This is an article by Charlie Spedding, whose blog can be found here. Charlie is a former pharmacist. He was also a champion long-distance runner in his younger days. He was the winner of the 1984 London Marathon, and he is an Olympic bronze medallist.
The Covid-19 epidemic has run the typical course of viral infections with a rapid rise in cases to a peak, which lasts a few weeks, and is followed by a steady, but slower, decline back to normal. It is, however, a nasty virus for those who succumb to it. There are two important questions: who succumbs to Covid-19 and why do they succumb while others do not? It is clear from all the data that this coronavirus is a far bigger threat to elderly people. Children and young adults are hardly affected.
Why does the virus affect some people so badly? We all have two levels of immunity: acquired and innate. We acquire specific immunity when we create antibodies in response to a viral, or bacterial, infection. Innate immunity is our natural ability to fend off a pathogen without ill effects. 70 to 80% of people in the UK, who have tested positive for Covid-19, have experienced either very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, thanks to their innate immunity. As we get older, our immune system becomes less efficient and we are more likely to develop metabolic disorders. Sadly, the great majority of deaths have occurred in elderly people and those with diabetes, obesity and heart and lung disease.
We knew, from Italy, of the extreme danger to both the elderly and the unwell but did nothing about protecting those people specifically. Instead, the Government imposed a severe lockdown on everybody, which collapsed the economy, closed schools and made millions of people terrified of each other.
Certain businesses are being allowed to reopen but with strict rules attached. This process has been given the sinister, Orwellian title of ‘the new normal’. Apparently, we will be allowed to return to ‘normal’ if we stay two meters apart (or ‘one metre plus’) and wear face masks. There is nothing ‘normal’ about this. It will destroy the hospitality industry, theatres and sporting events. It will cause a huge spike in mental illness and stress. It will be of profound detriment to children’s education. The virus has run its course and is almost gone. If there are 65 million people in the UK, there will currently be 64.99 million people who do not have this virus and, therefore, cannot pass it on to anyone else.
However, having said that, I strongly believe we should have a ‘new normal’ once this is finally over. This new normal will have nothing to do with masks and distancing but will protects us all from this and any future epidemic. The new normal should be a concerted effort to improve everybody’s metabolic health. This would not only improve our immunity but would also vastly reduce all the problems we faced before Covid-19: obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and dementia.
Sadly, I do not believe this initiative will ever come from the Government while it is guided in ‘science’ by Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance. As a former Community Pharmacist, with a far greater interest in health than medication, I am appalled by the contribution of the Government’s most senior scientific advisers. Evidence from around the world has shown that people with high levels of Vitamin D are protected from the worst effects of Covid-19. Why has this never been mentioned by them? If they do not know about it, they are incompetent. If they know about it, but have not mentioned it, they are negligent.
We desperately need a new normal in the UK. We have appalling rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health issues, which put the NHS under great strain. None of these will be helped by social distancing and face masks. All of them will benefit enormously from a healthy diet of real, unprocessed food. There is compelling evidence that the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet which has been recommended by the National Dietary Guidelines for forty years has caused the constant rise in obesity and diabetes. Individual doctors, who have ignored official dietary dogma, have reversed type-2 diabetes in some of their patients with a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.
The Chief Scientific Adviser should be up to date with this. Instead, he remains silent, nothing changes, and 6,000 type-2 diabetics have a foot amputated every year when a change in diet could prevent it. The government has taken drastic measures to reduce the spread of a virus. When will it take simple measures to prevent the far greater burden of obesity, diabetes and cancer?
18 thoughts on “Charlie Spedding: The New Normal”
“From 2012 to 2018 Vallance served as president of research and development (R&D) at the multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).” (Wikipedia)
Nuff sed.
Excellent article, if I may say so. None of your recommendations are likely to be implemented, because there is no money in them for people like him.
As to vitamin D, the measly recommended dose of 1000 IU a day is insufficient for most people, especially the elderly, for those with dark skin living in northern climes, and for people who either rarely expose themselves to the sun or use sunscreen, which blocks the UVB required for synthesis in the skin.
4000 IU is said to be the maximum safe daily dose, preferably of D3, and is what I take from October to March (2000 IU in summer).
(It’s quite telling that harmless and well intentioned videos describing the role of vitamin D in the immune system are now being censored by YouTube.)
Good summary of the Government made disaster. Signs are this was a dress rehearsal for terminal social end economic ruin – ‘net zero carbon’.
After the age of 21, in effect we start to die because we are, in evolutionary terms, no longer required for reproduction (fertility peaks in late teens) and are just competition for scarce food resources with the new crop of Humans. There is a ‘kill gene’.
As has been described elsewhere in this blog, 95% (at least in UK, and seemingly true elsewhere) of deaths have occurred in subjects with one or more serious conditions: diabetes, dementia, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic renal disease being top four.
These, and cancers, are conditions of systemic and cellular breakdown caused by increasing age. They are nothing to do with diet. I am old enough to have been aware of old people having diabetes and cancers before the ‘obesity’ crisis and Government steering people to a high carbohydrate diet.
The reason therefore why so many old people have died is because people are living longer and they are the ones with the old-age related diseases. The virus is not selecting according to age, but medical condition.
Was the period of house arrest (lockdowns happen in jails!) intended to kill off elderly people by depriving them of sunlight – essential for vitamin D synthesis – as well as human contact?
Apparently it’s virtually impossible to ingest enough vitamin D from food alone: sunlight (in the summer months) or supplements are essential.
Significant D supplementation should be accompanied by K2 to avoid bone problems.
I take a combined D3 (5000 iU) and K2 (110 mcg) tablet every day between mid-October and April.
“If they do not know about it, they are incompetent. If they know about it, but have not mentioned it, they are negligent”.
Absolutely right. However I feel that Mr Spedding is pulling his punches. I think the government’s response has been criminally incompetent, criminally negligent, or both.
When people stand for election or accept senior posts in the civil service or the NHS, they implicitly undertake to use their very best efforts in the interests of the people of this country.
To choose policies so seriously harmful that tens of thousands of extra deaths have been caused cannot be called anything other than criminal.
To compound their crimes, they now refuse to admit that they were wrong and insist on perpetuating the same harmful policies.
The supposed Covid-19 epidemic has revealed in a startlingly vivid way the huge defects and faults in our social, economic and governmental systems.
The fundamental problem can be written down in one short sentence.
People should be motivated to help others (as well as themselves) rather than battling for money, power, influence and dominance.
Much has been written about how science, once our greatest hope, has failed us. That is because it has been taken over by those with money and power who want more of both, and couldn’t care less what happens to the rest of us.
Research on viral diseases now focuses on creating ever new and more dangerous viruses. If they don’t exist, scientists eagerly seek out animal viruses and transfer them to human cells. Even such deadly viruses as that which caused the 1918-9 flu have been isolated and studied by scientists who aimed to provide “gain of function) – i.e. to make them still deadlier.
Whereas proper nutrition is the most important single requirement for health, governments and corporations – aided by universities and scientists – have been grossly misinforming people for 60-70 years, telling them to avoid healthy foods and consume unhealthy ones.
Even medicine and the manufacture of drugs have been taken over by the profit motive.
And governments worry about nothing except getting and keeping power – which entails seeking the goodwill of huge corporations and the rich.
“The virus is not selecting according to age, but medical condition.”
The stats I’ve seen show a clear increase in risk of death with age, and most deaths in any age group are people with co-morbidities.
In the UK 60 tablets of vitamin D are £1.60 at the high st supermarket.
Mildly off-topic, but a useful reference: John P.A. Ioannidis et al., “Forecasting for COVID-19 has failed”.
https://forecasters.org/blog/2020/06/14/forecasting-for-covid-19-has-failed/
@Charlie & Hector
Thank you. More strings for the bow
Diabetes, Fatty reduction etc won’t happen as racist (genes, cultural food), sexist, etc. Look at reaction when Abbot, Thornberry etc raised
Fat? Look at MPs, NHS, State staff
Tax the poor white’s traditional pies, fish n chips, sweets, fizzy etc – that’s fine
@Simon
“Vit D immune system censored on youtube”
Wouldn’t surprise me. Some examples please
Pcar, here’s one I bookmarked back in March:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQkx06k7AKk
If you click the link it’s not very helpful as even the title has gone. It was a longish presentation by an extremely erudite Indian doctor; she recommended using large intravenous doses of D3, becoming successively smaller, for respiratory-infection patients in a critical condition.
Here’s another one on the same topic, but it is still up, probably because it is pre-Covid and so the keywords are absent.
https://youtu.be/fmDng_uMCnY
@Simon
Thanks. Any of them here?
https://altcensored.com/
“We desperately need a new normal in the UK. We have appalling rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health issues, ”
None of the first three will be helped by the so called medical profession’s insistence on still pumping out the ‘Fat bad, carbohydrates good’ message they have been pushing since the 1970s at least. Despite it being now shown that its exactly 180 degrees in the wrong direction. They know its wrong – all the more recent research has shown that high fat diets are not linked to heart disease, while high carb ones are linked to obesity and diabetes.
How on earth can society become healthier when the people who are supposed to be caring for their health are blatantly lying to them 24/7?
I assume Mr Spedding spends too much time running to notice that the Government are very serious about an anti-obesity strategy. Starting with the sugar levy and the reformulation of many drinks and foods that they have arm twisted the food industry into making. And there is much, much more to follow. Indeed the fascism shown in these efforts has emboldened the Government in making the lockdowns so severe as people have grown accepting of major interventions in their lifestyles. What can be more basic than the Government controlling your food supply.
Mr Spedding might be sound on Covid but he’s still a public health fascist.
@Ian Reid
“arm twisted the food industry”
Spot on: Reduce Salt, Sugar and fat volutarily or we’ll pass a law compelling you
imo food industry should have stood firm
“When will it take simple measures to prevent the far greater burden of obesity, diabetes and cancer?”
We could turn that question round and ask when will the government stop taking the complex measures it currently takes to increase the burden of these conditions. Distilling the NHS down to A&E and communicable diseases would do it, All other things to be paid for using a European social health insurance system. You want to eat a bad diet or take no exercise – you pay more for your insurance.
@Andrew
Re A&E
Some Nordic countries (Denmark?) require patient to make appointment before attending
“Hi, I’m going to break my leg tomorrow, may I have a appointment?”
A horrible thought occurs about this “New Normal” — there is no reason for our Betters ever to terminate their mask-wearing rules.
Our scientifically-illiterate but highly politicized rulers are re-imposing inhumane Lock Downs all over the globe. Their “logic” goes something like:
1. We are expanding testing of the population. Lots of room for further expansion there, since only a small percentage of the population has actually been tested — and individuals can be tested many times.
2. The more testing that is done, the more “cases” will be found, i.e. people who have markers showing that they were exposed to the virus (and probably developed immunity).
3. The growth of the number of “cases” is being presented as an existential threat to the entire human race, rather than a happy confirmation that immunity is spreading within the population.
4. Number of deaths ascribed to C-19 continue to decline to trivial levels compared to normal daily deaths, but the word has gone out to the media to keep that positive information as quiet as possible.
So “cases” are going up in the summer time, when viral diseases have difficulty surviving. And our Betters are demanding total obedience to the Mask. Come autumn, as the normal winter flu season approaches, who among our Best & Brightest is going to risk getting rid of their laws requiring All Masks All The Time?
We peons are going to be stuck with masks and Lock Downs until the comet hits.
@Gavin
Spot on. Deaths now dropped, it’s all “Cases” – ‘seek and ye will find’. However, 70-80% have innate immunity.
My mother and I discussed “New Normal – end off?” this afternoon. Concluded Gov’t like the control ‘Fear’ has given them and will insist it continues until vaccine created or public rebel en masse across UK
Some good news
Spot on. They’re a potentially dangerous placebo, dummy-tit, comforter…
See also
https://hectordrummond.com/2020/07/17/another-jaw-dropping-graph/#comment-23954
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