In these uncertain times, fewer things are more uncertain than the virus itself. One group behaves as if it is the deadliest biological agent in human history (that is, unless there is a riot to attend). The other group seems to doubt that there even is a virus. But nearly everyone acts as if we know everything there is to know about it. Instead of acquiring herd immunity, we have acquired herd mentality. 

The public discourse has moved beyond the virus itself and includes everything COVID-19-related, except COVID-19 itself, and the important but still-unanswered questions about the virus’ origins, pathology, and how we finally adopt sensible personal and public responses to it. I’m writing this because there are many opportunists—grifters, bureaucrats, politicians, clout-chasers, media whores—on both sides who are using this situation for personal gain. I don’t think that’s right. In fact, I think they ought to be dragged out into the streets and [REDACTED] for their recklessness. Unlike them, I’m not going to pretend at absolute certainty—not with something that is without a doubt the weirdest acting pathogen that I’ve ever seen. All I care about is that you and your people make it out on the other side okay. 

First off, people widely think of COVID-19 just in terms of respiratory symptoms. My suspicion is this is partly due to the terrifying nature of acute respiratory distress, but mainly because it’s most compared with the flu. A comparison that originated in the media—“Get a grippe America, the Flu is a much bigger threat than Coronavirus, for now” read one now-infamous headline in The Washington Post—and has since become something of an internet meme. 

Comparing COVID-19 with the common seasonal flu is highly misleading. While influenza infection is usually localized to the lungs, COVID-19 can spread throughout the body and attack other organs. It can even attack your blood cells, creating platelet hyperactivity that results in spontaneous blood clots. Because the media and public health officials focus almost exclusively on the respiratory effects of COVID-19, too little attention is paid to fighting this disease on the other fronts.  

The latest meme going around claims that the current survival rate is 98.54%. This is misleading when you consider that a New York Times report found that “up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus.” On the flip side, analysis by Johns Hopkins found that the chances of a false negative test result were “greater than 1 in 5 on average”, with 100% probability of a false negative on Day 1 and a 67% chance of a false negative on Day 4. In other words, the high number of false positives and false negatives puts an extreme skew on the data that renders the CDC infection survivability numbers completely worthless.

This also holds true for the ‘6%’ statistic from the CDC—that “for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” which is often interpreted as “only 6% of reported deaths are actually from COVID-19.” What that statistic actually means is that 6% of the reported COVID-19 deaths were in patients who had no other diagnosed chronic health conditions. This might mean something if America were a healthy nation. We’re not. 6 in 10 Americans have a chronic disease. 4 in 10 have two or more chronic diseases. 

This is the main reason why the herd immunity model would have almost certainly been a bloodbath here. We are not a Nordic country with a population of healthy, fit people. We are a country of sick people. Chronic disease is so common here that most people don’t even worry about it. But the crucial distinction is that chronic diseases are not necessarily death sentences nor are they necessarily permanent. They can be beaten. I know from my own experience—I went from being a junk food-addicted teenager with type 2 diabetes, high-blood pressure, and heart problems to someone who is now healthy and fit. And I also know from the experiences of people that I’ve helped that remarkable transformations in health can be achieved by anyone who has the will to make it happen.  

[It Is Time to Practice Raw Egg Nationalism]

COVID-19 is a threat worth avoiding. For young people in good health, it poses less risk to you personally—it’s like HIV in that sense, very high survival rate of initial infection, with exceptions of course—but you should still take care to not spread it to at-risk people. If you choose to go to a party or other crowded social function, that’s your prerogative. But wait a few days (the ‘official’ recommendation is 14 days) after to make sure you haven’t developed symptoms before visiting older people, babies, or anyone with a compromised immune system.

There is also reason to avoid COVID-19 simply because not much is known about its long-term effects. Many viruses, such as HPV and HIV, result in certain types of cancer. Surgeons have already seen the gastrointestinal effects of COVID-19, which include attacks on your digestive membranes and serious gut issues. For men, there is potential of the virus attacking the testicles and leading to infertility or decreased testosterone production. The virus may also damage the immune system, the heart, the respiratory system, and other organs. All things to consider in personal calculations of risk.

My main takeaway from this pandemic isn’t that COVID-19 shouldn’t have posed a serious threat to the country, but that America was particularly vulnerable because of its failure to address the high rates of preventable and reversible chronic disease among its populace. This is the biggest reason we couldn’t adopt the pure Swedish model of herd immunity—their population had the baseline health to make that work. Ours didn’t. 

This is not to say that we chose the correct path. We didn’t. But we need to understand why. It wasn’t the President, who acted on the “best” advice given by the best and the brightest, who failed miserably. It was those very eggheads in the public health bureaucracy who gave him a menu of options that only included variations on turd sandwiches. 

They recommended an early focus on ventilator production, when the best doctors were saying that ventilators would just lead to more deaths. And that’s exactly what happened. Patients were intubated before they needed to be, ventilators were often operated by nurses who had no trauma or ICU experience, and many died as a result. A 38-year-old man I knew died because the ventilator settings were too high and it blew out his lungs.

They recommended lockdowns that were just strict enough to shut down the economy, but not strict enough to stop the disease. The CDC stated publicly that they “did not recommend the use of facemasks'“—and then reversed and said that they needed to be mandatory and ascribed to them near-magical abilities despite the fact that most masks are too shoddy to take seriously. 

CDC and WHO officials spent January and February complaining to the press (as unnamed sources–remember that bureaucrats crave relevance but not responsibility) that the President was overestimating the virus and his shutdown of flights from China was motivated by racial animus. Instead of rightly declaring excess body-fat as a public health crisis—doctors have said that the number one non-respiratory risk factor for ventilator-dependence was BMI—they declared racism was the real public health crisis. They ignored all evidence that the racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths had practical causes ranging from greater concentration in dense high-contact urban areas to melanin’s blocking effect on vitamin D synthesis at northerly latitudes. 

Even now, months into this pandemic, we are still waiting to hear the first mention of lifestyle change as a mitigation strategy by public health officials. In the six months since lockdown began, we could have moved millions of people from the high-risk to the low-risk categories simply through proper nutrition and exercise. We didn’t. Not because we couldn’t, but because the bureaucrats in charge of the response are rats. 

[You Say Essential Worker, I Say ‘Essential Lifter’]

NIAID Director Anthony Fauci built a career on getting everything wrong about AIDS. CDC Director Robert Redfield falsified data in the early 90s to make it look like his vaccine candidate was preventing HIV infections. His assistant and accomplice was Dr. Deborah Birx. These are people who would be tarred and feathered in a more enlightened age for what they did, but due to the perverseness of our bureaucracy were promoted instead. When this is all over, I want show trials and public executions to send a strong message that this can never be allowed to happen again. And I want Loki Julianus to be named Public Health Czar, because from the very early days of this Pandemic, he has consistently gotten everything right. 

Until that glorious day, we cannot rely on our leaders but only on ourselves. So here’s your quick and dirty guide to fighting China Virus. 

Author’s note: I am by no means a health professional, merely an expert. This is what I do personally, not a medical prescription. Be sure to ‘consult with a trusted doctor’ before making lifestyle changes or taking new supplements.

• No polyunsaturated fats. Get yourself a copy of Deep Nutrition by Cate Shanahan and follow it religiously. No vegetable oil, no soybean oil, no canola oil, etc. Stick to grass-fed butter and tallow, coconut oil, olive oil, pastured lard. Elevated levels of unsaturated fats in the bloodstream of COVID-19 patients is strongly associated with severity of the disease and can lead to multi-system organ failure including severe lung injury. It seems that when the virus attacks red blood cells, they liberate the heme iron ions which then react with unsaturated fats and oxidize. Literally rust in the veins. Early calcium and albumin supplementation also help with this. 

• Lots of sunshine. Not just for the Vitamin D, which cuts infection risk significantly, but also for nitric oxide production (lowers blood pressure) and the creation of other anti-pathogenic factors.

• Boost your cholesterol intake to improve immunity. LDL cholesterol attaches to and inactivates viruses in the bloodstream. Raw egg yolks from pastured eggs are the best way to do this. Blend them up with some orange juice and cream for a nice Orange Julius, or read the “RAW EGG NATIONALIST COOKBOOK” for more recipes.

• Quercetin & zinc. This combo acts similarly to hydroxychloroquine but without needing a prescription. It treats autoimmune dysfunction which in turn will allow your immune system to identify infectious pathogens earlier. 

• N-acetyl-cysteine. Replenishes glutathione in the lungs. 

• Daily aspirin. Helps with potential clotting issues, but is by no means a silver bullet. The National Institute of Health is currently trialing anticoagulant candidates. If you have Type A blood, I would monitor those results and try to obtain the most effective one, so you have it on hand in case you contract the virus.

• Keep your upper respiratory tract in good shape. I have sinus issues but they are greatly lessened by using a Manuka Honey Sinus Cleaner from ManukaGuard. This is your body’s frontline defense against respiratory viruses.

• Sheep/goat colostrum and Thymus. Good for the lymphatic and immune systems. 

• Sauna. The ones in gyms are mostly all still closed but you can make an infrared sauna at home fairly cheaply with a wooden frame covered with canvas and a bunch of brooder lights. 

• If you don’t already have a workout routine, a good starting point is to go on frequent long walks. It seems overly simple, but the health benefits are significant.

• Lots of fresh, unpolluted air is essential. Get a good indoor air filter if you live in the city or somewhere crowded. If you’re in the countryside, keep your windows open. I was introduced to this by German friend who would open all windows during the day even in winter. Sporadic cold exposure is very good for your health, just take care to not overly chill yourself.

• Avoid stress. Limit exposure to news and other forms of psychological warfare. Offer to make grocery runs and such for higher-risk people. Not only are you helping them, but doing nice things for people will make you feel good too. Feeling good and maintaining a positive and proactive mindset is what will carry you through this. 

Read more of Benjamin Braddock’s writing on Substack.