Prologue
When I contracted Covid some weeks ago (see my article “World Gone Wrong”), I was stunned by how messed up people had become, even my clever friends. We appear to be, as U2 would put it, stuck in a moment we can’t get out of.
Turn on the news and you hear talk of impending doom, scary variants, overwhelmed health systems, and record “cases”. Everything screams “crisis”! We feel guilty for socializing while the polarization created (quite consciously, I believe) by our political leadership has created a world that can only be compared to a pot of water on the stove with the lid on. Almost boiling over but not quite yet.
I believe I know how this is going to end, and I take lessons from history. Extreme cases of mass formation do not end with gradual returns to sanity. They end with a seminal event, usually of the violent kind, often involving deaths, a spectacular blow-up once the tension has gone over boiling point. I believe that the policies enforced in the last 20 months deserve to be called brutal and I will state here now, without hesitation, that for me, they equate to torture. 20 months of brutal insanity won’t end quietly.
But they could. Several months ago I wrote a Twitter post titled “Covid for Dummies. Guide to Sanity”. I am no officially trained scientist, neither am I trained in the psychology of mass formation. I am not a doctor. I am a smart man, though, and I have been so invested in finding truth over this period that I am as confident as I can ever be that what I am about to tell you is the way out of this crisis.
As a non-doctor, I cannot solve whatever health crisis may still be in front of us. What I can do, however, is solve a man-made crisis, and I believe the Covid crisis is largely that. 80%, I would say.
So below strategy was written before the advent of Omicron. I believe it remains largely relevant but before we go into it, I want to hold a little carrot in front of you. Omicron may just change everything. Not really because it is more infectious (and consequently, whatever low credibility claim there still was that Covid could be stopped may be gone now) - and also not because it is less deadly (previous strains already were much less deadly than the original virus). Omicron, though, is the perfect chance for our leaders to get on the right side of science without being caught red-faced (which in this case, equates to “being caught out as having destroyed millions of lives for no gain”).
Our leaders can now make all the right claims but blame it on Omicron. Contact tracing will be impossible (always was) because of the speed of spread. Distancing will be useless (always was) because of the airborne nature of Omicron. The focus will need to be treatment of the sick, and not mass testing. The list goes on and it would be so easy to recommend this new policy “for Omicron” when in reality, it was always the way to go. This is the chance for our leaders to release their version of the Great Barrington Declaration - “for the new variant”. A hand has been extended to them and they need to take it to avoid persecution. The key question now is if the other forces, those gigantic interests that have emerged (centralized control, the vaccine mega deal, digital IDs) will allow the retreat.
But let’s forget about all that and concentrate, for now, on what we should be doing to end the crisis - not in a month, not in a week, but tomorrow. Here is a short manual for Covid management, motivated by old-world concepts such as respect for human rights, common sense, and proportionality.
The Basics
All respiratory diseases function in a mainly seasonal way. Depending on climate and temperature, waves usually arrive at the same time each year. The timing is different from country to country but the concept is the same. Covid is never an ever-present threat. Like influenza, it picks its moments and these are so consistent they can be easily predicted. All policy must adapt to these seasonal patterns.
It therefore makes no sense to compare country performance unless you are looking at the full calendar year (e.g. for some months before Christmas, the press claimed Spain was doing great because of their consistent rules - in reality, the season had simply not started there yet).
Each wave is inherently self-limiting and takes the same amount of time from start to finish (around 10 weeks). When you see waves that take longer than that, or have multiple peaks, then these are usually sums of various waves in different regions of a country. Put together, they distort the picture, looked at apart from each other, they show the same patterns and timings as all waves.
Timing
All mitigation strategies will have no effect on when a wave starts or finishes, and very limited effect on how high the wave becomes. It is therefore of the utmost importance to take as few measures as possible and only measures that have the least collateral impact. Throughout the crisis, government decisions about restrictions have been blighted by a total lack of understanding of the expected seasonal curves. Rising numbers were attributed to looser restrictions or disrespectful citizens. Improvements were put down to the restrictions. In reality, the rules always followed the virus - lighter restrictions when the numbers were good, stricter interventions when they went up. Forever chasing shadows.
Ethics
Given the seasonal nature of the waves, it is unethical and wrong to attribute any blame to your citizens. Their behaviour will have hardly any impact on when a wave starts or ends, and very limited influence on the number of casualties during that same wave.
Rather, it is important to communicate clearly and openly to citizens about the seasonal cycles, and therefore enable them to organize protection for the vulnerable members of their families and social circles.
Humanity
Science does not trump everything. Some restrictions must never be considered because they are against the nature of human interaction, such as wearing face masks for prolonged periods of time, or imposing any restrictions on population groups not at risk from a disease. Even if there were strong science supporting such measures, no government should have the right to impose restrictions that go against humanity’s main principles. Under no circumstances should governments take decisions that decrease life expectancy of no-risk groups to protest at-risk groups.
Testing
Testing is to be done exclusively on those reporting symptoms. In the coming years, I believe it will become accepted knowledge that viral loads are the key to the mystery. Those experiencing weak symptoms will carry low viral loads on average and therefore, testing should focus on those in danger, not even to determine their infectiousness but in order to be able to provide them the best possible treatment quickly.
Quarantine
Quarantine is to be prescribed exclusively to those reporting symptoms that have subsequently tested positive. Given the scope of spread, quarantine for anyone else will be too late in general and very often affect healthy people, causing immeasurable collateral harm.
Vaccination
Vaccination should be offered to all those considered to be at elevated risk from the disease as a priority, and should occur approximately one month before the start of the peak periods.
No vaccination should be attempted during peak periods as they may be followed by a short unbalancing of the immune system (considered to be about 14 days after the injection). No vaccination must be attempted before quiet periods (like summer in Western Europe) - the only effect this has is that a large part of the population may feel protected while the vaccine’s powers have decreased dramatically by the time the seasonal waves start.
High-risk environments
One of the few Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions that may be attempted is to lower the number of people exposed to high-risk environments, during the seasonal peaks only.
Clear communication is needed with the families of care home inhabitants to enable them to, for example, take their relatives back to a family setting just before peak periods.
During the seasonal peaks, hospitals must be kept as empty as possible, especially in the Covid wards. Seasonal patterns must be analyzed region per region in order to allow hospitals to save their staff, spread out operations, and prepare, much like a football team would for the World Cup, for the seasonal peaks.
It is essential to avoid early hospitalization caused by panic and media. Those testing positive but not experiencing symptoms must never be admitted to Covid wards, where frequently they will develop problems they would have never developed otherwise.
Stigmatisation
No group of individual must be made responsible for the overall health situation, as this is mostly seasonal. Personal choice and the right to determine how to treat one's own body must be respected at all times.
De-escalation
It is essential to understand that the biggest weapon against any disease is good immune health. Any communication that unbalances people or puts them in a state of fear must be avoided at all cost.
Additionally, any interventions that contribute to creating a state of fear are counterproductive and must not be implemented (e.g. masks, hand sanitizers, boards that promote distancing etc). Hospitals, in particular, must take care to remain relaxing environments and should immediately abandon things like sanitizers at the entrance, Covid billboards and universal mask wearing.
Individual patient care
The disease must be treated on the front line as an individual disease, rather than by blanket measures.
Patients experiencing difficulties should present themselves to their GP and be either referred, in strictly defined cases, to a hospital, or be followed up and advised on the appropriate treatment, usually at home.
Conclusion
You would agree that all of the above sounds very simple. Given the hugely complex systems we have created to fight Covid, this may be surprising but remember that great ideas are usually not complex but follow common sense. You, dear reader, would probably get to much the same proposal yourself, if you forgot about the last 20 months, and started to design a strategy against the current threat from scratch.
Here is my attempt at a communication brief. Please share it and send it, together with this article, to your representatives. If they adopt it, the crisis will be over.
Here is what they should tell their citizens:
"Covid is a disease that appears at various times of the year. The risk periods in our country are [insert patterns for your country].
Covid victims almost always suffer from poor immune systems. Therefore, we encourage exercise, mixing socially, and regular risk assessments with your GPs at all times of the year, while you should limit any behavioural changes to the peak periods.
Those who do not identify as high-risk cases should adopt the following behaviour during peak periods:
Continue to mix socially as you like with anyone you know not to be at risk.
Work with those you consider at risk to see if they can be kept out of high-risk environments for the brief peak periods.
Refrain from testing unless you experience symptoms, and do not frequent your GP for anything other than urgent matters during the peak periods, in order to keep capacity for those who need it.
Those who identify as being at increased risk should adopt the following behaviour during peak periods:
Limit your social interactions to those you perceive to be fit and healthy and therefore unlikely to carry high viral loads. Healthy people, especially children, will usually not carry viral loads high enough to pollute the ambient air, therefore, staying with healthy people will usually put you into safer environments.
Limit your access to high-risk environments for these brief periods.
Continue to exercise and try to engage in activities that you find satisfying, though you may want to limit the amount of high-risk people you interact with during these times."
After 20 months of madness, it really is that easy. At no cost, our policies could adopt my recommendations, and we could have a good life, tomorrow. Very soon, we will find out if this is what they want.
A good life, tomorrow
Excellent write up. The only thing I would quibble with is the suggestion that vaccination "should be offered to all those considered to be at elevated risk from the disease as a priority."
If the vaccines were actually both "safe" and "effective" for those cohorts at elevated risk, then, indeed, the advice would be sound.
Unfortunately, both the safety and effectiveness of the injectables at hand have not been demonstrated, and it appears that the reality is quite the opposite.
One study worth considering in this connection:
a) "Why are we vaccinating children against COVID-19?" — Ronald N. Kostoff et al. | ScienceDirect: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.08.010
Although the primary aim of this analysis is to highlight that the vaccines are all risk and no benefit for children, it nevertheless also highlights that the same conclusion applies to all age cohorts: nothing is gained while the harms are many. Early treatment is the only mitigation that we currently have against Covid.
And then this video presentation by Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi attests, on the basis of autopsies that have been performed, to the fact that an unacceptable number of vulnerable individuals who are being injected with the mRNA sequence for the transfection of spike protein may be dying (as well as being injured):
=====> https://rumble.com/embed/vos03c/?pub=l90v1 <=====
The Rumble summary of that video reads as follows:
"Rumble — Doctors for Covid Ethics
We are doctors and scientists from 30 countries, seeking to uphold medical ethics, patient safety and human rights in response to COVID-19.
"https://doctors4covidethics.org/blog/"
"Bhakdi/Burkhardt pathology results show 93% of people who died after being vaccinated were killed by the vaccine
"https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/bhakdiburkhardt-pathology-results"
"Dr. Robert Malone: Before You Inject Your Child! All Parents Need To Hear This! HALF A MILLION VIEWS https://rumble.com/vqq7gc-dr.-robert-malone-before-you-inject-your-child.html
"https://gettr.com/user/wethepeopleusa"