Covid: Biggest risk factor is not being fat or diabetic — but sitting still

Could we halve the death rate if we just exercised 25 minutes each day?

Walking. Exercise.

..

A lot of people were asked how much they exercised a couple of years ago. In follow up, about 50,000 went on to catch Covid last year. They were sorted into three levels of exercisers — the 7% most active consistently got 150 mins of week of something akin to “brisk walking” or more.  The slowest moving 15% qualified as true couch potatoes — doing less than 10 minutes of exercise a week.

Sadly for the least active, they were 2.3 times more likely to need to go to hospital, 1.7 times more likely to be sent to the ICU and 2.5 times more likely to end up in the morgue.

These are pretty stark figures — making sedentary behaviour more risky than obesity, smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure. Which all seems a bit surprising given how many hours of data collection and TV commentary has been spent on all the smaller risks. How did we manage to miss one of the most important variables there is?

Exercise is “one heck of an anti-viral”

If these results are correct, it suggests most of our medical priorities are barking up expensive trees when they could be achieving so much more just by convincing most of the population to switch off the screen and go for daily walks. The real story is probably not quite this stark, but there is plenty of information to confirm the trend is real even if the slope is not as certain.

Obviously, there’s a gaping hole in public medicine which doesn’t include exercise in most surveys, admission forms, adverts, or advisories. Public policy hasn’t been tasked to ensure quarantined populations got 150 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. We get reports every night on the minutae of vaccination timetables, but the information that exercise might save your life or keep you out of hospital is a once a year kind of thing.

The problem with solving medical issues by telling people to walk the dog for half an hour is that no one gets rich. If they did, we would get the “National Exercise” report nightly — “…exercise figures across three states were up 4.2% this week, with most of the increase in golf, but less so in swimming”. 

Opposition leaders would demand to know why the government hadn’t set a Zero-lost-minutes-Target where no person misses out on their 150 minutes. They’d petition for pedometers in 58 languages to be provided free to at-risk and marginal postcodes. We all know the drill, but all we’re seeing is the Black Hole of inaction.

The media, of course, could change all that. Where are they?

The Sydney Morning Herald is telling us to exercise the day we get the vaccine. 

Past research on vaccinations, such as influenza and HPV, has shown that exercise – even training shortly before injection – can both boost their effectiveness and reduce the risk of side effects.

The catches and caveats

It’s an observational study, not a randomized “cause and effect” study. People were also not recorded exercising — they were just asked how much they did. And as the famous saying goes, recollections may vary.

Cartoon by Steve Hunter. Couch potatos, sitting.

Cartoon by Steve Hunter

Only 7% of people managed to consistently do the recommended 150+ minutes a week.  So this study compares the top 7% with the bottom 15% and bundled three quarters of the population into the middle group. Most of the figures on that middle group are fairly useless, as they include people who did as little as 11 minutes a week of exercise with people who did 149 minutes a week.

The most intractable problem is that people who were sick or weakened for all kinds of reasons probably did less exercise too. Sallis et al controlled for all the known risk factors as much as possible, but there is still that nagging issue that to some extent exercise is a proxy for good health.

The three highest factors in Covid deaths: Age, Organ Transplant, Sitting still for too long.

In other news, men have 1.7 times the risk of dying from Covid compared to women. Where are those activists?

Three highest risks of death in covid.

Three highest risks of death in covid. Age, Organ Transplant. Sitting still for too long. | Click to enlarge

We might not halve the death rate if we just exercised 25 minutes each day. But who wouldn’t want to stop 10, 20 or 30% dying?

h/t David E

REFERENCE

Sallis et al (2021) Physical inactivity is associated with a higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes: a study in 48 440 adult patients, British Journal of Sports Medicine, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2021-104080

Walking cartoon: wikimedia

9.4 out of 10 based on 42 ratings

135 comments to Covid: Biggest risk factor is not being fat or diabetic — but sitting still

  • #
    Kevin kilty

    This is really interesting, Jo. I will just mention that the graphic employs odds-ratio and not risk. However, the results and their interpretation are not changed by this.

    50

  • #
    R.B.

    How did we manage to miss one of the most important variables there is?

    I didn’t exactly foresee it a year ago but I wrote a comment, possibly here, wondering if it was striking the elderly more because muscles were atrophying.

    I’m not saying I told you so (maybe a little) but wondering what people thought when they read it. Just a brainfart?

    81

    • #
      graham dunton

      age related susceptibility was know, while politicians bathed in their ignorance, the media also block attempts to inform.
      age relate, yes, with multiple causes,such as co-morbidity

      100

      • #
        R.B.

        It’s not just death rates, children rarely got ill at all. Its only recently with new strains that those under 12 are getting seriously ill in large numbers. It was also thought that children rarely spread the virus.

        Just something strange and I’m guessing it’s more than just being fitter.

        22

        • #
          Ted1

          It was early on that somebody said that kids don’t spread it. So early that I wondered how they knew. NSW reopened the schools.

          And I have wondered since how they knew/didn’t know a few other things. Their approach was not consistent.

          Like to prevent usage of HCQ and Ivermectin for treatment. Where did the information which led to that come from?

          The CMOs here are doctors. But on this job they are politicians. And they are subject to lobbying in both capacities.

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          • #

            Even the fit still die of Covid, so yes, it’s more than fitness.

            Something very different is going on with prepubescent children. They don’t produce as many ACE2 receptors in their nasal passages, so they probably don’t shed as much virus there and transmit the infection as easily. And their immune system is geared up to fight battles very differently. They don’t have a library of antibodies from previous infections like adults do, so they fight with what we call the “innate” wing of the immune system. As we age we use antibodies more.

            Re Ivermectin — back in April labs were screening every medicine known to man to see if any were able to slow the virus. This is because new medicines take so long to test that the best and cheapest option is always to find a pre-approved medicine and use it “off label”. It was a Melbourne lab that discovered Ivermectin was so useful.

            I wrote that up on April 6th last year: Another possible cure for coronavirus, found in sheep dip: Ivermectin

            HCQ was already screened and known to help against SARS1. Even Fauci knew it.

            202

            • #
              Jojodogfacedboy

              Just my thoughts on my thesis of evolution to extinction in species.
              I believe our Pandora’s Box was fossil fuels production which oil is a poison and we generated it into an aerosol in our species lifetime.

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              • #

                When the left opened Pandora’s box it was full of hate, lies and self righteous indignation. They can not give any of this up because these tactics worked so well to put them in power and now they’re doubling down to stay in power.

                Fossil fuels are our salvation, not our enemy. Without them, we would be hip deep in horse sh-t.

                30

            • #
              Eddie

              My other half who works in a hospital has remarked how it is as often the fit and healthy sporty types among her colleagues who are getting sicker and off work for longer with Covid-19 whereas my aunt who has COPD and is over 80 and not very mobile tested positive for Covid-19 after just a couple of days feeling rough with it and nothing more.

              Statistical assosciations of disease severity with various factors can be downright misleading.

              30

              • #
                yarpos

                Its more likely that anecdotes will be misleading than statistics. Its really depends if stats are used to inform or just tortured to support propaganda.

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              • #
                Eddie

                Statistically speaking, of course yarpos but that’s just statistics.😄

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    • #
      sophocles

      It’s in line with Vitamin D Deficiency too.

      Make yourself Covid-proof: go for a walk in the sun at midday, for half an hour. Then you can slip slop and slap, but not before!

      100

      • #

        Indeed. I meant to mention (and will add a note) that those who exercise would also be more likely to have higher D, and to get more healthy sun exposure than those who don’t. Another confounding factor. If the study didn’t measure D levels, this effect might explain some of the benefit of exercise.

        110

        • #
          graham dunton

          Jo for everyone interested in vit D and its synthesis

          Vitamin D and COVID 19: The Evidence for Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus (SARS CoV 2)

          Professor Roger Seheult, MD explains the important role Vitamin D may have in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Dr. Seheult is the lead professor at https://www.medcram.com Dr. Seheult illustrates how Vitamin D works, summarizes the best available data and clinical trials on vitamin D, and discusses vitamin D dosage recommendations.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha2mLz-Xdpg

          20

      • #
        MichaelinBrisbane

        Sophocles and Jo,
        Could you clarify if Vitamin D production is diminished by applying sunscreen before that daily walk in the sun?

        10

        • #
          Eddie

          It generally seems to be recommended to give yourself up to about 20 minutes exposure for your daily Vitamin D dose before applying sunscreen, though I can’t recall an authoritative source.

          40

        • #

          Michael
          I never wear sunscreen except if having to go out for a long exposure during the 10am-3pm period. Never get burnt.

          We need to have the message put out that sunscreen is not necessary a lot of the time.

          40

          • #
            yarpos

            Not sure thats a great message. People have different susceptibilities to skin cancer and damage is cumulative. Its akin to saying I smoked all my life and never got lung cancer, so everyone else will be fine.

            20

      • #
        James

        Good luck with that were I live! It is snowing today, and it is almost April! Yesterday I was buying petrol for the lawnmower but I might need it for the snow blower which I have put away for summer. I have been taking lots of D over the winter here, plus Zinc and quercertin every day. No colds this winter.

        20

        • #
          Annie

          Almost April? Presumably you meant May? 🙂

          00

          • #
            Jojodogfacedboy

            Our government and politicians deceptive tendencies make truthfulness quite elusive.
            They are totally freaked on us using fossil fuels and their climate science emergency makes no sense and yet they don’t want us to know the truth.
            When you understand it as an aerosol poison, then many illnesses we see factor in.

            00

            • #
              Ted1

              Politicians and truth?

              Too many politicians spend their lives running away from next week’s poll.

              10

  • #
    graham dunton

    US published medical study on the uselessness and dangers of deadly face-masks

    Those following this subject for a long time, will be aware, and interested in reading this medical study.

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/04/us-published-medical-study-on-the-uselessness-and-dangers-of-deadly-face-masks.html

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    • #

      Alas, most studies on masks are hopelessly ambiguous and there are many conflicting results. It appears that the fitting of the mask makes a big difference — as well as the quality. Studies that don’t measure these won’t tell us anything useful. Poor studies bundle good and bad use with good and bad masks, compliant and non-compliant, trained and non-trained. Beware the useless study.

      Bear in mind that hundreds of thousands of doctors have been wearing masks for decades. If there were major detrimental side effects they would have been talking about that for years.

      Transmission of viral particles involves factors like particle size, electrostatic charge, humidity, wind speed, temperature. It’s a multivariate fluid dynamics problem mixed with particulate chemistry. Smaller particles stay suspended longer, while larger particles carry a higher viral load. Smaller particles get deeper into lungs.

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      • #
        tonyb

        “Bear in mind that hundreds of thousands of doctors have been wearing masks for decades. If there were major detrimental side effects they would have been talking about that for years.”

        Jo, with respect if you saw a doctor just about to treat you wearing a mask in the manner 99.9% of the population wear them you would run from the surgery in terror.

        Doctors change them regularly, wear tight fitting examples, don’t wear them below their noses, don’t constantly fiddle with them after touching unsanitised surfaces and don’t stuff them in a pocket or handbag whilst waiting for the next patient then shove them on again .

        There is no comparison at all and we need to look at the real world wearing which -judging by the mask mandates in countries like spain and france-seem to have little effect

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        • #
          Eddie

          That is so true Tonyb. Masks are so often now being worn primarily to comply with requirements rather than for protection which becomes secondary. I am so inclined to avoid busy times, large gatherings and poorly ventilated spaces anyway that when wearing a mask I am rarely relying on it for protection, of myself or others, and tend to rewear the same ones regularly.

          40

          • #
            James

            Is it possible to use masks effectively as a retail customer? I do not think so, there is no handwashing station out the front, no supply of brand new clean masks. As a result people just wear them to comply with the requirments.

            20

            • #
              Eddie

              There is usually hand sanitiser provided at entrances, often cheap masks for sale and ocassionally and open box of masks to help yourself to one from.

              00

        • #
          yarpos

          Their are glowing examples of US States operating with draconian mask mandates and those without, of course down the political divide, California/Oregon/Washington/NY vs Florida/South Dakota/Wyoming/Texas. You also have the awkward example of Sweden in the EU zone which hasn’t faired badly in country comparisons, although haters love to try and torture the data. I think its pretty clear that for the general population masks are useless and more about control and government awareness messaging (aka scaring the populace)

          60

      • #
        Ted1

        I have used a few masks for working in dust over the years. Effective ones were expensive and simple ones such as handed out at the hospital door useless for dust. And for inhalation those masks I find restrictive. Access to good quality masks improved dramatically when Son got a job in mining.

        But if a mask did no more than catch 90% of the spittle that flies when people are talking that would surely justify their use. Most masks would do that.

        I am sure I saw Anthony Fauci early on, and others, decrying the use of masks. I guessed he was trying to avoid an extension of the toilet paper syndrome to masks. I then saw reports of the virus spreading in some nursing homes at a rate that suggested very strongly that infection protocols were not being adhered to. Was that because those leaders had scoffed at masks?

        I haven’t yet tried a mask that I found satisfactory for this job. There is certainly a huge variation in effectiveness and comfort. I have seen masks on TV that looked OK both on effectiveness and affordability.

        Six months later I read that Fauci baldly declared that he lied to us because we were not ready to know the truth. Sorry, Anthony! At our place liars are never to be believed.

        40

      • #
        Steve Keppel-Jones

        Jo, there seems to be some doubt in the medical community that all those doctors’ masks are doing anywhere near as much good as people would like to think. Remember, doctors aren’t trying to prevent their patients from catching the flu. At best, they are really only trying to prevent bacterial contamination of open wounds, which is a useful goal, but that’s an entirely different ball game than respiratory viral transmission.

        Also remember when looking to doctors as examples of good health practice that doctors (in the U.S.) are the second or third leading cause of death. Maybe they’re not doing everything right.

        10

  • #
    Klem

    “Could we halve the death rate if we just exercised 25 minutes each day?”

    Perhaps, but we could also halve the death rate by not recording everything from heart attacks to car crashes to suicides as Covid deaths.

    250

    • #

      Excess deaths are 20% higher than recorded Covid deaths in the US and the excess peaks always occur in the same weeks as Covid peaks in testing. Some of the excess deaths are not due to Covid and are due to restrictions or hospitals being unavailable, but due to inadequate testing in the US deaths due to Covid are higher than the official tally, though we don’t know by how much.

      So if we filtered out all the unrelated deaths due to car accidents etc, but also tested all heart attack and stroke and dementia deaths, we’d raise the net tally, not lower it.

      63

      • #
        Klem

        The CDC stated clearly that only 6% of reported Covid deaths are due to Covid alone.

        I know a doctor whose patients tell him that when they lost a loved one last year to heart attack or cancer, the hospital asked them if they wanted it recorded as a Covid death. Hospitals do this in case the family might receive more cash from their insurance plan for a Covid death than from something else. If the family agrees, the hospital and the family are engaging in insurance fraud.

        And the MSM has not mentioned this ongoing widespread fraud anywhere.

        70

        • #
          tonyb

          As we have known for many months the number of Covid deaths has been considerably over reported. This study shows 25% those dying dying of covid actually died with it.

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9467793/Covid-lockdown-UK-Nearly-quarter-people-dying-Covid-NOT-killed-virus.html

          In Northern Ireland where instructions on recording covid deaths were not given and there was more examination, some 38% of deaths were not of the virus but attributed to it.

          Even before stripping out these numbers, 2020 was the year with the highest rate of excess deaths only since 2008. Every year from then back to the earliest records in 1904 were higher when adjusted for population size and age profile.

          We also know-as we did a year ago-that you don’t catch Covid in the open, which is why the UK govt at long last has told people to stay outdoors rather than indoors.

          We also know that this hysterical cleaning of surfaces is not necessary as the virus doesnt live on them.

          We also knew a year ago that hospitals were killing fields with up to 40% of hospitals (at the peak) having covid patients infected IN the hospital.

          The various Western govt made things infinitely worse through believing the nonsensical modelling, (shades of climate hysteria) imprisoning people indoors (and deprived of VitD after the winter) , allowing hospitals to become infected, decanting infected elderly people into care homes and allowing millions of people from infected counties including china and Italy, to flood in.

          Of course Covid is serious and real but its effects have been hugely magnified by Govt and media, nowhere better illustrated than people in Spain and France being told to wear masks even on the beach and having to get written permission to go out of their houses whilst being under a curfew from 8PM

          Disgraceful and totalitarian.

          Mind you this is just a dry run for the hysteria being whipped up anew on climate change by idiots like Thunberg adoringly believed by children and politicians who do not seem to have an ounce of critical thinking as we have seen throughout the Covid debacle

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          • #
            Klem

            I’ve been wondering how governments were going to keep the Covid scam going in Canada, now that the annual flu season is coming to an end.

            I think I’ve found it, Quebec and Ontario are now detecting Double Mutant Covid! Hahaha!

            Governments must be sighing in relief.

            It’s only a matter of time before it sweeps across the country and we go back into full lockdown. (Whatever Double Mutant Covid is)

            What a scam.

            21

        • #
          markx

          No doubt there are overlapping tallies out there.
          But, in a year of COVID, deaths are certainly increased dramatically.

          https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-raw-death-count

          10

  • #
    John R Smith

    I run a small gym.
    By accident of life, I became a Martial Arts guy.
    Tough year, when I could of been helping.
    If you’ve been sedentary by forced government decree and want to get back in the the, swing of things, I’ll share my secrets.

    Training is rehab, rehab is training.
    (Which means basic multi joint weight training should be foundational)
    You can’t train muscle you can only train movement.
    Strength is specific and not general.
    Endurance is specific and not general.
    “Fit” has little meaning, you can only develop skills.
    (Which means that feeling of ‘in shape’ is fleeting, skills can be sustained.)
    The more specific your skills the less your skills translate to other things (so cross training is dumb).
    Forget flexibility, it’s Range of Motion.
    Forget number of reps, the magic intervals for doing exercise is 10 seconds and 45 seconds.

    25 minutes of activity will absolutely get results.

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    • #
      Ian

      I’m surprised you do not mention the benefits of HIIT, the necessity to include warming up and warming down stretching and flexibility exercises. As for not training muscle ever heard of muscle memory? Sure muscles have no memory but the messages from muscle to brain do provide memory of the exercises.

      04

      • #
        John R Smith

        I used to need to warm up to survive the warm ups in my martial arts classes.
        I began to condition myself to train without warm up.
        It’s mental in how you think about moving.
        Warm up exercises can make you dependent on warm up.
        I don’t require warm up any more.
        I am 66.
        However, I do yoga, as separate conditioning state.
        Train like you fight because you will fight like you train.

        30

    • #
      PeterPetrum

      Forget number of reps, the magic intervals for doing exercise is 10 seconds and 45 seconds

      John, please clarify this! Intervals doing or not doing exercise. Which one is which. I am guessing that you mean 45 seconds of exercise, with a ten second pause between reps. Is that correct?

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      • #
        John R Smith

        10 seconds is the activity period for High Intensity.
        Fast twitch muscle uses fuel in the the fiber which is depleted at about 10 seconds.
        Think Cheetah, 70 MPH for about 10 seconds, then lay down and pant.
        So if you want to became stronger at bench press, do reps for 10 seconds, your gain is in doing more and faster in that time period.
        High Intensity activities that last for more than 10 seconds are not high intensity.
        If your goal is sprinting as fast as possible, sprinting for more than 10 seconds will detrain speed.
        A world class miler that starts to run 1.25 miles per day will become a former world class miler.
        HIIT requires long rest periods (7 minutes), otherwise it ain’t HIIT.
        Most commercial gyms are doing pretend HIIT for this reason.
        So called aerobic or endurance training is maximal in a few weeks and has a ceiling for all people.
        Athletic gains are made in the anaerobic or high intensity spectrum.
        This is why so many treadmills function as clotheslines in basements, any feeling of improvement stops after a couple of months.

        45 seconds … say if you want to have the ability to run distance, go out and run as fast as you can for 45 seconds, then walk, then repeat, you’ll be capable of producing distance if you have to.
        Bur remember, humans are specialized predators, like cheetahs.
        For example, I am martial arts guy, running and kicking do not co-exist well in the specialized creature.
        I try to maintain some running ability, but in my experience one negatively effects the other.
        You don’t improve one thing

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        • #
          John R Smith

          Had cursor issues at the end there ..

          You don’t improve one thing by doing another … because of specialization.
          Forget exercise … DEVELOP SKILLS.

          00

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Also, if done outside, say as a brisk walk, you get Vit D as well

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      I don’t keep a diary but prolly do 10 + hrs a week in the garden. My last Vit D reading was 150 nmol/L but much of that is without a shirt. Not many walk without a shirt, many fully sun protected. What a wast of God’s gift – the sun.

      50

    • #

      I was going to make a similar observation and the paper doesn’t go much into things correlated with this behaviour. I was wondering whether active people are also less likely to be lingering in close contact with other people so that moving about is important.

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    • #
      tonyb

      Peter.

      The operative word being OUTSIDE! The UK govt has now admitted it is far safer to be outside than inside and they should have followed the science earlier. So millions of people were put under house arrest in unventilated houses raising the internal viral load then spreading it amongst the community when going shopping. But we knew outside was best a year ago but still the politicians wanted to exert control by keeping us inside

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      Cause if death continues to be a problem though – for example if you were walking to improve your health, and not therefore, be at risk from COVID, but were run over and died. If it wasn’t for COVID you would not have been walking, So was it the Car, the walking or COVID that was the real cause? And please, this is only an example, I’m sure you could all come up with similar scenarios

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  • #
    Robber

    COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, one that especially reaches into your respiratory tract, which includes your lungs. COVID-19 can cause a range of breathing problems, from mild to critical.
    Ergo, if you have regularly exercised your lungs, they may be able to better cope with an infection.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    If going to the fridge to fetch another beer counts as exercise and driving the car the 100 metres to the letter box also counts then I’m pretty healthy. If not I’m in trouble.

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    • #
      Ted1

      Drive 100m to the letter box?

      My father in his 90s used to walk the 100m to the letter box. Then he had a foot problem, so drove. The letter box was across the road, and he must have driven to the other side, which he shouldn’t have, and parked the car there with the engine running. As he got out of the car he bumped the column shift gear lever into reverse. The car moved off and the open door bowled him over. He got up with some minor injuries to see the car reversing in circles, with the table drain on either side bringing it back to the centre of the Road each time.

      He then studied the situation trying to work our where was the slowest part of the circuit so he might be able to catch it, but fortunately my sister came along and rescued the situation.

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    • #
      yarpos

      Sound like a friend of mine whose Dr asked if he ever had a wine free day. His answer was sure I do , when I go to my mates place the wine is free.

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  • #

    IThe obvious conclusion, that did not need a study, was that healthier people are less likely to die of anything. And people who get more exercise tend to be healthier people.

    Then we have people reporting how much exercise they got — could that be expected to be accurate?

    We should think of possible reasons why people don’t get any exercise, or get little exercise:
    People are less active due to aches and pains such as knee pain, hip pain, arthritis and chest pains. This would especially affect older people.

    And then we have the biggest accuracy issue of al, that I discovered yesterday, and posted an article today, concerning a 25-page peer reviewed, published in October 2020, study.

    The study explains how the CDC broke laws to arbitrarily change cause of death reporting in March 2020.

    That methodology change alone most likely multiplied official “COVID deaths” by 10.

    Before 2020 any flu would be listed as a contributing cause of death, with , let’s say, heart disease as the primary cause of death … but in 2020 the CDC decided COVID flu would be listed as the cause of death, with heart disease the contributing factor.

    This new method of counting flu deaths was compounded by the large percentage of false positives with the COVID PCR test.

    For the first time in US medical history, anyone with a positive PCR test,but with no flu symptoms was called a COVID “case”.

    A large percentage of false positives would explain the unprecedented number of alleged COVID “cases” with no symptoms.

    They often had no flu symptoms because they were not infected.
    The PCR test was wrong.

    A summary of the study on my politics blog
    (a free blog with no ads — no money for me):

    https://electioncircus.blogspot.com/2021/04/cdc-violated-law-to-inflate-covid-cases.html
    .
    .
    Link to the original study:

    https://jdfor2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/adf864_165a103206974fdbb14ada6bf8af1541.pdf

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    • #

      “And people who get more exercise tend to be healthier people.”

      But which is cause and which effect? And obviously it goes both ways. Hard to unravel those confounding factors.

      It’s worth knowing the excess deaths in the US show the number of deaths due to Covid is an underestimate, not a “10 x overestimate”. I will post on that study soon.

      Someone who tests positive to covid and has a heart attack or stroke is likely to be a covid death. We know the disease causes excess clotting, even sometimes in asymptomatic people. I explained why the methodology is not the big deal some think it is — see “How to ignore 94% of Covid deaths”: https://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/how-to-ignore-94-of-covid-deaths/

      US testing has been inadequate. More people have had covid than had a positive test. Obviously some real Covid deaths are missed and non-Covid deaths misattributed, but the big picture is in the Excess Deaths wave which is 20% above the normal deaths and where all the peaks of excess match the peak Covid tests in the states they occur in. Though this is not news, we saw the Excess death numbers last April, and the pattern was already visible then. Recent data just confirms it.

      Because Covid has an Ro 2 to 3 times higher than influenza, and a shorter incubation period, it is predictable that measures to reduce Covid will dramatically reduce the spread of flu. The reduction in Flu cases is what we’d expect.

      There may well be corrupt labs abusing PCR in the US, and corrupt hospitals with incentives to cheat, and they should be busted for that. But all the features I describe above occur all over the world, in hundreds of labs/hospitals on five continents. It’s not likely they are all cheating the same way at the same time.

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      • #
        LS

        I understood that all PCR tests around the globe were set at 30+ cycles resulting in over 90% false positives. This was the WHO recommendation, which they clung to,stamping out any who dared question , until the money-making vaccines were available and Joe Biden was safely inaugurated.

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        • #
          MP

          A CT of above 35 is useless, and experts recommend a CT of 25, WHO recommend 40, Australia use 38.

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          • #
            James

            In Florida they are required to state what the CT number is. I checked locally, one hospital was doing 45, another lab is doing 40.

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              MP

              I posted a CDC paper on the unthreaded the other day, in it they used 20-25 cycles.
              The PCR can be tuned to give you the case count you require, like tuning a car, you can run it rich or lean.

              In Aus they do not state the CT value, apparently you have to ask. This whole thing is a massive scam.

              Be aware of the people you follow. The sheep is born fearful of the wolf, but its the shepherd that leads them to slaughter.

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                The success of the test is best judged by how well it works, not by a CT number.

                Here in WA theyve done over 500,000 tests and almost all the positives have been in Quarantine and all the negatives were in the community, just as we’d expect given our borders. So whatever CT value they use, it works.

                The number of false positives is very low. They must get a few more than they announce but presumably double test before announcing them and so we don’t hear about them.

                In Victoria during the second wave the rate of hospitalization was 14%. Given the odds of a normal person or flu case going to hospital, that suggests an extremely useful test that tells people that 1 in 7 those with a “+” will end up in hospital. 1 in 33 will die. (Albeit, that doctors are getting better at treating this so that number is lower in most Western nations now — Mutants notwithstanding.)

                The shepherd in this case may be feeding good people hype and irrelevant cherry picked bits of information.

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                MP

                Consider yourself a shepherd do you?
                I will listen to the experts on this like Kary Mullis, https://www.bitchute.com/video/iEysclzltIEc/ or doctors, you know the people who actually put what they learn to practice. https://www.bitchute.com/video/W9BxyMzfFgK5/ or the hundreds of other scientists and professionals that are being ousted for taking a view that does not conform to the WHO.
                I watched video of hundreds of empty hospitals around the world that the media and governments stated were overflowing, they would of been empty if not for the constant stream of dancing nurses. Theater!
                All those who end up in hospital had serious other illness and every year Flu takes a march through the old peoples homes and end of life care.
                We have had this conversation before, I have no conflict of interest in this, I don’t have “followers”. you cannot say the same.

                The ones that end up in hospital have symptoms of a virus, that is what the test detects, it makes lots of something from something. What is the CT in WA, as you state you don’t know, but you know its right?.
                I speak to a few people in WA, none of them have been tested, so your government numbers don’t meet the reality, I know one returning expat who tested positive and another in Bulgaria, neither had symptoms of anything, sick without symptoms?

                You are not and never will be a medical expert. (actually, have you ever had a job after science play school on your ABC) you cherry pick your data as much as anyone else, you only do posts on things that conform to your (WHO) view

                Your short sharp lockdown, 14 days to flatten the curve, to eradicate, you were pushing everything the WHO pushed at the same time. Watched a video of one of our news networks about the toll due to cancer treatments being ceased, these people actually had a chance of beating that or substantial life improvement, this was destroyed by you and the whole fear porn industry. No responsibility for that though.
                Flu disappears at the same time the Rona goes up, following annual flu cycles, slight of numbers.

                Careful your ANU is showing!

                What is it with the ANU (your alma Mata) and the WEF, are they the Aussie chapter for the WEF?

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                I know this might be hard to take but Jo is right and nothing you just wrote refutes it.

                Also, the long dead Kary Mullis is not an expert. You need to read up on him and his lack of credentials, but you also need to know how much changed after he formulated the pcr method. He had no role to play in its development and just to ad hom him, he was a disliked know-it-all about everything.

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                MP

                I’ve read up on Kary and I’ve read the claims, also about the other claim of inventor. I have watched the same take down of Climate experts by the same sources, same with the riots and election. (US)
                I do not believe the media now or in the stated others, I totally resent the fear porn being pushed and damage this is causing.

                Thanks, but no.

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                Lucky

                This entire topic gives much cause for anger.
                Being angry is ok, it could even be the right response for a mature sensible person.

                Once you allow anger to control you, and put out accusations and insults, well, you may feel better for a few seconds, but your case has been lost.

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            Lucky

            Yes. The comment on the graph in the paper is

            “Viral culture was positive only in samples with a cycle-threshold value of 28.4 or less.”

            The sample size is described as low tho’ this figure is much the same as given by other sources.

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        MP

        Shoot me now!

        The laboratories are run by multinational companies, big pharma.
        We had the same in climate change, US election and Rona. That is a massive amount of manipulation. We watched an election get overthrown and read their brags, at the top its the same people. To say we have honest Doctors, scientists and Uni’s because “medical” is a fantasy, considering the vast fortunes being amassed by the very few, mandated by the world governments and controlled by the corrupt UNWHO. Of course its all above board.
        Big pharma paid out billions of dollars in the last 10 years on fines for their corrupt practices, but “trust us we are doctors”. Billions more were paid by the vaccine injury court, which is funded by the US tax payer, for injuries by big pharma. We pay them to harm us, pay them to make the drugs to harm us, then pay ourselves for injuries they cause. Pharma, the goose that lays the golden eggs.

        The measures that got rid of the flu increased the rona, one went up and the other disappeared, how does that work?

        Per 100,000 population, the flu notifications were:
        Jan 2019 : 27.3
        Jan 2020 : 27.9
        Feb 2019 : 28.7
        Feb 2020 : 28.7
        Mar 2019: 44.9
        Mar 2020 : 23.6
        Apr 2019 : 74.8
        Apr 2020 : 1.2
        May 2019 : 122.3
        May 2020 : 0.9
        June 2019 : 231.9
        June 2020 : 0.4

        In a month.

        All based on dodgy PCR with the amplification set at above common sense.

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        Ms. Nova:
        My comment said, in the past, flu was listed as a contributing factor on death certificates.This statement has nothing to do with the 6% of “COVID DEATHS” where other medical problems were not known.

        In fact, the CDC used to estimate flu deaths with a computer model. But in 2020, COVID was “promoted” by the CDC to be a cause of death, rather than a contributing factor.

        That methodology change made the number of deaths “caused” by COVID about 10 times higher than they would have been if using the 2002 through 2019 CDC methodology for reporting causes of death.

        The fact that so many COVID deaths were in nursing home, where patients had many co-morbidities, means that methodology change made a BIG difference in cause of death counts compared to past flu death statistics..
        .
        .
        Excess deaths should be viewed for the full ear 2020, not one month..
        To do that, one must adjust for population growth and aging of the US population. When those adjustments are made, excess deaths for 2020 were in the 25,000 to 50,000 range. While this is just an estimate, it says the claims of 400,000 COVID deaths in 2020, if true, means there were 350,000 to 375,000 FEWER deaths from all other causes. Which is hard to believe, but could be true.

        Your statement about “corrupt labs” is completely wrong.
        The labs followed CDC guidelines. Those guidelines were an effort to NOT MISS actual infections, but the side effect was a lot of false positives. Never before in medical history was a patient with no flu symptoms called a flu “case”.

        For a person that does not trust the government, in general, you seem to have placed a lot of trust in governments on the subject of COVID.

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          Point taken that this is not about the 6% claim. But the excess deaths claim of 23% in 2020 is not based on the CDC methodology or data. That deviation is from the five year average from 2014 – 2019. The demographic changes are much smaller. The normal annual increase in deaths each year is 2.5%, not 23% and this was using the National Center for Health Statistics and US Census Bureau data. As I said, post to come.

          I’m well aware of the hype in flu deaths. I wrote about the exaggerations on flu deaths in detail last May “Beware the famous flu death toll”. . Obviously, they inflated flu deaths and wrapped and modeled with many pneumonia deaths together. Thus showing that the flu almost certainly doesn’t kill the number of people that is claimed.

          If you look at the PCR tested influenza deaths — the value is far smaller than the total “modeled” flu tally each year (At most 15k confirmed cases, which were modelled to be 60k). But Covid is something else entirely. Perhaps we missed a lot of flu cases in the past because we didn’t bother testing. But even so, we missed covid cases too and the Covid toll of confirmed test cases is 378k (compared to the usual PCR test flu deaths of 3000-15000 cases).

          My comments about corruption in US labs relate to claims that some use 40 cycles to find a positive test. I have not pursued that, as I assume many other people are. If they do 40 cycles +, I assume it is corruption. It could be incompetence. Sorry if I assumed you were talking about that.

          As for “Trusting” the government? Smile, I suggested border closures, ignoring the WHO, and using quarantine and masks long before the government officials finally came around to my point of view. I’m not parroting the government, they copy me. 😉 Now if we can get them to use anti-virals…

          I just look at the data and try to build a consistent point of view

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          Ms. Nova:
          I wish there was an edit button to correct my prior comment because just after I posted it, I realized I left out an important sentence — the 25,000 to 50,000 excess deaths from COVID is based on on how deaths were reported in the 2002 through 2019 period, per CDC guidelines.

          Prior to 2020, for sickly people in nursing homes, the cause of death would be listed as pneumonia, emphysema or heart disease, etc. — flu would only be listed as a contributing factor, if listed at all. That may explain why the CDC used a computer model to estimate flu deaths prior to 2020.

          This is too gruesome a subject to continue. COVID sent a lot of already sickly old people over the edge — I sure wish nursing homes had better protection.

          Sorry I accused you of being pro-government — telling that to a conservative is almost as bad as telling a liberal that you like global warming.

          That “insult” could have moved me from my present 100% moderation “special needs commenters” group, to being banned in Australia !

          Your comments have added a lot to this thread.

          [Insult? Au contraire, I quite enjoyed replying to that. :- ) — Jo]

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      greggg

      They should stop calling high cycle PCR tests “cases”. By definition they are not cases – ninety whatever percent of positive test results are not symptomatic or contagious. Call them “exposures” or something else, because exposure to the virus is all that positive test result indicates. Only those who fit the definition of a case should be counted as cases.

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    TdeF

    Surely there is a very strong correlation with age and exercise? Walking to work, running to the train, swimming on holidays, playing competitive sport, bike riding to work, against the more senior exercises of jumping to conclusions, sidestepping responsibility, shirking and ducking hard work and delegating. So ageing means elevators instead of stairs and a luxury car from door to door and not that long walk from the station. And if you are really successful, a chauffeur, a chef, maid, butler and valet, doorman all so you can make it to the restaurant in comfort without any exercise at all and all on a credit card. All luxury is measured by the quantity and quality of labour saving devices and not having to lift a finger except for jewellery.

    So while exercise is a statistical factor in survival from Wu Flu, it is also a key indicator of youth against age, and with age success, weight and clear indicator of comorbidities. Correlation is not causation. And the male/female ratio of 1.7:1 is very common and creates the substantially shorter life expectancy of men from all causes, not just Wu Flu. Evolution is extremely sexist, once you have fulfilled your basic function. Talk to a male praying mantis about his hopes and dreams after marriage.

    And if disease and death ratios are clearly sex related, I have not understood this move to 200 genders? Doesn’t sexual equality mean only one gender? So why all the Alphabet people? Why not just get rid of Women’s sports? Haven’t activists just created vast new areas of discrimination instead of removing only one? Still, at least a man who identifies as a woman will live longer. Maybe shopping is good exercise?

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      Annie

      The exercise I most relished after a long flight was the usually long walk to the immigration desk and baggage hall! We never used the travellator whatsit and always wondered why people were so idle; standing on it like zombies.
      At home I read in the morning (sitting still reading Jo’s blog and other things!) but try to do more active things around the property after lunch. Also, sitting on the northern side verandah in cold weather to get the benefit of some sun (when it’s not raining of foggy).
      I do feel better after a more active day. Shopping in Seymour is good; park centrally and then walk around to each place. My medically trained sister recommended carrying full shopping bags to add to exercise (that’s ok if it’s not a large trolley-full). Also find shady place to park in local town and walk to each place from it (except for a bigger shop at the supermarket).
      Exercise in moderation; overdoing it can make some people ill when they become obsessive about it.

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    el gordo

    Continuing this line of thinking, I present the Smoker’s Paradox.

    ‘Plausible biologic mechanisms by which smoking might be protective in COVID-19 include an anti-inflammatory effect of nicotine, a blunted immune response in smokers (reducing the risk of a cytokine storm in COVID-19) and increased nitric oxide in the respiratory tract (which may inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 and its entry into cells).’ (Ahmed 2020)

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      TdeF

      but the big one with smokers is really emphysema which must make any condition which threatens breathing much worse. Too much of the focus is on cancer, which is a risk. Emphysema is guaranteed to some extent but 90% of sufferers are smokers and the longer they smoke, the worse it gets.

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      Tel

      More likely because smokers are forced to get up, walk down the stairs and across the street to have a smoke, then all the way back to their desks again.

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        TdeF

        That’s new. I remember when people smoked everywhere. And doctors recommended brands. Unbelievable now. Engineers would work at their desks with coffee and smokes.

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          el gordo

          Smoking is pretty much prohibited everywhere in Australia and a draconian tax has stopped children taking up the habit, nevertheless, sticking to the science. The French research indicates there is wriggle room.

          ‘In conclusion, our results suggest that active smokers may be protected against symptomatic COVID-19. This was evidenced for outpatients (who have less serious infections) as well as for hospitalized patients. The physiopathological process underlying this effect may involve nicotine through the nicotinic receptor (and not the smoke of cigarettes per se), a hypothesis that deserves further evidence.’ (Miyara 2020)

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            David Maddison

            If it is nicotine and not the smoke that provides the beneficial effect, surely the positive effect of smoking on covid would be seen with people who use nicotine patches or vape with nicotine?

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              el gordo

              David perhaps we should hone in on the receptors.

              ‘Researchers in Canada have conducted a study suggesting that novel Cannabis sativa extracts may decrease levels of the host cell receptor that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) uses to gain viral entry to target tissues.’ (News Medical Net)

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                Tel

                Those receptors produce epinephrine which wakes people up, makes them more active, get up and walk around, pay attention and learn faster.

                It’s also a stress hormone which partly shuts down the immune system, makes it more difficult to sleep, and long term high stress situations have a bunch of very bad side effects, but short term occasional stress is fine.

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                Tel

                I forgot to add appetite suppressant … makes you eat less.

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          Annie

          It was revolting for people who never smoked; I never did as the smell put me right off it. It was horrible having one’s skin, hair and clothes all stinking of it and there was no escape.
          On the other hand, the persecution of people who smoke has gone too far, in my opinion.
          There was a pub in Salisbury in England that was smoke-free many years before a ban. Far from losing trade, it was crowded out every night!

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            PeterPetrum

            Hi Annie, I remember the first restaurant in Pymble, Sydney (probably in Australia) to go smoke free, in the late 1970’s I think. Everybody said “it’ll be out of business in two months”. Two months later you had to make a booking up to 10 days ahead to get a table. It caught on fairly quickly and a lot of Sydney restaurants went smoke free before legislation came in.

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          Serp

          There was a Victorian government minister conspicuous for his resistance to the policy of banning smoking in the workplace. Steve Crabb https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/people-in-parliament/re-member/details/24/1139

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          Tel

          Engineers would work at their desks with coffee and smokes.

          That was about 30 years ago.

          You’ve been out of the loop for a while … don’t worry you haven’t missed anything good.

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            TdeF

            No, I’m in the loop and work with many engineers. The world has changed dramatically with cigarettes.

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    Ross

    Absent in the last year of COVID, is any public health campaigns that are truly worthwhile. This is another example. Where was the urgency for exercise in lockdown outdoors without masks? Similar applies to Vitamin D levels. We are approaching winter in Australia. Where’s the public health programs encouraging people to get 10 minutes of sunshine onto bare skin every couple of days? Nada. For those who cant for other health reasons or religion how’s about some free Vitamin D testing. Would be better than free vaccines. In the UK and other countries hit by COVID I think there is this great” unsaid”. Basically, that their population is very unhealthy (for multitudes of reasons) and aging. All of which is a target for any virus type disease.

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    Hanrahan

    I recall very early authorities clearing a beach with a helicopter blowing sand and umbrellas everywhere. Maybe Brazil.

    At the time I thought it counter productive.

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      I’m sure it was. The dilemma in crowded countries is that if we tell everyone to stay home from school and work, but that they can go to the beach, we might end up with tens of thousands on every beach. Since we need “One Rule For All” we need a fair way to divide up that opportunity (in crowded countries). But it seems crazy to go the other way and ban beach access completely — depriving so many of sun, salt and exercise. I’m just flagging that in Rio, the issue of fair access also needs to be figured out.

      And obviously the risk of transmission is far far lower outside in windy situations so larger crowds per m2 than in indoor venues are OK.

      Future pandemic plans need to get smarter about beaches and parks. We were so unprepared. No one had even thought through these issues, yet most of this was known before Covid arrived.

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        tonyb

        Jo

        You may have seen photos of the very crowded beaches in the UK during last summers release. No case was ever found of anyone catching covid on a beach a park or in any of the large demonstrations. The govt has recently changed its advice to ‘stay outdoors.’

        Prof Whitty admitted in a press conference that they had only just caught up with the science we knew a year ago. Being outdoors is perfectly safe with the caveat dont get in a static crowd like at a football match

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        peter

        The risk in Rio is not lying on the beaches, which are very nice, but going into the water. 70% of Rio is unsewered with it draining down with the storm water into the harbour and beaches. The very poor Favelas are almost all without proper sewerage treatment. And they exist right next to the better class districts. When I was staying at Copacabana Beach (very nice) some years ago I saw it all. Copacabana water was OK but I wouldn’t dare swim in the enclosed harbour waters.

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    Peter

    “The three highest factors in Covid deaths: Age, Organ Transplant, Sitting still for too long”.

    During an organ transplant, the immune system is artificially weakened, so I guess that any virus (including corona) can do its damage easily.

    Are there any actual figures on how many people with an organ transplant died with the corona virus?

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      MP

      Organ transplant recipients are on anti rejection medication for the rest of their lives I thought?

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      I’m sure there are figures but how is it important? If you have had a transplant you would know, without any need for data, that you are at risk.

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    Gerry

    I’ve been watching NHK television lately. There is a show called Medical Frontiers. One episode recently explained the impact of exercise on lymphocytes – the role of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems engaged in exercise and rest.. Fascinating stuff. Made me want to walk more regularly.

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    Gerry

    The NHK network on Foxtel recently had an episode of Medical Frontiers explains the impact of exercise and rest on lymphocytes. Fascinating stuff.

    [Duiplicate]

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    David Maddison

    There needs to be very little likelihood of people getting Covid by following this and other methods of prophylaxis, e.g mild exercise, vitamin D supplementation, zinc, HCQ or quercertain (as per Zelenko protocol, in free countries people could take quercertain, in extreme Nanny States like Australia Q is a substitute for HCQ) etc.. No covid vaccines of uncertain safety or efficacy and long term side effects would be needed. (And I am someone who is extremely pro-vax in general.)

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    RicDre

    As soon as spring decides to hang around here in Northeastern Ohio, USA (its supposed to snow 3-5 inches here tonight, this Global Warming™ is getting out of hand), I can get back to golfing (I walk whenever I can). Last time for nine holes my FitBit watch said I walked 16,000 steps; of course if I could hit the ball straight it would probably only be 11,000 steps so there is some benefit to being a bad golfer.

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    Kalm Keith

    A great point to raise at this time of highly complexified government CV19 crushing programmes.

    Exercise is good for you.

    The data may be a bit raw since it would seem likely that there’s significant cross linking of effects from being fat, having diabetes and exercise levels.

    Still, it’s an important message. Great; but being simple , cheap and self actualising it probably won’t be popular with politicians.

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    dp

    I did not notice anything that compared relative fitness as a factor. In many cases people who have higher vulnerability are also unable to exercise. Bad hip joints prevent me from distance walking and of course running is out, so I make unnecessare trips up and down stairs which is relatively pain-free. The question “What else could be a factor” needs to be explored.

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      Hanrahan

      That type of exercise is out of the question for me too [I wonder if soldering on with gout destroyed my knees] but I spend a lot of time with a brush cutter .

      I have 1,020 sq m block on the base of a hill so the “dirt” is rocky and barren and it just became over run with weeds during the drought. I now have a bore but made mistakes when I laid the turf. I now “mow” it with a brush cutter paying special attention to the weeds which still thrive. A lot of standing and small steps is good for the legs. This is more cardio than exercise but I assume it still helps.

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    roman

    Don’t want to nitpick too hard but people become fat/ diabetic because they sit still.
    We’re built to sweat, and strain our bodies. Unless you’re in a coma you have no excuse to not be doing some form of regular exercise that makes you sweat.
    For those that don’t exercise because their joints hurt, I say your joints hurt because you don’t exercise. I had reactive arthritis twice in my 30s. Had to use a walking stick for months. Then, during one of the instances, when it recovered enough for me to go for a little jog, I did. It hurt, maybe I did it too early but, the next day I had the most significant improvement since it all started.
    I now mostly just go for fast walks and or skip, push-up and squat, every second day or so. Easy.
    Covid can kiss my arse.

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      MP

      “Covid can kiss my arse.” careful there is a test for that now.

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      Power Grab

      I have a friend who is retired and used to get most of her exercise by walking every day. Since the restrictions of Covid, she didn’t keep up her walking. After months of inactivity, when I happened to see her, she mentioned that her knees hurt and prevent her from walking now. She did mention that she thought the inactivity was what made her knees hurt.

      Also, another friend had knee surgery. He figured out that if he walked (usually on a treadmill at lunchtime at work) regularly, his knees gave him no trouble.

      So, Roman, I think your comment “your joints hurt because you don’t exercise” has a lot of merit.

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    Flok

    Brilliant points to which I can add the following from experience:

    Over my 20 year travel intensive work, 8 flights per month. I never had a flu or any symptoms. Never had a flu shot and in that time never been to a doctor apart from a dentist.

    I put it down to active work style as well as keeping the immune system stronger through good diet.

    One of the biggest issue in western societies is called “shallow breathing”. Simply because of less activities due to easy access to transportation and convenience of everything. Onset of computers and electronic gadgets require less breathing to operate. As such the lung capacity is not being used to its full potential and our bodies adjust to less oxygen over time and often gasping for air.

    Also in relation to Covid, I do not agree that the one/two Covid shot approach for all works. Not a lot of emphasis is being communicated through the main media about importance of strong immune system and how to keep it strong.

    Prevention is always better than the cure. The Covid vaccine is not the cure nor prevention since you can still get the virus after having the vaccine. I see the whole vaccine trial pointless and counterproductive.

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      Ted1

      When not exercising my feet feel cold even at 20 degrees. Including in bed.

      I developed a theory that when your feet get cold circulation slows down and infections get a free run. Fever induced by infection boosts that theory. Which takes us back to the good old days when our mothers told us to not get our feet wet else we’d catch a cold.

      So I took about ten years ago to wearing socks to bed. Which makes my feet hot instead of cold. Not just warm. Hot, which I like. Any socks, even light cotton socks do the job.

      I do not know if this could cause harm, but I don’t think I have ever had the flu or a heavy cold since starting this experiment.

      One other thing I do is to take two paracetamols if I think I might be getting a cold. Don’t wait to be sure. I have very rarely needed a second dose.

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    As I have mentioned before, I had a horrendous lower back problem in late 2013.

    Our family GP at the time sent me off for ‘the cure’ a facet joint injection into both sides of two lower back segments. I just barely and very slowly, and with the help of a walking stick, walked into the hospital for the procedure and after the second procedure, both done under a scanning machine to see if the needles were in the right place, walked out quite normally. Immediately following that, I visited our GP to thank him profusely for the ‘cure’. He told me this was short term, and knowing my extensive background sporting history, and how I was not doing much any more, much as he advised me that I should be doing something at least, he suggested that walking would help considerably, not jogging, as I already had a ‘crook’ knee from Cricket as a fast bowler back in the 70s, so I should walk.

    The following morning, I started out walking slowly at first, just 2Km, building up to 6Km every morning, well, six days a week anyway. I found ways to go faster, as to me, exercise means exerting yourself. I did some research and found fitness walking, not power walking as it is mistaken with, but walking fast, more, and shorter paces moving your legs through as fast as you can, so I got down to an average of 8 minutes a Km, so (around) 50 minutes all up, and the fastest time for 6KM was 47.18.

    Now in Beenleigh I had the problem necessitating the fitting of a Pacemaker. Within a week, I was actually itching to get ‘back on the road’, so I contacted my referring Heart Specialist, and he told me to go ahead, just slowly at first and shorter distance 2Km. My children told me it was time for me to stop, and after much explanation about how this was actually recommended, they finally agreed, but said it had to be local, so I devised a local walk of 3Km, never being further from home than 500 metres, three different loops around local streets, and at their insistence, took my phone with me, and they got me a Fitbit, which I basically use now just for counting the paces, now averaging around 138 paces a minute, and, as also okayed by the Heart Specialist, getting my heart rate up to 120, and it’s 60 at rest, so there is exertion, and breathing hard, in for three paces and out for three paces. Leg speed is the key here, and there are days when I think I’m average but the paces at the end can sometimes vary by anything up to 100 paces. Less paces gives a slower time.

    Okay there’s the background.

    In November my ‘good’ knee starting giving me pain, almost so I could not walk at all, and I found it harder to get around even at home. Our GP here sent me for an Ultrasound and the result was age related wear and tear Arthritis, which I already had in my crook knee for so long, but manageable. GP then sent me to a local specialist Physio Gym. They gave me a series of ten to twelve exercises to not cure the problem, but to strengthen the muscles above and below the knee, to better support the knee itself.

    I was skeptical, but they worked. They suggested I walk first and then that walk, having ‘warmed’ the joints up, do the round of exercises, and that takes half an hour, and then the same exercises two more times across the day. My good knee is still slightly sore, but nowhere near as bad as it was. I wear two (one for each knee) heavy duty Shock Doctor strengthened knee guards for the walking part and now I only walk 2.2Km, but will build back up to the 3Km mark soon enough. My walking now is a lot slower, 10 minutes per Km and I only do that four weekdays and the Saturday for a weekly shot at improving my best time, (now 18.54) umm, coffee assisted. My son directed me to many studies on how coffee is good for these situations, and I have a (really really strong) coffee a quarter hour before the walk starts.

    I turned 70 Monday just gone. The back pain is now not even a thought, as I know as soon as I get even the slightest twinge, it will be gone by the end of tomorrow’s walk. The knee pain is, well still there, but only just, mind you.

    I have found that there are just so many benefits from walking, and it’s now at the stage where it’s rote, I just do it.

    I grumbled a little to myself, when referred to those three visits to the physio, but it was probably the best help I could get. The first thought was hey, the problem is my knee, why are addressing the muscles, and now I see why. There was really no need to go back for any more visits after that.

    So, if this worked for me (on so many levels) I see the point of regular exercise, no matter what age you are.

    Tony.

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      Oh, and if you do start walking, get a good pair of track shoes. I use Brooks Adrenaline GTS, and I’m on my eighth pair now, (with one pair of cr@p Sauconys in there, which wore out in half the time) and closing in on 5,000Km

      Tony.

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      Kalm Keith

      Thanks Tony.
      Inspiring.

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      PeterPetrum

      Interesting about your back, Tony. I am 80 now and never really had a serious problem with my back until last year. I used to be a regular runner, doing 5 to 10k almost every day. After about 60 and a new hip at 75 running stopped and cycling took over. A 3/4 acre garden does the rest. However, this time last year my back really started to give me trouble with the sciatic nerve from the same position as yours causing severe pain in my periformis muscle in my right rump. My X-rays scared me silly, I had not realised how much my spine had deteriorated. Like you, I had cortisone injections, but they were unsuccessful. I was considering surgery but very wary of it. Eventually I went to our local physiotherapist who started me on developing my core muscles, especially abdominal and lateral. I exercise every day and am now back to a 34” waist, stomach muscles I can see and a lower level of pain which I can now manage mentally. I am also doing weight bearing exercises and taking calcium tablets each day to strengthen bone structure. In relation to this article, I feel terrific and am sure that this exercise, plus Vit D from supplements and gardening sunshine will stand me in good stead if the Wuflu gets me.

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        Annie

        Thankyou both Tony and Peter for your inspiring stories. Well done both of you for sticking with it.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    The biggest risk factor is not using your God designed immune system to keep your body in good order. Many people treat their immune system to abuse then wonder why it lets them down. Correct nutrition, Vit D3, good gut flora, hard work and or regular exercise. Simple, excellent value for money and better than putting your life in hock to the prospect that the jab will save you.

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    Tilba Tilba

    It’s what they’ve always told us: eat your greens, don’t smoke, easy on the grog, plenty of outdoor exercise, and a good sleep every night. Works against everything 🙂

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    Philip

    I’d suggest closing the borders and keeping them shut for a long while yet is the most effective.

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      Philip

      Predictably a strong thumbs down. Why ? Elementary pest management theory is to cut the methods of which it can spread ? That’s air travel. Look at all these cases coming in now from India. No air travel, no virus, simple. You don’t need to take your vacation to Morocco to buy a pot.

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        Lucky

        To explain-
        Prohibitions on departures
        Inward travel restrictions on bigwigs and celebrities are negligible

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    Eddie

    I hope you are across this Ivermectin story Jo. It is eye opening and scandalous seeing the WHO turning a blind eye to and denying, yes denying, the evidence that is right in front of them.

    Alan Jones picks up the story and I am pleased to see Craig Kelly is on top of it too.

    Please excuse this long link to Alan’s video

    https://video-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t42.1790-2/175720876_457079192035877_5789643035494032677_n.mp4?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=985c63&efg=eyJybHIiOjMwMCwicmxhIjoxMTUwLCJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InN2ZV9zZCJ9&_nc_ohc=TLcsWoQs2LsAX_bVE4I&tn=Z5B05PoKJlL3Vr75&_nc_ht=video-lhr8-1.xx&oh=7de7e6cb01c1c5fb3edeb61404199f59&oe=60801F11

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    Deano

    Disclaimer: No science beyond this point.
    I’ve noticed over the years that generally speaking, those who train strenuously seem to age quickly and die young with rather worn out bodies. Those who lay about vegetating with little interest other than quick thrills usually die mentally quite young then follow physically sometime later. And the people who have a passion for something and act upon it usually live a high quality life and often get old enough to have their age mentioned in admiration. And they don’t seem to get ill beyond having the occasional slow day.

    These are generalisations. Life can be very unfair.

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    red edwards

    Here’s an interesting article on a broad spectrum Corona virus vaccine under development.

    Popular article : https://weather.com/en-IN/india/coronavirus/news/2021-04-21-scientists-invent-new-vaccine-that-can-fight-all-coronaviruses

    Pre-print scientific article: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/18/e2025622118

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      MP

      I was reading there are 129 not a vaccines in various stages of development.
      This not a vaccine addiction is never going to end.

      20

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    Bill In Oz

    Hi Jo, well spotted and well explained.
    Exercise generally saves lives, extends lives and general happiness…
    In this I speak from experience.
    So it is a pleasant surprise to see that exercise also helps make us more immune to Covid.
    PS 3 years ago I wrote to my local MHR. I suggested that old timers on concession cards be helped to attend gym 3-4 times a week via government monthly subsidy.
    I suggested that this would also reduce the tax payer paid medical costs of such old timers.
    I got a reply 9 months later ) suggesting I go for a walk.
    I have not voted for her since.

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    Alfred (Kiev)

    I am so glad to have left Australia before they shut the borders and inspired panic.
    Suggestion 1: don’t watch the TV
    Suggestion 2: don’t take any experimental drug masquerading as a vaccine
    Suggestion 3: don’t accept the Google opinion that Bill Gates is the best doctor in the world – he is a dropout.

    I take plenty of vitamin D3, multivitamins, L Lysine and vitamin C.

    In November, here in Kiev, I had a slight temperature. It lasted for only 2 days. A week later, I was completely normal. I am convinced that lifestyle and diet are the most important ways of keeping healthy. I walk a few kilometers every day – even when there is snow on the ground. Never wear a mask. People here pretend to wear a mask to get on public transport – with their nose exposed.

    Suggested reading:

    The Grim Reaper Uses a Stealth Vitamin B1 Deficiency (Beriberi), Hidden Behind the Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/04/no_author/the-grim-reaper-uses-a-stealth-vitamin-b1-deficiency-beriberi-hidden-behind-the-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-as-breathless-loved-ones-silently-slip-into-their-graves/

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      Lucky

      Thanks for that.
      Author Bill Sardi is a well known medical journalist, not scientifically or medically qualified, but often right in important areas. He is too easily dismissed by mainstreammedia.

      I hope to see that idea in the paper followed up.

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    CHRIS

    Fair dinkum. Is exercise the way to a better life? Well geez…I NEVER KNEW THAT (duhhhhh). COVID is totally irrelevant to exercise and diabetes (unless you are Type 1). Exercise is good, but genetics is the key.

    00