Day: October 30, 2022

• A key component of the campaign to entice people into taking the experimental COVID shots has been to enlist “trusted messengers,” from social media influencers and celebrities to medical doctors and faith leaders. The U.S. government has established formal collaborations with faith-based organizations for the sole purpose of pushing the government’s narrative

• According to Walmart, many of the company’s most successful vaccination clinics have been held after Sunday services. Facebook ads in which faith leaders promoted the COVID jabs also outperformed other “trusted messengers,” including health care providers

• Evangelical pastors, theologians and seminary heads across the U.S. followed the lead of Dr. Francis Collins, a self-proclaimed Christian and the former head of the National Institutes of Health, who leveraged his relationships with church leaders to convince Christians that submitting to lockdowns and COVID jab mandates was a matter of obedience to God

• A number of faith leaders have insisted that Jesus himself would get the jab, were he here today. But not once did Jesus advise people to rely on the tools — or word — of man. Instead, he warned of a future time when even the elect will fall prey to a grand deception

• Hindsight, scientific evidence and statistical data allow us to conclude that many faith leaders led their flocks astray. The COVID shot does not protect you from infection and death, nor does it protect anyone else. It was all a lie, and excess death rates skyrocketed after the rollout of the COVID shots

The video1 above is a short teaser from “Plandemic 3,” the third documentary film about the COVID scamdemic from filmmaker Mikki Willis. It shows just how widespread the advertising of the COVID shots were.

Entertainment industries across the world were enlisted to sing and dance about the wonder of vaccines, and how the COVID shot would end lockdowns, give us back our freedom and save the world. The constant message was “Just get the shot!”

As noted in the film, 46% of all vaccine injuries in the last three decades have occurred in the past two years,2 following the rollout of these experimental gene therapies, and deaths from the COVID jabs now surpass deaths from COVID-19 itself.

That’s the end result of this mass indoctrination campaign. Not improved public health. Not freedom. And even though a majority of the populations across the globe have received the shot, the pandemic STILL has not been declared “over.”

A key component of the campaign to entice people into taking these experimental bioweapons has been to enlist “trusted messengers,”3 4 5 from social media influencers and celebrities to medical doctors and faith leaders.

Even former U.S. presidents preached the gospel of the COVID jabs, as seen in the video above. In it, they repeat the Big Lie — that the shots will prevent infection and spread, thereby putting an end to the pandemic. But the enlistment of faith leaders has perhaps been one of the most effective, yet egregious, ways to get shots into arms.

As reported by the Daily Wire,6 evangelical pastors, theologians and seminary heads across the U.S. followed the lead of Dr. Francis Collins, a self-proclaimed Christian and the former head of the National Institutes of Health, who “leveraged his relationships with church leaders like ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ author Rick Warren and apologist Tim Keller to convince Christians across the nation that submitting to lockdowns and mandates was a matter of obedience to God.”

Christianity Today theologian Russell Moore and Ed Stetzer, director of the Billy Graham Center — both personal friends of Collins — “argued that Christians had a responsibility to tamp down on ‘conspiracy theories’ like the notion that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab or that masks were ineffective,” Daily Wire writes.

Collins’ messaging was in part distributed via BioLogos, an organization founded by Collins in 2007 “to create bridges between scientists and Christians.” In late August 2020, BioLogos distributed a public statement titled “Love Your Neighbor, Get the Shot.”7

The statement was signed by a long list of well-known Christian leaders, including theologian N.T. Wright, Christian authors Philip Yancey and Lisa Sharon Harper, Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer, Christianity Today CEO Timothy Dalrymple and several seminary presidents.

All vowed to “actively promote accurate scientific and public health information from trustworthy, consensus sources,” and to counter “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories.” Messaging included statements such as:8

“Mask rules are not experts taking away our freedom, but an opportunity to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 6:31),” and “Get vaccinated” because “Vaccination is a provision from God.”

March 16, 2021, Collins, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities director Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable and White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships executive director Melissa Rogers also joined faith leaders at the Washington National Cathedral to promote the COVID jab and “inspire confidence in the coronavirus vaccines.”9 10

Attending clergy included Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and non-denominational Christians, as well Jewish and Islamic denominations. At the end, more than two dozen of these faith leaders lined up to get the shot, right then and there, on camera, “as examples for their worship communities.”

Even Pope Francis went on record urging people to get the shot — and to encourage others to get it — calling it “an act of love”11 and “an ethical option because it concerns your life but also that of others.”12

Curiously, the Vatican went so far as to say “It is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” provided there are no other alternatives, and provided it “does not constitute formal cooperation with … abortion …”13

According to Vatican News,14 Pope Francis’ announcement was made in collaboration with the Ad Council, which has led “a massive communications effort to educate the American public and build confidence around the COVID-19 vaccines,” and whose stated goal “is to shift the public mindset from vaccine concern to vaccine confidence.”15

The Ad Council also produced the presidential COVID jab ad above. It has toolkits with “message guidance” and “language do’s and don’ts” for a wide variety of communities, including Black, Hispanic, rural and faith communities.16

The Ad Council’s toolkit for faith communities include prewritten sermons, preselected Bible quotes, Sunday school curricula on “making wise decisions” and a “parents conversation guide.”17 Care USA18 and The U.S. government’s own COVID-19 public education campaign called “We Can Do This” also provides materials aimed directly at faith-based leaders.19

A number of faith leaders, including evangelist Franklin Graham,20 Rev. Jane Willan21 and Canterbury Archbishop Justin Welby,22 have insisted that Jesus himself would get the jab, were he here today.

It’s an odd conclusion, considering Jesus depended solely on God for his ability to heal people of everything from chronic bleeding and leprosy to death itself. Not once does Jesus advise people to rely on the tools and schemes — or word — of man. Instead, he warns of a future time when even the elect will fall prey to a grand deception.

How do we know all these faith leaders led their flocks astray? Hindsight. Some, like minister Tony Hopkins, valiantly tried to make a case for Jesus as a vaccine peddler:23

“The more theological among us might center the discussion on Jesus’ divine nature: given his ability to heal any disease, he wouldn’t need the vaccine.

The point is well made, but isn’t there a striking parallel with Jesus’ baptism? For the rest of us, baptism is about repentance. Jesus did not sin and therefore did not need to repent, yet he chose to be baptized as an example for us …

The apostle Paul summarizes Jesus’ teachings on selflessness with remarkable brevity in Philippians 2:4: ‘Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.’ Vaccination actually does both, show thoughtfulness toward others while also protecting the vaccine recipient!”

Alas, therein lies the rub. The COVID shot does not protect you from infection and death, nor does it protect anyone else. It was a lie, and excess death rates skyrocketed after the rollout of the COVID shots.

“Faith leaders believed those who’ve made careers out of lying.”

That’s how we can unequivocally say that faith leaders around the world have utterly failed in their duty to the flocks they shepherd — and in their interpretation of the Bible. And why? Because they believed the lies of people who’ve made careers out of lying — which, by the way, is a hallmark of Satan himself, according to the Bible.

Pfizer is one of the leading criminal corporations in the world,24 yet this is whom faith leaders chose to place their trust in. Jesus specifically stated that “by their fruits shall ye know them,” good or bad, yet faith leaders completely overlooked the drug industry’s checkered past, placing the lives of their followers into their untrustworthy hands. They also overlooked the role of the military-industrial complex in the development of these shots.

In his 2010 paper,25 “Tough on Crime? Pfizer and the CIHR,” Robert G. Evans, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor at Vancouver School of Economics, described Pfizer as “a ‘habitual offender,’ persistently engaging in illegal and corrupt marketing practices, bribing physicians and suppressing adverse trial results.” Between 2002 and 2010 alone, Pfizer and its subsidiaries were fined $3 billion in criminal convictions, civil penalties and jury awards.

In 2011, Pfizer agreed to pay another $14.5 million to settle federal charges of illegal marketing,26 and in 2014 they settled federal charges relating to improper marketing of the kidney transplant drug Rapamune to the tune of $35 million.27

They also had a $75 million judgment to settle charges relating to their unethical testing of a new broad spectrum antibiotic on critically ill Nigerian children. That same year, Pfizer also faced thousands of lawsuits accusing it of hiding known side effects of its anticholesterol drug Lipitor.28

As for the COVID shots, we have whistleblowers showing how they falsified trial data. Pfizer’s own documents also reveal they mislabeled almost all side effects that occurred during its Phase 3 trials and that deaths and serious adverse events actually numbered in the tens of thousands.

Mounting evidence also shows the COVID shots destroy immune function over time and actually make you more susceptible to COVID, other infections and chronic illness.

The clincher, of course — which demolishes the “love your neighbor” argument once and for all — is unequivocal proof that the shots do not prevent infection or transmission. In fact, the shots were never tested to determine if they could do either, yet we were told that they would. It was all a lie.

Many of us saw through the narrative right from the start and tried to warn people. We were silenced and written off as a bunch of looney-tune conspiracy theorists, but the fact of the matter is that anyone with half their normal allotment of critical thinking skills could have investigated the claims about the COVID shots and come to the same conclusions we did.

Instead, most were effectively brainwashed by ultrasophisticated brainwashing from the mainstream and social media and ignored the warning signs and swallowed the lies of known deceivers whole. And while faith leaders aren’t the only ones guilty of this, their role in pushing the false narrative has been significant.

According to Amy Hill, senior director for public affairs for Walmart, many of the company’s most successful vaccination clinics have been held after Sunday services.29 Care USA has also reported that Facebook ads in which faith leaders promoted the COVID jabs outperformed other “trusted messengers,” including health care providers.30

During a May 2021 Faiths 4 Vaccines online summit, White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships executive director Melissa Rogers read a letter from President Joe Biden to the clergy helping get shots into arms:31

“You are not only saving lives; you are building lasting bonds of trust. With your partnership and dedication, we will beat this virus, save lives and build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In reality, COVID jab-pushing clergy have contributed to hundreds of thousands of serious injuries and deaths,32 so rather than build trust, they’ve broken it. As it turns out, the blind have been leading the blind straight into a ditch.

The fact that government will team up with faith-based organizations to ensure its agenda won’t meet with resistance behind the pulpit is nothing new. While the modern-day idea of faith-based organizations teaming up with government started with Jimmy Carter, the collaboration between government and churches to give vaccines began under Barack Obama during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.33 34 35

In March 2019, the American Journal of Public Health published an article36 detailing the history of faith-based collaborations to increase uptake of influenza vaccines:

“The Partnership Center and IHP [Interfaith Health Program at Emory University] created the partnership, ‘Faith-Based and Public Health Partnerships: Strengthening Community Networks,’ (referred to as ‘the Influenza Initiative’), which was supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The goal of the Influenza Initiative was to quickly mobilize existing local faith and health collaboratives to bring 2009 H1N1 prevention services to priority populations. In the partnership’s second year, the focus shifted to seasonal influenza, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) became a new national partner.

Together, the Interfaith Health Program (IHP) and ASTHO [Association of State and Territorial Health Officials] formed a unique multilevel, multidirectional 6-year partnership to align and leverage the strengths of the faith community with those of public health organizations to address influenza prevention and health disparities.”

So, in closing, it’s important to realize that many churches are actively collaborating with government on health programs that may or may not be in your best interest. And the fact that your faith leader is promoting a health intervention such as the COVID shot does not mean he or she has actually researched the issue before coming to a conclusion. In many if not most cases, they’re simply parroting the narrative they’ve been brainwashed to promote.

It’s also possible that faith-based organizations are given financial incentives to collaborate with federal health authorities, although I have no evidence of this at the moment. Either way, when it comes to COVID-19, this collaborative effort to promote a one-sided message has had devastating consequences, as faith leaders around the U.S. have led their flocks to proverbial slaughter.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

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

• Many of the people in charge of moderating content at Facebook have been recruited from the government, including the Central Intelligence Agency, FBI and Department of Defense

• So many ex-government workers are now employed by Facebook that’s it’s difficult to view Meta as a private company instead of a government partner, intent on silencing anyone who speaks out against the official narrative

• In January 1977, Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein’s 25,000-word article was published in Rolling Stone, detailing the close relationship between the CIA and the press

• The program was known as Operation Mockingbird and involved the CIA paying hundreds of journalists to write fake stories and spread propaganda instead of real news

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that Facebook’s values are based on the American tradition of free expression.1 Yet, censorship on social media has gone mainstream as part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality.

In an official Facebook video,2 a Meta employee identified as “Aaron” states that he’s the manager of “the team that writes the rules for Facebook,” deciding “what is acceptable and what is not.”3 These gatekeepers effectively dictate what the platform’s 2.9 billion active users see when they’re scrolling their feeds.

In all, 40,000 individuals are part of Facebook’s content moderation staff,4 yielding incredible power over public information. Writing for MintPress News, journalist Alan Macleod explains:5

“It is here where decisions about what content is allowed, what will be promoted and who or what will be suppressed are made. These decisions affect what news and information billions of people across the world see every day. Therefore, those in charge of the algorithms hold far more power and influence over the public sphere than even editors at the largest news outlets.”

But according to Macleod’s MintPress investigation, many of the people in charge of moderating content at Facebook have been recruited from the government, including the Central Intelligence Agency, FBI and Department of Defense (DoD), to the extent that, he says, “some might feel it becomes difficult to see where the U.S. national security state ends and Facebook begins.”6

Facebook employee Aaron, featured in their marketing video, formerly worked for the CIA, up until July 2019, though this isn’t disclosed by Facebook. According to Macleod:7

“In his 15-year career, Aaron Berman rose to become a highly influential part of the CIA. For years, he prepared and edited the president of the United States’ daily brief, “wr[iting] and overs[eeing] intelligence analysis to enable the President and senior U.S. officials to make decisions on the most critical national security issues,” especially on “the impact of influence operations on social movements, security, and democracy,” his LinkedIn profile reads. None of this is mentioned in the Facebook video.”

Berman is not the only ex-CIA agent working at Facebook — far from it. So many ex-government workers are now employed by Facebook that’s it’s difficult to view Meta as a private company instead of a government partner, intent on silencing anyone who speaks out against the official narrative. Macleod’s investigation, for instance, uncovered the following ex-CIA agents at Facebook:8

• Deborah Berman, a trust and safety project manager for Meta, was an intelligence analyst at the CIA for 10 years

• Bryan Weisbard, now a director of trust and safety, security and data privacy for Meta, worked as a CIA intelligence officer from 2006 to 2010 before becoming a diplomat. While at the CIA, his job involved leading “global teams to conduct counter-terrorism and digital cyber investigations” and “Identif[ying] online social media misinformation propaganda and covert influence campaigns”

• Cameron Harris, a trust and safety project manager at Meta, was a CIA analyst until 2019

Former members of other government agencies are also common at Meta. Macleod revealed:9

• Emily Vacher, who Facebook/Meta recruited to be a director of trust and safety, worked at the FBI from 2001 to 2011, becoming a supervisory special agent

• Mike Bradow, employed as a misinformation policy manager at Meta since 2020, worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2010 to 2020. “USAID is a U.S. government-funded influence organization which has bankrolled or stage managed multiple regime change operations abroad, including in Venezuela in 2002, Cuba in 2021, and ongoing attempts in Nicaragua,” Macleod noted.10

• Neil Potts, Facebook’s vice president of trust and safety, is a former intelligence officer with the U.S. Marine Corps

• Sherif Kamal, trust and safety program manager at Meta, worked as a program manager at the Pentagon until 2020

• Joey Chan, trust and safety program manager at Meta, worked as a commanding officer for the U.S. Army until 2021, where he oversaw more than 100 troops in the Asia Pacific region

Meta is appearing increasingly like another branch of government put in place to mold the views of society, as with a workforce composed of ex-intelligence agents, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to remain impartial. Macleod wrote:11

“Hiring so many ex-U.S. state officials to run Facebook’s most politically sensitive operations raises troubling questions about the company’s impartiality and its proximity to government power. Meta is so full of national security state agents that at some point, it almost becomes more difficult to find individuals in trust and safety who were not formerly agents of the state.

Despite its efforts to brand itself as a progressive, “woke” organization, the Central Intelligence Agency remains deeply controversial.

It has been charged with overthrowing or attempting to overthrow numerous foreign governments (some of them democratically elected), helping prominent Nazis escape punishment after World War Two, funnelling large quantities of drugs and weapons around the world, penetrating domestic media outlets, routinely spreading false information and operating a global network of “black sites” where prisoners are repeatedly tortured.

Therefore, critics argue that putting operatives from this organization in control of our news feeds is deeply inappropriate.”

For instance, U.S. intelligence agencies kept watch on Ukrainian nationalist organizations as a source of counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Declassified CIA documents show close ties between U.S. intelligence and Ukrainian nationalists since 1946.

After WWII, Stepan Bandera, the leader of the most radical section of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which was founded in 1929 and had the ultimate goal of creating an ethnically pure, independent Ukraine, and other Ukrainian Nazi leaders fled to Europe, and the CIA helped protect them. The CIA later informed the Immigration and Naturalization Service that it had concealed Bandera and other Ukrainians from the Soviets.

While the Nuremberg trials brought justice to the leaders of fascist Germany, “the Ukrainian Nazis were spared the same fate, and some were even granted indulgences by the CIA.”12 According to the film “Ukraine on Fire,” “By 1951, the Agency [CIA] excused the illegal activities of OUN’s security branch in the name of Cold War necessity.”13

In another disturbing example, one of the first scientists assigned to Fort Detrick’s secret biological warfare laboratory during WWII was bioweapons expert Frank Olson.14 In 1953, Olson died after plummeting to the ground from a high-rise hotel room window in Manhattan.

Days earlier, he had been secretly drugged by the CIA, which claimed Olson’s death was a suicide. Decades later, however, it was revealed that Olson didn’t jump from the window — he was deliberately murdered after the CIA became concerned that he might reveal disturbing top-secret operations.15

This includes the CIA’s top-secret MK-Ultra project, which engaged in mind control experiments, human torture and other medical studies, including how much LSD it would take to “shatter the mind and blast away consciousness.”16

The collusion of the media with government agencies is nothing new. In January 1977, Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein’s 25,000-word article was published in Rolling Stone,17 detailing the close relationship between the CIA and the press.18 Bernstein described full-time CIA agents who worked as journalists and more than 400 U.S. journalists who secretly carried out assignments for the CIA over a 25-year period.

The program was known as Operation Mockingbird and involved the CIA paying journalists to write fake stories and spread propaganda instead of real news.19 Activist Post added:

“Implementing a fact-checking solution that is a centralized mechanism powered by journalists they could easily control is certainly the CIA’s … dream, as a CIA director was once quoted stating that once the public’s perception is confused about what is real and what is propaganda then their mission would be complete.

Now you might think the CIA owning journalists is conspiratorial, but it happened with MKultra’s Operation Mockingbird.”20

As further noted by Monthly Review, the situation has only gotten worse, as evidenced by the steady of stream of ex-CIA agents now heading up policy and content moderation at Facebook. “The CIA used to infiltrate the media. Now the CIA is the media,” the news outlet noted, adding:21

“Back in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.”

To be clear, it’s not only Facebook that’s relying on former CIA agents to decide what you can see. Other social media giants are similarly affected, employing individuals from a multitude of government agencies.

“In previous investigations,” Macleod wrote, “this author has detailed how TikTok is flooded with NATO officials, how former FBI agents abound at Twitter, and how Reddit is led by a former war planner for the NATO think tank, the Atlantic Council.”22 However, he says, “the sheer scale of infiltration of Facebook blows these away. Facebook, in short, is utterly swarming with spooks.”

What does this mean for the information you see on a daily basis, assuming you’re one of the billions who takes a peek or two at Facebook during the day? Macleod explained:23

“The problem is that having so many former CIA employees running the world’s most important information and news platform is only one small step removed from the agency itself deciding what you see and what we do not see online — and all with essentially no public oversight.

In this sense, this arrangement constitutes the best of both worlds for Washington. They can exert significant influence over global news and information flows but maintain some veneer of plausible deniability.

The U.S. government does not need to directly tell Facebook what policies to enact. This is because the people in decision-making positions are inordinately those who rose through the ranks of the national security state beforehand, meaning their outlooks match those of Washington’s. And if Facebook does not play ball, quiet threats about regulation or breaking up the company’s enormous monopoly can also achieve the desired outcomes.”

Subscribe to Mercola Newsletter

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

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

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 15,000 die every year from Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that may trigger watery diarrhea, fever, dehydration and kidney failure. It is evolving to a superbug, and has adapted to sugars commonly found in a Western diet. It also produces spores capable of resisting disinfectants

• Antibiotics are what has turned this minor player, accounting for up to 3% of bacteria in normal flora, to a major health concern; when antibiotics disrupt the normal flora, harmful bacteria such as C. diff are able to thrive and spread in the environment

• Although fecal transplants are new to Western medicine, they were reportedly being used as far back as 1,700 years ago. Colonoscopies have been the most successful means of using the treatment, but they come with risks; one study compared administration using capsules or colonoscopy and found a 96.2% prevention of recurrence in both groups

• Fecal transplants should only be done by a trained team as the donor stool must be free of disease; even under investigational conditions lethal mistakes have been made

• Handwashing is the single most effective means of preventing the spread of infection and reducing your risk of needing antibiotics. Hand washing supports a strong gut microbiome, which is another means of prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 calls antibiotic resistance one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. Conservative estimates find at least 2 million are infected and 23,000 die each year with antibiotic resistant bacteria. When a germ develops the ability to withstand drugs designed to kill them, they become antibiotic-resistant2 and are called superbugs.3

Antibiotic resistance happens naturally as bacteria adapt to drugs. Resistance is helped along by the inappropriate use of medications, such as antibiotics for viral infections4 and their use in agriculture.5 6 The World Health Organization7 warns emerging resistance to antibiotics threatens the ability to treat common infections that may result in prolonged illness, disability and death.

Simple medical procedures may become high-risk, which means the cost of health care rises. In what researchers believed was the first national estimate8 of the cost for treating antibiotic-resistant infections, they found a national cost of $2.2 billion in 2014, having doubled since 2002.9

Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide crisis10 with the potential to threaten people at any age.11 One bacterium known to be fatal to the elderly and sick is clostridium difficile, or C. diff. In a recent study it was reported that this12 bacterium has become highly adapted to spreading inside hospitals, and they may have found the reason why.

A mild to moderate infection with this bacterium affects the gut, causing watery diarrhea for two to three days and mild abdominal cramping and tenderness.13 A severe infection can trigger diarrhea, fever, kidney failure, dehydration and weight loss.14

The bacteria are now able to take advantage of high sugar diets and resist disinfection commonly used in the hospital. In a recent study15 researchers showed how C. diff can exist for long periods of time on disposable equipment and vinyl surfaces, even after having been cleaned with disinfectant.

In one study published in Nature16 it was reported that C. diff has adapted and diverged, and is close to becoming a new bacterial species. Through a large-scale analysis of 906 cultures taken from humans, animals and the environment17 the researchers sequenced the bacterium’s DNA and were able to demonstrate the evolving formation of a new species18 with a change in metabolism and sporulation.19

The new evolution of C. diff is producing spores more resistant to hospital disinfectants that have the capacity to grow in the presence of glucose and fructose. The researchers found the new species in 70% of hospital patient samples taken for the study.

They also found this new species could colonize mice better when the animals’ diet was supplemented with sugar. Analysis found this emerging species made its first appearance 76,000 years ago and has more recently begun to thrive in hospital settings. Senior author Trevor Lawley commented:20

“Our study provides genome and laboratory-based evidence that human lifestyles can drive bacteria to form new species so they can spread more effectively. We show that strains of C. difficile bacteria have continued to evolve in response to modern diets and healthcare systems and reveal that focusing on diet and looking for new disinfectants could help in the fight against this bacteria.”

Another author of the paper, Nitin Kumar, Ph.D., a senior bioinformatician at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, told Popular Science:21 “The study shows how the pathogen C. difficile is evolving in response to the Western sugary diet and common hospital disinfectants.”

A New York Post journalist suggests pudding cups and instant mashed potatoes, common fare at hospitals, may be just the food this superbug is looking for.22 According to Harvard Health, C. diff accounts for up to 3% of bacteria in a normal intestinal flora. Although present, it is usually harmless as good bacteria keep it under control.

It turns out that antibiotics have turned this minor player into a major problem.23 Once antibiotics have disrupted the normal flora in your gut, this allows harmful bacteria to thrive, including C. diff. This in turn triggers diarrhea.24

C. diff forms spores that may get into the environment through those who are infected, when they touch surfaces. When others touch the newly-contaminated surfaces and then touch their mouths, the infection spreads.25

Health care workers may also spread the bacteria when their hands are contaminated. Since antibiotics alter the normal flora found in the intestinal tract, and a large number of patients receive antibiotics in health care settings, this can lead to C. diff outbreaks.

C. diff can trigger a life-threatening condition in those who have been on antibiotics or have a compromised immune system. According to the CDC, there are 500,000 C. diff infections each year resulting in 15,000 deaths.26 One treatment methodology is a stool transplant, which has been used throughout history.

Although new to Western medicine, fecal transplants were described as far back as 1,700 years ago by a Chinese researcher who first used what he called “yellow soup” to treat patients with severe diarrhea.27 In World War II, the stools of camels was used to treat bacterial dysentery in German soldiers.

In 1958, the treatment was described in a report for a patient with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. But it was not until 1978 that the value was recognized in the treatment of C. diff.28 The treatment goes under several different names including fecal biotherapy and fecal floral reconstitution.

In the past, colonoscopies have been the most successful way of introducing fecal matter into patients, but a new poop pill-popping protocol may be less invasive while still offering a life-saving option. In a trial at the University of Alberta,29 researchers compared the administration of fecal matter using a capsule or colonoscopy.

All participants in the study had suffered a minimum of three bouts of C. diff. Both groups showed prevention of recurrent infection in 96.2% of the participants.30 While the colonoscopy was invasive, the patient chosen to swallow pills had to down 40 capsules in one sitting.31

Using poop pills is noninvasive, less expensive, free of risks associated with sedation and may be done in the doctor’s office. It is not, however, a treatment method you should experiment with at home. Even under investigational conditions, mistakes can be made.

In June 2019, the FDA released a statement that two immunocompromised adults had received a transplant that unwittingly transmitted a multidrug-resistant organism. At least one of those patients has died.32

To date, the FDA has not approved fecal transplants and continues to monitor the development as it is essential for a healthy donor to be used.33 Open Biome maintains a list of current studies being done on fecal transplants including those to treat C. diff, inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease, obesity and depression.34

The single most effective means to prevent the spread of infection is through hand washing. The CDC35 recommends cleaning your hands to prevent the spread of germs. However, they find on average health care workers do this less than half the time they should.

In one cross-sectional study36 conducted in Nepal to assess the habits of nurses, nursing students, doctors and medical students, the researchers found a significant difference in hand washing both before and after patient care.

After exposure to instruments, blood or bodily fluid, more than 90% washed their hands. However, on average the participants tended to wash their hands selectively.

A second study of hand washing in six intensive care units revealed a high level of variability in adherence to best practices with a compliance rate ranging from 3% to 100%.37 Take care to use proper handwashing techniques to thoroughly clean your hands and reduce the risk of transmitting disease.

A second preventive strategy includes protecting your gut microbiome from the effects of antibiotics. It is important to take antibiotics only when they’re necessary. You should not use them for viral infections, which may contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance.38

Supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut microbiome may affect your mental and physical health. Sugar is one of the most negative culprits because it contributes to a dysfunctional gut microbiome. A study39 published in January 2019, found that sugars affect a regulator of gut colonization for beneficial bacteria.

In essence, glucose and fructose turn off the expression of a protein regulating gut colonization by beneficial microbes. Sugar disrupts the generation of proteins that foster the growth of beneficial bacteria found in lean, healthy individuals.40

Since gut dysfunction may lead to a system-wide inflammatory response, it is important to address the needs of your gut bacteria consistently. As a general rule, once you start healing your gut, you should start feeling better in a couple of weeks to a few months.

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