1/2 Hi Mathew, Vitamin D is by far the most important early treatment for COVID-19. In the longer term we must boost most people's circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (as measured in blood tests) to 50ng/ml (125nmol/L) or more, since levels lower than this cause weakened innate and adaptive immune responses, and increase the risk of hyper-inflammatory dysregulated immune responses which drive severe COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. Typical unsupplemented levels are 5 to 25ng/ml.
Most people cannot imagine that lack of vitamin D3 - sitting on supermarket shelves - is the decisive factor which causes such disease severity and so viral shedding that we have an R0 well over 1.0 and so a pandemic with millions of deaths. This includes especially most physicians and immunologists - but they should read the research. Long ago they should have heeded the 2008 call by 48 physicians and researchers (some are both) for 40 to 60ng/ml to be regarded as a proper, healthy, 25-hydroxyvitamin D level: https://www.grassrootshealth.net/project/our-scientists/ .
There is very little vitamin D in food or multivitamins. UV-B exposure of unprotected skin (not through glass or sunscreen) can produce plenty of vitamin D3, but this is not available all year round, raises the risk of skin cancer, and is less effective for those with dark skin. Without proper D3 supplementation or recent significant UV-B exposure, most people's 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are between 5 and 25ng/ml - 1/10th to 1/2 of what their immune system needs to function properly.
Most doctors accept outdated official recommendations that 20 or perhaps 30ng/ml is sufficient, and some still think that for an average weight adult, 0.01mg (400IU) D3 a day is sufficient to meet a person's needs. For 70kg 154lb bodyweight, 0.125mg 5000IU D3 a day will get most people's 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels safely to 50ng/ml or more after several months. This is a gram every 22 years. Pharma grade D3 costs USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory, in 1kg lots. There are only a handful of D3 factories in the world, none of them owned by multinational pharmaceutical companies. Most D3 is made (for a lower price, with less refining) for poultry and pigs who live their lives indoors. If the big pharmaceutical companies could devise and patent a compound even a fraction as effective as D3, they would sell it for hundreds or thousands of dollars per monthly dosage.
D3 is hydroxylated in the liver over a period of days into 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which goes into circulation and diffuses into all tissues. This is what all immune cells need for their autocrine (inside the cell) and paracrine (to nearby cells) signaling systems, which are crucial to each cell's ability to respond to its changing circumstances. These systems are activated by particular conditions (different for each cell type) and hydroxylate 25-hydroxyvitamin D a second time to become 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, which strongly activates vitamin D receptor molecules in these cells. The activated receptor turns up the transcription of dozens of genes, and turns it down for dozens of other genes, in ways which are specific to each type of cell. These signaling systems are long-evolved, flexible, powerful, methods by which cells change their behaviour according to particular conditions they detect.
Vitamin D based autocrine and paracrine signaling has nothing to do with the one hormonal function of the vitamin D compounds - a very low level of circulating 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D, produced and regulated by the kidneys, as part of a larger feedback loop with the parathyroid hormone, to regulate calcium and bone metabolism. All doctors know of this system, and most have some idea that the immune system needs vitamin D. However, very few understand - of have heard of - vitamin D based autocrine and paracrine signaling, in part because the vitamin D researchers have not explained it well. Please see my explanation, which cites the original research over ten years ago by Martin Hewison et al.: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/02-autocrine/ .
Here are the most important research articles from those cited at "What every MD, immunologist, virologist and epidemiologist should know about vitamin D and the immune system": https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ . Please read the research yourself. Don't take my word for anything - I am an electronic technician and computer programmer.
In 2014, researchers in Boston MA, (Quraishi et al. link and graph at https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/#fig01) analysed the relationship between pre-operative 25-hydroxyvitmin D levels and post-operative infections: surgery site infections and general hospital-acquired infections. The relationships were similar: with 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of 50ng/ml or more: 2.5%. With 18ng/ml - which is a typical average value for people who do not supplement D3 or get much UV-B skin exposure - the risks for both types of infection rose to 25%. This can only be explained by weakened innate and adaptive immune responses to bacterial pathogens caused by insufficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels cause the same weaknesses in innate and adaptive immune responses to viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. See the risks of severe COVID-19 according to Venegas-Cedillo et al 2021 and 3 other studies, plus the risks of Kawasaki disease (2014) graphed as a function of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/#fig02 . Most doctors and all governments have been clueless about this. With the exception of a few doctors and governments (such as of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, who use ivermectin with great success) people have not been supported with vitamin D and other nutrients and have been prevented from getting early treatment of any kind. They were told to get vaccinated, isolate if infected, and to seek hospital treatment if hypoxia sets in. Very few of these millions of people needed to die. Vitamin D and other early treatments would have prevented most of the transmission, harm and death.
The sooner these graphs and links the articles are plastered all over newspapers and MSM websites, the better. Then everyone will know the truth. This is not the pandemic of the unvaccinated. It is the pandemic of the vitamin D deficient and of those who have not been able to receive early treatment.
Thanks for the "Community is a Technology" idea. I'm going to use it if I may, as it really does seem that when anything breaches the "150" mark the Authoritarians in the room start building momentum, ending where the world is now. Yes maybe some "Freedom tech" can support linkages between communities, as long as we don't end up with a "World Council of Small Communities" :)
I am on the other side of the planet, so I can't say for sure what to make of it, but I did some light research into Tommy Waters, since his reaction as presented here and at hawaiinewsnow seems hyperbolic. As of 10/21/2021 3:10EST, the minutes and agenda for that 10/18 meeting have not been posted (https://www.honolulu.gov/council ; https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/browse/agendas), nor has the council given a press release for the event, nor have they released video of the council meeting (https://www.honolulucitycouncil.tv/). I am genuinely interested in what he actually said, since it's clear that he's being edited down to this one comment, and for whatever reason the news selects that one phrase to be what highlights the entire session. If the idea is that it's dangerous to tell people that they can take vitamins and thus become more resistant to, even overcome, a viral infection, I want to see how he reasons, and I hope he releases his own statements so that his own constituency, and others, can get it.
Waters on his own site cites support from a "cross-section of supporters including: caregivers, academics, environmental professionals, teachers, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and retirees." His press release also then goes on to add that "environmental stewards comprised a large percentage of donors, which along with the endorsement of the Sierra Club has demonstrated strong support among the conservation community." (https://www.tommy-waters.com/tommy_waters_campaign_donations_demonstrate_increasing_support). Although his own website shows him with his children, it doesn't mention his wife, lawyer Emily Kawashima Waters, nor is she pictured or shown anywhere on it: she's not even part of the "Tommy Waters Story" (https://www.tommy-waters.com/the_tommy_waters_story), although Tommy's in-laws are. Apparently, James Kawashima is a judge there for O'ahu First District Court and has been a practicing lawyer for more than forty years, with two of his children also practicing law there. I find it odd —but this is just me, now— that a man running for political office who will set himself up as a family figure makes no mention of his marriage or relationship to the mother of the children he puts prominently on the splash for his site.
Maybe all of this is completely irrelevant. But it's all publicly available information I found just doing casual web searches. I have never found it irresponsible and dangerous for anyone to take vitamins, open windows, or improve their health as ways to become more resilient in life, so I want to understand what Tommy Waters is about, why he thinks that way. What I see is someone who has been a lawyer for a while, narrowly lost twice and then squeeked in to a council position, who now serves as chair for that city council, and, for whatever reason, doesn't want to be seen or associated with the mother of his children, whom he does want to be seen and associated with. 🤷
So you avoided mentioning Ivermectin and HCQ to improve your palatability, and reduce psychotic cognitive dissonance. But you got branded as a dangerous purveyor of misinformation anyhow. So maybe you might as well speak the full truth?
It would be interesting, though, to see an RCT comparing outcomes with vitamins, nutritional supplements & oral + nasal hygiene alone, vs. those interventions combined with Ivermectin, HCQ, fluvoxamine and so forth.
By dangerous, I think they mean dangerous to pharma's deep pockets. Also dangerous because as more and more people finally realize they've been lied to about early treatment (etc., etc., etc.), politicians are going to have a lot of 'splainin' to do. The media no doubt plan to make sure that never comes to pass.
There is overwhelming evidence that the immune system cells need a serum threshold of 45- 50ng/mL in order to be competent (for T cells to spring into action without going rogue, for antiviral peptides to be produced in lung tissue, etc etc). Yet the great majority of the population have a serum level of 20-30ng/mL, with 30 being (tragically) considered sufficient for bone health. Big Pharma had no interest in promoting a vitamin freely available through much of the year and one they cannot license. They would, of course, rather patent an expensive "magic bullet" which will enrich company directors and shareholders. This letter (https://vitamindforall.org/letter.html) was written almost a year ago, yet physicians continue unaware of the latest research on vit D, and many people will remain stuck in the hyper inflammatory state of their immune system.
This is exactly what we need. Dr. Malone is the World's Most Interesting Man type, now we need a hugely dangerous-sexy type. We'll have all the cool points and can conquer the public with our image, if not our wisdom.
Oh, wait, seems Fauci is the sexiest man alive, dang, we're doomed.
I spent a lot of time, midway in 2020, trying to convince our ELECTED officials and/or political appointees to acknowledge truths FROM the PCR inventor & others (all PRIMARY SOURCES-- says this librarian). NONE had interest in entertaining any idea besides their Mockingbird narratives, nor did they reapond! I believe Waters was inc, as the rep for HKai schools. I'm convinced they ARE part of the problem ($), or just dum dums. Grrr. CivilBeat included! Today I see an article how owner Omidyar may be complicit in some dark things...So KEEP PUSHING FOLKS. Soon their fortress gate WILL fall!
As a Honolulu County resident, I apologize for Councilmember Tommy Waters comments about you, Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Malone, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt his inexcusable ignorance and unfitness to hold a position of responsibility.
1/2 Hi Mathew, Vitamin D is by far the most important early treatment for COVID-19. In the longer term we must boost most people's circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (as measured in blood tests) to 50ng/ml (125nmol/L) or more, since levels lower than this cause weakened innate and adaptive immune responses, and increase the risk of hyper-inflammatory dysregulated immune responses which drive severe COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. Typical unsupplemented levels are 5 to 25ng/ml.
Most people cannot imagine that lack of vitamin D3 - sitting on supermarket shelves - is the decisive factor which causes such disease severity and so viral shedding that we have an R0 well over 1.0 and so a pandemic with millions of deaths. This includes especially most physicians and immunologists - but they should read the research. Long ago they should have heeded the 2008 call by 48 physicians and researchers (some are both) for 40 to 60ng/ml to be regarded as a proper, healthy, 25-hydroxyvitamin D level: https://www.grassrootshealth.net/project/our-scientists/ .
There is very little vitamin D in food or multivitamins. UV-B exposure of unprotected skin (not through glass or sunscreen) can produce plenty of vitamin D3, but this is not available all year round, raises the risk of skin cancer, and is less effective for those with dark skin. Without proper D3 supplementation or recent significant UV-B exposure, most people's 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are between 5 and 25ng/ml - 1/10th to 1/2 of what their immune system needs to function properly.
Most doctors accept outdated official recommendations that 20 or perhaps 30ng/ml is sufficient, and some still think that for an average weight adult, 0.01mg (400IU) D3 a day is sufficient to meet a person's needs. For 70kg 154lb bodyweight, 0.125mg 5000IU D3 a day will get most people's 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels safely to 50ng/ml or more after several months. This is a gram every 22 years. Pharma grade D3 costs USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory, in 1kg lots. There are only a handful of D3 factories in the world, none of them owned by multinational pharmaceutical companies. Most D3 is made (for a lower price, with less refining) for poultry and pigs who live their lives indoors. If the big pharmaceutical companies could devise and patent a compound even a fraction as effective as D3, they would sell it for hundreds or thousands of dollars per monthly dosage.
D3 is hydroxylated in the liver over a period of days into 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which goes into circulation and diffuses into all tissues. This is what all immune cells need for their autocrine (inside the cell) and paracrine (to nearby cells) signaling systems, which are crucial to each cell's ability to respond to its changing circumstances. These systems are activated by particular conditions (different for each cell type) and hydroxylate 25-hydroxyvitamin D a second time to become 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, which strongly activates vitamin D receptor molecules in these cells. The activated receptor turns up the transcription of dozens of genes, and turns it down for dozens of other genes, in ways which are specific to each type of cell. These signaling systems are long-evolved, flexible, powerful, methods by which cells change their behaviour according to particular conditions they detect.
Vitamin D based autocrine and paracrine signaling has nothing to do with the one hormonal function of the vitamin D compounds - a very low level of circulating 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D, produced and regulated by the kidneys, as part of a larger feedback loop with the parathyroid hormone, to regulate calcium and bone metabolism. All doctors know of this system, and most have some idea that the immune system needs vitamin D. However, very few understand - of have heard of - vitamin D based autocrine and paracrine signaling, in part because the vitamin D researchers have not explained it well. Please see my explanation, which cites the original research over ten years ago by Martin Hewison et al.: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/02-autocrine/ .
Here are the most important research articles from those cited at "What every MD, immunologist, virologist and epidemiologist should know about vitamin D and the immune system": https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ . Please read the research yourself. Don't take my word for anything - I am an electronic technician and computer programmer.
In 2014, researchers in Boston MA, (Quraishi et al. link and graph at https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/#fig01) analysed the relationship between pre-operative 25-hydroxyvitmin D levels and post-operative infections: surgery site infections and general hospital-acquired infections. The relationships were similar: with 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of 50ng/ml or more: 2.5%. With 18ng/ml - which is a typical average value for people who do not supplement D3 or get much UV-B skin exposure - the risks for both types of infection rose to 25%. This can only be explained by weakened innate and adaptive immune responses to bacterial pathogens caused by insufficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels cause the same weaknesses in innate and adaptive immune responses to viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. See the risks of severe COVID-19 according to Venegas-Cedillo et al 2021 and 3 other studies, plus the risks of Kawasaki disease (2014) graphed as a function of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/#fig02 . Most doctors and all governments have been clueless about this. With the exception of a few doctors and governments (such as of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, who use ivermectin with great success) people have not been supported with vitamin D and other nutrients and have been prevented from getting early treatment of any kind. They were told to get vaccinated, isolate if infected, and to seek hospital treatment if hypoxia sets in. Very few of these millions of people needed to die. Vitamin D and other early treatments would have prevented most of the transmission, harm and death.
The sooner these graphs and links the articles are plastered all over newspapers and MSM websites, the better. Then everyone will know the truth. This is not the pandemic of the unvaccinated. It is the pandemic of the vitamin D deficient and of those who have not been able to receive early treatment.
I find this ignoring and stifling of early treatments and prevention supplements the hardest proof of sinister motives.
Is there a vitamin for menticide?
Thanks for the "Community is a Technology" idea. I'm going to use it if I may, as it really does seem that when anything breaches the "150" mark the Authoritarians in the room start building momentum, ending where the world is now. Yes maybe some "Freedom tech" can support linkages between communities, as long as we don't end up with a "World Council of Small Communities" :)
I am on the other side of the planet, so I can't say for sure what to make of it, but I did some light research into Tommy Waters, since his reaction as presented here and at hawaiinewsnow seems hyperbolic. As of 10/21/2021 3:10EST, the minutes and agenda for that 10/18 meeting have not been posted (https://www.honolulu.gov/council ; https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/browse/agendas), nor has the council given a press release for the event, nor have they released video of the council meeting (https://www.honolulucitycouncil.tv/). I am genuinely interested in what he actually said, since it's clear that he's being edited down to this one comment, and for whatever reason the news selects that one phrase to be what highlights the entire session. If the idea is that it's dangerous to tell people that they can take vitamins and thus become more resistant to, even overcome, a viral infection, I want to see how he reasons, and I hope he releases his own statements so that his own constituency, and others, can get it.
Tommy Waters was recently elected in a special election (https://bigislandnow.com/2019/01/29/proclamation-issued-for-special-election-of-district-iv-honolulu-city-council/) that came about from a contested and very close election (18,358 for Ozawa the incumbent, 18,336 for Waters) (https://ballotpedia.org/Tommy_Waters). Some portions of the oral argument before the Hawaii Supreme Court election are available (https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/government-politics/2019-01-18/hawaii-supreme-court-hears-oral-arguments-in-waters-vs-ozawa-election-challenge). But it looks like the two have had a previous very close and contested election in 2014 (https://www.slideshare.net/civilbeat/waters-nago-ruling). So, maybe there's a longer story here about the local political scene, probably getting very personal. This is, at least, alluded to in the "dirty politics" accusation Ozawa makes about things (https://www.kitv.com/story/39858472/dirty-politics-city-council-candidate-trevor-ozawa-considering-legal-action-after-supreme-court-ruling).
Waters on his own site cites support from a "cross-section of supporters including: caregivers, academics, environmental professionals, teachers, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and retirees." His press release also then goes on to add that "environmental stewards comprised a large percentage of donors, which along with the endorsement of the Sierra Club has demonstrated strong support among the conservation community." (https://www.tommy-waters.com/tommy_waters_campaign_donations_demonstrate_increasing_support). Although his own website shows him with his children, it doesn't mention his wife, lawyer Emily Kawashima Waters, nor is she pictured or shown anywhere on it: she's not even part of the "Tommy Waters Story" (https://www.tommy-waters.com/the_tommy_waters_story), although Tommy's in-laws are. Apparently, James Kawashima is a judge there for O'ahu First District Court and has been a practicing lawyer for more than forty years, with two of his children also practicing law there. I find it odd —but this is just me, now— that a man running for political office who will set himself up as a family figure makes no mention of his marriage or relationship to the mother of the children he puts prominently on the splash for his site.
Maybe all of this is completely irrelevant. But it's all publicly available information I found just doing casual web searches. I have never found it irresponsible and dangerous for anyone to take vitamins, open windows, or improve their health as ways to become more resilient in life, so I want to understand what Tommy Waters is about, why he thinks that way. What I see is someone who has been a lawyer for a while, narrowly lost twice and then squeeked in to a council position, who now serves as chair for that city council, and, for whatever reason, doesn't want to be seen or associated with the mother of his children, whom he does want to be seen and associated with. 🤷
So you avoided mentioning Ivermectin and HCQ to improve your palatability, and reduce psychotic cognitive dissonance. But you got branded as a dangerous purveyor of misinformation anyhow. So maybe you might as well speak the full truth?
It would be interesting, though, to see an RCT comparing outcomes with vitamins, nutritional supplements & oral + nasal hygiene alone, vs. those interventions combined with Ivermectin, HCQ, fluvoxamine and so forth.
By dangerous, I think they mean dangerous to pharma's deep pockets. Also dangerous because as more and more people finally realize they've been lied to about early treatment (etc., etc., etc.), politicians are going to have a lot of 'splainin' to do. The media no doubt plan to make sure that never comes to pass.
There is overwhelming evidence that the immune system cells need a serum threshold of 45- 50ng/mL in order to be competent (for T cells to spring into action without going rogue, for antiviral peptides to be produced in lung tissue, etc etc). Yet the great majority of the population have a serum level of 20-30ng/mL, with 30 being (tragically) considered sufficient for bone health. Big Pharma had no interest in promoting a vitamin freely available through much of the year and one they cannot license. They would, of course, rather patent an expensive "magic bullet" which will enrich company directors and shareholders. This letter (https://vitamindforall.org/letter.html) was written almost a year ago, yet physicians continue unaware of the latest research on vit D, and many people will remain stuck in the hyper inflammatory state of their immune system.
Ha! I hooted out loud.
This is exactly what we need. Dr. Malone is the World's Most Interesting Man type, now we need a hugely dangerous-sexy type. We'll have all the cool points and can conquer the public with our image, if not our wisdom.
Oh, wait, seems Fauci is the sexiest man alive, dang, we're doomed.
I spent a lot of time, midway in 2020, trying to convince our ELECTED officials and/or political appointees to acknowledge truths FROM the PCR inventor & others (all PRIMARY SOURCES-- says this librarian). NONE had interest in entertaining any idea besides their Mockingbird narratives, nor did they reapond! I believe Waters was inc, as the rep for HKai schools. I'm convinced they ARE part of the problem ($), or just dum dums. Grrr. CivilBeat included! Today I see an article how owner Omidyar may be complicit in some dark things...So KEEP PUSHING FOLKS. Soon their fortress gate WILL fall!
The truth is only dangerous to dangerous people.
As a Honolulu County resident, I apologize for Councilmember Tommy Waters comments about you, Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Malone, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt his inexcusable ignorance and unfitness to hold a position of responsibility.
Apparently ivermectin is on the CDC web site under "Characteristics of Antiviral Agents That Are Approved or Under Evaluation for the Treatment of COVID-19" -- https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/tables/table-2e/
Maybe could have mentioned it by starting with that page :-)