In this time of La pestilencia 2020, Americans are awash in opinion as to whence the germ came and to whence it will go.

I was sent the following video, purporting as do so many others to have the “real answer.”

Comme ca:

 

As I am not a medical man, I sought out the assessment of Pribut, who is a medical man.

That said, I sent this video to Pribut, MD for his, always sage, observation.

Pribut has these things to say about the other medical man who are in the video:

Comme Ca:

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My friend John Begg asked me to comment on this. So here goes.

I know you are looking for science and have paid significant attention to Fauci and Birx.

Begg so – the doctors have done what they call a study…A “study” but it is not published anywhere. It isn’t even published in the relatively open medical preprint server which does a fairly light peer review (afaik). Studies need peer review for statistics, logic, supporting evidence and conclusions. Studies don’t begin and end with a press conference.

There is an agenda here. These “ER Physicians” are owners of a multi-location urgent care facility. They are hurting financially as patients are scared to seek medical care for things that they should. They are correct that people should be seen for what they normally are seen for. However now I understand what puzzled me the other day which is when they said they were going to give an emergency physician and an entrepreneurial perspective.

So there is a financial angle here. The second is a “distrusting the government”, political agenda. They say they don’t like to hear that hospitals are checking their employees for temperature and symptoms before they enter for work because “that is control”.

They concluded that the government wants to control you. The hospital is complicit with the government and wants to use CoVid19 as a cause of death for reasons they don’t want to guess. I’ll guess they believe it will help them get more money.

In part 2 they go on to ramble about rights being taken away, gun stores being out of ammo because it was bought up by angry people and FB postings suggesting that AKs should be the answer.

So it’s about money, resistance to the government Trump led or not, conspiracy theory and incomplete and poorly analyzed data with conclusions not supported by the data but conjectured.

They also badmouthed Fauci by saying he hasn’t seen a patient in about 30 years (or whatever).

So we have a bit of incomplete data that became a press conference, conspiracy theory and anti-government rhetoric winning out over science and reasoned opinion. They begrudged anyone getting a “paycheck” and having an opinion who isn’t in the ER. Specifically calling out Fauci who has researched other viral diseases and is one of our best experts.

I trust ER doctors to stop the bleeding. Patch up knife wounds, gun shots, drug overdoses. They should also be experts in rapid diagnosis of serious disorders such as stroke, heart attacks, diabetic complications, acute respiratory distress syndrome.

They are not, unless they have a special interest, experts in statistics, epidemiology, epidemic and pandemic responses (although many ER doctors have had some and perhaps extensive training in response to major catastrophes. There are entire textbooks written on this topic alone.)

I’m with Fauci. Publish your stuff and don’t say at the end of your conference that people are going to start shooting stuff up because they’ve been asked to wear masks and skip things for 6 weeks.

But I have concern about the economic ramifications also.

This was my response to the good doctor’s observation:

Comme Ca:

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Pribut–thanks for the in-depth review.

There is so much, for the layman, compelling information and opinion flying about–I found the guy, as I say, compelling as against hysterical, but as I am not a medical man, I brought it to you.

 

Their message–“you get immunity to something by exposure to that something” strikes the layman as reasonable–throw off your chains, ditch the mask, play outside, et sequentia–is certainly alluring to us in our captivity.

 

His comments about Tony Fauci, whom I’ve met off and on since the invention of AIDS, as being a man living in an Ivory Tower who “likely hasn’t seen a patient in 25 years,’ sounded harsh, yet it may be true, yet, if it is true, what, materially, does that mean in the instant case?

 

I know what these fellows want it to mean–that they have hands-on day-today clinical exposure and Fauci does not, also hits the layman’s ear as reasonable and that is what these fellows are—reasonable–that’s a powerful sales tool and as you say in your closing, these fellows are, at root, salesmen–which of itself is not naughty, but it can be dangerous as most Americans are highly susceptible to well-done sales pitches–see politics for instance–and in addition, the Americans know nothing about medicine but for what they are told to believe.

So, we end up where you and I began yesterday:

Who ya gonna believe?  Begg

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Pribut was kind enough to write a post script

 John Begg I’m 95% with Fauci .

Immunity happens by exposure is true.

But this primarily was not science or expert opinion. I’d want them to give me CPR or start my heart up after a heart attack. I don’t need Fauci to do that.

Salesman with a right wing political agenda. Get your guns! But don’t use them yet!

Facts don’t make nonsense real.

But still economic problems are equally serious.

This material is studied in many journals and there are texts on “Disaster Medicine”.

There is no conspiracy which also seemed to motivate them.

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I do thank Dr Pribut for his insightful comment here today.