Newest Health Blogs (955)

How Many Deaths Attributed To Covid May Be Due To Bacterial Pneumonia?
I.E. People may've Died WITH Covid but FROM Bacterial Pneumonia?

How many lives may've been Saved if Covid patients had been treated with Antibiotics?
But antibiotics weren't Prescribed because Covid is Viral - Not Bacterial?

It also raises the question whether widespread masking is sound Public Health Policy.
Note the Dates - 2008 & 2015, respectively.

All that information was Available WELL Before Covid arrived on the scene.

Elected leaders in other countries should take note! No coercion or punishment around getting jabs, just old fashioned informed consent and respect for individual choice!

By now, the science is settled: Wearing a mask is the easiest, least intrusive way to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Understanding why isn’t rocket science, but it’s not always intuitive, either. If you—or someone you know, say, a misinformation-spreading Facebook friend—are looking for a handy explainer, try this YouTube video from It’s Okay to Be Smart.

Viruses can be difficult to understand because they’re invisible to the naked eye, traveling inside water droplets on unseen air currents. With a technique called schlieren imaging, though, we can see these air currents, and that’s what It’s Okay to Be Smart uses to demonstrate how masks work.

The science behind schlieren imaging is a little complicated, involving a spherical mirror bending light in subtly different ways to reveal differences in density that would otherwise be invisible. It’s important to note that this doesn’t let us see viruses—they’re too small for that—but it does let us see how air flows when we exhale.

Using a combination of slow motion and schlieren imaging, the video reveals what a cough looks like with and without a mask. The differences are striking. The unmasked cough creates a massive plume of potentially virus-laden air, traveling much farther than you’d expect—about 2 meters, which is why social distancing means staying outside that zone.

A mask does two things: First, it captures much of the droplets expelled when you cough, sneeze, or breathe; second, any that aren’t captured have their momentum blunted, keeping them from traveling very far. That means less chance of infection for people around you. The bottom line is that masks work—and this is a good video showing you exactly why.






It is up to the reader to decide, but this video makes total sense to me.

Well the answer to that is NO

It seems some here are addicted to anti-vax hysteria, and the pleasant (to them); resulting melodrama...

Sorry to disappoint the anti-vax brigade on here; but once again, they DO NOT permanently alter our DNA



Oh, and just what happens to those simply dastardly spike proteins? Well, once again; sorry to disappoint you all; but they are not permanent, either



***Disclaimer: not intended as medical advice. Talk to your Doctor***

Hi to all C. S. member MERRY CHRISTMAS and safe safe safe NEW YEAR to all of us

As much as I didn't want to have a molar extracted the discomfort of bone deterioration was growing. The antibiotic from 2 weeks ago was wearing away and the pressure was growing.

The Periodontist that works for the dentist I had been using only visits the office once a week and is booked out a month at that center. He's twice a week at another center that's about the same distance from me, but cannot see me until the 2nd week in January. It's a corporate environment as all the dentists are hired hands and they don't stand out as experts in their field. I didn't want to wait.

I had a referral to another periodontist who has his own practice and after checking the reviews, booked an appointment with him. Today was the appointment day. He reviewed the x-rays and told me the best thing was to extract the tooth, remove all the damaged bone and surrounding tissue, build-up a bone graft. After, 8 weeks when all is healed would be the right time to return for an implant.

He assured me the Novocaine injections would be sufficient that I wouldn't feel anything. He was right. I lost sensation on half of my face for a few hours!

I stopped at my office just to make sure there weren't any problems, then headed to the pharmacy where I picked up some gauze pads, prescriptions for rinse and antibiotic. Stopping at home for a few minutes and went to the grocery store for soft food as I expect it will be rough going for a few days.

After lunch I napped with pillows propped up as I had some bleeding. 10 hours later the pain is minimal and I was able to have dinner without discomfort. As instructed, I'm applying an ice pack to my jawbone to minimize swelling.

Traumatized over this? Yeah, but knowing the area had been troublesome for months and not getting better, I was running out of options. All the people in his office were professional and made the experience go smoothly.

So far, my quote from many years ago still holds true:
"The only pain you should feel from a dentist is when you receive the bill"

I have a good friend whose 7 year old son has a malignant brain tumor. Surgery, Proton radiation, chemo, all that jazz. Long term prognosis for his condition, with all possible treatments is usually only about 15 months max, less if the treatments are not done or interrupted. So she is under a little bit of pressure. She has gotten super religious due pastors saying stuff like if you just pray really hard Jesus may hear you, and she is embracing that versus the alternative your kid will probably be dead by Christmas 2022. Understandable.
Anyway today she was on an FB rant from the hospital center she son was getting radiation at tonight. A rant about trying to do everything, continuing to work because someone has to put food on the table, how the boy's school is not really supportive, the abusive ex she divorced from years ago is being a butt hole and not helping because his current GF doesn't want him talking to his ex too much or some such thing, and how tired she is from driving the kid to the treatment center (about 50 miles each way) 6 days a week for the next 5 weeks, how she spent an hour praying to Jesus today, and how she has to go in early to keep her job while also getting her son to evening treatments and also helping with his school work, and cooking and how sometimes she just wants to cry because the boy is asking what happens if the tumor grows back or doesn't shrink, and she don't want to answer that, and the dish washer broke this afternoon, or stopped working anyway, won't stay locked. And ranting and not enough sleep, etc.
So I was looking for music to make her relax and maybe feel a little better and I tripped across this Russian sing off competition. Damn good rendition I thought. But yeah Mikhal's voice, I wasn't expecting that. I sent it to her and hope she likes it. I know I did. Jump to about 55 seconds if intros bore you.

Somewhere around 1974 I came off the road as a traveling musician. Starving musician at that. I ignored a cavity on a molar that was so bad it required a root canal. General dentists did root canals in the 70's and my mother had me go to her dentist, who was trained while in the military. The guy was good and I was a client/patient until he retired and sold the practice to another dentist.

Most molars have 3 canals. I happened to have 4 on that tooth. I remember going several visits to have the work done, including the one where he used various reamers to get the pulp out and to verify he hit the bottom of each canal by checking without Novocaine. Silver reinforcing pins were inserted and a huge amalgam filling rest in the middle. Over the years, pieces would chip off the top and sides. I lost count but more than 15 dentists have been in my mouth in the 47 years and all recommended a crown.

Enough of the tooth came off and I was forced to crown it. So I got with one dentist who came as a referral. His work wasn't to my liking as food always trapped between the teeth and gum. If I didn't floss it quickly there would be a chance the gum would bleed. I had him make adjustments but nothing worked. I never returned.

A few years later, I met a dentist who did some work I liked and I asked she could replace the crown I disliked so much. The answer was yes and the size and shape of the replacement crown was correct.

The area was always sensitive and I had some issues dating back a year with swelling. Antibiotics worked at first and 6 months later the trouble returned. Now I'm up to an endodontist who's quick analysis says the tooth needs to come out. To be sure I get a 3D x-ray as he suspects there are cracks in the root that cannot be repaired.

On recommendation from an insurance agent, I tried another dentist who sent me to an endodontist who (unlike the first) specializes in root canal repairs that also includes removal of infected tissue around the tooth. Another 3D x-ray and he shows me a darkened area that is visible in the normal x-rays and greatly enhanced in the dimensional one. He can repair the cracked tooth but the bone is deteriorated to the point where I'll always have trouble. That confirms I need to have the tooth extracted.

Switching gears, I'm now going to a periodontist on a 'first available' appointment.
I'm not in pain... yet. The effects of the antibiotic last week is wearing away and it feels like something is trapped between my teeth. His office will be getting my x-rays and 3D CT scan so he'll have an idea of the situation before I arrive. His office said it's possible to do an extraction, bone graft and implant on the same day... I suppose that depends on what he finds when #19 comes out!

Link to the study:


"NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden"

(Germany) (AFP) –


With intensive care beds filling up and health staff running short, a hospital in Bavaria's Freising made an unprecedented decision to transfer a coronavirus patient to northern Italy for treatment


Through the highs and lows spanning 18 months of the pandemic, Germany had on many occasions taken in patients from neighbouring countries as hospitals elsewhere ran out of space.

But a fourth ferocious wave has sent infections to record highs in Europe's biggest economy, putting hospitals in parts of the country under immense strain and forcing some to look elsewhere in the EU for help.

While the absolute number of patients in intensive care still lies below the peak a year ago, this time around, hospitals are also ailing from the double whammy of a shortfall in personnel that has seriously hampered their ability to cope.

"Last week, on Wednesday or Thursday, we had to transfer a patient by helicopter to Merano," said Thomas Marx, 43, medical director at the hospital in Freising, a town with 50,000 inhabitants that is about 350 kilometres (220 miles) away by road.


"We had no more capacity to receive them, and the surrounding Bavarian hospitals were also full," he said.

Germany hospitals' ability to cope with the new spike in Covid-19 cases is being exacerbated by shortages of qualified staff as people desert the sector .

The hospital also had to send another patient to another Bavarian town Regensburg over the weekend.

"We are at the limits of our capacity, which is why we have to resort to these means," he said.

Marx's service is handling 13 intensive care cases at the moment, three more than it has capacity for.

Five of them are coronavirus patients, all of whom are unvaccinated.

With Germany's vaccination rate stagnating at under 70 percent in recent weeks, top health officials have pleaded for more to get the jab to stem the surge in infections.

Chancellor Angela Merkel made a new plea on Wednesday for the unvaccinated to get jabbed, saying "when enough people are vaccinated, that is the way out of the pandemic".

In a bid to get more to take the jab, Germany's parliament is poised to vote through new regulations for more curbs on the unvaccinated.

Under proposals drafted by the three parties in talks to form Germany's new government, unvaccinated people will soon have to produce a negative test to use public transport or go to the office.

At the intensive care unit of Munich Clinic Schwabing, senior doctor Niklas Schneider voiced frustration over vaccine resistance in some quarters.

"I find it really astonishing that vaccination is not accepted by the masses even though we have the possibility to get it. It is not completely understandable to me that so many people are allowing themselves to be misled by some horror stories about vaccines," he said.

Like the hospital in Freising, the Munich clinic is at full capacity.
"The team is holding on, but we are incredibly frustrated... because at the end of the day we are the last resort for everything that is wrong with society as a whole," said Schneider.

"The sick people who come to us, who are in mortal danger, we have to treat them, they need help. It doesn't matter if they were previously anti-Corona, anti-vaccine or double-vaccinated, although we don't have any of the latter in the ward."

Besides the relatively low vaccine takeup compared to other parts of western Europe, health staff also complain that more should also have been done to bolster their capacity.