New studies testing oral immunotherapy have shown that gut health may play a large role in allergies, and gut microbes may be the solution to food allergies. Oral immunotherapy involves taking small doses of whatever food causes the allergic reaction, every day or a few times a week. Scientists believe that imbalances in beneficial bacteria are the root cause of food allergies.

But oral immunotherapy has downsides. The regimen can be nerve-racking, since it involves daily consumption of food that could kill. It doesn’t work for everyone and does little to fix the underlying disease. Success mostly means gaining the ability to safely eat several peanuts, for example, rather than reacting to a speck of peanut flour.

Gut Microbes May Be Key to Solving Food Allergies

Here at OLM, we’ve known about the connection between gut health and allergies for quite some time. Our experiences have shown that when the gut is healthy, allergies disappear. Check out this article to learn more about the connection between gut health and allergies, and information on how to heal the gut.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Midland, Michigan was recently heavily flooded as the result of a dam failure. Reports from Dow Chemical Facility have said that floodwaters were “commingling with on-site containment ponds” at Dow facilities. Floodwaters had the potential to release chemicals onto farmland and residential areas downstream, however, Dow reported that there were no product releases as a result of the flooding.

This May 28, 2008 photo shows the Dow Chemical Co. industrial site in Midland, Michigan

This is another example of the Trump administration putting vulnerable communities in harms way by sidelining science” said Carter. There was an Executive Order that called for Superfund sites to update their infrastructure to protect them from future extreme floods, but it was trashed by the Trump administration a week before Hurricane Harvey hit.

After Dams Fail, Dow Admits Floodwaters in Midland, Michigan ‘Commingling’ With Toxic Chemical Storage Ponds

The flooding poses risks a large risk of spreading pollution throughout Midland county. The Tittabawassee River, which has long been subject to illegal dumping by Dow, is one of the most contaminated rivers in Michigan.

‘The catastrophic flooding we are seeing in Midland is a culmination of the impacts of the increased strange and severe weather events that are amplified by climate change,’ said Lisa Wozniak, Michigan League of Conservation Voters executive director ‘and this latest event highlights the importance of big thinking right now from leaders around how to plan properly with our changing climate to keep our families safe.’

After Dams Fail, Dow Admits Floodwaters in Midland, Michigan ‘Commingling’ With Toxic Chemical Storage Ponds

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for public affairs shows that only 50% of Americans say they would get a Coronavirus vaccine. The poll showed that 31% of Americans were unsure if they’d get vaccinated while 1 in 5 people said they would refuse. Of those who say they won’t get vaccinated, 7 in 10 are worried about the safety of the vaccine, while 4 in 10 are concerned about catching the virus from the vaccine. Only 3 in 10 people who say they will not get vaccinated do not fear getting seriously ill from COVID-19

Related: Sweeden’s Approach To Coronavirus – Did It Work? What Should We Have Done?

Manjurul/Getty Images

‘I am not an anti-vaxxer,’ said Melanie Dries, 56, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. But, ‘to get a COVID-19 vaccine within a year or two … causes me to fear that it won’t be widely tested as to side effects.’

Only About Half of Americans Would Get a COVID-19 Vaccine, Poll Finds

A director of the National Institutes of Health states that safety is a top priority, but many Americans, even those who don’t consider themselves “anti-vaxxers,” are concerned about the safety of the vaccine. As many as 7 in 10 people who said they would be vaccinated are of the opinion that life cannot go back to normal without a vaccine. More than half of Democrats say a vaccine is necessary for reopening while only a third of Republicans believe this. Around 60% of democrats would get the vaccine compared to 43% of republicans.

Related: Vaccination Before 1 Year of Age May Increase Odds of Developmental Delays, Asthma, Ear Infection – New Study

Many are of the opinion that we should not rely on a vaccine to save us. A safe vaccine has never been developed in such a short time frame. Additionally, the coronavirus is a SARS virus, similar to that of the common cold, which would make it difficult to vaccinate against.

Update: Another poll from Washington Post and ABC News says that about 7 in 10 Americans say they would get a vaccine to protect against COVID-19 if immunizations were free and available to everyone.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has voted yes to a resolution to share the addresses of positive COVID-19 patients with suburban first responders. The board claims they voted to pass this motion in an effort to protect first responders against the virus, but this raises serious concerns about the privacy of citizens.

Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot

Today, to my great astonishment and disappointment, nine members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to capitulate to ignorance and bigotry by voting to force the disclosure of the addresses of every patient who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot via Twitter

Mayor Lightfoot later went on to say that the sharing of addresses would never become law in Chicago. Cook County is not the first municipality to discuss the sharing of COVID-19 patients’ addresses. Recent events in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic go to show how little our personal freedoms matter to those in power, and just how little people care when they’re scared.

President Trump has introduced a new initiative called “Project Warp Speed” with plans to get the coronavirus vaccine ready by January 2021, through science and medicine experts and resources in the military and private sector. At the time the president released this plan, he also stated that the coronavirus vaccine would not be mandatory. “Not everyone is going to want to get it,” he said.

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters at the White House on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Anxiety about possible medical strong-arming by the military easily piggy-backed on top of wide speculation that legislation introduced in Congress earlier this month, known as the TRACE Act – the “COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act” –  would result in massive assaults by government agents against the constitutional rights of Americans.

Trump Says Coronavirus Vaccine will be Voluntary ‘Not everyone is going to want to get it’

Previously, Trump had brought up the idea of mobilizing the military to deploy the new vaccine, which raised fears that the vaccine would be mandatory. It should be pointed out that Trump’s statement does not guarantee that the vaccine will not be mandatory. In recent weeks, nearly half a million people have signed a petition addressed to world leaders opposing a mandatory coronavirus vaccine.

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

In a recent podcast, Alberta’s energy minister stated that “Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can’t have protests of more than 15 people.” Sonya Savage made the statement on Friday during a podcast hosted by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors in response to a question she was asked about the progress of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. 

Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Energy Minister Sonya Savage announce the review of the Alberta Energy Regulator at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. Credit: Tom Ross

Savage later went on to imply that the pandemic will favor the pipeline construction saying:

“People are not going to have tolerance or patience for protests that get in the way of people working. People need jobs and those types of ideological protests that get in the way are not going to be tolerated by ordinary Canadians.” 

Alberta minister says it’s a ‘great time’ to build a pipeline because COVID-19 restrictions limit protests against them

Savage’s spokesperson later clarified that they “respect the right to lawful protests” additionally saying “I would note that the limitations to public gatherings have benefited no one, including project proponents and any opposition groups”.

The CDC recently admitted to combining coronavirus test results with coronavirus antibody results, in their tally for COVID-19 testing. A positive coronavirus antibody test means that someone has built up antibodies due to previously coming into contact with the virus. A positive coronavirus test means that someone is currently infected with the virus. The CDC has been combining negative antibody test results with negative viral tests. Doing this can both lower the accurate percentage of currently infected people and overlook the fact that many more people have already had the virus.

Related: A Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Save Us

Image: Shutterstock: An epidemiologist runs PCR tests to detect specific genetic regions of SARS-nCoV-2 virus.

Even if traces of COVID-19 are found in an antibody test, those results are not logged by states or by the CDC as “positive” results for an acute infection. Grouping the two together could make it seem that a smaller percentage of people who have received tests are positive with COVID-19, since antibody tests do not measure acute infections at all.

CDC’s National Dashboard Includes COVID-19 Data That Expert Says Mixes ‘Apples To Oranges’

Related: Coronavirus – Your Guide to the CoVID-19 Pandemic

A CDC employee speaking on the condition of anonymity said that [combining test results] “would make it difficult to assess the actual number of infections at a given point in time.” Additionally, they pointed out that CDC infection rate website does state that some states may combine testing results. This information, however, is not entirely accurate. As recently as May 18th, the CDC tracker website claimed that the testing data reported was data from viral testing only.

Statistics have come out that show antibody numbers are radically higher than originally thought, meaning many people have already had the virus (with or without symptoms), making the death rate much lower than currently reported.

Sources:

• ‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’ -The Atlantic
• CDC’s National Dashboard Includes COVID-19 Data That Expert Says Mixes ‘Apples To Oranges’-WLRN
• Scientists Warn CDC Testing Data Could Create Misleading Picture Of Pandemic -NPR
• CDC acknowledges mixing up coronavirus testing data -The Hill