Health & Fitness

While the media continue to scoff at warnings that vaccine passports are part of a surveillance structure that is likely to become a permanent part of our lives if we allow their implementation, there’s nothing to suggest that this won’t be the case.

In “The Jimmy Dore Show” above, Dore highlights and interviews Max Blumenthal about his article, “Public Health or Private Wealth? How Digital Vaccine Passports Pave Way for Unprecedented Surveillance Capitalism,”¹ co-written with investigative reporter Jeremy Loffredo.

The article reviews some of the tragic consequences that can be expected if a global rollout of digital vaccine passports were to succeed. Loffredo and Blumenthal point to India, where a digital ID system has already been implemented.

The database, called Aadhaar, contains the digital identifications of more than 1 billion residents, making it the largest biometric digital ID system ever constructed.

India’s System Illustrates the Dangers of Digital IDs

While not officially described as such, the system is a “de facto social credit system,” the authors say. It’s sold to the public as the key access point to government services, but it also tracks users’ geolocation, employment and purchasing habits.

Indians have no choice but to submit to this invasive surveillance in order to access government services and assistance programs, such as food rations. As you might expect from such a behemoth database, there are glitches, and in India, such glitches have proven deadly. Loffredo and Blumenthal explain:²

“The death by starvation of Etwariya Devi, a 67-year-old widow from the rural Indian state of Jharkhand, might have passed without notice had it not been part of a more widespread trend.

Like 1.3 billion of her fellow Indians, Devi had been pushed to enroll in a biometric digital ID system called Aadhaar in order to access public services, including her monthly allotment of 25kg of rice.

When her fingerprint failed to register with the shoddy system, Devi was denied her food ration. Throughout the course of the following three months in 2017, she was repeatedly refused food until she succumbed to hunger, alone in her home.

Premani Kumar, a 64-year-old woman also from Jharkhand, met the same demise as Devi, dying of hunger and exhaustion the same year after the Aadhaar system transferred her pension payments to another person without her permission, while cutting off her monthly food rations.

A similarly cruel fate was reserved for Santoshi Kumari, an 11-year-old girl, also from Jharkhand, who reportedly died begging for rice after her family’s ration card was canceled because it had not been linked to their Aadhaar digital ID.

These three heart-rending casualties were among a spate of deaths in rural India in 2017 which came as a direct result of the Aadhaar digital ID system.”

Rule Through Medicine

As noted by the authors, “titans of global capitalism” are now exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to implement this kind of social-credit style digital ID systems across the Western world:

“For those yearning for an end to pandemic-related restrictions, credential programs certifying their vaccination against COVID-19 have been marketed as the key to reopening the economy and restoring their personal freedom. But the implementation of immunity passports is also accelerating the establishment of a global digital identity infrastructure.”

The plan is as diabolical as it is genius. While the rise of dictatorships has historically involved the use of armed forces to subdue an unruly public, the budding dictatorship of today relies heavily on weaponized medicine and the control of information.

If you’ve taken the time to familiarize yourself with the concept of technocracy, which has a distinct transhumanist component to it, you will see why this makes perfect sense and was, in fact, entirely predictable. By tying the issue of health care into the digital surveillance apparatus, you end up with a very robust platform for automated mass control.

The use of fear also works well in this scenario, since most are keen to stay alive and don’t want their loved ones to die. So, they fall for lies like “we have to shut down the world and sequester indoors for months on end or else we all die.”

Bill Gates Turns Public Health to Private Wealth

A leading figure in this medical dictatorship scheme is Bill Gates, who now wields a dominating influence over not just Big Tech but also global health policy, agriculture and food policy (including biopiracy and fake food), weather modification and other climate technologies,³ surveillance, education and media. As reported by Loffredo and Michele Greenstein in a July 8, 2020, GrayZone article:⁴

“Beyond the public relations bonanza about Gates lies a disturbing history that should raise concerns about whether his foundation’s plans for resolving the pandemic will benefit the global public as much as it expands and entrenches its power over international institutions.

The Gates Foundation has already effectively privatized the international body charged with creating health policy, transforming it into a vehicle for corporate dominance.

It has facilitated the dumping of toxic products onto the people of the Global South, and even used the world’s poor as guinea pigs for drug experiments. The Gates Foundation’s influence over public health policy is practically contingent on ensuring that safety regulations and other government functions are weak enough to be circumvented …

Strong evidence suggests that the Gates Foundation functions as a Trojan horse for Western corporations, which of course have no goal greater than an increased bottom line.”

Indeed, Gates donates billions to private companies, and is heavily invested in the very products and businesses he donates money to and otherwise promotes as solutions to the world’s problems, be they hunger, disease, pandemic viruses or climate change.

As suggested by The GrayZone, Gates’ global health empire is more about building an empire for himself and his technocrat cronies than promoting public health.⁵ Not surprisingly, Gates has called Aadhaar’s creator “a hero,” and many of Gates’ initiatives have sought to bring a similar system to the West.⁶

It’s About Control and Profit

As explained by Blumenthal in the video, these biometric ID systems are all about allowing private companies to profit from your personal data. They’ve been doing that for years already, of course, siphoning your personal data online and then selling it to anyone willing to pay, be they crooks and scammers or reputable companies.

But a biometric ID system will allow them to sell and profit from your fingerprints, iris and your face, along with all the data that is tied to you, from medical and employment data to social and financial services.

So, to summarize, the vaccine passport/digital ID system will allow those controlling the system to profit from your very identity while simultaneously enslaving you to the system. It’s a modernized slave system, pure and simple. 

The Convenience Trap

For a taste of what vaccine passports will turn into, check out the video above by the military surveillance firm Thales, which has acknowledged that vaccine passports are in fact the precursor to digital ID wallets.⁷ As you can see, the digital ID is being sold as a phenomenal convenience, something that will protect you, your identity and your money.

Believe this PR stunt at your own risk. As noted by Dore, “If I [the digital wallet] falls into the wrong hands, [your] life is pretty much over.” The most disturbing part is that having it fall into the hands of hackers and thieves isn’t your biggest concern.

Considering the devastating power a totalitarian regime can have over your life through their control of this system — should they disapprove of what you say, what you view, what you buy, where you go, how you behave or who you hang out with — losing your digital wallet to a common crook would be a minor inconvenience in comparison.

As noted by Dore, the dictators in charge could declare you a terrorist for participating in a protest, and shut off your access to government services, health care services and bank accounts with a single push of a button. Nothing you want to do in life will be very convenient after that.

There’s also the possibility of glitches and system errors, of course, and as illustrated in the Indian stories above, that too can have lethal consequences. A fingerprint failed to register. Pension payments were transferred to the wrong person and food rations were inexplicably cut off.

How is it that errors cannot be fixed? Probably because all the authorities who rely on the system have no authority to make changes in it. It’s all automated, run by algorithms, and everyone is essentially a powerless slave to and within the system. Probably, everyone just shrugged, saying they couldn’t do anything about it, and the lack of human involvement led to the death of these people.

And problems are not rare. A random sampling of 18 villages in India that had implemented compulsory biometric authentication at rationing stations showed a shocking 37% of people were unable to get their food rations due to some problem in the system.⁸

How Many Times Are You Willing to Play Russian Roulette?

When it comes to vaccine passports, we’ve already seen that maintaining a valid passport will require you to get an undisclosed number of booster shots. It’s not like you can just get the initial one- or two-dose regimen and be set.

No, any time a booster is released, your passport will cease to be valid until or unless you get that booster, be it the third or the thirty-third. Considering how dangerous these COVID shots are turning out to be, you’ll essentially be gambling your life each and every time you get the injection. And for what?

You’ll do it to be “given” basic freedoms that you never even thought could be infringed upon a mere two years ago, such as the right to work, the right to go to school, the right to travel and move about in society as you please, to shop, enter a gym or restaurant or a bank.

Say NO to Biomedical Dictatorship

In Italy, where mandatory vaccine passports are now implanted for all workers, both public and private, reports of inhumane exclusion are already emerging. An old woman was turned away from a hospital because she didn’t have a passport.⁹

Lithuanians have some of the harshest COVID shot mandates in the world. There, the unvaccinated are banned from restaurants, all non-essential stores, shopping malls, beauty services, libraries, banks, insurance agencies, universities, inpatient medical care and train travel. In a series of Twitter posts, Gluboco Lietuva, an unvaccinated father and husband, said:¹⁰

“With no COVID Pass, my wife and I are banished from society. We have no income. Banned from most shopping. Can barely exist ... We tried to buy art supplies for our kids from a craft store. No purchase allowed without a Pass. We tried to buy educational toys in a toy store. We were barred from entering. Can't buy kitchen supplies. Banal, but frustrating ...

This pressure to submit is everywhere. And it's overwhelming. Our ability to survive has been destroyed. But no matter the suffering imposed and the hardships we must endure, we will never accept the descent into the authoritarianism which the COVID Pass represents.”

Indeed, while standing up to the tyranny that is the vaccine passport now might cause pain and struggle, it’s nothing to the pain we’ll experience down the line if we don’t say no now.

Just how much freedom are you willing to lose? Don’t think for a minute that it’ll all end once you get fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As noted by the financial consulting firm Aite-Novarica in September 2021,¹¹ the COVID-19 digital vaccine passport rolled out in New York (the Excelsior Pass) is “a step toward comprehensive digital identification ... beyond COVID-19 vaccination only,” and serves as a “neat pilot program opportunity” to that end.

Military-Intelligence Org at Center of US Vaccine Pass Push

In the interview, Blumenthal mentions he’ll soon publish another article detailing the military-intelligence organization MITRE’s role in the U.S. vaccine passport push. That article was published on The GrayZone October 26, 2021.¹² If you’ve been a fence-sitter, this piece just might push you to make a decision as to where you stand on this issue.

While MITRE is listed as a nonprofit, its leadership consists of military intelligence professionals, and most of its business comes from contracts with the Department of Defense, FBI and national security sector.

“The effort ‘to expand QR code vaccine passports beyond states like California and New York’ now revolves around a public-private partnership known as the Vaccine Credential Initiative (VCI). And the VCI has reserved an instrumental role in its coalition for MITRE,” Blumenthal and Loffredo write.¹³

“Described by Forbes as a ‘cloak and dagger [research and development] shop’ that is ‘the most important organization you’ve never heard of,’ MITRE has developed some of the most invasive surveillance technology in use by U.S. spy agencies today.

Among its most novel products is a system built for the FBI which captures individuals’ fingerprints from images posted on social media sites. MITRE’s own COVID-19 umbrella coalition includes In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Palantir, a scandal-stained private spying firm.

Elizabeth Renieris, the founding director of Notre Dame and IBM’s technology ethics lab, has warned that ‘as dominant technology and surveillance companies’ like MITRE ‘pursue new revenue streams in healthcare and financial services ... privately owned and operated ID systems with profit-maximizing business models threaten the privacy, security, and other fundamental rights of individuals and communities.’

Indeed, the involvement of the military-intelligence apparatus in the development of a digital vaccine passport system is yet another indication that behind the guise of public health concerns, the U.S. surveillance state could be due to enhance its control over an increasingly restive population.”

What Is MITRE?

So, what is MITRE, and why are they a key player in the VCI? The organization did not reply to “The GrayZone’s” questions for the article; “however, its documented history makes for unsettling reading,” Blumenthal and Loffredo note.

MITRE was founded in 1958 and is based in northern Virginia. The military-intelligence think tank receives about $2 billion a year from U.S. agencies. Initially, it was founded as a joint project of the U.S. Air Force and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to develop command and control systems for nuclear and conventional warfare.

They’ve also been contracted to eradicate cannabis in Mexico using toxic herbicides, a strategy that ended up contaminating large swaths of food crops. More recently, MITRE has worked on surveillance tech for the FBI, collecting fingerprints from people’s social media photos where their palms and fingers are visible, and helped the agency establish the world’s largest biometric database.

MITRE also worked on the FBI’s Modernized Intelligence Database (MIDB) project, which according to the former FBI assistant director William Bayse allowed police to identify the political causes, associates and employers of activists, along with their biometric data, spending and tax information. As if that’s not hair raising enough, Blumenthal and Loffredo note:¹⁴

“Through hundreds of FOIA requests and interviews with current and former MITRE officials, Forbes learned that MITRE has designed ‘a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security… and a study to determine whether someone’s body odor can show they’re lying.’

MITRE is also home to the ATT&CK Program, an cybersecurity module which the corporation describes as ‘a globally-accessible knowledge base of adversary tactics and [intelligence] techniques based on real-world observations.’

Adam Pennington, the lead architect for MITRE’s ATT&CK, ‘has spent over a decade with MITRE studying and preaching the use of deception for intelligence gathering.’ ACLU staff attorney Nate Wessler has called MITRE’s surveillance projects ‘extraordinarily chilling,’ and warned that they ‘raise serious privacy concerns.’”

These are the same people who are now playing a key role in the U.S. vaccine passport program. Blumenthal and Loffredo go into further depth in their article,¹⁵ but I think you get the gist.

The vaccine passports clearly have nothing to do with keeping people healthy and safe from infection, and everything to do with turning our most personal data into a profit center that simultaneously allows them to exercise unprecedented control over everyone’s life.

Make no mistake, sooner or later — and time is rapidly running out — everyone will have to make a choice: freedom or slavery. There’s no middle ground anymore.

And if we say no to slavery, we must be ready to not capitulate, because we can already see that mass protests are doing little to dissuade the World Economic Forum and its partners from pushing for a global digital vaccine ID, along with a centralized digital currency. Together, those two things will give them complete control over our lives. Our children and grandchildren will never experience what it’s like to be free if we let that happen.

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This article was previously published November 10, 2020, and has been updated with new information.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a precursor to reduced glutathione, which appears to play a crucial role in COVID-19. According to an April 2020 literature analysis,¹ glutathione deficiency may be associated with COVID-19 severity, leading the author to conclude that NAC may be useful both for its prevention and treatment.

NAC has a long history of use as a first-aid remedy for acetaminophen poisoning. It neutralizes the toxic effects of the drug by recharging glutathione, thereby preventing liver damage. But the idea that NAC can also be helpful against viral infections is not new. Previous studies^2,3 have found it reduces viral replication of certain viruses, including the influenza virus.

In one such study,⁴ the number needed to treat (NNT) was 0.5, which means for every two people treated with NAC, one will be protected against symptomatic influenza. That’s significantly better than influenza vaccines, which have an NNV (number needed to vaccinate) of 71,⁵ meaning 71 people must be vaccinated to prevent a single case of confirmed influenza. It's even better than vitamin D, which has an NNT of 33.⁶

In the MedCram lecture above, pulmonologist Dr. Roger Seheult reviews the latest medical literature on NAC for COVID-19, starting with a paper⁷ published in the October 2020 issue of Clinical Immunology titled "Therapeutic Blockade of Inflammation in Severe COVID-19 Infection With Intravenous N-acetylcysteine."

G6PD Deficiency Worsens COVID-19 Outcomes

Previous research⁸ has shown NAC inhibits the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in cells infected with highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus. Proinflammatory cytokines also play a crucial role in COVID-19 severity.

Researchers have confirmed that in severe COVID-19 cases, cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL6), interleukin-10 (IL10) and TNF-ɑ are all elevated.⁹ Once they reach excessive levels, a so-called cytokine storm develops, causing significant tissue damage. NAC may be able to inhibit this damaging cascade.

In the "Therapeutic Blockade of Inflammation in Severe COVID-19 Infection With Intravenous N-acetylcysteine" paper, the researchers focus on a specific group of patients, namely those with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, which has been shown to facilitate human coronavirus infection due to the fact that G6PD depletes glutathione.

G6PD deficiency¹⁰ is a genetic disorder that typically affects males and is more prevalent among Black men and those from the Mediterranean area, Africa and Asia. (Women with this genetic anomaly are carriers and can pass it on to their children but rarely display symptoms.)

G6PD is an enzyme needed for the proper function of red blood cells. It also protects your red blood cells from free radicals in your blood by limiting oxidative stress.

When your body doesn't produce enough of this enzyme, hemolytic anemia — a condition in which red blood cells are broken down faster than they are made — can result due to unneutralized oxidative stress from insufficient amounts of NADPH being produced.

As noted in "Therapeutic Blockade of Inflammation in Severe COVID-19 Infection With Intravenous N-acetylcysteine":¹¹

"G6PD deficiency may especially predispose to hemolysis upon coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection when employing pro-oxidant therapy. However, glutathione depletion is reversible by N-acetylcysteine (NAC) administration.

We describe a severe case of COVID-19 infection in a G6PD-deficient patient treated with hydroxychloroquine who benefited from intravenous (IV) NAC beyond reversal of hemolysis.

NAC blocked hemolysis and elevation of liver enzymes, C-reactive protein (CRP), and ferritin and allowed removal from respirator and veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenator and full recovery of the G6PD-deficient patient."

How G6PD Deficiency Impacts COVID-19 Disease Process

In his lecture, Seheult goes through the nitty-gritty details of how G6PD influences the COVID-19 disease process, why a deficiency in this enzyme can worsen outcomes and how NAC supplementation short-circuits this harmful chain of events.

In summary, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a reactive oxygen species (ROS), needs to be converted to water (H₂O) as much as possible in your cells to avoid red blood cell hemolysis, i.e., the destruction of red blood cells.

As noted by Seheult, there's concern that the drug hydroxychloroquine may increase this process in G6PD-deficient patients, thereby increasing the risk of red blood cell hemolysis.¹²

The evidence is not conclusive, however. One 2018 study¹³ looking at the incidence of hemolytic anemia in G6PD-deficient patients given hydroxychloroquine concluded the risk may be overblown, as "There were no reported episodes of hemolysis in more than 700 months of HCQ exposure among the 11 G6PDH-deficient patients."

The enzyme responsible for the conversion of hydrogen peroxide to water is glutathione peroxidase (GPX). GPX does two things simultaneously. While reducing hydrogen peroxide into water, it also converts the reduced form of glutathione (GSH) into glutathione disulfide (GSSG), which is the oxidized form of glutathione. In other words, as GPX turns hydrogen peroxide into harmless water, glutathione becomes oxidized.

To recycle GSSG back to its reduced form, GSH, you need an enzyme called GSH reductase. The reducing agent needed for this to occur is NADPH. NADPH is also simultaneously converted into NADP+. To recycle NADP+ back to NADPH, you need G6PD.

The point here is this: Patients who have G6PD deficiency will also have lower NADPH, and therefore won't be able to reduce the GSSG (the oxidated form of glutathione) to its reduced GSH form. This in turn leads to a buildup of hydrogen peroxide, resulting in higher levels of hemolysis.

As explained by Seheult, the two building blocks of glutathione are NAC and the amino acid glycine. Glycine is fairly abundant, whereas NAC is not, so the theory is that, if you are G6PD deficient, you may be able to bypass this detrimental spiral by supplying high levels of NAC. This will allow your body to produce its own glutathione (GSH).

This theory is what was investigated in "Therapeutic Blockade of Inflammation in Severe COVID-19 Infection With Intravenous N-acetylcysteine,"¹⁴ and the answer is yes. When given hydroxychloroquine, the G6PD-deficient patient developed severe hemolysis, which was successfully reversed by giving intravenous NAC. In the end, the patient fully recovered.

As for the dosage, the G6PD-deficient patient was given 30,000 milligrams of intravenous NAC divided into three doses over 24 hours, after which the patient began showing immediate improvement in hemolysis indices. About a week later, IV NAC was restarted at a dose of 600 mg every 12 hours for one week.

NAC Blocks Inflammation

In addition to that G6PD-deficient patient, NAC was also given to nine other COVID-19 patients who were on respirators but did not have G6PD deficiency. In these patients, "NAC elicited clinical improvement and markedly reduced CRP in all patients and ferritin in 9/10 patients." The authors hypothesize that NAC's mechanism of action "may involve the blockade of viral infection and the ensuing cytokine storm."¹⁵

That said, they point out that it's difficult to discern whether these anti-inflammatory effects were specific to the use of NAC, as steroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs were sporadically used. Still, they believe NAC does have the ability to reduce inflammation in patients with COVID-19. As explained in the paper:¹⁶

"We propose that NAC restrains the pro-inflammatory metabolic pathways that control oxidative stress and mTOR-dependent generation of cytokine storm emanating from the immune system …

IL-6, the primary cytokine that drives inflammation in COVID-19 infected patients, elicits mitochondrial oxidative stress at complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC). In turn, this leads to redox-dependent activation of mTORC1.

Further downstream, uncontrolled activation of mTORC1 promotes inflammation. NAC inhibits oxidative stress by serving as a cell-permeable amino acid precursor of the main intracellular antioxidant, GSH.

Acting outside the cell, NAC may break disulfide bonds within ACE2 that serves as the cellular receptor for COVID-19. NAC may also block COVID-19 binding by disrupting disulfide bind within its receptor-binding domain …

Several anti-inflammatory medications have been shown to mitigate the cytokine storm in COVID-19 infection, such as corticosteroids, colchicine, imatinib, and complement C3 inhibitor AMY-101. However, the safety of mTOR blockade stands out based on its propensity to extend overall lifespan.

IV NAC has long been used to safely treat patients with acetaminophen overdose, or ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome]. NAC was also found to reduce CRP levels in several controlled clinical trials. CRP elevation is a prominent risk factor for disease progression in patients infected with COVID-19."

NAC Also Protects Against Blood Clots

Importantly, NAC may also protect against other problems associated with COVID-19, including the hypercoagulation that can result in stroke and/or blood clots¹⁷ that impair the ability to exchange oxygen in the lungs.

Many COVID-19 patients experience serious blood clots, and NAC counteracts hypercoagulation,^18,19,20 as it has both anticoagulant and platelet-inhibiting properties.²¹ A 2017 paper²² also found NAC has potent thrombolytic effects, meaning it breaks down blood clots once they've formed.

This is largely thanks to the sulfur in NAC (from cysteine). The sulfur reduces the intrachain disulfide bonds by von Willebrand factors that have polymerized by dissociating the sulfur bonds holding them together, thus contributing to the clot. Once von Willebrand factor sulfur bonds are broken, the clots start to dissolve and the blood vessels open up again allowing for exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

According to the authors,²³ "NAC is an effective and safe alternative to currently available antithrombotic agents to restore vessel patency after arterial occlusion." (Restoring vessel patency means the blood vessel is now unobstructed so that blood can flow freely.) Two additional papers^24,25 show the same thing.

Importantly, NAC’s mechanism of action does not appear to increase bleeding disorders like heparin does, so it would likely be a safer alternative to the heparin used in the MATH+ protocol.²⁶

NAC Also Improves Variety of Lung-Related Problems

Studies have also demonstrated that NAC helps improve a variety of lung-related problems, including pneumonia and ARDS,²⁷ both of which are common characteristics of COVID-19. For example:

Research28 published in 2018 found NAC reduces oxidative and inflammatory damage in patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

Another 2018 study29 found NAC improves post-operative lung function in patients undergoing liver transplantation.

A 2017 meta-analysis30 found a significant reduction in ICU stays among ARDS patients treated with NAC (although there was no significant difference in short-term mortality risk).

A 2007 study31 concluded NAC improves ARDS by "increasing intracellular glutathione and extracellular thiol molecules" along with general antioxidant effects.

A 1994 study32 found NAC enhances recovery from acute lung injury, significantly regressing patients' lung injury score during the first 10 days of treatment, and significantly reducing the need for ventilation. After three days of treatment, only 17% of those receiving NAC needed ventilation, compared to 48% in the placebo group.

NAC is also a well-known mucolytic used to help clear mucus out of the airways of cystic fibrosis patients.33 Some studies also suggest NAC can help reduce symptoms of COPD and prevent exacerbation of the condition.34

Standard of Care for COVID-19 Should Include NAC

Considering many COVID-19 cases involve blood clots in addition to excessive oxidative stress, and NAC effectively addresses both, I believe NAC should be included in standard of care for COVID-19. As noted in "Rationale for the Use of N-acetylcysteine in Both Prevention and Adjuvant Therapy of COVID-19," published August 11, 2020, in the FASEB Journal:³⁵

"COVID-19 may cause pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiovascular alterations, and multiple organ failure, which have been ascribed to a cytokine storm, a systemic inflammatory response, and an attack by the immune system. Moreover, an oxidative stress imbalance has been demonstrated to occur in COVID-19 patients.

N- Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) is a precursor of reduced glutathione (GSH). Due to its tolerability, this pleiotropic drug has been proposed not only as a mucolytic agent, but also as a preventive/therapeutic agent in a variety of disorders involving GSH depletion and oxidative stress …

Thiols block the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 thereby hampering penetration of SARS-CoV-2 into cells. Based on a broad range of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms … the oral administration of NAC is likely to attenuate the risk of developing COVID-19, as it was previously demonstrated for influenza and influenza-like illnesses.

Moreover, high-dose intravenous NAC may be expected to play an adjuvant role in the treatment of severe COVID-19 cases and in the control of its lethal complications … including pulmonary and cardiovascular adverse events."

In the same vein, an even more recent paper,³⁶ published in the October 2020 issue of Medical Hypotheses, points out that:

"T cell exhaustion, high viral load, and high levels of TNF-ɑ, IL1β, IL6, IL10 have been associated with severe SARS-CoV-2. Cytokine and antigen overstimulation are potentially responsible for poor humoral response to the virus. Lower cellular redox status, which leads to pro-inflammatory states mediated by TNF-ɑ is also potentially implicated.

In vivo, in vitro, and human clinical trials have demonstrated N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as an effective method of improving redox status, especially when under oxidative stress.

In human clinical trials, NAC has been used to replenish glutathione stores and increase the proliferative response of T cells. NAC has also been shown to inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway (IL1β and IL18) in vitro, and decrease plasma TNF-ɑ in human clinical trials.

Mediation of the viral load could occur through NAC's ability to increase cellular redox status via maximizing the rate limiting step of glutathione synthesis, and thereby potentially decreasing the effects of virally induced oxidative stress and cell death.

We hypothesize that NAC could act as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of COVID-19 through a variety of potential mechanisms, including increasing glutathione, improving T cell response, and modulating inflammation."

FDA Cracks Down on NAC and Wants to Prevent You From Using It

At present, 11 studies involving NAC for COVID-19 are listed on Clinicaltrials.gov.³⁷ Ironically, just as we're starting to realize its benefits against this pandemic virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is suddenly cracking down on NAC, claiming it is excluded from the definition of a dietary supplement.

They point out that NAC was approved as a new drug in 1985,³⁸ and therefore cannot be marketed as a supplement. This is not reflected in the supplement market, however. As reported by Natural Products Insider,³⁹ there are at least 1,170 NAC-containing products in the National Institutes of Health's Dietary Supplement Label Database.

As of yet, the FDA has not taken action against NAC due to anything related to COVID-19. They’ve primarily targeted companies that market NAC as a remedy for hangovers.⁴⁰ Still, members of the Council for Responsible Nutrition have expressed concern the FDA may end up targeting NAC more widely. Hopefully, the FDA will not end up blocking access to NAC supplements in the same way hydroxychloroquine access has been stifled.

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In a historic first for the U.S., Maine voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution ensuring their right to food. Being a human being who needs food to survive, you may already assume that this right exists, but increasing corporate control over the food supply shows that this right isn’t inalienable.

In Maine, a state that imports 90% of its food from out of state, the Farm Bureau opposed the measure,¹ which protects residents’ ability to produce and consume food as they see fit.

It’s one of the most fundamental and crucial protections that humans should be afforded, but one that may not receive the attention and support it deserves — until it’s gone. The Maine amendment, which was approved by 60% of voters, officially declares:²

“[A]ll individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.”

Maine Residents’ Right to Food Protected

In 2017, Maine’s Food Sovereignty Act became a law, affording municipalities the right to regulate local food systems, from production to processing and consumption, and allowing farmers to sell their goods directly to consumers, with the exception of meat and poultry. One year after the Food Sovereignty Act was passed, more than 40 Maine towns had adopted the sovereignty-based ordinances.³

At the time, food sovereignty advocate and livestock farmer Heather Retberg told Bangor Daily News, “We are so much farther along than where I could have imagined we would be. Once the threat of state preemption was removed, so many towns were just ready to put this commonsense food policy into place. I just couldn’t have possibly known how many people there were across the state just waiting.” She explained:⁴

“Wherever people are willing to engage with their local governments and their neighbors, wherever people care about regenerative agriculture and economies based on ecological stewardship principles, wherever people want access to good food from farms in their own community, there is potential for engagement and the spread of this articulation of food sovereignty.”

By June 2021, more than 90 cities and towns in Maine had opted in to the food sovereignty law, exempting certain direct-to-consumer food sales from state licensing and inspection requirements.⁵

Food Sovereignty Movement Grows

Small farmers and raw milk advocates are only a sampling of those who supported Maine’s “right to food” law, which is part of a growing movement toward food sovereignty. “It’s always a good idea to secure and protect an individual right in the world we live in. Food is life,” said Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Kennebec, in a news release. “I don’t understand why anyone would be afraid of saying so out loud in the constitution.”⁶

The constitutional amendment secures the right to food “as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.”⁷ According to the Press Herald:⁸

“Supporters used the campaign to make the case the amendment would ensure the right to grow vegetables and raise livestock in an era when corporatization threatens local ownership of the food supply. They positioned the amendment as a chance for Mainers to take control of the food supply back from large landowners and giant retailers with little connection to the community.”

Maine state Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham referred to the legislation as the “Second Amendment of food,”⁹ while Retberg highlighted the need to decentralize food production in order to protect self-sufficiency:¹⁰

“Power over our food supply is concentrated in a few individuals and corporations. Global companies dominate our food system and policy at the expense of our food self-sufficiency. This concentration of power threatens Mainers’ individual rights to grow, raise, harvest, produce, and consume the food of our choosing now and in the future.”

Do State and Federal Inspections Really Make Food Safer?

The Maine Farm Bureau was one of the greatest opponents to Maine’s right to food amendment, writing on social media October 22, 2021:¹¹

“The Maine Farm Bureau has spent a lot of time figuring out Question 3, the so-called ‘Right to Food’ amendment.

The vague and broad wording of the proposed amendment provides fertile ground for unintended consequences, like eliminating the safeguards that we have in place to help us produce healthy, affordable food for Maine families … While the intention behind Question 3 seems positive, the real danger it presents to our health and our food system is not.”

The implication is that food would not be as safe if it doesn’t go through mandated inspection processes, but in the four years since Maine enacted its food sovereignty law, no foodborne illnesses have been reported in connection with foods sold under it.¹²

In another example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is tasked with conducting inspections on U.S. meat supplies. This requires inspectors to travel to slaughterhouses, processing plants and other facilities across the U.S., but this doesn’t mean that inspection standards are being met and enforced — or that they’re making your food safer than it would be if it came from a high-quality local source.

A June 2018 FSIS report found that the extent of salmonella contamination in U.S. chicken parts is largely unknown because 35% of large chicken-slaughter facilities in the U.S. are not meeting FSIS inspection standards.¹³

Perhaps in response, in November 2018 FSIS for the first time publicly published chicken producers and their rankings on salmonella safety standards, which are updated each week as new samples are tested. The rankings range from category 1 to 3. Category 1 describes facilities that had less than 50% of the maximum allowable salmonella during the testing window.

Category 2 describes facilities that had more than 50% (but still within the maximum allowed), while Category 3 is the worst — facilities that exceeded the maximum level of salmonella.¹⁴

If you look at the FSIS rankings,¹⁵ what you’ll notice is the frequency of Category 2 and 3 on the list. A Category 3 ranking isn’t grounds for immediate suspension, either. Instead, FSIS notifies facilities if they don’t meet standards and at that point decide whether further action is needed.

Food Freedom Laws on the Rise

While Maine’s right to food law is a first for the U.S., a number of other states have various versions of food freedom legislation already on the books. Wyoming expanded their Food Freedom Act in 2020 to allow shelf-stable homemade foods to be sold in retail shops and grocery stores — a law already in place in 17 other states.¹⁶

Nearly all (48) states also allow shelf-stable homemade foods, such as baked goods and jams, to be sold directly to consumers, while a handful — Wyoming included — also allow for the sale of homemade perishable items, such as beverages and full meals, as long as they don’t contain meat.¹⁷

According to Wyoming state Rep. Shelly Duncan, the changes “create more income for farmers, stay-at-home parents, retirees and anyone else who has talent in the kitchen. The bill will also allow consumers to buy more fresh, healthy and local food at affordable prices.”¹⁸

As in Maine, no outbreaks of foodborne illness have been reported from foods sold under Wyoming’s Food Freedom Act since it was first enacted in 2015.¹⁹ According to the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), at least 41 bills in 24 states have been introduced in the 2021 to 2022 legislative session that relate to exempting certain foods from state food safety oversight.²⁰ They explain:

“State legislatures use several terms for these bills: cottage foods, food freedom, microenterprise kitchens, homemade foods, or home-baked foods. They all have the same goal, however, to limit a government’s authority to regulate food safety. These bills seek to expand the range of food producers and retail establishments that could sell food free from any governmental oversight.”

What’s at Risk if Your Right to Food Isn’t Protected?

Laws like the one established in Maine may seem superfluous, but it’s important not to be complacent when it comes to something as fundamental as food. If you control the food supply, you control the world, which is why it raises more than a few red flags that tech billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in the U.S.,²¹ much of it considered some of the richest soil in the U.S.²²

Gates isn’t interested in regenerative agriculture, supporting small farmers or ensuring locally sourced food and food sovereignty but, instead, is furthering an agricultural agenda that supports agrochemicals, patented seeds, fake meat and corporate control — interests that undermine regenerative, sustainable, small-scale farming. One of the key players in this agenda is the widespread adoption of ultraprocessed synthetic meat.

Protecting everyone’s right to food is one step in countering the tech giants’ attempts to remove humans’ sacred relationship to food. Indian scholar and food sovereignty advocate Vandana Shiva also states we can fight back by remembering and focusing on a few essential principles:²³

• Food is the currency of life
• The highest duty is to grow and give food in abundance
• The worst sin is to let someone go hungry in your neighborhood, not grow food and, worse, sell bad food

“We’ve got to bring to the center of our everyday life the rituals that make life sacred,” Shiva said. “Our breath … breath is what connects us to the world … water connects us to the world. Food connects us to the world.”²⁴

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