Volume 77, no. 1 January 2021
Perhaps in a few years or decades we will have 20/20 hindsight on the unprecedented, bizarre, disastrous events of 2020. For now, we have questions.
Transparency—a newly popular buzzword—is blocked at all levels of governance, particularly if it means honesty or dedication to objective truth. It is, however, being imposed on regular citizens, with the destruction of privacy in your movements, financial transactions, contacts (even strangers within a 6-ft radius), and medical records. The stated rationale may be infection control. But for library circulation records? Just after the attack on the World Trade Center, attorney Betsy Bernfeld placed her Teton County library card at the wrought iron fence surrounding the smoldering ruins, which had become something of an American Wailing Wall. “To me, a symbol of freedom. A reminder of the vigilance that is necessary to preserve both security and freedom.”
“It occurred to me that maybe the terrorists had missed their target,” she writes (https://tinyurl.com/ycpn4vpw). “The heart of America is not really about trade and money, it’s about freedom. Isn’t it? Isn’t the heart of America freedom?” But now, she laments, your library records are an open book.
The response to 911 was the loss of much freedom. But 911 did not arouse terror from Maine to California to Wyoming.
Despite all the unknowns, a few things are clear about COVID-19: (1) The havoc is global. Although it affects U.S. politics, it is not solely about the U.S. 2020 election. (2) The human race has survived worse respiratory viruses before, without the destructive lockdowns—and without mass vaccination. (3) The narrative is centrally controlled, with pervasive censorship (and worse) suppressing early treatment. (4) The COVID crisis overlaps with bitter divisiveness in American politics.
The Great Divide
The “deplorables,” from bikers to the Amish, march under a unifying symbol—the American flag. On the other side of the divide are several banners: the black Antifa flag, the black BLM flag, and the rainbow LGBTQ++ flag, which like a prism divides and separates. The only pro-freedom posters are pro-abortion, a litmus test for the Left. “Inclusiveness” excludes whites, straights, and males who are insufficiently guilt-ridden.
Looting, arson, and discriminatory government lockdowns have a common effect: the impoverishment and destruction of independent businesses, churches, families, and masculine virtues. That is, the elimination of effective resistance to a fascist central government with two tiers: a small, privileged elite and its dependent, compliant serfs. The idealists and the rioters may think they will be in charge, or at least protected, when the supposed “oppressors” are brought down. But as Friedrich Schiller wrote in his 1782 play Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa, “The Moor has done what he was supposed to do; he shall go away now.” The world’s tiny elite of mostly elderly white male multi-billionaires will be firmly in control (see AAPS News, November 2020)—if all goes as apparently planned (AAPS News, September 2020).
It was thought that Western governments would “never get away with” totalitarian Chinese methods. “I think people’s sense of what is possible in terms of control changed quite dramatically between January and March,” stated Professor Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College computer modeler behind Britain’s draconian lockdowns, which caused the biggest collapse in GDP in 300 years and destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs (tinyurl.com/y9vxk2lh)—and which is being tried again.
What Is Really Going On, and How Can We Stop It?
Many theories are circulating in efforts to “connect the dots.” The “dots” may not be connected, or there may be competing explanations. Some suggestive dots are: (1) Exuberant New Year’s celebrations by a dense crowd in Wuhan, China, while Times Square was dead quiet (https://tinyurl.com/yaum2wdn); (2) pervasive connections between universities, corporations, elected officials, international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Chinese Communist Party; (3) the enormous influence of individuals such as Bill Gates, who advocates for universal vaccination, “climate change” policies that spell energy starvation—and drastic reductions in the human population; (4) suppressing lifesaving treatments while constantly broadcasting “case” (positive PCR test) counts and death rates.
The destruction of American cultural memory has become more visible with the vandalizing of statues and monuments, but has been occurring in more subtle ways for centuries, as chronicled in a 1976 book by Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. Even then, he spoke about the potential of computers for surveillance and influence far beyond the dreams of previous totalitarians. He discusses the chaos of violence, radical global wealth redistribution, and growing shortages of food and other necessities. To resist, we need a firm foundation for freedom without chaos. The majority “values” of personal peace and affluence—which dissenters put at risk—lead to incremental acceptance of evil.
Remember that in simpler times the American War for Independence took at least 18 years. There were victories and defeats, errors, treason, and false prophets. Ultimately, after the long, complicated, and exhausting fight, justice and liberty prevailed.
We must endure until the day of victory.
From the Archives
The AAPS Essay Contest is upsetting the socialists’ plan of using high school students (the future voters) to attain Socialism •••••• Evidence of the socialists’ alarm over the growing success of the Contest is shown by a resolution passed by the North Carolina State Federation of Labor…. •••••• For failing to sell Socialism to the nation’s adults, the socialists’ next great hope is to capture the young minds for Socialism •••••• Hitler did the same thing and made it work—for a time.
Proof that the [AAPS] Essay Contest is succeeding…is given in the results of the Purdue University Opinion poll •••••• In 1948, 80% of high school students polled, favored socialized medicine •••••• In 1950, the last year the question was asked, the poll revealed that the percentage of students favoring socialized medicine had been reduced to 55%…. •••••• The North Carolina State Federation of Labor realized that the six annual AAPS Essay Contests (started in 1947) have been most effective in bringing about this encouraging change in the thinking of the nation’s high school students •••••• They don’t like it!
AAPS Newsletter, July 1952, https://tinyurl.com/y8m45chw
One of our longest active members, Dr. S. Clarke Smith of Anaheim, Calif., mentioned during a Doctors Are In group discussion that he found out about AAPS when he won third prize in the AAPS high school student essay contest in 1952.
Community Is Critical
In Live Not by Lies, Rod Dreher explains how resistance was kept alive behind the Iron Curtain, without which the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia could never have occurred. A key institution of the parallel polis was seminars held in private homes, with lectures on topics needed to preserve cultural memory. Said the underground Catholic bishop Ján Chryzostom Korec, “The communists could take everything from us. They could take samizdat from us. They can take our opportunity to speak out publicly…. But we can’t let them take away our small communities.” Beware of the COVID bans on private gatherings!
Wealth Redistribution 2021
A more restrictive 4–6 week national lockdown, paid for by government, is what we need to stop COVID until vaccines arrive, states University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm, appointed to Biden coronavirus task force:
Because we are saving more, we have the resources to support those who have been laid off. Typically when the government runs deficits, it must rely on foreign investors to buy the debt because Americans aren’t generating enough savings to fund it. But we can finance the added deficits for Covid-19 relief from our own domestic savings…. That’s why traditional concerns about racking up too much government debt do not apply in this situation (tinyurl.com/yy6tqbw7).
“We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power.”
George Orwell, 1984
Incrementalism: How a Tyrannical Policy Is Made
Older members may recall that surgeons used to wear cloth skull caps, but these have been banned by the Joint Commission, and all operating room personnel must now wear paper bouffant hats. The intention was to decrease infections. Despite aggressive enforcement, there is no evidence of improvement in safety, and there are harms. Yet it appears to be impossible to reverse the policy. The “illusionary” quality improvement measures concern compliance, not patient outcomes. The prolonged “bouffant hat debate” between surgeons and administration is described in the Annals of Surgery (tinyurl.com/ychzhy4v).
Labeling Patients
Some medical centers allow electronic sticky notes in patients’ electronic health records—currently they can only be created and seen by faculty. One such note read “Disruptive patient: makes insensitive racially charged remarks.” Example: an observation that BLM protesters did not wear masks.
Assuring Maximal Fear and Death?
Psychiatric detention. Swiss physician Thomas Binder, author of a blog essay “The Global Corona Crime Against Humanity: Science Against the Suicidal Death Cult,” was detained for 6 days for “COVID-madness” based on an anonymous tip (https://tinyurl.com/y5u76b72).
Ivermectin outlawed. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has banned importation of ivermectin, with criminal penalties (tinyurl.com/y369l36k).
Hydroxychloroquine criminalized. In Queensland, Australia, doctors can be jailed for prescribing HCQ for COVID-19 (tinyurl.com/ya3wrqyq), and there is blanket suppression of any discussion of use of HCQ. A doctor is reportedly being investigated on criminal charges of “advertising” for publicly promoting early treatment.
PANDA Promotes Immediate Re-Opening
Pandemics—Data and Analytics presents a protocol for immediately re-opening society (tinyurl.com/y2wnhrcj):
Lift all COVID-19 specific restrictions and mandates.
Offer protection to vulnerable individuals.
End mass testing, contact tracing, quarantining, and lockdowns.
Ensure transparency of all efficacy and safety data of vaccines.
Reassert open scientific debate and freedom of speech, opinion, and choice.
AAPS Calendar
Sep 29-Oct 2, 2021. 78th Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA
ACTION OF THE MONTH
If you offer early treatment for COVID-19 by protocol similar to the McCullough or Zelenko methods, please add your name to a list we are compiling to help patients at .
A Highly Profitable Virus
Forbes has found 50 new pandemic billionaires in 2020, from 11 different countries. Three dozen of them now live in China. Yuan Liping, a citizen of Canada, worth $4.1 billion, owns 24% of Shenzhen Kangtai, the exclusive Chinese manufacturer for the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, with a deal to produce 200 million doses. In 2013, its hepatitis B vaccine was linked to the death of 17 infants, but a government investigation went nowhere and critics were reportedly pressured to retract negative articles. Other moguls are invested in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and machines that manufacture billions of vials for vaccines (https://tinyurl.com/yc335fms).
Also standing to profit is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Anthony Fauci, which owns critical patents on the Moderna vaccine and will receive half the royalties. Six of Fauci’s employees may also receive $150,000 annual royalties. The Pentagon has a contract to purchase 500 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, enough to vaccinate 75% of the U.S. population. The response to a Freedom of Information Act request by journalist Emily Kopp of Congressional Quarterly was a completely redacted contract (tinyurl.com/yxaaj35p).
Chinese Journalist on Trial for Truth-telling
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old lawyer turned citizen journalist, is facing the first known trial of a chronicler of China’s coronavirus crisis—other journalists disappeared or were silenced. The conviction rate in China is 99.9%, and a 4–5 year prison term is requested. She has been on hunger strike since her arrest.
Ms. Zhang made videos of a hospital hallway, a crematory, a deserted train station, and citizens’ reactions to a government “gratitude education” program. She is accused of “spreading lies” that detract from the narrative of “a succession of wise, triumphant moves by the government.” President Xi Jinping had ordered officials to “strengthen the guidance of public opinion,” and hundreds of journalists from state media were deployed to Wuhan (NYT 12/25/20, https://tinyurl.com/y77qcdj4).
Citizens Sue Facebook
Five citizens have filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Factcheck.org, Poynter Institute, Lead Stories, and Does 1-20 (Sally Loveland et al. v. Facebook et al., https://tinyurl.com/y8wh95dg). The complaint states:
Plaintiffs sue Defendants for their deliberate use of suppression, censorship and “known lies” to infringe on Plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights in agency with the U.S. government. Defendants have irreparably damaged Plaintiffs’ sacred obligations to fulfill their duty as Americans to share important health care information with their fellow citizens THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED MANY DEATHS [emphasis in original]….
This is a case about the most powerful monopoly on Earth, Facebook, which acquired its monopoly over the American public square through fraud and artifice….
Facebook sold “free” services based on total surveillance it never disclosed while asserting total dominion over their content, Plaintiffs argue. Defendants, as agents of government overseers, allegedly squelched Plaintiffs’ First Amendment Rights while holding Plaintiffs’ content hostage to erasure and confiscation in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Defendants also “monitored, censored and libelously branded Plaintiffs as purveyors of false, misleading and dangerous information to curry favor with politicians who were positioned to protect Facebook’s monopoly, immunities, [and] anti-competitive position.”
Facebook’s bad-faith curation as an “information content provider” should disqualify its qualified immunity under Section 230, Plaintiffs argue (https://tinyurl.com/y8n3533n).
AAPS Files Amicus in Walmart v. DEA
In response to a threatened lawsuit by the Dept. of Justice, Walmart has sued pre-emptively to contest the attempt of DOJ and the Drug Enforcement Administration “to retroactively impose on pharmacists and pharmacies unworkable requirements that are not found in any law and go beyond what pharmacists are trained and licensed to perform.”
DOJ and DEA contend that it is not enough for a pharmacist to refuse to fill prescriptions known to be illegitimate. Instead, they would require that every time a patient presents a facially valid prescription for an opioid medication, the pharmacist must second-guess the doctor’s medical judgment. Then, the corporation would be held liable if it did not override its pharmacists’ judgments by blocking all prescriptions written by particular doctors across the whole pharmacy chain.
Walmart contends that these supposed duties find no basis in the DEA’s own regulations, much less in statutes.
In its amicus, AAPS points out that one “red flag” is the use of cash. “[This] monitoring program circumvents important due process safeguards by forcing pharmacists to blacklist physicians and refuse to fill prescriptions based on arbitrary criteria such as payment by cash or geographic distance….”
“The practice of private, ethical medicine depends heavily on the prompt filling of physicians’ prescriptions by pharmacists without second-guessing, delays, or bureaucratic red tape. The practices of medicine and pharmacy are fields that are traditionally within the exclusive jurisdiction of the States, and one-size-fits-all or “top-down” interference by federal agencies in medical care is neither beneficial nor authorized by Congress….”
The facts in this case exemplify the administrative state running amok and trammeling traditional rights within the exclusive jurisdiction of the States,” writes AAPS general counsel Andrew Schlafly. “Defendants seek to federalize violations of state law, such that a violation of an unworkable state law which may never be enforced somehow becomes a federal law violation to justify levying draconian federal fines” (tinyurl.com/ycgz6tta).
Tip of the Month: Be very careful not to promise a “cure” for anything, or use language suggesting a cure, and be cautious about speaking to any federal agent particularly in the absence of your attorney. An innocuous-appearing statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, “prohibits knowingly and willfully making false or fraudulent statements, or concealing information, in ‘any matter within the jurisdiction’ of the federal government of the United States.” This statute is often used in criminal prosecutions when a government agent disagrees with someone while investigating him.
Correspondence
Privatized Surveillance. A number of smartphone digital proof of vaccination apps have been developed, and airlines have started adopting them, especially for international flights. Even The New York Times writes: “Civil liberties experts also warn that the technology could create an invasive system of social control, akin to the heightened surveillance that China adopted during the pandemic—only instead of federal or state governments, private actors like employers and restaurants would determine who can and cannot access services.” Law professor Michele Goodwin notes: “Protecting public health has historically been used as a proxy for discrimination.” But IBM vice president Eric Piscini says that without such apps, people will limit travel and entertainment for “lack of confidence” (https://tinyurl.com/y63c84ad).
AAPS stands for informed consent and patient rights.
Lawrence R. Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., Lake View, NY
Monoclonal Antibodies. Only 5–20% of the supply of monoclonal antibodies are being used, despite reports that they reduce hospitalizations by 70% if taken in time (https://tinyurl.com/ydz37blf). Keep in mind that the FDA Emergency Use Authorization for the Lilly monoclonal antibody product was based on a 3-event difference in hospitalizations between the antibody and placebo. Likewise, the Regeneron pair of antibodies were also approved on a razor-thin margin of 2 hospitalizations difference between the groups. Could it be the lack of enthusiasm is based on the “scientific evidence”? Or is it lack of attention to logistics on giving infusions in nursing homes and other locations?
Peter A. McCullough, M.D., Dallas, TX
Patients Want Early Treatment. The mainstream media and organized medicine keep focusing on expensive unproved treatments while inexpensive proven outpatient treatments are actually saving lives. Patients are speaking up, and the truth is gaining traction. I send my patients to the two Senate hearings and they come back begging for hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.
Alieta Eck, M.D., Somerset, NJ
Adrenal Status. During the severe influenza epidemic of 1918, the majority of autopsies revealed that the adrenals had been severely affected. In fact, it was postulated that the reason for death may have been adrenal exhaustion rather than the pathogen itself. In another study from the same epidemic, people taking adrenal extracts fared much better through the course of the disease than those who did not.
Steven Hatfill, M.D., Washington, D.C.
Goodbye 2020. In 2021, I wish you peace, joy, and good health. As for 2020, hit delete, empty recycle bin, bleach-bit, restore to factory settings, and cast into the pit. It has a deadly virus.
Stella Immanuel, M.D., Houston, TX
Thank You to Sen. Ron Johnson. The questions from Democrat senators at the first hearing on early COVID treatment (tinyurl.com/yc3kqqwy) proved the point extremely well that this is all about politics and not about “science” or medicine or, even more tragically, the lives of Americans.
None of us are pushing for mandatory treatment of early COVID-19, though…a cogent case could be made that it would take the pressure off hospitals in a much more meaningful way than canceling Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas, and destroying the livelihood of most of the workers in the country…. What we want is the ability for individual patients and physicians to make the decision to use these safe, effective, and inexpensive drugs when faced with a deadly disease. This is the same risk/benefit decision that is made hundreds of thousands of times a day with any other medication in every other disease. But this disease and this drug is somehow singled out as being different. Informed consent is cancelled by the government. This should scare everyone….. As you said, “something else” is indeed at work here. Tragically, tens of thousands of people have already paid with their lives for an ideology…. Someday this will form the core of instruction on medical ethics. If you are a believer, this can only be explained rationally by the existence of pure evil.
Russell Gonnering, M.D., Medical College of Wisconsin
The Wellspring of Marxism. Envy, the most destructive vice, is a pervasive energizing force that drives progressivism and other utopian political movements. Cancel culture is an expression of the social conduct of the envious. The reactions of targets of the envious are guilt and fear, explaining the behavior of both sides.
As Peter Skurkiss explains, “White Is Evil” was formalized into a doctrine of politically correct belief that was not to be questioned on university campuses. Then, many corporations and government agencies fell in line, putting their employees through training programs to ensure that even the most unrepentant of whites learned of their privilege and culpability in the sins of Western civilization. Those who envy normal, middle-class society have little interest in appropriating its advantages but rather are acting out a nihilistic urge to destroy for the sake of destroying (https://tinyurl.com/y3ran5ez).
John Dale Dunn, M.D., J.D., Brownwood, TX
