Vinay Prasad, MD MPH; Physician & Professor Hematologist/ Oncologist Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Medicine Author of 500+ Peer Reviewed papers, 2 Books, 2 Podcasts, 100+ op-eds.
Dr. Prasad believes we should encourage Mark Zuckerberg to continue to speak out about government interference with social media platforms.
He also makes good points about the harm done because of government Covid vaccine mandates. For one thing, it has weakened support for other vaccines that are beneficial because people no longer trust the government agencies such as the CDC and NIH, nor the pharmaceutical companies.
Stella's Place 
I guess you guys may be getting tired of hearing this, but I’m one of those people. I’m not getting a vaccine for anything in the future unless I read some compelling, convincing proofs regarding that specific vaccine. Which I so far have not.
I refused the pneumonia vaccine last year, the first year Medicare would cover it, and I am not taking a flu vaccine either. Every single thing that the medical professionals tell me about any drug, I research, and then dig deeper yet.
I was always suspicious, but for too long I trusted my doctors. Unlike most people, I had no bad experiences with my doctors during Covid. None tried to force me into the shots. But they all complied, from wearing the useless masks to at least asking your vaccination status. None of them pushed back against the ban on ivermectin and other treatments. At best, you could say, they kept their heads down.
I will never trust again. My current big investigation and skepticism is on cholesterol lowering drugs. Working on that.
The starting point in dealing with every medical professional, for me, is keeping the profitability angle in mind. I have no problem with capitalism, so doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and even drug companies making money doesn’t bother me.
What bothers me is that now giant bags of money are so much the overriding concern. Many drugs are of no real benefit, and some are harmful. Doctors often order unnecessary tests and procedures, especially if they belong to a group affiliated with a hospital. They have quotas for patients to see, quotas for profitability, and that includes related labs and procedures.
I used to just take my kids to the doctor if they were really sick. Doctors then treated everything, sewed kids up, set bones, all kinds of stuff. My grandkids, who have different pediatricians, all have so many tests, labs, etc. All of them mostly come back negative, over and over again. I can’t tell you how many CAT scans my teenage grandson athlete has had, almost all of which found nothing.
Also, they really, really push drugs for kids. So many are diagnosed as ADHD, depressed, having anxiety. Something. Anything.
Every single kid has to have braces. I reckon all my kids are falling for this, even though I can’t see a thing wrong with most of the grandkids teeth.
My kids spend hundreds of dollars per month on medical stuff that we never had, or needed. As the grandmother of a kid who had heart surgery, I am not blind to the good. But holy cow, common sense, please!
Most large hospitals have in house labs now, and all doctors are expected to send blood and tissues there rather than outside their network.
Many doctors are having to practice this way to care for their patients, just as we have to wade through it to get help.
It sucks.
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Wow, I agree totally with you. I have refused all the “for the elderly” vaccinations, pneumonia, flu, etc.
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aus, regarding the cholesterol drugs. Some videos had popped up for me on YouTube, and I’d watch a few minutes of them, but never pursued it.
Over the course of the last year, I’ve had concerning memory problems. Yes, I know that comes as we age, but it’s been bad for me. I read one woman’s description of a loved one who had dementia, and she said something that hit home. They lost their nouns first.
Every day there would be words, common words, that wouldn’t come to me in a conversation. To the point it was becoming humiliating. My husband would often supply words for me. If I was writing a comment or a post for the Tree, I’d often have to google “that word that means…” and it began to happen more and more frequently.
Then in one of the things that I was halfway paying attention to about cholesterol diagnoses and meds, I read that the drugs often cause memory loss. I read more. Decided to stop taking the drug several weeks ago, and I was supposed to see my doctor today, but it got canceled.
Yesterday, it hit me, I haven’t been having this problem. I asked my husband to be sure, and he said he can’t remember when it’s happened recently.
I am really hopeful that has corrected the problem. It was very scary.
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I’m on a statin and also have that problem…… I’ve been wondering about this for awhile. I’m thinking of stopping mine, now, on the first…
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I am glad you have noticed a difference and you are better. I have always had trouble remembering the right word and it has only gotten worse, of course.
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Menage, I take my hat off to you. As some of you on here know, I’ve been in the health insurance sandbox for a long, long time. While there are a lot of things wrong with the system, unfortunately, we still need insurance to pay for those CT scans and all the other things that go with it. That being said, I am walking down the same path you are.
Someone is going to have to provide me with a lot more information about how things like those statins are going to truly help me. And they are some of the cheapest meds. I told my cardiologist a couple years ago that I would NOT get on a statin, least of all when my cholesterol score was 175. I don’t remember exactly what all the numbers were, but nothing was very far out of round. He told me that he took one as a preventative measure and I literally told him – good for you, but I’m not taking ’em.
I’m sure as h*ll not taking any more “vaccines” of any kind. All the ones we grew up with have been reformulated to be “better”. Many of them with Bill Gates’ money. I’m out on anything that sumb*tch touches in the medical world.
I believe that in this Country anyway that there is a symbiotic relationship between gubmint, Big Food, and Big Pharma to get as many of us as possible on meds as early as possible to create lifetime patients and medicine consumers.
Go back and look at pictures from the 70’s of folks at any beach in this Country. You would be hard pressed to find 5% of the people to be overweight. Now, you’re lucky if 10% aren’t obese. I’m reading more and more stories about how the ingredients allowed in numerous food products in the US, are not allowed in very many other countries around the globe.
It’s not just the bankers and the Generals that go back and forth between government and corporations. It’s “scientists” who are no different than Fauci, and hundreds more that we have no idea of their names. But they are there, and they are dangerous.
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Stop in for a coffee.
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😀 😀 😀
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Great minds T. I’ve also started reading a lot of scary stuff about food ingredients. Also, it seems there’s a trail to follow regarding who bought into the food industry when their industry profits started tanking. I’m hoping to have more time to look at the food stuff.
I wish I had space and energy to have a little farm. I’m pretty convinced only what you raise, or know somebody who raises, is safe.
Nope, I don’t eat that way. But I believe I should.
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Once you head down the food rabbit-hole look into the part where they have bred out most of the vitamins and nutrients that used to be in our food. I’ve read things that say most fruits and vegetables have less than half of the nutrients they used to only 40-50 years ago. All so we can have these foods year-round. I’m so old that I can remember only having certain foods during certain times of the year.
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I have read that the tobacco companies have bought into the food business in a big way, now that cigarettes are on the naughty list.
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Philip Morris owns General Foods, Kraft and Nabisco.
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Evening all,
Hope it’s not too late to add this. Menagerie, look at Niacin. (Everyone is different, medical situations are different. So, make you own determination.) The research is out there. I’ll help if you need with sources. No one should have to suffer needlessly.
Reactions can occur both with alternatives, just as they can with pharmaceuticals. I have no desire to chastise anyone who needs/uses a medication. However, many times it is necessary to know that there are alternatives, in order to make an informed choice.
God has called us to freedom. Free will may be the most challenging thing he has ever given to mankind, yet it is infinitely precious.
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Tex,
If you can find a source for nutrient levels of different foods from the 1950’s, it can be a real eye-opener. There are a number of reasons for the lack of nutrients in our foods that start with the seed and soil, move to the harvesting, processing, storage and preparation methods of foods. So much has changed in all of these, and the sheer number of steps from plant to table can be staggering.
The U.K has some of the same items sold in the U.S. with very different ingredient lists. The are most easily compared.
And yes, thank you Stella, for pointing out the transition/investment that “big tobacco” made into the food industry.
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“They are most easily compared.” (Since food labels are both in English.) The U.K. foods typically have shorter shelf life, greater restrictions on additives. U.S. foods have more preservatives and thus longer storage life, and additives that are banned in the U.K.
However, the U.K. foods can also be processed and have unhealthy ingredients, too.
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I’m not thinking that Cheerios are much better for you in Brussels than they are in the Bronx, but we allow a boatload more chemicals in our foods. I don’t have kids at home anymore so I’m not worried as much about shelf life anymore. I’m more worried that I don’t get any nutrition out of the “healthy” foods that I do eat, and anything that I eat that’s processed, I’m trying to stay away from as much franken-food as I can. We’ve sold our soul as a Country, and no one seems to give a rats-*ss at the Federal level other than to try to get rich.
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I resisted statins until a questionable TIA last September, when doctors I work with almost begged me to go on one so I won’t have a bad stroke (and they’d lose my services?). The argument was I had a 30% chance of having a stroke in the future, and the statins would reduce that chance by 20%. But that doesn’t mean now the chance was reduced by 50%, but instead 20% of 30%, or a total of 24% chance of a stroke. But I started.
Looking back, I started having leg pain and weakness In November, but thought it was my knees going bad (the joints were deteriorating). But, in the last couple of months my arms and legs have become weaker. I really notice it when doing yoga poses, where I have to hold the pose for 10 or more seconds and I become shaky and collapse.
I have also developed an essential tremor in both hands, and my tongue. My mother had this tremor. Katherine Hepburn had a very bad one in her late years. Mine is barely noticeable at this point.
My brother has refused statins for over 10 years, having done extensive research. His first argument is they were not correctly vetted, the research was stopped prematurely, results were manipulated, and they were foisted on the public with the help of bribes. His more compelling argument is statins destroy the myelin sheath on white matter in your brain and the rest of your body. Worse, statins impede the remyelinization of those axons. Without myelin the nerves don’t send messages. Multiple sclerosis is a myelin disease
I went to my neurologist and told him I was stopping statins. He immediately agreed. I’ve been off for a week now. He said it would take about 2 weeks for the drug to clear out of my body. He wanted me to keep a journal of my symptoms and changes for 4 more weeks, then come back. He said my family history made me more likely to have the stain bring out the essential tremor. He said the muscle weakness was one of the side effects caused by the statin.
Word finding and memory problems have been with me for years, and are not noticeably worse since last September. I pay attention to both since I am a speech pathologist.
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I honestly don’t know what to do.
If you haven’t had a heart attack or stroke, the benefits of taking statins are minimal, if any.
I have had a heart attack, and statins have improved my blood lipid values. The cardiologist says that even though my cholesterol wasn’t that high before my heart attack, it is important to force it downward after a heart attack.
I haven’t noticed any of the symptoms that you and Menagerie have experienced, although I had muscle weakness, particularly in my legs (one really bad knee, and the other isn’t 100%). I have been exercising to try to improve that situation. I know that losing muscle as we age is something that we all experience.
I am concerned that statins have affected my kidneys. I can see the results of my blood work since I began taking all of the drugs prescribed for me since my heart attack. It isn’t terrible, but I will pursue this further with my doctors.
On the bright side, I just had a bunch of urine and blood tests and most were very good. They tested me for some vitamins and minerals: Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy test, B12, magnesium and iron. My A1C was good, as was my TSH Reflex test. My new PCP ordered a bunch of other tests too.
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if you take B12, use a dropper full of the liquid under your tongue and hold for 30 seconds, then swallow and don’t eat or drink for at least an hour. Do every day. B12 is best absorbed through the mucous membranes, so you get more this way than from a pill your swallow.
if you know any older person having falls, my neurologist prescribes this and it simply stopped Czar’s step-mom from falling ever again
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I take a B-complex multi + C. I do have B12 tabs that go under the tongue, but I usually don’t use those. My B12 is good, anyway. That was a concern of mine, because my maternal grandfather and his sister both died of pernicious anemia. That was in the 1920’s before they knew what caused it. Of course, if I had that I would probably need injections.
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Mrs. T has been on statins for 10+ years due to hereditary high cholesterol. I just bought her some CoQ10 to see if it helps her lethargy. She just doesn’t have much energy, and I’ve read that might help. She’ll never stop taking them, and that may be ok for her, but it’s going to take a major earthquake for me to start.
Right now, I’m prescription-free, but I need to drop about 20# and some other things will get back right where they should be. I keep moving, but need to pick up the resistance training again and that will help a bunch too.
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