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COVID Declining, Biofilms and Tyranny under Attack

Biofilms

These aren't documentaries on the Biography channel, but formations of bacteria, viruses and other toxins that protect themselves from antibiotics and your immune system with a gooey outer layer. They can keep you sick for months, and they're hard to dislodge. Biofilm disruptors attack that outer layer, leaving the toxins wide open. When certain toxins die, they release other toxins your system has to deal with. This is called a die-off reaction, and it can also last for weeks or even months by some accounts.

I didn't even realize I was embarking on a biofilm bust until I caught cold the day after I started taking lactoferrin for my low TIBC (total iron blood count). Lactoferrin coats iron and taxis it to your cells, starving the bad bacteria of it. There are other ways it helps your immune functions, too. It's a natural substance found mostly in milk; it's anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial.

I don't think I caught cold from being around other people, since I've been in quarantine and worn a mask the few times I'd briefly gone out. Since flu-like symptoms can be caused by bacterial or fungal die off, and lactoferrin was a biofilm disruptor, and since I'd been sick for a month--and biofilms are notoriously hard to get rid of--I surmised I might be in the middle of a biofilm disruption.

So I ordered another biofilm disruptor--this one with a reputation for helping respiratory illnesses: N-acetyl cysteine. I picked some up where I could have a clerk put it in my trunk and gave it a try once I got home. It looked like an off brand, but I opened the capsule (I can't swallow pills) and washed it down with a fizzy drink. It ended up in the back of my throat. You know how sticky crud can sit at the back of your throat when you have a cold? NAC dissolved it on contact. Poof! It's not just a biofilm disruptor, but a mucus thinner, an antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. It's used in Europe to treat chronic bronchitis. It went to work busting up biofilms if my flu-like symptoms over the next several days were any sign.

L. Casei Shirota Yogurt

Meantime, I kept eating the shirota yogurt. I've been using half-and-half instead of coconut milk--the dairy doesn't seem to bother me. Maybe it's the yogurt, maybe it's psychosomatic, but I've been solving problems that had stumped me. Every spring, I put together tomato towers for the garden. They're big--about a foot and a half wide and deep by five feet tall--with eight stiff wires that have to connect to each other. Yesterday when I got them out, I had the idea to put the bottom part in the ground first, then attach the top. Brilliant--and I was able to push them deeper into the ground. Then this morning, I woke up and realized I'd been taking too little cortisol. I'd been taking the amount recommended in Stop the Thyroid Madness--but that recommendation is just for adrenal fatigue. I'm also doing low-carb (you need cortisol to make your own blood sugar) and fighting an illness (you need cortisol for your immune system). I nearly doubled my dose of adrenal medicine today (and put some hydrocortisone on a bad bug bite). I feel better.

Flu v. COVID-19 Hospitalization

You wouldn't know it from--well, just about anything, but laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalizations for the last flu season in the US have outnumbered COVID hospitalizations three to one been the same so far. There were were 180 60.3 flu hospitalizations per 100,000 population. "The rates provided are likely to be underestimated as influenza-associated hospitalizations can be missed if influenza is not suspected and tested for," says the CDC. Cumulative COVID hospitalization rates per 100,000 population in the US are, so far, 60.5. If you are over 50, your odds of ending up in the hospital from COVID-19 are close to the odds of ending up in the hospital because of the flu. The CDC has no disclaimer about underestimated COVID19 cases on their website, whether through widespread testing or omission. (Apologies--I read the graph wrong. Guess I need to eat more yogurt.)

COVID-19 on the Decline in the US

Mortality and the percent of positive tests are now declining in all 10 regions of the US. Outpatient / Emergency Department visits were down everywhere except Region 9, where they were unchanged. Of course, there can be outbreaks in places, but the overall trend is down.

Scofflaws or Upholders of the Constitution?

Police Chief Howard Funk of Smithville, Ohio is urging fellow officers to support (and defend) the Constitution--the entire Constitution, not just portions of it. "I'm becoming troubled because of things I see in the news lately...many of our basic freedoms are being infringed if not outright denied...Our oath to the citizens we serve is to protect their Constitutional rights...We don't have to look very far in the past to see where policy makers looked to the police to enforce ill-conceived policies. We don't have to look very hard to see the disastrous consequences that came as a result of some of those enforcement actions. It is your sworn duty as a police officer to defend the rights of those in your community." The Port of Seattle Police Department sees it differently. An officer who spoke out against "tyrannical orders against the people" has been put on paid administrative leave after refusing to take down his video. 

ETA: the Chief of the Port of Seattle Police Department says, "as a police officer wearing one of our uniforms, [Greg Anderson's] right to speech has limitations on which he has been well-trained and that he has understood since joining the policing profession. Greg has always had the ability to express his opinions on what is going on in the country like all other Americans. However, he is not allowed to do so while on duty, wearing our uniform, wearing our badge and while driving our patrol car. Every police officer in the country understands that. I personally told this to Greg and told him that I would support his right to talk about these issues as long as he did so while not claiming any affiliation to our police department."

Indiana has been very quiet. We've had a few protests--nothing like those in Michigan--but that's it. Between rising gas prices, traffic and parties I can hear from home, I suspect the police here are "upholding the Constitution."





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