COVID and Medical Ethics
October 22, 2021
Scott Masson in the Epoch Times summed up the COVID situation concisely. “There have been two threats to human health in the past 18 months: the immediate biological threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the political decision to wage asymmetric warfare against it through social restrictions that destroy jobs, contravene human rights, and trash medical ethics.”
Regarding the trashing of medical ethics; from the beginning of the pandemic Dr. Anthony Fauci, the FDA, CDC, AMA, NIH, etc. have consistently denied the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and more recently ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19. This was despite the demonstrable success in other countries like India. Monoclonal antibodies were recently approved by the FDA as an early treatment option. It is very effective, but unlike the above therapeutics, administering it requires a specialized medical center. The Biden administration quickly stepped in to “help” the supply chain after learning seven southern “red” states (most notably Florida and Texas) reported great success using it. Shortages immediately developed.
This week, we learned of negative news stories warning against the use of low-dose aspirin for COVID. Aspirin’s anti-coagulant properties are effective for preventing mini-strokes caused by the microvascular inflammation and thrombosis sometimes triggered by both COVID-19 and the vaccines. Is that why it is being attacked? Inexpensive vitamin D also helps build resistance to COVID-19 and D deficiency is a common characteristic shared by many who died from COVID. This deficiency is most acute for the elderly, the obese and dark-skinned people, so if you are in one of these groups consider getting tested before it is added to the left’s hit list.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that this past Sunday our pastor delivered a sermon on the Biblical Ten Commandments (Exodus; 20 1-17) focusing on number 6; “Do not Murder.” This triggered a troubling thought regarding the deliberate denial of permission for physicians to prescribe inexpensive therapeutics like HCQ and ivermectin as off-label treatments for COVID. These drugs have been widely and safely used in places like India both as a prophylactic and an early treatment protocol for COVID. India achieved far fewer hospitalizations and deaths than in countries banning their use. Do the deaths resulting from this questionable ban possibly fit the definition of murder?
Does any culpability apply to the esteemed Dr. Fauci or other senior leaders of the medical establishment responsible for imposing the restrictive rules that have resulted in many thousands of potentially avoidable deaths? Does any guilt apply to the media or reputable medical journals that knowingly spread false information about the above therapeutics so they would not be allowed? What about the contribution of big pharma CEOs who may have knowingly withheld information about harmful vax side effects like myocarditis, mini-strokes, deaths, and more? Is there any guilt due for suppressing evidence about the decreasing effectiveness of their vaccines against the now-dominant Delta variant? We know the current vaccines target only the original Alpha variant’s spike protein and ignore the other parts of the virus that can also cause harm.
It has become increasingly clear that natural immunity is stronger because it combats the whole virus and other variants as well. In addition, this novel coronavirus is in the same family as the common cold and similarly replicates itself in the moist nasal and pulmonary air sacs before entering the bloodstream where antibodies can kill it. This explains why both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can equally spread the virus. Therefore, Mr. President, this is not “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
And speaking of politics, will any blame be attributed to elected leaders who purposefully suppressed or falsified information about known therapeutics that may have long ago lessened the severity of the pandemic just to achieve a political advantage by capitalizing on the fear caused by a high death count? Stoking fear certainly made it easier to coerce people into accepting the extreme lockdown mandates and relaxed voting safeguards just in time to corrupt both the 2020 and 2021 elections. Only God knows for sure who, if anyone, is guilty of murder in these scenarios, but perhaps more than a few have blood on their hands.
All I can contribute in regard to answering the murder question is illustrate magnitude of the body count that was potentially avoidable. The data in the table below is based on officially reported COVID death data for the U.S., U.K., Sweden and India. You can access my data source and monitor the most up-to-date daily death trends for these four countries. My calculations to determine avoidable deaths assume the same early treatment protocols used by India (primarily HCQ and ivermectin) were simultaneously used by the others. The results are in the far-right column (in red) and is calculated using India’s reported total of 324 deaths per million from February 29, 2020 to October 16, 2021 (green box in column 3), then applying the same rate to the other three countries:
Note that India had by far the fewest COVID deaths relative to its population. India’s only significant death surge happened when the Delta variant showed up and HCQ was found to be less effective. However, India’s medical establishment did not hesitate to switch to its new, inexpensive take-home COVID kit that included ivermectin and the trend quickly reversed. India is relatively poor so cost is a major consideration. Therefore, neither the expensive vaccines nor the recently FDA approved monoclonal antibodies were used enough to contribute to its low death rates.
The U.K. is included because it had similar harsh lockdown, mask, and vaccine mandates as the U.S. Sweden is there because of its unique policy to minimize lockdowns and mask mandates. That bold decision enabled it to reach herd immunity quickly, although the achievement still came at a high cost in deaths initially. The vax rates in both Sweden and the U.K. have recently exceeded the U.S., but Sweden did not get serious about its vaccination rate until around June 2021, which just happened to coincide with the point when they first achieved herd immunity as indicated by its near zero deaths from that point. The vax effort was likely a total waste of money by that time and could have caused harm.
I must confess that the rather shocking estimate of 608K avoidable deaths in the U.S. is unrealistic because the count of total confirmed COVID deaths here (now over 724k) is grossly inflated. This is due to the U.S. changing the cause of death rules at the beginning of the pandemic to count deaths with COVID instead of deaths from COVID. I have no idea if the U.K. or other countries reported their cause of death data like the questionable American method. Regardless, there are still a lot dead Americans who may have survived COVID if the overarching goal of our medical establishment was to save lives and thereby allowed the flexibility to permit the emergency use of HCQ and ivermectin as an early treatment protocol.
In summary, it appears the left has permanently trashed medical ethics in their quest to fundamentally transform America.
