While looking for honey at your grocery store, chances are you’ll find labels like “100% Pure Honey”, “100% Raw Honey”, or “True Sourced Certified”. Despite these claims and certifications, there’s a good chance that your honey isn’t what you were expecting. Much of the honey on grocery store shelves is imported, even the ones that claim to be produced in the U.S. Often times imported honey is adulterated, by adding sugars, heating it, or filtering it.
“We tested about 60 to 70 different companies, and we found that about 50 to 60 percent of those honeys tested are bad honey. Out of 110 products, around 70 percent were adulterated. There’s been something done to them. It is just pure fraud in our opinion. They’re selling products to the American public that isn’t what it says it is.”
– Kent Heitzinger, Lawyer
Honey has become widely more popular in recent years. Consumption of honey has gone up more than 40% in 20 years. Despite the rise in consumption, US beekeepers are having a difficult time selling honey because adulterated honey is the majority of what you’ll find on the market. Additionally, for environmental reasons, many beekeepers have lost a large percentage of their hives, thus making it harder to produce honey.
Adulteration is driving global honey prices down, leaving beekeepers barely able to sell their honey for a profit.”
Aside from the fact that companies are lying to consumers, this is a problem because adulterated honey does not have the same health benefits as raw honey. When honey is heated, it loses beneficial enzymes, and of course, when honey is diluted with sugar, you’re consuming sugar, oftentimes, unknowingly. Lawyers working with consumers who have bought adulterated honey have pointed out that companies have been doing this for years, and it is likely all profit-driven.
Read Vice’s in-depth article about adulterated honey, here.
73% of Inmates at an Ohio Prison Have Tested Positive for COVID-19
A prison in Ohio is accounting for the majority of coronavirus cases in Marion County, which has the leading number of coronavirus cases in Ohio. Officials are attributing the large number of cases to mass testing. Everyone, both staff and inmates have been tested for coronavirus. No COVID-19 deaths have been reported, however, more than 100 staff members and 2,000 inmates have tested positive for the virus.
“Because we are testing everyone — including those who are not showing symptoms — we are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic.”
Although California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas all have larger prison populations than Ohio, no one has reported case numbers as large as Marion County. Michigan has also reported a high number of inmates testing positive for coronavirus with 572 inmates testing positive out of 889 inmates tested. Michigan has some of the highest case numbers in the country. New York, who also has extremely high case numbers is only testing inmates who show symptoms and has only reported around 1,000 cases within the prison system.
In the midst of the pandemic, the Ohio governor recommended 300 out of 49,000 inmates be released early. Ohio is not the only state to release prisoners early, however, the governor has stated that he is not planning a “Wholesale release” where every prisoner in certain categories is released.
Scientist Explains Why Isolation was Not the Best Way to Flatten the Curve
In a recent article by Collective Evolution, Arjun Walia talked with Dr. Knut M. Wittkowski, a Senior Research Associate Rockefeller University, and discussed how social distancing may not be the most effective measure for flattening the curve. Dr. Wittkowski pointed out in a recent study that social distancing, isolation, and the closure of businesses and schools occurred after the peak in COVID-19 cases. This means, according to Wittkowski, that isolation did not actually have anHow to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut effect on the spread of the virus, and that the decline in cases should be credited to herd immunity rather than social distancing measures.
COVID-19 is not as dangerous as media and government is making it out to be, and therefore schools and businesses should be open so we can create herd immunity and kill this virus, while the elderly and immune-compromised individuals should be quarantined and practicing social distancing measures.”
While allowing schools and businesses to operate normally, society is able to build herd immunity. Through herd immunity, we can eliminate the virus and decrease the risk of infection for those who are elderly or immune-compromised. This is according to Wittowski’s data.
There is nothing to be scared about, this is a flu epidemic like every other flu, maybe a bit more severe, but nothing that is fundamentally different from the flus that we’ve seen in other years.”
Hello! Im a doctor in Sweden. I want to correct a few assumptions in this video that is erroneous. First of all, Sweden is working under one very simple presumption: Whether you like it or not, this virus will spread. Lockdowns are only useful if your healthcare service cannot cope with the influx, other than that you are simply just pushing the problem ahead of yourself. When you have a wide spread around the world, there is no point in a lockdown – even if you completely eliminate the virus from your country at some point you will have to reopen your borders. With that being said, the statistics in Sweden are skewed to have a higher mortality rate because we only test people who are admitted into the hospital or high risk patients. We dont test people with mild to medium symptoms.
In Sweden we have extended so that you can have up to 3 weeks of “sick leave” from work(WITHOUT A DOCTORS NOTE!) – and the money will be paid from the government. We have also made so that people can work only 20% of their time and still get 80% of their salary through subsidies from the government(to save small businesses). Alot of more have been done, and all this so that people who even have the mildest symptoms will voluntarily stay home. I think this is much better than holding a gun to someones head and forcing them to stay home. We have to also keep in mind other things:
1) In sweden, the public health ministry is calling the shot. They are a group of doctors, epidemiologists and statisticspeople. This is due to a law from hundreds of years ago that says that politicians cannot interfere with these ministries. Thus there is no political agendas to “look good” infront of the people. Denmark closed the primary schools AGAINST THE RECCOMENDATIONS of their public health ministry.
2) You have to keep in mind all of public health and not get tunnel vision entirely on the virus. Lockdowns skyrocket rate of suicides and domestic abuse. Depression, alcohol abuse, you name it.
3) Everybody who has a positive PCR test and die gets counted to the death toll. So for example: If someone gets posivite PCR test and then dies from a myocardial infarction it will still count as a COVID-19 death.
4) Just to finish this rant off: It is unfair to say that Sweden is doing an experiment. Technically speaking EVERY COUNTRY is doing an experiment right now, because this has never been done before so we dont know what is the “best way”.
New Antibody Tests Show Coronavirus Mortality Rate May Be Much Lower
According to antibody tests conducted in New York, more than 13.9% of the population may have been infected with COVID-19. 3,000 people were tested randomly to determine what percent of the population may have coronavirus antibodies. Tests were conducted throughout 19 different counties and 40 different grocery stores. Based on the results conducted, it’s likely nearly 2.7 million New Yorkers have been infected at some point.
On Sunday, Cuomo said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the state’s antibody test that will provide the “first true snapshot” of how many people have been infected with Covid-19 in New York. State officials don’t know the true number of infections because they haven’t been able to conduct diagnostic coronavirus testing on a large scale”
Results vary among different counties with New York City showing positive antibodies in 21% of the population, 16.7% in Long Island, and 11.7% in Westchester and Rockland county. Mortality rates in New York were originally reported at around 7.4%, but testing indicated that the mortality rate is likely less than 1%.
In America, USC and Stanford have released preliminary studies that show that between 1-2 million people who may have been infected with COVID-19, in California (around 2-4 percent of the population). Despite these findings, California has reported around 33,200 cases, making the mortality rate more than 3%. However, based on the findings reported by preliminary studies, the death rate in California would be closer to .04%, the overall death rate is likely closer to 1%.
In Gangelt Germany, test results show that nearly 14% of the population was infected, this dropped their mortality rate to 0.36%. In Robbio Italy, it’s likely more than 22% of the population may have been infected lowering the mortality rate to 0.7%. In Finland, they’ve reported 4,000 official cases but tests show it is likely closer to 80,000-100,000, lowering their death rate to 0.1%. Some places are reporting flu-like death rates while other states are reporting more than double flu-like rate mortality. This is likely due to the age of people in communities with higher death rates.
Distilleries Struggling to Make Sanitizer Amidst FDA Regulations
To help combat the lack of essential supplies, many industries have stopped normal production to produce things like masks, ventilators, and hand sanitizer.
Some industries, however, are having a more difficult time than others. Many distilleries have stopped normal production to produce hand sanitizer. However, due to FDA regulations and the lack of supplies, distilleries are not able to get hand sanitizer out to the general public as quickly as they should be able to.
FDA regulations require hand sanitizer to be denatured, to prevent people from drinking it. This is done through additives that make it extremely bitter or otherwise undrinkable. Due to high demand, however, distilleries are having a difficult time obtaining isopropyl alcohol, the most common denaturant.
Locally, we’ve scoured the stores and most of the online sources are back-ordered. We’d be able to get sanitizer out much more quickly if this wasn’t the case.
Additionally, distilled alcohol that is not denatured (generally intended for human consumption) is taxed at a high rate. This means, even if the FDA regulations were removed the potential cost of the hand sanitizer could be much greater than if it was denatured. The $2 trillion stimulus bill signed on March 27th waived the excise tax for alcohol used in sanitizer until January 2021. However, the bill states that manufacturers must follow FDA guidelines that require a denaturant despite the World Health Organization’s recipe that does not require a denaturant.
The Unexpected Environmental Impact of Coronavirus
While much of the human population is inside quarantining, skies are clearing up, water is less polluted, and the Earth is making small recoveries from the damages caused as a result of day to day life. The COVID-19 pandemic could result in one of the greatest drops in carbon emissions in history. The last significant drop in global emissions was in 2009 after the recession and the last drop in emissions of this magnitude was seen at the end of World War 2.
Four billion people worldwide are being told to shelter in their homes, the world economy has stalled, and scientists are anxiously awaiting what could be one of the largest drops in carbon emissions in history.
Some scientists say it’s still too early to expect a significant change while others say we could see an emissions drop of more than 5%. Emissions from transportation make up around 14% of global emissions and in some states, city traffic has decreased by more than 30%. Additionally, air pollution in some of the countries’ most polluted cities, Los Angeles and Seattle have seen a significant drop.
The short-term implications are much easier to see. Many of the behaviors people have given up — like driving to work everyday or taking international flights — are extremely carbon intensive
While the pandemic has some unforeseen environmental benefits, there are also many drawbacks. Due to the large quantities being used, masks and gloves that are not properly disposed of are washing up on ocean shores. Additionally, the EPA and the Trump Administration have made cutbacks to environmental regulations for the time being. Also, planes are still flying even when they’re nearly empty.
New Research Shows Air Pollution Linked to Higher CoVID-19 Death Rates
A recent study from Harvard research has shown that air pollution in the US is linked to higher death rates of CoVID-19. Research shows that people who live in counties with high levels of PM 2.5 were 15% more likely to die from CoVID-19.
PM 2.5 is an invisible pollutant made up of microparticles that can seep into the lungs and bloodstream. PM 2.5 comes from burning wood and coal, power plants, and automobile exhaust. It is considered one of the most dangerous invisible pollutants, and high levels have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and chronic bronchitis as well as other respiratory illnesses. All of these conditions are underlying conditions that can make CoVID-19 fatal. An estimated 78% of US patients in the ICU from CoVID-19 have underlying health conditions.
Polluted air is linked to some of the underlying conditions that make COVID-19 more fatal. Seventy-eight percent of U.S. patients who have ended up in intensive care units from COVID-19 have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or chronic lung disease.
A study done in Italy has found similar results, linking air pollution to chronic respiratory conditions. Additionally, research done in 2003 in China showed a correlation between air pollution and death from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is closely related to CoVID-19.
…it is well known that pollution impairs the first line of defense of upper airways, namely cilia (Cao et al., 2020), thus a subject living in an area with high levels of pollutant is more prone to develop chronic respiratory conditions and suitable to any infective agent
Despite the links of air pollution to CoVID-19 deaths, both the Trump administration and the EPA have cut back on environmental regulations in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. The EPA has announced that it would be letting factories and power plants, as well as other similar facilities, regulate themselves in the middle of the pandemic. The EPA will no longer issue fines for water, air or hazardous waste violations. Some states have discouraged or banned the use of reusable bags. Other states have passed laws to penalize pipeline protestors. Along with the EPA, the Trump administration has said they will no longer expect corporations to comply with pollution reporting or routine monitoring and that they will not be pursuing penalties for breaking these laws.