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Good morning, C&C peeps. In today\u2019s roundup: After months of rumors, President Trump finally enters the social media fray; Florida\u2019s surgeon general speaks out strongly against masking school kids; Yahoo News comes close to even-handed reporting about the school mask controversy; I summarize the extended interview between Joe Rogan and Sanjay Gupta; the least likely corporate franchise takes a stand against vaccine mandates; a journal perspective article asks why some people seem to evade Covid altogether; a new study finds some positive effect from a horse deworming medicine (can you guess which one?); troubling allegations about Kaiser Permanente\u2019s role in manufacturing injection mandates; and I summarize last week\u2019s Florida Covid report for you. We\u2019re doing great.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞<\/strong><\/p>\n ☎️ 5DAY: Keep an eye out for a major announcement this morning. It could be a game-changer. 🤞<\/p>\n 🎈 Let me know in the comments about what you all would think about a live C&C conference, or maybe a few, like Orlando, Dallas, L.A..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞<\/strong><\/p>\n 🔥 President Trump announced a new venture yesterday, initiating the \u201cTrump Media and Technology Group\u201d as a public offering. He\u2019s trying to generate startup funding for a new social media network called TruthSocial.Com. To get on the market immediately, he merged the new entity with an existing, publicly-traded tech company, Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC). So far, an app is available for pre-order in the Apple Store, and folks can sign up for an invite on the website. The press release says the new social network plans to enter beta in November and will open publicly in the first quarter of next year.<\/p>\n The site\u2019s attractive but thin web page doesn\u2019t have much on it yet, just a box to enter your name and email address. DWAC is trading at just under $10 a share. I am SO curious to see what happens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 😷 Florida\u2019s new Surgeon General Ladapo commented on masks yesterday at a press conference with the Governor:<\/p>\n \u201cI want you guys to step back for a moment from what you constantly hear on TV. And just very briefly, in terms of the data that supports mask use on kids and mandate for masking kids, it is very weak. And that\u2019s a fact. But there\u2019s a substantial gap between the quality of the data out there supporting masking kids yielding any benefit for kids whatsoever. Factual. In Florida we\u2019re going to stay close to the data, and we\u2019re going to let you how we feel about the data. And the data do not support any clinical benefit for children in schools with mask mandates. The highest quality data find no evidence of benefit. And we\u2019re going to stick with that, because that\u2019s what the data show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And Ladapo pledged to support parents who want to control their own children\u2019s healthcare instead of leaving critical medical decisions up to underqualified school board members and overpaid superintendents:<\/p>\n \u201cThe other thing I\u2019ll just add, is that, as a parent, hearing stories about what other parents are going through, and seeing parents around the country, these are impossible situations these parents are being put in. Putting a mask \u2014 something \u2014 on the face of your child, that\u2019s a parent\u2019s decision. That\u2019s not a school\u2019s decision, that\u2019s not a school board\u2019s decision, that\u2019s not a governor\u2019s decision, it\u2019s no one else\u2019s decision except for the parent. And parents are being placed in these impossible situations related to the health of their children. I\u2019m here to help support parents in voicing how they feel their children should present, should be in the world. And I\u2019m going to be here, to help with that, to support that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 😷 A surprisingly even-handed article on Yahoo News yesterday reported about CDC Director Rochelle Walensky\u2019s comment that the agency would continue recommending face rags for kids at school. First it quoted Walensky\u2019s Fauci-like comment that, \u201cAs we head into these winter months, we know we cannot be complacent.\u201d Apparently letting kids breath freely, see each other, and learn social skills is being complacent, or something.<\/p>\n Anyway, the article continued with some pro-mask comments, of course, but then actually quoted a couple experts going the other way. \u201cSome educators and epidemiologists have criticized mask wearing in schools, arguing that evidence for the controversial intervention is not as strong as proponents like Walensky have said,\u201d the article reported. It also quoted Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo as saying, \u201cSo many parents I talk to ask, \u2018When does it end? We should be able to answer what conditions would enable an end.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine that \u2014 an end to masks. Is that even possible?<\/p>\n The good news is that corporate media might be starting to question the narrative, at least a little, teeny-tiny bit. Courage!, as disgraced mega-journalist Dan Rather would say.<\/p>\n Teacher\u2019s unions were hardest hit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🔥 Last week I reported about an interesting exchange with CNN\u2019s TV doctor Sanjay Gupta and Joe Rogan on his podcast. Well, I went ahead and listened to the whole episode, all three hours. You\u2019re welcome. If you have the time, it is fascinating. First, I\u2019ll concede that Gupta comes across much more intelligent than he seems on TV or in the clips from the podcast that are going around. Rogan gets him to admit a lot of what all of us have been thinking and saying for a long time about Covid, which was gratifying. Apparently we\u2019re not crazy. Who knew.<\/p>\n The remarkable thing was that Gupta won\u2019t \u2014 can\u2019t \u2014 say those same things on his own network.<\/p>\n For example, Gupta makes some surprising admissions about gain of function research. He all but concedes that it is likely that Covid was manufactured in the Wuhan lab using NIH money. He\u2019s spoken directly to Francis Collins and Peter Dasazk and quotes them, I think skeptically.<\/p>\n Rogan gave Gupta an extremely hard time about the whole \u201chorse dewormer\u201d business, which is totally fair, and fun to listen to. Rogan just won\u2019t let go of his argument that \u201cCNN lied about that, what else are they lying about?\u201d Gupta handles it with good humor but is clearly uncomfortable. Good times.<\/p>\n Next, and also fascinating, were the things Gupta wouldn\u2019t concede. For example, he would not agree to ANY situation where someone shouldn\u2019t get injected. Not healthy people, not recovered people, not even kids down to age five. And Rogan tried. Hard. Gupta also refuses to acknowledge any risks from the vaccine, seeming surprised when Rogan offered real-life examples of healthy people who\u2019ve gotten very sick or died post-injection. Nor would Gupta give an inch when it came to ivermectin. \u201cNo evidence,\u201d Gupta kept saying.<\/p>\n Finally, and maybe most interesting of all, was how often Gupta simply refused to understand Rogan\u2019s point. Refused or maybe he just wasn\u2019t able to. This is the phenomenon we\u2019ve all experienced trying to talk to people about Covid facts. It\u2019s like they\u2019ve constructed a separate reality and any ideas that don\u2019t match up simply do not penetrate. For example, in the part I reported on last week, Gupta struggles and ultimately fails to understand Rogan\u2019s point about how parents make risk assessments for their kids relative to the risks of getting Covid versus the risks of getting injected. Gupta kept saying about something murky about long Covid and \u201cwhat we don\u2019t know\u201d \u2014 ironically overlooking the exact same argument on the opposing side about the lack of long-term safety data for the injections.<\/p>\n Why \u2014 oh, why? \u2014 inject kids when we don\u2019t know the long-term effects? Because long Covid. Or something.<\/p>\n All in all, if the episode weren\u2019t so long, I would definitely recommend a listen. Rogan is a great interviewer and the discussion really highlights the intractable disconnect between people on both sides of the issues.<\/p>\n And one thing is clear. Joe Rogan gets it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🍔 In-N-Out burgers is taking a stand! San Francisco shut down the restaurant\u2019s iconic Fisherman\u2019s Wharf location after the burger peddler scorned the city\u2019s vaccine mandate. \u201cWe refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,\u201d In-N-Out\u2019s Chief Legal and Business Officer Arnie Wensinger said in a high-spirited statement. \u201cIt is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant associates to segregate customers into those who may be served and those who may not, whether based on the documentation they carry, or any other reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Hospitals: zero. Burger joints: one. Go burger joints!<\/p>\n I think I may have found my next favorite fast food franchise. Grab some In-N-Out today. Let\u2019s blow it out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🔬 An international team of medical scientists has published a Perspective in the journal Nature Immunology. The article examines the great mystery of variability in the way some people respond to a Covid infection. A lot of folks, healthy and unhealthy, are \u201casymptomatic\u201d \u2014 virtually untouched by the virus \u2014 but a small number of otherwise healthy folks get very sick and even die. Why? They don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n The authors consider some possibilities. For example, some reports suggest that people with blood type \u201cO\u201d suffer less when infected. But why? There have been other studies suggesting certain proteins produced by the body are more or less active when confronted with the virus. The virus needs specific proteins that have receptors like ACE2 or TMEM41B. If people lack those receptors, the virus can\u2019t replicate. Maybe that has something to do with it.<\/p>\n The point of the article is that the authors want to study folks who\u2019ve been exposed but didn\u2019t get sick, like the one member of a household that didn\u2019t catch Covid. They are thinking that if they can figure out what makes people effectively immune, there might be a new treatment option in there somewhere. Seems like this could have been a good idea say, oh, a year ago.<\/p>\n Better late than never, I suppose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🔬 A new preprint study landed in the Journals yesterday titled, \u201cRepositioning Ivermectin for Covid-19 treatment: Molecular mechanisms of action against SARS-CoV-2 replication.\u201d In its highlights, the study says, \u201cIvermectin also exhibits great potential in reducing SARS-CoV-2 viral replication via numerous modes of action, such as the disruption of the Importin heterodimer complex.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I\u2019VE always said. We should be looking at the \u201cImportin heterodimer complex.\u201d Of COURSE. It\u2019s so obvious.<\/p>\n Anyway, the study\u2019s summary concludes that \u201cthe collective review of recent efforts suggests that IVM has a prophylactic effect and would be a strong candidate for clinical trials to treat SARS-CoV-2.\u201d<\/p>\n No evidence! It\u2019s just a horse dewormer! Science! Shut up!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t cancel me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 🪳 I\u2019ve been reviewing the new lawsuit filed by America\u2019s Frontline Doctors in California against the healthcare mega-giant Kaiser Permanente. It makes some interesting allegations, which appear to be backed up with publicly-available evidence.<\/p>\n First of all, Kaiser executives look like they were the original evil geniuses behind the Biden vaccine mandate. Thanks Kaiser. Second, the available evidence strongly suggests that the REASON Kaiser encouraged Biden to broadly mandate injections was because it was planning to do that in its own hospitals, but was worried that its nurses and doctors would simply quit and go work for competitive healthcare providers without mandates. So it convinced the Biden Administration to mandate vaccines everywhere, so that its employees would have nowhere to go.<\/p>\n Kaiser folks: I hope you\u2019re paying attention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 📊 *COVID IN FLORIDA AND ALACHUA COUNTY* 📊<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve had new Florida Covid data for a few days now, through the week ending October 14. The rush of events prevented me from summarizing it for you, so here are the highlights from last week\u2019s report:<\/p>\n \u2014 Cases are scraping the bottom, with a 7-day average per county of only 41 cases.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cCovid-related\u201d death reports are also down to minimal levels, with a 7-day average per county of 0.26 per county. In other words, fewer than two per county for the week.<\/p>\n \u2014 The statewide positivity ratio is scraping the bottom at only 3.8%, a 25% drop from the previous week.<\/p>\n \u2014 Interesting, in Alachua County \u2014 one of only eight counties in Florida having a school mask mandate without a discretionary opt-out \u2014 cases and positivity ticked up a little, going the opposite direction from the rest of the state. Curious, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \u2014 Finally, notice that US hospitalizations are ticking up again \u2014 but not in Florida, where they are bottoming out. This is highly suggestive of the Northern States\u2019 starting their winter Covid wave. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n All in all, Florida looks great. Even for Northern States preparing for a Covid wave: you guys have more to fear from government overreaction than the virus. You\u2019ve seen the third wave come and go in Florida without, and I can\u2019t believe I have to say this again, without catastrophic failure of the medical system. Of course, this time you\u2019re going to have to do it with a lot fewer doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n Have a terrific Thursday and I\u2019ll see you back here tomorrow for re-caffeination.<\/strong><\/p>\n ___ ☕️ Coffee & Covid \u2619 Thursday, October 21, 2021 \u2619 HANG ON 🦠 President Trump finally enters the social media fray; Florida\u2019s surgeon general speaks out strongly against masking school kids; Yahoo News comes close to even-handed reporting, and more… … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f79a965-5a5d-4391-aee0-4ea5c9d451a7_2314x1244.png\")
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