Three gears of ‘Operation Warp Speed’ on the COVID-19 journey
BY PETER A. MCCULLOUGH, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/25/20 02:30 PM EST THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic appears to be wildly out of control. We have the greatest mass of infected Americans and the highest hospital census at any time, and all of the epidemic curves are pointing straight up. In its unbridled fury, the virus is on a certain course to cause panic, with an overrun of many U.S. hospitals. If this happens, mortality will skyrocket because there will be insufficient hospital resources to handle the numbers of patients needing hospitalization.
Was there some major aspect of the pandemic that we missed? We had a massive focus on contagion control, with nearly every major media interview and government briefing emphasizing the use of face masks and hand sanitizers and social distancing and lockdowns. Medical personnel did their part, treating hospitalized patients and learning the best mechanical ventilation techniques, diagnosing the complications of cytokine storm and internal blood clotting, and reducing mortality over long hospital stays. But by no means can the hospital be viewed as an adequate safety net — nearly all of the more than 260,000 U.S. deaths thus far have occurred in hospitals.
We have solid plans for a public vaccination program, which should close out the crisis. The missing element of our pandemic response must be early treatment of the infection, before it can spread to others and create such severe symptoms to warrant hospitalization. How could medical societies, government agencies, the media and their experts, and all other stakeholders have missed this crucial tactic in confronting the virus? When our public-private partnership, Operation Warp Speed (OWS), was announced, Trekkies who are in the age group where COVID-19 causes likely hospitalization and death, probably felt a surge of adrenalin juicing confidence that our biotechnology thrusters would deliver us in time to escape the rapidly spreading virus. As a result, we developed a vulnerable blind side.
My thoughts:
1) Talk about avoiding the elephant in the room. Actually, at least two elephants in the room: hydroxychlroquine and Ivermectin that are safe at recommended doses for Covid19. Perhaps the posture is that its more productive to accept HCQ and Ivermectin “resistance” so you try to find a third way that complies with the rules, whatever these rules are? But what I am curious about, and this question is based on an inference I am making, how are these common rules of word choice enforced? Does someone burst into flames if these words are mentioned? Does your name go into a big pharma file that is consulted for eternity prior to grants being awarded? I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with anyone confidentially so I can understand what the enforcement mechanism is.
2) “Was there some major aspect of the pandemic that we missed? We had a massive focus on contagion control, with nearly every major media interview and government briefing emphasizing the use of face masks and hand sanitizers and social distancing and lockdowns.”
Yes, as I have said and lay out here, the author accurately identifies a strange emphasis and preoccupation about things that sabotaged the economy, morale, education and culture, all of which are outside the training of public health physicians, while avoiding HCQ and, even more damningly in my opinion, Vitamin D. Perhaps my impression is wrong, but I believe Dr. Fauci mentioned Vitamin D ONCE and only after nine months of solid pandemic. How many lives would he have saved if he had mentioned Vitamin D a few times in January or, even better, had supported a Vitamin D program? This is a level of incompetence and failure to rescue that is breathtaking. How is there no accountability for “keeping mum” when a few words saves tens of thousands?
3) “How could medical societies, government agencies, the media and their experts, and all other stakeholders have missed this crucial tactic in confronting the virus?”
I understand that the author is being charitable, but I don’t believe the importance of early treatment was “missed” by anyone, certainly not be everyone at once in public health. In fact, I think they knew exactly what they were doing.
This affliction is common blindness and its a fraud. Willful blindness refers to the state of mind that attributes knowledge to a party whose strong suspicions have been aroused but who refrains from making inquiries to have those suspicions confirmed. The doctrine serves to override attempts to self-immunize against liability by deliberately refusing to acquire actual knowledge.
“When I may have had Covid in early April,. I was on overseas travel, and I had it worked out with my American physician that I would go on HCQ and zinc if I had 12 hours of symptoms. This is and was OBVIOUS to any physician at the time and it is obvious or should be obvious now. If it really is true that our health agencies “missed,” (which I do not believe) how are they fit to be leading the preeminent public health agencies. These are clearly grounds for termination because this is clearly incompetence at best and probably #incomcorrupt.
Anyone with a 7th grade science education or has put a condom on prior to sex, can figure out that if you take an anti-inflammatory drug prior to a cytokine storm, it helps the patient more than if you give the drug to the patient after the cytokine storm has infected the lungs causing pneumonia.
So in conclusion, this article does more harm than good because it is another obstacle in the way of accountability and it worships the same sacred cows including organized disinformation that caused 200,000+ unnecessary deaths.