.
Thank you Al for another honest assessment. You are actually the only one I believe when it comes to the facts of COVID19. I really appreciate your willingness to speak your truth.
Hi all,
I really should disable comments on this post as things have got far too emotional which does not help us all get along.
Attacking ideas is fine but please no attacking people and no sarcasm.
Autocratic edits/deletions will be done to assist cool off. If that fails I will have to close comments.
Thanks for your understanding. : )
It is an emotional issue, it affects us all greatly. Perhaps Al should keep this separate to the Trading and not bring it up in this website?
I am sure we all respect Al very much indeed, and we are all very appreciative of what he has done for everyone and his accomplishments – he is second to none in my book, and certainly an inspiration to us all. Just wanted to make sure that was said, no hard feelings :0)
For a detached, data driven, take of the pandemic from a global perspective I recommend the video of Ivor Cummins discussion with world class Swiss immunologist Beda Stadler (link below)
YouTube video: Ivor Cummins
Major takeaways include that outside the US the statistical profile of Covid19 is unremarkable when compared to other respiratory disease viruses, that most masks and shutdowns have very limited if any impact, and that in the US the pandemic unveils our subpar health care delivery system presiding over a population with high rates of metabolic disease. The key is to shield the most vulnerable (mostly > 65 years old like myself) without hobbling the activity others. Only the very best vaccines for respiratory viruses directly boost immunity to the most vulnerable. Cummins and Stadler also touch on the corrosive effect of politics both inside the world scientific community as well as in the general population.
I have no wish to debate your politics, but you should be factual
Your assertion that ‘The US… has the best health care system in the world’ seems easily disputed. The WHO in its report Measuring Overall Health System Performance for 191 Countries lists the US at number 37, hardly exceptional. I’d like to understand how you justify your claim that the US should have half the COVID-19 deaths of an average country based on this
You argue that the US has 4% of the world population but 25% of the deaths, but this seems disingenuous when you imply that it could be simply fixed by mandating masks, or is clearly the result of current political bungling
Using current WHO stats there are 4.5m confirmed cases and 152,000 deaths in the US (3.37%) vs 17.7m cases and 681 000 deaths worldwide (3.85%). Of course the stats are flawed, but in light of that and until something better is available, is it not reasonable to say that there is nothing exceptional about the US transmission rate? So why suggest that US policy related to transmission is so much worse than the rest of the world?
Why are so many more Americans apparently dying? Sadly, there were numerous early predictions that the US would suffer disproportionately in this pandemic. These were based primarily on the known high rates of obesity, diabetes, etc in the US population, which the CDC clearly states leave patients at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19
The NHANES 2016 study reports that 39.6% of Americans are obese, compared to about 13% of the world population (WHO 2016). That is a threefold difference. 130 million people in the US at increased risk of severe illness from COVID, and that cannot be inconsequential to the number of deaths that result
Does it explain a significant part of the increased deaths? I have no idea. I do not see any mention of it in the US media, nor do you mention it. Presumably it is an unpopular topic, but a situation for which not only politicians may be to blame when the final accounting is done
You used South Korea as an example of a country doing particularly well. The OECD states their obesity level to be 4%, one-tenth of that in the US. Unrelated?
It is your own argument here that “If you decide that a witness did not tell the truth about something important, you may choose not to believe anything that witness said.”
… the underlying pandemic is called ‘obesity -diabetes’. If it is reduced to, say, pre-industrialised era levels, the drug companies revenues fall dramatically.
Excellent! Thank you for backing up almost all of what I said in my post. You did a great job of outlining the real problem….The Health of the American public! No mask wearing is gonna save a Chronically ill obese older person taking a cabinet full of Drugs.
How’s the weather in Moscow?
Wonderful, thorough science-based post, Al. You covered all the bases. Well done.
That is the most anti Trump bias info I’ve heard in a long time! You are clearly a Liberal who hates Trump and everything he does. I would suggest stop watching fake news CNN and MSNBC. It’s so easy to criticize Trump’s reaction, but I ask you where were all the Democrats with their brilliant ideas to end Covid? I’ll wait…..waiting….there were none! In fact the Dems brain dead candidate Biden said Trump was a racist and xenophobe for closing the border to China. Everyone is an expert in hindsight. All the excessive deaths are probably Covid? The complete opposite is true. Thousands of Doctors have publicly stated that they were mandated to diagnose every possible death as covid. Probably because the government will pay the entire bill. And plenty of the people showing up have crappy insurance due mostly to ObamaCare which doubled or tripled insurance premiums while cutting coverages and raising deductibles astronomically. I’m still waiting for that $2500 a year savings in my insurance premium. Look at the graph of deaths due to Pneumonia, Flu, Asthma and the like….they are non existent since covid showed up. A blind man could see that all those deaths are now being called covid. Now let’s do and experiment. Let’s take a few Countries and 8 American States and not lock them down and not have this ridiculous mask requirement and see the outcome. Oh wait a minute that WAS done and those States and countries have all fared BETTER in every statistical category. There is your scientific study. This is a virus. Virus’ are everywhere and yes they attack the sick and immune compromised. The virus causes organ failure? You have got to be kidding me! 96% of covid victims had at least one comorbidity and 70% had 2 or more comorbidities and the average age is 72. Sorry that does NOT sound like a group of healthy people that succumbed to a random virus. Can I remind you the survival rate is 99.3%. I can see you want to discredit the “Americas Frontline Doctors” group because they have one Doctor with a sketchy past. Well can at least hear what they have to say so I can make up my own mind? Nope can’t do that is this new Socialist America. Now Google and Facebook get to decide what I can and can’t watch….outrageous. Rant over.
So you think the extra 190,000 deaths are mainly due to lockdowns and degraded health-insurance cover (even though you also said that the government covers the bill anyway), rather than due to this particular infection?
In reading Al’s article, he made clear both sides have a responsibility “…but where are the democrats?”
I had the impression he’s disappointed with the leadership on both sides. But of course as President, greater responsibility leans there.
There have been a total of 150K deaths reported in the US. So I dont know what you mean by “the extra 190K”. I question that its even 150K based on excessive not inadequate diagnosing of Covid. There have been virtually ZERO diagnosed deaths due to Pneumonia, Flu Asthma etc. And no I didn’t say people are dying because of poor insurance I said it is a way for struggling hospitals to get their bills paid…by the government.
For what it’s worth, I voted for Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, and Romney. I am an independent.
The president gets the blame and credit for what happens on his watch. This president failed. But as I said, so did the democrats, and I think all of them are responsible for over 100,000 preventable deaths.
I’m a staunch supporter of King Trump, but I agree he was/is in over his head when it comes to dealing with this virus.
I still support him completely because the Dems are nothing but pure evil. Defund the police…erase history…dox people because they believe ALL lives matter…and so much more. Give me a break.
The original comment made a lot of valid points. For example, Trump was ridiculed and called a racist because he blocked some travel from China.
Fauci has an agenda. He is in bed with the Gates Foundation and clearly a Liberal. The Dems also have an agenda. They are using this virus to advance their political agenda and increase their power.
Trump has no agenda tho, since he has no plan!
A temper tantrum can’t defend the actions of an imbecile. Tomorrow, you’ll do the same thing. Wake up, witness more imbecilic behavior from the political party you voted for, get angry at the world to defend why you voted for an imbecile, and find other mental (outraged) shortcuts to justify imbecilic behavior.
Trump is much like religion – faced with the preponderance of evidence, it’s very difficult for average humans to accept the preponderance of evidence that they subscribed to and lived a lie. Absent critical thinking and objectivity, the brain always takes shortcuts to frame information that makes sense in your subjective reality. Because it is very difficult to admit you’ve lived a lie – cognitive dissonance.
On another note, “Socialist America” is too kind a label to describe the leadership of the Republican White House and Senate. The Republican unemployment welfare – handing out more in welfare to stay at home than a wage earned at work – that’s communist. And the FED – taking direction from the White House to prop up the financial markets…that’s how Communist China runs its exchanges. The FED, no longer able to act independently from its Republican political masters, destroyed the U.S. dollar and most important, destroyed price discovery in the markets, putting individual investors at enormous risk.
It’s difficult to admit you’ve voted for communist principles when it’s an anathema to a Republican belief system that’s told you everything to the contrary. Lashing out at the world for living a lie accomplishes nothing. We don’t care and it doesn’t help get you better.
Al has taken the Dems to task for their lack of response to the pandemic as well. I don’t know why I just bothered pointing this out to someone like you.
How does an imbecile earn a 5 Billion dollar empire? How does he an imbecile have 5 children who are well educated, well spoken, dont drink dont smoke and dont use drugs and absolutely love their father. On the other hand you have Joe Biden….
Darris,
Using logic is pointless. Also, the person believes it’s the Republicans that are promoting a Socialist agenda, so that speaks volumes.
Trump could cure cancer and the Dems & the LameStream Media’s lead story would be how Trump is a racist for not curing Sickle Cell Anemia.
President Bunions has had 6 banktupcies.
President Bunions dodged the draft.
Also they told me in the Marines, “never trust a man who wears makeup.”
Some observations.
I read somewhere that the clinical trials carried out on hydroxychloroquine where done with patients who very ill. The doctors (not just one) who stood up this week to defend hydroxychloroquine, say it was very successful only when used to treat early case diagnosis. It has been prescribed as a safe drug for 50 years btw.
Secondly, don’t assume all excess deaths are due to Covid. Many are due to missed hospital appointments, missed cancer treatments and diagnosis, mental health issues as a result of lock down, and as a result of losing ones business and livelihood, excess drinking as a result of the stress, etc., etc.
In the UK the estimate is significant – almost have the number of claimed Covide deaths. The Covid deaths are also reported incorrectly. A doctor can put Covid on a death cert even though the person died in a car crash weeks later. For insurance and funding purposes, Covid is also put down as cause of death – and a doctor again only needs to uses observation rather than testing.
Lastly, this is important to note: “A senior executive from AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, told Reuters that his company was just granted protection from all legal action if the company’s vaccine led to damaging side effects.”
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” said Ruud Dobber, a top exec at AstraZeneca.”
This is the reality of the world we live in. I don’t think I’ll be taking a vaccine any time soon.
Although I did not mention it, there was one study that concluded that 68% of the excess deaths were directly related to Covid-19. However, all of the other causes that you mentioned are indirectly related. If there were no Covid-19 infections, there would be no excess deaths.
I said that I think the vaccines are being hyped and that they will not be as effective as the media wants us to believe. Your concern is safety. I am not concerned about safety because the percentage of serious side-effects will be small. I am more concerned that the vaccine will be much less effective than what people hope.
I’m not a medical expert, but wish to understand. Could I ask what you make of this paper Al? Many thanks.
Google Docs paper
At risk of alienating myself and being called a conspiracy theorist and nutter, well, so what. This is very important stuff and needs to be discussed – in a democratic world that is.
To be honest I am sceptical of anyone who’s interest is financial.
Big pharma as we know stands to make billions out of this, and more besides. They also have a lot to protect – not just money, but reputation.
Additionally it is well known Mr. Gates funds the WHO and has vast fortunes involved directly in vaccines on a global scale. He wants to appear altruistic. I read he is also on record for saying he wants everyone to be vaccinated and for there to be a digital vaccination certificate which will enable people to be able to travel, work, etc. I’m sure you understand where I’m going with this. This is frightening.
I’m not standing up for the doctor you dismissed in your text above, I simply want to know the unbiased truth. As I understand it, she was not alone. There were at least 5 other doctors there I counted in the videos. All “in the field” doctors as far as I could tell, with years of experience, telling of their successful experiences with hydroxychloroquine in treating early diagnosed cases. After watching the video’s they put out, I find it hard to understand why that number of professional doctors would risk their careers.
I also read The Virology Journal (re Dr. Fauci) apparently in 2005 also published an article in which the researches wrote
“chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before of after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage.” It goes on to say that Dr. Fauci stated “concentrations of 10 um completely abolished SARS-CoV infection.”
As said, I’m not a medical expert, but one starts to think – what is going on? Can I be blamed?
Lastly here, I have found another London based doctor who risked her reputation when she found ethical issues with prescribing vaccines. She spent a considerable amount of time and effort to put together an understanding of how disease is a result of poverty and under nutrition, and as these improved disease diminished. Vaccines came along a lot later – a bit of a way to make money out of the game – being blunt.
The website link is: Dissolving Illusions – Graphs
Please read her bio then study the information she compiled.
Lastly, I’m a vegan. I hate animal cruelty and abuse. Especially using them for laboratory experiments to find drugs cures for us humans. (Not to mention the meat industry is the ultimate source of these nasty viruses). Vaccines are thus not vegan as far as I understand it. So I could never take one.
So all in all, I question the altruistic nature of big pharma, the way this whole thing is being led, where it is leading us to, and am thus sceptical – am fearful. Can you blame me?
You are presuming that they have a good reputation. Among which group? Not in the medical or science community.
I am a doctor and I met many doctors in my life who were fools. And many lawyers and university professors.
I am dumbfounded that they were able to get degrees. Yet, I go back to the Bell curve. There are always outliers. There are about a million people in the US with MD degrees.
Let’s say that 1/10 of 1% drift to the dark side and give up science in favor of practicing a very profitable witchcraft. That is 1,000, so they are everywhere. It is not difficult to assemble 5 – 10 of them and put them in front of a camera.
From what they are saying, they have terrible reputations with at least one mainstream, science-based MD from a prominent university… me! I doubt they are highly regarded by any traditional medical community, although their patients probably love them.
The are con men and women. They are experts at winning people’s confidence and they make a lot of money doing it.
There are con men and women in every field. The most successful are the most credible. But they are still cons. Lipstick on a pig might make someone think that the pig is pretty, but it is still a pig.
The excess deaths number may be even worse. The shut down of the medical system for non COVID-19 care likely eliminated several thousand iatrogenic deaths so the background numbers should be lower than normal.
excellent summary. If HCQ by itself, or in combination with Zinc and/or Azithro were truly effective, one would expect that most studies would show positive results. However, there is no perfect trade and no perfect study regardless of who publishes it. Study you are referencing was a randomized study from Brazil for hospitalized patients. However, they did not exclude patients who were already on HCQ or Azithromycin prior to randomization. Unfortunately, 9.3% of patients were already on HCQ, and 36.1% were already taking Azithro. Both HCQ and Azithro have long half lives. So the control group (for example) had a significant percentage of patients that were already on 1 or both medications.
Yes, I am aware of the half-life issue. However, 15 days is a long time, and I am certain that the researchers and especially the NEJM considered that and many other things.
They did not show the math, but I am confident that they did whatever was necessary to decide that their conclusions were 95% certain. Also, there has never been a credible study showing any benefit from those drugs.
There will be many other clearly effective drugs coming out. I think most researchers believe there is just not enough reason to spend any more time on azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine. It makes more sense to start working on whatever is next.