Archive for the 'Politics' Category

Via WRSA, this video is very interesting.  There are others that serve well as preliminary political and fact-checking background, but this video is the most well-informed analysis I’ve found.

I asked a few days ago whether Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, and said “That’s what I have believed from the beginning, it is what I believe today, and it’s what I will always believe unless someone presents clear and convincing evidence that persuades me to relinquish my belief.”

This informed video doesn’t dissuade me from my views.  It cements them.

His analysis is sweeping and he seems conversant on a whole host of topics, including the effect on the economy of having so much of our material and parts produced in China.  The effect on the logistics chain is enormous for a just-in-time chain when a blip happens.

He says we must bring it all home.  I agree.  If that doesn’t sound “capitalistic,” then so be it.  I’ve said before that I’m not a Ron Paul libertarian “The world is a Utopian trade platform and unicorns fart purple pixie dust rainbows over trade-friends to knit them together in love for each other” follower.  I don’t want to debate this point – it’s a value judgment, and it’s mine.  You can have your own, whatever that is.

And R.J. Rushdooy as well.  Libertarianism without a moral foundation is a recipe for disaster.  If “free trade” and “capitalism” means a borderless world where evil corporations outsource manufacturing to enemies in order to maximize quarterly earnings because idiot analysts want to play a better gambling game on Wall Street, then I’m not that.

Under the Lordship of Christ, nothing and no one is free to do anything they wish.  We are free to obey God’s commandments, which brings the ultimate liberty, and He has a lot to say about this sort of thing, including duties of company owners to their workers.  I cannot ensure that corporations are practicing righteousness, and don’t advocate holding CEOs at the barrel of a gun to force good behavior on them.

But as for the safety, security, health, protection and welfare of a country with borders, corporations who do business with enemies hell bent on destruction of our country should be seen and treated as allies of those enemies.  So should the politicians who enable that alliance.

Finally, as I mentioned before, I see the FDA as culpable in the deaths of Americans due to this virus, and I have previously mentioned that the CDC had one job, i.e., to prepare for epidemics and infectious disease.

They … had … one … job.  They failed.  They failed to model, they failed to stay abreast of the facts, they failed to ensure enough PPEs were available in the national stockpile.  Additionally, I stumbled upon this comment at another site.

Hospitals were given the green light by the government to get rid of private practice physicians. This occurred during the days leading up to the passage of Obamacare, when hospitals were initially promised they would have monopolies on patients vis a vis Accountable Care Organizations. Hospitals went on a buying spree, paying top dollar for physicians and their practices. Coupled with the expense and headaches of the Electronic Medical Record, and insurance companies and hospitals both developing so called networks, in which physicians were frozen out of contracts as independent practitioners.

Why? Because the government figured out that it is easier to control the 5200 or so hospital CEO’s, who would now be the boss of the formerly independent 750k or more physicians.

This corporate practice of medicine has led to pressure on doctors to adapt protocols and submit to busybody hospital administrators to toe the line, or else find another job. In the worst cases, hospitals start sham peer review proceedings, a weaponized version of quality review and oversight, which can tarnish a doctor for life based on scurrilous and false evidence.

Doctors should not work for hospitals. It is an inherent conflict of interest, unethical, and it is the corporate practice of medicine. The doctor no longer works for the patient, but the hospital CEO, who has a fiduciary duty. This story is a good example. Unfortunately, the AMA is all in on it, and has not represented practicing physicians and patients for years.

You can see that however you wish.  But I’ll remind you of the quote attributed to Mussolini: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.”  A market void of righteousness is as much slavery as the state authority without righteousness.  You’re merely exchanging one wicked ruler for another.

Mises Institute.

The Food and Drug Administration helped turn the coronavirus from a deadly peril into a national catastrophe. Long after foreign nations had been ravaged and many cases had been detected in America, the FDA continued blocking private testing. The FDA continued forcing the nation’s most innovative firms to submit to its command-and-control approach notwithstanding the pandemic. South Korean is in a far better situation dealing with coronavirus, because its government did not preemptively cripple private testing.

One of the clearest lessons from the current pandemic is that nothing has changed at one of the nation’s most powerful regulatory agencies. The FDA is repeating the same mistakes and showing the same arrogance that I chronicled decades ago in articles for the Wall Street Journal, the American Spectator, and other publications.

Dr. David Kessler, who became FDA commissioner in 1990, quickly sought to intimidate the companies that his agency regulates. A laudatory Washington Post article concluded, “What he cannot accomplish with ordinary regulation, Kessler hopes to accomplish with fear.” Kenneth Feather of the FDA’s drug advertising surveillance branch boasted: “We want to say to these companies that you don’t know when or how we’ll strike. We want to eliminate predictability.”

Dr. Kessler’s heavy-handed tactics battered the American medical device industry—one of the nation’s export superstars. An American Electronics Association survey found that “40% [of medical device companies] reduced the number of U.S. employees because of FDA delays, 29% increased their investment in foreign operations, and 22% moved U.S. jobs overseas.” The survey also found that “57% of the firms said the FDA had applied guidance instructions retroactively to some of their submissions,” as Biomedical Market Newsletter reported.

The FDA’s stonewalling of new medical devices was sometimes politically motivated. A 1994 report by the Medical Device Manufacturers Association noted, “It is not unusual for [FDA] reviewers to express the position that excessive requests [for additional information] are made because of a concern or fear about how a particular member or members of Congress will react” to the approval of a new device. Sacrificing lives was a small price to pay for bureaucrats to avoid bothersome interrogatories from Capitol Hill.

[ … ]

Dr. Kessler did not spare the First Amendment in his grab for power, and cancer patients and other seriously ill people suffered as a result. Doctors, hospitals, and researchers often discover after FDA approval that a drug to treat one disease is also effective at treating other diseases. Drug companies have routinely publicized this news, alerting physicians to other possible ways to save lives. American Medical Association vice president Roy Schwarz estimated that “off-label” uses of drugs account for up to 60 percent of all drugs prescribed.

But in 1991 Dr. Kessler prohibited pharmaceutical companies from informing doctors of new uses for approved drugs. He announced that the FDA would enforce the ban with seizures, injunctions, and prosecutions. Though the agency never finalized its proposed regulations, it warned companies that they would face its wrath if they violated the draft proposals. Dr. Kessler, in a speech before the Drug Information Association, said: “I would urge all members of the pharmaceutical industry to take a long and hard look at their promotional practices. I do not expect companies to wait until this guidance becomes final to put their advertising and promotional houses in order.” The question of off-label treatments is becoming a key issue again as doctors search for effective treatments for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

And thus because of a bureaucrat-laden impediment to medical science, the response to Covid-19 has been slow, cumbersome, lumbering, and deadly.

An example of this might be found in a recent article on another treatment for the virus.  Before we get to that, I recalled a few days ago before seeing this next article that a doctor friend of mine who volunteered in Haiti, found that he had nothing to treat the children who had scabies.  He had to let them suffer because he was sent without medications for that.  If he had been sent with it, he could have used Ivermectin to treat Scabies in humans.

I also recalled that I had treated my dog, Heidi, with Ivermectin once for a parasite, and was warned by the Vet that it was “off-label.”  In this case, off-label meant that it was for livestock, not dogs, but that it has worked for dogs for such a long time that Vets had no problem prescribing it.

As I live and breath, I actually had a fleeting thought and wondered a few days ago whether Ivermectin might be effective at treating Coronavirus.  I figured, “You’re not a medical doctor, never even bring this up because people will think you’ve fallen off your rocker.”

Then this.

An anti-parasitic drug available throughout the world has been found to kill COVID-19 in the lab within 48 hours.

A Monash University-led study has shown a single dose of the drug Ivermectin could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture.

“We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA (effectively removed all genetic material of the virus) by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it,” Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Dr Kylie Wagstaff said on Friday.

While it’s not known how Ivermectin works on the virus, the drug likely stops the virus dampening the host cells’ ability to clear it.

The next step is for scientists to determine the correct human dosage, to make sure the level used in vitro is safe for humans.

“In times when we’re having a global pandemic and there isn’t an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner,” Dr Wagstaff said.

“Realistically it’s going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available.”

Before Ivermectin can be used to combat coronavirus, funding is needed to get it to pre-clinical testing and clinical trials.

Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug also shown to be effective in vitro against viruses including HIV, dengue and influenza.

But if we’re waiting for FDA approval, we could be waiting for a very long time.  The bureaucrats get their say.

David Codrea.

“I was just standing up for the Constitution, and I did it in a professional manner that did not delay the bill,” Massie told Fox News. “This is the biggest transfer of wealth in human history.”

“The Constitution requires that a quorum of members be present to conduct business in the House,” he elaborated on Twitter. “Right now, millions of essential, working-class Americans are still required to go to work during this pandemic such as manufacturing line workers, healthcare professionals, pilots, grocery clerks, cooks/chefs, delivery drivers, auto mechanics, and janitors (to name just a few). Is it too much to ask that the House do its job, just like the Senate did?”

“Massie has now become the most hated person on Capitol Hill,” New York Rep. Peter King …

Oh, I think I could name a lot of people who are much more hated than Massie.  Like maybe Peter King, gun controller.

Look, a quick Google search will find that I have been a defender of Thomas Massie, and I will continue to be so regardless of what orange man says.

My wife heard that the congress voted without a quorum, and looked at me and rolled her eyes.  She’s not one to overreact, but this one galled her.  They can’t even follow the rules, things you learn to do as children when you’re playing dodge ball (or for me in my gym class, “murder ball”).

Men who can’t follow the rules can’t be trusted with anything.

Via WiscoDave, news from Florida.

A Hillsborough County pastor was arrested Monday after he intentionally and repeatedly violated orders that no gatherings of 10 or more people he held in order to stop of the spread of COVID-19 by holding services at his megachurch, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced Monday afternoon.

The sheriff’s office received an anonymous tip on Friday that Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, the pastor of the megachurch River at Tampa Bay Church in Riverview, refused to stop holding mass gatherings and instead was encouraging people to come to services.

[…] “His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them in danger,” Chronister said.

Next up, news from North Carolina.

On Sunday, we reported that four men were arrested outside a Greensboro, N.C., abortion clinic, where they were conducting a prayer walk. Despite the fact that that a pro-life group, Love Life, had canceled its group meeting and everyone was following the rules for social distancing, the Greensboro Police Department arrested them and charged them with violating Guilford County’s stay-at-home order.

Apparently not happy with violating the First Amendment rights of four prayer warriors, the Greensboro Police Department arrested seven more people on Monday after they were caught praying in public in front of a facility that makes its money by slaughtering innocent children.

Gotta make sure we can kill children, no social distancing for that.  But praying outside the murder-mill, nope.  Worship services?  No to that too.

There is no question that all of this involves a gigantic power grab by not just the FedGov, but state and local governments as well.

And it isn’t a good precedent.

What if the government decides to shut down a church because of threats of violence by Muslim gangs or Antifa?  How many pastors would honor such a shutdown?  How long would it last?

Don’t balk.  The church in Mesopotamia – there for thousands of years – was eradicated by Shi’ite militia.

We’ve previously seen the work by French doctors using hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic for Coronavirus.  Those studies have been supplemented by another 80 patients.

For an Israeli doctor in Italy, “the hospital where he works has also seen positive results from the antiviral drug Remdesivir.”  He adds, “One technique he said had yielded dramatic results was to have patients lie on their stomach instead of on their back while on a ventilator. “Suddenly the oxygen level in the blood jumped by hundreds of percents,” he said.

But there is also copious data from doctors in New York concerning this new treatment protocol.

Last Wednesday, we published the success story from Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a board-certified family practitioner in New York, after he successfully treated 350 coronavirus patients with 100 percent success using a cocktail of drugs: hydroxychloroquine, in combination with azithromycin (Z-Pak), an antibiotic to treat secondary infections, and zinc sulfate.  Dr. Zelenko said he saw the symptom of shortness of breath resolved within four to six hours after treatment.

Now, Dr. Zelenko provides updates on the treatment after he successfully treated 699 COVID-19 patients in New York. In an exclusive interview with former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Vladmir Zelenko shares the results of his latest study, which showed that out of his 699 patients treated, zero patients died, zero patients intubated, and four hospitalizations.

Dr. Zelenko said the whole treatment costs only $20 over a period of 5 days with 100% success. He defines success as “Not to die.” Dr. Zelenko first posted his Facebook video message last week calling on President Trump to “advise the country that they should be taking this medication.”

There are many other success stories about hydroxychloroquine across the country. Last week, Dr. William Grace, an oncologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said they’ve not had a single death in their hospital because of  hydroxychloroquine. “Thanks to hydroxychloroquine, we have not had a death in our hospital,’ Dr. Grace said.

Also, in a study conducted by the National Institute of Health (NIH) also confirmed some of Dr. Dr. Zelenko’s findings. The study by NIH showed that Zinc supplementation decreases the morbidity of lower respiratory tract infection in pediatric patients in the developing world. A second study also conducted by NIH titled: “In Vitro Antiviral Activity and Projection of Optimized Dosing Design of Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),” also showed hydroxychloroquine to be more potent in killing the virus off in vitro (in the test tube and not in the body).

He has participated in an instructive video to explain his position.  There is hope with these protocol, but it’s clear from the data and information that the intent isn’t to wait until the patient isn’t responsive to other treatment.

Contrary to that, I’ve mentioned that I am personally aware of one local hospital that takes the position that only a pulmonologist can prescribe these drugs, and then, only as “rescue adjunctive therapy” after ARDS has already begun to occur.  In other words, he must wait until it’s too late to invoke this protocol.

Who knows why?  Perhaps this is because doctors are slow to accept these protocol, perhaps it’s because they are loath to accept treatment protocol that hasn’t been taught to them in medical school or accepted by the FDA.  But for whatever reason, this shows that America still isn’t prepared for this pandemic, and won’t be until doctors are willing to think outside their boxes and listen to others who have gone before them.

Politics may be standing in the way of the health and safety of the public.

UPDATE:

FDA Authorizes Use.

The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, decades-old malaria drugs championed by President Donald Trump for coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence.

“Scientists in America and around the world have identified multiple potential therapeutics for COVID19, including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar tweeted on Sunday night, praising Trump and the EUA.

Career scientists have been skeptical of the effort, noting the lack of data on the drugs’ efficacy for coronavirus care and worried that it would siphon medication away from patients who need it for other conditions, calling instead for the agency to pursue its usual clinical trials.

What else would you expect from Politico.  “Despite scant evidence.”

Career scientists want to control what is administered to whom, when, under what conditions, and to ensure they get the credit for it.

I’m beginning to smell a rat.  My daughter observes to me that the potential side effects are nausea.  It isn’t like the drug can kill people when administered under the direction of a health care provider.

Do you think that perhaps some of this is political, and possibly a turf war, with American lives hanging in the balance?

Las Vegas Sun.

Nevada’s governor has signed an emergency order barring the use of anti-malaria drugs for someone who has the coronavirus.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s order Tuesday restricting chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine comes after President Donald Trump touted the medication as a treatment for the virus.

Trump last week falsely stated that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved the use of chloroquine to treat patients infected with coronavirus. After the FDA’s chief said the drug still needs to be tested for that use, Trump overstated the drug’s potential benefits in containing the virus.

Sisolak said in a statement that there’s no consensus among experts or Nevada doctors that the drugs can treat people with COVID-19. His order also limits a prescription to a 30-day supply to ensure it’s available for “legitimate medical purposes” and so that people cannot find a way to stockpile the drug.

There are comments to the extent AP has misreported.  But apparently not.  There is also this.

You’ve heard it from me and you’ve heard it from medical experts and other leaders across our country — the best way to stop the spread of this virus is to practice aggressive social distancing and to keep large groups of people apart. This virus is persistent and spreads invisibly, it can live on surfaces for up to 72 hours or more. That’s why distance is so important. It’s our number one defense.

So listen.  This isn’t right.  Isolation, containment and social distancing aren’t affecting the doubling rate.  That’s just false.  As I’ve said before, I’ve been tracking this since before the aggressive social lockdowns, and the doubling rate hasn’t changed except in the second or third decimal place.

Anyway, the governor is a fool.

See featured article Analysis Of The Covid-19 Pandemic.  There have been updates.

Reason.

I regret to inform you that we have always lived in a country in which political officials can order private businesses closed.

[ … ]

This general background of police powers underwrites myriad routine restrictions that state and local governments put on social life. It is what allows local governments to authorize health inspectors to examine the kitchens of restaurants and order them to close if they discover problems. It is what allows fire marshals to limit the number of people who can occupy a public venue. It is what allows police officers to arrest people for urinating in the street. It is what allows government officials to prevent you from just accumulating mounds of garbage in the backyard of your suburban home. It is what allows government officials to tell you that you cannot keep a Bengal tiger as a pet in your house.

This case is extremely unconvincing.  Public laws against urinating in the streets or letting trash build up IS NOT THE SAME THING as a public curfew.  Nor is it the same thing as shutting down businesses.

Via Tamara Keel.

Handwaving Freakoutery@Freakoutery

Yea, these have been my thoughts lately.  Actually, there is more.

So before we begin let’s get the obvious out of the way.  Regular readers know that I haven’t jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon by saying that this was all planned.  I do believe (based on what evidence is available to me) that this virus is weaponized.  I also believe that it was most likely an accidental release from the Chinese bio-weapons facility.

But that doesn’t mean the FedGov (and all other levels of government, from city to state) hasn’t glommed on to see just how far this can be pushed.  And you can rest assured that the JTTF Fusion Centers are watching very carefully.

Roger Kimball notes this.

It also, it is worth noting, plays right into the hands of power-hungry politicians who like nothing better than to forbid whatever it is they have neglected to make mandatory. These are the folks who stand to benefit by the ill wind of the Wuhan virus. Anyone who doubts this should ponder the case of Champaign, Illinois, whose city council just voted itself emergency powers to deal with the crisis, or “crisis.”

My friend David Horowitz likes to say “scratch a liberal and you’ll discover a totalitarian screaming to get out.” The evolution of the reaction and overreaction to the Wuhan flu is a textbook case illustrating the truth of that observation.

The Feds have shot their wad at the coming potential recession, and have no more ammunition.  The mayor of Champaign, Illinois has declared a town emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus that includes a potential ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition.  The mayor of Austin, Texas, has forbade gatherings of more than 100 people, placing in jeopardy the livelihoods of people who make their living doing just such things, like wedding planning, musicians, and so on.  New Jersey communities have imposed mandatory curfews (so did the British Army in colonial America, one of the complaints by the colonists, of course ending with American independence after a long and bloody war).

Of course, this is all unconstitutional.  The constitution doesn’t recognize “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” and right to freedom of association (recognized by the courts) .. except … uh oh, when the .gov declares it null and void because they are concerned about you or others you might happen to affect and can get a doctor to sign on to their plans.  It doesn’t work that way.

Unless it does and the American people let them get away with it.  I’m not suggesting of course that there aren’t benefits to remote work.  I have worked remotely for the last seven months and have done just fine with it, being even more productive than I would have been driving to work and sitting in a stale office.  I’m suggesting that no governor, no mayor, no president, and no legislator, has the authority to tell congregants that they are not to worship on Sunday or any other day.  No one has the authority to tell free men when they will be outside their homes.  And no mayor has the authority to tell gun owners that they can’t purchase more guns or ammunition.

David Codrea.

“Why are ‘Conservatives’ Throwing Michelle Malkin Under the Bus?” a cautionary analysis by Jose Nino on Big League Politics asks. “Second Amendment Activists Would be Wise to Not Dismiss Michelle Malkin’s Immigration Discussions.”

Apparently, advocating America should place its interests ahead of any other country’s, including Israel’s, was enough for Gun Owners of America’s Director of Outreach to brag on Twitter about having Malkin excluded from speaking to a Republican group.

“Bethany Mandel, editor of the conservative website Ricochet, penned an article titled ‘The Fall of Michelle Malkin’, which questioned Malkin’s recent controversial statements on immigration and why U.S. taxpayers subsidize Israel to the tune of billions,” the article explains. Except, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, that depends upon what the meaning of the word “conservative” is.

Read the rest of it.

Let me tell you something about Michelle Malkin.  When I was first starting out as a blogger, Michelle knew my son was deployed in Iraq.  I don’t think she wanted us to be there any more than I did, but she was truly compassionate for my plight (the turmoil military parents go through).

She gave me copious links, as well as actually exchanged email with me.  I have no regard or respect for folks who won’t exchange email with you.

Michelle Malkin is a decent and good woman, and a smart analyst.