CBD Is the Snake Oil of Our Times

CBD Is the Snake Oil of Our Times

By the Numbers

CBD, or  Cannabidiol, is a derivative from cannabis or hemp plants.  With the forces at work to legalize cannabis and all it's forms, CBD has been getting promoted heavily as a cure for just about everything. And last year, 4.6 billion dollars was spent on CBD related products.  See here...

I had an encounter with CBD recently.  A topical cream was recommended by a chiropractor for knee pain issues I am experiencing.  After a jar and a weeks application, I can say I experienced no relief in pain.  If anything, it got worse.  But any one person's experience is anecdotal at best.  So what do the studies say?

A study in Canada demonstrated at best. 2.5 points out of 100, in pain mitigation with patients with severe pain.  And no clinical effects for mild to moderate pain.  See here...

I found one group that compiled 74 studies on CBD, but I cannot find the link now, of the 74 studies, 68 were testing CBD and THC, the active ingredient of marijuana.  The 6 remaining studies of just CBD, showed no evidence of pain relief.

But the jar of cream I have states prominently, "For Pain".  While it's list of ingredients include CBD, the main active ingredients is Camphor and Menthol.  Smells nice, but that's about it.

What is CBD good for?  Apparently it has only had proven efficacy for epilepsy in children.  And so far, that is it.

No other real clinical trials exist for any of the following claims.  COVID-19, migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, digestive disorders, brain and mood disorders, high blood pressure, muscle spasms, nausea, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, PTSD, opioid addiction, and cancer in animals.

And no matter what Tommy Chong* claims, CBD did not cure his cancer. 

Side effects of CBD include agitation, chills, irritability, loss of appetite, nausea, throat and stomach pain, and drowsiness. CBD can increase the level of blood thinning and other medicines in your blood by competing for the liver enzymes that break down these drugs.  See Harvard Health...

Labels on CBD, and other supplements, that state "clinically tested" or "clinically proven", just means some people filled out a questionnaire.  It does not mean that the product has been subjected to a proper double blind study.

But you may never get enough CBD to have side effects, because about 70% of tested CBD products do not have what they claim in them.  Penn Medicine studied CBD products from 31 companies, and only 30% had dosages on the labels.  See here...

This is the difference between "Big Pharma", and "Big Supplements".  Pharmaceuticals have to prove efficacy of their products.  Supplements only need to allude they may do something, but cannot actually claim they do anything at all.  So I think the company that made my CBD cream needs a cease and desist order from the FDA. 

So, to quote Brian Dunning, of "Skeptoid"**, "The question is whether this is something you really want to go out of your way to do: take a prescription epilepsy drug at an unknown dose when you don't have epilepsy."

*In addition marijuana suppositories, Tommy Chong was treated with chemo and radiation.  So to claim CBD was the cure for his cancer is a bit of a stretch, but as the leading stoner of my generation, I don't think we can consider him to be a reliable source.

** Skeptoid is a podcast that has been running for over 10 years, where Brian Dunning debunks a lot of urban legends and fraudulently promoted products.

Coronavirus, The Late October Edition

Coronavirus, The Late October Edition 

By the Numbers 

The Numbers:

The number of daily new cases continue to decline nationwide on an average of 1.74% per day.  The estimated number of total cases has dropped from 2.24 million to 1.85 million two weeks ago.  As reported last time, the areas most affected by this surge have had the steepest decline.

For example: Texas peaked the week of September 6 with an average of 15,991 new cases per day, is now averaging 5,161 new cases per day.  Pennsylvania peaked the week of October 4 with an average of  4,903 new cases per day, is now averaging 4,703.  So while Texas has a clear and unambiguous drop, Pennsylvania could at best be described as hovering near peak.

Texas is not the worst/best case to look at, but I was picking on Texas a while ago because they were so vocal about freedom verses protecting their population from the virus and set up separate spread sheets that were auto populated by the macro codes I run every day.  So the week by week cases are being parsed automatically and I saw no reason to stop them. 

Mix and Match Vaccines:

So far, there are no large scale studies on having your first vaccine be one brand, and a booster another.  But there had been several small scale studies, in the UK, Spain and Ecuador that suggest an increase in vaccine efficacy with the booster being a different brand from the original.  The National Institute of Health has weighed in on "Heterologous", AKA, Mix and Match, with a study involving 458 people that demonstrated that no matter the combination of vaccines, the relevant antibodies increase. 

This just in:  The CDC has just approved both Moderna and the J&J vaccines for booster shots and updated the requirements to allow mix-and-match boosters.

Long Term Problems with Asymptomatics:

We are still getting a better idea on what are some of the long term effects of Covid.  Among those that had minimal or no immediate symptoms of Covid, described as "Asymptomatic", there has been a demonstrated increase in heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event in the first 12 months after Covid recovery. 

Non-hospitalized Covid patients had a 39% increased risk of developing heart failure and a 220% increased risk of a potentially deadly blood clot, known as a pulmonary embolism, in the following year, compared with someone who didn’t develop the disease. That works out to an extra 5.8 cases of heart-failure and 2.8 cases of pulmonary embolism for every 1,000 Covid patients who were never hospitalized. 

Being hospitalized for Covid is associated with a 5.8-fold increased risk of cardiac arrest and almost a 14-fold greater chance of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, the study found.  Compare this to 4.8 extra cases of myocarditis per million for those that took the vaccine.  The normal rate of myocarditis is 1.5, per million but this is thought to be under diagnosed. But take it on face value, with the vaccine, a 3-1 increase in this treatable problem.  Without the vaccine and add Covid, 14 to 1.

Other studies are showing various symptoms in among 50% or more 3-6 months after Covid has left the system.  Mainly due to vascular damage that has taken place where Covid decided to settle in.  This one in Italy, which was ground zero in Europe.  This one in the UK is noting that "Long Hauler" symptoms among the vaccinated are milder and less reported than the unvaccinated.

Vaccine degradation:

From a not yet peer reviewed study:

Pfizer:   After 6 weeks, 95% effective.  After 6 months 84% overall, 97% preventing severe disease.

Moderna:  After 6 weeks, 95% effective.  After 6 months 90% overall, 95% preventing severe disease.

Johnson and Johnson:  Against the Delta Variant, 71% effective against hospitalization and up to 95% effective against death. So far, I have seen no evidence of a efficacy degradation over time for the J&J vaccine.  J&J is demonstrated that a booster shot raised the efficacy of their vaccine to 94%.

Keep in mind that a vaccine is considered effective at 65% efficacy.

Natural Immunity vs Vaccine:

A comparison of 2nd and 3rd cases after an original case of Covid, vice a vaccination "Breakthrough" cases was done in Kentucky, showed that previously infected Covid patients are 2.3 times as likely to be reinfected as those who have been vaccinated.  See here.

Coronavirus, The Early October Edition

Coronavirus, The Early October Edition 

By the Numbers 

The Numbers:

The number of new cases went into a steep decline starting around Sept 21. Nationwide, about 3-4.75% drops in new cases every day has been observed. In just one week the estimated number of active cases nationwide went from 3 million to 2.5 million.

Then it stopped declining. In the last week, there has been a very slight growth in the daily new cases, about .5% growth every day, causing the total cases to hover around 2.35 million. 20 states are still in a decline, the remaining are increasing their daily new cases. Overall, the states hit the hardest by this surge have had the greatest decline. Alabama, Florida, Arkansas Mississippi all have seen weekly declines of 20% or more.

States that were declining, are now surging again.  Michigan(12,200), New Hampshire (2,317), Kansas(3,030), Idaho(8,310) and Minnesota(19,300) all have seen 50% increases last week.

In Pennsylvania the number of new cases has been increasing by about 1% per day. Averaging 4,900 last week and has reported the largest single daily number for this surge last week at 6,289.

I think the cause is the churn of the schools. PA Department of Health reported that from 9/8 to 9/14 7,218 cases of Covid was identified in children. The following week it was 7,352. 10 times the cases in children last year for the same time periods. Compare that to PA's weekly numbers around 33,000, that is a serious addition.

I have no reason to believe other states are any different.

So it seems that Covid in Adults are in decline, but children are now picking up slack.

Vaccination Rates Increase:

In Pennsylvania, the number of at least partially vaccinated adults hit 85% at the end of September. Up from about 68% in August. PA Department of health reported that 95% of the Covid hospitalizations and 97% of the deaths were among the unvaccinated. Fear seems to be a good motivator.

This was reported in the "Patch".

Nationwide, the number of vaccinated has gone from 67% in July to 72% by mid September. About 13 million more Americans.  Segway too...

Is Partial Vaccinated Enough?

According to Wisconsin Department of Health Services, no.  Their count of hospitalizations by Covid for partially vaccinated people is 9 times that of fully vaccinated.  See here for their report.

It makes that 5% Covid hospitalization rate for vaccinated look even better if 9 out of 10 had not yet had their second jab.

Masks in School or Not?

The CDC published a study in Arizona schools. Schools that had masks enforced were 3.5 times less likely to have a Covid outbreak those that did not.  See here for details.

A Challange to the Anti--Vax Crowd

 By the Numbers

I have a challenge for the anti-vaxers. Convince me you are right. There must be a reason you are so passionate about not adequately protecting yourself and family.

I have heard very many of your complaints, and the problem is, that so many of them are deliberately fabricated lies that you are telling yourselves, and you believe them.

So think about this, if your side is publishing lie after obviously proven lie, then why do you think you have any credibility at all?

I would really be interested in hearing any validation of your opinion.

I'm am going to provide a few examples here.

Recently, an anti-vax comment was posted on a local neighborhood forum. "Benner Road". This forum is designed for local neighborhood issues like, lost pets or school issues. The comment was in regard to school board decisions on masking the student body vice going back to virtual learning. And it read something like, "My boyfriend from Trinidad got the vaccine and his testicles got swollen and now he is sterile, and that is why she isn't getting the vaccine."

My thought's were, that is interesting, someone in "Benner Road" has a friend in Trinidad. Now Benner Road is in suburban Pennsylvania, and has 220 subscribers. What are the odds that any of them have any contact with someone in Trinidad, a small island off the coast of South America? Let alone be friends with possibly the only person on the planet that suffered swollen testicles after getting the vaccine?

But you know, I don't know this person, it could be true. But it wasn't worth my time to comment.

Then 3 days later I hear a joking reference on BBC4 about a rap artist, Nicki Minaj, making the claim that her cousins wedding was canceled because her fiance from Trinidad suffered swollen testicles after getting the vaccine? OK, now what are the odds? There couldn't be two men from Trinidad with this problem. World wide, about 1.5 billion men have received the vaccine, and the only two men that reported this issue live in the same small country of 1.4 million? Not impossible but...

And one of them is friends with someone that lives within a quarter mile of me? This is defying credulity. Obviously one is just lying that "they know someone." And, as it turns out, they are both lying. As declared by Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsing. He declared that checking on this claim was a large waste of his departments time that could have been better spent elsewhere.

Then there was this deliberately created fabrication. Bill Gates is a fanatic on vaccines of all types, and his foundation has put serious money into things like vaccines for malaria. The anti-vax crowd has openly attacked him by declaring that this elitist is trying to save the planet by reducing the human population to a manageable level, and the Covid vaccine is part of the plan. To support that position, they published this photo.

They really rely on no-one checking on these things. 

What is actually said on the wall is literally, ENGRAVED IN STONE.

So if you tell me a more lies, why should I believe you?  More to the point, why are you believing them?

I have had as evidence presented to me that masks do not provide protection which had headlines stating they do not work, but if you actually read the article, their results show that masks do work. Or they are on articles that not about masks at all. One anti masker provided a list of 40 such studies. None actually supported their position.

Then there are those that state that masks are harmful. In Japan, mask wearing is the primary source of preventing infection. They wear them everywhere. Are we saying that the Americans more frail than the Japanese? 

And in Japan, which doesn't have a major pharmaceutical industry, had to wait 3-4 months before the vaccine was available to them. They fought the virus with social distancing and masks. The result? With 1/3 the population of the US, concentrated 10 times as many people per sq mile, 1/40th the infections and deaths. Social distancing and masks. Proof they work.

Then we have the latest surge in Covid. In every hospital the unvaccinated outnumber the vaccinated by 19-1 for Covid treatments. And yet, the unvaccinated are insisting that Ivermectin will save them. What is this based on? There has been over 50 studies on Ivermectin that showed no efficacy, but a single study from Egypt says it did. So which study does the anti-vaxers chose to believe, and repeat? Even if that study is accurate, does improving your survival rate 2-1 once you have Covid somehow better than 19-1 of not getting hospitalized to begin with?

When radio personality Bob Enyart,  KLTT-AM, Denver, claimed vaccine was developed using aborted fetal cells, where is his evidence?  Why should I believe anything else he said? FYI, he succumbed to Covid Sept 12.

The Covid deniers claim C-19 is just like the flu.  But when did the flu kill 500,000 Americans in a single year?  The answer is, the Spanish flu of 1918-1919.  Total US deaths 670,000, current Covid deaths 720,000, and as of Sept, 2021, growing about 1,500 daily.

Covid deniers constantly mock news sources MSN and CNN as fake news.  Are you trying to tell me the hospitals are not full of Covid victims?  We all know people that have died of Covid.  My personal count is 11 infected, 2 dead, 2 "long haulers", 4 had a rough go of it.  How is MSN and CNN even in this narrative?  And for the record, the last time I had on CNN was during the Jan 6 insurrection.  And MSN not at all.

How about 5G network causing the virus, promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the Disinformation Dozen?

 Covid vaccines have micochips and causes infertility.  Where is the proof?  

So please, what is the real reason for your vaccine refusal?  Bear in mind, my goal is to keep you and yours alive and healthy, stop this pandemic, so we can all go about our lives.