The Grinch Who Stole Christmas And Other Villains

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” is a relatively recent (1957) Christmas story by Dr. Seuss that has a serious theme objecting to the commercialization of Christmas, while at the same time, delighting children with a happy ending. Upon hearing a joyous Christmas song, the Grinch realizes that “maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more” and returns all the presents he has stolen.

There are, of course, other Grinches who steal from us and never give back anything.

The Grinch who Stole Thanksgiving

Take, for instance, the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving. That would be our beloved Governor Kate Brown who ordered Oregonians this year to forgo family for Thanksgiving and eat alone, lest we spread the Wuhan flu that is running wild. This Grinch even cleared out Oregon’s jails so that she would have room for Oregon families that defied her and invited their relatives over for a celebration. Presumably she was even prepared to jail those who ate too much turkey.

Joy is now forbidden, according to Wanna-be President Joe Biden’s decree of a “Dark Winter.” We are supposed to be quiet and OBEY. Biden is even contemplating a ‘100 day mask mandate’ for all, regardless of whether necessary or appropriate or wise. Those who have recovered from the coronavirus or who get a vaccination are presumably very unlikely to catch COVID and infect others. But such logic is far beyond Geriatric Joe. He wants to exercise presidential power, if he ever gets it.

The Grinch who Stole 2020

Of course, the Wuhan flu (as the Chinese call the coronavirus) is a serious issue, but not one you want to leave to the “experts.” They wear narrow blinders in addition to masks so that they can impose quarantines that did not work with the Spanish flu a century ago and are not working now. The blinders allow them to ignore all the damaging effects of lock-downs, from economic damage to suicides to loss of classroom instruction for children. President Trump understood all of this. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci did not.

Astonishingly, primary care physicians in the Portland area are still failing to recommend any treatments for those who test positive for the Wuhan flu, preferring to wait for them to be hospitalized before beginning treatments. That could be too late. These physicians seem largely unaware that several therapies have proven effective at reducing severity and even mortality, if administered early in a COVID infection.

Thanks to the efforts of several of us, the Oregon Pharmacy Board is no longer blocking one medicine known to improve outcomes, hydroxychloroquine. It immediately fell into disfavor when President Trump touted its efficacy. Deep blue Oregon would never do anything the President recommends, even if it saved lives.

Here is what an accomplished pharmacist and a top notch physician are recommending for others and for themselves, should they contract COVID:

TO PREVENT SEVERE SYMPTOMS FROM COVID-19, these approaches that have been tested, but are not yet ‘officially approved.’

• Nebulization for 5-10 minutes daily with an inhaled steroid, such as Budesonide. Use pediatric Budesonide and a nebulizer (not an inhaler for asthma).
• Oral administration of H1 and H2 antihistamines, twice per day.

Cetirizine (Zyrtec, H1 antihistamine, 10 mg) + Famotidine (Pepcid, H2 antihistamine, 20 mg)

These are known to prevent deadly cytokine storms.

Other H1 antihistamines: Loratidine (Claritin) and Fexofenadine (Allegra).

Other H2 antihistamines: Cimetidine (Tagamet) and Ranitidine (Zantac).

• Vitamin C and D daily in large doses.
• Hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin (Z-pack) + large doses of Zinc

Some of these medicines require a prescription. Check with your physician to see what choices and doses are best for you. Show your physician this list, to start the discussion. Do not take ‘no’ for an answer, especially if you are at least 60 years old and at high risk.

20/20 hindsight says that President Trump did exactly the right thing by stopping the Chinese from exporting the Wuhan flu as soon as it became obvious that it was both dangerous and highly infectious. He did what the Chinese did with their own people in Wuhan: keep them from spreading it. But they did not stop their citizens from spreading it internationally, and Trump halted flights from China and then from Europe, when the virus gained a foothold there. He also did the right thing by imposing a brief quarantine to try to halt the spread. And his strong advocacy for a vaccine ‘cure’ as well as therapies short of a cure will save many lives. Thank you, Mr. President.

When it became obvious to those with access to the data that there was a great difference in risk of death between the old (especially with underlying illnesses) and the young in good health, the medical community should have realized that they were dealing with two substantially different illnesses caused by the same virus. Those under 60 in good health could go on with their lives, risking hardly more than inconvenience from COVID-19. They never needed to quarantine, except to stay away from those at severe risk. Older people who are at severe risk need to avoid situations where they might contract the virus. More than half of all deaths in Oregon have occurred in those 80 and older.

This is quite different from the yearly influenza epidemics, where all ages are at risk and many die.

COVID raced through nursing homes, especially where clueless governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York actually sent infected people to nursing homes. His actions caused thousands of preventable deaths, and he has never apologized. The television industry even gave him an Emmy Award for his grandstanding during the worst of the outbreak in New York State.

Now we are being told that infections are soaring once again. That is true. Figure 1 shows that the United States has suffered three waves of the virus, each worse than the last. But the death rate from far more cases today is roughly the same as it was with the original peak in April. This means that many more people are surviving, because those getting sick are younger now, and we have better ways of treating COVID than we did just just six months ago.

The Grinch who stole this entire year, caused 1.5 million deaths around the world, and has never apologized is the President of China, Xi Jinping. As the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, he is responsible for everything from the high security laboratory in Wuhan that studied the virus, presumably for use as a biological weapon, and intentionally or accidentally released it on the world, to all the lying and cover-up afterwards, for which such totalitarian types are famous.

Grinches who Stole the Presidential Election

We cannot finish with the subject of Grinches without mentioning the many Democrats who have never stopped attacking President Trump since he was elected in 2016 and appear to have let loose their election thieves to deny Trump a second term.   This is still a developing story where we do not know if the Grinches will succeed, because they face someone who does not give up easily, Donald Trump. The culprits are ultimately the leaders of the Democrat Party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Leaders are always the Grinches we need to hold responsible, not the many lesser villains who do their bidding.

Gordon J. Fulks lives in Corbett and can be reached at gordonfulks@hotmail.com. He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago’s Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research.