Notes from your Doctor

Things to do NOW to protect yourself and your family

We know that the new administration is going to be placing complete idiots in charge of public health. All will have an unconditional commitment to disseminating dangerous and incorrect health information. Information that will cost lives. But if you’re smart: NOT YOURS nor those of your loved ones.

We don’t know what they will be able to get away with relative to NIH, FDA and CDC. Except that if Joe Ladapo becomes Surgeon General there will be no evidence-based medicine (EBM)¹. EBM is the gold standard for patient care and decisions related to public health. An example of the disregard of EBM by Joe can be seen related to the measles outbreak in Florida earlier this year. All of us medical professionals know that, during an outbreak, EBM calls for measles vaccinations for all who are unvaccinated (except the immunocompromised and those who had measles in the past) as well as keeping infectious patients home and isolated. Joe? Not so much. More info on Joe. As an aside, just because someone has earned the right to put “Dr” before their name doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. Remember that someone had to graduate last in the class.

While it is unlikely that they’ll end up banning vaccinations ONLY BECAUSE drug companies make money on vaccines, and MAGA believes in profits, don’t take chances. They’ll message to dissuade vaccination, especially Covid vaccines. Last week in Idaho, the health department for a 6-county area was blocked from providing Covid vaccines. Not kidding. If you or your kids need vaccines, get them before January 21st². Accurate guidelines at this link.

MAGA is also downright opposed to general disease prevention approaches. I had a friend who did research for the CDC on communicable diseases, and she told me back in the 90’s that if every American washed their hands properly 10 times a day, within 30 days, all non-venereal communicable diseases would be decreased by 97%.

But Don the Con’s brain trust doesn’t even believe in the germ theory. (Louis Pasteur is rolling in his grave.) The germ theory says that certain germs can cause disease. Pretty simple.

Putting the last two paragraphs together - the “common cold” is a communicable disease most often caused by rhinovirus, a “germ”. Person A has a cold and goes to work. He sneezes on his hand, and then goes and gets a cup of coffee from a shared coffee pot. He does not wash his hands in between the sneeze and the beverage. Person B gets a cup of coffee from the same pot an hour later (picks it up by the same handle), doesn’t immediately wash his hands, goes back to his desk, rubs a bit of dust out of his eye, and now Person B is infected with Person A’s cold.

Moral of the story: WASH YOUR HANDS. OFTEN.

Things like vaccines, hand washing, N-95 masks, and what your mom always told you about eating right and getting enough sleep, along with fresh air and sunshine, will help you as an individual ward of some of the infections.

But a larger problem will relate to data collection and dissemination by the government. Right now, we’re mostly limited to wastewater numbers for early indication of any disease spread. That means if Covid roars back, or H5N1 bird flu spreads more (it’s currently in the wastewater in California, Oregon and Washington), or some other nasty pops up, it won’t be tracked domestically. Legitimate, recent, data is critical to help understand what is spreading, where, and how quickly. We cannot fight anything invisible.

While right now, you can still read the outcomes of various clinical trials, as well as EBM evaluations of treatments, there’s no telling if the “new” NIH will be allowed to continue testing and publishing. We don’t know if the current system for drug development will continue. It all becomes rather dangerous.

HOWEVER, other countries are doing a better job than us, and that will continue. Thus, it becomes incumbent as us as individuals to find reliable sources for information, and to trust them. There are great European and Asian sources³.

On a different health topic. I AM NOT YOUR DOCTOR, and I therefore cannot and will not prescribe anything to you. However, if I was both post-pubescent and pre-menopausal, I would personally consider an IUD if I believed that birth control is at risk. At the least, I would stock up on Plan B, with the latest possible expiration date.

Finally, we each only get one life⁴. Health matters. Take it from someone in remission from cancer. It is absolutely contemptable that NIH, CDC and FDA will soon be run by people without the legitimate credentials to undertake the organizations’ missions. As part of the work we will all need to undertake going forward to bring light to the darkness, we must stand together to disseminate legitimate information to keep all of us as healthy as possible.

If you have questions, PLEASE use the comments. Others may have the same questions.

1. From the National Library of Medicine:

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) uses the scientific method to organize and apply current data to improve healthcare decisions. Thus, the best available science is combined with the healthcare professional's clinical experience and the patient's values to arrive at the best medical decision for the patient. There are 5 main steps for applying EBM to clinical practice:

• Defining a clinically relevant question

• Searching for the best evidence

• Critically appraising the evidence

• Applying the evidence

• Evaluating the performance of EBM

2. While I’ve provided the link for the current CDC vaccine guidance, individual requirements vary, so coordinate with your doctor and your kids' pediatrician for the schedule that is right for you.

3. I keep up with both research and tracking for a variety of medical diseases and conditions (everybody needs a hobby) and will post what I think has general interest. If there is something specific that you want to see tracked, leave a note in the comments.

4. Apologies to those who believe in reincarnation.