28: MASKED: The Physical, Emotional & Psychological Effects of COVID-19

Narrator

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to that healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, bow biologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.

Lisa Beres

If you are a parent, you do not want to miss today's show, my friends. And Hey, welcome to the show. We appreciate you guys being here and we hope you are having a great day, as we all know. Oh, the Coronavirus, the lockdowns, the social distancing and the ongoing mask wearing having ceased after almost a year guys, it's been over 11 months.

Ron Beres

We are all getting so fatigued by the restrictions to our freedom and the sudden changes to our ways of life. Today, we're going to focus on how these mandates are affecting everyone, but especially children wearing masks. According to a new study out of Germany 68% of parents report alarming psychological and physical problems and contributing to 24 distinct health complaints. So why is this important? Well, according to the authors of Corona in children, the ko Chi study, there was no convincing evidence that children are a relevant source of infection for SARS or COVID to nor that they are relevantly at risk.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. And this study found on average that children wore masks for 270 minutes a day. How about your kids? It's probably even higher guys, the 68% of parents out of over 25,000 who submitted data reported issues that will rock your world and you've probably seen it in your kids things like irritability, headaches, less happiness, impaired learning, drowsiness, fatigue, and the list goes on and on.

Ron Beres

Well, here is the good news. Someone who was very familiar with the psychological, physical and emotional effects of the lockdown is Dr. Mark McDonald, who specializes in clinical psychiatry, and is a medical legal expert. Dr. McDonald has a particular expertise in working with children with autism and trauma, as well as obsessive compulsive and bipolar disorders.

Lisa Beres

Dr. McDonald trained in both adult and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UCLA and achieved a double board certification, guys. He later trained in adult psycho analysis and now specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry, his opinions on topics of rock the boat and include things such as the need to reopen America's schools and the pandemic of fear in the United States today that we're all facing. And they've been widely published in local and national news, including the Wall Street Journal,

Ron Beres

Dr. McDonald, welcome to the show. Welcome, Dr. McDonald. I know today's show is important for everyone listening, but especially parents, so let's dive right in.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Thank you, Lisa. I really appreciate this invitation. I'm really glad to be with you and looking forward to the chat.

Lisa Beres

Oh, we are too and I hope you guys listening are as well. This is going to be great. We're going to go down some rabbit holes today.

Ron Beres

I know today's show is important for everyone listening, but especially parents. So, let's dive right in. Dr. McDonald, can you clarify the psychological, physical and emotional effects of a virus versus that of a lockdown?

Dr. Mark McDonald

We'll Ron, you know, from the very beginning of this pandemic. I have said that we are in a pandemic. But it is not a medical pandemic. It is not a viral pandemic. It's the pandemic of fear. And I'm very, very clear when I specify to people that it's not COVID it's not Coronavirus, it's not WuFlu, whatever you want to call it, that's causing our malaise throughout the United States today. It is not it, it�s the government�s response to the virus period. So, when people say because of COVID blah, blah, blah. I say no, no, no. Because of the government response to COVID, you are ill, you are sick, you have lost your job your schools have closed, nothing detrimental, of any significance has happened to our country on a large scale. Due to the virus it is all due to the response to it. Plain and simple.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and we're going to get into fear and the effects of fear and all of that as we go on in the show, but you called COVID-19, the WuFlu, which I had not heard before. So do healthy people. This is the million-dollar question, do healthy people spread the word flu?

Dr. Mark McDonald

This is actually, in my opinion, the foundational lie that's led us down this path into the abyss that we find ourselves now, which is unrelenting and seemingly impossible to retreat from. And it is this, that people who are physically Well, you and I and others that we come about in our day to day lives, our families, our friends at work, who are not feverish, who are not coughing, who don't have chills, who aren't vomiting. Essentially, what we would call a healthy person are to a large degree fueling this medical pandemic, getting people sick, putting them in the hospital and killing them. Now, does that mean that not a single person who is asymptomatic or pre symptomatic hasn't infected someone else? Of course not. People die of lightning strikes. But generally speaking, we don't say that walking outside in a storm is dangerous, at least not from lightning. So, pandemics throughout history and this is not my opinion, this is this is part of public health knowledge and public health policy, from respiratory illness have always been fueled and flamed by sick people, not by the healthy. This is the first time in history, that we are quarantining healthy people instead of the sick.

Ron Beres

Even during the swine flu back in the day, right? So that would be.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Correct. Yeah. The Spanish flu, the Swine flu, all of the flus that have come about MERS, SARS, all of them, which killed proportionately a large, much larger percentage per capita the population than this disease. Never have healthy people shut down schools, close businesses, mask wearing from healthy people never ever, ever, and these diseases were far more lethal than the one we're facing now.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, I heard a quote, �Locking up sick people is called quarantine. Locking up healthy people is called tyranny.� And I remember reading that at the beginning of the pandemic and thinking, Oh, yeah, you know, we're going to we're going to hear from government officials and organizations, you know, tips on how to improve your immune system, how to boost your immunity, how to stay healthy, and it was like crickets. I mean, you, you don't hear anything, you can�t find articles online, with tips on, Hey, what about these foods, eat more plant based, these are the supplements you should be taking. In fact, the opposite is happening where if you talk about some of these things, you get censored and I, I've experienced it, I'm sure you have to. We're talking about studies, university studies, peer reviewed studies that talk about natural remedies. They're getting censored and blocked. It's just shocking. And I'm sure you feel the same way. Dr. McDonald, I'm sure living healthy as part of your lifestyle. And yet, that's not that's not okay. It's not even. Hey, you can go to the liquor store because they never closed and you could go by, you can order pizza, and you can have all the junk food you want. And that's totally fine. But oh my gosh, if you talk about taking a vitamin, you know, you're crazy all of a sudden,

Dr. Mark McDonald

Isn't it ironic? You live in a city in a county where there are people who have certain the glass of water, they'll pour it in a plant if it doesn't come from a bottle that says alkaline? Because they're so concerned about what they put in their body. And there's not a great deal of evidence to support the necessity of drinking alkalized water. The same people who do this will attack you verbally and physically if you even suggest that they start supplementing themselves with vitamin D or zinc to protect against what we're being told is this massive medical disastrous pandemic of Coronavirus, even though there is substantial medical evidence to support the use of both of those supplements in preventing all forms of viral infection including the Coronavirus infection, I find that that discordance really striking and I have, I have yet to understand how to resolve it because it's clearly not rational.

Lisa Beres

Now, I had seen a study, if you Google those, you'll find studies on both sides of the fence. But I�ve seen a study that was published in Pediatrics in July, that found that it is definitely safe for kids to go back to school that it's very rare for kids to actually spread COVID or the WuFlu long as they practice social distancing. But of course, we know so many schools across the country are closed, including here in LA, the largest school district in the state has remained closed indefinitely at this point still. And so, do you think that kids spread the virus?

Dr. Mark McDonald

So I've said way, way back in, I believe it was April or May, at the Orange County School Board meeting, where I was asked to us to speak on this specific topic, that the biggest mistake that we've made as a nation in responding to this Coronavirus pandemic has been closing our schools, I still hold that without our schools open. Our society cannot function. Our parents cannot return to work. And without parents returning to work, we don't have a functioning economy. So, the question is, should schools be closed? Well just look around the world. Very few countries close their schools at all, or close them for any significant length of time. Sweden never close their schools up to age 16. I believe up until just two or three weeks ago, they had zero deaths from Coronavirus in the pediatric population. I think they're up to one. Wow. That's very, very important to know.

Lisa Beres

And I know some states obviously have opened and we're here in Orange County, our schools I believe are open, although I feel like this changes every day; hard to keep up on all that. But LA I don't think ever opened as far as I know.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Yeah, no, they didn't. And the reason for the closures, in my opinion has nothing to do with medicine and everything to do with money, power, power and politics. Particularly teachers� unions. A study came out in, I believe it was May or June, you can still find it easily by just googling it. German school closure study, and it pops up with a translated summary on I believe Yahoo News. This was the largest study of its kind published by the University Hospital of Saxony, studying students and teachers throughout that state in Germany over a period of I believe 90 days. They track them with antibody tests with observational measures like temperature checks, you know, fevers, that sort of thing, and found that the children in the schools were so unlikely to transmit this Chinese Coronavirus to their teachers.

Dr. Mark McDonald

The conclusion was from the author, that the children actually acted as barriers or obstacles to infection transmission, barriers or obstacles almost like insulation, the wire protects the sparks from jumping from one wire to another. Wow. The day that it was published, all of the mass requirements disappeared from the whole state of Saxony and all the schools were reopened. I believe they've been reopened ever since. The conclusion in the larger scheme of things, but would be these children are actually safer at school purely for medical reasons not to mention things like learning, development, protection from abuse, I mean, all these other issues safer at school than they are at home. And the teachers are safer at school than they are with their own family. Because when they're with their own family, they're with other adults who tend to spread this virus in close quarters when they're with children. It's like putting a piece of wood in a swimming pool and saying I want to start it on fire. You can't light it. Because it's wet. The children are like wetting the wires for the fire. So, this is this is so obvious to people who are just able to think for two minutes and yet here we are in the United States, still arguing about whether children are quote unquote safe at school and whether teachers are safe at school. The average age of the teachers in the United States is in the mid-40s. At that age, your greater risk statistically of dying in a car accident than you are the WuFlu. greater risk of dying in a car accident. These are numbers from the CDC itself. It's not my numbers, it's their numbers. The teachers who were in their 60s or 70s, and how many of them are there honestly, in the public schools could easily take precautions by doing administrative work working remotely, etc. They're very few of them. And yet, what are we doing? Just like we said earlier, Lisa? When we decided to quarantine healthy people, we did the same thing in the schools, we decided to sacrifice the education of millions of children to purportedly save the lives of a small handful of teachers. It doesn't make any sense. It's upside down. And it needs to stop and it needs to stop. Yesterday.

Ron Beres

Well said you've actually you're very fearless Dr. McDonald's probably because of your expert martial arts training. I would imagine which not many people know but you're an expert martial artist.

Lisa Beres

Right? Because this this conversation is very controversial. Even though what we're saying is shouldn't be I feel like okay, you're, you're a healthy person you are if you're willing to take risks. If you feel there are risks, then you should be able to that's your body your choice and of course, immune compromised people should not or they should take extra precautions. But that's not a choice. People don't have that choice anymore.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Well think about cancer patients. For the last 20 3040 years. At any given time, we've had over 200,000 people who are immunocompromised due to stem cell replacement radiation. therapy, all forms of treatment that compromise the immune system and they're walking the streets. Have we ever as a nation been told that we all must wear masks and stand six feet apart from each other because of the cancer patients?

Lisa Beres

Right.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Of course not. We tell the cancer patients, you are at high risk of getting infected and dying of anything, stay away from everyone else stay away. That's what we should be doing to the 1%. And it's this is it actually, again from the CDC, 1% of the American population is at moderate to significant risk of hospitalization or death from the WuFlu 1%. These are people who are primarily obese, that is the number one comorbidity according to the CDC, over 87% of all the deaths from the WuFlu occur in those who are morbidly obese plus or minus diabetes. And then the third comorbidity that's very high in the 60% range is severe cardiovascular disease, it's not age, it's comorbidity. Right age is a factor, but mainly because people who are older tend to die more than younger people because they're old. So, it's just a co-occurring fact. So that's where we should be focusing our attention, not the other 99% children, young adults, middle aged adults, and the otherwise healthy. Absolutely.

Ron Beres

That's a great point. The average age that someone's actually died of COVID is something like 78. And I think that's the average age of someone dying Anyway, it was roughly 78-77, something like that. Is that correct?

Dr. Mark McDonald

The average age of death, the United States of all causes is roughly the equivalent of the average age of death of a WuFlu patient. So, you have to scratch your head and ask, Well, what actually killed this person? Was its Chinese Wu Han flu? Or was it just natural causes? That has never ever been debated publicly? It's available, it's not hidden. You go to the CDC website, you can see the age breakdown, the comorbidity breakdown, and the big number that came out in April, which was poo pooed away and hidden by the media, but it's still on their website is that of all of the cases, all of the cases of death with or caused by because they include both they don't break those out with are caused by Coronavirus, which is around now. 350,000 or so in the US. of all of those people. Only 6% of those people died without a comorbidity 6% that means 94% of all those deaths were deaths with Coronavirus and other comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, type two diabetes, gunshot to the head and car accidents.

Ron Beres

Wow. Wow.

Lisa Beres

It's interesting. Ron and I were out shopping this weekend and we were going to Whole Foods. Of course, all the restaurants here in California are closed for indoor and outdoor dining. Which is really unusual that they closed outdoor dining cuz you know when you I mean the precautions are taken everywhere. You don't go to a restaurant where people the waitstaff isn't wearing masks or you're wearing the mask to and from your table. So why they close those is beyond me. But as we were going into Whole Foods, we noticed the lines In and Out Burger. Right next, right next to the whole foods was wrapped around, it was the longest line I've ever seen. And I just looked at Ron and said, see this is this is the issue. It's totally safe to eat In and Out Burger and eat those French fries and fried food. And then you go into Whole Foods and you know, not nearly as crowded and that's a danger and you know, outdoor dining is a danger.

Ron Beres

And it's just I wanted to ask you, Dr. McDonald, what role does fear play as the primary fuel source of emotional illness today?

Dr. Mark McDonald

I have said from the very beginning that fear, not illness and disease has been driving the pandemic and is fueling all of the closure�s lockdowns and shutdowns. Now, that doesn't mean it's the only factor but it's the primary driving force to maintain it. I've also said that over time, this fear, once it becomes ensconced entrenched, almost impossible to remove, it turns into something akin to trauma, in the same way that if you scratch yourself, on your wrist, your skin will heal, and it'll be fine in a day or two. But if you scratch it every day, eventually it turns into scar tissue. It doesn't matter how long that scar tissue stays at rest, give it time, it will never be as strong as the tissue that it that it overrode. The same thing happens with trauma. I believe that Americans because of their fears, have entered into a stage of trauma. And I call it a delusional psychosis. That eating outside is somehow dangerous and that businesses need to be closed or that children are not safe at schools, etc., etc. All the things we just mentioned. People now believe that they believe it so strongly that if you challenge them on it, they'll attack you. And the danger with that is not just the discomfort that comes from living in a society where people are essentially nuts where when you leave your house and I'm a psychiatrist. I feel like I did when I entered my locked ward in residency. I walk in the door closes behind me and I have to remind myself that everyone inside that locked Ward that doesn't have a badge. Could be nuts. Well, now when I leave my house, I have to remind myself that everybody with a face diaper on could be psychotic. And it's about 80% here in Los Angeles. And I'm not talking about inside of a closed small room where people are yelling at each other. I mean, driving in a car by yourself. Everyone has these masks on

Lisa Beres

The masks in the car. We talked about that.

Dr. Mark McDonald

The masks in the car? Who are they?

Ron Beres

They�re not washed either. I'll tell you that.

Lisa Beres

You're right. It's like the rational mind has been taken over by the irrational fear. And I know we're all not saying that COVID-19 is not real, it is a virus that we all you know, we're all agreeing on that. And just so listeners aren't freaking out about some of this information. It's just, you know, they always say like, if you find what you're what you're searching for, you know, if you're looking if you're watching fearful news all the time, that's, that's your reality, you're going to be living in a lot of fear. If you turn off the news and do the research and read those articles. The studies are out there, and I run a read so many, so many, and had so many incredible guests like you on the show, that are professionals that are dealing with this every day with patients and whether it's in a hospital or you with the you know, the psychological effects of it. So, I just encourage everybody to have an open mind. And because the sad part of it, Dr. McDonald is it's like there's no end in sight. That's the part that I think is the creepiest. I know here in LA like we're there is no end in sight for when the school is going to open. Or when indoor dining and gyms and hair salons will be open again. I mean, there's been anything when you lose hope, I think I think you that's when people go into these dates, all the other things like job loss, and how did these work mothers? How are they even doing it right now at home and teaching. It's just, it's so much stress on everybody. But where's that silver lining in that sliver of hope?

Dr. Mark McDonald

I think you're pointing to something very important, which I just thought about for the first time about a month ago, which is the effect the detrimental effect on human beings of the disappearance of the capacity to plan their future. weddings, divorces, promotions, vacations, lunches, basic day to day activities, much less than really important. Big celebrations of life have all been disappeared in perpetuity. I know people who have had their weddings rescheduled three times and now they've just given up.

Lisa Beres

It's really sad.

Dr. Mark McDonald

I think you've all had that experience on some level. And I think that just as our ability to be in not impulsive. But spontaneous is very important to our happiness and contentment to be able to say, you know what, I'm going to go out and just take a walk and get a cup of coffee right now because I feel like it, we can't do that anymore. Just as that's disappeared. Also, those big events, the things that we look forward to, you know, this is a tough week, but I'm going to go out and have a beer with my brother on Saturday. Now, I can't do that anymore. Or you know, this is a really hard, hard month, but I've got my sister's wedding coming up in April.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, nothing to look forward to.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Yeah, nothing. It's all gone. And so when you say it's unending, I think this is the effect of unending this, of the so called pandemic emergency nightmare, is that people have essentially moved into a zone of every day is the same day, seven days a week, and there's nothing that will change. And that is soul crushing and it's incredibly dehumanizing.

Lisa Beres

I have a good friend who's dealing with her child right now her daughter whose suicidal tendencies, she's self-harming, and she basically is a teenager and she said she they have to keep such a close watch on her because she doesn't have any hope to be here. And I'm sure I'm sure you see. Patients like this all the time. But how sad like that should be one of the happiest times in your life. You're growing up, you're with your friends, you're looking forward to whether it's college or the future we talked about. Are you seeing that a lot with kids and adults?

Dr. Mark McDonald

I've been in practice for about 10 years now. And I lost my first patient in April. So unnatural causes. She was a young adult. She was a graduate student, just starting her master's degree at a psychology school here in Los Angeles. But she had a remote history of opioid abuse, and she had a sponsor. She was absent and had been for years she was physically well. She had good support structure at home. And after the shutdown in March, she lost her boyfriend. Her school shut down. Her meetings for not Alcoholics Anonymous but Narcotics Anonymous shut down. She was basically be wrapped of all support and she was stuck in her apartment. She stopped Did using fentanyl. And within seven days she was found unconscious, unresponsive and dead on the floor of her apartment.

Lisa Beres

So sorry.

Dr. Mark McDonald

This has happened multiplied by hundreds of 1000s this past year, and it's increasing the rate at which people are dying. Both of overdoses as well as direct suicides, as well as significant increases in depression anxiety report came out two months ago from the CDC that noted that compared to the same time last year, there is a 400% increased prevalence of depression in adolescents in this country 400% increase 300% increase in anxiety. Now, it's hard to get stats. Right now, for actual deaths. It's very, very difficult. And I think the numbers are being hidden intentionally. But I think you can extrapolate from that, that a lot of people are dying. And I would even say that there are more people dead today because of the government response or the Coronavirus than it actually died of the virus itself.

Lisa Beres

And what are your thoughts on the relevance and safety of an experimental vaccine for 99% of the population and for an illness with the greater than 99% survival rate? Do you consider it dangerous for people to take?

Dr. Mark McDonald

Well, at least I appreciate you calling it for what it is, which is experimental. And that's not an opinion or a feeling. That's actually what the Food and Drug Administration has called it, because it hasn't actually completed all of its phase four trials. In fact, it skipped over them entirely. And it was only allowed to be distributed under what's called emergency exception procedures. And that emergency exception procedure demands that there be according to the FDA and the CDC, no viable treatment for a specific illness or disease. Now, as we know, that is completely false. But that certainly explains why there has been such a pushback against outpatient treatment with minerals, vitamins, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, azithromycin, predestinate, corticosteroids, all of the drugs that have been used safely and effectively for decades, if not, half century, because if they were found to be and promoted to be useful, as they actually are 60 to 80% effective in prophylaxis and early treatment of this disease throughout the world, then we wouldn't have a vaccine, because the vaccine would have been forced, understandably and appropriately forced into stage three and stage four safety trials, which would have taken at least two more years.

Ron Beres

How many humans actually were tested for just you know, the numbers on that?

Dr. Mark McDonald

In one of them was about 30,000 people that were enrolled, they were broken into two groups, placebo was just sailing in the other ways of obviously, the vaccine. Out of that those two groups, I believe, only about 180 to 200, people actually got infected. And the problem, the problem is that the study really focused on the people that got infected, it didn't focus on the people that got the vaccine to the placebo, and then never actually got sick. So, we don't really know a lot about the effects of this vaccine. On the larger population, the way that the vaccine works, and the way that it interrupts the cell structure in the body. It's an mRNA vaccine, the first time it's ever been used in human beings, it forces the body cells to produce what are called spike proteins, which then lead to an antibody response against the antigenic markers from the virus and they're supposed to match up and they're supposed to kill the virus.

Lisa Beres

And is it true, if you know this, Dr. McDonald, that it only actually gives you two months of immunity?

Dr. Mark McDonald

This is also a big issue. We don't know how long it lasts. All of the so called experts, you know, the FAO cheese and the CDC heads and government politicians who are managing this have stated explicitly that after getting vaccinated, you are no, you are still able to infect other people if you get infected meaning Yes. Yeah, so we have no idea how well or how long this will prevent you from getting sick or if at all, preventing other people from getting sick. So, I would ask this following question. If that's the case, why on earth, are we not encouraging everybody to start taking known safe available inexpensive outpatient treatments, prophylaxis and early stage treatments instead of the vaccine? Well, it's a rhetorical question, because the answer is obviously money. If these treatments were made available, the vaccine would go bye bye and the $800 billion that have already been spent by our federal government, meaning our tax money would no longer be in the pockets of Pfizer and Moderna.

Lisa Beres

Mm hmm. And the and the CDC also says, Oh, yeah, and by the way, masks and social distancing aren't going to go away. So, with all the you know, with all these people getting vaccinated on this experimental vaccine, you're still going to be living in the same bizarre reality.

Dr. Mark McDonald

We�ve gained nothing. We're right back to where we started except poor. I don't see any benefit to that. whatsoever. Now, I want to be very clear, though, because people are going to take my words perhaps out of context, it is possible that those in the high-risk category, meaning those over age 7075, who are frail, they may benefit from this vaccine. And they do have a moderate to high likelihood of hospitalization or death if they get infected with the live virus. So, I'm not saying that all people shouldn't take it, right, I am saying is that I would consider it child abuse, if any single person of any comorbidity or health status were given this vaccine under age 21. Because the rate of death for people under age 21 is so low, it's about the risk of being struck by lightning, that you're actually putting harm, causing harm to those people with absolutely no benefit.

Lisa Beres

Right. Hey, Dr. McDonald, I hope you're open to this. We do have a caller, who has a question for you. Would you be open to taking a call?

Dr. Mark McDonald

Of course.

Lisa Beres

Chris, are you there?

Caller, Chris

Hi Lisa.

Lisa Beres

What is your question for Dr. McDonald?

Caller, Chris

Hey, Dr. McDonald, I live in Texas, we are mass mandated here. And our school in March decided that they were going to go for children 10 and over they were going to go to mandating masks, putting the putting teachers behind face shields and social distancing. The kids not really even allowing them to play on the playground, without masks, you know, the closest they can get as elbow to elbow. And so, my question really is focused on in centers on the harm that masks and social distancing is doing to children. I my, my sense was when they began implementing these policies was to pull him out of school entirely. But we ended up starting our own school. And we don't social distance. We don't require that the children wear masks. In fact, No, none of the children's in our school wear masks. There are now 50 families in our school, kindergarten through eighth. And we these kids have been playing together in the sunshine, eating the right kinds of foods, smiling, laughing, playing full of joy together for the last four months, and we've had zero cases. So, I'm just I wanted I wanted to ask you, what are my sense has been that it's inhumane to put children behind masks? Could you speak to the health consequences?

Dr. Mark McDonald

The justification for these masks is similar to the justification that Bill de Blasio in New York, used to lock down New York City, which was, if the policy saves one life, it will be worth it. Well, that's not the way we conduct public health policy. We look at risks and we looked at benefits. What are the benefits of children wearing mass? There's no evidence to support the proposal that children transmit Coronavirus to other children, there is very, very little evidence to support the contention that they transmitted in any meaningful way to adults. In fact, there's a lot of evidence, as I mentioned earlier about the German study that was performed in the summer, that they act as interrupters of transmission. So, given that, and this is evidence, this is not my opinion. Why would we want to put masks on children? Why would we want to distance them from others? So, then we have to look at the harm children, depending on their developmental age use faces in order to grow and develop their brains. One of the known aspects or factors that define an autistic child is that he cannot read facial expressions. Babies no longer respond to the whoo cuckoo kind of faces that their mothers make, or that the woman next in the supermarket make to them because they don't see the face. all they see is an eye. They've lost the wiring, or they never develop the wiring to be able to see faces and read expressions. Oh, wow, how will it show up in 510 15 years, I have no idea but it's not going to look good. Depending on how long it lasts, depending on what stage it was interrupted. And then you move on to children that are a little bit older, children that are playing that are hanging out with friends that are using facial expressions and touching and wrestling as a way to develop an understanding of social cohesion, where they are in their social group. They've lost that because they're not able to play. You look at children in the older areas, you know, adolescents, young adults who are wearing masks. Now they're not able to be able to interact with close friends, go on dates, be able to play sports, for example. Every single stage of development requires the ability to see someone else's face and to show your face to others. It's so important. For this reason, we have resisted, resisted with violence, even the imposition of the veil, in Western society. And even in Saudi Arabia, now the veil is going away. They're actually getting rid of the veil in Saudi Arabia and we�re veiling men and women in the United States, what is the what is the actual difference between the imposition of a veil and the imposition of a face mask? There is none. Now you can say the rationale is different, but the effect is exactly this thing. It is to hide the face. It is inhumane, and with children, it causes so much damage socially, emotionally and psychologically. And I'm not even getting into the problems of medical issues, bacterial diseases in the throat, impetigo on the skin, acne, there's all kinds of problems that these masks cover.

Lisa Beres

The masks are dirty.

Dr. Mark McDonald

The masks are filthy. Their children are putting these filthy things in and out of their mouth, their faces all day long. It makes absolutely no sense. It is it is, in my opinion, it is child abuse. And I think that in a matter of years or decades, we as adults are going to look back on this and cry and say, What did we do to a generation of our children, we have lost our authority to parent our children, we have lost our adult credentials. We are behaving so horribly to our children, it is unforgivable.

Lisa Beres

Whoa, yeah. There are some ringers in there, Chris, I hope that answered your question.

Caller, Chris

Well, more than it was, I will tell you, Dr. McDonald, thank you so much. What you just shared is far beyond even what I imagined was, you know, the potential harms or downside of putting children behind masks. But yeah, we formed a group out here, and we just decided we're not doing it. And we're going to, we're going to create our own home run Co Op. And we're going to allow our children to play freely and be at school and not learn from scary people behind masks and, and, and put them in a situation where they can't even communicate with one another. And they're sitting there breathing their own co2 all day long. None of that made any sense to me as a father, and you've really just confirmed it. So, thank you very much.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Thank you, Chris, for calling in. And it's such an important topic. And I would hope that the most important element of our population should be our children, and it is our children. And I would, I would love to see more adults speaking out about that and ringing that bell because it is one that I it's very close to my heart as a child psychiatrist, and one that I promote every single day in my work.

Caller, Chris

I agree with you. Thank you so much. Yeah, well, thanks, Ron. And Lisa, thank you.

Ron Beres

Great question, Chris. Dr. McDonald, to kind of switch topics are a little bit. Can you operate on the importance of active assertive care versus passive compliance and responding to the ongoing government constraints that we're experiencing?

Dr. Mark McDonald

This is something that's really perplex me from the very beginning, because it's, it's such a bizarre way to deal with an illness. Up until March of 2020. All doctors when their patients came to see them and said, I'm sick doctor, the doctor would say, Well, here's your diagnosis, or what I think it might be. And here's the treatment that we know might help your symptoms. Take this, let me know if it works. And if it doesn't call me back. This was just standard practice of medicine; we call it standard of care. And then all of a sudden, in March of 2020, we flipped everything upside down. And we decided as a medical profession, we're told, well, now with this one disease, if someone comes to you and you say, Well, I think you have the flu, flu, you're supposed to tell the patient, there's nothing that can be done, except sit at home, and pray. And if you get really, really sick and you can't breathe, call 911 and go to the hospital and hope that the oxygen will save you and if it doesn't, you'll go to the ICU and you'd probably die about a 60% death rate in the ICU,

Lisa Beres

Right? The ventilators, right?

Dr. Mark McDonald

Put them on the ventilator of which 20 30% of people ever get off of them. This is insanity. It is malpractice, it is completely irrational. It makes absolutely no sense. It only makes sense if you think about the larger picture, which is that passive reaction to this Coronavirus is feeding the pockets of power and money of people who are able to corral the population into what Lenin called the useful idiots back in 1917. The people who react with a kind of docile, feudal passive, please can I have some more sir mentality to what is really a sort of a nominal infection a nominal illness and could be easily treated. So what I always say to people and it's falls on deaf ears most of the time but I have to keep saying it because it's the truth is that you can take control of your life and your destiny with Coronavirus just like you can instead with anything else in your life. This is not a time to be passive. It is not a time to sit with a mask and hide and stay indoors and eat Cheetos and watch Netflix and do zoom happy hour with your colleagues and drink alcohol. This is not the time to do that. This is the time to go outside. This is the time to get fresh air get sunlight. And if you can't get sunlight because you're in a cold, dark place, start taking vitamin D supplements take zinc, if you're really, really concerned, because you're in a high risk category, take hydroxychloroquine, once a week, and if you're not stock pilots, if you get sick, you can take it right away. While it's working in the early stages of the illness, we're told that there is no way to prevent infection except wearing a mask and hiding out. And if in fact, you get sick, there actually is outpatient treatment available through pills, you don't have to go to the hospital. And it's proven effective throughout the world at different degrees of success, somewhere between 60 to 80%. So, my point is that we are being told to be passive, reactive victims in this medical pandemic, and you do not need to be a passive victim, you need to take active control of your life. And you can do it safely and effectively.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. Wow. That's so true. I, you know, we talked about what are the actual biggest causes of death in the world today. I mean, cancer, I think it's predicted to be one in every two people soon, not that far in the future, if it isn't already, that will develop cancer in their lifetime. But like you said, Okay, so cancer is a threat to everybody. But, you know, you don't sit at home and say, I'm not going to be around people. Because what if I get cancer, I mean, I know it's not contagious, like a virus, but you don't stay locked up for fear of toxic exposures, things that are linked to cancer, carcinogens. carcinogens are everywhere in our world. They're in our homes. They're everywhere. But we don't live in a hazmat suit, so that we avoid them. Instead, we say, hey, I need to have a healthy lifestyle. I need to make sure I live in this toxic free as possible, eat as healthy. And the joy. I mean, we talked a lot about fear. I just think that having joy in your life is so important. If you wake up in the morning, and you don't feel hopeful, and you don't feel like you have something to look forward to. How do you get through your day? How do you I mean, what do you I don't even know because I know we meditate and we have tools that we use. It's it this is this is tough on everybody. But it's a daily practice now to keep your energy high and keep your mind positive

Ron Beres

Optimism. You're right,

Lisa Beres

Optimism. I just feel and that's, you know, you go out to the store and you read people are, you know, scared of each other. And even if they have masks, even if they're distancing, it just feels like it's never enough, like people just don't feel like anybody's doing enough. And it's so, so sad. I told Ron, I felt like I left the planet, you know, when a little spaceship on a little vacation for a couple months came back and it's like a different planet. I don't know how the world turned upside down. So quickly.

Dr. Mark McDonald

There are a few things that you can do. You know, joy has been outlawed in California, anything that produces joy is now illegal?

Lisa Beres

Yeah, literally. I think the mayor governor literally said that.

Dr. Mark McDonald

There is really very little exception to that. And for that reason, you have to create your own joy and you to be honest, have to take some risks. And when I say risks, I'm not talking about going and climbing K2. I'm talking about meeting up with people in public and parks and having lunches these are now risk-taking measures. But people have to do that. If you were to agree with and comply with all of the mandate, stick dates and laws that have been passed in the cities, counties, and the state of California, you would guarantee a fearful, anxious and depressed state, there is no way that you can follow these laws and dictates and remain healthy and happy for that reason. I for the first time in my life, and I'm encouraging people to violate them. To be happy today. To have joy requires courage. It requires taking risks. And if you are not willing to do that, you are going to pay the price yourself through depression, anxiety and fear and possibly ill health. I wish it weren't the case, I wish one could be happy and joyful, without displays of courage. But that is no longer the case. I don't know how long that's going to last. So that's very, very important to keep in mind. You're not going to be able to be happy unless you express courage.

Lisa Beres

And, someone said this to me recently. We don't know our expiration date. Nobody does. We don't know when we're going to leave this planet. Do you really want your last days like in misery? I mean, that's a choice to happiness is a choice. It's a choice you have to make every day and whatever that means for you. And, you know, like you said, you're not saying to be irresponsible. Wear your mask in the store. Great. But when you go out to get fresh air, get the fresh air, like breathe the air and get the sunlight. And I know when we go on hikes, there's nobody around. I mean, so why would you need to worry about there's no one. There's no one nearby. There's not a lot if not enough, people are really out hiking, you don't really see that many people unfortunately.

Dr. Mark McDonald

I think that this is a time where you need to really ask yourself how much responsibility you are willing to take for your own well-being because as you know, as Thoreau said, I like this quote very much and I've used it for quite a long time. This year, you must think for yourself. If you do not, others will think for you. And they will not be thinking of you.

Ron Beres

Wow, that's powerful. Dr. McDonald, we all should take, you know, our own actions in our own hands. But what should parents do, like, for example, should they remove their kids from the school system? And if so, why?

Dr. Mark McDonald

Parents are in a tight position, everything that they do has a cost. And some parents have limited options, they might be single parents, they might not have a lot of money, they can't stay home, and tend to their children, because they might have to work outside the home, or they might have to work inside the home and they can't supervise. It's very, very difficult. However, to the extent that you can, I believe that you must prioritize your children right now. If you don't, you'll regret it later. If you do not have a school, and most people don't have a school right now. And if you are able to, I would strongly urge you to take your children out of the school system such that it is and homeschool your child or find a pod or create one in your community. And if you're unable to, and you have the option, send your child out of state, to a family member, someone that you know would take good care of your child in a school system that is operating Louisiana, Florida are some places where relatives of my patients, parents have relatives, and they've sent their kids there because the schools are open. Anything that you can do at any cost will be worth it any sacrifice because your child is so important. And this year or years, depending on how long this last can never, never be gotten back. They're going to be lost forever. And that would be a huge tragedy. So yes, I believe very strongly parents need to take their children out of schools if they can, because this so-called zoom school, it is not a school, it is a recipe for disaster for your children. And for you. I would even go so far as to say that I think this may be the end of the public-school system in the United States. And that from now on, even if the schools do reopen eventually, that parents will and should return to either charter schools, private schools, or homeschooling as the option of number one choice for their children, because it's the only one that's actually going to protect them.

Ron Beres

Is there a particular age group that's more affected by not going to school or going to school? Like for example, is it better to make sure that young kids are going to school versus getting homeschooled versus older ones?

Dr. Mark McDonald

I think it's a complex question because it depends on the child, the developmental stage, and also what resources they have. If the child is able to, at a young age, find other kids to play with, if you have playgroups. I think you could certainly substitute what happens in school, in the home or in in play groups, because a lot of it is socialization. However, if you can't do that, then that's a very, very tender age to have a child stuck at home, let's say he doesn't have siblings, by himself in front of the computer can imagine a 5, 6 or 7 year old, stuck in front of a computer by himself with no other adults or car or peers for an entire year. That's horrible.

Lisa Beres

That's horrible. That's, and we don't even have time to get into the effects of all this screen time. on children's brains. Obviously, we are b=Building Biologists. And so, we study electromagnetic radiation. And the importance of reducing that, well, now, kids are just bombarded with it in the house with the Wi Fi and our cell phones always on and their screens on. So that and now that they're not going out to play, their body doesn't get that break when their brains are developing and very much affected by the intercellular communication of this wireless radiation. So, there's so many levels of problems. And I think you did a great job like explaining that from a psychologist point of view. So, I hope I hope people listening you know, you have options, you just have to figure out what works for you and what your options are. And at the end of the day, yeah, I can't I mean, for me, like I was a very social child. I can't imagine not having that social ability. That's what made me love school. I loved school, but it was because of the social aspect. I loved my friends and my activities. And I know a lot of these kids can't even do their activities anymore. And it's so sad like they're running and their teams and things like that.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Sports in particular for boys are very, very important. Yeah. That's right. You need to build confidence. You need to be able to express your healthy aggression in a constructive way. You need to learn how to not be a bully. You need to learn how to accept loss and defeat gracefully. You need to learn how not to gloat when you win. These are lessons that you learned through team sports and competitive sports that boys learned in particular girls too, as well. But I think that the boys really need this. It's crucial. Yeah, they're not getting it because all their activities have been shut down.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and we're going to see obesity, we already have such a huge childhood obesity problem in the United States. It's just going to skyrocket if we don't change this quick and get these kids active. So, let's just Do a wrap up. And if you can leave our listeners, I know we kind of touched upon what are some of the things that you would say right now everybody should be taking as a supplements, that they can just take over the counter to start boosting their immune systems and being healthy.

Dr. Mark McDonald

Now this is a very easy question to answer because there is essentially no risk to this, there's only game everyone should be taking vitamin D supplements, particularly people who don't get at least 20 minutes of nearly full body exposure to sunlight every day. And I'm not suggesting people walk around naked. I'm suggesting that when people go outside for 20 minutes, and they're all bundled up, that's not getting sunlight. So, if you can't go outside with shorts and a T shirt on for 20 minutes a day and bright sunlight and some people can you know, that's too cold, then you need to take vitamin D supplements. But even if you can, you still should take them. It's very, very hard and almost impossible to have a toxic dose of vitamin D unless you go absolutely nuts with it. Okay, so one way to do it is to load up on it and then take a small amount after that an easier way to do it. The best way really would be to get your vitamin D level tested and then figure out how much you need. But if you can't do that, you know, that's fine.

Lisa Beres

Because so many people are low, right? I mean, it's a

Dr. Mark McDonald

It's huge vitamin D. Low levels of vitamin D is a plague on our country, and our public health and it doesn't affect just physical health. It affects emotional health hormone regulation, there's all different tissues that need vitamin D. It's a very important vitamin. If you took anywhere between five to 10,000 international units per day, you would be in a very safe range. And you would boost your vitamin D level up over a period of a few weeks to a healthy range most people can tolerate.

Lisa Beres

And you feel good, right? I mean, it kind of improves your mood and your energy.

Dr. Mark McDonald

It does. It�s a potent mood lifter over time, as well as a very important antiviral medication or supplement. In fact, the one factor that is common to nearly every single person that's died of Coronavirus is low vitamin D levels. And that's actually the reason we suspect in addition to increased rates of diabetes and obesity in this population, why black Americans are dying at higher rates. One of the reasons is that because of the color of their skin, the darkness of their pigmentation, they don't get as much sunlight exposure translated into vitamin D because it's filtered out by the melanin. So, their vitamin D levels are really low compared to really light skinned people. So that might be one of the reasons why they tend to be more affected by this Coronavirus. So, it's not a virus isn't racist, the virus is just doing what it needs to do. So, vitamin D supplementation, especially in dark skinned people, very important, in addition to that everyone should be taking at least for now, while this is raging, should be taking zinc supplements 50 milligrams per day of zinc. This is a very potent. Fifty, five zero. Very important in order to reduce viral replication in cells. And this is true for all viruses, a lot of respiratory viruses. So, if you get a cold, for example, and you're on zinc, it is known and it's been known for years, this was never even debated. Cold-EEZE has been popular for years. Yeah, it tastes good. You can suck on them; they dissolve in your mouth. And there's evidence to support that they reduce the severity and frequency of colds usually you take them after you get the cold. So, it's not a frequency thing. It's a severity reduces the course of symptoms. But if you take zinc supplements, oral supplements everyday 50 milligrams, you were much less likely to develop or contract a cold or flu or as a respiratory virus. And if you do, it'll be a lot less severe, no risk, no problem with that. That's those two things I think are very important for all people to take. The third thing that I would suggest for people who are either living with very, very highly at risk individuals or if you're at high risk yourself, meaning you're elderly and frail, or you have cardiovascular disease, obesity or type two diabetes is to take hydroxychloroquine that would be 404 00 400 milligrams once a week, which is the anti-malarial prophylaxis amount that people have taken in Africa for 60 years from birth to death, that reduces your risk of developing Coronavirus by somewhere between 50 to 80%. And there is absolutely no risk.

Lisa Beres

Okay, high risk group take that. And now Dr. McDonald's, I know they banned that at one point from being prescribed Can that be prescribed now?

Dr. Mark McDonald

It's a little tricky. Most doctors will refuse to prescribe it. So if your local physician is reading CNN and NBC and all the other legacy news outlets that say hydroxychloroquine is killing people, which it never did until March 15 of 2020 by the way, but if they're doing that, run, leave your doctor because your doctor is not up on research. Your doctor is reading CNN and that's actually this information. Go find another doctor and if you can't do that, then go to a website where you can do a telehealth appointment and get your medication prescribed and mailed to you within five days for under $100. Right you want to treat yourself effectively and appropriately. And you don't want to sit around and pray and then wait to get sick and go to the hospital like everyone else.

Lisa Beres

Wow. Okay. Wow, that was a job that buttoned up really good. And guys, listeners, I'm going to have all of this in the show notes. And I know we had some doctors on early in the podcast, episode two, I think, where they had really gone on about the importance of zinc and how our body doesn't hang on to it, it doesn't store it. So, it is so important to replenish that every day. And I'm guessing DS the same way. So, if you're listening, this isn't like, Oh, I take it once a week, or I take it once and you�re good to go.

Dr. Mark McDonald

To clarify that. Lisa, just to interrupt you for just a moment. Yeah, zinc and vitamin D are actually opposites. In that sense, zinc does need to be restored regularly, because it goes out of your system quickly. Vitamin D is actually a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning it actually collects and is stored for long periods of time. That's good in one way because if you stop taking it for a few days, you're good to go for a long time, but bad in the other. Which means even if you take it regularly, you're not going to actually build up your stores for several weeks up to maybe 30 days. So, it does take some time for it to get built up and you need to take it regularly in order to build up your storage for vitamin D because it lasts for a long time.

Lisa Beres

Okay, thank you so much for clarifying that. And nuts and seeds. They're very high in zinc too. So, eat those plants, eat plants, everyone. Eat the rainbow.

Ron Beres

Well, Dr. McDonald thank you for joining us today. And if you'd like to connect with Dr. McDonald, you can visit his website at Mark McDonald md.com and also be sure to connect with him on social media. All links will be in this episode in the show notes at RonandLisa.com/podcast.

Lisa Beres

Thank you so much, Dr. McDonald, and thank you guys for tuning in. Please tune in next week to find out what the heck is going on in your home by everyone.

Narrator

This episode of the healthy home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed up. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.