We have
health and people problems in our country. Please turn to the science of public
health which is designed to protect and improve the lives of people in their
communities! I was reared, in a household, with my father who had a Juvenile
Diabetes diagnosis. This fact resulted in my focus, interest and devotion to health.
This disquisition stresses the importance of employing the ideas of: 1.Evaluating
the source 2.Discovering truth 3. Employing a humanistic attitude pertaining to
Covid-19 and its variants.
Being subjected
on a daily basis with the health hazards of juvenile diabetes had a major
impact on me. Every day, I witnessed my father injecting insulin into his body
and even assisted him in that process. He talked about his dim future thanks to
this dreaded disease. He mentioned failing eyesight, shortened life span and
the loss of limbs as result of poor circulation among other symptom
We traveled
to Windsor, Ontario where he purchased insulin. On those trips, I received duck
style haircuts, food treats, lunch or dinner. Later on, my mother and I took numerous
trips to hospitals in the Detroit area for visits. As an adolescent, my mother
and I traveled to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. There, my
dad introduced me to a patient- Terry Sawchuk, the goalie of the Detroit Red
Wings. In front of Terry, my father, impressed with with my strength, had me,
with my arm extended hold up one leg of a chair parallel to the ground. I don’t
remember Terry’s response.
I moved to
California and remember talking to him, on the phone, near the end of his life.
During that time I carried my Bible which was Ernest Becker’s “Denial of
Death.” My father was discouraged and depressed as they started surgically
removing his toes. What an awful time for him and he passed at the age of 70.
That was likely a welcomed relief.
An article
titled “Between 1920 and 2020, the average human lifespan doubled. How did we
do it? Science mattered-but so did activism” found in the May 2, 2021 of The
New York Times Magazine was informative. It started with the description of the
Spanish flu, H1N1 and its devastation of killing during World War I and the
decline in life expectancy from 1916 to 1920. Incremental improvements followed
and resulted in breakthroughs of overwhelming proportions-vaccines, germ theory
and antibiotics.
Edward
Jenner’s invention of the smallpox vaccine; Louis Pasteur’s triumph with milk
and wine ; chlorine added to drinking water; vaccine development for whooping
cough, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and polio helped curtail future infections
and death; and penicillin with its protection from cuts
and scrapes. Milk, at one time, was called the “liquid poison.” It killed many,
but cow’s milk was more flavorful and people in our country did not want to
purchase pasteurization of milk. It took advertising to change popular
attitudes along with the immigrant from Bavaria, Nathan Straus. Straus was born
in 1848. He created, low-cost, milk depots in poor areas on the lower East side
of New York. President Theodore Roosevelt got into the act and Chicago in 1909
became the first major American city to require pasteurization .Thanks to
Straus and others, unpasteurized milk has been outlawed in almost every major
American city. By the way, Straus and his brother were part owners of Macy’s
department store. Thanks to John Leal, chlorine disinfectants was introduced in
the waterworks in Chicago in 1912 and in Detroit 1913. Thank you John.
Smallpox and
cholera are interesting stories as well as it took many health individuals from
different locations on our planet to deal with those health problems. Alexander
Fleming’s contribution was the magic bullet - penicillin. It was a lifesaver
and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Penicillin along with other
antibiotics fought tuberculosis in the antibiotic revolution that began with
antiviral drugs. Thank you Salk for your polio vaccine. It took the
Kefauver-Harris drug amendments to make sure that the listed ingredients on the
drug label were in fact such. Now, with the CDC and the W.H.O, we have global scientific
organizations working in concert to deal with the eradication of continuous new
disease threats to our planet. Thus, there are many scientific minded
individuals devoted to wiping out the various diseases that confront us[FL1] .
During the
previous administration, individuals were hired based on their loyalty to their
leader. Loyalty was defined as being subservient and agreeing with him
regardless of reality. The inept Redfield
was appointed to run the CDC and follow directions given by the administration.
Other appointees were on the airways along with the leader of providing false
and dangerous information. The leader was credited with an enormous amount of
lying regardless of the subject.
As a result
of the lies and misinformation regarding Covid-19, it is important to question
the data. Fox news and social media also presented nonscientific and false
lying behavior. Why would anyone believe a liar? Remember the fairytale about
the boy who cried Wolf. The boy was not credible which the moral of the story
is. Check and evaluate the source. One woman told me she didn’t get the vaccine
because of contradictory messaging by CDC. Yes, CDC would be one source of
information; WHO would be another source; public health physicians; virologists
and even Bill Gates. Bill Gates contributed an enormous amount of funding in
search for a vaccine to combat Covid-19. Gates warned and predicted that we
have to be on guard for future viruses back in 2016. Always check and evaluate
the source of information. I trust and have faith in the New York Times and the
Washington Post . On the other hand, A D.O., one of 12 credited with spreading
misinformation on social media, makes his living promoting natural ingredients
for treatment. There is nothing wrong, in treating people, with natural
ingredients or functional medicine. However, providing discredited information
is not part of the Hippocratic Oath. He should be silenced and not allowed,
because of his economic incentive, to spread lies not supported by science. The
article “Disinformation is Big business For One Doctor” found in the July 25,
2021 of The New York Times.
The truth
regarding Covid-19 and it’s the variants has tremendous numbers such as 201,503,940
cases worldwide and 4,276,868 deaths affecting 220 countries and territories.
The statistics are based on United Nations Geoscheme Sources. 181,320,710
individuals have recovered. The USA leads in total number of cases; total
number of deaths; and is second as far as total number recovered. USA also
leads in active cases although we are far from the largest population of the
world.
This virus
cannot be treated with disinfectants or herd immunity at this time. One
professional golfer contracted Covid-19 prior and contracted it again. He was
disqualified from participating in the Olympics. He said that he had herd
immunity so he didn’t need to get vaccinated. Denial and rationalization are
designed to protect and distort the anxiety resulting from reality. It’s easy
to distort reality by one’s illogical, nonobjective and delusional thinking and
believing. For surgery, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon and not a talk show
host. Recently, an evangelical pastor suggested to his churchgoers to ditch
their masks. Yes, get your health and virus information from an ill-informed,
non-credible and non-reliable ignoramus, if you’re so inclined.
As far as
humanistic principles, the following is apparent. We have many rules laws and
policies designed to protect and benefit people in our society. Paying taxes is
about providing services and protection for everyone. If one wants to drive an
automobile, one is required to get a license to demonstrate driving skills and
knowledge about driving and the law. One is required to have automobile
insurance, wear a seatbelt, and drive speed limits posted on the roadways.
Notice they are limits. If one breaks the law, there are consequences. Negative
consequences are required and expected to change behavior in the positive
direction.
There should
be consequences for those not receiving a Covid-19 vaccination, mask wearing
and social distances. The virus and its variants are on the rise. How can there
be herd immunity when variants exist? In other words, to combat and deal with
this virus and its variants effectively, we require more than guidelines-we
require laws and consequences. One friend suggested that those that don’t get
vaccinated should not be allowed public hospital treatment. That certainly is
not a humanistic policy but suggests the importance of this issue with those
that are potentially harming all of us. In essence, humanism is based on the
idea of working together as we are all cohabitating on this planet. When ignorant
and delusional people place themselves and others in harm’s way, they are dangerous
and should be held accountable. We lead the world with too many awful
statistics.
In the
middle of the 18th century, lifespan was about 35 years of age.
Thanks to Jenner, Pasteur, Fleming, Salk, Straus, Leal, Gates and so many
others including WHO, CDC, US FDA and other organizations, our lifespan has
more than doubled because of chemistry, vaccines, drugs, and the rigors of
scientific studies, inventions, breakthroughs etc. We have not given our proper
due to the perseverance of those not so ordinary Homo sapiens. Monuments,
national holidays, prayers and thanks are needed and not memorials to racist
Southern generals and football coaches. Are values are what? Yes, thinking and
attitudes for so many are anti-humanistic, alienated and crippled. No wonder
this country has serious health issues. Check the source for credibility and
reliability, use objective reasoning for finding truth, with an attitude of
humanism.
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