Tune in tomorrow, March 22nd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

From the “Wall Street Journal”:

“Ivermectin Didn’t Reduce Covid-19 Hospitalizations in Largest Trial to Date – Patients who got the antiparasitic drug didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo”: https://on.wsj.com/3Ip0FnJ

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I got Omicron and I’m vaxed. It’s not mild. The first five days were like a slight cold, but then I went down hard. I still have serious lung issues after 10 weeks, but a 14 day run of azithromycin seems to be helping so far. Regardless of whatever anyone says, it’s rough and very unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.

Sacha Spindler

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Well said man.   I did the prudent thing.   Stayed at home for 20 months.    Cloroxd my shoes and washed my hands to sand paper.   Then I got the COVID…..it was NOT a flu and my doctor said “if I wasn’t vaccinated “ Plus booster I would have died.     It was not cool as I attempted to cough up body parts that didn’t exist…….and oh how cool it is to taste and smell food again.    Pin heads

Chris Apostle

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Thanks for the caveat on Michael Ball’s letter. The guy spoke relatively reasonably, without name calling, etc, then posted three links to prove his points. For kicks, I clicked in them because he’s right about David Muir. That guy’s terrible.

And here we go, down the rabbit hole. All three of those links failed to prove the writer’s points. All three of them pointed to possibilities and potentials, but with clear disclaimers and caveats.

The BBC link about masks talked about the far-increased effectiveness of higher-grade masks. Didn’t say a thing about cloth masks not doing any good.

The Vitamin D one from Europe talks about a study of less than 1000 people. And the one from Indonesia went out of its way to make clear that the info was preliminary because, yes, science can change.

And Trump/insulin thing? Even a cursory search shows that never even took effect before Biden repealed it.

I certainly do appreciate the guy’s mistrust of big pharma. And I, too, often wonder how Dave Muir’s able to keep his job.

But even those who know how to “do their own research” will only pick & choose the info that supports their position.

Jon Langston

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I moved to Puerto Rico, where the infection and the death toll are half of the per capita rate stateside. Everyone wears a mask, vaccine cards are required most places, and in months I’ve never seen a single bit of drama about it. The only place I’ve seen any disregard for health measures has been in the tourist spots where Americans congregate. Los feos americanos.

Trent Keeling

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I am going to see Graham Nash perform this evening. Masks are required for this event. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test are also required. Thank you, Graham, for your efforts to keep your fans safe. This is only the second concert I have attended since Covid.  The other was an outdoor concert by the Rolling Stones, who I have tried never to miss since meeting them at West View Park Danceland in Pittsburgh,  during their first US tour in 1964.

Ed Salamon

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I’m only slightly immunocompromised but to be safe I wear a KN95 in indoor public places and (mostly) avoid indoor restaurants (and always avoid crowded ones).

That said, a “95” mask plus crowd avoidance will protect me (or anyone) just fine, and for that reason I don’t agree that masks should still be imposed on the general population, nor do I resent anyone who chooses not to wear one.

Mark B. Spiegel

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Old and scared. Superkarens.
Get over it, Hypochondriacs we all die!

Wake up stop pretending you were ever “safe” the tv told you to be scared and
You’re old.

Also irrelevant.

Andrew Hunter

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Bob, it’s endemic. We all had better get used to it and move on living our lives. It’s never leaving. My wife is a surgeon and they have stopped testing patients at their hospital in Nashville unless someone says they have symptoms. My wife was back doing surgery 5 days after testing positive in January. That’s what the hospitals mandated as protocol.

If you’re high-risk, wear a mask and wash your hands. It’s simple.

Don’t be the woman I saw snorting hand sanitizer through her mask at the coffee shop the other day.

Kenton Bryant

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Your ideas about Covid are just your ideas. They are not right or wrong. But like Paul Krugman, you are certain you are correct. And that is always wrong.

Tanner Freeman

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Continually amazed by how many compete dumbshits here and worldwide think they’re experts. May we live in interesting times.

Matt Burnham

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In Spain its still mandatory to wear masks inside, on bus, metro etc… only walking outside is it not required.  Clearly given the other EU countries having trouble w the new Omni B2 variant they know its coming here. 20,000 a day now. a week ago 10k. but at peak in Jan/Feb it was over 100k, almost 200.  And that is with very high Vax rates here.

Brian Barry

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Longest damn note I’ve ever read  and probably the worst!

I don’t mean to belittle you but some where somehow the stupidity must end.

I am a old Jarhead,  USMC Marine, for those timid fellows like you.

I’ve lost the top lobe of my right lung, from smoking or radiation.  I saw the last USA nuclear tests and believe me you don’t want to see one. Currently very possible with Biden as President.

This covid is no worse than the Swine flu several years ago. The difference is with our government not allowing a “crisis ” to go to waste. Obama and company are nailed to the wall on all of this. Anyone associated with Bernadine Dorn is guilty of a multitude of sins.

You and many like you are guilty of believing anything spit out by these criminals.

Maybe somewhere down the road you will see the truth and not believe what is being spewed by Biden and those who should be respected leaders. But aren’t!

Most are truly Traitors but only time will bring this to the forefront!

Once again I’m only an old Marine speaking in the wilderness!

You have a good day and enjoy life as it is short and sometimes sweet. Sometimes it is rough!

K P – kenmar13

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Bob, I couldn’t get through your response over this shit.  One thing is clear.  You have a brain. I wish everyone else had.. This shit has gone enough.. I can’t even talk to my younger brother about the covid stuff..He is stubborn as a mule..i can’t talk to anybody about up here in Canada…guaranteed argument … Yes i am immunocompromised .. i am double vaxxed Maybe because i am sixty five i don’t give a fuck. But I don’t wanna take anybody down with me…I haven’t seen my mother in two years.. She is 89 years old …. I miss her man.. keep up he good work

Randy Dawson

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Staind frontman Aaron Lewis: “Maybe we should listen to what Vladimir Putin has to say .. Why are (Deep State) trying to protect Ukraine so much? What do they have to lose? .. Putin is fighting the Deep State right now, which is the same people we’re fighting.”

Staind frontman Aaron Lewis: “Maybe we should listen to what Vladimir Putin has to say .. Why are (Deep State) trying to protect Ukraine so much? What do they have to lose? .. Putin is fighting the Deep State right now, which is the same people we’re fighting.” pic.twitter.com/vV76O8o9jY

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 20, 2022

I live in Massachusetts, where most people wear masks indoors, and I have a house on the Florida panhandle, where nobody wears a mask anywhere.

That’s where I went to a FedEx/UPS/GHL store to FedEx an overnight envelope to my attorney. I said to the owner “This will go out today, right?”

He says, “I don’t know, will it?”

Me: “What are you saying? Will it or won’t it? I’m confused.”

Him: “Maybe your brain is addled because you can’t breathe.”

It took me a second to figure out my mask was the problem. I let him know what an asshole he was and went to another FedEx store.

I’ve had my 3 jabs but just came off 2 Rituximab infusions. I got the Evusheld since then but still can’t take the risk of unmasking.

I get it, for most people Omicron is “like a mild flu”, but for some of us it could be an early grave.

Hope you are well,

Robert Ellis Orrall

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We’re on vacation in Mexico, where masks are mandatory  inside, but a matter of choice outdoors. And yet around 95% are wearing them outside. And 100% inside. It feels like we’ve arrived in the land of the grown-ups.
Best wishes,
Mike Allen

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Same here in Britain Bob – restrictions all gone, hospitalisations of the over 85s doubled in a week, infection rates climbing in every age group…. and we are a VERY vaxxed and boostered nation.

Including me – spent two years taking every precaution, only to get it this week. Horrible – god knows how bad it must be if you’re unvaxxed. And my parents are both 85.

We are heading for another disaster and all anyone wants to do is ‘get back to normal’.

My normal was to be getting on a plane, for the first time in two years, to the Mediterranean. I should be on that plane right now. Instead I’m sitting in my house, relying on others to drop food off at the door.

Keep up the good work

Martin Valentine, Nottingham

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– we opened up everything here in Ontario too because an election is looming and rest of Canada is in step too. Mask mandate gone as of Monday.

– I’ve had three vaccinated friends get covid recently when they travelled

– I have had anti-vax friends send me links from sources that have been discredited; I used to thing they just didn’t know how to research or fact-check, but two years on I just think they’re idiots

– riddle me this: why is it that the people I know who will not get vaccinated inject their face with Botox and fillers?

– why is it that the people crying the loss of their freedoms don’t smoke inside bars, don’t blast through stop signs, and put on their seat belt?

– I’m not “living in fear.” I’m actually not that worried about myself, but I’d like to get to the end of my life not making someone else sick or possibly killing them (esp. my mom)

– I remember when we would break plans because we had a slight cold and didn’t want to get someone sick or our friends would cancel on us, if we were sick

– I also hear people saying well this variant is mild. Not so, according to this: hhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/scientists-plead-caution-covid-restrictions-lifted-england

– sigh

Karen Bliss

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Thanks for the post Bob, we’re shielding too, it’s the same situation here in the UK no restrictions govt policy means

screw-you if you’re vulnerable. But now it also seems ignorant jerks can dicate company policy because

the companies also want to pretend it’s over and don’t want to act responsibly.

Cases and hospitalisations were rocketing here last week, and when we complained about this guy delivering to us

(known vulnerable people) without wearing a mask and being rude with it… the company sided with him.

This is a company that still advertises all the home delivery support they’ve provided for the vulnerable during covid when you call

their impossible automated system.

regards Linden Coll

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You are so right. Like you I’m imuno-compromised. I am on Prednisone, and have had a Retuximab infusion. I have had 2 Pfizer shots and 2 booster shots, and am waiting for my Evusheld shots.

I walked into my tax preparers office on Thursday masked up, and no one else was wearing one. They have the perspex barriers installed and Purell on every desk, but still…

Lost the plot is an excellent description right now. But then my home country’s PM, Boris Johnson, is gung ho for removing regulations. It’s pathetic!

Regards

Peter Brentnall

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Man, amen

Until further notice, I’m masking at all gigs.

We test positive, we’re out of work.

Prob will wear a mask at the Grammys, in fact (my wife, Rachel Eckroth is nominated).

Keep preaching. I def don’t think Covid is over.  The music biz wood take it on the chin AGAIN next infection wave. Sigh.

Thanks

Tim Lefebvre

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1. Bless you Bob. Thank you for sticking to your opinion.

2. I work at an office in Montréal that has a medical manufacturer in it. I go in maybe once every two weeks. Masks are still mandated here, but I saw more unmasked people in the building than masked. In fact, I saw a meeting with eight unmasked people shaking hands.

Needless to say, I’ve got messages from people in the building who caught Covid the day I was there!

3. You are right to poopoo the Dems. Here in Canada, we have a confederation and health is a provincial responsibility. The Feds have asked for people to remain cautious, but all the provinces have dropped rules.

Some people tell me, “hey, we need to listen to those truckers.” huh? Talk about lemmings…

Ray Jepson

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Expect Covid booster shots to become as regular as flu shots. Covid is here to stay. Those who determinedly STILL refuse to get vaccinated and wear that like a badge of courage play Russian Roulette with their own lives and welfare as well as friends, loved ones and random people they encounter. I continue to mask, and if anyone objects I reply taking caution is NEVER a dumb thing.  It is just being smart and respectful of others as well as yourself.

Harmony–michael tearson

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This is a fascinating early warning

U.S. Sewer Data Warns of a New Bump in Covid Cases After Lull

Data from wastewater can spot a rise in infections before it shows up through positive tests

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-14/are-covid-cases-going-back-up-sewer-data-has-potential-warning

Its based on this data source:

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/surveillance/wastewater-surveillance/wastewater-surveillance.html

Cheers,

Barry Ritholtz

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Great info as usual and as usual it’ll be ignored. We used to feel smug and superior here in Canada but the trucking convoy for FreeDumb took care that. We have our own issues but the majority of Canadians were/are compliant and that’s why our case counts are comparatively low vs the USA.

When this began 24 months ago(seems like 10 years) I said on our show “if you’ve ever wondered what human beings are really like you’re about to find out…” I had no idea we’d find out how truly dense we really are.

Appreciate you so stay safe.

Howard Glassman

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Great article, and look at Hong Kong.  The last two years they were locked down and had miniscule infection rates.  Now, they just hit a million IN ONE CITY.  It is scary and you didn’t mention the emerging fact that the long haulers will manifest lingering symptoms, but since the virus attacks all organs (lungs get all the press) it is now showing signs of casing subsequent damage well after testing negative.  Dementia, serious heart and liver damage are now a real long term threat for years to come.

Science is a bitch.

John Brodey

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Thank You Bob!

Here I was almost convinced I was the only one left in the country who could see what is so obvious.  God help us!

(I am in the same boat, I am your age and immunocomped…best of luck and health and take care )

John Dresser

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Thank you Bob.  I’m vaxed/boosted immunocompromised too and seem to be one of just a select few wearing a mask down here at SXSW.  Here we go again. -LJ Malberg

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You have turned into a bitter old man out of touch with america and the damage that has been done to our youth, families and businesses with over bearing restrictions and mandates based on false and misleading data by the CDC.

Please stay hunker down in your Southern California enclave banging away making money from your keyboard never having to leave your home.

Tom Forrest

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Thank you!  I still wear a mask because my husband has cancer and I’m immune compromised.  I am tired of people asking me why I wear a mask.  I don’t point out how stupid you are for not wearing one!!

Susan Slamer

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You should probably hide under your bed.  Still haven’t seen your review of Laptop from Hell.

Thomas Ryan

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Opening up the country while around 9,000 Americans are dying daily is beyond irresponsible.  Sorry, but  my opinion is the vaccinations and boosters need to be mandated to everyone the doesn’t have a legitimate verified medical exception.  No bullshit religious exceptions.  If people refuse, I believe they should be denied access everywhere, including hospitals.  Fuck them. I have had enough of this insanity.

Mike Donahue

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No, Bob, you are the idiot right back at you( your words). I’ve read your previous rants on covid. You are clueless and biased, drowning in Kool-Aid and not helping and hurting some people. Had you done your homework, you would know this. However, you’re Blogger for entertainment’s sake, not a journalist. So I guess you get a pass.

You praise the opportunists who take down their music off the digital platforms for a better humanity. They don’t care; they do in an attempt for their endless struggle for relevance to get that additional 15 minutes of fame ( probably promoting something they are doing ) such a coincidence. They want to be the rebel against “The Man.” well, not everyone is that stupid. They are “The man” using their definition.

It would be best if you stuck complaining about the Music business. No one gets hurt. You have found a successful niche as a bitter ex-record executive blogger, and some people take you seriously and hang on to every word; congrats. Not me, but I do admit you’re entertaining at times

David Price

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Long time reader. First time writer.

I agree with everything you said, even about being furious with Democrats too, but I do have to take firm exception to the idea that our preternatural loss in trust in everything was caused by the internet. At the risk of going all partisan and whatnot; the Republicans did it. Period.

The internet is a tool, like AK-47s with 100 round banana clips, and can be used for good or evil. Okay, one of those is just used for evil, but I digress.

If more people played to our best instincts this wouldn’t have happened. One political party in this country systematically set about destroying our faith in virtually every arbiter of truth. The media, the courts, unemployment figures from the labor department, surveys, math and science. They did it because by any measure, literally, virtually every idea that they ever had that was tried failed. Miserably.

Maybe they got the idea from the cigarette companies. Maybe they got it from big oil. Maybe they got it from Mein Kampf. We can rule out them having had an original thought. But, wherever they got the idea, the blood is on their hands. The fault lies with catapulting the propaganda; not with  the means of distribution.

Thanks for being a huge part of my days.

Stay safe,

John Haag

(also immune-compromised)
Reynoldsburg, Ohio

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You’re right Bob it ain’t going away. It’s yet another concoction of Mother Nature (or man) to reduce the population…but. Life has risks, and these risks are not evenly distributed amongst the population. If you are under thirty you have a greater risk of dying in an automobile accident than of Covid. In a strictly biological sense Covid is a good thing, it removes the weak and vulnerable, as my on the spectrum developer friend so aptly put it, “High drag, low utility individuals.”  Of course we have friends and loved ones who fall into this category, (or we’re in it!).  And we are a highly developed culture that has the resources to make allowances but at what cost?  Children have lost two years of their lives to this disease. The young generation, already with a fragile self confidence, has been shattered by the restrictions. Kinda like us with “The Bomb” in the 60’s buy America was optomistic back then and that attitude helped us cope.

Politicians changed their tune not because, “They were bullied by a small group of very vocal right wingers and some left wingers too.”  Several polls showed that up to 70% of the country was ready for the restrictions to be over, and remember politicians live for only one thing, to get re-elected. They’re not leaders, they’re followers.

I’m vaxxed, boosted and am tested regularly but other than that I’m done. Life goes on, so should we.

Your Faithful Reader,

Ken McKean

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My dad used to say that the average person is average. You can try to help them but only if they want to be helped and most don’t know they need help.

I haven’t given up my mask for the same reason you haven’t – I want to stay healthy. And I can’t wait to get the next booster.

But we live in a Kardashian world, my friend – where everyone wants to be “special”, where cults and tribes are possible because of the internet, where our neural system is collapsing under a tsunami of information, for which the homo sapiens brain was never equipped.

And the predators and opportunists are playing on this, especially among the GOP.

John Parikhal

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If only Mitt Romney had beaten Obama in 2012. There would have been no Republican primary process at all in 2016. No Trump and no wake-up call for the uneducated, unsophisticated, forgotten white men who never turned out to vote before. Instead, Romney likely wins re-election in 2016 the old-fashioned way. In that case, our president is the ex-Governor of a blue state who instituted the best universal healthcare program in the country. Universal healthcare has become a policy issue that the conservatives embrace for political advantage. The voters love it, the Republicans lead it and the Democrats are definitely on board.

In my fantasy, America heads into the pandemic perfectly positioned to react in the smartest ways possible medically, socially. systemically and politically. Wearing masks becomes a badge of honor.

Instead, if your message here is correct and I fear that it is, America now faces a dangerous resurgence of covid completely incapable of defending itself. In my personal life, I refuse to look back with regret about anything – but when I look at my nation and worry about our society overall, I look back and think the historians will benchmark the 2012 election as the tipping point where it all went to shit.

Liberals (including me) rarely understand how lucky they are to have Republican presidents. Only with hindsight do we realize that we would have a rational Supreme Court and a spectacular universal healthcare system if we just could have managed to lose that election in 2012.

Mark McLaughlin

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You couldn’t be more right and the linked article is covid TRUTH.  Keep wearing your mask and to hell with the reactionary idiots who can’t foresee the obvious consequences of their actions.
How does this end?  If our management of Covid and the Ukraine invasion are any indication, we are in for a deadly future.

Bob Edwards

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Thank you Bob

Thank you for caring enough to put so much energy into this critical topic.

It is needed , necessary and very much appreciated.

Mark Flores

Guitar / SAG

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I’ve considered what you posted and what I have read elsewhere (WSJ).

We have reached the point in time where we just have to live with COVID.

So, you live your life the way you have to, taking all the precautions you need to take and everyone else needs to do the same.

Americans will never be on the same page when it comes to authorities telling them what they MUST do on COVID (or anything else).

We all should be considerate of each other. Passing harsh judgment on those who disagree with you and constantly pointing fingers at conservatives gets us nowhere.

Ray Valencia

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Thanks Bob,
If you’re calling it, I’m heeding the call.  JR

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Same in Canada. Caving to a vocal minority. Infuriating.

Ian Heath

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Nailed it, one more time.

Flavio Marchesin

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While I won’t yell at you for wearing a mask, if you were wearing a standard cloth mask, it’s not doing any good at preventing you from getting Covid. Not even N95 may be enough. You need a P100, N99, or FFP3 mask fitted airtight in order to properly avoid Covid. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57636360

From there, taking Vitamin D should keep you out of the hospital in the event you get Covid. There are at least two studies that show a strong correlation between high blood concentration of vitamin D and low hospitalization rates.

From Europe: https://aru.ac.uk/news/vitamin-d-linked-to-low-virus-death-rate-study

From Indonesia: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-instincts/202005/research-suggests-link-between-vitamin-d-deficiency-and-covid-19-deaths

For faster protection, take 100 IU of Vitamin D (ideally with Vitamin K, to prevent calcification in the bloodstream) per pound per day for a month, then drop to a minimum of 33 IU per pound per day. For best absorption, always take with magnesium.

Yes, it can be hard to tell when companies, even medical companies, lose the plot and start to put profits over people. But don’t be fooled: If Pfizer or any other pharma company were to make a cure for cancer, even if it costs $300 to make, they’d charge at least $300,000 per person for it, because they know they’d get it from Medicare, who can’t negotiate drug prices. Gilead got $100,000 for the Hep C cure, and made their investment back in a year! Multiple insulin makers price gouged that until Trump implemented Most Favored Nation status on insulin; after Biden removed this protection, insulin makers started gouging, again. Why did the TV not tell you about that?

If you’re waiting for the TV to tell you that Vitamin D is at least somewhat effective at preventing hospitalization before you believe it, don’t bother; there’s more money in vaccines than Vitamin D, and the TV media makes bank from pharma companies that don’t want natural remedies pressed, and I’m not even talking Ivermectin. Go watch any national evening news program and pay attention to the commercials. Can they even keep David Muir on air without Big Pharma sponsorship?

Notice where FDA board members come from, and where they go after they leave. You think they’re looking to be watchdogs while at the FDA? If so, I have a bridge to sell you.

Take care,

Michael Ball

Kensington, MD

(Note: I’m only printing this to reveal the writer’s insanity, please don’t follow his prescription.)

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If you look back at history (e.g. pandemic 1918 etc), same happened back then. They stepped back from societal protections and let it run. Newspapers stopped carrying it on their front pages and marginalized the information about deaths etc. People continued to die.

Funkright

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thanks as always for just saying it like it is Bob

Science. It’s brutal. It DOESN’T CARE WHAT CRAP you wacky college pal sent you!!

this wasn’t difficult. But of course we blew it like no one else

And you’re right – A POX (no pun) on the spineless Dems. Buckled, under the pressure of an incredibly loud minority

Plus – tgis insane “let’s just extend hands across the aisle”

What? To sociopaths like MTG?? To people who over and over and over drill down and defend LITERAL nazis, white supremacist, anti-semites?

To people who elevate the most radical, endgame race war talk, or the IGNORING of it,  to “respecting their opinion… we’re all americans!”

Ugh. Nauseating

Andre´ Cholmondeley

With a mask and an understanding on the 1918-21 Pandemic

COS THERE’S A RECORD OF IT

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I just pretend I’m living in 1880…by that standard I’ve already lived a good long life (62 years). Our current long lifespans are unnatural….I’m thankful that I lived when I did, probably a golden age of average lifespan. But nature always seeks balance. We were designed to live about 40 years. Everything over that is gravy. I don’t want to spend my last days on earth compulsively worrying about one disease, when it’s probably something else that will get me anyway. I do everything the science says, I’m a big believer in experts, even though they can be wrong and science is a system by its very nature that evolves over time, keeping what works and discarding what comes to be proven wrong. It’s way better than my opinion. All that said, I have a limited time here, it’s not quantity that really matters, in fact it’s very possible to live too long, but quality. I’ll be unhappy to go, I’m pretty sure an eternity of nothingness awaits, but we all do it sooner or later. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I can understand why some people are just sick of living with this thing ruling our lives and being afraid. Everybody who eats meat/fat/sugar or drinks alcohol  is making a decision to enjoy something that will probably eventually contribute to killing them. On top of that Putin is dumping a war on us that could kill millions of people in minutes if it goes nuclear. If we worry too much about dying we cant live. Carlos Castenada said “you have to make friends with your death” I never fully understood it until the pandemic taught me what that means. Peace.

Tobey Ritz

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Hey there.  Up here things seem to be a bit calmer.  Most people still wear masks in public indoor spaces, no one gets their shirt in a knot if someone isn’t.  I’ve kept wearing mine in my apartment’s elevators, as have most of my neighbours.  Sure it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but really, is it so much of a deal?  Andre Picard in the Globe and Mail had a good column this week about masks.  Picard has been a solid voice throughout and, I believe, reflects the solid middle ground most Canadians occupy.  The column is linked below; sorry about the firewall.  Most relevant line is the final one; “We should also recognize that some people – particularly frail elders and the immunocompromised – are at far greater risk. Donning a mask a little bit longer to protect our neighbours is not too much to ask.”

 

Stay well, Bob.

 

Michael Craig

Vancouver, Canada

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-to-mask-or-not-to-mask-that-is-the-question/

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Agree completely that for the unvaccinated or under-vaccinated Covid is still a problem. I live in an area that has a pretty good vaccination rate and very low community spread. That said, most people are no longer wearing a mask. I’m vacced to the max and wear a mask if I’m going into a store but that’s about it. I’ll probably be a bit more careful if our numbers start to kick up.

George Laugelli

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It’s an Endemic Bob, never going away, we have to learn to live with, Mask and Vax if you want or Live at your own peril.

Julien Jorgensen

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I live in a state controlled by the increasingly right-wing GOP for almost 30 years. The big cities in Texas are blue islands, but since the pandemic they have less and less ability to issue public health decrees because the governor doesn’t like them. So much for local control.

The mid-size corporation that I work for has decided to move from the building they have been in for 35 years near the Galleria (I assume they own it, but not sure) out to a leased space in the Energy Corridor. They have removed their mask mandate since the cases in Houston have gone down a lot. But this state has done nothing to change the pattern of COVID. Why shouldn’t we believe that summer will bring another wave of an even more infectious new variant? So my assumption is that this summer when they want us to move into this new office space that we will actually be working from home again due to the new wave that is surely coming.

We are supposed to be working in the (old) office full-time by the end of March. I have no desire to do that, for reasons that are only partially about COVID. I feel like companies’ real desire to force us back to the office is to protect the value of their commercial property. I say, fuck that. We are doing just fine from home using Teams conference calls. I’ve spent too many years wasting time and money commuting 2+ hours per day. Seriously, fuck that. I don’t want to do that anymore, even if they offered me more money (which they won’t).

Until we really take the necessary action to prevent the spread of COVID, my position is I don’t feel safe going to the office. The people who say they do feel safe are fooling themselves, IMO. We are staying on this merry go round for the foreseeable future because this country is too fucking privileged, stupid and lazy.

#SlavaUkraine

Amy Primeaux

Houston, TX

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I can’t believe that it has been two years of a worldwide respiratory virus pandemic, and we still haven’t made any changes on indoor air quality requirements. Where are the calls for whole building filtration systems? Where are the regulations requiring businesses to make sure the air is OK inside their buildings?

Aaron Harris

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Aaron Judge is stupid. MLB is going to have a lot of unvaccinated players. Dodgers have a QAnon guy!

Blake Einhorn

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So right, so many idiots and I have to listen to the the D man in FLA – one of the biggest of all.

Steve Haas

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I agree that the internet validates anything you might seek validation for, but our ‘leaders’ are responsible too. While I’m not super-conservative, I think Clintons denial of ‘sexual relations with that woman’ led to a rise in promiscuity and porn. And as Conways ‘alternative facts’ became part of our lexicon, it also entered our consciousness. If a President can overtly lie and get away with it, everyone’s going to want the same benefit. Why not?

We get the government – and the world – that we deserve. Sadly, we’re leaving it to our kids.

Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker

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Global vaccination. ….

Vloria Kuhlenbeck

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1. Am tired. Hate wearing a mask.
2. Have had 3 shots. Planning on 4th next month. Don’t care if big pharma is getting rich. I am willing to pay money ($100+) for every shot.
3. See no point in testing. If I test negative, then a test has been wasted. If I test positive, then my wife will micromanage my life.
4. I am 73 and treating Covid like the flu. Get periodic shots and get on with life. I am not immuno-compromised.
5. I am mad at the FDA and CDC for vacillation. I am mad at them for changing recommendations based on science when they know that the average citizen/voter has no clue about complexity and needs simplistic advice.

Dave Barnes

barnesfamily.com

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Hi Bob, nail on the head as usual. I went to a local show in Louisville last night, maybe 300 people hearing a Fleetwood Mac cover band that I am friends with. I was the only person with a mask. Today at lunch, sitting in a big wide open room a friend showed me a bill from his insurance company for $240 for his vaccine. He said, I thought they were supposed to be free.

Meanwhile, another friend is trying to get an appointment with a shrink who can prescribe anti-depressants. After waiting more than a week for a referral from their primary care doctor, the friend was told it will be 2 months until there is an appointment available.

And yet, any discussion of single payer health care has vanished.

We are a society in decline. And we are all on our own.

Best…Hank Linderman

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I remember back in the 60’s, when I was very young, it was referred to as propaganda mostly starting in communist held countries. And you knew it when you heard it. Today it is  rampant and accepted by fringe, typically right wingers. I’m not the smartest tool in the shed but I trust science. I’m not sure where this goes but it’s not looking  good!

Thanks for the reminder!

Richard King

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Thanks but no thanks but really thanks. I’ve already gotten a fourth shot (can’t wait for my fifth) and I never stopped wearing masks inside (although the restaurant thing is tricky) so hopefully I’ll be relatively safe but it’s the people around me who are my concern.  So I forward the article to them and hope for the best.  So thanks but no thanks but REALLY Thank You.  To quote Ron Davies, “It Ain’t Easy”.

Peter Roaman

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Thank you for saying the truth. I am sorry that the belligerent denial and stupidity of others puts you at such risk. It has been a huge drag to spend the last two years watching fellow Floridians champion masklessness in a pandemic because they are so easily deceived by Gov. Ron DePutin and the various idiocy sources.
Keep safe, we need your sanity.

Nola Conb

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When people make negative comments about my wearing a mask, I turn their own words against them and say “come and take it!”

Colin Boyd

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I hear you but disagree. I can’t of course speak to your condition, but we’ve seen all the stats that show it’s the unvaxxed that are dying and in the ICU. And it’s true. Why should I as a healthy fully vaxxed and boosted have to keep going with restrictions that are only in place to keep the unvaxxed safe.
The other consistent story is that if you get Covid and your vaxxed it’s no big deal. Yes there are stories of vaxxed people getting sick but it’s tiny.
The biggest issue I have with your comments on the democrats is that I think they did the right thing. Dems need to stop worrying about the sick ones and start worrying about everyone else.
BTW – how stupid are the Covid mask restrictions? You can eat in a restaurant without a mask but had to wear one to walk in.
Covid restrictions if they are brought back is basically handing the Congress and the presidency to the republicans. They’ll do more damage than Covid

Joel Berman

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Bob, you are so right!  Have you ever tried talking to an anti-vaxxer science-denier?   OMG they are stupid to the nth degree! There is NO reasoning with them. They only admit their error when they’re on a ventilator.

Vaccines are out there. Choose to get them and live. Choose to mask and live. Or not.

J.A. Etchison

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Xlent analysis. What I’ve been yelling @ people for 2 years!!

Melvin Bush

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Fully vaxxed boosted and pro science.

But maybe Americans are right to question their doctors etc. and Corporations. The very same ones that decimated the country by getting swaths of it addicted to opioids.

America made money the king of the castle and thus most everything here sadly should be questioned.

There’s a good number of countries in the world where u can trust that the govt has the best interests of the population at heart, I’m not sure america is one of them.

Todd Clark

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If it’s the immune-compromised who brew the new variants, then it is they who should die first. Yes it’s brutal, but at nearly 8 billion, humanity is the definitive plague species.

Kim S.

(Note: The issue is not the immune-compromised dying, it’s that they are the ones generating the new variants that affect everybody else. These variants can brew for months in the immune-compromised.)

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Expect a huge news cycle within a fortnight

“ONE MILLION DOMESTIC US DEATHS FROM COVID PANDEMIC”

Then it will hit home, hard.

That’s close to the total US deaths for the Civil War, WW1 and WWII.

Before this thing has finished its 4 year trajectory* it will end with a total larger that US deaths in all Wars

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/many-americans-died-u-s-wars

*1918 pandemic lasted 35 months but most likely longer..

Trump, Putin’s buddy, really cared about all American lives as the US President. Dismissive, ignorant Russian puppet….

Eddie Gordon

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From a Canadian perspective:

Covid has to be the most mismanaged thing by governments (all levels) here in Canada in the history of the country.  And apparently we did okay compared to much of the world.  We have been under draconian rule, especially Quebec with many peoples freedoms to even continue to work their job of 30 years.  I do have to laugh though as all government officials say they follow the science yet every province and feds have vastly different approaches.

 

So here’s the latest.

 

Most of the provinces have dropped the mandate to wear masks.

Science shows us Omicron is highly transmissible.  So does this make sense?

Most of the provinces have dropped capacity limits indoors/outdoors

Science shows us Omicron is highly transmissible.  So does this make sense, especially in combination of no mask wearing?

Most of the provinces have dropped vaccine passport requirements (to enter restaurants, pubs, buildings etc)

Science has shown us that vaccines no longer prevent the spread of the virus so this actually makes sense.  Vaccinated or not you have equal chance of spread

MY province (BC) and Feds maintained and increased the area where vaccination is mandated (IE Nurses losing jobs because they won’t / can’t vaccinate)

Science has shown us vaccination clearly reduces symptoms and keeps people out of hospitals.  However the last 10% (in Canada) that won’t vaccinate will NEVER vaccinate so these mandates aren’t doing anything anymore.  Further there are other alternatives to firing someone like perhaps daily rapid tests/ weekly PCR test, remote working)

 

So in the world of Canada dropping masks makes zero sense and here in BC I’m glad to say a vast majority are still wearing them but I fear that will stop.  With our free health care non-vaccinated are putting severe pressure on our health care system but mandating vaccination has come and gone.  It won’t work on the last 10%.   Perhaps unvaccinated people requiring medical care have to pay 25% of the bill?  I know if I drive drunk my car insurance is void.

 

As to killing people.  Omicron up here is a lite weight cold.  Almost everyone who’s vaccinated has one or two days of flu type symptoms and it’s gone.

 

It’s a crazy fucked up world and the government is failing big time.

 

Paul Sparrow

Vancouver BC

Canada

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… COVID is like racism… it’ll go away if we just stop talking about it and move on!
… right? … right??? lol *tear*

Bob – Thank you for sending the article and your thoughts!

We’re dropping mask mandates here in Ontario on Monday (March 21).
… hope I’m wrong but I’m giving it 3 weeks until we see hotspots we can’t ignore.

Keep doing what you think is right… be safe!

-Mike Langford 🙂

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“You’re so afraid of the voters that you can’t do the right thing.”

This sums up politics better than anything ever. Anybody who needs to win a popularity contest just to stay employed I don’t trust one bit. And I especially don’t trust them with my tax dollars.

Vincent Innocente

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Keep wearing that MASK!

When the Blues Cruise sailed in January the Asian Crew told us they had been boosted a second time and they said they had something over there that was worse than Omicron..  It’s here now BA-2?

XOXO

Mardi Silva
Controller
Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise

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I’m 74.  I never got a cold during Covid.  Never got the flu.  I wore a mask everywhere.  Even if Covid went away, I will wear a mask.  I’ll wear it in public till I no longer have a face to hang it on.  I won’t perform and I won’t go to public events.

I love being alive.

richard sales

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This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated. I’m vaccinated AND had omicron, thus loaded w antibodies. Let me live my life.

Kristie Macdonald

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100%

I was in a bad (pedestrian) accident in December – torn hamstring/fractured shoulder/head injury, etc etc – just before Omicron started to spike. Everyone “locked down” again. The December surgery my husband was allowed at hospital to pick me up, but by January there were no visitors allowed. Pick up/drop offs were done outside the hospital doors.

Fast forward to today: restrictions are lifted pretty much everywhere but hospitals and medical offices. Up at my Connecticut community, there were near riots to open the hot tub to the community.

But.. No shock, I’ve started getting emails again that this one and that one have CoVid. What do people expect?

What I do find shocking is that my brother in law, a physician, has NOT been boosted. And his mother (my mother in law) was just diagnosed with Stage 3C Ovarian cancer. He “won’t get into it with me”. Once again, people are putting politics ahead of science.

I still do not congregate in groups; haven’t been to a show; and always wear my mask shopping. I’m starting to become more mobile, but that just means trips to PT (masked), Riverside Park to walk my dog, or the occasional trip to Costco (where most people are still masked).

No one in my immediate family has gotten CoVid, and somehow I think my accident saved us from getting it as well.

Stay safe my friend, and follow the science.

Simma Levine

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I admire your faith in the American people but how many decades of consistent behavior do you have to witness before you accept that the country you describe in these missives does not exist and has never existed! This place where people care about their fellow man, truth, justice and democracy. That place is not America and never has been since it’s founding. America always talks a good game but the truth is, america is just as shitty as all the other countries Americans swear they are better than. Once again a pathetic showing from the American people. This country will be Rome and self implode. I mean who calls themselves great every single damn day to all to hear and are truly great? NEVER Bob, and that is what America has and continues to do, blow it’s own pathetic horn of greatness while exhibiting none of that supposed greatness.

And white people wonder why Michelle Obama after her husband won the presidency said for the first time she was proud of America. Non white folks have always recognized the truth, that america is not to be loved because america will never ever do right by anyone other than white people. The proof is in the 400 plus years of American history that they hide from the youth of this nation.

Tell the damn truth for once In this miserable countries history. And I don’t want to hear that typical bullshit either Bob, about how if I don’t like it here get out. If anybody needs to get out and go back home it is white people. They took this land just like Putin is trying to take Ukraine.

One question for you, did you know that Africans were here on these lands hundreds of years before white people accidentally bumped into this rock that is North America? Probably not and you probably don’t believe it anyway. There are a lot of things about america I’m sure you don’t know Bob and that is by design.

Those who control the past rule the present and shape the future. Hence the reason white people have re-written history to their advantage. For example they don’t teach you that africans rules Europe for 700 years. I will attach some more facts for your review and investigation. But again I’m sure you could give a shit because this is america and that is what we do here, be willfully ignorant!

Mazi Ray

(Note: I have not verified these facts.)

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Arizona has the 2nd highest death rate in the US*, one of the highest death rates in the developed world.

Governor Ducey gave up May 11th 2020: “we are on the backside of this pandemic” announcing the end of restrictions.

Businesses and employers were given legal immunity from the consequences of requiring sick or exposed employees to work shifts risking infection spread to coworkers and customers.

Mask, vax and testing mandates were declared illegal.

School funding was made expressly available to schools which did not require masks

AZDHS.gov no longer reports statistics daily “it’s over”

Last Wednesday weekly report; 457 dead, the week before 382, before that 425, 412

Deaths follow infection by 3 to 4 weeks

Hospitals in Arizona are at 89% and ICU at 92% – and have been at these levels or higher since last summer.

Not everyone freeing up an ICU bed rings a bell on the way out the front door.

Military, National Guard and FEMA staff supplement Arizona’s medical teams mostly deployed to rural areas.

“it’s over” I’m still wearing a mask, washing my hands, staying distant and staying out of restaurants etc

Good news is I’m now over 2 years without a cold or flu

Cheers, TS Bitterman

* Arizona’s over 65 population is about 18%, the National figure 16.5% the “old people die” excuse doesn’t work

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Yeah Bob,

 

Humans are just fucking idiots.  Generally speaking.  I don’t need science to tell me climate change is soon going to lead to cataclysmic conditions for life on Earth.  In my lifetime, and more specifically, in the last 15 years, I have seen drastic changes in the weather and the atmosphere.  Every year it is hotter and drier, not to mention unprecedented wildfires and drought in CA.  I had one Earth science class in college, in the achievement of an ever so impressive AS degree, and I feel I have a pretty firm grasp on the fact that it ain’t gonna end well for humans, and life on Earth for that matter.  A drastic, negative feedback loop is imminent.  Between the thawing of permafrost and holes in the arctic floor, to decimation of rainforests around the world, overfishing, rampant plastic pollution, the impacts will be global, and sooner rather than later.  Since you’re the music guy, I’ll throw in the Police lyric, “It may seem a million miles away, but it gets a little closer every day”.  I’m pretty sure Sting was talking about what we are now experiencing.  People think of the end of life on Earth and civilization as an “end of the century”, or later, event.  Well, it ain’t.  I, at 50, will probably not die of old age.  My children certainly will not.  And neither will anyone else’s.  Drinking water coming straight from the kitchen sink will be one of those “remember when” things.

I remember going to “Lift, pull, push ALLLL the way back”, aluminum can tops, as opposed to the, remove and discard tops, for the good of the environment.  Not to mention doing away with the ozone depleting refrigerants in favor of a more environmentally friendly refrigerant.  Now it’s all profit, all the time.  Take kids’ snacks.  Everything is packed in a plastic package with a rip off top, to be discarded onto the ground, flushed into the storm drains, and into the environment.  We eat fucking plastic, yet the Trump/Qanon crowd doesn’t want the “unknown” ingredients of a Covid vaccine in their bodies.  Which is fine, if you’re healthy.  But I digress.

Education.  That is the key.  Have these multi-gagillionaires pay their fair share in taxes, so education starts before kindergarten for everyone, teachers are compensated appropriately, schools are being maintained rather than closed, and college is affordable for all.  Everything else will fall into place.  Maybe.

Just one man’s opinion

Chris Flesher

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That’s what it is, a cold with a glorified  name that cause dormant viruses to come to the surface & wreak havoc. Epstein Barr in the main one, but there’s Thrombosis bacterium, Streptoccocus & others that stay hidden in the body for most of our lives. I have done the real research on my own and I know very many excellent  physicians that I’m in continuous discussions with on this.

People need to get healthy, be strong & vigilant & give up their despicable eating habits & diets that result in a weak immune system. Become a strong, vital human being with a healthy immune system, not a victim. To actually get one’s health fully in order is the answer. And pharmaceutical drugs work against that principle, not for it. It’s all in the hands of the individual to do the right thing.

There are very questionable aspects of this Corona Scandal that require REAL scientific research rather than media information being steered, in who knows who’s best interest. It’s still all very fishy and far from simple. It’s been announced  by the CDC that the masks are not effective a month ago. The images shown of this mystery virus are computer generated, not electron microscope photographs. Why is that acceptable? Not to me. In my household, we are healthy. We are not in fear of ANY viruses because we have a solution, now 30 years proven out without a SINGLE illness. There is another way but it’s not being advertised because there’s no profit involved. We honor health & pay attention to it every single day in our house and it’s working 100%.

Where is the real problem  here? That is the question.

Rob Fraboni

(Note: Being healthy does help one fight a Covid infection, but fully healthy people who are unvaccinated have died from Covid. Sure, get yourself healthy, but to rely on just your immune system…that paradigm has failed again and again and again, there is no natural immunity to Covid, get vaxxed.)

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I still wear a mask. If anyone asks I’ll tell them I was exposed to Tuberculosis

Marc Ratner

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You are a fucking moron.

T. Weakley

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preach bob
i stayed in new zealand for a reason. everyone in the outside world has looked fucking kookoo bananas.

we just passed 100 deaths here. this country did it right

lots of love x

Amanda Palmer

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Thanks Bob

Deborah Harry

I want you to read this article:

“If You Thought Covid Was Over…Congratulations, You’re an Idiot - Covid’s Back and the Pandemic’s Not Over. Just Like — Wait for It — Science Said.”: https://bit.ly/3JswWf6

This has been a big story in the “New York Times” and “Washington Post” the past few days, all you had to do was open the app and right below the war in Ukraine stories, there it was. And still is.

Now it’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before. This is what happened in December. Omicron went nuclear in the rest of the world and the United States functioned as if Covid was over and then wham, it hit hard. It’s like a tsunami but no one pays attention to the warning, and then some die.

Yes, more people died from Omicron than Delta. I could explain the math to you, but people no longer pay attention to math, just like they no longer pay attention to science.

I’m mad at the Democrats in power. They were bullied by a small group of very vocal right wingers and some left wingers too. These people were sick and tired of restrictions. They had to go, so they could go on and live their lives normally.

Which ain’t gonna happen.

Two days ago someone yelled at me for wearing a mask. I don’t know how it affects them, but somehow it was an affront to their dignity, their lifestyle, their identity. But I’m immune-compromised and I want to live. As far as everybody else..?

And it’s the immune-compromised who brew the new variants. This has been known for over a year, but screw those who are not a hundred percent healthy who…might get sick and die anyway.

I’m taking care of myself, I got the Evusheld shots, but everybody I know is acting like Covid is over, and so many people I know are in the target demo.

And in truth it’s all about the money. I’m reading about Musicares in Vegas, honoring Joni Mitchell, if you go to that and you’re over fifty you’re an idiot, just like the article above says.

Let me see… People fly in from all over the world to a tourist city to mingle with no masks and… Even nine Democratic representatives got  Covid from going to a retreat last week. Not sure that made it to TV, like this coming onslaught of the new Covid variant, but science doesn’t care about the news, doesn’t care if you’re red or blue, it’ll infect you anyway.

But if you’re vaccinated and boosted…

And fewer people got booster shots than the number who were vaccinated.

And there’s talk of new boosters shots, Pfizer was making noise and now Moderna is today and what do we hear in response…BIG PHARMA JUST WANTS TO MAKE MONEY!

How did we get here? Where no one trusts anything? Where experts are inherently wrong, where a corporation can never be interested in its customers, where what you feel is more important than what experts think?

I just want to point out one cause, the internet. The internet made every individual feel powerful, like their voice counted, they could yell back at anybody with power, trying to cower them.

And you have idiots like Aaron Judge who won’t say he’s vaccinated…

Did you read the definitive statement that Ivermectin doesn’t work, if anything it harms you? I could cite the story, which was buried in everything but the biggest print publications, but in truth people have already moved on from Ivermectin, the same way they moved on from Hydroxychloroquine.

So when the next Omicron wave surges, pretty soon, in a matter of weeks in America, then what does Joe Rogan do? Double-down, like Tucker Carlson? Refuse to analyze new facts, refuse to say he was wrong?

Of course! Just like the clergy and right wing talk show hosts raged, didn’t get vaccinated and died.

This is just a heads-up.

But really, I’m pissed at the Democratic governors and institutions. Biden too. You’re so afraid of the voters that you can’t do the right thing. Talk about a lack of credibility. You’re just part of the problem, not the solution.

And there are solutions here. Get vaccinated and wear a mask in public. But that can’t happen because you’re tired, you want to return to normal life. Is this what a cancer patient says and then stops chemotherapy? I mean how dumb can you be.

We as a nation have lost the plot. There are all these statistics from around the world, countries that dropped all restrictions and then Covid surged and deaths rose. Denmark! And it’s out of control in Hong Kong.

And you also probably missed the report that Covid almost definitely came from a wet market, it did not escape a lab. Can you believe we even debated that, while people went unvaxxed and died? I mean what does this have to do with the solution? I mean if you lived this way in your regular life you’d never move forward. Now let me see…did I catch the cold here or there… It doesn’t matter, you’ve got the cold!

And you’ve now been warned, it’s coming back ’round again.