Tag: healthcare

Doctors in USA admit they killed Patients during the Pandemic by putting them on Ventilators

In a jaw-dropping article published by The Wall Street Journal – ‘Hospitals Retreat From Early Covid Treatment and Return to Basics’ – physicians admit to ventilating patients who did not need it as a step in their protocol – get this – not as a treatment that was likely to benefit the patient, but rather as a fruitless and callous way of attempting to stop the spread of covid-19.

Last spring, with less known about the disease, doctors often pre-emptively put patients on ventilators or gave powerful sedatives largely abandoned in recent years. The aim was to save the seriously ill and protect hospital staff from Covid-19.

Now hospital treatment for the most critically ill looks more like it did before the pandemic. Doctors hold off longer before placing patients on ventilators. Patients get less powerful sedatives, with doctors checking more frequently to see if they can halt the drugs entirely and dialling back how much air ventilators push into patients’ lungs with each breath.

“We were intubating sick patients very early. Not for the patient’s benefit, but to control the epidemic and to save other patients,” Dr. Iwashyna said “That felt awful.”

Yes, euthanising humans is illegal. Especially for the benefit of other patients. It should feel awful.

Last spring, doctors put patients on ventilators partly to limit contagion at a time when it was less clear how the virus spread when protective masks and gowns were in short supply. Doctors could have employed other kinds of breathing support devices that don’t require risky sedation, but early reports suggested patients using them could spray dangerous amounts of virus into the air, said Theodore Iwashyna, a critical-care physician at University of Michigan and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Subsequent research found the alternative devices to ventilators, such as delivering oxygen through nasal tubes, weren’t as risky to caretakers as believed. Doctors also gained experience with covid-19 patients, learning to spot signs of who might suddenly turn seriously ill, some said.

The WSJ article describes a study conducted that now allows doctors to predict who needs a ventilator and who does not:

It found more doctors now follow the pre-pandemic protocols, which have reduced the number of deaths and shortened the time patients spend on ventilators, HCA’s chief medical officer said.

Before the pandemic, between about 30% to more than 40% of ventilator patients died, according to research. Numbers were sharply higher in the pandemic’s early hot spot in Wuhan, China. As the pandemic grew, hospitals in the US reported death rates in some cases of about 50% for ventilated covid-19 patients.

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Woke Lancet Announces ‘Medical Urgency’ of Climate Change

The once-venerable UK Lancet medical journal is charging ahead in its climate change crusade, proclaiming “the ethical and medical urgency of the climate crisis” in its latest issue.

After calling climate change the “biggest global health threat of the 21st century” earlier this month, the Lancet has now praised “health-care professionals participating in Extinction Rebellion action [who] blocked the entrance to the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to protest about impotent responses to climate change.”

In a woke mea culpa confessing that health care is “part of the climate problem,” the Lancet notes that in 2014 “the global health-care industry emitted 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2), or 4.4% of the world’s total.”

“Visible examples include operating rooms overflowing with trash generated by disposable sterile supplies and surgical equipment, parking areas filled with private transportation reliant on fossil fuels, and constant energy flow to digital monitors and other technologies,” the journal acknowledges.

Moreover, the Lancet continues, “pharmaceuticals — many of which are produced from fossil fuels — are the second most carbon intensive part of health care, after medical instruments and equipment.”

To be more environmentally responsible, physicians can reconsider the carbon impact of some routine prescribing practices, the journal advises.

For example, doctors should consider refusing to participate in the distribution of free drug samples and in this way “help reduce medication overuse and reduce the carbon impact when samples go unused.”

Physicians could also avoid starting patients on 30-day medication supplies by starting with just a 1-week supply, “even at the cost of some convenience to the doctor and patient,” the Lancet counsels.

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To gain total medical control the New Zealand Government is waging war against the use of Natural Health Products

Just before Christmas our Government introduced the Therapeutic Products Bill for its first reading. Public consultation is being rushed through the summer holidays here in the southern hemisphere and closes on 15 February. The Bill contains 423 pages of dense provisions with countless cross references. I am not sure whether any Members of Parliament actually read it before voting for its acceptance or whether the public could stand to do so. You can view my video summary of its draconian provisions below.

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ARPA-H: The Nosy Love Child of DARPA and the NIH

On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed a law allowing for the creation and funding of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency received $1 billion for fiscal year 2022.

ARPA-H’s stated mission is  to“accelerate better health outcomes for everyone by supporting the development of high-impact solutions to society’s most challenging health problems.”  So, the federal government is tossing another billion into the black hole that is the American health care system.  Okay.

We’re already spending a fortune on healthcare.

Let’s think about this for a minute.  The U.S. already spends far more per capita than any other nation in the world.  We spend an average of $11,495 per person, per year.  Most other First World countries hover between $5000 and $6000.  (source)

Health care in the U.S. represented 17.7% of the economy as of 2018, and has been projected to increase to 19.7% in 2028.  That means that more than 1 in 6 dollars spent in the U.S. is being spent on healthcare.

So, is this paying off?  Are Americans the healthiest people in the world?

No.  We’re sick and have been getting sicker.  Our life expectancy dropped again last year, to 76.4 years, which is the lowest since the 1990s.  Meanwhile people in dozens of other countries can expect to live into their 80s on average, American life expectancy just continues to drop. I don’t think we’re getting what we pay for.

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Scientists Develop Gelatinous Robots to Crawl Through Human Body to Deliver Medical Payloads or Diagnose Illnesses

Scientists have developed miniature gelatinous robots that can crawl through the human body to deliver medicine or diagnose illnesses.

The “gelbot” is powered by little more than temperature changes, and its innovative design, which resembles an inchworm, is one of the most promising concepts in the field of soft robotics, according to Jill Rosen of John Hopkins University.

“It seems very simplistic, but this is an object moving without batteries, without wiring, without an external power supply of any kind—just on the swelling and shrinking of gel,” said David Gracias, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and a senior project leader.

“Our study shows how the manipulation of shape, dimensions, and patterning of gels can tune morphology to embody a kind of intelligence for locomotion.”

The 3D-printed robot, which is made out of gelatin, is intended to replace pills or intravenous injections, which could cause problematic side effects.

The prototype was announced in the journal Science Robotics, on Dec. 14.

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Quebec Approves Magic Mushrooms Under Public Health Coverage

Quebec, Canada last week approved the used of psilocybin – the primary psychoactive in “magic mushrooms,” as a valid therapy under the state’s medical system.

Advocates hope the move will set a precedent for other Canadian provinces to take similar action, Forbes reports.

“This decision is a huge step forward for the use of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a legitimate medical treatment,” wrote TheraPsil, a nonprofit group that advocates for the advancement of psilocybin therapies, in a Dec. 15 statement. “It not only provides greater access to this potentially life-changing treatment for patients in Quebec, but it also sets a precedent for other provinces to follow suit.”

Clinical research and other studies into psychedelics such as psilocybin have shown that the drugs have potential therapeutic benefits, particularly for serious mental health conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety. Research published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry in 2020 found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy was an effective and quick-acting treatment for a group of 24 participants with major depressive disorder. A separate study published in 2016 determined that psilocybin treatment produced substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer. -Forbes

As we noted in April, psychedelic mushrooms are becoming increasingly popular in the US as a possible treatment for psychiatric disorders, with their main active ingredient, psilocybin, moving from the fringes of medicine, to become increasingly mainstream. It appears that Canada, however, is actually making moves to bring the benefits to actual patients.

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Governments are NOT the “One Source of Truth” – Public Debates challenging Policies and Narratives are essential

The New York Times is a respected broadsheet newspaper. It maintains a staunchly pro-vaccine stance. On Nov 26 2022 it published a catch-up article ‘Happy Birthday, Omicron’ (since the variant is now one year old). The article is written by their well-known science correspondent Carl Zimmer, author of 14 books.

Zimmer interviews numerous researchers working in the field who point out that there has been an evolutionary explosion of Omicron variants. Hundreds are now circulating which according to virologist Dr. Jesse Bloom “is making it more challenging for scientists to plan new vaccines and treatments.”

This was not unexpected. Even before the pandemic it was well known that vaccines which fail to prevent transmission drive variant mutation towards the development of strains resistant to vaccines. See this 2015 paper in Plos Biology for example: ‘Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens’.

The NYT article reports: “In February, Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at Rockefeller University in New York, and her colleagues ran an experiment that suggested Omicron was primed for an evolutionary explosion. Dr. Hatziioannou’s team tested Omicron against 40 different antibodies that could still block the variant. They discovered that it was remarkably easy for a few extra mutations to make it resistant to almost all of those antibodies.”

The net result is that even the latest versions of Covid vaccines and treatments are easily evaded by a growing number of variants: “The new mutations are building up quickly, most likely because they are providing the viruses with a big evolutionary edge” the NYT article reported. “The [viral] evolution that’s happening is the fastest rate it has been up to this point,” Sergei Pond, a virologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, said.

The outcome is something you are probably already aware of through personal experience or through that of your friends. Covid vaccines are not working. Researchers are trying to develop new approaches, but I think you can see that the rate of mutation and adaptation of the Covid-19 virus is likely to outstrip these efforts, as is the case for example with other coronaviruses such as the common cold and the flu. Fortunately, Omicron variants are at this stage still relatively mild, but their future trajectory remains uncertain which is concerning.

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Duke University Refuses Kidney Transplant To Dying Girl For Refusing COVID Vaccine

Two Christian parents, Chrissy and Lee Hicks, both North Carolina Army veterans, have 11 children, including a 14-year-old girl, Yulia, who is a rescued orphan from Ukraine.  Yulia has been shuffled around the US and transferred between caretakers several times and has been finally adopted by the Hicks, who feel a strong determination and sense of duty to give their daughter some stability and justice in life. Despite coming this far, Yulia is now being denied a critical organ transplant due to her vaccination status.

Tragically, Yulia’s health has been slipping due to a genetic kidney disorder.  The Hicks family has sought help and had been embraced and encouraged by Durham Duke medical staff for being a serious-minded family that cared well for Yulia and who followed all medical procedures and guidelines given to them, getting Yulia closer to the transplant process.

But on November 29, something went wrong for the family.

“To think that a committee can determine someone’s life is terrifying. This is, without a doubt, medical tyranny. What has become of the medical community? How does the refusal of a shot that is known to cause many health issues AND does NOT stop the spread of a disease deny a 14-year lifesaving therapy? How does that happen in America? Today we are sad. Tomorrow is a new day, and God is there with an answer for us,” Chrissy Hicks posted on Yulia’s website.  

The question on their minds is, what if they get the lifesaving surgery for Yulia, and she has complications from the vaccine? Chrissy Hicks shared her concerns with National File.

Up to the late November phone call between the Hicks and the Duke medical staff, the Hicks family believed the vaccination for Yulia was an option and that they could opt out and still get the surgery.

Lee Hicks wrote about the timeline of events that got them to the phone call.

” Oct 7, we had an 8-hour appt at Duke to talk to many doctors. Dr. Chambers was the biggest one pushing the vaccine. Dr. Chang said he highly recommended it, but it was not mandatory and that families had gotten transplants without it. 

Then we got an email from Catherine Thomas, a wellness coordinator, on Nov 9, stating what vaccines Yulia needed.

The First email was what they recommended. Then in a second email, the verbiage changed to what she must have or what was required. Yulia was presented to the committee on 10 Nov and denied because of a lack of the vaccine.“

During the uncomfortable conference call, the staff made it clear that without the vaccination, Yulia would not be considered for surgery. After skirting the issue, one medical staff answered decidedly when asked if the shot was a requirement, saying ‘yes’.

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Top epidemiologist slams federal health agencies for acting like ‘PR department’ for drugmakers

One of the nation’s top epidemiologists is blasting federal health agencies, saying science has proven they have been wrong about everything from vaccine efficacy to mask protections during the COVID-19 pandemic and have eroded their trust with the public by acting like a “PR department” for drug and vaccine makers.

Dr. Harvey A. Risch, professor emeritus at the Yale School of Public Health, told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Friday that agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration manipulated statistics to portray plausible theories as scientific fact through the coronavirus emergency.

“When you play fast and loose with statistics trying to be plausible, that’s not science,” he said.

The end result, Risch said, was that public health agencies’ proclamations have been proven wrong repeatedly, eroding essential trust with the American public.

“Where we ended up is that the government said, you know, ‘You won’t get the infection if you get vaccinated,'” he said. “That was untrue. ‘You won’t spread the infection if you get vaccinated.’ That was untrue. It said reasonably that you won’t get sick or die from the infection if you get vaccinated. That’s, as we are seeing, not true. The majority of people now dying from COVID are vaccinated.”

Risch said the latest hit to federal officials’ credibility came with a new peer-reviewed randomized study that found N-95 respirator masks — long portrayed as superior virus filters — provided no better protection from the COVID-19 virus than cloth surgical masks and that neither provided significant protection to patients or medical providers.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt also claimed that retiring National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, whose flip-flops on masking led to mass public confusion early in the pandemic, couldn’t name any studies showing mask effectiveness in his recent deposition in state-led litigation against alleged federal censorship.

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Nationwide survey finds most medical schools have embedded DEI into their programs

A new survey completed by dozens of medical schools found they are committed to making DEI part of virtually every aspect of their programs, from promoting staff to treating patients.

More than 100 institutions took part in the Association of American Medical Colleges’ “Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, & Equity Inventory,” the first-ever report on DEI policies and practices at U.S. and Canadian medical schools, according to a November 10 AAMC news release.

“Major highlights” of the report include the finding that 100 percent of medical schools surveyed have admissions “that support a diverse class of students.”

Additional highlights are that 97 percent of schools have senior leaders “who show commitment to DEI in their personal actions” and communication, and 89 percent of medical schools say DEI is central to their school’s mission statement, the news release stated.

The AAMC is a nonprofit organization that lists as members 170 accredited medical schools, more than 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, and more than 70 faculty and academic societies, according to its website.

Report co-author and medical doctor Malika Fair stated the findings confirmed that existing DEI policies are effective and “doing well” and identified targets to integrate DEI deeper into the institutions, the group stated in its release.

However, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, board chair of Do No Harm, an organization of medical professionals opposed to identity politics in medicine, criticized the AAMC’s priorities as “a real risk for the American people.”

“The AAMC has made it clear that they value diversity and the elements of critical race theory, including assuming that any deficits in educational attainment or disparities in health outcomes are the result of oppression of minorities,” Goldfarb told The College Fix in an email Wednesday.

“The public can now see how misguided the leadership of American medical education has become. Merit and complete commitment to caring for patients as individuals has given way to a focus on social justice, group identity, and diversity of the physician workforce. This emphasis poses a real risk for the American people,” he said.

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