As to the Covid vaccines, Scott Adams does seem to wriggle around a lot. But I think he missed the point. The issue is trust. Each of us can only be expert in a few things, and we rely on others for the rest. I'm an engineer, but when I have car trouble I go to my mechanic. He explains the problem and the suggested solution. If it makes sense to me I give the go ahead. But ultimately I need to have a mechanic that I trust, not because he is an expert, but because I find him trustworthy. A man can be great automotive expert while not being honest. So the issue with Covid is not scientific or medical expertise. I can accept that an expert is wrong in a particular instance, but so many of these scientific and medical experts were dishonest, and that I cannot accept. Life becomes tedious if everything has to be questioned because no expert can be trusted to be honest.
Regarding bots on social media churning out stuff about hospitals overflowing with covid cases and deaths.
I do agree that we’ve been subjected to an unprecedented level of propaganda via social media and knowing whether a post is by a real person is not easy but some of those doctors/nurses with horror stories may well have been real people telling the truth.
I have a friend who’s son is an ICU nurse. Being an ICU nurse he’s used to people dying and working in challenging situations. He has told me that there were so many people dying that the nurses used to take turns spending their shifts calling relatives (of course no visitors allowed) to tell them their loved one had died. There was a room for bodies because the mortuary was often full and couldn’t take any more. He said the hopelessness of the situation, of knowing that almost everyone put in a ventilator was going to die, has seriously effected his mental health.
Being a skeptic almost from the beginning (thanks Ivor Cummings!) I now realise that what was killing so many was the lack of treatments when people first had covid symptoms (prevented by governments preventing the use of repurposed drugs) and ventilating people because the Chinese said this was what should be done (!).
The whole covid thing has been one long nightmare of government and big pharma corruption. So many people dead who could have survived with early treatment. So many medical and nursing professionals extremely unhappy and mentally scarred.
IAre you the same person thst wrote the book: Protein Power”? If you are, thst book changed my life! I was struggling with type 1 juvenile diabetes and all the things you wrote about were exactly as I suspected from experimenting with myself but my doctor was completely wrong about all diabetes stuff and really didn’t know about anything about it. When I read your book? My whole life changed! That was in 1993! I’m now 59 and thriving even though I’ve been diabetic since I was 10. I was about 28 when I read your book! I’ve read it a few times over the years and I’m about ti start reading it now!
I'm guessing that "trust the science" is a common phrase simply because there have been propaganda campaigns in the last 30+ years.
But I also know that without highly skilled medical attention, I would by now be blind in one eye from a detached retina, and separately, dead of sepsis (2 weeks with a burst appendix). And, following the advice in low carb movement, I'm a normal weight and stronger than I've ever been.
Yet the latter also pointed me to how the scientific authorities don't seem to "add up", and of course, what's said about human nature (from the fields of psychology) is that humans are prone to biases.
So life is complicated, and we're always in a difficult position when making choices. No easy answers.
Trust the science... well because it's meant to be self correcting... rational... but that self correction takes time, and anything which interferes with self correction is a big problem.
People far smarter and harder working than me do amazing things. And nobody is omniscient.
Since I was one of those people who commented last week on what I think is misplaced confidence in Peter Zeihan analysis of the situation in Ukraine, I will respond to your question. I am not and was not suggesting that because I find Douglas Macgregor or Scott Ritter persuasive that therefore you should too. What I am suggesting is that you listen to what they have to say and then decide what you find to be more persuasive. Zeihan's views reflect the consensus view, and as you yourself have found, the consensus views on both nutrition and Covid Vaccinations, while persuasive at first, when examined more closely proved to be erroneous.
The same goes with your views on Putin. I found what Putin had to say persuasive. Perhaps you would not, but I am suggesting that perhaps you should listen and consider alternative explanations for events.
This what you yourself have long suggested in the other fields.
In the end reality is the final arbiter. Those I find persuasive predict Ukraine will have lost this war by Spring. Peter Zeihan seems to think that Ukraine can win, and that the German tanks will get there in time to change the outcome as part of some Spring offensive by the Ukrainians. Time will tell which prediction is closer to the truth.
This is a PP2 comment. I would be interested in what changes in our nutritional requirements as we age. Peter Attia I think has written about a reduced need for protein as we get older, while others have said that our need increases because of a diminished metabolism. Also weight loss and physical fitness. I think you and your co-author have written about this, but I would like to know whether diet or other regimens need to be altered as we age.
You might want to include a bit about artificial sweeteners. Turns out that we have sweetness receptors all the way down our intestines - and these sweeteners increase insulin. An increase in insulin would likely increase fat storage, leading to an energy deficit - and hunger.
PP2.0 - that mention cheered me a lot; something to live for (I add not the only thing).
I ordered the Zeihan book because I too was impressed by his video explanations.
“Copy editors are the most anal creatures who draw breath”.
This reminds me of a book by an anthropologist friend. When she got the copy edit of her book back she was outraged to find that every time she had written something like “I found that …” the phrase had been changed to “It was found that …”. She was so depressed and it took a lot of argument to rectify.
We seem to have had a similar sars-cov-2 journey.
I too picked up the exaggeration from Michael Levitt in 2020 when he posted about the Diamond Princess outbreak.
“Then when the vaccines came on the scene, I was intrigued with them”. I knew the cell biology and genetics so I too thought them really clever. I took it that Pfizer was using mRNA as I know it. As I was over 80 when the rollout started in the UK I got the invite and took the first Pfizer shot first week of January 2021 and second 12 weeks later. I did not believe the hype about effectiveness but thought – it’s just mRNA that will do its job and be gone after a few minutes.
“The thing that really got me thinking was when I read the Japanese paper about the lipid nanoparticles from the vaccine ending up in various tissues throughout the body”.
Indeed, and the fact that the stuff was not mRNA as we know it but modified to last for months, and PEG. So that was the end of inoculations for me.
“How the Immune System Works” by Lauren Sompayrac, I bought the same book to get up to date! I had been rather shocked by some information presented on TV & Twitter by people who were labelled immunologists and virologists.
I too was disappointed by the Scott Adams response, it all seemed so disingenuous. I couldn’t connect with the view into life shown in the Dilbert cartoons.
I have been taking amino acid supplements for a couple of years now. Perfect amino and optimal amino are the two brands I’ve used. Both are what they call MAP formulas (master amino profile), optimal ratios for utilization.
Just curious if you are aware or have an opinion on these?
I’m almost 61 years old and use them in conjunction with my workouts hoping to get optimal protein while keeping my muscle as long as possible....
Regarding your rant. There was a significant layer of ice underneath the snow which made Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday morning treacherous to drive. I drove on Thursday and Friday to work near love field. I hiked around Garland on Tues and Wednesday ~5 miles each day. Slick enough to wear crampons. Lots of ice in my observation. Major highways weren't too bad, but city of Garland did not touch neighborhoods or many city roads. That is where the danger was. Now my thoughts. I don't know anyone who is good at driving on ice with regular street tires. Also we don't see this type of weather enough to get good at driving in it, plus cars are too expensive to have to replace right now. Too much to risk if you don't have to go out. Thank you for your work. Look forward to next week's Arrow.
I was just curious if you'll be mentioning your ROS Theory of Obesity in PP 2.0..? As I recall in Protein Power you mentioned that many Egyptian mummies after undergoing autopsies were revealed to have evidence of CVD. As I recall, you attributed this to the fact that they most likely ate many carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, and bread (wheat) since it was easily grown in the fertile Nile Valley. Were you aware of the possibility that ancient Egypt may have been the birthplace of massed produced seed oils? http://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/viewer/books/isaw_basp000006/5
As to the Covid vaccines, Scott Adams does seem to wriggle around a lot. But I think he missed the point. The issue is trust. Each of us can only be expert in a few things, and we rely on others for the rest. I'm an engineer, but when I have car trouble I go to my mechanic. He explains the problem and the suggested solution. If it makes sense to me I give the go ahead. But ultimately I need to have a mechanic that I trust, not because he is an expert, but because I find him trustworthy. A man can be great automotive expert while not being honest. So the issue with Covid is not scientific or medical expertise. I can accept that an expert is wrong in a particular instance, but so many of these scientific and medical experts were dishonest, and that I cannot accept. Life becomes tedious if everything has to be questioned because no expert can be trusted to be honest.
Regarding bots on social media churning out stuff about hospitals overflowing with covid cases and deaths.
I do agree that we’ve been subjected to an unprecedented level of propaganda via social media and knowing whether a post is by a real person is not easy but some of those doctors/nurses with horror stories may well have been real people telling the truth.
I have a friend who’s son is an ICU nurse. Being an ICU nurse he’s used to people dying and working in challenging situations. He has told me that there were so many people dying that the nurses used to take turns spending their shifts calling relatives (of course no visitors allowed) to tell them their loved one had died. There was a room for bodies because the mortuary was often full and couldn’t take any more. He said the hopelessness of the situation, of knowing that almost everyone put in a ventilator was going to die, has seriously effected his mental health.
Being a skeptic almost from the beginning (thanks Ivor Cummings!) I now realise that what was killing so many was the lack of treatments when people first had covid symptoms (prevented by governments preventing the use of repurposed drugs) and ventilating people because the Chinese said this was what should be done (!).
The whole covid thing has been one long nightmare of government and big pharma corruption. So many people dead who could have survived with early treatment. So many medical and nursing professionals extremely unhappy and mentally scarred.
Hi
IAre you the same person thst wrote the book: Protein Power”? If you are, thst book changed my life! I was struggling with type 1 juvenile diabetes and all the things you wrote about were exactly as I suspected from experimenting with myself but my doctor was completely wrong about all diabetes stuff and really didn’t know about anything about it. When I read your book? My whole life changed! That was in 1993! I’m now 59 and thriving even though I’ve been diabetic since I was 10. I was about 28 when I read your book! I’ve read it a few times over the years and I’m about ti start reading it now!
I'm guessing that "trust the science" is a common phrase simply because there have been propaganda campaigns in the last 30+ years.
But I also know that without highly skilled medical attention, I would by now be blind in one eye from a detached retina, and separately, dead of sepsis (2 weeks with a burst appendix). And, following the advice in low carb movement, I'm a normal weight and stronger than I've ever been.
Yet the latter also pointed me to how the scientific authorities don't seem to "add up", and of course, what's said about human nature (from the fields of psychology) is that humans are prone to biases.
So life is complicated, and we're always in a difficult position when making choices. No easy answers.
Trust the science... well because it's meant to be self correcting... rational... but that self correction takes time, and anything which interferes with self correction is a big problem.
People far smarter and harder working than me do amazing things. And nobody is omniscient.
Since I was one of those people who commented last week on what I think is misplaced confidence in Peter Zeihan analysis of the situation in Ukraine, I will respond to your question. I am not and was not suggesting that because I find Douglas Macgregor or Scott Ritter persuasive that therefore you should too. What I am suggesting is that you listen to what they have to say and then decide what you find to be more persuasive. Zeihan's views reflect the consensus view, and as you yourself have found, the consensus views on both nutrition and Covid Vaccinations, while persuasive at first, when examined more closely proved to be erroneous.
The same goes with your views on Putin. I found what Putin had to say persuasive. Perhaps you would not, but I am suggesting that perhaps you should listen and consider alternative explanations for events.
This what you yourself have long suggested in the other fields.
In the end reality is the final arbiter. Those I find persuasive predict Ukraine will have lost this war by Spring. Peter Zeihan seems to think that Ukraine can win, and that the German tanks will get there in time to change the outcome as part of some Spring offensive by the Ukrainians. Time will tell which prediction is closer to the truth.
This is a PP2 comment. I would be interested in what changes in our nutritional requirements as we age. Peter Attia I think has written about a reduced need for protein as we get older, while others have said that our need increases because of a diminished metabolism. Also weight loss and physical fitness. I think you and your co-author have written about this, but I would like to know whether diet or other regimens need to be altered as we age.
You might want to include a bit about artificial sweeteners. Turns out that we have sweetness receptors all the way down our intestines - and these sweeteners increase insulin. An increase in insulin would likely increase fat storage, leading to an energy deficit - and hunger.
Protein Power was helpful for providing a basis for not trusting the medical industry which served us quite well with the Covid propaganda.
Thank you.
With Scott Adams I'm thinking it's more Gell-Mann Amnesia than Dunning-Kruger effect.
PP2.0 - that mention cheered me a lot; something to live for (I add not the only thing).
I ordered the Zeihan book because I too was impressed by his video explanations.
“Copy editors are the most anal creatures who draw breath”.
This reminds me of a book by an anthropologist friend. When she got the copy edit of her book back she was outraged to find that every time she had written something like “I found that …” the phrase had been changed to “It was found that …”. She was so depressed and it took a lot of argument to rectify.
We seem to have had a similar sars-cov-2 journey.
I too picked up the exaggeration from Michael Levitt in 2020 when he posted about the Diamond Princess outbreak.
“Then when the vaccines came on the scene, I was intrigued with them”. I knew the cell biology and genetics so I too thought them really clever. I took it that Pfizer was using mRNA as I know it. As I was over 80 when the rollout started in the UK I got the invite and took the first Pfizer shot first week of January 2021 and second 12 weeks later. I did not believe the hype about effectiveness but thought – it’s just mRNA that will do its job and be gone after a few minutes.
“The thing that really got me thinking was when I read the Japanese paper about the lipid nanoparticles from the vaccine ending up in various tissues throughout the body”.
Indeed, and the fact that the stuff was not mRNA as we know it but modified to last for months, and PEG. So that was the end of inoculations for me.
“How the Immune System Works” by Lauren Sompayrac, I bought the same book to get up to date! I had been rather shocked by some information presented on TV & Twitter by people who were labelled immunologists and virologists.
I too was disappointed by the Scott Adams response, it all seemed so disingenuous. I couldn’t connect with the view into life shown in the Dilbert cartoons.
Best wishes for speedy progress on PP2.0
I have been taking amino acid supplements for a couple of years now. Perfect amino and optimal amino are the two brands I’ve used. Both are what they call MAP formulas (master amino profile), optimal ratios for utilization.
Just curious if you are aware or have an opinion on these?
I’m almost 61 years old and use them in conjunction with my workouts hoping to get optimal protein while keeping my muscle as long as possible....
I do believe that Doug McGregor IS the de facto expert on UKR. And Russia is about to clean that up.
He has no illusions about the US, and did advise Trump (who did OK on UKR).
Veritas (Twitter) appears to have singlehandedly destroyed Pfizer. Could make criminal cartels illegal.
Regarding your rant. There was a significant layer of ice underneath the snow which made Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday morning treacherous to drive. I drove on Thursday and Friday to work near love field. I hiked around Garland on Tues and Wednesday ~5 miles each day. Slick enough to wear crampons. Lots of ice in my observation. Major highways weren't too bad, but city of Garland did not touch neighborhoods or many city roads. That is where the danger was. Now my thoughts. I don't know anyone who is good at driving on ice with regular street tires. Also we don't see this type of weather enough to get good at driving in it, plus cars are too expensive to have to replace right now. Too much to risk if you don't have to go out. Thank you for your work. Look forward to next week's Arrow.
As for long covid... you may be interested in this story which just came out a couple of days ago:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-prevalence-covid-university-community.html
Hello Dr. Mike...
I was just curious if you'll be mentioning your ROS Theory of Obesity in PP 2.0..? As I recall in Protein Power you mentioned that many Egyptian mummies after undergoing autopsies were revealed to have evidence of CVD. As I recall, you attributed this to the fact that they most likely ate many carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, and bread (wheat) since it was easily grown in the fertile Nile Valley. Were you aware of the possibility that ancient Egypt may have been the birthplace of massed produced seed oils? http://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/viewer/books/isaw_basp000006/5
After watching the clip of Scott Adams, my thought is Always Postpone Watching Videos by Time-Wasting Cartoonists.