California has gone way overboard on proposed COVID laws. Chris explains...

California is facing a rash of exceptionally dangerous and poor legislation that I literally cannot understand or abide. The only possible way to understand it compassionately is to see those elected officials proposing it as being swept up in Mass Psychosis.

But compassion is not the same thing as condoning, let alone approving of, such recklessly indifferent ignorance. In this video, I discuss the horrendous slate of California bills with Laura Sextro, CEO and COO of the Unity Project. (Fun fact: I am on the strategic advisory council for the Unity Project.)

I heartily ask everyone to pitch in here. Write letters, make phone calls, and donate to the Unity Project. Why? Because even if you don’t live in California, as goes California, so go other states. If California passes these laws, your state could well be next. This is a battle for the future and soul of our country, individual rights, parental rights, medical freedom and all the rest.

John reviews an article from the BMJ - The illusion of evidence based medicine

Evidence based medicine has been corrupted by corporate interests, failed regulation, and commercialisation of academia, argue these authors

From the notes under the clip...

THE JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ANTIBIOTICS 74―1 61( 61 )
Global trends in clinical studies of ivermectin in COVID-19
Morimasa Yagisawa, Patrick J. Foster, Hideaki Hanaki, Satoshi Ōmura Kitasato University asked Merck & Co., Inc. to conduct clinical trials of ivermectin for COVID-19 in Japan.

This company has priority to submit an application for an expansion of ivermectin’s indications, since the original approval for the manufacture and sale of ivermectin was conferred to it. However, the company said that it had no intention of conducting clinical trials. The release into the public domain of previously confidential pharmaceutical industry documents, valuable insight into the degree to which industry sponsored clinical trials are misrepresented. Until this problem is corrected, evidence based medicine will remain an illusion
Karl Popper

A science of real integrity practitioners are careful not to cling to cherished hypotheses, and take seriously the outcome of the most stringent experiments. This ideal is, however, threatened by corporations, financial interests trump the common good. Medicine is largely dominated by a small number of very large pharmaceutical companies, that compete for market share, but are effectively united in their efforts to expanding that market.

Scientific progress is thwarted by the ownership of data and knowledge because industry suppresses negative trial results, fails to report adverse events, and does not share raw data with the academic research community.

Patients die because of the adverse impact of commercial interests on the research agenda, universities, and regulators. Hierarchical power structures, product loyalty, and public relations propaganda over scientific integrity.

Universities, have adopted a neo-liberal market approach, actively seeking pharmaceutical funding on commercial terms. As a result, university departments become instruments of industry: through company control of the research agenda, and ghostwriting of medical journal articles and continuing medical education, academics become agents for the promotion of commercial products.

The corporate university also compromises the concept of academic leadership. Deans, (proper academics) have in places been replaced with fundraisers and academic managers, who are forced to demonstrate their profitability or show how they can attract corporate sponsors.

In medicine, those who succeed in academia are likely to be key opinion leaders (KOLs in marketing parlance), whose careers can be advanced through the opportunities provided by industry, physicians are selected based on their influence on prescribing habits of other physicians. KOLs are sought out by industry for this influence and for the prestige that their university affiliation brings to the branding of the company’s products. KOLs present results of industry trials at medical conferences and in continuing medical education. Instead of acting as independent, disinterested scientists and critically evaluating a drug’s performance, they become what marketing executives refer to as “product champions.”

While universities fail to correct misrepresentations of the science from such collaborations, critics of industry face rejections from journals, legal threats, and the potential destruction of their careers. This uneven playing field is exactly what concerned Popper when he wrote about Suppression and control of the means of science communication (Popper).

Regulators receive funding from industry, and use industry funded and performed trials to approve drugs, without in most cases seeing the raw data. Drug companies, “mark their own homework”

The other bit of COVID news I have today confirms another of my hypotheses. That is the health of your gut microbiome is a major factor in your response to a COVID infection.

The presentation was dry as toast but worthwhile if you have an interest.

This week's FLCCC Weekly Update is a special episode devoted to gut health and COVID-19 hosted by Betsy Ashton with panel guests Dr. Keith Berkowitz, Dr. Paul Marik, and Dr. Robin Rose. Dr. Robin Rose has been practicing gastroenterology for over 12 years in Fairfield County Connecticut with an emphasis on functional medicine. She is currently an attending physician at Stamford Hospital and double board certified in Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine. Check out Dr. Rose's website here: https://www.terrainhealth.org and the slides from the presentation are here:
https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Gut-Health-an...
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I found her gut health diet a bit lacking. Healthy fats (ie NOT seed oils) are the way to seal up a leaky gut...butter, lard, coconut oil, olive oil, and so on. I would additionally recommend fatty meats with the leafy greens which she recommends. Of course that includes dropping grains and most starches. YMMV

So, do you have any COVID news?