Hydroxy is back!

Hydroxychloroquine is making a comeback. The most politically maligned drug in history is finally being recognized for the miracle that it is. You know the story. President Trump mentioned the potential benefits of the drug, and the left-wing media set about to destroy it. You see, it’s rather simple yet sad. The leftists in the media can’t have a happy ending to the coronavirus pandemic as long as Donald Trump is in office. So, a drug that’s been around for 70 years was maliciously portrayed in the media as dangerous. Even the usually level-headed Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Channel was sucked in, declaring hysterically, “This will kill you.”

Cavuto and others were bamboozled by a report on a supposed study by the VA that turned out to be an observational study rather than a clinical study. That means someone took data and analyzed it rather than conducting a study themselves. That someone was Scott Sutton who was paid to do the study by Gilead Sciences. That name sound familiar? That’s the maker of Remdesivir, a rival drug that costs thousands of dollars, while hydroxychloroquine costs just pennies. Mr. Sutton cherry picked patients who were in the last stages of life, most dying of something other than COVID.

Still, the FDA reversed its emergency use order for hydroxy. Countries that had been having great success with the drug, like Switzerland, pulled the drug under pressure and their death rates spiked.

Dr. Harvey Risch had had enough. Risch is a medical doctor with a PhD and is a professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. He’s published over 300 peer-reviewed publications. His credentials are beyond reproach, even for the activist media. He wrote an editorial for Newsweek in which he was livid over the demonization of hydroxy. He cited study after study in which the drug had been used in hospitals around the world with amazing results. He lamented that some heroic doctors continue to save lives with hydroxy and are fighting medical boards to save their licenses. “As a result,” he writes, “tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily.” Think of that. Tens of thousands of people are dying just so Trump doesn’t get re-elected.

A few days after Dr. Risch’s scathing editorial, a group of doctors calling themselves America’s Frontline Doctors held a press conference in Washington echoing Dr. Risch’s editorial. Dr. Stella Immanuel, a primary care physician in Houston, told of how she had treated over 350 patients with COVID, some with diabetes, some with high blood pressure, some with asthma. She had also treated numerous elderly patients. The combination of hydroxy with Zithromax and zinc had given her remarkable results. “After taking care of over 350 patients,” she said, “we’ve not lost one.”

In an unprecedented move, Big Pharma has pressured many pharmacists into not filling prescriptions for hydroxy. This despite the doctor’s expertise and judgement. Some pharmacists claim to know more than the doctors. It truly is shockingly amazing.

Meanwhile, Moderna and others are in the final stages of vaccine trials. I have no problem with a vaccine, but if there’s something already out there that keeps COVID patients from dying why aren’t we using it? Because President Trump recommended it, and if it does work—which it certainly appears to do—then this whole nightmare is over. The economy is instantly reopened. We go back to normal at the snap of a finger. That’s the worst nightmare of the liberals and the left-wing media. And they’re willing to kill to keep it from happening.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.

Follow the REAL science on COVID

Do a search for “masks” and "CO2 poisoning” and you get all sorts of results saying that it's all a conspiracy theory. The truth, however, is much more nuanced.

Let me say up front that if you're a healthcare worker or someone coming into contact with someone susceptible to the adverse effects of COVID-19, a mask is essential. No, it does not completely block everything, but it certainly does block a heckuva lot of unwanted things. The main problem with the masks is a false sense of security.

But back to the CO2 toxicity. A study was done on healthcare workers during the SARS outbreak in 2003. It found that 37 percent of them developed headaches from wearing a mask for prolonged periods. This is something I've known for years intuitively from bush hogging on my tractor. If I don't stop every couple of hours and take off my N95 mask I get dizzy, sometimes very tired, sometimes even disoriented.

To label CO2 toxicity as a total conspiracy theory is to ignore the facts. Are you going to get it from grocery shopping with a mask on? Probably not, but there have been several cases of people passing out in cars while wearing masks and causing accidents. Why you would wear your mask in the car is beyond me.

My whole mask issue has never been an aversion to the masks themselves. It's an aversion to blanket edicts that come down from people with no constitutional authority to issue them. What we do know about this virus is you have to be exposed to it for several minutes (the experts say at least 10) before you can catch it. It is virtually impossible to catch it going to the grocery store. You're not going to catch it walking through any store. Now, if you're in the vulnerable category then I can understand why you'd wear a mask, but the experts also say the mask isn't going to keep you from getting it, but it might keep you from spreading it if you have it.

If you cannot social distance then a mask makes sense. I was at a funeral recently and everyone wore masks. That makes good scientific sense. However, forcing everyone to wear a mask whenever they're in public may cause people to assume the mask is going to save them. I know from personal experience that when I don't wear a mask in a grocery store I'm much more aware of keeping my distance. When I wear one I don't even think about it.

Here's what the current science tells us. A mask will not keep you from getting COVID, but it may keep you from spreading it if you have it. It also tells us that you're not going to get it through casual contact at a grocery store. That's why decisions on masks should be left to the individual stores and not the government. Wearing a mask everywhere is senseless. Wearing a mask when you're in close contact with others for a prolonged time is smart. We have the info. Let us make our own decisions like big boys and girls. 

The frustrating thing is the overwhelming link between Vitamin D deficiency and severe cases of COVID. There’s ample evidence that proper levels of Vitamin D in your system may help you avoid what’s called a cytokine storm. This is when your immune system overreacts and starts attacking your own cells and tissues. This is what kills many people with COVID-19.

The science to surviving coronavirus is there. Unfortunately, it’s not being widely disseminated. 

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.

Everything is racist if you're a liberal

Apparently sleep depravation is racist. There’s actually something out there called Black Power Naps. They told Teen Vogue that “they were specifically experiencing a generational fatigue familiar to black people and people of color.” They say, “we inherited this exhaustion.” Now, I know you think I’m making this up, but I’m not. Exhaustion is apparently the product of slavery.

Congress is getting set to hold hearings on reparations and the historical ramifications of slavery on black Americans. Does it not strike you as strange that we haven’t had legalized slavery in this country for 155 years, but somehow slavery is responsible for anything and everything negative in the black community? Even sleep depravation and exhaustion. 

Enough with the excuses!

We can have hearings until the cows come home. You can even have reparations, which I wouldn’t recommend. Once the recipients have gone through that money we’re right back where we started. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s true. The single largest roadblock to the American dream is government dependence. That goes for any race or ethnic group. It just so happens that it disproportionately affects the black community.

I know it’s easy for a white man of privilege to say, but making excuses helps no one. We’ve been making excuses for decades, and the results are more and more black citizens get trapped in welfare. Not that long ago, it was just a sad statistic that a disproportionate number of black citizens were on welfare. Now the sad stat is a majority of welfare recipients are black. That should alarm us all.

The solution is not reparations. The solution is not defunding the police. The solution is a healthy economy and getting every able-bodied American off the government dole. It’s long been said that Democrats gauge their success by how many people they get on welfare, and Republicans judge their success by how many people they get off of welfare. 

It seems if you’re not all about a new government welfare program you’re somehow a racist. Ask Nancy Pelosi how many of her children or grandchildren are on welfare. I can tell you for myself I would be embarrassed if one of my kids was on welfare. Whatever happened to shame? I guess shame is racist.

But isn’t that what we’re lacking these days? I’m not saying we shouldn’t help people who can’t help themselves, but it should be a humbling experience for the recipient. Especially if you’re able to work. If you ever saw Cinderella Man, that was the most powerful scene in the movie. Boxing champ James J. Braddock stood in the welfare line for hours only to get to the window and give the money back. Think that happens today?

We need more Braddocks in the world. We need more people who reluctantly take government handouts. We need more people who are humbled by the experience, instead of feeling entitled. Dependence is a bad thing, no matter who or what you’re dependent on. Trying to get someone else to pay for your bad decisions is never a workable solution. Personal responsibility is at the heart of solving most of society’s problems. But if you insist on holding someone responsible why would it be a government that fought to end slavery?

The head of the Frederick Douglass Foundation recently had a stroke of genius. On the issue of reparations he suggested whoever was responsible for slavery, the Civil War, the KKK, and Jim Crow laws should be sued for reparations. Who would that be? The Democrat Party. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a check.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.

Masking the real COVID problem

It’s like the plague is closing in all around me, and I’m not talking about the coronavirus. I’m talking about power-hungry politicians and their ridiculous regulations.

So, I was in Lowe’s recently getting some materials for a project on my boat when I began to look for a place to check out. An Asian gentleman standing in one of the checkout lines said something to me, but I couldn’t understand it through his mask. I leaned in closer. “You are my hero,” he said. I swelled with pride. I figured he was a radio listener who recognized me. “Thank you,” I said. Then he motioned me back closer. “You are defying the mask order. It is so stupid.” I suddenly got it. I thanked him again and looked around. I was the only one in the store not wearing a mask. Then I realized something else. I was no longer in my sane county where wearing a mask is optional. I was in Nashville, where wearing a mask is mandatory. And my unwitting defiance had inspired someone.

Flash forward a few days. The mask mandate had followed me home. The mayor of Williamson County, Rogers Anderson, announced a county-wide mask mandate. 

Now, I don’t want to be misunderstood on this mask thing. I have no problem if you want to wear a mask. Personally, I don’t see how it does much good. Scientifically, I know it won’t keep you from getting coronavirus. It may keep someone from spreading it, but if you’re sick you have no business in public anyway. The problem I have is not with the masks but with the mandates.

The science is certainly not settled on coronavirus. This situation is still fluid. Anyone who tells you to “follow the science” doesn’t know what they’re talking about. What I prefer to do is follow common sense. Moreover, I prefer to follow the Constitution.

If I come into contact with someone with coronavirus then I have a personal obligation to stay away from other people for two weeks. That’s called personal responsibility. Instead, government officials, like they’re doing in my county, are taking advantage of the panic to exercise power they don’t have. My county has a population of over 200,000 people. You know how many people have died outside of nursing homes in my county? Less than ten. So, we’re going to tell nearly a quarter of a million people to wear a mask everywhere they go because fewer than a dozen people have died? I don’t think so.

Which brings me to my new hero, Andy Ogles. Andy is the mayor of neighboring Maury County. He boldly announced that he “took an oath to defend our constitution” and said he “intended to do so.” With that he announced “there will be no mask mandate in Maury County.” That’s called leadership. He urged social distancing and supported a business’s right to require you to wear a mask, but he understands the limits of his power. He also understands what freedom really means.

We have a long national discussion ahead of us, because the next issue that’ll be pushed by the mask mandators is the vaccine. Alan Dershowitz says the state has the right to force you to get vaccinated. He says you don’t have the right to infect someone else. Think about that for a moment. If I decide not to get vaccinated, the only people I may be putting at risk are people who have made the same decision.

Freedom isn’t that complicated. Either we have it or we don’t. For many, we don’t.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.

Why are we sacrificing the elderly to COVID?

There will be a lot of history written about the pandemic of 2020. Tough decisions were made on the fly. Some seemed prudent at the time, others appeared foolhardy. One that we will surely come to regret is sacrificing a generation of elderly unnecessarily to a plague we knew from the very start was coming for them.

It seems like a lifetime ago when we were watching the coronavirus from the comfort of our own country in some far-flung place called Wuhan, China. Many of us were advocating keeping it in China and not allowing it to spread to our shores. President Trump made that decision in late January, but it was already too late. What we did after it got here is unconscionable.

When the virus hit our shores in Seattle in mid-January via a traveler from Wuhan it went directly to the most vulnerable in the area. Within just a month the virus had infected a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. A month later, 34 residents of that nursing home were dead.

Scientists have argued over many things during the course of this pandemic. First we were told not to wear masks, then they were mandated by some local and state governments. We were told you could catch the virus by touching a surface, then we were told that was virtually impossible. There has been, however, one constant. It has never changed since we first learned of this virus. The average age of death is 80. That gave us a distinct advantage over this disease that we haven’t had over most other plagues, including the Spanish Flu, where the average age of death was 28. We had one job, and that was to keep the elderly and the ill away from this disease. Not only did we fail, but we failed miserably. Some would argue it looks almost intentional.

Governor Andrew Cuomo was lambasted for his policy of placing COVID-positive patients back in nursing homes. News reports calculated the carnage at a quarter of all coronavirus deaths in New York. Similar horror stories began popping up in places like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. What’s inexplicable is the total blackout of news coverage of the same thing happening in Tennessee, where there’s a Republican governor. The only difference is instead of a quarter of the COVID deaths coming from nursing homes, over a third of the deaths in Tennessee are from nursing homes. And the reason why is the very same reason other states have seen such a high rate of elderly deaths. In Tennessee, COVID-positive patients are routinely kept in nursing homes.

This points to a complete lack of leadership. The one sure fact we’ve known throughout all of this is that nursing homes are the deadliest places for the coronavirus. A plan should’ve been implemented in March to immediately remove COVID-positive patients from nursing homes. Instead of taking the time and effort to develop such a plan, Governor Lee defaulted to having the patients ride it out in isolation at the same nursing facility. But there’s really no such thing as isolation at a nursing home. 

For all we know the disease could be traveling through the air duct system much like Legionnaires disease. The symptoms of COVID and Legionnaires are very similar. Cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle pains, possible nausea and vomiting. Legionnaires doesn’t typically spread between people. It’s spread by breathing a mist that contains the bacteria.

Given that 50,000 of the to-date total of 130,000 deaths are from nursing homes, maybe it’s time we started paying attention.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.