DEALING WITH THE PANDEMIC

COVID-19 will be with us for a while. Advanced countries are relaxing lockdown measures, reopening schools, and encouraging people to go back to work in an attempt to salvage some of the economy. As poorer countries realise that lockdown is unenforceable in societies where income is daily, inevitably the rate of infections will rise. The tools recommended for dealing with these fluctuations (geographically restricted lockdowns, contact tracing, and self isolation) are proving difficult to implement. The freer the society, the more difficult the implementation.

Entire industries may be decimated if not eradicated. The education world is in a state of confusion. Short term and long term consequences, while unclear, are certain to be disruptive.

INFORMATION AND MISINFORMATION: Easy to spot are the crackpot conspiracy theories that the virus is either a hoax or caused by 5G cellular towers. Harder to determine are the approaches and cures promoted by politicians and the scientific/medical establishment. It is a lot to sift through, and my experience tells me that it is up to each person to be able to think through the information and arrive at your own guidance. For example:

Wear a mask: A mask limits the amount of moisture particles from your breath that get into the air around you, and how far they travel. If most of us wear them, then the amount of all viral particles in the air will be reduced, thus reducing the rate of infection (including cold and flu infections). If we are all wearing them, there will be less embarrassment for others to wear one.

We cannot get back to normalcy until we have a vaccine: Vaccines are great, but really hard. I know of no vaccine that has been made for a disease that is not endemic. Vaccines carry risks (both medical and social) which only time can reveal. Just look at the eradication of ‘wild polio’ recently declared, that left what is essentially ‘vaccinated polio’ transmission (when someone who is vaccinated comes into contact with an unvaccinated person). The probability of a COVID-19 vaccine before the new year is below 20% by my estimation. Regardless of efficacy, the penetration of a vaccine into the human population is in the balance. My bet is that it will not be taken up in anything like the numbers necessary to provide immunity in the populations of most countries, especially in poorer countries. In authoritarian states there will be no problem. The EU may also be able to widely vaccinate. The UK and the USA are far less certain. The overall likely effect is that we will not achieve global levels, at least not for many years.

Second Wave: The first wave is not over, not by a long way, not anywhere.

Countries that have done better or worse: A useless concept at this point, it will be many years before we know what worked and what did not.

Minorities and the Disadvantaged: Does not matter where in the world you are, if you are a person of colour (Black Asian Minority Ethnic BAME in the UK), if you are poor, or both, you are more likely to die.

Pre-existing conditions: If you are sick with some other chronic degenerative condition or infection before contracting COVID-19, you are more likely to die.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has exposed a limitation to science that has always, and will likely always exist. It is done by people and their brains, which is a strange and unreliable combination. So the “mutant AI” as described by Boris Johnson puts the disadvantaged in their place. The “modeling” lacks dimensions, looking only at the virus. “The virus sets the timetable,” Dr. Fauci assures us. This ignores a number of dimensions that do not seem to enter into the models: how people live, and how the world works. Much more complicated models are needed with more disciplines involved and a high degree of lateral thinking.

The response to the Pandemic is a choice of who will die when, and perhaps where. We need multi dimensional models to inform politicians, who have to be the ones making these life and death decisions.

If you do not live in a wealthy country this simplifies things. You will not be able to sustain the recommended response; life (and death) will have to go on.

CLEAR THINKING: I need to speak briefly about clear thinking, which is central to our ability to understand our circumstances. Fortunately, this is not dependent on intelligence or education, but only on an understanding and acceptance of how our brain works, and the discipline to develop the habits that lead to clear thinking. If you want to know more about the concept, read the excellent book The Art of Clear Thinking, by Rudolf Flesch, Ph.D.

Clear Thinking is not the same as logical thinking, which reduces the human being to the level of a computer. It is not critical thinking; you're not looking to be objective and to cooly analyse the facts and bring ration and reason to bear, at the same time discounting anything that doesn't fit the model you have developed. It is not the kind of thinking that produces conspiracy theories or the automated thinking that comes from the unconscious and the amygdala (the lizard part of our brain where our survival instinct resides), the kind of thinking that is instinctual and reactive. Clear thinking recognizes that human beings are whole and that our minds are made up of many parts which have to be used. Your emotions serve a purpose, and your experience, your memories, and your imagination, are all involved in creating your final thoughts. It involves the entire Spectrum; the entire range of the human consciousness. The fundamentals of clear thinking is establishing facts and recognizing the two kinds of facts that exist: concrete facts and conceptual facts. Concepts have been around for a long time and have been very useful in helping us to understand the world around us. The mathematical notion of zero is a concept that has stood the test of time. It has allowed us to go to outer space and to create the atomic bomb; to do all sorts of good and bad. First imagined by Hindu mathematicians (though it was used by Mayan and Inca civilisations in the Americas centuries before the arrival of Europeans), it was taught to the Arabs who eventually introduced it to the Europeans. It proved superior to other numbering systems, including the Roman, and is now dominant in the world. To demonstrate the difference between a concrete fact and a conceptual fact, let us look at the matter of death. This is a concrete fact: Everything that has ever lived has died, and that's not in dispute. A visit to your local cemetery will confirm what I am saying. That is a fact, and it is concrete. Life after death is a concept that the majority of human beings who exist today believe as fact. Life after death is a concept. It is not concrete. We don't have any concrete proof that we can hold onto. It's a concept, but it's deeply held by most people alive today. Concrete facts are put into a concrete column and you know that they're there for good. Concepts go into the conceptual column and need to be examined with the entire mind: your experience, emotions, imagination, and importantly, your lateral relationship-building and power to use what you know to form your own understanding of what you don’t.

COWS AND CONCRETE:

To understand how convoluted thinking can become, let us take a quick look at climate change. There is a range of passionately held views from climate change deniers to Extinction Rebellion type organisations. Science has been mobilised by all sides to support their views and the relatively new concept of scientific consensus was born.

What is concrete?

The climate is changing, this is a process probably as old as Earth.

The activity of man has accelerated the warming of the atmosphere over the last two centuries.

Beyond this, the arguments are all concepts, which need to be thought through.

Man can stop, slow or reverse climate change by stopping the emissions of greenhouse gases. It may be a good idea to stop activities that disrupt the balance of the biosphere in which we live, but the extent to which we can affect events already in motion is vastly overestimated.

The burning of greenhouse gasses must be eliminated to reduce the effects of climate change. To do this we have to move en masse to clean energy, using largely electric motors instead of the internal combustion engine. My problem with this is the massive expense to most and great fortunes to a few of this approach. If all vehicles have to be changed to electric, then what happens to the ones now existing? What is the carbon cost of building all these new vehicles? Or do we as some would wish go back to walking?

A large part of thinking through the climate change situation has to be conceptual, but we can try to understand the concepts, their underpinnings and the motivations of the architects.

To be plainer, we can massively impact the release of greenhouse gasses by eliminating two things: cows and concrete.

Cows contribute to the destruction of the biosphere in two main ways, methane released during digestion and the farming methods used to raise them. While there is no agreement on their percentage contribution to greenhouse gasses, many suspect that this is significant and I am with them. The cow is a technology, invented by human beings to provide food and so promote our survival. It also provided the power for early farming. As a technology it is outdated, I would say more so than the internal combustion engine. It is time for it to be retired. By the way, the domestication of the cow led to smallpox entering the human population, with devastating consequences for centuries.

Eight hundred million Indians believe the 175 million cows in India to be sacred, which brings us to a curious thing about concepts: if enough people believe it, then it is best treated as fact for the purposes of understanding behaviour. No chance of reducing the number of Cows in India.

Cement, the major product in concrete, is either number one or two in producing greenhouse gasses. I suspect that it may be the clear winner based on the volumes in use worldwide and the production process, which is fossil fuel intensive and releases carbon dioxide as it is being formed. Concrete has allowed modern civilisation, and to many it is inconceivable that there could be life without it. On the other hand, the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt) is 481 feet high with a base of 756 feet, constructed between 2580-2560 BC, with no concrete in sight. Just saying, if humanity could do this then, it should not be beyond us to build without concrete.

COMPLICATED AND EXPENSIVE: INEFFECTUAL AND UNSUSTAINABLE

As I have pointed out before, the root cause of the pandemonium brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is the use of Medieval methods to combat a 21st century problem. This is papered over by the placing of technology over these ancient responses, such as an ‘app’ on your phone for track and trace or the production of ever more complex drugs to combat the virus at every level imaginable. No different really from Florence in 1348.

The problem is the 21st century is far more interconnected than any age before now, the movement of goods and people have created dependencies we do not fully understand, to extend the Medieval Lockdown to the planet carries consequences which will not become known for decades, if not centuries.

The cost of Lockdown can be papered over in advanced economies for a short time, one sure result of this when the dust settles is another massive jump in inequality. Poor countries will not be able to sustain a lockdown and will have to tough it out. Rich countries will eventually acquire a vaccine or a number of vaccines and will prioritise themselves and their citizens. The logistics of vaccinating enough of the world's population to control COVID-19 are simply impossible. We can expect a very real North/South divide, with travel between South and North America, Africa, and Europe being highly controlled for ‘COVID-19 status’.

• Interferon Beta inhalers: Sold online, order when ill (take vitamin C and make your own interferons)

• Blood Plasma therapy: In the Jamaican vernacular, “lawd hav merci.” Why can’t your blood plasma have its own antibodies?

• Vaccines: coming in every flavour, its wonders to perform.

• Hydroxychloroquine, should we or shouldn't we? Moot point; the Americans bought it all (except for the quantities made in Brazil).

• Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), apparently part of the reason women of a certain age do better than men of a certain, similar age.

SIMPLE , INEXPENSIVE, EFFECTIVE , SUSTAINABLE

• Understand how your immune system works, then supercharge it for infection

• Resist all virus and bacteria

• Since synthetic C is made from corn syrup, I suspect it can be made from sugar cane. I’m not up on my chemistry, but all those sugar cane nations with not much disposable income would do well to figure this out, make a lot and distribute for free.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN AND WHAT TO DO:

Peter Morici on BBC Business Matters sums it up the best I have heard with, “come autumn we are just going to have to slug it out.”

Twenty percent chance of a vaccine before Christmas, if one does come there are going to be legitimate questions asked.

Up to you to provide the Guidance:

• Listen to the official word.

• Seek out the dissenting voices, (like Patrick Holford), using clear thinking.

• Form your own guidance

This is how you slug it out:

• Make sure you supplement your nutritional vitamins and minerals, we have a guide on this blog.

• Use an antioxidant formula supplement as well. Explained elsewhere.

• See how to use Vitamin C here, or follow it on this blog.

• Wear a piece of jewelry from copper or one of its alloys (brass, bronze), touch regularly, this will help destroy viruses and bacteria on the hands, constant washing.

• Get used to covering your nose and mouth, this is more to stop stuff going out than coming in, if enough people do this then there will be a lot less virus in the air.

• Use a nose drop at least once a day, a saline solution or better yet, effervescent vitamin C, diluted. This will drive all virus and bacteria from the nose into the gut, where they should not be able to survive.

DO BLACK LIVES MATTER? BAME, Black Asian Minority Ethnic is a great British term that I hope makes its way to the USA. It is a term which in its range should serve to remind anyone falling under it that we have more in common as minorities in a white majority society, than the shades and spices that differentiate us. BAME people die at 4 times the rate of whites from COVID-19. Some point to social issues and wealth disparity, but it now seems that even poor underprivileged whites have a better chance of survival. More likely is the nutrient deficiency brought on by diet made worse by being dark skinned in a low light environment.

What you need to know to protect your health has already been explained.

It will be hard for Black Lives to Matter, in any meaningful way, until you see the hero in the mirror.

The pandemonium caused by the pandemic is your chance. Protect your health, suit up and show up at work, school, or both, and seize your opportunity. Every crisis shows chinks in privilege; find a crack and drive your wedge through it and do not stop hammering.