Top doctor who once promoted COVID vaccines on TV, now says they should be halted

September 27, 2022

Top doctor who once promoted COVID vaccines on TV, now says they should be halted

A highly respected cardiologist and expert in evidence-based medicine was prompted to take a critical look at the vaccine data after the unexpected death of his father 6 months after vaccination. He spent 6 months carefully studying the data and consulting with other top scientists. He’s now calling for a halt to the vaccines based on the data.

Check out this story in the Epoch Times about Dr. Aseem Malhotra and the 547 comments:

Here’s the short story:

Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a well known, highly respected British cardiologist and evidence-based medicine expert. He promoted the COVID vaccines on British TV, even appearing on “Good Morning Britain” to advise Indian film director Gurinder Chadha to get the shot.
He started doing research on the vaccine after the suspicious death of his father who died after getting the vaccine, and found the connection. Two of his father’s major arteries were severely blocked, even though Malhotra described his father as a fit person who did not have any significant heart problems.
His father died 6 months after getting dose 2 of the Pfizer vaccine. This is totally consistent with the 5 month average delay time for massive clots appearing after getting the COVID vaccines. This is what the embalmers found as well: the large clots only started appearing in mid-2021.
Aseem spent 6 months looking at data critically including talking with other top scientists. He “slowly and reluctantly” came to the conclusion he was wrong about the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines. His journey was documented in his first paper. He mentions he teaches evidence-based medicine and follows all the principles.
In January, 2022, he started writing up what he found.
On Sept 26, 2022 the two papers he wrote, calling for a halt to the COVID vaccines, were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
He told the Epoch Times, “There is more than enough evidence—I would say the evidence is overwhelming—to pause the rollout of the vaccine.”
Nobody has attacked any of the facts he used as a basis for the conclusion in his paper.
He has no conflicts of interest that would cause him to “switch sides”
They can’t attack him on his motivation or his facts. The paper was peer-reviewed for 3 months.
At the press conference to announce his papers and change of heart, only GB News attended. This was the same news organization that was the only major news organization to cover the Israeli safety data coverup.

A doctor who promoted COVID-19 vaccines is now calling for health authorities around the world to pause administration of two of the most-widely utilized COVID-19 vaccines, asserting that the benefits from the vaccines may not outweigh the risks.
“There is more than enough evidence—I would say the evidence is overwhelming—to pause the rollout of the vaccine,” Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist and evidence-based medicine expert, told The Epoch Times.
A paper from Malhotra was published on Sept. 26 detailing the evidence.

Dr. Malhotra notified me of the press release and paper on Saturday, but I’ve been a bit backed up.

Here are links to the two papers he wrote that are now published in a peer-reviewed medical journal:

Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine (Part 1 and Part 2).

These papers, both published on Sept 26, 2022, talk about how we got it wrong, why we got it wrong, and solutions.

The papers start by stating vaccines are safe (which I would disagree with) and that Dr. Malhotra was one of the first people to get vaccinated with Pfizer when the vaccines became available. He writes, “the main reason I took the jab was to prevent transmission of the virus to my vulnerable patients.”

So he was totally blue pilled when he got injected.

The papers conclude:

There is a strong scientific, ethical and moral case to be made that the current COVID vaccine administration must stop until all the raw data has been subjected to fully independent scrutiny. Looking to the future the medical and public health professions must recognise these failings and eschew the tainted dollar of the medical-industrial complex. It will take a lot of time and effort to rebuild trust in these institutions, but the health – of both humanity and the medical profession – depends on it.

and

It cannot be said that the consent to receive these agents was fully informed, as is required ethically and legally. A pause and reappraisal of global vaccination policies for COVID-19 is long overdue.

Only GB News attended. It was ignored by all the world’s mainstream press. Read this excellent writeup by Dr. Tess Lawrie who was very disappointed that there was no coverage of this important paper by a former vaccine advocate:

Here are a few things you might find interesting:

I asked how many journals refused to publish his papers. The surprising answer is zero. He simply submitted the papers to one of the very few medical journals with no ties to big pharma and no advertising and would take a paper of 10,000 words.
It was split into two articles because the journal has a size limit for a single article.
He started working on the paper 9 months ago.
After a 3 month double blind peer-review, the papers were accepted.

“Leading scientists say the new paper is important.” (from the Epoch Times article).
His peers mostly reacted with support, some privately. He wrote to me, “No overt criticism.”
After the new paper was published, critics noted that Malhotra is a board member of the Journal of Insulin Resistance. This makes sense. If you can’t argue the fact, attack the person. He is a member of the board, but there are strict rules about how such papers are handled by journals.
Dr. Campbell Murdoch, who advises the Royal College of General Practitioners, said that the study “describes multiple systemic failures in the provision of safe and effective evidence-based medicine,” and that the situation has made it “impossible for patients and the public to make an informed choice about what is best for their health and life.”
Some others criticized the paper, including Dr. Victoria Male, an immunologist at Imperial College London. Male wrote on Twitter that Table 2 in part 1 which outlines the number of people in each age group estimated to need a vaccination to prevent a COVID-19 death “is quite in favour of vaccination.” But the problem is that estimate is based on the UK government data which miscategorized deaths. The actual Pfizer Phase 3 trial, where the vaccine was a closer match to the variant circulating, was that the drug may have saved 1 life per 22,000 people vaccinated. And the paper itself warns that the estimates in Table 2 are likely to be inaccurate.
The British Society of Immunology said in response to the paper: “The safety and effectiveness assessments of all medicines and vaccines should be based on robust analysis of the evidence. This is the gold standard of healthcare research and is the high-quality analysis the public deserves to allow them to make evidence-based decisions about their health. Unfortunately, this paper does not thoroughly analyse all the available evidence and contains many narrative reflections. While individual case studies can be emotive, to understand the full picture, we must undertake robust evaluation examining the response from large numbers of people to be accurately able to assess the benefits and risks of any medical intervention. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been available for almost two years and many millions of doses have been given to people in the UK and around the world. Both in the initial clinical trials and throughout this rollout period, many researchers and health agencies have been carefully analysing the ongoing effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.” Oh really? Let’s take the Israeli government for example. They didn’t monitor for safety for a year and after they did, they hid the safety results. See the Israeli safety data coverup which the British Society of Immunology conveniently ignores despite calling for looking at all the available evidence. How do they explain those results? Or take our own CDC who can’t get their story straight as to whether they were analyzing the VAERS data or not. They’ve switched their stories so many times I can’t keep track of it. Pfizer’s own Phase 3 trial showed more people died in the vaccine group than the placebo group. Should we ignore that? Where are the post market studies comparing all-cause mortality and morbidity? Wayne Root did his own personal study of this since nobody else did and what he found was inexplicable if the vaccines are safe. Shouldn’t we include that anecdotal evidence? How can anyone explain that? I did my own with statistics from 600 people and they matched what Wayne found: the vaccines are unsafe. Or how about the polls I did? Or the huge diversity of evidence summarized in this article? Should we ignore all of that evidence which is all counter-narrative? Should we ignore the fact that nobody in the medical community was curious enough to want to see the Israeli safety data? Dr. Paul Offit didn’t want to see it. CDC outside committee chair Grace Lee didn’t want to see it. But Professor Martin Kulldorff wanted to see it and he’s not even on the CDC and FDA committees anymore. The British Society needs to explain why scientists do not want to see any data that goes against their belief system. Is that how science works nowadays? Are they proud of that?

Nobody else will cover this except GB News.

Mark Steyn interview (16 minutes; August 16, 2022). Aseem relates that the authorities were shocked to learn what he had found (which they should have known).

Dan Wootton interview (9 minutes; Sept 26, 2022). The best part was at the end where Pfizer refused to comment, and the MHRA said in response the narrative that “vaccines are the best way to protect people from COVID-19.” They refused to address anything in the papers.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a hero. When he learned he was wrong, he did the right thing: publicly admitted his mistake and called for the halt to the vaccines.

He was publicly advocating for the vaccines and he himself is double jabbed with the COVID vaccines. When a personal event made him question what he had been told, he spent 6 months looking at the data and publicly admitted he was wrong. He did this at considerable risk to his reputation.

He’s the type of doctor that the authorities and the medical community should be listening to. Instead they are trying to silence and discredit him and his work. They should be ashamed of their actions. History will not be kind to them.

The truth will eventually come out. Those who stonewall the inevitable will suffer the consequences.

September 27, 2022

Ditch Google and Gmail Before It’s Too Late

Many understand that Google is filtering and massively censoring information through its search engine, but it also has the power to censor in other areas, including your personal email if you’re using Gmail
The technocratic cabal is pushing the world toward global tyranny, and Google is one of the primary supporters, aiders and abettors, of this scheme
Google catches every single move you make online if you’re using a Google-based product. All Google products are interconnected, and the data from all their different products and services are collected to build your personality profile, which is both used to manipulate you, and sold to third parties to be used in whatever way they like
Google poses several unique threats to society. It’s a surveillance agency with military connections and covert surveillance powers, it’s a censoring agency with the ability to restrict or block access to websites across the internet, and it has the power to manipulate public opinion
Without Google, the technocrats’ dream of a One World Government would likely never happen, as it relies on social engineering and artificial intelligence. Google is a frontrunner and expert in both, and has the ability to control entire populations

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The fact that half of all people in the U.S. and around the world are still using Gmail as their primary email service is a testament to the fact that many still do not understand just how dangerous Google actually is, not just to their immediate privacy but also to their future freedom.

Many understand that Google is filtering and massively censoring information through its search engine. As you may recall, in June 2019, Google buried Mercola.com in its search engine update (see video above). They changed the algorithm such that whenever you entered a health-related search word into Google, our articles were filtered out.

But Google also has the power to censor in other areas, including your personal email if you’re using Gmail. As previously reported by Gawker,1 “Every word of every email sent through Gmail and every click made on a Chrome browser is permanently recorded by the company.”

Google’s interference in your life is only going to increase, and if you’re still using Gmail, why? You’re exchanging convenience and cost for your privacy and you are getting the short end of the stick. Just imagine how your emails might be used to rank you in a Google-run social credit system, for example. Few of us are “pure as snow,” but that isn’t even the issue. The issue is that ANY view or opinion can and will be used against you. The last three years have certainly taught us that.

Equally concerning is the fact that Google can censor your email, and we have evidence that this is happening. While about 50% of our subscribers are using Gmail accounts, the delivery rate for Gmail accounts is HALF of all the email providers like ProtonMail — far lower than any other email service.

So, if you are using Gmail to receive our newsletter please change immediately. If you’re using Gmail, understand that they’re censoring your inbox, and you might not even realize it. I am certain that at some point in the not too distant future they will censor delivering ANY of our emails to Gmail accounts. It is just another clever censoring strategy they have.

Why would you want to use a service that censors information that you specifically opted into and want to receive? Aside from this newsletter, what else are they preventing you from receiving? If you’re a subscriber, I strongly urge you to re-sign up with another email account — and cancel your Gmail altogether.

ProtonMail is an excellent alternative. It provides end-to-end encryption to protect your content and other user data. Proton also provides an encrypted calendar, encrypted cloud storage and free VPN.

The technocratic cabal is pushing the world toward global tyranny, and Google is one of the primary supporters, aiders and abettors, of this scheme. Indeed, without Google, the dream of a One World Government would likely never happen, as it relies on social engineering and artificial intelligence. Google is a frontrunner and expert in both, and controls entire populations in ways we don’t even fully understand.

Over time, Google has positioned itself in such a way that it’s become deeply embedded in your day-to-day life. Every minute of every day, it’s collecting data on everything you do, everywhere you go, everything you share, question and believe.

Google catches every single move you make online if you’re using a Google-based product, be it their search engine, Google Docs, Google Wallet, Gmail, Chrome browser, Google Photos, Android Auto, Android TV, Gboard, Google Alerts, Connected Home, Chromebook, YouTube — the list goes on.2

All Google products are interconnected, and the data from all their different products and services are collected to build your personality profile. That profile is then sold to third parties. It’s also used by Google to influence your thoughts, beliefs and behaviors using AI analytics.

Google is actually the world’s leading AI company, having purchased Deep Mind for $500 million in 2014.3 The Deep Mind AI defeated the human Go champion in 2019,4 a game far more complex than chess. With this level of AI, it is not hard for them to sort through all your data with their deep learning algorithms and find patterns to exploit.

The 2013 article, “What Surveillance Valley Knows About You,”5 is an eye-opening read that describes just how grossly invasive this data collection and distribution is, and how dangerous it can be if you end up on certain lists sold to third parties. Make no mistake, capturing user data is Google’s primary business.6 YOU are the real product being sold.

Google poses several unique threats to society, including but not limited to the following:

Google is a surveillance agency with military connections7 and covert surveillance powers — All Google products are surveillance platforms, and from Google’s perspective, the value of these platforms is their ability to glean very precise data about you as an individual, such as your habits, thoughts, beliefs, likes and dislikes, health problems, and much more.
One covert surveillance function is Google Analytics, which websites can use for free. You, however, pay for it with your personal data, which is what Google sells to third parties. Collectively, sites that use Google Analytics — and most are — steal an enormous amount of your private information, as it tracks everything you do on a website equipped with it.
You have no way of knowing whether a website uses Google Analytics, though, so the surveillance occurs “in the dark,” as it were.
Google is a censoring agency with the ability to restrict or block access to websites across the internet — The most crushing problem with this kind of internet censorship is that you don’t know what you don’t know.
If a certain type of information is removed from search, and you don’t know it should exist somewhere, you’ll never go looking for it. And, when searching for information online, how would you know that certain websites or pages have been removed from the search results in the first place? The answer is, you don’t.
Google has also taken it upon itself to be an arbiter of “fake news,” censoring information according to its own criteria of what is true or false. Needless to say, this also makes it really easy for Google to censor information that isn’t in its own best interest.8
As just one example, in 2017, Julian Assange revealed how YouTube was censoring former congressman Ron Paul — for promoting peace!9 As noted by Activist Post:10
“What we are witnessing … is a move to silence the peaceful opposition … [T]his crackdown is also coinciding with a massive push by the mainstream media to stoke divide among the people … to create an atmosphere so divided that people never look up at who’s controlling them.”
Google has the power to manipulate public opinion — Simply by tweaking the search rankings, Google can manipulate people’s opinions on a given topic.
According to Robert Epstein, Ph.D., who has spent years exposing Google’s manipulative and deceptive practices as a senior research psychologist for the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, Google has the ability to shift voting preferences among undecided voters by as much as 63%, and the power to determine 25% of global elections — all without leaving a trace.
This power to manipulate public opinion and an individual’s behavior is what makes it such an effective social engineering tool.

All of these powers combined — the ability to surveil and track every conceivable metric, censor and block access to information, and the ability to manipulate opinions — also makes Google an invaluable resource for the planned social credit system.

As reported by Fast Company,11 China’s social credit system is not unique. “A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies,” Fast Company writes.

For example, life insurance companies are already using content shared on social media to determine your premium. PatronScan is another example. These devices are used by restaurants to identify fake IDs and undesirable customers, people who have previously been kicked out of an establishment for one reason or another.

The list is shared among PatronScan customers, so getting banned in one bar or restaurant effectively bans you from all bars and restaurants in the U.S., Canada and U.K. for up to one year. Additional examples of the creeping social credit system can be found in the original Fast Company article.12

Another reason to assume that Google’s continued success is crucial in the technocrats’ quest to control the world population and impose global totalitarianism is the fact that it has already infiltrated most areas of daily life. For example, Google is involved in the following areas, and this is far from a complete list. Needless to say, personal data is also harvested from each and every one of these areas.

Childhood education — Many schools no longer use print books. Instead, all classwork is done on tablets or computers equipped with Google-based software such as Google Classroom, Google Docs and Gmail.13 Google Chromebooks (Google-powered laptops) became even more prevalent during the COVID lockdowns. Basically, no child could continue their education without one.
As reported by Wired,14 high school students are now being spied upon by GoGuardian, yet another Google surveillance tool that allows teachers to see each student’s screen and use AI to scan student emails and other documents. An alert is sent out to teachers and police if signs of violence or mental health problems are detected.
Once the children are out of school, they’re then encouraged to convert their school accounts to personal accounts, a move that allows Google to build incredibly powerful personality and marketing profiles of each individual from a very early age.
Health care — Google Health is involved in medical research and the expansion of AI in medicine,15 while its Google Cloud Healthcare Data Engine allows “health care and life sciences leaders to make decisions from disjointed health care data.”16 Google also owns Fitbit, which gives it access to all of your physical fitness data. They’re also working on portable medical diagnostics.17
Drug promotion — For example, in 2017, Google partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and launched a depression self-assessment quiz — a test that funneled all respondents toward a drug solution.18 19
Since then, Google and other tech companies have only gotten deeper and wider access to people’s personal medical information, and Google sells this data to third parties, which can result in higher insurance premiums or denial of employment.
Genomics — Google is also a leader in the collecting of genetic data (which they’re adding to their user profiles) and the development of genetic technologies. As reported on the Google Blog:20
“At Google Health, we’re applying our technology and expertise to the field of genomics. Here are recent research and industry developments we’ve made to help quickly identify genetic disease and foster the equity of genomic tests across ancestries. This includes an exciting new partnership with Pacific Biosciences to further advance genomic technologies in research and the clinic.”
On that list of developments are: “Helping identify life-threatening disease,” “applying machine learning to maximize the potential in sequencing data,” and “supporting more equitable genomics resources and methods.”
The food industry — Google is also deeply embedded in the food industry with data management and AI services, and is ubiquitous in the restaurant space.21
Home security — Google recently bought part of ADT and is partnering with the home security giant for a variety of services.22 So, your ADT service will no longer be about home security, but rather more home surveillance.
Artificial intelligence — According to Google’s dedicated AI site,23 “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and … [solve] problems for our users, our customers and the world … AI … [is] providing us with new ways of looking at old problems and helping transform how we work and live, and we think the biggest impact will come when everyone can access it.”
Ultimately, the goal is to create self-learning AIs capable of imitating human thought processes. There are even proposals suggesting AI-enabled analytics systems could be used for “predictive policing” as illustrated in the 2002 movie “Minority Report,” where suspected perpetrators are arrested before a crime is actually committed.
A January 2020 article24 in The Intercept cited a 2018 document25 by the data storage firm Western Digital and the consulting company Accenture, “Value of Data: Seeing What Matters — A New Paradigm for Public Safety Powered by Responsible AI,” which predicts smart surveillance networks may be deployed “across three tiers of maturity.”
The first tier is where we’re at now, where law enforcement uses CCTV networks to investigate crimes after they’ve already occurred.
At the second-tier level, predicted to be in place by 2025, municipalities will be transformed into fully connected smart cities where the cameras of businesses and public institutions are all plugged into a government-run AI-enabled analytics system. The third tier, predicted by 2035, will have predictive capabilities. As reported by The Intercept:26
“A ‘public safety ecosystem’ will centralize data ‘pulled from disparate databases such as social media, driver’s licenses, police databases, and dark data.’ An AI-enabled analytics unit will let police assess ‘anomalies in real time and interrupt a crime before it is committed.’ That is to say, to catch pre-crime.”
Mind you, Google claimed to have the ability to read your thoughts an entire decade ago. In 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt boasted, “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”27
Fast-forward 10 years, and Google’s mind-reading capabilities have exponentially grown and been perfected to the point that their AI can predict the exact moment when a teenager is feeling insecure, lonely or vulnerable, so an advertisement for an image-boosting product can be placed in front of them on the screen in that moment.
This and many other terrifying capabilities are detailed in the book, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” written by social psychologist and Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff.

Unfortunately, many still fail to see the problem Google presents. Its services are useful and practical, making life easier in many ways and more fun in others. That’s the bait, and many have swallowed it hook, line and sinker, not giving any thought to the ultimate price paid for such conveniences, or simply underestimating the threat that all of this personal data collection poses.

If you fall into this category, I ask you to give this issue some serious thought, because monopolies threaten our very way of life, and in more ways than one. As explained by business journalist and former director of Open Markets, Barry Lynn:28

“[M]onopolies are a threat to our democracy and to our basic liberties and to our communities. Monopolization, this concentration of wealth and power, is a threat to everything that is America …
America today has a monopoly problem. We’re seeing basically a second wave of consolidation and monopolization because of the digital revolution … The first issue is consumer protection and potential consumer harm. We created antitrust laws originally to protect our liberties, often as producers of stuff … My liberty to bring my wheat, my ideas, the product of my labor to market. That’s liberty.
The second purpose was to protect our democracy against huge concentrations of wealth and power. To protect our democratic institutions. And the third purpose [was] to protect your community. If I’m living out in Peoria, do I want the city of Peoria to be run by a couple corporations based on Wall Street, or do I want it to be run by the citizens of Peoria?”

Alphabet, the rebranded parent company that houses Google and its various divisions, has turned into an octopus-like super entity with tentacles reaching into government, food production, health care, education, military applications and the creation of AIs that may run more or less independently.

A key component of many of these enterprises is data — your personal usage data; the tracking of every webpage you’ve ever visited and every single thought you’ve ever written on a Google-enabled device, along with geo tracking tracing your every move.

“Today, being a conscious consumer includes making wise, informed decisions about technology. Google is by far the greatest personal data leak in your life, so boycotting all things Google can go a long way toward safeguarding your privacy and thwarting the technocrats’ wicked plans for our digital imprisonment. It’s time to realize that privacy equals freedom. In today’s technology-driven landscape, you cannot be free unless you have privacy.”

Ultimately, what can be done with that kind of information, besides personalized advertising? How might it be used in combination with military AI-equipped robots? How might it be used to influence your health care decisions? How might it be used to influence your lifestyle decisions? How might (or is) it used to shape politics and society at large?

Today, being a conscious consumer includes making wise, informed decisions about technology. Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time pondering the ramifications of Google’s ever-growing monopoly over our day-to-day lives is likely to shudder at the possibilities and agree that we cannot allow this to continue. Google is by far the greatest personal data leak in your life, so boycotting all things Google can go a long way toward safeguarding your privacy.

Additionally, remember, the technocratic elite NEED your data in order to create a digital open-air prison. AI can’t operate without it, and without AI, the social engineering attempt falls apart. Google is the primary data harvester out there, so, the easiest way to thwart their wicked plans is to STOP feeding them data.

Truly, it’s time to realize that privacy equals freedom. In today’s technology-driven landscape, you cannot be free unless you have privacy. The two go hand in hand. So, don’t delay. Start taking back your privacy and your freedom today by ditching any and all Google products, starting with Gmail.

Several of the most commonly-used Google traps are listed in the graphic below. In addition to those suggestions, here are a few more:

If you’re a high school student, do not convert the Google accounts you created as a student into personal accounts.
Switch to a secure document sharing service — Ditch Google Docs and use another alternative such as Zoho Office, Etherpad, CryptPad, OnlyOffice or Nuclino, all of which are recommended by NordVPN.29 Digital Trends has also published a number of alternatives.30
Delete all Google apps from your phone and purge Google hardware.
Avoid websites that use Google Analytics — To do that, you’ll need to check the website’s privacy policy and search for “Google.” Websites are required to disclose if they use a third-party surveillance tool. If they use Google Analytics, ask them to switch!
Don’t use Google Home devices in your house or apartment — These devices record everything that occurs in your home, both speech and sounds such as brushing your teeth and boiling water, even when they appear to be inactive, and send that information back to Google. The same goes for Google’s home thermostat Nest and Amazon’s Alexa.
Don’t use an Android cellphone, as it’s owned by Google.
Ditch Siri, which draws all its answers from Google.
Don’t use Fitbit, as it was recently purchased by Google and will provide them with all your physiological information and activity levels, in addition to everything else that Google already has on you.
Stop using Gmail — Use a privacy based encryption service like Proton Mail.
Stop using the Chrome browser and Google Search, Brave is the overwhelming browser of choice and while you are there you can use the new Brave search engine.

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September 27, 2022

Equal and Splenda Increase Risk for Stroke and Heart Attack

equal splenda risk for stroke heart attack

A nine-year study involving 103,388 people linked the artificial sweeteners aspartame (Equal), acesulfame potassium and sucralose (Splenda) to cardiovascular disease and stroke
Total artificial sweetener intake was associated with increased risk of overall cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease
Aspartame was associated with an increased risk of stroke while acesulfame potassium and sucralose were associated with increased coronary heart disease risk
Those in the highest-consuming group were 9% more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and 18% more likely to suffer from cerebrovascular disease
The study found that just 78 milligrams a day of artificial sweeteners — about the amount found in half a can of diet soda — posed a health risk

If you consume artificial sweeteners like aspartame (Equal), acesulfame potassium and sucralose (Splenda) you’re taking a gamble with your health. These no-calorie sweeteners have flooded the market, luring in diet- and health-conscious consumers who mistakenly believe that swapping sugar for artificial sweeteners makes sense.

In one of the latest red flags to date — a nine-year study involving 103,388 people — researchers have once again linked the products to health problems, this time cardiovascular disease and stroke.1 To protect your health, it’s essential to cut these additives from your diet; doing so is easy when you address the underlying emotional connection that may be driving you to consume these widely available products.

Researchers from France studied the detailed dietary records of adults with an average age of 42.2 Specifically, three non-consecutive days (two weekdays and one weekend day) of 24-hour dietary records were assigned at the study’s start and again every six months thereafter. Participants detailed all foods and beverages they consumed during that time, including quantities, brand names and even photographs to validate the recordings.3

The dietary records were further validated using blood and urinary biomarkers. Then, the researchers looked for any associations with cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, which refers to disorders that affect blood flow in the brain, such as stroke, aneurysms and vascular malformations.

Total artificial sweetener intake was associated with increased risk of overall cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cerebrovascular disease, the study found. Among the specific artificial sweeteners, aspartame was associated with an increased risk of stroke (defined in the study as cerebrovascular events), while acesulfame potassium and sucralose were associated with increased coronary heart disease risk.4

“Our results suggest no benefit from substituting artificial sweeteners for added sugar on CVD outcomes,” the study found.5 “The findings from this large scale prospective cohort study suggest a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption (especially aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose) and increased cardiovascular disease risk.”6

The study found that just 78 milligrams (mg) a day of artificial sweeteners — about the amount found in half a can of diet soda — posed a health risk, with those consuming that amount being one-tenth more likely to have a heart attack and one-fifth more likely to have a stroke.7

To put this into perspective, of the 37% of study participants who consumed artificial sweeteners, the average daily intake was 42.5 mg, which is approximately the amount found in one packet of artificial sweetener or 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters (ml)) of a diet beverage.8 Those who consumed the most artificial sweeteners in the study consumed 77.6 mg a day, which is the amount found in about 6 ounces (180 ml) of diet soda.9

Those in the highest-consuming group were 9% more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and 18% more likely to suffer from cerebrovascular disease. Among the artificial sweeteners, aspartame was associated with the greatest stroke risk.10 The study concluded “artificial sweeteners might represent a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease prevention,” adding:11

“The findings indicate that these food additives, consumed daily by millions of people and present in thousands of foods and beverages, should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar, in line with the current position of several health agencies.”

This isn’t the first time artificial sweeteners have been linked to cardiovascular risks. According to the researchers:12

“[M]ultiple cohorts found associations between artificially sweetened beverages and CVD. Higher artificially sweetened beverage consumption was associated with increased risks of stroke and cardiovascular events in the Women’s Health Initiative, which is consistent with prospective investigations from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professional Follow-up Study (HPFS), the Framingham Offspring cohort, and the Northern Manhattan Study.
Similarly, meta-analyses reported increased risks of stroke, vascular events, coronary heart diseases, CVDs, and CVD mortality.”

The Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study was a longitudinal study of the health of nearly 93,680 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79. One study using its data included more than 81,700 women and had a mean follow-up time of close to 12 years.

The study, which was published in the American Heart Association’s Stroke journal, found that, compared to drinking none or just one diet drink per week, drinking two or more artificially sweetened beverages per day raises the risk of stroke, heart attack and early death in women over 50 by 23%, 29% and 16% respectively.13

The risk was particularly high for women with no previous history of heart disease, those who are obese and/or African American women. According to the authors:14

“Most participants (64.1 percent) were infrequent consumers (never or <1/week) of [artificially sweetened beverages] ASB, with only 5.1 percent consuming ≥2 ASBs/day. In multivariate analyses, those consuming the highest level of ASB compared to never or rarely ... had significantly greater likelihood of all end points (except hemorrhagic stroke), after controlling for multiple covariates.
Adjusted models indicated that hazard ratios … were 1.23 for all stroke; 1.31 for ischemic stroke; 1.29 for coronary heart disease; and 1.16 for all-cause mortality. In women with no prior history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus, high consumption of ASB was associated with more than a twofold increased risk of small artery occlusion ischemic stroke …
High consumption of ASBs was associated with significantly increased risk of ischemic stroke in women with body mass index ≥30 …”

The artificial sweetener market is worth $7.2 billion globally, and this is projected to grow 5% annually, reaching $9.7 billion by 2028.15 These toxic substances can be found in more than 23,000 products worldwide, including many ultraprocessed foods, snacks, on-the-go meals and dairy products. Artificial sweeteners are also widely used as table top sweeteners.

Even as increasing health risks are uncovered, the use of artificial sweeteners continues to grow. From 2002 to 2018, while purchases of products containing caloric sweeteners, such as sugar, declined, those containing artificial sweeteners — either alone or in combination with sugar — rose.16

Artificially sweetened beverages were the products most purchased, and households with children were more likely to buy artificially sweetened food and beverage products than households without children. “While this aligns with public health objectives related to decreasing sugar intake, it also raises concerns about exposure to NNS [non-nutritive sweeteners],” according to the Gillings School of Global Public Health.17

A 2017 survey found that 25% of U.S. children and 41.4% of U.S. adults consumed foods and beverages containing artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and saccharin.18 Considering the myriad of health problems linked to artificial sweeteners, researchers are calling for increased monitoring and transparency in disclosing how much of the compounds is in common foods and beverages.

“There is a need to be able to track our exposure to specific types of sweeteners in order to properly understand their health implications,” noted Elizabeth Dunford, Ph.D., with Gillings School of Global Public Health.19

“The change to the food supply shown in our study … reinforces the need to develop and maintain data systems to monitor what companies are putting in their foods. This work complements emerging clinical evidence about the different cardiometabolic and health effects of each NNS type.”

Shu Wen Ng, Ph.D., also with Gillings School of Global Public Health, added, “Further improvements to the Nutrition Facts Panel, including the amounts of NNS when present in products, would allow for monitoring our exposure to these additives so we can better assess their potential harms or benefits to health.”20

A number of studies have found links between artificial sweeteners and health problems including:21

Weight gain
High blood pressure
Inflammation
Vascular dysfunction
Disturbances to gut microbiota

A population-based cohort of 521,330 people from 10 European countries found a higher all-cause mortality in those who drank two or more glasses each day of soft drinks, whether they were sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened. There was also an association between artificially sweetened soft drinks and death from circulatory disease.22

In an example of how consuming artificial sweeteners may affect your daily life, researchers asked healthy adults to consume a high-aspartame diet for eight days followed by a low-aspartame diet for eight days, with a two-week washout between.

During the high-aspartame period individuals suffered from depression, poor mood and headache. They also performed worse on spatial orientation tests, indicating aspartame had a significant effect on neurobehavioral health.23 Researchers have also reported that aspartame may trigger insomnia and seizures linked to changes in concentrations of catecholamine in the brain.24

A number of studies have also shown artificial sweeteners raise your risk of both obesity and Type 2 diabetes — perhaps even to a greater degree than sugar does. One example is an animal study presented at the 2018 Experimental Biology conference in San Diego.25 26 After being fed a diet high in either artificial sweeteners (aspartame or acesulfame potassium) or sugars (glucose or fructose) for three weeks, detrimental effects were seen in all groups.

All had increased blood lipids (fats), but the artificial sweeteners also accumulated in the blood of the animals, which harmed the blood vessel lining to a greater degree. The results indicate that artificial sweeteners alter how your body processes fat and produces energy at the cellular level.

Further, artificial sweeteners may lead to shifts in gut microbiota similar to those caused by antibiotics.27 In 2021, for the first time, researchers revealed that artificial sweeteners may even promote antibiotic resistance via conjugative gene transfer and gave insights into how artificial affects your body at a cellular level, even influencing the expression of genes.28

Equally disturbing, in research presented at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting held April 2 to 5, 2022, in Philadelphia, it was revealed that artificial sweeteners — specifically acesulfame potassium and sucralose — may interfere with your liver’s delicate detoxification process.29

Once you know where to look for them, removing artificial sweeteners from your diet is simple. Be aware that they’re hidden in many products beyond beverages, including dairy products, ketchup, salad dressing, baked goods and medications.

If you’re looking for a healthier sugar substitute, Stevia and Lo Han Kuo (also spelled Luo Han Guo) are two options. Stevia, a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, is safe in its natural form and can be used to sweeten most dishes and drinks.

Lo Han Kuo is similar to Stevia but is my personal favorite. I use the Lakanto brand vanilla flavor as a treat. Lo Han fruit has been used as a sweetener for centuries, and it’s about 200 times sweeter than sugar. A third alternative is to use pure glucose, also known as dextrose. Dextrose is only 70% as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than regular sugar.

For a simple trick to satisfy your sweet craving without reaching for an artificial sweetener — eat something sour. Sour taste, such as that from fermented vegetables or water spruced up with lemon or lime juice, helps to reduce cravings for sweets.

Oftentimes, however, people are drawn to eat sweets (or artificially sweetened foods) because of an underlying emotional challenge. If this applies to you, I highly recommend using a psychological acupressure technique called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT, as demonstrated in the video above, is simple and effective, and can rapidly help you control your emotional food cravings, kicking artificial sweeteners to the curb.

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If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

September 27, 2022

This Kind of Food Shrinks Your Brain

People today are consuming about 650 kilocalories more daily than they were in the 1970s, an amount equivalent to a fast-food meal consisting of a burger, fries and soft drink
Poor diet and lack of activity may lead to “normal” but elevated blood glucose levels, even in people without Type 2 diabetes, contributing to neurodegenerative processes
“High normal” blood sugar levels may progress to impaired fasting glucose and, eventually, Type 2 diabetes; impaired glucose metabolism is then associated with neurodegeneration that impairs cognitive function
The authors of the featured study suggested that you may begin to lose neurons and neuron function early in life if you eat poorly, and such changes may be difficult, if not impossible, to counteract once the damage is done; the sooner you start focusing your diet on whole, unprocessed foods, the better

Eating fast food — the epitome of highly processed “fake” foods — can have lasting ramifications on your brain health, so much so that researchers at Australian National University suggested you can cause “irreversible” damage by the time you reach middle age, just by eating a fast-food diet and not staying active.

If you are middle-aged and haven’t been eating the best, don’t panic — you can start making healthier changes starting today. However, the new study is eye-opening, once again hitting home the importance of healthy eating when it comes to keeping your mind strong as you age.

In a review by the scientists in the featured study, they stated that people today are consuming about 650 Kilocalories more daily than they were in the 1970s — an amount equivalent to a fast-food meal consisting of a burger, fries and soft drink. (A Kilocalorie, or Kcal, is equal to 1 Calorie, with a capital “C,” while 1,000 calories with a lowercase “c” equal 1 Kilocalorie.) This amount is about one-quarter of the recommended daily food energy needs for men and just under one-third for women.

“The extra amount of energy that people consume daily compared to 50 years ago means that many people have an unhealthy diet,” ANU professor Nicolas Cherbuin, lead author of the study, said in a news release, adding:

“People eating too much of the wrong kind of food, particularly fast food, is the other big worry. As a society, we need to stop asking, ‘do you want fries with that?’, and the mindset that comes with it. If we don’t, then expect to see more overweight and obese people suffering from serious diseases.”

The review5 focused on “how normal but elevated blood glucose levels in individuals without T2D [Type 2 diabetes] contribute to neurodegenerative processes, and how the main risk factors for T2D diabetes, including obesity, lack of physical activity and poor diet, modulate these effects.” Often, “high normal” blood sugar levels progress to impaired fasting glucose and, eventually, Type 2 diabetes.

Impaired glucose metabolism is then associated with neurodegeneration that impairs cognitive function. What’s more, these factors begin not in old age but much earlier, such that following a healthy lifestyle in young adulthood may be protective against cognitive decline later. According to the study:

“The notion that T2D is associated with neurodegeneration, cognitive impairment, dementia and mortality is not new. However, these associations are often thought to be mostly relevant in old age despite the availability of substantial evidence indicating that the pathological processes at play are initiated in mid-adulthood or before.
… It is of particular concern that the pathological cascade leading to higher FBG and ultimately T2D typically begins decades before and starts impacting cerebral health and cognition from its onset.”

Dr. Suzanne De La Monte of Brown University has also conducted research showing that systemic insulin resistance diseases linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes promote neurodegeneration. She wrote in the journal Panminerva Medica:

“Insulin resistance diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and metabolic syndrome are prevalent in modern high tech societies, and they are costly because they consume large percentages of healthcare budgets, lead to disability, and cause premature death.
The unrelenting appetite for highly processed, high starch, high fat, and high caloric content foods is literally eroding health status across all age groups in the United States. Thanks to the robust domestic and international research efforts over the past decade, it is now clear that insulin resistance can afflict any organ and tissue in the body.
The consequences include deficits in energy metabolism, increased inflammation and oxidative stress, and proneness to cellular degeneration and death. No thanks to commercial luring of the uninformed who seek the comfortable lifestyles of the West, insulin resistance diseases are quickly spreading throughout the world and beginning to bear their tolls on global health.”

Worldwide, more than 39% of the population are overweight; 13% are obese — triple what it was in 1975. but this percentage goes even higher in developed areas like Europe and the Americas, where prevalence is 50% to 60%. According to the featured study, “Diet and physical activity are the main determinants of adiposity [being overweight or obese].” Obesity, in turn, is associated with negative changes in your brain. The researchers noted:

“As a whole the body of evidence presented … strongly suggests that persistently elevated FBG [fasting blood glucose] are associated with brain shrinkage, progressive loss of function across several cognitive domains, the development of dementia, and ultimately, premature death.
It is also clear that T2D’s main risk factors contribute in a major way to these effects and that clinical T2D represents the greatest risk to cerebral health.”

Both diabetes and higher fasting glucose levels are linked with lower total brain volume. Research published in Radiology also found that obesity may lead to alterations in brain structure, shrinking certain regions. Among men, higher total body fat percentage was linked to lower brain gray matter volume. Specifically, 5.5% greater total body fat percentage was associated with 3,162 mm3 lower gray matter volume.

Gray matter is the outer layer of the brain associated with high-level brain functions such as problem-solving, language, memory, personality, planning and judgment. In a study reported by Sci News,14 among men, 5.5% greater total body fat was also associated with 27 mm3 smaller globus pallidus volume, an association also seen in women.

In women, 6.6% greater total body fat percentage was associated with 11.2 mm3 smaller globus pallidus volume. According to Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, the globus pallidus is a brain region that plays a role in supporting a range of functions, including motivation, cognition and action. Obesity has also been associated with changes in white matter microstructure, which may be related to cognitive function.

Researchers at Loughborough University in England have also revealed that carrying excess weight around your midsection may affect your brain health, even leading to a concerning decline in brain volume.

This study involved 9,652 participants with an average age of 55.4, plus or minus 7.5 years, who received scores for both body mass index (BMI), a flawed formula that divides your weight by the square of your height, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). (I believe your waist-to-hip ratio is a more reliable indicator of your future disease risk than BMI because a higher ratio suggests you have more visceral fat — a measure BMI tells you nothing about.)

As explained in Science Alert, participants with a BMI and WHR in a healthy range had an average gray matter brain volume of 798 cubic centimeters, but this dropped to 786 cubic centimeters among those with a high BMI and high WHR.

If you tend to start your day with a bowl of sugary cereal, a doughnut or a pastry, you could be further setting yourself up for a day of unhealthy eating. That’s because research suggests consuming a large amount of sugar in the morning could leave you feeling hungrier before lunch and dinner, as well as prompt you to eat more at these meals.

What’s more, people who consumed greater amounts of snacks, desserts, fast food and candy bars are more likely to struggle with food addiction. Among those who ate fast food, in particular, the odds of food addiction were highest among study participants who consumed five or more servings of hamburgers, french fries and pizza a week.

In the longer term, Health Promotion Perspectives found that frequent fast food consumption is linked to a host of problems, even beyond your brain health, including:

Overweight and abdominal fat gain
Impaired insulin and glucose homeostasis
Lipid and lipoprotein disorders
Induction of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress
Increased risk of developmental diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease

Eating fast food three or more times a week is even linked to an increased risk of severe asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema in adolescents and children.

It’s never too late to make positive changes to your diet. That being said, the sooner you start focusing your diet on whole, unprocessed foods, the better. The authors of the featured study even suggested that you may begin to lose neurons and neuron function early in life if you eat poorly, and such changes may be difficult, if not impossible, to counteract once the damage is done.

According to Cherbuin, “The damage done is pretty much irreversible once a person reaches midlife, so we urge everyone to eat healthy and get in shape as early as possible — preferably in childhood but certainly by early adulthood.” He continued:

“What has become really apparent in our investigation is that advice for people to reduce their risk of brain problems, including their risk of getting dementia, is most commonly given in their 60s or later, when the ‘timely prevention’ horse has already bolted.
Many people who have dementia and other signs of cognitive dysfunction, including shrinking brains, have increased their risk throughout life by eating too much bad food and not exercising enough. One of the best chances people have of avoiding preventable brain problems down the track is to eat well and exercise from a young age.”

Just as processed fast foods can damage your brain, nutrient-dense whole foods can protect it. Even in terms of mental health, a good-quality diet is linked with better outcomes, whereas increased consumption of processed food increases the risk of anxiety and depression. As further noted in Nature Reviews, Neuroscience:

“We now know that particular nutrients influence cognition by acting on molecular systems or cellular processes that are vital for maintaining cognitive function. This raises the exciting possibility that dietary manipulations are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities and protecting the brain from damage, promoting repair and counteracting the effects of aging.
Emerging research indicates that the effects of diet on the brain are integrated with the actions of other lifestyle modalities, such as exercise and sleep.”

While reducing your intake of processed foods and eliminating added sugars is essential, I recommend going a step further and adopting a ketogenic diet for protecting your brain health. When your body burns fat as its primary fuel, ketones are created, which not only burn very efficiently and are a superior fuel for your brain, but also generate fewer reactive oxygen species (ROS) and less free radical damage.

A type of ketone called beta-hydroxybutyrate is also an important epigenetic player, having significant effects on DNA expression, increasing detoxification pathways and your body’s own antioxidant production. Beta-hydroxybutyrate also stimulates specific receptors on cells called g-proteins.

When these receptors are tagged by this beta-hydroxybutyrate during mild ketosis, it helps reduce the activation of pathways that lead to inflammation, and inflammation is a driver in most all chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

For the best results, however, combine nutritional ketosis with intermittent fasting. The ketogenic diet provides many of the same health benefits associated with fasting and intermittent fasting, but when done together, most people will experience significant improvements in their health.

The details are provided in my book “Fat for Fuel.” In addition, individual nutrients and foods such as animal-based omega-3 fats, pastured organic egg yolks, coconut oil and blueberries are also excellent brain-boosting foods.

It’s been found that people with cognitive impairments who improved their diet and exercised three times a week were able to improve their brain function after just six months. So, no matter what you’ve been eating up until now, it’s a great time to start eating better and get active — your brain will thank you for it.

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September 27, 2022

FDA vaccine adviser warns young people against getting COVID bivalent booster

(Natural News) An adviser to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned young people against getting the latest version of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) booster doses.

Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), expressed doubts over the COVID-19 bivalent booster. The regulator reportedly approved the updated version of the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 without conducting human clinical trials.

“When you’re asking people to get a vaccine, I think there has to be clear evidence of benefit,” he said during an interview. “Because if you don’t have that, then it’s not fair to ask people to take a risk, no matter how small.”

“A healthy young person is unlikely to benefit from the extra dose,” Offit remarked, pertaining to the boosters that specifically target the B11529 omicron strain and its BA4 and BA5 sub-variants.

He reiterated his opposition to the bivalent booster in a Sept 21 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, writing that he voted against authorizing the updated vaccine during a VRBPAC meeting.

According to Offit, the more contagious omicron rendered even the fully vaccinated at risk of mild illness. In turn, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that a third and fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose reduced hospitalizations.

“But not everyone benefited. Those who did fell into three groups: the elderly, people with serious health problems and people who were immunocompromised,” he pointed out. “It would be wise to focus on those at risk rather than the young and healthy.”

“How does it compare with the old monovalent one? We don’t know for sure, because the FDA authorized the new shot without clinical trials,” Offit remarked. (Related: We FINALLY found a vaccine that Paul Offit doesn’t endorse: the “bivalent booster” for covid.)

Other doctors also hesitant about untested bivalent booster

The CDC issued a recommendation on Sept. 1 for the reformulated bivalent boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. It recommended the Pfizer booster dose for Americans aged 12 and up, while the Moderna booster was recommended for those aged 18 and older. The public health agency advised people to get the updated boosters at least two months after their last vaccination.

Offit explained in his op-ed that “the new bivalent vaccine contains mRNA from the ancestral strain and BA4 and BA5, the sub-variants that account for virtually all currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 [infections].”

Members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also expressed doubts about recommending a vaccine that did not undergo human clinical trials. ACIP member Dr. Oliver Brooks remarked during a committee meeting: “I really do struggle with a vaccine that has no clinical data that has been reported for humans.”

Dr. Melinda Wharton, associate director for vaccine policy and clinical partnerships at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, downplayed concerns by Brooks and other ACIP members. She compared the bivalent COVID-19 shots to influenza vaccines, which are updated annually without any human data.

Despite acknowledging that “there will be some bumps in the road” as officials transition to the updated shots, Wharton reiterated the importance of the new bivalent vaccines that – according to her own words – “will provide more protection.”

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky also defended the bivalent boosters, saying that they were “formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating COVID-19 variant” and can “help restore protection” against the pathogen.

Watch Stew Peters and Dr. Jane Ruby discuss the FDA’s approval of the untested bivalent COVID-19 vaccines.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

Biggest financial crime in America's history: Billions of taxpayer dollars STOLEN from COVID-19 relief programs

(Natural News) The United States federal government allocated more than $5 trillion in taxpayers’ money to Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) relief and stimulus programs. But a still undetermined amount was fraudulently siphoned off, likely amounting to the “biggest fraud that the country has seen,” according to the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

Dan Savickas, director of tech policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, noted that the taxpayer dollars the government dedicated to relief programs “came with very few safeguards to ensure they ended up in the hands of families and businesses that actually needed it.” (Related: Small Business Administration may have given away $1.3 billion in COVID-19 relief to FOREIGNERS and criminal organizations.)

“It’s estimated that every dollar of wages saved by the relief money cost American taxpayers $4.13,” continued Savickas. “This is not to mention also the inflation that came as a result of this profligate spending.”

“Too many special interests were able to take advantage of the language of these relief bills to line their pockets, leaving taxpayers on the hook,” he added.

The largest source of fraud seems to be the pandemic Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, with the Department of Labor‘s inspector general suggesting that at least $163 billion may have been improperly paid.

Around $45.6 billion of the stolen UI benefits money may have been due to fraudulent payments “to individuals with Social Security numbers: (1) filed in multiple states, (2) of deceased persons, (3) of federal prisoners and (4) used to file UI claims with suspicious email accounts,” read the inspector general’s report.

Another large source of fraud may be the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, a program intended for small businesses to apply for low-interest loans to cover the paychecks of their employees and other operating costs during the pandemic.

According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, an estimated $784 billion out of the $800 billion in taxpayer money allocated to PPP loans may have been obtained fraudulently.

Another source of fraud includes the more than $1 billion in COVID relief that was illicitly obtained by foreign applicants who signed up for relief programs using foreign IP addresses, including addresses located in Cuba, Iran, Russia and China.

True extent of COVID relief fraud likely to be unknown for years

State and federal authorities are currently investigating or charging hundreds of individuals for stealing taxpayer dollars. This includes more than 1,000 people who have already been slapped with charges for UI benefits fraud since March 2020.

State and federal authorities are currently investigating or charging dozens of individuals for stealing millions. One of the biggest cases involves 47 people, led by a Minnesota resident who allegedly stole over $250 million in taxpayer dollars that were supposed to go to programs feeding needy kids in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Florida, a man recently pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and illegal monetary transaction after he stole more than $7.2 million in PPP loan money. In Southern California, a man was recently sentenced to four years in federal prison after he stole more than $5 million in COVID-19 relief loans through three shell companies. He was also ordered to pay the government back $5.15 million in restitution.

The three cases presented above are just some of the largest instances of COVID-19 relief fraud. Only $10 billion worth of fraudulent payments has been recovered.

“It’s not an exaggeration that this is probably the biggest fraud that the country has seen,” said ATR Federal Affairs Manager Mike Palicz. “The top voter issue right now is inflation. To have that driven by spending that’s gone to record-setting fraud is infuriating.”

“No one really knows what the true number is [for fraudulent payments total, except that it is] really big, which is terrifying,” Palicz added.

Watch this clip from “The Evening Edit” on Fox Business as host Elizabeth MacDonald interviews Florida Rep. Byron Donalds about who should be blamed for the massive amount of COVID-19 relief fraud.

This is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.