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IM Doc pt 31
Jan. 15th, 2022 02:11 pmIM Doc I would like to make sure everyone understands the magnitude of this problem.
In July or August – do not remember for sure – my local hospital had a media release that only 8% of their staff was unvaccinated.
Since that time, I have had a literal flood of nurses, RTs, CNAs, and front office staff in my office as patients. Crying, upset, despondent, depressed and suicidal. The problem here has nothing to do with the mandates. This is a moral and spiritual crisis in medicine. It is no longer doable for many people. These people are giving up their careers – they just do not see a viable way forward for themselves and their mental health.
If you recall, Biden announced the mandates in early September. And this was right around the time that so many of these people started resigning en masse. The hospital could not hire enough replacements with a vaccine mandate so in order to save the hospital, did not require that. A recent article to the public last week announced that currently there are 21% of our employees unvaccinated. So we have gone from 8% about 3 months ago during a mass exodus to 21% now.
If the hospital even begins to think about enforcing the vaccine mandate, the doors will have to be closed. There just simply are not enough staff. The nursing home is already having to discharge patients because they have no staff.
Things are very dire indeed. The remaining staff are overwhelmed and becoming very emotional. I have never seen anything like this.
This is going on all over the fruited plain. All over rural America – and indeed in many large hospitals in the big cities.
Americans simply do not realize how dire this all is. I fear for the entire system if we have another big wave. And if Biden really clamps down, the rural hospitals for sure are going to be toast.
I simply cannot understand the whole plan. There is something else going on. It just has to be.
“Jill Biden: What to do if you want to protect your kids” [CNN]. “Parents, we do absolutely everything to protect our kids, and in this pandemic, you did. You figured out how to support their virtual learning while working your job. Some of you even left your job to help your kids. You found ways to create online playdates and birthday parties. You chose to get yourself vaccinated.” Lol, remember when “essential workers” were important? They could not work from home, unlike those who have “email jobs,” and so naturally Dr. Biden erases them. More: “From the day you held your sweet, fragile, little baby for the first time, you have made the choice, again and again, to keep your child safe. Getting your kids the Covid-19 vaccine is your choice, too. Make the decision to protect your children with the same vaccine that has already saved millions of lives.” • It’s appalling. Dr. Biden recommends only vax. Dr. Biden does not discuss ventilation, or (for some ages) masking, or the nasal and oral prophylatics (e.g., Povidone) we have often discussed here. She does not use her national forum to discuss the “Swiss cheese,” layered strategy at all. Dr. Biden emits soothing pablum. Soothing lethal pablum. One might almost think that the Bidens, as a couple, oppose aerosol transmission entirely (q.v. President Biden’s visit to an apparently windowless schoolroom using plexiglass barriers. Shocking and appalling.
About the above linked article about Dr. Biden’s comments on CNN —
Parents, we do absolutely everything to protect our kids, and in this pandemic, you did. You figured out how to support their virtual learning while working your job. Some of you even left your job to help your kids.
I have been preaching to my students, residents, and patients for decades that the vast majority of disease I see in my office is a direct reflection of people’s reaction to “the American way of life.” That way of life has now produced over the 30 years of my career a huge increase in obesity, in diabetes, in mental anguish and stress, in kids on all kinds of meds, an explosion of diabetes in kids, and a level of depression and anxiety in my patients that was simply inconceivable when I started 30 years ago.
To put it simply, people are allergic to being American. It really is that simple.
What these elites have yet to figure out – as I have heard nothing about this really discussed in the press – is what the last 2 years has wrought.
You see, when you give people the ability to do their work and life without the soul-draining hour long commutes, the mindless work days, leisure time every day instead of driving, and the incredibly decreased expenses without a commute – you gave them a chance of having a much better life. Leaving many parents much more time to be with their kids. My little rural community has now been deluged with millenial families uprooted from California and NY and SF and Chicago moving here with abandon. The empty U-Hauls are everywhere.
In my experience as a physician and talking to hundreds of the new-found free, this has led to 2 big insights.
1) Parents realized how absolutely craptastic was the kids’ experience in school and how atrocious many of the teachers are.
2) Far more importantly, many families, especially the younger ones, are purposely having one of the parents stay home now – working or not. Many of them have quit working altogether. That is where a lot of our workers have disappeared to.
Most of the stay-home parents have been the moms, but I have been taken aback by how many dads are staying home while mom works. Many of them here in my community and in my realm have realized how much of their lives and money were being spent on their previous life and have decided that spending that on their kids is the much better option.
I could not be more thrilled. I have thought for a long time that we need to completely re-think our entire way of life. It may disrupt some of the sacred cows – for example – tenets of feminism and 2-career families. But so be it. I think we will all be much more healthy in the long run.
As this continues to emerge, the changes may be very disruptive as we are experiencing now – but what was not disruptive about the previous way we were doing things?
Dr. Biden and other elites like her spout off these kinds of platitudes all the time. She is really onto something here – I just do not think it is what she thinks it is.
The times – they are a’changin’.
Yves and Lambert,
Given the extensive treatment on NC about Covid and related topics, you may be interested in reading Scott Alexander’s substack post about Ivermectin studies.
YankeeFrank Yep. The other day I linked to John Campbell’s video about how effective, in multiple ways, ivermectin is at beating covid. Far better than the new pfizer and merck meds. Sad. Actually an effing travesty of public health corruption. Neoliberalism is death and profit.
IM Doc I want to thank you for putting this link here. I have been directed to this article earlier today and have already read through it.
A very comprehensive discussion of the major trials on Ivermectin and their strengths and weaknesses. I found this very fair and very much in the tradition of vigorous medical debate.
I also greatly appreciated the writer’s take on the politics issue.
I will still tell everyone to this day, in my practice we are using ivermectin. In the very early stages of the disease, rapid deployment of the drug does seem to make a difference in keeping patients out of the hospital. My own data and my own eyeballs have come to that conclusion after treating multiple dozens of patients. It is a safe drug – one of the safest there is. And based on long-standing medical ethics principles, given its safety record and its seeming ability to keep people out of the hospital – even now it is unethical to withhold it.
I am looking forward to trials – fairly done – to see if indeed this holds up. Obviously – if more refined data start to come in, I will reconsider using it. This is called science. I do not need Rachel Maddow and horse deworming screeds to tell me what the principles of science and medicine are.
I have 1 major quibble with the line of thinking of this writer. And that is the toxicity of the vaccines. VAERS, as unreliable as it seems, is screaming at us that this is likely the most toxic vaccine ever introduced. I have certainly seen more problems in my own patients, including 1 death, than I have ever had in any other vaccine. “The completely safe and effective” line is not really holding up as we go on. And it is certainly not a few myocarditis cases here and there as this writer suggests.
Accordingly, it is very very difficult as a rational thinking physician how to exactly address risk benefit ratios when talking with patients about these vaccines. Especially when many of them in increasing numbers seem to have stories of family and friends affected with side effects. As I have repeatedly stated, my job is to convince people to do the right thing – NOT COERCING them. And this spectre of side effects looms large – not the least of which reason is the authorities seem intent on completely ignoring the problem. A foolish thing to do – that behavior leads to more angst an distrust.
So, I have been doing all I can to get those in whom the risks are obvious – older age, co-morbid problems, to take the vaccine. Many of these people also would like ivermectin prophylaxis – and it is not going to hurt them so we do it. I try to engage everyone at their level.
But so much of the political distrust and backlash in this whole COVID experience is the reflection of our public health officials ignoring people’s concerns – and God forbid literally making fun of them – don’t take horse pills y’all – and shit like that.
Interestingly – it is not mainly the MAGA people in my practice demanding ivermectin – it is the more well-to-do PMC types. And they demand it vociferously.
And as I have repeatedly stated – once the vaccinated have a breakthrough case – and are indeed really ill – further vaccination is not an option. The Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers models of throwing everything at it acutely – Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies , everything at it – and that seems to be working magnificently as well.
I think my profession has forgotten the entire history of medical therapeutics. When you engage patients at their level, and do not deride them – and work and cooperate with one another – things often work so much better – a calm cool mind in a patient often leads to a calm cool medical course.
We now have physicians dictating all terms – NO IVERMECTIN FOR YOU – you moron – not seeing unvaccinated patients, writing all kinds of nasty grams about the unvaccinated on their facebook and all kinds of other behaviors.
When I was in medical school – the first day of medical ethics was the tenet that PATERNALISM as a provider is not ever going to work. You must recognize the patient’s autonomy – and you must work together. I have endeavored my whole life to do that.
We have flushed all of that down the toilet as a profession the past 2 years. It will not be forgotten. It is time the whole medical realm has a refresher in medical ethics.
Lambert Strether And yet, we wave SSRIs right on through (based, IIRC, on a study with n = 18). I guess it’s all about the comfort zone….
Alex What is your opinion about Scott Alexander’s hypothesis that the effect of ivermectin is due to its deworming properties rather than treating covid per se (the Synthesis section of the linked article)?
IM Doc,
Here at Nakedcapitalism, your Dec. 14, 2020 examination of Pfizer’s vaccine study provided invaluable information and insights to the NC readership. Now almost one year later it appears that we may have to wait a very long time indeed to have at all the data.
https://aaronsiri.substack.com/p/fda-asks-federal-judge-to-grant-it
IM Doc I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw that this AM.
After all the claims of total transparency about the COVID vaccines.
I must say it is completely unsurprising behavior on the part of Pfizer – probably one of the most compromised Pharma companies there is. The very fact they were involved is what caused an enormous amount of my initial skepticism. Never underestimate how low that company can stoop.
zagonostra There was a time when people knew who Ivan Illich was, in fact he was something of a celebrity. But like Marshall McLuhan once he died, he seems to have been forgotten.
Ivan’s book Medical Nemesis published in 1975, foresaw the decline of the Medical profession due to the same phenomenon of institutionalization that he defined in De-schooling Society.
IM Doc Illich was required reading for every student of mine for 30 years. His Medical Nemesis has proven to be one of the more prescient books on the course of medicine as a profession over the course of my life.
I would recommend it to all.
lyman alpha blob Anecdote on that addictiveness from before opioids became a national crisis. Many years ago my wife’s doctor sent her to the ER for something fairly minor. She tells the doctor that pain is a 2 on a 1-10 scale. Someone comes back with a bottle of Oxycodone – it was a long time ago so I don’t remember the position of the person who brought the meds, but if they weren’t a nurse they were still a hospital employee at the very least. I said “Isn’t that very addictive and does my wife really need this when her pain isn’t all that bad?” She said “You must be thinking of Oxycontin, and this is Oxycodone, so it’s not addictive”. I was pretty sure they were both highly addictive, but didn’t want to start a fight in the ER so we went home with the pills. I looked it up, found out I was 100% correct and we tossed the pills without taking any. Someone still got paid for dishing out the bogus prescription though. Ka-ching!!! This presumably went on at hospitals all across the country for years before it ever made it into the public eye.
Lambert Strether > She said “You must be thinking of Oxycontin, and this is Oxycodone, so it’s not addictive”
From Drugs.com:
Oxycodone and Oxycontin are essentially the same substance, but the main difference is that Oxycontin is a long-acting form of oxycodone. Oxycontin releases oxycodone slowly and continuously over 12 hours and only needs to be given twice a day. Oxycodone is short-acting and relieves pain for about 4 to 6 hours so needs to be given four to six times a day to provide all-day pain relief….
Oxycontin may also be called a controlled-release or extended-release tablet. It has been designed so that the active drug, oxycodone, is released in two phases. The first layer allows for the initial rapid release of oxycodone from the surface of the tablet, providing pain relief within about 20 minutes. The inner layer slowly releases the remainder of the oxycodone over 12 hours.
The decision to prescribe oxycodone and Oxycontin should not be taken lightly because these medications have been associated with long-term physical and psychological dependence, even when prescribed for conditions as innocuous as dental pain.
Yikes. I wonder where the nurse got that idea. A pharma salesman?
IM Doc I was there on the ground through the whole thing.
It was willful blindness on the part of my profession. Not unlike today, it was shocking how the vast majority just rolled over.
They started by telling us we were mean for not giving pain meds, even going so far as making pain a 5th vital sign and making sure many patients were already addicted before DC from the hospital.
It took 20 years- but it finally detonated. And in its wake were the livelihoods of several US states and entire regions and many many graves.
How the vaccines play out will be another 20 years – we will see how things look at that time.
Very shameful that we just keep allowing this to happen.
One week from today is Thanksgiving Day.
I would like to share with everyone something that has been happening with increasing regularity in my office this past few weeks.
People are making active plans to exclude any and all unvaccinated from their family celebrations. Do not get me wrong – I believe any rational human being – given what we know – should seriously consider not having holidays this year. Especially if elderly or sick are involved. I think every family should be having this discussion. It is perfectly rational at this point.
However, that is not what I am seeing most of the time. What I am seeing is a very very malignant process. I am seeing many people announce to me with glee that so and so unvaccinated will not be invited. Often secretly telling me how they have known that so and so and their family were always obviously rubes ( or insert expletive of choice). “I am looking forward to a holiday without them there” “They do not deserve to be there.”
I have become literally heart-sick in the past few weeks listening to this. To the point I had to seek counsel from my clergy last night. I am slowly beginning to become very unmoored by all that is thrown at me every day. Sometimes, I just need to visit my higher power.
First of all – there are so many family members in my own life that have gone on – that I would pay any price for just an hour or two with them.
I have this constant feeling – WHAT HAS MY PROFESSION DONE TO THE AMERICAN PSYCHE THAT PEOPLE ARE BEHAVING TOWARD THEIR OWN FAMILY THIS WAY? What more evidence do we need that massive mistakes have been made?
But just as concerning to me is where these vaccinated people are getting the idea that their celebrations are safe. They are openly planning to have grandma there and openly discussing with me they do not want the unvaxxed unclean there so grandma can have a good time – MASKLESS – with all the vaccinated kids all around. I hear this repeatedly. I fear for the hospital census in December.
Rachel Maddow and Rachelle Walensky as far as I know quit talking about how there is zero spread with the vaccines months ago. Where is this misinformation coming from?
And then one of my patients showed me this clip this AM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmdJYfO4M
Just from this week. Watched by millions of grandmas and housewives.
Right away – there is the framing issue. The evildoer unvaccinated lady is not allowed to be on the set because “our producers take health very seriously.” Laughably, this from the show who famously had to have 2 vaccinated hosts rushed off the stage after being found to be positive during the show. From looking at their YouTube feed, they apparently talk to Jen Psaki all the time. Whoopi – have you checked with Jen how the COVID infection that has taken her out of work for 3 weeks is going? One she obtained fully vaccinated? Ms. Psaki looks like a healthy woman – how is that going to work for diabetic grandmas all over the land that you are misinforming?
But it is the discussion by Ms. Bila – about the actual facts that the vaccinated can spread this just as easily as the unvaccinated that got me. She was ridiculed and shot down by Joy Behar relentlessly. They truly believe that people are completely protected from spread and contagion by these vaccines. Amazing. So many of these elite and media types are profoundly misinformed. And yet they are allowed with abandon to spew misinformation that literally may kill people. And millions are watching her – and BATHING IN THE MISINFORMATION.
Where are the fact checkers and twitter censoring for Ms Behar? In my humble opinion, allowing this kind of thought being spread to millions of grandmas that the vaccines have made them perfectly safe is profoundly dangerous.
I have multiple vaccinated little old ladies very very ill in the hospital right now. Maybe I should see how they think the vaccine protected them. Some of them would likely cuss me out. Profound disappointment is not adequate to describe how some of them feel.
If you are high risk – GET VACCINATED. But never assume that is a silver bullet. It is not. Please spread this far and wide to all you know.
Again, I am heartsick. I simply cannot believe what I am seeing.
Undoubtedly, at least SOME of those “much sicker” patients were put in the ICU by the current “vaccines” themselves.
Undoubtedly? You, no doubt, have some solid evidence to back this up, right? It’s interesting how vaxx skeptics went from “the vaccines are experimental so caution is warranted” to “the vaccines are making people sicker than they’d be if they’d gotten Covid!”
IM Doc I do not subscribe at all to “vaccines are making people sicker than they’d be if they’d gotten COVID”.
However – some very hard truths are beginning to emerge – this is an organic from the ground up kind of thing and will take months/years to sort out.
I was at a medical staff meeting at my own hospital in the past week. We all on the medical staff know that we have been very very busy in the early fall. Usually that time of year is very quiet around here. But we were all horrified to learn that the actual numbers of the patients in the hospital for non-covid non-OB non-peds related issues had literally gone up by double digits – many of the diagnoses had increased by upwards of 50%. These included all the bread and butter medical problems, like CVA, MI, CHF, PE, DVT, pneumonia and most prominently – a huge surge in type I diabetes and other diabetic complications. These numbers on all of these diagnoses were literally off the chart compared to 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017. The abstractor had even done a population based per capita study – and the numbers held. Very strange that all of these diagnoses would be astronomically increasing all at once in OCT 2021. That kind of across the board increase would be unique in my entire career at any hospital.
The cancer registry is also through the roof – interestingly we are having a major increase in malignant melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Again – no obvious explanation. Breast cancers were also really elevated compared to their incidence in past Octobers.
There had been a slow gradual increase in all of these issues during the months of July August and September – but October blew it out of the water.
The abstractor herself noted that this increase could NOT be attributed to the old line of “people were just holding on to things and not going into the doctor because of the pandemic.” That is just not the case – that may have been true a year ago – but we can tell by office and ER visits that were completely normal since SEP of 2020 that this is no longer the case. People have resumed office and ER visits at a historically normal level more than a year ago. Any effort to blame this on pandemic fright is totally misplaced – and yet I have seen this parroted everywhere in the MSM when they are talking about these hospital surges. The national office visit numbers and Medicare numbers I have seen evaluated in the past 3 months tear this idea to shreds.
So, what is causing this? And mind you – I am in touch with colleagues all over this country. Similar things are going on everywhere. NPR NBC NYT and now this article have reported on this same phenom as well.
I have no idea if this is vaccine-related or not. I hope not. But to dismiss that prospect out of hand is not based in the scientific method. We must keep our own eyes open and attuned to data as it comes in. Things may change. Things may get better. But so far in November, if anything this trend at my hospital is getting worse. I have admitted just in the past week 2 young people with acute DKA to the ICU. That is the 4th and 5th DKA/new onset Type I DM I have admitted since July. For comparison – there were zero in the whole year of 2020 – and 1 in 2019.
I would not use the word undoubtedly to make hypothesis from these data. I would however use the word concerning.
I would like everyone to realize – it is exactly this same kind of population data that put the nail in the coffin of VIOXX. It became overwhelmingly obvious when looking at broad state or region or nation wide trends that the incidence of CAD and CVA had markedly gone up the years it was on the market and the correlation with VIOXX was tight.
That of course was back in the day when we had an actually half way functional FDA. The way they have treated myself and many many colleagues I know who have tried to report problems this year unfortunately means we may never know what is going on.
Way too early to know if this is the case here. I am just telling you it is just as equally unsound to blow it off as it is to hype it. We have no idea what the long-term effects of these vaccines are – and we all should be paying attention. Side effect monitoring used to be a critical thing that primary care docs did. I have noted with concern this year that function somehow seems to have been lost in the “perfectly safe and perfectly effective” mantra we have embraced with these vaccines. We need to wait until much more data is available. I pray that the data is being handled with care.
albrt IM Doc – many of us have been expecting long-term damage from Covid itself, just based on the involvement of multiple organ systems. Diabetes is a particular concern – a nurse practitioner friend suddenly acquired diabetes immediately after a Covid-like illness in very early 2020.
Are you aware of any data (including anecdotal if it is from front-line doctors rather than the internet) that seems to indicate these unusual illnesses are (or are not) related to either Covid history or vaccine history?
IM Doc This has become such an obvious problem that even an academic center I frequent had a smaller zoom epidemiological conference about this yesterday.
Serious discussions about what could be the etiology of what is being seen in so many places.
You start by looking at the data and hypothesizing what may have gone on to cause it.
Some very good hypotheses I heard yesterday
The vaccines
The actual covid infection
The overall anxiety and stress going on
The fact many people have been sitting home eating chips and coke and no exerciseAs I stated above, the concept of pandemic fright was not taken too seriously by the epidemiologists because the data does not support that hypothesis.
This will require poring over months of fine granular detail and nothing is for certain.
That is why the idea of either blaming the vaccines or instantly exonerating them is really not appropriate in either case right now.
Again, I pray the data are being cared for honestly. This is profoundly important given that nothing is known about long term side effects of the vaccines.
There have been a few links on this site this week about ivermectin. Including a very well done discussion of the most important extant trials.
I would like to add a few things from my own experience about this drug. And where we are right now. In my area, we are again having what appears to be the early stages of yet another surge of COVID. This time, it is clearly involving many fully vaccinated and even boostered patients. And they are very ill. This is not a joke. In these patients, the vaccines have clearly failed in their mission. Seeing the tide coming in, even Dr. Fauci had to admit as such this week.
We supposedly have the new Pfizer drug (more on that in a second) and we now have the monoclonal antibody therapy. Unfortunately, the supply of the Pfizer drug is non-existent. And we have very limited supplies of the antibody drug. That drug is reserved for only patients that are high-risk and already very ill. Just so you can understand the magnitude of this issue – 68% of the patients who received the antibodies this week in my area were fully vaccinated, many boostered (I do not have that exact %). The other 32% were the unvaccinated. Again – the vaccinated patients are now getting sick enough to be in the “high-risk” group to get antibodies.
I do not believe anyone anticipated we would be in this situation with a fairly significant majority of the population vaccinated – but here we are. And now because of the severe staffing shortages and other issues, it is very important to do all we can to keep people out of the hospital safely.
As I have stated repeatedly, my experience in previous surges with this infection have demonstrated to my own eyes that Ivermectin is very capable of doing this. That is pretty much the only area in which I use it – patients who are positive whether ill or not get started on it immediately in addition to all of their primary contacts. Despite the months of propaganda from MSNBC and the CDC ( don’t take the horse dewormer y’all) , I have yet to have a single person have one issue with this medication. The same cannot be said for the vaccines. However, as is the case in every single viral infection in human medicine, once people are sick enough to be in the hospital, almost nothing works well. One of the agents we have been using, remdesevir, seems to do absolutely nothing beneficial that I can tell and often damages the patients. To be brief at that point of hospital admission – it is 100% support. It is critical to deal with patients early and strong in their illness.
I will say again – I was a very young doctor in the AIDS crisis working in an inner city hospital surrounded by dying AIDS patients at every turn. A very similar story was playing out at the time – and I guess WISDOM is the ability to learn from the mistakes of the past and never let them fool you again.
Pneumocystis carinii – the scourge of AIDS before we had effective anti-virals is the agent that killed the vast majority of my patients back then. Often abbreviated PCP. It causes a severe pneumonia. This bug is most definitely NOT a bacteria. In the 1980s it was thought to be a protozoa like ameba – however now we consider it more like a fungus ( I am not going into that here – suffice it to say it is NOT a bacteria). Interestingly, there were all kinds of agents in the 80s and early 90s for this agent that were actually doing far more damage than good to people – IV and inhaled pentamidine is the most common. And this drug was making mountains of cash for Big Pharma. From the front lines, various docs across the country started using a very old patent-expired ANTI-BACTERIAL called BACTRIM. 2 cents a pill. This had been used for decades at the time mainly in the treatment of urine infections. And docs all over America noticed how well it was working for PCP. All anecdotal – but vigorously shared. We had all had one too many cardiac arrests with the pentamidine. Some papers here and there appeared. All minimal studies because that is all you could really do as a lone wolf at the time. But overwhelming efficacy and minimal safety issues were noted. And then Dr. Fauci sent out the wolves. He and others were very busy promoting vaccine research, and antivirals that were very toxic, and keeping the pentamidine money train going. I sat through one conference after another deriding the use of BACTRIM as a pee pill by NIH experts sent to quell the rebellion. “How dare you use a bacterial agent against this protozoan fungus – the drug is not even in the right class”. The ridicule coming from these people at times was overwhelming. All kinds of papers and statistical manipulation was belched forth to try to subvert the evildoers. But the drug actually worked. And the doctors using it noted it. And persisted. And over the next few years, despite the NIH, Bactrim became the drug of choice for PCP – and still is to this day. I have not written a prescription for pentamidine in decades. Not even sure they still make it.
Therefore, was born an innate skepticism of Big Pharma and indeed of Dr. Fauci, in an entire generation of young doctors in this country.
One huge difference back then is we did not have the odious presence of the pathological liar Rachel Maddow and the morons at the NYT to poison the medical discourse. We did not have Big Pharma owning our entire media landscape with their ad dollars ( that did not start until the mid 1990s hat tip to the assholes Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton). We did not have facebook and twitter and youtube to censor anything that was said about bactrim or pentamidine. We had ourselves, our colleagues, our wits, and our experience and our intellect. It was a much better world.
Unlike so many on both sides of the ivermectin issue which appear to be religious zealots, I came by my usage of this drug by doing a deep dive into the actual science. I was initially quite skeptical. But reading the basic science and some of these clinical trials made me feel very comfortable in trying it. The safety profile is so good that using it in this kind of crisis would be unethical. I am not alone in that assumption. Despite what the talking heads say on TV, every medical ethics conference I have been to about this topic, EVERY SINGLE ONE, to this day continue to state it is UNETHICAL not to use it.
Earlier this year, I attended a few conferences where the pharmacodynamics were discussed and the clinical trials discussed. It was there I learned from a PharmD that I know and trust that Big Pharma was starting their anti viral trials for COVID. And the candidates he had seen HAD EXACTLY THE SAME COURSE OF EFFECT ON COVID AS THE BASIC MEDICINE TRIALS WERE TELLING US ABOUT IVERMECTIN. Let me say that again – at least some of the Big Pharma agents being evaluated had the exact same effect on COVID as Ivermectin. I could not believe that at the time. Because this research is proprietary, it was unavailable to be looked at. But I did share this with the COVID brain trust back then. But here we are – on the verge of having this released – and indeed – THE PFIZER DRUG INHIBITS EXACTLY THE SAME PROTEASE INHIBITOR AS IVERMECTIN. The only difference is that ivermectin seems to be active against multiple other parts of COVID that this new Pfizer drug does not touch.
And where do the American people get to learn this? From Rachel Maddow? Sean Hannity? Chris Cuomo? The Paper of Record the NYT? The New Yorker? – Our elected officials? NO TO ALL – We get to learn this from a retired nurse in Great Britain and a comedian in his garage studio – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xROICA8Hr7I
Please note – the discussion that the nurse gives is the Cliffs note version of what I have been hearing for months. He makes it very easy to understand.
We are a corrupt and unserious nation. That includes my profession. They have managed to propagandize this issue for long enough now that the very word ivermectin is now radioactive. And just in time for the new 800 dollar a course Pfizer drug to hit the market – and there are others from other companies right behind them. Pigs feeding at the trough.
Where are the promised trials? I have been waiting all year. As a non-zealot, I would love to know one way or the other what the efficacy of ivermectin is……Will likely never know at this point. The cash register is just 2 steps away.
If you are high risk, get vaccinated. If you feel you are sick with COVID or are newly positive – get in touch with your doc. At my practice, we are now hitting it with all we have. I now have many patients demanding this approach. The Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers screeds from the MSM have done nothing but profoundly increase this desire. Antibodies if available. Ivermectin and fluvoxamine. And all the usual OTC. If you are vaccinated, do not assume there is a halo of protection – there most certainly is not. Continue to be diligent. Lose weight, sleep well, do all you can to decrease your stress level. Protect your vulnerable.
Tulsi flashing her true hard right domestic stance colors lately. I won’t be surprised to see her pop out as a Republican or some kind of “patriot party” candidate soon.
IM Doc Yes indeed. And this liberal former Democrat is looking very hard at voting for her and supporting her financially.
She seems to be one of the only national politicians who has a clue. And has the audacity to be authentic.
I can never thank her enough for the smack down she applied to Kamala Harris during the debate. That is when I knew she had the balls for national politics.
Interestingly, my wife and her Democratic friends are all avid supporters of her as well. My wife has basically been a grass roots Dem operative her entire adult life – and can instantly spot those who could actually win – and govern – and build a coalition. She and her entire committee are all in for Tulsi if she chooses to run. She could not do worse than the slimeballs that are up there now.
I truly believe the national Dem party’s constant denigration of the only authentic viable politician they have left may be yet another sign that the end draweth nigh. If you think you know of another who is both authentic and viable – I am all ears.
Has it not been interesting that,unlike every pharmaceutical known to man, a long-list in a rushed hurried voice reading off side effects has not been at the end of all these ads.
From what I know, this listing of side effects is federal law. I cannot see anywhere that this has been rescinded. Especially now that Pfizer has been “FDA approved”.
How or why did these products get an exemption?
About a year ago, an article in the NY Times or where ever discussed this at some length, and I’d been thinking about it for months before; The Establishment is destroying an entire generation of doctors, nurses, CRNAs, techs, and support staff. And that’s not going to end well, and it’s going to particularly hollow out care facilities in parts of the country that liberal Democrats loathe, but also everywhere else.
Definitely stay healthy for out there for as long as you can!
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/the-mass-exodus-of-americas-health-care-workers/620713/