COVID-19: Efficient Protection is Simpler than Imagined
(OMNS September 2, 2020) The Oxford Vaccine for COVID-19 [1,2] asks the question “How does this prospective treatment provide efficient protection right now for front line health workers, many of whom are dying despite the stringent protective measures?”
Answer: It doesn’t. We need something immediately to stop deaths. A simple Ghanaian initiative that is cheap, safe, efficient is in danger of being sidelined by certain “dimensions.” [3]
Vaccine Dimension
Responding to Rionach McCarron and Sandor Bako who “…hope that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine can be shown as the trials progress.” [4] Dr Joginder Anand, Former Consultant in Public Health England asked “Effective for how long? Two months? Six months?” He then adds, “I plead with those producing and those promoting the vaccine to appreciate that the public is composed of humans; they are not cows.” [5]
Dr. John Stone, with more experience about vaccine effects than most doctors, said “We still do not know enough about the safety of the many prospective vaccine products.” [6]
Sarah Caddy: “The road to successful vaccine licensure is treacherous …and any safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 still stands at over a year.” [7] How soon will licensing arrive to allow use of the vaccine to save front line health workers?
Alan Cunningham: Experts not so sure about a vaccine. [8]
Dr Bruce Gellin: “The foundation that underpins vaccination acceptance is trust.” [9].
We Africans have never forgotten what Diddier Fassin and Helen Schneider revealed: that Parliamentarians in South Africa rejoiced when Africans died from AIDS. [10,11]. Indeed, trust, more than science, is what we Africans require with requests for mass vaccinations. [12].
Political Dimension
Dr. Kamran Abbasi in his excellent editorial stated: “Health is a political choice, and politics is a continuous struggle for power among competing interests.” [13] Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the field of African health where non-Africans in developed countries have a big say in advising us Africans. A few foreign experts with powerful commercial links like Big Pharma can direct our health services. Kamran Abbasi cautioned even the British Prime Minster to “separate Science and Politics”. President Trump named the drug to use for COVID-19. And he withdraws from the WHO. [14,15]
Scientific Dimension
A famous phrase advises “Follow the Science”, but one scientific study says hydroxychloroquine (HQC) is fantastic for treating COVID-19 [16], while another says hydroxychloroquine is no good [17,18]. WHO says “Good” then “Bad” [19,20] France says “Non!”
Science can be ignored or dismissed with a phrase like “there is no evidence” even when evidence is overwhelming. [21] Why ignore vitamin C as a destroyer of coronavirus and other viruses when evidence is overwhelming? [22-30]. Liposomal vitamin C also delivers big doses and is effective. The only caution required is exclusion of those with G6PD Deficiency [31]. Americans are flocking to purchase Vitamin C.
Where Does Hydrogen Peroxide come in?
Dilute hydrogen peroxide can help to destroy invading viruses, bacteria and fungi. [3] We have suggested deployment of hydrogen peroxide as an oral cleansing agent to destroy the virus. [3] None of our clinical research team members and their relatives, protecting themselves only with face masks while caring for COVID-19 patients, who used hydrogen peroxide, have had symptoms suggestive of the disease. At the Shai Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa, seven members of staff with minimal protective clothing who cared for a COVID-19 patient and who used hydrogen peroxide mouthwash, did not contract the disease. Previously, 27 other staff at that hospital had become infected caring for COVID-19 patients. Dr Richard Cheng’s success with Vitamin C is published and known to the WHO, NIH, and CDC [32-34]. To augment the effect of vitamin C, We use nasal drops containing 0.5% hydrogen peroxide and reduce the risk of infecting healthcare workers.
A Challenge to Care Homes for the Elderly
(i) Select some Care Homes with between 100 and 200 Residents, plus about 20 to 30 Staff including Cleaners and Cooks.
(ii) Examine the March, April, May, June, 2020 records for COVID-19 Living and Dead and note the numbers.
(iii) Begin the oro-pharyngeal Hydrogen Peroxide Exercise 3 times a day for everybody in September, October, November, and December.
(iv) For those too ill, as for example, those with strokes where gargling would be dangerous because of potential choking, use an absorbable foam attached to a stick to do oral cleansing gently after dipping the foam in glass of 1.5% hydrogen peroxide, 3 or more times a day.
(v) Daily visitors may also use the nasal drops, mouthwash and gargling with dilute hydrogen peroxide.
(vi) Compare the 4-month March to June COVID-19 Morbidity & Mortality figures with those of 4-month September, October, November to December this year.
(vii) Weekly testing for viable virus in culture, not just viral RNA on swabs, relative to infectivity, plus usual laboratory profiles.
(viii) Send findings in a communication to the Editor of British Medical Journal in January, 2021.
Other treatments
For those who have been in contact with COVID-19 afflicted relatives or classmates, gargling with dilute hydrogen peroxide is recommended. However, gargling may not be easy for children. Use the oro-pharyngeal toileting exercise with a foam or sponge dipped in hydrogen peroxide. For very young children, use dilute honey, one teaspoonful in a glass of water. Bees secrete the enzyme glucose oxidase into honey. When honey is diluted, this enzyme reacts with water and oxygen, releasing hydrogen peroxide. Although the level of hydrogen peroxide produced by diluting honey in this manner is about 1000 times less than that in the 3% solution found in drug stores, it cannot be dismissed for lack of potency. [35]
Ghanaians too poor to afford the 1.5% hydrogen peroxide available in many pharmacies may be encouraged to use Neem twigs as a chewing-stick because it is a more powerful antimalarial agent [36-38] than chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine [HQC] which some have found effective against COVID-19. The Neem plant (Azadirachta indica) has been named first among “Ten Indigenous plants which have been saving Ghanaian lives” for centuries. [39,40]
Would scoffers not exclaim “Come on! When Oxford brains produce vaccines for COVID-19, all you from the Dark Continent can offer are Chewing Sticks and Dilute Honey”?
Recommended Ghanaian Solution
“Solution” has two different meanings that our recommendation satisfies: (a) Solving a Problem and (b) A Liquid: 1.5% hydrogen peroxide.
“EX AFRICA SEMPER QUIDQUID NOVI” (“Count on Africa for always producing something new”) is what Pliny the Elder would have proclaimed 2000 years ago.
Competing Interests: None Declared.
About the author: Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu FGA MD(Lond) FRCP(Lond) FRCP(Glasg) DTMH(L’pool), Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Former Consultant Physician, Genetic Counselor, in Sickle Cell and Other Haemoglobinopathies, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital; Director Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, Korle Bu, Accra. Email [email protected] website: www.sicklecell.md
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