Health & Fitness

In the days before Thanksgiving, public health spokespeople like Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to gather virtually instead of in person to avoid potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2.¹ The same calls for abstinence from friends and family were heard in Canada just before its October 12 Thanksgiving holiday.²

December 7, 2020, Fauci warned that the COVID-19 surge caused by families gathering for Thanksgiving was still ahead of us. “The blip from Thanksgiving isn't even here yet. So, we're getting those staggering numbers of new cases and hospitalizations before we even feel the full brunt of the Thanksgiving holiday," he said.³

Fauci suspects an upsurge of positive tests in the days leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah, stating that January 2021 "could be a really dark time.” Back in mid-November, Fauci stated that a successful mass vaccination campaign may be needed in order for Americans to be able to gather freely for the holidays — next year!⁴

Unelected COVID-19 czar Bill Gates, meanwhile, has gone on record saying self-isolation, business shutdowns and other restrictions will likely need to continue into 2022, even with a successful vaccine.⁵

UK Christmas Rules

In the U.K., a special set of restrictions have been issued for the five-day window of December 23 through December 27, 2020. Residents of Northern Ireland get one additional day on either side of these dates for travel.

The three-tier system of COVID restrictions⁶ rolled out at the end of November 2020 will be temporarily loosened to allow greater numbers of people to gather indoors in high-restriction areas.

Up to three households, including your own, will be allowed to gather indoors. “You shouldn’t mix with lots of different people every day. You need to pick your favorites and only see them during this period,” BBC health correspondent Laura Foster says in her Christmas rules video (above), adding that:

“The best thing to do to make sure you’re not infecting anyone else is to self-isolate for 14 full days [before Christmas eve], and then go directly to the people you want to spend the festive season with.”

Scotland specifies only eight people, at most, will be allowed at any given gathering, not counting children under the age of 12. Depending on the tier your area is in, you may or may not be allowed to gather with additional people outdoors. The video below sums up the ridiculousness of these kinds of micromanaging nanny-state rules quite nicely.

Is It Worth the Risk?

Even with restrictions on group sizes and various rules on mask wearing and sanitation requirements, we’re being urged to consider whether getting together with your loved ones is really worth the risk this year.

By insisting on human contact, you may inadvertently kill someone you love, the warning goes. This is particularly true for elderly grandparents, who are at higher risk for complications from the infection. What’s missing from this conversation is a key piece of logic, which is that every day of your life involves the risk of death.

There are no guarantees that any one of us will see the sun rise tomorrow. In the past, most of us have braved the wild unknown to see our loved ones, knowing in the back of our minds, if only subconsciously, that we might die in a car accident on the way, or that the plane might crash. We also accepted that we might come down with the flu at some point during the winter.

Yet rarely if ever did such concerns stop us. Barring certain mental health conditions, we all accepted not knowing what was to come, and went about our daily business with what now is viewed as reckless abandon.

We are now told that COVID-19 poses such an incredibly high risk that nothing is worth it. The problem with that is that the actual risk posed by SARS-CoV-2 — for the vast majority of people — is no greater than any other risk they’ve taken on any given day in their life thus far.

What Does the Data Say About Your Risk?

Research⁷ shows that the overall noninstitutionalized infection fatality ratio for COVID-19 is 0.26%. Those under the age of 40 have an infection fatality ratio of 0.01%, while people over 60 have an infection fatality ratio of 1.71%.

The estimated infection fatality rate for seasonal influenza cited in this paper is 0.8%. In other words, most people have a lower risk of dying from COVID-19 than they have of dying from the flu.

How many times in your life have you canceled plans for fear you might contract influenza? Even more importantly, how many times have you feared you might spread influenza to an elderly relative when you have no symptoms of a cold or influenza?

The issue of asymptomatic spread has lingered for months, but recent data⁸ from 9,899,828 residents of Wuhan city who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection found that not a single one of the 1,174 people who had been in close contact with an asymptomatic individual tested positive. Further testing of asymptomatic patients showed that 63.3% of them had antibodies.

This means that even though they never developed symptoms, they did at some point have a productive infection that resulted in the production of antibodies. Still, none of their contacts had been infected.

In other words, even in cases where asymptomatics were (or had been) carriers of apparently live virus, they still did not transmit it to others. Reasons for this appears to be because asymptomatics have very low viral loads and shed the virus for a very short period of time. These findings seem to support studies^{9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16} suggesting that immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection is far more widespread than anyone imagined.

Other data^17,18 show the overall all-cause mortality has remained steady during 2020 and doesn’t veer from the norm. In other words, COVID-19 has not killed off more of the population than would have died in any given year anyway.

Where Did Seasonal Flu Go?

Seasonal influenza, by the way, is also nonexistent this year. According to the World Health Organization, there has not been a single reported case of influenza since week 17 of 2020 anywhere in the world.¹⁹ That alone should tell us something about the real COVID-19 numbers.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports²⁰ that reported flu hospitalizations are too low to generate an estimate of the influenza burden for the 2020 season. That said, it still estimates that up to 740,000 Americans were hospitalized for influenza and as many as 62,000 died from influenza between October 1, 2019, through April 4, 2020.

Statistics²¹ released by the CDC August 26, 2020, also show that only 6% of the total COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. had COVID-19 listed as the sole cause of death on the death certificate.

As of December 15, 2020, the CDC reported 300,032 Americans had died with COVID-19.²² Using the 6% sole-cause calculation, we can extrapolate that 18,002 Americans have died from COVID-19 alone, and not some other underlying condition or accidental cause.

When looking at these numbers, doesn’t it strike you as odd that one type of death is considered so much worse than another? Why is it worth shutting down businesses and shunning social interactions for COVID-19 but not for influenza, which clearly is just as lethal? Why is it more unacceptable to die from COVID-19 than the flu, or heart disease, or cancer?

Why are some deaths acceptable while COVID-19 deaths are to be avoided at all cost? Why are healthy people told they must cease all semblance of life to protect the vulnerable while no one has ever had to quit living to prevent any other kind of death, including accidents that could be avoided by banning certain everyday activities.

Are You Sacrificing That Which Matters Most?

Of course, I’m not telling anyone what to do. I would encourage you, though, to ponder what matters. Most people will agree that the most valuable moments in life are those spent with family and friends, especially elderly relatives whose days are already numbered. Those very moments that make life worth living are now being stolen — if we let them.

The question is, what value do we place on family, versus the risk of illness? As mentioned, Gates predicts social restrictions will need to stay in place for the next two years. Are you willing to give up three years of life for an illness that poses no greater threat to life than a bad flu season?

How about five years? Ten? In all likelihood, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is here to stay, just like the pandemic swine flu, which is now one of the many viruses we encounter in any given flu season. In 2009, the swine flu pandemic was touted as a grave threat, yet no panic has ensued in the years since, even though it’s still in circulation. Why is that? Why should SARS-CoV-2 be any different?

As noted by A.J. Kay in a recent Medium article,²³ “If safety requires us to indefinitely forfeit the most valuable parts of our lives, what exactly are we trying to save?”

According to a report^24,25 by the AARP and United Health Foundation, social distancing measures have led to an epidemic of loneliness, and this too has significant risks that should be included in the risk-benefit calculation as it increases mortality from every cause.²⁶ Public health researcher Kassandra Alcaraz recently told the American Psychological Association:²⁷

"Our research really shows that the magnitude of risk presented by social isolation is very similar in magnitude to that of obesity, smoking, lack of access to care and physical inactivity.”

Pandemic Measures Sabotage Health

I believe the real threat right now is what we’re doing to sabotage the mental, emotional and physical health of people, especially our children, whose development is dependent on social interactions, physical contact and facial expressions. Between mask wearing and social distancing, I fear the impact on children in particular may be long-term, if not permanent.

But it’s clearly taking a cruel toll on the elderly as well. If you knew your days were numbered, how would you want to spend them? Would your main concern be to prevent an infection that might speed up the inevitable, or would you want to spend whatever time you have left surrounded by those you love?

These are significant questions that will guide your choices and thus the course of your life, and they’re more pressing now than ever. So, choose wisely this holiday season, because whatever you choose, you’ll have to live with your choices.

Stop Believing in Unscientific Lockdowns

It’s high time to start questioning what is credulous and what is not. A powerful essay²⁸ in the American Institute for Economic Research does just that. It specifically questions whether lockdowns really are the best way to minimize casualties in this pandemic.

Using historical examples beginning with Voltaire’s words, “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities,” the author reasons that lockdowns are not going to save the world from COVID-19, if for no other reason than whenever lockdowns are eased, infections naturally start to creep back up.

However, the vast majority of those who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic and pose no real risk. A rising “case” load also does not mean people are actually getting sick and dying. As you can see in the graph below, positive tests (aka “cases”) in blue do not correlate with COVID-19 deaths in red.²⁹

Santa Reveals How COVID-19 Hurt His Business 

To close on a slightly lighter note, in a December 16, 2020, interview with Patrick Bet-David, Tim Connaghan, a national Santa, the official Santa for Los Angeles Christmas Parade, and founder of the International University of Santa Claus, reveals how COVID-19 has impacted the Santa business.

Like everyone else, Santa’s around the world have had to adjust to a number of restrictions. While many are still working the malls, social distancing procedures are being observed, which means no children on Santa’s lap, for example. They also wear masks or clear face shields. Other Santa’s have joined the virtual landscape.

If you’re curious about how to become a professional Santa Claus, listen to Connaghan, who has an interesting story about how he ended up teaching this unusual job.

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COVID-19 antibodies preferentially target a different part of the virus in mild cases of COVID-19 than they do in severe cases, and wane significantly within several months of infection, according to a new study.

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Using mathematical modeling, new interdisciplinary research determines the best course of action when it comes to walking the line between economic stability and the best possible health outcomes.

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Scientists describe how a phenomenon known as 'chromothripsis' breaks up chromosomes, which then reassemble in ways that ultimately promote cancer cell growth.

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The constant barrage of media headlines about COVID-19 deaths serve as triggers for fear and justification for perpetuating lockdowns, mask wearing, social distancing and, ultimately, increased tracking and tracing; never mind that the total mortality rate in 2020 is normal and on par with other non-pandemic years.^1,2

What’s not normal, though, is the way people are dying in 2020. No matter the cause, people who enter hospitals are forced to go alone, leaving their family members behind, sometimes for the last time. Unable to comfort and be near loved ones in their final moments, the pain for survivors continues long after their loved ones’ deaths, as the rituals of mourning are also interrupted and experienced, again, largely in isolation.

Traditionally, Americans mark losses by gathering together to share their grief with others, holding vigils, giving hugs and reminiscing about better times. “By contrast, in bedside farewells via FaceTime, drive-by burials as under-attended as Jay Gatsby’s, and digital funerals on Zoom,” a STAT news article noted, “we’ve been forced to mourn the victims of the novel coronavirus in a numbing new way: more or less alone.”³

Worldwide Rise in Prolonged Grief Disorder Expected

Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) was added to the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases in 2018.⁴ It describes a persistent and pervasive longing for the deceased person, or a preoccupation with them, that persists for more than six months. The longing is accompanied by intense emotional pain, such as sadness, guilt or anger, as well as:

• Difficulty accepting the death
• Feeling you’ve lost a part of yourself
• Emotional numbness
• Difficulty engaging in social or other activities

Such feelings are normal during bereavement, and the push to “medicalize” grief is controversial. In this case, the distinction that moves “normal bereavement” into the category of a mental health problem is that the intense grief continues for a long period of time and also causes disturbances in your ability to function socially and professionally.⁵

Disruptions to traditional grief rituals, including the ability to say goodbye and viewing and burial of the body, are known to increase symptoms of prolonged grief disorder.

Cases also rise when physical social support is absent — something that is being made out as the new normal during the pandemic. Writing in the journal Psychiatry Research, researchers from the Netherlands suggested, “[I]n the development and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate that, worldwide, PGD will become a major public health concern.”⁶

Further, “due to government policy targeting the pandemic, the same potential risk factors could also increase grief severity of people whose family members died through other causes than COVID-19.”⁷

Psychiatric Pandemic Looming

The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult events in a person’s life. Being forced to go through the loss and grieving process in social isolation and without the comfort of long-held bereavement rituals is a “recipe for a psychiatric pandemic,” according to experts from the Iran University of Medical Sciences.⁸

They’re among many sounding an alarm that COVID-19 social distancing and quarantine polices are increasing the likelihood of PGD, making an already difficult life event even harder to process. They stated:⁹

“Millions of people around the world have experienced the loss of a loved one due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Given the restrictive lockdown regulations and stay-at-home orders, most of these individuals did not get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, properly to have a funeral/ceremony for their loss or to bury them. As a result, millions of individuals have not experienced a regular grief cycle that enables individuals to rapidly adjust to the situation and recover themselves.”

Humans are social creatures, but government policies are demanding that people “show their love” by staying away from others, which is contrary to human nature and human need, especially during times of crisis.

There’s nothing “normal” about holding up a sign outside a hospital window while a loved one lies dying inside, but this is a scenario that happens daily during the pandemic. One man recounted the details to STAT News of losing his 83-year-old father during the pandemic; his father spent three weeks in the hospital, alone:¹⁰

“Eventually, his father’s nurses disconnected the elder Smith’s oxygen just long enough for him to be propped up near a window, where he could see the family standing on a small knoll outside the hospital, holding signs saying, ‘We Love You,’ and ‘Fight As Hard as You Can.’ He died two days later.”

Pandemic Restrictions Affect All Stages of Grief

It’s often said that there are five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. You may or may not experience every one of them, and people vary widely in their experiences of each. Some people skip several stages, may experience them in a different order or may revert back to stages that have already been “completed.”

What’s apparent, however, is that lockdowns, social distancing and other pandemic requirements are interfering with every one of these stages, making it nearly impossible for people to work through their intense feelings:¹¹

• Denial — Accompanying the body of the deceased helps loved ones to move past denial of their death, while taking away this step allows denial to linger.
• Anger — Feelings of anger are intensified when loved ones are unable to accompany the patient during the last days of their life. The inability to hold a ceremony can also intensify feelings of anger and guilt.
• Bargaining — Family members may blame themselves for their loved one’s death and run over scenarios they feel they could have done differently to protect them. “This can cause negative thoughts and emotions, which complicates this period,” the Iran University of Medical Sciences researchers explained.¹²
• Depression — Government-imposed lack of social support and inability to hold conventional funeral ceremonies can intensify depression.
• Acceptance — Under normal circumstances, most people take six weeks to several months to accept the loss, but this, too, will take longer without social support.

Experts are predicting that these profound disruptions are going to lead to a wave of unresolved bereavement, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as humans are robbed of their ability to participate in age-old bereavement rituals.¹³

Grief Reactions More Severe During the Pandemic

In the first empirical comparison of grief before the COVID-19 pandemic and during it, researchers questioned 1,600 bereaved adults, including those who had experienced a loss before the pandemic and those who suffered a loss during the pandemic, within the last five months.

Those who lost a loved one during the pandemic experienced more severe grief compared to those who experienced a loss before it, which suggests the loss was more difficult during the pandemic. The results suggested the pandemic “has a small but robust negative effect on psychological adjustment after non-COVID-19-related deaths during the pandemic."¹⁴

Different types of grief are also likely, including anticipatory grief, as loved ones are forced to watch an intensifying medical situation for their loved one from afar. Disenfranchised grief, which is grief unacknowledged by society or social norms, is also likely, especially in the absence of rituals like funerals.¹⁵

Again, researchers urged palliative care professionals, grief counselors and policy makers to prepare for heightened levels of grief in people bereaved during the pandemic.¹⁶

Losses in Many Areas of Life Lead to ‘Bereavement Overload’

During the pandemic, individuals may be faced with mounting losses in addition to losing a loved one. Loss of freedom is among them, as lockdowns become a new way of life for many. This triggers secondary losses of relationships, recreation and social support.

What’s more, Yusen Zhai and Xue Du from Pennsylvania State University argued that such multiple losses will prove to be detrimental to mental and physical health, putting civilians and first responders “in peril of bereavement overload:”¹⁷

“Social distancing minimizes emotional and physical intimacy, which results in dissolution of intimate relationships involving partners, family, and friends. Moreover, over 16 million U.S. population filed for unemployment within three weeks in March 2020 during the pandemic.

Job loss, as a primary loss, brings losses of financial security, independence, healthcare, and sense of future … Civilians experience losses of relationship, freedom, and employment within a constricted time period.”

Already, Americans’ mental health is suffering, and those with existing mental health conditions may not come out unscathed. In a survey of U.S. young adults, those with a mental health diagnosis were far more likely to be struggling mentally during the pandemic than those without a diagnosis — by more than sixfold for depression and four- to sixfold for anxiety and PTSD.¹⁸

Higher levels of COVID-19-related worry and grief, poorer sleep, and poorer reported health-related quality of life were also noted among people with a suspected or reported mental health condition. It’s also likely that the pandemic is pushing people on the brink of mental illness over the edge. The Psychiatry Research study reported:¹⁹

“The high rates of mental health symptoms above the clinical threshold found among those with no pre-existing diagnosis was striking with one out of five of these young adults scoring in the clinical range for depression (18.3%) and anxiety (20.4%), and one out of eight reporting clinical levels of PTSD (13.8%).”

EFT for Grieving and Holiday Stress

If you’re struggling with grief, it’s important to seek out activities and people that will help lift your spirits. Now is not the time to isolate yourself but to embrace human contact and emotional support. It’s unfortunate that “pandemic shaming” has become a U.S. pastime, and people may be vilified for seeking to spend time with their loved ones, even when their mental health is at stake.²⁰

There is reason to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public,” according to Dr. Roger Hodkinson, one of Canada’s top pathologists and an expert in virology, yet people are being told to stay away from their families, during what could turn out to be the last days or weeks of their time together.

It’s not humans who are to blame for desiring essential connections with others, but the impossible mandates being placed upon them that are making such connections seem criminal. That being said, if you’re alone with your grief, you can most certainly record your thoughts in a journal, as both talking and journaling can help you work through intense feelings.

In the video above, Julie Schiffman demonstrates how to use the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for grief. EFT is an energy psychology method designed to help you process emotions and reprogram your body's reactions related to them. Even if you have never used EFT before, take a few minutes to learn the technique and then use it whenever grief surfaces.

Because feelings of grief and loss tend to be intensified during the holidays, I’ve also included the video below on tapping for holiday stress. During this particularly challenging time for grieving, be gentle with yourself and your feelings, and be open to experiencing them fully — a necessary prerequisite to healing.

My Personal Deep Grieving Resolution

I lost both of my parents unexpectedly a few years ago within a year of each other. My mom was six years younger than my dad, but she passed away first quite unexpectedly of natural causes. It was the most profound grief experience I have ever gone through and allows me to better understand the pain that many of you have or still continue to struggle with.

These unnecessary COVID restrictions only contribute to the grief as you are unable to socialize with other family members and friends, which certainly helps when you need someone to lean on. I am very grateful they both passed before this dystopian nightmare we are currently cruising through, as I would have had loads more of forgiveness to go through.

Anyway, what I found to be an incredibly valuable resource was the book “Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender” by Dr. David Hawkins. Hawkins was one of the most brilliant medical minds of our time and I regret never having had the opportunity to interview him. The book was published in 2014 and it was the last one he wrote before he passed.

He provides simple explanations and approaches to be with the pain, which ultimately catalyzes its release. I was miserable, grief stricken and depressed for two weeks prior to reading it but the pain quickly resolved after applying his techniques. If any of you are struggling with grief I highly recommend this book.

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A new study presents an innovative treatment for deafness, based on the delivery of genetic material into the cells of the inner ear. The genetic material 'replaces' the genetic defect and enables the cells to continue functioning normally. They maintain that this novel therapy could lead to a breakthrough in treating children born with various mutations that eventually cause deafness.

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Modified CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing scissors are enabling researchers to make alterations to the genetic material of single-cell organisms that are indistinguishable from natural mutations. This method is making it possible to develop a (harmless) experimental live vaccine for the widespread parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

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