A judge in Harris County, Texas, ordered residents to wear face masks in public for 30 days or be faced with a fine; initially the order was also punishable by jail time.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was among those who pushed back against Hidalgo’s order, calling it an overreach driven by “hypocrisy and hysteria”. Hidalgo’s mask order faced several legal challenges, including a court petition by Dr. Steven Hotze, which stated the order is unconstitutional. Gov. Greg Abbott ended up overruling the order, saying the county could not collect the fine.
Read moreAccording to a New York Times investigation, “sloppy laboratory practices” at the CDC rendered the first U.S. coronavirus tests ineffective, with two of the three CDC laboratories creating the test kits violating their manufacturing standards.
When the FDA sent in an official to assess the issue, he noted an “astonishing lack of expertise in commercial manufacturing” and potential contamination issues.
Read moreLicorice was one of the first compounds researchers discovered was effective against the SARS virus in the lab; it has antiviral, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Glycyrrhizin is one active compound in licorice with known antiviral activities found to be effective against hepatitis C and the influenza virus.
Licorice is a versatile herb as it also acts as an expectorant, improves digestive health, supports female hormonal imbalances and lends adrenal support.
Read moreMost COVID-19 patients have more than one underlying health issue. A study looking at 5,700 New York City patients found 88% had more than one comorbidity. Only 6.3% had just one underlying health condition and 6.1% had none.
Obesity also makes you more vulnerable to infectious diseases by lowering your immune function. Elevated blood glucose levels appear to play a significant role in viral replication and the development of cytokine storms. The real pandemic here appears to be dysregulated glucose metabolism; in other words, insulin resistance.
Read moreBeing healthy and having a robust immune system is your primary defense against COVID-19. Aside from old age, people with underlying health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease are at increased risk of complications from the disease, and obesity has been found to be the biggest determinant for whether a patient will require hospitalization.
Read moreA diet of ultraprocessed food makes people more susceptible to COVID-19 by causing metabolic dysfunction and harm to the immune system.
Ultraprocessed food increases the risk of obesity, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and gallstones and compromises the gut microbiome.
Read moreThe authors of one study found evidence the risk of COVID-19 is higher in enclosed environments, such as at home or in transportation vehicles. German scientists cultured surfaces in one home where people were infected and did not find any live virus; a follow-up study is planned. Only one outbreak is known to have been passed outdoors.
Read moreThe spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the U.S. has triggered a dispute between doctors and administrative workers. Some doctors caught wearing masks in nonpatient care areas are being suspended and fired.
Administrators and department heads are concerned that consistently wearing masks may frighten patients; doctors are trying to reduce the spread of viral infections.
Health care workers are at risk for contracting and spreading the novel coronavirus and flu as they care for patients and interact with each other.
Read moreThe largest hospital system in New York state, Northwell Health, has been giving COVID-19 patients admitted into intensive care 1,500 milligrams of intravenous vitamin C three to four times a day in conjunction with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the face of the White House coronavirus response team, says life probably will not go back to normal until we have the ability to vaccinate the entire global population against COVID-19.
Yet,
Read moreYour immune system is your first line of defense against infectious diseases, and there are many different ways to boost and improve its function.
Zinc is one nutrient that plays a very important role in your immune system’s ability to ward off viral infections, and may play a vastly underrated role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zinc is vital for healthy immune function and a combination of zinc with a zinc ionophore (zinc transport molecule) was in 2010 shown to block viral replication of SARS coronavirus in cell culture within minutes.
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