COVID-19: WHERE ARE WE AND WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
July is the heart of summer in North America. It is the time of year we, as Americans, celebrate our Independence and Freedom.
It is the time of year we take family vacations and enjoy the great outdoors, spending quality time with family and friends we may not have seen in a while, especially due to COVID-19 shutdowns and isolations.
I can admit that I did not think I would still be writing about COVID at this time last year. However, I am still getting dozens of emails and phone calls and messages from friends, family and even strangers I’ve never met about what they should do about COVID.
Should they travel, should they get vaccinated, should they go see their elderly grandparents, how do they protect themselves. These are the questions I get daily.
Therefore, I thought it not only timely, but appropriate to inform you on what we have learned about COVID over the past 18 months based on analysis of existing data and my scientific interpretation of that data.
More importantly, how can we effectively utilize and make recommendations based on the data?
To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate? That Is the Question.
Historically, vaccines have played a very important role in eradicating many deadly viral diseases. However, in the past, vaccines have been inactivated, non-infectious viral particles that our immune system can then develop antibodies and immunity against exposure to live virus.
This is how our immune system is designed to work. Recognize an invader and then mobilize our army of immune cells to kill it but also be able to quickly recognize any subsequent infection and have a much faster kill response. That is the antibody response.
The COVID-19 vaccines are not designed in this way. The COVID-19 vaccines are mRNA technologies designed to highjack the protein making machinery of your cells so that your own human cells make the corona spike protein so then your body can make antibodies against it with the intent of providing immunity if you are exposed to the real virus.
The objective is to keep you from getting sick from the virus if exposed. mRNA virus have never been tested for long term safety in humans. The available clinical data in humans that was submitted for emergency use approval by the drug companies, show that those vaccinated had reduced symptoms from infection from COVID but did not show any reduction in hospitalization, admission into the ICU or death from COVID. That was not the design of the studies.
Based on those data, the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for mRNA vaccines from several companies.
What Is an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)?
(From FDA website) – “An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is a mechanism to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Under an EUA, 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. Taking into consideration input from the FDA, manufacturers decide whether and when to submit an EUA request to FDA.”
To put this in layman’s terms, the vaccines are not FDA approved but rather have granted authorization to use during a pandemic when there are no adequate, approved or available alternatives.
This is important. COVID-19 has a 99.97% survival rate so only about 3 out of 10,000 infected people die from COVID.
Is this really a public health emergency, especially since the total numbers included deaths from terminal patient that die with COVID rather than died from COVID?
Published clinical trials reveal several available alternatives that work safely and very effectively. These include hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, zinc and now even some impressive data from ivermectin showing protection from COVID.
So are there really no adequate, approved and available alternatives? The vaccines do not even meet the criteria for EUA since there are many available alternatives.
Is the Vaccine Safe?
The answer is we do not know. There have never been any long term safety studies using mRNA vaccines in humans.
However, as more people are getting vaccinated around the globe, we are beginning to acquire some safety data and even efficacy data on the vaccines.
Trials indicate it takes between 76 and 117 people vaccinated to prevent 1 infection (not one death). Reports of deaths from the vaccines is about 0.002%, reports of myocarditis in young people is about 0.001%, greater than 82% increase in miscarriages when pregnant women were vaccinated in first two trimesters, and a number of other side effects that are not well characterized but are generally categorized as immune dysfunction. These are very common but are often unreported.
I personally know hundreds of people that have had more than minor side effects from the vaccine and many that refuse to take the second dose based on how the first dose affected them. There is also the fear that the vaccines can cause immune priming as reported in animal studies.
This causes a much more severe immune response when exposed to a live virus since the immune system has been primed and can over-react when exposed to subsequent infection. In this case, there can be anaphylaxis and even death.
Perhaps most concerning is how do we turn off the spike protein making machinery in our cells? What are the long term consequences of continuous production of a viral protein inside the human body? How will our immune system respond to continuous exposure to a viral protein? How will this affect other processes within the cell? Do we become more susceptible to other viruses since our immune system has been highjacked to make corona virus spike protein? Will this be transferred to fetus in pregnant women?
These are all very important questions to which there is no answer.
Is the Vaccine Effective?
The submitted clinical data from the vaccine trials reveal that the vaccine can reduce symptoms from infection but there is very little data showing the vaccine can prevent infection and transmission of disease. There are dozens of mutants to the original corona virus that the vaccines may not provide protection.
This is obvious now with the delta mutant. It is infecting even those that have been vaccinated, perhaps at a higher rate.
What Should I Do?
For me, every decision is based on a risk benefit analysis.
What is the risk of doing something vs what is the potential benefit. With regard to the vaccine, it provides little to no benefit with very serious, even life threatening risks.
So for a virus that has a 99.97% survival rate, my personal and professional decision is to avoid the vaccine. I trust my immune system and how it will respond to COVID or any other infection. The notion that my RNA and DNA can be transformed and highjacked to produce a viral protein is not something I am interested in, as a scientist and as a Christian. Our Creator made us perfectly in his likeness and I don’t intend on changing that.
The decision to get vaccinated is personal and different for each person.
My objective is to provide objective, scientific evidence on the risks and benefits so everyone can make informed decisions on what is best for them and their family. Whether you get the vaccine or not, there is still a need for safe and effective therapies for COVID.
We will continue our efforts to get a safe and effective nitric oxide drug to market.
For those of you who decide not to get the vaccine, but still wants some reassurance you can stay protected, below are some common sense, clinically proven treatment modalities that can prevent infection and illness from COVID. In fact, these are smart simple tips for anyone even those that have been vaccinated.
Patients that do the worse from COVID are those with low Vitamin D levels (<50ng/ml), patients with symptoms of nitric oxide deficiency i.e. hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, obesity and pulmonary disease and the elderly. These are easy to overcome.
Simple Tips to Avoid COVID
1. Take 5000 units of Vit D daily
2. Take 3000 mg Vit C daily
3. Take 50 mg zinc daily for 30 days then 15mg daily
4. Get moderate physical exercise to improve nitric oxide production and enhance immune system
5. Sit in an infrared sauna at temp >140°F for at least 20 min per day
6. Stay hydrated drinking lots of clean filtered water
7. Get at least 30 minutes of sunlight every day
8. Use an ozone generator when you travel and in your home and hotel room to disinfect the area around you
9. Eat more green leafy vegetables to enhance immunity and production of nitric oxide
10. Take 12.5 mg iodine daily
As we celebrate July 4th Independence Day, let’s not give in to fear. Be vigilant, be smart in your decisions but most importantly take steps to improve your health.
The healthy are far less likely to get infected from COVID and have minimal symptoms if infected. We lose our freedom if we live with a chronic disease. We lose our freedom when we can’t travel to see our loved ones. We lose our freedom if we live in fear of COVID.
Don’t lose your freedom. There were many that sacrificed everything so that we can live as we do today.
Happy Independence Day and take care of your health. It is our greatest asset.