Category: Life

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An Attack on Free Speech We Cannot Ignore

Lovers of Liberty got black roses yesterday from Rep. Adam Schiff via a letter he sent to the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai of Google. The letter makes it clear that the California Democrat seeks to limit the free speech online of American parents and groups who use their inalienable right to free speech and open expression granted to us by our Creator and spelled out in our nation’s founding documents when it comes to discussing vaccinations.

The Bloomberg News story reported that ” Google’s YouTube unfurled a change in the way it recommends videos — an automated system that has been criticized for promoting misinformation. YouTube said it would start cutting videos with “borderline content” that “misinform users in harmful ways” from its recommendation system. “

Mr. Zuckerberg, whose wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan is a pediatrician famously posted a picture in 2016 of him taking his daughter to the pediatrician and talking about vaccines on his page. In a 2016 Time article, it was suggested that he would do well to ‘shut down’ pages.

It does not matter if you have safety concerns about vaccines or if you are pro-vaccine, or have no opinion, your liberty is being attacked all the same. Today it is a suggestion to block free speech of people who talk about vaccines, tomorrow it might be people who talk about climate change, or abortion, or immigration, or domestic violence. The real issue at hand here is that a legislator is promoting the idea to very powerful businesses that speech should be limited.

Remember, vaccine injury, rare or not rare is a reality. It became such a problem to the vaccine industry due to the lawsuits they were loosing in the early 1980’s that they joined with the medical establishment and got Congress to pass the National Vaccine Injury Protection Act of 1986 which abridged your freedom to seek legal recourse and provided liability protection for the manufacturers and the health professionals who administer vaccines. About $4 billion dollars has been paid out to the vaccine injured in this program. Sadly, the program has many problems and many of the vaccine injured – the collateral damage of the vaccine mandates are not compensated. That is a conversation for another day.

What do I mean by mandates? I mean that the US government provides recommendations and the states create mandates that force parents to get their kids vaccinated if they want them to be able to go to daycare or school. In three states, religious liberty has been taken away. In California, where all but medical exemptions have been removed, there is now a discussion led by Senator Pan to remove even the medical exemption. So if state Senator Pan (who is a physician himself) gets his way, the child with a compromised immune system, who has a mitochondrial disorder, or who is allergic to an ingredient may be forced to be vaccinated in order to attend a public school their parents pay very high taxes to support! 

You may be asking yourself why would someone have a religious objection?. There are religions that oppose the use of all medicines. I will not judge them, as religious liberty is a tenant of our nation’s foundation. There are others who object on religious grounds to some of the ingredients – after all, there are cow, pig and human DNA included in various vaccines. In the Measles vaccines (MMR and MMRV) there are two aborted fetal tissue cell lines. It is vile to suggest that a family who has strong feelings about the right to life and opposes abortion should be forced to inject their babies with vaccines that contain aborted fetal tissue cell lines. Likewise for anymore who opposes the consumption of pork on religious grounds or beef to be forced to inject their child with a vaccine that contains these animals’ DNA.

Social Media is a modern form of free expression that many of us enjoy. It has helped us build bonds with friends and families who live near and far. It has helped us developed groups in which we can share like ideas and discuss topics with friends and online acquaintances. It is a place in which businesses promote products and politicians are able to promote their agendas. Its frustrating enough to learn over the last couple of years about the political bias within some of the social media companies and the manipulation of information based on political ideology; but to suggest that people and groups who have an honest discussion about medical injury aka vaccine injury should be shut out because some do not believe the risks are real, is absurd. Think about issues that many presumed not to be true, but turned out to be real: The cancer link to – glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup comes to mind immediately. The issue of lead in drinking water and paint; child abuse by Catholic priests; and mercury in fish. Think about the issue of PTSD and TBI in our returning military and the high rate of suicide. What if someone in government convinced Facebook and other social media sites cut off those who talked about these issues? is it far fetched, no.

What now? Well, I hope that the thousands of families in Rep. Schiff’s district who have concerns about vaccine safety especially those with vaccine injured families members demand a meeting immediately.

When Government and Media Join Forces Look Out! As a nation, we should by now recognize the warning signs. When the government – in this case, the public health officials begin a fear mongering campaign, our antenna should go up. When you see wall to wall coverage about a topic -be it flu shots or the measles outbreak, listen carefully to the word crafting and do your own research. A story about 1 in 4 kindergarteners – tied to the measles outbreak was a misdirect. The study was about kids not being fully immunized before starting school. It was not specific to measles. Are 200 cases of measles in a nation of 330 million really a crisis?

There is no honest discussion taking place about how many of those who contracted measles were vaccinated and got the disease anyway, too little focus on what it means when an international traveler brings an infectious disease into the US; and no discussion about the failure of the vaccine to provide lifelong immunity.

What is really happening is that government officials and the media have colluded to force members of the public to take a specific action, in this case, get a vaccine. They don’t remind you that the measles vaccines are live virus vaccines and a child will shed the viruses for months afterward – potentially spreading the diseases. So the mom who goes online hysterical that her 7 months old might get measles because some other mom didn’t get her child the measles vaccine totally gets it wrong – its the kid who just got vaccinated who is more likely to shed the virus and give your child vaccine strain measles. Could it be that the government creates the measles outbreak by pushing the vaccination programs so aggressively? It’s also very convenient that these all seem to happen when state legislators have before them bills to curtail personal liberty of their citizens.

We cannot ignore attacks on free speech. I may not like what you say, but I will defend your right to say it – that has to be our mantra as people if we are to preserve liberty. I have twice taken an oath to protect the Constitution. Taking that oath means something that I do not take lightly. I have been in countries in which free speech is not acknowledged, I never want to see that happen in the United States of America. #Liberty #FreeSpeech.

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Observations about CDC Messaging on the Polio-Like Illness from a FOIA Response

30 November 2018

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is an important law established to insure citizens may seek access to government materials.  According to FOIA.GOV, its basic function is “to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society.”   Since returning to the private sector in 2003, I have utilized the FOIA process numerous times with mixed results.  When reviewing the FOIA logs at the CDC recently I came across a request made by Judicial Watch in 2014 related to Enterovirus.  I requested a copy, knowing that the CDC would have fulfilled their request in line with the stipulated time requirements of the FOIA law because Judicial Watch has a legal team at their disposal to hold federal agencies accountable to the law itself.

The information requested and delivered covered a span of months in 2014 in which there was significant interest in whether children who entered the United States and became known as ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ (UAC) had brought with them new viruses which might be linked to the development of the polio-like syndrome being referred to as Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM).

News reports indicate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is stumped and does not know what is causing this. (1) Earlier this month the CDC announced they had formed a task force to investigate the issue. (2) So far in 2018, according to this report there are 106 confirmed cases of AFM in 29 states with all but five in children aged 18 years and under.  That number grew in a week’s time to 116 confirmed cases in 31 states with a total of 286 possible cases. (3)

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has long reported on this issue on her television show Full Measure (http://fullmeasure.news/)  . She initially reported on the issue in 2014 when the condition first was reported in the United States.  At the time we were dealing with an Ebola crisis as well as upsurge of illegal immigrants coming across the US Southern border.  Thousands of children and teens were apprehended by Border Patrol.  All were designated as “Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)”.  Federal data show that children designated as UAC have been released to sponsors in every state. (4)

What I learned about the CDC’s handling of Enterovirus specimen in UACs: 

CDC has a Division on Viral Diseases (DVD) within the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD); Within the DVD, CDC has a Polio and Picornovirus Laboratory Branch (PPLB).

On July 14, 2014, CDC personnel notified personnel in the NCIRD that specimens from 35 UACs who were sick with Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) were sent to the CDC for TAC testing. The next day one of the NCIRD team mention that the respiratory bacteria group has their own TAC card and wondered if they were running tests or not. The response to that inquiry was that they didn’t have the money.   Nothing seems to have happened in July or August with these specimens. There was an apparent nudge to get the results in part due to media and public interest in the issue and a member of Congress making inquiries about Enterovirus.

On September 21, 2014 a microbiologist within the PPLB of the NCIRD acknowledged receipt of 23 specimens.  There is no discussion included about the missing 12 specimens included in the FOIA.  Which of course raises the question of how a third of the specimens go missing and no one seems to notice or care.

The test results show a date of September 18, 2014.  The outcome of the 23 NP swabs (acquired in California, Texas and Oklahoma) tested by the CDC Enterovirus Reference Diagnostic Laboratory showed the presence of Enterovirus C105 in 13; Enterovirus – C117 in 2; and one case each of Human Rhinovirus (HRV) 9, HRV 38, and HRV 37.

CDC was in the final stages in 2014 of developing a Quick Response test for Enterovirus (EV) D68.  Did this cause them to zero in on EV 68 at the expense of keeping all possible causes of AFM on the table in 2014?

Internal emails confirm an expert considered there to “clearly be an EV C-105 outbreak/cluster” and suggested they look at the locations and clinical/epidemiological data.

There was also an internal discussion about what might occur if a child had an entero and a rhino virus simultaneously.  All of these issues are topics the public should be fully informed about and have not been.

What I learned About what the CDC Told the Media and Public in 2014:

One of the lessons I have learned over the many years is that one should pay very close attention to whether or not the question asked of the CDC is actually answered.  What I observed when reviewing this FOIA information is that the question the media and public initially asked was not actually answered.

The question initially asked was if the the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) has been responsible for importing enteroviruses into the US. The concern being that these tens of thousands of immigrants had brought with them a new virus that was at the root of the polio-like AFM.  Remember, there was a great lack of transparency of where these children were being housed before being sent to their sponsors.  The news was filled with stories of mystery buses taking kids to unknown facilities and even plane loads of kids being moved to various locations in the country.  During 2014, according to media treports, about 3,000 children were housed on military bases in California, Texas and Oklahoma.  While I do not have confirmation of this, it is likely this is where the specimens referenced above were obtained.

One CDC manager blamed Sharyl Attkisson in an email for circulating a ‘conspiracy theory’ about a link between the UACs and AFM. A highly ranked CDC employee expressed relief that the 23 specimens did not show EV-D68. One of the documents produced with examples of questions being asked by the media noted that the concern being expressed was on ‘conservative’ learning new outlets websites.

There were media questions from Brietbart, Fox News, Media Matters, and Accuracy in Media.  There was also an inquiry from a doctor who at the time worked for Congresswoman (now Senator-elect) Marsha Blackburn.  This doctor now works for Senator Grassley.  Cong. Blackburn went so far as to visit the CDC in the fall of 2014 and had a lot of questions.  I see no evidence to suggest she was informed about the EV-C105 discovery in the UACs.

Among the internal discussion was a discussion about the Accuracy in Media reporter’s request for information and a CDC staffer telling another CDC staffer via email that he would ‘just have to make a FOIA request and that by the time he got his response, the numbers would be different.’  There was no inclusion of Media inquiry from any of the networks (ABC-CBS-NBC) or print newspapers such as the New York Times.

Each of the reporters and the doctor-legislative staffer was told “no EV-D68 in the UACs”.  They were not told there was Enterovirus found in the specimens and that in fact there was a cluster/outbreak of EV-C105.

Sadly, from the information provided in the FOIA, it does not look like these individuals thought to clarify and ask about other viruses or that the CDC staff took the initiative to clarify to the media or Cong. Blackburn and her staff what was found in the 23 specimens.  Four years of silence – intentional (malicious) act or a lack of initiative (mediocrity) by those involved?  I have no evidence to determine either.

Polio and the C-Series of Enteroviruses

I did a specific search for Enterovirus C105 on the CDC’s website and found an article that specifically connects polio to the C-Series of Enteroviruses. “Acute Flaccid Paralysis Associated with Novel Enterovirus C105” The article authored by a team out of the University of Virginia reported on a case of a young girl who developed Acute Flaccid Paralysis and was confirmed to have EV C105. (5)

It has been four years since the analysis of these 23 samples.  Four years since this young girl’s became ill, and three years since her physicians published the above-mentioned paper identifying EV C105; however, the CDC has made no updates to their web pages and does not appear to have focused their efforts on looking at this specific Enterovirus.

Concluding Thoughts – More Questions than Answers

Like most of you, I am increasingly concerned about this paralytic disease that is being called ‘polio-like’, Acute Flaccid Paralysis or Acute Flaccid Myelitis.

I am curious as to what testing has been done in the last four years both in the children who developed this condition and among the Unaccompanied Alien Children related to infectious diseases including EV C105.  I believe this information needs to be published online and available to everyone in as close to real time as possible.  I learned through this FOIA response that the CDC has a ‘master database’ on their specimen outcomes.  Will the Task Force have access? Where is the public access?  Is anyone at the CDC looking beyond EV D68?  Are their quick response tests being developed for other enteroviruses?  Are the doctors treating the AFM cases testing for other enteroviruses like C105?  Has the CDC even made this suggestion?

I cannot help but worry that the migrants who are sitting in Tijuana, 60 percent of whom have respiratory illness already may be carrying EV C105 or something else that will develop into a life-threatening illness for these individuals and those in the surrounding areas. Because of the deteriorating conditions at this migrant camp site, some have now been bused to another location in Mexico about an hour away.  They will hopefully have better conditions, but whatever viruses they may carry, are going with them.  I hope the public health sector of the Mexican government along with the organizers of the caravan are working on improving the sanitation and reducing the spread of infections.

There is No Cure – Yet.

The CDC admits they have no cure to offer for this polio-like condition. They advise close attention to frequent hand washing with regular soap.  Entero and Rhino viruses can live on clothing and surfaces for many hours – up to 72 hours on hard surfaces like door knobs.  So, hygiene remains the number one best prevention.

Be smart – if you are sick, stay home and away from others.  Forgo hand shaking for the winter months. Up your intake of Vitamin D and Vitamin C. Get adequate rest.  If you have a child who tends to ‘catch everything’ avoid taking him or her to large public spaces like the mall, movie theaters, big box stores especially on high attendance days especially if there are reports of flu and respiratory illnesses in your community.  I am shocked at how often I see people cough and sneeze in public and make no attempt to cover nose and mouth.

Given what I learned in this FOIA’d information from 2014, I see a new FOIA request in my near future.

Sources Cited:

Links to the CDC’s websites of possible interest:

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/symptoms.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/ev-d68.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/hcp/ev-d68-hcp.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/ev-a71.html

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/10/15-0759_article

Always,

Beth Clay

 

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Why the Reverend Billy Graham Matters So Much to Me

28 February 2018

Today, as I watch the ceremony of the United States Government honoring Reverend Billy Graham at the Capitol, I realize how important he has been in my life.

Growing up outside of my parents, there were a handful of people who were my anchors, my guideposts, and my role models.  Among those were my grandmothers – two women, vastly different in temperament but so similar in that they were Southerners, strong, talented, patriotic, and Baptist. They lived their faith each day as Christians, sure in the knowledge that God lives, that Jesus is the Son of God, and gained wisdom and strength to survive some of life’s most challenging experiences with daily study in their well-worn bibles and in prayer.

My maternal grandmother, known to me as Mama Ross, built her life around her church community, a church that most of my mother’s side of the family continue to attend.  She sang in the choir, even into her 80s, and was active in her community.  My paternal grandmother, known to me as Mama Clay, moved away from her home community at midlife to settle with my grandfather in the Washington, DC area.  Her faith was as strong, and her Christian acts of compassion and service frequent; but she did not settle into a church in her new community.

Both of these women loved their children, their sons and daughters in law, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  They both were talented in what used to be called ‘the home arts’.  They baked amazing cakes and pies, canned the best pickles and jams, sewed like a professional seamstress.   Mama Ross crocheted, tatted, quilted, gardened, and expressed her creative side through ceramics as well.  After she retired, she took on one big project a year – often crocheting a bedspread or tablecloth to fill her heating oil tank. She also taught ceramics in a room she created by closing in part of her front porch.  That ceramics studio was a place her grandchildren had many adventures and learned a little bit about ceramics and painting.  I always loved sitting in there in the winter when it was rainy if the kiln was on, it was toasty warm.  Life was good, and I was secure.  She had huge oak trees in her yard. When I became a mother,  to entertain my children, she would pick up some of the biggest acorns I have ever seen before or since and paint faces on them.  My young children were delighted.  Sweet memories now, all these decades later.

Mama Clay was one of the best cooks I have ever known.  She taught me so much about cooking, just by watching her.  She put so much love in her cooking that everything she made was delicious.  Mama Clay loved to do crossword puzzles. Every afternoon, after she finished cleaning up from the midday meal, she would sit in her chair, turn on her ‘shows’, and work on a puzzle, if she wasn’t doing some hand sewing. There was a part of her, I believe that regretting leaving school to work in ‘the Mill’ as a teenager. Working these puzzles was a way of adding to her vocabulary.  She was smart and the kindest person I believe I have ever known.  She always looked for the good in a person.

I always loved when I got to stay at with either of my grandmothers.  I have fond memories of watching Billy Graham preach with both of them over the years.  There were shows they were going to watch whenever they were on –  the Lawrence Welch show and Billy Graham whenever he was preaching on television.

What separated Reverend Graham from some of the television evangelists of my childhood is that I have no recollection of him using his time on television to ask people to send him money – something that was a centerpiece of the message of other preachers.  Reverend Graham preached about God and delivered a simple message – God Loves You!

Over the course of my lifetime, I have been challenged with settling into a specific religion for the long haul – for reasons that have nothing to do with faith, and everything to do with man’s tinkering with religious tenants. However, I have known from a young age that there is a God. Living my life without having to question God’s existence has given me a solid foundation that has served me well.  My life, like everyone’s is full of good times and challenging times, times of great joy and great sorrow.  Through them all, I feel God’s love, protection, and healing light.

I have always considered myself Christian. I trip a few years ago to Jordan, where God literally knocked me to my knees at the archeological site where Elijah was taken to heaven near the site Jesus was baptized at the River Jordan really helped me fully appreciate the importance of Jesus as the Son of God. I think that day, with skinned knees I truly became a Christian when God said to me, “Beth get out of your head and into your heart while you walk where Jesus walked.” I have my Muslim hosts to thank for this experience.

Every time I make the long drive home to South Carolina, I drive past the exit sign for the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Sometime soon, I think I’ll need to take that exit.

The death of a loved one is a time when our Christian faith gets tested.  We are sad because our loved one is ‘gone’.  Faith is believing in things we cannot see or touch.  This process we refer to as death is the passing of someone from this life to the next is a time when we get to exercise our faith and explore the comfort God brings us when we need it most.  2017 was a year in which my faith got exercised a lot – I was at the bedside of both of my brothers as they took their last breaths in this world and made that transition. In between, in a tragedy still so raw it is hard to discuss, my neighbor, a beloved high school teacher the same age as my children, Laura Wallen and her unborn son were murdered by her boyfriend.

I was reminded what grief feels like; and I have been forced to be out of my head and back in my heart as a result.

I am an imperfect being, but thanks in part to the constant message from Billy Graham that God Loves You (and Me), I know that even when I stumble and err, I am still loved.

Thank you, Reverend Billy Graham, for the life of servant leadership you led, thank you for being constant in your faith and your message, please give my grandmothers a hug from me when you see them in Heaven!

Always,

Beth

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RESTORING A CIVIL SOCIETY – STRONGER TOGETHER

15 June 2015

Today I am still reeling from the emotions that came to the surface yesterday after the attempted assassination of members of Congress who were on a practice field in Alexandria, Virginia early in the morning. As I write this, two of the five injured as still in critical condition.  Congressman Steve Scalise, Republican from Louisiana and Majority Whip – a member of the leadership – has been through three surgeries in 24 hours.  Matt Mika, a former Congressional staffer, who now lobbies for Tysons Foods and was helping coach was shot twice in the chest.

Zack Bart a young legislative staffer with Congressman Roger Williams of Texas suffered a through and through shot to the calf.  He was released from the hospital yesterday.  Congressman Williams injured his foot/ankle when diving into the dug out and today as he coaches the team, is hobbling on crutches.

The heroes of the day were the two Capitol Hill Police officers, David Bailey and Crystal Griner who were on protective detail with Congressman Scalise.  Their presence, training, and swift action surely saved many lives.  Senator Rand Paul said that had they not been there, it would have been a massacre.  Officer Bailey has been released from hospital on crutches, Officer Griner remains in the hospital with a gun shot wound to her ankle.

I like many Americans was glued to the television and watching members of Congress recount their experience.  I recognized that like anyone who has been through a traumatic event, it is important for them to talk about it, to tell their stories.  For me, and for many others I am sure, memories of September 11, 2001 flew up to the surface.

In many ways, Washington has been a lot like it was in 2001, fresh off an election,  the partisan divide larger than ever and rife with vitriol.  And because the entire nation has been affected by these events, there is a call for unity.

Can we as a nation, focus on becoming more civilized with one anther?  Can we remember to be respectful, to cease the name calling, accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, political views, and spiritual beliefs?  Can we remember that we are stronger together?

None of us knows what tomorrow will bring.  I hope we can truly focus on unity and civility.

Always,

Beth