Replies

Here’s something just posted on Facebook by Bill Gertz (Mods, if it is not OK to post this, please delete):

It’s war. Today I had a fascinating meeting — both physical in an office in Alexandria and two by video conference — with five retired Army medical doctors, two of whom were White House presidential doctors and two who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, aka Fort Detrick, the one that specializes in biological warfare defenses.

All the doctors but one are in private practice now and are steeped in the coronavirus pandemic.

So, some interesting take aways from my meeting.

These doctors treating patients for the disease still do not know a lot about the Wuhan pneumonia. But one thing that is changing is that the disease is about to get officially re-categorized from a mainly respiratory affliction to an inflammatory malady or a combination of both. The reason is the blood coagulation issue that is cropping up as key characteristic. This is causing blood clotting that is killing people in addition to the lung damage and immune over-response that causes multiple organ damage or failure.

One doctor said this inflammatory disease aspect is like the opposite of Ebola, a hemorrhagic disease that kills by causing massive bleeding. Covid is killing through blood clots or blood coagulation. The latest treatment tests are now trying a combination of the anti-viral drug remdesivir plus an anti-inflammatory drug.

Second, the way out of the virus crisis is looking, well, not good. The people leading the response in WH NIH, and CDC are flying blind while claiming to be committed to following the data. The doctors say the data has been wrong on all fronts so claims that everything is being done on a “science-based” approach to the response is not accurate.

The White House Task Force is adamantly opposed to the so-called Swedish model of seeking to defeat the virus through herd immunity. Fauci, et. al are not allowing any discussion of Sweden’s less stringent, non-lockdown approach.

I asked the doctors of the three routes to virus defeat — herd immunity, therapy/treatment and vaccine — what is the best?

Answer: all three. But currently we’re only doing two! Therapy and vaccine. And most of the vaccine work being done is going to be to produce a vaccine like the flu vaccine, which is iffy at best for preventing the disease. One ex-military doctor said there needs to be a vaccine similar to smallpox that includes live virus. That is going to be way off. Another doctor said vaccines are coming along and that the Big Pharma working on it claim they are prepared, once approved, to produce 100 million doses by September and 300 million doses by January.

I briefed the doctors on the Chinese mishandling and my new booklet How China’s Communist Party Made the World Sick and it was very well received.

All the doctors agreed with me that unless original virus samples are obtained directly from China, it will be very difficult to find the origin and craft remedies to defeat the virus. China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology initially promised to provide original virus samples from those infected in December but then reneged and refused.

The doctors had no insights but generally ascribed to the current official thinking on the two origin theories: (a) naturally occurring spread from the wet market in Wuhan, or (b) an accidental and uncontained infection from a Wuhan lab leading to outbreak.

The Fort Detrick doctors noted that they had responded to virus infections at their P-4 labs in the past and appropriate action was taken to prevent larger infections. China through incompetence did not handle a laboratory infection and we’re paying the price now.

This is my military-grade mask that are sold at the Pentagon. I dislike having to wear a mask and object to being forced to do so in stores. But if I’m going to wear one, it might as well be miltiary-grade and camo to boot.

The mask comes in military-specific variants. The Navy version comes with a mini-AN/SPY-1 phased array radar and is known as the Aegis mask; the Air Force one is equipped with a aerial refueling capability; the Army mask comes with a mud filter and the Marines...nails. Something to chew on.