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This information is being provided on a periodic basis for patients and others interested in updates regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19, Sars-CoV-2). Facts are provided. My comments and opinions are listed separately. The goal of these updates has been to help the community in keeping informed of issues regarding Coronavirus from a local medical perspective. As a clinical immunologist, I believe it is vital that information be shared with regard to this important issue. If you would like to receive this information via Email, feel free to Email us at aasc1234@protonmail.com . The opinions expressed in this Email are that of Dr. Dubravec. Good doctors can disagree. Readers are encouraged to seek as much information as possible regarding COVID-19. Information in this Email is not intended as a replacement for diagnosis or treatment by your doctor. Nothing in this Email provides medical advice or any form of diagnosis or treatment. Medical decisions should be made by the patient’s physician. All information provided here is for general informational purposes and is not medical advice to users.

If you would like to receive this information via Email, feel free to Email us at aasc1234@protonmail.com .

Fact:

It has now been three years since this office first wrote information regarding COVID-19. Here is a reflection from a medical professional.

Comment/Opinion:

March 29, 2023

COVID-19 – Three Years Later

It has been three years since the COVID-19 (Sars-CoV2, Coronavirus) outbreak occurred in the United States. It has had an impact on American society equal to or greater than any other momentous event in American history. Its impact on American medicine has been dramatic. Although much of it is negative and dangerous, the precedents set and the ripples COVID-19 responses produced have set in motion a train in US medical care that will either be destroyed if it pursues a derailed course or will set itself straight again with strength and vigor if we learn the lessons of these few dramatic years.

The Fantastic Success of Fear

The narrative of COVID-19 was set on a backdrop of coordinated, incremental fearmongering and outright lies. As the virus was spreading from China, dramatic and apocalyptic forecasts of two to three million lives lost, just in the US, were being predicted based on “modeling” that had no rational foundation. This draconian information was not tempered by real world data in Italy, one of the earliest countries hit by the virus, which showed that COVID-19 was by almost all objective measures a disease of elderly or those with multiple medical conditions; other age groups were not dying or even becoming seriously ill with the disease. By August 2020, the CDC had to admit that just 6% of COVID-19 deaths listed on their Provisional Death Count Webpage could be conclusively attributed to COVID-19 (1), and in September 2020 the CDC stated that those over the age of 75 years had a 94.65% of NOT dying from COVID-19 if they became ill with it. Other data revealed a similar high recovery rate from infection. (2)

The false notion that anyone could spread COVID-19, even though they were asymptomatic, was heavily promoted to spread the fear that all of us were dangers to each other. This led to office, church, and business closures at a scale unprecedented in US history. Even after credible research showing that asymptomatic individuals have less than a 3% chance of spreading viral illness (3), the mindset and the fear was embedded in the minds of millions.

Even the testing used to determine COVID-19 infection was manipulated and abused. Testing relied on PCR swabs from the upper airway which used a number of cycles to determine the presence of possible COVID-19. At first, in concert with appropriate lab techniques, approximately 23 cycles were used to run the tests. However, shortly after the testing became widespread, the number of cycles mysteriously increased to more than 30 cycles. Many labs used 40 cycles which caused a false positive rate of 80% or more, leading to a host of mislabeled individuals as having COVID-19. This is in addition to the developer of the PCR test noting that the PCR test should not be used for diagnosis of COVID-19 as it picks up particles of the virus and not the full virus itself. The CDC itself issued caution with the use of PCR testing (4).

But this information did not matter. With regard to the medical community, irrational fear infected many doctors like a 14^th century plague. Physicians developed fear on multiple levels. On the one hand, they feared getting the virus even though early data revealed it to be no more dangerous than influenza. Patients reported that their doctor refused to see them if they had a fever, a cough, or other symptoms that patients often get with their seasonal sinus infections or bronchitis. Some doctors refused to go to restaurants or allow anyone to visit their homes. Other doctors would be seen wearing masks everywhere, even alone in their cars. One patient revealed that she told she would not be seen since she was sick. Another doctor bought a motor home so he would not have to be on a plane or in a hotel when traveling. Another doctor called and asked, in 2021 (a year after the onset of COVID-19 in the United States), if it was OK for him to fly in a plane. A patient reported that after she came for her appointment for bronchitis and coughed once in the exam room, her doctor kicked her out of the office and yelled her the entire way out of the building, scolding her for exposing the doctor and other patients to potential COVID-19. With regard to this doctor, it appeared to be out of abject fear of COVID-19 infection.

But fear of illness was not the only type of fear doctors had. Fear of being outside of the “herd” also infected many doctors as they witnessed the censoring of medical professionals who discussed any ideas contrary to a certain narrative. Led by the CDC and other organizations, a “do not treat until we have a vaccine” attitude seemed to arise and take hold. Physicians who presented an abundance of data regarding early treatment of COVID-19 with repurposed drugs (e.g., hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin) were censored and/or harassed. Complaints were filed to state licensing boards by pharmacists, patients, and fellow physicians in a type of mass formation psychosis never before seen in the United States. Although no doctor lost his/her license prescribing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for COVID-19 (as it is legal to do so), the threat of scrutiny from a state authority scared many physicians and they simply slammed the door on their ill patients requesting this care. The damage to the doctor/patient relationship was catastrophic.

Hospitals were incentivized to the tune of thousands of dollars to offer remdesivir instead of hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, even though the World Health Organization refused to recommend remdesivir, which has a 22% chance of causing kidney failure, as a drug to treat COVID-19. Hospitals were also financially rewarded for every COVID-19 diagnosis they documented, leading to outrageous incidents such as one where a young individual who died in a motorcycle accident was given the diagnosis of COVID-19 on his death certificate. Hospitals and health care systems now employ over 70% of physicians in the United States. Many of them prohibited physicians from prescribing potentially life-saving therapies, and physicians who did had their prescriptions denied and/or the physicians were fired. This led to many physicians simply complying out of fear for their paychecks. The move from independent physician practice over the past 30 years, where the patient is the physician’s bread and butter, to an employed situation where the doctor’s income is from a medical care system, allowed for doctors to be bullied into compliance with treatment strategies (or lack of them) that they had no freedom from which to move away.

This irrational fear lives on. Many patients still have difficulty seeing a doctor face to face, either because their doctor demands a “telemedicine” visit or because the doctor wears a mask. One patient described how he has no clue what his doctor looks like as his doctor of three years still wears a mask when seeing each patient and demands his patients do the same. This is after numerous research which fails to show any significant benefit in preventing transmission or reception of COVID-19 with wearing a mask. (5)

Ignorance: The Force Multiplier of Fear

As the virus was spreading in the Spring of 2020, many physicians blindly followed guidelines set forth by the CDC with regard to the treatment (or non-treatment) of COVID-19. The CDC is first and foremost a data gathering organization. It provides advisory guidelines and suggestions with regard to the care of patients. (6) This all changed with COVID-19. Doctors, for the most part, did whatever the CDC recommended. Included in this recommendation was that patients would not be treated for COVID-19 until they were significantly ill. Outpatient management of COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin was discouraged (but never illegal). This led many outpatient doctors to simply close the door on understanding this viral illness.

The FDA also recommended against (but did not prohibit) the use of repurposed drugs for early treatment of COVID-19. However, unbeknownst to many a health care professional, the FDA has regulatory oversight on the approval of drugs for human consumption and their advertising. A doctor has discretion for what reason a drug is used. It is legal for physicians to use drugs “off label”, i.e., for purposes other than what they were FDA approved to be used for, if that doctor has appropriate reasons for doing so, including clinical research and/or experience. This has been a hallmark of American medicine for years.

At times over the past 3 years, it seemed as if patients knew more than their doctors with regard to the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and acute treatment of COVID-19. This led to a significant erosion of patient confidence with regard to the knowledge of their doctors. Doctors who did treat COVID-19 with repurposed drugs were overwhelmed.

The New Pandemic: Vaccines

COVID-19 vaccination was hailed as the “fix”, and the only fix, for the spread of infection. A new technology, gene therapy vaccines (mRNA), never tried on humans for prevention of viral illness, was rapidly amassed and set into motion. This is despite the failure (and death) of animals when this technology was attempted for an earlier form of Coronavirus (Sars-CoV-1). The resulting data after the vaccines were rolled out is troubling. As an example, by February of 2021, both Pfizer (one of the manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines) and the FDA were aware of 275 strokes that occurred in association with these vaccines; 60 of these 275 patients died, with 30 of the 60 deaths occurring within 48 hours of receiving the vaccine. This information was not made public until a court order one year later. (7) Numerous other statistics have been made public, including over 34,000 deaths, 1800 heart attacks, 64,000 permanently disabled, and 4000 miscarriages reported in association with receiving COVID-19 vaccination. (8) Despite these statistics from the CDC and FDA, COVID-19 vaccination continues to be recommended. Other vaccines have been pulled due to vastly less deaths and injuries associated with them. Although not all deaths associated with vaccinations can with certainty be blamed on the vaccine, in drug and vaccination reactions, the rule applies: correlation is cause until abundant evidence points otherwise.

Safety concerns with regard to COVID-19 vaccines are not the only problem with them. Their effectiveness is seriously questioned. (9)

The silent response from the American public is deafening: less than 20% of Americans are “fully vaccinated” to COVID-19 as of this writing.

Hope For the Future

There are plenty of signs that point to a better future, even if not a total resolution, of the misinformation and fear that has been so much a part of our culture over the past three years. The truth is coming out in greater amounts. Doctors previously banned from social media are once again accessible on these platforms. The lack of further vaccination by a significant amount of the American public reflects a hesitancy, or a wearing out, of the fearmongering that gripped so many people.

We have learned a lot about treating viral illness with repurposed drugs. Even the virus itself, which did kill and injure thousands of Americans, is much milder than the original form and can be expected to take its place as a cold bug alongside other Coronaviruses that have been a part of the viral landscape in the US for over 50 years.

Many Americans have learned the value of advocating for their health and developing networks of medical care that they can trust and access. Many people who feared have learned to overcome and manage their fear. Although for many, the doctor/patient relationship has suffered irreparably, for others, it has been strengthened.

A good number of Americans have returned to a spiritual life and have rediscovered God. They are submitting themselves to the will of God. They are also committing themselves to making their community a better place to live, and like the founding fathers of this country, are dedicating themselves to helping future generations have a better life and hopefully learn from these past three years.

It is wrong not to hope. Hope is integral to good health. Let us all hope in a better future, God-based, and free of anxiety and unnecessary fear.

Martin Dubravec, MD

Allergy, Asthma, and Integrative Care

Cadillac, MI 49601

Bibliography

(1) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm

(2) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-york-coronavirus-cases.html

https://acl.gov/sites/default/files/programs/2016-11/Michigan%20Epi%20Profile%20Final.pdf

www.michigan.gov/coronavirus

(3) https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2003100

(4) https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download

(5) https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses