Thankful to hear the FULL Story of Truth in Public Health - Happy Thanksgiving
November 26, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are celebrating.
If this is a difficult time of year for you around the holiday, then my thoughts are with you this season. I know it can be tough. At all times I think it is still worth trying to make a quick list of 3-5 things we can be grateful for to inspire some silver lining to shine in our lives despite whatever darkness might be felt.
Do you have shoes on your feet and a shirt on your back?
How about pants… do you have pants?
Have you drank clear water today, how about eaten a bite to eat?
Perhaps you have even more splendor than you can handle.
Are you reading this on a personal technology device that costs over $500 USD?
Undoubtedly, most of us are wealthy, with much more to be grateful for than we realize until we take the time to reflect and practice (with discipline) gratitude. And if practice promotes progress with proper preparation then we can be better equipped to take on the holidays and heartaches, whatever may come.
This year, I’m thankful for discernment, for truth telling, for root-cause medicine, for logical reasoning, for honesty and humility, for the chance to truly educate, inspire, and spread awareness for the (sometimes tough to hear) touch-points of modern health and wellness that actually move the needle in the life of the everyday person.
I’m thankful for readers and writers alike, critical thinkers and honest evaluators.
I’m thankful to practice a model of health and medicine that is founded in functional systems, grounded in root cause medicine, established with empathy, honesty, and results as the primary focuses when caring for others.
Real health for real people by real people. Relationship driven care with a real heart to help people discover their own necessary needs for optimal health and wellbeing.
I’m thankful for the chance to speak and write freely, to critically analyze common narratives propped up by the standards of mass and social media today.
I’m thankful for the chance to sit and chat, and truly get down to the crux of the issue, digging deep to uncover the real insights and advice that can make a difference in the lives of others.
For example, I came across this story from The Daily of the New York Times
This recent conversation covers the story all about the Triple-Threat of respiratory viruses facing public health right now, especially kiddos.
I’m talking about the R.S.V. + Covid + Seasonal Flu “Tripledemic” as it’s being called. You’ve probably already heard or felt it by now. I’m calling it the “Triple Frown” [insert crown emoji] for now. Maybe you can join me.
Anyway, this is actually a pretty wild landscape in public health right now as pediatric hospitals are bombarded with kiddos coming in sick, coupled with an ongoing epidemic of healthcare burnout (healthcare worker abuse as others might describe), nursing shortages (driven away) and a public discourse that ultimately fails to understand how to empower people to take health into their very own hands.
How do you take care of yourself and your family? I bet you actually take many disciplined steps to take care of your family as best as you can with the given resources you have.
For the simple fact that you are reading this newsletter tells me you’re someone who is interested in learning more, striving to do better and be better in our interconnected spheres of holistic health.
That’s why I’m thankful, that I have the chance to sit here and write away this story for us to look at today, to reexamine one of the most powerful news sources in the world and one of its most recent stories highlighting the influence of respiratory viruses affecting many of us this season (and what we presume to continue through the winter).
So, what the gravy is leading me to dive into this story today? Well, to be honest… indignation and the chronic depravity of honest, humble, open-mindedness in the systemic secular economy that is public health.
I encourage you to go listen to this brief audio podcast by The Daily mentioned above so you can better understand what I’m talking about and where I’m coming from in this approach today.
Let’s dive in.
“The Tripledemic Explained”
The ‘Tripledemic,’ Explained - The New York Times
In the United States, three big respiratory viruses are competing for attention.
To consider yourself the ultimate authority in such a complex and confusing conversation that is public health today… is one of the common positions by mass media outlets today, all preaching the same sort of rhetoric, the same kind of rhetoric I have disagreed with from THE VERY BEGINNING.
Sadly, most people who think and believe like I do have had the air taken our of their lungs over the long last couple years. We’ve suffered incredibly due to the lack of balanced perspectives and as we’ve been suffocated, the public discourse has been subject to only one set of goggles that is supposedly supposed to fit for every set of eyes.
You see, in this story by The Times, the overarching narrative (despite illogical rationalities) was absorbed in the concern for getting vaccinated this season.
Is this really the ONLY approach we are comfortable with talking about in public. I’m appalled, I’m disgusted, I’m frustrated and I’m over the silence, the suffocating pressures we’ve felt to work in the shadows, to educate in the corners, to give people the real chance to take their health in the right direction (under their own direction) as best as we can and know how to achieve.
Let’s get real for a moment:
Our kids should have never been held back at home and prevented from going back to school
Our kids should have never been held back from natural immunity
Our public health officials have finally acknowledged that natural immunity is anticipated to be as good if not better than vaccinated immunity
Our kids should have never been subjected to the immoral case against humanity and the chance for human connection
Our awakening is coming and progressing. The truth is and will always come to light in time, despite the darkness that overcomes us in the midst of the chaos of the times.
There is much to be thankful for. Our time for peace is calling.
We are approaching a higher sense of understanding and hopefully a greater chance at empathy and understanding people who disagree with us, loving others unconditionally rather than judging one another based on our vaccination status - unlike the predominant narrative published by major media outlets like the New York Times’ The Daily podcast most recently.
With vaccines has come a ridiculous redosing schem like we’ve never seen before in public health. With boosters galore, we have become lifetime repeat customers much more than once or twice a year and I for one am not the only one who passionately disagrees with this approach.
Washington Post: Vaccinated People Now Make Up Majority Covid Deaths
The companies that curate the research, skew the statistics, have a along history in disgusting atrocities against the design for public health, have paid billions of dollars in hopes for restitution, and yet we still place our faith in their broken frameworks for forcing public health actions towards promoting profits over fundamental health for the everyday person in public health.
As the reporter for The Times comments, suggesting that Ideally we would have a vaccine for R.S.V., but this is simply not the IDEAL approach to public health and people deserve to know the truth.
“Ideally, what we’d have is vaccines to prevent RSV in the first place. But, unfortunately, we don’t quite have those available yet either.” - Apoorva Mandavilli
Perhaps the focus for infants and those immunocompromised from birth, but most likely not the greatest efficacious approach for vaccine mandates in children.
RSV is said to be responsible for 1 in 50 deaths of children under age 5. Is a vaccine the best approach if vaccination can’t equate to better health outcomes? Would we be better off with improving the health of the mother’s immune system, child’s first 1000 days in this world with building a healthy immune system, or perhaps earlier signs and symptoms for earlier intervention training? It’s estimated that somewhere between 100-200k babies die each year from RSV globally.
I’m not here to compare and contrast health issues today, but to provide a bit more perspective here:
By comparison, more than 45k + people die each year from suicide in the US alone; 800,000 globally. With the pandemic protocols being as adverse and deconstructive to the natural human design that they were, many professionals are quick to comment how this has looked like the best designed public health approach to increase mental health disorders and mental illness.
Not to say this has been an intentional approach to degrade our public health systems or the lives of our population, but if we were to design a way to do so… it would look a lot like the last couple years.
Vaccine requirements come with pros and cons. We can’t ignore the flip side of the coin. Manipulating common folk conversations to incite fear and frustration, throwing together mask mandates and much much more have their negative side effects too.
“Ideally, yeah, we would all still be wearing masks because that would take care of RSV and flu and COVID and everything we’ve been talking about. But since we’re not doing that, I would say still to try and avoid crowded indoor spaces. Wear a mask if you can, at least in those situations. Wash your hands. Stay home if you’re sick, all the things that we to do to protect other people and ourselves from getting sick.” - Apoorva Mandavilli
This rhetoric has been rigorously thrashed against the pavement over the last couple years.
This is simply not the truth. And people deserve to know the truth. There is so much more to explore when it comes to your personal health than what most people are ever told or encouraged to think about.
Vaccines come with controversies, with loss of bodily autonomy, loss of choice, infiltrating freedoms for families across the country who do not fully understand or agree with their use.
Mandates do cause mayhem. By artificially and exponentially increasing concerns we do stir up chaos and controversy. When we engage with poor values, poor logic, and poor standards for human health, we will suffer the consequences.
Simple as that. If we lose people’s trust in public health, no one will end up believing in public health professionals and we will have further abused the profession that is in such dire need of repair right now.
Now granted, I understand the arguments these entities use to dismantle the position of those who stand opposed, commenting that we hardly care what food we put in our mouth, what medications we pick up at the drugstore, or what other medicines our doctors normally recommend so why do people care about vaccines all of a sudden?
Well, by and large I would say there are two things here to address… let’s see if you agree
1) the people who are vaccine hesitant are people who also strive to think before they speak and seek to understand before they make a big decision that affects their health; the people who are quick to pick up a mask are the same people willing to compromise their own positions in pursuit of a virtuous image showcasing their care for others.
2) the people who are vaccine resistant or at least want a proper balanced discussion on this topic in the public health sphere are the same kind of people that try to take ownership for their health and wellbeing, their family’s health and likely are the same kind of people who prioritize lifestyle wellness fundamentals like quality nutrition, fitness, sleep, sunlight, community and connection. As you can imagine, the pandemic has pushed them over the edge as the predominant public health rhetoric was quite oppositely opposed to these foundations of lifestyle medicine.
Granted, there are some strangely ogre and mean individuals who want nothing of an empathetic interaction to discuss value points in this conversation and they’d be more likely to argue and burn a pile of masks instead of engage in conscious debate on the topic… and personally I’m not sure anyone can engage with that crowd with any hopes for mutual crossroads.
Still I do have hope for some public insight and truth telling on the subject despite where we’ve come from….
People were driven indoors and asked to isolate.
People were pressured, bullied, and persecuted for believing in any natural health pursuits.
Ahhhh, Carnegie and Rockefeller would be snickering and smoking cigars in their suites today if they were witnessing the current plan of action that has been undertaken by the controlling pharmaceutical and healthcare industry they helped create. [details below]
Dear readers, I’m here for truth, for honest discourse without discouragement.
I hope you hear and understand my heart despite how heated this conversation can be in today’s climate.
For example, dear creative humans diagnosed with ADHD, you are not deficient in Ritalin or Adderall.
Dear folks with depression, you are not deficient in anti-depressants.
Dear my many friends with anxiety, you are not deficient in anti-anxiety medication.
Dear family members who suffer from chronic migraines and daily headaches, you are not deficient in acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
These are just the simple scripts presented to us as the only solutions for any everyday ailment.
The same goes for household brand names like Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, and Excedrin.
You see, these options can be incredibly helpful in a pinch when we are suffering exhausting, debilitating levels of poor health, but if we consider these to be the solution or only option for us to entertain for the overall benefit of our health, we risk the chance that our daily fate will remain the same with ongoing trauma due to the lack of change, the lack of insight, upstream thinking and prevention.
The same goes for the “Tripledemic” as it’s being described. Vaccines are not the only path forward, and the most frustrating piece of this is the deplorable facade that public health professionals hide behind by claiming these are the necessary precautions we must come to grips with.
“Ideally, we would still be wearing masks everywhere we go.” No, I don’t agree - at all, and perhaps you’re willing to be open-minded enough to examine my concerns with this broader conversation going forward.
Happy to hear any comments you may have. Let me know.
Neglecting the needs of everyday people is not the kind of business I’m willing to be a part of and being neglected by your assumed caretaker is certainly not the kind of condition I would hope for you to be willing to allow for yourself either.
I believe you deserve better - you, me, and every other person in-between us too.
There is more to making health than what meets the eye. There is more to making health than making mandates and breaking spirits. It still surprises me that we ignore the fundamentals of lifestyle medicine, the ability to positively improve our own gut microbiome and immune defense.
Far be it from our public discourse to discuss strategies for improving both personal and public health by ensuring quality sleep, relaxation and meditation, developing greater sense of interconnectedness for social capital, high quality nutrition, hydration, and many other tools and tips towards prevention and upstream systems-thinking.
But why? It’s a matter of economics and who stands to gain the profits from people being sick?
“Pediatric hospitals have been shutting down in big numbers because kids are just not as profitable to treat as adults. And so hospitals have been closing them down. In Illinois, there are something like 48 counties that have no pediatricians at all.” - Apoorva Mandavilli
You’ve been informed. You’ve been encouraged. You’ve been given the chance to see and hear with clear eyes and clear mind wha the overarching narrative has been over the last 2+ years and you still have the personal autonomy and wonderful opportunity to choose for yourself.
Is the life you want to live the life that they’ve chosen for you to believe?
Is the life you want to live the life that they’ve marketed you to forcefully mandate for others?
Or, do we still have a chance at empathy and open discussion, with critical analysis of the same old mainstream expectations and poor public health status quo.
Like I said, I’m here for truth, I’m here to have a conversation, to spread insight and education in hopes to spread awareness and empowering others to live their best lives possible with the greatest level of individual autonomy, personal responsibility, and mutual encouragement for the betterment of all - without profits as the sole focus or pivotal tool to push an agenda.
So now it’s your turn, what’s your take on the current conversation around respiratory illness and our public health conundrums?
Let me know in the comments below. Have I spoken out of turn, have corrections, or personal experience to add, let me hear it.
Books and Publications recommended to understand this conversation more:
Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America - synopsis here
This book tells the hidden story of the financial, political, and institutional manipulations whereby a diverse and eclectic range of healing modalities available to the North American public was summarily pared down to a singular style of medicine that would become the predominant medicine of the Western world and a major force in global medical culture during the 20th century. This was brought about largely by the collaboration of the American Medical Association, the philanthropies of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and the development of a revolutionary curriculum by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Brown documents the story of how a powerful professional elite gained virtual hegemony in the Western theatre of healing by effectively taking control of the ethos and practice of Western medicine.
Public Health in Imperialism: Early Rockefeller Programs at Home and Abroad
The Rockefeller Foundation and the intentional health agenda
The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology (Monographs on the History and Philosophy of Biology)
Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ARE THE THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AFTER HEART DISEASE AND CANCER. In his latest ground-breaking book, Peter C Gotzsche exposes the pharmaceutical industries and their charade of fraudulent behaviour, both in research and marketing where the morally repugnant disregard for human lives is the norm.
He convincingly draws close comparisons with the tobacco conglomerates, revealing the extraordinary truth behind efforts to confuse and distract the public and their politicians. The book addresses, in evidence-based detail, an extraordinary system failure caused by widespread crime, corruption, bribery and impotent drug regulation in need of radical reforms.
"The main reason we take so many drugs is that drug companies don't sell drugs, they sell lies about drugs. This is what makes drugs so different from anything else in life...Virtually everything we know about drugs is what the companies have chosen to tell us and our doctors...the reason patients trust their medicine is that they extrapolate the trust they have in their doctors into the medicines they prescribe.
The patients don't realise that, although their doctors may know a lot about diseases and human physiology and psychology, they know very, very little about drugs that hasn't been carefully concocted and dressed up by the drug industry...If you don't think the system is out of control, please email me and explain why drugs are the third leading cause of death...If such a hugely lethal epidemic had been caused by a new bacterium or a virus, or even one-hundredth of it, we would have done everything we could to get it under control." - From The Introduction
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It
The inside story of how Big Pharma’s relentless pursuit of ever-higher profits corrupts medical knowledge - misleading doctors, misdirecting American health care, and harming our health.