Covid much less deadly says new study

Sebastian Rushworth   18 March, 2021

An article was recently published in the British Medical Journal that reported on a matched cohort study which compared the risk of dying for those infected with the new British variant (a.k.a. B.1.1.7) and those infected with the older covid variants.

A matched cohort study is a type of observational study where you take a group of people with some condition and then try to find a similar group without the condition to match against. Then you follow the two cohorts over time and see if they differ in some meaningful outcome (like death). Since it is an observational study, it can only show correlation. It can’t prove the existence of a cause and effect relationship, but that doesn’t stop many people acting like it does.

The article has resulted in fear-mongering headlines in news media around the world. Just to take the first example I could find, Al-Jazeera published an article with the headline: “UK variant up to 100% deadlier more deadly, study finds”.

Those darn studies, they’re always finding things. It’s like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. You knock one down here, and another one pops up over there. Anyway, let’s look in to the study some detail, and see if the claim is true.

There were two criteria that had to be fulfilled for a person to be included in the study. They had to have a PCR-test positive for covid at some point between the beginning of October 2020 and the end of January 2021. And they had to be over 30 years old. The authors don’t provide any reason for the second criterion. The only reason I can see for removing people under the age of 30 is that they pretty much never die when they get covid, and including them would therefore have resulted in less impressive mortality numbers, which would have made it a little bit harder to use the results as part of public fear mongering campaigns.

The Propaganda Multiplier

 SWPRS March 2019

It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York, London and Paris.

The key role played by these agencies means Western media often report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition, governments, military and intelligence services use these global news agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.

A study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in whole or in part on agency reports, yet 0% on investigative research. Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favor of a US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed exclusively to the opposite side.

 

Introduction: “Something strange”

“How does the newspaper know what it knows?” The answer to this question is likely to surprise some newspaper readers: “The main source of information is stories from news agencies. The almost anonymously operating news agencies are in a way the key to world events. So what are the names of these agencies, how do they work and who finances them? To judge how well one is informed about events in East and West, one should know the answers to these questions.” (Höhne 1977, p. 11)

A Swiss media researcher points out: “The news agencies are the most important suppliers of material to mass media. No daily media outlet can manage without them. () So the news agencies influence our image of the world; above all, we get to know what they have selected.” (Blum 1995, p. 9)

In view of their essential importance, it is all the more astonishing that these agencies are hardly known to the public: “A large part of society is unaware that news agencies exist at all … In fact, they play an enormously important role in the media market. But despite this great importance, little attention has been paid to them in the past.” (Schulten-Jaspers 2013, p. 13)

Even the head of a news agency noted: “There is something strange about news agencies. They are little known to the public. Unlike a newspaper, their activity is not so much in the spotlight, yet they can always be found at the source of the story.” (Segbers 2007, p. 9)         More

Mask Harms in Kids: 68% of Parents Report Alarming Psychological and Physical Problems In First-of-its-kind Study

GreenMed 

A German study involving over 25,000 children reveals that major negative impacts on the physical, psychological, and behavioral health of children may be far more widespread than reported in the media and by government officials -- affecting approximately 68% and contributing to 24 distinct health complaints, according to parent submitted observations. 

 

A concerning study conducted in Germany has been posted online as a preprint (not yet peer-reviewed) titled, “Corona children studies "Co-Ki": First results of a Germany-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children,” describing the results of 17,854 parent submitted reports on health complaints or impairments experienced as a result of wearing masks by their 25,930 children.

 

The study was designed to both explore the accumulating narratives reported by parents, educators, and doctors about increasing problems and health complaints in children and adolescents wearinng masks, as well as to provide the first known online registry where parents, doctors, teachers, and others can enter their first-hand observations. The registry and the questionnaire can be found online at www.co-ki-masken.de

 

The study authors stated:

“There are no manufacturer-independent studies on the use of masks for children and adolescents that are certified as medical products for occupational safety in professional applications. In addition, due to the unknown materials used, there are no findings on the potential protective effects or side effects of the often home-made "everyday masks" worn by the majority of children. In view of the ongoing measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular the varying obligations for children and adolescents to wear masks in school over a longer period of time, there is an urgent need for research.”

Here's How to Think About the Danish Mask Study

 Medpage  November 18, 2020 

I was drawn to science and medicine because of all human endeavors, ours is one where smart people can say, "I don't know." We don't stop there. We run a study or experiment that helps us know more. That is what makes what we do different than other human endeavors.

I start then with a humility as I take on the Danish Mask Study, published on Wednesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This is a 4,800-person randomized trial that took place in the spring and early summer in Denmark. The trial was run at a time where most Danes did not wear masks when they left their house. It told participants to practice social distancing and randomly assigned them with the advice to wear a mask (and even gave them 50 surgical masks), advising them to change it after every 8 hours of use, or gave them no advice to wear mask, and followed them to see how many acquired SARS-CoV-2 by PCR or antibody testing. The answer was a nearly identical proportion -- 42 of 2,393 people (1.8%) in the mask group and 53 of 2,470 (2.1%) in the no-mask group. The difference was not statistically significant.

The earth spinning unusually fast lately

 

Time and Date  23-Dec-2020

Many of us wish we could get through this difficult year as quickly as possible. Seems the Earth feels the same way — it has been spinning unusually fast lately. 2020 included the 28 shortest days since 1960.

Atomic Clocks Expose Earth's Irregular Speed

The Earth is an excellent timekeeper: on average, with respect to the Sun, it rotates once every 86,400 seconds, which equals 24 hours, or one mean solar day.

But it is not perfect. When highly accurate atomic clocks were developed in the 1960s, they showed that the length of a mean solar day can vary by milliseconds (1 millisecond equals 0.001 seconds). These differences are obtained by measuring the Earth's rotation with respect to distant astronomical objects, and using a mathematical formula to calculate the mean solar day.

2020 Had Shortest Days on Record

Before this year began, the shortest day since 1973 was July 5, 2005, when the Earth's rotation took 1.0516 milliseconds less than 86,400 seconds.

But in the middle of 2020, the Earth beat that record no less than 28 times. The shortest day of all came on July 19, when the Earth completed its rotation in 1.4602 milliseconds less than 86,400 seconds.

The speed of the Earth's rotation varies constantly because of the complex motion of its molten core, oceans and atmosphere, plus other effects. 

2021 Is Predicted to Be Even Shorter

Scientists monitoring the Earth's rotational speed expect the trend of having shorter days to follow us into 2021 as well.

According to their calculations, an average day in 2021 will be 0.05 ms shorter than 86,400 seconds. Over the course of the entire year, atomic clocks will have accumulated a lag of about 19 ms. For comparison: in past years, they ran fast by a few hundred milliseconds per year. See yearly averages since 1973

In fact, the year 2021 is predicted to be the shortest in decades. The last time that an average day was less than 86,400 seconds across a full year was in 1937.

An in depth look at the beer bug

 

A 2020 Study: Unvaccinated Children are Healthier than Vaccinated Children

Best Article September 2020

On May this year, the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute (CMSRI), a “medical and scientific collaborative established to provide research funding for independent studies on causal factors underlying the chronic disease and disability epidemic”, produced a report regarding the pilot study which appeared in the Journal of Translational Sciences. The study compared unvaccinated children (261 subjects) to partially or fully vaccinated (405 subjects) homeschooling kids and results concluded that the vaccinated were more likely to develop neuro-developmental disorders (NDD) and allergies. The nearly 700 subjects were “assessed based on their mothers’ reports of vaccinations and physician-diagnosed illnesses”.

Contrary to what the actual studies say, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) assure the public that vaccines are safe and effective and that all children should get vaccinated. But ironically, there are also instances that they tell the opposite; that they accept they have no real data to back that up, either short-term or long-term. 

This isn’t difficult to understand as these vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants and heavy metals (aluminum, mercury, etc.), plus formaldehyde and other chemicals and preservatives which usually have unknown health risk. In addition, there are also no real study figuring what could be the long-term effects of importing contaminants of DNA from fetal cells (aborted) to your body, and of various animal DNA and so-called retroviruses. Yet the WHO and other government agencies recommend “50 doses of 14 vaccines by age six, 69 doses of 16 pharmaceutical vaccines containing powerfully immune-altering ingredients by age 18”.

Study

Did vaccines really save the world?

 

JB Handley June, 2020

Since 1900, there’s been a dramatic 74% decline in mortality rates in developed countries, largely due to a marked decrease in deaths from infectious diseases. How much of this decline was due to vaccines? The history and data provide clear answers that matter greatly in today’s debate about vaccines as the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19 pushes us towards a vaccine that might be mandated for everyone.

Since 1900, the mortality rate in America and other first-world countries has declined by roughly 74%, creating a dramatic improvement in quality of life and life expectancy for Americans.

The simple question: “How did this happen?”

Why did the mortality rate decline so precipitously? If you listen to vaccine promoters, the answer is simple: vaccines saved us. What’s crazy about this narrative is how easy it is to disprove, the data is hiding in plain sight. The fact that this easily-proven-false narrative persists, however, tells us a lot about the world we live in, and I hope will encourage parents to reconsider the veracity of many of the narratives they’ve been fed about vaccines, and do their own primary research.

1970, Dr. Edward H Kass 

Standing before his colleagues on October 19, 1970, Harvard’s Dr. Edward H. Kass gave a speech to the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America that would likely get him run out of this same profession today. At the time, Dr. Kass was actually the President of the organization, which made the things he had to say about vaccines and their impact on the reduction in American mortality rates even more shocking, at least by today’s standards. Forty-eight years after Dr. Kass’ speech, vaccines have taken on a mythological status in many corners of our world, hyped up by the people who benefit the most from their use. Of course vaccines saved the world. Of course every child should get  every vaccine. If you don’t vaccinate, you will enable the return of deadly childhood diseases. If you don’t vaccinate, your child will die. If you question vaccines, even a little, you’re an “anti-vaxxer” who should be shunned and dismissed!  

But what if most of the history about the role vaccines played in declining mortality isn’t even true?

In his famous speech, Dr. Kass took his infectious disease colleagues to task, warning them that drawing false conclusions about WHY mortality rates had declined so much could cause them to focus on the wrong things. As he explained:

“…we had accepted some half truths and had stopped searching for the whole truths. The principal half truths were that medical research had stamped out the great killers of the past —tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia, puerperal sepsis, etc. —and that medical research and our superior system of medical care were major factors extending life expectancy, thus providing the American people with the highest level of health available in the world. That these are half truths is known but is perhaps not as well known as it should be.”

Dr. Kass then shared some eye-opening charts with his colleagues. I’m trying to imagine a President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America sharing one of these charts today at a meeting of public health officials. I picture someone turning the power off for the room where he’s presenting and then he gets tackled and carried off the stage…here’s the first example of a chart Dr. Kass shared in 1970:

 

But wait a minute, Dr. Kass’ chart doesn’t even include the measles vaccine…what gives? Well, in 1970, the measles vaccine was just beginning to be rolled out, and as you can clearly see, measles had long since experienced a dramatic decline in mortality. With Pertussis (Whooping Cough), he produced a similar chart:

In this case, you can actually see when the Pertussis vaccine was introduced. He also showed a chart for scarlet fever, which furthers the confusion about the role of vaccines, because there’s never been a scarlet fever vaccine, and yet the chart of a huge decline in mortality from scarlet fever looks very similar to measles and pertussis:

What’s the point?

Dr. Kass was trying to make a simple point to his colleagues, but one with profound implications for public health. His point was so important, I’m going to quote him in really big font to try and drive it home:

“This decline in rates of certain disorders, correlated roughly with socioeconomic circumstances, is merely the most important happening in the history of the health of man, yet we have only the vaguest and most general notions about how it happened and by what mechanisms socioeconomic improvement and decreased rates of certain diseases run in parallel.” Dr. Kass pled with his colleagues to be open to understanding WHY infectious diseases had declined so dramatically in the U.S. (as well as other first world countries). Was it nutrition? Sanitary methods? A reduction in home crowding? (We’ve since learned the answer to all three questions is, “Yes.”) He encouraged his colleagues to be careful not to jump to conclusions prematurely and to maintain objectivity and “devote ourselves to new possibilities.”

Luckily for us, Dr. Kass’ speech that day has been saved for posterity, as it was printed in its entirety in a medical journal. In fact, it’s a journal that Dr. Kass himself founded, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and his speech is called, “Infectious Disease and Social Change.” There are a number of things about Dr. Kass’ speech that I found breathtaking, especially given that he was the President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Namely:

1. He never referred to vaccines as “mankind’s greatest invention” or one of the other many hyperbolic ways vaccines are described all the time by vaccine promoters in the press today. Vaccines weren’t responsible for saving “millions of lives” in the United States, as Dr. Kass well knew.

2. In fact, he never gave vaccines much credit AT ALL for the developed world’s dramatic mortality decline. Which makes sense, because none of the data he had would have supported that view. Which made me wonder, “has anyone tried to put the contribution of vaccines to the decline in human mortality in the 20th century in context?” Read more

DTP Vaccine Associated with Increased Rate of Total Mortality in Low-Income Countries

Biospace Aug 16, 2019

SHERIDAN, Wyo., Aug. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DTP is one of the most common vaccines used in the world.  In 2012, SAGE requested that the WHO review the evidence concerning the possible effects of DTP vaccines on mortality¹. In a new expert report, Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor, DrMedSci, MSc analyzed the WHO systematic review as well as any studies published after the WHO report that assessed the effect of DTP vaccine on total mortality. This new expert report concludes that the "evidence tells us that it is likely that the DTP vaccine increases total mortality in low-income countries." ²

This echoes the conclusion by Peter Aaby – a highly acclaimed scientist renowned for studying and promoting vaccines in Africa - that "all currently available evidence suggests that DTP vaccine may kill more children from other causes than it saves from diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis. Though a vaccine protects children against the target disease it may simultaneously increase susceptibility to unrelated infections." ³ Dr. Aaby's recent study, the first ever naturally randomized comparison of mortality between children receiving DTP and those that are unvaccinated, found that children vaccinated with DTP were 10 times more likely to die in the first 6 months of life than the unvaccinated.³ 

One of the five goals of the WHO's Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) is to exceed the UN Millennium Development Goal 4 target of reducing child mortality.⁴ A strategy for achieving this goal is to reach 90% national vaccination coverage on DTP containing vaccines worldwide.⁴ According to Gøtzsche's conclusions, this strategy would be counterproductive toward the goal of reducing child mortality.

Gøtzsche offers several suggestions for potential next steps. As stated by UNICEF, "the percentage of children receiving the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTP) is often used as an indicator of how well countries are providing routine immunization services" ⁵. Gøtzsche recommends that the indicator be changed to something that is "known to be positively associated with better child survival."² Gøtzsche then explains that "it is the duty of a manufacturer of a drug or vaccine to demonstrate in randomized trials that it works and has a positive benefit to harm balance. This has not been done for the DTP vaccine." ² As such, he advocates for the initiation of randomized trials and considers the need for them "an urgent ethical imperative."²

Gøtzsche concludes with a call for the re-evaluation of current DTP vaccination practices. "No one should be offered this vaccine without full informed consent that includes information that the vaccine is likely to increase total mortality. I also believe that the vaccine should not be recommended and that, if anyone wants to use it, it must be as part of a large randomized trial."²

References:
^1. https://www.who.int/immunization/sage/sage_wg_non_specific_effects_vaccines_march2013/en/
^2.  https://vaccinescience.org/expert-report-effect-of-dtp-vaccines-on-mortality-in-children-in-low-income-countries/
^3.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5360569/
^4.  https://www.who.int/immunization/global_vaccine_action_plan/GVAP_doc_2011_2020/en/
^5.  https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/immunization/

Freedom Under Siege

Even with accurate info, humans ‘self-generate their own misinformation’: study

NY Post  December 10, 2019

Although social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have taken heat for spreading misinformation, it turns out that we — all of us — may be our own worst enemies in the battle against the scourge of fake news.

A new study found that people given accurate statistics on controversial topics tend to misremember those numbers in order to fit their own commonly held beliefs.

In the study, when people were shown that the number of Mexican immigrants in the United States declined recently — which is true but has gone against most people’s beliefs — they tended to recall the opposite. 

“Born That Way” No More

John Peck   November, 2019

A new study adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the dominant narrative about sexual orientation—that it is genetically determined—simply cannot be true. Instead, the science shows that a person’s sexual orientation and choice of partners depends heavily on the development and expression of personal autonomy regarding one’s own sexual possibilities. People with same-sex attractions should be legally and culturally free not to identify with or act on them.

Late last month, a team of MIT and Harvard scientists published a landmark study of the genetic basis for sexual orientation in the journal Science. The study, which was based on an examination of the genetic material of almost half a million individuals, definitively refutes the idea that being gay is an innate condition that is controlled or largely compelled by one’s genetic makeup.

The study contained two key findings. First, it found that the effect of the genes we inherit from our parents (known as “heritability”) on same-sex orientation was very weak, at only .32 on a scale from 0 (none) to 1 (total) heritability. This means that a person’s developmental environment—which includes diet, family, friends, neighborhood, religion, and a host of other life conditions—is twice as influential on the probability of developing same-sex behavior or orientation as a person’s genes are. More

An Apocalyptic Climate

Last Trumpet December 2019

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13-14

"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." I Peter 4:7

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will candidly and factually examine the events of our time which show that the people of this world are moving further away from God and toward catastrophe. When we consider the widespread upheaval, economic uncertainty, natural disasters, threats of conflict, deadly diseases, shifting ideology, and the religious confusion now at work, it becomes abundantly clear that humanity is moving ever closer to "the end of all things" as spoken of by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle.

For those who care to read news reports these days, you might notice that the scenarios they describe sound like the end of the world. For example, a headline from November 6, 2019, informs, "11,000 scientists worldwide warn of untold suffering due to climate crisis." (1) In a move meant to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the very first World Climate Conference, a letter was released which states in part, "We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency." The letter further goes on to say, "To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live, in ways that improve the vital signs summarized by our graphs. Economic and population growth are among the most important drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion; therefore, we need bold and drastic transformations regarding economic and population policies." (2) The story was covered by numerous media outlets, including Bloomberg News, which wrote in their headline, "Earth Needs Fewer People to Beat the Climate Crisis, Scientists Say." (3)

The cries for population control are only growing louder, and if the United States soon finds itself under the leadership of radical progressives, most of which would heed the words of these scientists, it is not inconceivable that new policies meant to curb population growth could be put in place. Such leadership would likely encourage more abortion and a greater embrace of homosexuality since both of these sins hamper procreation.

Ironically, the aforementioned Bloomberg News, published a different story on October 30, 2019, less than one week before covering the population control story cited above. The article from October is simply titled "The Global Fertility Crash" and goes on to explain in great detail how much of the world's population is actually shrinking because people are not having enough children. The article begins by noting that the global fertility rate has fallen from five live births per woman in the 1960s to just 2.43 live births per woman in 2017. It then goes on to state, "While the world is expected to add more than 3 billion people by 2100, according to the United Nations, that'll likely be the high point. Falling fertility rates and aging populations will mean serious challenges that will be felt more acutely in some places than others." It is strange that we now see dueling contradictory catastrophes reported by the same source. It should be noted that Bloomberg also reported that in 2017, nearly one-half of all countries in the world have seen their fertility rates drop to below replacement levels. (4)

While scientists fret over global population growth, the actual sad reality is that the human race is starting to die out. The fact that there are a growing number of guilt-ridden, self-loathing young people pledging to never have children is only making the problem worse. Amazingly enough, a small but growing movement has emerged with people despising their lives so much that they wish they had never been born. They call themselves "anti-natalists." (5) This trend was reported by The Guardian on November 14, 2019, in a story that chronicles the philosophy of a twenty-something Indian man who attempted to file a lawsuit against his parents simply because they brought him into the world. Speaking of the anti-natalist movement, the man was quoted as saying, "It was not our decision to be born. Human existence is totally pointless." While his lawsuit was quickly thrown out of court in India, the man further stated that his intent in filing it was "to instill that fear among parents in general. Because now parents don't think before having a child." (6) The report also cites anti-natalist philosopher David Benatar who wrote, "it would be better if humans (and other species) became extinct." (7) The absurd core tenet of anti-natalism is that "creating new life is always wrong." (8)

The prevailing societal angst is palpable. In fact, a word that has found its way into popular vocabulary is "apocalypse." A cursory search of the news will reveal a variety of stories about various apocalyptic scenarios, but oddly enough, the apocalypses they present are secular with no mention of God or His judgment on sinful man at all. As an example, a piece published by The Guardian on November 13, 2019, ominously announces in its headline, "Insect apocalypse poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn." The story goes on to tell how bees, butterflies, and other insects are dying off in record numbers, including twenty-three species of bees and wasps that went extinct in the 1900s. Furthermore, the article cites data which claims that 50 percent of all insects have been lost since 1970, while 40 percent of known insect species today are facing extinction, too. (9) Regarding the crisis, Professor Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom was quoted as saying, "We can't be sure, but in terms of numbers, we may have lost 50 percent or more of our insects since 1970 - it could be much more. We just don't know which is scary. If we don't stop the decline of our insects, there will be profound consequences for all life on earth [and] for humans." (10) Bees and butterflies play a crucial role in the pollination of crops. Thirty-five percent of all crops require pollination to grow. (11)

The constant barrage of alarming stories have left throngs of people with a very gloomy outlook on life. This is evident in an article written by reporter Cara Buckley for the New York Times. In her November 15, 2019, piece, which is entitled "Apocalypse Got You Down? Maybe This Will Help," Buckley writes, "The barrage of cataclysmic planetary news, the galloping wildfires, the smack of 90-degree New York autumn days all felt so at odds with the regular tickings of human life that I often felt quite mad. I felt complicit by merely existing. After all, I belonged to the species that was taking most of the other ones down." In seeking a remedy for guilt-infused angst, Buckley then encourages her readers to "embrace the pain, but don't stop there. Seek out a spiritual path to forge gratitude, compassion, and acceptance…" (12) The author mentions Buddhism but neglects to disclose the real solution that can truly help people who are feeling lost and hopeless. The solution is faith in Jesus Christ. Yes, the world is going to end someday, and many people are now starting to catch on to this plain fact. What should we do? Jesus instructs us in Luke 21:28, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."    More

Alcohol causes most overall harm of any drug, says study

The Age  June 22, 2019
In the grips of his alcohol addiction, David Reichmann was told by his doctor that he would be dead within a year.
"I'd suffered two minor strokes, but it didn't stop me from going to hotels every night and drinking until stumps. Then I’d take a bottle of bourbon home with me," the 53-year-old Victorian father of two said.

He would keep a bottle of whiskey next to his bed, but if he couldn't afford spirits that week, he'd mix methylated spirits with soft drink.

“I couldn't keep down a morning coffee," he said. "I’d have to have alcohol to settle me for the day."

Alcohol causes the most overall harm to the Australian community, surpassing crystal methamphetamine (ice) and heroin, a new national study suggests.
The Australia-first study, funded by St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, examined 22 drugs and measured the risk to an individual and the damage to society as a whole.

As part of the study, 25 drug-harm experts – including frontline emergency service workers, police, addiction specialists, doctors and those working in the welfare and homeless sectors – ranked the drugs on a score of zero to 100, based on the damage they caused to users, including illness, injury and death.

They also examined the effects drugs have on users' families and the wider community, such as through  violence, crime, unemployment, economic costs and relationship breakdowns.
Alcohol was ranked by far the most damaging drug to the Australian community, scoring 77 out of 100, followed by crystal meth (66), heroin (58) and fentanyls (51).

As well as consuming about 23 standards drinks a day, Mr Reichmann would smoke cannabis and regularly use crystal meth and heroin. But alcohol was always the easiest drug to get.

A bit of sun might help diversify the bugs in your gut

NBC   Oct. 24, 2019

A bit of sun might help diversify the bugs in your gut, a study published Thursday suggests.

Brief exposure to ultraviolet rays not only bumps up vitamin D levels, but could also lead to a more varied collection of gut bacteria, according to the Frontiers in Microbiology study.

On the surface, sunlight and gut microbes seem to have nothing in common — after all, your gut bacteria are unlikely to find themselves catching some rays.

Can Dandelions Actually Kill Cancer Cells?

Getholistichealth Apr 14, 2019

Here in North America it seems as though we have become obsessed with the idea of having a lush, perfectly green yard to show off to our neighbours. But what we likely don’t realize is that we could be killing off something that has not only some amazing medicinal uses, but also the potential to kill cancer cells.

Researchers from the University of Windsor, Canada have been given over $200,000 in grant money to perform an elaborate study on the effects of using dandelion roots to treat cancer.

The leaves, flowers, and roots of dandelions have long been used in traditional medicine to treat digestive issues and urinary tract infections, and also to cleanse the liver. The dandelion is actually loaded with vitamins and minerals such as: A, C, D, E and B complex, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, choline, and boron. I think it is safe to say that dandelion tea is actually a superfood.

Can Dandelions Actually Kill Cancer Cells?

Previous lab results have shown that the use of dandelion tea on leukaemia cells have caused the cancer cells to destroy themselves, which is known as apoptosis. A highly concentrated dandelion root formula has successfully been able to kill leukaemia, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer cells in lab mice.

Dr. Siyaram Pandey, a biochemist at the University of Windsor, has been studying the anti-cancer properties of dandelion root extract for over two years. He began his research after being approached by oncologist Dr. Caroline Hamm; she was curious about the benefit of dandelion root after witnessing several cancer patients improving after drinking the tea.

DNA from GM foods can survive harsh processing and digestive conditions according to review

Sustainable Pulse  Jan 18 2019

An international group of toxicologists from the UK, Russia, the Republic of Korea and Greece have published a review of research papers on the fate of the DNA derived from genetically modified food and feed entering the human body and animals. The article has been published in the prestigious journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.

According to the review data, the DNA from GM foods can survive harsh processing and digestive conditions. The authors stated that there is strong evidence that plant-food-miRNAs can survive digestion, enter the body and affect gene expression patterns.

They also added that there is limited evidence of food-born DNA integrating into the genome of the consumer and of horizontal transfer of GM crop DNA into gut bacteria.

“We are only talking about the limited pieces of evidence of this process, because this area has been insufficiently studied. Although we have not found evidence of any effect of DNA of GM products on the human genome, we can safely say that micro-ribonucleic acid (one of the main molecules in cells of living organisms, in addition to DNA and proteins) of the plant food treated with insecticides and antiviral sprays, enters the body of its consumers and can affect genetic processes. This needs exploring further,” commented one of the review co-authors Dr. Muhammad Amjad Nawaz, a visiting scientist at the “Nanotechnology” Research and Education Center (REC) operating at the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU).

In the review, the scientists examined the mechanisms by which foreign DNA can survive during digestion and penetrate into the cells of the body of those who eat GM foods. In particular, the researchers are interested in the region of the gastrointestinal tract as the hot spot for horizontal gene transfer of GM food DNA into gut bacteria. Such a transfer could potentially lead to dysbiosis and ill-health, as well as subsequent mutations.

As of 2016, the global production of genetically modified crops for food and feed was 185.1 million hectares. With such production volumes, more independent research on the potential effects of genetically modified products on human and animal health is vital.

Scientist was thrown in prison after discovering evidence that deadly retroviruses are transmitted through vaccines given to humans.

Explain Life November 17, 2018

Molecular bioloist Dr. Judy A. Mgikovits was thrown in prison after discovering evidence that deadly retroviruses are transmitted through vaccines given to humans. 

In a disturbing true story first published by Natural News, Dr. Mikovits found evidence “that deadly retroviruses have been transmitted to 25 million Americans through vaccines.”

Dr. Mikovits worked with human retroviruses and focused on immunotherapy research and HIV. In 2009, she was doing research on neurological diseases, including autism, when she discovered many of her study subjects were suffering from serious medical issues. These issues included cancer, motor-neuron disorders and chronic fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Collective-evolution.com reports: She believed a virus may have been responsible for these symptoms, and through her research, she isolated the viruses that turned out to come from mice.

It looked like a virus, it smelled like a virus, a retrovirus, because those are the types of viruses that disrupt the immune system. And several other investigators back in the 90s had actually isolated retroviruses from these people but the government called them ‘contaminants,’ that they weren’t real and that they didn’t have anything to do with the disease. Well, we isolated a new family of viruses that were called xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus. So these viruses were murine leukemia viruses, mouse viruses.
So spin forward two years, our paper published in one of the best scientific journals in the world in Science, October 8th, 2009. Usually that makes one’s career, in my case it ended my life as a scientist as I knew it.

Virus Delivered Through Vaccines

Dr. Mikovits’ paper, in and of itself, did not immediately bring the wrath of the powerful pharmaceutical industry. However, when a paper published 2 years later made the connection between this new virus and vaccines, then Mikovits’ research findings became too dangerous for the Deep State. Here is how Mikovits explains it in the video:

So in 2011, another AIDS researcher in a journal called Frontiers in Microbiology wrote a paper that really cost me a lot; I didn’t know that he was going to write this paper, but it basically said the most likely way that these murine leukemia virus-related viruses, these types of viruses, entered humans, was through vaccines.

So when did we start vaccines? 1953, 1934, right in the 30s with the polio, and what we were doing to attenuate, to make the virus less pathogenic, less toxic, is we were passing them through mouse brains, so we were passing them through the brains of mice, and every scientist who works with these viruses, and worked at the National Cancer Institute recognized the possibility that if you put human tissue and mouse tissue together the possibility is that you’re going to pick up a virus that is silent, in the mouse, that is it doesn’t hurt the mouse, but it kills the human, or causes serious disease in the human.

Cancer treatments linked to cognitive decline

Cosmos Magazine 28 November 2018

Cancer treatments can lead to declines in cognitive function a few later, research suggests.

A study published in the journal Cancer looked at a cohort of 94 women who had undergone radiation treatments and chemotherapy for breast cancer between three and six years earlier, and found significant damage to their DNA, including to the repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromosome, known as telomeres.

In one sense, this finding was not surprising. Standard cancer treatments work by damaging the DNA of tumour cells, and collateral damage to normal cells is often unavoidable. Reduced telomere activity and loss of DNA vigour are also markers of biological ageing. 

They found that the answer was yes.

The researchers identified a correlation between levels of DNA damage and reduced telomere activity with a decline in lower executive function scores, worse attention and decreased motor speed.

“These findings are important because they provide further information about what might be happening after cancer treatment that impacts cognitive decline in some individuals,” says Carroll.

“The work is novel by identifying key factors in biological aging and connecting them to cognitive function, which initiates new avenues of research.”

Study: Facebook Can Cause Depression

Zerohedge 11/16/2018

A new report conducted by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania have determined that an excessive amount of time on “social media” sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are making millennials depressed.

“It was striking,” said Melissa Hunt, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who led the study. “What we found over the course of three weeks was that rates of depression and loneliness went down significantly for people who limited their (social media) use.”

The study, “No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression," is being published in December’s Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Researchers recruited 143 students for two different trials, one in the spring semester and one in the fall semester. Each subject was required to have a Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat account, plus an Apple iPhone. They collected data on the students for about a week to get a baseline reading of their social media usage, and also had them submit questionnaires that assessed their mental health according to seven different factors: social support, fear of missing out, loneliness, autonomy, and self-acceptance, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Hunt explained to Science Daily. “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness. These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into the study.”