Can we trust corrupt institutions during this crisis?
And the deadliness of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
As I write this, my kids are playing outside with their neighbourhood friends while I listen to some Mozart.
I made them flapjacks earlier, after waking up and saying my prayers (not going to Mass as per President’s recommendation). I then read some news and have been reflecting after coffee on all the things which they are telling me but just don’t add up.
If you think you can trust global institutions and the media culture which gives them currency, see the picture above. It doesn’t help to note that WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is the first in his position not to be a doctor and was tapped for the role by the Clinton Foundation and Bill Gates after working with them on health in Ethiopia. He sure seems to be doing a good job.
He got his start in health administration under the Marxist Mengistu regime - yes, the guys who caused the famine in the 1990s when those picture of starving Ethiopians flooded the world.
The above image must also be seen in the context of the fact that the Chinese have just built a new airport in Ethiopia and that is the main entry point for over a million Chinese now working in Africa.
Why is this relevant?
Simple - if you look at other pandemics throughout history, the government authorities have tended to make the situation worse.
The Spanish Flu was not from Spain - Spain was just the only place where they did not censor information about the virus.
Later on, doctors’ recommendations of taking large doses of aspirin to treat the flu led to a massive spike in deaths. And then in the second and third waves of deaths, unchecked swarming of hospitals - where presumably they gave you aspirin. See here.
And then you can look at the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak in the US, where the government quickly concocted a vaccine, injected a quarter of the population, and then had to abort the plan when they realised the treatment was causing Guillain–Barré syndrome.
How does this relate to what is happening today?
Well, warnings from people on the ground about the dangers of certain painkillers are being ignored.
The French Health minister has warned his citizens only to take paracetamol, saying his country has seen correlation between anti-inflammatory drugs and severity of illness. Heard that yet?
Be cautious, in other words, and don’t give your family ibuprofen, aspirin, cortisone, codeine etc.
Look at this anecdote below:
Or you could listen to the highly credible WHO and roll the dice.
I am no doctor - so please don’t think I am offering medical advice. I am only sharing what I read. But I think if I felt sick, I would probably just stay at home, try take some prophylactic antibiotics, paracetamol, and stay away from medical facilities. Try get sunlight - the best disinfectant - unless I was slowly struggling to breathe.
It seems to me the South African government is currently on the right track - avoid crowds, self-quarantine if you have symptoms. I do wonder about the utility of going to get tested for a virus which has no cure however (so long as you self-quarantine under the presumption you have it).
Meanwhile, if you read my previous post, you would have read about the early and basic studies which are looking at the positive early signs regarding forms of quinine.
Donald Trump has seen these studies,just like Elon Musk has:
And obviously, the media has gone nuts - simply because they are preliminary studies, and how dare Trump suggest an old, unprofitable drug may help - as massive Trump critics, like Elon Musk and these prominent scientists, have suggested.
But because Trump says we should try it, it MUST be wrong.
This is scarily bad journalism.
There seems to be clearly enough evidence that this treatment is clearly worth exploring. And the drug has been used safely for a long time - obviously with some side-effects - like every other drug.
Whilst we are on Trump, it is worth setting the record straight on some other criticisms. First of all, if you check the record, he was not slow to respond - he instituted travel bans quickly. And his criticism of China has been 100% correct.
China disappeared the doctors who blew the whistle first. The regime only locked down Wuhan seven weeks after the first cases were reported, after the mayor had admitted that 5 million people had already left Wuhan. It is the Wuhan virus.
More to come: What’s going on in Italy? What is working in Japan? What to do about the economy? And how ‘wokeness’ has caused us so much unnecessary damage.
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