Why does the UK have an ‘army’ of volunteers but the US has a shortage?

April 12, 2020

By Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog

In just 24 hours the UK saw nearly a half-million people volunteer to deliver food and medicine to the nation’s 1.5 million elderly and vulnerable people. Nearly 750,000 signed up, so many that they had to turn people away.

In the US the situation is the opposite: there are no shortage of stories such as NPR’s, Coronavirus Drives Away Volunteers Just As They’re Needed Most. But it’s not just the local holy-rolling church and the local food bank – the professional charity services have seemingly turned tail and ran away even though soldiering through a crisis is their job. In an “only in America” type of headline – The Peace Corps isn’t just bringing home 7,300 volunteers because of the coronavirus. It’s firing them.

With 17 million made jobless in 15 days, but with no government aid system to help them permitted to exist under US neoliberalism, food banks are not only increasingly short on food but short on people to hand out what little food they have left. Their malnutrition situation is so very dangerous that The New York Times reported that, “Uniformed (national) guardsmen help ‘take the edge off’ at increasingly tense distributions of (food) boxes,” and without even commenting on what an abnormal “edge” that is to have.

Doesn’t that all seem very American?

But in the UK national solidarity is now off the charts, and it’s not of the fundamentally conservative, nonsensical “Keep calm and carry on” variety from 2008: commentators say that the volunteer wave is healing the divide caused by Brexit, as well as erasing generation gaps because WWII-era Brits are seeing what their youth can and will do in a crisis.

How can we explain this disparity?

I think I should relate that to an Iranian this disparity is especially perplexing.

After all, “Marg bar (down with) England” is always right up there with, “Marg bar the United States”. Those two comprise 40% of the reliably unholy pentagon of your standard “Marg bar …!” chant, along with Israel, the MKO/MEK hypocrites, and those who oppose the guardianship of the Islamic jurist principle.

But look at all those volunteers – has England changed drastically and grown a conscience? Has Iran got it wrong? Are we supposed to stop marg bar-ing them now?

What?! Have you lost your head during this corona crisis?! If anything, we should be adding marg bars, not reducing marg bars! For example: why not “Marg bar Wales”? Don’t you think they feel left out often enough? And why are we leaving Scotland off the hook?

So the very notion of not marg bar-ing England practically makes me want to add a, “Marg bar you!”

But I get carried away easily, so I think it’s time for a marg bar on jokes in this article.

The reason for the difference is quite simple, but very sad

Are all of America’s healthy men and women aged 20-40, who have a statistically infinitesimal chance of dying from coronavirus, too busy to volunteer? Of course not – they’re mostly on lockdown now.

Are they too self-centred to volunteer? Is this more out-of-control Western individualism? Are they too lazy? Have they been scared into submission by an atrocious and irresponsible national media?

I honestly don’t think it’s anything like that: I think it’s that Americans are scared of the health care costs they might incur if they got sick while volunteering. Contrarily, able-bodied, young, patriotic Britishers have the National Health Service.

It’s really that simple: young Americans want to help their elder class, but they can’t go (even deeper) into debt to do so.

And that is really a sad, sad commentary on “Capitalism with American characteristics”, isn’t it?

I’m sure we can all immediately perceive how so very many negative, anti-social, self-defeating, wasteful and truly lamentable cycles of all sorts are kept in constant motion by the atrocious neoliberal principles which have been foisted on the US populace since 1980.

(Similarly, the US food bank charity is a recent development that exploded beginning in the Reagan era.)

Think of all the helplessness, hopelessness, anomie, anger, bitterness and (that old American standby) rage which could have been alleviated in America by both the act of volunteering and the benefits volunteering would bring, but which cannot even be attempted due to the incredibly difficulty of mere self-preservation in the US?

In their article To Fight Coronavirus, U.K. Asked for Some Volunteers. It Got an Army The New York Times does not mention this obvious explanation for the difference between these two across-the-Atlantic brothers. They either cannot put two and two together, or they refuse to broach the simple fact that the UK can marshal such a force because their youth class has no reason to fear indebtedness due to volunteering.

This disparity – and the explanation is hardly complex, although the ramifications are embarrassing for the US to honestly discuss – is precisely the kind of issue which fake-leftist media similar to The New York Times are steadfastly not discussing in favor of obsessive Trump-bashing and corona “deathboard-watching”.

Because fake-leftists in the US are so prone to turning their rage into false righteousness – this is not a problem caused by Trump: Obama made huge cuts to food stamps for a million households in 2014, which increased the number of people forced to rely on food bank charity, and his health care reform was a pathetic capitulation to the health care corporations and their medical lobbyists. The problem is not Republicans – Democrats are just as rabidly anti-socialist and pro-neoliberalism.

But in a pandemic any nation is necessarily going to live and die on the strength of its existing health care system. The US has to go on lockdown (they say) because their terrible health care system cannot bear even a moderate strain; the same rationale also silently explains why the average American cannot dare to attempt to humanely alleviate the ramifications of such a drastic, anti-lower-class measure.

I’m sure that many American readers are no doubt feeling quite mixed feelings about how such a simple thing – a promise of merely decent health care – could have made such a huge cultural difference during this time of huge cultural upheaval. America has just as many cultural divides to heal as Britain… but they are forced to remain alone, helpless, scared, hungry, untreated and debt-fearful.

One often has to laugh to keep from crying, so permit me one last marg bar – for those who are obsessively making every waking moment and every tiny thing about one subject and one subject only: marg bar religious corona fundamentalism.

The corona fundamentalists in the US could instead spare some time to wonder why it’s too expensive to volunteer for charity work.

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Corona contrarianism? How about some corona common sense? Here is my list of articles published regarding the corona crisis, and I hope you will find them useful in your leftist struggle!

Capitalist-imperialist West stays home over corona – they grew a conscience? – March 22, 2020

Corona meds in every pot & a People’s QE: the Trumpian populism they hoped for? – March 23, 2020

A day’s diary from a US CEO during the Corona crisis (satire) March 23, 2020

MSNBC: Chicago price gouging up 9,000% & the sports-journalization of US media – March 25, 2020

Tough times need vanguard parties – are ‘social media users’ the West’s? – March 26, 2020

If Germany rejects Corona bonds they must quit the Eurozone – March 30, 2020

Landlord class: Waive or donate rent-profits now or fear the Cultural Revolution – March 31, 2020

Corona repeating 9/11 & Y2K hysterias? Both saw huge economic overreactions – April 1, 2020

(A Soviet?) Superman: Red Son – the new socialist film to watch on lockdown – April 2, 2020

Corona rewrites capitalist bust-chronology & proves: It’s the nation-state, stupid – April 3, 2020

Condensing the data leaves no doubt: Fear corona-economy more than the virus – April 5, 2020

‘We’re Going Wrong’: The West’s middling, middle-class corona response – April 10, 2020

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Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the upcoming ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

With Faith, Perseverance and Altruism, Hezbollah Will Prevail in the Battle against COVID-19

By Fatima Haydar

Beirut – The coronavirus disease or the COVID-9 is an infectious disease caused by a new virus. It causes respiratory illness [like the flu] with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty breathing.

Coronavirus disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze. It also spreads when a person touches a surface or object that has the virus on it, then touches their eyes, nose, or mouth.

Till now, there is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. Though, management involves treatment of symptoms, supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.

To this end, Hezbollah mobilized some 25,000 people including frontline medics and readied hospitals as part of a plan to help confront the coronavirus in Lebanon.

Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared Hezbollah’s readiness “to provide everything the Ministry of Health, the involved ministries, or the state require from us”.

Darin Nasser, Head of the Department of Programs and Guidance in Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society told al-Ahed News that approximately 17487 volunteers, including doctors and nurses, have been deployed all over Lebanon, to train and assist in this pandemic.

Furthermore, the Resistance group has dedicated a hospital in Beirut it owns – the Saint George Hospital – to treating coronavirus patients, rented four disused hospitals, prepared 32 medical centers across Lebanon and laid plans for three field hospitals if needed. It has also rented hotels to be used for quarantine.

More Here

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Covid-19 Derangement Syndrome: A World Gone Mad

Source

March 29, 2020

Note by the Saker: today I am posting an article written by a good and trusted friend of mine.  That does *not* mean that I agree with the logic of his argument.  For one thing, I am wholly incompetent to even have much of an opinion on this topic.  The little I do think about what is taking place disagrees with the conclusions of my friend.  But since I don’t want to impose my own limitations on you all, I am posting this in the hope that you will find this point of view of value.  But, as for anything else posted on this blog, caveat emptor!
Kind regards
The Saker

Covid-19 Derangement Syndrome: A World Gone Mad

By Percy Carlton for the Saker Blog

The whole world has gone mad with what I call Covid-19 Derangement Syndrome (CDS). I define it as an acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in response to the Covid-19 Corona Virus pandemic. The infection is particularly prevalent among the media and the government officials of the world. Human beings fear what they do not understand and that fear causes them to behave in irrational and destructive ways. The current Covid-19 pandemic is a perfect example of that. I don’t need to describe the paranoia and economic destruction to you because you can see it with your own two eyes everywhere you look. Both the media and the world’s governments are fueling the panic – the media with their hysterical 24/7 coverage and the governments with their draconian police state actions.

I feel like the man in the following cartoon.

I am doomed to helplessly stand by and watch the entire world commit economic suicide for no good reason. At first glance this may seem like a shocking and callous statement but do not mistake this as support for the view that the government should stand back and let the private sector take care of the problem. I have no problem with a strong authoritarian central government response as long as it is reasonable and wise. The current government response is neither.

Do Nothing VS Shut Everything Down

The current debate about what governments should do seems to be limited to two options: Do nothing and let the virus run its course or use authoritarian methods to quarantine and restrict the movement of citizens within and across state and national borders. The former will result in many people unnecessarily dying and the latter will save lives but is already resulting in a catastrophic worldwide economic collapse with repercussions that will last for years. It is very narrow thinking to think that those are the only two options that exist. There is always another way. Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a solution to the COVID-19 virus problem that would save lives and not result in a worldwide economic Armageddon? Such a solution exists and I will lay it out for you in this article.

First let’s define the problem: A highly contagious virus is spreading around the globe and killing people. Governments should be responsible for protecting their citizens so they must take action. But what actions should they take? That is an important question that must be carefully answered, but only after much research and consideration of all options. If we act rashly and arrive at the wrong answer people will die and/or lives will be destroyed by a global economic depression.

Let’s set aside the fear and hysteria and calmly use the Scientific Method to solve our problem. But I must first make a digression about science.

Three Kinds of Science

Did you know there are three kinds of science? Most folks can’t tell the difference between them and are therefore easily misled. The first two are pseudoscience; the third is real science. There is a significant amount of overlap between the first two although they do have enough of the third mixed in to give them the appearance of credibility.

1) Agenda based science – This type is practiced by people with an agenda. They are blinded by their presuppositions and it results in them twisting, distorting, and sometimes outright lying about their studies, experiments, and data. The people that practice this kind of science are not necessarily evil. They just sincerely but blindly believe something that “just ain’t so.” They think they are helping the world but are instead causing it much harm.

2) Bought and paid for corporate science – This type is practiced by scientific mercenaries who shamelessly produce studies that support the goals of whoever is paying them. Many of these folks are downright evil in my opinion. Much of what passes as “science” these days is of this type.

3) Real science – This type of scientist seeks the truth regardless of what it is. If the scientist has a presupposition they will quickly abandon it if their research does not support it. They will tirelessly search for, support and proclaim the truth even if it results in them being ostracized by the scientific community or persecuted by the government.

The Scientific Method

Step One – Purpose – State the Problem

We have already defined our current problem as a virus that is killing people all over the world, but we have not stated our purpose and objectives. Our main purpose and objectives should be to minimize loss of life and damage to the world economy. These objectives are both very important and are not mutually exclusive regardless of what our governments seem to think.

Step Two – Research – Find Out About the Topic

I’m not going to spend much time discussing something you can easily research on the internet. There are plenty of articles in scientific journals and on science websites. Here is one example: How does the new coronavirus compare with the flu? I suggest you conduct your own independent research instead of getting your information from the hysterical media or an armchair doctor.

Although there are some important differences between the seasonal flu and Covid-19, there are enough similarities that I believe we can find a solution to the problem by applying general medical principles relating to viruses. The entire world did not shut down for the many local and worldwide viral outbreaks we have had in the past 20 years such as SARS, Ebola, Zika, MERS, H5N1 (bird) and H1N1 (swine). There was no need to shut it down for this one.

We all know about the infection and death rates that vary widely around the world but you may not know why. Italy is pointed to by the alarmists as justification for the police state shutdown of entire states and countries so let’s take a closer look at it.

The single largest factor that determines the mortality rate is the health of the person at the time they contract the virus. The symptoms are mild for the vast majority of healthy people that become infected. It is well established that the people with the greatest risk of death are those with a weakened or compromised immune system. The death rate increases exponentially with age precisely because of the decrease in immune function that accompanies the aging process. According to an Italian Government Study 99% of their Covid-19 fatalities were already sick and half were diagnosed with 3 or more diseases.

Here are some excerpts from a Bloomberg article on the study:

“The median age of the infected is 63 but most of those who die are older. The average age of those who’ve died from the virus in Italy is 79.5. As of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. All of Italy’s victims under 40 have been males with serious existing medical conditions.”

“While data released Tuesday point to a slowdown in the increase of cases, with a 12.6% rise, a separate study shows Italy could be underestimating the real number of cases by testing only patients presenting symptoms.”

“According to the GIMBE Foundation, about 100,000 Italians have contracted the virus, daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported. That would bring back the country’s death rate closer to the global average of about 2%.”

A huge factor that affects transmission rates is cultural customs. Getting the locals to alter their cultural customs at funerals is one of the four practices that flattened the Ebola epidemic curve in West Africa in 2013-2016. Italy has an aging population that has a cultural tradition of cheek kissing. Is it a great mystery why their death rate is so high?

It is probable that the 2-3% global average of the death rate is wildly over inflated due a high false negative rate for the current tests. And what about the many thousands or maybe even millions of people who may have contracted the virus and were not tested because the symptoms were so mild? Several weeks ago a strange virus ran through my family and a number of my co-workers. We felt horrible for a few days but recovered quickly. My daughter got the worst symptoms but tested negative for the flu. How do we know that it was not Covid-19 or another corona virus? Some of the alarmists such as Imperial College London’s Neil Ferguson are now beginning to back off of their doom and gloom predictions. The phrase “Lies, damned lies and statistics” applies here. The infection rate and death percentage numbers are unreliable. The only statistic that is close to accurate is the number of deaths. Let’s focus our efforts on reducing that number.

Sun Tzu, Firefighters, Preppers, and Floridians

Let’s continue to gather information by getting some advice from Sun Tzu, firefighters, preppers, and Floridians. After that I will tie it all together for you so that it will make sense.

Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu famously said in The Art of War “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

The world’s governments are fighting a battle against an “enemy” (the Covid-19 virus) they do not understand. Neither do they understand “themselves,” which in this case I will consider to be the human body. This is a battle they will not win. They rushed into it blindly with little knowledge and preparation and the results so far are not pretty. The current battle should be over in a few months but the enemy will likely be back next year and/or the year after that. Will we know our enemy and know ourselves better before the next battle? I sincerely hope so.

But is treating the Covid-19 virus like an enemy that needs to be destroyed at all costs the right approach?

War on Covid-19

The USA has been at war in one form or another since its inception. There have been countless shooting wars but there has also been The War On Drugs, The War On Cancer, The War On Poverty, The War On Terrorism, The War On Global Warming, etc. Have any of these wars resulted in the eradication of the object on which the war was declared? No. All of these “wars” are foolish and misguided attempts at eradicating something that you cannot eradicate. They will always be with us. We have wasted untold trillions of dollars on these wars and have very little to show for it. The results of the current “War On Covid-19” will not be much different. We need to take a different approach and stop blindly declaring war on something we do not understand.

Trump and other politicians are using the language of war when speaking about their country’s efforts to “fight” Covid-19. That should make us very wary. When the USA declares war on anything we can expect several things to happen:

We will go deeper in debt

Vast amount of money will be wasted and given away to corrupt corporations

The US Constitution will be further trampled and more rights and freedoms will be taken away

The people will suffer

We will lose the war

Firefighters

I am a firefighter/paramedic for a large city in the State of Florida in the USA. Every time something bad happens firefighters are called to mitigate the situation. Heart attacks, Covid-19 patients, car wrecks, and hazardous material leaks/spills are among the situations we respond to, but for this example we will use fire. Firefighters do not treat fire as the enemy. We do not declare war on it and try to stamp out every single flame in our jurisdiction. We understand it to be a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be very destructive and deadly if it is allowed to grow out of control. We do not fear fire because we know it well and we know ourselves well. We do have a healthy respect for it because we frequently see the death and destruction it can cause. When the alarm sounds we calmly but aggressively go about mitigating the fire before it grows out of control and destroys both lives and property. We are well trained and well prepared with the best equipment and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) money can buy. We have several different methods we can use to put out a fire but the simplest and most effective extinguishing agent is plain old cheap and abundant water. If a sufficient amount of water is applied to the fire in its earliest stages, it will be extinguished with minimal damage to the structure. But if we are called too late and the fire grows out of control before we arrive, the building may be completely destroyed.

Firefighters also educate the public on fire safety. We teach them how to prevent fires and what to do if they occur. I will return to this analogy later but for now the general lesson from firefighters is that the key to mitigating a potentially life and property destroying fire is knowledge, training and equipment. This allows us to apply the right extinguishing agent early enough and in sufficient quantities to put out the fire before the building burns down.

Preppers

I am an amateur prepper, not the “doomsday” type. Maybe it’s because I took the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” seriously or maybe it’s because I love the Biblical story of Joseph saving “the world” from starvation due to famine. In any case, this practice of being prepared has served my family well. When the mob of unprepared citizens began cleaning out the stores recently there was not much I had to run out and buy. (Although I was regrettably almost out of toilet paper.) I already had a freezer full of meat and even a box of N95 masks. Preppers spend time thinking about different scenarios that could happen and then prepare for them. Some do it out of fear but most do it because we know these things will happen to some degree at some point and we want to lessen the impact of these events on our family. We do not want to be dependent on the government to save us. We want to be in the position to help other people and not be a burden on them.

Floridians

Floridians are accustomed to preparing for hurricanes. It is an annual occurrence. We don’t panic because we know the enemy well and it is usually not as bad as it could be. We have an advantage over the folks who live in the Tornado Belt because we have plenty of advance notice that the storm is coming. Preparing for the Covid-19 virus to hit looked and felt like it does when we are preparing for a hurricane. We know it is coming but we do not know exactly when and where it will strike or how bad it will be. We all go out at the same time right before the storm and buy the supplies we need to weather the storm and get us through the aftermath. It always results in the store shelves being cleaned out of certain items. Our advice to you is to emulate our calm manner of preparation but do not emulate our practice of waiting until the last moment to obtain the supplies we need. The best approach is to stock up before storm season arrives.

Step 3 – Hypothesis – Predict the Outcome to the Problem

The doomsday outcomes predicted by the hysterical media and our clueless government officials are fatally flawed due to linear thinking. This is particularly prevalent in the West because the Western mind thinks in a linear manner – they act as if the trend in motion will continue on in the same direction indefinitely. The trend always changes. It is the Creator’s way. Cycles are the very foundation on which the universe was built. It is how energy moves. All viral outbreaks peak and then subside. This one will not be any different. Because the primary transmission route appears to be aerosolized droplets suspended in the air due to talking, coughing, and sneezing, the infection rate will drop dramatically as the air becomes warmer and moister. Airborne viruses love cool and dry air. Towards the end of the article I will be offering my predictions and proposed solutions.

Steps 4, 5, and 6

The world is in the midst of a huge quarantine experiment right now that we have rushed into without adequately stating our purpose and researching our options. In the aftermath we will be analyzing the results and coming to conclusions. Like the aftermath to any other crisis such as 911, most of the official government analysis will be propagandized and used to further their political agendas. We will be deluged with pseudoscience, lies, damned lies and statistics. Truth seekers must use real science to sift through the B.S. and find the truth just like we had to do with 911. Let us hope that the people of the world do not fall for the propaganda and “give up essential liberty to purchase a little safety.” One of my favorite quotes is by Mark Twain: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” The government officials of the world know a lot that “just ain’t so.” Unfortunately that “knowledge” is what they base their decisions on.

The World in Turmoil

The world is in fear driven turmoil right now because of the following reasons:

• Ignorance: Our leaders are completely ignorant about how the human body works and are relying on guidance from a conventional medical system that is rife with agenda and corporate driven pseudoscience.
• Poor or non-existent planning and training: This is self evident and seems to apply to most countries.
• Narrow thinking: The response is the same all over the world – mass quarantines, isolation, and shutting down of commerce and travel. No country seems to be taking a different approach.
• Incompletely defining the problem: No government seems to be giving any serious consideration to how they can minimize the economic damage that their solution to the problem is causing. Yes, many governments are throwing vast amounts of money at the problem by creating debt based money but does that ever really work?
• Treating the Covid-19 pandemic like a war that needs to be waged instead of a recurring problem that needs to be properly mitigated with the right tools and approaches for the job: The USA’s war on Covid-19 will be about as successful as the USA’s War on Cancer has been.

The Cure For Covid-19: Body’s immune system

The cure for Covid-19 already exists so there is no need to look to the pharmaceutical industry to save us. It is your body’s own immune system. Instead of destroying the world economy in knee-jerk reactionary style maybe the world’s governments should be finding ways to improve the health of their citizens. We have already established that this virus kills the elderly and the immune compromised and has mild effects on the healthy. We should be focusing on the death rate, not the infection rate. Many people get sick with a virus a few times a year and the world economy doesn’t shut down.

I could write an entire series of articles on ways you can improve your health and immune system to the point that the Covid-19 virus would be only a minor irritation to you but this is not the forum for that. But I will tell you about the closest thing we have to a “magic bullet” and how the Chinese are using it to mitigate the virus.

After approving several studies of using intravenous vitamin C for the treatment of Covid-19, on March 1st the Chinese Journal of Infectious Diseases (which is hosted by the Shanghai Medical Association) pre-published the “Expert Consensus on Comprehensive Treatment of Coronavirus in Shanghai 2019.” Among its treatment recommendations was the following:

“Prevention and treatment of cytokine storm: It is recommended to use large doses of vitamin C and unfractionated heparin. Large doses of vitamin C are injected intravenously at a dose of 100 to 200 mg / kg per day. The duration of continuous use is to significantly improve the oxygenation index.”

China must be using it very extensively because in February they shipped 50 tons of it to Hubei Province, the capital city of which is Wuhan. No wonder turned things around so quickly at the epicenter of the outbreak.

Vitamin C: The Magic Bullet for Inflammation

Inflammation is the term we use to describe the body’s immune system response to injury or a foreign invader such as a virus or bad bacteria. It is at the root of all medical problems and diseases. When the immune system is overwhelmed, inflammation rages out of control. In the case of Covid-19 there is an overwhelming amount of inflammation in the lungs that leads to pneumonia, sepsis and death if the inflammatory fires are not quenched. This normally only happens in people with compromised immune systems. An optimally functioning immune system in a healthy person will easily mitigate the virus before it progresses to pneumonia. There are exceptions of course, but they are few.

We now return to my firefighter analogy. We can easily extinguish a fire if we arrive on scene while it is still in its incipient stage. A small booster line or even a 2.5 gallon fire extinguisher is all that is needed. If our response is delayed the fire will grow exponentially to the point that is not safe to enter the building. We then apply very large streams of water from the outside and do not enter the building until after the majority of the flames have been extinguished. The sooner we apply the water the less of it that is required to do the job. If we do not apply large streams of water in the late stages of a fire the building will be lost.

Vitamin C works the same way as water in our firefighter analogy. If enough oral vitamin C is taken at an early enough stage of an illness, the inflammation will be quenched and will never get to the exponential growth phase. The longer you wait to take it the more you will need to quench the inflammatory fire growing inside of you. The key to success is to take it at the first sign of symptoms. One you get to the exponential growth phase intravenous vitamin C is needed and it will be effective in a very large percentage of cases. If it is not applied, the result is death in a large percentage of cases.

Doctors in China and even the USA are using intravenous vitamin C on Covid-19 patients with great success. Doctors and researchers all over the world have known for decades about the incredible power of intravenous vitamin C to quench the raging fires of inflammation.

Sepsis is a condition that can be compared to the pneumonia that is killing the immune compromised elderly Covid-19 patients. They are both acute and massive inflammatory responses due to infection. An observational study published in The Lancet found that 100% of the early Covid-19 patients that died in Wuhan had sepsis. And not surprisingly most were older folks with health problems. Sepsis may be responsible for as many as 20% of deaths worldwide. It is one of the top killers of people that die in hospitals. One doctor in the USA has been using intravenous vitamin C in a treatment protocol that has reduced the death rate from sepsis by almost 5 fold – from 40% to 8.5%.

Is It Really That Simple?

Yes it is. “But Percy, then why aren’t governments around the world endorsing it and using it?” That is an almost irrelevant question. Does the scientific evidence and case studies prove it or not? I can give you a very conclusive answer for the USA. We have a corrupt and powerful pharmaceutical industry that exerts a massive amount of influence on our government. They use that power and influence to squash and suppress any medical treatment that cannot be patented and used to make obscene amounts of profit. Vitamin C cannot be patented so therefore it will not be widely used or studied. If it is not being used in your country then maybe your medical system has been corrupted or misled by the West. China is using it extensively, as well as a few renegade doctors in countries all over the world. If you look for them you will find them.

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

I do not subscribe to this view because I believe that claims that can be proved or disproved by science all require the same amount of evidence. What is extraordinary to one may be ordinary to another. A good example is 911. I do not consider it to be an extraordinary claim to say that two planes did not bring down three buildings on 9/11/2001, particularly Building 7. The laws of physics prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. But to the vast majority of the American public that is too fantastic of a claim to even warrant checking into. So if you summarily dismiss my claims without serious investigation it will be similar to someone refusing to watch the excellent documentary 911: Explosive Evidence- Experts Speak Out by Architects and Engineers For 911 Truth because it sounds too fantastic to be true. Here are some links to get you started if you would like to conduct your own research. I highly recommend that you do so.

• Vitamin C Material: Where to Start, What to Watch
• 905 Abstracts with vitamin C research
• Published Research and Articles on Vitamin C as a Consideration for Pneumonia, Lung Infections, and the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19)

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

I would be remiss if I did not touch upon the more bizarre aspects of this crisis. I will list a few. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and I have only linked to the things that are facts. No conspiracy theory links here.

• The biolab in Wuhan
• Event 201, a corona virus pandemic exercise held on Oct. 18, 2019
• The World Bank Pandemic Bonds
• Government officials in sunny Florida are closing parks, beaches and restricting other outdoor activities such as boating in spite of the fact that outdoors in the sunshine is the best place to be during a pandemic
• Netflix releases ‘Pandemic’ docuseries as coronavirus spreads
• Lots of conspiracy theories floating around such as insiders and elites selling stocks and bonds right before the crash, installing 5G cell towers at schools during the shutdown and allegations of bio warfare between the USA and China

I am attempting to apply Occam’s Razor to this crisis but I must admit that the longer this inexplicable and destructive behavior by governments goes on the more difficult it is for me to do so. Are all these things (and more) just amazing coincidences? I will let the reader decide.

Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste

When a “crisis” comes along, whether false flag or real, Western leaders always use it as an excuse to pass liberty destroying legislation that would be otherwise politically untenable. In the USA, 911 gave us the Patriot Act, TSA, DHS, etc. I fully expect the Covid-19 pandemic to bring us similar legislation such as the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. Power grabs are being suggested and attempted all over the world. Here are a few headlines:

• Corbella: Trudeau’s attempted power grab an alarming breach of trust
• Gordon Brown calls for global government to tackle coronavirus
• DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic
• De Blasio urges ‘nationalization’ of key industries, calls coronavirus outbreak a ‘war-like situation’
• Embattled Netanyahu Makes a Coronavirus Power Grab
• EU warns of Hungary power grab as Orban seeks state of emergency extension

I could fill up a page with headlines such as these. It is a very disturbing trend.

Where We Go From Here

I see myself as a realist, not an optimist or a pessimist. My study of history, economics, and politics tells me that the future looks grim. Much of the world is suffering under corrupt and ignorant leaders who cannot possibly successfully lead us out of this mess, particularly in the Western world. The world’s interconnected and dollar dominated financial system is a house of cards that has been waiting on the right flap of a butterfly’s wings to set off a series of events that will cause it to come tumbling down. We are past the point of no return. An economic recession or depression will be ushered in by the response to the Covid-19 virus, not the Covid-19 virus itself. The government response to a crisis always sets up the next crisis. Capital flight to the dollar has already begun en mass. By next year or the year after there will be loan defaults that will set off a worldwide contagion that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. The Eurozone will implode first. The Covid-19 corona virus will mutate and be back next year and/or the year after that. Lord help us if our leaders shut the world down again next year. China will survive and be the beneficiary of the West’s self destruction. They will suffer, but not nearly as much as the West. The USA dominated Anglo-Zionist Empire will be largely over within 20 years, maybe much sooner. The new financial capital of the world will be China.

Conclusion 1 – What Governments Should Do

After we are on the downside of the infection bell curve governments should begin planning for the next round of this. Instead of being reactive they should be proactive. The primary focus should be to educate their citizens on how to be healthy. Healthy people have little to worry about from Covid-19 or most any other virus. Healthy people do not clog the healthcare system; unhealthy people do. They should also educate their citizens on ways they can support their immune systems and encourage them to do so quickly in the incipient stages of an illness. This will drastically reduce the strain of sick people on overburdened healthcare systems. That leaves only the worst cases to deal with. For these they should follow China’s lead and develop a treatment protocol that incorporates intravenous vitamin C to quench the inflammatory fire in the lungs that leads to death.

The mass quarantines of entire cities, states, and countries must stop. It is not stopping the spread and it is destroying the world economy in the process. If they want to quarantine a population it should be the population with the greatest risk of death – the elderly.

None of this will happen of course. When their approach doesn’t work, Western leaders usually double down on it hoping for a different result. Hopefully there will be some renegade local governments that will defy the unconstitutional decrees of their central government – like what many state governments are doing to the federal government in the USA regarding cannabis laws.

Conclusion 2 – What You Can Do

Since I am not under any illusions that this article will be read and considered by any person in power anywhere on the planet, the advice that follows is the reason I wrote this article. There is little chance that any of our overlords will be cured of the Covid-19 Derangement Syndrome that infects them. But, dear reader, if you are living in fear and hiding in your house or apartment and are afraid of contracting the Covid-19 virus there is hope for you. The antidote for fear is knowledge, training and preparation.

I do not fear fire because I understand it and I am well trained and equipped to extinguish a fire at any stage of development. I always strive to extinguish the fire in its incipient stage before it grows out of control.

I do not fear any virus because I understand them and I understand how my body uses its immune system to defend me from them. If I begin to get sick I know many natural methods to ramp up my immune system’s ability to fight off any infection whether viral or bacterial.

If you are not healthy, begin taking steps to correct that now. This virus will be back, and when it does you want your immune system to be functioning at a high level. Take advantage of this “lockdown” time and gain some knowledge. Instead of watching the 24/7 news cycle repeated over and over again (which can rapidly lead to depression and a loss of hope) redeem the time and study how you can change your diet and lifestyle and get in excellent health. After the current madness subsides and the stores are restocked, begin stocking up on the supplies you will need for the next round of this. Become self sufficient and prepared for any emergency. Whatever you do, do not sit back and wait for the government or pharmaceutical industry to save you.

If you do these things you can join me as I watch in stunned amazement the next time the whole world panics due to a pandemic. You will also be in a position to guide and assist your loved ones and neighbors. An economic storm and additional pandemic storms are coming and like minded people around the world need to pull together and help each other when they hit.

Percy

Percy Carlton is a soon to be retired firefighter/paramedic in a large city in the State of Florida in the USA. He has relentlessly studied and pursued truth in the areas of health, economics and geopolitics for the past 10 years.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

العالم قبل كورونا وبعده… والسيناريوات المتوقّعة!

د. محمد سيد أحمد

فجأة وبدون مقدّمات اجتاح العالم وباء كورونا الذي أوقف الحياة على سطح المعمورة واستبدلت وسائل الإعلام العالمية والمحلية أجندة برامجها اليومية والتي كانت تركز في جزء كبير منها على الصراعات والنزاعات في المناطق الساخنة على سطح الكرة الأرضية، ومنها بالطبع قضايا الصراع والنزاع المسلح داخل بعض مجتمعاتنا العربية، وأصبح الخبر الرئيس عبر كلّ وسائل الإعلام يدور حول كورونا وما يمكن أن يسبّبه من فناء للبشرية. وبالطبع انتقلت العدوى إلى الإعلام الجديد المتمثل في «السوشيال ميديا» أو مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي التي لا تخضع لضابط أو رابط وما يبث عبرها يتضمّن أكاذيب وفبركات أكثر من الحقائق، وبذلك سادت حالة من الرعب لدى الغالبية العظمى من سكان الكوكب والتي تقدّر الآن بنحو 7,75 مليار نسمة، مما دفع حكومات غالبية الدول إلى اتخاذ إجراءات وقائية لحماية مواطنيها وصلت في بعض الدول لوقف الحياة نهائياً، وفرض الحجر الصحي المنزلي الاختياري أو الإجباري على الجميع.

وهنا لا بدّ من طرح السؤال التالي ماذا كان وضع العالم قبل كورونا؟ والإجابة باختصار شديد ودون الخوض في تفاصيل، كان صراعات ونزاعات خلقتها بعض القوى العظمى من أجل السيطرة والهيمنة على الثروات الطبيعية لمجتمعات العالم الثالث وتكريس تبعيتها وتخلفها ومنعها من النهوض واستلاب قدرة أنظمتها السياسية على اتخاذ القرارات المستقلة، وبالطبع كانت الولايات المتحدة الأميركية هي تلك القوى العظمى التي ظلت تسيطر وتهيمن على العالم كقطب أوحد منفرد لما يقرب من عقدين من الزمان، قبل أن تعود روسيا لمكانتها الدولية في العقد الثاني من الألفية الثالثة بعد فقدها هذه المكانة منذ تفكك الاتحاد السوفياتي في مطلع التسعينيات من القرن العشرين، وبروز دور الصين مؤخراً على الساحة الدولية كقطب ثالث خلال العقد الأخير نفسه، وبالطبع يمكن تقسيم العالم إلى أقلية غنية وأغلبية فقيرة.

وإذا كان حجم سكان الكوكب قبل سبعين عاماً حوالى 2,5 مليار نسمة. فهذا يعني أنه قد تزايد مرتين في ظلّ تقدّم تكنولوجي رهيب وارتفاع في مستوى الصحة، في الوقت الذي ازدادت فيه الفروق الاقتصادية بين الدول وعدم عدالة التوزيع بين الأفراد، وهو ما يمثل ضغطاً كبيراً على إمكانية استمرار الحياة على كوكب الأرض، وهنا يبرز أمامنا توماس روبرت مالتوس الباحث السكاني والاقتصادي السياسي البريطاني الشهير بنظرياته المؤثرة حول التكاثر السكاني والتي يمكن تلخيصها بأنه قد أشار إلى وجود علاقة وطيدة بين تطور عدد السكان وتطور كمية الإنتاج، وأكد على حتمية النقص في المواد الغذائية بالنسبة لزيادة السكان، إذ يعتبر أنّ عدد السكان يزيد وفق متوالية هندسية (2 – 4 – 8 – 16 – 32) بينما يزيد الإنتاج الزراعي وفق متوالية حسابية (2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6) وهو ما سيؤدّي حتماً إلى نقص الغذاء، وأشار مالتوس إلى أنّ السكان قادرون على المضاعفة مرة كلّ 25 عاماً، وهي النبوءة التي تحققت تقريباً مرتين خلال السبعين عاماً الماضية. ويرى مالتوس أنّ العلاج لوقف هذه المشكلة يتمثل فيما أسماه الموانع الإيجابية الطبيعية مثل الحروب والمجاعات والأمراض والأوبئة التى تحصد أرواح أعداد ضخمة من البشر على سطح المعمورة، وبما أنه لم تعد هذه الموانع الإيجابية تحدث بشكل طبيعي وتلقائي فقد بدأت الدول العظمى بتخليق هذه الحروب والمجاعات والأمراض والأوبئة وآخرها كورونا.

وفي ما يتعلق بالنتائج المتوقعة وفقاً للسيناريوات المطروحة والتي يدور حولها النقاش والاتهامات المتبادلة بين حكومات الدول الكبرى فتأتي على النحو التالي:

1 ـ سيناريو المؤامرة الأميركية: والذي يتم اتهام الولايات المتحدة بتخليق الفيروس وتصديره إلى الصين، وهو ما سيؤثر سلباً عليها باعتبارها منافساً للولايات المتحدة الأميركية، لكن ستكون النتائج أكثر كارثية على اقتصاديات الدول الفقيرة.

2 ـ سيناريو الخطأ الفني الصيني: والذي يتم اتهام الصين بتسرّب الفيروس من مختبراتها، وهو ما سيؤثر سلباً على اقتصاديات الدول الفقيرة، وسوف تستفيد الدول الغنية خاصة مَن ستتمكن من اكتشاف علاج للفيروس بشكل أسرع.

3 ـ سيناريو الانتشار الطبيعي: وهو ما سيحصد أرواح أعداد كبيرة من البشر حول العالم، لكن ستكون نتائجه أكثر كارثية على الدول الفقيرة عامة والمواطنين الفقراء خاصة، لأنّ الفقراء أقلّ وعياً وأقلّ حرصاً وأقلّ قدرة على حماية أنفسهم، ودولهم لا تمتلك الإمكانيات اللازمة للوقاية والحماية.

ويمكن القول إنّ المحصلة النهائية للسيناريوات الثلاثة المطروحة والنتائج المتوقعة من وراء انتشار الفيروس، سواء تمّت السيطرة عليه أو انتشر وحصد أرواح الملايين، فإنّ الدول الأكثر فقراً هي الأكثر تضرّراً وتدميراً لاقتصادياتها، والمواطنين الفقراء في هذه الدول هم الأكثر تعرّضاً للخطر نتيجة قلة الوعي وانعدام الحيلة وعدم القدرة على الوقاية نتيجة اضطرارهم للنزول خارج بيوتهم سعياً وراء لقمة العيش، على عكس الأغنياء الذين تمكنهم ظروفهم من الوعي بخطورة الموقف واتخاذ الإجراءات الوقائية لحماية أنفسهم والابتعاد عن مواطن الخطر. والسؤال الذي يطرح نفسه الآن ماذا عن العالم بعد كورونا؟ والإجابة ببساطة سيعود مرة أخرى للصراعات والنزاعات بين القوى العظمى بعد أن يكون قد رسم خرائط جديدة للصراع. اللهم بلغت اللهم فاشهد.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

دراسة صينية تكشف تفاصيل الناقل الصامت!

يمكن أن يصل عدد «الناقلين الصامتين»أي الأشخاص المصابين بفيروس كورونا المستجدّ ولكن لديهم أعراض متأخرة أو لا تظهر بتاتاً، إلى نحو ثلث العدد الإجمالي للمصابين، وفقاً لبيانات حكومية صينية سرية.

وترى صحيفة «ساوث شاينا مورنينغ بوست»أن الأمر قد يعقد من استراتيجيات الكشف عن مدى انتشار كورونا حول العالم، حيث ارتفع عدد المصابين إلى أكثر من 320000 مصاب ووفاة ما يناهز 14000 شخص حول العالم.

ويلفت التقرير إلى أكثر من 43000 مصاب في الصين بفيروس كورونا حتى نهاية شباط لم تظهر عليهم أعراض الفيروس، بحسب المعطيات الرسمية السريّة، وتابعت الصحيفة إلى أنه تم وضعهم في الحجر الصحي بطبيعة الحال ولكن لم يتم إدخالهم على السجلات الرسمية للحالات الإيجابية التي تم اكتشافها، والتي كانت تناهز 80000 آنذاك.

ولا يزال العلماء منهمكين في معرفة مدى إمكانية أن تنشر تلك الفئة من المرضى من دون أي أعراض ظاهرة المرض لدى أوساطهم. إذ غالباً ما تبدأ الأعراض بالظهور خلال 5 أيام من التقاط العدوى، مع فترة حضانة قد تمتد إلى قرابة 3 أسابيع في بعض الحالات النادرة.

واحدة من أبرز العقبات تكمن في أن كل دولة تعلن عن أرقام الحالات الإيجابية لديها بطرق مختلفة عن بعضها.

تعمد منظمة الصحة العالمية إلى تصنيف الحالات التي تبين أن فحوصها إيجابية، بغض النظر عما إذا كان لديهم عوارض أم لا. وتقوم كوريا الجنوبية باتباع الطريقة نفسها أيضاً. لكن الحكومة الصينية غيرت إرشادات التصنيف الخاصة بها في 7 فبراير (شباط) مع احتساب المرضى الذين يعانون من الأعراض فقط كحالات مؤكدة.

لا تفحص الولايات المتحدة وبريطانيا وإيطاليا المرضى الذين لا يعانون من أعراض، باستثناء العاملين في المجال الطبي الذين يعملون لفترة طويلة مع المصابين بالفيروس أو مع الفيروس نفسه.

وتزعم الصحيفة الصينيّة أنه في معظم الدول الأوروبيّة إلى جانب الولايات المتحدة، فإن أعداد المصابين في ازدياد سريع لكونهم لا يفحصون سوى الذين يظهر لديهم أعراض كورونا.

وترى الصحيفة أن «هناك شكوكاً متزايدة تجاه بيانات منظمة الصحة العالمية التي ترى أن العدوى من الأشخاص الذين لا تظهر عليهم العوارض متدنّية بل نادرة للغاية».

وقدّر تقرير صادر عن البعثة الدولية لمنظمة الصحة العالمية بعد رحلة إلى الصين أن «الإصابات بدون أعراض تمثل 1 إلى 3 في المئة من الحالات»، وفقاً لورقة صادرة عن الاتحاد الأوروبي.

وجاء في تقرير أعدّه مجموعة من الخبراء اليابانيين بإدارة جامعة هوكايدو أن «عدد حالات فيروس كوفيد– 19 في جميع أنحاء العالم آخذ في الازدياد، والتباين بين أرقام التقارير الرسمية من الصين والأرقام التي تعكسها الإحصاءات التقديرية للحالات المشخّصة خارج الصين، تشير إلى أن عدداً كبيراً من المصابين لا يتم تشخيصه».

وبحسب الورقة البحثية اليابانية المرسلة إلى «المجلة الدولية للأمراض المعدية»في شباط، يقدّر أن «نسبة المرضى اليابانيين الذين لا يعانون من أعراض والذين تم إجلاؤهم من ووهان، عند نسبة 30.8 % على غرار البيانات الحكومية الصينية المصنفة».

إلا أن الأرقام الرسمية في كوريا الجنوبية، التي عمدت إلى إجراء ما يناهز 300000 عملية فحص على مقرّبي المصابين، تعتبر الأقرب إلى الأرقام الصينية.

أكثر من 20 % من المصابين من دون عوارض تمّ تسجيلهم في المراكز الكورية بقوا من دون أي عوارض طيلة فترة حجرهم الصحي داخل المستشفى. ولفت مدير المركز الكوري لمراقبة تفشي الأوبئة إلى أن بلاده سجّلت أكبر عدد في حالات المصابين بفيروس كوفيد– 19 ولكن من دون أن تظهر عليهم أي من عوارض الوباء، معللاً الأمر بأنه «يعود ربما إلى عمليات الفحص المكثفة التي نجريها».

وبالعودة إلى السفينة «دايموند برينسيس»المثيرة للجدل التي رست في اليابان، فإن 712 شخصاً تبينت إصابتهم بفيروس كوفيد– 19، إلا أن 334 منهم لم تظهر عليهم أية من عوارض الفيروس.

كذلك فإن تقريراً صادراً من الاتحاد الأوروبي يلقي الضوء على أن 44 % من الحالات المسجلة في إيطاليا لم تظهر عليها أي من العوارض، على الرغم من أن أغلبية المناطق الإيطالية لا تفحص هؤلاء الذين لم تظهر عليهم العوارض.

وفي هونغ كونغ، 16 حالة من أصل 138 حالة مؤكدة في 14 آذار لم تظهر عليهم أية عارض.

تشير جميع هذه الأرقام إلى نسبة عالية جداً من الحالات غير المصحوبة بالعوارض، أعلى مما أشارت إليه البيانات الصينية حتى الآن. ويؤكد العلماء الصينيون أن هناك 889 مريضاً من دون عوارض من بين 44672 حالة مؤكدة حتى 11 فبراير (شباط).

وفي دراسة مشتركة بين الصين والولايات المتحدة وبريطانيا وهونغ كونغ، تبين أن حالات الالتهاب الرئوي غير الموثقة، معظمها مع أعراض خفيفة أو حتى بدون أعراض، كانت مصدر عدوى كورونا لـ 79 % من الحالات الموثقة قبل إغلاق ووهان في 23 كانون الثاني.

ويؤكد بروفيسور في جامعة هونغ كونغ للإعلان بأنه «باتت لدينا دلائل مؤكدة أن الشخص المصاب بإمكانه نشر الفيروس حتى قبل أن تظهر لديه أعراض كوفيد– 19».

وختم التقرير أن «نسبة الحالات من دون عوارض صحية قد تكون أعلى ضمن الأطفال، ما يعني أن الأمر قد يجبرنا على تغيير نظرتنا وتعاملنا مع الوباء، وحتى الطرق المثلى للتدخل ربما يجب تغييرها».

البناء

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• «كورونا» ونموذج العولمة الحالي: تحدّي البقاء

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

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