Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, respiratory disease pandemic of 2020, seems to have also unleashed a pandemic of polarised community argument. More than argument it is rage, accusation, blame and protest. It is perhaps epitomised by what we see in the U.S.A., with president Trump and supporters hurling abuse and accusations at a wide variety of officials and institutions that urge treating the pandemic as a medical / public health emergency and acting accordingly. While it is hard to see what pathway the Trump / “anti-mask” crowd are urging—their talk and actions don’t seem to have any consistency—they are most certainly enraged and intensely driven.
[the image is of a house fire I was in the middle of in 1974, in Auckland NZ; simply here to symbolise the way in which the world seems to be on fire over how we handle the Covid-19 pandemic]
We see some of the same polarisation here in Victoria, Australia, where the numbers of cases of Covid-19 infection have been much higher than elsewhere in the country. The Daniel Andrews government has instituted very strict, but classic public health epidemic control measures. His opponents, on social media and to a small degree on the streets, have gone wild with abuse. He has become “Chairman Dan” and “Dictator Dan” to them, even drawn with a Hitler style moustache. I think the irony that they are mostly right wing protestors and Andrews is of a ‘slightly Left’ party is lost on the Hitler moustache artists.
Over the decades of my life, four and a half decades of adult life, I have taken anti-authority or anti-mainstream positions on many things. In my early twenties I disappointed and angered my physician father by taking to Natural / Alternative medicine and quitting my University studies for some time (I did return, but not to complete Medicine). I don’t like government telling people what to do in most situations, where I judge it unnecessary. I don’t like excessive surveillance. I have marched in the street on issues that concern me and have manned the barricades and been in the middle of mounted police charges to disperse and arrest many of us. BUT – – – this protesting of sound public health measures to protect against a disease that spreads fast and does harm people; I just don’t get it; can’t get it; can’t get caught up in it.
I have no doubt that the Andrews government has made some mistakes, I think every government everywhere has. I can see that the government might have gone a little too far on things like a curfew on evening movement. I never much liked Daniel Andrews when I had dealings with him as health minister around 2007 to 2010. I still have letters from him that angered me in my files. But these decisions on public movement, gatherings and masks are judgement calls made by summarising and integrating the scientific, medical knowledge of this thing the best that the decision makers can do. I have come to grudgingly respect the job he is doing and the media interrogation he faces up to each day. I am sure he could have done things a bit differently; but I am equally sure I could not have done a fraction of the sound management he has achieved. I am just as sure that virtually all of those throwing abuse at him would have failed dismally if they had been asked to lead a statewide response to the escalating illness and deaths from this thing.
The rage and the certainty that everything the Victorian government does is wrong: where does it come from? And where has any ability to weigh things up with some balance gone? How did common sense disappear?
I read ‘1984’, ‘Brave New World’ and such books as a youth. I reckon I am alert to signs of totalitarian thinking, and we often do see them (several ministers in the present Australian government need careful watching). But these anti-pandemic measures are not that. They are not some excuse to take control of people in a total way. They are a slightly bungled, but science-led, public health-led attempt to come as close as possible to eliminating a newly mutated virus; a virus that causes pretty bad sickness in most elderly adults that get it, in some younger adults that get it, and apparently can leave some quite nasty, long term after effects. In order to control the pandemic authorities are not injecting anything into people (I would probably start protesting if there were forced injections). They are not dunking people into tubs of chemicals like sheep dip. They are not telling people to wear tracking bracelets; the tracking phone app was voluntary and the majority did not take it up.
Government and health department are asking and ordering the public to take ordinary, non-chemical, non-invasive measures to stop this virus exploding through the cities and communities. Stuff like, for the duration of the pandemic, keeping some physical distance between yourself and friends, colleagues, people in the street or shop. For the duration of the pandemic avoiding close contact in group gatherings, entertainments and the like. They are trying to contain small virus outbreaks in the region they started by stopping people moving around spreading it to everyone. These are exactly the same measures that were applied in Victoria and NSW in 1919 and 1920 to control the spread of Spanish Flu pandemic. You can read histories and diaries of people at that time. Authorities were asking and in some cases ordering everyone to do exactly the same things. Medicine knew much less about virus disease at that time, but they knew enough to institute those measures. They instituted face mask wearing too. Most people took to it. There were protesters then who claimed the world was coming to an end due to these restrictions on their liberties. But the virus was controlled. The pandemic died down. There were a lot of deaths, about 15,000 in Australia, but a lot less than there could have been.
So, where does all this rage and abandonment of common sense come from? Of course I don’t know. But I know what I see, and my hunches. To me it looks like a sort of viral pandemic of ‘out of control’ rage at elected government and officials. And perhaps at ‘Science’ too. It looks like a sort of “Trump virus” has infected the thinking of hundreds of thousands of Victorians. Probably not millions, but a very noisy hundreds of thousands.
I too can be very annoyed at government and official bureacracy; often, and about many things. This just isn’t a time for it; it is the wrong issue. But that doesn’t seem to worry this mob. They reckon it is the right issue. They see a giant conspiracy to control the entire population, to inject everyone with vaccines, to have border controls and surveillance of everyone’s movements all the time. I do think that Donald Trump, and probably behind him a handful of the ‘anti-science’ agitators that he listens to, have kind of unleashed this fury in people that previously had about the same level of annoyance as me about bad government and bureaucracy. Somehow there has been an explosion in the minds of a lot of people. A granting of permission to go beserk about wearing a face screen and about keeping the one or two metre distance that stops this viral disease having the chance to jump from person to person. And from that point of view it is the wrong issue to go beserk about. The right issue might well come up soon if government wants to inject every man, woman and child with a vaccine that has been rushed through its testing and approval process. That might be different.
But simply wearing a piece of cloth on your face in public for the next few months, and keeping a metre or two between each other most of the time? It just doesn’t make sense to go beserk about that. However I did name it a “Trump virus” so nothing about it is going to make much sense.
Well considered article David.
Thanks Dean. As someone living outside of Melb, I may have some different responses if I was in the metro area, but I do reckon the majority of citizens would want govt to take pretty strong action to eliminate the spread of this disease.
Hi David, I was referred to your website by Ian Gawler via Greg Fitzgerald. Thanks for raising this issue as you have. I agree this COVID-19 has become very polarising, and notwithstanding your gentle approach , perhaps it needed to ??
In the long run , perhaps we’ll be wiser? I’m a retired clinician / GP with a background in public health, tropical medicine and family medicine, suspended for my view on MMR and Autism in 2017. Many of my colleagues have been intimidated into silence on anything to do with vaccination. Self -censorship is rife and we are being polarised like never before. Trump very much a mixed bag?!
I do think Victoria is in overkill on this issue. The evidence for masks “eliminating” Flu like illness is not convincing , social distancing has a place- but we need to step back and ask “What is this crisis?” and “is our response to this crisis causing more harm than good?” Greg’s articles are worth looking at, and “ad hominem” attacks are not useful as we may be all in this together, but equally. Many Livelihoods will be lost and more lives lost in developing countries from the economic shut downs in Obese developed countries of OECD. In many ways this COVID-19 crisis is epiphenomenal to the cardio-metabolic epidemic which is barely mentioned. Vitamin D and Vitamin C deficiency are endemic in Australia. The draconian polices will trash the natural immunological resilience our children (< 10 yrs) in particular demonstrate. If this was really about health – were is the public health messaging ? Is it ethical that children who have immunity be immunised with a novel vaccine platform mRNA , which may have the potential to cause autoimmune disease or alter our Genome? What of our children's children?
And the COI issues with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation need to cause concern, especially give he has "requested" governments of the world provide the vaccine producers indemnity against litigation.
Please engage with Greg Fitzgerald. He's not a bad guy, and you come highly recommended by Ian G
Business’s will have a chance to recover with infection under control. With no control, mass panic and no chance of business recovery. What price a human life? “WHAT ABOUT ME” seems to be the chant.
Terrific article David. Says so much of what I’ve been reflecting upon too. I too rarely find a reason to praise a politician, but have marveled at Dan’s managerial skills and above all his equanimity/patience with the viper mosh-pit of reporters asking the same questions each day, all the while sending him ‘we hate you vibes’ …..every bloody day. He’s actually doing a genuinely good job with firmness and kindness, putting priorities in the right order.
On the vaccine front I almost concur except maybe we do need a vaccine after all. A Trump vaccine! The energy of the agitators in Victoria does seem to match the big T and his ‘Trumpelites.’
We may of course be dealing with a bunch of woozas! Who just have to break curfew to exercise their right to infect and kill Granny’s wherever.
Having heard what my dad had to endure as a 12 year old Jewish boy in Romania during WWII! His gratitude for the simple things was always evident to me growing up in Australia ‘the luckiest country in the world,’ he would remind me often. He had a sharp educated eye and I believe this agitation would’ve remind him of the ignorant fascists he faced.
Perhaps the Buddhist’s are right only suffering grows people up. Wait till the big climate meltdowns start then ‘they’ll’ be dreaming of a time when all they had to agitate about was wearing a cloth mask, what was on Netflix and social distancing.
Yes, the trials of those who are asked to stay home for a while, and put a bit of cloth over nose and mouth, are very little compared to what are parents or grandparents went thru in WW2, the Great Depression or WW1. My mum, still with us, was born while the Spanish flu was still rampaging. I suspect the world and Australia failed to learn enough from that due to a desire to put the whole WW1 thing behind them. Stay well.
Thanks David, nicely summarised; well worth a wide audience 🙂
Thanks Ian. I do see many of your regular blogs too.
Sorry Ian, but David McRae’s article has more holes in it than a truck load of Swiss cheese. This just one of the many holes: “A granting of permission to go beserk about wearing a face screen and about keeping the one or two metre distance that stops this viral disease having the chance to jump from person to person. And from that point of view it is the wrong issue to go beserk about.”
If these were the only 2 issues, a far less vehement protest would be heard. Why didn’t the author mention ruining the Victorian and Australian economies? What about the tens of thousands of businesses that people have lost? Their self esteem that goes with it? The broken marriages, domestic violence, divorces, depression, suicides, the elderly dying of loneliness and isolation? How about the draconian measures of handcuffing pregnant women in their home in front of their own children for the “egregious” crime of posting on Facebook? What about the police brutality of throwing innocent media representatives (having permits to attend and report on the demonstration) to the ground, frog-marching them off and handcuffing them? (thank God the Victorian government and police are being taken to the High Court for that by Avi). How about Dan himself imposing, without the Police being aware or the CMO Brett Sutton’s recommendation, an unprecedented curfew between 8pm and 5pm? And Dean calls these measures scientific? Does the virus become more virulent in the witching hours? Really?
And finally, david should be more precise with his language. He states: ” go beserk about wearing a face screen and about keeping the one or two metre distance that stops this viral disease having the chance to jump from person to person.”
Where is Dean’s science proving the “disease” jumps from person to person? That is a nonsense. There is none. This is unscientific, loose language which simply incites fear and more ignorance in an already panicked community. Diseases do not jump! Never have, never will! Diseases cannot move because have no entitative existence. Perhaps microbes like viruses and bacteria can move from person to person, but these are not diseases. Equating the virus with the disease is what Andrews and Sutton have mistakenly, perhaps deliberately, done, a mistake that has been picked up by hundreds of qualified people, but no word of this in the main-stream media. Over 50% of those with the virus are completely asymptomatic, just as over 90% of those harboring the polio virus years ago were completely healthy and asymptomatic. Did Dean criticize the fact that neither the Victorian Premier nor the CMO has mentioned one word about health and supporting the immune system, but have allowed liquor shops to remain open?
You know Dawn and I respect Ruth’s and your work immensely Ian, and will continue to, but we feel compelled to articulate our strong disapproval of nearly everything this article stands for. It could have been written by one of the Victorian government’s labor members.
Dear Greg & Kevin Coleman (above comment)
I will make a general reply to you both — not lengthy enough to cover all points.
First, is it worth your while pouring a lot of energy into debate here? I see that Kevin has written to Health Minister Hunt, so is clearly serious about trying to be heard. As far as I know this blog page has very few readers. You might want to devote your precious writing hours to getting published somewhere that reaches more readers.
Second, Philip Corbett made a pretty reasoned response to your (Greg) first post. I won’t try to repeat all that. General Practitioner Steven Sommer has also made points a couple of times.
I suspect that if we were having a chat around a less heated topic we would find we agree on many things, more things than we disagree on. Particularly on the need for nutrition and nutrient supplementing to be recognised and utilised in health maintenance and immunity building. But in the context of this argument about control of people movement and gathering, it is not an argument to be particularly levelled at the Andrews government. All governments of countries and states just about everywhere fail in that regard. There are systemic factors at play that maintain the status quo. They are infuriating. And as Philip Corbett pointed out nobody can hold their breath waiting for any government or health department to attract the worldwide scientific ridicule that would be directed their way if they chose to make their frontline anti-epidemic approach Vitamin D and C supplementation plus several related measures, Zinc and more. I know we all need to hammer away at the bias against these things. But it in no way means that standard, old school anti-epidemic, anti viral spread social measures shouldn’t also be used.
So, on my ‘old school anti-epidemic, anti viral spread social measures’. By that I mean the measures that have been developed slowly, slowly, incrementally through successive waves of plagues from medieval times to the ‘Spanish flu’ to now. Basically it revolves around keeping people apart so that their breaths don’t mingle much, as much as possible and by the best means possible. Why? (forgive me if I am going all Epidemiology 101 on you). Because if my breath contains Sars Cov2 virus particles, and I don’t know it, which is entirely possible, it is likely to be inhaled by anyone spending a few minutes close to me. Sitting next to me in a cafe, public transport, those workplaces where people are unavoidably very close. My breath spreads out around me with virus in moisture droplets or aerosols and hangs around me in a cloud for a time, before slowly dropping to the floor or drifting away with the air movement. And some people in my vicinity will then contract the virus and some won’t. Some will have it spread in their body and cause great trouble, and others won’t. We know that about all diseases and disease causing agents.
Different public authorities try to achieve that ‘greatly reduced physical contact’ by different means. I wish it was entirely possible to do it by education and appealing to everybody’s better natures. I think that might just be how Taiwan has achieved it’s phenomenal low rate of infection and deaths. Same population as Australia but about 2% the amount of infections. Of course if someone is a fan of the whole population getting infected as soon as possible, and possibly having some sort of ongoing immunity, then Taiwan’s situation is terrible. The Taiwanese mostly think it is pretty good. They are now back to pretty normal socialising and work activity, all wearing face masks. The people followed the semi-lockdown protocols there very early in the piece, far quicker than Australia, US or most if Europe responded. And I believe the general public followed the public health advice pretty rigourously. Fear? I suppose so. Uneccessary fear? We could debate that for a long time and not come to a conclusive answer.
Swedish authorities too tried to follow the ‘trust your citizens’ and low level enforcement approach. I take my hat off to them for that. It is important that some western country tried that so that in years to come, with all the data over one, two and three years, we can thoroughly analyse the results, and compare with countries that used more vigorous enforcement. But all players in the debates now, that try to use Sweden (one way or the other) as their knockout punch, are bullshitting. We don’t know. They don’t know. The experiment is less than halfway through. We do know that Sweden suffered massive fatalities in its aged communities in the early phase (more on that in a moment).
My guess is that the Victorian government sadly had to take the view that the ‘trust your citizens’ approach wouldn’t work here because of the excessive bogan factor. Apologies to any proud bogans, probably the wrong moniker to describe that contingent of people who:
a) just don’t believe anything government tells them, as a matter of principle
b) don’t have any sense of ever needing to put aside personal wishes for any kind of community purpose
c) people who have succumbed to the type of ‘conspiracy theory’ that goes way beyond ordinary concerns about big pharma and money making. Those for whom everything is part of a grand, master plan to control us all.
I reckon that the Vic Govt decided that a certain amount of enforcement was necessary to achieve a period of time of stopping / slowing community virus transmission. Now, I acknowldge that may prove to have been a serious mistake. I may have to eat a lot of my words. Andrews may have been better advised to make sustained appeals to everybody’s intelligence and better natures, and been willing to wear consequences like Sweden has. Maybe, maybe. I have to admit I don’t know.
I do know that I am unconvinced by anything I have seen as yet, for example the well crafted letter by 500-1000 Belgian doctors to their government complaining about the bad effects of lockdown measures, I’m unconvinced even by that that this virus has only the same virulence and health impact as the regular flu. It could have been exaggerated, but no final, conclusive data is in on that yet. Lots of speculation upon limited data. Lots of ‘cherry picking’ on all sides of the argument.
A final point, going back to the loss of life amongst elderly in Sweden. Critics, possibly yourselves, say that we should take measures to isolate our elderly and other vulnerable people, and then basically let the virus take its course among the rest. I don’t believe you can isolate our elderly loved ones. They require care and help, and most of that is delivered by young and middle aged staff. We will never get tens of thousands of aged care staff to live in with their charges, and not mix in society, for the duration of the pandemic. Staff will mix in the community, go back into their aged care facilities and infect people. If we reckon that Victoria’s Hotel Quarantine stuff up was a debacle, trying to control infection in aged care homes and villages would dwarf that if we had no ‘lockdown’ and movement controls, and virus spread was allowed to happen as it is again in France and England.
That’s a value judgement, I understand. Some of the elderly who die may have only lived another 3 or 6 months anyway. But some would have lived another 6 or 10 years. We can say that “the population needs reducing anyway”. It does. I just don’t believe that is the best way. But still, I acknowledge, the Sweden experiment is important. We can all claim that we already know what it means; I don’t think our arguments are much more than pissing in the wind till at least two years after the start of the pandemic and then at least six more months of super, rigourous scientific analysis of all the data and variables.
Thanks Greg for your taking the time to respond (to Ian, but I assume to me too).
” . . . the tens of thousands of businesses that people have lost?”
I am very sorry if you have lost your business or livelihood through this period.
You most likely didn’t write your comments as a request for me to respond, but if you are really interested in a constructive dialogue, please let me know.
I would particularly explain where I disagree with you on:
— “ruining the Victorian and Australian economies” . . .
— “This is unscientific, loose language which simply incites fear and more ignorance” . . .
— “neither the Victorian Premier nor the CMO has mentioned one word about health and supporting the immune system” . . .
All important factors, but misleading in this context.
However, since I don’t know if you wish to engage in respectful or constructive dialogue, I will leave it there for now.
Wonderful article David. Thankyou very much for writing it. I now send it on to the people who seem to have gone nuts around me. I have been asking myself why so many sane people are going “far right” in their views and have forgotten that they believe in democracy These people have an anti-government attitude that feels like virulent hatred, some of the “reasons for their feelings” are so way out that they that beggar belief! I won’t give that side of things airplay. Thankyou for having the courage to put this out and let’s hope our society realises that we all really want peace and our leaders are doing their best with a very hard situation. Simply for me, a society which does not take care of its elderly and vulnerable is not a civilisation I would want to live in. So, even if those measures cost us alot…..it’s a bill that needs to be paid.
I do see value in some of Greg’s arguments but also see elements that are exaggerated, unproven or distorted by emotional overstatement.
For example “the divorces, suicides, the elderly dying of loneliness and isolation”.
Where is the evidence of any of these? Complete supposition. I recently read a report that completely refuted the suggestion that suicides have increased. Clearly reports from Lifeline and Beyond Blue indicate mental health issues such as depression and anxiety have increased as one would expect in a pandemic and also as a result of fear of the pandemic and admittedly due to social isolation.
In regards to terminology of course as Greg says a disease cannot “jump” from one person to another. A disease is a condition, not an entity. Poor choice of language by David. However a virus can definitely “jump” ( meaning “be transmitted”, “pass”, “move” etc)
from one person to another. Your bias and unstated scepticism about the dangerous nature of this very contagious virus shows subtley Greg when you say “Perhaps microbes like viruses and bacteria can move from person to person”. Perhaps? Really?! Is there some doubt about this? And mask wearing has categorically been shown to be the single most effective way of reducing that transmission.
The scepticism about the danger of this virus to community health also shows in Greg’s citing the commonly trotted out arguments down playing the severity of Covid 19 infection by stating “ 50% are asymptomatic”. Sure they are, possibly less than 50% from my reading but important to note that those 50% are still carriers who can transmit the virus to more vulnerable people.
Figures I have read state that 80% of people infected by the virus are either asymptomatic, mildly or moderately symptomatic and 15% are severely symptomatic and a further 5% are severely symptomatic requiring hospitalisation.
The mortality rate is generally considered to be approx up to three percent, depending on treatment availability. The mortality rate is about three times greater than the regular flu. The fact that Covid 19 infection in most cases shows no symptoms for approx seven days but is highly contagious for two to three days before symptoms show is precisely why it spreads so insidiously compared to regular flu which shows symptoms earlier.
In regards to lockdown, when comparing Sweden’s more open approach to Australia, on a population comparison if we followed the Swedish model we would have had between 13 and 15 thousand deaths. (They’ve had about 5,000 deaths but a third of our population.) That’s a lot of dead people Greg! We have currently about 860.
Good job Australia is what the overwhelming comment is coming from worldwide!
Ps Of course there is so much more that should have been said about helpful ways to enhance immunity but when has the orthodox allopathic establishment ever promoted that? We can only live in hope for that great day folks!
I would love to respond at length to the above, but will be preoccupied all day after this post. This for starters, stating over 13,000 elderly people have already died from the emotional impact of the lockdowns in the States:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/16/coronavirus-dementia-alzheimers-deaths/?arc404=true
Would also agree to discuss at length on email if interested, as the posts could be too lengthy (perhaps) for Ian’s blog… greg@healthforlife.com.au
It’s quite astonishing to me that people who consider themselves well-informed can write such utter nonsense. For anyone who is interested in the facts of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, rather than the fact-free nonsense emanating from the mouths of politicians, health bureaucrats and most of the mainstream media, I highly recommend making a cuppa and sitting down to read the lengthy and meticulous-referenced evidence brief filed by attorneys Thomas Renz and Robert Gargasz against the State of Ohio, at https://a014950e-d34c-4dc2-bb32-0d0ed826ba43.usrfiles.com/ugd/a01495_6aab87dcc6c24702ba901d3bc8fb76ac.pdf, with further documentation at https://a014950e-d34c-4dc2-bb32-0d0ed826ba43.usrfiles.com/ugd/a01495_25a44d11ced94cc8b3c173e05303b9e0.pdf. Drawing from CDC figures and peer-reviewed medical literature, Renz and Gargasz systematically demolish every argument made in favour of lockdowns, school closure, mask wearing, stay at home orders and all the other unprecedented actions that have been taken in Ohio, across the US and indeed across most of the world.
I have added comments but they have not been approved. So has one of my friends- Robyn- and we are wondering why that is. Any comments.
Hi Greg
I have just seen your comment about not being posted. What?!?
No idea why. I am not very smart re websites and the like.
Perhaps there was some key word or phrase in it that the ‘system’ flagged as abusive or somesuch.
I will try to get into the back end of website and see if your comment is awaiting my approval before being posted. Doesn’t usually happen.
Hi David, Firstly, my apologies for inadvertently referring to you as Dean in my first post. Also, yes, my posts and Robyn Chuter’s have come through, so thank you for publishing them. Below are some references for my concerns. I hope the links can be opened:
Mask science? Why was mask-wearing discouraged for the first 3 months by almost all health agencies around the world- WHO; CDC; CMO’s Brett Sutton, Paul Kelly and Brendan Murphy; Dan Andrews? Why the flip-flop? Because they were desperate, and desperately ignorant of health principles. If interested, here are 3 of many articles I have on the fallacy of mask-wearing for healthy people:
https://www.meehanmd.com/blog/2020-07-22-if-masks-dont-work-then-why-do-surgeons-wear-them/
Dr Meehan is a surgeon himself.
2) And from Dr Blaylock:
Blaylock: Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy
3) Also:
The Science is Conclusive: Masks and Respirators do NOT Prevent Transmission of Viruses — Science & Technology — Sott.net
Lockdown science? Why have Spain, England, Victoria, many States in the USA and other countries/areas of the world needed stringent second lockdowns? Because they do not work. There is little science but lots of hope behind them. Spain in particular had the most stringent measures of distancing, lockdowns and mask-mandates yet has had one of the worst past few months in the world with resurgence. There has not been one rational analysis of benefit to risk done by the Victorian government to my knowledge.
Rt-PCR testing science: Kary Mullis, the late PCR discoverer, actually stated that his test was not designed to isolate specific viruses. This article elaborates the shortcomings of the test:
Coronavirus: The Truth about PCR Test Kit from the Inventor and Other Experts – Weblyf
The ‘we-have-no-immunity-to-the-novel-Coronavirus-science’: why has the distinct possibility of pre-existing T cell immunity to Covid-19 (from other cold-causing coronaviruses) not been of interest to the world’s medical establishment, as admitted in the recent BMJ (first below) article:
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3563 and the following link:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.14.095414v1
Why have over 600 Aussie doctors and surgeons written a letter of concern to the Victorian Premier objecting to his authoritarian and draconian, economy-and personal-liberty-killing measures? The same recently happened in a number of European countries. Because the medical profession are certainly not united behind the Victorian CMO.
This is NOT a pandemic! It is a pandemic of fear, ignorance, misinformation and propaganda. This is by no means a scientific point, but Dawn and I have asked many hundreds of our friends and patients this question: do you know anyone who has been sick with C/V? Not surprisingly, 99% have said not only no, but that they no-one who has tested positive. There have been official admissions that the mortality figures are rubbery. Even Brett Sutton stated that “Covid-19 deaths are not definitive”. The CDC stated 2 weeks ago that only 6% of the 160,000 reported Covid-19 -deaths were purely from Covid-19. Interesting that the official flu deaths have plummeted, recorded more than likely as Covid-19, as they are not even testing for flu now. Some pandemic.
The bottom line is that the medical profession is just as lost with acute disease as they are with chronic disease, and the government follows blindly along. This especially applies when they are confronted by a novel (aka mutated) virus, for which they have no vaccine or anti-viral drugs. They are naked. So what do they do? Having no understanding of how strong the human immune system is when operating without interference, they direct the government to destroy the very fabric of our society, which is what is happening in Victoria and other places around the world. No advice on health, no consulting other medical/health professionals (like Dr Ian Brighthope from Melbourne) or the countless doctors around the world who could bring much to the table in overcoming this situation without destroying economies, our health and our freedoms.
And recently we have Chaiman Dan implementing the draconian and unprecedented Omnibus Emergency Bill through the Lower House, which is being widely criticized by many top legal authorities and rightly so. It gives Chairman Dan the power to nominate anyone to detain whoever they suspect of endangering the health and safety of the community, and give them no right of appeal in court. This is how Nazi Germany started. No wonder Dan has signed Melbourne as the only city in Australia to be a signatory to the Strong Cities Network (SCN)!
Now we have Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt stating that the as-yet untested Covid-19 vaccine will be “as mandatory as possible”, with Dan nodding with them all the way to the Astra-Zeneca laboratories, despite the AMA stating that “such measures cannot be justified”. How dare they take us down this coercive path!
There are two classes of people who die of Covid-19 or other viruses like the flu. First, those who are frail, co-morbid and generally (not always) elderly. These people definitely need close looking after, including nutritional improvement and support. 164 residents die every day in Aged Care facilities in Australia. They die, sadly, from all sorts of health issues, as it doesn’t take much to cause the passing of many of these very elderly and sick people. To help protect them, some judicious de-prescribing of medications is needed. There have been strong links of infections like Covid-19 and others to drugs called PPI’s like Nexium, but this is never on any official agenda:
https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/ppis-appear-increase-risk-contracting-covid19? mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnprM05XRXhaakZtTTJJdyIsInQiOiJTUGZtTTN1c2FNUlp5Mk1mMzB1NGk2WDJxUWJTRmdaaVBtQWF5RmIzaURGRUhuRTVoWW50bFliU2NpUWpwdlMwRlVubWllMzNWcGxnRHdVbWUxZUV3VWxZU2p0cDBzMk5WVzcxS0dEbDdVdDM3RkdjNGNnOFpyNmtCVDdcL3hcL0FoIn0%3D
Second, the very small number of previously-healthy, non-co-morbid people who die of Covid-19 or other viruses like the flu, die because of the suppressive treatment, not the virus. This from the NIH: “There is mounting evidence that the increase of 1 to 4°C in core body temperature that occurs during fever is associated with improved survival and resolution of many infections. For example, the use of antipyretic drugs to diminish fever correlates with a 5% increase in mortality in human populations infected with influenza virus and negatively affects patient outcomes in the intensive care unit.” For further details, see link below:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786079/?fbclid=IwAR3efXyv7StI8itwOPJfKQFO85W-a_rxgfsQ3VgPJQUzooeOeYXTbLXUOzE
If only the medical profession would understand that the symptoms of acute disease AND the recovery from that disease are identical processes!!!
If that simple fact was understood, there would be no fear or panic of this flu-like virus, and a rational and intelligent approach would mean business as usual, and no need for lockdowns, curfews, masks, quarantining of healthy people, social distancing of healthy people, nor billions spent on a vaccine. But this will never be taught at medical school because BigPharma would object. We cannot have a natural weapon called our immune system usurping our beloved treatment programs! If only Dr Trall’s teachings, mentioned in my article 5 months ago Wake Up World, were taught at med school! No way!! Oh, that’s right- believing humans have a working immune system is another conspiracy theory.
Lastly, an interesting article, “Democracy Muzzled” written yesterday by Peter Hitchens in the UK:
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/democracy-muzzled/
Finally, our health freedoms and civil liberties are being eroded at a scary pace, the likes I have never seen before in my 70 years on this orb. I applaud the world-wide demonstrations against this medical dictatorship – and my wife and I will stand with them. I would rather die on my feet that live on my knees!
Dr Greg Fitzgerald (Allied Health)
Thanks Greg. Sorry your post of 29/9 again took some days for me to free it from being ‘unapproved’. (don’t know why this blogsite’s system is recognizing you as someone to be ‘not approved’)
My reply to you and K Coleman, 30/9, was written before I saw your latest, but essentially makes the arguments I would make to your latest.
By the way, I agree with 90% of what you write, for example, modern medicine and public health willfully paying no attention to people’s own, self-generated health, immunity and ability to recover from illness. I just don’t think it is specific argument against the Vic government’s social measures to prevent viral spread. It is an argument against the worldwide system of promoting industrial scale pharmacological medicine over nutrition and more simple, natural, biological ways of understanding and working with our health and health disturbances. In that context I see the various ways of trying to ensure a period of months, up to 12 months of physical distancing etc., as fitting into the latter category, rather than the former.
Anyway, my views of that matter are laid out in the prevous post of 30/9.
* I read Dr Meehan’s piece. Have to say, for an experienced surgeon, it is poorly constructed in my opinion. He repeatedly makes the mistake of taking one smaller piece of evidence and blowing it up into something more global and with far more consequences than it warrants. But then that’s the nature of this entire Victoria wide, Australia wide, World wide debate I guess.
In recent years I’ve faced the grim reaper on three occassions. My most recent meeting was In January this year I was in ICU with suspected COVID 19. Turned out to be influenza A bilateral pneumonia and septicaemia due to the immunosuppressant I was receiving 6 weeekly to keep my Crohn’s colitis at bay. I was given a 33% chance of survival. Sharpens the mind. Fortunately once again I was spared.
I have also faced bankruptcy and major depression. Yet It seems to me that the refrigerated trucks and bodies of loved ones being rolled into the streets in body bags in Northern Italy, New York and Indonesia would just about trump all of the things I’ve been through. Just stop a moment and imagine if that was you or your family, what that would be like.
As terrible as it is people’s bankruptcy is overturned after 3 years and most people can recover from depression, but for a third of those infected you are either a long-time dead or it seems can be chronically disabled with COVID 19.Not just the oldies either, I agree with Ruth though, it’s disgusting that we even feel we need to justify protecting our elderly. A COVID 19 death is extremely unpleasant and we’re all going to be old one day.
This is why I not only think Dan Andrews has and is doing a great job in protecting us and those we love but believe he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. How many other countries have achieved this sort off reversal after reaching 700+ new COVID 19 cases per day?
Steve, on balance I agree with your priorities. Wouldn’t quite nominate Dan for a Nobel though. Pretty sure he has made as many mistakes as many other state and national leaders through this issue. And just a little covering up. But that is absolutely stock standard for pollies anywhere; not in any way unique to Dan. He has been very upfront about his top priority being strong, serious, standard epidemic control measures. And he has fronted up every day for 90+ days (something very few other pollies dare to do) to an increasingly hostile media pack, the Murdoch attack dogs as far as I can see, to painstakingly explain his and his public health team’s decisions.
You are right David- there are more pressing things to do than engage in intellectual jousting here. I hope you and your readers make the time to listen to Reiner Fuellmich when he spoke 2 days ago- he encapsulates exactly what this whole coronageddon scandal is….simply put…. much ado about the flu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UQLqWJJ8AY&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1Nt9hMzXp32TzBN-QndXsfnJwMFyXuEmaUMXCDvhWQGCGPwR0pl8B8I3I
I watched the video Greg attached. Dr Fuellmich, not a medical doctor, is apparently part of a legal team involved in bringing a class action for people who believe governments around the world have been hoodwinked by tech companies , especially the PCR company, apparently making a fortune out of our misfortune. They are going to sue these governments for locking down businesses and enforcing mask wearing.
Note: There is solid evidence mask wearing prevents viral spread (research done in Hong Kong this year confirmed this -60-70% effective). Of course if you have breathing problems you should not necessarily wear a mask, not for long periods of time. Mask wearing according to Dr Fuellmich is extremely dangerous.
Still, Dr Fuellmich does not believe this virus is any more serious than the flu, although at the 18 minute mark of this 49 minute video, he admits it is a serious version of the flu. Then at the 35 minute mark he decides it is a mild flu. Which is it?
He tells us that the footage we saw from New York of people dying and staff overrun being was from one hospital only. Later he changes that assessment to a group of hospitals, without sharing how he knows this fact or why it changed?
The fact this virus is at least 3 x as deadly as the flu seems to escape him. He could look up epidemiology research on pubmed to confirm this.
He completely leaves out any reference to the long hauler illnesses that were seen in 25% o those infected with Sars Cov 1 in 2003 and now a similar percentage of those with this Sars Cov 2. This rate of chronic illness far exceeds the flu. Conditons such as pulmonary fibrosis with loss of 30% of lung function; myocarditis, Guillane Barre, ME/CFS even Parkinson’s. Most importantly the chronic sequelae occur even in young people with milder infections. Long term follow up of health workers who caught Sars Cov 1 in Canada and Hong Kong found 25% (average age 44years) were unable to return to full time work 2 years later due to chronic ill health. Can you imagine the effect on world economies when these chronically unwell people cannot return to work. Yes lockdowns bankruptcy, mental health challenges especially among our youth are terrible. But to avoid mask wearing? Really?
This is not a seasonal virus, occurring throughout the year and it is NOT the flu IT IS Very Dangerous.