When The Great Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 hit the United States, many Americans were more than willing to wear masks and maintain social distancing to "flatten the curve."
Then came George Floyd's death in police custody. Then came protests featuring thousands of activists across the nation -- social distancing be damned.
Not even Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the pandemic's two most visible experts, initially expressed concern -- let alone alarm -- about the blatant disregard of health protocols when the protests began. Indeed, Fauci waited 12 days after Floyd’s death to comment publicly.
Many Americans now realize that they have been -- and continue to be -- deceived. Meanwhile, their emotional and psychological health rapidly deteriorate because of draconian mandates ostensibly designed to protect them.
Scientific studies provide specifics. Research conducted by Johns Hopkins and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed a dramatic increase in the percentage of American adults displaying symptoms of psychological stress.
The study revealed that 13.6 percent of adults showed such symptoms in April, compared to 3.9 percent in 2018. The most striking increases appeared among adults with incomes less than $35,000 (19.3 percent from 7.9 percent), Latinos (18.3 from 4.4) and adults between 18 and 29 (24 from 3.7).
The researchers listed social distancing as one of the factors contributing to the accelerating stress, which "may transfer to longer-term psychiatric disorders requiring clinical care," wrote Beth McGinty.
In April, the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper by Drs. Carol North and Betty Pfefferbaum. They concluded that the social isolation imposed through self-quarantining and stay-at-home orders leads to "stress, irritability, insomnia, fear, confusion, anger, frustration, boredom, and stigma associated with quarantine," they wrote.
Those factors increase not only the risk of drug and alcohol abuse, they added, but also suicide.
"Extensive research in disaster mental health has established that emotional distress is ubiquitous in affected populations," they wrote, "a finding certainly to be echoed in populations affected by the Covid-19 pandemic."
Social distancing even sabotages the body's ability to fight viruses.
In 2015, the National Academy of Sciences published a study showing how social isolation inhibits cells at the genetic level from producing antiviral agents. Instead, they produce anti-inflammatory substances that weaken the immune system.
"That social connection really boosts the immune system," said Shiva Ayyadurai, who holds a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT. "It boosts antiviral compounds when you feel safe and friendly and secure and in good social relationships.
"When you're socially isolated, you don't trust people and you have all that psychological stress, your body will actually create inflammation and lower antiviral compounds."
Dr. Scott Barbour: People Have Permanent Damage Due to Delayed Care
Robert Kraychik
Dr. Scott Barbour, an Atlanta-based orthopedic surgeon, noted that some Americans with health problems who avoided seeking medical care due to fears of COVID-19 are now stricken with permanent damage as a result of delayed treatment. He shared his comments on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Americans have had heart attacks and strokes due to avoidance or delays in receiving medical care, Barbour said.
“There are people that are suffering from long-term negative effects of other medical problems because they’re afraid to go to the hospital,” Barbour remarked, “[including], in fact, strokes [and] heart attacks. In my own business, I’ve had one ankle fracture dislocation. [My patient is] going to have a destroyed ankle forever because they didn’t come to the hospital.”
Barbour continued, “I have another patient [with] a dislocated finger that waited ’til it was impossible to relocate the finger, and so they’re going to have long-term consequences. So there are real negative effects by not opening, and I know that there’s a way to open safely. I’ve been doing it for the last seven months and I’m not the only one, so let’s talk about it and let’s figure out a way to get ourselves back to normal.”
Robert Kraychik
Dr. Scott Barbour, an Atlanta-based orthopedic surgeon, noted that some Americans with health problems who avoided seeking medical care due to fears of COVID-19 are now stricken with permanent damage as a result of delayed treatment. He shared his comments on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Americans have had heart attacks and strokes due to avoidance or delays in receiving medical care, Barbour said.
“There are people that are suffering from long-term negative effects of other medical problems because they’re afraid to go to the hospital,” Barbour remarked, “[including], in fact, strokes [and] heart attacks. In my own business, I’ve had one ankle fracture dislocation. [My patient is] going to have a destroyed ankle forever because they didn’t come to the hospital.”
Barbour continued, “I have another patient [with] a dislocated finger that waited ’til it was impossible to relocate the finger, and so they’re going to have long-term consequences. So there are real negative effects by not opening, and I know that there’s a way to open safely. I’ve been doing it for the last seven months and I’m not the only one, so let’s talk about it and let’s figure out a way to get ourselves back to normal.”
Marlow asked about the efficacy of masks in preventing transmission of the novel coronavirus.
“Before this outbreak, the consensus literature was exactly what Dr. Fauci said it was originally, where there [did] not appear to be any studies that demonstrate the efficacy of masks in the transmission of what we call influenza-like illnesses, [which are] the types of viruses that are spread in respiratory droplets and cause respiratory illness,” Barbour said.
“The concept of masks has been studied for a long time, especially in the dental community. They obviously work very closely with people, and a lot of literature has been written. There are some studies out there that show that dentists who wear masks and face shields have the same antibodies to the plethora of influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses, which sort of show that the masks were not effective in preventing the disease transmission in these types of professionals,” Barbour said.
Some evidence indicates an increased risk of influenza-like illness transmission associated with cloth masks, stated Barbour.
“We have one randomized controlled study on cloth masks, and the results of that study were that the people wearing the cloth masks were actually more likely to contract the influenza-like illnesses. My attitude towards masks is there’s no real compelling evidence that they do work, and I think that that was sort of relatively accepted before 2020 now suddenly masks are being mandated,” Barbour said.
No comments:
Post a Comment