Thoughts on ME/CFS and Long Covid
and on what to investigate re: the provincial COVID-19 response
Hello to the Honored Members of the Alberta Legislature,
thank you for the work you do, much of it behind the scenes, as you plow your way through correspondence such as ours.
When it comes to what appears to be your most recent Order Paper (May 22, 2022), it is not clear how far discussion on these motions has come, but if we may make some suggestions at this time, please consider the following:
Hon. Mr. Yaseen to propose the following motion: Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly a) condemn all forms of discrimination against individuals that are based on the individual's race, ethnicity, faith or gender because Albertans value religious, ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity;
Please add: medical choices as another protected ground.
Then add statements like:
affirm the right of all Albertans to participate fully in public life, specifically the right to choose or decline medical treatment without fear of punishment, reprisal, deprivation, segregation or physical / psychological harm;
and d) express its opposition to any federal government health related mandate which unfairly prohibits public servants or other individuals from travelling, gaining or maintaining employment, from exercising their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Further down, we note:
Mr. Stephan to propose the following motion: Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to conduct an independent, comprehensive, public review into the Government’s COVID-19 response, including a full cost analysis of public health measures and Government restrictions.
Are you aware of the initiative for a National Citizen's Inquiry as noted here: https://tbof.ca/news/
Perhaps as you formulate your terms of reference, you can connect with the organizers of this initiative to compare notes.
As well, hopefully by now you have heard some of the testimonies that came forward at the citizens' hearing put on by the Canadian Covid Care Alliance and moderated by former CBC journalist Trish Wood.
See the hearings and the highlights here:
https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/.
We recommend that the following be included in this review:
- The line of command between the federal PHAC and the provincial CMOH, i.e. questions like: To what degree is the provincial CMOH able to question the directives, demand proof of efficacy, safety, necessity of the various therapeutics, vaccines, treatments, etc. recommended by the PHAC? What would have happened if someone at the Alberta level had addressed Dr. Fauci's foreknowledge on the lethality of Remdisivir as that drug was being added to the treatment plan across the country, copying the directives he gave in the USA? Would a provincial body have had true jurisdiction in health care matters had they refused to comply with what appears to have been a federal directive?
- The composition and role of the Scientific Advisory Group. It should be clear to everyone by now that the type of expertise that these kinds of declared pandemics require (immunologist, computational biologist, virologist, vaccinologist, etc.) was not reflected in the makeup of the SAG. It appears that AHS just relied on a pre-existing group which was not really constituted for the current needed skill set. Why were the expert voices as represented by many members of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance NOT reflected? We are also aware that Drs. Hodkinson and Modrey repeatedly offered to speak to the members of the Legislative Assembly in order to point decision makers into the correct direction but that they were declined.
- How and why were the professionals who deal in emergency response and emergency preparedness NOT called into action and why was the emergency planning for all province-wide institutions left to a department that was neither qualified nor prepared? Please see the series of Pandemic Alternative videos posted here: https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/media-resources/pandemic-alternative/ and consult with Retired Lieutenant-Colonel David Redman (the former Director of Emergency Management Alberta) as you prepare for this investigation, as this angle cannot be left out. (See his bio here: https://tbof.ca/about-us/david-redman/.
- The independence of the provincial colleges of physicians, surgeons, dentists, etc. etc. What is their line of command? Do they immediately bow to the dictates of the PHAC or are they to respond primarily to directions given them by the provincial CMOH, and if the latter, how is it that all provincial colleges seemed to be giving the same message nationwide? (NO exemptions except after the damage from the first shot, then only the other shot as the alternative, and this MONTHS after VAERS and peer reviewed data were already pointing to a clear lack of safety, efficacy etc.). Related to this is the question of liability, should a vax-injured client start legal action against the pharmacist who did the actual injection, where would the pharmacist get someone to have their back? At the college level, the provincial level, the federal level? Are you aware that the Austrian health ministry is now trying to push liability onto the doctors they ordered around instead of owning up to their guilt as the driver behind the widespread coercion? Are you also aware of a European judge siding with the insurance company refusing any injury payout on the grounds that patients chose to endanger themselves when taking the jab, despite being coerced to do so? What would be the government's response in the not too distant future, if Canadian insurance agents followed suit and the population responded in an angry uproar against you in response?
- Also the question of authorizing off-label usage for medication. Apparently this can be done at the provincial level, but staff at that level deferred to the federal level and did not allow pharmacists to dispense ivermectin for example. What sort of "big stick" did the federal level hold over the provinces this time around? Was it the threat of withholding health care funding? Would provincial staff ever have had the authority to ask for proof to back up the denial? ... They should have had that authority. Why might they have neglected to use it?
- Please also add the possibility that health authorities, hospitals, etc. might have received more dollars if they could declare more patients as COVID patients, regardless of authenticity. News from the US clearly points in that direction.
- Likewise in the section "Following the Science" of the Compilation of Letters and Research evidence (first posted in October 2021) the lay-written articles raise many unanswered questions, for many of which the public repeatedly sought answers from government officials - answers that are still not forthcoming to this day. See https://followingthecovidscience.8b.io/page3.html#content2-30 In particular Document # 16, but many others shown here https://r.8b.io/387157/assets/files/Part_B_intro_and_5_9.pdf could be of great interest as the inquiry questions are drafted.
- Please also look at the perspective of the medical education programs themselves. We hear that the field of natural immunity is barely addressed in med school. What aspect in medical professional development has so crowded the curriculum that medical professionals do not learn to follow basic lines of questioning during their training such that in the field they simply follow suit? This reminds us of inquiries done in Germany post WWII in which the question was: How come so many Germans simply followed orders? Are you aware that major changes were made to the German school system post WWII as a result, to train students in critical questioning and thought so that never again would authoritarian leadership be able to count on automatic compliance?
- The disconnect between the "evidence-based" curriculum taught in health care-related education programs stood out starkly against the everyday realities of policies enacted at the bureaucratic level in these institutions. How will the government need to respond to current and recent students and instructors in the face of mandates and policies that did not hold up to scrutiny? See document 25 here: https://r.8b.io/387157/assets/files/Part_B_intro_and_5_9.pdf
- Certainly a read through the Employment section could provide plenty of additional ideas for questions to add to this investigation: https://r.8b.io/387157/assets/files/Part_F_Employment.pdf as could a number of other sections, for example Legalities: https://r.8b.io/387157/assets/files/Part_E_intro_plus_45_49.pdf.Please expand the review to include the matter of provincial court judges taking "judicial notice" of the "facts" re: federal health policy, but if that policy (i.e. vax mandates) was never grounded in factual realities - i.e. the true safety, necessity and efficacy of the products, then how on earth can judges just take "judicial notice" without doing any actual judgement upon stated "facts"?
- See all the Sections here
https://followingthecovidscience.8b.io/
- Check out the recommendations here: https://r.8b.io/387157/assets/files/PART_I_second_half_of_Recommendations.pdf This includes one on the need to make D-Dimer testing routinely available to those who have been injected as an early warning system to indicate the presence of blood clotting. Better a few minutes and dollars spent on a test that demonstrates clotting, along with anticoagulant treatment, instead of days and months of strain on the health care system with vascular and clotting related issues and eventual fatalities.
- Finally, we are not sure how your investigation can address this, but to what degree has corporate controlled (BigPharma invested) social media managed to wear down on critical thought? Please note the possible role of concepts such as Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, Dr. Mattias Desmet's concept of mass formation and Peter Sandman's take on adjustment reactions, and thoughts of David Robson as you investigate further: See our post entitled The Grand Quest - Part 2 on this Substack.
(Image links: http://www.mefmaction.com/docs/COVID-longhaulers.pdf https://www.ajourneythroughthefog.co.uk/2019/05/common-myths-about-me-cfs-debunked/
And lastly, for this motion:
509. Mr. Nielsen to propose the following motion: Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to take any necessary steps to immediately create and implement a comprehensive strategy for the medical condition known as “long COVID,” to support Albertans suffering long-term health impacts due to COVID-19 infection.
YEAH! Please keep in mind that Long COVID is not the only post-viral infectious condition around. Many Albertans suffer with ME/CFS or myalgic encephalomyelitis which can arise following a range of different viral infections. ME/CFS is several times more common than Parkinson’s, lung cancer, AIDS or MS in Canada. ME/CFS patients are among the most underserved patients in the country with top levels of unmet needs, going back decades already. So it is high time that patients with ME/CFS (the newest group to join being those post COVID/post COVID-vaccination) are finally given attention. Pre-pandemic, there were an estimated 50,000 Albertans with this condition, and next to no full time specialists to whom doctors could turn for advice. Please see this article by Dr. Arnie Voth: https://cpsa.ca/news/guest-column-the-orphan-patients/ which explains how physicians are quick to push ME patients out, as their histories and treatments are so complex. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Instead of using the fear of LongCOVID as a reason to drive people to “get the jab,” it is high time that patients who suffer from LongCOVID are given safe and effective treatment, and that preventative therapeutics are made available to prevent both COVID-19 and LongCOVID in the wider population. Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and a range of other therapeutics have a proven track record of safety and efficacy for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19 patients. This may sound unbelievable to the many who have fallen victim to the massive amounts of BigPharma driven misinformation that states the opposite.
Now, when we hear “safe and effective early treatment” in the mainstream we are to equate that with Pfizer's latest "wonderdrug" Paxlovid which was ordered even before Dr. Tam's office finished the approval process and which is not proving itself to be as viable as the older antivirals are.
The main reason for the numbers of Long-COVID cases is the lack of any proper treatment of COVID-19 itself. The second is the mis-diagnosis of vaccine injury. The World Council for Health has prepared this classification of the 8 categories of Post Covid-19 injection Syndrome (PCOiS) https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/resources/a-practical-approach-to-keeping-healthy-after-your-covid-19-jab/#pCoVS-pCoIS . This list of symptoms will sound very familiar to both Long COVID and ME/CFS patients. Please see to it that interested medical and research professionals have easy access to antivirals for the treatment of PostCOVID as well as other post-infectious ME/CFS patients. For example, this protocol for LongCOVID is yielding positive results https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/i-recover-long-covid-treatment/ and could be replicated here in Alberta - all that is needed is some political will to overturn the provincial medical college's restrictions against these inexpensive treatments that stand in BigPharma's way. Such directives have already been announced in over 28 US states: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/28-states-have-legislation-to-promote-ivermectin-access.html.
The ME/CFS Consensus documents referenced here might contain welcome information for medical professionals baffled with the symptoms being reported by their patients post COVID/COVID vax. http://www.mefmaction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=215&Itemid=262;
See also http://www.mefmaction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=288&Itemid=356 for considerations re: accommodation of the chronically ill in educational settings, something we will undoubtedly need to consider increasingly in the months/years ahead due to the injection of children, teens and young adults up until now.
The Winter 2020 issue of the Newsletter of the National ME/FM Action Network outlines a report prepared by the European ME network that recommended the following:
The report recommends 2 to 4 ME specialists per million population. The specialists would have “a supporting multi-disciplinary team” which could include “nurses, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, psychologists, dieticians, social workers etc.” The report ends by noting that the following sectors need to be involved in discussion establishing and supporting ME health services: • the health sector (to develop and evaluate services and to adopt guidelines) • the public health sector (to raise awareness) • the higher education sector (to provide training) • the education sector (so they know how to accommodate students with ME) • the employment sector (so they know how to accommodate employees with ME) • funding agencies and the pharma industry
http://www.mefmaction.com/images/stories/quest_newsletters/Quest126.pdf (p.2.)
Note that even prior to COVID, Alberta has had nowhere near this level of specialists/supporting teams. Obviously with the addition of Long COVID patients to the mix, the ratio recommended here will need to be significantly increased.
For a better understanding of ME/CFS (and by extension of Long-COVID/PCOiS) we invite to to try answering this Mythbusting Quiz and considering the information the answer key contains:
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/me-cfs-myth-busting-quiz-from-2008-but-still-relevant.24221/ Note: that while the references are around 15 years old, nothing much has changed in the lives of ME/CFS patients in the past 15 years.
The one exception is the recent international research project as part of the Open Medicine Foundation Canada's "End ME/CFS" initiative. If you have not already done so, please make a point of including Dr. Alain Moreau in your deliberations on this motion. https://www.omfcanada.ngo/collaborative-research-center-montreal/ However, it will certainly take a lot of time for research findings to make their way into initiatives that improve the everyday lives of ME/CFS, Post Covid-Vax, and LongCOVID patients.
For those with an interest in learning more, please reply to this email, as many practical suggestions have already been made and previously shared with AHS officials.
Thank you for your consideration of these suggestions re: your Order Paper.
Hopefully there are still ways in which they can be considered at this point in time.
hannah luise
Concerned Citizen