Positive Health Online

We publish Positive Health PH Online January 2021 Issue 267 live on 10 Dec 2020 on the cusp of the roll-out of the first approved Covid-19 vaccine [from Pfizer/BioNTech]. Hopefully, in due course, this will herald better times in 2021.

This issue will be the final Expert Column - GRACE - in Massage, Music, Art and Life - by David Lauterstein, who will be devoting his time into his online courses and new book The Art of Massage: Ways of Touching. You can subscribe to David’s Newsletter at https://www.david-lauterstein.com/ We bid David adieu and fond farewell and wish him well, although not necessarily goodbye.

The editorial features in Issue 267 embody the core, almost sacred Positive Health PH Online values of integrated medicine and explore the true concepts of mind-body-spirit, embracing a wide array of articles which span a wide spectrum of subjects and clinical disciplines.

Articles exploring Mind-Spirit include That 'I' In 'Me'; The Way We Were; Riding the Cosmic Unicycle – Staying In The Saddle During Times of Great Change; The Galileo Commission: Scientism & Impossible Facts.

Clinically-based features include Alzheimer’s, Dementia and Aromatherapy; Post Viral / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Inflammation on the Brain: How to Calm Inflammation with Essential Oils; What Can I Tell You About…; Inflammation the Modern Day Epidemic; 13 Vitamins Essential for the Human Body; Chlorella - Single-Celled Green Algae; Sprouting for Health.

Bodywork articles include GRACE - in Massage, Music, Art and Life; Physical and Emotional Holding as a Result of Injury, Stress and Trauma; Amazing Facts about Your Back; Changes in Self-Reported Pain Scores Following a Single EMMETT Technique Treatment; Expansion of IDD Therapy in the UK – a Physiotherapy Perspective.   

The UK is in the midst of a gargantuan battle – between politicians, scientists and medical officers and citizens – over how best to manage the Covid-19 pandemic. There is absolutely no shortage of analyses, opinions, criticisms and counter-arguments; in fact, the shrillness is deafening. Here are links to merely a sample:

• Peer review of the RTPCR test reveals 10 major scientific flaws eurosurveillance
• Which Hurts us More: Virus or Governments? anhinternational.org
• Wetherspoon News Do Lockdowns Work? jdwetherspoon.com
• PCR-Based Covid Testing Has Failed – lockdownsceptics and lockdownsceptics MP-Briefing
• Covid UK: Facts about the risks, the death rate, and NHS capacity – dailymail.co.uk
• Open Letter Regarding UK’s COVID-19 Vaccine Agenda – UK Medical Freedom Alliance
• Mass Testing for Covid-19 in the UK - bmj
• Rachel Nicoll PhD – Written evidence (COV0049) – committees.parliament.uk
• Levels of pre-existing immunity to Covid are far higher than antibody studies - ukmfa

There have been ongoing extensive technical criticisms regarding the accuracy, indeed the methodology of polymerase chain reaction – PCR testing and whether the number of positive tests should be directly translated into Covid cases. https://cormandrostenreview.com/report/ PCR tests detect the genetic information of the virus, the RNA to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. Taking into account false positive and false negative error rates of PCR testing, without definitive presence of actual infection or transmission, numerous statistical analyses recast the number of actual Covid cases, numbers of excess deaths, drawing dramatically diverse views, even to the point of whether we are in a pandemic or a ‘false positive pseudo-epidemic.  https://lockdownsceptics.org/pcr-based-covid-testing-has-failed-us/?s=09

The Nature Communication research paper published 20 Nov 2020 – Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China takes the biscuit of how eye-wateringly logistically efficient, flawlessly executed lockdown control measures imposed on 10 million residents in Wuhan between 23 Jan and 8 April 2020 resulted in no new symptomatic cases detected via a nucleic acid screening program by 14 May and 1 June!! Despite obvious differences between the ability of democratic and authoritarian regimes to control individual freedoms,  I would encourage PH Online readers to read this paper for insights into the intricacies involved in testing, tracing and isolation.

“Stringent COVID-19 control measures were imposed in Wuhan between January 23 and April 8, 2020. Estimates of the prevalence of infection following the release of restrictions could inform post-lockdown pandemic management. Here, we describe a city-wide SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening programme between May 14 and June 1, 2020 in Wuhan. All city residents aged six years or older were eligible and 9,899,828 (92.9%) participated. No new symptomatic cases and 300 asymptomatic cases (detection rate 0.303/10,000, 95% CI 0.270–0.339/10,000) were identified. There were no positive tests amongst 1,174 close contacts of asymptomatic cases. 107 of 34,424 previously recovered COVID-19 patients tested positive again (re-positive rate 0.31%, 95% CI 0.423–0.574%). The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Wuhan was therefore very low five to eight weeks after the end of lockdown.”

Cao, S., Gan, Y., Wang, C. et al. Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China. Nat Commun 11, 5917. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19802-w

There are a myriad of issues – including vaccines – too numerous to discuss here involved in how the Covid pandemic evolves; however I continue to argue for and maintain that maintaining optimal health, including against Covid-19, involves not simply the binary choice of lockdown to avoid infection or vaccine protection, but also supporting your health and immune system with nutrients and supplements including Vitamins C and D which have been shown to have clinical efficacy – research published in PH Online Letters to the Editor Issue 263, Issue 264, Issue 265 and Issue 266 – against Cov-19.

I sincerely convey my best wishes to all PH Online readers and hope that you have very healthy and happy and Covid-free 2021.