☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Wednesday, October 13, 2021 ☙ DIMINISHED 🦠

Florida fines Leon County a whopping $3.75 MILLION DOLLARS for firing employees subject to an injection mandate; the Department of Health issues a “bad boy” list ...

Good morning C&C! I’m writing you from sunny — but cool — Pensacola this morning, and have a nice little roundup for you today: Florida fines Leon County a whopping $3.75 MILLION DOLLARS for firing employees subject to an injection mandate; the Department of Health issues a “bad boy” list of folks being “investigated” for more fines; Orlando Mayor Demings says he’s been diminished, or something; a buried NIH table comes to light and I can’t wait till you see what it says; GWU discovers and amazing but controversial new Covid treatment; and Southwest’s CEO finally notices the injection-mandate elephant standing on his foot.

🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞

🔥 As I mentioned, I spoke last night at an open-air medical-freedom event in the Wahoo seaside baseball stadium Pensacola, Florida. I was gratified to be included with some other very smart and well-known medical professionals in this space, like Dr. Peter McCulloch, Dr. Ryan Cole, Dr. Bryan Ardis, and Dr. Ben Marble (myfreedoctor.com). There was a lot of good information shared, and I’ll post the Rumble link once it’s available. It was incredibly humbling to be allowed to sit alongside these REAL medical heroes who are literally saving grandma. In contrast to reprehensible doctors who just parrot CDC talking points to local school boards to give them cover to break the law, for example.

My personal favorite part of my talk was when I asked the large group of attendees how many were C&C readers. I was prepared for a few. It was a BUNCH. And they were loud and proud. We’re growing.

Thank you Pensacola!

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🦩 Ka-boom. The State of Florida fined Leon County $3.57 MILLION DOLLARS yesterday, for firing 14 employees under its odious vaccine mandate. The county has until November 5 to pay up. The letter helpfully suggested either checks or money orders could be used.

Local politicians squealed in protest. “We don’t need the State bullying our communities or private businesses who are simply trying to serve the people and get on the other side of this pandemic,” said State Sen. Loranne Ausley. Ms. Ausley appears completely clueless to the fact that firing first responders for not taking injections is a lot more like “bullying” than fining the bully who fired the first responders. Just saying. I blame public education.

Of course, if Ms. Ausley really DOES have a permanent cognitive impairment, then I apologize for being disrespectful of her intellectual handicap, and applaud her for doing so well in spite of her mental limitations.

Leon County Attorney Chasity O’Steen said the County’s mandate is in accordance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the county’s legal ability to require vaccinations. So, I guess that settles it. Everybody else is wrong.

Now, what would really be fun would be to represent the “fired fourteen” in a § 1983 damages civil rights lawsuit for damages. Under Green v. Alachua County, which controls in Leon County, the County would have to meet the very high strict scrutiny standard. What a great case that would be.

🦩 But the Sunshine State wasn’t content with a huge fine on Leon County. On Monday, the Florida Department of Health also released a list of individuals and businesses who are “under investigation” for mandating injections or asking for injection documents in violation of the state’s SB2006 “vaccine passport ban.”

The list includes notable companies like the House of Blues, Raytheon Corporation, Norwegian, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, the Walt Disney Theater, Starbucks, and Jerry Demings, the Mayor of Orlando. Individually.

Demings was HOT. He said “The state was clearly out of line with commonly accepted practices for crisis management. And any time that someone diminishes our ability to protect our citizens, I am going to stand up against that.” Well, something — or someone — is diminished, that’s for sure. Demings vowed to sue, because he feels like the state is imposing something on him that he doesn’t want. And he thinks that’s not fair. It reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The Governor’s office responded: “’Commonly accepted practices for crisis management’ do not include forced-masking and coercing people into getting medical procedures under threat of termination. These policies do not protect citizens; they violate citizens’ rights.”

Of local interest, the parties named on the DOH’s “bad boy” list included: the Alachua County Public Library, Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe, and the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners.

🔥 Apparently the NIH wants people to take horse deworming medicine. Back in the summer, the NIH published a table, titled “Table: Characteristics of Potential Antiviral Agents | COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines.” At the top of the official government web page there is a headline that says “Table 2e. Characteristics of Antiviral Agents That Are Approved or Under Evaluation for the Treatment of COVID-19.”

It says it was last updated on July 2021. A couple months ago.

When you look below the headline, you see the table. It’s a table of only three Covid drugs, along with their dosing regimens, adverse events, interactions, and so forth. Just three.

The first is Remdesivir, which is manufactured by Gilead and heavily promoted by Fauci. Listed side effects include “renal [(kidney)] and liver toxicity.” Remdesivir costs thousands of dollars per dose. In November of last year, CMS began paying hospitals a +20% incentive (they call it an “add on payment”) when they treat patients with Remdesivir. So.

The second drug on the NIH’s list is IVERMECTIN. Yep, that right. Surprisingly, the horse dewormer is the second drug on the NIH’s official table, updated as of a couple months ago, of ANTIVIRAL AGENTS for Covid-19 treatment. Ivermectin’s list of adverse events — much-shorter than Remdesivir’s — begins with the statement, “generally well-tolerated.” That statement is NOT anywhere in Remdesivir columns. Ivermectin costs about $3 bucks per dose, which, granted, doesn’t put Benjamins in ANYBODY’s pocket.

So anyway, if you’re arguing with a doctor about treatment protocols, hand them this NIH table. See, doc? It’s RIGHT THERE. Now, remember, your doc is probably being told from the other side that if he prescribes Ivermectin, he’ll lose his license, so there’s THAT.

Back to the table. The third entry is worth a mention. It is “Nitazoxanide,” which is an anti-parasitic drug like Ivermectin. I hadn’t heard of it before. A search of the literature seems to show a bunch of interest in the drug popping up around April 2020, where various controlled studies concluded it significantly reduces viral load if used in early treatment for Covid. But after April, it seems to vanish from the literature. Granted, I’m no expert in searching the online journals. Maybe somebody else can find something.

Link to the NIH table: https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/tables/table-2e/.

💊 A new study out of George Washington University has identifies an amazing new drug that cuts the risk of ventilation for Covid-19 patients by ALMOST HALF (44%). And it reduces in-hospital mortality by NEARLY HALF (47%). It keeps 43% of patients out of the ICU altogether. The problem is, this drug is highly controversial. Soon, the federal government will be probably be monitoring pharmacies who prescribe it.

Oh wait, never mind. It’s ASPIRIN. You can just buy it over the counter. And guess what? The low-dose kind works just fine.

The mechanism isn’t complicated. Late-stage Covid causes small-vessel blood clotting, which is what then causes the trouble in your lungs. Low-dose aspirin is a commonly-used treatment for folks who suffer from blood clotting issues or who are in danger of a stroke, including most people who’ve had a heart attack or a myocardial infarction. So. ASPIRIN.

And check this out. In a March study out of Israel, researchers came to similar conclusions about aspirin as the GWU team, but also found that folks on an aspirin regimen were 30% less likely to catch Covid in the first place. Gosh. If only we’d known about this like, a year ago. What’s up, experts?

Aspirin might also be a good safe and effective medicine to consider putting yourself on if you happen to, say, take some kind of injection whose side effects include blood clotting issues or myocarditis or anything like that. Just saying.

🔥 Texas-based American and Southwest Airlines said they are going to keep on with their vaccine mandates, defying Governor Abbott’s new executive order banning mandatory vaccination policies. They’ve argued that Joe Biden’s invisible Covid mandate supersedes any contradictory state laws. Your move, Texas. Maybe send in the Rangers?

I’m starting to think there may be a LOT of contradictory state and federal laws soon.

Southwest Airlines’ CEO Gary Kelly has finally shut up about imaginary bad weather and is talking about his company’s reprehensible vaccine mandate. In an interview on CNBC yesterday, he said he thinks businesses should NOT impose Covid vaccine mandates on their employees. He said his company is only doing it to comply with the Biden administration’s rules.

“I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I’m not in favor of that. Never have been,” Kelly said in the interview. Oh, okay. “But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a [vaccine] mandate … in place by Dec. 8, so we’re working through that.”

It’s BIDEN’S fault.

Kelly is referring to Biden’s executive order requiring federal employees and contractors to get injected. Biden’s executive order doesn’t have a date in it. But Kelly blames the whole thing on Biden. In a memo to employees last month, Kelly said ”I do not believe it is up to me, as CEO of a company, to mandate to people that they get vaccinated. That’s my personal philosophy and my personal belief.” Gee, what terrific leadership. I bet that was a great comfort to all the Southwest employees.

Is it just me, or is this a really strange way for Kelly to show how much he thinks that companies shouldn’t mandate vaccines?

Anyway, have a wonderful Wednesday, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more.

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