How are other places doing COVID-wise??
Interesting pics below
There are many different interventions put into place to try and end the COVID pandemic, casedemic, plandemic, or whatever you would like to call it.
As I have always said, COVID can be a very serious illness, especially for people at high risk which includes those of Older age, Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension and immune dysfunctions.
However I like to look at what is occurring in other places throughout the world with respect to their interventions. We learn more when our eyes are open and we leave our own hopes, politics and bias at the door.
Don’t always try and prove yourself right. Get it right!
Even if it goes against what you previously believed would be helpful or true.
Let us start with Thailand.
It looks like Thailand is getting their first true COVID wave. The chart above states they have about 93% mask compliance as of March 9, 2021. Yet look at the increase in daily new cases reported beginning in April. Are masks actually working? Perhaps you could have made that argument back in June 2020 when mask compliance was 95%. But if masks worked then, why would they no longer work now with just about the same compliance rate? Kind of makes you rethink about masks???
What is truly going on in Thailand. I do not know all the particulars but it would be interesting to know if and when they started a COVID vaccine campaign. There are some researchers concerned that the COVID vaccines may cause some immune dysfunction which could lead to more infections. We need more research to see if this is true. We need this research to be transparent and not belittled, censored or set up to fail to meet a predetermined outcome. We need Real Science not Weird Science. Well, Weird Science was one of my favorite high school movies but I do not think would be helpful here.
I would also like to know if this surge in cases in Thailand is due to the newer delta strain. One theory is that Thailand had some natural immunity to the original alpha strain of COVID that first spread thru the world. But the delta and perhaps other newer mutant strains may have evaded their natural alpha strain immune defenses? I do not know but am very interested to hear all theories, without censor.
Next - Israel
Israel has a large majority of their adults vaccinated against COVID with the Pfizer jab. They had similar lock-downs and restrictions as we had in this country. What is interesting to watch about Israel is that they started their vaccination campaign a month or so ahead of the USA. So we really should look at what is occurring in Israel as it may be a forecast of what could occur here.
Look at the blue graph on the left. It looks like Israel is hitting at least their third wave of COVID “cases”. The definition of what makes a case can be argued but as this definition is not stated I will not go there. The COVID cases are still rising and no one knows when and where they will peak. Why is this so important?
The cases may end up higher than their first wave even with vaccinating the large majority of adults.
The cases are occurring in BOTH vaccinated and un-vaccinated people.
What does that say about the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine?
Wasn’t the purpose of the COVID vaccine to stop the spread of the virus??
But now we are hearing the purpose of the COVID vaccines are to slow down hospitalizations and death from COVID. Perhaps and hopefully that is the case, but we will not know until we evaluate longer term data. Until then the healthcare policies keep changing to keep us in line.
The red graph of Israel on the right shows the COVID deaths following a similar pattern to the COVID cases, but thankfully at a much lower percentage. The last data shows COVID cases are about 850 per million people with deaths about 2 per million. If those numbers are accurate, then about 2/10 of 1 percent of cases result in death. Another way of saying this is that the survival rate from COVID is 99.8%. But the survival rate is probably much greater as many people with COVID symptoms do not get tested so they do not get counted in the case count. But rest assured every COVID positive test death does get counted, even if someone unfortunately died “with” COVID as opposed to “from” COVID.
How bout SanFrancisco?
Looks like SanFran is in the midst of at least their third COVID wave and it looks to be higher than any previous wave. If the markings on the chart are true, what can we glean from it?
It does not appear that a mask mandate at any time really did much to stop or slow the spread of COVID. I am sure there are other variables but they are not marked on the chart. Also be aware that there are more people vaccinated in San Francisco now than during their previous wave of cases, yet the new wave keeps climbing. Blaming the fewer and fewer un-vaccinated people for the greater spread of COVID does not hold up.
So what do the above examples tell me?
If I try to think through this with some real life clinical experiences, reading lots of research and data, and using some common sense……………
It makes me think that a virus is going to do what a virus is going to do, especially a Coronavirus that is known to mutate quickly to continue circulating.
It makes me think that while public health policy has truly tried to end this pandemic, their policies so far have not worked, because a virus is going to do what a virus is going to do.
What can we do? To answer that question we need to start with what public health policy has not yet proposed?
How about improving your metabolic and immune health with diet/lifestyle improvements?
How bout getting Nature’s sunshine Vitamin D to levels that will reduce your risk of COVID complications?
How bout more discussion of all the older repurposed treatments being used successfully by front-line healthcare professionals?
How about less censoring and censuring of medical professionals who are trying to help patients using safe treatments and methods other than those approved by the FDA?
Ummm, like, you know, if we are in a pandemic and people are getting sick and ending up in the hospital and dying, so like, you know, maybe we should like, you know, try some things known to be safe for the past 40-50 years, cause like, ummm, they won’t do any harm, might actually help and save some lives????
I think we all want the same end result, that being an end to the pandemic and a return to civility and normalcy in our lives. We should be allowed to have these open discussions without pressure, fear, coercion or retaliation.
Let me know how you feel in the comments below.
Thank you Dr Horvitz for keeping us informed and updated with what is going on in our own back yards and around the world. Thank you for going to seminars and keeping up dated on your profession. Thank you for truly taking your hipppocratic oath seriously.
Doc, just shared w my husband. He said YOU should be on CNN graphs in hand 👍