COVID -19 Morbidity and Mortality Related to Medical Treatment

The COVID-19 pandemic itself is an example of how conventional medicine has insidiously destroyed the microbiome and weakened the immune system of an entire generation, making it more vulnerable to, among other things, a mutated respiratory virus.

Not discussed in any forums: conventional treatments created the “perfect storm” of environmental, microbiome and immune system dysfunction that combined to weaken resistance and increase susceptibility to this virus.

The “inconvenient truth” about conventional medicine, as important as it is in many conditions and circumstances, is that it is deadly harmful when overused, which is precisely what has been demonstrated by the current pandemic.

The immune system overreaction, aka cytokine storm, is believed to be the final common pathway leading to death from COVID-19, SARS, MERS and many other epidemic infectious diseases. This immune system hyper-reaction is more likely when the microbiome is disrupted (dysbiotic) and the immune system is dysfunctional: both common side effects of conventional medical treatment contributing to the risk of developing chronic inflammatory conditions, the comorbidities of COVID-19.

“When inflammation is not modulated or resolved after serving its purpose, it turns into hyperinflammation or becomes chronic and results in the inhibition of adaptive immune responses, tissue damage, or organ failure. Such dysregulated inflammation results in a “cytokine storm” that is evident in sepsis as well as in patients with severe respiratory diseases caused by coronaviruses such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19.”[1]

At least 24% of conventional medicines negatively impact the microbiome[2] leading to chronic dysbiosis and chronic inflammation. A host of chronic inflammatory,[3]^,[4] autoimmune[5]^,[6] and neoplastic[7]^,[8] conditions plague modern societies using these drugs and Americans consume more of them, per capita, than any other country thus imparting the highest burden of chronic inflammatory disease anywhere in the world.[9]^,[10] 

Since comorbid chronic inflammatory diseases are risk factors that worsen outcome from COVID-19, and because Americans suffer from more of these conditions, and use more immune suppressing and microbiome damaging medications than the rest of the world, it shouldn’t be surprising that US death rates from SARS-CoV-2 are among the highest.[11]  According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):

“the US has experienced more deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) than any other country and has one of the highest cumulative per capita death rates.[12]

Data from the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic provides direct evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is only part of the problem since most cases tend to be mild and the overall death rate is low.^[i]  Those who develop complications or die from this virus are predominantly older men with one or more chronic medical comorbidities, suggesting that these comorbidities and their conventional medical treatments are what make this subset of the population more susceptible.  These conditions and their treatments dysregulate the immune system response and trigger rebound hyper-inflammation and immune cytokine storms that are responsible for the complications of COVID-19   .^[ii]

Conventional medical care offers many powerful benefits and holds an important place in the management of many emergent, traumatic and surgical illnesses, but it appears to be largely ineffective and frequently harmful in the long-term management of many acute and chronic illnesses, particularly COVID-19. Interestingly, the COVID-19 pandemic does provide a very unique opportunity to understand some of the limitations of conventional medicine from a public health perspective.

Just like many other modern medical crises (antibiotic resistance, the opioid epidemic, and the epidemic of chronic inflammatory illness) the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be iatrogenic (caused by medicine or physicians).

In other words, the current pandemic may be the indirect result of the overutilization of conventional allopathic medical treatments that damage the microbiome, the ecology of the environment and the immune system, resulting in greater susceptibility to this and a great many other illnesses.[13]  Many conventional medical treatments increase susceptibility to comorbid conditions, as noted above, allowing the SARS-CoV-2 virus to act much more destructively.

Most of the comorbidities making COVID-19 more deadly are iatrogenic.  These chronic inflammatory illnesses are overtly associated with 94% of all COVID deaths,[14] while the remaining deaths, in otherwise “healthy” individuals, are likely related either to a genetic predisposition or the overuse of conventional drugs (i.e., NSAID’s and antipyretics) that are frequently used to manage symptoms of infection but increase the odds of developing adverse events.[15]

The overwhelming majority of healthy people (82%) suffer only mildly or moderately from COVID-19, and between 33- 45% of people never develop any symptoms.[16]^,[17]  Healthy young children have essentially a 0% risk of dying from COVID-19, while 93% of college age young adults,[18] 88% of pregnant women, and 96% of prisoners[19] appear to be completely immune, most never even developing symptoms from the virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not deadly in spite of conventional care; it appears to be deadly because of it.  Many conventional treatments are associated with a dysfunctional immune-inflammatory response that contributes to a worsened outcome.[20]

As late as October 2020, peer-reviewed guidelines in conventional medical journals indicated that, “There are no [conventional medical] evidence-based treatments for COVID-19 that are appropriate for use,”[21]^,[22] but even worse, conventional treatments studied in clinical trials have increased the risk of developing complications[23]^,[24] and many treatments are associated with a high likelihood of dying or suffering from chronic post-COVID sequelae (“long-COVID”) with symptoms of fatigue, dyspnea, cough, joint pain, and chest pain lasting weeks to months after the acute illness.[25] Risk of developing “long-COVID”[26] appears related to patient age and severity of illness along with the use of medical therapies.[27] Long-COVID probably results from “a dysfunctional immune-inflammatory response,” which is precisely what conventional medications tend to produce.[28]

“At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Patients who were more severely ill during their hospital stay had more severe impaired pulmonary diffusion capacities and abnormal chest imaging manifestations, and are the main target population for intervention of long-term recovery.”[29]

There are many public health considerations revealed by long-COVID that need to be examined, along with a number of other infections including chronic Lyme disease.  Evaluation of these conditions with respect to the effects of treatment is extremely important and is critical to gaining a better understanding, not only of the disease, but the outcomes of conventional medical interventions.[30] 

The risk of developing an immune system hyperreaction (aka, a “cytokine storm” [31]) and dying from COVID-19 is much greater when conventional drugs are used, or if one already suffers from a chronic inflammatory comorbidity caused by or treated with conventional drugs.[32]

Many conventional medical treatments, which provide short-term symptomatic relief by suppressing the immune mediated inflammatory response, increase the risk of developing rebound uncontrolled hyper-inflammation, which leads toward a cytokine storm.

Additionally, these drugs can block the connection between the innate and the adaptive immune systems, thus preventing the smooth transition to permanent adaptive immunity.[33]

Treatments that interfere with the adaptive immune response by interfering with the innate inflammatory response (anti-inflammatory, antipyretic medications) may increase the risk of failing to develop complete immunity and lead to greater risk of reinfection, which has been sporadically reported with COVID-19.[34]

Some cases of reinfection are marked by increased severity of symptoms, but it is unclear if this is due to changes in the virus or in the way that the immune systems reacts after being suppressed and then re-exposed.[35]

Many conventional medications damage the microbiome[36] and dysregulate the immune system thereby increasing susceptibility to COVID-19 and other infections. It is no coincidence that these conventional medical interventions have not only proven to be inefficacious but are associated with an increased risk of death in pandemics.[37]

Many expect that a vaccine will stop COVID-19, but none of the vaccines currently in the pipeline have even been tested to find out if they will prevent infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[38]

“None of the trials currently under way are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths. Nor are the vaccines being studied to determine whether they can interrupt transmission of the virus.”[39]

Even manufacturers who boast a 90% or greater efficacy rate have not shown a reduction in symptomatic, asymptomatic, severe, or non-severe infections or burden of disease (BOD) since their primary endpoint in phase 3 clinical trials was only to prevent seroconversion.

Clinical trials have not been completed, but FDA agreed to provide temporary emergency approval until they are (another 18 months at least.) The clinical trials required by the FDA for emergency approval only required “minimal phase 3 success criteria.”[40]  In other words, none of the vaccines were evaluated for risk or severity of illness, only the risk of testing positive for the virus.  No determination has yet been made whether these vaccines will prevent illness or transmission, reduce complications or prevent death above or beyond placebo treatment.

Experts at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) raised serious concerns that many cases of illness following vaccination, not testing positive for COVID-19, were excluded from the study, skewing the results in favor of the vaccines, when these may have been serologic negative cases and evidence of vaccine failure.[41]

These vaccines were rushed to market without any form of FDA site inspection,[42] even as widespread reports described the emergence of new mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

No clinical trial has addressed whether new mutations will even affect vaccine efficacy or not[43] (perhaps because the true efficacy will not be known until trials are completed in another 18 months).

As all viruses mutate, which SARS-CoV-2 has already done many times, and will continue to do, there is a known tendency to become less lethal and more benign with each subsequent adaptation.[44]

Viruses are under constant evolutionary pressure, not only to advance from one species to another, but to adapt benignly to their hosts and develop a commensal relationship that increases longevity of both species.

This ability to constantly mutate and adapt increases the risk that vaccines, if they are not produced fast enough, will be obsolete before they can be administered.  This is precisely why the Cuban Ministry of Health approved the emergency use of a homeopathic immunization in 2007 against epidemic leptospirosis.

Not only was the campaign effective in preventing disease, but the homeopathic product was produced rapidly, safely and inexpensively and was distributed to over 2.5 million people in a short period of time.[45]

This type of program is a model of rapid targeting, development and deployment using a safe and effective modality to effectively prevent and treat illness without imposing new risks of harm. It was an example that probably terrified the modern vaccine industry since the product did not utilize advanced technology, could not be patented and did not generate billions of dollars in revenue.

As vaccination against other epidemic diseases, like influenza, has clearly demonstrated: most vaccines don’t work well in the elderly or infirm populations,[46] which is precisely the demographic at highest risk from COVID-19.  It is unlikely that vaccines will generate immunity in this population without multiple doses, which may significantly increase the risk of allergic reactions.

Additionally, since 82% of the untreated population is already relatively immune from serious adverse reactions to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the vaccine may not even prevent transmission, it is likely those who are most vulnerable will continue to be so.

Even if the vaccine does generate an immune response, no vaccine has ever been associated with durable permanent immunity, or even come close to the long-lasting immunity produced by actual infection, which is “substantial” and durable in the case of COVID-19.[47]^,[48]

Since immunity from all vaccines inevitably wanes with time, future waves of this and other viruses in a vaccinated population are still likely to be costly and damaging.  This phenomenon has already been demonstrated by many current childhood vaccination programs: as the vaccinated population ages and immunity wanes, childhood diseases become more devastating if it is contracted by those who are older.[49]  If natural illness and the resulting long-term or permanent immunity is allowed to develop, then protection tends to be more durable.

An important consideration is that the existing program of overusing vaccines to prevent routine infections in the US may be one of the factors already contributing to the excess death rate from COVID-19.

The US vaccine schedule is heavier than those in any other country and many of these vaccines are associated with increased risk of chronic illness[50] while others, like the influenza vaccine, are known to increase susceptibility to a wide range of acute infections, including coronaviruses.[51]

Interestingly, health care workers are some of the most heavily vaccinated adults in the US, and they appear to be extremely susceptible to complications from the SARS-CoV-2 virus,[52] suggesting a link between vaccination and immune system susceptibility.[53]  It’s no wonder that health care workers have had to be offered financial incentives to encourage them to accept the new vaccines.[54]

All of the vaccines currently approved for use against COVID-19 in the US utilize a relatively new (mRNA) technology designed to provoke protein synthesis by genetically modifying existing cellular machinery in a fashion similar to the way that real viruses act.  Preliminary testing of coronavirus vaccines for SARS-CoV infections revealed that both vaccine hypersensitivity reactions as well as adverse histopathologic lung changes can occur in vaccinated individuals, increasing the risk of greater disease severity and death in those who subsequently encountered either the actual virus or a vaccine re-challenge,[55] leading researchers to suggest that:

“Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.”[56]

The COVID-19 vaccines are essentially man-made “Frankenviruses” that use a lipid nanoparticle membrane bound together by a synthetic adjuvant, polyethylene glycol (PEG), a relative of ethylene glycol (the main poisonous ingredient in automobile antifreeze[57]) instead of a phospholipid or protein coat that surrounds most natural viruses:

“The main difference between ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol is that ethylene glycol has a fixed value for molecular weight whereas polyethylene glycol has no fixed value for molecular weight.”[58]

PEG has never been utilized in a vaccine before, but it is so far, associated with a 24-fold increased risk of severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) already seen in many COVID-19 vaccine recipients.[59]

The COVID-19 vaccines, once injected, indiscriminately bind to and “infect” random human cells, hijacking the protein synthesis machinery and forcing then to produce viral proteins until the mRNA is degraded.

These vaccines mimic the way actual viruses behave, but unlike natural viruses that bind only to specific receptors in certain cells, these man-made viruses have the potential to take control of any cell including those in the vital organs like the heart, liver, kidneys or eyes, which would then become a target of the immune system. Training the immune system to react to any of these vital tissues could lead to catastrophic long-term side effects that may not be evident until many months or years later.

Since genetic and chemical information is continually traded and shared between virtually all cells within the human organism and the human microbiome as part of a complex messaging system,[60] genetically engineered information can enter this pool with unforeseen, unintentional and unstudied side effects.

Incorporating genetically engineered information into other species of bacteria and viruses in the human microbiome and virome[61] could create a de novo genetic breeding program similar to what is seen when antibiotics select resistant organisms or “super bugs” that share or trade genetic information for resistance.

Monkeying with the genome with this heretofore untested and unproven technology may open up an entirely new and unprecedented frontier of medical terrorism by creating new genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) capable of affecting the body in unforeseen ways, entering the microbiome and dispersing freely in the environment.  This unregulated trial without adequate safety studies is reminiscent of other failed experiments that have led to other environmental and health disasters.  Safety testing is not an area that can or should be skipped or overlooked since these changes can have long lasting ramifications with unknown and unpredictable consequences across the entire ecosystem, not restricted to their intended use.  Just like “Silent Spring:”

“We stand now where two roads diverge…The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.” [62]

No one knows exactly what the long-term effects on the microbiome, the environment or the human immune system will develop from these vaccines because they have been fast-tracked without time to consider either short or long-term safety and efficacy.[63]

Additionally, after spending billions of dollars to rapidly develop several COVID-19 vaccines at “warp speed,” the world is facing an unprecedented ethical dilemma: will otherwise healthy people, at low risk of illness be directly mandated or indirectly pressured to take an unproven, untested medical product that even the US supreme court ruled in 2010 in BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL., to be “unavoidably unsafe”? [64]

Vaccinating otherwise healthy individuals, already at low risk of complications from COVID-19, with an untested, unproven vaccine capable of inducing significant environmental and immune system havoc is inadvisable, unnecessary and reckless.

This not only increases risk of exposure to chemicals, toxins, adjuvants,[65] viral and genetic contaminants in the vaccines,[66]^{, [67]} but increases the risk of promoting chronic immune stimulation and hyperinflammation,[68] particularly in women who are more susceptible.[69]

Mandating this vaccine for everyone, including healthy people, rather than offering it to those at highest risk, would be a mistake, a gross corruption of the democratic process, a violation of the Nuremburg Codes[70] and a flagrant violation and neglect of the principles of “informed consent.”[71]

The COVID-19 pandemic desperately begs to be studied in relation to the long-term effects of using conventional allopathic medicines and vaccines. Failure to heed these connections, or to explore the relationship between what preceded this pandemic and what follows, may mean the difference between environmentally based health and man-made provoked (iatrogenic) chronic illness.  Pandemics may become more prolonged and commonplace as environmental and microbiome destruction, mass extinctions, and climate changes accelerate under this pernicious approach to health and the environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a side-effect of the conventional medical approach to health, which has proven to be as unsustainable and deeply injurious to human health as unfettered capitalism and industrialism have proven to be to the complex living ecosystem and climate of the entire planet.

“That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above,”^[i] or as above, so below.

^[i] Chen J, Qi T, Liu L, et al. Clinical progression of patients with COVID-19 in Shanghai, China. J Infect.  2020; 80(5):e1-e6 (ISSN: 1532-2742).

^[ii] Serritella S. Immune dysfunction as a risk factor for long-term mortality from staph infections. Science Life, At the Forefront, U Chicago Medicine 2014.  https://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2014/10/27/immune-dysfunction-as-a-risk-factor-for-long-term-mortality-from-staph-infections/  Accessed Online 22 November 2020.

^[i] Steele R, Singer DW. “The Emerald Table” in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 1928; 21: 41–57/485–501: 42/486 (English), p. 48/492 (Latin).

References

[1] Manjili RH,  Zarei M,  Habibi M, et al. COVID-19 as an Acute Inflammatory Disease.  J Immunol  2020; 205(1):12-19. DOI:https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.2000413

[2] Maier L, Pruteanu M, Kuhn M, et al. Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteria. Nature 2018;555: 623–628.

[3] Russell SL, Gold MJ, Reynolds LA, et al. Perinatal antibiotic-induced shifts in gut microbiota have differential effects on inflammatory lung diseases. J Allerg Clin Immunol 2015;135(1):100-109.e5.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2014.06.027

[4] Dickson RP, Martinez FJ, Huffnagle GB. The role of the microbiome in exacerbations of chronic lung diseases. Lancet. 2014;384(9944):691–702.

[5] Yuan J, Hu YJ, Sheng J, et al. Long-term use of antibiotics and risk of type 2 diabetes in women: a prospective cohort study. Int J Epidemiol, dyaa122 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa122

[6]  Goodenough E,  Robinson TM,  Zook MB, et al. Cryptic MHC class I-binding peptides are revealed by aminoglycoside-induced stop codon read-through into the 3′ UTR. PNAS 2014;111(15):5670-5675. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1402670111

[7] Friedman G, Oestreicher N, Chan J, et al. Antibiotics and Risk of Breast Cancer: Up to 9 Years of Follow-up of 2.1 Million Women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 2006;15(11):2102-2106. DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-0401

[8] Shottenfeld D, Beebe-Dimmer J. Chronic Inflammation: A Common and Important Factor in the Pathogenesis of Neoplasia. CA Cancer J Clin 2006;56(2):69-83.  https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/canjclin.56.2.69  Accessed Online 18 October 2020.

[9] Tikkanen R, Abrams MK. U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2019: Higher Spending, Worse Outcomes?  Commonwealth Fund Jan 30, 2020. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019?gclid=CjwKCAjwz6_8BRBkEiwA3p02VVJi1JGvlnh6ygi6RDGCZttS6kDjvefhWDMNkmWMrqvnjrtEyHgt8BoCyjcQAvD_BwE  Accessed Online 18 October 2020.

[10] GBD 2017 Inflammatory Bowel Disease Collaborators. The global, regional, and national burden of inflammatory bowel disease in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2017;5(1):17-30. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(19)30333-4

[11] WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. World Health Organization. https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=CjwKCAjwz6_8BRBkEiwA3p02VZTRnkAZ8HwinTH-yQgUtdB5qPkX0mHNd9H1Yh9S9R1NMq33WQueDxoCCYEQAvD_BwE  Accessed Online 18 October 2020.

[12] Bilinski A, Emanuel EJ. COVID-19 and excess all-cause mortality in ght US and 18 comparison countries. JAMA 2020;324(20):2100-2102. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.20717

[13] Carding S, Verbeke K, Vipond DT, et al. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in disease. Microbial Ecology Health Dis 2015, 26:26191.

[14] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics. Sept 2, 2020

Accessed Online 05 October 2020.

[15] Lee, B.H., Inui, D. et al. Fever and Antipyretic in Critically ill patients Evaluation (FACE) Study Group, Association of body temperature and antipyretic treatments with mortality of critically ill patients with and without sepsis: multi-centered prospective observational study. Crit Care 2012;16, R33. https://doi.org/10.1186/cc11211

[16]https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/937297?src=mkm_covid_update_200914_mscpedit_&uac=137326CT&impID=2564748&faf=1  Accessed Online 05 October 2020.

[17] Oran DP, Topol EJ. The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic.  Ann Int Med 2021. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-6976

[18] Ebell MH, Chupp C, Bentivegna M. A high proportion of SARS-CoV-2-infected university students are asymptomatic. Research Letter,  J Fam Pract 2020;69(9):428-429.

[19] Oran DP, Topol EJ. Prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection: a narrative review.  Ann Intern Med 2020;173:362-367.

[20] Fang L, Karakiulakis G, Roth M. Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? Lancet Resp Med 2020. Published: March 11, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30116-8

[21] Cheng A, Caruso D, McDougall C. Outpatient Management of COVID-19: Rapid Evidence Review. Am Fam Phys 2020;102(8):478-486.

[22] Agarwal A, Mukherjee A, Kumar G, et al. Convalescent plasma in the management of moderate covid-19 in adults in India: open label phase II multicentre randomised controlled trial (PLACID Trial). BMJ  2020;371:m3939. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3939

[23] Wilner AN. Anticoagulation for COVID-19: More Harm than Good? Medscape Family Medicine October 1, 2020. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/938013?src=WNL_infoc_201023_MSCPEDIT_anticoagulation&uac=137326CT&impID=2629682&faf=1  Accessed Online 03 November 2020.

[24] Dogra S, Jain R, Cao M, et al. Hemorrhagic stroke and anticoagulation in COVID-19. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis 2020 Aug; 29(8): 104984.

doi: 10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2020.104984

[25] Perrin R, Riste L, Hann M. Into the looking glass: Post-viral syndrome post COVID-19. Med Hypotheses 2020 Nov; 144:110055. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110055

[26] Davis HE, Assaf GS,  McCorkell L, et al. Characterizing Long COVID in an International Cohort: 7 Months of Symptoms and Their Impact. MedRxiv  December 27, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248802

[27] Carvalho-Schneider C, Laurent E, Lemaignen A, et al. Follow-up of adults with noncritical COVID-19 two months after symptom onset. Clin Microbiol Infect.  2020;  (ISSN: 1469-0691)

[28] Greenhalgh T, Knight M. Long COVID: A Primer for Family Physicians. Editorial. Am Fam Physic 2020;102(12):716-717.

[29] Huang C, Huang L, Wang Y, et al. 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study. Lancet 2021;397(10270): 220-232. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32656-8

[30] Datta SD, Talwar A, Lee JT. A Proposed Framework and Timeline of the Spectrum of Disease Due to SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Illness Beyond Acute Infection and Public Health Implications. JAMA 2020;324(22):2251-2252. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.22717

[31] Ragab D, Eldin HS, Taeimah M, et al. The COVID-19 Cytokine Storm; What We Know So Far. Front Immunol 2020.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01446

[32] Williamson EJ, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran K, et al. OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19 death in 17 million patients. Nature 2020.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2521-4

[33] Cronkite DA, Strutt TM. The Regulation of Inflammation by Innate and Adaptive Lymphocytes. J Immunology Res  2018: 1467538. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1467538

[34] To KKW, Hung IFN, Ip JD, et al. COVID-19 re-infection by a phylogenetically distinct SARS-coronavirus-2 strain confirmed by whole genome sequencing. Clin Infect Dis 2020: ciaa1275. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1275

[35] Cennimo DJ, Bronze MS. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Clinical Presentation. Medscape January 23, 2021. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500114-clinical?&src=WNL_mdplsnews_210108_mscpedit_infd&uac=&spon=3&impID=2947343&faf=1&#b4  Accessed Online 27 January 2021.

[36] Dickson RP, Martinez FJ, Huffnagle GB. The role of the microbiome in exacerbations of chronic lung diseases. Lancet. 2014;384(9944):691-702.

[37] Starko KM. Salicylates and Pandemic Influenza Mortality, 1918–1919 Pharmacology, Pathology, and Historic Evidence. Clin Infect Dis 2009; 49(9):1405–1410, https://doi.org/10.1086/606060

[38] Crist C. Fauci: Early COVID Vaccines Will Prevent Symptoms, Not the Virus. Medscape Family Medicine. October 27, 2020. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/939871  Accessed Onlinew 03 November 2020.

[39] Doshi P. Will covid-19 vaccines save lives?  Current trials aren’t designed to tell us.  BMJ 2020; 37:m4037 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4037 .

[40] Mehrotra DV, Janes HE, Fleming TR, et al. Clinical Endpoints for Evaluating Efficacy in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. Ann Int Med October 2020.  https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-6169

[41] https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/04/peter-doshi-pfizer-and-modernas-95-effective-vaccines-we-need-more-details-and-the-raw-data/  Accessed Online 14 January 2021.

[42] Goldman E, ed. Biden COVID Task Force: Pros & Cons for Holistic Medicine. Holistic Primary Care 2020;21(4):1,8,9.

[43] Georgiou A. Unclear If COVID Vaccine Will Work on South African Strain: Top Scientist Sir John Bell. Newsweek Jan. 4, 2021.

[44] Berngruber TW, Froissart R, Choisy M, et al. Evolution of Virulence in Emerging Epidemics. PLOS Pathogens 2013;9(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003209

[45] Bracho G, Varela E, Fernandez R, et al. Large-scale application of highly-diluted bacteria for Leptospirosis epidemic control. Homeopathy 2010;99(3):156-66. doi: 10.1016/j.homp.2010.05.009.

[46] Smetana J, Chlibek R, Shaw J, et al. Influenza vaccination in the elderly. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2018; 14(3): 540–549. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2017.1343226

[47] Lumley SF, O’Donnell D, Stoesser NE, et al.  Antibody Status and Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Health Care Workers. N Eng J Med December 23, 2020
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034545

[48] Dan JM, Mateus J, Kato Y, et al. Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection. Science  2021:eabf4063
DOI: 10.1126/science.abf4063

[49] Vygen S, Fischer A, Meurice L, et al. Waning immunity against mumps in vaccinated young adults, France 2013. Eurosurveillance 2016;21(10). https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.10.30156

[50]   Giannotta G, Giannotta N. Post-vaccination inflammatory syndrome: a new syndrome. Clin Case Rep Rev 2019;5:1-12.  doi: 10.15761/CCRR.1000454

[51] Cowling BJ, Fang VJ, Nishiura H, et al. Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine. Clin Infect Dis 2012 Jun;54(12):1778-83. doi: 10.1093/cid/cis307. Epub 2012 Mar 15.

[52] Sins of Omission How Government Failures to Track Covid-19 Data Have Led to More Than 1,700 Health Care Worker Deaths and Jeopardize Public Health. National Nurses United. September 2020.  https://act.nationalnursesunited.org/page/-/files/graphics/0920_Covid19_SinsOfOmission_Data_Report.pdf  Accessed Online 13 November 2020.

[53]Vadala M, Poddighe D, Laurino C, et al. Vaccination and autoimmune diseases: is prevention of adverse health effects on the horizon? EPMA J 2017; 8(3): 295–311. doi: 10.1007/s13167-017-0101-y

[54] Parpia R. Health Workers and Emergency Responders Offered Incentives to Get COVID-19 Vaccines. The Vaccine Reaction 2021. https://thevaccinereaction.org/2021/01/health-workers-and-emergency-responders-offered-incentives-to-get-covid-19-vaccines/  Accessed Online 19 January 2021.

[55] Halstead SB, Katzelnick L. COVID-19 Vaccines: Should We Fear ADE?  J Infect Dis 2020; 222(12):1946–1950, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa518

[56] Tseng C, Sbrana E, Iwata-Yoshikawa N, et al. Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus. PLoS One 2012;7(4):e35421.  doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035421.

[57] Latus J, Kimmel M, Alscher MD, et al. Ethylene glycol poisoning: a rare but life-threatening cause of metabolic acidosis—a single-centre experience. Clin Kidney J 2012; 5(2): 120–123. doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfs009

[58]  Madusha. Difference Between Ethylene Glycol and Polyethylene Glycol. PEDIAA 2017.  https://pediaa.com/difference-between-ethylene-glycol-and-polyethylene-glycol/#Polyethylene%20Glycol.  Accessed Online 02 January 2021.

[59] De Vrieze J. Suspicions grow that nanoparticles in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trigger rare allergic reactions. Science 2020; Dec. 21, 5:10 PM. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/suspicions-grow-nanoparticles-pfizer-s-covid-19-vaccine-trigger-rare-allergic-reactions#:~:text=PEG%20has%20never%20been%20used,breath%2C%20and%20a%20fast%20heartbeat.  Accessed Online 06 January 2021.

[60] Schepker K. The Constant Conversation: The Mysteries of Cellular Communication. Holistic Primary Care 2020;21(4):12.

[61] Wylie KM, Weinstock GM, Storch GA. Emerging view of the human virome. Translat Res 2012;160(4): 283-290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trsl.2012.03.006

[62] Carson R. Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1962, New York.

[63] Haseltine WA. The Risks of Rushing a COVID-19 Vaccine, Telescoping testing time lines and approvals may expose all of us to unnecessary dangers. Scientific American 2020.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-risks-of-rushing-a-covid-19-vaccine/  Accessed Online 22 November 2020.

[64] Supreme Court of the United States. BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL. October 2010. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf Accessed Online 09 January 2021.

[65] Shoenfeld Y, Agmon-Levin N. ‘ASIA’ – autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants. J Autoimmun 2011;36(1):4-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2010.07.003. Epub 2010 Aug 13.

[66] Shoenfeld Y, Agmon-Levin N, Tomljenovic L., eds.Vaccines and Autoimmunity 2015, Wiley‐Blackwell. ISBN:9781118663431 |Online ISBN:9781118663721 |DOI:10.1002/9781118663721

[67] Moskowitz R. Vaccines: A Reappraisal. Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2017.

[68] Snyder Sachs J. Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World.  Hill and Wang 2007.  New York.

[69] Klein SL, Flanagan KL. Sex differences in immune responses. Nature Rev Immunol 2016;16: 626–638.  https://doi.org/10.1038/nri.2016.90

[70] Shuster E. Fifty Years Later: The Significance of the Nuremberg Code. N Engl J Med 1997; 337:1436-1440. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199711133372006

[71] Cardozo T, Veaze R. Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID‐19 vaccines worsening clinical disease. Int J Clin Pract 2020.