Day: December 16, 2022

• A growing number of people in need of blood transfusions are requesting blood that comes from people who haven’t received COVID-19 shots

• Pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole compared the current unknowns regarding “vaccinated blood” with HIV-tainted blood that was used for transfusions in the 1980s

• Directed donations and autologous donations, or self-donation, are options for receiving blood free of mRNA, but in both cases you’ll need your doctor to submit a Red Cross Special Collections Order form

• A “Safe Blood” donation campaign has also been formed to match blood donors and recipients who have not had COVID-19 shots

It’s unknown whether blood donated by people who’ve received mRNA COVID-19 shots poses a risk to those who receive it. A growing number of people aren’t willing to take any chances, however, and are requesting blood that comes from unvaccinated patients. One high-profile case involves a 4-month-old baby, Will Savage-Reeves, in New Zealand, who needs surgery for a heart valve disorder.

His parents, Samantha and Cole, requested the infant receive blood only from donors who have not received COVID-19 shots. While unvaccinated blood is available, the doctors and hospital refused to grant the request. The case was heard before a New Zealand court, which sided with the doctors and took guardianship of the child to proceed with the surgery using vaccinated blood.1 2

The outcome of baby Will’s case may serve as a harbinger of things to come. The hospital argued that the surgery should proceed using unvaccinated blood because of the importance of finding a quality match. A large pool of donor blood raises the possibility of finding the highest quality match.

In addition, according to Steve Kirsch, executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, another of their arguments is, “If there were a safety signal from using vaccinated blood for transfusions, it would have surfaced by now.” They also want to keep up appearances, and allowing one patient to use unvaccinated blood may open the floodgates to others requesting the same. Kirsch noted:3

“If they agree to use unvaccinated blood, it could be interpreted as an admission that vaccinated blood is not safe and could lead to everyone requesting unvaccinated blood which would then create severe blood shortages for a dubious benefit.”

Further, the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) manages blood donations and collections in New Zealand. Only a specialist doctor can request directed donation for the baby to received unvaccinated blood.

But, Kirsch noted, “The clinicians responsible for the surgery determined that there was insufficient evidence to make a special request … The hospital cannot compel the NZBS to do what it says, e.g., even if the doctors agreed with the parents, NZBS can still refuse to supply the blood if it doesn’t think the request is justified.”4

The hospital also claimed mRNA shots “to date remain safe.”5 According to Kirsch, “The court, lacking the legal and technical ability to second guess the doctors, therefore sided with the expert opinion of the doctors.”6

The media, meanwhile, are painting the reasonable request to honor the precautionary principle as a conspiracy theory and disinformation dreamed up by fringe “anti-vaxxers.” Case in point, The New York Times reported:7

“The case, and the family’s flawed scientific arguments, highlight the continuing dangers of online misinformation and conspiracist narratives, experts say. The dispute has ‘become a cause célèbre in the most toxic way,’ prompting a spike in hate speech on fringe platforms where conspiracy theories run rife, said Sanjana Hattotuwa, a researcher at the Disinformation Project, a New Zealand monitoring group.”

Not only did the New Zealand health service refuse the family’s request, but New Zealand’s High Court granted two doctors authority to make medical decisions regarding baby Will.8 It didn’t need to go this far, supporters have stated, since there is ready availability of blood from unvaccinated donors.9

In a similar case in Italy, however, a judge also ruled against parents who requested blood transfusions only from unvaccinated donors be used during their 2-year-old son’s heart surgery.10

Richard Hirschman, a board-certified embalmer and funeral director with more than 20 years of experience, has come forward stating that, in the time period since COVID-19 shots were rolled out, starting around the middle of 2021, he’s been finding “strange clots” in the bodies of the deceased.

“When I do the embalming, I have to go into the vein. And in order for the embalming process, I have to allow blood to be drained. So I actually pulled this huge, long clot — fibrous looking clot — out prior to an embalming,” Hirschman said.11

The beginning of the clot, which resembles a white, rubbery worm, appears red and like a normal clot. But the majority of the clot is different: It’s composed of a white, fibrous material. “It just isn’t normal,” he said, adding:12

“Typically, a blood clot is smooth; it’s blood that has coagulated together. But when you squeeze it, or touch it or try to pick it up, it generally falls apart … you can almost squeeze it between your fingers and get it back to blood again. But this white fibrous stuff is pretty strong. It’s not weak at all. You can manipulate it, it’s very pliable. It’s not hard … it is not normal. I don’t know how anybody can live with something like this inside of them.”

What’s important to note is embalmers have reported finding unusual clots not only in deceased people who’ve received the shots but also in those who have had a blood transfusion. So while we don’t know what risk there is from receiving blood from someone who’s had COVID-19 shots, “the risk is not zero,” Kirsch said.13

Another case involves a baby, Alexander, who received a vaccinated blood transfusion and developed “an enormous clot that eventually stretched from his left knee, all the way to his heart,” and died.14 According to Kirsch, the hospital then went on to delete all related medical records:15

“Sacred Heart Hospital in Washington State has erased all records of the death of baby Alex who died from a blood clot after receiving a transfusion from a vaccinated patient. So there is no evidence of a problem anymore. They erased it, just like the CDC erased all data linking vaccines and autism. This is how science works nowadays.”

In the U.S., a person is in need of blood every two seconds.16 If you have a medical emergency, getting a blood transfusion can be life-saving. But should patients have the option of choosing to receive blood that hasn’t been exposed to mRNA COVID-19 shots?

The Red Cross states they’re following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s blood donation eligibility guidance, which states, “In most cases, there is no deferral time for individuals who received a COVID-19 vaccine as long as they are symptom-free and feeling well at the time of donation.”17

“While the antibodies that are produced by the stimulated immune system in response to vaccination are found throughout the bloodstream, the actual vaccine components are not,” Jessa Merrill, Red Cross director of biomedical communications, told The Daily Beast.18 Further, after speaking to Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist, internist and epidemiologist, Kirsch reported:19

“He said he’d take the vaccinated blood because of the critical nature of the matching process. With donor blood, the match quality would not be as good because there is a smaller pool to draw from, and it’s not just blood type that is matched.

Nobody has quantified the risk of using vaccinated blood. He said if the risk were high, it would have been noticed by now (I’m not sure I agree with that; there is a lot of willful blindness for anything associated with the vaccine).”

Pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole compared the current unknowns regarding “vaccinated blood” with HIV-tainted blood that was used for transfusions in the 1980s:20

“We don’t know. Nobody knows. I have clots from unvaccinated deceased that were transfused and formed large clots post transfusion and died. No blood bank is checking. ‘One cannot find, that for which they do not look.’ This is akin to blood banks and hemophiliacs and HIV in the 1980s. It may not be a problem.

However, it may be. There are assays academically available to check for circulating spike protein. It is criminal negligence to not assure the safety of the blood supply based on bureaucratic declarations without scientific explorations.”

Similarly, in January 1983, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed evidence strongly suggesting blood and blood products transmitted AIDS and the disease was sexually transmitted, it recommended blood banks directly question donors about their sexual behavior and run blood donations through a series of screening tests.21

The blood bank community issued a statement soon after, stating “direct or indirect questions about a donor’s sexual preference are inappropriate” and not recommending any laboratory screening tests.22 As noted by Encyclopedia.com:23

“In fact, in the early years of the disease, many of the people who contracted AIDS were infected through blood transfusions. Because it took more than five years to develop a test to check for AIDS in blood before it was used in a transfusion, many people got the disease in hospitals.

The AIDS epidemic continued to grow in Africa and Asia during the 1990s and even in the early 21st century because many nations were slow to adopt blood testing.”

In the 1980s, increasing fears over tainted transfusions led many people to say they’d refuse donated blood entirely. One man, whose wife died of AIDS contracted through a contaminated transfusion, told the AP in 1985, “You want to play Russian Roulette? Even if it were an emergency — and I had some say in the matter — I wouldn’t take blood out of the pool.”24

Now, decades later, doctors are hearing similar concerns from patients regarding vaccinated blood. Dr. Davinder Sidhu, the division head for transfusion and transplant medicine for southern Alberta, Canada, told CTV News he gets requests for blood from unvaccinated donors “at least once or twice a month over the last several months.”25

As it stands, blood donation centers may ask about vaccines their donors have received,26 but it’s not guaranteed that this information will be passed on to consumers. The Red Cross also states, “If you’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine, you’ll need to provide the manufacturer name when you come to donate.”27

Still, it’s unlikely that most hospitals will readily divulge this information when it comes to receiving a blood transfusion. So what are your options if you’re looking for blood from a donor that’s hasn’t received a COVID-19 shot? Directed donations, in which a donor donates blood for a specified receiver, are an option, but they’re typically only used in cases where matched blood is unavailable due to extremely rare blood types.28

Autologous donations, or self-donation, is another option, in which you donate blood for your own use, such as before a medical procedure like surgery. In both cases, you’ll need your doctor to submit a Red Cross Special Collections Order form to complete an autologous or directed blood donation.29

A “Safe Blood” donation campaign has also been formed to match blood donors and recipients who have not had COVID-19 shots. For now, they’re acting as a resource to match donors with those in need of blood, but the hope is that an mRNA-free blood bank will be established:30

“There is no blood bank with mRNA-free blood yet, not even with us. And, although we have already asked hundreds of clinics, at the moment — at least in Europe — all of them still refuse to allow the human right of free blood choice with them — or at least do not want to be mentioned, because otherwise they fear reprisals. However, we promise you that we will not give up until we can offer a worldwide network of such clinics.”

As for baby Will, whose parents’ hopes for an mRNA-free blood transfusion have been dashed, Kirsch said:31

“Whatever happened to the precautionary principle of medicine? In my opinion, this isn’t a close call. We can’t know today if the blood supply is safe because nobody wants to even ask the question and do the experiments required to answer it. For that reason, Baby Will’s parents’ request to use unvaccinated blood should be respected.”

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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.

• Butter is a mainstay in most kitchens, but debate rages on over the best way to store it — on the counter or in the fridge; the answer is it’s up to you

• Because it’s made primarily of fat with a low water content, butter is not a favorable environment for bacterial growth

• It’s perfectly safe to store butter at room temperature, but you should use it up within a few days before it turns rancid; this affects the flavor, but still doesn’t make it unsafe to eat

• Salted butter stays fresher longer when left at room temperature, as the salt further staves off bacterial growth

• You can keep butter in the freezer for longer storage; unsalted butter can be frozen for up to five months while unsalted butter can be kept in the freezer for up to nine months if stored properly

• Grass fed butter is a rich source of vitamin A in the most absorbable form, vitamin E, vitamin K2, antioxidants, conjugated linoleic acid, iodine in a highly absorbable form, vitamin D and more; to boost the health benefits of butter, look for varieties made from grass fed milk

Butter is a mainstay in most kitchens, but debate rages on over the best way to store it — on the counter or in the fridge. The answer is it’s up to you. While you can safely store butter on your counter, there are some caveats to doing so properly. And if you’re not careful, leaving butter out at room temperature can ruin its flavor instead of enhancing it.

On the other hand, if you only store butter in your refrigerator, you’ll be destined to have hard, unspreadable butter when you need it — unless you take it out of the fridge to soften up before your meal. There are also some dishes that require cold butter to turn out correctly. So, some butter enthusiasts recommend keeping a small amount of butter on your counter for daily use and a backup stash of butter in the fridge for recipes that call for it.

Dairy products like milk and cream must be refrigerated for safety, but butter is unique in the dairy world. Because it’s made primarily of fat, with a low water content, it’s not a favorable environment for bacterial growth.1 This means it’s perfectly safe to store butter at room temperature.

You’ll want to keep it in a covered dish or crock to keep out pests and protect freshness. This also keeps it from excess air exposure and light — two factors that hasten spoilage. Your kitchen’s temperature also plays a role in how long butter will last at room temperature. Cooler temperatures will keep your butter fresher, longer, while temperatures much higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit could impact its quality.2

Ideally, only keep a few days’ worth out at a time so you can use it up before it turns rancid. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, butter is safe at room temperature, but “if butter is left out at room temperature for several days, the flavor can turn rancid so it’s best to leave out whatever you can use within a day or two.”3

Speaking with AOL, Caitlin Clark, a food scientist at Colorado State University, explained, “The greater problem with butter is oxidative rancidity, in which oxygen causes fats in the butter to break down and taste rancid, although this does not make it unsafe.”4 U.S. Dairy also states that salted butter stays fresher longer when left at room temperature, as the salt further staves off bacterial growth:5 6

“If you’re a serious supporter of leaving butter out, go with the salted kind. It’s important to note, however, that the amount of salt in different brands of butter can vary. The more salt there is, the safer it may be to leave the butter out on the counter. Regardless of salt quantity, play it safe by limiting time on the counter to no more than a couple of days.”

In addition to keeping butter at just the right consistency for spreading, chef Andrea Uzarowski told AOL that she prefers storing butter on the counter due to taste:7

“Contrary to popular belief, storing it out on the counter does not affect the butter’s flavor in an adverse way … Temperature affects how we taste things as they touch our tongue. When something cold touches our tongues, our taste buds restrict or close up from the cold temperature of the food and this delays our sensations for taste.”

Those on the other side of the fence are in favor of keeping butter in the refrigerator. As an aside, because dairy manufacturers produce large amounts of butter during certain times of the year, it’s often stored for extended periods. According to a study in the Journal of Dairy Science:8

“During refrigerated or frozen storage, degradation of quality may occur and this is an important issue when companies develop specification sheets for butter suppliers or for butter suppliers to design storage regimens.

Butter is commonly stored for extended periods in blocks (25 kg) that are subsequently reworked into quarter-pound sticks. However, retail packages (sticks or quarters as they are referred to by industry) are also often stored for extended periods.”

When they looked into the effect of refrigeration and freezing on butter flavor and texture, they found storage time, temperature and package type all affected butter flavor. Stale, off-flavors were noted in refrigerated butter quarters within six months of refrigerated storage, while bulk butter went stale after being refrigerated for nine months. For frozen butter, off-flavors were evident after 12 months for butter quarters and 18 months for bulk butter.9

Choosing butter made fresh from a local farm, will help you avoid any off-flavors in your butter due to prolonged storage. That being said, storing butter in your refrigerator can keep it fresher, longer, if you don’t plan to use it right away.

Many people store butter in their refrigerator and take out a portion 30 minutes or so before a meal to allow it to soften. And even chef Uzarowski — who prefers room temp butter — noted, “I do keep a stash of cold butter in the fridge for specific uses, such as making pie crust and specific sauces like beurre blanc, which can only be made with cold butter.”10

Yes, you can also put butter in the freezer for longer storage. According to U.S. Dairy, unsalted butter can be frozen for up to five months while unsalted butter can be kept in the freezer for up to nine months — but proper storage is important:11

“To keep it tasting as fresh as possible, keep the frozen butter in its original wrapping. You can also wrap it in foil or plastic and put it in an air-tight container. This will make sure the butter doesn’t absorb other flavors. You can freeze it in blocks, sticks or slice it into pats of butter.”

When you’re ready to use the butter, allow it to thaw in your refrigerator first. If you need it right away, a trick is to grate the stick of butter while it’s still frozen. This will help it to thaw quickly and is especially useful if you’re baking.

The introduction of the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1980, which recommended limiting saturated fat and cholesterol, coincided with a rapid rise in obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease.

As saturated fats fell out of favor, and health officials wrongly urged Americans to avoid such healthy fats as butter, Americans began replacing them with products made from refined vegetable/seed oils, which are among the unhealthiest foods you can consume.

Many are still not eating enough saturated fats, such as those from grass fed butter. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of nine publications including 15 country-specific cohorts, butter consumption was not significantly associated with cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease or stroke, but increased consumption was associated with a lower incidence of diabetes.12

Grass fed butter, alone, is a rich source of vitamin A in the most absorbable form, vitamin E, vitamin K2, antioxidants, conjugated linoleic acid, iodine in a highly absorbable form, vitamin D and more.13 By consuming nutritious whole foods like butter, you can lower your risk of multiple nutrient deficiencies at once.

Butter doesn’t have to be viewed as a guilty pleasure. You can indulge guilt-free, as butter is a whole food that contains nutrients your body needs:14

Nutrients in Butter:

• Vitamin A in the most absorbable form

• Lauric acid

• Lecithin — necessary for cholesterol metabolism and nerve health

• Antioxidants

• Vitamin E

• Vitamin K2

• Wulzen Factor — hormone-like substance known to prevent arthritis and joint stiffness (destroyed by pasteurization)

• Fatty acids, especially short- and medium-chain in the perfect omega-3 to omega-6 balance

• Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) — anticancer agent, muscle builder and immunity booster

• Vitamin D

• Minerals, including selenium, manganese, chromium, zinc, and copper

• Iodine in a highly absorbable form

• Cholesterol

• Arachidonic acid (AA) — brain function and healthy cell membranes

• Glycosphingolipids — fatty acids that protect against GI infections

Regarding CLA in butter, it’s not only anticancer but also heart healthy and anti-inflammatory with antiobesity effects as well.15 Sphingolipids, such as ceramides, sphingomyelin, cerebrosides, sulfatides and gangliosides, are also found in butter. These compounds influence cell regulation and have antimicrobial and immunomodulatory effects, while inhibiting cholesterol adsorption. They also have potential anticancer effects. According to Advances in Food and Nutrition Research:

“When consumed, sphingomyelin is transformed to ceramide by sphingomyelinase, and further ceramide is digested to sphingosine and a free fatty acid before being absorbed. Ceramide is known as a cancer cell apoptosis inducer. The consumption of sphingomyelin was related to the prevention of colon cancer in mice and humans.”16

There’s also butyric acid, an anticancer compound found in milk fat. Butyric acid and its salts, including butyrate, are beneficial for your gut and have beneficial effects on energy homeostasis, obesity, immune system regulation, cancer and brain function. Myristic acid is a long-chain saturated fatty acid also found abundantly in milk fat.

It’s involved in important metabolic processes, and moderate consumption may improve omega-3 fat levels, which could lead to improvements in heart health. The consumption of myristic acid from dairy fat is also linked to increases in HDL cholesterol and decreases in triglyceride levels with additional noted immunomodulatory properties.17

To boost the health benefits of butter, look for varieties made from grass fed milk. The very best quality butter is raw (unpasteurized) from grass fed cows, preferably certified organic. The next best is pasteurized butter from grass fed or pastured organic cows, followed by regular pasteurized butter common in supermarkets.

Even the latter two are healthier choices by orders of magnitude than margarine or other vegetable-oil based spreads, but if you can opt for grass fed butter over conventional butter, you’ll get even more nutrients.

This is because milk from cows raised primarily on pasture has been shown to be higher in many nutrients, including vitamin E, beta-carotene and the healthy fats omega-3 and CLA.18 A study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and nutrition also highlighted the differences in human health after consuming the same foods from animals raised in different ways:19

“Multiple studies have shown that food products from animals raised on pasture instead of grains contain significantly higher amounts of nutrients that may protect against cancer, like omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid.

Due to the general recommendation against dietary fat consumption over the past several decades, there has been a lack of scientific dialogue regarding the differences pasture-raised animal byproducts may have on health and cancer prevention.”

Indeed, they found that while lipid levels remained relatively neutral overall, significant differences were found in inflammatory markers and phospholipids depending on whether the foods came from animals fed grass or grains.

So while debate rages on over whether it’s better to keep your butter refrigerated or at room temperature, a more pertinent issue is the superiority of grass fed butter over conventional. No matter where you store your butter — on the counter or in the fridge — make sure it’s grass fed, if possible.

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.