“It is through body contact with the mother that the child makes its first contact with the world, through which he is enfolded in a new dimension of experience, the experience of the world of the other. It is this bodily contact with the other that provides the essential source of comfort, security, warmth, and increasing aptitude for new experiences, the fountain of which begins with breastfeeding.."
Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin by Ashley Montagu
I must have been in 5th or 6th
grade, when the principal of our elementary school walked into our room. He was very tall, a lanky elderly-looking
man. My child-mind thought he was
ancient. Now that I am older than he was
back then, I must say he wasn’t ancient!
How our perspective changes, as we get older.
This ancient man in his 3-piece suit scared me. I believed that he could only be here, if our class or someone in our class was in trouble. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what we had done wrong. Instead of getting yelled at or threatened by this adult in charge of our elementary school. He said he was going to recite one of his favorite poems from his childhood. This man had been a child? That boggled my child-mind. But fear of this adult dissipated and all 40+ classmates of mine seemed to let go of our fear of this strange adult.
The ancient one leaned against the window sill near my
seat and he began to recite a poem. His
voice was strong and the poem was long. Even as a child, I was impressed by his
ability to recite from memory a poem from his childhood. I have always remembered the first 2 lines of
the poem and mostly forgotten the rest of the poem.
“If
you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” (If by Rudyard Kipling) As a lactation consultant, I have done home
visits where parents (and sometimes the grandparents) have been panicking about
their newborn’s health and/or a mother’s ability to adequately breastfeed their
little one. Their panic has washed over
me and I have had to force my mind to stay calm. Part of my job was to calm
everyone down, so that everyone can figure out the best way to solve the
situation. In rare cases their panic was
justified. But panic is never a useful reaction to real or imagined fears. From another century Kipling’s poem speaks to
our 21st century humanity. We
must take a breathe, be that calm in the center of the storm.
I thought of this poem when I was in the grocery store
the other day. It was 7am and people
over 65 were given the opportunity to shop before the store actually opened.
There was a crowded line outside the store, which was packed with some very
sullen senior citizens. I thought I was
early because I got there at 7:02am. Most
seniors don’t get up at the crack of dawn and this was a mob scene. Some seniors had obviously gotten to the
store, hours before it was to open because they were now exiting the store with
their prizes: toilet paper and paper
towels. The look of triumph on their
faces as they walked by those of us waiting in line was curious. One might believe that grocery shopping had
become part of a Senior Food Shopping Olympic Games—winner takes all-- the
toilet paper and paper towels. One
senior winner said that he had got his necessities. I am not sure that toilet paper and paper
towels qualify as necessities. How many
trees do we cut down in order that people can wipe their butts or wipe spills
off the floor?
There were long lines in the grocery store to pay for
our prizes. Some seniors didn’t understand
that the lines snaked around the store and they cut ahead of others assuming
the line could not possibly meander around the store. At one point I thought there was going to be
a fist-fight near me over cutting in line.
Memories or should I say nightmares of lining up in school flashed in my
mind. I remember asking my parents why
the school made us line up in alphabetical order during nuclear bomb drills. We went to the basement of that old school
building to save us from a nuclear bomb. Would that save us?
Was it so God would know who we were because we were in alphabetical order when we died from a nuclear holocaust?
Back to present day reality, tempers were definitely rising
in the grocery store. I could see the
headlines, “Senior Citizens Riot in Grocery Store.” The me-first generation believes that toilet
paper and paper towels are worth fighting over. Isn’t the me- first generation
bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Only the toys are toilet paper and paper
towels!
There was some friendly faces in that senior crowd but
not many. To my surprise there were no
actual brawls or fist-fights. But I decided
I am not going to any more Senior Food Shopping Olympics. They are certainly not following the recommendation
of social distancing. And standing in
lines for long periods of time surrounded by unhappy, possibly sick, and
disgruntled people only accelerates my stress.
I was glad to go home wash my hands and practice some social
isolation. And maybe that isolation will
give me the mental energy to do some research and writing. I have been staying away from Facebook and
away from writing in my blog. My
computer’s hard drive died and for 2 months I had limited access to a
computer. I realized how much I enjoyed
the time away from the internet. I felt
peaceful and found myself writing with pen and paper. I felt like I was doing something primitive
in this day and age of computer technology.
Its simplicity was soothing to my brain.
I realized though that I depended on the computer for many things and after
a few months decided I “needed” a computer.
I missed writing on my blog. So I
am back looking at patents.
But I was not looking at patents on human milk
components. I found myself doing a
patent search on the corona virus. I
wanted to know a number of things, like what is the corona virus? I found that some researchers suspect that
some corona viruses are responsible for colds.
What about the “novel” COVID-19 corona virus? Microbiologists define novel as that which is
genetically engineered. I found a youtube
video dated 3/9/2020 of a Fox News interview of Alex Azar, Secretary of the US
Department of Health and Human Services, in which he states that SARS, MERS,
and COVID-19 are genetically modified and different from the common cold. Alex Azar was the President of Eli Lilly
& Company (USA) from 2012-2017. One
would suppose that a President of a pharmaceutical company would know a lot
about drugs and genetic engineering (since a lot of our drugs and vaccines are
genetically engineered).
Meanwhile many US news outlets state that COVID-19 is
not a man-made virus, not genetically engineered. Who is telling the truth? I believe that COVID-19 is genetically
modified. I don’t normally watch Fox
News but this statement by Alex Azar is eye-opening.
Azar's statement starts at 6:32 of the FOX News video
Azar's statement starts at 6:32 of the FOX News video
“If
you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the
same” IF by Rudyard Kipling
The history of the corona virus as seen through US
patents is interesting. In a patent
owned by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC filed in
2004 and entitled, “Coronavirus isolated from humans,” they state,
“Coronavirus have not previously been known to cause severe
disease in humans, but have been identified as a major cause of upper
respiratory tract illness, including the common cold. Repeat infections in
humans are common within and across serotype, suggesting that immune response to
coronavirus infection in humans is either incomplete or short lived.
Coronavirus infection in animals can cause severe enteric or respiratory
disease. Vaccination has been used successfully to prevent and control some
coronavirus infections in animals. The ability of animal-specific coronaviruses
to cause severe disease raises the possibility that coronavirus could also
cause more severe disease in humans (Fields et al. eds. Fields Virology, 3rd
edition, Raven Press, Philadelphia, 1323 1341, 1996; Mahey and Collier eds.
Microbiology and Microbial Infections, Volume 1 Virology, 9.sup.th edition,
Oxford University Press, 463 479, 1998).
In late 2002, cases of life-threatening respiratory disease with no identifiable etiology were reported from Guangdong Province, China, followed by reports from Vietnam, Canada, and Hong Kong of severe febrile respiratory illness that spread to household members and health care workers. The syndrome was designated "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) in February 2003 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (MMWR, 52:241 48, 2003).”
In late 2002, cases of life-threatening respiratory disease with no identifiable etiology were reported from Guangdong Province, China, followed by reports from Vietnam, Canada, and Hong Kong of severe febrile respiratory illness that spread to household members and health care workers. The syndrome was designated "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) in February 2003 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (MMWR, 52:241 48, 2003).”
In another patent owned by the US Department of Health and
Human Services and Versitech Limited of Hong Kong, filed in 2014, entitled
“Human monoclonal antibodies against the middle east respiratory syndrome
coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and engineered bispecific fusions with inhibitory
peptides,” they state,
“Emerging viruses present a serious threat to
human health and safety. In the past few decades, many infectious diseases,
such as those caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Ebola virus
(EBOV), Nipah (NiV), and Hendra (HeV) viruses, have effectively made the jump
from animal to human hosts and devastated entire populations and economies.
In 2012, a novel human coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), was isolated from a Saudi Arabian patient suffering from severe pneumonia who later died of respiratory and renal failure (see Zaki et al., N Engl. J. Med., 367: 1814-1820 (2012)).”
In 2012, a novel human coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), was isolated from a Saudi Arabian patient suffering from severe pneumonia who later died of respiratory and renal failure (see Zaki et al., N Engl. J. Med., 367: 1814-1820 (2012)).”
It appears that some researchers knew that there was a
novel corona virus that caused severe respiratory infections that morphed into
pneumonia with high mortality. It
surfaced in the Middle East as well as China, Vietnam, Canada, and Hong
Kong. The patents suggest to me that
some scientists, medical people, and researchers were aware of this as far back
as 2002. And now we have another novel corona virus that seems to be far worse
than these older, novel corona viruses. Or should we say genetically modified
corona viruses? What is known and what
is being hidden from the public?
What about the 4 US Senators who profited in the stock
market from knowledge they were privy to in the Senate. Insider trading? This became news worthy headlines, only to be
buried in an avalanche of novel COVID-19 statistics of those who tested
positive and those who died. Are we witnessing a dysfunctional government or a
emergency situation too difficult for any government to handle? Should the US Government Health Department
own patents? Has the US Department of
Health and Human Services become just a business entity with no outside
oversight? While the US government
patents are not on the novel COVID-19 virus (newly named), they certainly show
that somehow the corona virus of years ago had transformed into virulent
forms.
Genetic engineering? Alex Azar called it genetic modification. When genetic engineering is discussed in the
media, the industry waxes poetic about the wonders of the science. We are told that man-made splicing and dicing
of genes is safe. It’s in human food, infant
formula, baby food, pet and livestock foods, supplements, drugs, and vaccines. Risks
of genetic engineering: https://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/cses/2000-02/risks.html
The other day I received a post card in the mail
entitled, “President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America.” On the card
it states that for further information visit the White House and the CDC
website. One might get the impression that the CDC,
Donald Trump, and the White House wrote the Guidelines. Elections will be in
November. Who paid for the postage of
all these postcards? The CDC? Was the CDC aware that President Trump would
be using the corona virus guidelines postcard as a political
advertisement?
“If
you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap
for fools.” IF—by Rudyard Kipling
I recognize that my thoughts put down on this
particular blog post are scattered.
There is a wind storm stirring up random thoughts that to me seem
connected. It appears that this world-
wide emergency situation will not disappear as quickly as the news cycles in
our media. We are all in for some very
difficult times. My heart goes out to
everyone who is struggling. We are all
struggling with our fears of the future.
Fear can tear us apart. It can paralyze us. We no longer know what is
the Truth and what are lies. Truth has
become a thread of gossamer shimmering in the air, tossed by the winds of Greed
and Avarice.
Copyright 2020 Valerie W. McClain
