Covid19 and the Profiteers

Anytime one group of people can cause mass hysteria within a large portion of the population, perhaps before we all start screaming, “Henny Penny . . . the sky is falling”, it would be best to go back to the old axiom . . . “Follow the money”!

Covid19 is a perfect example. In North Carolina which shut down early-on and where thousands of small businesses have made the determination to not reopen as they don’t have sufficient capital to contemplate being in the game any longer. All one has to do is travel the freeway to be bombarded with warnings saying, “Stay Home-Stay Safe”. This is all to heighten the panic that already exists, perpetuated by the news media.

As a retired medical researcher, I have to ask that annoying question, WHY?

We have Governor Roy Cooper who willingly jumped on the band wagon, giving us his expert opinion (yet I don’t see a medical or scientific background in his pedigree), and which is basically held together by innuendo, speculation, lies, and damn little research. Among his latest proclamations, Governor Cooper has announced a partial limited re-opening of some businesses, yet it is the small mom and pop businesses that make America work, who continue suffering.

Throughout the entire three months the government has locked many of our fellow citizens in the closet, barring us from church services, sporting events, and yes, even schools. They have stepped aside and allowed other businesses (Home Depot, Lowes Building Supply, Walmart, Target, Car dealers, Auto Body Repair shops, transmission shops, tire dealers, oil change stores, tobacconists, and of course Alcohol Beverage Stores (government operated), to remain open. And yes, all those bureaucrats have had life pretty good during all this. They continued getting their fat checks and Cadillac health policies. Again I ask WHY?

After countless public protests, and complaints to our legislators, Governor Cooper must be feeling some pressure by now, as the realization that without business, budgeting shortfalls will be felt soon and well into the future. Hello! Either Gov. Cooper had a sudden case of flatulation (yes, the governor seems to be moving these days), or he saw the writing on the walls. Unfortunately, like all bureaucrats, it’s just nearly impossible to get them to understand private sector business needs.

Restaurants are a perfect example . . . Someone would have to explain to me how anyone in his right mind would reopen their closed restaurant business at a “50% capacity”, when restaurants are already one of the most perilous business ventures in which one can invest. According to industry statistics , “Sixty percent of restaurants don’t make it past their first year (and that is operating at full capacity) and 80 percent go out of business within five years”. At 50% capacity there would be no way to provide employee benefits or even pay workers compensation.

You see, the problem we the people face with the new breed of tyrannical governance from the state and local “leadership” is that most of those we have ignorantly elected, have never operated so much as a popsicle stand, let alone a business that would generally require union contracts, workers’ compensation insurance, health insurance, development of a business plan, bank line-of-credit, EPA assessment, and sundry other permits and local regulation compliance.

Yet, without a government which understands the plight of small business, how in the world can we ever expect the “flight of North Carolina’s Phoenix” to bring America back to the record breaking economy we were experiencing prior to Covid19?

Now let’s go back to how America got into this mess. YES . . . it was the failure of the Chinese government, no matter how sugar–coated the World Health Organization, has tried to paint the “Chinese Wuhan Virus”, to warn the global population of the forthcoming Covid19 virus. Had governments in general, been warned early-on, perhaps thousands of lives would have been spared.

But with that being a “pipe dream”, the blame has been swept under the rug by America’s left-leaning and Chinese sympathizing media. Since they haven’t been able to dethrone President Trump via their de facto coup d’etat, which has gone on for more than three and a half years, the cabal of so called “journalist” have decided to try to blame Covid19 on President Donald Trump, with a litany of slanderous accusations and lies from all quarters. Their thought is if they can convince Americans that the Chinese have been innocent all along, Trump’s base will turn on him.

That has yet to be proven that our citizens are that ignorant or that stupid, not to see a continuum of bogus information, lies, and propaganda from the Democrat party and the media.

Early-on in paragraph one, I suggested our readership  “follow the money” involved in this whole mess, though most will not lift a finger to do any research; they’ll just stupidly watch CNN, MSNBC, and rest of the non-media. All one has to do is drive down the street or walk into stores like Walmart, Food Lions and others and just look at the people who seem to have bought into the narrative of what the media and their politicians, along with “follow-like-sheep” companies like Uber tell them, and dutifully don masks gloves, and some even have adopted face shields. Not very bright!

IN THE FIRST PLACE: Covid19 IS NOT an Airborne Pathogen, it just doesn’t zoom along in the air looking for people to infect. It is not transmitted in that manner. Far better to be worried about handling money (the greatest concern over transmission of any disease), not washing your hands, not removing your shoes in your home, particularly after leaving other sources of contamination – retail store floors, credit card machines, door knobs, food packaging and raw vegetables that have been handled by others and replaced on store shelves.

There are lots of special interests that have many people convinced, even to the point they want the government to dicatorially command you to dutifully don masks, to “save your fellow citizens”, lock yourselves in a closet, and wait for the Grim Reaper. A couple of interesting reports worth noting should be mandatory reading for every citizen.

Art Moore, who holds a Master’s Degree in communication, is author of “See Something, Say Nothing,” and a former reporter for  Associated Press Radio. He hit it out of the park in a recent article dated May 20, 2020, titled: “Infectious-disease expert says: ‘American medicine has gone nuts’. (Just a craziness out there, and I don’t know how to correct it . . . The truth doesn’t matter anymore”.

Dr. Stephen M. Smith  is the widely respected infectious-disease specialist, a graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine, and a former research scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Dr. Anthony Fauci. He sees many of his colleagues reacting to a drug (hydroxychloroquine) which he argues has been shown in studies worldwide and in his own practice, to be a safe and effective treatment for COVID19. He has also gone to bat to dispel misinformation about hydroxychloroquine.

Getting Dr. Smith on the record is probably a good thing to keep Americans from jumping off bridges or leaping from tall buildings over the anticipation of contracting Covid19. Dr. Smith said the “consistency of approach to analyzing data is gone, and that it’s difficult to engage with colleagues on the subject of hydroxychloroquine and COVID19”. The words, “just because”, seems to be the basis of “medical experts’ knowledge” who appear across the newspaper headlines and TV stations of America.

Dr. Smith, who says he has been taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylatic since early March, before he began treating COVID patients, said he has no financial gain in hydroxychloroqine. “To me, I just want to know the truth. The truth in medicine will come out eventually.” The fact is, that in early April, a poll of 6,200 physicians in 30 countries found hydroxychloroquine to be the best drug available to treat COVID-19.

The FDA, for one, is contradicting itself, he said. The agency officially “cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.” People have doubled down talking about the toxicity of this drug which is no way toxic (it has been effectively used to treat millions of patients suffering different illnesses since 1955). They’ve gone around and told everybody it’s killing people. THAT IS A LIE . . . It’s not. “But in the 400 clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine the FDA has approved, not one requires EKG monitoring.

The FDA has decades of randomized, double-blind studies on the drug for the treatment of lupus, Sjogrens disease. Malaria, and rheumatoid arthrititis. Every one of them has higher dose usage than anyone being given for COVID therapy,” he said, “with some patients taking more than 1,000 milligrams daily for various diseases. The talk about increased death, is a canard”.

Now to this issue about face masks. 

According to Dr. Ben Killingley, Consultant in Acute Medicine (Clinical Lead) and Infectious Diseases, University College London Hospital, “Regarding the analysis of the evidence base – the report is overly optimistic about the value of face coverings and it is incorrect to conclude that the evidence shows that face covering can reduce viral transmission in the community.

There is in fact,” no good evidence that face coverings achieve this.  The report focuses largely on the mechanistic data of virus shedding and filtering efficiency.  In actual studies of the effectiveness of face coverings, the data are very under-whelming and show that they have low effectiveness outside of the healthcare setting. Admittedly these studies are mostly of protection to the user, rather than protection of others, but the principles are likely the same and the authors have largely ignored this extensive real-world data.

“Nevertheless, the report, in my view, does not accurately represent the evidence on face coverings that currently exists.”

Additionally, “the concern with face masks has always been fitting them properly to the face without loose gaps around the edges which lead to leakage.  In a paper published in British Medical Journal in 2004, Granville-Chapman and Dunne described how when a surgeon sneezed while wearing a properly fitting, professional surgical face mask the respiratory droplets and aerosol passed out of the sides but particularly under the chin onto the wearer’s chest and clothing; not surprising since air follows the line of least resistance”.

Naturally, there are differing opinions from medicine world-wide, but it is interesting that from the National Institute of Health (PubMed) the US Surgeon General advised against buying masks for use by healthy people. One important reason to discourage widespread use of face masks is to preserve limited supplies for professional use in health-care settings. Universal face mask use in the community has also been discouraged with the argument that face masks provide no effective protection against coronavirus infection. Again, the US Surgeon General urged people on Twitter to stop buying face masks.

WHO: (The World Health Organization) states that

“If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection”.

USA:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend that people who are well wear a face mask (including respirators) to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19.  It is time for the truth to be told and not by those maliciously profiting from the sale of masks.

Perhaps it is time for governments and public health agencies to make rational recommendations on appropriate face mask use to complement their recommendations on other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene.

On May 4, 2020, there was expert reaction to the review of evidence on face masks and face coverings by the Royal Society DELVE Initiative, in London, which conducted a review on the use of face masks and coverings. Nevertheless, the report, in my view, does not accurately represent the evidence on face coverings that currently exists.”

Dr Antonio Lazzarino, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL (University College London), had this to say:   

“Regarding the use of masks by the general public, “That is not research. That is a non-systematic review of anecdotical and non-clinical studies. The evidence we need before we implement public interventions involving billions of people, must come ideally from randomised controlled trials at population level or at least from observational follow-up studies with comparison groups. This will allow us to quantify the positive and negative effects of wearing masks. Based on what we now know about the dynamics of transmission and the pathophysiology of covid-19, the negative effects of wearing masks outweigh the positive.”

Okay . . . Following the money . . .  Just 200 million Americans being made to wear these flimsy masks, given the evidence I presented just doesn’t cut the mustard. Multiply that 200 million (just 2 out of every 3 Americans) by just $5.00/week, would put $52,000,000,000 (that’s BILLIONS) into the pockets of the Profiteers . . . need anything more be said!

Ed Mattson

Following his service in the Marine Corps, Ed built a diverse career in business in both sales/marketing and management. He is a medical research specialist (biological response modifiers) and has published numerous books. His latest books are Concept of America and soon-to-be released, Blessed are the Heroes. Ed is past Development Director of the National Guard Bureau of International Affairs-State Partnership Program, and Fundraising Coordinator for the Warrior2Citizen Project. Mr. Mattson is a noted speaker and has addressed more than 3000 audiences in 42 states and 5 foreign countries. He has been awarded the Order of the Sword by American Cancer Society, is a Rotarian Paul Harris Fellow and appeared on more than 15 radio and television talk-shows. His non-fiction books range from what it means to be an American, to his best selling book on cancer research, Say NO to the Undertaker, published by Author House.

edmattsonspeaker.blogspot.com/