Wuhan Flu: A Lung Disease Or A Blood Disease?

Ventilators, sickle cell anemia, malaria, hemoglobin, altitude, masks, and the odd nature of the RNA virus that among other features, has “an error correction mechanism that may be able to switched on and off.”

Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying pick up the topic raised by this post “Is this a completely new disease?” on their Dark Horse podcast today.

21 Replies to “Wuhan Flu: A Lung Disease Or A Blood Disease?”

  1. Just got a text a college roommate’s father died of the corona earlier today. He was 90 and in a nursing home in North Jersey. Not sure just yet if he had any underlying conditions.

  2. Interesting. The pre-print press, again, seams to have a lot of good intel. I didn’t hear the whole thing yet but the explanation given here seems to be fairly clear, the virus induces hypoxia in some patients by compromising the function of their hemoglobin. Will listen to the balance later.

    In the meantime, sad news, John Prine has died from COVID-19 complications: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/music/john-prine-dead.html

    Also, for future Darwin Award winners there is “Goop Diaries: COVID-19 is all in your mind, bro” https://www.healthing.ca/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus/goop-diaries-covid-19-is-all-in-your-mind-bro

    1. I am sad to hear that John Prine Is now gone to glory. Didn’t care for that particular link, which seemed condescending. Oh , Kristopherson and Dylan said nice stuff. Prine was more than both of them to some of us guitar fools. RIP John.

  3. The spread of Wuhan Flu is based on two factors:
    1. How dense the population is.
    2. How dense the population is.

  4. Sad that they cannot accept the possibility of a creator. Makes them hard to take seriously.

  5. Since your first posting of I’ve been obsessed with the possibility that Covid-19 could be a blood disease.

    I came across this rare disease called Porphyria.
    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/porphyria/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20356072

    The interesting thing about this disease is that hydroxychloroquine is one of the treatments for this disease because it helps absorb excess poryphyrins. If it is working for Covid-19, which is likely, perhaps it is slowing the spread of the virus by removing poryphrins.

    The other interesting treatment for, Porphyria, is phlebotomy (fancy word for blood letting) to reduce the amount of iron and porphyrins in the body. I wonder if there is any research that will be done comparing iron levels in the blood to severity of the disease.

  6. Longest Podcast I’ve listened to in a long while.
    WELL worth the hour..!! thanx for this one Kate..!

    EXCELLENT discussion….in particular where he mentions Sickle Cell anemia and how it uses a similar Disrupting mechanism to mess up the 02 – CO2 Exchange. SARS Cov-2 also appears to do this while also releasing Free Fe into the Bloodstream. Both resemble HyPOXIA. And it seems that Sickle Cell anemia is also treated with chloroquine, quinine or a form thereof. Interesting to say the least.

    I think I got all that right..?

      1. Long form podcasts are so valuable for topics like this. The mainstream is useless, a waste of time.

  7. I’m sorry Brett, but I’ve somehow managed to make it through nearly 65 years of life … SHOCK … without wearing a facemask in public … that I am not really interested in wearing one forever now. Evidently, the human body has the ability to “engineer” equally badass “machines” that can contain the ChiCom-19 virus successfully. I’m betting on MY machine doing what it’s always done for my lifetime. And yes … I will take on board the annual mutated vaccination cocktail (I appreciate man’s “engineering” work as much as God’s).

    But, NO … I do NOT want to see our society looking like a street scene in Beijing … with everyone wearing masks and riding bicycles. No. Just No. How about practicing a little personal hygiene? Starting with … STAY the hell out of public when you’re sick! And don’t cough and sneeze in my face, carry a handkerchief and don’t wipe your snot on surfaces other people touch. How about THAT? Before we start dressing everyone up in Burkas !? Sheesh. What is it with leftists who want to always “transform” our perfectly great society into some dystopian nightmare? Ohhhh yeahhhh … not surprisingly … Brett longs for the POWER to bestow Admiralties upon his friends.

    Too bad these otherwise highly educated, smart, people don’t recognize a “creator” behind the elegant organisms on this planet. It might resolve their angst over the “arrogance” of humans upon discovery of DNA … as if we’ve become Godlike in our superior knowledge and understanding (sic) of the building blocks of life.

    1. Hey, I don’t bother with a mask where I live. But if I lived in a high density urban area? Sure. Situation matters, and a simple bandana is easy to keep around.

      1. I have a simple neck warmer micro-fibre thing that cuts air flow and is washable and easily sanitized. I wear it now when out where the hysterical maybe die of a coronary while I walk by but that is the only time. I look like I am going to rob a bank with it over my lower face.

      2. Perhaps, Kate. But here in Suburbia … my life is probably not much different from yours. I go to the grocery store … which is pretty much the most crowded environment I ever encounter (I haven’t ridden BART in years) . Nowhere else am I subject to crowds. Except maybe an occasional Soccer match, which is usually summer touring EPL teams … last summer, I saw Bayern Munich play Arsenal in LA. It’s summer … when viruses are effectively dormant, and I’ve NEVER been made ill by attending a huge sporting event … despite buying the occasional Polish Dog or Nachos! Ha!

        But as of last week … I have regretfully HAD to conform to what has become an INSTANTANEOUS change of social norms … I wore one of my N95 “construction” masks I have laying around when I went to the grocery store. Why? Because I felt it was the “polite” thing to do because it would make my neighbors f-e-e-l more comfortable. I wore a mask for the same reason Jordan Peterson says he refers to trans people (individually) by the pronoun they prefer … out of a sense of being a “polite” neighbor. So … despite my tirade (as I am want to proffer) … I wore the mask. “I wore the ribbon”

      3. PRECISELY.
        A Bandana is perfect for this situation.
        Allows one to breathe freely, and Covers the mouth and nose.
        a Pair of Safety glasses (or any glasses if you don’t have safety types), “finalizes” ones PPE for this shit.

        Now looking into the relationship of Dr Fauci and Bill gates and Vaccines. Big Pharma is literally DROOLING over the possibilities….as is Gates with his microchipped “entire humanity” Crap. FAUCI IS JUST an arrogant mouthpiece…Why the Donald keeps that prick around is beyond me.

    2. I wore a face mask for hours at a time doing benchwork, latex and nitrile gloves too. No big deal. I am wearing both in public these days. I am higher risk and I’ll take anything that might help my aging immune system protect me, thank you anyway. People snarked at my wife when she first started talking about this last Feb. They aren’t snarking now. My wife started wearing a mask in public recently and in our town everyone knows she’s retired medical folk. Suddenly all the old ladies in town went into a sewing frenzy and almost everyone is wearing masks now.

  8. Meh. Wild-type does not refer to some “wild” people, it refers to the common version of the gene. But the theory is interesting, I’m waiting for evidence from maximum blood oxygenation measurements, and other, quite doable easy tests.

Navigation