Category Archives: Coronavirus

I can’t say I’d heard about it until recently. AAPS in November published an inflammatory article about the CARES act. Some excerpts:

Creating a “National Pandemic Emergency” provided justification for such sweeping actions that override individual physician medical decision-making and patients’ rights. The CARES Act provides incentives for hospitals to use treatments dictated solely by the federal government under the auspices of the NIH. These “bounties” must paid back if not “earned” by making the COVID-19 diagnosis and following the COVID-19 protocol.

The hospital payments include:

• A “free” required PCR test in the Emergency Room or upon admission for every patient, with government-paid fee to hospital.
• Added bonus payment for each positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
• Another bonus for a COVID-19 admission to the hospital.
• A 20 percent “boost” bonus payment from Medicare on the entire hospital bill for use of remdesivir instead of medicines such as Ivermectin.
• Another and larger bonus payment to the hospital if a COVID-19 patient is mechanically ventilated.
• More money to the hospital if cause of death is listed as COVID-19, even if patient did not die directly of COVID-19.
• A COVID-19 diagnosis also provides extra payments to coroners.

CMS implemented “value-based” payment programs that track data such as how many workers at a healthcare facility receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Now we see why many hospitals implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates. They are paid more.

Because of obfuscation with medical coding and legal jargon, we cannot be certain of the actual amount each hospital receives per COVID-19 patient. But Attorney Thomas Renz and CMS whistleblowers have calculated a total payment of at least $100,000 per patient.

You can read the CARES act for yourself.

For more scintillating reading, see Additional Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

By no means do I agree with everything written and implied in the AAPS article. For instance, at my hospital we do everything we can to avoid intubation, and do it only if we think the patient is about to die in the next few minutes or couple hours if not intubated. If we thought intubation was futile, we wouldn’t do it.

From one source:

The in-hospital mortality rate of intubated COVID-19 patients worldwide ranges from approximately 8% to 67%, but in the US, it is between 23 and 67%. There is substantial variability in the disease process, such that some patients rapidly deteriorate and die of severe respiratory failure or multiple organ failure within 1 to 2 weeks after intubation, while others recover, despite requiring mechanical ventilation.

The same source found the mortality rate of intubated COVID-19 patients within the two weeks after intubation at their hospitals was 45%. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t say what percentage of the initial survivors eventually died of COVID-19 anyway. That’s important information. The study at hand was done in New York early in the pandemic in 2020. I’d like to think we’re better at treating the disease now, 21 months later.

An Italian study, also done early in the pandemic in 2020, found that 43% of ICU (intensive care unit) COVID-19 intubated patients died in the hospital. If 57% survived intubation, that’s far from futile care.

If you find significantly different death rates in published studies, please share with a link in the Comments. I didn’t do an extensive search.

As far as I know, none of my hospitalist colleagues have ever been pressured to list COVID-19 as the cause of death when that was not actually the cause of death. Our death certificates are filed by us directly online with the State of Arizona.

What is very fishy about this illness is the degree to which hospital administrators, politicians, bureaucrats, and others have dictated how most physicians have to treat the illness and muzzled or attempted to muzzle dissident voices, disregarding the underlying science. In forty years of medical practice, I’ve never seen anything else like it.

Highly suspicious.

Steve Parker, M.D.

School District in New York Sends out Email Warning Parents of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Students Grades K-12

In prep for COVID-19 vaccine reactions?

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Hospital backs down, allows patient to receive ivermectin rather than pay $10K a day in fines

Unfortunately, it may be too late for ivermectin to do much good for that patient.

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Global Percentage of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections Among the Tested Population and Individuals With Confirmed COVID-19 Diagnosis

Four out of 10 COVID-19 “cases” have no symptoms. I’m uncomfortable calling you a “case” of illness if you never have any signs or symptoms of being sick. The article authors are concerned that asymptomatic “cases” can and will spread infection and make others sick.

COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in December 2019.¹ Globally, as of January 28, 2021, there have been 100 455 529 confirmed cases, including 2 166 440 deaths.² The disease course of COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic to mild respiratory infections to pneumonia and even to acute respiratory distress syndrome.³ Patients with no symptoms at screening point were defined as having asymptomatic infections, which included infected people who have not yet developed symptoms but go on to develop symptoms later (presymptomatic infections), and those who are infected but never develop any symptoms (true asymptomatic or covert infections).^4,5 Owing to the absence of symptoms, these patients would not seek medical care and could not be detected by temperature screening. Presymptomatic transmission will also make temperature screening less effective.⁶ Only extensive testing and close contact tracing could lead to identification of more asymptomatic infections.⁷

Unlike SARS [sudden adult respiratory syndrome], which had little known transmission from asymptomatic patients, evidence showed that asymptomatic patients were a potential source of transmission of COVID-19.^3,6 A previous study⁸ showed that the upper respiratory viral loads in asymptomatic patients were comparable to those in symptomatic patients. Meanwhile, the highest viral load in throat swabs at the time of symptom onset indicated that infectiousness peaked on or before symptom onset.⁹ Moreover, studies showed that asymptomatic infections might have contributed to transmission among households, nursing facilities, and clusters.^10–13 As the pandemic has been contained in many countries and regions, travel restrictions have been lifted and public places have reopened. Asymptomatic infections should be considered a source of COVID-19 infections that play an important role in the spread of the virus within community as public life gradually returns to normal. The management of asymptomatic carriers was essential for preventing cluster outbreaks and transmission within a community.

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You WILL NOT hear this from the mainstream media:

Dr. Chris Martenson Interview – COVID Mass Psychosis & Government Lies Are Creating An Authoritarian Future

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LOL. “Do as I say, not as I do.”

NYC COVID inspector booted from bar for failing to show own proof of vaccination

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Two major airline CEOs question the need for masks on planes

Did they feel safe questioning the official narrative since both CEOs are retiring soon?

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CDC: Most “fully vaccinated” are declining Covid booster, so far

Are they declining because of lack of efficacy or fear of side effects, or both? Sometimes it’s good to know you are not alone.

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Early Remdesivir to Prevent Progression to Severe Covid-19 in Outpatients

Among nonhospitalized patients who were at high risk for Covid-19 progression, a 3-day course of remdesivir had an acceptable safety profile and resulted in an 87% lower risk of hospitalization or death than placebo. 

I’d have more faith in this study if it weren’t funded by the maker of remdesivir, Gilead Sciences.

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Pfizer/BionNtech Vaccine Booster and Mortality Due to Covid-19

Participants who received a booster at least 5 months after a second dose of BNT162b2 had 90% lower mortality due to Covid-19 than participants who did not receive a booster.

This study was done in Israel in August and September 2021, when the delta variant was rampant.

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Joe Rogan interviews Dr Peter McCullough

THE JOE ROGAN & DR. PETER MCCULLOUGH INTERVIEW, EXPLAINED by ZDoggMD

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Omicron variant causes 70% less hospitalizations than Delta:

Multiple studies published this week have suggested Omicron is far less dangerous than Delta, with a UK Health Security Agency report from Thursday saying the mutant strain is 70 per cent less likely to cause hospitalization than Delta, and 45 per cent less likely to require an emergency room visit.

Dr Robert Malone predicts that the Omicron variant will help end the pandemic because so many people will develop immunity by being mildly infected.

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Steve Parker, M.D.

The oral drug is for those with documented COVID-19 infection who are at risk for severe COVID-19, meaning those at risk for hospitalization and death. It’s not for those already in the hospital. The drug allegedly reduces hospitalization and death by ~90%. Potential users are aged 12 years and up. Pediatric patients must weigh at least 88 lb or 40 kg.

Paxlovid is a combination of nirmatrelvir (two 150 mg tablets) and ritonavir (100 mg tablet) by mouth twice daily for five days. The drug prevents viral replication.

Fierce Pharma says Paxlovid costs $529 per course.

The most common side effects seem to be altered taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure, and achy muscles (myalgias).

The drug should be taken within five days of symptom onset.

Prescribers should be aware of potential drug interactions, and there are many common drugs that cannot be used with Paxlovid. Use with caution, if at all, in those with liver or kidney disease. Patients with moderate kidney disease may need a dose reduction.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Click for Paxlovid’s fact sheet for healthcare providers. Click for Pfizer’s Paxlovid website.

From Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise:

In the hospital where I work, most COVID-19 patients get vitamin D (cholecalciferol) 1,000-2,000 IU daily, hoping it will help fight the virus infection. Vitamin D is cheap and we haven’t seen any adverse effects from it.

It seems pretty clear that folks with deficiency of vitamin D who then develop COVID-19, have worse than usual outcomes. The only way to know if you have a deficiency is to get a blood level test. I recommend to my loved ones that they take supplemental cholecalciferol during surges of COVID-19 unless they’re certain they’re getting enough sunlight to generate vitamin D, or have a normal blood level. (I’m not recommending that to you; I’m not your doctor.) The dose is 1,000 or 2,000 IU daily, depending on body weight and other factors. I have seen a few people, usually little old ladies, develop hypercalcemia (high blood calcium) if they take that much vitamin D plus a calcium supplement, and that can be a problem.

Here’s the abstract of a recent literature review article in Nutrition:

“Molecular studies have demonstrated the importance of the exacerbated immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, called the cytokine storm, in more severe COVID-19. The pathophysiology is complex and involves several homeostatic factors; among them, a deficit of vitamin D draws attention because of its high frequency in the population. Some evidence suggests that people with low serum vitamin D levels have worse outcomes, often requiring intensive care. This review analyzed the studies available in the global literature addressing the benefits of vitamin D in COVID-19, relating serum levels to the severity of the disease, and indicating vitamin D as a possible prophylactic and therapy in infection.”

Read the article’s introduction for a list of vitamin D’s role in fighting infection.

The authors conclude:

“To our knowledge, there is still no robust evidence of the prophylactic and therapeutic role of vitamin D in COVID-19, and more clinical trials are needed to prove its efficacy against infection. Considering that its pharmacologic safety profile is well known, it is prudent to keep its mean serum concentration > 30 ng/mL in people with COVID-19 and the susceptible population.”

Another recent study in Nutrition compared the prevalence of COVID-19 with the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in 20 European countries. They found no association one way or the other:

“Our analysis concludes that available data on the prevalence of Vit D deficiency among the European population do not allow for concluding that it constitutes a strong risk factor in the COVID-19 epidemic. However, these findings are not in line with outcomes of similar research works published recently.”

In some of the countries in the study, over 50% of the adult population was deficient in vitamin D.

Bottom line for me: Vitamin D supplementation doesn’t seem to hold as much promise in suppressing COVID-19 as I thought it would.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Top ICU Doctor Suspended After Suing Hospital for Banning Life-Saving COVID Treatments

From Children’s Health Defense:

A top critical care physician who filed a lawsuit against Sentara Norfolk General Hospital over its ban on administering life-saving drugs to treat COVID patients, has had his hospital privileges suspended.

Dr. Paul Marik, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School and director of the ICU at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, learned about the 14-day suspensionwhen he arrived to work on Saturday and found a letter on his desk.

The letter was dated Nov. 18 — the same day Marik appeared before a judge in Norfolk Circuit Court requesting a temporary injunction to lift the ban, Marik’s attorney said.

What on earth could be motivating Dr Marek? Enormous legal bills? Infamy? Secret desire to lose his medical license? Wicked pleasure seeing patients die? Or is he simply incompetent, as the hospital implies?

Click for info on Children’s Health Defense’s priorities.

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Pfizer booster in Israel reduced risk of death from COVID-19 by 90% over the course of two months.

Study subjects were 50 years of age or older. Half of them had hypertension, a third had obesity, and a third had diabetes.

The study authors note that…

Another major limitation of this study is the lack of data regarding serious adverse events. Future studies will be needed to assess the safety of the administration of the booster.

…studies with longer-term follow-up periods to assess the effectiveness and safety of the booster are still warranted.

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Alarm grows as mortuaries fill with thousands of non-COVID deaths

Mike Whitney writing at unz.com had access to the U.K. Telegraph article and shared this:

“Nearly 10,000 more people than usual have died in the past four months from non-Covid reasons, as experts called for an urgent government inquiry into whether the deaths were preventable….

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that England and Wales registered 20,823 more deaths than the five-year average in the past 18 weeks. Only 11,531 deaths involved Covid.” 

We have a recent similar report pertaining to Scotland.

Could these excess non-COVID deaths be caused by the COVID-19 vaccines via clots in hearts, brains, and lungs? Or are the social lock-downs the cause via suicides, despair, and postoned medical care?

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Emergency Physician questions whether COVID-19 vaccine-induced blood clots cause strokes and TIAs (transient ichemic attacks)

Alleged Dr Rochagne Kilian was practicing Emergency Medicine at Gray Bruce Health Services in Ontario, Canada, in early 2021 as the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out. Her department noticed increased frequency of strokes, transient ischemic attacks, and stroke-like symptoms. These issues are often caused by blood clots. A common blood test that screens for blood clots is called d-dimer. Dr Kilian noticed that many patients with stroke-like symptoms had received a COVID-19 vaccine and also had high d-dimer levels. So she naturally wondered whether the vaccines were causing strokes. I’m not sure why and how it transpired, but she eventually resigned her position in protest of vaccine mandates and corruption of health services. Her license to practice medicine was suspended on Oct 27, 2021. She’s a bad sheep, eh?

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Steve Parker, M.D.

From Steve Kirsch:

Recently, I received news that top researchers at multiple highly respected institutions (including Harvard) who had earlier been publicly promoting the vaccine have now changed their minds and are privately refusing to get the booster.

How is that possible? Did we finally convince them with the data? Most of my truthteller friends have been censored and/or deplatformed. So what is causing these people to shift their views so quickly?

“Our best convincer is the vaccine itself”

The credit for the attitude shift goes our best convincer: the vaccine itself.

These researchers are seeing first hand how dangerous the vaccine is because they are involved in studies in hospitalized and/or outpatients and they see the numbers first hand.

Unfortunately, I’m not hearing that where I live, yet. But I don’t talk to a lot of folks.

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I heard about this from Dr Robert Malone:

Cleveland Clinic researchers have developed the world’s first risk prediction model for healthcare providers to forecast an individual patient’s likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 as well as their outcomes from the disease.

According to a new study published in CHEST, the risk prediction model shows the relevance of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, vaccination history and current medications in COVID-19 risk. The risk calculator is a new tool to aid healthcare providers in predicting patient risk and tailoring decision-making about care. It is intended to help providers prioritize COVID-19 testing but is not designed for use by asymptomatic individuals who are merely curious about their risk.

https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/first-of-kind-covid-19-risk-calculator-helps-predict-likelihood-of-testing-positive-and-potential-disease-outcomes/

I was interested to read that: “Patients actively taking the nonprescription sleep aid melatonin, the beta-blocker carvedilol or the antidepressant paroxetine are less likely to test positive than patients not taking these drugs.”

Click for the COVID-19 risk calculator.

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Veteran actor fired for refusing Covid-19 vaccine sues ABC

A veteran actor is suing ABC for religious discrimination after he was fired from America’s longest-running soap opera for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Ingo Rademacher, 50, who starred as Jasper Jacks on General Hospital for 25 years before his dismissal last month, has accused the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company (ABC) of refusing to accept his exemption request for “sincerely held religious objections to the Covid-19 shots.”

Rademacher is represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the son of assassinated US Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former US president John F. Kennedy – along with attorneys John W. Howard and Scott J. Street. The actor’s lawsuit claims ABC “subjected him to half an hour of cross-examination about his religious beliefs and then denied his exemption request, without explanation.”

The lawsuit blasts the network’s decision as “blatantly unlawful” and argued that ABC does not “have the authority to force a medical treatment on its employees against their will,” and would have to offer religious exemption even if it did.

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There Comes a Time When There Is No Alternative to Fighting for Your Life and Liberty

From Paul Craig Roberts:

“Fauci’s one man control through NIH, the Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust gives him control over 57 percent of worldwide medical research, thus solidifying his personal control over the Covid narrative. Fauci and his acolytes at NIH receive six figure annual royalty payments on products they helped develop and ushered through the FDA approval process, including the Covid vaccine, and this is on top of Fauci’s taxpayer-funded salary, the highest in the US federal government. The CDC itself, allegedly a taxpayer-funded regulatory agency, owns and profits from 57 vaccine patents and spends 41% of its annual $12 billion budget buying and distributing vaccines. NIH owns hundreds of vaccine patents and profits from the sale of products it regulates. Try to comprehend the conflict of interest in this fact: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives 45% of its budget from Big Pharma.”

“Little wonder that Fauci engineered the creation of Covid with research grants, and the virus somehow was released in the interest of Big Pharma vaccine profits. The conservatives protect Fauci by blaming China, the country where Fauci shifted the research funding from the University of North Carolina.”

Steve Parker, M.D.

From The Tennessee Star:

Experts rip CDC study claiming vax offers stronger protection than natural immunity

Folks who have already had a case of COVID-19 have natural immunity against future COVID-19 infection. The CDC wants those who have natural immunity to get vaccinated anyway. This article says “no need.” Until I see more and better data, I think natural immunity is better than vaccination + boosters.

Did you know that about 40% of U.S. children have already had COVID-19? You won’t hear that from CNN or Dr Fauci. Are children scheduled for vaccination tested for existing natural immunity? No.

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Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna making $1,000 profit every second

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From Steve Kirsch:

New VAERS analysis reveals hundreds of serious adverse events that the CDC and FDA never told us about

The CDC and FDA have said the vaccines are “safe and effective.” They haven’t found any serious issues with the COVID vaccines. Zero. Zip. Nada. It was the DoD that found myocarditis.

The evidence in plain sight shows that they are either lying or incompetent. Or both. But of course, the medical community is never going to call them on this.

So that’s where our team of vaccine safety experts comes in; to reveal the truth about what is really going on.

In a brand new VAERS data analysis performed by our friend Albert Benavides (aka WelcomeTheEagle88), we found hundreds of serious adverse events that were completely missed by the CDC that should have been mentioned in the informed consent document that are given to patients. And we found over 200 symptoms that occur at a higher relative rate than myocarditis (relative to all previous vaccines over the last 5 years). All together, there were over 4,000 VAERS adverse event codes that were elevated by these vaccines by a factor of 10 or more over baseline that the CDC should have warned people about.

As of November 1, 2021, there have been more adverse events reported for the COVID vaccines than for all 70+ vaccines combined since they started tracking adverse events 30 years ago.

If you drank the “these vaccines are great!” kool-aid, you need to read the entire article. One of Kirsch’s vaccine safety experts is Dr Robert Malone. He took the Moderna vaccine because he felt like he needed it to keep doing his international travel. IIRC, he caught COVID-19 before being vaccinated and afterwards. I took the Pfizer product because I love my work as a hospitalist, all hospitals in Arizona require medical staff to be vax’d, I need ongoing health insurance for my dependents, and I need the income. My daughter submitted to vaccination a few days ago in hopes of doing international travel for her employer.

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Watch this subversive video before YouTube censors it. After that you’ll find it at Bret Weinstein’s Dark Horse Podcast. Is McCullough right about everything he says about COVID-19 and vaccines? No. But I doubt anybody is. I trust and admire Dr McCullough much more than I do Dr Fauci.

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And speaking of Dr Fauci and “lying sacks of sh*t”...

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From Science-Based Medicine:

Recent weeks has (sic) seen the announcement of two new drugs that could potentially treat acute COVID-19 infections. The UK approved molnupiravir by Merck, which will now be tested in clinical trials and likely licensed early next year. Meanwhile, Pfizer a day later announced Paxlovid, which it says is 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations and death, and now seeks FDA approval.

The two experimental studies cited by Steven Novella seem to have unusually high hospitalization rates in the placebo groups, which is suspicious. I haven’t read the actual study reports.

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Steve Parker, M.D.

From The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Covid-19 Deaths in 2021 Surpass 2020’s

On the other hand, check out the first chart at Our World In Data: Excess mortality during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). I tried for 20 minutes to embed the chart here but failed.

To understand it, you need to know that excess mortality “refers to the number of deaths from all causes during a crisis above and beyond what we would have expected to see under ‘normal’ conditions. So this number would include not only deaths due to COVID-19 but also to suicides related to job loss and social isolation, opioid overdoses, homicides from couples spending too much time together at home, etc. “Excess mortality is a more comprehensive measure of the total impact of the pandemic on deaths than the confirmed COVID-19 death count alone.”

If you go to the Our World In Data website, you can play around with the chart, even inputting the name of your country of interest. I put in the U.S. The graph generated excessive mortality starting sometime in early March 2020 and runs through October 24, 2021. The peak of excess mortality was on January 3, 2021, which roughly divides the first half of the pandemic with the second half (thus far). Comparing the first and last halves by “area under the curve,” it looks like excess mortality is going to be less in 2021 than it was in 2020, although clearly above typical years. So good news for the U.S.! Unless COVID-19 mortality spikes in November and December. Click for CDC’s Covid Data Tracker for cases and deaths, which is fairly up to date.

We should have total death numbers for the U.S. in late January, 2022.

Steve Parker, M.D.