Grand Junction Barnes and Noble Book Signing - a wonderful success!

My wife, Sally, and I had a wonderful time at my book signing at Barnes and Noble in Grand Junction last Saturday, July 24. Grand Junction is a great town - so close to Grand Mesa and Colorado National Monument. A walk up Dinosaur Hill near our hotel in Fruita topped off our trip.

I must admit that the current national “paralysis of ambivalence” regarding masks and vaccines is unprecedented in my professional lifetime. Vaccination is very important and, as a physician, I support it whole-heartedly - BUT the Public Health ROT (Reign of Terror) that accompanies what should be appropriate vaccination education and recommendations is a hideous overreach and an affront to our existence as a Nation. Our societal division on these matters is real and is entirely justified. Politicians have invaded our lives to such an extent that they must be resisted and toppled at the next elections, just 15 months away.

For the record, the term “mask” as it is used today by so many so-called “experts” is akin to the word “medicine” when trying to describe a remedy to a supposedly specific medical problem. A “medicine” is not a “medicine” is not a “medicine.” Some work and some do not - depending upon what they are and how and for what they are being used.

Most “masks” currently utilized by ordinary persons and especially children are nearly completely useless, either in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV2 (the agent of COVID-19) or in protecting oneself from the disease. The porosity (size of the holes) in the innumerable fabrics used as “masks” is so variable and so large that the virus, even if encapsulated in large sized oral secretions (greater than about 50 micrometers or microns) passes through and around the fabric like a golf ball going through a large picture window. Yes, some masks, do work, if they are the correct type of masks (e.g. N95 and similar ones) and are properly fitted and maintained.

If the purveyors of the Public Health ROT want Americans to “mask-up” then provide them with uniform and effective devices to stop the spread of disease. Short of the preceding, I do not approve medically of the “something is better than nothing” approach to controlling viral spread. This statement, especially applies to “mask mandates” for very young children. The adverse psychological impact on youngsters is a topic for which there appears to be little or no research. Certainly, the CDC does not appear to be studying this problem - on a recent national TV interview, the Director dodged a direct question on this matter. She is very good at bureaucratic “tap-dancing” and is even better at sanctimoniously claiming to apply her medical expertise to draconian “solutions” that a adversely affect millions of children, parents and teachers.

Bluntly speaking, our current, insane Public Health trajectory is more akin to trying to destroy the virus entirely instead of learning to live with it in the same manner that we have lived with others in the past. Eradication of a Corona Virus like SARS-COV2 will not happen. It is related to the “common cold,” and humankind has been trying unsuccessfully to get rid of this pest since the dawn of civilization. It reminds me of the fool who has a dog with fleas and decides to take baseball bat to the poor dog in an effort to kill ALL of the fleas. Well, folks, our society is that dog and the purveyors of the Public Health ROT are swinging away. We must learn to duck and swing back. Period.