Category Archives: medical news

medical news

Joe Rogan: medical expert?

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Joe Rogan has become a medical expert in the eyes of those who are defending pro football quarterback Aaron Rodgers’s decision to take Ivermectin to ward off infection from the COVID-19 virus.

Hmm. Let’s ponder that.

Rogan is a talk-show host. He also is a promoter of mixed martial fights and fighters. He talks a good game. He isn’t trained as a medical professional. Rogan just, oh, talks on subjects about which he knows nothing.

I guess Rogan is friends with Rodgers, who plays QB for the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers told the world he had been “immunized” against the pandemic. Turns out he wasn’t.

The Ivermectin is known generally as a de-worming agent used on horses and cattle. OK. You got that?

A critic of this blog informs me that medical doctors prescribed the drug to Rodgers and Rogan. I get it. They found docs who would prescribe something that other docs say isn’t worth a damn in fighting the virus. Big deal.

None of this makes Aaron Rodgers’s deception any more palatable. Nor does it give Joe Rogan any standing as a medical expert who is qualified to talk about things of which he is ignorant.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

What’s wrong with mandates?

For the ever-lovin’ life of me I do not understand the resistance by many of us to government “mandates” issued to encourage us to protect ourselves against a disease that can kill us.

I see it all the time. I hear it just as often. “The government shouldn’t tell me what to do!” the anti-mandate crowd bellows at rallies. Really?

Then why do you drive the speed limit? Why do you refuse to drink and drive? Why do you buckle up when you get into your car? Why do you purchase insurance when you get a driver’s license? Why do you refuse to yell “fire!” in crowded theater? Why do you refuse to rob banks, or the grocery store, or steal candy from the shelf?

Because every one of those actions is regulated by government mandate. The government tells us to do certain things and we do them.

We are still fighting a killer pandemic. The government is telling us we need to get vaccinated against the virus. Business owners are asking us to wear masks when we enter; some of them are demanding it. Yet we hear yammering from so-called American “patriots” that they fear a civil war is going to break out if the government keeps issuing these orders.

This is nonsense. It is trash. It is utterly un-American, un-democratic, dangerous, reckless, feckless and, oh yeah, stupid!

You may count me as one American patriot — and I consider myself to be the real thing — who does not object to the government seeking to protect me, my family and assorted loved ones.

The more of those who think as I do climb aboard the sensible bandwagon, the sooner we will be free of this pandemic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, medical news

Vaccines make me smug

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I am feeling a bit smug these days.

It’s all because of the vaccines I have received. Both doses of the anti-COVID vaccine have been injected into my left arm. I also have received the booster shot. They’re all Pfizer medications.

So, I am fully vaccinated … and then some!

It’s the smugness I am resisting with all my might. I am still masking up when I walk into strange indoor venues. This afternoon, for example, we walked into a church lobby to cast our votes for Princeton city council, school board and Texas constitutional amendment issues. We didn’t see masks on too many other voters but, by golly, we are taking no chances.

We keep hearing about “fully vaccinated” individuals testing positive for the COVID virus. Neither of us wants that to occur in our house. So, we are taking measures to avoid exposure to a potentially killer virus.

Still, the smugness I am feeling is a tough obstacle to overcome.

I will stay vigilant against the virus. Smugness be damned!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

What’s in that aspirin tablet?

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I want to pose a question to those who are reluctant to take a COVID vaccine because they “don’t know what’s in it.”

Do you know what your run-of-the-mill aspirin tablet contains when you swallow it to cure a headache? Or what about any prescription ordered by your doctor? Do you know what it contains?

We keep hearing from the anti-vaxxer crowd that they are uncertain about the contents of the vaccine. They express a sort of faux fear of an issue that really does not exist.

Can you say “canard”? This is what is at play here.

The anti-vaccine cabal has concocted a phony issue to help spread the disinformation that has plagued the distribution of the various vaccines that are getting approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. The CDC and the FDA are subjecting these vaccines through rigorous testing to ensure their safety. I happen to have faith in the medical pros who run these agencies and believe they are faithful to the oath they take to “first, do no harm.” 

I have to admit I have members of my extended family who are declining to vaccinate themselves or their children. They actually say out loud and without a hint of embarrassment they are doing so because of politics. Amazing, yes!

Yet they also are fabricating the notion that they are concerned about the vaccine’s contents. And yet … they’ll shell out good money for an over-the-counter medical dose not giving a moment of thought as to its contents.

It is as phony an argument as those who proclaim they oppose “dictatorial mandates,” yet they buckle up in their car because the government orders them to do so.

Incredible.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Fox News dude joins vaccine crowd

You go, Neil Cavuto.

The Fox News correspondent has come down with the COVID-19 virus. He is feeling OK, but he has joined a growing list of news and opinion pundits in calling for the rest of us to get vaccinated.

He put out a message that in effect said, “forget about all that crap you’re hearing on the political side of this matter. Get your vaccine.”

Yes, Neil. You are so right You have a wide audience of viewers who otherwise might not be inclined to get vaccinated. They are listening to those on the right and the far right about so-called side effects created by the vaccine, whether it’s from Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson&Johnson.

Spoiler alert: My wife and I have taken both Pfizer vaccines and the booster … and neither of us grown a third eye. Honest, man! We’re good!

So it is with gladness that I welcome an influential journalist to the ranks of vaccine supporters.

Get well, Neil.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Dictatorship? Hardly!

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When did requiring children to be vaccinated become a symptom of a dictatorial regime?

Oh, wait! It’s the tenor of this contentious time when everything becomes challenged … even for no good reason!

I am an old man in my early 70s. I recall vividly getting vaccinated every year before the start of school. I would sit in the school nurse’s office and get my shots for whatever was on the table at the time: measles, whooping cough, TB, you name it. Mom and Dad never bitched about my sisters and me needing to get shots.

We just did it, started school and went about doing whatever it was we were doing when we were kids.

Now, though, our children are threatened by a potentially fatal virus. It’s killing Americans each day. The COVID-19 virus is still a part of our lives and, sadly, part of many Americans’ deaths.

However, the push to get our children vaccinated, along with their elders, is running into resistance from those who are yapping and yammering about government “overreach,” about how the feds are dictating how we must conduct our affairs.

“It’s my choice to get vaccinated,” we hear from some of the dipsh**s out there. Yeah, it’s their choice, but only when it doesn’t threaten others’ lives. When they refuse to get vaccinated, they threaten everyone else around them.

CNN anchor John King spoke eloquently the other day about the unknown and unseen threats posed by those who refuse to take precautions to protect themselves against the killer virus. They expose themselves and potentially others to mortal threats. That ain’t right!

So, let’s all stop the carping and griping about a “government overreach” that is nothing of the sort.

The numbers don’t lie. Those who are vaccinated against the COVID virus are much more secure than those who refuse.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

A reckoning is on its way

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It’s impossible to predict that such an event will occur, but one can certainly hope that it does … which is what I am going to do.

I am going to hope that a day of reckoning will come to those who continue to resist mandates to (a) wear masks (b) maintain social distancing and (c) receive inoculations against a killer virus.

Local governments across this great land are requiring people to protect themselves — and others! — against the virus that has killed more than 700,000 Americans; the number is sure to increase.

I cannot determine how the reckoning will occur or what form it will take. I just have this hope in my ticker that it comes to those who continue to insist that government “has no business” dictating how people can protect themselves.

Which, of course, is nonsense.

The government is able to tell us to wear seat belts when we travel in motor vehicles; it can tell us to put out cigarettes when we enter indoor public place; it can set speed limits on our public rights-of-way; it can require we have auto insurance when we drive.

Do I go on?

You get my point.

The COVID-19 virus is a killer. It needs to be stopped. Government has a role to play in ensuring we protect ourselves and our loved ones. And, oh yes, even perfect strangers.

Let’s quit the politicking on this matter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

‘Public health’: all-inclusive

Let’s visit the term “public health” for a moment.

The way I understand the term, it refers to the health and well-being of an entire community, a city, state, nation. That means everyone, as in the public!

Thus, when a government entity issues an order that seeks to protect the public’s health, I harbor no reticence about following that order. It means that those who represent us are trying to protect us. As in you and me.

I keep hearing this mantra about “personal choice” regarding whether we should be required to wear masks outside of our home. The woman formerly known as Bruce Jenner spoke to that issue this morning on “The View.” Jenner said it is her “choice” to wear a mask, or to maintain social distance, or to get a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus.

Umm. No. It isn’t just an individual’s choice. Not when the illness that the individual might contract affects others around them. Thus, the public’s health becomes paramount in this discussion.

President Biden is issuing orders left and right to businesses, to those who work for the federal government and others. He wants them to mask up. He requires them to get vaccinated against a virus that is still killing Americans daily.

I am going to stand with those who want to protect me against a virus that could kill me. Is it any sweat off my back to mask up? Hell no! It isn’t!

As for the vaccine. I intend to line up as soon as possible to get the booster the feds have approved.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Time for good COVID thoughts

It is time to send some good COVID thoughts around the world.

I keep hearing bits and pieces of good news regarding the killer virus.

Hospitalization rates are falling. Same for death rates. Vaccine distribution is ramping up. Federal drug regulators have approved Pfizer’s vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

Are we turning the corner yet again on this virus?

I trust you remember a time about six months ago when a new president took office, declared war against the virus and then promised to be “independent” of the killer by the Fourth of July, aka Independence Day. You get the symmetry, right?

Well, it didn’t happen. Variants kept popping up. The delta variant has proven to be the most troublesome.

Now, though, we’re getting dribs and drabs of good news.

Again! Once more!

Is this the actual beginning of the end to the virus that has killed nearly 700,000 Americans?

Please let it be so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Government applies medical pressure?

Ron Paul, a former member of Congress from Texas — and one-time Republican presidential candidate — has made an intriguing and likely unintended case against a hideous Texas law that essentially outlaws abortion.

Paul is a physician and is the father of a sitting U.S. senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky. This item showed up on my Facebook news feed.

I’ll venture a presumption that the statement is intended to refer to President Biden’s mandates to require vaccinations against the COVID-19 virus. Think, though, about the overarching message contained in the statement attributed to Dr. Paul.

“Freedom over one’s physical person is the most basic freedom of all and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies.”

Therein lies the most essential argument possible against that Texas law that has become the subject of lawsuits seeking to overturn it. The Legislature passed the law that Gov. Greg Abbott signed that prohibits women from obtaining an abortion after being pregnant for six weeks. Many women — arguably most women — don’t even know they are pregnant six weeks after conception. The law’s intent is to take the teeth out of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in January 1973.

Let’s be clear about something. This law will not prevent abortion. Women will continue to terminate pregnancies. Many of them might seek “back-alley” procedures that could do them terrible physical harm. The law is ghastly and it is the product of ham-handed legislative tyrants who seek to exert control over women and the decisions they make regarding their own bodies.

Ultraconservative legislators have seized the moment in Texas with this legislation. They have gotten their way, at least for the time being. The state, however, does not “own our bodies.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com