If I Was Leader of a Nation, My Covid Response

I understand they make many decisions on the fly in public office. They have to decide prior to having a good idea of the full extent of the problem. In this information age, we have so much information coming at us continually. A real skill is discernment. Discerning what works and what doesn’t. What is legitimate and what isn’t, what is valid and what isn’t.

It is an arduous task trying to sort the information that is useful from the disinformation, and we also have the influence of corporate interests who hold sway over what journals publish.

Then we have the public, who demand action. The question is always what action to take. What will work and what won’t. The wrong decisions can lead to major health disasters. Leadership in a democracy is about making the decisions that have the most positive outcomes for the most people on any issue. Public health policies and decisions always affect elections.

Now that we know much more about the virus and are slowly learning to live with it. And I have the luxury of retrospect. I would have responded differently to all governments worldwide, to date.

Early on, the virus showed lethality amongst the elderly and the immune compromised. I would have isolated these people to protect them. That would be priority number one.

Social distancing and hand washing too is crucial. So I would encourage that strongly.

I would then encourage the rest of the population to dose up on zinc and vitamin D. I would recommend the dosages of both supplements to ensure they are effective. We know these supplements work on viruses and that was what we were dealing with. I would rapidly secure Ivermectin and supply it to the population in correct doses.

I would not close schools, but would inform people that children of school going age should stay away from their grandparents until we figured out more about the virus.

I would encourage people with any symptoms to stay away from work and get tested and to remain home until they received the test results. If the person had the virus, they would isolate for 14 days and get retested. Once they were clear, they could return to work.

I would insist that the media report facts at a more granular level, that means with greater detail. I would insist that the media report deaths and not cases and also the age and health condition of the person who deceased, so that we control the fear that people may feel and for better understanding of the action of the virus.

I know that when people's lives are at stake, the pressure mounts on governments and elected officials. I think without the continual media cycle of fear mongering about case numbers, the pandemic would have had less impact on economies.

When the vaccines were ready, I would not mandate them, but strongly encourage people to get them, particularly those over 70 years of age.

It is easy to sit here and write from the outside, not having any responsibility, but I wonder if the above were to be implemented what the state of that nation regarding the pandemic would be like?

I could imagine that being in public office must be one of the most challenging jobs, particularly during a pandemic, so I do not want to detract from what they have done around the world.

I was just amazed to see that they did not take certain actions to strengthen people’s immunity based on what we know works against viruses. Zinc and vitamin D have studies showing their efficacy against viruses and particularly corona viruses.

I quote from a study on zinc.

“Zinc supplementation improves the mucociliary clearance, strengthens the integrity of the epithelium, decreases viral replication, preserves antiviral immunity, attenuates the risk of hyper-inflammation, supports anti-oxidative effects and thus reduces lung damage and minimized secondary infections. Especially older subjects, patients with chronic diseases and most of the remaining COVID-19 risk groups would most likely benefit.”

There are many studies on vitamin D and its immune system boosting actions and the effect it has against viruses. I quote from a study on vitamin D, the results and conclusions.

“Results

Based on CDC criteria, among our study patients, 74% had severe COVID-19 infection and 32.8% were vitamin D sufficient. After adjusting for confounding factors, there was a significant association between vitamin D sufficiency and reduction in clinical severity, inpatient mortality serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and an increase in lymphocyte percentage. Only 9.7% of patients older than 40 years who were vitamin D sufficient succumbed to the infection compared to 20% who had a circulating level of 25(OH)D< 30 ng/ml. The significant reduction in serum CRP, an inflammatory marker, along with increased lymphocytes percentage suggest that vitamin D sufficiency also may help modulate the immune response, possibly by reducing risk for cytokine storm in response to this viral infection.

Conclusion

Therefore, it is recommended that improving vitamin D status in the general population and in particular hospitalized patients has a potential benefit in reducing the severity of morbidities and mortality associated with acquiring COVID-19.”

There was also early evidence that showed Ivermectin in combination with the above supplements seemed to work.

Here are the conclusions of a metanalysis of Ivermectin on Covid.

“Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.”

I wish we had some time machine that we could back in and do what I suggest above to a nation that we know what the outcome is. Evaluate the response I have suggested above versus their actual response and then decide.

I know this is all speculation and pie in the sky stuff, but I wonder if they implemented the above measures, in the time before the vaccine roll out, if we would have seen any difference in the death toll, I have a feeling we would have.

I think without the media hype 24/7 and the sensationalist headlines, the decrease in panic would definitely have helped. Panic never helps in any crisis, because panic stops clear thought.

Prior to vaccine roll outs if governments worldwide had used the protocol above, namely zinc and vitamin D supplementation with Ivermectin. I wonder what the death rate would be, when compared to what it is now ?

Sources for the above quotes:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01712/full

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239799

https://journals.lww.com/americantherapeutics/fulltext/2021/08000/ivermectin_for_prevention_and_treatment_of.7.aspx