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Stress, Face Masks & Lockdowns
Negatively Affect Human Health
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, May 20, 2020
Governments and their accomplices in the mainstream news media the world over have, with perhaps the best of intentions, adversely affected the health and lives of billions of people with the recent COVID-19 coronavirus scare.
With incessant death predictions and the use of failed, error-filled computer models predicting millions of people dead by now, the stress levels of the average person has elevated way beyond the norm. Couple that with the stress of financial insecurity and uncertainty due to a forced shut-down of the entire economic system on a whim, already elevated stress levels have peaked off the scale in many people.
This irresponsible behavior by government officials and the mainstream news media has undoubtedly caused much more harm than good, since prolonged stress has been found to damage the immune system in nearly all people.
One of the largest culprits in reducing the immune system in humans is that which is being directly imposed upon them by government and the media during this ongoing coronavirus scare: Stress. While the media is obviously hyping the virus for ratings and increased clicks on their websites, government leaders are stepping all over themselves attempting to appear to be “doing something” to protect the public. The more they try to help, the worse-off people find themselves. Author, Bill Bonner coined the term, “Hormegeddon” to describe this reflexive government action and describes many such examples in his book, Hormegeddon: How Too Much of a Good Thing Leads to Disaster (Lioncrest Publishing, 2014). Bonner points out nearly a quarter of a million people die from medical accidents per year. “That’s up to 225,000 unintended deaths, each year. Statistically, you’re 2,000 times more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a terrorist,” he wrote. “Why so many casualties? Because the human body is a complex, natural thing. It was shaped by millions of years of trial and error, mutation, adaptation, and genetic selection. Like a society or an economy, it is more likely to be damaged by heavy-handed intervention than improved by it.” (Hormegeddon, p. 195)
The primary effect of the incessant media hype of coronavirus and the subsequent draconian actions by government is chronic, long-term stress of the masses. This type of stress is as much a pandemic as COVID-19 and can be just as devastating to the health of its victims.
According to the college textbook, Biological Psychology, 6th edition when the body undergoes severe, long term stress the hormone Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH) is secreted by the pituitary gland which in turn stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol, which elevates blood sugar and enhances metabolism. The book then states, “As cortisol and other hormones direct energy toward increasing blood sugar and metabolism, they shift it away from synthesis of proteins, including the proteins necessary for the immune system. In the short term, that shift may not be a problem; however, stress that continues for weeks or months may weaken the immune system and leave the individual vulnerable to a variety of illnesses. In short, brief stress does not pose a threat to health, but prolonged stress does.” (see Biological Psychology 6th ed., James W. Kalat, ©1998 Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., p. 328)
The immune system also releases chemicals called cytokines that cross the blood-brain barrier and influence neuronal function. That is, the nervous system and immune system influence each other. The study of this relationship is called psychoneuroimmunology. (op cit. pp. 329-30)
In a report by Dr. Gérard V. Sunnen, M.D on psychosomatic illnesses posted on triroc.com Dr. Sunnen noted, “Even the common flu, for example, is well known to be more virulent if the patient is depressed or stressed.”
(ref.: www.triroc.com/sunnen/topics/psychosomatic.htm )
The next element in the government’s assault on human health is the mandate for everyone to wear face masks to “slow the spread” of Covid-19.
Face masks do cause increased stress as well, due to the restriction of oxygen intake that they cause, as well as the uncomfortable nature of the devices. Many people who wear eyeglasses suffer from their glasses fogging up when using face masks for prolonged periods of time and are thus unable to see clearly to do their job safely or efficiently. This has become a major problem as businesses open to the public scramble to obey every misguided government edict that comes down the pike in order to remain in business without suffering fines or other penalties.
But increased stress, reduced oxygen intake and fogged up glasses aren’t the only problems posed by forcing face masks on a public not accustomed to using them. The masks themselves, many of which are the “single use” disposable type, are being reused over and over again by people not trained on their proper use - just to go along with government edicts and otherwise fit into the crowd.
In a March 15, 2020 story posted on news-medical.net, Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo noted that Dr. Jenny Harries, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer warned that it was not a good idea for the public to wear facemasks as the virus can get trapped in the material and cause infection when the wearer breathes in. Dr. Harries said the public should not wear facemasks unless they are sick, and if a healthcare worker advised them. “For the average member of the public walking down the street, it is not a good idea,” said Dr. Harries. “What tends to happen is people will have one mask. They won’t wear it all the time, they will take it off when they get home, they will put it down on a surface they haven’t cleaned.” She further added that behavioral issues could adversely put people at greater risk of getting the infection.
“Masks are recommended for those showing symptoms of a disease, if they are sick, or they have tested positive for COVID-19 since these are designed to prevent the virus from coming out,” writes Ms. Laguipo. “The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people should only wear a face mask or surgical mask if they are taking care of a person with suspected COVID-19 and if they are sick themselves.” She further notes, “The Center for Health Protection issued a statement saying that a face mask provides a physical barrier to fluids and large-particle droplets. It added that when used properly, these masks prevent infections transmitted by respiratory droplets. However, it should only be used when people have a respiratory infection, when taking care of an infected patient, or when visiting clinics or hospitals during a pandemic or the peak season of flu.”
Furthermore, sheltering in place, constant sanitizing of everything and ubiquitous use of face masks shield the body’s immune system from microbes in the outside world that it needs to see and react to in order to create the necessary anti-bodies to fight off disease.
In government’s endless quest to “legislate the risk out of living,” and the mainstream media’s endless quest for increased ratings and viewers, “Hormegeddon” is once again wreaking its well-intentioned negative impact on human society, in the form of mandatory lockdowns of nearly all business and social activity in society. In the U.S. alone, nearly 30 million people were thrown out of work on a government whim to “stop the spread” of a virus that is currently trending to be no worse than a really bad seasonal flu outbreak. But, do those lockdowns really work?
Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi, co-owners of Accelerated Universal Care in Bakersfield California gave a press conference (which is continuously being banned by YouTube) which discussed the Case Fatality Rate of COVID-19 as being essentially the same as seasonal flu, and whether or not lockdowns of society actually work.
“When we look at people that have locked down and people that haven’t locked down - we have massive data - it is not statistically significant whether you lock down, or not,” said Dr. Erickson. “When I look at the basic tenets of microbiology, do we still need to shelter in place? Our answer is emphatically, No...The secondary effects, the child abuse, alcoholism, loss of revenue, all of these are in our opinion a significantly more detrimental thing to society than a virus that is proven similar in nature to the seasonal flu we have every year.”