lewrockwell--2020-08-17--Frontline Nurse Speaks Out About Lethal Protocols

In this interview , retired Army combat veteran Erin Marie Olszewski , a nurse who for several months treated COVID-19 patients at the Elmhurst Hospital Center , a public hospital in Queens , New York — the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. She has now written a book , “ Undercover Epicenter Nurse : How Fraud , Negligence , and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital , ” 1 which details her experiences .
Olszewski was born in Michigan and raised in a small Wisconsin town and joined the military at 17 .
When 9/11 happened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I was only 18 years old so I grew up pretty quickly , ” she says .
Altogether , she was stationed in Iraq for just over a year .
Upon her return to the U.S. , she worked at the Special Operations Command in Tampa , Florida , before leaving the military and going into nursing .
Just a bit over 20 years ago , July 2000 , I read a study by Dr. Barbara Starfield2 published in JAMA .
It contained stats that identified physicians as the third leading cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Olszewski , Erin Marie Buy New $ 24.29 I created that headline in July 2000 , which took off as a meme and spread across the world .
In a shocking follow-up to Starfield ’ s article , in 2012 her husband wrote a disturbing article in the Archives of Internal Medicine3 about her death , pointing to a drug she was taking as a possible contributor to it .
As if that ’ s not egregious enough , newer death statistics reveal the situation has only gotten worse over the years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates just how much more dangerous medicine has become .
Plague : One Scientist & ... Mikovits , Judy Best Price : $ 29.55 Buy New $ 17.99 As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed , New York , being a hotspot , was in desperate need for skilled nurses , so Olszewski ended up volunteering and went to work at Elmhurst in April 2020 .
“ It was still extremely packed in these hospitals with pretty much every single person on a ventilator , ” she says .
Curiously , when she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ d have to wait days for her assignment .
Normally , in times of war , you ’ re expected to immediately get to work .
This was the first red flag suggesting all was not as it seemed .
Some of the nurses had waited in hotel rooms for 18 days before they received their assignments .
Clearly , when you go into the hospital , you are at great risk of medical mistakes that can accidentally kill you , and Olszewski ’ s experience highlights one of the key problems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why it ’ s so crucial to make sure you have an advocate with you around the clock who can speak for you , ask questions and ensure you ’ re getting the appropriate treatment .
Due to COVID-19 infection concerns , family members were excluded from the process here .
They simply weren ’ t allowed in .
To me , that was probably why so much of this abuse was able to occur .
Olszewski agrees , saying : Plague of Corruption : ... Mikovits , Judy Buy New $ 16.51 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Elmhurst in April , doctors around the world , including the U.S. , had already started raising questions about the routine use of mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 patients .
Within weeks , many started arguing that it appeared to be doing more harm than good .
That certainly proved accurate at Elmhurst .
In a four-week period , Olszewski only witnessed one patient put on mechanical ventilation who survived , and that ’ s because the sedation didn ’ t quite take and he ended up extubating himself .
The sad tragedy is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indications warranting him being placed on a ventilator to begin with .
Essentially , being put on a vent is the kiss of death and , according to Olszewski , the staff at Elmhurst were aware of that .
So , within her first week , Olszewski spoke to an attorney and began secretly videotaping her findings and interactions with the staff at Elmhurst .
This was necessary so that the public would believe her story .
She explains : Virus Mania : How the M ... Kennedy , Robert Best Price : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a general rule , nurses , who are in the trenches day in and day out , are far more knowledgeable about the practical details to optimize patient care than most physicians , who may understand the science better but typically fail to appreciate critical implementation variables .
Nurses who are in the trenches day in and day out typically know what works and what doesn ’ t .
I can remember many times during my own medical residency where nurses would correct decisions that , if implemented , could have harmed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are really crucial components that help keep patients safe .
Unfortunately , in this case , nurses were routinely overruled and ignored .
According to Olszewski , she had many conversations with her coworkers , all of whom said the same thing .
They just couldn ’ t believe what was happening .
Olszewski was ultimately fired from Elmhurst for speaking out about the conditions there .
There are also petitions to remove her nursing license .
That , it seems , is a commonly used way to silence the opposition these days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her license .
Making matters worse , many of the doctors treating COVID-19 patients at Elmhurst were first-year residents , many of whom had never interacted with patients before .
According to Olszewski , many had “ zero bedside manner ” and approached their patients as little more than “ something to practice on.
” “ There were not many of them that really had compassion for these lives , ” she says .
Typically , private hospitals do not have medical residents treating patients , and if they do , they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however , is a training hospital , and according to Olszewski , residents had virtually no supervision at all .
“ I very rarely saw an attending , so it was the residents running these floors , ” she says .
Worse , the residents were not leaning on the expertise of the nursing staff .
When asked why residents would behave so inappropriately , Olszewski replies : Vaccination , a Curse a ... Peebles , James M. Buy New $ 24.57 The refusal to segregate infected patients from noninfected ones also undoubtedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk .
In a perfect scenario , infected patients would have been isolated in negative pressure rooms , since the normal ventilation system can circulate the virus throughput the hospital .
Still , by rooming infected and noninfected patients together , you virtually ensure the disease will spread to noninfected patients being treated for other health conditions .
Nurses also were not changing their personal protective equipment ( PPE ) between patients .
The same PPE was worn all day long .
Elmhurst didn ’ t even have regulations requiring fresh PPE between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the next .
Perhaps most egregious , COVID-negative patients were listed and treated as confirmed positive , and some were even placed on mechanical ventilation .
One of them was a male patient admitted for high blood glucose , which is easily remedied and under no circumstance would require ventilation .
Olszewski tells the story : New York Had Adequate Resources That Went Unused The same medical fellow also refused to allow another patient to be resuscitated , even though he did not have a do-not-resuscitate ( DNR ) order .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ formal medical training , graduated medical school , internship , and residency , and is doing a sub specialty in some discipline of medicine .
So , you ’ d expect a fellow to act more responsibly than that .
“ At that point , nobody really cared anymore , ” Olszewski says .
The doctors expected all patients to die anyway , and there was no liability for anything that was being done or not done .
Unfortunately , there was a clear financial incentive for treating noninfected patients as COVID-19 patients @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ventilation .
As explained by Olszewski : While Olszewski has been largely ostracized by her nursing colleagues , most of whom likely fear losing their jobs if they openly side with her , the death rate at Elmhurst plummeted after Olszewski ’ s undercover videos started making the rounds on social media .
Her hour-long interview in the “ Perspectives on the Pandemic ” series , which has 1.4 million views,4 was released to the public June 9 , 2020 .
Daily death rates in New York City hospitals dropped dramatically after that.5 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The tragedy is that hydroxychloroquine with zinc likely would have made a significant difference if routinely used in the early stages of disease , and in suspected cases .
It clearly was helpful in Florida , where some doctors have been using it .
Quercetin also works similarly to hydroxychloroquine .
Both drive zinc into the cell , and quercetin , being a supplement , doesn ’ t require a prescription and also has other effects , such as SIRT2 activation and decreasing inflammation , which actually make it a better choice .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ also be used with zinc — and administered very early in the course of the illness .
Still , considering asymptomatic patients were being roomed with those who had confirmed COVID-19 , either of these options could have protected many of these patients .
It ’ s really incomprehensible that a treatment has been so badly maligned , to the point that pharmacy boards have refused to fill prescriptions for a drug that ’ s been on the market for more than six decades .
One of the most effective treatments to date @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the MATH+ protocol , which includes high-dose vitamin C , steroids , thiamine and heparin .
It has protocols both for early intervention and late-stage disease .
However , I plan on posting an update to the nebulized hydrogen peroxide video as I have modified the recommendation .
I ’ ve had a number of people use it with very severe disease and recovered from the symptoms in a matter of hours .
I had no idea this treatment was so effective .
Fortunately , since Olszewski started speaking out , others have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical mismanagement as well .
One of them is featured in the video below .
Warning though the video is very emotional and the nurse uses some understandable profane language .
On the downside , physicians at Elmhurst who were responsible for implementing orders that led to patients ’ deaths may or may not be held liable for their actions .
To learn more about what went on at Elmhurst , be sure to pick up a copy of “ Undercover Epicenter Nurse : How Fraud , Negligence , and Greed Led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slated for release August 18 , 2020 .
The Best of Joseph Mercola

In this interview, retired Army combat veteran Erin Marie Olszewski, a nurse who for several months treated COVID-19 patients at the Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital in Queens, New York — the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S.
She has now written a book, “Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital,”1 which details her experiences.
Olszewski was born in Michigan and raised in a small Wisconsin town and joined the military at 17. When 9/11 happened, she was in basic training. “I was only 18 years old so I grew up pretty quickly,” she says.
Altogether, she was stationed in Iraq for just over a year. Upon her return to the U.S., she worked at the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida, before leaving the military and going into nursing. Just a bit over 20 years ago, July 2000, I read a study by Dr. Barbara Starfield2 published in JAMA. It contained stats that identified physicians as the third leading cause of death. Undercover Epicenter N... Olszewski, Erin Marie Buy New $24.29 (as of 02:20 UTC - Details)
I created that headline in July 2000, which took off as a meme and spread across the world. In a shocking follow-up to Starfield’s article, in 2012 her husband wrote a disturbing article in the Archives of Internal Medicine3 about her death, pointing to a drug she was taking as a possible contributor to it.
“Specialization, fragmentation, drug-orientation and profit-seeking help make American medical care the most expensive in the world, but not the safest or most effective,” Dr. Neil A. Holtzman wrote. “The lessons from Barbara’s death should be put in the perspective of the millions who cannot afford even basic services in our expensive system and suffer as a result.”
As if that’s not egregious enough, newer death statistics reveal the situation has only gotten worse over the years, and Olszewski’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates just how much more dangerous medicine has become.
“I did go into this profession to help people … [but] it did not take me long to realize that we’re literally just pumping our patients full of medications. Most of my job was morning meds, afternoon meds, night meds … [and] tests.
I’ve always had a passion for more of a natural approach to health and it was devastating to me to realize that I wasn’t really helping these patients, I was contributing to the problem,” Olszewski says.
“I always had that mindset as a nurse: How can I get these patients to look through these meds and talk to the doctors and advocate for them to get them off of all this?
I would hit a lot of roadblocks and so I ended up going to work at a private practice where doctors were more concerned about not so much profit, but the people. I always continued along those lines. Fast forward to this year, we were essentially laid off from our jobs.
In Florida, we did it right. We didn’t ban any of the alternative treatments. They left it up to individual hospitals to make up their own minds, so that’s why we were very successful, whereas New York was not.”
Medical Negligence Was the Norm
Plague: One Scientist&... Mikovits, Judy Best Price: $29.55 Buy New $17.99 (as of 04:10 UTC - Details) As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, New York, being a hotspot, was in desperate need for skilled nurses, so Olszewski ended up volunteering and went to work at Elmhurst in April 2020. “It was still extremely packed in these hospitals with pretty much every single person on a ventilator,” she says.
Curiously, when she got there, she was told she’d have to wait days for her assignment. Normally, in times of war, you’re expected to immediately get to work. This was the first red flag suggesting all was not as it seemed. Some of the nurses had waited in hotel rooms for 18 days before they received their assignments.
“Why weren’t they utilizing their resources, complaining that they didn’t have enough help when [there were] … 1,000, 2,000 nurses sitting around in New York waiting for an assignment? That was very confusing to me. If indeed this was essentially a war zone, people are literally dying left and right, why aren’t they utilizing us?
I finally did get an assignment and they put me at Elmhurst Hospital … I got there and literally it took me one shift — 12 hours — to realize that this is absolute chaos, and not because we didn’t have enough staff.
We were well staffed. It was because nobody cared. I literally felt like I was living in the twilight zone. And, just knowing what I know about our system anyway on a good day, this was just absolute negligence.”
Clearly, when you go into the hospital, you are at great risk of medical mistakes that can accidentally kill you, and Olszewski’s experience highlights one of the key problems: willful gross negligence. This is why it’s so crucial to make sure you have an advocate with you around the clock who can speak for you, ask questions and ensure you’re getting the appropriate treatment.
Due to COVID-19 infection concerns, family members were excluded from the process here. They simply weren’t allowed in. To me, that was probably why so much of this abuse was able to occur. Olszewski agrees, saying:
“That’s exactly right. On top of that, they created a liability-free environment. So now you have a liability-free environment where everybody knows that no matter what they do, they’re not going to get in trouble for it. We have no family around putting us in check …
You’ve got doctors and nurses that, at that point, just didn’t care because everybody was going to die anyway so what’s the point? And then you have everybody on a ventilator. So, these patients can’t even speak for themselves. They’re at the hands of whoever is taking care of them.
How do you sit by and allow this to happen? I don’t know how so many people knowingly knew this was going on and just chose to remain quiet. It’s just really sad.”
Routine Ventilation Was a Death Sentence
Plague of Corruption: ... Mikovits, Judy Buy New $16.51 (as of 02:59 UTC - Details) By the time Olszewski started working at Elmhurst in April, doctors around the world, including the U.S., had already started raising questions about the routine use of mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 patients. Within weeks, many started arguing that it appeared to be doing more harm than good.
That certainly proved accurate at Elmhurst. In a four-week period, Olszewski only witnessed one patient put on mechanical ventilation who survived, and that’s because the sedation didn’t quite take and he ended up extubating himself. The sad tragedy is he didn’t have any medical indications warranting him being placed on a ventilator to begin with.
Essentially, being put on a vent is the kiss of death and, according to Olszewski, the staff at Elmhurst were aware of that. So, within her first week, Olszewski spoke to an attorney and began secretly videotaping her findings and interactions with the staff at Elmhurst. This was necessary so that the public would believe her story. She explains:
“Like I said, it didn’t take me more than a shift to realize what was going on. I got back to my hotel room and just broke down in tears … I couldn’t even believe it. I have a lot of nurse friends and I asked them to hop on a Zoom call with me and I just let it all out.
One of them is a nurse practitioner, and she ended up kind of being my proxy. She did a live video and it went pretty viral … She got gaslighted by everybody. She had death threats. Everyone said she was making it up.
So, I had contacted an attorney after a few days of seeing what was going on with her, just trying to get my message out. And I’m like, ‘Listen. No one’s going to believe what’s happening here because they don’t believe her … The only way the public is ever going to be able to take this seriously and believe what I’m saying … is with actual video.’
I had already tried to go up the chain of command and everybody would just tell you, ‘Just be quiet or you’re gone.’ You were considered a troublemaker if you tried to advocate for your patients, and you were pretty much shunned … There were nurses sent home prior to me getting there, for doing the same things …
Ethics essentially just went out the window. My attorney actually ended up getting me a pair of spy glasses in order to videotape and they fit in with the rest of the PPE so it was never really questioned …
It was pretty terrifying, but at the same time I’m going in there, looking at my patients like, ‘You know what? You guys deserve justice. This should have never happened, and I hope history never repeats itself ever again.’ That was the mission.
People need to know the truth and those that thought this was OK need to be held accountable for these actions. In our profession, we’re supposed to be there for the patients. We’re supposed to act with integrity and compassion and none of that was happening.”
Nurses Fired for Protecting Patients
Virus Mania: How the M... Kennedy, Robert Best Price: $23.32 Buy New $18.31 (as of 03:58 UTC - Details) As a general rule, nurses, who are in the trenches day in and day out, are far more knowledgeable about the practical details to optimize patient care than most physicians, who may understand the science better but typically fail to appreciate critical implementation variables.
Nurses who are in the trenches day in and day out typically know what works and what doesn’t. I can remember many times during my own medical residency where nurses would correct decisions that, if implemented, could have harmed the patient.
So, skilled nursing staff are really crucial components that help keep patients safe. Unfortunately, in this case, nurses were routinely overruled and ignored. According to Olszewski, she had many conversations with her coworkers, all of whom said the same thing. They just couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I actually recorded a lot of those conversations too just because I didn’t want people to think it was just me,” she says. “Really, everybody thought ‘This is not OK.’ But everybody was afraid to say something … There are a lot of upset people and they try to hurt you and silence you in any way that they can.”
Olszewski was ultimately fired from Elmhurst for speaking out about the conditions there. There are also petitions to remove her nursing license. That, it seems, is a commonly used way to silence the opposition these days. Olszewski vows to fight to keep her license.
Medical Experimentation by Residents Killed Patients
Making matters worse, many of the doctors treating COVID-19 patients at Elmhurst were first-year residents, many of whom had never interacted with patients before. According to Olszewski, many had “zero bedside manner” and approached their patients as little more than “something to practice on.” “There were not many of them that really had compassion for these lives,” she says.
Typically, private hospitals do not have medical residents treating patients, and if they do, they’re strictly supervised. Elmhurst Hospital, however, is a training hospital, and according to Olszewski, residents had virtually no supervision at all. “I very rarely saw an attending, so it was the residents running these floors,” she says. Worse, the residents were not leaning on the expertise of the nursing staff.
“We couldn’t even leave our patient’s room because [the residents] would come in and dial the ventilators, they’d mess with our drips. We had to lock our pumps because they would just come in and change it. That’s unheard of on a normal day. Physicians never touch our pumps or ventilators without letting us know.”
When asked why residents would behave so inappropriately, Olszewski replies:
“A lot of ego, a lot of, ‘They’re going to die anyway so we just want to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t.’ There were a lot of errors being made and unnecessarily causing a lot of death. And I can’t explain it. Like I said, [you had a] liability-free environment … [and] these residents weren’t being monitored by the attending doctors …”
Lack of Segregation Led to Unnecessary Deaths
Vaccination, a Curse a... Peebles, James M. Buy New $24.57 (as of 04:44 UTC - Details) The refusal to segregate infected patients from noninfected ones also undoubtedly worsened the situation, placing lives at risk. In a perfect scenario, infected patients would have been isolated in negative pressure rooms, since the normal ventilation system can circulate the virus throughput the hospital.
Still, by rooming infected and noninfected patients together, you virtually ensure the disease will spread to noninfected patients being treated for other health conditions.
Nobody really cared anymore. The doctors expected all patients to die anyway, and there was no liability for anything that was being done or not done.
Nurses also were not changing their personal protective equipment (PPE) between patients. The same PPE was worn all day long. Elmhurst didn’t even have regulations requiring fresh PPE between patients or when going from one room to the next.
COVID-Negative Patients Placed on Ventilation
Perhaps most egregious, COVID-negative patients were listed and treated as confirmed positive, and some were even placed on mechanical ventilation. One of them was a male patient admitted for high blood glucose, which is easily remedied and under no circumstance would require ventilation. Olszewski tells the story:
“They ended up giving him a lot of different psych drugs which, ultimately, just kept that blood sugar going up and up. And, instead of treating that, they ventilated him.
They put him on our COVID ICU floor, which is unheard of. And he’s anxious, so they have him tied down to the bed in restraints, which makes anybody even more anxious. You can’t have any family in there, there’s a bunch of nurses telling you to be quiet. Anyone’s going to fight in that type of situation. You’re terrified to be there in the first place …
I was in there just trying to hold his hand, talk to him, calm him down, and one of the residents comes in saying ‘If you don’t calm down, we’re going to have to put a tube down you to help you breathe.’ I was just like, ‘What are you doing? He doesn’t need that.’ Within five minutes of my leaving for the end of my shift, he was on a ventilator. That right there, that’s just negligence.”
New York Had Adequate Resources That Went Unused
The same medical fellow also refused to allow another patient to be resuscitated, even though he did not have a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. A fellow is someone who has completed their formal medical training, graduated medical school, internship, and residency, and is doing a sub specialty in some discipline of medicine. So, you’d expect a fellow to act more responsibly than that.
“At that point, nobody really cared anymore,” Olszewski says. The doctors expected all patients to die anyway, and there was no liability for anything that was being done or not done. Unfortunately, there was a clear financial incentive for treating noninfected patients as COVID-19 patients, and placing them all on mechanical ventilation. As explained by Olszewski:
“They essentially turned Elmhurst into an all-COVID hospital … If they were going to admit somebody, they were either COVID positive or they were awaiting their test results. So, they would be admitted as ‘COVID rule-out’ and the hospital would still get the kickback. It was $13,000 to admit a patient to the floor.
Some of these people, like the one that was unnecessarily vented, he could have gone to the Navy ship Comfort, knowing he was negative for COVID-19. They knew that. But they still admitted him, got the $13,000 and then ventilated him for another $39,000. This was happening consistently.
There’s no reason these patients had to be packed in like sardines when we had external resources that weren’t being utilized. So why? … Maybe it was the financial incentive … That’s just people just not caring and putting profit over these patients.”
Death Rate Plummeted Once Treatment Protocols Were Exposed
While Olszewski has been largely ostracized by her nursing colleagues, most of whom likely fear losing their jobs if they openly side with her, the death rate at Elmhurst plummeted after Olszewski’s undercover videos started making the rounds on social media.
Her hour-long interview in the “Perspectives on the Pandemic” series, which has 1.4 million views,4 was released to the public June 9, 2020. Daily death rates in New York City hospitals dropped dramatically after that.5
“I personally think that this has had an impact on the deaths in New York because after that video went out and they were outed on their treatment protocols, the death rate plummeted,” Olszewski says.
I think they’re a lot more cautious about who they’re admitting to these hospitals and how many people are being put on the ventilators [now]. In early April when I got there, I questioned a doctor that I also recorded and he admitted that not one patient had been successfully extubated.
So, by the time I got there, every single patient on a ventilator died. And they refused to try any alternative treatments even though we know a lot of alternative treatments existed. Their excuse was that they didn’t work. And my question was, ‘Listen, if you know the ventilators aren’t working, then why not try [the alternatives]?'”
Government Should Not Interfere in Medical Decisions
The tragedy is that hydroxychloroquine with zinc likely would have made a significant difference if routinely used in the early stages of disease, and in suspected cases. It clearly was helpful in Florida, where some doctors have been using it.
Quercetin also works similarly to hydroxychloroquine. Both drive zinc into the cell, and quercetin, being a supplement, doesn’t require a prescription and also has other effects, such as SIRT2 activation and decreasing inflammation, which actually make it a better choice. However, like hydroxychloroquine, quercetin must also be used with zinc — and administered very early in the course of the illness.
Still, considering asymptomatic patients were being roomed with those who had confirmed COVID-19, either of these options could have protected many of these patients. It’s really incomprehensible that a treatment has been so badly maligned, to the point that pharmacy boards have refused to fill prescriptions for a drug that’s been on the market for more than six decades.
“I think every patient has a right to try multiple different alternatives,” Olszewski says. “High-dose IV vitamin C [has also] successfully treated patients in Asia and some people in New York when [the pandemic] first started. Why are these alternative treatments being frowned upon?
Has this caused even more deaths? Honestly, government shouldn’t ever get involved in the doctor-patient relationship. People should be able to have a choice and the freedom to be able to have these alternative treatments available to them if they can save their life.
Autonomy and patient rights are just gone … Patients deserve to be treated like humans, and politics and profit should never be placed above human life, ever.”
One of the most effective treatments to date in the hospital setting appears to be the MATH+ protocol, which includes high-dose vitamin C, steroids, thiamine and heparin. It has protocols both for early intervention and late-stage disease.
However, I plan on posting an update to the nebulized hydrogen peroxide video as I have modified the recommendation. I’ve had a number of people use it with very severe disease and recovered from the symptoms in a matter of hours. I had no idea this treatment was so effective.
Fortunately, since Olszewski started speaking out, others have braved the backlash and spoken out about medical mismanagement as well. One of them is featured in the video below. Warning though the video is very emotional and the nurse uses some understandable profane language.
On the downside, physicians at Elmhurst who were responsible for implementing orders that led to patients’ deaths may or may not be held liable for their actions.
“There are some clauses in that order that gross negligence is liable,” Olszewski says. “Families are coming forward and many of them are very upset, so maybe, hopefully, there will be a federal investigation and there will be accountability for these actions. I feel there should be.”
To learn more about what went on at Elmhurst, be sure to pick up a copy of “Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital,” slated for release August 18, 2020.
Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola


lewrockwell--2020-08-18--Good News: Fauci’s Out and Common Sense Might Be Returning

These days it seems there is not much good news out there .
People are still panicked over the coronavirus , governments are still trampling civil liberties in the name of fighting the virus , the economy –already teetering on the edge of collapse – has been kicked to the ground by what history may record as one of the worst man-made disasters of all time : shutting down the country to fight a cold virus .
That ’ s why we ’ ll take good news wherever we can get it , and President Trump ’ s hiring of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force may just be that good news we need .
As the media has reported , President Trump has sidelined headline-hogging Anthony Fauci in favor of Atlas , the former Stanford University Medical Center chief of neuroradiology .
Recall , Fauci was the “ expert ” who told us a few months ago that we would never be able to shake hands again .
Liberty Defined : 50 Es ... Paul , Ron Best Price : $ 1.27 Buy New $ 6.79 Fauci ’ s advice , forecasts , and assessments proved to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just plain bizarre : Don ’ t wear a mask !
You must wear a mask .
Masks are important as symbols .
Put on goggles .
Stay home !
Churches must be severely restricted but Black Lives Matter marches and encounters with strangers met over the Internet are perfectly fine .
When Anthony Fauci demanded a lockdown of the economy for an indefinite period he actually seemed oblivious to the havoc it would wreak on the economy and on people ’ s lives .
People like Fauci and others who demanded lockdowns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paychecks , so what did they care about anyone else ?
Dr. Scott Atlas is not only a former top physician and hospital administrator : as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution he also understands the policy implications of locking a country down .
On April 22 , Dr. Atlas wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled , “ The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation.
” In the article he made five main points that are as true today as when he wrote them : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no risk of dying from Covid ; protecting older people prevents hospital overcrowding ; locking down a population actually prevents the herd immunity necessary to defeat the virus ; people are dying because they are not being treated for non-Covid illnesses ; we know what part of the population is at risk and we can protect them .
Imagine how many thousands of lives could have been saved had the Administration listened to Dr. Atlas back in April .
CDC Director Robert Redfield admitted last month that lockdowns were killing more Americans than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” was thrown out the window and nearly six months of wrong-headed policy has done perhaps irreparable harm to the country .
South Dakota and Sweden did virtually nothing to lock down or restrict their populations and they actually fared better than lockdown states in the US .
They had lower death rates , their hospitals were never over-run with Covid patients , and they have an economy to go back to .
We very much hope that Dr. Atlas will not “ moderate ” his message to please the blob in Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this point have caused more harm than good .
With Fauci out of the driver ’ s seat we finally have a chance of turning things around .
The Best of Ron Paul

These days it seems there is not much good news out there. People are still panicked over the coronavirus, governments are still trampling civil liberties in the name of fighting the virus, the economy –already teetering on the edge of collapse – has been kicked to the ground by what history may record as one of the worst man-made disasters of all time: shutting down the country to fight a cold virus.
That’s why we’ll take good news wherever we can get it, and President Trump’s hiring of Dr. Scott Atlas to his coronavirus task force may just be that good news we need. As the media has reported, President Trump has sidelined headline-hogging Anthony Fauci in favor of Atlas, the former Stanford University Medical Center chief of neuroradiology.
Recall, Fauci was the “expert” who told us a few months ago that we would never be able to shake hands again.
Liberty Defined: 50 Es... Paul, Ron Best Price: $1.27 Buy New $6.79 (as of 07:10 UTC - Details) Fauci’s advice, forecasts, and assessments proved to be wildly wrong, contradictory, and just plain bizarre: Don’t wear a mask! You must wear a mask. Masks are important as symbols. Put on goggles. Stay home! Churches must be severely restricted but Black Lives Matter marches and encounters with strangers met over the Internet are perfectly fine.
When Anthony Fauci demanded a lockdown of the economy for an indefinite period he actually seemed oblivious to the havoc it would wreak on the economy and on people’s lives. People like Fauci and others who demanded lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were still collecting their paychecks, so what did they care about anyone else?
Dr. Scott Atlas is not only a former top physician and hospital administrator: as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution he also understands the policy implications of locking a country down.
On April 22, Dr. Atlas wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled, “The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation.” In the article he made five main points that are as true today as when he wrote them: an overwhelming majority of people are at no risk of dying from Covid; protecting older people prevents hospital overcrowding; locking down a population actually prevents the herd immunity necessary to defeat the virus; people are dying because they are not being treated for non-Covid illnesses; we know what part of the population is at risk and we can protect them.
Imagine how many thousands of lives could have been saved had the Administration listened to Dr. Atlas back in April. CDC Director Robert Redfield admitted last month that lockdowns were killing more Americans than Covid. “First do no harm” was thrown out the window and nearly six months of wrong-headed policy has done perhaps irreparable harm to the country.
South Dakota and Sweden did virtually nothing to lock down or restrict their populations and they actually fared better than lockdown states in the US. They had lower death rates, their hospitals were never over-run with Covid patients, and they have an economy to go back to.
We very much hope that Dr. Atlas will not “moderate” his message to please the blob in Washington. Trump’s Covid policies to this point have caused more harm than good. With Fauci out of the driver’s seat we finally have a chance of turning things around.
The Best of Ron Paul, MD


lewrockwell--2020-08-18--COVID-19 and the 1918-20 ‘Spanish’ Flu, a ‘Progressive’ Century Apart

This article is taken from a talk I gave on August 16 , 2020 at the 38th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Las Vegas .
I compare the two pandemics and touch upon the ‘ Progressive ’ Century that separates them .
With Covid-19 and its sequelae we live in challenging times that call for disaster preparedness .
The text includes some of the slides I used for this talk .
The Covid-19 pandemic has been compared with 1918-1920 ‘ Spanish ’ flu a century ago .
I will address this and compare their respective Mortality , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Treatment , and subsequent Depressions .
And finally , with Covid our Brave New World .
Professionally , I have maintained a long-term interest in viruses , vaccines , HIV-AIDS , and vitamin D and have written articles and given talks on these subjects , including one on HIV-AIDS at the 33rd Doctors for Disaster Preparedness meeting in Ontario , CA .
Most are on LewRockwell.com and are grouped by subject on my website DonaldMiller.com .
The Great Influenza : T ... John M. Barry Best Price : $ 2.99 Buy New $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ‘ Spanish ’ Flu in a population of 105 million , and with 675,000 deaths , a 2.3 % fatality rate .
“ Fast forward ” to today .
The Director-General of the UN ’ s World Health Organization , Tedros Ghebreyesus , is an Ethiopian politician and the first non-physician to head this body .
He declared early on that Covid-19 has a 3.4 % mortality rate .
With a rate this high Covid could kill many millions of people worldwide .
This spawned a global panic .
The Director-General , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infected with this virus but do not get sick and were not tested .
Up to 80 % of people who test positive for Covid have no symptoms or only have mild ones imitating a cold .
Counting them would make the mortality rate for Covid-19 substantially lower .
The 1918-20 influenza pandemic killed between 15 and 100 million people worldwide , 0.8 % to 5.6 % in a population of 1.8 billion .
Now , with the population 7.8 billion , a pandemic of comparable lethality could kill between 60 to 430 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flu started in Kansas .
It spread in 3 main waves .
The first one , from March to June 1918 , was relatively mild .
Soldiers called it “ the 3-day flu.
” It was seldom fatal , with a mortality rate near 0.5 % ( 5 deaths in a thousand cases ) , close to that of seasonal flu .
The second wave , from August to December was more lethal .
One observer noted , “ While the first wave of flu in 1918 was relatively nonlethal , the second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Two million American soldiers were shipped to Europe to fight in World War I .
More died from the flu than in battle .
The Spanish flu targeted healthy young adults , people between age 20 and 40 .
The nations fighting in World War I censored any mention of this influenza pandemic , which laid waste to both sides .
Spain stayed neutral and did not censor its newspapers .
They reported it and thus came the name “ Spanish flu.
” SARS-CoV-2 ( Systemic Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 ) , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some seven coronaviruses that infect humans .
Several of them cause the common cold .
SARS-CoV [ -1 ] and MERS-CoV ( Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ) are two that kill people .
The 2002 SARS epidemic caused 774 deaths and the 2015 MERS one , 866 deaths .
They did not come in waves , and the current coronavirus will likely not have a more severe second wave either .
The best source on accurate and unbiased facts about Covid-19 is the independent , nonpartisan , nonprofit research group Swiss Policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid facts in 25 languages .
Elderly people are the high-risk group with Covid-19 , especially those with pre-existing conditions like obesity , diabetes , heart disease , and cancer .
The average age of Covid deaths is 82 in the U.S. , 86 in Sweden .
People under age 50 have a close to zero risk of dying from Covid .
Ones between infancy and age 19 have a 10 times greater chance of perishing in a car accident than dying from an infection caused by this coronavirus .
Most healthy older @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and have immune systems strong enough to handle the virus .
The jury is still out on whether SARS-CoV-2 is bioengineered and if the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Wuhan , China did indeed release it , presumably by accident .
In any event , it is not lethal enough qualify as a bioweapon .
The Diamond Princess and Overall Covid Lethality : Over the holidays my wife and I took a two-week cruise to Hawaii on the Star Princess , sister ship to the Diamond Princess , from Los Angeles and returning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Princess finished a roundtrip 15-day tour of Southeast Asia on February 2 , from Japan .
It had 2,666 passengers ( median age 69 ) and 1,045 crew ( with a median age of 36 ) , totaling 3,711 people onboard .
Some passengers tested positive for Covid on the cruise , and Japanese authorities quarantined the ship when it docked back at Yokohama—its passengers for up to three weeks and crew , four weeks .
Health workers tested almost everyone on board for Covid in this “ ship laboratory ” and found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infected—567 passengers ( 21 % ) and 145 crew members ( 13.8 % ) .
There were 14 deaths ( 0.4 % ) , only in passengers over age 70 .
Swiss Policy Research cites an increasing number of studies showing that the overall lethality of Covid-19 is between 0.1 % and 0.4 % , considerably lower than initially thought .
Likewise , the CDC now estimates that the Covid-19 death rate is 0.2 to 0.4 % ( 2 to 4 deaths in 1,000 people ) , like the seasonal flu .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a Covid mortality rate averaging 7.6 % in its boroughs , substantially higher than Covid fatality rates other cities , like the five largest ones in Texas that average 1.6 % .
Along with counting people who actually die from the virus , officials will also count people with the virus as a Covid death but who die from something else .
Last month Washington state revised its Covid death numbers downward when it was revealed that anyone who died for any reason who also had coronavirus was listed as a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cause of death had nothing to do with Covid-19 .
Some hospitals have put Covid-19 on death certificates as the cause of death without a Covid test ever being done .
It is a true fact that authorities have overcounted Covid-19 deaths .
COVID-19 : The Pandemic ... MacKenzie , Debora Buy New $ 27.00 Up to 80 % of people with Covid remain asymptomatic or have symptoms that mimic a common cold and escape getting tested .
Keeping them out of the equation makes the case fatality rate falsely high .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but they account for more than 40 % of all Covid deaths .
In Canada , 80 % of Covid deaths have come from nursing homes .
Under an Executive Order that Governor Cuomo signed on March 25 , he had 6,300 Covid infected patients shipped to Nursing Homes in NY state .
Families were prohibited from visiting their loved ones and checking up on them .
On April 23 when nursing homes objected to his plan of prohibiting them from screening for COVID-19 , he said that they “ don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , “ That is the rule and that is the regulation and they have to comply with that.
” ( He rescinded these orders on May 10 . )
This helps explain why New York City has such a high Covid mortality rate compared with other cities .
Four other governors shown above ( all Democrats ) also placed Covid-infected patients in nursing homes .
Social media has called this a “ boomer remover.
” One observer , Jim Quinn , puts it this way : “ This nasty virus , supposedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is less deadly than the annual flu among those under 65 years old and more deadly when purposely introduced into nursing homes by politicians.
” Computer models in the UK and one funded by Bill Gates at the University of Washington greatly overpredicted the number of deaths Covid-19 would cause , both forecasting that more than two million Americans would die .
This prompted government officials across the country ( and worldwide ) to shut down the economy and order people to stay at home , without considering its ethical and economic implications @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Mark Best Price : $ 14.72 Buy New $ 14.72 And then there is social distancing .
There is no medical or scientific evidence , however , that justifies this .
Adverse consequences on human health and behavior from lockdowns and social isolation include domestic violence , child abuse , suicide , other potentially fatal medical conditions going untreated , deaths from drug overdoses , civil unrest , and a substantial rise in shootings and crimes .
These consequences of lockdowns have yet to be fully reckoned with and measured .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola , Barbara Loe Fisher declares : “ The authoritarian lockdown approach by governments to the coronavirus pandemic has been framed as a choice between safety and liberty … Public health officials have persuaded lawmakers to divide the American people into two classes : those who are considered “ essential ” and allowed to continue working and those who are considered “ nonessential ” and barred from earning a living .
Small businesses and services judged to be ‘ nonessential ’ have been forced to close their doors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ free to roam through grocery stores , drug stores and big box stores like Walmart , Target , and Home Depot , owned by big corporations … What we have allowed to be done in the name of public health has no parallel in American history or human history.
” Face masks do not work for respiratory viruses .
SARS-CoV-2 is 0.125 micrometers ( microns ) in diameter .
The openings in N95 masks are 0.3 micrometers in diameter .
Randomized controlled studies show no significant reduction in virus transmission and do not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , face masks are dehumanizing .
They represent submission to authority and are a sign of obedience .
Masks can impair breathing , cause hypoxia , a lowered oxygen content in the blood , and hypercapnia , increased carbon dioxide levels that can cause headaches and fainting spells .
Hours spent wearing an N95 mask can decrease blood oxygenation by 20 % and cause loss of consciousness .
A man in New Jersey driving his car while wearing this mask passed out from a lack of oxygen and crashed into a pole .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ : $ 7.50 Buy New $ 12.99 Even the New England Journal of Medicine admits , “ We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little , if any , protection from infection… In many cases , the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
” I say this having worn a face mask daily for 40 years in my work as a heart surgeon .
A new one each day .
There were no vaccines for the Spanish flu , but vaccine companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ develop one for Covid-19 .
Human trials to confidently establish a vaccine ’ s efficacy and safety , however , take time , from 18 months up to 5 years .
And 93 % of vaccine trials fail .
Vaccines for flu viruses have a checkered history .
Public health officials had to recall the one made for the 1976 Swine flu when it was found to cause Guillain-Barré Syndrome—immune system damage with slowly progressive paralysis .
Vaccine officials promoted the vaccine Pandemix for the 2009 Swine flu and fast-tracked it without the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narcolepsy—difficulty sleeping at night associated with night terrors , hallucination , and mental health problems , mainly in children .
The Trump-attacking media chastised President Trump for promoting the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 .
An increasing number of studies , however , show that hydroxychloroquine does work .
The drug must be started early and given at the right dose ( 400mg a day ) , not when the disease is far advanced and using doses 5x normal ( 2,000 mg ) , as studies that show no benefit do .
Remdesivir @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marginal benefit and is not worth its $ 3,000 cost .
Sixty 200 mg tablets of hydroxychloroquine cost $ 20 .
One technique for dealing with the Spanish flu a century ago , little known today , is fresh air .
Medics then found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better that those treated indoors .
It turns out that outdoor air contains antimicrobial hydroxyl radicals generated from the interaction of sunlight with ozone in the air that are a natural disinfectant .
Sunlight itself is germicidal .
Its UV rays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its UVB rays synthesize vitamin D in the skin .
Heat , > 80.6º F , also kills coronaviruses .
Fifteen years ago I researched and wrote two articles on vitamin D , “ Vitamin D in a New Light , ” and “ Avoid Flu Shots , Take Vitamin D Instead.
” They have stood the test of time , as this March 2020 review confirms ( Grant WB , Lahore H , McDonnell SL , etal .
Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID Infections and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6 ) :1629-1653 .
[ 157 references ] ) Among the 13 vitamins that our bodies need , vitamin D is a hormone , a 3-carbon-ring steroid hormone .
In addition to its well-known role in calcium metabolism , vitamin D controls the expression of more than 200 genes and the proteins they produce : • ones that express mediators which regulate the immune system • that release neurotransmitters , like serotonin , which influence one ’ s mental state • and Vitamin D activates genes in immune-system macrophages that make antimicrobial peptides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and destroy invading bacteria and viruses .
This study correlated Covid severity with a patient ’ s vitamin D blood level .
They found that 86 % of Covid patients with a mild illness had a normal vitamin D blood level , 30 ng/ml or above .
Whereas a substantial number of Covid cases that became severe or critical had vitamin D deficiency .
When I worked at the Seattle VA hospital , I measured vitamin D blood levels in all my heart surgery patients .
I was shocked to find that only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ normal vitamin D level .
The level was insufficient ( 20-29 ) in 12 % ; deficient in 56 % , with levels between 8-19 ; and 10 % were severely deficient , with a vitamin D blood level of less than 8 ng/ml .
Nursing home residents have the lowest vitamin D levels .
They are kept out of the sun and are not given vitamin D supplements .
Milk is fortified with vitamin D , but at 100 IU per serving one would have to drink 200 8-oz .
glasses of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as skin will make fully exposed to the noonday sun .
Black Americans die from Covid at 3 times the rate of white people , most likely because they tend to be more vitamin D deficient .
Their dark skin blocks sunlight from rapidly synthesizing vitamin D from the 7-dehydrocholesterol in it .
Another vitamin , vitamin C given intravenously in high doses is proving to be an effective way to salvage critically ill Covid patients .
COVID-19 : Lockdowns on ... Betrus , Michael Buy New $ 16.99 With the Spanish flu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the morning feeling well , start drowning in their own inflammation as the day wore on and be dead by midnight—from a macrophage-induced severe inflammatory reaction to the virus called a “ cytokine storm.
” Caught in a cytokine storm , one ’ s own immune system could kill a flu victim , something researchers have found that vitamin D can prevent .
A good treatment protocol for Covid-19 is vitamin D , 10,000 units per day ; zinc , 75-100 mg per day ; hydroxychloroquine , 400 mg per day ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per day ; and , if necessary , azithromycin , an antibiotic , up to 500 mg per day to prevent bacterial infections .
The central component is zinc , which inhibits RNA polymerase activity of coronaviruses , blocking virus replication .
Hydroxychloroquine and quercetin , a widely available plant flavonoid , enhance the cellular absorption zinc , helping it to do this .
For the Spanish flu , some physicians advised patients to take Aspirin , up to 30 grams a day .
A dose that high is toxic .
It causes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the lungs .
Aspirin was a relatively new drug in 1918 .
Physicians today consider 60 to 300 milligrams , 0.06 to 0.3 grams , to be the best and safest dose for aspirin .
1913 was a bad year .
Woodrow Wilson , a Progressive , became president .
And in 1913 two methods were enacted enabling progressive , big government to obtain the money needed to do all the things it wants to do : The 16th Amendment giving Congress the right to tax people ’ s incomes , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new , unlimited way to print money .
And now by simply tapping keys on a computer .
Today , more than 99 % of currency exists only in digital form .
With the Spanish flu , until the Armistice ended World War I , on November 11 , 1918 , President Wilson kept the nation fixed on fighting and winning the war , ignoring the worsening influenza epidemic .
During peace negotiations in Paris , on April 6 , 1919 , Wilson caught the Spanish flu .
He became seriously ill , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had a severe stroke .
The Spanish flu helped bring on the 1920-21 Depression .
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 47 % ; industrial production fell 32 % ; and corporate profits , 92 % .
The newly established Fed stood aside and the government , with Wilson disabled , did not provide any “ fiscal stimulus ” to help cure this Depression .
With the national debt reduced by one-third and tax rates lowered , the economy recovered quickly on its own .
The Covid pandemic has pricked the debt-fueled Everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Greater Depression , or as some say , like Gerald Celente , the Greatest Depression .
Maintained with multi-trillion-dollar bailouts , it could persist for years like the Great Depression did .
The depression that we may endure will have started with Covid triggering mass layoffs , disrupting capital and trade flows .
Like knocking down a series of dominoes ( see Depression Dominoes ) , ultimately even the seemingly safest sectors of the economy—tech , healthcare , higher education , and finance—get crushed .
Today ’ s bankruptcies and unemployment rival that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Casey puts it : “ We ’ ve entered a downturn that is going to be longer , deeper , and different than the unpleasantness of 1929-1946.
” And financial analyst Michael Pento : “ This is a global depression just like we had in the 1930s combined with a 2008-style credit crisis.
” Covid-19 is sending us into a Brave New World , one where left-wing terrorists push a neoMarxist revolution and technocrats , an authoritarian technocracy .
Political and media narrative managers would have Americans live obediently under Covid lockdowns , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Antifa , and Black Lives Matters protests and riots excepted .
George Floyd died from a fatal dose of fentanyl .
For some people a 3 ng/ml blood level of fentanyl is fatal .
Floyd had 11 ng/ml of fentanyl in his blood along with 5.6 ng/ml of its metabolite norfentanyl , plus methamphetamine ( 19 ng/ml ) and 3 other drugs .
( Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin . )
An overdose of fentanyl can produce “ excited delirium , ” along with “ wooden chest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , chest wall , and diaphragm .
George Floyd complained repeatedly of difficulty breathing and said he needed to lie down on the ground .
In recently released bodycam ( body camera ) footage , one officer , Thomas Lane , says , “ [ I ] just worry about the excited delirium or whatever , ” to which Sergeant Derek Chauvin says , “ Well , that ’ s why we got the ambulance coming.
” Officer Chauvin restrained George Floyd using an approved knee-applied side neck hold , while another officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failing about and using up what little oxygen he could breathe until the paramedics arrived .
The fentanyl-induced “ wooden chest syndrome ” caused George Floyd ’ s shortness of breath , not the policeman ’ s knee , applied later .
The autopsy showed no trauma to the body .
The political/media ’ s narrative on George Floyd ’ s death is false .
If they get a fair trial , Sergeant Derek Chauvin , charged with murdering Floyd , and the three officers under his command indicted for “ aiding and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ innocent .
Antifa protestors and rioters are wreaking havoc in Portland and Seattle and tearing down statues across the country .
Antifa is short for “ anti-fascists.
” They like communism .
Black Lives Matters declares on its website that its mission is to “ eradicate white supremacy.
” People who say to its followers that “ all lives matters ” court trouble .
A recent Harvard graduate , Claira Janover , posted a TikTok video where she threatened to stab anyone who said to her that “ All Lives Matter.
” Dr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ School at the University of Massachusetts was fired after she sent an email to her staff saying , “ Everyone ’ s Life Matters.
” And when confronted by a Black Lives Matters mob in Indianapolis , Jessica Whitaker , a 24-year-old nursing assistant , shown above with her 3-year-old son Greyson , insisted that “ All Lives Matter.
” As she walked away a person in the mob shot her in the head and killed her .
A more fitting name for this movement would be “ Only Black Lives Matter.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans do not support this neoMarxist terrorist movement .
As one poll shows , when asked to choose between “ black lives matter ” and “ all lives matter , ” a majority of black Americans pick , “ all lives matter.
” This movement seeks to eliminate whiteness , like Hitler did with Jews , starting with cis-white males .
It also seeks to extinguish white culture , including classical music and operas largely composed and performed by white people .
This has begun by attacking the UK ’ s Royal Opera @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Lives Matter protests .
( It reminds me of the fur protesters in the 1990s in Seattle harassing my wife and other women for wearing their winter fur coats to the opera house there . )
Americans today are becoming increasingly compelled to live under an authoritarian technocracy , which Whitney Webb describes in her article “ Techno-Tyranny : How the US National Security State is Using Coronavirus to Fulfill an Orwellian Vision.
” In order to keep up with China in artificial intelligence , the Covid pandemic is enabling the Pentagon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to implement AI mass surveillance systems .
They seek to remove obstacles that have prevented their implementation “ under the guise of combating the coronavirus crisis.
” The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 created the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence .
The Commission cites three “ legacy systems ” holding back adoption of AI-driven technologies : cash and credit/debit card payments , individual car ownership , and receiving medical attention from a human doctor .
In their place would come financial transactions done only with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ride-sharing driverless cars , and AI robotic medical care .
Authoritarian technocrats also would have us stop shopping in stores , many of which are going bankrupt from the lockdown and buy everything online , enabling them to better track our purchases .
In Generations : The History of America ’ s Future , William Strauss and Neil Howe discuss how current generations mirror ones from the Anglo-American past and fall into four generational archetypes .
These are the American generations alive today : The Pew Research Center has found that only 17 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ black ; 46 % were white , most of them Millennials under 35 years of age .
It would appear that a substantial number of Americans in the younger generations view their history and culture negatively .
Public and private schools and colleges have taught them to view white people as a source of abuse and oppression .
Rather than progress in a linear fashion , as commonly thought , Strauss and Howe posit that human history has a seasonal , cyclical nature .
Each Cycle averages about 80 years , roughly equal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Revolutionary Cycle ( 1704-1794 ) , America is now in its fourth one , the Millennial Cycle ( 1946-2026 ? )
.
Each Cycle has 4 parts , termed Turnings—High , Awakening , Unraveling , and Crisis .
The ‘ Spanish ’ flu occurred in the 3rd Turning of the Great Power Cycle , Covid-19 in the 4th Turning Crisis of the current Millennial one .
Strauss and Howe name the Fourth Turning in each Cycle “ Crisis ” because in each case that is when the country ’ s institutional life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Revolution arose in 4th Turning of America ’ s first Cycle ; the Civil War in its second one ; and the Great Depression and World War II in the third one .
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis kicked off the 4th Turning Crisis in the current Millennial Cycle .
One hopes this 4th Turning does not trigger World War III .
On it , Strauss and Howe write : If war can be avoided and humanity escape a nuclear holocaust , the outcome of this 4th Turning could be positive .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ times that call for disaster preparedness .
The Best of Donald W. Miller , Jr. , MD

This article is taken from a talk I gave on August 16, 2020 at the 38th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Las Vegas. I compare the two pandemics and touch upon the ‘Progressive’ Century that separates them. With Covid-19 and its sequelae we live in challenging times that call for disaster preparedness. The text includes some of the slides I used for this talk.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been compared with 1918-1920 ‘Spanish’ flu a century ago. I will address this and compare their respective Mortality, Lockdowns (or lack thereof), Treatment, and subsequent Depressions. And finally, with Covid our Brave New World.
Professionally, I have maintained a long-term interest in viruses, vaccines, HIV-AIDS, and vitamin D and have written articles and given talks on these subjects, including one on HIV-AIDS at the 33rd Doctors for Disaster Preparedness meeting in Ontario, CA. Most are on LewRockwell.com and are grouped by subject on my website DonaldMiller.com.
Mortality
The Great Influenza: T... John M. Barry Best Price: $2.99 Buy New $6.25 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details) More than 30 million Americans had the ‘Spanish’ Flu in a population of 105 million, and with 675,000 deaths, a 2.3% fatality rate.
“Fast forward” to today. The Director-General of the UN’s World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, is an Ethiopian politician and the first non-physician to head this body. He declared early on that Covid-19 has a 3.4% mortality rate. With a rate this high Covid could kill many millions of people worldwide.
This spawned a global panic. The Director-General, however, left out people who became infected with this virus but do not get sick and were not tested. Up to 80% of people who test positive for Covid have no symptoms or only have mild ones imitating a cold. Counting them would make the mortality rate for Covid-19 substantially lower.
1918-20 ‘Spanish’ flu:
The 1918-20 influenza pandemic killed between 15 and 100 million people worldwide, 0.8% to 5.6% in a population of 1.8 billion. Now, with the population 7.8 billion, a pandemic of comparable lethality could kill between 60 to 430 million people.
The “Spanish” flu started in Kansas. It spread in 3 main waves. The first one, from March to June 1918, was relatively mild. Soldiers called it “the 3-day flu.” It was seldom fatal, with a mortality rate near 0.5% (5 deaths in a thousand cases), close to that of seasonal flu. The second wave, from August to December was more lethal. One observer noted, “While the first wave of flu in 1918 was relatively nonlethal, the second made up for it in spades.” Two million American soldiers were shipped to Europe to fight in World War I. More died from the flu than in battle.
The Spanish flu targeted healthy young adults, people between age 20 and 40.
The nations fighting in World War I censored any mention of this influenza pandemic, which laid waste to both sides. Spain stayed neutral and did not censor its newspapers. They reported it and thus came the name “Spanish flu.”
COVID-19: Pandemic 1918: Eyewitn... Arnold, Catharine Best Price: $15.74 Buy New $16.57 (as of 04:39 UTC - Details)
SARS-CoV-2 (Systemic Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2), the virus that causes Covid-19 is one of some seven coronaviruses that infect humans. Several of them cause the common cold. SARS-CoV[-1] and MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) are two that kill people. The 2002 SARS epidemic caused 774 deaths and the 2015 MERS one, 866 deaths. They did not come in waves, and the current coronavirus will likely not have a more severe second wave either.
The best source on accurate and unbiased facts about Covid-19 is the independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research group Swiss Policy Research. It publishes frequently updated extensive Covid facts in 25 languages.
Elderly people are the high-risk group with Covid-19, especially those with pre-existing conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The average age of Covid deaths is 82 in the U.S., 86 in Sweden. People under age 50 have a close to zero risk of dying from Covid. Ones between infancy and age 19 have a 10 times greater chance of perishing in a car accident than dying from an infection caused by this coronavirus.
Most healthy older adults without pre-existing medical conditions do well and have immune systems strong enough to handle the virus.
The jury is still out on whether SARS-CoV-2 is bioengineered and if the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Wuhan, China did indeed release it, presumably by accident. In any event, it is not lethal enough qualify as a bioweapon.
Migrating water birds spread the Spanish flu virus to humans.
The Diamond Princess and Overall Covid Lethality:
Over the holidays my wife and I took a two-week cruise to Hawaii on the Star Princess, sister ship to the Diamond Princess, from Los Angeles and returning there on January 4. The Diamond Princess finished a roundtrip 15-day tour of Southeast Asia on February 2, from Japan. It had 2,666 passengers (median age 69) and 1,045 crew (with a median age of 36), totaling 3,711 people onboard. Some passengers tested positive for Covid on the cruise, and Japanese authorities quarantined the ship when it docked back at Yokohama—its passengers for up to three weeks and crew, four weeks.
Health workers tested almost everyone on board for Covid in this “ship laboratory” and found that 712 (19%) were infected—567 passengers (21%) and 145 crew members (13.8%). There were 14 deaths (0.4%), only in passengers over age 70.
Swiss Policy Research cites an increasing number of studies showing that the overall lethality of Covid-19 is between 0.1% and 0.4%, considerably lower than initially thought. Likewise, the CDC now estimates that the Covid-19 death rate is 0.2 to 0.4% (2 to 4 deaths in 1,000 people), like the seasonal flu.
And then there is New York City, with a Covid mortality rate averaging 7.6% in its boroughs, substantially higher than Covid fatality rates other cities, like the five largest ones in Texas that average 1.6%.
Along with counting people who actually die from the virus, officials will also count people with the virus as a Covid death but who die from something else. Last month Washington state revised its Covid death numbers downward when it was revealed that anyone who died for any reason who also had coronavirus was listed as a “Covid-19 death,” even if the cause of death had nothing to do with Covid-19. Some hospitals have put Covid-19 on death certificates as the cause of death without a Covid test ever being done. It is a true fact that authorities have overcounted Covid-19 deaths. COVID-19: The Pandemic... MacKenzie, Debora Buy New $27.00 (as of 03:02 UTC - Details)
Up to 80% of people with Covid remain asymptomatic or have symptoms that mimic a common cold and escape getting tested. Keeping them out of the equation makes the case fatality rate falsely high.
Governors Forcing Covid Patients into Nursing Homes:
One percent of Americans live in nursing homes, but they account for more than 40% of all Covid
deaths. In Canada, 80% of Covid deaths have come from nursing homes.
Under an Executive Order that Governor Cuomo signed on March 25, he had 6,300 Covid infected patients shipped to Nursing Homes in NY state. Families were prohibited from visiting their loved ones and checking up on them. On April 23 when nursing homes objected to his plan of prohibiting them from screening for COVID-19, he said that they “don’t have a right to object” and, “That is the rule and that is the regulation and they have to comply with that.” (He rescinded these orders on May 10.) This helps explain why New York City has such a high Covid mortality rate compared with other cities.
Four other governors shown above (all Democrats) also placed Covid-infected patients in nursing homes. Social media has called this a “boomer remover.”
One observer, Jim Quinn, puts it this way: “This nasty virus, supposedly let loose from a Wuhan biolab, is less deadly than the annual flu among those under 65 years old and more deadly when purposely introduced into nursing homes by politicians.”
Lockdown
Computer models in the UK and one funded by Bill Gates at the University of Washington greatly overpredicted the number of deaths Covid-19 would cause, both forecasting that more than two million Americans would die. This prompted government officials across the country (and worldwide) to shut down the economy and order people to stay at home, without considering its ethical and economic implications. The Pandemic Century: ... Honigsbaum, Mark Best Price: $14.72 Buy New $14.72 (as of 04:53 UTC - Details)
And then there is social distancing. There is no medical or scientific evidence, however, that justifies this.
Adverse consequences on human health and behavior from lockdowns and social isolation include domestic violence, child abuse, suicide, other potentially fatal medical conditions going untreated, deaths from drug overdoses, civil unrest, and a substantial rise in shootings and crimes. These consequences of lockdowns have yet to be fully reckoned with and measured. They will clearly surpass Covid deaths.
In an interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola, Barbara Loe Fisher declares:
“The authoritarian lockdown approach by governments to the coronavirus pandemic has been framed as a choice between safety and liberty … Public health officials have persuaded lawmakers to divide the American people into two classes: those who are considered “essential” and allowed to continue working and those who are considered “nonessential” and barred from earning a living.
Small businesses and services judged to be ‘nonessential’ have been forced to close their doors … while, paradoxically, everyone is free to roam through grocery stores, drug stores and big box stores like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot, owned by big corporations … What we have allowed to be done in the name of public health has no parallel in American history or human history.”
Face Masks:
Face masks do not work for respiratory viruses. SARS-CoV-2 is 0.125 micrometers (microns) in diameter. The openings in N95 masks are 0.3 micrometers in diameter.
Randomized controlled studies show no significant reduction in virus transmission and do not support edicts to wear masks. Plus, face masks are dehumanizing. They represent submission to authority and are a sign of obedience. Masks can impair breathing, cause hypoxia, a lowered oxygen content in the blood, and hypercapnia, increased carbon dioxide levels that can cause headaches and fainting spells.
Hours spent wearing an N95 mask can decrease blood oxygenation by 20% and cause loss of consciousness. A man in New Jersey driving his car while wearing this mask passed out from a lack of oxygen and crashed into a pole. Vaccine Epidemic: How ... Best Price: $7.50 Buy New $12.99 (as of 06:30 UTC - Details)
Even the New England Journal of Medicine admits, “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection… In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”
I say this having worn a face mask daily for 40 years in my work as a heart surgeon. A new one each day.
Treatment
Vaccine
There were no vaccines for the Spanish flu, but vaccine companies a century later are working nonstop to develop one for Covid-19.
Human trials to confidently establish a vaccine’s efficacy and safety, however, take time, from 18 months up to 5 years. And 93% of vaccine trials fail.
Vaccines for flu viruses have a checkered history. Public health officials had to recall the one made for the 1976 Swine flu when it was found to cause Guillain-Barré Syndrome—immune system damage with slowly progressive paralysis.
Vaccine officials promoted the vaccine Pandemix for the 2009 Swine flu and fast-tracked it without the requisite clinical trials. This vaccine caused narcolepsy—difficulty sleeping at night associated with night terrors, hallucination, and mental health problems, mainly in children.
Pharmaceutical Agents:
The Trump-attacking media chastised President Trump for promoting the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. An increasing number of studies, however, show that hydroxychloroquine does work. The drug must be started early and given at the right dose (400mg a day), not when the disease is far advanced and using doses 5x normal (2,000 mg), as studies that show no benefit do.
Remdesivir, given intravenously, provides only a marginal benefit and is not worth its $3,000 cost. Sixty 200 mg tablets of hydroxychloroquine cost $20.
Natural Remedies:
One technique for dealing with the Spanish flu a century ago, little known today, is fresh air. Medics then found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better that those treated indoors.
It turns out that outdoor air contains antimicrobial hydroxyl radicals generated from the interaction of sunlight with ozone in the air that are a natural disinfectant.
Sunlight itself is germicidal. Its UV rays kill viruses in the air, and its UVB rays synthesize vitamin D in the skin. Heat, >80.6º F, also kills coronaviruses.
Vitamin D:
Fifteen years ago I researched and wrote two articles on vitamin D, “Vitamin D in a New Light,” and “Avoid Flu Shots, Take Vitamin D Instead.” They have stood the test of time, as this March 2020 review confirms (Grant WB, Lahore H, McDonnell SL, etal. Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID Infections and Death. Nutrients 2020;12(6):1629-1653. [157 references])
Among the 13 vitamins that our bodies need, vitamin D is a hormone, a 3-carbon-ring steroid hormone. In addition to its well-known role in calcium metabolism, vitamin D controls the expression of more than 200 genes and the proteins they produce:
ones that express mediators which regulate the immune system
that release neurotransmitters, like serotonin, which influence one’s mental state
proteins that halt cancer by inducing programmed cell death (apoptosis)
and Vitamin D activates genes in immune-system macrophages that make antimicrobial peptides, antibiotics the body produces to attack and destroy invading bacteria and viruses.
This study correlated Covid severity with a patient’s vitamin D blood level. They found that 86% of Covid patients with a mild illness had a normal vitamin D blood level, 30 ng/ml or above. Whereas a substantial number of Covid cases that became severe or critical had vitamin D deficiency.
When I worked at the Seattle VA hospital, I measured vitamin D blood levels in all my heart surgery patients. I was shocked to find that only 22% of the vets had a normal vitamin D level. The level was insufficient (20-29) in 12%; deficient in 56%, with levels between 8-19; and 10% were severely deficient, with a vitamin D blood level of less than 8 ng/ml.
Nursing home residents have the lowest vitamin D levels. They are kept out of the sun and are not given vitamin D supplements. Milk is fortified with vitamin D, but at 100 IU per serving one would have to drink 200 8-oz. glasses of milk to obtain as much vitamin D as skin will make fully exposed to the noonday sun.
Black Americans die from Covid at 3 times the rate of white people, most likely because they tend to be more vitamin D deficient. Their dark skin blocks sunlight from rapidly synthesizing vitamin D from the 7-dehydrocholesterol in it.
Another vitamin, vitamin C given intravenously in high doses is proving to be an effective way to salvage critically ill Covid patients. COVID-19: Lockdowns on... Betrus, Michael Buy New $16.99 (as of 03:38 UTC - Details)
With the Spanish flu, young healthy adults would wake up in the morning feeling well, start drowning in their own inflammation as the day wore on and be dead by midnight—from a macrophage-induced severe inflammatory reaction to the virus called a “cytokine storm.” Caught in a cytokine storm, one’s own immune system could kill a flu victim, something researchers have found that vitamin D can prevent.
Treatment Protocol:
A good treatment protocol for Covid-19 is vitamin D, 10,000 units per day; zinc, 75-100 mg per day; hydroxychloroquine, 400 mg per day; quercetin, 500 mg to 1,000 mg per day; and, if necessary, azithromycin, an antibiotic, up to 500 mg per day to prevent bacterial infections.
The central component is zinc, which inhibits RNA polymerase activity of coronaviruses, blocking virus replication. Hydroxychloroquine and quercetin, a widely available plant flavonoid, enhance the cellular absorption zinc, helping it to do this.
For the Spanish flu, some physicians advised patients to take Aspirin, up to 30 grams a day. A dose that high is toxic. It causes pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs. Aspirin was a relatively new drug in 1918. Physicians today consider 60 to 300 milligrams, 0.06 to 0.3 grams, to be the best and safest dose for aspirin.
Depression
1913 was a bad year. Woodrow Wilson, a Progressive, became president. And in 1913 two methods were enacted enabling progressive, big government to obtain the money needed to do all the things it wants to do: The 16th Amendment giving Congress the right to tax people’s incomes, and the Federal Reserve Act, providing a new, unlimited way to print money. And now by simply tapping keys on a computer. Today, more than 99% of currency exists only in digital form.
With the Spanish flu, until the Armistice ended World War I, on November 11, 1918, President Wilson kept the nation fixed on fighting and winning the war, ignoring the worsening influenza epidemic. During peace negotiations in Paris, on April 6, 1919, Wilson caught the Spanish flu. He became seriously ill, returned home, and four months later had a severe stroke.
The Spanish flu helped bring on the 1920-21 Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 47%; industrial production fell 32%; and corporate profits, 92%. The newly established Fed stood aside and the government, with Wilson disabled, did not provide any “fiscal stimulus” to help cure this Depression. With the national debt reduced by one-third and tax rates lowered, the economy recovered quickly on its own.
The Covid pandemic has pricked the debt-fueled Everything Bubble and has likely brought on a Greater Depression, or as some say, like Gerald Celente, the Greatest Depression. Maintained with multi-trillion-dollar bailouts, it could persist for years like the Great Depression did.
The depression that we may endure will have started with Covid triggering mass layoffs, disrupting capital and trade flows. Like knocking down a series of dominoes (see Depression Dominoes), ultimately even the seemingly safest sectors of the economy—tech, healthcare, higher education, and finance—get crushed.
Today’s bankruptcies and unemployment rival that of the Great Depression. As Doug Casey puts it: “We’ve entered a downturn that is going to be longer, deeper, and different than the unpleasantness of 1929-1946.” And financial analyst Michael Pento: “This is a global depression just like we had in the 1930s combined with a 2008-style credit crisis.”
Brave New World
Covid-19 is sending us into a Brave New World, one where left-wing terrorists push a neoMarxist revolution and technocrats, an authoritarian technocracy.
Political and media narrative managers would have Americans live obediently under Covid lockdowns, wearing masks, and social distancing—George Floyd, Antifa, and Black Lives Matters protests and riots excepted.
The George Floyd Death
George Floyd died from a fatal dose of fentanyl. For some people a 3 ng/ml blood level of fentanyl is fatal. Floyd had 11 ng/ml of fentanyl in his blood along with 5.6 ng/ml of its metabolite norfentanyl, plus methamphetamine (19 ng/ml) and 3 other drugs. (Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin.)
An overdose of fentanyl can produce “excited delirium,” along with “wooden chest syndrome”—muscle rigidity of the larynx, chest wall, and diaphragm. George Floyd complained repeatedly of difficulty breathing and said he needed to lie down on the ground.
In recently released bodycam (body camera) footage, one officer, Thomas Lane, says, “[I] just worry about the excited delirium or whatever,” to which Sergeant Derek Chauvin says, “Well, that’s why we got the ambulance coming.”
Officer Chauvin restrained George Floyd using an approved knee-applied side neck hold, while another officer held his feet to keep him from failing about and using up what little oxygen he could breathe until the paramedics arrived.
The fentanyl-induced “wooden chest syndrome” caused George Floyd’s shortness of breath, not the policeman’s knee, applied later. The autopsy showed no trauma to the body.
The political/media’s narrative on George Floyd’s death is false. If they get a fair trial, Sergeant Derek Chauvin, charged with murdering Floyd, and the three officers under his command indicted for “aiding and abetting” him, will be found innocent.
Antifa and Black Lives Matter:
Antifa protestors and rioters are wreaking havoc in Portland and Seattle and tearing down statues across the country. Antifa is short for “anti-fascists.” They like communism.
Black Lives Matters declares on its website that its mission is to “eradicate white supremacy.”
People who say to its followers that “all lives matters” court trouble.
A recent Harvard graduate, Claira Janover, posted a TikTok video where she threatened to stab anyone who said to her that “All Lives Matter.” Dr. Leslie Neal-Boylan, Dean of the Nursing School at the University of Massachusetts was fired after she sent an email to her staff saying, “Everyone’s Life Matters.”
And when confronted by a Black Lives Matters mob in Indianapolis, Jessica Whitaker, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, shown above with her 3-year-old son Greyson, insisted that “All Lives Matter.” As she walked away a person in the mob shot her in the head and killed her.
A more fitting name for this movement would be “Only Black Lives Matter.”
Fortunately, a substantial number of black Americans do not support this neoMarxist terrorist movement. As one poll shows, when asked to choose between “black lives matter” and “all lives matter,” a majority of black Americans pick, “all lives matter.”
This movement seeks to eliminate whiteness, like Hitler did with Jews, starting with cis-white males. It also seeks to extinguish white culture, including classical music and operas largely composed and performed by white people. This has begun by attacking the UK’s Royal Opera House for remaining “silent” about Black Lives Matter protests. (It reminds me of the fur protesters in the 1990s in Seattle harassing my wife and other women for wearing their winter fur coats to the opera house there.)
Techno-Tyranny:
Americans today are becoming increasingly compelled to live under an authoritarian technocracy, which Whitney Webb describes in her article “Techno-Tyranny: How the US National Security State is Using Coronavirus to Fulfill an Orwellian Vision.”
In order to keep up with China in artificial intelligence, the Covid pandemic is enabling the Pentagon, intelligence community, and Silicon Valley to implement AI mass surveillance systems. They seek to remove obstacles that have prevented their implementation “under the guise of combating the coronavirus crisis.”
The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 created the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. The Commission cites three “legacy systems” holding back adoption of AI-driven technologies: cash and credit/debit card payments, individual car ownership, and receiving medical attention from a human doctor.
In their place would come financial transactions done only with smart phones (and computers), ride-sharing driverless cars, and AI robotic medical care. Authoritarian technocrats also would have us stop shopping in stores, many of which are going bankrupt from the lockdown and buy everything online, enabling them to better track our purchases.
Generations:
In Generations: The History of America’s Future, William Strauss and Neil Howe discuss how current generations mirror ones from the Anglo-American past and fall into four generational archetypes. These are the American generations alive today:
The Pew Research Center has found that only 17% of Black Lives Matter protesters were black; 46% were white, most of them Millennials under 35 years of age.
It would appear that a substantial number of Americans in the younger generations view their history and culture negatively. Public and private schools and colleges have taught them to view white people as a source of abuse and oppression.
Cycles and Turnings:
Rather than progress in a linear fashion, as commonly thought, Strauss and Howe posit that human history has a seasonal, cyclical nature. Each Cycle averages about 80 years, roughly equal to the human lifespan. Beginning with the Revolutionary Cycle (1704-1794), America is now in its fourth one, the Millennial Cycle (1946-2026?).
(The two Tables above are from my article “World War Redux, The Fourth Turning Fourth Time Around.”)
Each Cycle has 4 parts, termed Turnings—High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis.
The ‘Spanish’ flu occurred in the 3rd Turning of the Great Power Cycle, Covid-19 in the 4th Turning Crisis of the current Millennial one.
Strauss and Howe name the Fourth Turning in each Cycle “Crisis” because in each case that is when the country’s institutional life gets torn down and rebuilt. The American Revolution arose in 4th Turning of America’s first Cycle; the Civil War in its second one; and the Great Depression and World War II in the third one. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis kicked off the 4th Turning Crisis in the current Millennial Cycle.
One hopes this 4th Turning does not trigger World War III.
On it, Strauss and Howe write:
“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.”
If war can be avoided and humanity escape a nuclear holocaust, the outcome of this 4th Turning could be positive. They write:
“America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition. The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis: All they suggest is the timing and dimension.”
We live in challenging times that call for disaster preparedness.
The Best of Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD