Although more people talk about zinc during cold and flu season, and it's one of the important supplements you can use to thwart a COVID-19 infection, it’s also an essential mineral found throughout your body. Zinc is the second-most abundant trace mineral found in the body, while iron is the first.1 Zinc is a cofactor in 3,000 proteins.2 Although it’s crucial to many biological processes and plays a vital role in the structure of nearly every cell, the body does not store the mineral.3 Instead, you must consume it every day to meet your body's requirements. Zinc is important to your immune health as it not only helps halt the replication of viruses inside the cells,4 but also functions as a signaling molecule for the body's T-cells, which are white cells tasked with destroying infected cells.5 Zinc protects the hippocampus from inflammation that is triggered by emotional stress, and thus is considered an important factor in the treatment of depression.6 Zinc also plays a role in releasing thyroid hormone; low levels are associated with thinning hair.7 The mineral is important for wound healing and your sense of taste and smell.8 As with many other vitamins and minerals, the average daily recommended amount is based on avoiding a deficiency rather than maintaining optimal amounts to support good health.9 However, as Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D., points out, it is possible to get too much zinc, which can actually depress your immune system and negatively affect your health.10 Despite the numerous reasons you'll want to ensure your levels of zinc are adequate, the trace mineral has become important in the fight against COVID-19. Zinc Raises the Effectiveness of HydroxychloroquineA team of doctors from New York University who were using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin in patients with COVID-19 began adding zinc sulfate. To determine the effectiveness to the protocol, they completed a retrospective observational study comparing outcomes between the two groups.11 The physicians declared no competing interests, and they received no funding for the study. Data were collected on patients who were admitted to the hospital in the period of March 2, 2020, through April 5, 2020. People who were given experimental drugs were excluded. The doctors found that those who received zinc sulfate were discharged home more frequently and were less likely to need a ventilator. Overall, members of this group had lower risk of mortality due to the virus and lower chances of needing hospice or the ICU. They concluded, “This study provides the first in vivo evidence that zinc sulfate in combination with hydroxychloroquine may play a role in therapeutic management for COVID-19.” The results of these observations support the findings of other physicians throughout the world. For example, in one international poll of more than 6,200 doctors across 30 countries, 37% rated hydroxychloroquine as the “most effective therapy” for COVID-19 from a list of 15 options.12 The poll was done by Sermo, self-described as the world's largest health care data collection company and social platform for physicians. The drug combination was commonly used in Spain by 72% of doctors who chose to participate. Additionally, 75% of the respondents from Spain indicated that it was the most effective therapy. Inside the U.S., the drug was more commonly used for high-risk, diagnosed patients, but in other countries it was prescribed for people exhibiting mild to severe symptoms. HCQ Protocols Outside the US Effective and SuccessfulFrench prize-winning microbiologist and infectious disease expert Didier Raoult is director of a research unit at Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire in France. As soon as someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, he uses the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat them. Raoult reports that this combination has led to the recovery and nondetection of SARS-CoV-2 in 91.7% of 1,061 patients within 10 days.13 One of the side effects of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin is the risk of cardiac toxicity. However, in his patients there was no toxicity when a dose of 200 mg was given three times a day for 10 days, with 500 mg of azithromycin on Day 1 followed by 250 mg daily for the next four days. While some scientists working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation14 are not convinced of the efficacy of a drug — which has been approved and used in the U.S. for 65 years15,16 — the Swiss Policy Research group reports that U.S. doctors who are using the combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc have:17
Dangerous Narrative May Have Led to High Rate of DeathIn a study published May 22, 2020, in The Lancet, researchers declared that HCQ used alone or with a macrolide was associated with a reduction in survival and an increase in ventricular arrhythmias. Soon after, the World Health Organization stopped their use of the drug in COVID-19 protocols and the leaders of several drug trials announced that the investigations were being terminated.18 The results of the study published in The Lancet were so alarming that it initiated a closer look by other scientists, 200 of whom published an open letter concerning the integrity of the data collection.19 They identified 10 points in the research that were suspect, including:
After it was revealed that the database used in the study was not available to independent peer reviewers, the article was retracted.20 However, by this time, others had joined the outcry against the low-cost medication with a known positive track record. As more physicians spoke about the evidence from their own practice using hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc and azithromycin, state medical licensing boards and congressional representatives began issuing threats.21 Dr. Vladimir Zelenko is another physician who has been vocal about this, and who published22 the positive effects he's been getting using a protocol with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulfate. Del Bigtree from The Highwire quotes Raoult from a previous interview as saying failure to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to a COVID-19 patient “should be grounds for malpractice.” During an interview with Bigtree July 3, 2020, Zelenko said,23 “People are not dying from COVID-19. They are dying from politics. It's called death by politics.” In answer to the question of how history will look at the story of the pandemic in relationship to HCQ, Zelenko answered:
During the interview Bigtree pointed out that the large doses of hydroxychloroquine being used in the Oxford Recovery Trial and the WHO Solidarity Trials were called “potentially fatal doses” by Dr. Meryl Nass.24 Nass added:
When asked if the 2400 mg of hydroxychloroquine used in the Recovery trial was lethal, Zelenko responded, “Not if you’re treating a very fat elephant.”25 Quercetin and EGCG Are Effective Zinc IonophoresZelenko also shared that if people cannot get HCQ to move zinc into the cells, then quercetin is a second option.26 He is using it as “Plan B” for patients who have a contraindication for hydroxychloroquine or otherwise cannot take it. In the Zelenko protocol, hydroxychloroquine functions as a zinc ionophore, moving zinc into the cells where it halts the replication of the virus. This allows him to prescribe lower doses since zinc is the key component of the treatment. A study published in 2014 evaluated the efficacy of quercetin and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) as zinc ionophores.27 To prove their hypothesis these flavonoids were transporting zinc cations into the plasma membrane, researchers designed a lab study with hepatic carcinoma HEPA 1-6 mouse cells. The goal was to confirm whether the polyphenols move zinc across the cell membrane using quercetin, ECGC or clioquinol. ECGC is a polyphenol commonly found in tea28 and clioquinol is a quinoline with antibacterial and antifungal properties used to treat skin infections.29 The results showed a rapid increase in detectable intracellular zinc in the presence of quercetin, EGCG or clioquinol. The researchers concluded that the natural flavonoids may be used to modulate zinc homeostasis and regulate biological pathways. Using Zinc and Quercetin Before or Early in IllnessAs Zelenko points out, the combination of zinc and a zinc ionophore can be used preventively to reduce the risk of acquiring a COVID-19 infection. Although zinc deficiency is common in the developing world, estimates are that 12% of the U.S. population and as many as 40% of the elderly are at risk for zinc deficiency.30 Unfortunately, zinc levels are not always tested. You may be deficient if you have these signs:31
In much the same way Zelenko uses hydroxychloroquine and zinc as a preventative against COVID-19, you have access to quercetin and zinc to perform the same function. However, as Masterjohn correctly points out, too much zinc can negatively affect your immune system as it can offset your zinc and copper balance.32 This lowers superoxide dismutase activity, which is an important antioxidant in immune function. If you are taking zinc prophylactically for COVID-19, he suggests restricting your daily intake to 150 mg per day or less except for short-term use when you're sick. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/21/zinc-is-key-to-hcq-protocol.aspx
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1 SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to increase production of hyaluronic acid in the lungs. When combined with fluid buildup, which of the following occurs?
2 Profusa, backed by DARPA, is seeking FDA approval for which of the following?
3 According to CDC statistics released the last week of August 2020, what percentage of COVID-19-related deaths have SARS-CoV-2 infection listed as the sole contributing cause of death?
4 Gain-of-function or dual-use research was once known as:
5 Which of the following has been shown to increase expression of ACE2 receptors in bronchial epithelial cells, potentially increasing your risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection?
6 Which of the following is a key component of totalitarian rule?
7 Which of the following U.S. states passed a bill in 2020 requiring a vaccine provider signature or completion of an online education module for religious or conscientious exemptions?
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/21/week-148-health-quiz.aspx Dr. Mercola Interviews the Experts This article is part of a weekly series in which Dr. Mercola interviews various experts on a variety of health issues. To see more expert interviews, click here. Travis Christofferson has written three books on metabolic health optimization. His third and latest one is “Ketones, The Fourth Fuel: Warburg to Krebs to Veech, the 250 Year Journey to Find the Fountain of Youth.” Interestingly, optimizing your metabolic health appears to be an effective way to mitigate the severity of a COVID-19 infection. The reason for this is because when you're metabolically flexible, you're not insulin resistant, and insulin resistance and diabetes are significant risk factors. The ketogenic diet was a standard of care in the 1920s for pediatric epilepsy, but once antiseizure drugs came out in the '30s, it was shelved and eventually forgotten. Fasting encountered the same fate. As noted by Christofferson, therapeutic fasting was huge in the '60s, yet the benefits of this strategy eventually fell by the wayside of medical history as the low-fat movement took hold.
Today, as we face epidemic levels of insulin resistance and its associated health effects, including diabetes, heart disease and increased vulnerability to viral infections, nutritional ketosis could not be more pertinent. The Four FuelsThe four fuels are carbohydrates, fats, proteins and ketones. Carbs and fats are the two primary ones. Proteins are primarily used as building blocks, but they can also be broken down and be burned as fuel. They just cannot be stored for anything other than emergency starvation fuel. Protein can also be converted back into glucose through gluconeogenic pathways. When you fast, protein can be used as an alternative fuel, but the ideal fuel is ketones. Christofferson explains the metabolic difference between carbohydrates, fats and ketones as follows:
High-Carb Diets Damage Your Metabolic MachineryThe problem is that with today's standard American diet, most people never reach this state of fat burning and ketosis. They’re constantly feeding their bodies carbohydrates, and in this high-insulin state, they simply cannot burn fat. Over time, it wears out your metabolic machinery, resulting in insulin resistance and weight gain. As explained by Christofferson, glucose is a very rigid planar molecule, and when in your blood, it damages your epithelial cells, nerves and just about everything else. For this reason, your body has to get rid of it quickly. The insulin tells your cells to take up the glucose to lower the glucose level in your blood. It then tells the cells to process it by turning on the last step of glycolysis, the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, so that the glucose can be processed. When those two “machineries” wear out, you develop insulin resistance. What this means is your cells no longer respond well to insulin, and as a consequence your blood glucose remains elevated. You’re also burning less fuel, which diminishes all metabolic processes. This is in context to a state of insulin resistance: Less glucose is able to enter the Krebs cycle and ATP production slows. For example, the efficiency by which your body makes antioxidants and neurotransmitters decreases. The beautiful thing about ketone metabolism is it completely bypasses all this pathology. It doesn't depend on insulin pathways. So, when you're generating ketones and your blood ketone levels go up, the ketone enters the cell through a model carboxylic acid transport protein. Even without a rise in insulin, the cells are efficiently fueled. Ketones also do not need pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Instead, ketones go directly into the Krebs cycle. So, all of a sudden, diminished metabolic pathways spring back to life and you’re able to generate energy, antioxidants and all the rest. Your brain also gets the fuel it needs for optimal function. Metabolic Benefits of KetonesKetones have a number of specific benefits. For starters, they’re thermodynamically and metabolically efficient, meaning they burn cleaner than glucose, thus creating far less free radical damage and inflammation in your body. Christofferson explains:
Ketosis Dramatically Improves Antioxidant ProductionThe concept of NADPH is profoundly important and not widely appreciated. It’s probably every bit as important as NAD+, especially with respect to recharging endogenous intracellular antioxidants. As explained by Christofferson, the only thing that determines the antioxidant status of a cell is the redox ratio of NADPH, and the only known way to change that redox ratio is through burning beta-hydroxybutyrate. There’s a pervasive belief that you can diminish free radicals simply by consuming antioxidants, but that has never actually been proven. As noted by Christofferson:
Radiation and Antiaging BenefitsChristofferson cites research showing that when you give mice ketone esters after dosing them with radiation, the chromosomal damage incurred is reduced by 50%, compared to mice fed a normal carbohydrate diet. He believes taking ketone esters is therefore advisable when getting X-rays or when flying, for example. Ketone esters may also help counteract the normal ravages of aging.
Beta-hydroxybutyrate also activates FOXO3a, which is perhaps one of the most important pathways for antiaging. FOXO3a in turn changes the expression of hundreds of other genes. Some of those genes regulate internal antioxidant production such as catalase and superoxide dismutase. These are not like traditional antioxidants that have to be recycled by NADPH. They operate by traditional ketolysis, where superoxide is changed into hydrogen peroxide and then water. Ketone Esters Improve Athletic PerformanceChristofferson also reviews how ketone esters can improve athletic performance and recovery:
Other Benefits of Ketone EstersThere’s also some data suggesting ketone esters can be beneficial for certain health conditions.
MCT Oil Is One AlternativeAnother therapeutic option is to use MCT oil, as this type of fat lends itself readily to ketone production. I consume about 6 ounces of caprylic acid a day, as I require many calories due to my daily exercise. I need at least 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day. I get more than 1,000 calories a day from MCT oils, which works out well for me as I obtain the metabolic benefits discussed here. MCT oil is also far less expensive than ketone esters. That said, 6 ounces is far more than most people would be able to tolerate. To start, begin taking 1 teaspoon and work your way up from there. Be careful to take them with loads of other fats and don’t take more than 4 tablespoons at once — otherwise you will likely get nauseous.
Why Cyclical Ketosis Is so ImportantWhile many believe it’s best to remain in nutritional ketosis continuously and indefinitely, I strongly disagree with such advice. I believe it can be highly counterproductive to remain on a continuously low-carb diet. While it’s important to remain on a low-carb diet until you are metabolically flexible and insulin sensitive, which can take months or even years for some really heavy people, once you reach that state, you’ll want to increase your carbohydrate level (depending on your exercise level) to 100 or 150 grams once or twice a week, especially around the times you're exercising. Doing so will actually further improve your metabolic flexibility, as you want to have the ability to seamlessly switch between burning fat and glucose. As mentioned, glucose is the universal fuel, so we have to be able to use that. We just don't want to use it all the time. Christofferson agrees, saying:
Improving Metabolic Health Is Key in Post-COVID WorldLastly, optimizing your metabolic health through nutritional ketosis, which is best done through time-restricted eating and a cyclical ketogenic diet, will help you move forward with greater confidence and less fear in this post-COVID world. As noted by Christofferson:
To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of Christofferson’s book “Ketones, The Fourth Fuel: Warburg to Krebs to Veech, the 250 Year Journey to Find the Fountain of Youth.” This really is the information you need right now, so the timing of the publication of this book couldn’t be more appropriate. In the interview, Christofferson also reviews some of the history of the key doctors and scientists responsible for identifying and understanding ketone metabolism — including Otto Warburg, Hans Adolf Krebs, George Cahill and Richard Veech — so for more details, be sure to listen to the interview. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/20/travis-christofferson-nutritional-ketosis.aspx This week, we celebrate our 10th anniversary of Vaccine Awareness Week. In this video, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), summarizes the high and low points we’ve experienced over the past year, and shares the details about NVIC’s international public conference on vaccination.1 Due to fluctuating social distancing rules and COVID-19-related travel bans, for the first time, this three-day conference will be held entirely online, October 16 through 18, 2020. The theme of this conference will be “Protecting Health and Autonomy in the 21st Century.” I invite you to attend by registering now. Since the conference is virtual, you now have the rare opportunity to attend no matter where you live.
>>>>> Click Here <<<<< Protecting Health and Autonomy in the 21st CenturyThe conference is divided into four primary themes:
Following are the scheduled speakers and the topics of their presentations:
People Are Losing Faith in Vaccine SystemObviously, the biggest event over the past 12 months has been the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ultra-rapid development of a pandemic coronavirus vaccine which may or may not become mandatory around the world. Fisher has put together a special report on COVID-19, which she continues to update.
Communicating With Your Legislators Is KeyThrough it all, the NVIC has continued to monitor legislation in the U.S. Many state legislatures have been working remotely, not allowing people to come into the state capital buildings. As a result, many more Americans are now using the free online NVIC advocacy portal to email and to call their legislators — which is what it’s there for.
Best and Worst of 2020So far, this year, and we’re only in September, NVIC has issued positions and tracked 232 vaccine related bills in 39 states. That's the highest number of vaccine-related bills ever to have been introduced in state legislatures in one year. There were 13 bills in 10 States that sought to eliminate vaccine exemptions. None passed. Of 10 bills filed across eight states to restrict vaccine exemptions, only one passed (Colorado) requiring a vaccine provider signature or completion of an online education module for religious or conscientious exemptions. In total, there were 99 bills that NVIC supported — bills expanding vaccine exemptions, the right to make vaccine choices, and offering protection against vaccine tracking systems and a few of these good bills did pass. Of the 123 vaccine bills NVIC opposed, only eight bad vaccine bills passed.
COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Are ExpectedFisher is convinced any COVID-19 vaccine, which makes it through licensing approval by the FDA and is eventually recommended by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will eventually be mandated by state governments for all children. Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably one of the greatest threats to freedom and liberty we’ve ever faced in modern history.
Lessons From Previous Mass Vaccination CampaignsThere’s no shortage of historical precedents when it comes to devastating pandemic vaccine campaigns. Aside from the 2009 pandemic swine flu vaccine campaign, which led to thousands of children and teens developing narcolepsy5 in Europe6 caused by the Pandemrix vaccine, there’s also the 1976 swine flu fiasco, detailed in this 1979 “60 Minutes” episode. Fearing a repeat of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, all Americans were told to get vaccinated. According to “60 Minutes,” 46 million Americans were vaccinated against the swine flu at that time. Over the next few years, thousands of Americans filed vaccine damage claims with the federal government,7 severely marring the public’s perception of flu shots.8 According to a 1981 report9 by the U.S. General Accounting Office, as of October 2, 1980, 3,965 claims and 1,384 lawsuits had been filed. Of the 3,965 claims filed, 316 claims were settled for $12.3 million. Considering the COVID-19 vaccine is using novel RNA and DNA technology, it seems foolish not to assume there will be significant adverse consequences.
Join the Conference, or Support NVIC With a DonationAs in previous years, during Vaccine Awareness Week, we will match donations made to the NVIC dollar for dollar, so it’s a great time to leverage your charity. You can make a tax-deductible donation here. >>>>> Click Here <<<<< This year, the best bang for your buck is to purchase a ticket to the NVIC’s international public conference on vaccination.10 Any profits generated from the event go to support NVIC’s work through public education to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths and to protect vaccine choices and civil liberties, including freedom of thought, speech and conscience. For just $80, you get access to 40 speakers — that’s just $2 per lecture — plus viewings of two full-length films! You also can offer your personal support for this historic event by becoming an NVIC conference sponsor with a one-time donation of $250 or more, which gives you two tickets plus your family or organization name recognition. It also grants you permanent access to the conference speaker presentations online. The NVIC would not have been able to keep the general admission ticket price affordable had it not been for the generous support of conference sponsors. >>>>> Click Here <<<<< from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/20/vaccine-awareness-week-2020.aspx If you’re a fig lover, this next sentence may be hard for you to swallow. The figs you’re eating could have a dead wasp stuck in them. I know that probably makes you squirm, but it sounds more dramatic than it is. You may think the idea of wasps inside a fig is gross, but it’s actually pretty amazing to see how nature knows exactly what it needs to do to allow both plant and insect species to survive. Figs and fig wasps have a mutually beneficial relationship — something that’s officially called mutualism1 — that developed over millions of years of evolution. They need each other to survive. Fig wasps help pollinate figs and, in turn, the figs provide a safe place for the wasps to lay their eggs. This relationship is crucial to a balanced ecosystem and is also crucial to you enjoying a fresh fig or that fig jam you love. So, don’t let this tidbit of information make you shy away from eating figs. The fruit, or technically flower, is full of resistant starch, potassium and other nutrients such as magnesium and choline, that help keep you healthy.2 Plus, you’re probably already eating a lot of bugs without even realizing it. Read on to see what I mean. Why Do Figs Need Wasps?Figs are often eaten as a fruit, but they’re actually inverted flowers with a fascinating biology.3 Unlike other flowers that bloom and expand outwardly, fig flowers bloom inside the fig’s pod. Because the flowers are on the inside, they require a special system for pollination — and that’s where the female fig wasps come in. Each flower produces a single fruit called an achene that’s composed of a single shell and a hard seed. Because several flowers grow inside the fig pod, there are also several of these hard-shelled fruits. That’s what gives fresh figs their seeded inside and signature crunch. Female fig wasps enter a fig through small passageways called ostioles. The ostioles are so narrow that the fig wasps actually lose their wings and antenna when traveling through them.4 Because of this, they can get in the figs, but they usually cannot get out. That’s OK with them, though, because their sole purpose is reproduction. There are female and male figs. The female figs are the ones we eat, while the male figs serve solely as a place for fig wasps to reproduce. Once inside a male fig, the females lay their eggs. Eventually the eggs hatch and then the baby male wasps dig tunnels through the fig so that the baby female wasps, covered in pollen, can escape and continue the cycle in another fig.5 However, if a fig wasp enters a female fig, she can’t lay her eggs. Instead, she pollinates the flowers inside the fig, but then stays behind, living out the rest of her maximum 48-hour life cycle,6 and dying inside the fig.7 So, Are There Dead Wasps in Figs?The short answer to whether or not there are dead wasps inside your fig is: Maybe. Most figs grown in the U.S. are self-pollinating, which means they don’t need the wasps to grow. Karla Stockli, CEO of the California Fig Advisory Board, points out that more than 95% of the figs produced in California are self-pollinating and most of the figs that you can buy in the U.S. (100% of dried figs and 98% of fresh figs) come from California, which has the highest quality standards in the world.8 That’s one bit of good news. The other thing that may ease your mind is that the figs actually contain an enzyme called ficin that breaks down the exoskeletons of the wasps and turns them into protein. Technically, when you eat a fig, you could be eating protein that comes from a wasp, but you’re not likely to find an intact wasp carcass in the fig. Even if you did find an intact wasp, it’s not like the wasps you’re probably picturing. Fig wasps are really small9 — about 1.5 millimeters in size — so you probably wouldn’t even notice them. For reference, a typical yellowjacket worker wasp is around 12 millimeters, while the queen can grow to about 19 millimeters. Don’t Worry, You Already Eat BugsThe other thing that may ease your mind (or not, depending on how you look at it) is that if you eat fresh fruit and vegetables, you’ve likely eaten thousands of bugs already. According to a report by Terro, a pest control company in Pennsylvania, the average person can consume up to 140,000 insect parts each year.10 That’s because the FDA allows certain amounts of insects into the food supply. For example, a half-cup of frozen berries is legally allowed to contain two whole insects. And those hops used to make beer? They get the go-ahead with 25,000 whole insects in a half-cup. While this may make you squirm, insects are actually a regular part of the diet in many places. Approximately 80% of people worldwide eat one or more of the different 1,700 edible insects as a source of protein.11 Some parts of the world, especially tropical countries, even consider them delicacies.12 They’re only considered gross in Western societies because we’re not accustomed to eating them and categorize them as pests instead of food. With animal agriculture, we also don’t really have a need for alternate protein sources, so we tend to shy away from edible insects. Health Benefits of FigsIf you can get past the idea the idea that some of the figs you eat may have a wasp in them, there are a lot of reasons to include them in your diet. One medium sized fig is approximately 40 calories and provides 1.5 grams of fiber, in addition to an abundant amount of magnesium and choline, as well as vitamin B6, copper, pantothenic acid and folate. It’s also rich in beta carotene.13 Figs are a good source of potassium, which your body uses to control blood pressure and balance the sodium potassium ratio, and calcium. As you might expect, the nutritional value increases by weight as the fruit is dried. For instance, 100 grams provide 35 mg of calcium when fresh14 but 162 mg of calcium when dry.15 Since figs are high in fiber, they may act as a natural laxative. High-fiber foods also provide a feeling of fullness and one of the types of fiber in figs — resistant starch — acts as a natural prebiotic to support pre-existing beneficial bacteria in your gut.16 Resistant starch also helps control blood sugar, protect the kidneys and help the body use certain vitamins, like vitamin D — a combination that can help control diabetes and reduce diabetic complications.17 Resistant starch also increases satiety, helping to control body weight and reduce the risk of obesity. In one animal study, researchers found adding resistant starch to the diet of obese rats helped reduce body weight by as much as 40%.18 Another animal study evaluated the effects of figs, dates and pomegranates on neuroinflammation.19 They found daily administration of a supplement containing these three fruits decreased inflammatory cytokines and delayed formation of senile plaques. The researchers concluded the fruit mediated the reduction of cytokines and may be one mechanism that can help protect against neurodegenerative diseases. Fig leaves may be as important nutritionally as the fruit itself as they have unique health benefits, including an ability to regulate blood sugar. In one study, patients given a decoction of fig leaves for one month were able to lower their average insulin dose by 12%.20 An animal study evaluating hypertriglyceridemia in rats used an administration of fig leaf decoction. While total cholesterol levels were unaffected, the fig decoction had a clear positive effect on lipid molecule breakdown.21 Figs, including the fruit, skin, leaves and pulps are also rich in antioxidants and phenolic compounds.22 These compounds help combat oxidative stress and can protect against age-related and chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome and obesity.23 from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/19/dead-wasp-in-every-fig.aspx August 28, 2020, the Children's Health Defense, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., launched a European branch of the organization. In a press conference1 announcing the new branch, Kennedy discussed how governments are using fear to control and manipulate the population. Acting as quasi-government agencies, public health organizations such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are pushing vaccines using the same fear tactics, while simultaneously removing the regulatory oversight that used to ensure vaccines are properly safety-tested. Corruption in the political system, however, has destroyed the trust these agencies need to get people to willingly take these fast-tracked vaccines, and this despite the fact that the media keep regurgitating the prescribed propaganda. Kennedy also highlights how people like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates are helping to promote this global vaccination agenda. As a result of all this corruption, there's no independent, unbiased buffer between greedy corporations and the world's most vulnerable populations — our children. This is a global problem, Kennedy says, and the press is facilitating it by helping to create so much fear in the peoples' minds that they will obey whatever the health agencies say, no matter how illogical the demands. Vaccines Are Not Routinely Tested Against PlaceboKennedy explains how he ended up spearheading the fight for vaccine safety. He runs the largest water protection group in the world, the Waterkeeper Alliance. In the early 2000s, he was involved in lawsuits over mercury discharges by coal burning power plants. Around the same time, he learned of the presence of mercury in vaccines, and that this source was a much larger source of mercury exposure than contaminated fish was. Initially, his goal was simply to get the mercury removed from vaccines, but as he dug deeper, he realized "there were larger problems with vaccines." One of the biggest problems was, and still is, the fact that vaccines in the U.S. are not safety tested. "They have an exemption that is not available to any other medical product," Kennedy says, explaining that when the vaccine program was initially launched, the goal was to make sure vaccines could be rapidly developed and deployed in response to biological attacks by foreign countries. As a result, regulatory impediments — including safety testing vaccines against placebos, which the gold-standard in medical safety testing — were removed.
The Power of FearAs noted by Kennedy, totalitarian nations have always used the power of fear to make citizens comply with authoritarian rule. Without fail, it's been shown that all you have to do to engineer compliance, no matter how horrific the ramifications, is to tell people they have something to fear, and that they will be safe if they follow your lead.
A famous quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt is "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He understood that fear is ultimately what strips us of our human rights and drives a society into totalitarianism, and that the only way to circumvent such a fate is to bravely resist fear. Today, one of the biggest threats (or so we're told) is global pandemics.
Today, we also have something no previous tyrant has had, namely the technology to track, trace, control and manipulate individuals wherever they live. Most people are surrounded by electronics and wireless devices that harvest every imaginable data point about your personal life. Digital currency will complete the net of tyranny. Once all cash economies have been abolished, "they have absolute control over us because they will be able to tax every transaction," Kennedy says. A digital currency economy will also ensure total compliance by the masses. If you disobey, they can simply restrict or shut down your bank account.
People in Authority LieKennedy goes on to stress that the pushback seen around the world against mask mandates, vaccines, social distancing and lockdowns are not because there's a willful ignorance of science, but that no real science is being presented; science is actually being withheld and suppressed.
Why Are We Ignoring the Nuremberg Charter?As noted by Kennedy, this is precisely what the Nazis did to prisoners during World War II. After the war, the world was so horrified by the atrocities of the Nazi camps, including and especially the medical testing that took place, the Nuremberg Code,3 which details the ethical framework for medical experimentation, was enacted.
Do Not Trust the Medical or National Security EstablishmentIn the Ron Paul Liberty Report above, former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul interviews4 Kennedy about who really killed his father and uncle, and why. In summary, the evidence suggests his father, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated by a CIA agent hired as a security guard. Kennedy reviews some of the history of the CIA — how it was initially established as an espionage organization tasked solely with intelligence gathering, only to transform into a paramilitary agency engaged with the overthrowing of democracies around the world and other nefarious and antidemocratic activities. He also touches on the infamous CIA program called MK Ultra, in which individuals are brainwashed to carry out orders, including murders, against their own will. The conversation eventually turns to vaccine safety and the folly of ignoring published science showing there are significant problems — problems that the medical establishment is refuting without any actual counter-evidence. They also discuss data suggesting the COVID-19 lockdowns may have caused more deaths than the virus itself, as well as the civil rights issues involved. "I think the data are really clear, that quarantine is going to kill far more people than COVID-19" Kennedy says. Pandemic Responses Are Doing Far More Harm Than GoodHe cites research from the 1980s that looked at the impact of unemployment on human life. This kind of research flourished in the wake of American industries increasingly being shipped overseas, causing rising unemployment. The most famous of these studies, Kennedy says, found that for every one-point rise in unemployment there were 37,000 excess deaths, 4,000 excess imprisonments and 3,300 excess admissions into mental institutions.
Kennedy cites a report from a hospital in San Francisco that stated they saw one year's-worth of suicides in a single month, a 1,200% increase. He also cites British research showing that while there were 30,000 excess deaths in nursing homes during a five-week period during the lockdown, only one-third of them were due to COVID-19. In other words, the death rate from isolation was double that of the virus itself. People didn't get the proper medical care for chronic conditions and so on. Kennedy also rightly points out that what we will see — and are already seeing — is the obliteration of the middle-class and the shift of wealth from the poor to the already ultra-rich. Then there's the rapidly approaching question of vaccination. Children and young adults under the age of 20 basically have a zero risk of dying from COVID-19, so are we going to force them to gamble with their future health by taking a fast-tracked and unproven vaccine in the name of protecting the elderly who are at greatest risk of dying from COVID-19? "That is a very dicey ethical question," Kennedy says. "This is like an apocalyptical battle; it's really something I never thought would happen in my lifetime, where all the values of our country are being eroded," Kennedy says, pointing out that in 1968, there was a bird flu pandemic5 that had a higher mortality rate than COVID-19, "and we all went to Woodstock. It was just part of life." Today, pandemics have become a tool of tyranny, and the "biosecurity" agenda is a globalist agenda that ultimately seeks to gain total control by stripping away human rights and the rights of countries. As noted by Kennedy, the fear level is totally out of proportion to the real threat of COVID-19, as are the government-prescribed responses. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/19/government-using-fear-to-control.aspx Will smoking raise your risk of severe COVID-19 and risk of dying from the disease?1,2 Interestingly, much of the research looking at conventional smoking has found mortality rates tend to be lower among smokers than nonsmokers. Results are not entirely homogenous, though, as some studies have come to the converse conclusion. Vaping e-cigarettes, on the other hand, appears to increase risks to young adults, who are otherwise at very low risk of COVID-19. It's still unclear what might account for the differences between conventional cigarettes and vaping, although several hypothetical mechanisms for why conventional smoking doesn't increase COVID-19 severity and lethality have been proposed. Conventional Smokers Not at Increased Risk?June 14, 2020, a study3,4 posted on the preprint server medRxiv reported that national smoking rates inversely correlated with COVID-19 mortality. To avoid confounding by temperature (heat tends to lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection), the researchers looked at 20 of the hottest and 20 of the coldest nations, and compared mortality rates for COVID-19 among smokers and nonsmokers in those countries. According to the authors:5
• Studies show smoking alters ACE2 expression which may affect COVID-19 infection or its progression to serious lung pathology. • Nicotine has anti-inflammatory activity and also appears to alter ACE2 expression. • Nitric oxide in cigarette smoke is known to be effective in treating pulmonary hypertension and has shown in vitro antiviral effects including against SARS-CoV-2. • Smoking has complicated effects on the immune system involving both up and down regulation, any of which might alone or in concert antagonize progression of COVID-19. • Smokers are exposed to hot vapors which may stimulate immunity in the respiratory tract by various heat-related mechanisms (e.g. heat shock proteins)." Other Studies Also Find Low Risk From Conventional SmokingAn earlier meta-analysis6,7 published in May 2020, which reviewed five different studies, also failed to find a link between conventional smoking and COVID-19 severity. A second systematic review and meta-analysis8 of 22 studies, however, found smoking modestly increased the risk of more severe symptoms among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, especially among younger nondiabetic patients. As reported by Healio9
Smoking Associated With COVID-19 ProgressionI wouldn't jump to the conclusion that smoking provides any particular benefits, though. A third meta-analysis10 of 19 studies, published in the September 2020 issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research, throws these inverse findings into question, showing that smoking may have some negative effects after all. Here, they found patients with a history of smoking (either current or former) had, on average, a 91% higher odds ratio (OR) of suffering more severe COVID-19 illness than patients who had never smoked. According to the authors:11
Vaping Raises Risk of COVID-19 Among YouthsTeens and young adults who either vape exclusively or smoke both conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes are also at far greater risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and exhibiting symptoms of the illness, although it's unclear whether it actually increases the risk of COVID-19 severity in this age group as the data was obtained via online surveys, not hospital or medical data. Research12,13,14,15 by Stanford University researchers published online August 11, 2020, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found teens and young adults who smoked conventional and/or e-cigarettes were 2.6 to nine times more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2. Those who vaped were also five times more likely to exhibit COVID-19-related symptoms and receive a COVID-19 diagnosis than nonusers. (For clarity, testing positive does not mean that you are actually ill. A vast majority of people testing positive remain asymptomatic.) In a press release, lead author and postdoctoral scholar Shivani Mathur Gaiha, PhD., stated:16
In all, a total of 4,351 participants between the ages of 13 and 24 completed the online surveys, which included questions about vaping and conventional smoking habits, and whether they'd experienced COVID-19 symptoms, been tested or diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. As reported by Stanford:17
Preliminary Theories to Explain Vaping's Effect on COVID-19Curiously, as indicated by several of the studies cited earlier, the Stanford study18 again found no connection between COVID-19 diagnosis and the smoking of conventional cigarettes alone. As for why vaping but not conventional cigarette smoking puts you at greater risk of testing positive or exhibiting symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, Wired cited some theories proposed by coauthor Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a pediatrics professor at Stanford University:19
Vaping May Be More Hazardous Than Conventional SmokingOverall, research20 suggests vaping may in fact be more inflammatory and damaging to your lungs than conventional cigarette smoking. I've discussed such evidence in previous articles, including "Vaping Lung Injury Cases Rise to Nearly 300" and "E-Cig Flavoring Harms Blood Vessels." The fact that vaping damages your vascular system may offer a hint at why it appears riskier in terms of COVID-19. Vascular changes associated with cardiovascular disease have been shown to appear almost immediately when using certain flavored vape liquids. That's not to say that smoking cigarettes does not harm your vascular system. It certainly does. But vaping may perhaps bring on those side effects more rapidly. COVID-19, while affecting the lungs, really appears to be more of a blood and vascular disorder than a strict respiratory illness, which is why vaping's vascular effects might be a good place to start when trying to tease out the link. Some of the latest research suggests COVID-19's disease progression can be explained by the SARS-CoV-2 virus' effect on your renin-angiotensin system, a central regulator of cardiovascular functions. The virus was also found to increase production of hyaluronic acid in the lungs. Hyaluronic acid can absorb more than 1,000 times its own weight in fluid, and when it combines with fluid buildup in the lungs — which can occur from vaping,21 alone — it forms a thick hydrogel that inhibits your ability to breathe. You can learn more about this in "Bradykinin Hypothesis Explains COVID-19 Complexities." That said, none of this fully explains why combustible cigarettes don't have the same degree of influence on your COVID-19 risk as vaping does. Nicotine Increases ACE2 Expression in LungsThe difference between vaping and smoking cigarettes becomes even more curious when you factor in recent research22,23,24 showing that nicotine increases ACE2 expression in bronchial epithelial cells. Since ACE2 receptors are the cellular entry point of SARS-CoV-2, all forms of nicotine should theoretically increase your risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lungs. Potentially, it could be that vaping is worse in this regard because it increases your risk of pneumonia,25 but then again, combustible cigarettes also significantly raise your pneumonia risk.26 One theory presented in a European Respiratory Journal correspondence article27 has to do with the different effects of combustible cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapors have on the epithelial and smooth muscle cells in the airways. According to the authors:
It remains to be seen whether a conclusive answer will be found to these questions. Overall, I believe it's reasonable to assume that all forms of smoking will ultimately harm your lungs and cardiovascular system to some degree, and increase your risk of infections of all kinds, including SARS-CoV-2. I certainly do not think it would be prudent to assume cigarette smoking confers any kind of protection against the virus. If you're concerned about your health, quitting smoking/vaping is always a good strategy. On a positive note, CDC statistics reveal vaping among teenagers has declined significantly over the past year, dropping from 27.5% in 2019 to 19.6% in 2020.28 That’s equivalent to a decline of 1 million regular users, from 4.1 million down to 3 million. Use of e-cigarettes has also dropped sharply among middle school students, from 1.24 million in 2019 down to 550,000 in 2020. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/18/can-you-get-coronavirus-from-vaping.aspx If you have breathing troubles, nitrates — a compound found in beets — may be able to help. Previous studies have shown that nitrates can help improve muscle function by optimizing the way the muscles use calcium. Since the diaphragm is a muscle, researchers from the University of Florida wanted to see if those benefits could be translated to the diaphragm. For the study,1 researchers split old mice into two groups. One group was given drinking water that contained sodium nitrate daily for 14 days. The other group was given plain water. After the study period, they measured the isometric force and peak power of the diaphragm muscles in the mice and found that both significantly increased in the group of mice given nitrates in their drinking water. This increase in force and power translated to improved contraction of the diaphragm muscle, which can then improve lung function and breathing. The increased power in the diaphragm could also help older people clear the lungs more effectively, which may help reduce the risk of developing infections. For reference, the mice used in the study were 24 months old, which is equivalent to about 70 years of age in humans. This is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic for two reasons. The first is that severe symptoms disproportionally affect the older population. We already know that respiratory muscle function declines with age, contributing to breathing troubles, impaired airway clearance and a decreased quality of life. Since nitrates can improve muscle function of the diaphragm, it may help improve the outlook for older populations with respiratory infections like COVID-19. The study's author, Leonardo Ferreira, also points out that one of the problems with weaning COVID-19 patients off ventilators is respiratory muscle dysfunction. If dietary nitrates can help improve that muscle function, it may make the transition from ventilators to independent breathing more successful.2 The nitrates in beets have also been shown to help improve oxygen uptake by dilating the blood vessels and allowing more oxygen to be delivered to muscles, like the diaphragm, and other cells.3 Other Benefits of BeetsBut beets aren't only good for your lungs. Other studies have shown that red beets may also:
Nitrates in FoodsAlmost 80% of dietary nitrates come from vegetables.12 Beets are one of the richest sources, containing more than 250 milligrams of nitrates per 100 grams. Other foods with high nitrate content include arugula, celery, cress, chervil, celeriac, Chinese cabbage, fennel, endive, kohlrabi, mustard greens, leeks and parsley. Keep in mind that naturally occurring nitrates are different from the nitrates found in processed foods, such as bacon or sausages. The nitrates that you get from vegetables are converted to nitric oxide (NO) in your body. NO has potent health benefits, as described in "Why You Need to Try the Nitric Oxide Dump Workout." However, when nitrates and nitrites from processed meats react with the gastric acid in your stomach, it forms nitrosamines, harmful compounds that have been linked to several different types of cancer.13,14 The reason meat-based nitrites don't boost NO production but rather turn into harmful N-nitroso compounds has to do with the presence of proteins and heme15 (an iron-containing compound that makes up part of the hemoglobin molecule in blood) and the absence of antioxidant compounds. On the other hand, plants contain antioxidants such as vitamin C and polyphenols that impede the formation of harmful nitrosamines. The presence of these compounds helps ensure that the nitrites are converted into NO once they reach your stomach rather than harmful N-nitroso compounds.16 Unlike processed meats like bacon, most plant foods are also not cooked or fried at high temperatures, which further minimizes the chances that harmful substances will be produced. How to Eat BeetsIf you're new to beets, there are plenty of ways you can enjoy them:
Please note that if you're interested in buying beets to make your own juice, the industry has gone the way of so many crops in the U.S. — toward genetic engineering, according to the Organic and Non-GMO Report.17 This is particularly true with sugar beets. While the table beets most people eat are not currently genetically engineered, they're often grown in close proximity to sugar beets, which are often GE, and cross-pollination is known to occur. So, when choosing beets to eat, opt for organic varieties whenever possible. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are dangerous for humans on a number of levels. GMOs may alter DNA, potentially cause cancer, and may trigger other "less severe" problems like organ failure, liver and kidney damage. Although beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, most people can safely eat beet roots a few times a week. Beetroot juice, however, should be consumed in moderation. Make sure you also eat the beet greens, which are loaded with valuable nutrients, including phosphorus, zinc, fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, magnesium, potassium, copper, manganese, calcium and iron.18 from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/18/are-beets-good-for-your-lungs.aspx Hearing loss is frustrating. It can lead to social isolation, depression and dementia. Regrettably, it is a growing health concern. The World Health Organization1 reports there are 466 million who have a disabling hearing loss, and they estimate this will increase to more than 900 million by 2050. There are 37.5 million Americans over age 18 who have trouble hearing.2 But the phrase "trouble hearing" may refer to anything from slight hearing loss to a disabling condition. Statistics tell us that the rate of disabling loss increases with age. Among people ages 45 to 54, only 2% have a disabling loss but the rate is significantly higher (nearly 25%) in the population of those ages 65 to 74 years. Half of those over the age of 75 have a disabling hearing loss. These statistics are concerning since they also increase the risk of developing dementia. Dr. Ronan Factora from Cleveland Clinic talks about this:3
It was estimated that in 2018, 5.7 million Americans were living with dementia.4 The Lancet International Commission on Dementia Prevention and Care evaluated many of the modifiable risks, including high blood pressure, obesity, depression, diabetes and physical inactivity. Although the numbers of people who have dementia are rising, they found encouraging news:5
The Commission found in all the risk factors they analyzed, hearing loss was the6 "largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation." Hearing Aids May Protect Your Brain From Memory LossFewer than 30% of individuals over 70 years of age who have a hearing loss will wear hearing aids.7 This is unfortunate because hearing aids also help protect brain functioning. Data gathered by the University of Exeter and King's College London were presented in Los Angeles at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.8 The data provide evidence that wearing an effective hearing aid could reduce the risk of developing dementia. During the study, the scientists gathered 25,000 online participants who were older than 50. They split them into two groups. One group wore hearing aids and the other group didn't. Both took cognitive tests every year for two years. At the end of the study, the scientists found the people who routinely wore hearing aids had better scores on tests that analyzed working memory and attention span than the participants who did not. One of the researchers, Clive Ballard, said:9
How Loud Noise Damages HearingHearing is a complex function in which sound waves are converted into neurological signals that are transmitted and interpreted by your brain.10 During this journey, sound waves pass through the cochlea, where movements of small reed-like fibers create an electrical impulse. The movement from the hair cells sends an electrical impulse through the cochlear nerve, which in turn transmits the information to the cerebral cortex in your brain for interpretation. At any point along this journey, damage to structures can change how you interpret sound, and even whether you can hear. Loud noise from chronic exposure or a single incident can affect one or both ears and the effect may be permanent or temporary.11 You might find you have difficulty understanding people when they speak, especially in a noisy room or on the telephone.12 When the hair cells in the cochlea are damaged it injures your hearing. By the time you notice it, 30% to 50% of these delicate cells may be destroyed. Repeated exposure destroys more hair cells, which increases hearing loss. Loud noises may also damage the auditory nerve. It all has a cumulative effect that may predict how well you'll hear as you get older. The WHO recommends13 you protect your hearing by limiting the amount of time you spend exposed to loud sounds. The Hearing Health Foundation compiled a chart of approximate decibel (dB) levels to help you compare noise levels using common sounds in your environment:14
Tinnitus May Be a Signal of Hearing DamageTinnitus is the perception of noise or ringing in your ears. It is often chronic and it's estimated that it affects between 8% and 25.3% of people in the U.S.15 The condition can be disabling and can functionally impair your ability to sleep and concentrate. It can also be caused by some of the same things that increase your risk for hearing loss, like exposure to loud noise or damage from a severe ear infection. Tinnitus can be triggered by smoking, medication side effects, arthritis or injuries to the head and neck. If you have this condition, your experience may be different from that of other people who have it.16 Some say it sounds like high-pitched hissing or screeching; others say it sounds musical. You might hear it in one ear or both. Some people find it happens if they are in a completely quiet room, which makes sleeping difficult. One of the most common causes of tinnitus is noise-induced hearing loss.17 After ensuring you have eliminated exposure to loud noises, there are some treatments you can consider that will help lessen the impact on your life. Hearing aids may be helpful as they can be adjusted to control external sound. As you begin to hear better, it may reduce your perception of tinnitus. A relatively new strategy is called acoustic neural stimulation. It delivers sound that stimulates neural changes. The goal is to desensitize the brain to neural inputs that trigger tinnitus. If you've had long-standing severe hearing loss with tinnitus, a cochlear implant may help bypass the damaged portion and control the symptoms. Wearable or tabletop sound generators are another option that help to mask the symptoms of tinnitus. Ear Wax Buildup May Block SoundA temporary problem that can trigger tinnitus or hearing loss is the buildup of earwax, also referred to as cerumen. It is not truly made of wax, but rather dead skin cells combined with secretions produced in the outer ear canal.18 Earwax plays an important role in protecting the skin inside your canal and providing natural antimicrobial action to help prevent bacterial infections. As it makes its way down the canal, it picks up debris. If you use a cotton swab or any other small object to try and clean your ear canal, it can push the wax up against your eardrum and cause a temporary hearing loss. Another risk you take when you use something small in the ear canal is a traumatic perforation — a hole — in the eardrum.19 Researchers estimate there are 4,852 visits to the emergency room every year in the U.S. as the result of an injury to the eardrum. In most cases cotton tipped applicators were the culprit. When earwax builds up it reduces the amount of sound waves able to reach the eardrum, which is how it reduces hearing. You might also have an earache, a feeling of fullness, dizziness or tinnitus.20 The simplest and most effective way to get a buildup of wax out is to first soften the wax in your ear canal by adding a couple of drops of olive oil, coconut oil or water. Lie on your side with a towel under your head to catch anything that spills. Give the oil a few minutes to soften the wax and then add a capful of 3% hydrogen peroxide. You will probably hear some bubbling and feel slight tingling. After five minutes, hold a paper towel in your hand and tip your head to let the solution and excess wax drain out. Repeat this for the other side. While it is safe to use this method to remove excess wax, you shouldn't clean your ears frequently. There are other mistakes you might be making with ear hygiene that I discuss in "How To Clean Your Ears Without a Cotton Swab." Active Strategies to Protect Your Hearing at All AgesThe cost of hearing loss is measured in financial burden, loss of health and social isolation. Psychologist Mark Hammel damaged his hearing in his 20s while serving in the Israeli Army. It wasn't until he was 57 that he got his first pair of hearing aids. He poignantly described his experience:21
You can protect your hearing by reducing your everyday exposure to loud noises, such as music, noisy work environments and even items around the house and yard, such as lawn mowers. Nutritional imbalances may also play a role in hearing loss. I discuss a number of dietary strategies in "How to Prevent Hearing Loss and Improve Your Hearing With Nutrition." Protecting your ears from noise pollution is a foundational principle to preventing hearing loss. The following suggestions may also help protect your hearing:
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/17/hearing-aids-may-protect-your-brain.aspx Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, is a top scientific collaborator, grant writer and spokesperson for virus hunters and gain-of-function/dual-use researchers, in labs both military and civilian. Daszak works with dozens of high-containment laboratories around the world that collect pathogens and use genetic engineering and synthetic biology to make them more infectious, contagious, lethal or drug-resistant. These include labs controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, in countries in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Many of these labs are staffed by former biological weapons scientists. (See Arms Watch's reports.1) Before the Biological Weapons Convention was ratified, this research was called what it is: biological weapons research. Now, it's euphemistically called gain-of-function or dual-use research. Gain-of-function research to alter coronaviruses for the infection of humans2 goes back to 1999 or earlier,3 years before the first novel coronavirus outbreak. On behalf of the U.S. government, often the military, Daszak scours the globe for animal pathogens and brings them back to the lab to be catalogued, investigated and manipulated. Daszak and others justify their research this way: If/When an outbreak of a new virus occurs, they can compare it to the ones in their labs, and maybe glean how the novel virus emerged. A recent Wired magazine article4 quoting Daszak described how a virus collected in 2012 was found to be a 96% match to SARS-CoV-2 in 2020:
Interesting though that story is, it fails to explain how SARS-CoV-2 evolved. Some scientists say it would take 50 years5 for RaTG13 to turn into SARS-CoV-2. Others propose theories6 on how the virus might have evolved so quickly, yet still suspect that it escaped from the Wuhan lab. Certainly, to learn that the closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2 has been in the care of the gain-of-function researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) for seven years does nothing to allay suspicions that the virus infected humans only after being tinkered with in a lab.7 Still, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is going all-in on virus hunting. The institute just announced a five-year, $82-million8 investment in a new global network of Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, including gain-of-function experiments to "determine what genetic or other changes make [animal] pathogens capable of infecting humans." Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance will receive $7.5 million9 from this grant. This is on top of $100.9 million10 that EcoHealth Alliance has received in government grants and contracts since 2003. (What was that Daszak said about how "a lack of funding meant they couldn't further investigate the virus strain now known to be 96-percent genetically similar to the virus that causes Covid-19"11)? Critics12 of virus hunting say scientists like Daszak could make a greater contribution to human health by going after the viruses that commonly infect humans, not the ones that never have. According to a 2018 Smithsonian Magazine report:13
Daszak's research might be more hype14 and public relations than science, but the Department of Homeland Security's National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) has chosen to rely on it. NBIC gave Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance a $2.2-million15 contract (2016-2019) to create a "Ground Truth Network"16 of "subject matter experts" who could provide "contextual information pertaining to biological events." The context17 Daszak invariably provides is a compelling one. Destruction of forests and other encroachments on wildlife habitats, especially the hunting of wild animals and the sale of live animals in wet markets, is forcing humans and animals into uncomfortable proximity. This is bad for vulnerable and endangered species, as well as for humans who are at increasing risk for contracting novel zoonotic diseases. Who isn't shocked and appalled to learn that people eat bats, or that marvelously strange and adorable animals you've never heard of ― pangolins, civet cats ― have had their habitats destroyed and are now being sold for meat at live animal markets? Daszak's framing of the issue ― what has come to be known as the One Health approach ― has been heartily embraced by the U.S. military. But what if the stories being spun by Daszak and his fellow government-supported subject matter experts aren't supported by the evidence? Let's look at EcoHealth Alliance's story about Ebola and bushmeat. False Narrative, Tragic OutcomesFrom 2011 to 2014, Ecohealth Alliance had a $164,480 purchase order contract from the Centers for Disease Control in Pittsburgh for "Bushmeat." No more information than that is available on that contract (HHSD2002011M41641P18), but the money likely funded a paper Daszak and his colleagues published in 2012. The 2012 paper,19 "Zoonotic Viruses Associated with Illegally Imported Wildlife Products," was used in August 2014, at the height of the West African Ebola pandemic, as the basis for a Newsweek article titled, "Smuggled Bushmeat Is Ebola's Back Door to America."20 The article, which quoted an EcoHealth Alliance spokesperson, spread a false (not to mention racist and xenophobic) narrative, one that subsequently would be thoroughly debunked,21 that bushmeat smuggled to the U.S. from Africa could transmit Ebola to Americans. In January 2015, a meeting of the UK Bushmeat Working Group convened. The group countered Daszak's misinformation with the facts, in an article titled, "Ebola and Bushmeat: Myth and Reality."22 The article stated:
Tragically, the misinformation about bushmeat as a primary cause of Ebola transmission had already been communicated to West Africans in the midst of the crisis, through international health organizations, including Daszak's funder,23 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Daszak's misinformation campaign overshadowed the truth — that the only way Ebola was actually being transmitted during the pandemic was via contact with the bodily fluids of people sick with Ebola, or with their corpses. Perpetuating Mythical TheoriesThe SARS pandemic is another instance where Daszak's theories didn't pan out. It is commonly accepted that the SARS pandemic began in 2002,24 when humans caught a bat virus from civet cats at a wet market in Guangdong, China. But Daszak and his collaborators admit they have no evidence to explain how the virus leapt from bats to civets to humans. SARS-CoV was found in civets at the Guangdong wet market, but civets aren't the natural reservoir of this virus. Bats are. Only the civets at the market — and no farm-raised or wild civets — carried the virus. None of the animal traders handling the civets at the market had SARS. When Daszak and his collaborators at the WIV25 searched the cave in Yunnan for strains of coronavirus similar to human versions, no single bat actually had SARS. Genetic pieces of the various strains would have to be recombined to make up the human version. Adding to the confusion, Yunnan is about 1,000 kilometers from Guangdong. So, how did viruses from bats in Yunnan combine to become deadly to humans, and then travel to civets and people in Guangdong, without causing any illnesses along the way during this 1,000 kilometer trip? No one knows. Just like no one knows how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, leapt from bats to pangolins to humans. (The most recent study, "Broad host range of SARS-CoV-2 predicted by comparative and structural analysis of ACE2 in vertebrates"26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,27 showed that the SARS-CoV-2, which infects human cells through binding of the viral Spike protein to ACE2, has a "very high" binding affinity to ACE2 in "Old World" monkeys apes, and humans. But in bats, the binding affinity is "low" and in pangolins it is "very low." The authors also noted that "neither experimental infection nor in vitro infection with SARS-CoV-2 has been reported for pangolins.") Daszak continues to tell his bat-origin story,28 but the science doesn't back it up. That ― along with the fact that dozens of labs conduct "gain-of-function"29 research on bat coronaviruses and there are troubling safety issues30 at these labs ― is why the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is investigating the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab. Inquiring Minds at the NIH Want to KnowOn July 8, the NIH sent a letter31 to Daszak asking EcoHealth Alliance to arrange for an inspection of the WIV by an outside team that would examine the facility's lab and records "with specific attention to addressing the question of whether WIV staff had SARS-CoV-2 in their possession prior to December 2019." The WIV and the Wuhan University School of Public Health are listed as subcontractors for EcoHealth Alliance under a $3.7-million NIH grant32 titled, "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." The two institutions also worked as collaborators under another $2.6-million grant,33 "Risk of Viral Emergence from Bats," and under EcoHealth Alliance's largest single source of funding, a $44.2 million sub-grant34 from the University of California at Davis for the PREDICT project (2015-2020). It's the $44.2-million PREDICT grant that EcoHealth Alliance used to fund35 the gain-of-function experiment by WIV scientist Zhengli Shi and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Ralph Baric.36 Shi and Baric used genetic engineering and synthetic biology to create a "new bat SARS-like virus ... that can jump directly from its bat hosts to humans." Daszak described the work being done by Shi and Baric in a 2019 interview:37
The work, "A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence,"38 published in Nature in 2015 during the NIH's moratorium39 on gain-of-function research, was grandfathered in because it was initiated before the moratorium (officially called the U.S. Government Deliberative Process Research Funding Pause on Selected Gain-of-Function Research Involving Influenza, MERS and SARS Viruses), and because the request by Shi and Baric to continue their research during the moratorium was approved by the NIH. As a condition of publication, Nature, like most scientific journals, requires40 authors to submit new DNA and RNA sequences to GenBank, the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information Database. Yet the new SARS-like virus Shi and Baric created wasn't deposited41 in GenBank until May 2020. Why Stop With Wuhan?NIH is right to require that the WIV's lab and records be opened to outside inspectors. But why is the government focusing on just one of EcoHealth Alliance's projects, when the organization has received $100.9 million42 in grants, primarily from the Department of Defense, to sample, store and study bat coronaviruses at labs around the world? Coronaviruses, both those that have been collected from animals and those that have been created through genetic engineering and synthetic biology, at all of these labs should be compared with SARS-CoV-2. Daszak's collaborators working under contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aren't allowed to conduct gain-of-function research unless specifically approved to do so by the Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight (P3CO) committee. This committee was set up as a condition for lifting43 the 2014-2017 moratorium on gain-of-function research. The P3CO committee operates in secret. Not even a membership list has been released. The only information provided to the public is that Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec44 appointed HHS Senior Science Advisor Christian Hassell45 as its chair. It's time to open the records of the PC3O committee's deliberations and decisions to examine all gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. And every lab manipulating these viruses should have their coronaviruses compared to SARS-CoV-2. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for its Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (now called the Biological Threat Reduction Program) isn't supposed to fund gain-of-function (what they call "dual-use"46) research at all. It's time to determine whether this prohibition on "dual-use" funding has been adhered to, especially in light of the investments the Pentagon is making across the globe in the construction of new laboratories for the "consolidation and securing of pathogens." DTRA's mission was to dismantle the biological weapons programs of hostile or destabilized countries. Instead it is being used to develop new biological weapons programs in dozens of countries around the world. Even if these programs are purely defensive, they proliferate, around the globe, pathogens with pandemic potential, even though it's been difficult to keep these dangerous germs under control here in the U.S. (See "The Global Proliferation of High-Containment Biological Laboratories: Understanding the Phenomenon and Its Implications,"47 and the Government Accountability Office's reports, "Biological Select Agents and Toxins: Actions Needed to Improve Management of DOD's Biosafety and Biosecurity Program,"48 and "High-containment Laboratories: Comprehensive and Up-to-Date Policies and Stronger Oversight Mechanisms Needed to Improve Safety"49). EcoHealth's Tentacles Reach Far and WideEcoHealth Alliance is very much involved in the Pentagon's proliferation of high-containment biological laboratories. It is conducting DTRA-funded work in the following countries, which are all participants in the Pentagon's Biological Threat Reduction Program.50 • Tanzania -- In Tanzania, a country that is considered only "partly free,"51 which has a history of foreign medical experimentation52 and which didn't ratify the Biological Weapons Convention53 until 2019, EcoHealth Alliance has a $5-million Pentagon contract,54 "Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: Reducing an Emerging Health Threat in Tanzania." Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF)55 is a tick-borne disease, originally only infecting animals, that was discovered by Ottis and Calista Causey while working for the Rockefeller Foundation in Nigeria. There was only ever one case56 of CCHF in Tanzania, and that was in 1986. Gain-of-function research57 on CCHF is being conducted at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) to determine the "mechanisms of CCHF transmission including development of CCHF tick and animal infection methods and CCHF tick-animal transmission models." (The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility will take over the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and become the lead facility for Foreign Animal Disease research.) The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Disease team's CCHF Virus Surveillance Project58 is investigating "the interface between tick vectors, livestock and pastoralist and resource-poor farming communities in Tanzania" as well as the disease's "molecular pathogenesis." Tanzania is the origin of chikungunya,59 a mosquito-borne virus that the U.S. has long cultivated60 as a potential biological weapon. according to a patent61 held by the University of Texas for a "chimeric" chikungunya virus created through genetic engineering and synthetic biology:
Tanzania is one62 of the countries where bat coronaviruses were collected for the PREDICT63 project. Tanzania has one Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) laboratory, the privately owned Ifakara Health Institute,64 which is partnering with PREDICT65 to launch "concurrent surveillance of wildlife and people in at-risk areas for viral spillover and spread." • South Africa -- In South Africa, which had a notorious apartheid-era biological weapons program,66 EcoHealth Alliance has a $5-million Pentagon contract67 (2019-2024), "Reducing the Threat of Rift Valley Fever Through Ecology, Epidemiology and Socio-economics." This is on top of a $4.9-million grant68 (2014-2019), "Understanding Rift Valley Fever in the Republic of South Africa." The last human outbreak69 of Rift Valley Fever in South Africa occurred in 2010, when the government reported 237 confirmed cases, including 26 deaths from nine provinces. But there were also a few cases70 in 2018 among farmworkers who slaughtered infected animals during an outbreak in livestock. The fever can spread from animals to humans if they come into contact with the blood and other body fluids of an infected animal. The U.S. military has conducted offensive biological weapons research71 on Rift Valley Fever. South Africa's biological weapons program72 included the weaponization of Rift Valley Fever virus obtained from the U.S. government. Known as Project Coast, South Africa's biological weapons program murdered anti-apartheid activists with narcotics and poisons, and attempted a genocide of the black majority by spreading AIDS73 and by developing pathogens and vaccines74 that would selectively attack black people with illness, death and infertility. Dr. Wouter Basson,75 the project's top scientist, told Pretoria High Court in South Africa that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency threatened him with death, presumably to prevent him from revealing the deep connections between Project Coast and the U.S., which had forced President F. W. de Klerk to shut down the project and destroy its records. Basson named the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as his source of eight shipments76 of Ebola, Marburg and Rift Valley viruses, but claimed that he had obtained the viruses by posing as a medical researcher and hiding his affiliation with the South African Defense Forces. Surveys of bats in South Africa found no evidence77 of bats being natural carriers of Rift Valley Fever virus, but experiments have shown that bats can be infected78 with it in a laboratory setting. A bat coronavirus collected79 in South Africa in 2011 was thought to be the closest known relative of the MERS-CoV virus that emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012, until a 100-percent match for MERS-CoV was detected by Daszak and his colleagues in viral RNA fragments from an Egyptian tomb bat80 found near the home of one of the first MERS victims in Saudi Arabia. • Liberia -- In Liberia, which didn't ratify the Biological Weapons Convention until 2016,81 EcoHealth Alliance has a $4.91-million82 Pentagon contract,83 "Reducing the Threat from High-risk Pathogens Causing Febrile Illness in Liberia." Febrile illnesses include Ebola, which has been the subject of some of the most controversial dual-use research.84 While the U.S. has a sordid history of biological weapons experimentation on its own people — with conscientious objectors,85 military "volunteers,"86 and the general public87 as frequent subjects — there were some biological weapons tests88 the Department of Defense considered too unethical to perform within the continental U.S. Those tests were conducted in other countries, including Liberia.89 Likewise, mirroring medical experimentation90 on African Americans, there is a history of colonial medical experimentation in Liberia going back to 1926 when the Firestone91 tire company financed surveys of local diseases they feared could curtail the profitability of their rubber plantations. More recently, a failed Pentagon-funded Ebola drug trial92 caused many Liberians to suspect that the subsequent Ebola outbreak was the fault of Tekmira, the pharmaceutical company that created TKM-100802. Doubt surrounded the official story, promoted93 by Daszak, that the West African Ebola outbreak happened because bats flew in with the Ebola Zaire virus from 2,500 miles away. In January 2014, the Phase I trial94 for TKM-100802 was launched, but put on clinical hold by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration due to high cytokine release in participants. In a dose-escalation, healthy volunteer study, one (of two) participants dosed at the highest level of 0·5 mg/kg experienced cytokine release syndrome.95 Cytokine release syndrome96 is a pro-inflammatory reaction that occurs when activated lymphocytes and/or myeloid cells release soluble immune mediators following administration of certain therapeutic agents, especially monoclonal antibodies. Onset can be rapid (within hours of administration) and can be life-threatening. Ultimately, TKM-100802 proved useless97 for Ebola patients, but the Pentagon's $140-million98 investment, and the boost99 Tekmira's stock experienced on speculation that Ebola would soon spawn the next $1-billion drug,100 made many investors rich. Suspicions were raised because the TKM-100802 Phase I trial on healthy volunteers began in January 2014, before101 the first cases of the Ebola outbreak in March 2014. Later, the World Health Organization's Pierre Formenty traced the first case102 back to late December 2013, in Meliandou, Guinea. There, 50 meters from the home of patient zero, another researcher, Fabian Leendertz,103 found DNA fragments that matched the Angolan free-tailed bat, a species known to survive experimental infections with Ebola. Then, Daszak's EcoHealth team found viral RNA fragments104 of Ebola Zaire in a greater long-fingered bat, captured in 2016 in Liberia's Sanniquellie-Mahn District, which borders Guinea. There was a 1982 article105 in Annals of Virology in which a trio of Germans reported finding Ebola antibodies in 26 of 433 Liberians (6%). Bats aren't the only place to look for Ebola. There's a BSL-4 lab that was handling Zaire Ebola before the pandemic in Kenema, Sierra Leone. This is where international law attorney Francis Boyle,106 a drafter of the U.S. Biological Weapons and Anti-Terrorism Act passed into law in 1981, believes the pandemic originated. There's also Liberia's Monkey Island. As the Washington Post reported,107 that's where 66 chimpanzees have been since 2004, when they were abandoned by the American scientists at the Liberian labs of the New York Blood Center. From 1974 to 2004, the New York Blood Center captured wild chimps, engaged them in medical experimentation and then released them back into the jungle in a project known as Vilab II108 (Virology Lab II), which maintained a colony of 200 chimps. Vilab II was built from the remnants of the Liberian Institute of Tropical Medicine. Built by Firestone in 1946, the Liberian Institute of Tropical Medicine had once employed 60 scientists, but by 1974, medical doctor Earl Reber109 was there alone with eight chimps. The roots of the Liberian Institute of Tropical Medicine go back to the research begun in 1926 by Harvard Department of Tropical Medicine chief Richard Pearson Strong. Virus hunters like Daszak should have a keen interest in a population of chimpanzees that, for nearly 100 years, has been caught, injected with viruses and then released back into the wild, especially considering the work of the researchers who handled the chimps. The New York Blood Center is at the center of a theory110 on the origin of HIV/AIDS, that it came from a contaminated Hepatitis B vaccine the center distributed to gay men from 1978-1981. The New York Blood Center also tested111 its vaccine on Liberians. Richard Pearson Strong112 is infamous for killing 13 men when he infected a group of 24 inmates of Manila's Bilibid Prison with plague through a contaminated cholera vaccine. That was prior to his work113 in Liberia, which is only now being explored, and also involved experiments with humans as well as chimpanzees. • Georgia -- EcoHealth Alliance has a $6.5-million Pentagon grant114 for "Understanding the Risk of Bat-borne Zoonotic Disease Emergence In Western Asia" (2017-2022). Arms Watch115 reports that this grant involves genetic studies on coronaviruses in 5,000 bats collected in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Jordan. The studies were conducted at the Lugar Center, a $161-million Pentagon-funded biolaboratory in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Russia claims116 the Georgia lab is the site of a U.S. biological weapons program. According to USASpending.gov,117 EcoHealth Alliance has received $2.88 million in grants for work in Georgia. The Lugar Center is one of the labs that hosts EcoHealth Alliance's Western Asia Bat Research Network.118 • Malaysia -- In Malaysia, which is only now in the process of creating a legislative framework119 for enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention, EcoHealth Alliance had a $1.6-million Pentagon grant120 (2017-2019) for "Serological Biosurveillance for Spillover of Henipaviruses and Filoviruses at Agricultural and Hunting Human Animal Interfaces in Peninsular Malaysia." There are no known cases of filovirus infections in humans in Malaysia. But Malaysia is the origin of the Nipah virus,121 first recognized in 1999, during an outbreak among farmers and farmworkers in factory farms and slaughterhouses producing pork. The virus spread to Singapore. In all, there were 265 cases of acute encephalitis with 105 deaths, and the billion-dollar pig-farming industry nearly collapsed. No new outbreaks have been reported in Malaysia since 1999. Nipah virus, a zoonotic pathogen for which no treatments exist, is the inspiration for the film "Contagion."122 The virus can only be experimented on in BSL-4 laboratories. The National Bio and Agro-Defence Facility in Kansas will be the first biocontainment facility123 in the U.S. where research on Nipah and Ebola (a filovirus) can be conducted on livestock. In 2019, Nipah Malaysia was among the deadly virus strains shipped124 from Canada's National Microbiology Lab to the WIV. Henipaviruses,125 in the paramyxovirus family, were the first emerging diseases linked to bats. In June 2012, in the same Chinese cave126 (actually an old copper mine where workers doing cleanup had become sick and died) in which Daszak's WIV colleagues found SARS-CoV-2's most closely related coronavirus, another frequent collaborator of Daszak's, Zhiqiang Wu of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, found a new henipavirus-like pathogen in a rat, naming it the "Mojiang paramyxovirus,"127 after the county in Yunnan province where it was found. Malaysia was the planned site of a BSL-4 laboratory run by the pharmaceutical company Emergent Biosolutions128 for the production of a halal version of the BioThrax vaccine. But that project failed.129 In addition to the Pentagon funding, Dazsak obtained $1.7 million in grants130 (2002-2005) from NIH's Fogarty International Center for "Anthropogenic Change & Emerging Zoonotic Paramyxoviruses." In 2012-2014, Daszak had a $569,700 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Service for "Development of a Great Ape Health Unit in Sabah, Malaysia." Daszak has a new National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant,131 "Understanding Risk of Zoonotic Virus Emergence in EID Hotspots of Southeast Asia," for $1.5 million (2020). The grant is for an "Emerging Infectious Diseases - South East Asia Research Collaboration Hub (EID-SEARCH)" that "brings leaders in emerging disease research from the U.S., Thailand, Singapore and the three major Malaysian administrative regions together to build an early warning system to safeguard against pandemic disease threats. This team will identify novel viruses from Southeast Asian wildlife [and] characterize their capacity to infect and cause illness in people …" Other Pentagon Contracts EcoHealth Alliance had a $1-million Pentagon contract132 (2017-2019) for an Inbound Bio-event Information System (IBIS), "a web-based application and early warning system for global infectious disease bio-events that threaten the U.S. via international transportation networks." EcoHealth Alliance also had another $4.5-million Pentagon contract (HDTRA115C0041133) for 2015-2017. No other information is available on this contract other than that it is for "Applied Research/Exploratory Development" in the "Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)." • Department of Homeland Security Contracts -- EcoHealth Alliance has a $566,300 contract (2019-2021) with the Department of Homeland Security for the Rapid Evaluation of Pathogens to Prevent Epidemics in Livestock (REPEL) project134 "to apply biological-based, pathogen agnostic medical countermeasure vaccine and diagnostic platforms to develop foreign animal and emerging zoonotic livestock disease vaccines." • Department of Health and Human Services Funding -- Daszak obtained a $300,000-grant135 in 2012 from NIH's Fogarty International Center for research on "Comparative Spillover Dynamics of Avian Influenza In Endemic Countries." While most of the research listed in the "results" section of the grant are flu-related, it also includes the WIV's paper,136 "Isolation and Characterization of a Bat SARS-like Coronavirus that Uses the ACE2 Receptor."137 Daszak was given $3.7 million in grants138 (2002-2012) from NIH's Fogarty International Center for "The Ecology, Emergence And Pandemic Potential of Nipah Virus in Bangladesh." The grants Daszak used to support the work of the WIV were a $3.7-million grant139 (2014-2020) "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence," and a $2.6-million grant140 (2008-2012) "Risk of Viral Emergence From Bats," each from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. • U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Funding In Thailand, EcoHealth Alliance has a $647,200-grant141 for "One Health Workforce - Next Generation" (2019-2020). Alexis Baden-Mayer is political director for the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). www.organicconsumers.org To keep up with OCA's news and alerts, sign up here. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/17/gain-of-function-research.aspx |
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