The other side of COVID-19

A remarkable presentation was given to the Sanders County Board of Health at their October 13 meeting by residents Kate Hardman, Sarah Klingenberg and Mary Reed. Detailed informational packets, citing 50 references of articles and videos, were provided to each Health Board member and other audience participants. All attendees displayed mutual courtesy and respect, and frankly, the audience seemed spellbound.

Highlights included safety and efficacy considerations. Many adverse reactions to the vaccines have been reported. There are documented reports of adverse reactions to the vaccines such as myocarditis, blood clots, inflammatory reactions and death. Adverse reactions seem to be consistently underreported to the CDC. A Harvard study reported that as few as 1% of adverse reactions are reported.

In addition, vaccine efficacy drops after about five months. While vaccines may suppress symptoms of the illness, they may actually be contributing to the emergence of new variants!

One of the treatment protocols used by hospitals is Remdesivir which has revealed complications such as impaired kidney functions. Eleven members of the National COVID-19 Treatment Panel had financial ties with Gilead Sciences, responsible for this antiviral drug. On the other hand, Ivermectin has shown great promise as a repurpose drug in the early treatment of COVID19. This drug won the 2015 Nobel Prize for treating parasites and has been used in humans since the 1990s. It has shown great promise in the treatment of COVID-19. Early treatment with medicines like Hydroxychloroquie and Ivermectin has dramatically decreased the need for hospitalization for COVID-19 in Italy, Japan and India. One state in India is Covid free after these early treatments, and only 5% of their population is vaccinated.

The presenters asked for the Board of Health’s commitment to convey the risk/ benefit analysis to all Sanders County residents. At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Magera gave a gracious thank you to Ms. Hardman stating, “You have certainly given us a lot to think about and we need to go home and study this.” Hats off to these three women. We are lucky to have such intelligent and engaged people in our community.

Catherine DeWitt, Thompson Falls