In Australia, we did have a zero-covid policy up to last December. I think the most effective part was the closure of international borders, and quarantining of new arrivals. (I'm not advocating this as a good thing - we have always had some protection from agricultural and human diseases as an island nation, but never before at such an extreme level.)
We also had state border closures and restrictions, which had an even worse effect on economic life - and our sense of freedom.
The actual lockdowns and associated restrictions (closures of businesses, schools, etc) have been completely unjustified, IMO. The damage (social and economic and educational) has yet to be tallied fully. The benefits have been dubious (though we keep being told that things would have been much worse if we had not done this - and the same with vaccinations).
Now we have "opened up" - international travel is still not back to what it was, but becoming less restricted (for the jabbed), and state borders have mostly also opened again (except for WA). They keep telling us that lockdowns are probably not going to be imposed anymore (though they do still hold the threat of local lockdowns over us, if considered necessary).
Case numbers are not a useful indicator at this stage, but the death rate peaked through Jan-Feb, and now shows signs of rising again - a peak much worse than anything we experienced up to that time. Yet the hype stopped... restrictions (mandatory mask wearing) eased...
If I wanted to be cynical, I might suggest that the level of fear and vigilance in our population has waxed and waned in accord with the media mention, and shows absolutely no correlation whatsoever with the actual hospitalisation and death figures.
Thanks for providing your personal account. Do you know if the case fatality rate among the elderly were high during the lockdowns? I do wonder if now that Omicron has reached every country if those elderly people just succumbed to the virus later on. It's unfortunate that it's difficult to determine such a relationship.
It's certainly due to the media. People have such short attention spans now that they don't remember things that they hear or read from months prior. I'm actually quite shocked how many people who wanted to move on with their lives are now succumbing to fear here in the US once again.
I don't know what the case fatality rate was, by age. I live in Queensland, and typically we would get daily news briefings that reported: "Sadly, 10 more people died, 6 of them in aged care and one in a geriatric ward. 2 of them were in their 90s, 3 in their 80s, 4 in their 70s, and one was a man in his 60s."
During the last part of 2021 & early 2022, the reports would focus more on who was vaxxed: eg 6 Feb 2022 (from my own notes) - "Nine deaths: two people were unvaccinated, two had only a single dose, while four had received two shots.
"None had received their booster."
(This was the era of boosting the booster!)
NSW and Victoria (as did other states) had similar news briefings, with higher numbers of cases and deaths at their peaks, but again, almost all were elderly.
As with other parts of the world, the "case" numbers were determined by PCR tests, with cycle threshold somewhere over 40, so those numbers do not truly refer to "cases"
I do know that the majority of deaths were elderly people in aged care, where infection and treatment are not optimised!
Thanks for your response. That seems to be what I am suspecting is occurring. It's likely that the elderly believe they are well protected and thus living their lives but unfortunately succumbing to the virus- although I believe plenty of elderly would rather live their lives rather than live in fear. But it's more speculation on my part as, like you said, the data is heavily confounded. However, it does appear that provinces in Australia are at least stratifying the deaths to some degree which is really not seen here in the US. It appears that we are just told that cases and deaths are rising without being told the demographics of those people, and thus people are just willing to assume the worst.
But thank you for your insights! It definitely helps to rationalize some of what we are seeing right now.
Rather than mandates, why not implement a full court press of good nutrition; weight management, good nasal and throat hygiene. Vitamin D levels should be checked for baseline and supplements added to get levels >50. Prevention therapeutics for frontline workers should be initiated early-on; hydroxy chloroquine and/or ivermectin as done in Mexico City and U Pradesh, India. The same should be done for most citizens; especially high risk ones. All of these measures are safe, effective and affordable. This time we should have learned to be aggressively proactive instead of insidiously passive, waiting for cyanotic lips desperate for O2. This time we should avoid the hospitals at all cost. To control Mother Nature, she must be obeyed; using our innate immune system to prevent illness and/or restore it quickly.
You would think that such a thing would be recommended. Whether it proves beneficial for COVID it certainly will help for plenty of diseases! But there tends not to be such a way of thinking. It's very narrow-minded and only searches for immediate, quick results rather than a process.
But you're right Patty in that being proactive has been heavily dissuaded over being reactive.
Well.... The pHarma fascists won't make any money if you do that, just sayin.
I think that each of us who have seen, or speaking for myself, I've read, seen, experienced and will take care of myself and not succumb to fear. I've seen too many people get better tomorrow, taking Iver and herbs from Buhner's protocols, without residual long haulers. It's miraculous, really. Just visited a friend who was sick as a dog yesterday. We gave him the herbal protocol and Iver, plus a little acupuncture, and he's a new man today. Personally I use Iver once a week, Buhner's preventive protocol daily, the vitamins and supplements shown effective, and Taffix nasal spray. https://www.taffixprotect.co.uk/ when I go out among others, rinse nasal passages when I get home.
I can do this for myself and suggest it to my community of friends, but I can't take on the whole of society which is in the grip of fear (covid, war, the environment, climate, etc). Hopefully I can be a light of sanity and equanimity
Is there a specific website where you source herbs Paul? I saw Buhner's protocol suggested searching on etsy to source some of these products but I was wondering if there was a more streamlined website. Not necessarily for me to purchase but I'm quite curious where these herbs are available.
Actually, the best quality assurance for herbs is the same as for fruits and veggies (and eggs, milk and meat) is to source your own locally, either in your garden, or the small farm or gardens of neighbors and local farms, or responsible wildcrafting or hunting. We grow many of the herbs we consume, some are weeds that I don't even have to plant (chanca piedra and holy basil are fine examples). Others, like Ashwaghanda take a few years before harvesting. So I know there's no adulteration or glyphosate residue, for example.
In the past I have given herbs lip service, but didn't use them much. After I read Buhner's Herbal Antibiotics For Resistant Organisms, and Herbal Antivirals For Emerging Organisms, I realized I wanted to take control of the medicines I use, and avoid the toxic legacy of pHarma. After covid hit, I started making my own tinctures as well, learning more, finding good resources and educational materials. I feel like I know so little, yet what I know has helped so many people.
I source bulk herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene Oregon. They grow a number of herbs and source all organic or wild crafted, dried herbs, tinctures, supplies for making, etc mountainroseherbs.com
Pacific botanicals in southern Oregon is a working farm and sources other organic herbs from around the planet https://www.pacificbotanicals.com/
Herb Pharm makes good quality tinctures, but they seem pricey to me
I only use Amazon, or eBay for herbs I haven't found elsewhere, but there's no quality controls there, sometimes it's my only option, and I have no faith in Jeff Bezos
Buhner has lists of sources in his books on herbal antibiotics and herbal Antivirals
In Australia, we did have a zero-covid policy up to last December. I think the most effective part was the closure of international borders, and quarantining of new arrivals. (I'm not advocating this as a good thing - we have always had some protection from agricultural and human diseases as an island nation, but never before at such an extreme level.)
We also had state border closures and restrictions, which had an even worse effect on economic life - and our sense of freedom.
The actual lockdowns and associated restrictions (closures of businesses, schools, etc) have been completely unjustified, IMO. The damage (social and economic and educational) has yet to be tallied fully. The benefits have been dubious (though we keep being told that things would have been much worse if we had not done this - and the same with vaccinations).
Now we have "opened up" - international travel is still not back to what it was, but becoming less restricted (for the jabbed), and state borders have mostly also opened again (except for WA). They keep telling us that lockdowns are probably not going to be imposed anymore (though they do still hold the threat of local lockdowns over us, if considered necessary).
Case numbers are not a useful indicator at this stage, but the death rate peaked through Jan-Feb, and now shows signs of rising again - a peak much worse than anything we experienced up to that time. Yet the hype stopped... restrictions (mandatory mask wearing) eased...
If I wanted to be cynical, I might suggest that the level of fear and vigilance in our population has waxed and waned in accord with the media mention, and shows absolutely no correlation whatsoever with the actual hospitalisation and death figures.
Thanks for providing your personal account. Do you know if the case fatality rate among the elderly were high during the lockdowns? I do wonder if now that Omicron has reached every country if those elderly people just succumbed to the virus later on. It's unfortunate that it's difficult to determine such a relationship.
It's certainly due to the media. People have such short attention spans now that they don't remember things that they hear or read from months prior. I'm actually quite shocked how many people who wanted to move on with their lives are now succumbing to fear here in the US once again.
I don't know what the case fatality rate was, by age. I live in Queensland, and typically we would get daily news briefings that reported: "Sadly, 10 more people died, 6 of them in aged care and one in a geriatric ward. 2 of them were in their 90s, 3 in their 80s, 4 in their 70s, and one was a man in his 60s."
During the last part of 2021 & early 2022, the reports would focus more on who was vaxxed: eg 6 Feb 2022 (from my own notes) - "Nine deaths: two people were unvaccinated, two had only a single dose, while four had received two shots.
"None had received their booster."
(This was the era of boosting the booster!)
NSW and Victoria (as did other states) had similar news briefings, with higher numbers of cases and deaths at their peaks, but again, almost all were elderly.
As with other parts of the world, the "case" numbers were determined by PCR tests, with cycle threshold somewhere over 40, so those numbers do not truly refer to "cases"
I do know that the majority of deaths were elderly people in aged care, where infection and treatment are not optimised!
And good data has been very difficult to find.
Thanks for your response. That seems to be what I am suspecting is occurring. It's likely that the elderly believe they are well protected and thus living their lives but unfortunately succumbing to the virus- although I believe plenty of elderly would rather live their lives rather than live in fear. But it's more speculation on my part as, like you said, the data is heavily confounded. However, it does appear that provinces in Australia are at least stratifying the deaths to some degree which is really not seen here in the US. It appears that we are just told that cases and deaths are rising without being told the demographics of those people, and thus people are just willing to assume the worst.
But thank you for your insights! It definitely helps to rationalize some of what we are seeing right now.
Rather than mandates, why not implement a full court press of good nutrition; weight management, good nasal and throat hygiene. Vitamin D levels should be checked for baseline and supplements added to get levels >50. Prevention therapeutics for frontline workers should be initiated early-on; hydroxy chloroquine and/or ivermectin as done in Mexico City and U Pradesh, India. The same should be done for most citizens; especially high risk ones. All of these measures are safe, effective and affordable. This time we should have learned to be aggressively proactive instead of insidiously passive, waiting for cyanotic lips desperate for O2. This time we should avoid the hospitals at all cost. To control Mother Nature, she must be obeyed; using our innate immune system to prevent illness and/or restore it quickly.
You would think that such a thing would be recommended. Whether it proves beneficial for COVID it certainly will help for plenty of diseases! But there tends not to be such a way of thinking. It's very narrow-minded and only searches for immediate, quick results rather than a process.
But you're right Patty in that being proactive has been heavily dissuaded over being reactive.
Well.... The pHarma fascists won't make any money if you do that, just sayin.
I think that each of us who have seen, or speaking for myself, I've read, seen, experienced and will take care of myself and not succumb to fear. I've seen too many people get better tomorrow, taking Iver and herbs from Buhner's protocols, without residual long haulers. It's miraculous, really. Just visited a friend who was sick as a dog yesterday. We gave him the herbal protocol and Iver, plus a little acupuncture, and he's a new man today. Personally I use Iver once a week, Buhner's preventive protocol daily, the vitamins and supplements shown effective, and Taffix nasal spray. https://www.taffixprotect.co.uk/ when I go out among others, rinse nasal passages when I get home.
I can do this for myself and suggest it to my community of friends, but I can't take on the whole of society which is in the grip of fear (covid, war, the environment, climate, etc). Hopefully I can be a light of sanity and equanimity
Aloha
Is there a specific website where you source herbs Paul? I saw Buhner's protocol suggested searching on etsy to source some of these products but I was wondering if there was a more streamlined website. Not necessarily for me to purchase but I'm quite curious where these herbs are available.
Actually, the best quality assurance for herbs is the same as for fruits and veggies (and eggs, milk and meat) is to source your own locally, either in your garden, or the small farm or gardens of neighbors and local farms, or responsible wildcrafting or hunting. We grow many of the herbs we consume, some are weeds that I don't even have to plant (chanca piedra and holy basil are fine examples). Others, like Ashwaghanda take a few years before harvesting. So I know there's no adulteration or glyphosate residue, for example.
In the past I have given herbs lip service, but didn't use them much. After I read Buhner's Herbal Antibiotics For Resistant Organisms, and Herbal Antivirals For Emerging Organisms, I realized I wanted to take control of the medicines I use, and avoid the toxic legacy of pHarma. After covid hit, I started making my own tinctures as well, learning more, finding good resources and educational materials. I feel like I know so little, yet what I know has helped so many people.
That's very interesting. I guess it would also depend upon the climate and geography as well. That's all things to consider.
I source bulk herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene Oregon. They grow a number of herbs and source all organic or wild crafted, dried herbs, tinctures, supplies for making, etc mountainroseherbs.com
Pacific botanicals in southern Oregon is a working farm and sources other organic herbs from around the planet https://www.pacificbotanicals.com/
1st Chinese herbs https://1stchineseherbs.com/
For prepared tinctures I've used Montana Farmacy https://www.montanafarmacy.com/online-store/Formula-Blends-c47590406
Tweefontaine farm on Etsy https://www.earthashram.com
Reverence botanicals https://www.reverencebotanicals.com/s/shop
and a couple other small producers on Etsy.
Herb Pharm makes good quality tinctures, but they seem pricey to me
I only use Amazon, or eBay for herbs I haven't found elsewhere, but there's no quality controls there, sometimes it's my only option, and I have no faith in Jeff Bezos
Buhner has lists of sources in his books on herbal antibiotics and herbal Antivirals
Happy exploring