One Outta Two Ain't Bad
The Covid Experiment was a success for me - not so much for my son. While my 21 year old boy (who was not vaccinated) developed Covid symptoms and a positive test result about 5 days after close contact with his infected college friend, I myself never developed symptoms even after intentional and very close exposure to three highly infected family members for over 10 days.
By the way, I am 67 years old, maybe 10-15 lbs extra around the middle and have not received any vaccines (although, I recommend it for people with comorbidities). I recently concluded a 12 month NIH study in Durham, NC which involved quarterly blood testing looking for coronavirus antibodies. I was antibody negative throughout the study and have documentation on this as well.
My ex-wife (who I affectionately call "Covid-Mary") was fully vaccinated but still developed what might be labeled as moderate to severe infection with repeated vomiting and strong dry coughs approximately every 5 minutes. This lasted for many days during the beginning of our experiment. To test the effectiveness of these strategies, I would sit one foot away from here and engage in long conversations while she coughed continuously in my direction (at my request).
Should we listen to just a few or ALL scientists?
The purpose of The Covid Experiment was to determine if infection could be prevented by incorporating the latest findings from immunology research centers around the world. For example, Harvard University in Boston, MA , has a research branch dedicated to investigating how our immune system can lose effectiveness after exposure to what are called "endocrine disrupting chemicals." These compounds are found in many consumer products today, therefore, by identifying their source and engaging in strict avoidance, we should be able to restore higher quality immune function.
Along with this, dozens of peer reviewed studies have also been published in the field known as Nutritional Immunology. Scientists involved in this medical branch have identified specific compounds in fruits and vegetables (called polyphenols) that can block viral attachment to body cells, as well as enhance specific immune system defenses such as natural killer cells, that are highly effective in removing virus infected cells. When these defenses are functioning properly (and not weakened by endocrine disrupting chemicals or lack of specific polyphenols), evidence has demonstrated viral growth and infection of nearby cells can be aborted early on, before symptoms appear and before the virus has a chance to spread - more on this in a moment.
Concentrated COVID-19 Exposure Begins
After several days of preparation for this event, I put myself in harm's way and intentionally sat 2-3 feet in front of Covid Mary (who, at the time was engaged in strong "dry coughs" at approximately 5 minute intervals). This was done to insure I received the maximum exposure and inhalation of concentrated viral particles each time she coughed. This seating arrangement was consistent for about two hours each night for 4-5 nights in a row. None of us in the family wore masks and at no point were any disinfectants or hand sanitizers used. Personally, I may have washed my hands once or twice a day with standard bar soap. My son, who also tested positive from his college PCR test, sat within feet of me at dinner and during our TV time in the evening.
Even with this concentrated exposure (and more), I was not only unable to develop Covid symptoms, but was unable to become infected as well. This lack of positive infection was confirmed by five consecutive negative Covid antigen tests at approximately 2 day intervals (which were positive for my three family members).
Can't Get Infected - Go to PLAN B
Since I was unable to become infected during the first 5 days of intense exposure to family members, I resorted to a procedure similar to that used by Stanford University to infect college students involved in influenza research. This included taking a Q-tip nasal swab that was previously inserted into my son's nose and rotated for 5 seconds and then placing the Q-tip into my left nostril and rotating for 5 seconds as well. (
For anyone in research or media, we have a video of this process).
Even when using this second Q-tip nasal exposure, subsequent testing showed I was still unable to become infected and test positive for COVID-19.
I want to emphasize that what I did in The Covid Experiment should under no circumstances be tried by others or severe illness WILL most likely occur. The research and time put into preparation was highly detailed and involved a number of strategies outlined in nearly a dozen medical journals pertaining to Endocrine Toxicology and Nutritional Immunology. Details of these are discussed in earlier blogs and from links in the blog menu.
Vaccines Do Save Lives
I do want to emphasize that the medical literature and statistics do show vaccines reduce the risk of death to those with comorbidities such as high blood pressure, obesity, heart conditions, diabetes, obesity and others. With that said, the observations from The Covid Experiment clearly show that environmental, dietary and lifestyle changes offer tremendous potential for enhancing immunity, thereby lowering the risk of infection and severity of illness. Certainly, the benefits these strategies could offer to society on a larger scale should not be ignored.
What did we learn?
The obvious takeaway from this experiment is that the human body appears to have a multitude of defenses that can protect us from viral infection. These defenses include immune system white blood cells known as natural killer cells - helper T-cells - CD8 Killer cells and regulatory T-cells - (with the natural killer cells and regulatory T-cells also showing the ability to stop autoimmunity or calm down an "out of control immune system" (as in a cytokine storm).
However, these defenses appear to only reach an effective threshold upon applying specific lifestyle and elevated dietary modifications - and all must be implemented simultaneously for the threshold to be reached.
Thank you Harvard University
Again, all strategies I implemented were developed from conclusions reported in dozens of peer-reviewed journals investigating immune system toxicology and nutritional immunology. I would like to especially thank Dr. Wu and his colleagues at Harvard University for their excellent study which identified 34 Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) in a wide variety of consumer products. EDCs can mimic immune hormones known as cytokines, which can severely disrupt proper immune system function. Avoidance of these compounds were a major part of my strategy and strictly adhered to during the experiment. Dr. Wu's study was published in the Dec. 2021 journal Environmental International. (link also below).
Thank you University of Tuebengin
I also wish to thank Dr. Christian Leischner and his five colleagues for their excellent study investigating plant polyphenols and their ability to stimulate natural killer cell growth and function. Because natural killer cells have been identified as the human body's most powerful defense against Covid-19 (or any viral infection), the majority of meals were planned to include specific fruits and vegetables identified to enhance natural killer cell replication and function. This study was published in the May 4, 2016 Nutrition Journal. (link also below)
Why viral infections will return with greater severity in the near future
Whether it's 2, 5 or 10 years from now, it appears viral infections will return with far greater intensity and affect more people at younger ages. This is the apparent conclusion when looking at the findings from the National Institutes of Health 40 year Longitudinal Study on Aging. Their study, based in Baltimore, MD, began in 1958 and followed the health status of thousands of adults for decades until its conclusion in 2002. The results were published in the 2007 Journal of American College of Cardiology. (link also at bottom of this post).
Their main findings were that the U.S. population has been experiencing a nearly one-half of 1% percent annual decline in critical immune system white blood cells (that protect all of us from viral infection) since 1958. Along with this, the percentage of the U.S. population with white blood counts below 3,500 (the lowest number needed to avoid higher risk of illness) increased from 1 person per 1000 in 1958 - to 7 per 1000 in 1990 - and to 22 people per 1000 in 2002. This trend suggests we are nearing 80 people per 1000 in 2022. This represents a nearly 8000% increase in the number of people today with dangerously low white blood counts that increase viral infection - compared to adults in 1960.
Why I conducted "The Covid Experiment"
I"m sure you would agree the numbers you just read of steadily decreasing immune function among the U.S. population is startling to say the least (and can be corroborated from links below). It sums up rather well why The Covid Experiment needed to be done and why it needs to be replicated with larger groups of people. Without question, we cannot vaccinate ourselves into normality and the negative trends in immune integrity are undeniable. This next point cannot be understated:
Unless the reasons for our continued annual decline in immune system counts (as documented in medical journals) are debated and discussed openly by those in public health agencies and cable television (and understood by Congressional members in charge of EPA/FDA funding and public policy) - overall public health will continue to decline rapidly resulting in an inability to maintain adequate goods and services required by society. This will be compounded by an exponential increase in citizens experiencing physical and mental health issues far beyond that which society can accommodate.
These last two sentences summarize the reasons why "The Covid Experiment" needs to be continued. I have now summarized over 50 peer-reviewed studies investigating endocrine disrupting toxicology and nutritional immunology which can be viewed on my FB page and on a website I set up for this topic at www.coronanlm.com. Certainly, if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences as a society in the next few years, the topics of environmental toxicology and nutritional immunology can no longer be ignored because of media concern for losing advertisers. Ironically, failure to disseminate these medical findings to the public now will result in exponentially worse financial repercussions certainly within a decade and most likely in the next 2-5 years.
All about Natural Killer Cells Baby..
The scientific takeaway from all of this is that prevention of any viral infection seems attainable and determined by the quantity and quality of our white blood cells known as Natural Killer (NK) cells and their ability to communicate with other cells through immune hormones known as cytokines. While making up about 5% of all your body's immune cells, NK cells are your first responders that can destroy a virus infected cell in minutes (unlike the 3 days it takes for antibodies to join in).
Even more important, our NK cells receive hormone alarm signals (technically called cytokines) emitted from cells in our nose, throat, or lung - seconds after they become infected with a virus. If the NK cell is able to understand these early warning signals, they multiply rapidly while also screaming out their own cytokine hormones. This activates armies of other downstream immune cells called T-cells who then suit-up and race over to join the virus fire-fight. We then have NK and T-cells working together, communicating strategies in perfect sync - with the end result being able to perform some major virus whoop-ass.
Cell Communications Disrupted by EDCs
Unfortunately, the scientific evidence is now telling us the ability of natural killer cells, T-Cells and other immune cells to receive or understand important cytokine signals (basically talk back and forth) can be severely disturbed by what are called endocrine disrupting chemicals (aka EDCs). These synthetic compounds mimic our natural immune hormones which in turn allows them to "fool" important receptors on our cells. When this happens, the chemical imposters attach onto cell receptors designed to receive critical immune status updates from our "true '' natural cytokine hormones. In other words, even small levels of certain synthetic chemicals can attach onto the body's natural immune cytokine receptors which then makes our body cells (or immune cells) behave in ways they NEVER would have behaved normally. In other words, going from a well polished army to rag-time chaos.
So, where do these EDCs come from that cause our immune systems to become flailing morons? Main culprits identified so far include plastic bottles, Bisphenol liners in canned food, laundry products, cosmetic thickeners and preservatives, fragrances, pesticides in food such as DDT and atrazine, disinfectants, plastic food containers, household paint and even carpeting and vinyl laminate flooring used in homes everywhere. In other words, there's a whole lotta EDCs out there that can strip intelligence from our immune system.
Time for a New Blog
Since I have personally been able to avoid coronavirus infection in extreme exposure settings, it would be worthwhile to take what's been learned and expand upon this in the future. While it isn't realistic to have others with comorbidities engage in the strategies and exposure settings I have undertaken, it would seem highly beneficial to implement these strategies with at least two groups of individuals.
Next Steps
Since I have personally been able to avoid coronavirus infection in extreme exposure settings, it would be worthwhile to take what's been learned and expand upon this in the future. While it isn't realistic to have others with comorbidities engage in the strategies and exposure settings I have undertaken, it would seem highly beneficial to implement these strategies with at least two groups of individuals. For example:
GROUP 1
College students with no comorbidities and whose lymphocyte counts are above 2,000. These are typically healthy individuals who are almost always asymptomatic.The students could engage in the preventive strategies outlined in the current studies (avoidance of EDCs and inclusion of a high polyphenol diet). They would engage in these interventions for one week, and then be exposed to COVID positive patients in close proximity...Perhaps playing cards and conversing at a 2 foot distance for a one hour time period. However, the end point for this study would be to identify the percentage of exposed students who avoided infection completely (i.e. tested negative for Covid-19 daily for 10 days with a PCR or antigen test).
GROUP 2
Individuals experiencing what is called Long Haul or Long Covid. These individuals have symptoms of debilitating chronic fatigue, breathing difficulties, body aches and more which continue 50-200 days after their initial Covid diagnosis. Some have been found to be Covid-19 positive even 4 months after infection. These individuals would be key recruits for a study such as this. About a half dozen studies focusing on Long Covid now show they have one or more critical defects in immune system function. This includes:
- Abnormal T-cells (which support NK cells in the viral attack)
- Abnormal B-cells (which make antibodies against the virus)
- Excessive type-1 interferon levels (which elevates autoimmune attack)
- High levels of autoantibodies attacking healthy tissue
- Abnormal numbers and types of gut bacteria (which control immune function)
- Reduction in natural killer cells (needed to turn off antigen producing cells).
In other words, people with Long Covid show evidence of severe immune dysfunction compared to people who recover from infection rapidly. If this wasn't discouraging enough, Long Haul patients have also been found to have high rates of "gut dysbiosis" (abnornal gut bacteria).
This term gut dysbiosis is used to define the condition of having low numbers or types of beneficial gut bacteria and/or high harmful bacteria. Beneficial gut bacteria can migrate to other locations in the body and seed beneficial bacteria in the lungs and nasal cavity - which then function to remove viral pathogens in these and other areas of the body.
Our good bacteria (also called microbiota) can increase what are called regulatory T-cells which have been documented to turn-off autoimmunity. Since Long Covid patients have also been shown to have high autoantibodies (which cause autoimmunity), it would suggest restoring proper gut bacteria could be extremely helpful in reducing painful symptoms.
As the research shows all of these abnormalities can be improved by meticulous environmental and dietary interventions - it would suggest tremendous potential for alleviating Long Covid symptoms at minimal cost.
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DOCUMENTATION SUPPORTING THE COVID EXPERIMENT
Below are links to five peer-reviewed studies I used to support the rationale and strategies used in The Covid Experiment. Click any link to view the study from the NIH National Library of Medicine database.
NIH study documenting the annual decline of immune system white blood counts in the U.S. population -- This study clearly lays the mathematics why far worse viral infections are unavoidable in the next few years.
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