Michael F Schundler
4 min readOct 12, 2022

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Covid death statistics in the US are available either from the CDC or Johns Hopkin's websites. Easy to search. Excess death statistics are likewise available.

I did not say I don't blame Biden and the progressive liberal governor for how they handled the pandemic. I said, I don't blame anyone for failure to stop the spread of the virus.

Those are very different. Covid as viruses go is like "the flu" rather than the variola virus (the one that causes Small pox). Both the flu and Covid mutate fast enough that attempt to irradicate have proven fruitless. Trump's response has emerged to be the most effective, but even Trump fumbled initially with lockdowns.

His solution was let local governments determine "the details" regarding how to respond to Covid, ensure the public has access to a vaccine, information, and recommendations. His administration recommended a "moat" strategy which provided for young and healthy people who it was established were not particularly more vulnerable to Covid than other viruses to go on with their normal lives, while implementing a more aggressive approach for those at high risk. He also encouraged innovation in therapeutics and as such got labeled as a quack because he embraced trying things some of which have emerged as effective treatments of Covid, others have been shown not to be effective even if there was "initial promise".

Regarding the recommended vitamin supplements, you don't have to be medically trained, the published scientific studies are easily obtainable from the internet. Since you indicated you are from India, here is a specific study on Vitamin D done in India...

"Results: The status of Vitamin D (optimal, mild to moderate deficiency and severe deficiency) differed significantly among cases and controls. Diabetes and hypertension were most prevalent comorbidities among cases. On regression analysis, the difference in Vitamin D level was significant (aOR, 3.295; 95%CI, 1.25-8.685). The association between Vitamin D status and clinical severity group was statistically significant among cases. Among all variables, age, diabetes, hypertension and clinical severity were associated with worst outcome.

Conclusion: Vitamin D status appears to be strongly associated with COVID-19 clinical severity. After COVID-19 confirmation, Vitamin D level should be measured in all patients and curative plus preventive therapy should be initiated."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34377451/

Other studies are available on antioxidants and zinc. But if you look on any "cold" remedy, you will find "zinc" as an ingredient. Zinc interferes with viral replication. The studies are out there, you simply have to search for them. The benefits of these supplements are not unique to Covid and so their efficacy has been known for decades.

None of these supplements prevent Covid infection, what they do is either boost your own immunity system or interfere with viral replication. So, they general reduce the severity of infection for people with normal immunity responses to the virus. Finally, more is not better. The goal is to avoid a deficiency in those key vitamins and minerals since they work with the immunity system.

Regarding air travel, I wear a surgical mask mostly to provide some limited protection should someone cough directly on me. Most airlines have upgraded their air filtration systems making catching Covid from aerosolized virus rare.

If you are young and healthy the vitamins, I mentioned won't protect you from getting Covid, but will increase your chances dramatically of not developing severe disease. If you have had Covid, which is the case for most people in the world by now, you have some natural immunity on top of that. If you have not had Covid for a long time, then a vaccine booster can potentially improve your "immune status" but it won't prevent you from getting Covid only reduce the severity if you do.

NO ONE is immune from getting the virus regardless of how many vaccines they have had. Some vaccines protect against viral transmission, this one does not, and Pfizer admitted it never tested for that before releasing it to the public. But if you do not have natural immunity, then the vaccine can boost your "acquired" immunity and thereby your response to infection.

My attitude is based on decades in public health. My guess is you get sick periodically and will continue to do so for the rest of your life. There are things you can do to avoid getting sick, there are things you can do to prepare yourself for when you get sick, and there are things you can do when you do get sick. But nearly everyone on the planet will eventually get sick at one time or another. If you call that destiny, then so be it... I call it understanding viruses and how they work and spread...

I do think the Indian view of karma has merit even if I don't agree with it. Karma implies there is nothing you can do to change the future; I disagree with that... you can prepare for events before they happen and so weather them better. On the other hand, we have a saying in the US that "shit happens". Biden and Trump had access to the best science and doctors on the planet and both got Covid.

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