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From PANdemic to CRAZEdemic. The Emperor's New Clothes.

coronavirus

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#1 hotbit

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Posted 18 September 2020 - 05:06 PM


After about 6 months since April / March peak in infections and deaths, it is now quite obvious that covid-19 is just another type of common cold. It behaves as other cold and flue epidemics, and has very similar seasonal pattern. Who haven't seen yet, I would recommend a video analysis by Ivor Cummins, the best analysis I've seen to date. 

 

 

Average age of victims is about the same as from other causes. For example, for deaths in all covid-19 RELATED cases notified in Ireland up to midnight 15/09/2020, median age is 83 years.
Source.

95% of victims had on average 2+ so called 'pre-existing' conditions, which basically means they had  min. 2 serious, life threatening diseases already. For strange reasons. cause of death is attributed to covid-19, even though there is no such practice for other cold types.

Source.

 

Vaccine - we already have one!

 

It depends on a country's life expectancy, but average age of victims is around 80 years in developed countries. Many of them lived in care homes, where especially at the end of the winter they had been very low on vitamin D. Unfortunately it's not much different for many care home residents in the summer months.  As several epidemiological studies and the first well done randomised clinical study show, adequate levels of vitamin D do offer almost bullet proof protection from covid-19.

 

CRAZEdemic.

 

Even flown (due to methodology of cause of death assignments) official data show that only about 1.5% or less deaths are RELATED (remember, 95% of those people had 2 or more serious conditions) to covid-19. In England and Wales in August TEN FOLD more people died due to influenza & pneumonia than WITH Sars-Cov-2. Masks and distancing had no or negligible influence on flu spread. However, probably 98.5% public resources are directed to prevent invisible enemy of covid-19. Indeed, pandemic invisible like the Emperor's new clothes.

 

 


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#2 Hip

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Posted 18 September 2020 - 09:54 PM

As several epidemiological studies and the first well done randomised clinical study show, adequate levels of vitamin D do offer almost bullet proof protection from covid-19.

 

Certainly a very interesting study, and it suggests calcifediol should be used in all cases of non-mild COVID.

 

Note though that calcifediol is a prescription drug.

 

The supplement vitamin D3 is converted in the liver into calcifediol, but the conversion process is slow, taking about a week. See Wikipedia which says "at a typical daily intake of vitamin D3, its full conversion to calcifediol takes approximately 7 days".

 

So if you were hit with COVID, you would either want to get hold of some calcifediol, or start high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation early. 

 

 

 

 

It's not clear to me why they do not provide the active form of vitamin D to COVID patients, which is called calcitriol, rather than providing calcifediol. Calcifediol must first be converted into calcitriol (this is done in the kidneys and in other places) in order to become active vitamin D.

 

Calcitriol is also a prescription drug, but is much easier to find than the prescription drug calcifediol.

 

If anyone here has expertise on vitamin D metabolism, perhaps you could shed light on why they are using calcifediol rather than calcitriol to treat COVID-19.

 

 

 

The likely reason calcitriol fights coronavirus is because this active form of vitamin D stimulates the release of antimicrobial peptides inside cells, like cathelicidin and defensin peptides (the study states this), which is part of the immune response to intracellular infections.

 

 

 

 

But vitamin D in any form is not a vaccine: it will not reduce coronavirus person-to-person transmission like a vaccine can; vitamin D will only reduce the severity of COVID-19, and may thus prevent deaths.

 


Edited by Hip, 18 September 2020 - 09:57 PM.


#3 Hip

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Posted 18 September 2020 - 10:24 PM

Even flown (due to methodology of cause of death assignments) official data show that only about 1.5% or less deaths are RELATED (remember, 95% of those people had 2 or more serious conditions) to covid-19. In England and Wales in August TEN FOLD more people died due to influenza & pneumonia than WITH Sars-Cov-2. Masks and distancing had no or negligible influence on flu spread. However, probably 98.5% public resources are directed to prevent invisible enemy of covid-19. Indeed, pandemic invisible like the Emperor's new clothes.

 

Pneumonia may be killing more people than Covid-19 at the moment, but that is testament to the successful results of the numerous coronavirus control policies we have put in place, that prevent the explosive exponential growth which would kill millions if it were unleashed. Even without full lockdown, hundreds of behavioral changes that people have made either voluntarily or by mandate have all helped reduce the R number to a value below 1. Keeping R below 1 is critical to preventing exponential explosions.

 

Your argument is a bit like having a police force to combat crime, and then when the crime level is nice and low because of the good policing, claiming that there was no crime problem to begin with, because crime is so low! Obviously that is a flawed argument. The crime is low only because of the good policing. Likewise, coronavirus deaths are currently low because of the way we have clamped down on the viral person-to-person transmission which if left uncontrolled would explode.

 

As children start going back to school, and has university students start college next week, we may see the R number rising, and in which case further restrictions may be necessary to keep R less than 1. Helps if you have a mathematics degree to understand this, because it is necessary to understand the equations of exponential growth.

 

 


Edited by Hip, 18 September 2020 - 10:26 PM.

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#4 hotbit

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Posted 19 September 2020 - 11:56 AM

Certainly a very interesting study, and it suggests calcifediol should be used in all cases of non-mild COVID.

 

Note though that calcifediol is a prescription drug.

 

The supplement vitamin D3 is converted in the liver into calcifediol, but the conversion process is slow, taking about a week. See Wikipedia which says "at a typical daily intake of vitamin D3, its full conversion to calcifediol takes approximately 7 days".

 

So if you were hit with COVID, you would either want to get hold of some calcifediol, or start high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation early. 

 

 

It's not clear to me why they do not provide the active form of vitamin D to COVID patients, which is called calcitriol, rather than providing calcifediol. Calcifediol must first be converted into calcitriol (this is done in the kidneys and in other places) in order to become active vitamin D.

 

Calcitriol is also a prescription drug, but is much easier to find than the prescription drug calcifediol.

 

If anyone here has expertise on vitamin D metabolism, perhaps you could shed light on why they are using calcifediol rather than calcitriol to treat COVID-19.

 


 

But vitamin D in any form is not a vaccine: it will not reduce coronavirus person-to-person transmission like a vaccine can; vitamin D will only reduce the severity of COVID-19, and may thus prevent deaths.

 

Calcifediol acts more rapidly than over the counter vitamin D, and there is no much time in the hospital setting. But most people have the time to build up proper levels. An estimated 84·2% of non-Hispanic Blacks were insufficient in vitamin D v. 56·3% of Hispanics and 34·8% of non-Hispanic Whites. source

Also found this, that answers your other question:

 

 

Calcifediol can be considered more rapid and effective. In all cases, especially with increasing doses, the risk of hypercalcemia must be taken into account. Calcitriol, which can be regarded as the active hormonal form of vitamin D, has the most potent hypercalcemic effect in both normal and renal failure patients. In renal patients calcitriol is a potent inhibitor of parathyroid activity, but the risk of hypercalcemia

 

 

 

As children start going back to school, and has university students start college next week, we may see the R number rising, and in which case further restrictions may be necessary to keep R less than 1. Helps if you have a mathematics degree to understand this, because it is necessary to understand the equations of exponential growth.

 

See Peru-Brasil comparison (and more) in the video linked in my OP. Peru had quite strict lockdown, Brasil did not. There is no visible evidence for the lockdown impact. Same for Sweden / Belgium and there are more examples. On the other hand due to lockdown many people drink more alcohol and abuse drugs, loose jobs and are deprived of normal medical care for hundreds of illnesses.

 

 

vaccine
 
  1. a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.

I think the hormone 'vitamin D' fits this definition quite well, as per function, although it's not prepared from the causative agent. But at the end of the day we want immune system to properly respond to a harmful agent, what exactly helps to achieve this is of secondary importance.  ;) (edited)

 

 

Vitamin D metabolizing enzymes and vitamin D receptors are present in many cell types including various immune cells such as antigen-presenting-cells, T cells, B cells and monocytes. In vitro data show that, in addition to modulating innate immune cells, vitamin D also promotes a more tolerogenic [capable of producing immunological tolerance] immunological status. In vivo data from animals and from human vitamin D supplementation studies have shown beneficial effects of vitamin D on immune function source


Edited by hotbit, 19 September 2020 - 12:01 PM.

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#5 hotbit

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Posted 19 September 2020 - 02:29 PM

@ some forum members

It's only trolling when you put

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baseless labels. If I'm wrong about something, point it out and show the proof. I do make mistakes, but I'm trying to learn and I'm seeking the truth, I'm not looking to just defend some prior, cut in stone, stance.
 


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#6 Hip

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Posted 19 September 2020 - 03:56 PM

Calcifediol acts more rapidly than over the counter vitamin D, and there is no much time in the hospital setting.

 
Certainly, but I was wondering why they did not use calcitriol rather than calcifediol. 

 

Vitamin D metabolism looks like this:

 

Vitamin D3 (from food, supplements or sunshine) ➤ calcifediol ➤ calcitriol

 

 

So you can see calcitriol is the final link in the chain. So why not give calcitriol directly, rather than giving COVID patients calcifediol, which then needs to convert to calcitriol in the body? That's what I am curious about.

 

Also, if you look online at overseas prescription-free pharmacies, calcitriol is available to buy as a drug, whereas I have not been able to find any pharmacy which sells calcifediol.

 

 

 

See Peru-Brasil comparison (and more) in the video linked in my OP. Peru had quite strict lockdown, Brasil did not. There is no visible evidence for the lockdown impact. Same for Sweden / Belgium and there are more examples. On the other hand due to lockdown many people drink more alcohol and abuse drugs, loose jobs and are deprived of normal medical care for hundreds of illnesses.

 

I think you would have to study lockdown in lots of countries to determine its overall effects, not just look at two countries. This study which did this concluded that lockdowns work:

 

"This is the first study to highlight the impact of lockdown on infection and death rates over a period of 4 weeks. There was an exponential decrease in both infections as well as death with lockdown."

 

 

Don't forget also that lockdown is just the tip of the iceberg. Even before lockdown is implemented, people are still taking hundreds of precautions to stop viral transmission, from social distancing to hand washing. Lockdown is just the final measure put in place when all the other measures have failed to work sufficiently. 

 

So even countries like Sweden which did not implement a lockdown would have still implemented hundreds of control measures. These hundreds of control measures are working to prevent viral spread, even without lockdown.

 

There is no country in the world which has not implemented hundreds of measures like social distancing and hand washing. So we do not have any examples at all of what the pandemic would be like in a country in the absence of all control measures.

 

 

I think the hormone 'vitamin D' fits this definition quite well, as per function, although it's not prepared from the causative agent. But at the end of the day we want immune system to properly respond to a harmful agent, what exactly helps to achieve this is of secondary importance. 

 
If there were a factor like vitamin D which could prevent most deaths and prevent most of the serious COVID case which require hospitalization (and thus strain hospital resources), then the pandemic would not disappear, but would be reduced to something that we can easily manage without having to place restrictions on people's activities. So if calcifediol helps in this respect, we should be using it.

 

 

However, vitamin D would not make the pandemic disappear, but might we hope render it much less harmful. It will not disappear, because infected people even with high levels of vitamin D will still be contagious to others, so there will still be viral spread.

 

An effective vaccine on the other hand will prevent people from becoming contagious even when they are exposed to and catch coronavirus, because the vaccine trains the immune system to bring the infection under control very quickly.  

 

Though in practice, the vaccines we are developing for coronavirus might only provide partial protection from coronavirus: they might not prevent people getting the infection, but might reduce the severity of the infection. If this is the case, then I guess even the vaccines may not prevent viral transmission. 

 

 

 


Edited by Hip, 19 September 2020 - 04:00 PM.

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#7 hotbit

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 02:16 AM

@Hip

 

Vitamin D3 (from food, supplements or sunshine) ➤ calcifediol ➤ calcitriol

 

It seems you have missed some of the information in my earlier post (link to the source didn't go through for some reason); this might be the reason for using Calcifediol:
"Calcifediol can be considered more rapid and effective. In all cases, especially with increasing doses, the risk of hypercalcemia must be taken into account. Calcitriol, which can be regarded as the active hormonal form of vitamin D, has the most potent hypercalcemic effect in both normal and renal failure patients. In renal patients calcitriol is a potent inhibitor of parathyroid activity..."

 

 

I think you would have to study lockdown in lots of countries to determine its overall effects, not just look at two countries. This study which did this concluded that lockdowns work:

 

 

I've read the Impact of complete lockdown on total infection and death rates: A hierarchical cluster analysis by  Samit Ghosal,Rahul Bhattacharyya,and Milan Majumderc and found it to be pseudo-scientific.

 

  • They compare 12 countries with lockdown with just 2 with no-lockdown.
  • They used very short term data - only around 4 weeks.
  • They found 2 countries without lockdown fared among the best, i.e. we could claim no-lockdown is better strategy on average! Instead, they shove it under the carpet.
  • They did not show any causation, not even strong correlation! We could substitute lockdown with a length of the day and do the same claims based on their data. Maybe there would be more causation here.
  • Interestingly, Poland landed in the very middle between Belgium and the UK (Fig 4).
  • They take reported case numbers with the face value, while they are very unreliable (explanation in the paper I've linked below).

There are also papers claiming something completely else:

"Full lockdown policies in Western Europe countries have no evident impacts on the COVID-19 epidemic." (source) (full text)

Comparing the trajectory of the epidemic before and after the lockdown, we find no evidence of any discontinuity in the growth rate, doubling time, and reproduction number trends.Extrapolating pre-lockdown growth rate trends, we provide estimates of the death toll in the absence of any lockdown policies, and show that these strategies might not have saved any life in western Europe. [...] We also show that neighboring countries applying less restrictive social distancing measures (as opposed to police-enforced home containment) experience a very similar time evolution of the epidemic.

 

If there were a factor like vitamin D which could prevent most deaths and prevent most of the serious COVID case which require hospitalization (and thus strain hospital resources), then the pandemic would not disappear

 

Most hospitals are almost empty and few were overwhelmed during the peak of pandemic. Every year we have flu and cold pandemics. We live with them.

 

This virus is practically benign for all fairly healthy people. It's almost only dangerous for old people, who already have serious illnesses. But any flu, any fall on the ground, broken leg are life threatening for them. Lockdowns and several other measures are panic and madness, not caring or saving. The vaccine maybe, just maybe, would be a bit valuable to this vulnerable group. But getting rid of vitamin D deficiencies and taking care of a few more things seem much cheaper and more important.


Edited by hotbit, 20 September 2020 - 02:19 AM.

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#8 Hip

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 03:47 AM

It seems you have missed some of the information in my earlier post


I saw what you quoted, but that quote did not explain why the coronavirus study used calcifediol rather than calcitriol.

 

Your quote (source here) explains calcifediol is more more rapid and effective than vitamin D3, which you might expect. 

 

But it does not provide an explanation of why calcifediol was preferred over calcitriol in the coronavirus study.

 

 

This virus is practically benign for all fairly healthy people. It's almost only dangerous for old people, who already have serious illnesses. But any flu, any fall on the ground, broken leg are life threatening for them. 

 

That is a value judgement that the lives of older people and those with underlying health conditions must be sacrificed so that we can maintain our economy, and allow people to access hospitals, dentists, etc.

 

Not saying you are right or wrong to want to sacrifice people's lives. However, you or I are not in the position of the politicians who must make these difficult calls; in particular, you or I do not face the possible legal comebacks that these politicians may have to later deal if they get the decision wrong, and if their actions are deemed to be murderous. It's easy to give an opinion if you don't have to face the consequences of being prosecuted for getting it wrong. Our decision makers do not have this luxury, so they tread very carefully. 

 

 

 

 

I should also point out the 600,000 people in the UK who are suffering from long haul COVID. In many cases, it will likely turn out that they have the lifelong horrible disease of myalgic encephalomyelitis, which is considered pretty much the worst disease you can get.

 

If you look at figure 4 of this survey of COVID long haulers, you see that it is mostly young people who are affected with long haul COVID; about 90% of those with long COVID are from the age of 20 to 59.

 

If these people with coronavirus myalgic encephalomyelitis are never able to go back to work for their entire lives (it's common that ME patients are not able to work), that will be a cost to the economy in terms of disability support. The more you let coronavirus circulate, the more of these long-haul cases are going to appear and accumulate.

 

I would say that having myalgic encephalomyelitis is actually a fate worse than death. It's really an awful disease. Therefore the 42,000 deaths we have so far in the UK are not the worst problem, in my opinion. The worst problem is the COVID long haulers who will likely turn out to have myalgic encephalomyelitis.

 

We do not see many such long haul cases / myalgic encephalomyelitis when seasonal flu appears each year.  So when you say coronavirus "behaves as other cold and flue epidemics", that is no taking into account the COVID long haulers.


Edited by Hip, 20 September 2020 - 04:10 AM.

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#9 hotbit

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 01:54 PM

But it does not provide an explanation of why calcifediol was preferred over calcitriol in the coronavirus study.

 

 

"Calcitriol, which can be regarded as the active hormonal form of vitamin D, has the most potent hypercalcemic effect in both normal and renal failure patients. In renal patients calcitriol is a potent inhibitor of parathyroid activity, but the risk of hypercalcemia, now regarded as harmful, is evident whenever pharmacologic doses are used."

 

I think this hypercalcemic effect of higher doses might explain no using calcitriol.

 

 

If you look at figure 4 of this survey of COVID long haulers, you see that it is mostly young people who are affected with long haul COVID; about 90% of those with long COVID are from the age of 20 to 59.

 

 

 

It's just a survey, by definition low quality study.

"We recognize and want to emphasize that COVID-19 appears differently in each person," Interesting, somehow other illnesses do not appear that much differently in each person,. But hey, let's put all the sins on the witch or the goat.

 

That is a value judgement that the lives of older people and those with underlying health conditions must be sacrificed so that we can maintain our economy, and allow people to access hospitals, dentists, etc.

 

As I have pointed out in my OP, average and mean age of deaths RELATED to covid is around 80 years. Around the same as for other causes. It's not that I don't care. These people should be supplemented with vitamin D3, exercise if possible, and allowed to see their grandchildren, not left in loneliness to die in grieve & desperation. Do these all measures magically add 5 years to the expected life length?


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#10 hotbit

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 06:42 PM

Just a newspaper, but worth a read. An interview with the current face of Sweden.

 

“That’s, of course, a danger but I think, then, it’s good to have the kind of experience that I have. I’ve worked in hospitals. I’ve seen the flu epidemics and people coming in and overflooding the hospitals. I worked with Ebola in Africa. I do realise what diseases can do to a society and a system.”     
"Face masks are an easy solution, and I’m deeply distrustful of easy solutions to complex problems"

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist

 

Our conversation ends with Tegnell again swimming against the tide, and warning that a vaccine — if and when it comes — will not be the “silver bullet”. He adds: “Once again, I’m not very fond of easy solutions to complex problems and to believe that once the vaccine is here, we can go back and live as we always have done. I think that’s a dangerous message to send because it’s not going to be that easy.”

 

 

 


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#11 Hip

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Posted 21 September 2020 - 04:53 AM

I think this hypercalcemic effect of higher doses might explain no using calcitriol.

 
A quick Google search indicates both calcifediol and calcitriol can cause hypercalcemia, although I am not sure if it is to the same degree. Calcifediol converts to calcitriol in the body anyway, so whichever you give, you end up with calcitriol.
 
I believe calcifediol may actually act as an antagonist of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), whereas calcitriol is an agonist of the VDR. So there is a complex interplay between the two, and their opposing effects on the VDR. 

 

Unfortunately the study does not explain why they chose calcifediol.

 
 

It's just a survey, by definition low quality study.


This survey is all we have at present. It was done by one of the long-haul COVID support groups that have sprung up. 

 

Be aware that the long-haul COVID patients have a real fight on their hands, trying to get the medical profession to take their diseases seriously. 

 

Traditionally the medical profession has ignored persisting viral symptoms like myalgic encephalomyelitis, preferring to label ME as an "all in the mind" psychosomatic condition, rather than accepting it as a real disease. 

 

What's more, because of this "all in the mind" view of ME, lots of ME patients are medically abused, being sent to psychiatrists for abusive therapies, like forced exercise (which is damaging in viral illnesses), rather than doctors believing their disease is real.

 

ME is one of the most horrible diseases you can imagine, and then as if that were not bad enough, the medical profession tend to abuse ME patients.

 

 

 

"We recognize and want to emphasize that COVID-19 appears differently in each person," Interesting, somehow other illnesses do not appear that much differently in each person,. But hey, let's put all the sins on the witch or the goat.


That's not true, viral infections can produce dramatically different illnesses in different people.

 

EBV for example can cause mononucleosis (glandular fever), nasopharyngeal cancer, and has been implicated in various other cancers, as well as strongly implicated multiple sclerosis, and implicated many other diseases.

 

There is a vast range of viruses in common circulation which infect humans, and are known to cause, or are implicated in, many different diseases. Some of these viruses you will already have in your body, and they may be in the process of causing a cancer, or precipitating a chronic disease. You might like to spend a bit of time studying virology. You will find it eye opening how viruses can inflict so much disease.

 

 

I think some of the long haul COVID people may have illnesses which will clear up: like viral lung damage that may heal over many months. But for those long haul COVID patients who developed myalgic encephalomyelitis from the infection, that stays with you for life. Some of these ME people will thus be imprisoned in their beds for the rest of their lives, decade after decade of bed confinement, and ravaged with pain, fatigue and debilitating brain fog.

 

 

 

Remember that infectious pathogens are the oldest enemy of mankind. Humanity became a bit complacent due to the success of antibiotics (when they were introduced in the 1950s) in treating a wide range of bacteria infections that previously would have been fatal. So medics started to think that we had conquered infectious disease. 

 

But they had not accounted for viruses, for which we have almost no antiviral drugs. We are wide open to being hit by viral pandemics, until such time as we develop a universal antiviral drug. Hopefully coronavirus will be a wake-up call, so that science starts to look into universal antivirals.

 

 

 

What's more, researchers such as Professor Paul Ewald point out that most chronic diseases, from cancer to multiple sclerosis to Parkinson's to heart disease are all linked to chronic viral infections in the body. Given that most people die from a chronic disease, and usually die only after many years of suffering, we would be very unwise not to take viruses more seriously in future.

 

Sure, within a year we will probably have the vaccines that will bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt, and then we will be over the pandemic (except for people who developed myalgic encephalomyelitis from coronavirus, which is a life sentence of misery).

 

But the massive effect that viruses have on our lives, through the diseases they are implicated in, will not go away. Nor will pandemics, as there are plenty more novel viruses circulating in animals that are just waiting to jump into human populations.

 


Edited by Hip, 21 September 2020 - 05:05 AM.


#12 hotbit

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Posted 21 September 2020 - 10:40 AM

The problem is we have little reliable data on Sars-Cov-2 effects, or rather few good data is buried in a stash of pseudo-science.

As for myalgic encephalomyelitis or fibromyalgia, past few  years I've experienced growing onset of symptoms. Last winter it was a huge pain in the neck (not just a parabola, as on top I have had a badly pinched nerve in my upper spine just when lockdown was imposed).
What I found is that exercising helped a lot for my pinched nerve (medical society was out of reach, but I have found at the end of the day it's better I was left to myself).  Exercising was not helping much with my fibromyalgia / myalgic encephalomyelitis, though. In the recent weeks after cutting sugar/ carbs in general and some fats, doing intermittent fasting, finally I've seen a substantial improvement, and quite quickly. Despite the problems I had to work all this lockdown.

Experiencing fibromyalgia / myalgic encephalomyelitis symptoms tought me that brain fog and constant pain is truly debilitating. I feel for all 70+ who are in the even worse condition than I am / was.

The question is whether Sars-Cov-2 is causing myalgic encephalomyelitis or fibromyalgia at all? First, we would have to assume people assign the cause correctly, even if that is true, second that illness / symptoms is indeed caused by Sars-Cov-2, not just other problems being elevated.


What I see is people have 100 times larger chance to die from something else, but public, journalists and politicians are focused on this one problem.

(It seems I cant' post an image or link... "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.")
Pandemic-and-after

Since the beginning of June, I see no pandemic here, though. Interestingly, face masks and distancing had little or null effect on flu so far.


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#13 Hip

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Posted 21 September 2020 - 01:32 PM

The question is whether Sars-Cov-2 is causing myalgic encephalomyelitis or fibromyalgia at all? First, we would have to assume people assign the cause correctly, even if that is true, second that illness / symptoms is indeed caused by Sars-Cov-2, not just other problems being elevated.

 
I developed myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) back in 2006, after a viral brain infection with a virus which was most likely coxsackievirus B4. CVB4 is also the virus which researchers suspect of triggering type 1 diabetes; and sadly, a young family member who caught my virus went on to get T1D.
 
For many years I had what was approaching severe ME/CFS (severe means you are bedbound for 24 hours, except for a few hours a day out of bed to eat and wash). Now I have improved a bit, and am moderate, approaching mild (mild is when you are usually still able to work, but come hoe so exhausted that you have to curtail all other activities, like going out or socializing).
 
Prior to that brain infection, although I was interested in health and supplements, I had very little understanding of how infectious pathogens may play a major role in health. An ordinary person would just not suspect that behind their ailments and illnesses, a microbial infection that they may have caught years or decades before might be the cause.
 
But after you have had an experience like mine, of a major disease being triggered by a microbe, the penny drops, and you suddenly realize that diseases cannot occur for no reason. There must be a cause. And infectious pathogens are some of the chief suspects for causing the wide array of both physical and mental illnesses. 
 
 
 
ME/CFS is nearly always kicked off by a viral infection. Perhaps prior to your ME/CFS symptoms appearing, you might remember an infectious episode: it could have been a flu-like illness, a gastrointestinal upset, or sometimes just a bad sore throat. In some people, the ME/CFS appears within days of that acute infection (rapid onset); in others it can take months, sometimes years, for the ME/CFS to fully manifest (gradual onset). 
 
There are certain viruses that are consistently linked to ME/CFS, and these are the ones that ME/CFS doctors will test for and treat. These viruses include certain enteroviruses (namely coxsackievirus B and echovirus), certain herpesviruses (namely EBV, cytomegalovirus, HHV-6 and varicella zoster), parvovirus B19, and also the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae. These are the ones ME/CFS doctors in the US will test for (but our doctors in the UK don't bother).
 
Unfortunately in the UK, we do not have the right blood test which can detect the chronic enterovirus infections that are found in the tissues (but not the blood) of ME/CFS patients. But these enterovirus tests are available abroad, if you mail your blood serum sample. You might want to get tested, as there are antiviral treatments which can sometimes help ME/CFS, if you target the viruses that are active in your body. In my case, the active viruses are CVB4 and cytomegalovirus. There are also other means to improve ME/CFS, such as vitamin B12 injections, or better still, the excellent Australian B12 transdermal oils, which I posted about here
 
These viruses which are linked to ME/CFS are all characterized by the ability to form chronic long-term but low-level infections which stick around in the body for years or decades. One theory is that when the brain tissues get chronically infected, that leads to ME/CFS.
 
But ME/CFS has never been linked to viruses which are fully cleared from the body by the immune system, like the common cold viruses. Nobody ever gets ME/CFS after a cold. ME/CFS is only linked to viruses which are able to form persistent infections in the body.
 
It's too early to say for sure whether the long COVID patients who have symptoms similar to ME/CFS actually do have ME/CFS; but it's interesting that one of the most unique hallmark symptoms of ME/CFS, namely the post-exertional malaise (PEM), which is where all your symptoms get worse typically the day after exercise, and remain worse for several days to a week, is being reported in the long COVID Facebook groups.
 
 
 

Interestingly, face masks and distancing had little or null effect on flu so far.

 

I read that influenza rates have been reduced dramatically by coronavirus control measures. The CDC report that during March and May 2020, at the height of the lockdown, there was a 98% decrease in influenza activity as measured by percentage of submitted specimens testing positive. There are other articles too: Australia sees huge decrease in flu cases due to coronavirus measures.

 

Not only that, but heart attacks, strokes and appendicitis rates are also greatly reduced (many articles on this if you search). All these medical events are linked to acute viral infections (when my virus passed to friends and family, four previously healthy people had sudden heart attacks, so I am well aware of the link between viruses and heart attacks).

 

So this indicates that coronavirus control measures are also having a major impact on other infections.

 

I appreciate that because of cancelled appointments and operations in hospitals, some people may die because they are not getting the cancer treatment they need promptly enough. So the coronavirus control measures may have inadvertently caused some deaths. But I suspect a lot of people's lives have also been saved by coronavirus control measures, people who would have otherwise died of heart attacks or stroke.

 


Edited by Hip, 21 September 2020 - 01:41 PM.

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#14 hotbit

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 03:29 PM

New world approach: locking young and healthy to shield old and sick.

Perspective form Sweden:
 


Edited by hotbit, 21 October 2020 - 03:31 PM.


#15 Hebbeh

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 04:59 PM

https://www.mirror.c...worlds-22864690

Sweden 'to start lockdowns' as it has world's 12th highest Covid-19 death rate

But according to the Johns Hopkins University, which measures worldwide data on the pandemic, the country now has the 12th highest death rate in the world, with 58.4 per 100,000 people.

This is 10 times the figure in neighbouring Norway and Finland, although slightly lower than the UK's 64.1 per 100,000.

Johan Nojd, who heads the infectious diseases department in the city of Uppsala, told The Telegraph : "It's more of a lockdown situation - but a local lockdown."

From tomorrow, health authorities are reportedly set to ask people to stay away from shopping centres, gyms, libraries and museums

Edited by Hebbeh, 21 October 2020 - 05:01 PM.

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#16 hotbit

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 05:42 PM

https://www.mirror.c...worlds-22864690

Sweden 'to start lockdowns' as it has world's 12th highest Covid-19 death rate
 

 

It's more 16th now than 12th, and almost all of them happened during April/March/May pandemic. Now by daily covid related deaths Sweden is much lower than 16th.

The Mirror is rubbish, not worth the paper it's printed on.
 


Edited by hotbit, 21 October 2020 - 05:44 PM.


#17 Hebbeh

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 07:24 PM

True the situation is dynamic and constantly changing.

However, currently, there isn't that much distance in death rate per million between the US, UK and Sweden with the US at 684, UK 649, and Sweden 586. I wouldn't say Sweden has done that much better and certainly not as well as it's neighbors Norway at 51 and Finland at 64.

As this plays out, most people in the know are calling Sweden as turning into a disaster as the numbers indicate.

Edit to add link:
https://www.worldome...fo/coronavirus/

Edited by Hebbeh, 21 October 2020 - 07:28 PM.

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#18 hotbit

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Posted 22 October 2020 - 03:55 AM

True the situation is dynamic and constantly changing.

However, currently, there isn't that much distance in death rate per million between the US, UK and Sweden with the US at 684, UK 649, and Sweden 586. I wouldn't say Sweden has done that much better and certainly not as well as it's neighbors Norway at 51 and Finland at 64.

As this plays out, most people in the know are calling Sweden as turning into a disaster as the numbers indicate.

Edit to add link:
https://www.worldome...fo/coronavirus/

 

Have you seen the film I have linked above? Most people? Since when majority has a patent to be right?

 

Lets see some data for the period of 1-21 October (last 3 weeks): Deaths (covid related):

 

Country      Per 1M *              Per/1M-per/1Day *                Total deaths / M

Sweden        4.5                              0.2                                            586

UK                29.7                           1.4                                           649

USA              46.1                           2.2                                            686

Denmark       6.9                             0.3                                           119

Finland          3.6                            0.2                                              64

* 3 weeks 1-21 October.

Interestingly. while total (covid related) deaths in Sweden is close to UK and US numbers, so far in October it's 7 to 10 times lower! Current daily rate of deaths in Denmark, at 0.3 is higher than in Sweden at 0.2 deaths per day per million population. It seems Sweden is doing OK at the moment. Masks and lockdowns introduced now will not bring people, who died half a year ago, back to life, that's for sure.


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#19 hotbit

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Posted 25 October 2020 - 08:50 AM

Another interesting debate.

For context, some background information:
More than 60 million - expected deaths worldwide in 2020

Around 1.5 million - expected deaths worldwide with positive Sars-Cov-2 test (of which around ~95% already had on average 2 chronic, life threatening diseases).

 

(Not word by word)

 

Prof. Ryan - "We should close Ireland completely for around 12 weeks". But Prof. Ryan fails to advise what after. Does he naively believe Ireland will be free of this virus forever after super strict lockdown?

Prof. Lee - "Through all this pandemic epidemiologist have been wrong all the time. Disease is endemic, Lockdowns and similar measures can only slow down the spread a little bit, and it will bounce back."

O'Brien - "Under 25s there was 1 death, but we are taking kids from schools... We ruined lives of young people..."

 


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#20 jroseland

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Posted 23 December 2021 - 09:18 AM

We recorded this back in March of 2020, back when we were still naive enough to think that lockdowns were a good idea. It wasn't until Q4 of 2020 that I became really anti-lockdown. How long did it take for you to get red-pilled on COVID?
 
In this QuarantineCast my wife and I break down 22 lifehacks for staying healthy and making the most of the downtime that we all have on our hands thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. Employing a few of these lifehacks, self-quarantine can be productive and even fun...
 
1*pFY0pDsnFqwcL_W9f3CTZg.gif


#21 Mind

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Posted 23 December 2021 - 08:15 PM

"Two weeks to slow the spread". After that immense destructive failure, I began to ask questions.


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#22 Dorian Grey

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 06:08 PM

Check out the Emperor's new mask, here being modeled while alone/outdoors at the beach, where apparently they are 100% effective at preventing transmission.  

 

https://www.dailywir...till-wear-masks

 

In other news...  The rolling 7 day average of new infections being diagnosed has reached a new all time high of 258,312 per day.  The previous peak for the seven-day moving average was 250,141 confirmed cases recorded on Jan. 8 of this year, under a previous administration that didn't understand how to control the spread of virus like we do today.  


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#23 hotbit

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Posted 01 January 2022 - 10:06 PM

After 2 years of the 'pandemic', the Earth's human population is almost 200 million larger. This is the first pandemic of its kind.

The Emperor's New Clothes.

During the last 2 years of witch hunting I have developed new understanding of Hitler's and Stalin's followers. 21st century witch hunters are no different. And they are a large majority...


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