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How the world got lost on
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August 16, 2020: by Bill Sardi
Without a proven vaccine, vaccine-reliant human populations remain vulnerable to COVID-19 coronavirus lung infections. Maybe even vaccines won’t be able to conquer COVID-19. Vaccine makers haven’t been able to obtain licensure of a coronavirus vaccine in over a decade.
Operation Warp Speed to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine may be met with disappointment say some experts. Humanity may be holding its breath for a vaccine that may never materialize. A spokesperson for The World Health Organization stated in July that “a coronavirus vaccine will not be available this year.” But there is political and financial pressure to take shortcuts, skip Phase 3 testing, show the vaccine produces antibodies equivalent to natural exposure, and start Phase 4 widespread immunization.
Oh, a COVID-19 vaccine may gain licensure, but will it be safe and effective when so many shortcuts are being taken?
Worse yet, vaccination may not produce long-lasting antibodies. Some experts say public health authorities ought to have an early Plan B In mind. So should the public.
With that in mind, researchers began searching for available alternatives, natural molecules or drugs that can be re-purposed to fight the war of the world – against COVID 19.
While there has been an overwhelming response from the medical community to fast-track vaccines (over 100 in development), a more prevalent, dreaded and deadly lung pathogen is mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB infects 1.8 billion of the earth’s human population and kills 1.5 million people a year.
There is no concern that lockdowns and quarantines are going to result in a greater human calamity from tuberculosis than COVID-19, resulting in more deaths from TB than from COVID-19.
Due to public health authorities having blinders on and singularly focusing on COVID-19, there is going to be a predictable overlapping double-pandemic that public health authorities seem oblivious to.
There is a vaccine for TB that also reduces the risk for COVID-19 by about 3-fold, but it is not commonly used in the US. But that is not getting any news headlines. Governments across the globe have already cut purchase orders for newly developed vaccines, even before they have undergone safety and effectiveness trials.
If only there was an at-hand remedy for both COVID-19 and tuberculosis. The masses could have an alternative to vaccination.
The red wine molecule resveratrol uniquely addresses both COVID-19 and mycobacterium tuberculosis lung infections.
Resveratrol has unique ability to activate the Sirtuin1 survival gene that suppresses activation of TB from its latent (dormant) stage to active infection and also dampens inflammation in the lungs. Laboratory mice treated with resveratrol are more resistant to TB.
Recently researchers screened molecules for their ability to bind to the ACE2 cell surface receptor, the doorway for coronaviruses to enter lung cells. They found that of all the molecules studied, resveratrol was “remarkably significant.” Even over its analogs (resveratrol look-alike molecules), it was “the most stable and suitable.”
Other researchers in have conducted a “pathogenetic” study and determined the COVID-19 coronavirus activates (expresses) 562 genes and shuts off (silences) 738 genes.
From this knowledge they were able to determine which molecules would best control this uniquely mutated virus, therefore making them promising therapeutic candidates.
While there were a number of molecules that were more central to genetic control of the virus (see graphic below) such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), Cisplatin, nickel, copper sulfate, and cyclosporin, they are all fraught with side effects.
Resveratrol, quercetin and zinc, as natural molecules, were found to be the safest and best candidate molecules.
Other investigators also report resveratrol exhibits demonstrable anti-inflammatory properties that qualify it as a first-line drug candidate.
COVID19, as an infectious coronavirus, does not produce long-term antibodies to afford long-term immunity. It is now known that zinc dependent T-cells produced in the thymus gland are killing coronavirus-infected cells. Resveratrol activates T-cells yet calms an over-responsive immune system, a mortal characteristic of advanced stage COVID-19 infections.
Obese individuals are considered a high-risk group for COVID-19 coronavirus cases. The activation of T-cells is impaired in obese COVID-19 patients, leading to out-of-control viral replication. Resveratrol counters this problem in the obese. Resveratrol and quercetin, a natural molecule found in red apple peel and red onions, have anti-obesity properties.
The entryway for coronaviruses to enter cells is the ACE2 receptor. Inhibition of this pathway by ACE inhibitors, commonly used to treat high blood pressure, has been proposed.
A paradox is that an increase in ACE2 receptors has a protective effect upon COVID-19 infection, resveratrol being an ACE activator. It is no wonder that obese patients are at great mortal risk from COVID-19 infections. A high intake of dietary fat inhibits ACE2.
Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, are all high-risk factors where obesity is a common factor among all of these. Although ACE2 is needed for COVID-19 coronavirus to enter cells, the experimental removal of ACE2 from laboratory mice worsens their lung function.
ACE receptors have been experimentally shown to reduce viral load by up to 5000-fold in a lab dish.
Except in cases of high blood pressure where ACE inhibitor drugs (example: Lisinopril) are appropriate, resveratrol can be used in COVID-19 infected patients, particularly among those who are obese.
The clock is ticking….. summer is waning and Autumn begins September 22. In the northern hemisphere the earth begins to tilt back away from the sun in winter months, resulting in reduced intensity of solar ultraviolet radiation and lower vitamin D blood levels. November is the start of the coronavirus cycle that extends to April.
Unless a vaccine is licensed against COVID-19, the world’s masses remain increasingly vulnerable to the ravages of this mutated coronavirus. Normally outdoor-living human populations accumulate and store enough vitamin D in summer months for the duration of the winter cold and flu season. But modern indoor-living populations, particularly during harshly cold winters, do not produce and store sufficient amounts of vitamin D to maintain health.
To make matters worse, public health authorities made a giant mistake in calculating how much supplemental vitamin D is needed to maintain health. The commonly recommended supplemental dose is 600 international units (IU) is produced in less than 5 minutes of total-body midday sunshine exposure. A recent recalculation reveals adult humans should be taking ~8000 IU per day of vitamin D, children 2000 IU, particularly in winter months.
Nearly 99 per cent of Covid-19 patients who are vitamin D deficient die, according to a terrifying study that adds to mounting evidence that the ‘sunshine’ nutrient could be a coronavirus life-saver. Scientists in Indonesia analysed hospital records of 780 people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Results revealed 98.9 per cent of infected patients defined as vitamin D deficient – below 20ng/ml – died. Yet this fell to just 4.1 per cent for patients who had enough of the nutrient. Researchers warned the study was not definitive, however because the patients with high vitamin D levels were healthier and younger. It comes as health chiefs are urgently reviewing the use of vitamin D as a coronavirus lifesaver, with several studies suggesting that Covid-19 patients are far more likely to die if they have a deficiency. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is conducting a ‘rapid evidence review’ of the issue – and publication is expected as early as next week.
Data reveals those COVID-19-infected patients who enter the hospital depleted of vitamin D face a 98% chance of dying whereas only 4.1% of vitamin D-sufficient individuals die in the hospital.
Modern medicine is in the business of making a profit, even at the expense of human life. It is not in the business of extolling any inexpensive home remedies, even when there are no proven cures or vaccines for an infectious disease said to threaten the lives of millions.
Regardless of the scientific evidence presented herein, 7 of 10 American adults say they would accept the COVID-19 vaccine the moment it becomes available. The public is not ready to abandon vaccination, even when it becomes clear zinc-dependent T-cells, not antibodies, are needed to kill off COVID-10 coronavirus. Said another way, without adequate intake of zinc, the vaccines will be ineffective.
Wise advice is to bulk up on zinc if you are thinking of taking the vaccine.
In the meantime, Plan B would include some of the remedies mentioned herein.
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