Largescale Risks And Technological Change: Fill & Download for Free

In 1972, Australia did very little, if any trade with China. Except for the Vietnam War and the election of a Labor Government life was good.To revert to that state of satisfaction is not impossible. Much is changing and much can change in any direction people have the will to make it. One thing that will impact on all Western societies and is indeed impacting at this very moment is largescale automation and information technology that facilitates dispersion and negates high labour costs. All that is needed is for Australia to bring its energy costs under control and reform its labour laws. Sheer necessity will one day cause that to happen.People are starting to wake up to the fact that “climate change” which used to go by the name of Anthropogenic Global Warming(AGW), is a ploy (see: http://www.nvtech.com.au/Climate/AGW.html ) to effect large-scale “wealth redistribution”. Those that advocate “wealth redistribution” aka “economic reform”, cling to the false belief that wealth is a finite entity, that is, if one person is wealthy they have become so by stealing that wealth from another. They see the world as employers and employees with people virtually consigned to those roles from birth - the oppressor and the oppressed. People like Bernie Sanders, Bill Shorten or Jeremy Corbyn have never ever formed a business or acted in the capacity of a self-employed tradesman/contractor or entrepreneurial businessman. Even Marx was a ne’re-do-well parasite who lived firstly off his wealthy parents and then off a stipend provided to his wife who also came from a wealthy family. Read the biography of Bernie Sanders and you will find striking similarities!In most countries where free-enterprise flourishes, small businesses, comprised largely of self-employed businessmen and non-union employees, make up more than 60% of the economy and that is not discounting the 15 to 20% who are in Government employ. If you do that, the percentage of people involved in free enterprise, ie, the “real economy”, is much greater than that. In that economy, you do not have to work for any particular person. If you don’t like your job or employer, you can find another. If you don’t like working for anyone you can start your own business. The vast majority of the multi-millionaires in societies that are based on free enterprise are 1st generation. They did not inherit their wealth.I go into this matter in some detail to point out that not only is the assertion there is global warming aka “climate change” a falsehood but there is also no need for the world to “reform its economy” as the adherents of AGW would maintain. We all owe our present state of affluence and our liberty to the free enterprise model. Those populations that are not affluent are invariably in countries riven by corruption and socialism.Which brings us to China and the question of climate change.How then, does the “Climate Change” fraud see itself as a vehicle for redistributing wealth? Most industries use energy. Alarmist thinking is that if one can apply some form of “carbon tax”, there will be a huge coffer of money, expropriated from industry (and indirectly, from its owners/shareholders - including superannuation funds), that can be used to provide a stipend for those who don’t and won’t work. Something like the model Marx used for the whole of his miserable life; sponging off wealthy relations and the efforts of others. The carbon tax is a recipe for rewarding sloth, profligate behaviour and dullness of imagination. (The latter is in plentiful supply in any Government service.)In addition to the above, the Paris Agreement greatly favours the People’s Republic of China(PRC) (and, de facto the Chinese Communist Party), whilst causing significant diseconomies to Western Civilisation’s energy production. It is time to decouple from both the Paris Agreement and the PRC. It is apparent now that the aim of the latter was always “to raid, not trade”. The dream that if the West could help China become more affluent it would also become more liberal has proven to be a failure. China is, instead, becoming more militant, nationalistic and authoritarian. It is a threat to free enterprise and individual freedom for the whole world. The US founders’ ideal of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is not possible under an authoritarian regime.There are around 7 billion people in this world and there are twice as many people in this world that have a higher GDP than the people of China. There are lots of markets that can be pursued besides China. Not only that, those markets that are presently depressed can be developed to the advantage of all parties involved.China is presently carrying a huge debt and there is every possibility of a financial collapse in the next few years unless there are substantial reforms to the way the CCP conducts itself. China faces many challenges. One of them is called President Donald John Trump. The US, through the fact that its currency is the world’s trading standard, can isolate China and send it back to the state it was before 1972. With China’s latest crackdown in Hong Kong, that isolation now seems to be a certainty. Hong Kong’s currency allowed influential Chinese to move their money around internationally. Without that, there will be considerable difficulties in China trading with the Western economies.Australia is just starting to wake up to a number of facts of life. The first is that trade with China is not on equal terms. The Chinese can purchase companies and property in Australia but Australians cannot do the same in China. You cannot take money out of China easily if you wish to relocate your business. You can in Australia. What is normal commercial transparency in Australia is considered to be a “State Secret” in China because, in the end, as Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba found out to his rue, everything is owned by the few people at the top of the CCP. Jack Ma, creator of e-commerce giant Alibaba and China's richest man, has been outed as a member of the Communist PartyJack Ma is giving up ownership of VIEs – here’s what that meansMany influential Chinese businessmen have said that the CCP is one huge criminal enterprise not unlike the Mafia but on a national scale. Wang Jian (Chinese: 王健; 1961 – 3 July 2018) was a Chinese entrepreneur and billionaire. Wang was one of HNA Group, Hainan Airline’s largest individual shareholders, owning about 15% of the company. He died, after refusing to give up his shares, from a "likely accidental" fall while travelling in France in July 2018.When these entrepreneurs are forced to give up their shares they become the property of a few faceless individuals at the top of the CCP. These people are now estimated to be worth not billions but trillions of dollars. They keep their money off-shore in places like Geneva, London and New York; certainly not in that epitome of a socialist paradise, North Korea!There are many emerging markets that do not carry the same level of risk as doing business with China. If you, as a businessman, go to China, you can be detained for very long periods of time without charge and then put before a court where there is no proper separation between it and the Executive of the country. In other words the Justice system is frequently used as a weapon of Executive will. Do business in China at your peril.The same applies to trade. If your Government were to be, for example, critical of China or, worse still, sympathetic to the Hong Kongese or Taiwanese, you could find your products being held up at the wharf on some spurious pretext; just so that the CCP can send a message to your Government. Have that happen too often, and the CCP has stupidly done just that, and you will find that Governments will put in place incentives to encourage you to sell your goods into other markets. In the case of Australia, it has a large constellation of offices called, “Austrade”, whose whole purpose is to assist Australian companies trade with other countries. I’ve dealt with these people in the past and have found many of them to be very friendly and helpful.If you are in the business of information technology and involved with China, be prepared for there to be an “information transfer” such that you will wake up one day and find your product being made by other Chinese firms related to the one you had partnered with. That’s how the Chinese perform intellectual property theft. Once they have what they want, they will discard you. Siemens found that out when trying to introduce Maglev rail technology into China. Now China makes high speed trains but Siemens is nowhere to be seen.In the end, you have to ask if you want to deal on a largescale with a country that harvests organs from people facing execution, censors all media so that citizens are not exposed to views critical of the state, crushes dissent as it has done in Hong Kong and performs largescale extra-judicial killings of its own citizens.Yes, it is possible for Australia to decouple from China. There is a world of opportunities out there and there is no need to feed the dragon that will one day devour you, albeit you may be last because you are such a small and insignificant tit-bit as Australia is.

Many people in the anti vaccer groups are ignorant, stupid and narrow-minded. And they often lied and spread disinformation on vaccines without a real scientific basis. Often with no better alternatives and unwillingness to change their minds despite the facts.There are some good reasons to be skeptical. But many antivaccers accept no compromise and their thinking will not be changed by however much testing is done. And the anti vaccers have been around for many years. They often oppose all vaccines.The new vaccines have been tested very rapidly and some of them using very new technologies that we do not have much experience in.The rapid testing and government approval of the new vaccines has set new records for a number of reasons. Partly with the massive investment in vaccines during this crisis. And strong government interest and reduced red tape and closer involvement. The procedures for developing and approving of new drugs and vaccines has been developed over many years which has produced excessive bureaucracy. Governments can make changes to improve this bureaucracy and slow decision-makers. It is often difficult to get enough resources to develop vaccines. Investors will be careful not to take on too many risks. But the devastating effect of COVID has generated massive amounts of finance and assistance. Governments and industries are under great pressure to end the pandemic. It is costing many trillions of dollars.Many of the vaccines have been very well tested. Including longer-term testing for over 6 months on tens of thousands of volunteers. And the testing still continues.There will be time to improve vaccines in future but many of them still work very well.We now have much more evidence on safety and effectiveness. Israel being a very good example due to its agreement to share information with vaccine developers. So far Israeli results have been very good.Another concern has been about the new technologies being used such as the RNA type vaccines. This includes changing some RNA to allow human cells to produce antiviral proteins. These proteins attach to the virus.With months of testing and now largescale use the vaccines have been shown to be very effective and safe. In the history of vaccines, the side effects have all been seen within 6 weeks of actual injection.But there do remain some concerns about very long-term side effects.The anti vaccer movement has now being used as a political tool in the US which is damaging the acceptance of vaccines. Some Americans would rather see large numbers of Americans infected with COVID 19 so the protection of herd immunity would allow US industry to return to work. This scheme could kill over 3 million Americans to gain herd immunity. This was the poorly tested plan of the prior president which could have cost 3 million lives.Not all anti-vaxxers have such extreme views. And some have reasonable concerns.Vaccines are our best and safest option to end the pandemic. And with the soonest outcome. So far vaccines are doing very well.

I wrote this answer on 29 March 2020. It is now 15 July 2020 and a lot has happened between then and now. I decided that I would revise my answer, adding more information. I have reviewed the original answer and almost all of it is still relevant though more is now known, or at least thought to be known now, about how this disease kills people and what are effective treatments against it.I am sure there are other excellent answers here and I suggest readers should read those as well to gain a broad knowledge of the disease. There are many opinions on this subject and some conflict with others. It is up to the reader to discern what has a high probability of being the truth and what is hyperbole or understatement.GeneralThe COVID-19 virus is lethal to some people because:It is easily transmitted from one human to another.A person can be infectious for some time without realising they are, themselves, afflicted by the disease.It elicits coughing and sneezing and each person who is ill becomes an effective transmitter of the disease.It is far more dangerous to mature and elderly people than to the young. Naturally those people who already have chronic ill health, particularly with respect to the cardio-respiratory system, diabetes, obesity, vitamin D deficient (This is particularly the case with dark skinned people living in climates or conditions where there is little sunlight) and blood group A or B, are at far greater risk than fit young people.Further illustrating the point made in sub-para 4 above, I have provided a graph and table to show the relationship regarding age and comorbidity In a graph and a table below. This data is taken from Australian Government statistics which have a small population compared to places like New York, Italy, UK, France and Belgium but the data from these places is badly corrupted for a variety of reasons and is possibly untrustworthy. The Australian data being from what is a small sample is not absolutely precise but it does give the reader a good idea as to the likely specificity of this disease.Given, at the time of writing this amendment, there are well over 600,000 deaths worldwide from this disease, there exists a huge databank that, if properly audited by an unbiased, professional authority, could provide very valuable, precise information about the characteristics of this disease and which therapeutical approach yields the best results for each “category” of patient.TransmissionCOVID-19 is related to the virus that causes the common cold; sharing around 72% of its genetic material. Both belong to a family of viruses called “:Corona Viruses”.Coronavirus from SARS isolated in FRhK-4 cells. Thin section electron micrograph and negative stained virus particlesSource:Department of Microbiology,The University of Hong Kong and the Government Virus Unit,Department of Health,Hong Kong SAR ChinaCommon paths of Transmission. Like other corona viruses associated with the common cold, it cannot be spread by ingestion. You could, for example, kiss a person who is infected with the common cold and not catch it. The cold virus has to come in contact with mucous membranes like those of the eyes or nose and/or genitalia.There exists on the surface of the Corona Virus a “spike” protein or “S” protein. It has been found that this protein has to be so structured that it can attach itself to the ACE2 receptor found on human cells and particularly those cells found in the human mucosa. This is important important for a number of reasons which may become evident later in this paper.As mentioned above, you cannot catch the virus through ingestion neither, it would seem, from contact with another person’s spittle. Salivary Amylase, a substance in a human’s saliva plays a role in digesting food. In doing that, it chemically reacts with organic matter in the mouth and, in doing so, denatures the S protein on the surface of the Corona cell. It is therefore unlikely (though I suspect not impossible) to contract Corona virus infection from spit from another person striking you in the eye.Supporting the above hypothesis is the fact that when being tested for Corona Virus, the sample is taken from the mucosa deep in the nose (a most uncomfortable experience!), not from a saliva sample. Also supporting this hypothesis is the fact that wearing masks has absolutely no effect in preventing or limiting the spread of this disease. This disease is spread by contagion (from the Latin root, “Tango” I touch.) That is why it is very important to clean the hands, particularly under finger nails and to not touch your eyes or pick/rub the inside of your nose.The virus most probably, if it is like the cold virus, can live for a long time under fingernails where there is dampness and nutrient. Corona virus also can live in body grease (sebum) that fingers apply to hand-rails and the backs of chairs. (It is this characteristic that fingerprinting technology relies upon.) When an uninfected person touches a hand rail or an handle, say in a train or bus, the virus makes its way to their hands. When a person goes to the toilet, they can infect themselves by transferring virus to the neck of the glans penis or the labia and entrance to the vagina and anus; all of which are also vulnerable to intrusion by other viruses such as Herpes, HPV and HIV; this latter group though, unlike the corona virus family, cannot survive long outside of body. That is why SARS has been suspected of being transmitted through communally linked septic systems. If in a public place, you should wash your hands thoroughly both before and after going to the toilet.Asepsis. Washing your hands regularly, especially under the fingernails, using a soft soap or detergent, is effective against the common cold and is therefore likely to be equally effective in reducing one’s risk of contracting COVID-19. Hand disinfectant washes are likely also to be effective; especially if the constituents are destructive to organic matter, as is, for example, bleach (sodium-hypochlorite). Washing hands before and after going to the toilet will assist in reducing the chances of infection. Never touching the inside of the nose, eyes or lips with hands that have not been washed just before doing that will also greatly reduce infection.Biased Susceptibility. Certain people appear to be more susceptible to this virus than others. Factors which may affect this are as follows:Aged Persons. As the graph shows above, aged people are far, far more likely to die from this disease than are the young and fit. Indeed, it is very rare for persons below the age of 20 to be severely stricken by this disease and many carry it without knowing they have it. The reason for this is not well known but it is believed it has something to do with the production of T cells. T cells are an essential element of the human immune system and persons over 60 years of age either have a paucity of T cell production or have stopped creating T cells altogether.Chronic Obesity (also called Metabolic Syndrome). Obesity is often an outward expression of underlying conditions such as hypertension and diabetes which are commonly a direct result of being overweight. Without doubt persons who are obese have a much, much greater chance of being severely affected by this disease. Even comparatively young people. If a person is over 70 and obese the chances of survival from this disease are not the best unless they are treated as soon as symptoms present. With proper therapeutics and the earliest possible treatment, it has been found that even this patient group have an excellent chance of survival.RNA makeup. Certain genetic groups are likely to be more susceptible to this virus than others. There is some evidence to suggest that a person’s RNA can affect their susceptibility to the common cold virus. In order for the virus to latch onto a human’s cells, it must find a suitable receptor on that person’s mucosal cells. People are therefore more likely to catch this virus from an infected relative than from an infected stranger. Hence, locking down families is most probably counter-productive and would explain why empirical data related to lock-downs indicates that it has little or even an adverse effect in terms of reducing the spread of this disease. If one member of that family has become infected from, for example, doing essential grocery shopping for the family, they will rapidly give it to the rest of the family whilst they are asymptomatic if living in close quarters. Statistics indicate that “social distancing”, open spaces, sunlight and fresh air is effective in slowing down the rate of spread of this disease through the community.Blood Type. People with the O blood group are more resistant to the Corona Virus just as they are to malaria though the two diseases are in no way related to each other.Vitamin D. There appears to be a strong and direct correlation between the susceptibility, and particularly the lethality, of this disease and low Vitamin D levels within a population. This may explain why dark skinned people, living in regions where there are low levels of sunlight, are more likely to be severely afflicted than light skinned people and people who work and live in brightly sunlit areas. This may be also contribute to why colds are usually a feature of winter, not summer. As people age, their Vitamin D levels drop significantly which may, in part, explain why old people are particularly badly affected by this disease.Propensity for Blood Clotting. Autopsies of COVID-19 patients have revealed some suffered from, and even possibly died from, pulmonary and similar thrombosis. There have also been reports of clots forming in other parts of the body as well. One of the symptoms of this disease is extreme tiredness and a wish to sleep. In doing so, it is possible that a person will be immobile for considerable periods of time and, especially in the case of mature or aged persons, this is a recipe for thrombosis generally. Aspirin may be useful as a therapeutic in preventing this and therefore improving survivability. There are some theories that Aspirin may be a helpful anti-viral but evidence suggests this effect is marginal if it exists at all. The following video may be helpful in providing more detailed information about this:Protection/Prophylaxis. I mentioned being spat at in the eyes. If you were to have two people in a dimly lit room profiled with sunlight coming through the window, you will see that as people speak normally fine mists of spittle come out of their mouths and head towards the people they are speaking to. Some of these droplets strike the person being spoken to in the eyes. Generally these droplets normally travel around 1 to 1.5 metres unless the person is shouting. Consonants are the main offender which means certain languages with lots of consonants may spread the virus more than others.I mentioned earlier that salivary amylase denatures the S Protein on the surface of the Corona virus and therefore reduces the chances of being infected by the spit of another person. Despite that, it is wise to wear glasses if you must talk to people in close quarters. Wearing a mask reduces this further but it brings with it far more disadvantages than advantages. I do not recommend the wearing of masks for long periods of time. If masks are worn they must be changed very regularly and should not be worn for extended periods of time because that exposes the user to a variety of bacterial infections and other adverse physiological and psychological effects.Another protective measure is to wear plastic gloves which you change regularly and do not, under any circumstances, touch your eyes, lips or inside your nose unless you have thoroughly antisepticised your hands.Wearing a Mask for Prolonged Periods in Public Spaces increases the Spread of the virus. It should be noted that wearing a mask for prolonged periods in public places most probably increases the spread of the virus rather than containing it. If you have the virus and are wearing a mask, the virus collects and concentrates in the moist tissue of the mask.When wearing a mask for any period of time, as you would have already experienced if you have done this, the face gets itchy and so does the nose, particularly the inside of the nose. So it is usual for wearers to pinch and rub the mask to gain relief.If you are infected, including asymptomatically, whenever you touch the mask, you are touching concentrated virus and when you then touch anything else you pass the virus to that object. If the object has sebum on it from frequent use (like hand rails, handles on trains or buses, backs of chairs, etc) the virus can survive for extended periods of time.Unless you antisepticise your hands everytime you touch your mask, (something that is simply impossible/impractical) you will spread the virus - better, in fact, than if you were not wearing a mask and simply kept your distance from others.If you are not infected and you are wearing a mask, the moist mask tissue is an excellent receptor of the virus you have lifted off an infected surface. When you rub or adjust your mask, you transfer the virus from your hands to your mask. You then touch your eyes or rub your mask and introduce the virus into cracked lips or a watery nose. You have now infected yourself. The mask you are wearing is effectively a mobile petri dish!Lastly, there exist bacteria in the mouth that are not good to breathe on a constant basis. This is particularly the case with certain bacteria that cause gum disease. Wearing a mask for long periods of times also changes the PH level in the mouth which, in turn, will give rise to unbalanced oral flora and fauna; both of which can have very serious effects on the use. Bacterial pneumonia will increase, particularly in aged people, if they are forced to wear masks for long periods of time.Why then do medical staff use PPE? The answer is that medical staff frequently change their masks and wear disposable gloves; also changed regularly. They also wear glasses when there is a chance of infected spray getting into their eyes. The surfaces they encounter are assiduously, regularly antisepticised. This is not possible in public spaces like shopping malls and & public transport, etc. The masks, gowns, gloves and glasses/googles actually are most effective in preventing macro-biological foreign items from infecting a patients wounds rather than protecting them against a virus.When professional people are guarding against a virus, they always wear a Hazmat Suit which gives them full protection and has filtered or self-contained air supply.Summary on the Prudence of Wearing a Mask. So the effectiveness of a mask is mixed. It is not straight forward. This is frequently the case in real life. Many things that are seeming self evident in fact are often not when subjected to more rigorous scrutiny.How does it kill?I mentioned earlier that COVID-19 is most lethal to mature and elderly people. I also mentioned that pulmonary thrombosis has been found in some autopsies so this may be one of a number of ways by which this disease kills its host. COVID-19 appears to attack the lungs and, in some cases, the victim’s immune response is so severe that it fills the lungs with fluid and the immune system attacks the surface of the alveoli of the lungs; the little pores in the lungs that are responsible for absorbing oxygen and exuding carbon dioxide. Largescale congestion is a ripe place for anaerobic bacteria which are deadly to people so the victim has double danger; drowning from pneumonia and dying from a severe infection. Pneumonia results in long-term damage to the lungs. In young people, the damage will repair itself over a period of up to 15 years if that person leads a healthy lifestyle with frequent vigorous exercise. Older people are likely not to be so lucky and will suffer impaired lung function for the rest of their lives. This needn’t be fatal however and may even be avoidable with the early administration of effective therapeutics.Vitamin D deficiency. There appears to be a close correlation between Vitamin D deficiency and the lethality of this disease.Thrombosis. In addition to the possible pathology of the disease, persons can be immobilised for extended periods of time and when that happens thrombosis becomes as problem. This can occur anywhere, including in the lungs, heart and brain. Low dose Aspirin is known to reduce the chances of blood clotting and hence thrombosis. It is therefore recommended that low dose Aspirin should be a part of the therapeutic regime unless there are contraindications that would suggest this would be unwise, eg, allergy or the sufferer is already taking an anti-coagulant.How to treat it?Vaccine. When putting one’s hopes on a vaccine, it must be remembered that this disease is closely related to the virus that causes the common cold. Medical science has been trying unsuccessfully for over 70 years to create an effective vaccine for the common cold so the probability of it being successful in producing an effective, safe, enduring vaccine for COVID-19 is not good. There appear to be two reasons for this. The first is that the virus rapidly mutates from season to season. The next is that antibodies created from exposure to the disease are not found to be enduring. (There are now cases where people, who have had the disease, have again become reinfected.) There is some argument about this in that the body has a number of ways of fighting a viral infection. Antibodies may not be as important as first thought. Lastly, this disease has drawn a great deal of interest and there is a great deal of money to be made for the firm that discovers a successful vaccine. This incentive will increase the chances of a vaccine being developed but it also increases the chances of charlatanism.Therapeutics.Aspirin. The possible beneficial effects of Aspirin have been touched upon above. It may be helpful in reducing the chances of thrombosis. It may also make the body less receptive to a virus but this is, in my opinion, not well established and the mechanism by which it might do this is definitely not well understood.Hydroxychloroquine(HCQ). This therapeutic came to prominence because of the work done by a French Medical Specialist, Dr Didier Raoult. He found that patients taking Hydroxychloroquine in combination with Azithromycin appeared to improve a patient’s chances and also reduced the time the patient actually carried traces of the virus. Later, it was reported that giving the patient Zinc Sulphate further improved the efficacy of this treatment. There has been much controversy about this treatment and bogus trials performed which made it difficult to determine what was factual and what was not. A trial by the US Veteran’s Affairs Hospital reported scathingly on the efficacy of HCQ but, upon investigation, it was found that this trial was botched in a number of ways that suggested a level of prejudice or incompetence by those carrying out the trial. Many doctors have reported favourably about the treatment and finally, results from John’s Hopkins reported that this therapeutic regime had a significant beneficial effect. After that, Professor Harvey Risch, a professor in epidemiology at Yale University, came out strongly in favour of this treatment. (See: Yale epidemiologist says hydroxychloroquine is 'the key to defeating COVID-19')Even now, if you Google the subject, you will find much adverse information on this subject, much of which appears to be driven by prejudice and Google’s search algorithms. One of the keys to treating this disease, short of a vaccine, is to, in the case of very severe illness, dull the immune response because it is the patient’s own immune response that is the real danger once the patient descends into what is referred to as a cytokine storm. Hydroxychloroquine(HCQ) has that effect. But HCQ also is believed to have an effect on the ability for the virus’s S protein to connect with the ACE2 receptor on the human cell. Ivermectin is also through to have a similar effect and, interestingly, both HCQ and Ivermectin are used to treat parasitic infestations. See Cheap head lice drug ‘answer to COVID crisis’, Sydney doctor claims (You will note in this article that Professor Thomas Borody suggests Ivermectin be taken in combination with Doxycycline and Zinc Sulphate. Doxycycline, like Azithromycin, is a member of the Macrolide Class of antibiotics.) HCQ is usually used as a prophylactic against Malaria and for the treatment of Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis but it appears to be effective in raising the chances of survival for people who are stricken with a severe immune response associated with infection by COVID-19. Results from taking small, regular doses of HCQ are usually evident within 12 hours of ingestion. If one adds to this an antibiotic that is effective against respiratory infection, such as Azithromycin, Doxycycline or Bactrim, you are hedging your bets in attacking any anaerobic bacterial infection that may have resulted as a consequence of severe congestion. There is also evidence suggesting that these antibiotics, which belong to the Macrolide Class, have some effect on viral replication. It may be that other immune suppressant drugs are also effective against COVID-19 but HCQ and, especially Ivermectin, is most probably the safest at the moment because its long use for the treatment of other ailments provides clinicians high confidence it will not harm most patients. Likewise, antibiotics tend to be infection specific. A sample of the sputum can be analysed to determine which antibiotic would be best suited for the potential infection the patient is facing. Antibiotics can take up to 3 days to be fully effective.Early application of Therapeutics. Initially not much emphasis was given to treating people early in this disease with HCQ because it was wrongly believed its main benefit came from immuno-suppression and thereby avoiding a cytokine storm. It has since been found that the earlier a patient is placed on HCQ plus AZM (or Ivermectin and Doxycycline) plus Zinc Sulphate plus Vitamin D plus an anticoagulant like low dose aspirin, the better are their chances of a speedy and complete recovery with no long lasting ill effects. Indeed, some studies are showing almost 100% recovery if patients, even those in the vulnerable category, are placed on this therapeutic regime as soon as they present with COVID-19 symptoms, that is, treatment starts even before a test comes back positive. Early treatment is key to avoiding the serious complications this disease can inflict even on seemingly fit people. The worst thing a doctor can do is send a patient home to “recover on their own”. Administering therapeutics at the earliest possible instant a person presents with COVID-like symptoms is strongly recommended.MasksI have dealt with the efficacy or otherwise of wearing masks above. Masks worn by the general public do not appear to reduce the spread of the virus. The following graphs provided by courtesy of Mr Tony Heller (someone whose research and opinions I respect) are instructive in terms of empirical data related to the ineffectiveness of masks.The following makes for interesting reading:Sweden's coronavirus expert warns wearing masks is 'very dangerous'What is the best Government Policy?It is my firmest conviction that we should let the young and fit be infected like Sweden and shelter the vulnerable. Even with the young and the fit some of the therapeuticals mentioned above should be administered to guard against any lingering complications. There is very little chance this virus can be eradicated. Ironically, it could be that wearing masks is actually assisting with this objective of spreading the virus amongst the general, mobile, fit population whilst those in age care facilities are kept safe.Here is a graph of Sweden’s death rate:It should also be noted there has been much misinformation spread about this disease in the interests of sensationalism or to serve other agendas. Here is an example of how deaths from (rather than with) COVID-19 have been exaggerated:All other countries that chose a different approach to Sweden may have only put off the inevitable and completely ruined their economies for many, many years in the future. It is possible some economies will never recover and that may be the intent of some who are pushing lock-downs and other measures that do damage to a country’s economic health.As at the time of writing this amendment, the absolute death rate in Sweden for 2020 has actually been less than that of a number of previous years. Flu and Colds as the cause of death of the elderly have almost been totally replaced by COVID-19. In other words, it would appear that the world’s response to this virus has been out of all proportion to its seriousness.I strongly recommend readers look at the following by Ivor Cummings, someone for whom I have a great deal of respect:I hope the above has been helpful and interesting and adds to this discussion.