PHE Report Shows Minorities are Disproportionately Affected By COVID-19 but Neglects to Mention Why
A PHE (Public Health and Environment) report was released on Tuesday that confirmed COVID-19 disproportionately affects minorities. However, many have been quick to point out that the PHE has not acknowledged the cause of this problem.
Communities that are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 tend to be in areas of higher air pollution. This has been shown in communities in the US, UK, and all over the world. Consequently, this puts these communities at higher risk for health problems that exasperate COVID-19. Air pollution causes an estimated 40,000 deaths a year in the UK alone (very close to the coronavirus death counts to date).
“Air pollution is linked to diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and those with underlying health conditions are dying more from Covid-19,” she said. “So I expected the black and minority ethnic community to come out worse, because health inequalities are worst in the BAME community, let alone adding a lethal respiratory virus.
Many experts are surprised that the PHE report neglected to bring up air pollution as the cause for minorities being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The evidence that air pollution contributes to diminishing health in these communities is overwhelming.
Prof Francesca Dominici, of Harvard University in the US, also said pollution was an important factor. “We have a large body of evidence that health risks associated with air pollution exposure are higher among ethnic minorities.” Her research has shown that even a small increase in previous pollution exposure is linked to an 8% rise in Covid-19 deaths.
Many have said it is irresponsible to leave out this information. To neglect to mention the fact that minorities are disproportionately affected because of air pollution perpetuates systemic racism. It sets a precedent that these communities are wholly responsible for their own circumstances despite the fact that they are continually oppressed by the system.
Data Shows How to Protect Against Coronavirus and We Address Conspiracy Theories
I’m not, nor have I been, concerned with contracting COVID-19. Pathogens infect people who are vulnerable. The concept of random/chance infections doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If a pathogen does kill everyone and anyone regardless of how healthy the host is the pathogen would burn out its host supply. Evolutionarily speaking this isn’t something that makes sense.
The medical science community is just now discovering how gut health is synonymous with overall health. Of course, they’re trying to figure out what drugs can be made from the revelations and not how one can take their health into their own hands because the truth is not profitable. The truth is the only way to sustain proper gut health is to continually eat a wide variety of raw vegetables and herbs while avoiding toxic foods and chemicals that imbalance the microbiome.
Studies are showing a number of factors that play a role in the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Some of these we have control of and some of these we don’t. Let’s start with those we have no control over.
Age
Viruses like influenza are more likely to injure and kill both the young and the older population, given their more vulnerable immune systems. But COVID-19 is a little different.
Children under the age of 18 are far less likely to have symptoms of infection, and they are also less likely to need hospitalization, and kids are less likely to die of COVID-19.
People over the age of 75, on the other hand, are far more susceptible to the worst COVID-19 has to offer. Below is a chart with data provided by New York City Health as of May 13, 2020.
The data we have is very limited so far but China and other countries, and other states within the U.S. show numbers for 75+ between 20% and 35%.
As you probably heard in the news, coronavirus has been hitting nursing homes hard.
Sex
Men are much more likely to suffer symptoms from coronavirus than women. Data provided by New York City Health as of April 1st states that 61.8% of fatalities are men. Other studies of other regions show similar percentages. Researchers are trying to figure out why. Men face higher risk of complications with other respiratory illnesses as well, as the flu also affects men disproportionately.
The evidence in current studies points towards men having weaker immune systems than women, especially when it comes to common viral respiratory infections. Men are more susceptible to them, symptoms are worse, they last longer, and men are more likely to be hospitalized and die from the flu.
So why are men more likely to die? Theories range from how testosterone affects the body to the fact that men are often less likely to take care of themselves. As usual, it’s likely a confluence of issues.
Blood Type
A study found that people with blood type A were 50% more likely to experience severe COVID-19 symptoms than people with other blood types. On the flip side, those with blood type O were 50% less likely to face severe symptoms of COVID-19.
Race
CDC statistics show that 33% of people who’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19 are African American. Some local communities that report data have found similar patterns.
Black workers are also more likely to have employment that does not allow them to work from home, and they are less likely to have the safety nets that allow them to take time off. There’s a likely possibility that the African American community is more likely to be exposed to the virus. Detroit was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, but the daily cases and the death rate in Michigan have been on the decline for some time, indicating that the virus may have run its course. Perhaps Detroit inadvertently followed Sweden’s model.
Besides blood type, most of the data above indicates that health plays a big role in determining the outcome of someone who is infected by CVOID-19. The data below proves it.
Underline Medical Conditions and Immunocompromised
Of people who were sick enough to be hospitalized with coronavirus, 89% had at least one chronic condition. About half of those patients had high blood pressure and obesity, about a third of the patients had diabetes, and another third had cardiovascular disease.
People with obesity tend to be more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health issues.
Besides staying fit, what else can one do to protect themselves from COVID-19? Vitamin D, Glutathione, and most importantly, gut health play an enormously important role in determining one’s ability to fight off COVID-19.
Vitamin D
Some studies have indicated that vitamin D deficiency is linked to poorer outcomes with coronavirus. There are not any studies showing the vitamin D supplementation can help one overcome the virus, and other underlying risk factors, such as heart disease and diabetes make it hard to draw conclusions because people with these conditions are often low in vitamin D.
COVID-19 deaths are attributed to something called a “cytokine storm”, a physiological reaction in which our immune system causes an excessive release of cytokines, a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule. The only treatments modern medicine knows to do for this symptom are oxygen therapy and assisted ventilation.
A new study has evaluated the effects of dose oral and IV glutathione in the treatment of two patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
Oral and IV glutathione, glutathione precursors (N-acetyl-cysteine) and alpha lipoic acid may represent a novel treatment approach for blocking NF-κB and addressing “cytokine storm syndrome” and respiratory distress in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
Dr. Richard Horowitz, a board-certified internist with a private integrative medicine practice is considered to be one of thes top Lyme disease doctors. He has built a practice around combining classical and complementary treatments for Lyme diseases.
“It is a miracle and it’s not,” says Horowitz of glutathione, which he has used on thousands of patients in his medical practice over the past 30 years. “It’s already in the literature—there are published articles on glutathione showing that it has anti-viral activity against herpes viruses, HIV, and hepatitis. The problem is, all of the COVID research is happening through pharmaceutical companies. No one is looking at natural approaches. You hear a little about how low vitamin D might put you at risk, so it’s coming out in dribs and drabs.” And just like with vitamin D, you can be deficient in glutathione—especially if you’ve been exposed to a lot of environmental toxins (which is everyone). Older people are also more likely to be depleted of the compound.
In the first case of novel coronavirus reported in the U.S., the patient reported two days of nausea and vomiting along with diarrhea in addition to respiratory symptoms. In some small studies, researchers have linked patients with gastrointestinal issues to poorer coronavirus outcomes. Poor gut health seems to equate to severe disease symptoms including higher fevers and a greater risk of liver injury.
The suggestion is that the gastrointestinal symptoms are caused by the virus invading the ACE2-containing cells that are found throughout the bowel. This, together with the presence of the virus in the stool, suggests the gastrointestinal tract as another possible route of infection and transmission.
But it’s not just that the virus attacks the gut. Science is on the verge of discovering that our gut microbiome supplies our entire body with its microbiome. And what they don’t yet know, but is nevertheless true, is that a body with a healthy, diverse, and plentiful microbiome is a much less hospitable host for foreign invaders.
The health of our gut bacteria plays a crucial role in how our immune system reacts to every disease, including coronavirus. Diet is crucial to developing and maintaining healthy gut flora. The wider variety of raw vegetables and herbs one consumes, the more diverse one’s gut bacteria will be. And diversity is key to a healthy microbiome.
This article, How To Heal Your Gut, goes into detail about how to develop a healthy gut microbiome and is the basis for ridding the body of and being less susceptible to nearly every disease.
From our sister company, Green Lifestyle Market, here are our top four supplement picks for anyone concerned with COVID-19:
But don’t skip the aforementioned gut health article! Diet is far more important than supplements, and if finances are tight, put your money towards healthy food before you purchase supplements.
And now that you have some facts to arm yourself against COVID-19, let’s talk analysis some of the so-called “fake news” that’s going around regarding coronavirus.
Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories
Germs are real, and they can kill you. But cellular health is what separates the vulnerable from the robust immune systems. Your gut is the engine that powers your body. While this should seem obvious to anyone who has even a rudimentary understanding of biology, it’s still considered conspiracy theory to suggest that getting ill with a virus is anything more than bad luck, even though the science continually supports our position. Speaking of conspiracy theories, let’s debunk a few.
Coronavirus Doesn’t Exist
Enough people have been sick and enough people have died that this conspiracy should be put to rest. On social media, there are lots of posts asking, “Do you know anyone who has actually gotten coronavirus?” Yes, I do. And when I comment as such I am often accused of being in on the conspiracy, or they say the people I know died of something else falsely attributed to COVID-19 (which does have some truth to it, considering that healthy people do not die from this disease). The problem with the biggest conspiracies, like flat-earth, is that people just don’t keep secrets well enough. If coronavirus were a hoax, there would be massive amounts of people sounding the alarm.
It’s 5G
There are many people claiming that people who think they are suffering from COVID-19 are actually being killed by 5G wireless. The timing is close but not close enough to make this conspiracy work. It is possible that 5G infrastructure could exacerbate symptoms, but that’s also true for glyphosate, refined sugar, fluoride, and other toxins we ingest daily. There aren’t yet any studies on the effects of 5G because the cellular companies don’t want them, but some studies that indicate 4G is associated with problems for our health. And if the studies’ conclusions are true, 5G is likely to be worse. But there are also a lot of studies that indicate cellular frequencies don’t directly harm our health. What we do know for sure is that radiation from towers and our cellphones, and Wi-Fi, is harming birds and bees along with other animals and insects. This is reason enough to be concerned with our own health regarding EMFs. Whether it’s direct effects or indirect (environmental degradation), EMFs aren’t good for us.
The Coronavirus is a Bioweapon
You may have heard that Bill Gates had coronavirus created In a lab to implement the New World Order and install human trackers on all of us.
Bill Gates is a dangerous man with many foolish ideas. But he’s not powerful enough to pull this off and I don’t think he’s “evil”. He seems to be a perfect example of how true this quote is:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!
But the engineering of viruses is happening, and we’d be foolish to completely rule out the idea that a government or company would accidentally or purposefully release such a virus. The vast majority of scientists don’t believe COVID-19 was engineered accidentally or on purpose, but viruses are being genetically modified. There are some scientists who do believe COVID-19 was manufactured, and governments, as well as corporations, have been known to lie to us every chance they get.
This is a Made Up Virus to Get Trump Out of Office
The virus isn’t made up, but it’s pretty clear the left is leveraging the pandemic to help get Trump out of office. For evidence, there is plenty of blatant hypocrisy to chose from. If things were reversed, the Democrats would be all about restarting the economy while republicans would be sheltering in place and screaming about how Dems are trying to kill us all.
Conclusion
I stated that healthy people aren’t dying from coronavirus. With some online searching, it is easy to find plenty of media claiming this is not true. Stories such as one about a very physically fit man who almost died of coronavirus and one about a child in California who died are used as “A devastating reminder that COVID-19 infects people of all ages.” But it’s important to note that these cases are extremely rare, and one should also understand that strength and physical fitness are not synonymous with good health. Many men who can run marathons in their 20s and 30s develop autoimmune diseases in their 40s. Children who died, as rare as this is, were not in good health either.
If the CDC had our best interests in mind, they would have at least said something about the importance of eating right during a pandemic instead of trying to frighten us into sheltering in place.
Could Coronavirus Be Spread When You Flush the Toilet?
Scientists have found that coronavirus particles in fecal matter could be ejected into the air when you flush the toilet. The research, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, measured the toilet plume caused by the turbulence of flushing and saw that 40%-60% of particles reached above the toilet seat. These particles could increase the spread of coronavirus, especially since bathrooms are high-traffic, poorly ventilated areas.
The research didn’t analyze the toilet droplets for coronavirus, although it is possible that fecal matter particles will contain smaller amounts of the virus than respiratory droplets. COVID-19 is most often found in the lungs and respiratory tract, although some studies have found coronavirus in the small intestine. In addition, virus symptoms can include nausea and diarrhea.
The study concluded with steps you can take to limit the potential spread of coronavirus through toilet particles. These include closing the toilet lid before flushing, cleaning the toilet seat before use, andwashing hands after flushing.
U.S. Government Will Fund and Conduct Three Coronavirus Vaccines
The United States government will fund and conduct studies on three different coronavirus vaccines, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The coronavirus vaccine effort is progressing very well and we expect more than one candidate vaccine to be in advanced clinical testing by early summer…This is good news for the overall coronavirus vaccine effort.”
Phase 3 trials for Moderna’s experimental vaccine will begin in July. Oxford/Astra Zeneca will be tested in August, and Johnson & Johnson will follow with their vaccine trials in September. The trials will begin after companies have enough safety and efficacy information from earlier phases. Phase 3 will take place at more than 50 sites throughout the U.S. and could involve about 30,000 people.
According to the New York Times coronavirus tracker, there are ten vaccines in phase 1, eight in phase 2, and two vaccines in phase 3. Oxford/AstraZeneca is in phase 2/3 in England and Brazil, and the company could potentially deliver emergency vaccines by October.
Study Shows Children and Teenagers are Half as Likely to Catch COVID-19
Epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently carried out a study published in Nature Medicine to determine how susceptible different age groups are to getting COVID-19.
Members of the public are tested at DeCode Genetics’ service center, a few miles from its headquarters in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Image source: Decode Genetics
The study examines transmission models to determine how susceptible one is based on age. Data shows that clinical symptoms of COVID-19 show up in around 21% of people ages 10-19. Clinical symptoms show up 71% in those over the age of 70.
If the number of infections or cases depends strongly on the role of children, countries with different age distributions could exhibit substantially different epidemic profiles and overall impact of Covid-19 epidemics,
Data was collected from China, Singapore, Canada, and South Korea and shows that those under the age of 20 may be 50% less susceptible to COVID-19. The CDC has also said that children may be less susceptible to COVID-19 and that adults make up the majority of the COVID-19 cases. Data also showed that children who did contract the virus were less likely to show symptoms.
USDA Recalls Over 40,000 Pounds of Beef due to E.Coli
Forty-three thousand pounds of raw beef produced by Lakeside Refrigerated Services in New Jersey was recalled due to E.coli contamination. The beef was produced on June 1 and sold at Wal-mart. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall on Saturday.
FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers…Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
The beef tested positive for E. coli O157: H7, a strain of E.coli that is responsible for 36% of the more than 265,000 STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli) infections in the U.S. every year. The FSIS found the bacteria through routine testing and has not confirmed any adverse reactions to the contaminated beef.
The USDA recalled almost 700,000 pounds of beef in 2019. Previous years saw recalls of 13 million (2018) and 900,000 (2017) pounds of beef. In another year this recall would not be a big deal. However, the meat processing industry is still reeling from coronavirus and labor processing, and it is unclear how recalls will affect the food supply chain in 2020.
The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will allow certain impurities in alcohol-based sanitizers to meet the public health demands during the COVID-19 pandemic. The relaxed guidelines will directly affect fuel ethanol companies that began making sanitizer at the beginning of the pandemic.
The FDA is working with industry to ensure that harmful levels of impurities are not present if ethanol is used in these products. Based on careful review and consideration of available data, we are specifying interim levels of certain impurities that we have determined can be tolerated for a relatively short period of time, given the emphasis on hand hygiene during the COVID-19 public health emergency and to avoid exacerbating access issues for alcohol-based hand sanitizer.”
This announcement is in direct contrast to the agency’s position in April, when it told several fuel ethanol companies that their sanitizers didn’t meet safety standards. Two ingredients under particular scrutiny are acetaldehyde, a carcinogen, and benzene.