Covid 19 Through My Eyes Part 2- “The Takedown”
By the Fall of 2020, COVID-19 was becoming more prevalent in rural America. The public health agencies, legacy media and government were continuing draconian lockdowns and fear mongering. People posted on social media encouraging others to “MASK UP!” or “STAY AT HOME!” It was not uncommon to see someone nonsensically riding alone in their car, even worse, running or exercising while wearing a cloth or surgical mask. Masking (including masking children), social distancing, and refusing to leave the house was bizarrely equated to morality in society, and those who did not adhere to the new code of conduct were shamed and labelled as alt-right, ignorant, selfish, or even “grandma killers.”
The true costs and ripple effects of the lockdowns were not known at the time, but we knew that depression and anxiety among adolescents and teens had risen dramatically. Out of hospital cardiac arrests were also rising, as were domestic violence incidents, and deaths from drug overdoses. America was consumed by fear. People were afraid to visit their doctor and hospitals!
During this time, I was quite active on social media, posting scientific articles and information on many health-related topics. I became guardedly critical of much of what the media and agencies were pushing: masking, lockdowns, social distancing, fear of interacting with other people. Many of my posts provided alternate views from the mainstream dogma that was so vigorously promoted, accepted, and parroted by the masses. I actively started discussing health and wellness and advocating for the benefits of daily exercise, a healthy, all-natural, whole food diet, sleeping eight hours a night, and supplementing Vitamin D intake as ways to improve your immune system and reduce overall risk. I truly believe that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been positively affected if our government and legacy media had promoted healthy habits and wellness as opposed to capitalizing on fear, masking, social distancing, and lockdowns.
In October of 2020, THE GREAT BARRINGTON DECLARATION [1] was authored and published by Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Sunetra Gupta. This open letter stated that the authors had grave concerns about the damaging consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic policies, including lockdowns, and recommended proceeding with “focused protection,” whereby, those who are at the highest risk for the disease could be kept safe, and the rest of society could continue functioning, and operating as normally as possible.
I was elated that these highly respected, nationally acclaimed doctors agreed that the pandemic relief policies being implemented were harmful, and a common-sense approach should be pursued. I enthusiastically signed on and forwarded it to friends and family members—many of whom signed on as well.
While the Great Barrington Declaration has received over 930,500 signatures, the World Health Organization and numerous academic and public-health authorities vehemently dismissed it as dangerous and lacking a scientific basis. The American Public Health Association and sixteen other public-health groups in the United States published a joint, open letter stating that the Great Barrington Declaration “ignores sound public health expertise,” “preys on a frustrated populace,” and “if followed, the recommendations in the Great Barrington Declaration haphazardly and unnecessarily sacrifices lives.” [2]
Well-known “Experts” also attacked and dismissed the Great Barrington Declaration. Recently released e-mails reveal that four days after the Great Barrington Declaration was released, Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), instructed Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (“NIAID”) and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, and Clifford Lane, the NIAID Deputy for Clinical Research and Special Projects—to do a “takedown” of the declaration [3].
Dr. Fauci quickly opposed the Declaration. During an ABC News appearance on Oct. 15, 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated, "That declaration has a couple things in it that I think are fooling people, because it says things that are like apple pie and motherhood."
It baffled me as to why the likes of Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins would so vigorously attack and attempt to discredit the authors and continue to encourage citizens to “follow the science,” or “trust the science.” The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”), NIH, and other government bureaucrats completely lost my trust and faith. Science is supposed to be transparent and open to discussion and civil discourse; suppression of information and opposing points of view only impedes progress in the search for truth.
I often reflect on my very first day of medical school at the University of Virginia when a professor of Anatomy spoke to our entire class: “Half of everything we teach you during medical school will later be proven wrong, we just don’t know which half!” His statement resonated then and even more so now with the benefit of time and experience. Science is never settled despite what you’ve heard in the news!
The rhetoric and recommendations coming from Washington D.C. became increasingly absurd considering what we were learning about COVID-19, how it was spread, and who was at the greatest risk. Masks were recommended (or required) for all indoor situations, including small family gatherings. Schools were closed, being replaced by virtual learning. Executive orders were signed in many states which purported to tell citizens that they could not engage in interstate travel, nor host more than a few non-family members in their home. Dr. Fauci appeared frequently on evening news programs to tell America to not gather for traditional holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Churches, Temples, and Synagogues were closed.
In the face of these authoritarian restrictions, and the political screeching demanding compliance and shaming all those who refused, a defiant undercurrent was palpable—America was starting to get pissed off!
Shortly after Thanksgiving, I along with several of my immediate family members, contracted COVID-19. Like so many others, we had been exposed by an unsuspecting family member. Thankfully, this was the time of year that we routinely start to breed cows on our ranch using artificial insemination and natural service by our herd sires. I had taken a week off from my duties in our medical practice and thankfully did not expose any patients.
My illness was like a normal “flu.” I felt extremely tired and achy for parts of two days, and I distinctly remember waking up one morning and not wanting to get out of bed. But life would not stop for COVID. There were cows to check for heat and breed, so I was forced to take a couple of Tylenol, get up, go outside, and get to work. This was the best thing I could have done! Breathing the fresh air and sunshine immediately made me feel better. My mood improved as did my energy and sense of well-being. As a result, I routinely recommend fresh air and plenty of sunshine to all my Covid patients—and take off your mask!
My sickness only lasted three or four days and I’m convinced that my active lifestyle, healthy diet, and physical fitness were the main factors in my speedy recovery.
Unfortunately, our local newspaper got wind of my positive COVID test and felt compelled to run an article advertising this fact, and completely ignoring my right to privacy. They also felt compelled to write that I had posted on social media my advocacy of health and wellness as a COVID strategy, as opposed to masks and distancing. The message was clear: This irresponsible doctor that was preaching an alternate strategy caught Covid. He must be publicly shamed!
My family’s COVID status was also written about on social media with a firestorm of opinions being posted online. I even had one person contact me, demanding to know if I had exposed any of my patients. The inference was clear: I was obviously a bad person and must have done something to get infected like gather for Thanksgiving dinner! No responsible human would ever contract COVID.
While receiving such public scrutiny was stressful and disconcerting at the time, I will also say that my wife, Ann, and I received much support from our friends and community in general.
Shortly thereafter, a close friend, Colby May, sent me a link to the initial senate hearing called by Senator Ron Johnson on early treatment of COVID-19. The hearing occurred on December 8, 2020, and I consider it to be the single most important bit of information I received in our fight against COVID-19.
Senator Johnson has been a leader in the fight to find safe and effective early treatment protocols for COVID-19—something that was otherwise completely ignored by our public health officials and agencies. Why would they oppose a multipronged strategy focused on disease prevention and early treatment? In hindsight, it is clear that big pharmaceutical companies and billionaires motivated by profits, rather than public welfare, controlled and influenced our politicians, public health officials, and their policies. Their singular focus at stopping this pandemic was to develop and mandate an experimental vaccine therapy (mRNA) to all citizens of this country and throughout the world.
During this landmark Senate hearing, Dr. Pierre Kory’s testimony [4] highlighted use of repurposed FDA approved drugs, including Ivermectin, in the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19. Dr. Kory, and other leading medical experts (doctors in clinical research and practice that were treating COVID patients) shared their vast knowledge on treatment protocols being successfully implemented all over the world.
Dr. Kory testified that:
“Ivermectin is highly safe, widely available, and low cost. Its discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and is already included on the WHO’s “World’s List of Essential Medicines.” We now have data from over 20 well-designed clinical studies, ten of them randomized, controlled trials, with every study consistently reporting large magnitude and statistically significant benefits in decreasing transmission rates, shortening recovery times, decreasing hospitalizations, or large reductions in deaths. This clinical data is also supported by multiple basic science, in-vitro and animal studies. Our manuscript, completed one week ago, is already out of date due to the near daily emergence of new, positive ivermectin studies. The manuscript has been posted on the medical pre-print server OSF (Open Science Foundation) and can be downloaded here https://osf.io/wx3zn/ or on our organization’s website, www.flccc.net. A more updated meta-analysis and review authored by a group of Ph.D. researchers and scientists includes all ivermectin studies as of December 4th, 2020, and can be found on the c19study.com website here: https://ivmmeta.com/
These data show that ivermectin is effectively a “miracle drug” against COVID-19. The magnitude of the effect is similar to its Nobel prize-worthy historical impacts against parasitic disease across many parts of the globe. It should be noted that that Merck, the pharmaceutical company whose scientists helped discover ivermectin, has from the first availability of the drug, donated hundreds of millions of doses for free to support the WHO parasite eradication programs. We believe a similar initiative is needed to eradicate the globe from the scourge of COVID-19. Our group held a press conference this past Friday, December 4th at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, issuing a “Call to Action.” We made a formal request to our national and global health care agencies and leaders to rapidly assess the growing scientific evidence on ivermectin and update treatment guidelines accordingly. We noted that the last treatment recommendation on ivermectin is from August 27th where on the NIH website, they recommended that ivermectin only be used in clinical trials and they based that recommendation as “expert opinion” only given the lack of clinical studies at the time. There is now a wealth of studies reporting efficacy of ivermectin. In that press conference, we called for a rapid and updated review of this evidence in the hopes a treatment recommendation could be made and thus saving many thousands of lives, quickly.”[5]
The response from the mainstream media and some politicians was shocking to say the least. Rather than sharing these groundbreaking clinical findings and anecdotal data to save lives, Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine and Vitamin D supplementation, as well as the physicians who prescribed such treatments, were villainized. Many of these brave and heroic physicians were, and continue to be, slandered and attacked not only by governmental bureaucrats but also the media and medical licensure boards. This aggressive attempt at silencing, subverting, and misrepresenting scientific data as well as the halting free and transparent exchange of information was powerful and well-coordinated.
Unfortunately, this smear propaganda campaign was successful in convincing many Americans that safe and well tolerated medications such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine were actually dangerous. Government bureaucrats, politicians and the legacy media continued to promote that fallacy that the only way out of this pandemic was the vaccination of all of mankind. It is now obvious that this was an utter failure.
This led to a divisiveness in society that I have never previously witnessed. Families and friends quarreled and argued about things such as masks, lockdowns, vaccines, and treatments like I had never thought possible. Many lay persons, with no training or ability to decipher scientific papers, considered the CDC website as an unquestionable authority, and used CDC recommendations to justify rude discourse with scientists and medical professionals who had alternative views (many of which have been proven correct over time).
Less than one week following this landmark Senate hearing, my wife and medical partner, Ann (Family Nurse Practitioner), and I were called by friends to treat an eighty-six-year-old patient, in poor health with COVID-19. Thankfully we were able take the information learned from that senate hearing and save her life! While the protocols continue to employ additional vitamins, supplements, and repurposed medications, we credit Ivermectin and Vitamin D in helping save her life!
She’s no horse…. but she’s very happy she was treated!
More to come…….
[1] The Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Oct. 4, 2020, Great Barrington Declaration (gbdeclaration.org).
[2] Public health organizations condemn herd immunity scheme for controlling spread of SARS-CoV-2, Oct. 14, 2020, Public health organizations condemn herd immunity scheme for controlling spread of SARS-CoV-2 (apha.org).
[3] FOIA emails: Francis Collins told Anthony Fauci to takedown Great Barrington Declaration. - TheBlaze
[4] Testimony of Pierre Kory, MD Homeland Security Committee Meeting: Focus on Early Treatment of COVID-19, December 8, 2020, Testimony-Kory-2020-12-08.pdf (senate.gov).
[5] Id. at 2.
Excellent coverage of the course of events! I hesitated at vaccination, deciding to wait and see. By mid-year, I thought - where is the medicine to treat this disease? When I found there were none, my quest began! My Doctor, as a Fauci adherent, strongly advised - get vaccinated! Learned of all the good Doctors successfully treating their patients. I live in Maryland,, true Fauci believers. I learned successful treatment was illegal. Anyone providing it would be referred to their Board for consideration of pulling their licenses. The more I learned the angrier I became. When I mentioned I was unvaxed a local woman ran from me screaming. A client fired me (rehired when fully vaxed they came down with Covid. I blessedly found Dr Malone on Rogan and have become one of the faithful opposition. So glad to hear you folks are ones with us!!!