500 million Kits n’ all.

COVID Testing kit

 

 500 million Testing Kits, and still weeks away, but on the way!

 

In this acrimonious world where even a humorous remark is deemed an aggression and slammed by the technological fact-checking wizards with ideological bent in an instant, we the people are being forced to tread softly, lest we awaken the fictitious fire-breathing dragon that snores quietly in its lair.

 

But a minor question arose that piqued the neurons: Why are we gung-ho in the “Testing” mode? After all the Omicron has swept the globe and the 50 states of this Union without much ado. And to boot, it is a milder version but enforces a natural immunity against almost all the preexisting variants, based on the South African data. On the other side of the spectrum is Israel recommending a fourth vaccine booster against the Omicron. The logic always escapes the confines of rigid thought.

 

In a circumstance such as this what will further testing accomplish? Will it ward off the evil virus?

 

Extensive Testing is needed in the early phase of a viral illness which can prevent spread and additionally help in Contact-Tracing of all the contacts who may then quarantine for a specified period and prevent the onward march of the virus. But that train is long past the station.

 

How do unstandardized home-testing-kits with a significant false negative/false positive potential benefit the people, even it is a virtue signaled as for the “public good?” Will it further the chaotic environment of insecurity and fear?

 

Perhaps, and giving the devil its due, the home testing kits will help people who test positive to stay home. That is a laudable concern. Just as if you feel sick, tired, fatigued, with the sniffles you perhaps want to stay home and avoid the crowds for further spreading the viral genome. That is all good. Makes us feel good that Daddy is keeping us safe and secure in our homes by providing us with expensive tools instead of spending time in educating the need for such.

 

“But daddy,” asks the little 5-year-old, “that makes me nervous for going out.”

“Why son?” asks the tall, towering father.

“Because, daddy, now I feel that before I can step out of the house without testing, I might spread it to my friend, Jill. And I don’t want to do that.”

“Well son, that is very noble of you. Just for that measure, we have ordered a thousand kits and we can test anytime we want.” The father pats his son on the head.

“But daddy, Jill’s parents live in a small home, and they only have three kits. She can only test once. What happens when Jill uses the one and does not have any kits left?”

“Then son, she will have to stay home, or she might spread the virus to others with negative test.”

“But daddy, that is so unfair!” The boy raises his tinny voice in exasperation.

“We all have to follow the rules.” The father admonishes.

“I am going to give Jill some of my test kits then.” The boy murmurs to himself.

“You will do no such thing. Do you know how many favors I had to give to get these for our family so we can live our lives freely?” The father uses his deep baritone voice for effect.

“But what about my friend Jill?”

“Jill is not my concern. You are.”

And thus, for the unconnected, those living paycheck-to-paycheck, and the poor, the disinterested get the call of “take this and shut up. You get what you get.”

 

Again, the prickly question comes to mind, where are we going with this “Testing?” and when is it all going to end? Apparently, the CDC is withdrawing the Emergency Use Authorization for its PCR test. Perhaps that is because of the many inscrutable uses of thermal cycle thresholds to create false positives or perhaps the public awareness of it all is coming to the fore? Who knows?

 

The two-year-old story is finding itself becoming unglued with unresolved threads that don’t artfully coil together perfectly in a braid. The readers are apprehensive and unsettled, because the flip-flop, word-salad continues to dominate the airwaves and the digital markets, enhancing confusion and chaos. 

 

The world is waking up, albeit slowly, and realizing that they, in a matter of two years have lost the comforts of their liberties and their freedoms. The peoples are rising to question the motives of the men and women behind the opaque curtain. 

 

Meanwhile the proponents of such restrictive provisions are quietly admitting some layer of guilt. For instance, New Jersey quietly pays $53 million to the families of the victims of the nursing home residents. And the New York Governor resigns in shame over extraneous reasons, but similar dark circumstances cloud his legacy. They created an untimely frost which stole away rightful lives. And hush money makes for a good legacy, perhaps?

 

And back to “Testing” again. What do we hope to accomplish with the testing? Fear? Or Contact Tracing? Or perhaps telling people who are positive to stay home? If the former two are the reasons they will fail miserably as the rest of the charade has fallen on hard times. If the latter, then perhaps a simpler inexpensive version might be to educate people to just stay home with sniffles.

 

In the end, someone with the tax-payer purse must realize that throwing money at a pandemic is not the answer. These nested finitudes of virtue signals matter most to those in charge and not those mentally imprisoned by the chaos.  The answer lies not with the Mandates, the vaccine passports, the Lockdowns, and shutdowns, the social distancing, the masking, the  school closures, the compulsory COVID interventions, and the Political/Media overreach with Fear mongering. But there is not much mention about the Natural immunity. The Policy mandates have claimed many young and old lives through suicide and depression and job losses and broken families. Any rational person would condemn such a travesty. We hope there are a few rational people still in existence.  

 

These questions need to be answered. And the answers lie not in the vast burden of crafted narrative on the backs of the good will of the people, but it will come surely from the careful chiseling away at that piece of opaque marble into a statue to remind us of this debacle. Our lives are optimally programmed and not needing the manipulation by wrong-headed tinkerers. The society remains unmoored and focused on the narrowed vision instead of the elemental fundamentals of a broad future. It, the society is being guided today by some pathetic counterfeits who keep throwing these sugar-covered pills promising the rapture of safety and security, while the vast overlay of reality stares back in disbelief.

 

These questions may not be answered, because the power inebriated are dancing in a drunken vicious stupor of circular argument: “We know best.” 

 

They Don’t! 

 

Besides any argument or question is considered anti-science by the bureaucratic policy makers. And they know the harm they are doing to the society of humans, daily.

 

What we as humans, in our conquests for a better future, do is in the unmistakable deliberation with reason. Our future becomes our present and then unfolds itself out in our memories. Let us not look back at our own inactions in dismay, cowered by this overhang of fear and cowardice, but boldly strike at the underbelly of that fear and slay that beast within. And then live our lives in the pursuit of happiness!

 

 

 

Autumn and the Falling Leaf

 There is quite a splendor in the falling of a leaf. It is a measure of life. The entropic nature of our existence unfolds at each fall. The trees turn colors from the green of summer to the brown of Autumn. The glorious trick-spray of gold on the canopy of a forest is a treat to behold, as the chlorophyll is decommissioned from its magic of creating life from thin air.

 

There is magic in the air, as it chills to the gathering fall of leaves and the color in the wide-eyed child’s gaze fills with wonder. Halloween is here! Indeed, the dreams of candy and costume and the ever refrain of “Trick or Treat,” fills the doorsteps everywhere in the neighborhoods. 

 

From the 2000-year-old tradition of the Celtics of Ireland, and Scotland of celebrating the “All Saints Eve,” to the modern-day world of the United States this traditional celebration gathers more steam and joy each passing year as the young frolic and the elders watch.

 

But strangely in the past two years there has been a decay of such spirits and frivolity. Children are strangely fearful in approaching doorsteps. They are being shepherded in a controlled manner. Even Superman showed up with a mask on and Joker had a large cardboard syringe and needle in his hands, typifying the age we live in.

 

Something evil stirs among us humans. It has the strange tantalizing quality to a mysterious voice that filters all its statement through the lens of safety. And who would not listen to such a voice. After all it is carefully crafted for us all. To keep us safe from harm. Perhaps from evil? Ah therein lies the rub. What evil there is, is carefully hidden beneath the overture, riding the coattails of “safety!”

 

Children are the future, our future, their future, and the future of every nation. These are precious souls that need a careful tending to, like a sapling growing silently in a flower bed. One harmful stroke of hand and the poor green shoot of a sapling bends and gets crushed under the weight of the force. Children are like that sapling, carefully nurture and they grow to be the giant oaks of tomorrow, creating, innovation and reimagining life. Harm them and they die silent and weak.

 

Our children are facing some insurmountable odds that grow each day. This “falling leaf” Autumn has brought with it the purchase of such harmful intent. It is couched under the banner of “safety and security.” But it is neither.

 

Vaccination of children against a virus that has a mortality in the 0.00023-0.0004% range (or 654 died of a 2,800,000 infected with COVID. Hence the children do not need to be protected against, for a simple reason; The child’s immune system takes care of itself. Besides children have low levels of the ACE-2 receptors that entice the SARS CoV2 to attach itself to the cellular surface. So fewer of the viruses can gain access to the children’s cellular machinery. On top of that, they also have a wildly robust immune system that is highly programmable against risk of “non-self” entry by the virus or other pathogen. The entry if it does occur is mild and limited to a day or two of sniffles. After that the virus dare not try a forceable entry because it will be squashed in minutes by the alert immune system. The only children who may need protection are the ones who might have some underlying immune-compromising illness, such as cancer and its therapeutics, some blood disorders, diabetes and obesity. And to reiterate the long-term risks of the mRNA vaccine in children remain unknown and wont manifest till much later, especially given the information that the TLR4 and TLR 7/8receptors that guard the immune system might be affected by the vaccine either as agonist, thus enhancing immunity or by being an antagonist “a detrimental systemic immune activation by mRNAs coding for T cell molecules that mediate T cell activation and Th-1 responses.” 

 

 

So why then one might ask, do all 28 million children need a vaccine against an illness that barely evokes a flinch? That question should and must be all consuming in the minds of ordinary people of various walks of life and medical-scientists world-wide. Shouldn’t it?

 

Dr. Paul Alexander has written a brilliant analytical data-science article filled with 96 studies on the issue. Remarkably it has been ignored by the political and elite operatives in our society. While the masking issues remain in force to this date and are being un-necessarily imposed on the young ones in schools, the political class continues to show its hypocrisy as it trolls the world with its version of “safety and Security.” A version that excludes their personal behavior in both masking and social distancing.

 

Vaccines by their nature take many years of dedication both in trials and for then short-term and long-term safety. The short term being defined in a few months and the longer-term in years. For instance, the real vaccines that we all have received, such as Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Smallpox, each took many years to develop. This vaccine against SARS CoV2 was hatched in less than 9 months under “Operation Warp Speed,” with efficacy and safety data encompassed in a median of mere 2 months. 2 months! Let that sink in.  The 95% (Relative Risk Reduction) efficacy (The Absolute Risk Reduction was calculated at 0.7%, but that is another story for another time) seems to have fallen off the abyss over the 5-6 months post double dosed vaccinated individuals and there is a growing call for a third “booster” shot followed by a six-monthly need for more boosters, as Pfizer joyously reported its “Durable Revenue Stream,”. The inefficacy of the vaccines is documented by Dr. Paul Alexander in this article.

 

Using the same technique of a pseudoscientific approach of 2 months and using 1/3rd the adult mRNA vaccination dose (conjured up out of thin air) with no basic science support, is a new promotional tactic in play, as the FDA (a partially owned subsidiary of the Big Pharma, in this case Pfizer/Moderna/J&J) approved the vaccine for the children under the Emergency Use Authorization.

 

Two issues that might come to mind are: 1. Why is it an EUA? And if it is Why aren’t there any Informed Consents prior to the “jab?” and 2. With the declining infections from the viral infection, why the need to rush?

 

There are several schools of thought from scientists who live and breathe real science that the narrow band of the vaccine contained within the selected splinter of the mRNA genome of the virus that targets the “S” or Spike Protein may be inducing the mutants or variants. If so, the vaccinations might be a source of a viral pandemic in perpetuity!

 

Additionally, there are also basic science data that suggests that the vaccine alters the function of the TLR4 and TLR7/8 receptors in the human body that are needed for a robust immune response. If there is even a hint of such a catastrophe, using such vaccines in children will subject these innocents to a lifetime of illness and even malignancies (cancer). There are biodistribution reports of the lipid-nanoparticles that enclose the mRNA and they may be implicated in a long term autoimmune phenomena where the particles come to rest in the body; brain, kidneys, liver, ovaries, testes, etc.

 

The data from VAERS and other reporting agencies are also equally compelling in the European sites that suggests adverse events are not uncommon. Despite the harms of myocarditis, pericarditis, clotting disorders, strokes in young adults pregnant or athletes has not stirred an eyebrow. Strange, isn’t it?

 

Science has always abided by the simple principle of leaving assumptions aside and strutted for the truth in nature. Why then has this stream of thought, this thread of fostering vitality in all us humans being broken? All humans have a hunger in their mind, a desire to unravel the mysteries of the world and the universe. This microcosm of the virus interacting with a cell is a well-known learned endeavor in scientific circles and yet, questioning the current previously unvetted methodologies rushed to practice, is considered a taboo. A taboo so large that it leaves one job-less and penny-less as the wide-swooping power of the state’s Damocles Sword comes down to silence any voice that dares. 

 

The Art and Science of medicine is also in a free fall. Bias is a common factor in most studies these days that cater to the Big Pharma. Massage the right number of variables and squeeze the p-value of 0.05 through the bias lens and voila you have a “miracle drug” that has little to no value in the real world. The same can be said about the COVID vaccine that has lost its magical 95% Relative Risk Reduction metric over the past 5 months. The declining protection from a viral infection and the rising tide of adverse events are a story that would never be tolerated in Medicine of yesteryears. Alas today, the big bankrolling carpetbaggers from the pharmaceutical companies have control over the new “ethics” of medicine. Questioning any of their rationale is tantamount to obscurity and loss of a profession. A shame that will survive into some historical brief years from now.

 

The leaves are falling as the vibrant colors fade to a dark brown. We live within this syncopation of fear and grief, of love and anger and watch each falling leaf as a requiem of our own mortality. Many premature deaths are a testimony to the shrewdly designed and carried out experiment by a few against the many. And as each green sapling is crushed under the weight of an untried human experiment humanity grows fearful of its own shadow. Within that lack of safety there is no security against the virus, which continues to blossom and prosper under the aegis of this human experiment. 

 

There comes a time to self-educate on the marvels of known and proven science rather than heed the daily call of the news-cycle and talking-heads. Many, in both groups stand to gain considerable wealth and power because of this marketing and promotion. My hope remains that I am proven wrong in my thinking and would love to be proven so. But I fear for the safety of our Innocent children and therein lies this tale…

 

As Autumn’s light slants and the trees opt out of rebuilding themselves, awaiting spring, let us kindle that power that pulsates in all of us to think for ourselves and understand what is before us. And amid that labor of love, let us choose the correct agency to nurture our future.

 

 

PRIMUM NON NOCERE – First Do No Harm

Hippocrates born in 460BC some 2500 years ago was called the “Father of Modern Medicine,” later Sir William Osler was honored with a similar title. Hippocrates may not have used the Latin phrase himself although it is attributed to him, “Primum Non Nocere,” which translated means “First, do no harm.” Osler on the other hand followed the principles of safety in his surgical techniques while at Johns Hopkins. We seem to have come a long way from such a warning.

 

As a society we continue to lurch forwards paying less and less heed to that dictum. From “Blood Letting” which was borne of the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks to the four humors of Galen of Pergamum the art flourished till such luminary lives of George Washington and Charles II were lost by such a therapeutic approach. Scientists have created many a medicine that have fallen to ashes because of harm to the individual patient. Thalidomide used as sedation in pregnancy that caused phocomelia in the newborn and Vioxx that caused cardiac complications. Both and several others were relegated to the ash of history.

 

Vaccines were created to thwart disease, and it took many years of longitudinal study before they were safely employed for the protection of humanity. Polio vaccine took close to 20+ years before being approved for mass vaccination as did the measles vaccine that took more than a decade to be brought into use. Such was the worry of harm to the individual that cast aside all other fears. After all a vaccine used for prevention of an illness, only a minimal harm is acceptable but not a life threatening one!

 

Which brings us to the current COVID vaccine that enjoys the limited rigors of science. After only a few thousand individuals were observed for a median of 2 months in a randomized trial, the vaccine was rapidly and enthusiastically allowed to be used in an Emergency Use Authorization mode. Even being an experimental vaccine, no informed consents were required prior to the “jab.” After much pomp and circumstance as a panacea against the 120-nanometer virus, humans lined up to get the jabs.

 

Any suggestion of Natural Immunity from a previous infection was downplayed as limited immunity, and suddenly after years of evidence related to herd immunity that too was suddenly relegated to wrong science by the experts. Although natural immunity is more robust and durable form of immunity as compared to the Pfizer, Moderna and others whose vaccine related immunity is directed via the mRNA only at the Spike Protein of the SARS CoV2. Yet previously infected individuals were convinced by the public health officials that they too must be vaccinated. The question of negating the broad and durable immunity with the vaccine immunity may bring into question whether the latter might affect the former’s durability. The game was on. As more and more data became available, the population seemed to shrug its collective shoulders to go for the jab. As the vaccination rate contracted, the Authorities first tried “incentives” as lottery tickets, free hamburgers, free tickets to a ball-game and other such inducements. Some were enticed others stood their ground seeking more information. As the desirable goal of the government seemed unreachable, the media and the Authorities started painting those who remained unvaccinated and had questions about the vaccines as “killers” of others. In keeping with that thought the White House brought in social media technocrats to muzzle anyone who questioned the vaccine as purveyors of “misinformation.” The term misinformation was. It seemed applied broadly to anyone questioning the vaccine efficacy or the adverse events related to it.

 

But reality plays its own game. Steadfast through the ordeals data kept emerging as to the harms. The CDC VAERS site continue to collect information on the daily numbers of deaths that were accruing. The current vaccine related deaths have reached beyond 10,000. The Authorities however contend that in the scheme of things with over 160 million vaccinated, these numbers are extremely small hence the risk remains minimal. The question is for whom?

Harms manifested on the elderly include deaths and among the young the potential of myocarditis and its long-term harm of heart failure remains. Blood clotting due to activation of the PF4 factor in some has caused heart attacks, strokes and diffuse micro-clotting with resultant loss of the platelets in the blood stream that protect from spontaneous bleeding. Others have sustained neurological phenomena, including Cranial Nerve paralysis (Bells Palsy) reported in a case controlled study. While some have succumbed to the vagaries of “Pathogenic Priming” and Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) by the Immune reaction to the large production of the Spike Protein and its circulation within the blood system. While the Swine Flu vaccine was stopped after 10 weeks due to 25 deaths, the COVID vaccine continues unrestrained under the promotional marketing of the pharmaceutical agencies, the governmental Authorities, and the Main-stream Media.

 

Even though many European Countries banned the use of the Astra Zeneca Vaccine on grounds of its lack of Safety, it continued to be used in others. A recent European modeling study based on events show the risks-to-benefit ratio from vaccines. The recent Euro trial suggest the harms outweigh the benefits of the vaccines. The study, published in the weekly edition of the Eurosurveillance journal, models four months of a vaccine distribution strategy in France involving Vaxzevria (commonly called AstraZeneca) from May 2021, and concludes that using the vaccine on the entire adult population there would avert 10 deaths from Covid among 18-39-year-olds, but would be associated with 21 deaths from blood clotting in the same age grouping over the same time period.

 

The organizing principle of vaccination is prevention of an illness from a pathogen with minimal harm. The minimal harm does not, under any circumstance, suggest death, long term infirmity or disability. Such precautions have not been taken thus far. The desire to pursue is so strong that even physicians and the guardians of the public health have been silenced into a tacit agreement of this public health officials, governmental authorities, pharma executives and the main-stream media arrangement. No one, it seems, can speak the truth. Physicians fear loss of license, businesspeople fear loss of their business, fathers, and mothers fear loss of their livelihoods in countering such rhetoric. Science has always been open to questions; that is how it advances. But these days all questioning has been stifled.

 

We must all ask the question, “WHY?”

WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

 What have we done?

 

There was a time for such a discipline as this, called Medical Science.  It is fascinating to live and understand most things around us. The fish that transitioned into reptiles and from the T-Rex evolved the beautiful red rose, trading its mottled green for the fiery red color to attract the bees, or the evolved lens of an eye from the blindness of a bat, such is the majesty of nature that dazzles us daily. We, humans understand such evolutionary dynamics through the rigors of science and longitudinal observations. Science is a fantasy turned into reality. It is the magic smitten love between a human and their environment. That science these days is in peril, fast suffocating under the weight of power and money.

 

There was a time when scientists probed nature to discover her secrets. It would take an Edward Jenner, a Marie Curie, a William Osler, an Alexander Fleming to quell the harm of nature interacting with the human. The magic of discovery and the innovation to help the infirm and those riddled with illness. 

 

Alas things changed dramatically over the past several decades and the process has escalated with time as it approaches us in the present. The truths that have comforted us for decades, now are regaled as discontented outbursts of disequilibrium. Yet the burdens of those dynamic tensions of the past still reverberate in the fibers of our being. And those burdens call on us to visit the past.

 

Science is the discipline of empiricism. You conjure a hypothesis and then experiment to prove it. If the hypothesis is faulty the experiment would be considered a failure and you would go back at it again with a different nuance. Perhaps a lifetime would be spent as with Judah Folkman, MD who was convinced that the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor suppression would be the cure for cancer. It was rich in its concept, but reality did not afford him the wealth of success. History is littered with lives spent in the books, reading and writing, over microscopes, in the clinical wards trying to fathom the mysteries of illness and how to cure them.

 

Such is that history that we embark upon today. The recent history is cobbled together by many a scientist that have turned to statistics in claiming their hour upon the stage and after a while they are heard from no more. But some stay and continue their art of numerical manipulation to keep the spotlight. The sea of medical science literature is eyeball deep in froth. Hundreds if not thousands of “studies” have been rendered useless. Even though some were considered “landmark” in their short lives and cited by several others as proof to their validity. Unfortunately, when the studies were reviewed in one case, only 11% (6 of 53) held up under the scrutiny as being verifiable, or 47 were flawed in their results.

 

Today in the field of cancer medicine, “studies” pop up by the thousands in thousands of journals across the world. Most are flawed in their methodology, others in the small numbers of cases being reported and others still from misinterpretation of the data. Today the hypothesis generation is not in peril, but what is, is the experimentation. If you have an outcome in mind then you generate a  hypothesis and look for a statistical methodology available to prove your underlying premise as being true. New drugs are coming to market bearing news that they can cure this or that. Billions of dollars flow into the coffers of the reporting entity. But as all small sized studies inevitably showing large effect-size results end up in the heap of “wonder why it didn’t work?” Thus, in our bias we are constantly parsing our thoughts and hypotheses into categories and classes, always attempting to understand the processes and compute the distances between what we are emotionally tied to, such as the hypothesis and the potential outcome we wish to achieve. Such binary limitations expose us to the Frankenstein we hope to avoid at the end.

 

The science behind these studies is frequently flawed, the experiments rushed, the outcome preordained, and the eye of the agency is on the monetary prize for the next quarter.  It is the preconceived poem in an elaborate loop of self-perpetuation, constantly erasing and elaborating on itself, to achieve the emotional ending. In fact, you would be considered a cave-dweller if you did not venture into the quicksand of annual reporting on schedule before a major cancer conference or cardiology conference with reams of data and glowing tributes to gain the attention of the ribbon-wearing crowd that stamp their seals of approval on such presentation. Thus, is born the most vicious of assaults on the lives of the uninformed people. “Take this new medicine, it was just approved,” they say as they hand you over the prescription or stick with a needle with a colorless fluid running through it. For, only time determines what works and is durable. We as humans cannot solve for the “x” without knowing the “y,” but using computers and calculators we can statistically twist a tale to suit our needs

 

It is unfortunate as the 21^st century rolls along at its turbulent pace, medicine, it seems has been bought by the highest bidder. The adage, “money talks” is truer today than in any other era. Dollars flow from the highest bidder’s eye to the next great financial reward. This was exposed in a television documentary on PBS. There is a risk for all such immersions but with good “bedside manners in lobbying and marketing preceding the promotions” at hand, all financial risk-aversion is guaranteed. While the CEOs revel in their “Durable Revenue Stream” as they tout their next landmark drug while eying their own financial packages blossom into private jets, mansions, and boats. 

 

We have arrived at another juncture in medical science that bears witnessing for its might. The Pandemic has laid bare some interesting questions that need answers. The Pandemic of 2020 due to SARSCoV2 (virus) the agent for the COVID illness which has taken millions of lives worldwide and continues to ravage nations as we speak is a story worth probing.

 

When the pandemic was announced amidst all the confusions and obfuscation of what policy to invoke by the public health officials, a curious issue arose and was brought to bear; that certain medications, long in the pharmacy and very cheap in price, inhibited the viral replication in vitro and potentially in clinical settings also significantly reduced the severity of the illness. What followed from that information was a torrid flood of negation and diatribe directed at the physician-scientists who had scoured the historical literature and found that indeed there was something fruitful and worth pursuing in such an approach. They started administering to their patients and suggested that they had indeed noted success. 

 

The establishment of the academics and other elites were not too happy with such a discovery. Several studies of poor methodological means were reported almost within the month decrying the harms and the non-effect of such medicines. U.S. Food and Drug Administration states on their websites the potential harms while negating any benefits and advises against its use, even though, scientific data suggested the benefits of using the drug in COVID illness.  Meanwhile the agents of the government were quick to promote Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, which carried a price tag 3000% higher over the cheap generic drugs, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin being advocated and used clinically by some infectious disease experts. Immediately some states declared a moratorium and placed a restriction on the cheap drug being used by these physicians from writing such prescriptions for their patients. The Expensive drug had a potential windfall in the billions of dollars for the company and was marketed as the potential cure of the viral illness. Perhaps, they felt the cheap drug might hollow out such a windfall?

 

Meanwhile the “Operation Warp Speed” dynamics were in play and pharmaceutical agencies dusted off failed experiments of the past and arrived at a new vaccine against the virus. The vaccine was made up of small fragment of the virus that codes for the spike protein, the protein that gains access into the human cell via the ACE-2 receptor on the cell itself. The concept was simple, if the RNA fragment was allowed into the cell and created the “non-infectious” spike protein then the immune system of the individual would recognize it as a “non-self” and direct its energy in the destruction of the spike as well as the virus itself. 

 

After a short period lasting 2 months (median) and using the vaccine in 43,000 individuals in their Phase II/III trials, the pharmaceutical agency boasted a 95% relative risk reduction in the potential for catching the illness and potentially in preventing deaths. The hysterical and frightened world was all ears and saucer-eyed at the prospects of a SARSCoV2 virus elimination and resumption of normal daily life. Lost in this translation was the use of a vaccine that had only had a median of 2 months of follow-up review in regard to the short-term side effects and no long-term efficacy data was available. Pursuant to the past vaccine products which had taken a multi-year testing and efficacy, safety validation, this new mRNA vaccine had a short review lifespan. The vaccine was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), which is different from the Biological Application License (BLA) granted after long-term safety data has been reviewed and deliberated and the latter has been the bedrock of safety in science for decades.

 

Alas as millions of individuals were vaccinated reports of Adverse Events became apparent. There were minor complaints of sore arms, fever, headaches, which were expected. But soon a trail of severe side effects and deaths started to follow the vaccination event. These events seem to occur within the 24–48-hour post vaccination period. Long term adverse effects, if any, will take time to evolve over the next few years. There is some early evidence that the spike protein itself is pathogenic and can induce harm. Further studies are needed but the vascular and neurological insults noted in some individuals after vaccinations need closer scrutiny.

 

 

The various governmental agencies have continued to encourage the vaccination of all adults and most everyone was on board with the plan. The concept of “Zero COVID” was hatched and the vaccination was encouraged for the 12-18-year-olds and studies were also in progress to vaccinate the 6-month to 12 years in the fall of 2021. If history is a guide, Pandemics never achieve a “ZERO state.” The virus continues to evolve and finds some degree of harmony with the immune population over time. Elimination of a fast-mutating virus like the seasonal influenza remains a similar impossibility. We all live with that risk, mitigating it with partially effective vaccines and good personal hygiene and habits.

 

One wondered silently if 100% vaccination was the correct path to follow. Especially since the children were the least likely to catch the virus and if they did, they quickly rid the virus due to their robust immune systems, with almost no symptoms. And those that had been infected by the SARSCoV2 and developed natural immunity should need the vaccine at all?

 

At that very moment the Pfizer Company announced a blockbuster Quarter with $3.5 billion in revenue, a 70% year over year revenue. Moderna the other RNA vaccine maker also enjoyed significant increase in their cash stream. Johnson and Johnson although not as robust still delivered excellent results for their shareholders, while and Astra Zeneca financials were “soft” since young adults seem to have a higher morbidity and mortality related events from blood clots emanating immediately post vaccination. These alarming events caused the European Union states to put a hold on those vaccines. The total market for the latter two companies was markedly reduced and Pfizer became the clear winner.

 

The currency of science lives in the trust of the user of the product. Losing that currency results in reduced use. Enticing people with rewards as some politicians have resorted to, recently must give us all a pause, as to the need for such an incentive? After all, if the vaccine is a lifesaver as it is purported to be with a 95% Relative Risk Reduction against the virus, why not educate the public and let them make their own decisions? Why use the carrot of an incentive or a stick of a vaccine passport on citizens? And as some in the media are constantly shaming those who are against such passports with threats and retribution, it suggests becoming an interesting study in behavioral economics and habits enforced upon the individual, rather than prime predicate of safety of the individual.

 

But the salient question that still invokes fear in some remains cogent today. Why did public health agencies and the large marketing behemoths in media control the messaging so tightly as to disallow the use of cheaper drugs that seemed to show some benefits and could necessarily mitigate the illness in its earliest phase? Especially since some of these drugs in question were always used in the last phase (the cytokine storm phase) of the disease in trials where most drugs fail. It is possible that the cheaper drugs have little impact on the illness itself although there is a steady trail of data that contradicts such a thought. Yet to go against the cheap generic drugs with such vitriol and against the physicians tending to their patients with such vehemence seems out of frame and should give us p

SARSCoV2 Vaccines, Risks and Escape Infections:

 SARSCoV2 Vaccines, Risks and Escape Infections: 

To, look at Vaccine escapes and their potential side effects on individuals, one has to look at the virus and its interaction with the human cell. The SARSCoV2 virus latches onto the human cell, like a bee to a hive. The anchoring point is the ACE2 receptor and the binding site is called Receptor Binding Domain. The ACE2 receptors are fairly ubiquitous in the human tissues, from the nasal passages to the gastrointestinal tract to the gallbladder, the testis, the kidneys and so on.

 

The virus carries a S Protein, besides the “E,” or Envelope, “M,” or Membrane, and “N” or Nucleocapsid proteins which are represented in the virus as specific codons on the mRNA. The S protein presents itself on the surface of the virus as a spike, and there are plenty of them, like a nerf ball with spikes. Once the spike encounters the ACE2 receptor the spike is activated via  protein Furin, it latches on like a key to a lock, and opens a pore on the surface of the cell releasing the RNA of the virus into the cell itself through the pore. Once inside the cell (endocytosed) it cytosolizes and then proceeds to create multiple copies of itself that get ejected into the blood and tissues to infect more cells for replication. The virus basically commandeers the cell machinery to create trillions of mini-me(s). And the infection proceeds on its fast gallop. The body’s immune system cells exposed to the antigen (finding this non-self S-Protein) charges its immune cells to create antibodies virus represented as the antigen (also called the epitope or presented antigen) The tug of war creates a tremendous amount of inflammatory material such as Interferon. Interleukins and other Cytokines to put an end to the virus. Victory in this fight is a full recovery with a lasting knowledge of the offending agent, the virus itself. Defeat is mostly a product of an unchallenged and progressive immune response that kills the host. 

 

Vaccines against the SARCoV2 are made of many different shades (listed below). Two most popular and being used globally are the mRNA based. All vaccines need the mRNA sequence that codes for the Spike Protein, since that is the initiating eventful source of the infection. The differences are based on the carriers or vectors that carry the mRNA into the human cell. The current crop includes: four major vaccine kinds that are (nearly) ready: mRNA, viral vector, protein subunit and attenuated/inactivated virus. The J&J vaccine is a bit different it uses the DNA (more stable hence does not need cold storage) which then recodes the mRNA within the cell and its carrier is an attenuated non-infectious adenoviral vector that it uses to climb into the cell itself. 

 

The RNA metaphorically speaking is like the Random-Access-Memory or RAM. It is short-lived and volatile. To permanently store such memory in the hard drive, the Computer will prompt you if you want to permanently save the information that is in the clipboard that residing in the RAM part of the computer. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use the volatile mRNA and use lipid—nano-proteins (LNPs) as the envelopes that contain the mRNA in its core. The outer boundary layer is composed of positively charges hydrophilic lipids. Once the vaccine is injected into the upper arm muscle, most of it is taken up by the lymph nodes in the armpit (hence the enlarged lymph nodes noted after post vaccination). There the vaccine product is endocytosed (sucked in) into the cell and releases its bounty for the Ribosome to work its magic. The Ribosome translates the codons (3 nucleotides constitute one codon) into one of the 20 Amino Acids. A Protein is a collection of Amino Acids. A collection of those proteins makes the Spike.

 

The trick used by the scientists and the manufacturers is to prevent the cell from recognizing the mRNA as a “self” because if it did, it would destroy the mRNA on the spot without any immunity being produced. The magic used by Pfizer, as the company states in its paper: BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine uses modified mRNA to evade the cell’s own immune system “There are also the modified bases like pseudouridine/1-methylpseudouridine that get read off at the ribosome like their native cousins but make the mRNA strand both more stable and less likely to set off an immune response against itself.” Both the Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines use such modified mRNA. These mRNA vaccines work very well, and this is likely because they not only generate S proteins, they do so in a very specific way, thus programming our immune system - it mimics the virus itself. For the J&J the selling point being that it is a DNA product hence very stable, compared to RNA which is a fragile entity. Thus, the viral vector vaccines using DNA, as in J&J vaccine, do not need special deep freezing or other restrictions. Contrary to the ongoing but uncharted debates of whether the mRNA will insert itself into the human DNA, the data is fairly conclusive that it does not.

 

The Spike protein has a function to perform and it must have the same predilection for the ACE2 receptor to bind to the RBD site with equal vigor and “a firm spine”. If the Spike is lax in any way, the merger does not take place. The brilliant scientists have taken on the task of making the spike protein more rigid by using a slightly modified S gene where two amino acids have been changed into Prolines, adding a lot of stability. In lab testing, this increased expression by a factor of fifty.  A more rigid version was proposed to keep the spikes active and fruitful in their messaging. Without such strengthening of the Spike protein the function of the spike collapses and renders the vaccine impotent. 

 

What about the Risks from the mRNA vaccines, you might ask? A valid question that needs to be addressed. There are several Adverse Events noted on the CDC VAERS reporting site. These adverse events occurred in “causal proximity” of the vaccine delivery to the individuals. Several thousand deaths have also been reported. Theoretical arguments have been proposed as reasons for such events. Regarding the short-term adverse events such as the Bell’s Palsy there is an argument that the LNPs carrying the mRNA may be engulfed by the nerve tissue and create an anti-inflammatory response leading to the nerve dysfunction. Additional data to support such a claim comes from experimental mice models where the mRNA was noted in the lymph nodes, liver and even in the brain cells (neurons). The last site must give one pause because if true it might suggest the possibility of a longer-term effect manifesting as a Autoimmune inflammatory response causing a chronic brain disorder such as ALS or Multiple Sclerosis. Of note here is that this is a theoretical argument and thus far from and without merit, yet still worthy of thought and future safety. Long term chronic effects take time to develop and thus far no factual data exists. However autoimmune nature of side effects have been well-documented as Immune Thrombocytopenia due to the clumping platelets via platelet factor activation (PF4) which can both cause blood clots as well as relative thrombocytopenia that can accentuate a bleeding disorder. Additionally, Inflammation due to the autoimmune response in the endothelial lining of the blood vessels in the far reaches of the human body can lead to vascular impediments and devastating harm.

 

In regards the vaccine escape we find when looking at the efficacy of the vaccine which is proposed as a Relative Risk Reduction of 95% that the actual data used for the EUA perhaps need to be reviewed with a critical eye on the actual numbers rather than percentages. Perhaps the LNPs previously used in other past influenza vaccines have been programmed as antigen and the body destroys them on impact without the mRNA ever being engulfed into the cell to do its magic deed. Perhaps the RNA Spike has become lax during storage i.e. change in temperature, delay in use etc. or other reasons and is no longer able to withstand the rigors of binding precisely with the RBD site on the human cell. This theoretical argument is not to be taken as a glance at the vaccination itself, for we believe in the importance of vaccines, but we also believe where the science leads us. In this case 70% of the vaccinated people in Israel reported infection with the SARSCoV2 virus following the vaccination. The matter is of serious concern for the vaccine developers to find out the reason why and how to mitigate such an escape. Is the escape a nonfunction or is it creating a gateway for the virus to the cell unchecked?

 

Such discussions need to happen, and all ideas entertained with seriousness. All our lives, and our futures rely on such discourse. 

 

Major Vaccines in use and in the works:

 

BioNTech/Pfizer/: BNT162b2, A modified mRNA-in-lipid-nanoparticle vaccine, expressing a modified S protein.

Moderna: mRNA-1273. A modified mRNA-in-lipid-nanoparticle vaccine, expressing a modified S protein.

Oxford/AstraZeneca: AZD1222, aka Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, Covishield, or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. A viral vector vaccine, expressing the unmodified S protein.

Janssen/Johnson & Johnson: Ad26.COV2-S aka JNJ-78436735. A viral vector vaccine, expressing a modified S protein.

Novavax: NVX-CoV2373. A protein subunit vaccine containing a doubly modified S protein, using a special ‘adjuvant’.

 

Other References:

https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/genetic-code-of-covid-19-vaccines/

https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/

 

Acknowledgement:

Jaclyn Hord

The Rabbit Hole

 The linearity of time is quite the thing. As the thready tail of time grows the loom ahead gets thinner and laxer. The inexorable consolation we all seek from history plays out on some inward screen within, evoking thoughts and invoking ideas.

One such day passed and this whole macabre episode in the history of man called the pandemic alighted on my shoulders, a burst of darkness, burdening the soul, a bit. The wretched inconstant light flickered  and seemed to fade, and the dark clouds hovered over with their real bent of a cold hard rain.

 

The phantasmagoric vision played out within, with sparks and glows and pain and sorrow and the forsaken glory of once happy togetherness. What was this beast that has so marched up against us and rendered us so passive that we have closed our doors to let it pass us by without tarnishing our, what remains of our inner, dignity?

 

The term loss or Gain of Function looms high in this movie. Someone far away, somewhere, as the lore is told, did something that took away our liberty and freedom. That function gained power and rained pellets of fear and harm upon us. That gain spread like wildfire across the parched landscape to make the function more aggressive. It moved pieces together one pipette at a time, that microscopically enabled jump, would never happen by itself, what made the virus jump into the well-spring of willing receptors in the interior human cells. While the pangolins paraded their armadillo-like scales and bats flew, neither had the trace of the precise demon. None of the glycoprotein related “HxNx” modifications gained via the zoonotic tree ever showed up on the visage of this new conqueror. It was quite the jump from the 144 other versions to this one. Almost as if a computer code had rewritten the entire genome in one fell swoop. Quite a feat for the maternally endowed Nature.

 

But what of this fear? The daily beast of reporting negativity and the daily victors of fame conjoined at the hip spelled mountains of words, spilling nightmares into the children, their parents and their parents, parents. Soon the world had collapsed into a singular motif of expression. As the river of sanity ran dry, the volcanoes of fear erupted all over and more chasms of fear ensued.

 

The tiny monster no bigger than 0.5% the thickness of hair curled into, cozied up with its calling card and entered the human element. It brought within it a code to replicate. And replicate, it did, as all such monsters do. Theirs, within them, is the written code to propagate, as with all species on this green-blue orb. And survive and propagate this viral army of a trillion combatants did, finding more than 2 billion humans to find a haven within. But not all became its calling card. Most instantly revolted and rebuked and rejected the entry and continued on their journey of life. A few weakened and then grew strong again to fight again. And unfortunately, some, the weaker and more infirmed succumbed to the tiny beast. But the latter was not its intent. To kill means also to die for without the host, there is no propagability. So, in facing such challenges and not allowing the human host to die, the beast changed its own circuitry to prevent harm. Illness it did cause, but killing the host became lesser and lesser. Those infected developed a robust defense against the virus. They walked out through a sea of these tiny wind-blown monsters and never felt a pinch on skin or a prick of cold within. They just carried on. The more of these healthy ones grew the firewall the more the tiny beast was forced into submission. 

 

At long last, with the brilliant minds scattering their sunshine, a remarkable human achievement stole the show. This then combined with the naturally infected would be the great wall to hold back the monster. But as challenges go, the wall became the prison and the mind poisoned with fear grew to adapt within the wall and not leap out into the unknown for adventure. The blandness of the human mind began replicating faster than the desire to have the adventure. More and more walls started to get built. Each enterprise with its own sets of rules and desires purchased the ink to write the resolve to protect from an element that nature did not call for or ask. Because nature has a way with its own set of rules. Yet man, in his gloried self-contained mind given to flights of fancy, created a larger maze around himself. The maze grew as the mind conjured and soon everything nature had bestowed as Grace on man became a piece of vestige rather than an altar to behold. Humans harkened the yesteryears where they had successfully thwarted beasts of equal or worse measure. They had culled Polio, destroyed Measles, Mumps and Rubella and gained a solid defense against ChickenPox amongst many others. Yet this tiny monster with its potential of that gain of function was not easily fooled. It had its own miserable code of harm written within.

 

While confinement was the key to the magic of spread, that is the thread that learned philosophers of medical principles seem to agree in contradistinction to the reality that open air was the damper on this tiny monster’s parade. In this action some prospered while the majority faded into oblivion. Fear threatened and barriers grew even when the barriers were akin to chain link fences to ward off mosquitoes. People feared the invisible and soon began to fear each other more. Logic and reason both time-honored handmaidens to common sense were relegated to ignorance, and a new branch of science with nary a fact of support arose to overwhelm the “intellectual minds.”

 

The small vials and their contents poured out through the tiny nozzles and became the very art of safety and security. Irrespective of any previous encounters with the tiny beast, all were asked to partake in the glory of this human invention. And humanity lined up in droves from dawn to dusk. Happily, the candy of health was delivered and happily it was consumed.

 

The vials were meant to confer 95 of 100 people with the protection they sought, at least that was what was told to them. The number it appears was a relative risk reduction based on the numbers of people who had undergone the initial trials. For instance, if 30 people in one group of 100 have an effect and 35 of 100 in the placebo group, then the absolute risk reduction is (5 of 200) 2.5% but the relative risk reduction is 30/35*100 or 85.7%. And going further into the weeds of this thinking there are many rabbit holes where caterpillars and red queens exist.  I tripped into one of those. “Who goes there!” a deep melodic voice echoed as I stepped quietly into the dark cave beneath the roots of an oak tree. Much goes on in these dark chambers of dirt and roots and insects and animals that lurk within. Another thought emerged as I stepped below a low-lying cavern where suddenly stalagmites appeared in an otherwise brownish dark gloom. What about the past experiences? What about the reams of paper, with mountains of data from the past experiences? Why not ask for some of that and compare with what we have here? Indeed, let us do some of that. Shall we?

 

A pen and paper appeared as if by magic and it began writing formulas. One such formula appeared as all others faded, “0.55 x 0.87 = 0.4785” Hmm… what could that mean? And before the full impact of that statement was at hand, the idea froze into semi permanence. It was the RR 55% efficacy of the Flu vaccine (the prior) and the 87% RR efficacy of the current panacea when combined together, it yielded a magisterial number of 47.85% efficacy! That was it? The knock on my head with the falling acorn awakened me to a bright sunny blue day with clusters of white and grey clouds threatening in the foreground.

 

The luster seems lost, no matter how much we polish this paradigm. It seems that the firewall of happiness remains in the robustness of nature’s own remedy for most and the artificially acquired one for those most vulnerable to falling ill to this monster. The rest can and should be allowed to rejoice in the captivity of their youth and health, perhaps. But then this is a dream within a dream that I write about. A flight of fancy all encompassed within the few moments of a blacked-out slumber.

 

And perhaps this coruscating wilderness of thought within the ramparts of our tortured minds is the illume we have wished for in our darkest of hours and perhaps that is the way it will come to be, or not. The force is strong as a jedi would feel, yet the dark forces too must be reckoned with in a fight. And strength is a relative measure.

 

But for the harm that might accrue accidentally, via complications between the merger of the actual malady, the artifice of the colorless liquid and the tortured unprocessed metrics gathered in haste, we should remain vigilant. Needless to say, there is always some draw down from speculations and this will also be part of the tale.

 

Perhaps a moment of silent self-reflection is upon us. We must use it to think, reason and understand the wisdom within us and the chaos that reigns outside.

Echoes of the Past

 The echoes from the past sometimes bring the cascade of memories tumbling down into the mind’s eye and the play goes on, for a while, lurching us into the sweet confines of the embellished past. The soft cool touch of the winter when a snow blizzard crippled a city and I had to walk a few miles to the hospital as an intern picking up snow from the sidewalk edges and making small snowballs as I walked the distance. I was confined to the hospital for 76 hours on duty because some clever ones called in their absence. Yet those 76 hours shaped my mindset to a certain degree. Mind you, the occupation of that far-off past experience infrequent in its periodicity still reverberates whenever I see anyone ill, especially a young child. The adult always brought out all my desperation to seek an answer while the younger ones tore me up and broke my heart.

 

No, I never became a Pediatrician. I chose instead the hearty and heady concepts in adult cancer medicine. Some call it the field of Medical Oncology. I found Embryology as deeply embedded in that field as Immunology and all together both these fields conversed with Pathology on a constant basis. So began my love for Medicine. To dig deeper into the causal stimulus that initiates the process. To find the switch that turns on the motor of the mechanism when it goes awry. To tailor thought dedicated against that switch or lever or the entire mechanism itself. To heal the body ravaged with the massive army of unwanted deserters parading in single file or in clusters to occupy and destroy the very mechanism that gave birth to them. To deploy an army of knights against the knaves, the looters, the deformers, and the harm lurking within, and vanquish them all.

 

Alas I was never able to find the switch or the lever. The one gene-one disease movement that was heralded at the dawn of Ventnor’s Human Genome Project slowly gave way to a more perplexing theme of catacombs and disabling dead-ends. Oncology became a fishery of finds with the fishing line often catching the occasional sodden leather boot discarded into the open sea. 

 

The chemicals and the biologics against the malady, all weathered against the relentless march, sometime successful and sometime distressfully unrewarding. As we dug deeper into the rabbit hole of the science and mechanics of the cell gone awry, we found a world of tunnels, ladders and chutes that kept whipsawing us back to the beginning. The 100,000 functional genes turned into 25,000 and then got whittled down further as the tinier molecules of the RNA became the disrupters, modulators, expressing over or under the message of the genes. The roll of dice, the chaos theory, exposure, and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle all seem to come and play. The world of Medicine seems to be inextricably linked to the world of Physics, Biochemistry, Quantum Dynamics and to Life itself. The golden weave in the golden ratio within the DNA helix and its interactions with the stray electron became a target of the intelligent minds. Modeling blossomed as an art form within the science, as probability ushered outcomes, and the whole complex turned into a tapestry of minutiae: each invisible path convulsing with another in an intricate dance from the onslaught rigors of the ethereal ions that still keeps us guessing. 

 

Yet in the awe-inspiring days  as a clinician, I learnt about the magnificence of the human spirit. Of the man who would defy time and live a year past his allotted hour only to wander into the undiscovered country after he had seen his beautiful daughter, the apple of his eye, wedded to her beau. As the sun set that evening and the married couple chartered off to their honeymoon, and the twilight spread, he closed his eyes.

 

I have witnessed many a storied tales in real life of men and women, who gather themselves and their emotions and walk through the maze of reconciliation with their personal approaching end, with dignity and grace. It is a reward few get to see. I have witnessed the courage and wisdom in the face of blanketing darkness of adversity and tumult with nary a crack for escape. Yet the spirit lives! 

 

And many more, than I can count, are images imprinted into my mind’s eye of those that got spared from the ravages of this terrible illness called cancer. Some went on to marry and have children and others lived to see their grandchildren. I don’t take any credit for this. I believe they had it in them to be victorious against the scourge. I, on the other hand, only guided them through the murky maze as best I could.

 

The human mind is a powerful weapon against adversities. “Mind over Matter,” does have meaning. It is the form of armor that makes us who we are supposed to be. Perhaps in these days of easy access to all access where humility takes a backseat to the collectivist “drown the other,” mentality. A pause, a hesitation, a momentary reflection of what we are made of, might take us to a better place. Learning that death spares no one and that the short span of life is all we have and with that knowledge, we might relent in our behaviors a bit. That liberty and freedom of thought and action gives joy and hope, while compressing another’s thought, kills that spirit and thus, wisdom. We must all aspire and pour through some history, to advance our scientific thought without prejudice and without being victimized to some construct of right and wrong in the field of science, by those who have a difference of opinion.

 

It is clear to me, that even under the oppressive assault on freedom of thought, should it ever come to pass, that is, if it is not already here full throttle, brave souls will gather to affirm the losing art of liberty and freedom and use that wisdom to fend off all such adversity. Physicians should be allowed to use their knowledge, experience and judgment to dictate the management of a patient. Yet currently we are governed by the confines of guidelines and pecuniary-coded rules that govern. Some drugs are allowed to be prescribed while others are not, science notwithstanding, even though the latter might have a better therapeutic response.  We need to celebrate good individual medical care and not worship at the altar of “one size fits all,” for cost-control purposes.

 

That 76-hour winter still resonates within me. It harkens the days when freedom to actually care for a person was the right thing to do. Ah those days linger on the tongue of my memory like the taste of fine wine. And a reminder still bubbles within me even in these trying times that bravery and courage do exist in each human soul to ask a question. The spirit may be quiet but it is alive!

 

At least that is my hope and prayer.