One thing that escapes many is that people can care about COVID (within reason -- i.e., care about it in proportion to the risk it posses to them) in many ways. The standard narrative is that caring about C-19 means masking 24/7, self-seclusion, and boosting ad infinitum. Some of us are choosing a different route - for example, we go outside to get fresh air, socialize with friends, exercise and eat healthy to maintain our weight, and supplement with Vitamin D to boost our immunity. We know obesity is one (if not THE ONE) leading comorbidity associated with COVID deaths, yet being vaccinated and leading a sedentary lifestyle fueled by excess calories and alcohol does not elicit shame from the stanchest Covid fanatics. Likewise, we pay little attention to the relationship between stress and anxiety (fueled by the fear mongering in the legacy media and our public institutions) and the immune system. A few years back I was stressed to the gills from the fear of losing my job to the point that I began having thoughts of self-harm. Unsurprisingly, I developed shingles right before my 36th birthday. Turning off the TV, reducing my consumption of COVID news, and developing a meditation practice at the beginning of the pandemic has allowed me not to lose my mind love the last two years. We have a choice to make: are we going to stop living because we fear death, or are we going to live, because we know we will die?
You've pointed out everything wrong with what's been going on! I find it so frustrating that any discussion about mental health, obesity, exercise, and anything of that nature to be brushed off. Honestly, the most disgusting phrase now is that children are resilient. I find it to be morally reprehensible excuse by adults to use their children as being representative of their moral grandstanding when it comes to COVID.
There's so many factors at play and I wish people understood it's the totality of it all that should be shaping policies.
I hear you on the stress. I'm having plenty of stress over the past few months and it definitely has not helped me. Just like obesity, stress leads to plenty of underlying conditions including immune suppression.
And to your last point, I tend to phrase it as, "we may be alive but are we living?" At some point we have to find out that this is not living it is surviving and it's no way to spend a life.
Is C19 much more dangerous than the regular flu? The answer is that we don’t know. CDC, FDA, and all other government agencies refuse to publish real numbers. For example we have no idea how many people died with the virus and how many died from the virus. It seems like life expectancy has not changed.
It really seems all over the place. This makes me wonder if this may cause the CDC to reexamine how they count deaths from other illnesses. However, out of all institutions it seems like the CDC's data continues to be one of the worst analytically. Plenty of people have rebutted some of their studies including the mask study and I believe their study on reinfection. I honestly don't believe I can trust many of their reports, and what does it say when we can't trust our federal institutions who are in charge of keeping us safe and healthy?
Sorry, but thinking that federal (or even state or local) institutions are "in charge of keeping us safe and healthy" is a big part of what's wrong with things right now. Staying safe and healthy is an individual responsibility. Individuals have different approaches to managing risk and should be allowed to decide for themselves what risks they're willing to take.
Yeah, my wording here is off. I was referring specifically to those who are in charge of evaluating therapeutics and approving what makes it to market. As it stands, I don't have any trust that they are acting in good faith with respect to the drugs that are being given to millions of Americans on a daily basis.
Individual health, as far as it can be improved and managed, should be done on an individual level, and it's far better to have a proper diet and nutrition and not rely on medications, especially if we have to question their safety profiles.
That's how it appears to be. I wonder if it's just due to population density or a broader need for conformity since being close to other people may influence people to go with the flow more than acting independently.
It is summer in South Africa. The infected people are generally young. Most people have had COVID-19, mainly from Delta, and some of those who haven't have been recently vaccinated. Ivermectin and other early treatments are commonly used. The rise time is rapid and for all these reasons it is unwise to conclude that Omicron is likely to be less harmful in northern countries, in winter, without Ivermectin or early treatment, and with more older and I think more obese people.
Several countries report doubling times for Omicron cases of 2 days. Even it if was generally milder, this is genuine cause for alarm. Hopefully it will be milder, but there is no concrete evidence of this yet.
"In an unvaccinated person with no previous infection, no evidence to date that Omicron is less severe than previous variants. We are still seeing some very sick patients."
Today's updates on that page link to a statement by an presumably not very wealth South African indicates that inexpensive sheep dip ivermectin is widely used.
I saw a post that it may be around a dozen in the UK, which may be attributed to many factors as do all COVID deaths. However, there are reports that South Africa may have already reached their peak in infections.
Again, it's extremely frustrating. The evidence seems polluted with narratives from both sides. At the same time I see people reporting that South Africa is essentially done I also see people posting sarcastic quotes such as "it's only mild COVID" to insinuate a huge number of hospitalizations.
South Africa is entering their summer months but I also wouldn't be surprised if the lack of proper diet and nutrition in the Western world is likely to be the biggest culprit. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of those patients in the hospital are obese.
The people who portray COVID-19 as doing little harm are really stupid. I am not so polite as you, who might characterise their assessment as not being properly based on prior knowledge. The disease harms and kills far too many people to be ignored or dismissed. The key thing every needs to recognise is that this high level of harm and death only occurs due to the lousy 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of most people, and the lack of early treatment - which is ignored, disparaged, and prevented by some or many doctors and most governments.
Boosting 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, especially with multiple early treatments, would greatly reduce severity of symptoms for those infected. More importantly it would reduce total average viral shedding and so in most or all locations reduce R0 below 1.0, so the pandemic would die out even without vaccines or lockdowns.
In my frequently updated page https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/omicron-rolling-updates I link to an indication that ivermectin is widely used in South Africa, with people at home keeping a stock of agricultural forms of it. The prominent doctor who first reported mild Omicron symptoms is an ivermectin proponent - and its use is now legal in South Africa despite the government warning against it. Those infected are younger. South Africa is entering summer. New Omicron cases are not falling in other provinces.
It is difficult or impossible to know the full impact while the rise in infections is so steep, such as a 2 day doubling time. However, this report https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-says-12-deaths-104-people-hospitalised-by-omicron-2021-12-20/ states that on Sunday, 19th December, "the UK Health Security Agency said that 12 people in Britain had died with the Omicron variant and 104 were currently in hospital with it".
Hopefully Omicron will generally produce milder symptoms than Delta in the terribly vitamin D deficient populations of northern hemisphere countries far from the equator, now in winter, and who lack early treatment. It would be much better to get vitamin D3 in large quantities to the most vulnerable people, and to use calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) as the first of multiple early treatments for all those diagnosed, than to leave the population so exposed and rely on the not very safe, marginally effective, current COVID-19 vaccines. Much larger intakes than the proper 5000 IU / day D3 for 70kg bodyweight are needed to raise 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in days, rather than months. ~1mg calcifediol does it in 4 hours.
COVID-19 is _much_ more harmful and deadly than current influenza strains. Neither would be transmitted very much if everyone had their 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels over 50ng/ml 125nmol/L, which is what the immune system needs to function properly. Immune cells need this to run their autocrine (inside each cell) signaling system, which is is a major part of how each cell responds to its changing circumstances. Most doctors have never heard of this and think 20ng/ml or perhaps 30ng/ml is sufficient.
Please read the research articles cited in: "What every MD, immunologist, virologist and epidemiologist should know about vitamin D and the immune system": https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ . For 70kg bodyweight, you need about 0.125mg 5000 IU vitamin D3 a day to attain these levels, and it takes a few months from a typical 15 to 20ng/ml baseline. For boosting within a few days bolus D3 such as 10mg 400,000 IU is needed. Best of all a single oral dose of ~1mg calcifediol, which is the pharma name for 25-hydroxvvitamin D will boost the level safely over 50ng/ml in 4 hours: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sunilwimalawansa_multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-mis-activity-6815294839769436160-99qJ/ Calcifediol is now non-prescription in the USA and Australia, albeit in small 0.01mg tablets: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/04-calcifediol/ .
Turning off the news won't help while people are suffering and dying from COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease, MIS-C, pre-eclampsia and a plethora of chronic health conditions due to appalling low 25-hydrxyvitamin D levels.
Thanks Modern Discontent for your in-depth surveys and analyses of pertinent COVID-19 treatments. 25-hydroxyvitamin D repletion is far more important than any of them, for the great majority of people whose levels are half to a tenth of what their immune system needs.
Well, I would argue that the lack of any media coverage would mean turning off the TV wouldn't change much in that regard. I'm quite shocked that there has hardly been any mention of things such as diet, exercise, and good nutrition in regards to improving one's health.
It is important that people also understand proper Vitamin D dosing, especially if they may be receiving adequate doses and don't want to go over. There's plenty more to health than just what we are presented with and it's frustrating that nothing else ever gets mentioned.
Good nuanced article, thank you. "Going back to normal" doesn't mean zero risk. As I ponder your article, I wonder if we've left behind our old normal. As different countries work their way through this, some will tilt towards tyranny and others will tilt towards freedom and sovereignty. New relationships and systems are slowly forming around tyranny and freedom. Another national or global event, natural otherwise, could come on the heels of this one. Difficult, interesting and a creative time we are in.
I tend not to ponder on the ideas that "this is setting us up for something bigger!", but at the same time I can't see a reason for some of the draconian measures being taken. If anything, I do believe there is an intent to instill some form of power grab over the public. I don't think the people drawing parallels to the Patriot Act as really being fringe ideas anymore, considering how much reach the NSA continues to have in that regard. Once the power has been taken there's no intent to give it back.
One thing that escapes many is that people can care about COVID (within reason -- i.e., care about it in proportion to the risk it posses to them) in many ways. The standard narrative is that caring about C-19 means masking 24/7, self-seclusion, and boosting ad infinitum. Some of us are choosing a different route - for example, we go outside to get fresh air, socialize with friends, exercise and eat healthy to maintain our weight, and supplement with Vitamin D to boost our immunity. We know obesity is one (if not THE ONE) leading comorbidity associated with COVID deaths, yet being vaccinated and leading a sedentary lifestyle fueled by excess calories and alcohol does not elicit shame from the stanchest Covid fanatics. Likewise, we pay little attention to the relationship between stress and anxiety (fueled by the fear mongering in the legacy media and our public institutions) and the immune system. A few years back I was stressed to the gills from the fear of losing my job to the point that I began having thoughts of self-harm. Unsurprisingly, I developed shingles right before my 36th birthday. Turning off the TV, reducing my consumption of COVID news, and developing a meditation practice at the beginning of the pandemic has allowed me not to lose my mind love the last two years. We have a choice to make: are we going to stop living because we fear death, or are we going to live, because we know we will die?
You've pointed out everything wrong with what's been going on! I find it so frustrating that any discussion about mental health, obesity, exercise, and anything of that nature to be brushed off. Honestly, the most disgusting phrase now is that children are resilient. I find it to be morally reprehensible excuse by adults to use their children as being representative of their moral grandstanding when it comes to COVID.
There's so many factors at play and I wish people understood it's the totality of it all that should be shaping policies.
I hear you on the stress. I'm having plenty of stress over the past few months and it definitely has not helped me. Just like obesity, stress leads to plenty of underlying conditions including immune suppression.
And to your last point, I tend to phrase it as, "we may be alive but are we living?" At some point we have to find out that this is not living it is surviving and it's no way to spend a life.
Great comment. 💜👍🏼
Is C19 much more dangerous than the regular flu? The answer is that we don’t know. CDC, FDA, and all other government agencies refuse to publish real numbers. For example we have no idea how many people died with the virus and how many died from the virus. It seems like life expectancy has not changed.
It really seems all over the place. This makes me wonder if this may cause the CDC to reexamine how they count deaths from other illnesses. However, out of all institutions it seems like the CDC's data continues to be one of the worst analytically. Plenty of people have rebutted some of their studies including the mask study and I believe their study on reinfection. I honestly don't believe I can trust many of their reports, and what does it say when we can't trust our federal institutions who are in charge of keeping us safe and healthy?
Sorry, but thinking that federal (or even state or local) institutions are "in charge of keeping us safe and healthy" is a big part of what's wrong with things right now. Staying safe and healthy is an individual responsibility. Individuals have different approaches to managing risk and should be allowed to decide for themselves what risks they're willing to take.
Yeah, my wording here is off. I was referring specifically to those who are in charge of evaluating therapeutics and approving what makes it to market. As it stands, I don't have any trust that they are acting in good faith with respect to the drugs that are being given to millions of Americans on a daily basis.
Individual health, as far as it can be improved and managed, should be done on an individual level, and it's far better to have a proper diet and nutrition and not rely on medications, especially if we have to question their safety profiles.
"Gradually and unevenly" strikes me as about right. The further you get from a big city, the more quickly people resumed living their normal lives.
That's how it appears to be. I wonder if it's just due to population density or a broader need for conformity since being close to other people may influence people to go with the flow more than acting independently.
There are 7 deaths from Omicron in the UK: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-reports-leap-10000-confirmed-omicron-coronavirus-cases-2021-12-18/ .
It is summer in South Africa. The infected people are generally young. Most people have had COVID-19, mainly from Delta, and some of those who haven't have been recently vaccinated. Ivermectin and other early treatments are commonly used. The rise time is rapid and for all these reasons it is unwise to conclude that Omicron is likely to be less harmful in northern countries, in winter, without Ivermectin or early treatment, and with more older and I think more obese people.
Several countries report doubling times for Omicron cases of 2 days. Even it if was generally milder, this is genuine cause for alarm. Hopefully it will be milder, but there is no concrete evidence of this yet.
From a South African health video linked to from section U07 of https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/omicron-rolling-updates, a Western Cape doctor stated:
"In an unvaccinated person with no previous infection, no evidence to date that Omicron is less severe than previous variants. We are still seeing some very sick patients."
Today's updates on that page link to a statement by an presumably not very wealth South African indicates that inexpensive sheep dip ivermectin is widely used.
I saw a post that it may be around a dozen in the UK, which may be attributed to many factors as do all COVID deaths. However, there are reports that South Africa may have already reached their peak in infections.
Again, it's extremely frustrating. The evidence seems polluted with narratives from both sides. At the same time I see people reporting that South Africa is essentially done I also see people posting sarcastic quotes such as "it's only mild COVID" to insinuate a huge number of hospitalizations.
South Africa is entering their summer months but I also wouldn't be surprised if the lack of proper diet and nutrition in the Western world is likely to be the biggest culprit. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of those patients in the hospital are obese.
The people who portray COVID-19 as doing little harm are really stupid. I am not so polite as you, who might characterise their assessment as not being properly based on prior knowledge. The disease harms and kills far too many people to be ignored or dismissed. The key thing every needs to recognise is that this high level of harm and death only occurs due to the lousy 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of most people, and the lack of early treatment - which is ignored, disparaged, and prevented by some or many doctors and most governments.
Boosting 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, especially with multiple early treatments, would greatly reduce severity of symptoms for those infected. More importantly it would reduce total average viral shedding and so in most or all locations reduce R0 below 1.0, so the pandemic would die out even without vaccines or lockdowns.
In my frequently updated page https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/omicron-rolling-updates I link to an indication that ivermectin is widely used in South Africa, with people at home keeping a stock of agricultural forms of it. The prominent doctor who first reported mild Omicron symptoms is an ivermectin proponent - and its use is now legal in South Africa despite the government warning against it. Those infected are younger. South Africa is entering summer. New Omicron cases are not falling in other provinces.
It is difficult or impossible to know the full impact while the rise in infections is so steep, such as a 2 day doubling time. However, this report https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-says-12-deaths-104-people-hospitalised-by-omicron-2021-12-20/ states that on Sunday, 19th December, "the UK Health Security Agency said that 12 people in Britain had died with the Omicron variant and 104 were currently in hospital with it".
Hopefully Omicron will generally produce milder symptoms than Delta in the terribly vitamin D deficient populations of northern hemisphere countries far from the equator, now in winter, and who lack early treatment. It would be much better to get vitamin D3 in large quantities to the most vulnerable people, and to use calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) as the first of multiple early treatments for all those diagnosed, than to leave the population so exposed and rely on the not very safe, marginally effective, current COVID-19 vaccines. Much larger intakes than the proper 5000 IU / day D3 for 70kg bodyweight are needed to raise 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in days, rather than months. ~1mg calcifediol does it in 4 hours.
COVID-19 is _much_ more harmful and deadly than current influenza strains. Neither would be transmitted very much if everyone had their 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels over 50ng/ml 125nmol/L, which is what the immune system needs to function properly. Immune cells need this to run their autocrine (inside each cell) signaling system, which is is a major part of how each cell responds to its changing circumstances. Most doctors have never heard of this and think 20ng/ml or perhaps 30ng/ml is sufficient.
Please read the research articles cited in: "What every MD, immunologist, virologist and epidemiologist should know about vitamin D and the immune system": https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ . For 70kg bodyweight, you need about 0.125mg 5000 IU vitamin D3 a day to attain these levels, and it takes a few months from a typical 15 to 20ng/ml baseline. For boosting within a few days bolus D3 such as 10mg 400,000 IU is needed. Best of all a single oral dose of ~1mg calcifediol, which is the pharma name for 25-hydroxvvitamin D will boost the level safely over 50ng/ml in 4 hours: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sunilwimalawansa_multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-mis-activity-6815294839769436160-99qJ/ Calcifediol is now non-prescription in the USA and Australia, albeit in small 0.01mg tablets: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/04-calcifediol/ .
Turning off the news won't help while people are suffering and dying from COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease, MIS-C, pre-eclampsia and a plethora of chronic health conditions due to appalling low 25-hydrxyvitamin D levels.
Thanks Modern Discontent for your in-depth surveys and analyses of pertinent COVID-19 treatments. 25-hydroxyvitamin D repletion is far more important than any of them, for the great majority of people whose levels are half to a tenth of what their immune system needs.
Well, I would argue that the lack of any media coverage would mean turning off the TV wouldn't change much in that regard. I'm quite shocked that there has hardly been any mention of things such as diet, exercise, and good nutrition in regards to improving one's health.
It is important that people also understand proper Vitamin D dosing, especially if they may be receiving adequate doses and don't want to go over. There's plenty more to health than just what we are presented with and it's frustrating that nothing else ever gets mentioned.
Good nuanced article, thank you. "Going back to normal" doesn't mean zero risk. As I ponder your article, I wonder if we've left behind our old normal. As different countries work their way through this, some will tilt towards tyranny and others will tilt towards freedom and sovereignty. New relationships and systems are slowly forming around tyranny and freedom. Another national or global event, natural otherwise, could come on the heels of this one. Difficult, interesting and a creative time we are in.
I tend not to ponder on the ideas that "this is setting us up for something bigger!", but at the same time I can't see a reason for some of the draconian measures being taken. If anything, I do believe there is an intent to instill some form of power grab over the public. I don't think the people drawing parallels to the Patriot Act as really being fringe ideas anymore, considering how much reach the NSA continues to have in that regard. Once the power has been taken there's no intent to give it back.