It is been a year and 11 months since the happy little packet of spike proteins and mRNA arrived in our country courtesy of Dr. Fauci and the Chinese Communist Party.

So here’s a little schadenfreude for my naysayers: yesterday, I was diagnosed with what I suspect is Omicron. In my case, it started with very subtle bronchitic symptoms at the end of the day on Tuesday. Walking out to my car from work, I suddenly felt an unexpected sense of fatigue for that time of day. Suspicious, I went straight home, and grabbed a home test kit. That first test was negative.

Overnight I felt chilled and achy but took some Naprosyn which improved my symptoms. The next morning I retested and was unequivocally positive.

Since then, my main symptoms have been that of a rather annoying viral respiratory infection. There is some fatigue, a modest cough, but a lot of upper respiratory congestion and sneezing. Yesterday, at least in the morning, the symptoms might have prompted me to call off work (as if I weren’t busy) even without the quarantine requirements of Covid-19. Today I feel better. Symptomatically I would’ve gone back to work, albeit with a little self-pity.

Unfortunately, this is SARS CO-V2. The 10 day period of isolation will encompass Christmas, and disrupt plans to gather with family, and otherwise socialize. This arbitrary number is annoying given that I can easily retest when I become asymptomatic and prove I’m not shedding virus.

In my case, I can see why this variant spreads so efficiently. Omicron infects preferentially the tracheobronchial tree, versus the alveoli (lung tissue) in earlier viruses. It thus causes more cough and sneezing symptoms which help to aerosolize and spread the viral particles. Given this, however, it is much less likely to cause issues with “gas exchange” and thus hypoxia and respiratory failure. This seems to have so far borne out both in South Africa and now Great Britain.

I have been taking again the cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, given the unavailability of Ivermectin. I’m also taking zinc, vitamin D, and a B complex supplement in addition to my usual medications.

Obviously, my situation will not be universal, and some people, particularly people with lung disease, will have more problems. But in reading reports in countries where omicron has become dominant, this is a fairly typical presentation. From my point of view my experience is nothing to get excited about. We’ll see what happens but, three years ago, if such an illness were spread in the community, I would probably notice an increase in exacerbations in my asthma and COPD patients. I have seen this kind of outbreak many times before Covid. The general public is typically unaware.

Omicron has definitely changed the game. There is an international study in preprint, detailing the mutational change in the virus, and its ability to escape immunity, both natural, and vaccine-induced. Here is an article in Forbes that nicely summarizes the study’s findings. In short, the spike proteins have mutated to cling more tightly to the ACE-2 receptors in the respiratory tree, which may explain the preference for the upper airways. Natural immunity also has been thwarted by these new mutations. This was studied by using convalescent serum.

It is interesting to look at the vaccines in detail. Pretty much all of the vaccines lost efficacy against the virus two weeks after the last injection. By three months post the third injection, the vaccinated were susceptible to Omicron. It is interesting to me that the most durable vaccine appears to of been the one offered in China by Sinopharm, which, by the way, is a traditional attenuated live viral vaccine. This means people are vaccinated against the whole virus, rather than just the spike protein.

Parenthetically, according to Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA vaccine technique, traditional vaccines take much longer to produce. China appears to have gotten it done in record time. I wonder whether they had a “head start”

To me, all of this suggests several conclusions:

#1. With Omicron we are essentially back to square one in terms of immunity. Thank God it isn’t particularly virulent. Hopefully, this will be a trend.

#2. As with multiple efforts with coronaviruses in the past, vaccination is not a practical solution, and ought to be deemphasized.

#3. It’s time to turn to therapeutics, which are less likely to be affected by mutations.  We need Ivermectin to be freed up for use. The promising new antiviral from Pfizer, Paxlovid, has just been granted an Emergency Use Authorization but is unlikely to be widely available for some time. Unfortunately, from their own data, Merck’s drug Molnupivinir, may not be particularly useful.

As I have said before, this virus and its variants are becoming endemic in the population. Any expectation that you will not be infected, or re-infected, is likely unrealistic.

And for my vaccine-devoted, Fauci-worshiping critics, enjoy your opportunity to revel in my illness.

Your turn is coming.

As always, I’d be honored if you’d share.

Header Image: Tracks on the Back Pond (Fujifilm X Pro 1, XF 18-55mm f2.8-4)

This is an article I wrote for The American Thinker.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/who_isnt_getting_infected.html

It has been 18-1/2 months since our world was essentially turned upside down by the spread of a relative of the common cold virus.  During this period, for better or worse, given my job as a pulmonary physician, I have attempted to write truthfully on the coronavirus situation.

A lot of the things I wrote in the early going have been lost.  The articles disappeared; around the time I changed the format of my website.  I have approximate copies of them, but most were edited after posting, so they are different.

I want to first discuss the current status of the vaccines that are being forced upon us.  All 3 are being given under an Emergency Use Authorization or EUA.  The FDA defines an EUA as:

“FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products, or unapproved uses of approved medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.” 

Under this rule, the FDA has issued EUA’s for 3 vaccines, the PfizerBioNTech, Moderna, and the Johnson & Johnson products.  This EUA comes with essentially blanket immunity for the drug companies for any liability due to adverse events.

So, let us talk about adverse effects.  Now I have been reluctant to cast aspersions on the vaccines in these articles. This is because at least for specific risk groups, I thought the “jabs” were advisable.  I did not wish to suppress their use

Discussing adverse effects, however, becomes important when we discuss the blatant rule manipulation by the FDA.

According to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting Site (VAERs) as of November 26, 2021, there have been 927,740 adverse events, and 19,532 related deaths reported for the 3 vaccines in the 12 months since they were introduced. These deaths do not include roughly 6000 deaths that were erased from the site back in July. There have been 859,919 adverse effects and 93199 related deaths reported for all of the 25 other vaccines listed in the database over the last 20 years. This means that the 3 Covid vaccines have the highest side effect profile of any vaccines ever produced.  Keep that in mind.

You may say, well, they have given over 400 million doses of vaccine just in the United States.  No wonder there are so many problems.  That might be correct.  So, let us look at deaths per million doses.  Again, as of November 26, there were 19.51 deaths per million doses for the 3 vaccines.  The vast majority of other vaccines are between 0 and 4 deaths per million doses.  Only mumps and measles come anywhere in the vicinity of the Covid vaccines with 9 and 14.7 deaths per million respectively.  It is noted on the database that these 2 vaccines have been given significantly smaller numbers than the others.

So where is the FDA-approved vaccine Comirnaty?  Shockingly, it is unavailable, Pfizer, Moderna, and J and J are allowed to continue distribution of their previous products which continue to be mandated.  The FDA has a very confusing statement on this:

“Comirnaty has the same formulation as the FDA-authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and can be used interchangeably to provide the COVID-19 vaccination series without presenting any safety or effectiveness concerns. The products are legally distinct with certain differences that do not impact safety or effectiveness.

There are no data available on the interchangeability of Comirnaty with either Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine or Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine.”

Then why the hell are they still being distributed?

In this case, “legally distinct” means among other things that the vaccines maintain their legal immunity whereas Comirnaty would not. 

In fact, by the FDA’s original rules, once approved only Comirnaty should be available, none of the 3 original vaccines should be distributed. The others should be withdrawn until they also obtain FDA approval.

So, with this FDA sleight-of-hand, people are being mandated to take an “experimental” (the FDA’s own term for EUA drugs) vaccine. It is providing a legal shield for vaccines with an unprecedented rate of adverse events and deaths.

There is a document called the Nuremberg Codes. They were written as a reaction to the Nuremberg trials of among others, doctors accused of barbaric medical experimentation on their captives. These codes are considered seminal guidance for medical experimentation. The very first code reads:

“The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have the legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion”

Tell that to the military, and to other federal employees.

So with all this mandated vaccination, we must be doing great this year, right? According to the state health department, 58% of Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated. Yet statistically we seem to be on a very similar numeric path to last year’s infection numbers during December, prior to the availability of vaccines. My own hospital is seeing a lot of cases, as many or more than last year.

The suggested solution: more vaccines.

Let us move on to some new information on natural immunity. Shortly after I published the last essay, I became aware of a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine from the Weill-Cornell Medical Center in Doha, Qatar. It described a large study involving approximately 353,000 documented nonvaccinated Covid recovered between February 2020 and April 2021. They looked at the incident of reinfection, particularly with an eye toward severe disease, and death.

 There were 1304 cases of reinfection which was .03%. Compared to primary infections the percentage of severe illness as defined by the WHO in the reinfected was 0.12% there were no cases of critical illness and no deaths in the reinfection group. The study concluded that based on this data, natural immunity was roughly 85% effective or better.

Interestingly Trump-appointed federal judge Terry Doughty, from the Western District of Louisiana quoted this study and others in a memorandum. It was written to support an injunction placing a nationwide halt to the Biden administration’s attempts to mandate vaccination for all healthcare workers. The fact that there was no exception for previously infected healthcare workers was one issue for him. He wrote:

“these studies overwhelmingly conclude that natural immunity provides equivalent or greater protection against severe infection than immunity generated by COVID-19 vaccines.”

 It’s good to see this recognized by the court.

The Omicron variant continues in the news. It is spread to over 20 countries, including the US. It is so far producing milder disease, and less resource utilization, than previous variants despite its increased infectivity. Obviously, we will need to watch this closely, but once again these characteristics would be consistent with a virus that is evolving to coexist with its host (us).

I don’t want to be too cavalier, but a rapidly spreading, but mild coronavirus might be just the thing to push us into true “herd immunity”. Whether it is this variant or a future even milder mutation, this does suggest a way we can exit out of this cycle of disease.

I have gotten a lot of criticism for my lack of fealty to the vaccine cult.  I started out back in March 2020 much like everyone else.  I was intimidated by this new pathogen, especially as I was going to have to care for afflicted patients.  I was open to the restrictions given the need to protect the population, particularly the elderly.  When the prospect of vaccines became real, I became as excited as anyone.

My current “evolved” attitude comes from watching Fauci et al lie, manipulate, contradict themselves. I saw them suppress clearly effective repurposed medications, seemingly in the interests of big Pharma.  I have watched these bureaucrats say that there is no need for masks, only then to mandate masks, then even suggest multiple masks.  I have watched them maintain harmful restrictions on commerce long after it would appear to have been necessary.  I have heard them dismiss the idea of vaccine mandates, and then vigorously enforce them.  I have seen a disconnect between the apparent vaccine loss of effectiveness and their increased zeal for even more doses.

I have been a physician for almost 40 years.  All of my training tells me that we have been lied to at every turn. This leaves me dejected for my profession and concerned for the future.

You do not need to be a physician, however, to feel in your gut that this is all nonsense.

And I think increasingly, people sense this.

As always I’d be honored if you would share this post

Header image: Corn in Snow (Fujifilm X Pro 2, XF 56mm f1.2)