The massive global effort to get COVID vaccines used plays on fears of getting the disease, despite the fact that they are experimental. Meaning that they have not gone through the rigorous, time-consuming and expensive randomized clinical trials that so many experts say is the gold standard for evaluating drugs. This absence was used by the government to condemn and block the use of generic medicines, namely hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Vaccine testing and regulatory approval have been rushed. Missing from nearly all information reaching the public are some key facts.

The vaccines still allow the virus to stay in the body and the virus can shed and pass on to others. In other words, the virus can stay alive in the community. Moreover, all kinds of ugly side effects can and do hit some vaccinated people. What vaccines are engineered to do is prevent serious disease impacts and death, but not truly and entirely keep the virus out of living in your body. In other words, unlike most older vaccines for other viral diseases, they do not actually kill the virus, but aim to kill the viral impacts by imparting some immunity.

Vaccine advocates are selling serious COVID disease prevention. But is there another, very different prevention strategy? There is.

As detailed in my recent book Pandemic Blunder (available on Amazon), there are mountains of strong medical data showing that a number of cheap, safe, proven and effective medicines, vitamins and supplements have been used worldwide to stop COVID when the protocols are used very early. In a number of countries where they have been widely used COVID hospitalizations and death rates are markedly lower than in the US and other nations that have blocked their use. Overall, they have prevented 70 to 80 percent of COVID deaths. The chief requirement is that they are used within days of getting symptoms or a positive test. Just as important, huge amounts of data show that these medical solutions also act as prophylactics, meaning prevention, to keep people healthy when they have not been infected by the virus.

In other words, people have a right to choose between COVID vaccines and the multitude of protocols that have been classified as components for early home COVID treatment.

This choice is all the more relevant when one acknowledges that a vast number of people do not need a vaccine to get COVID immunity. Why? Because large numbers of people have either natural immunity or immunity achieved because they have contracted COVID, but without serious impacts. Proof of non-vaccine immunity is everywhere, including children and elderly people in nursing homes who remained healthy unlike others living with them who were struck down and all too often died.

Yes, there are some groups that have a good case for taking a vaccine. They include people like me who are elderly with serious underlying medical problems, and even younger people who also have serious medical conditions, including morbid obesity. I have taken the COVID vaccine because I am 81 with a very serious heart condition. But I still take twice a day one of those protocols with strong evidence for effectiveness: zinc, quercetin, vitamins D and C. Where people have access to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, including some Americans who have doctors willing and able to prescribe them, they take regular doses for prevention, typically along with zinc and vitamins D and C.

It all comes down to science-based choice on how to best stay safe in this pandemic. Even if they do not follow the data, it seems like roughly 40 to 50 percent of Americans who do not want to take the vaccine have seen first hand that vaccines are not the only path to stay safe from COVID. This is especially true for younger people who have seen considerable government data that even if they get COVID they will not likely suffer awful impacts.s

The push for vaccines is also linked to many politicians arguing to maintain discredited contagion controls (such as masking, school closings, and lockdowns) until everyone gets vaccinated. This thinking has nothing to do with the widely opined “follow the science” and much more to do with maintaining public fear and political power. And never forget the wisdom of “follow the money.” The push for COVID vaccines has everything to do with drug companies making many billions of dollars.

Americans and most of the global population for over a year have been consumed with fear, sacrifices and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. But few people have understood or been given a chance to support or reject what is best seen as the wait for the vaccine pandemic strategy.

Hidden from public view was a most substantial tradeoff between doing what was feasible to save lives of most people infected by COVID starting in the early months of the pandemic versus placing priority on waiting for COVID vaccines to be the pandemic salvation. This tradeoff violated key principles and ethics of medicine, and also undermined American democracy. Many nations followed what the US did.

Here is the most important aspect of this strategy. This tradeoff happened despite an enormous amount of data from the US and other nations that pioneering clinicians had found successful early home/outpatient COVID treatments. These were true cures, because they stopped the viral infection in its first viral replication stage. The treatment kept patients with symptoms out of the hospital.

So, another aspect of the tradeoff was that by not supporting early home/outpatient treatment hospitals became crushed by COVID victims that had passed through the first stage into greatly worse symptoms in the second and third stages of the infection. Enormous pain, suffering, deaths and costs were the inevitable consequence of not pushing early home/outpatient treatment and, instead, waiting for COVID vaccines.

Details and data on the considerable positive data on these treatments have been given in my book Pandemic Blunder. A pro-treatment article noted that two leading physicians used ivermectin to treat themselves when they got infected with COVID. One good source of data on early treatment should be promoted for public use.

Despite what many physicians and medical researchers concluded were treatments that cured COVID, others even today have negative views about the two most cheap generic medicines used in many treatment protocols and cocktails, namely hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

Data on the treatment success first started to be made public in March 2020, mostly by Dr, V. Zelenko, a frontline community physician in New York. A number of other clinicians followed through the early months of the pandemic and, even today, keep using both generics with remarkable success. But the mainstream and corporate social media have stubbornly refused to view the treatment “solution” in a positive way. The biggest reason for this refusal to truly follow the science is that under the leadership of Dr. Fauci both NIH and FDA issued guidance blocking wide use of both generics. These actions essentially killed wide use of COVID treatment for the general public as well as health care workers. What happened instead?

Behind the scene the leading federal officials at NIH, FDA and CDC decided to execute the wait for vaccine strategy and successfully convinced President Trump and his White House pandemic task force to pump billions of dollars into Operation Warp Speed in April 2020.

Dr. Peter McCullough made this important point: “All efforts on treatment were dropped. Warp Speed went full tilt for vaccine development, and there was a silencing of any information on treatment.” He has said that 85 percent of COVID deaths can be prevented with treatment. Back in November 2020 he said “we can prevent hospitalization and death,” and spoke of a crime against humanity because of negative views on early home treatment.

What is critically important to recognize is that out of the current 600,000 COVID deaths in the US over 500,000 could have been prevented with the treatment approach. Globally over 3 million lives could have been saved. This view of preventable deaths was an important conclusion in Pandemic Blunder based on clinical evidence.

Here too, big media has refused to acknowledge what so many experts have said about the enormous missed opportunity to save lives.

In my opinion, any physician who also has a negative view of the treatments based on hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin has either not spent sufficient time examining available data or has fallen victim to the propaganda and disinformation unleashed by big media. The record is clear. Both generics have many decades of safe use and are fully FDA approved. The websites of three organizations should be used by physicians to access good information on early treatments: Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance. America’s Frontline Doctors and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. People can get hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin through these groups.

Now we are in the COVID vaccine stage with all vaccines being used correctly categorized as experimental. They are not fully FDA approved but are used under an emergency use designation. Every day in the US and many other countries there is an endless flow of accounts of vaccine related deaths and serious negative health impacts. Two websites are good sources of information on vaccine related impacts: Health Impact News and The COVID Blog that are largely ignored by big media.

Dr. Peter McCullough has recently said that “if this were any other vaccine it would have been pulled from the market by now for safety reasons.” “Based on the safety data now, I can no longer recommend it. There are over 4,000 dead Americans, there are over 10,000 in Europe that die on days one, two and three after the vaccine,” said McCullough.

This is the reality for the COVID vaccines: As of May 7, there have been 192,954 adverse-event reports associated with COVID vaccines reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System [VAERS], including 4,057 deaths. Previous studies, including one from Harvard University, estimate that only 1 to 10 percent of all vaccine-related ill effects get reported to VAERS. In other words, there are probably more people dying from the COVID vaccines than has been reported. Importantly, as to informed consent, people receiving the vaccine are not told about the CDC data, nor are they knowledgeable about serious health impacts globally.

For comparison: There are 20 to 30 deaths reported every year to VAERS related to the flu shot. That’s with 195 million receiving flu shots, far more than COVID fully vaccinated people to this point.

Dr. Marty Makary, a truth-telling Johns Hopkins physician, has made the point that “natural immunity works” and it is wrong to vilify those who don’t want the vaccine because they have already recovered from the virus. “There is more data on natural immunity than there is on vaccinated immunity, because natural immunity has been around longer,” he emphasized. “We’ve got to start respecting people who choose not to get the vaccine instead of demonizing them,” Makary said. Recently has said that about 150 million Americans have natural immunity.

In the Fauci wait for the vaccine strategy, access to generics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin had to be choked. The federal stockpile of hydroxychloroquine was not used. The pandemic had to boil and create consumer demand for vaccines, even as enormous numbers of people worldwide died unnecessarily. Fauci and other federal doctors failed their oath to first do no harm, meaning their responsibility to act quickly to treat their patients and avoid hospitalization and possible death.

The Comprehensive Drug and Alcohol Abuse Screening Test (CDAAST)

Client Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: ________________

Directions: The following questions concern information about your involvement with drugs and/or alcohol. Carefully read each statement. Then decide whether your answer is YES or NO and check the appropriate space. Please be sure to answer every question.

1. Alcohol or drug use caused me to use poor judgment and drive right afterwards because I felt “fine” to drive, wasn’t far to go, and I had no other way home: ___ Yes ___ No

2. I thought I was okay to drive after drinking and/or using drugs but I wasn’t: ___ Yes ___ No

3. I got a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th DUI after swearing it would never happen again: ___ Yes ___ No

4. I could kill somebody if I’m driving impaired: ___ Yes ___ No

5. I completed one or more alcohol or drug abuse treatment programs, yet I couldn’t drink just 1 or 2 drinks every time so ended up getting in trouble after drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

6. I believe that since I was able to quit drinking or using for awhile (after drinking and/or using caused me problems) and I don’t crave it, miss it, or even think about it, I now don’t have a drinking or drug problem: ___ Yes ___ No

7. I think about drinking or using drugs daily: ___ Yes ___ No

8. I drink use drugs to keep the buzz (good feeling): ___ Yes ___ No

9. I like to drink or use too much: ___ Yes ___ No

10. When I pick up the first drink and/or drug I think about the next one: ___ Yes ___ No

11. When I pick up the first drink I really enjoy the taste: ___ Yes ___ No

12. I like the feeling alcohol and/or drugs gives me when I’m under its power: ___ Yes ___ No

13. I know I shouldn’t drink and use drugs but I do it anyhow: ___ Yes ___ No

14. I can’t predict what will happen after I drink and/or use the first drug: ___ Yes ___ No

15. It’s tough to do the right thing while drinking using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

16. My decision making process becomes irrational and my behavior and personality changes when I drink and/or use drugs. I argue a lot when I drink and/or use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

17. I’m not honest when I drink use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

18. Occasionally I drink or use too much and get into trouble. I have said and done things that I normally wouldn’t have done when sober: ___ Yes ___ No

19. I got nasty or goofy when I drank and/or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

20. I do not have the self control to know when enough is enough: ___ Yes ___ No

21. When I drink or use drugs I can’t control myself the way I do when sober: ___ Yes ___ No

22. When I start drinking using drugs I don’t want to stop: ___ Yes ___ No

23. I sometimes have trouble stopping after 1 or 2 drinks: ___ Yes ___ No

24. I can never have just one drink: ___ Yes ___ No

25. I continue to drink and use once I get started: ___ Yes ___ No

26. Sometimes I drink use drugs more than I should: ___ Yes ___ No

27. I think about drinking and/or using drugs more than I should: ___ Yes ___ No

28. I can’t stop my craving or desire to drink and/or use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

29. I drink or use drugs too often: ___ Yes ___ No

30. I drink and use drugs too much: ___ Yes ___ No

31. I passed out from drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

32. I drank and used drugs a lot while alone: ___ Yes ___ No

33. I drank used drugs at a friends house and he or she got upset with me: ___ Yes ___ No

34. Drinking and drugging and the consequences of drinking drugging has taken up too much time in my life: ___ Yes ___ No

35. I have been hospitalized for drinking using drugs and could have died: ___ Yes ___ No

36. I have a hard time having a good time without drinking using: ___ Yes ___ No

37. I have drunk and/or used drugs a lot on occasions and still functioned okay: ___ Yes ___ No

38. I sometimes drink and/or use drugs to get drunk or plastered: ___ Yes ___ No

39. I have wasted a lot of time and money drinking and/or using: ___ Yes ___ No

40. I like to get wasted every time I drink use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

41. I have been on drinking drug using binges for 2 or more days in a row: ___ Yes ___ No

42. I have missed out on important events while drinking and/or using: ___ Yes ___ No

43. I have missed out on the memories of vacations when I drank and/or used: ___ Yes ___ No

44. I threw up while drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

45. I have passed out while drinking and/or using drugs and didn’t come home: ___ Yes ___ No
46. I could never walk out of a bar unless it closed or I passed out: ___ Yes ___ No

47. Someone said, “I let a stranger take me home when I was drinking and/or using: ___ Yes ___ No

48. My bartender knows my name and my usual drink: ___ Yes ___ No

49. I switched from hard liquor to beer and wine but that didn’t help: ___ Yes ___ No

50. I like to party and drinking and/or drugging at parties usually gets me in trouble: ___ Yes ___ No

51. I can’t meet decent members of the opposite sex while drinking and/or drugging: ___ Yes ___ No

52. I said or did things while drinking drugging that I regretted later: ___ Yes ___ No

53. Drinking or drugging caused me to bring up the past and make matters worse: ___ Yes ___ No

54. My sex life has suffered due to my excessive drinking and drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

55. I have slept with very ugly men and/or women while drinking and or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

56. My drinking and/or drug use has resulted in unprotected sex and or a child: ___ Yes ___ No

57. I cheated on my wife or husband while drinking or doing drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

58. When I was drunk or using drugs I got pregnant or I got someone pregnant
when I didn’t want to: ___ Yes ___ No

59. I had an abortion or someone I got pregnant had an abortion due to my drinking
or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

60. My drinking and/or drug use has kept me from having positive experiences, it lessened my school and business opportunities and I have shown up at important meetings after using drugs or with alcohol on my breathe: ___ Yes ___ No

61. My drinking drug use has caused me public embarrassment: ___ Yes ___ No

62. My drinking drug use has caused a decline in my job performance: ___ Yes ___ No

63. I have missed classes due to being too hung over to go: ___ Yes ___ No

64. I didn’t complete projects when I drank or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

65. I have doubted my business decisions when I drank or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

66. My boss has noticed alcohol on my breath and has been concerned: ___ Yes ___ No

67. My boss has said my career was in jeopardy due to my drinking and/or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

68. I needed to drink and/or use drugs to reward myself at the end of my work day: ___ Yes ___ No

69. I needed to drink and/or use drugs to be able to fall asleep: ___ Yes ___ No

70. I needed to drink and/or use drugs to function: ___ Yes ___ No

71. My drinking has triggered other drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

72. I drank or used drugs in the morning: ___ Yes ___ No

73. I hid bottles of alcohol: ___ Yes ___ No

74. I have sneaked drinks: ___ Yes ___ No

75. My drinking and or drug use has caused me to worry a lot. ___ Yes ___ No

76. Drinking and/or drug use has caused me to lose my temper and I said or did things I regretted later: ___ Yes ___ No

77. I drank and/or did drugs to forget problems, needed it to relax, go to sleep, handle anger, stress, loneliness, depression, and just to cope with life: ___ Yes ___ No

78. I drank and or used drugs to get rid of a hangover or self medicate: ___ Yes ___ No

79. When I drank and/or used drugs I didn’t think about the consequences: ___ Yes ___ No

80. When I drank and/or did drugs I stole someone’s prescription medications: ___ Yes ___ No

81. I continue to drink and or use drugs because I like it although it gets me in trouble: ___ Yes ___ No

82. I’m not always responsible when I drink or use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

83. My drinking and or drug use has always caused negative consequences: ___ Yes ___ No

84. I have stolen from others while drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

85. I have a loss of respect from others due to my drinking and/or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

86. I have lowered my standards due to my drinking: ___ Yes ___ No

87. My drinking and/or drug use has cost me a lot of money: ___ Yes ___ No

88. I have threatened death by doing crazy dangerous things while drinking
and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

89. Due to money I have spent on drinking and/or drugs, and associated problems caused by my drinking or drug use, I didn’t have enough money to pay the bills: ___ Yes ___ No

90. I got into physical fights easier when I was drinking and or using drugs,
I wouldn’t walk away: ___ Yes ___ No

91. I got beat up while drinking and or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

92. I hurt others emotionally and or physically when I drank and/or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

93. I got stabbed/shot and almost lost my life when I was drinking and or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

94. My drinking and or drug use has caused me to break the law other than a
possession charge: ___ Yes ___ No

95. My drinking and/or drug use has put me in jail or prison other than a sales or
possession charge: ___ Yes ___ No

96. I went to jail in pajamas, drunk: ___ Yes ___ No

97. I prefer to hang out with heavy drinkers and/or drug users: ___ Yes ___ No

98. I trusted the wrong friends when I drank and used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

99. I have said the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time while
drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

100. My drinking or drug use made me act like a jerk: ___ Yes ___ No

101. My drinking or drug use has affected my self respect, health, job,
and reputation: ___ Yes ___ No

102. I look at people differently when I drink or use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

103. I lied to my friends when I drank and/or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

104. My personality changes when I drink and/or use drugs. I get moody
or argumentative: ___ Yes ___ No

105. I missed the social drinker that I use to be: ___ Yes ___ No

106. I didn’t like me when I drank and/or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

107. My drinking and/or drug use has disappointed a lot of people in my life: ___ Yes ___ No

108. My drinking or drug use has caused family scorn – I’m the family outcast: ___ Yes ___ No

109. My drinking and drug use has caused family embarrassment and a loss of respect from others: ___ Yes ___ No

110. I don’t pay attention to important things when I drink and use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

111. I repeatedly did not come home to my family until Sunday after blowing
the Friday paycheck: ___ Yes ___ No

112. I fell into the water while drinking and/or using drugs and could have easily
drowned: ___ Yes ___ No

113. I have not come home after drinking or drugging a lot: ___ Yes ___ No

114. I hid my drinking or drug use from others: ___ Yes ___ No

115. Several family members, even my kids, have seen me drunk or passed out
after drinking and drugging: ___ Yes ___ No

116. My children have told me they are worried about my drinking and drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

117. I have become a negative role model for my children due to drinking
or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

118. I repeatedly disappoint my children and family when I drink or use drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

119. I passed out when I went to see my kids: ___ Yes ___ No

120. I have lost relationships with my kids due to my drinking and drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

121. My family tree is full of people with drinking or drug problems: ___ Yes ___ No

122. I worry about passing on my drinking and/or drug problem to my kids: ___ Yes ___ No

123. I often became rude or loud when I drank and/or used drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

124. I woke up in a place that I shouldn’t have been: ___ Yes ___ No

125. My friends started avoiding me when I started drinking or drugging a lot: ___ Yes ___ No

126. My drinking and/or drug use has caused verbal and or physical fights: ___ Yes ___ No

127. I made passes with other men and or women in front of my significant other while I was drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

128. A significant person in my life has threatened to leave me or has left me due to my drinking and/or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

129. I drank and/or used drugs a lot to handle the breakup of a significant relationship: ___ Yes ___ No

130. My drinking and/or drug use has caused or has made my health problems worse: ___ Yes ___ No

131. I picked up diseases when drinking and/or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

132. My drinking and/or drug use has caused malnutrition due to skipping meals: ___ Yes ___ No

133. My drinking or drug use has caused me to be lonely: ___ Yes ___ No

134. My drinking and/or drug use has caused me shame, loss of dignity, and guilt: ___ Yes ___ No

135. Drinking or drug use can increase symptoms of my mental problems: ___ Yes ___ No

136. My drinking and/or drug use has caused me to be forgetful: ___ Yes ___ No

137. My drinking or drug use caused others to get my car keys so I wouldn’t drive: ___ Yes ___ No

138. I have had blackouts, shakes, or DT’s due to drinking: ___ Yes ___ No

139. I have urinated in my pants while drinking or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

140. I threw up blood after drinking: ___ Yes ___ No

141. Drinking or drug use has changed my appearance for the worse: ___ Yes ___ No

142. I drank on medication that says, “avoid alcohol”: ___ Yes ___ No

143. My drinking and drug use has hurt, injured, or killed others: ___ Yes ___ No

144. I committed battery on a police officer after drinking and drugging: ___ Yes ___ No

145. My drinking and/or drug use has injured me: ___ Yes ___ No

146. Drinking or drug use has ruined a lot of years of my life: ___ Yes ___ No

147. Alcohol and/or drugs have made a mess out of my life: ___ Yes ___ No

148. I have become homeless due to my drinking or drug use: ___ Yes ___ No

149. I have had thoughts of suicide while drinking or using drugs: ___ Yes ___ No

150. I will fall back to drinking or drug use if I don’t have a good recovery plan: ___ Yes ___ No

The Comprehensive Drug and Alcohol Abuse Screening Test (CDAAST) was developed in 2012. The CDAAST is one of the most comprehensive screening tools for drug and/or alcohol abuse. This is a 150-item self-report scale that consists of items that parallel instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST). The (CDAAST) has “exhibited valid psychometric properties” and has been found to be “a sensitive screening instrument for the abuse of drugs and/or alcohol. Scoring and interpretation: A score of “1” is given for each YES response, except for items 4, 6, 11, 12, 17, 19, 33, 44, 52, 100, 110, ” Cutoff scores of 6 are optimal for screening for substance use disorders. Using a cutoff score of 6 provides excellent sensitivity for identifying patients with substance use disorders as well as satisfactory specificity (i.e.,
identification of patients who do not have substance use disorders). A score over 12 is definitely a substance abuse problem. Publisher: Charles V. Smith LMHC, LMFT, CAP, NCC Copyright January, 2012

Charles Vaughan Smith is a counselor in private practice in Clearwater, Florida

http://www.cvcounseling.com

The Comprehensive Drug and Alcohol Abuse Screening Test is a tool that can be used in treatment of alcohol and drug abuse disorders. This is not only a screening instrument but it is also a very good educational resource. Those who suffer from alcohol and drug addiction are often in the denial or pre-contemplation stage of their addiction before getting help. This instrument can help the person see more clearly the seriousness of their addiction.

Motivational Interviewing which was developed by William Miller Ph.D and Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D. is one of the most successful counseling techniques used to treat addictive disorders. The approach attempts to increase the client’s awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the addictive behavior. The CDAAST can also be used as a tool to bring the person who has a substance abuse problem up on their awareness. The first step in drug and alcohol treatment is for the person to realize and admit that they have a substance abuse problem. Charles Vaughan Smith has been working in the substance abuse treatment field for over 20 years and has a private practice in Clearwater, Florida http://www.cvcounseling.com