Narcissists all follow the same patterns — here are some of the most common phrases they use to manipulate you
Narcissists often follow the same pattern in relationships: idealize, devalue, discard.
They also have a certain way of talking to manipulate their victims.
Here are some things narcissists are likely to say in relationships, and when to expect them.
It’s possible to meet someone and feel like you’ve known them your whole life. Often, this just means you’re comfortable in each other’s company.
But sometimes it can be a sign of something more sinister — particularly if someone you’re dating is professing their love for you when you’ve only known them for five minutes.
Narcissists sometimes engage in “love bombing” — pretending to be everything you’ve ever wanted, only to turn it back on you further down the line. It’s a manipulative tactic to reel in their targets. First, they shower them with affection and gifts. Then, they start gaslighting and abusing their victim, causing them to wonder what’s real. It’s all part of the plan to gain total control.
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Although there’s no global summit for all dark triad people to get together and discuss their tactics, they do seem to operate in a similar way.
“It’s like they read from the same manual, even though nobody gives them that manual,” said psychologist Perpetua Neo, who works with victims of narcissistic abuse. “They’re almost programmed in the same way.”
Here are certain phrases narcissists use, and ways they express things, that may be eerily familiar to anyone who has dealt with one.
They love bomb you during the idealization stage.
The Good Brigade/Getty Images
Relationships with narcissists move very quickly. Neo said some people simply do mesh really well, because they have similar interests and complement each other’s differences.
“But anybody who tries to do it too quickly early on is basically accelerating intimacy, and that is bad news,” she said. “Anybody who has to do that suggests they are doing something a bit creepy.”
In the first few weeks narcissists will say things like:
“You’re my soul mate.”
“I’ve never met anyone like you before.”
“You understand me so much better than anyone else.”
“It’s fate that we met.”
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
“Am I your only friend? You’re my only friend.”
“We don’t need anyone else.”
“You’re so kind, creative, smart, beautiful, and perfect.”
“We’ll be together forever.”
Then the devaluation stage happens.
A couple fighting.Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock
Once a narcissist has hooked their victim, they start showing their true self. This is where the insults and put-downs start slipping into what they say. They suddenly criticize things about the partner that they once seemed to love — everything they say is part of their scheme to shatter their partner’s confidence.
But the nastiness is intertwined with some affection, because the narcissist knows they have to keep up the illusion that the relationship is worth saving. By pretending they can still be loving, the narcissist makes their victim believe the insults are their own fault.
During this phase narcissists may utter some of these phrases:
“You’re crazy.”
“You’re too sensitive.”
“No wonder nobody else likes you.”
“My friends hate you, but I always defend you and have your back.”
“You’re so insecure.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Aren’t I more important to you than your friends?”
“Your tears won’t work on me. Why are you crying?”
“You’re being so manipulative.”
They will explain away their behavior.
SimonSkafar/Getty Images
Alena Scigliano, a licensed psychotherapist, author, and clinical expert in narcissistic abuse, told Insider many of the phrases that pathological narcissists use fall under the manipulative tactic category she refers to as “distraction.”
“For example, narcissists may deflect, project, victimize themselves, or scapegoat another person as a means to distract someone from focusing on a failure or shortcoming of the narcissist,” she said. “Projection is an example of deflecting back onto the accuser.”
They will probably start explaining away their behavior if they are ever challenged on it, saying things like:
“I’m like this because my parents were so mean to me.”
“My ex cheated on me.”
“Love is just hard. We have to work on it.”
“Everyone abandons me, so you have to help me.”
“I’m acting this way because I’m scared to lose you.”
“I don’t do it on purpose; I have a problem.”
“Don’t you remember how good things were at the start?”
“You need to stop being so selfish/careless/busy with other people.”
“You can’t blame me, you know I have a problem.”
The will criticize everything their victim loves and isolate them.
LightField Studios/Shutterstock
A person in a relationship with a narcissist is subject to constant criticism, said the psychiatrist Dr. Edward Ratush in an interview with Insider.
“The love they receive can feel transactional, as a narcissist’s need for acceptance and constant approval sucks up all the light and leaves their partner forever in the shadows,” said Ratush, who founded the mental-health platform SOHOMD.
They’ll try to devalue everything their victim loves, such as their interest and hobbies, and even their family. They’ll insult everything they can, saying things such as:
“I don’t like your friends — they’re not good enough for you.”
“You like that? It’s terrible.”
“I can’t believe you enjoy doing this.”
“Your family doesn’t like me. You probably shouldn’t see them as much.”
“If you leave and see your friends, I’ll be angry.”
They will guilt-trip you and make you feel ‘lucky.’
g-stockstudio/Shutterstock
Clinical psychologist Lauren Cook told Insider that narcissists know how to induce guilt and indebtedness fast. This creates a power divide in the relationship, she said, and makes them the “dominant” partner.
“They may be quick to say, ‘If you really loved me,’ or ‘If you really cared,’ rather than try to earn your respect or take your feedback that you need to set a boundary,” she said. “They try to lay the guilt on thick so that you feel like you’re a ‘bad person’ for not doing everything in your power to make the narcissist feel special.”
They may say:
“You’re lucky to be with me.”
“You’re lucky to be in my presence.”
“You’re so fortunate to be receiving my time and attention with everything else I have going on.”
They play to their advantages.
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images
Narcissists also play to their advantages, especially if they are older than their victim, or brought them over from a foreign country.
They’ll assert their authority by saying:
“I’ve been through more relationships, so this is why I’m saying this.”
“You can’t wear that, because I said so.”
“That makes you look stupid.”
“Your dress is too short.”
“You know I’m smarter. You know I know more about this than you.”
“I’m the local here, I know better.”
They will wear you down.
Sinan Saglam / EyeEm
When a narcissist has completely worn their victim down, they may tire of them. It might be because they’ve bled them dry of funds, or they’ve simply found someone new to abuse. Either way, at this stage their insults will reach the worst level, and they’ll find more ways to tear their partner down, ensuring they leave the relationship as the “winner.”
They’ll hurl poison at their victim, such as:
“Everybody hates you.”
“You’re a bad person.”
“Nobody else will ever love you.”
“I’m the best you’ll ever have.”
“Have fun being alone for the rest of your life.”
“You did this to yourself.”
It will only get worse.
SrdjanPav/Getty Images
The only way to escape a narcissist’s insults and threats is to get away from them, and run fast and far, Neo said. They keep their victims in a constant state of stress, and they know exactly where to dig the knife in deeper.
“So you are just kept on your toes, and bending further backwards like a dancing monkey,” Neo said. “And nothing will ever change — things will just get worse.”
Leaving a narcissist can resemble “defending oneself against a shark,” said Ratush.
“You have to punch them right in the nose,” he said. “Despite the fierceness of their appearance, they often crumble when confronted. Their bullying ways will quickly dissolve and reveal what’s beneath.”
The best defense you have against their words is your sense of self, he added — knowing exactly what your needs are and how they can be used against you.
“As the master manipulator, the narcissist will know how to influence your thoughts and behaviors,” Ratush said. “Self awareness offers the best defense against those tactics.”
If you suspect you might be in an abusive relationship, or you know someone who is, there are services you can reach out to. The MyPlan App from One Love and the National Domestic Abuse Hotline are resources that can help.
Did you just start eating healthy foods and instead of getting an extra spring in your step, you find that you are suffering from joint pains, mental fatigue, gut problems, and a range of other symptoms? There may be an explanation for these healthy foods making you sick, instead of healing you. Many healthy foods contain oxalates, and you could be eating too many of them.
Here, we will outline what oxalates are, how they affect you, the foods that contain the most oxalates, and the foods that you can eat if you are on a low-oxalate diet.
What Are Oxalates?
What is an oxalate you might ask? Oxalates are compounds that are found in our food, drinks, herbs, and spices. When our bodies digest these compounds, if we eat too many, there is a chance that our bodies can form kidney stones.
Our bodies also produce oxalates naturally, but the emphasis on the dangers of oxalates is on consuming an excess of them. Experts are still unsure as to why our bodies produce oxalates.
For this reason, oxalates are sometimes referred to as anti-nutrients, as these compounds take nutrients away from your body when you digest them. When there are high amounts of oxalates present in a food source, such as spinach, the oxalates can prevent full absorption of the calcium. The same goes for if you eat a food high in oxalates with fiber, you may not be absorbing all of the nutrients that you think that you are eating.
Why Do Oxalates Exist?
Oxalates exist as a form of protection against extinction for different plants, often oxalates can give foods a bitter or sour taste which makes people and even bugs or animals less likely to eat them. Oxalates can also affect how you absorb and digest foods, this is why sometimes you cannot digest some parts of foods like seeds. This is why when animals, including humans, excrete seeds, they are still viable and can grow into plants.
If there is a very high concentration of oxalates in a food, it can be poisonous and give people stomach issues. This is why it is important to be aware of the quantities of oxalates in different foods. It can be difficult to know how many oxalates exist in specific foods, there is a lot of conflicting information, but we have used only reliable resources to provide information on some foods that have high and low oxalate levels.
What Happens When You Consume Too Many Oxalates?
Many people believe that they are eating healthy foods and therefore, are improving their diet. They may even wonder why they are feeling worse when a good diet of whole and natural foods should make them feel better and healthier. Oxalates can be found in many different types of healthy foods including things like spinach, chard, and raspberries.
Healthy Foods That Can Cause Kidney Stones – Test
People can start to include much more of these foods in their diet, as an attempt to improve their nutrition, but they end up harming their bodies if they are overeating these foods. If you are trying to eat a healthier diet, it can be really difficult to avoid oxalates.
Most people can eat around 200-300mg of oxalates daily without any serious issues as a result, but some people who have health conditions may not be able to handle this quantity of oxalates and it may impact their health. It is quite impossible to make your diet completely oxalate-free but is rather about managing the quantity of them that you are consuming.
This can be especially severe if you have a condition such as leaky gut syndrome, which means that oxalates have a much higher chance of being absorbed.
What Damage Can Oxalates Do?
Oxalates when consumed in high quantities, or when absorbed more by the body can cause a range of serious conditions such as kidney stones, inflammation, and aching in the body.
Healthy Foods That Can Cause Kidney Stones – Joint PainIf you already have pre-existing issues with your kidneys or you have already had kidney stones, eating a diet that is high in oxalates can be harmful and cause more damage. Kidney stones can be a medical condition that is reoccurring and therefore it is advised that you take precautions with foods that have high oxalate levels.
If you have already had kidney stones, your doctor might advise you to stay away from high oxalate foods and to follow a diet that consists of low oxalate foods. For a diet that is low in oxalates, you will need to consume less than 100mg daily, although some doctors will even recommend diets that have less than 50mg of oxalates daily.
If you do find that you need to reduce your oxalate intake, it is highly recommended to do this with care and slowly. You should gradually reduce foods that are high in oxalates, instead of completely removing them from your diet. Oxalates can be stored in your body and if you eliminate all foods that have high oxalate levels, your body may release some oxalates which will increase your symptoms and could cause pain. Try removing one oxalate food source at a time to avoid this.
Symptoms that can occur due to eating too many oxalates:
There are several symptoms that can occur as a result of overconsuming oxalates.
Healthy Foods That Can Cause Kidney Stones – Joint Pain 2
Joint pains and aches
Painful urination
Cystitis that is very difficult to get rid of
Painful bowel movements
Depression
Mental fatigue
Leaky gut and bloating
Kidney stones
Hives
Insomnia
Mood swings
Combinations Of Foods And Drinks That Can Be High In Oxalates:
If you are a vegan, vegetarian, or paleo, there is a large chance that you are consuming higher quantities of oxalates, as they are found in many foods that are usually staples of these diets, such as leafy greens, nuts, berries, squashes, and many other fruits.
Additionally, other foods that make up these diets are high in oxalates, such as soya beans, tofu, nut-based plant milk, miso, wheat berries, and couscous. These staple foods and drinks in these special diets, inadvertently lead to higher consumption of oxalates overall in the diet.
10 Foods That Are Very High In Oxalates:
Spinach is super healthy and has many vitamins, but is just one of the leafy greens that contain higher levels of oxalates and contains around 645mg of oxalate per 100g serving.
Raspberries are a beloved healthy snack and are great in desserts, however, unfortunately, they do have high oxalate levels, raspberries are one of the berries that have higher oxalate levels, containing around 48mg per cup, making them not so ideal for a low-oxalate diet.
Sweet potatoes are hailed as one of the healthiest foods and are now often found to be replacing normal potatoes in many dishes, however, they are high in oxalates and contain around 141mg per 4oz serving!
Dark Chocolate: Delicious and perfect to satiate your chocolate cravings, but high in oxalates! Dark chocolate contains around 39mg of oxalates per ounce.
Peanuts: There are several nuts and legumes that have high oxalate levels, peanuts are one of the highest nuts, with around 140mg of oxalates per 100g serving!
Beets and beet leaves are very high in oxalates! For 1 cup of beets or beet leaves, you will get 150mg of oxalate! If you are trying to eat a low-oxalate diet, it is best to avoid this vegetable.
Several dried fruits contain oxalates, dates are one of the dried fruits that have very high levels of oxalates, with just a single date containing around 24mg of oxalate.
Kiwi fruit is another fruit that is high in oxalates, kiwi fruit oxalate levels depend largely on where it has been produced in the world, therefore there is no solid number, but on average they contain more than 25mg but less than 100 mg of oxalate per fruit.
Rice bran is one of the grains that has the highest oxalate content, on average rice bran contains about 139.5mg of oxalate per 100g.
Rhubarb is known as a delicious addition to your favorite desserts, however, for those adhering to a low oxalate diet, this is not ideal. On average rhubarb contains a whopping 541mg of oxalates per half-cup.
How Can You Prevent Oxalate-Related Health Issues?
Increase calcium intake, as calcium binds with the oxalates before reaching the kidneys, leaving less chance of kidney stones occurring
Drink lots of water to help with flushing out toxins
Eat a diet that is lower in oxalates and actively watch out for oxalate-rich foods
High Oxalate Foods And Drinks
Fruits Amount of oxalate Vegetables Amount of oxalate Beverages Amount of oxalate Other foods Amount of oxalate
Raspberries 48mg (1 cup) Beets 76mg (per ½ cup) Plant milk (nut-based Almond) 27mg (per 1 cup) Miso 40g (per 1 cup)
Grapefruit 12mg (per ½ fruit) Spinach 656mg (per 1 cup) Tea (black tea)
14mg (per 1 cup) Almonds 122mg (per 1oz or 22 nuts)
Orange 29mg (per fruit) Okra 57mg (per ½ cup) Tomato Juice 14mg (per 1 cup) Bulgur 86mg (per 1 cup)
Kiwi 16mg (per fruit) Rhubarb 541mg (per ½ cup) Carrot juice 27mg (per 1 cup) Cocoa Powder 67mg (per 4 tsp)
Dried Pineapple 30mg (per ½ cup) Swiss Chard 500mg (per ½ cup) Hot Chocolate 65mg (per 1 cup) Tahini 16mg (per 1tbs)
Dates 24mg (per date) Navy Beans 76mg (per ½ cup) V8 juice 18mg (per 1 cup) Wheat Berries 98mg (per 1 cup)
Avocado 19mg (per fruit) Turnip 30mg (per ½ cup) Soya Drinks 20mg (per 1 cup) Buckwheat Groats 133mg (per 1 cup cooked)
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Low Oxalate Foods And Drinks
Fruits Amount of oxalate Vegetables Amount of oxalate Beverages Amount of oxalate Other foods Amount of oxalate
Bananas 3mg (per banana) Broccoli 6mg (per ½ cup) Apricot juice 2mg (per 1 cup) White Rice 4mg (per 1 cup)
Cherries 3mg (per 1 cup) Cauliflower 1mg (per ½ cup cooked) Water 0mg (per 1 cup) Oat Bran 0mg (per 1/3 cup)
Strawberries 2mg (per ½ cup) Peas 1mg (per ½ cup) Fresh lemonade 1mg (per 8oz) Bluefish 1mg (per fillet)
Apricots 0mg (per fruit) Zucchini 1mg (1/2 cup) Beer 4mg (per can) Bacon 0mg (per 2 slices)
Peaches 0mg (per fruit) Bok Choy 1mg (per 1 cup) Milk 1mg (per 1 cup) Chicken 0mg (per 3oz)
Lemons 1mg (per wedge) Artichokes 5mg (per bud) Smoothies (with low oxalate fruits) 4mg (per 1 cup) Yogurt 1mg (per ½ cup)
Apples 1mg (per fruit) Cucumber 1mg (1/4 cucumber) Mango juice 1mg (per 8oz) Eggs 0mg (1 medium egg)
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In conclusion, oxalates are found in many very healthy foods, such as leafy greens and berries. The main issue with oxalates is that when they are overconsumed, they can lead to some health problems such as kidney stones, cardiac problems, joint issues, fatigue, and a range of other issues. Oxalates are most dangerous for people that have pre-existing health issues such as previous kidney stones and for this reason doctors sometimes prescribe low-oxalate diets. Oxalate levels can be difficult to measure, but given a range of different resources, there is now accurate information for different foods, which can aid people in choosing the right foods to improve their health. For most people, it is not necessary to remove oxalates from their diet, but it is always good to be aware of their consumption.
Key Medicinal Herbs For Kidney Health
Usnea — One of my favorite medicinal herbs, usnea is a true botanical powerhouse. It has strong antibiotic properties and helps to heal urinary tract, bladder, and kidney infections. It is also antiviral. Moreover, usnea tackles bronchitis, pneumonia, sinus infections, strep throat, colds, and influenza. Make sure to use a dual-extracted usnea tincture, like the one in the apothecary, for full benefit.
Lungwort Lichen — A medicinal lichen found throughout the world, lungwort is helpful for kidney health because of its ability to flush out excess fluids. It also treats urinary tract infections and encourages detoxification.
Stinging Nettle — Traditionally used to support kidney health, stinging nettle is high in vitamin C, which helps to flush excess fluids from the body. This is one of the mechanisms that contributes to its anti-inflammatory properties. Stinging nettle is also an outstanding remedy for allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, and eczema.
10 Foods You Should Never Eat If You Have Arthritis
Do you have arthritis and keep experiencing symptoms and pain? You may notice that medicine is only doing so much to help, or that you have really bad days of pain and swelling and aren’t sure what is going on.
The truth is that arthritis is heavily influenced by your diet. While you can’t magically get rid of arthritis by changing your diet, you may be able to reduce the pain and symptoms.
To do that, you have to know what you should and shouldn’t eat. If you want to make sure that you aren’t increasing your chances of a flare-up of pain, this article will cover what foods to avoid and what to eat instead.
Added Sugars
It’s a good idea to reduce the amount of added sugars you are eating anyway, but if you have arthritis, it can be even more beneficial.
You may think you are already avoiding added sugars, especially if you are staying away from candy, ice creams, chocolates, and sodas. However, sugar is in a lot of things you may not realize, like certain condiments, yogurt, dressings, and even pre-made foods.
Certain sugar substitutes can also have the same reaction, like aspartame and high fructose corn syrup, so always do your research before trying a new sugar substitute. Stevia, monk fruit, dates, and honey can be good substitutes. While you may want to reduce natural sugars as well, such as those in fruits and vegetables, they aren’t as bad for you.
Trans Fats
Fats can be beneficial, but artificial fats, and especially artificial trans fats, can be dangerous. They are actually the worst out of all the fats and are common in foods like margarine, microwave popcorn, vegetable shortening, packaged desserts, soybean oil, and frying oil.
Trans fats raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower your HDL (good) cholesterol, so you should avoid them as much as possible.
Certain Vegetable Oils
While fats are necessary for your diet, it is important to make sure you are getting the right kinds of fats. Generally, you want to avoid excessive intake of omega-6 as often as possible. Mostly, you want to make sure that your ratio of omega-3s and omega-6s is correct.
Vegetable oils such as sunflower, safflower, soy, sesame, and corn oils are very high in omega-6 fatty acids. They contribute to the proper functioning of all cells. However, too much omega-6 fatty acid can alter cell reactions and harm cells in the heart and blood vessels. Avocado and olive oil are very low in omega-6s, while flaxseed and canola oil are high in omega-3s, so all four of these are good options for you.
Refined Carbohydrates
Many people avoid carbohydrates for one reason or another. Your body needs carbs to survive, but certain carbs are unhealthy.
When you have arthritis, you want to avoid refined carbohydrates. These carbs are devoid of bran, fiber and nutrients. Some examples are: sweets, white bread, white rice, pastries, pasta, breakfast cereals, sodas and snacks.
Carbohydrates from unprocessed or minimally processed whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans promote good health by providing vitamins, minerals, fiber, and a variety of essential phytonutrients.
Gluten
Gluten has the potential to increase inflammation in the body. While this is more common in those with celiac disease, even those without it may notice a reduction in inflammation and pain associated with arthritis, by avoiding these grains.
Generally, that means you want to avoid excessive intake of gluten-rich foods such as bread, pasta, cakes, pies, crackers, beer or pre-made foods.
However, you also want to make sure you are avoiding heavily modified foods as well. A lot of gluten-free replacements do avoid gluten but will have more sugar or sodium to make them taste better. Make sure you read the full nutrition label before buying something just because it is gluten-free.
Alcohol
Alcohol is another bad option for those with arthritis. Some studies show that it can lead to permanent worsening of symptoms, by causing damage to the joints and spinal cord.
Alcohol can also increase the chances of developing arthritis in the first place, especially osteoarthritis, and can lead to more frequent gout attacks.
High Levels Of Sodium
Sodium causes water to be absorbed by your body, which can increase inflammation and pain. Eating unhealthy foods, such as fast food or convenience foods, means ingesting a large amount of sodium a day.
Work on reducing the amount of salt you put in your meals, and the amount of pre-made foods you are ingesting, unless they are specifically low in sodium and salt.
Nightshade Vegetables
Nightshade vegetables have a compound in them known as solanine. This may cause arthritis pain in certain individuals by changing their gut microbiota. However, this one is still a little unsure and may vary from individual to individual, as some studies have also shown that it can reduce inflammation.
The consensus now is that if you suspect, or know you have a sensitivity to nightshade vegetables, it is best to avoid them.
Some examples of nightshade vegetables include: potatoes, eggplants, chilis bell peppers, tomatoes.
Heavily Processed Foods
Processed foods are very bad for those with arthritis. This includes a variety of foods, including processed meats, cereal, fast food, and even baked goods.
Many of the things stated earlier can be found in processed foods, including a high amount of sugar, salts, grains, and even preservatives. All of these can be found in processed foods and often multiple of them at once, so it is best to avoid a processed diet whenever possible.
Red Meats
Red meats are high in saturated fats. While other meats or plants can also have these fats, they are much higher in red meats. Saturated fats can increase inflammation in the body, which increases pain and discomfort.
Red meat has been tested a lot and found to harm those with rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory arthritis.
Try to stay away from red meats like lamb, beef, veal, venison, pork, and goat. Instead, substitute them for white meats like poultry or fish.
If you find that the swelling and inflammation are going down, but not as much as you would like, you could try to go for more protein from plant sources.
In addition to foods you should avoid, you may want to look at foods that can help. There are plenty of herbs and foods out there that can reduce inflammation and help with other symptoms of arthritis. Some examples are blueberries, strawberries, garlic, leafy greens and fish.
THE DAM OF LIES SURROUNDING THE C – LAB LEAK IS BREAKINNG
DR MERCOLA
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
In January 2022, House Oversight Committee Republicans released a batch of emails sent to and from the National Institutes of Health. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Jimmy Tobias at The Intercept also forced the release of unredacted NIH correspondence
The emails reveal there was great concern among NIH leadership, as SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be a genetically engineered virus that somehow escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China
The emails show they were nervous about the possibility that they’d funded the creation of this virus, and that they were determined to suppress questions about its origin
A group of scientists convened by Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, published a paper in which they claimed the virus was decidedly not the result of intentional engineering. They did admit accidental creation in a lab could not be ruled out, but that natural evolution was the most likely scenario. Some of these same scientists had previously shared details indicative of genetic engineering in emails to Fauci
The “Proximal Origin” paper, which was edited by Fauci and “debunked” the lab leak theory without any evidence, became the most-read published paper in history. More than 2,000 media outlets have cited it to support their propaganda
In January 2022, House Oversight Committee Republicans released a batch of emails sent to and from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).1,2,3 A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Jimmy Tobias at The Intercept4 also forced the release of unredacted NIH correspondence in late November 2022, just as Dr. Anthony Fauci prepared to retire from his position as director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The emails reveal what many had suspected all along, namely that SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be a genetically engineered virus that somehow escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. (In a January 17, 2023, Twitter thread,5 molecular biologist Richard Ebright, Ph.D., summarized the lab-origin hypothesis.)
The correspondence also reveal that a) NIH leaders were nervous about the possibility that they’d funded the creation of this virus, and b) they were determined to suppress questions about its origin.
Summary of Key Findings
As reported by the House Oversight Committee:6
“Excerpts of emails released today reveal the following:
January 27, 2020: Dr. [Anthony] Fauci knew NIAID [National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] had funded EcoHealth Alliance, the WIV was a subgrantee of EcoHealth, and EcoHealth was not in compliance with its grant reporting, in particular a grant that NIAID knew had gain-of-function potential on novel bat coronaviruses.
February 1, 2020: Dr. Fauci, [then-NIH director] Dr. [Francis] Collins, and at least eleven other scientists convened a conference call to discuss COVID-19. On the conference call, Drs. Fauci and Collins were first warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from the WIV and may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.
February 4, 2020: After speaking with Drs. Fauci and Collins, four participants of the conference call abandoned their belief the virus originated from the Wuhan lab and authored a paper7entitled ‘The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.’ Prior to final publication in Nature Medicine, the paper was sent to Dr. Fauci for editing and approval.
April 16, 2020: More than two months after the original conference call, Dr. Collins emailed Dr. Fauci expressing dismay that the Nature Medicine article — which they saw prior to publication and were given the opportunity to edit — did not squash the lab leak hypothesis and asks if the NIH can do more to ‘put down’ the lab leak hypothesis.
April 17, 2020: After Dr. Collins explicitly asked for more public pressure, Dr. Fauci cited the Nature Medicine paper from the White House podium likely in an effort to further stifle the hypothesis COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan lab.”
Fauci Tipped Off About Lab Leak Possibility
January 31, 2020, Fauci received an email from Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, asking him to call Kristian Andersen, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist and professor in the department of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. As reported by The Intercept January 19, 2023:8
“Fauci had his phone call with Andersen that night, and what he heard clearly disturbed him. In an email to Farrar after the call, he wrote the following:
‘I told [Andersen] that as soon as possible he and Eddie Holmes should get a group of evolutionary biologists together to examine carefully the data to determine if his concerns are validated. He should do this very quickly and if everyone agrees with this concern, they should report it to the appropriate authorities.
I would imagine that in the USA this would be the FBI and in the UK it would be MI5′ … What were Andersen’s concerns? And why were they so dire they might merit a call to the FBI?
Andersen laid them out plainly in an email to Fauci that same evening. ‘The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered,’ Andersen wrote in the email.
‘I should mention,’ he added, ‘that after discussions earlier today, Eddie, Bob, Mike and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory. But we have to look at this much more closely and there are still further analyses to be done, so those opinions could still change.'”
NIH Funded Risky Research at the WIV
The following day, February 1, 2020, at 2 p.m., Fauci, Farrar, Collins, Andersen and several other virologists had their conference call, and Andersen clearly wasn’t the only one who had noticed tell-tale signs of genetic engineering. Farrar himself wrote “On a spectrum if 0 is nature and 100 is release — I am honestly at 50!” 9
According to The Intercept,10 Fauci spent that morning “brushing up on what sorts of grants and collaborations his agency was involved in with research institutions in China.”
In all likelihood, he discovered (if he was somehow previously unaware, which seems doubtful) that the NIH had provided research grants to the EcoHealth Alliance, which in turn subcontracted coronavirus experiments to the WIV — including an experiment involving humanized mice that were infected with chimeric hybrids of SARS-related bat coronaviruses.11
According to The Intercept, it’s highly unlikely that these experiments resulted in SARS-CoV-2, as the viruses are too dissimilar, “but it does raise questions about what other kinds of experiments were going on in Wuhan and haven’t been disclosed.”
NIH-Linked Scientists Suspected Lab Leak From the Start
February 2, 2020, Farrar circulated a set of notes summarizing the discussion, which he said was to be treated “in total confidence.”12 Michael (Mike) Farzan, Ph.D., an expert on the entry processes of enveloped viruses, was bothered by the presence of a furin cleavage site — a novel feature that allows SARS-CoV-2 the ability to infect cells in the human airways.
According to Farrar’s note, Farzan “has a hard time explain[ing] that as an event outside the lab.” Farrar’s summary goes on to state that:13
“… the likely explanation could be something as simple as passage SARS-live CoVs in tissue culture on human cell lines (under BSL-2) for an extended period of time, accidentally creating a virus that would be primed for rapid transmission between humans via gain of furin site (from tissue culture) and adoption to human ACE2 receptor via repeated passage …
So, I think it becomes a question of how do you put all this together, whether you believe in this series of coincidences, what you know of the lab in Wuhan, how much could be in nature — accidental release or natural event? I am 70:30 or 60:40.”
A note from professor and microbiologist Robert (Bob) Garry, Ph.D.,14 reveals he had similar concerns:
“… I aligned the nCoV with the 96% bat CoV sequenced at WIV. Except for the RBD [receptor binding domain] the S proteins are essential [sic] identical at the amino acid level — well all but the perfect insertion of 12 nucleotides that adds [sic] the furin site.
S2 is over its whole length essentially identical. I really can’t think of a plausible natural scenario where you get from the bat virus or one very similar to it to nCoV where you insert exactly 4 amino acids 12 nucleotide [sic] that all have to be added at the exact same time to gain this function — that and you don’t change any other amino acids in S2?
I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature. Do the alignment of the spikes at the amino acid level — its [sic] stunning. Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate the perfect 12 base insert that you wanted.
Another scenario is that the progenitor of nCoV was a bat virus with the perfect furin cleavage site generated over evolutionary times. In this scenario RaTG13 the WIV virus was generated by a perfect deletion of 12 nucleotides while essentially not changing any other S2 amino acid [sic]. Even more implausible IMO [in my opinion]. That is the big if.”
In other words, in the earliest days of the pandemic, the general consensus among virologists in communication with the NIH was that a WIV lab leak was not only plausible, but perhaps the most likely. The correspondence also leaves no doubt about the fact that Fauci and Collins wanted to silence this theory.
The Cover-Up Begins
In a February 2, 2020, email, Collins stated that he was “coming around to the view that a natural origin is more likely,” and warned that “voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate” lest they convene a panel of experts to address the matter, and that such conspiracies could do “great potential harm to science and international harmony.”
Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier, who participated in the call, also warned his colleagues that continuing the discussion about a lab leak “would unnecessarily distract top researchers from their active duties and do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular.”15
Fauci, for his part, appears to have made the decision to suppress the lab leak theory that same day (February 2). In an email, he wrote:16
“Like all of us, I do not know how this evolved, but given the concerns of so many people and the threat of further distortions on social media, it is essential that we move quickly.”
According to The Intercept, Fauci, Farrar and Collins alerted officials at the World Health Organization in the hopes they’d convene an expert panel to investigate, but “WHO apparently declined to do so at the time.” The group was well aware of the risks involved, though, were the lab leak theory to gain legs, so a plan to discourage further “accusations” was apparently hatched.
Hastily Written Paper Sought to Discourage Bioweapon Idea
Just two days later, on February 4, 2020, Fauci and Collins received the first draft of the article, “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” later published in Nature Medicine.17
Three of the authors, Andersen, Robert Garry of Tulane University and Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney, were on the February 1, 2020, conference call. Andersen, Garry, and another “Proximal Origin” author, W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, have also received large NIH grants in recent years,18 so this paper was not written by uninterested and independent parties.
The original draft is still secret. All we have is an email reply from Fauci, in which he appears to flag the inclusion of serial passage through humanized mice. This suggests the issue of animal passage was raised, but then immediately scrapped.
The Nature Medicine article roundly dismissed the idea that the virus was the result of deliberate engineering, proposing instead that, despite a dearth of evidence, it most likely evolved naturally. (Two potential natural-evolution theories were described.) They didn’t conclusively dismiss the possibility of a lab leak, though — only the idea that it was “deliberately” engineered. As noted in the paper:19
“Although the evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a purposefully manipulated virus, it is currently impossible to prove or disprove the other theories of its origin described here.
However, since we observed all notable SARS-CoV-2 features, including the optimized RBD and polybasic cleavage site, in related coronaviruses in nature, we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”
Lab Origin Was Never Ruled Out
The “other theories of its origin” described in the “Proximal Origin” paper was the possibility that it might have been the result of “selection during passage,” which is a routine laboratory practice. In other words, it seems they were most concerned with dispelling any rumors about it being intentionally created, which would place it in the category of a bioweapon.
As reported by The Intercept, Farrar, Fauci and Collins certainly had not ruled out the possibility of a lab origin altogether:20
“The scientists seem by this point to have made a sharp distinction between a scenario in which the virus was deliberately engineered in a lab and a scenario in which the virus was generated during serial passage experiments in a lab.
‘Eddie would be 60:40 lab side,’ Farrar added. ‘I remain 50:50.’
‘Yes, I’d be interested in the proposal of accidental lab passage in animals (which ones?),’ Collins wrote.
‘?? Serial passage in ACE2-transgenic mice,’ Fauci responded.
‘Exactly!’ Farrar replied.
‘Surely that wouldn’t be done in a BSL-2 lab?’ wrote Collins, referring to biosafety level 2 labs, which do not have the most stringent safety protocols.
‘Wild West…’ was Farrar’s response, an apparent reference to lab practices in China or possibly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology itself.
In the above exchange, the health officials seem to be contemplating the possibility that the repeated passage of a coronavirus through genetically modified mice in an insufficiently secure lab could have resulted in the accidental emergence and release of SARS-CoV-2.
In a later email exchange, Farrar, quoting Garry, noted that serial passage in animals had been proved to result in the appearance of furin cleavage sites in other viruses, specifically the H5N1 flu virus. ‘There are a couple passage of H5N1 in chicken papers — the furin site appears in steps.'”
Similarly, there’s this exchange between Christian Drosten, Ph.D., and Andersen on February 8.21 Drosten wrote:
“Can someone help me with one question: didn’t we congregate to challenge a certain theory, and if we could, drop it? Who came up with this story in the beginning? Are we working on debunking our own conspiracy theory?”
Andersen’s reply read:
“Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory, but we are at a crossroad where the scientific evidence isn’t conclusive enough to say that we have high confidence in any of the three main theories considered.
As to publishing this document in a journal, I am currently not in favor of doing so. I believe that publishing something that is open-ended could backfire at this stage.”
Andersen’s reluctance notwithstanding, the paper was accepted for publication a month later, March 17, 2020 — and the possibility of the virus being the result of serial passage remained.
Most-Read Propaganda Paper Ever
The influence of the “Proximal Origin” paper cannot be overstated. As reported by The Intercept,22 it’s been accessed more than 5.7 million times and cited by more than 2,000 media outlets, making it one of the most-read papers ever published. It’s fair to say this propaganda piece was “milked for all its worth” to uphold the illusion of a natural evolution consensus.
Most media outlets also overstated the paper’s conclusion. While it did not present any actual evidence to support the natural evolution theory, and admitted it might have been created through serial passaging in a lab, outlets like ABC News boldly declared, “Sorry, Conspiracy Theorists. Study Concludes COVID-19 ‘Is Not a Laboratory Construct,'”23 as if the issue had been conclusively settled based on the scientific evidence at hand.
Questions Could Not Be Quelled
The Nature Medicine article didn’t stem the flow of questions, though, a fact decried by Collins in a mid-April 2020 email to Fauci:
“Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy, with what seems to be growing momentum … I hoped the Nature Medicine article on the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 would settle this. But probably didn’t get much visibility. Anything more we can do? Ask the National Academy to weigh in?”
Fauci replied, “I would not do anything about this right now. It is a shiny object that will go away in times [sic].” He was wrong, of course, and the reason questions didn’t go away was because emerging evidence kept strengthening the lab leak theory, while there is nothing with which to support natural evolution.
As Sergei Pond, a computational virologist at Temple University, told The Intercept,24 “there was no data then, and there is no data now, that would definitively indicate that a lab origin like the one contemplated in ‘Proximal Origin’ is not at least plausible.”
Having read the unredacted emails, David Relman, a professor of microbiology, immunology and medicine at Stanford University, added:25
“When I first saw it [the Proximal Origin paper] in March 2020, the paper read to me as a conclusion in search of an argument. Among its many problems, it failed to consider in a serious fashion the possibility of an unwitting and unrecognized accidental leak during aggressive efforts to grow coronaviruses from bat and other field samples.
It also assumed that researchers in Wuhan have told the world about every virus and every sequence that was in their laboratories in 2019. But these [unredacted emails] actually provide evidence that the authors considered a few additional lab-associated scenarios, early in their discussions.
But then they rushed to judgment, and the lab scenarios fell out of favor. It appears as if a combination of a scant amount of data and an unspoken bias against the [lab origin] scenario diminished the idea in their minds.”
Virologists Under the Microscope
As reported by The Washington Post,26 virologists are now under the microscope like never before, and the NIH is said to be “preparing an overhaul of the policies on government-funded research.” Draft recommendations27 from the biosecurity advisory board were released January 20, 2023.
Clearly, paranoia is high, and there’s good reason for that. Not only do we have the unredacted NIH emails showing there were grave concerns about COVID-19 being the result of a lab leak, and that those concerns were “allayed” by passing propaganda for “science,” but researchers have also published research showing they’re now conducting gain-of-function research on SARS-CoV-2.28
Who in their right mind would think that was a good idea? The fact that reckless dual-use research into dangerous pathogens is taking place on the daily is precisely why getting to the bottom of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is so important. If this kind of research contributed to COVID-19, then clearly we need to make sure it cannot happen again.
I believe one of the primary reasons why the lab leak theory is being so heavily disputed is because acknowledging it as true would force Congress to rein in the research industry. But we cannot afford to ignore it, because gain-of-function research capabilities pose a truly existential threat to mankind as a whole.29
Inspector General Report Blasts NIH for String of Errors
Interestingly, January 25, 2023, the U.S. Office of Inspector General released a report30 detailing the NIH’s failure to properly monitor and review potentially hazardous coronavirus research. As reported by the Daily Mail:31
“EcoHealth Alliance was awarded $8 million in Government research grants between 2014 and 2021, which it subcontracted to research facilities. The WIV was one of eight teams awarded grants at that time.
Today’s audit said there was a lack of oversight by the NIH and EcoHealth at the Chinese facility and other labs that benefitted from Government grants.
The report said: ‘Despite identifying potential risks associated with research being performed under the EcoHealth awards, we found that NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address EcoHealth’s compliance with some requirements.
‘Although NIH and EcoHealth had established monitoring procedures, we found deficiencies in complying with those procedures limited NIH and EcoHealth’s ability to effectively monitor federal grant awards and subawards to understand the nature of the research conducted, identify potential problem areas, and take corrective action’ …
Investigators say EcoHealth also did not submit proper progress reports on the use of its fund in a timely manner, with information coming in two years late. It also says the NIH failed to terminate its grant with EcoHealth after the non-profit broke protocols.”
Justin Goodman, senior vice president of Advocacy and Public Policy at the White Coat Waste Project commented on the report:32
“This audit confirms what we have been documenting since early 2020 when we first exposed NIH’s funding of the Wuhan lab: EcoHealth Alliance shipped tax dollars to Wuhan for dangerous animal experiments that probably caused the pandemic, violated federal laws and policies and wasted tax dollars.
Yet, the Wuhan lab remains eligible for even more taxpayer money for animal tests and just since the pandemic began, EcoHealth has raked in at least $46million in new federal funds from the DOD, USAID, NIH, and NSF.
As the group that first exposed and ended EcoHealth’s calamitous collaboration with the Wuhan animal lab, we’re calling on Congress to defund these rogue organizations once and for all. Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll reckless white coats who waste money, break the law and place public health in peril. Stop the money, stop the madness.”
US Government Stonewalls FOIA Requests
As investigators try to get to the truth, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is doing everything it can to prevent it from coming out. As reported by Gary Ruskin,33 executive director and co-founder of U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), in 2022, as the HHS was slammed with FOIA requests relating to COVID-19, they added four extra layers of legal review within the HHS legal department.
These attorneys scoured each and every document to make sure anything potentially incriminating was properly redacted before release. “This plainly appears to be an effort to delay or block release of documents about the origin of COVID-19,” Ruskin wrote. “What is HHS hiding? We hope Congress will investigate.”
The good news is, the Republican House now has the ability to launch such investigations, and I hope they will. The problem is that it would be dangerous to prove a cover-up, as it would turn everything upside-down. Health agencies, universities and any number of other agencies would have to be retooled. So, getting to the bottom of this affair will require people who believe the truth is worth the pain.
The CDC and FDA announced that their vaccine safety tracker flagged a potential safety issue in Pfizer’s bivalent COVID-19 shot: an increased risk of stroke in people ages 65 and over.
People ages 65 and older who received Pfizer’s updated (bivalent) COVID-19 booster shot may be at increased risk of stroke
The CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) flagged the potential safety issue, revealing that those 65 and over were more likely to have an ischemic stroke 21 days after receiving Pfizer’s bivalent COVID-19 shot
Atlanta—In an effort to be transparent, the CDC and the FDA announced that reports of ischemic stroke in recipients of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent reached a level to require additional investigation.
“U.S. government agencies use multiple, complementary safety monitoring systems to help detect possible safety signals for vaccines and other medical countermeasures as early as possible and to facilitate further investigation, as appropriate,” according to a press release from the CDC and FDA. “Often these safety systems detect signals that could be due to factors other than the vaccine itself.”
It is not clear yet whether the signal represents an actual concern with the vaccine or if it can be determined to be of no clinical relevance.
“Following the availability and use of the updated (bivalent) COVID-19 vaccines, CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical criteria to prompt additional investigation into whether there was a safety concern for ischemic stroke in people ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent,” according to the agencies. “Rapid-response investigation of the signal in the VSD raised a question of whether people 65 and older who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent were more likely to have an ischemic stroke in the 21 days following vaccination compared with days 22-42 following vaccination.”
Public health officials added that is it important to note that, so far, no other safety systems have shown a similar signal and multiple subsequent analyses have not validated this signal. Those include:
• A large study of updated (bivalent) vaccines (from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database revealed no increased risk of ischemic stroke • A preliminary study using the Veterans Affairs database did not indicate an increased risk of ischemic stroke following an updated (bivalent) vaccine • The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System managed by the CDC and FDA have not seen an increase in reporting of ischemic strokes following the updated (bivalent) vaccine • Pfizer-BioNTech’s global safety database has not indicated a signal for ischemic stroke with the updated (bivalent) vaccine • Other countries have not observed an increased risk for ischemic stroke with updated (bivalent) vaccines.
“Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal in VSD represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public, as we have in the past when one of our safety monitoring systems detects a signal. CDC and FDA will continue to evaluate additional data from these and other vaccine safety systems,” the CDC said, and continues to recommend that everyone aged 6 months and older stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination, adding that the recommendation includes individuals who are currently eligible to receive an updated (bivalent) vaccine.
This incredible 7-layer dip will please and satisfy any dip-lovers! Layers of queso, salsa, guacamole, and refried beans make this dip a showstopper. Most layered dips contain dairy, harmful oils, refined sugar, vinegar, and other troublemaker ingredients.
This 7-Layer Dip recipe is made only with healthy, nutrient-rich foods. All of them have their own unique healing benefits, but let’s look at two of them below.
Tomatoes harness critical micronutrients, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals to support many functions of the liver. if YOU HAVE ANY HEART PROBLEMS, PLEASE OMIT TOMATOES. Lycopene is a beloved nutrient that the liver admires: the liver uses it to shield itself from cell damage, plus lycopene helps the liver detox red blood cells safely, smoothly, and efficiently. The fruit acids in tomatoes help keep the gallbladder healthy, helping rid sludge from the gallbladder and even reduce gallstone size. your liver healthy and preventing disease.
Avocados are amazing for the brain. A healthy source of omega-6 fatty acids, they can help restore the central nervous system and alleviate neurological conditions. Eating avocados also has an anti-aging effect on the skin, reducing dryness, giving you a healthy glow, and contributing to the disappearance of dark under-eye circles. They also contain anti-radiation agents that are phytoestrogenic, meaning that they can stop estrogen-related reproductive and colon cancers.
7-Layer Dip
Ingredients:
Refried beans:
1/2 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups cooked black or pinto beans
1 tsp cumin
1/4-1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 cup water
Guacamole:
2 large or 3 small avocados
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp finely chopped red or white onion
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1-2 tsp fresh finely chopped jalapeño (optional)
Juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 cup diced tomato
Salsa:
2 cups finely chopped tomato
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2-3 tbsp lime juice
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
1/2 serrano chili or jalapeno, finely minced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin (optional)
Queso:
1 medium-sized potato, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for 1 hour in hot water
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 ground cumin
1/2 jalapeño, deseeded and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika or paprika
2 tbsp tomato paste
Pinch of ground turmeric (for color)
Extras:
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/3 cup olives, sliced
Directions:
To make the queso, place the potato, water and sea salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes until the potato is soft. Drain the cooking liquid into a jug and set aside. Place the cooked potato in the jug of a blender and add the soaked cashews, lime juice, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, jalapeño, smoked paprika, tomato paste, and turmeric. Add 2/3 cup of the cooking liquid to the blender and blend the mixture until very smooth. Add a bit more liquid if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.
To make the refried beans, place a medium-sized, non-stick ceramic skillet on medium-high heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until the onion is translucent, adding a bit of water if needed to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and add in the beans, cumin, chipotle powder, and water and mash until you get a smooth, even mixture. Alternatively, you can transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.
To make the guacamole, add the pitted and peeled avocados to a medium-sized bowl. Mash using a potato masher or a fork until the guacamole is smooth but still has a few bigger chunks. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix together gently with a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.
To make the salsa, combine all the ingredients to a medium-sized bowl and mix well. Set aside.
To assemble, layer the refried beans, guacamole, salsa, and queso in a shallow dish. Add the diced red bell peppers, green onions, cilantro, and olives on top. Serve immediately.
Being outside during the winter can have its challenges, and for me, it’s cold hands. My frosty fingers tend to develop into dry, withered appendages more reminiscent of sticks to light the fire with, rather than actual fingers.
And while water-based lotions and moisturizers are good for the face, in winter, I prefer to use oil-based salves on my hands and feet, especially in our dry climate.
What Oils Can You Use To Beat Dry Winter Skin?
Let’s consider carrier oils, lipids and fatty acids first.
The kinked, fatty-acid chains in both olive oil and soybean oil work in combination for deeper skin penetration. Olive oil improves skin penetration of the dermis (outer skin layers) thanks to the monounsaturated fatty acids found in oleic acid, which technically disrupt the skin barrier. Soybean oil, on the other hand, increases penetration into the deeper skin layers.
Coconut oil helps to retain moisture on the surface of the skin due to the straight-chained, unsaturated fatty acids, mostly in the form of lauric acid (usually over 40%). Lauric acid is a lipid that is found in the skin, so adding coconut oil to your salve will increase the surface lipids, thereby increasing skin hydration. It also happens to be antibacterial and antifungal, so it’s always a good addition to any salve for dry, weather-damaged skin.
Borage seed oil and flaxseed oil both contain a high level of linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is the main polyunsaturated fatty acid found in the skin, so choosing ingredients that are naturally high in it can assist with repairing and maintaining your skin.
Shea butter is loaded with triterpenes which are important for skin repair.
Got some sesame or peanut oil in the kitchen? You can even add a small amount of these oils to your salve, just don’t be too heavy-handed, otherwise, the odor can be a bit overpowering.
There are plenty of hydrating plant-based oils found in other plants, so don’t be shy about being adventurous.
What Plant Compounds Combine Well With Carrier Oils?
Now that we have covered a few carrier oils, we can look into some other hydrating plant compounds which are soluble in our carrier oils.
You can add essential oils at the end of the process, but there is also the option to infuse dried plant material into your carrier oil, such as:
Soy (Glycine max) contains a number of phytoestrogens such as genistein aglycone, daidzein and coumestrol, all of which have positive effects on your skin and are soluble in oil.
Marigold (Calendula officinalis) was shown in a small study to improve skin hydration and firmness but only after 6 weeks of usage.
Birch bark (Betula spp.) is high in betulin, a triterpene known to help with skin repair and wound healing. Simply peel the outer layer of bark from a green branch (less than the width of a pencil) and allow to dry for at least a week.
No matter which carrier oils you decide on, which dried plant matter you choose to infuse into it, or which essential oils you add, you can always find a fragrance and texture that suits your tastes by tweaking the ratios below. Just be sure not to increase the concentration of the essential oils and maintain roughly a 1:6 ratio of beeswax to carrier oils.
Ingredients
0.4 oz (12 g) of virgin olive oil
0.4 oz (12 g) of coconut oil
0.4 oz (12 g) of soy oil
0.4 oz (12 g) of shea butter
2 teaspoons of dried calendula flowers
2 teaspoons of dried soybeans or leaves
2 teaspoons of dried birch bark
0.3 oz (9 g) of beeswax
20 drops of essential oils such as lavender, rose hip or eucalyptus
Method
Place all of the ingredients except the beeswax and the essential oils into a glass jar and sit it in a pot of warm water (100 °F or 37 °C). Allow it to infuse for 2 – 3 hours (the long time is due to the birch bark) and stir every half hour or so.
Strain the mixture and increase the temperature of the water to no more than 150 °F (65 °C). Add the beeswax then stir until it has melted. It’s easy to test the consistency by dipping a cold spoon into the mix.
Remove from the pot of warm water, stir in the essential oils and allow to cool and solidify.
Application
Apply after showering or washing your hands.
Storage And Shelf-Life
Store in a cool location and it will last for a year.
Common agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) is an herbaceous plant of the Rosacea family cultivated for its medicinal benefit. It is considered an “all-heal” plant for many illnesses and is widely used in traditional medicine. Agrimony has a deep root in folklore since it was believed to be effective in warding off witchcraft. In voodoo practices, it was used to repel jinxes and hexes and send them back to the spell caster.
The aerial parts of agrimony emit a sweet scent, especially its flowers that exude an apricot-like fragrance. Thus, it is used for making potpourris or improving the taste and aroma of homemade beer. Its showy yellow flowers grow in towering spikes earning names such as church steeples and fairy’s wand.
Agrimony use is traced back to the Anglo-Saxons (it was known as garclive), where it was used as an antidote for snakebites. The Greeks named it Argemone, meaning healing to the eyes. Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides recommended the herb for his patients with ulcers. In the 18th century, it was discovered as an effective plant for treating tuberculosis and jaundice.
Where Is Agrimony Found
Agrimony is abundant in the Northern hemisphere, particularly in Europe and the western United States. There is also a species that grows in North Africa. They love to flourish in hedge banks, woodland margins, and meadows. In temperate countries, agrimony is a common wildflower occurring in grassy places. Presently, Spain is the largest producer of agrimony; whereas France, Italy, and Bulgaria benefit from the industry.
How To Identify Agrimony
In the wild, agrimony is identifiable by its tall, spiky flower and jagged leaves. This aromatic perennial grows hooked seeds, often found attached to clothes and animal furs. Sheep and goats will feed on agrimony but not the cattle and swine.
Leaves. Agrimony leaves are dark green with a whitish underside, arranged alternately on the stem. The leaves have varying sizes. Those near the ground are longer. Leaves become shorter as they move up the stem. The leaves are pinnate or divided to the midrib into pairs of leaflets. They are oblong to almost diamond-like in shape with toothed edges.
Flowers. Agrimony produces numerous yellow flowers that are arranged closely in slender terminal spikes. Each flower has five egg-shaped petals, narrower in width than its length and slightly notched at the end. There are about ten stamens with yellow anthers which turn orange upon maturity.
Fruits and Seeds. After the flowers withered, the calyx of agrimony droops downward. It develops into a green, bell-shaped fruit, surrounded by a fringe of long bristles. The fruit matures into a woody, reddish-brown color with deep furrows and burrs or hooked bristles. The dry seeds are tough and easily attach to clothing.
Roots. Agrimony has deep, fibrous, and non-tuberous rhizomes. The roots are long, black, and slightly woody.
Stem. From the roots, erect and cylindrical agrimony stems rose out. They are rough and grow to about 1 to 3 feet or more. Agrimony is mostly unbranched or slightly branched as it grows taller. The stems are slightly grooved, and the whole plant is covered with tiny hairs.
Agrimonia eupatoria is one of the species of the herbaceous and flowering Rosaceae or rose family. This dainty and slender plant is known by many names, such as church steeples, liverwort, and stickwort.
Agrimony has a wide variety of species with minor differences in size, pubescence (plant hairs), or fragrance. However, it should not be confused with hemp agrimony, a species from the daisy family.
The known species of agrimony include:
pilosa is found in China and used as an herbal remedy for bleeding and diarrhea
procera syn. A. odorata is the most fragrant variety with larger leaves and paler flowers
How To Grow Agrimony
Agrimony is easy to grow and thrives well in USDA Zones 6 to 9. Since it is a wildflower, it can grow with little to less maintenance. This herb is a good companion plant with other perennial herbs.
You can plant agrimony directly in the garden as a border plant. They also look good in containers, provided the medium can hold moisture but is well-drained. However, they don’t tend to grow as tall as they should when planted in pots compared to their growth if planted in the garden.
Agrimony can grow from seeds, which you can buy at online seed stores, or root cuttings. They can thrive in all types of soil but proliferate healthily in well-draining soil.
Growing Agrimony From Seeds
Agrimony has a long growing season and is best planted in spring after the dangers of the last frost. You may also start them indoors anytime to make them ready for transplant by springtime.
Ensure successful germination by stratifying the seeds for 4 to 8 weeks before sowing them. To do this, fill a zip-lock bag with moistened vermiculite and place it in the fridge. Keep the bag moist until the seeds start to sprout.
If you live in areas without frost, you can go ahead and sow the seeds directly in the garden or start them in a seedling tray.
Sprinkle the seeds in a well-draining tray filled with all-purpose soil. Cover them lightly with soil, about ¼ inch, and moisten the tray with water.
Water the medium only if the soil feels dry and thin the plants to enable healthy growth. Transplant the seedlings when they reach at least 4 inches.
Growing Agrimony From Root Cuttings
Alternatively, you can grow agrimony by foraging for roots in the wild. Choose a healthy plant, dig it up, and then cut its roots into 3-inch sections. Replant the mother plant in its spot for it to re-grow new buds.
Put the foraged roots in a tray of seed-raising mix and cover them lightly with the medium. Mist the soil, cover the tray with plastic, and place it in an area with indirect light. Keep the soil moist until shoots and new roots develop.
Once the shoots are about 4 inches tall, divide the roots and transplant them to their permanent place.
Plant Care And Maintenance
Agrimony needs little intervention and can thrive in a variety of soil conditions. Fertilizer is unnecessary unless the plants are growing stunted.
Care for agrimony is simple, and they only need the following growing requirements:
Well-draining soil
Full sun to partial shade
Soil pH level between 6.0 to 7.0
Watering when the soil is dry
While the plant is generally resilient, it is still prone to pests and diseases. Root rot and powdery mildew may occur when the plant is waterlogged. The best way of preventing them is to avoid overwatering the agrimony.
How To Harvest Agrimony
Agrimony takes time to grow and may not bloom quickly. You can harvest the leaves anytime when you need them. But if you want more potent parts for medicine, harvest them in mid-summer, just before the flower blooms.
Snip off the whole agrimony and tie them into small bundles. Hang the bundles upside-down in a cool and dry place away from direct sunlight. Allow them to air dry for about a week until the leaves are dry and crisp.
Pluck the leaves and wrap them in a paper bag. You may also keep them in plastic bags, although these cannot prevent molds from forming.
What Agrimony Is Good For And Natural Remedies Made From It
Agrimony is considered an all-heal herb because of its effectiveness against many health problems. Traditionally, it is used to cure snakebites, wounds, and skin problems. It can also cure eye irritation and many eye problems. Its ability to aid in the treatment of eye issues earned its Greek name Argemone (healing to the eye).
Over time, it was discovered to be an effective herb for other health issues.
Agrimony has astringent properties that can cure ulcers.
As a bitter herb, it aids in various digestive and gastrointestinal complaints such as indigestion, diarrhea, dysentery, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Agrimony is anti-inflammatory, alleviating stomach membrane and tissue inflammations.
The active components of agrimony hold out hope for treating diabetes as they regulate glucose and insulin uptake.
Agrimony can also cure gallbladder problems because of its glycoside content.
The topical application of agrimony is effective against skin issues. It is used to cure acne, pimples, rashes, psoriasis, and eczema. It is also taken orally for managing blemishes, blotches, and bruises. Agrimony contains antioxidant that flushes out free radicals from the body. Thus, it can slow down the aging process and minimize wrinkles and dark spots.
Further, the silicic acid found in agrimony may also foster overall hair and nail growth.
Agrimony is beneficial for people with incontinence or weak bladder control as well. Because of this, it is used to help control bedwetting in children.
Agrimony is one of the potent herbs for treating respiratory conditions and hastening the healing process.
For women with menstrual issues, agrimony is one of the most useful and effective healing herbs to consider. A tonic of agrimony reduces heavy menstrual bleeding and alleviates cramps. It further regulates difficult menses by soothing the inflammation of the reproductive system.
In summary, agrimony can cure health problems not limited to the following:
Diabetes
Skin problems
Digestive and gastrointestinal complaints
Eye problems, conjunctivitis
Incontinence
Menstrual issues
Gallbladder problems
Aging
Mood swings and stress
Ulcers and wounds
Insomnia
Intestinal parasites
Clotting and bleeding disorders
Various inflammations
What Parts Of Agrimony Are Used For Remedies
All parts of agrimony are used for remedies, including its roots. Its leaves are consumed as infusion, decoction, brew, or tea. A compress and poultice of its ground leaves are used for topical application.
Agrimony infusion is used as a bath additive for relieving minor tension or used as a wound wash.
Agrimony is not a widely used commercial medicine but is a homemade herbal remedy. However, in some stores, you may find it in the form of liquid extract, essential oil, or tincture.
Agrimony Tincture
Ingredients
½ cup dried agrimony
16 fl oz vodka, 80 proof (40% alcohol)
Steps
Put the dried agrimony leaves in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid.
Fill the jar with vodka.
Cap tightly and label accordingly. Leave the mixture in a dry place for two weeks, shaking it occasionally.
After two weeks, strain the tincture and transfer it into amber or colored glass tincture bottles. Keep the bottle tightly closed at all times for its potency to last for up to two years.
How To Use This Remedy
Agrimony tincture is the most effective in treating diarrhea and other health concerns. The standard dose is taking 15 drops of the tincture mixed with juice or water, two times a day. The dosage is intended for adults and children 12 years old and above.
Warnings And Cautions
Agrimony is possibly safe for adults when taken for a short period and for a dosage not exceeding 3 grams daily.
Do not use agrimony when pregnant since it can directly affect the menstrual cycle. Its safety for breastfeeding women is not yet established. Thus, it is better to avoid using agrimony for safety.
Do not use this herb for children under 12 years old.
Agrimony contains tannins that may cause allergic reactions. If you are allergic to roses, you are highly likely sensitive to agrimony as well. Rashes can occur when handling fresh or dried agrimony parts.
If you are under medication for other health conditions, consult your physician before using agrimony. Only the doctor and qualified health practitioner can give the appropriate dosage depending on your age, overall health, and specific medical condition.
Regardless of location or income level, the leading cause of death worldwide is heart disease. (1) One of the most common conditions leading to heart disease and stroke (the No. 2 killer) is the all-too familiar issue of high blood pressure. A shocking one in three individuals in the United States has high blood pressure. (2)
The good news is that high blood pressure can usually be reversed naturally, specifically through lifestyle changes and consuming foods that lower blood pressure.
Even though it’s closely related to dietary and lifestyle habits, many people try to rely on medication alone to solve their blood pressure problems.
One of the most popular prescription drugs for hypertension, Lisinopril, names side effects including “blurred vision, confusion, dizziness and unusual tiredness or weakness.”
To me, that sounds pretty undesirable for something you can easily correct with a high blood pressure diet and lifestyle changes. In fact, I’m going to tell you about 13 foods, including everything from snacks to juice to herbs, that have been scientifically proven to lower blood pressure.
Foods that Lower Blood Pressure
1. Pomegranate Juice
While most traditional fruit juices are laden with processed sugar and practically devoid of useful nutrients, 100 percent pomegranate juice is actually one of the healthiest juices on the planet.
One of the most desirable benefits of pomegranate juice includes the ability it has to lower blood pressure naturally. The science is in: Pomegranate juice has major blood pressure-lowering ability, both in short- and long-term studies. (8, 9, 10, 11)
It has also been tested for its ability to reduce blood pressure in patients with diabetes, patients undergoing kidney dialysis and those with carotid artery disease, all with the same successful results. (12, 13, 14)
2. Spinach
We’ve all known for a long time that spinach is a crazy healthy food and helps seriously reduce disease-causing inflammation. The awesome antioxidants it contains land it on this list of foods that lower blood pressure. (15, 16)
3. Coriander
A subject of relatively new research, coriander has been used traditionally for years to treat a number of conditions.
In 2009, a revolutionary study began attempting to define what exactly coriander can do. Researchers found that it exhibited several positive benefits, including a hypotensive (blood-pressure lowering) effect. (17)
4. Pistachios
They’re not just a snack anymore; pistachio nutrition is no small thing when it comes to heart health.
Nuts tend to have a positive effect on lowering blood pressure as a group, but when compared to other types of nuts, pistachio came out on top. (18) Pistachios are on the list of foods that lower blood pressure even for those suffering from high cholesterol. (19)
5. Beetroot Juice
Beet benefits span a variety of items, from maintaining a healthy sex drive to blood detoxification. Its juice, referred to as beetroot juice, has been used since the Middle Ages to treat a number of conditions.
However, just a folk remedy this is not — beetroot juice has been the subject of extensive scientific research for its health benefits, not least of which its ability to lower blood pressure.
Beetroot juice significantly reduces both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. (20, 21, 22) Interestingly, beetroot juice had a more immediate hypotensive effect than cooked beet. (23)
In overweight and obese subjects past middle age, the effects are not as noticeable, at least in the short term. (24, 25)
6. Olive Oil
Since Bible times, olive oil has been regarded as one of the healthiest staple foods, especially in areas such as the blue zones. It’s a common part of the Mediterranean Diet, a well-known diet associated with longer life spans and less instances of common diseases (like heart disease). (26)
This antioxidant-rich, delicious cooking oil can be used in so many recipes, and that’s a good thing because it’s a food that lowers blood pressure. (27, (28) A 2015 scientific review conducted in Spain even found that “virgin olive oil significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease clinical events,” suggesting that it’s good for the heart on a much broader level than just high blood pressure. (29)
Olive oil is one of the healthy fats you definitely want to include in your regular diet.
7. Dark Chocolate
Perhaps the most controversial item on my list of foods that lower blood pressure is dark chocolate. One reason for the controversy is related to how commonly dark chocolate is available combined with a huge amount of sugar.
When you’re able to find dark chocolate that isn’t totally soaked in unnecessary sugar, enjoy it. It’s great for your heart.
There are some small studies that disagree, but when tested on a large scale, dark chocolate is consistently correlated with a lowered risk of high blood pressure. (30) This is most significant in larger populations with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions associated with dangerous health issues, including stroke, diabetes and heart disease. (31)
The best results when working to lower blood pressure by eating dark chocolate will always come from chocolate high in flavonols (sometimes called “flavonoids”), specific phytochemicals that act as antioxidants. (32, 33) Even though this isn’t something you’ll find on a label, you can get close by looking for organic chocolate that lists a high amount of “cocoa solids” (somewhere close to 80 percent is best).
8. Flax Seed
Possibly due to the beneficial omega-3s found in flax seed, it ranks on this list of best foods that lower blood pressure. (34) It can even lower blood pressure in patients who have already developed peripheral artery disease, a common condition hallmarked by fatty deposits and calcium buildup within artery walls. (35)
The best results have been found when flax seed is consumed regularly for over 12 weeks. (36) Scientists have been so impressed by these transformations that a 2013 study in Canada said that “flaxseed induced one of the most potent antihypertensive effects achieved by a dietary intervention.” (37)
9. Celery
You probably know by now that you burn more calories eating celery than you consume, but did you know that it’s good for high blood pressure? Every time you eat celery, its nutrients help to keep high blood pressure in check. (38)
It’s interesting to note that at least one study found that cooked celery had more blood pressure-lowering potential than raw. (39)
10. Tomatoes
This most popular berry/veggie, laden with the heart-healthy nutrient lycopene, has been shown to lower high blood pressure significantly, sometimes rendering drug treatments completely unnecessary. (40, 41, 42)
The best hypotensive effects of the tomato will be found when eaten raw.
11. Purple Potatoes
Trying to make sure you get a wide variety of colors in your diet? You’ll probably enjoy trying out the vibrant purple potato. Loaded with antioxidants (including anthocyanin pigments that give this sweet potato its color), purple potatoes help significantly lower blood pressure. (43, 44)
12. Sesame Oil
With the exceptions of olive, coconut and sesame oil, I generally try to stay away from vegetable oils. However, the oil of sesame seeds has been popular in ancient medicines for millennia and has some serious heart-healthy properties.
Sesame seed oil lowers blood pressure and helps protect against cardiac hypertrophy, a thickening of the heart muscle usually caused by high blood pressure. (45) A lot of research focuses on sesame oil’s ability to increase potassium levels while decreasing sodium in the blood. (46, 47)
These effects seem to apply in both the short and long term, so cooking with sesame oil on a regular basis may help protect against high blood pressure in the first place. (48)
13. Hibiscus Tea
Another slightly controversial item on my list is hibiscus tea. This tart herbal tea contains a large number of antioxidants and has been found to effectively decrease blood pressure, including in patients with diabetes. (49, 50, 51)
Unlike most of the foods mentioned above, there are a few minor risks to consider when consuming hibiscus tea, although it’s generally recognized as safe. There is some evidence that at extremely high doses, hibiscus tea could potentially interfere with some liver functions. (52)
Because of its extremely effective results in lowering blood pressure, it’s also not recommended for pregnant/nursing women or patients taking certain medications, including diabetes medications, high blood pressure medications and chloroquine (used to treat malaria). (53)
Other Ways to Lower Blood Pressure
There are a variety of natural ways to lower blood pressure in addition to diet and exercise. For instance, there are several essential oils associated with a reduction in blood pressure, including: (72)
If you’re interested in supplements that can help you reduce blood pressure, I would try cod liver oil. This anti-inflammatory powerhouse has incredible health benefits and can help to effectively lower blood pressure. (76, 77)
Final Thoughts
High blood pressure affects an astoundingly high one in three people in the United States alone, and only about half of those people have their condition under control.
It is relatively easy to lower blood pressure naturally by adjusting your diet and lifestyle, such as following a high blood pressure diet and exercising regularly.
By implementing the 13 foods that reduce blood pressure found in this piece, as well as other foods found on the DASH diet and other high blood pressure diet recommendations, you may be able to lower your blood pressure to safe levels.
Many foods that lower blood pressure do so because of the high presence of antioxidants they contain, as well as by activating nutrients such as nitrates, lycopene and adiponectin.
In the July 22, 2021, article,1 “Did Scientists Stifle the Lab-Leak Theory,” foreign reporter and columnist for Unherd, Ian Birrell, analyzes the circumstances that led to a near-complete blackout of questions about SARS-CoV-2’s origin.
In September 2019, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board issued a warning that a new infectious disease was poised to spread around the world, and that nations were ill prepared for such an event.
The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is a joint arm of the World Health Organization and the World Bank — two technocratic entities that aren’t always working in the best interest of humanity as a whole.
On the 15-person Board are Sir Jeremy Farrar (director of the Welcome Trust), Dr. Anthony Fauci (director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID) and George Fu Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Technocrat-Led Board Predicted Manmade Pandemic
As noted by Birrell, the board’s warning was “astonishingly prescient,” as SARS-CoV-2 emerged in December 2020. Importantly, the board did not necessarily focus its prediction on the emergence of natural zoonotic diseases but, rather, warned of technological and scientific advances that “allow for disease-creating micro-organisms to be engineered or recreated in laboratories.”
According to the board, accidental release of such manmade organisms could actually be far more devastating than a natural outbreak. “Accidental or deliberate events caused by high-impact respiratory pathogens pose global catastrophic biological risks,” the board stated in its September 2019 report, titled “A World At Risk.”2 In passing, the report also mentioned the need to control the flow of information:
“A deliberate release would complicate outbreak response; in addition to the need to decide how to counter the pathogen, security measures would come into play limiting information-sharing and fomenting social divisions.”
Same Board Members Denied Possibility of Manmade Pandemic
Despite the Board’s recognition that manmade pathogens pose a significant threat, some of its board members — Fauci and Farrar in particular — have played central roles in roundly dismissing the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab. As reported by Birrell:3
“Farrar was a central figure behind two landmark documents published by influential science journals that played a key role in shutting down discussion of the lab leak hypothesis by branding it conspiracy theory.
These statements, signed and promoted by leading figures in the scientific establishment, pushed an idea that the pandemic was a natural occurrence by arguing against the plausibility of ‘any type of laboratory-based scenario.’ Critics say this ‘false narrative’ set back understanding of the disease for more than a year.”
In his book, “Spike: The Virus vs. The People — the Inside Story,” Farrar praises China for its pandemic response at the outset of the pandemic. This despite the fact that the Communist dictatorship is known to have silenced doctors who wanted to warn the public, and allowed the annual Chinese New Year’s celebration to proceed, thereby ensuring massive spread as people from all parts of China and across the world gathered.
Did Fauci and Farrar Collude to Suppress Lab-Leak Theory?
Birrell goes on to detail how Farrar and Fauci reacted to early reports suggesting the virus had telltale signs of gain-of-function. Emails4 obtained via freedom of information act (FOIA) requests reveal Fauci received a Science magazine article detailing the work of Peter Daszak (EcoHealth Alliance) and Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
“The article discussed controversies over risky ‘gain of function’ experiments, including mention of a 2015 paper by Shi and a U.S. expert on modification of a Sars-like bat virus to boost infectivity to humans,” Birrell writes.5
“Emails released through freedom of information requests show Fauci instantly circulated the article to U.S. officials and contacted Farrar saying it was ‘of interest to the current discussion’ …
[Scripps virologist Kristian] Andersen, when sent the Science article at the end of January, admitted a close look at the genetic sequences of Sars-CoV-2 showed that ‘some of the features (potentially) look engineered’ and that other experts agreed the genome was ‘inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory’ …
The Wellcome boss then set up a conference call for the pair of them with 11 other experts from around the world, warning their discussions were ‘in total confidence’ and information ‘not to be shared’ without prior agreement.
Farrar also sent Fauci a link to an article on ZeroHedge … that tied a Wuhan researcher to the virus outbreak. The site was banned the next day from Twitter …”
While we don’t know the full details of what was discussed during that February 1, 2020, phone call, Birrell points out what we do know. For example, we know they discussed contacting the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and that two days later, Ghebreyesus made a public call for censorship of misinformation.
Five days after that call, Daszak also circulated the first draft of a scientific consensus statement6 that eventually got published in The Lancet, and thereafter was used by mainstream media and fact checkers everywhere to “debunk” any and all evidence of a lab leak.
The statement, signed by 27 experts, including Farrar, condemned “conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin.” A FOIA request revealed Daszak was the mastermind behind that Lancet statement7 — which, by the way, presented no actual evidence of natural origin — and that he wanted to make sure it could not be identified as being from a single individual or organization.
Six weeks after Farrar’s group call, four of the participants on the call — including Andersen — also published a commentary in Nature Medicine, titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,”8 in which they stated they “do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”
“This statement in a world-renowned journal, which has been accessed 5.5 million times, further depressed debate of alternative theories on the origins, despite being challenged by a few brave voices in the scientific community,” Birrell writes.9
Unanswered Questions
In his book, “Spike,” which was published July 22, 2021, Farrar admits he had deep concerns about the “huge coincidence” of SARS-CoV-2 emerging in a city with a biosafety level 4 (BSL4) laboratory that just so happens to specialize in collection, storage and research of bat coronaviruses. Birrell writes:
“The new coronavirus ‘might not even be that novel at all,’ he thought. ‘It might have been engineered years ago, put in a freezer, and then taken out more recently by someone who decided to work on it again. And then, maybe, there was … an accident?’
He was so concerned that he confided in Eliza Manningham-Buller, then the Wellcome Trust chair and a former head of the MI5 intelligence service, who told him to start taking precautions such as avoiding putting things in emails and using a burner phone for key conversations.
So what changed his mind so firmly he started signing letters and tweeting about alleged conspiracy theories? When I asked Farrar to share the evidence that set his mind at rest, he pointed to the Nature Medicine article. Yet his office told me later he helped ‘convene’ these five authors.
They also insist that ‘the weight of available data and scientific evidence continues to point towards zoonotic origins.’
But scientists have found no hard evidence on the pandemic origins, despite testing 80,000 samples on animals to find a natural link, while China has made increasingly ludicrous claims over the origins as well as covering up the outbreak, lying over the date of first cases and taking offline Wuhan’s key database of samples and viral sequences.”
In his book, Farrar also discusses specific concerns brought forth by Andersen in January 2020. Recall, in April 2020, Andersen published “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” with four other co-authors. But in January, three things alarmed him about the virus:
The receptor binding domain, which is like a perfect key for entering human cells
The furin cleavage site, which is not found in other bat coronaviruses and would be expected “if someone had set out to adapt an animal coronavirus to humans by taking a specific suit of genetic material from elsewhere and inserting it”
A scientific paper describing the use of that very technique to modify the original SARS virus. Andersen allegedly thought it “looked like a how-to manual for building the Wuhan coronavirus in a laboratory”
Evidence of Collusion
Before Farrar’s February 1, 2020, call, Andersen was “60 to 70%” convinced SARS-CoV-2 was a lab creation, according to Farrar’s account. Yet Andersen also told Farrar he did not want to be a front man for the lab leak theory. Birrell writes:10
“Anderson told [Farrar] that he suddenly realized he might be the person who proved the new virus came from a lab. ’I didn’t necessarily want to be that person,’ he said.
‘When you make big claims like that you had better be sure that you can conclude something is based on evidence and not on speculation.’ So according to Farrar, then five experts wrestled with the evidence and, the following month, they declared in Nature Medicine that Sars-CoV-2 was ‘not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus’ …
They offered the circumstantial evidence that RaTG13, the closest known coronavirus to Sars-CoV-2, had different binding mechanisms — yet similar ones were found on pangolins, so ‘the ingredients … were out in the wild. They did not need to have escaped, or been unleashed, from a containment lab.’”
The problem with this argument is that they have no firm evidence of natural emergence. What’s more, while Andersen and co-authors claim they spent many sleepless nights carefully analyzing and evaluating the lab leak theory before finally dismissing it, in a May 2021 interview,11 co-author Robert Garry admitted the first draft of the Nature Medicine paper was finished February 1, 2020 — the day of Farrar’s conference call, which included four of the five co-authors.
Fauci’s email trove also reveals Farrar sent Fauci a rough draft of the Nature Medicine paper three days after that conference call, urging him to keep it confidential. That same day, Andersen also told another group of experts that the data “conclusively show” there was no engineering involved. “So far from having ‘many sleepless nights,’ these scientists seem to have changed their minds amazingly fast and reached fresh conclusions,” Birrell writes.
Elite Institutions Have Subverted the Truth
Another article addressing the subversion of truth by some of our most trusted scientific institutions is James Meigs’ Commentary piece, “The Lab-Leak-Theory Cover-Up.”12
“The dam is breaking,” Meigs writes. “And with the surging floodwaters, comes a stunning realization: Almost across the board, our elite institutions got the most important question about COVID wrong.
Worse, they worked furiously to discourage anyone else from getting it right. The leading scientific experts turned out to be spinning the truth. Our public-health officials put their political agenda ahead of any scientific mandate.
And the press and social-media giants eagerly played along, enforcing strict rules about which COVID topics were acceptable and which had to be banished from the national conversation.
During the Trump years, we heard a lot of hand-wringing about the public’s unwarranted ‘distrust’ of our society’s designated experts and leaders. But to be trusted, people and institutions have to be trustworthy.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a profound corruption at the heart of our expert class. The impact of that revelation will reverberate for years to come.”
As noted by Meigs, leading institutions not only declared the lab-leak theory incorrect, but also “dangerous and malicious,” and went to extraordinary lengths to “protect” the population from hearing anything that might infect their minds with such wrongthink.
In the end, all such efforts failed. Despite the ridicule, personal attacks and censorship, common sense and logic have managed to break through and, today, the failures of our most prestigious science institutions are laid bare.
Government Only Pays Lip Service to the Truth
The lab-leak question has also revealed corruption within other cherished institutions, such as the U.S. intelligence community. Two separate teams, one in the State Department and another under direction of the National Security Council, have been tasked with investigating the origin of SARS-CoV-2.
In Commentary, Meigs points out that both teams report facing intense internal pushback, according to Vanity Fair reporter Katherine Eban. Their own institutions urged them “not to open a ‘Pandora’s Box,’” which suggests the State Department and the NSC aren’t particularly interested in the truth. Of particular concern was the role the U.S. government may have played by funding gain-of-funding research on bat coronaviruses at the WIV.
While the ramifications of the truth might be extremely uncomfortable for some, if we allow individuals to shirk responsibility, the ramifications of that course of action could ultimately turn out to be lethal for mankind.
If U.S. institutions such as the NIAID funded gain-of-function research that resulted in a pandemic, we need to know, so we can close loopholes and implement better safeguards. I’ve argued that gain-of-function research that makes pathogens more dangerous to humans ought to be banned altogether, to prevent the creation of a truly lethal pandemic.
But even if we don’t ban it, we need to know what government agencies have been doing with our tax dollars, and decide whether they’ve been put to good use or not. In my opinion, creating pathogens capable of killing us is hardly a good use of our taxes, and should be stopped.
Origin Story Shows Importance of Independence
Most people want to trust government, academic and scientific institutions, and the media. Unfortunately, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that these institutions aren’t worthy of unequivocal trust.
They say they’re trustworthy, and they insist we must trust them, but their actions tell a different story. The pandemic has also shown us just how important it is for investigators, researchers and reporters to be truly independent. As noted by Meigs:13
“The story of why the line of inquiry survived is not an account of leading scientists and health organizations dutifully parsing the evidence.
Instead, it is largely the story of little-known researchers — many working outside the bounds of elite institutions — who didn’t let the political implications of their findings derail their efforts.
Much of what we know today about the Wuhan Institute’s risky research is thanks to these independent skeptics who challenged the institutional consensus. Some risked their careers to do so.”
One key group of self-organized researchers is the Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19 (DRASTIC). They’ve made a number of important discoveries that have kept the lab-leak theory alive.
Massive Collusion to Suppress Inquisitiveness
“Throughout the pandemic we’ve often heard admonitions to ‘follow the science.’ Looking back we can see that few scientists — and even fewer journalists — really did,” Meigs notes. Among the few journalists who did tackle the elephant in the room were former New York Times reporters Nicholas Wade and Donald McNeil Jr.
“Notice the irony here: While two refugees from the New York Times were publishing deep, well-reported articles on an alternative outlet, the Times itself was still mostly ignoring the Wuhan-lab story,” Meigs writes.14
“One of its current pandemic specialists, Apoorva Mandavilli, was on Twitter urging everyone to ‘stop talking about the lab leak’ … When the pandemic hit last year, we were all urged to fall in line and listen to the authorities. Scientists and bureaucrats were elevated to near-divine status.
‘Let us pray, now, for science,’ Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo wrote last February. ‘Pray for reason, rigor and expertise … Pray for the N.I.H. and the C.D.C. Pray for the W.H.O.’ Now the public is waking up to the fact that, prayers notwithstanding, those institutions largely failed us.
The WHO kowtowed to China’s deceptions. Anthony Fauci trimmed his public statements to fit the prevailing political winds. Some of the nation’s top virologists didn’t just dismiss the lab-leak possibility, they appeared to be covering up their own involvement with Wuhan gain-of-function research.
Journalists and social-media companies conspired to suppress legitimate questions about a disease that was killing thousands of Americans each day.”
Establishment Needs a Deep Clean
While we certainly need expertise, as Meigs points out, we must also be able to trust our experts, and the only way for trust to rebuild, experts must act from a strong ethical foundation, and be held responsible for dangerous failures.
“If the public concludes that COVID-19 was, in effect, an inside job, the political fallout could last a generation,” Meigs writes.15“I don’t mean people will believe the virus was deliberately released … but that they will see the disease as a product of an elite power structure that behaves recklessly and evades responsibility.”
What makes the situation so problematic is that it’s not just one type of institution that is behaving recklessly and shirking responsibility. It’s not just the legacy media, or academia, or government, or public health, the intelligence apparatus, Big Tech, Big Pharma or the medical journal system. It’s all of them.
The Medical Journal System Has Failed Us Too
Continuing along that same line of reasoning, a July 27, 2021, Spectator article16 by Stuart Ritchie reviews the unhealthy relationship between The Lancet and China, and its role in thwarting scientific investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Ritchie points out how The Lancet’s editor-in-chief, Richard Horton, has routinely defended China’s actions:
“It’s not just the scientists and health workers of China that the Lancet has praised. In May last year, Horton appeared on the state-owned broadcaster China Central Television to praise how ‘tremendously decisively’ the Chinese Communist party had handled the pandemic. He also penned multiple editorials about China, including one entitled ‘Covid-19 and the Dangers of Sinophobia.’”
Ritchie also stresses that “some of the most famous stories of scientific fraud have originated at The Lancet during Horton’s tenure as editor,” including, most recently, fraudulent papers proclaiming to show that hydroxychloroquine is dangerous when used in COVID-19 patients, and Daszak’s “scientific statement” condemning the lab leak theory as wild conspiracy theory.
“The purpose of the Lancet, back in 1823, was to slice away the immorality and complacency of the medical establishment … [Lancet founder Thomas] Wakley would have been stunned to see that his journal now exemplifies that establishment,” Ritchie writes.17“It embodies an unaccountable or only partially accountable elite that does often make progress, but fails abjectly to face up to its many faults.
In 2021, we might find that the best rejoinder to our establishment isn’t a new Wakley-style journal, but an entirely new way to think about science and how it’s published: a way that doesn’t hand over all our trust to editors and reviewers, but that emphasizes openness and transparency right from the start.
There are several proposals for how it could happen. The next rotten thing that needs to be cut away could be the journal system — and the Lancet itself.”
The censorship rolled out during the COVID pandemic has revealed a disconcerting truth, namely that corruption and collusion are rampant everywhere. By the looks of it, we need to do a clean sweep across the board, and that will require time, effort, and most of all, open public discussion.
Laws Have Been Broken. Who Will Hold Them Accountable?
In closing, I strongly recommend listening to Dr. David Martin’s explanation of antitrust law in the video below, and how, in the case of a criminal conspiracy, liability shielding evaporates.
In his view, having reviewed the evidence, there’s no doubt that the NIH/NIAID, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ATI, Moderna and Pfizer are guilty of criminal conspiracy (the legal definition thereof) and premeditative antitrust violations.
Without that criminal conspiracy and their premeditative acts, we would not be in the situation we’re in now, where censorship and pandemic measures and rules are putting the public health, well-being and sanity at risk. Unfortunately, while there is, theoretically, a legal way out of this pandemic, deep cracks in our justice system has also been exposed over the past year and a half.
Martin is currently struggling to find a state attorney general willing to pursue these violations so that we can bring this faux pandemic to a close. Hopefully, once enough people understand the illegality of the situation, someone will have the courage to step up to the plate.
Healthy Foods That Can Cause Kidney Stones
AGRIMONY
Leaves. Agrimony leaves are dark green with a whitish underside, arranged alternately on the stem. The leaves have varying sizes. Those near the ground are longer. Leaves become shorter as they move up the stem. The leaves are pinnate or divided to the midrib into pairs of leaflets. They are oblong to almost diamond-like in shape with toothed edges.
Stem. From the roots, erect and cylindrical agrimony stems rose out. They are rough and grow to about 1 to 3 feet or more. Agrimony is mostly unbranched or slightly branched as it grows taller. The stems are slightly grooved, and the whole plant is covered with tiny hairs.
How Scientists Muzzled the COVID Lab Origin Data
Health and Wellness Associates 