Pain, Pain, Go Away!

I'm starting to wonder if I should cancel my trip to West Virginia and go someplace without COVID--someplace with a high vaccination rate where they've pretty much gotten rid of COVID. That's how it works, right--when enough people get vaccinated, you get rid of COVID? We only have a 50% vaccination rate here in the US. It's only 43% in West Virginia. The horror! It's put us in a pandemic of the unvaccinated, according to the CDC  in an article from a few weeks ago.  People who are fully vaccinated are protected against severe Covid-19, including the delta variant, [CDC Director Dr. Rochelle] Walensky said. Where to jet off to? England seems like a nice place, so full of pretty scenery, history, and impressive architecture and twee towns. The UK has an impressive vaccination rate of 73%, too. There must not be much COVID there...right? Source: Spectator UK Oh! They must have taken most of their vaccines around the end of July...right? Source: Spectator UK Wait...wa

Our health care heroes who worked through the pandemic are now getting fired if they won't take one of the experimental COVID vaccines. It started with a few major hospitals, but others are now following the institutional imperative .  Hospitals are already short-staffed and this policy can only make it worse. Just last week, ten hospitals in Indianapolis were on diversion , meaning they were too full to accept new patients. One ambulance driver had to take a patient eighty miles away. The article linked to says it's not because of COVID or a lack of beds, but a shortage of nurses.  Indy hospitals aren't alone. Lots of nurses nationwide retired during the pandemic, there's a backlog of patients who put off care, and now some nurses are leaving over vaccine mandates. Even companies that have nothing to do with health care and whose jobs don't put employees at any elevated risk for catching COVID have jumped on the bandwagon.  So far, I haven't seen any labs issue

Update : Twitter suspended writer Alex Berenson , who  accurately reported some of the disappointing results of Pfizer's COVID vaccine trial described below. The message stated, "we require the removal of content that may pose a risk to people's health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information." His account has been reinstated with the "misleading" label removed from the tweet. If you still think tech censorship is fine, I'm not sure what to say. The vaccine evangelists have been spreading more than the good news about sanctification through injection. The incidents of breakthrough cases in vaccinated people have piled up to the point that the CDC has gone back to recommending masks even for fully vaccinated people. If you can get COVID, you can spread COVID. Of course, nobody has spread it intentionally, and I'm not faulting anybody who got a vaccination and went

"It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat. Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.” -John Ioannidis on lockdowns Such is the case with vaccine mandates for health care workers. California, New York City and the Veterans Administration--among the worst-run states, the worst-run cities, and the worst-run federal agencies in the US--are either requiring employees to get vaccinated or requiring frequent testing for non-vaccinated employees. No matter what your stance is on COVID vaccines, it's important to think beyond stage one before making a policy, which nobody in charge seems to have done.  The first problem is that some--perhaps many--of the vaccine records are fakes. There's apparently a big black market for forged shot records. Given how easily they could be forged--I could whip one up on the computer in five minutes--it's surprising that people want to buy a pre-printed one.  The second problem is th

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said last year that we were about to have a "Pearl Harbor" moment. It didn't feel like World War II then, but now, I feel like I'm sipping Veuve Clicquot at Rick's Café Américain in Casablanca as the world burns. New Zealand just ended a stay-at-home order , while  officials in Australia told citizens not to even have a conversation with neighbors they come in contact with . (No, these aren't links to the Babylon Bee .) Six hundred thousand people were "pinged" in the UK and asked to stay home. Meantime, I spent part of my day at the office deciding whether to have the bison fajitas or the new beef parfait (shredded beef on mashed potatoes) at the upcoming state fair and then wondered where to stay on vacation in West Virginia. It felt decadent. Going to a fair and planning a vacation should feel normal .  State Fair. Source: Pixabay . West Virginia  is done with restrictions;  Indiana , pretty much so. But what is the ex

Given all the warnings, terms and conditions of "Freedom Day" in England on the 19th, maybe I should have chosen this song for inspiration. Enjoy!

Magnesium Supplements Corrupted? I've finally gotten to the bottom of the diarrhea, fatigue, and pounding heart that's plagued me off and on since February: magnesium. I've taken magnesium supplements for years and was making Dr. Davis's magnesium water recipe until all available milk of magnesia contained sodium hypochlorite, also known as bleach. When I ran out of milk of magnesia, I started taking magnesium citrate tablets, which I've taken before without any ill effect. In fact, my favorite electrolyte mix contains magnesium citrate, and it had never bothered me before. I don't remember when I started taking the tablets, but I didn't associate them with the diarrhea. I wondered if my yogurt got contaminated, so I started a batch with new bacteria. I took Candibactin, an herbal remedy for bacterial and fungal overgrowth. I tried sulfur tablets. I got a stool test that turned out negative.  Then I started getting fatigue, a pounding heart and insomnia. I k