Covid19: The Opening Debate

What we have been learning about this pandemic we find some of which is good news while others it’s very troubling…

There is something different about this particular worldwide outbreak! We are being told, “There may be no returning to “normal” says Dr. Anthony Fauci who is on President’s Trump Coronavirus task force. On the Republican side, you have Sen. Marco Rubio, representing Florida. He says there will not be a “normal” until a vaccine is found while telling the public there is not enough funding to pay people who are on lockdown! Rubio is not the only one along with Dr. Fauci, we find around certain circles the same sort of explanation! Is this true, has this virus changed the way we live forever if no vaccine is found? In some cases, their comments may in fact be just covering themselves because they feel we continue to be in uncharted water.

On Wednesday, April 29th, 2020, House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told MSNBC this, “you can’t reopen businesses until we have enough testing that has been done, and far from enough testing has been done to justify allowing people to reduce the social distancing requirements.” Rep. Nadler didn’t specify how much testing would be required to satisfy his desire to keep businesses shutdown. Currently the United States has tested over 4 million Americans! Governor Mills of the State of Maine said this, “it should not lure Maine’s people into thinking that this pandemic is almost over or that things will be back to normal soon. The hard truth is that they are not; that they likely will not be for a long time; and that, with this plan, we are inventing a new normal…” The new normal is more government control on the way people live in Maine. This is the policy most democrats have taken in response to opening back up the economy. Which is vastly different than when the crisis first started, they had downplayed the virus in order to disagree with the President’s travel restriction. Here are a few clips from some of the corporate media which works with the Democrat Party especially around election years…

Dr. Fauci says a vaccine and treatments are possible. He’s right on one point, treatments are practical and possible and may allow people to live better with the virus but it’s highly unlikely they will find a cure. There is a very slim chance for a vaccine. You see, they are still on a mission to find a vaccine for SARS after 10+ years! SARS is part of the coronavirus family of viruses which also includes COVID19 also known as SARS 2 along with the common cold. There is a really good chance that doctors may never find a vaccine despite hype of promising vaccines! Past predictions was 18 months to 2 years now there is speculation of having a vaccine by next January. It wouldn’t be impossible to find a vaccine, but there is a good chance of them not finding one. The two largest vaccine companies teamed up together in order to find a vaccine which is great, but doesn’t mean they will get the necessary results. The normal discovery for vaccines is usually within 5 to 10 years for other types of viruses.

On the bright side, treatments for the disease are not out of reach but most likely it will be later rather than sooner because it takes time to test the medications to see if they work. One of the most promising treatments is Recombinant Ace 2, which was created for ADRs and pulmonary hypertension. This drug has been actively tested in Europe and could be the first drug to be approved that targets the new Covid19 virus itself! There are about five other promising medications currently being tested and that changes sometimes within days, or even weeks as new medications are beginning to be tested but by no means, this will automatically lead to cures of the virus!

Lockdown: Is it time to start opening up society again or should we wait until…?

Lockdowns were a rational decision because the virus was “novel” furthermore, China was withholding information about the virus as the communist party allowed it to spread to other countries while arresting the doctor who originally discovered the virus. Lockdowns were meant to be a short term solution in order for hospitals enough beds and ventilators to deal with it, flattening the curve is spreading out the infection rate rather than eliminating it. But once we have learned more about the virus over the weeks, we now know that hospitals are not going to be overwhelmed like in places in Italy which have had problems before with other diseases like the flu before there was a COVID19. However, by locking down other urgent medical procedures that are not considered emergencies is going to cause people to get sicker or in some cases it will deformed them for life.

Those of you who took biology may remember the term, “herd immunity” which is a different approach to lockdowns and has been used historically for viruses.

There are countries who have been trying the “herd immunity” like Sweden however, there is certain social distancing in the mix. The concept which goes like this, isolate the sick and vulnerable but allow healthy people to get infected. In Sweden there was encouragement of some social distancing. But businesses remained open. By allowing healthy people to get infected, the immune system fights off the virus thus becoming immune because now the body knows how to fight it. Once immune, the virus cannot spread. However it is expected to see raises in the infection rate until the virus burns itself out or a vaccine is discovered or both. Sweden is experiencing flattening of the curve. At the time of this post, Sweden has 19,621 with a population of 10.4 million. Out of those tested roughly it came out to be about 22 percent positive, and 2,355 deaths. Compare this to California for example whose population is over 39 million and has locked down. 46,000+ infections and 1862 deaths.

You can compare the data to any country in the world and it is roughly 20-25 infection rate with a low death rate that is higher than the flu but much lower than some have predicted using computer models! Currently, the United States are giving ventilators to other countries because the critical cases (once on a ventilator there is a 50/50 chance of survival) is not what was predicted by models and therefore the demand for ventilators was much lower than expected.

What we are now seeing is evidence and rationale to start opening up various sectors of the economy in phases that leads to normal. However, the lockdowns have become political as politicians are becoming drunk with power. Mayor in NY threaten to arrest Jews if they attend a funeral. Some 16 churchgoers in Virginia on April 9th 2020 decided to attend a service in a building that can hold up to 293, social distanced in the service more than 6 feet, but the government arrested the pastor and charged him with a crime for violating COVID Order 55! Not only that but threaten the churchgoers by notifying the Pastor that if they come back the following week and there is more than 10 people, they will charge them with a crime just like him!

Funny thing is, one can go shopping with more than 16 people in a building because the government deems it essential. Which do you think was more safe? Shopping were people are touching things all day long or sneeze or cough in the store, or going to that service with 16 people separated more than 6 feet from each other? There are other silly mandates which abuse civil rights in the name of so called, “flattening the curve!” Since social media is popular, high tech companies are making themselves a gateway to truth. Taking down posts or videos that is not politically correct, treating organizations like the W.H.O as though it was Pope speak which has been wrong in the past.

A press conference was conducted by Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi who are on the front line in battling the virus. They had tested thousands of patients and came up with a different conclusion about the virus than what the World Health Organization or Dr. Fauci did at the time when they reviewed the data. While broadcasted on the major networks in California, youtube decided ban the video because it didn’t agree with W.H.O but it has been reposted a few times and then gets banned again. However, you can view the press conference and decide for yourself about its content, here is the link! I also have included a couple of follow-up interviews by the doctors on a major news network in California.

Facebook of all places developed metrics of people’s movements and measured them, they call it, “relative mobility change.” Facebook also measured people who stayed home for the day. Here is the first chart that needs to be clicked on or zoomed in to get a good look, this chart measured the amount of times people traveled out of their homes…

Now here is the chart that measured people staying home. You will need to click on the chart or use zoom to get a good look at it…

What we find in this new data does in fact raise some questions about extending lockdowns rather than slowly open. The largest declines for mobility and the most increases for stay at home have the most COVID19 cases! Granted places like New York are very crowded, many use the subway rather than using their vehicles for transportation!

Furthermore, one of reasons why New York’s death rate is so high, the Governor of New York implemented his advisory guidelines last March that included nursing homes being forced to take COVID19 patients. This created a problem, nursing homes have a difficult time protecting workers due to shortages in protective gear and in some cases are short of staff so the workers end up (just like on the Japanese Cruise Ship that was infected)interacting unprotected at times with ill, some of the workers get infected as a result, then interact with the non-ill people thereby spreading the virus in a place where residents were the most vulnerable! The policy of ordering COVID patients into nursing homes was also adopted in New Jersey and California. The strange part of this policy, the rest of the population was ordered to “stay at home” unless it had to do something essential and when they did something essential to social distance.

The lockdowns were put in place to slow down the spread but what logic was there to bring infected patients into a nursing home with residents who are the most vulnerable with a shortage of protective gear and lack of training? It’s so stunning that made no sense whatsoever! Lockdowns were meant to isolate people from the disease not bring them closer to it to make more possible to get infected! As a result, many more have died in nursing homes from COVID19 than would have without sick patients living with them!

Back to lockdowns, if lockdowns (except for nursing homes, sick people and cruise ships in some cases) were superior over limited “herd immunity” than we would see a trend that would be more favorable to people staying at home rather than being more mobile!

Last month Sweden was rebuked by over 2,000+ academics who went public showing their displeasure over Sweden’s “herd immunity” policy. However, this month, the World Health Organization came out praising Sweden calling the country a “model” for battling the coronavirus! They gave Sweden’s relationship to their population credit. Also, Sweden has high taxes, which allowed them to have a better health care system in their small populated country, so Sweden was able to test more people than many other countries. The more testing you do, the more cases shows up in the stats. Many have recovered from the virus without knowing they had it. By allowing healthy people to get infected created more immunity towards the virus thus slowing the spread down while keeping the sick and elderly especially in nursing homes isolated. Sweden’s approach is nothing new actually it was done quite often in the past!

Dan Tige wrote a comment in response to the International Business Times article on the W.H.O praising Sweden’s policy. This is his experience of how very infectious diseases were handled in the past…

“I’m old enough to remember spending about six months in a tuberculosis sanitarium as a child. This was before antibiotics were available to treat effectively and terrible disease. My mother spent two years in a different wing of that sanitarium. Strangely, despite TB being quite contagious, the rest of my family were not quarantined. The neighbors were not quarantined; the city and state were not shut down. I also remember the polio epidemics before the Salk vaccine. People were not ordered to stay inside during the summer to avoid mosquito bites. The economy kept going. I remember everyone getting measles and mumps and chicken pox. It was part of growing up.”

“People were given advice; people were not placed under house arrest. People used good judgment or not. But now, in Michigan, it’s “mother knows best.” And by the way, good luck surviving financially.”

There are many others like myself who can relate to Dan’s experience! What we are seeing with Covid19 is completely different than how highly infectious diseases were being handled in the past. In 2018, 80,000 people died because of the flu even though there are vaccines for the flu and not one business was told to shut down and there wasn’t not one “stay at home” order in any state! Despite the deaths from the flu, the economy was allowed to proceed as usual! More and more people are beginning to protest because their livelihoods are at stake! It appears the corporate media, and some politicians have politicize Covid19 for their own gain, and power!

COVID19: A complex disease which affects patients in different ways

The reason why understanding the disease is sometimes all over the map is because of its complex effects on the human body! I have noticed that a doctor in NY has been observing something different in his ICU that is out of the norm from what we know than what a doctor is observing in LA California in his ICU which was also deemed out of the norm from what we know and other doctors are seeing something different in another part of California in their ICU. Is one right and the others wrong? It would be nice if all these doctors could discuss together what they have been observing. Each of them are going through different media outlets with their observations.

Dr. Tom Yadegar who is an ICU director in California has observe a different twist to the virus. Doctors there are now looking for “cytokine storm syndrome.” This issue arises when the immune system doesn’t function properly causing too many cytokines into the bloodstream. So instead of attacking the virus, the defect causes attacks on the vital organs! The Covid19 disease causes the defect in the immune system! This doesn’t mean that the virus doesn’t cause other problems, but it showing a one size fits all doesn’t apply to Covid19. Just like a mandated shutdown doesn’t apply to all. And another thing, if you are sick do not wait till it gets really bad to go in for treatment, the earlier they catch it, the better they will be able to treat it.

Using the crisis along with using people’s fears to obtain political gain and power over peoples lives!

Some of these major players and politicians had made the virus crisis very political even to the degree where Congress and the Senate are not going to work like other essential workers who have. Other than meat processing plants there hasn’t been any major incidents! Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker has stated it is too dangerous for Congress and the Senate to go back to work until May 4th, 2020. The political climate is often times opposing for the sake of opposing the other party rather than using common sense while other times it’s used for political tactics like limiting the Senate for appointing judges when they cannot work. In some cases certain politicians are trying to drain the system with false claims by padding the Covid stats for deaths in order to get more government money. Other times, it’s a power grab regulating people’s lives by certain governors. Sometimes it’s a combination of things that are not using common sense but rather abusing their power.

It wasn’t that long ago, that Dr. Fauci didn’t think the COVID19 was not much of a threat, because we supposedly took the steps in preventing it from becoming a major problem and now it’s like the threat of all threats! This highly infectious virus will not be the last, but it’s been definitely hyped up to the extreme. One life is precious they say, they are right, but lives are precious with other diseases too and urgent care is very important to people’s health and should be restored rather than locked down. COVID19 is not above any other virus or disease despite its complexity, neither is throwing away our standard of living, people need to work to survive, the government cannot pay enough money for prolong lockdowns nor will lockdowns eliminate the virus!

The first SARS burnt itself out in July without a lockdown while having started in November. It’s possible for SARS 2 COVID-19 to burn out at some point. Despite the great work which is on record pace on trying to find a vaccine as soon as January 2021, is highly unlikely. It’s possible they may never find a vaccine but I don’t think it’s impossible to find one much later on down the road. But I believe it’s a slim chance. A phased opening is the best option along with limited herd immunity which can be used over a period of time depending upon location rather than a universal lockdown that lasts longer than needed in order for the government to take control more of our lives while destroying our standard of living by wrecking the economy! The sick and most vulnerable should continue to be isolated, social distance should be practiced, washing hands should not stop even when this crisis ends. When the cycle ends the debate for opening will remain but we will know more about lockdowns vs. herd immunity!

The bottom line, under the constitution, people in the United States have the option to take their own risk or not, but abuse of government power has lead and will lead again to more civil liberties being taken away like going to Church or to see love ones who are not living with you, or your neighbors, or travel, and so on!








Consumed by the Coronavirus

Everyday we hear about it, people are talking about it in their local communities, many are experiencing it whether they know or not. There are many things we know about it and they are many things we don’t know about it. It has altered the way we currently live in our daily lives. And for some people it will alter their lives permanently one way or another. Millions have lost their jobs as their companies had to shutdown, some temporarily while others it might be permanent but many wonder when is normal coming back. We are consumed by the coronavirus! This is not your typical subject matter that is discussed here but since this is a major worldwide epidemic disease that has impacted many people all over the world in different ways and will change economies and perhaps governments as we know them, I decided to address what has been going on and address some very important things you need to know concerning the coronavirus!

In December 2019, word leaked out about an outbreak of people getting sick in Wuhan, Hubei Provence, China. The Chinese government decided to suppressed the discovery by arresting the doctor who originally discovered the virus and charged him with spreading rumors. They considered the new disease a threat to their power on the world stage because it could weaken their economy which was struggling already for other reasons. Later on, the doctor who was arrested and then put in jail for a time supposedly died from the Coronavirus. Some say he was killed either way he died. The story got little attention from the corporate media like CNN and MSNBC and in some regards Fox News.

During the original cover up, China allowed five million people to travel from the affected area to other areas for about a month. And acted as though nothing had happened. This, in turn, allowed the virus to spread from one city to the next eventually people from other countries were infected within one month. China’s decision was intentional, the Communist government in China wanted to share the virus with the rest of the world so it wouldn’t be the only country to feel its negative impact.

Then on January 31st, 2020 the United States bans non-citizens from China from entering the country. The ban did not include US citizens who were warned about traveling to China by the CDC on January 8th and were encouraged to take precautions. Prior to that on January 14, 2020 at 5:18am the World Health Organization countered the seriousness of the outbreak which was growing by tweeting this from their twitter account…


Helping The Spread: Racial Identity Politics

The World Health Organization tweet helped fuel racial identity politics show its ugly head because it encouraged people not to social distance and those who did were considered racists. It was also being used to criticize the Trump administration’s taking the virus seriously along with the new travel ban policy as being racist. NY leaders had downplayed the virus comparing it to a common cold or the flu while using racial identity politics. Here is an example, take a look on what the Mayor of NY tweeted in the beginning of March 2020…

“We want New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives — use the subway, take the bus, etc.,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said, explaining that COVID-19 “is not an illness that can be easily spread through casual contact.” From AP report, “Officials try to calm nerves as NY reports 1st COVID-19 case” March 2nd, 2020.

A week later the Mayor doubled down on his advice but the following week he accused the Trump administration of abandoning his city where the virus was infecting many New Yorkers who were getting sick and some were dying. Since then on April 4th, 2020, slightly over a month later since the first case was confirmed, NY York city has 63,000+ inflections with 500 to 700 new cases a day as well as over 1500+ deaths! Not only that but there are 307,000+ cases in the United States alone! Those numbers are expected to increase substantially for another week or more. And it wasn’t just the Mayor of New York, this failure had to do with preparation and this time it wasn’t the Mayor of the city of New York but the Governor of New York! The New York Health Department published a report guidelines for ventilator allocation in November 2015. It reads as follows…

“…during a severe influenza pandemic there is likely to be a shortfall of ventilators during peak week demand”

Governor Andrew Cuomo during that time decides not to buy more ventilators despite what his own health department warned about in the report! The Governor instead ordered his commission to find ways to ration what ventilators they had which was about 2,000. In other words, during that time, having a sufficient amount of ventilators in time for a severe flu outbreak was not a priority for the ones who voted him into office. Perhaps when a crisis would arise, he would rather have the Federal government supply his state while he could spend New York’s tax money on other things he found to be more important like a 750 million dollar solar project. This policy hurt his voters big time when the coronavirus rapidly spread throughout his state and the rest of the country and world which created a high volume of demand for ventilators that caused shortages!

So here you have the mayor NY encouraging crowds along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraging people to gather in the streets for the Chinese New Year, a NY State Senator doing the same and you have a governor who did not want to buy much needed supplies for medical reasons, helped increase a major disaster for New York as well as for the rest of the country! Many people flow in and out of New York before social distancing was finally accepted and practiced there!

Six days later after the World Health Organization’s tweet downplaying the virus, WHO does a complete flip much like the mayor of the city of New York did a little over a month later as the cover up became uncovered, people were getting infected and sick by the Coronavirus all over the world! On January 20th, 2020 the World Health Organization called it a “public health emergency of international concern”. The United States creates a Coronavirus Task Force on January 29th. By January 31st the Coronavirus was declared a pandemic!

I went on vacation in Florida in February 2020, at the time, a Japanese Cruise Ship was infected by the virus, people were not allowed to leave the ship. Confined to their cabins with a crew that was serving them was also infected! As a result, more and more people got infected on the ship. Cases began to surface in the United States but it was hard to tell how fast it was spreading. Because it was against the law to use test kits not made by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), also it was against the law for private companies to manufacture the test kits even those proven to be reliable.

The CDC test kit creation did not work originally, often to referred to as a snag which slowed down testing of the virus in the United States! This is one of the reasons why too much government control can be harmful to people’s health and hinder a response to the pandemic. Instead of using test kits that already were working and allowing private companies to produce them right away, they had to follow the law and do it this way which was a diseaser. The CDC did fix the problem and test kits were allowed to be manufactured by private companies as the Trump Administration relaxed the laws, but precious time was wasted with all the red tape that had to be cleared which took time! The virus with its novelty was spreading faster than anyone could have predicted!

Coronavirus Ever Growing Diverse Profile

Like some Americans, I’m an essential worker. I have continued to work while this crisis is going on. I have to take a health screening test everyday for work as well as for physical therapy. My health remains in good shape. Because we don’t know a lot about the virus, these screenings have been narrowed a bit, and in some cases broaden. Broaden in a sense that if you are sick even if it’s not the virus, you stay home until you are well enough to come back. Being sick doesn’t automatically mean you have the virus. Although it does makes you more vulnerable to the virus if you are sick! Since the human body is complex and different for each person, the virus tends to have different effects on people which is why it has a diverse profile of symptoms. However, a recent discovery about the coronavirus that is not unique is the loss of taste and smell. So if this happens to you, there is a good chance that you have the virus.

A List of Symptoms

The most common symptoms which is generally connected with the most serve cases is shortness of breath, fever, temperature of 104, coughing, and sneezing. A non-common symptom one of which I have been tested on and that is holding your breath for 10 seconds and releasing. Do you feel a burning sensation? Do you feel dizzy after doing that? If the answer is no, you passed this test. But if not, there is a chance that you have the virus which likes to attack your lungs! More symptoms are being added as we learn more about the virus so try to keep updated.

Protecting Yourself & Others

Help stop the spread! You hear this a thousand times, some of you need the constant reminding but it is very important to practice social distancing and wash your hands. Only travel out of necessity and not for luxury until the crisis is over. This is a very infectious virus, one that we do not fully understand. Having said that, we should not panic. I have noticed and so of many of you that may be reading this but people have been hoarding certain items. Some fear a major shutdown.

You have to understand, this is not the end of the world. If people take what they generally need with some extra in case they get sick, the shelves would be filled more like normal and people wouldn’t have to stress looking for items or wondering if they will ever get to buy those items. These items would be available like normal if people buy smartly. And what I mean by buying some extra is not buying a month’s supply in one week! A little extra here and there each week if you haven’t prepared will go a long way. Don’t worry as the suppliers are still working and will eventually catch up with the demand.

The US government is now suggesting face masks but not the N95 ones. Paper face masks do not work, the coronavirus is small enough to go through those. A scarf or cloth. Also, I want to point out, just a face mask will not prevent you from getting the coronavirus. It helps not to give the virus to people but it doesn’t totally protect you. I saw one man in the store wearing an n95 mask but his eyes were exposed which means he could still get the virus. Yep, your eyes are connected to your respiratory system and if the virus can get on your eyes if can infect you that way so if you really want to protect yourself, you cover not only your mouth and nose but your eyes too.

I want to conclude this post with this. God is in control of all things, and it’s Him we should rely on which is why I believe He allows such things like this to happen. We will get through this crisis with His help. Christians are not alone, God is always here to help!

There might be more on this topic in the coming weeks along with other topics, so stay tuned!