Hi, I'm Dr. James Marcum. Thanks for joining me. Today, we're going to answer the question,
how should we be approaching the Delta variant? You hear this in the news
everywhere about this Delta variant. Well, we're going to talk about
what should approach be to this. But before we do that, I want to share
a biblical prescription for you. A text, a text about wisdom. And that's James three, verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above, from heaven, the wisdom
from heaven is first pure. Then peaceable. Gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. So when we're looking for wisdom to answer these tough questions
in the world we live in. I want to say first to remember that
truth is in the Bible and Christ is our healer. Now, let's get on to this question. How do we approach the Covid variant? Well, first, let's talk a little bit
about what what is a variant? Well, all viruses,
whether it be a flu, viruses, the viruses want to keep living
and sustaining themselves. So they have these processes
called mutations. That's where they stay change. They mutate, they change their sequences
of DNA and RNA to stay alive. So they have basically mutations. And the Sars Covid has done
the same thing as well. It's changed and it's mutated. And now we have this mutation
called the Delta variant. That's not the only mutation we have. There's been over 4000 mutations. They call this Delta variant
B, one point six one seven point two. That's the terminology
they're given to the Delta variant. But there's many variants. While this one has got everyone's concern
because it is very contagious, it showed up now in Britain and India. It's showing up in Indonesia
and it's showing up in the United States. It's estimated now in the United States
by the CDC that up to 83 percent of the new cases of the Sars
is this Delta variant. In Israel, they're finding in studies
that the Delta variant is affecting people
that have already had the vaccination. So the Delta variant is can affect people
that have been vaccinated. It's a mutation. It's a new type of virus. It's very contagious. That's the problem. It's very contagious. And it can spread fast. We have noticed that people
that have had vaccinations or immunity to this, it doesn't
cause them to be as sick, but it can still spread
throughout a population. So it's very important to keep
this new Delta variant from spreading. The symptoms so far
have been a little bit different. People have cough, headaches,
fever, sore throats. They noticed that it hasn't affected
the smell and taste quite as much as the original Sars virus. So with that said, let's think about
the big picture again regarding viruses. You get the virus in the body
and it starts to replicate. That means it divides very quickly. The next thing it does is it triggers
some type of immune response. We call that the cytokine storm. And this whole process damages
the blood vessel lining called the endothelium
can lead to a lot of clots. So those three components
are very important, as we say. Well, how should we approach this variant? Well, I've gone back to the four arms again
in approaching this variant as well. First, we have to do things that enhance
the immune system. Vitamin D seems to be very important. We have to research this and make sure people are having things
that enhance their immune system. We have to have acute treatment. We don't want people to stay at home
for long periods of time. You know, if you're bleeding,
you want to stop the bleeding. If you have a bacterial infection,
you want an antibiotic. Well, if you're sick,
you want to jump on it right away. Why is that? Well,
maybe you can slow viral replication. Maybe you can decrease the cytokine storm. Maybe you can stop the clotting. And by decreasing viral replication,
maybe you can limit the spread throughout society.
So that's very important to look at that. A third arm that we have to look about
is, well, how does this how does this variant affect
not only those who have had Covid, but in fact, those
that have been vaccinated? How does it affect them? And then lastly, which groups
is it spreading the fastest in? Which groups are the most vulnerable? And who should we really focus
our treatment on first? Who should we focus on the attack? Our research dollars are quarantine's
are our focus on which groups. So each four of those arms
need to be looked at in order that we can deal
with this process of viral replication, cytokine storms and this clotting well,
there's much literature out there that's being developed,
unfortunately, to this day, there's not a lot of randomized studies
that have been done. And that's very common in medicine. When something first happens,
we figure out what to do about it and then we circle around, do the careful studies, see what works
and what doesn't work. This has been the tradition
of medicine for years. In fact, there's many things in medicine that we do that
never have randomized studies. We just do it because it works. We want to take care of people. So I've picked out some studies out there
that I think are legitimate, that I want to share with you
from different people that have been working with this virus
this year, treating patients every day. And mainly, I want to focus a little bit
about immune enhancement and acute treatment. The first comes from a scientist that's
very well known named Peter McCullogh. And he actually had this Covid himself
and he treated it. And what he focused on
specifically in acute care is he looked at who is the riskiest person
who needs treatment right away. Well, we've identified
we know that older people need treatment, people
with weakened immune systems. We know that as we age, our immune system
wakes were more vulnerable. We know that certain conditions
like carrying extra weight. And he looked at people greater than a BMI, greater than 30 kilograms
a meter squared. People that have chronic diseases
like pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart disease,
cancer, kidney disease. So older people that have underlying
medical problems that carry extra weight, we need to really focus
a lot of resources on them. And younger people tend to be healthier, tend to
when they get it, they don't get as sick. So those are some things that
we need to focus on and he focused on. So what did he do
when someone got acutely sick to slow the rate of viral replication, the cytokine storm
and the endothelial damage? Well, the first thing that I think everyone should do
is if you're sick, don't go around people. One of the things that I'm practicing doing every day is
I'm clearing my nasal passages. What does that look like? Well, I'll go in the shower every morning
with some soap and water and cleans out my nasal cavity. So there's no viruses
no matter where they're from. Staying there long term, coughing,
everything you can out. I think those are very useful. So if someone comes down
with the symptom right away, immediately he did these things
like the fresh air and then he did the things
to enhance your immune system. And the research is shown
that taking vitamin D is very important. And in fact, in his regimen,
he recommended five thousand international units a day. He also recommended zinc sulfate
right away, as well as fresh air. Those type of things. And then to keep the virus
from replicating. He recommended starting
at least two antivirals right away. He use hydroxychloroquine,
he use ivermectin, and he combined it with an antibiotic
like azithromycin or doxycycline. And he used another
antiviral called favirpravier. He used that as well. So the theory is,
by treating the virus in multiple agents with anti viral agents right away,
we could slow down the replication then if the person got sicker and sicker
with this respiratory systems. By day five, he was thinking, well,
we need to knock down the immune response. And in that day, he used things
like prednisone judelson. I'd he even use a medicine called colchicine
to knock down the immune response. Then after that, he focused on that help with the immune response
that was coming, the cytokine storm. Then as an outpatient, he focused
on the different types of clotting. The simplest thing was aspirin. But as a person got sicker,
he focused on low molecular heparin. Some of the things that we have out there
that we use very frequently, like Eliquis, Xarelto,
those were also agents that were using as well
as watching a person's pulse ox. And then he treated very aggressively
as an outpatient to really focus on these three things. He's had enormous success
with this regimen. He's treated patients as an outpatient,
never been studied by large number of groups.
But it's working. And you know what? It makes sense. Let's treat it right away. Let's jump on this. Another group that's done a lot with
this is called The Frontline Critical. Care Alliance, and they have done
a lot of studies on this very controversial medicine
called ivermectin, and I'm sure you've heard about it, and at least I have to mention it
as it's out there. And as you know,
those who have listened to this before, I try to take a balanced approach. I look at all the data out there. I don't tell people what to do,
but I tell people to look at the data and then make decisions based on asking
God for help, asking God for wisdom. And we're looking at some of these
characteristics of wisdom, pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy, good fruits
without partiality and without hypocrisy. Boy, do we see that kind of wisdom today. Well, this group has also been working
with lots of patients and they've done some research
and they have a lot on their website . It's called C19 Ivermectin dot com. They've looked at all
of the different studies on ivermectin. You can look at those and decide
what holds credence. But it seems like many of the studies show
benefits an ivermectin for treating viral illnesses. So they have come up
with the prevention protocol and it has some similarities
to what we saw from Peter McCullough. It again, looks at jumping on it early
so the viruses don't replicate. We don't want people staying at home
week after week, getting sicker. The virus replicates, they get the
cytokine storms that get blood clots. Then they become these long haulers
with long disease. So what there's focus is on it focuses on prevention,
especially vitamin D3, vitamin C. They use zinc again. This time they throw on one
called melatonin. Seems like it has some antiviral activity. And another one called quercetin. The nice thing about these, the prevention
protocol is really there's no risk. They enhance the immune system. But there's really no risk. I think the one that I think I would
recommend the highest is vitamin D3. And they recommend up to three thousand
international units a day. But you can get this checked. You can get this checked at the doctor's
office to see what your level is. Then again, they recommended
an early treatment protocol, very similar jumping on the virus.
So it doesn't replicate. And they again recommended things
like ivermectin. They recommended another medicine
called Fluvoxamine. This was one that had
sort of an antidepressant that seems to help
and people with viral activities. Then they recommend all of the other ones
we talk to as well. And they've been using this
as early outpatient treated right away. And then they've also,
you know, talked about at least a minimum of an aspirin in treating this early
on to prevent this from a little problem
from becoming a big problem. So I've left you some information on this and in their Web site
Frontline Critical Care Alliance. You can look on that website
and they have a lot of doctors who will actually treat you. They can treat you online. You can call phone numbers that you can
get a hold of these physicians who have experiencing and treating this as an outpatient,
which I think is very important. We don't want it to get so blown out
that you have long term damage. And they've noticed
that when treated early on, they don't have a lot of the sickness
and hospitalizations and big problems that we saw earlier on in this pandemic. Another scientific article that I thought
was very good in early treatment on this arm that we're focusing on
is from Paul Alexander. And again, he looked at early multidrug
outpatient treatment of the Sars in specifically nursing home groups. And again, his treatment pattern,
the multidrug showed benefit, but it again, it
focused on jumping on this early. And he used medicines
like hydroxychloroquine, doxycycline and some of the others ones
that we've talked about. The big point I want to make today is
we need to treat early on. And they've had some success in India. Now we're seeing it in Indonesia that when people get sick,
we want to jump on it early on. We want to help their immune system. We want to have early treatments,
the best we have available, and then we want to think about
long term treatment. So those are some things that I think
that's very helpful. Now, a study in Nashville
out of Vanderbilt has just started. It's called the Active Six Study. And Doctor Negi at Vanderbilt
is focusing on this study. And this study is started June eight. And it's going to go through December
22 of this year, enrolling patients, specifically using these agents early on
in treatment to see what works in a. Double blind randomized placebo studies. These other studies are doctors
that are actually out there treating and reported great success rates,
but they haven't been scrutinized in great detail. So these are some things out there
regarding the Delta variant. So regarding the Delta variant, of course,
we want to keep from spreading it. If you're sick, don't go outside stairwell that round from groups that might have it
focus on your immune system. Some of the things we talked about
that are no risk, especially vitamin D. If you're having symptoms, consider
getting treated right away with antivirals that we've talked about. If you if you have an immune response
that seems to be growing, some of these things
that would block the immune response of cytokines like steroids,
one that use budesonide dexamethasone, prednisone,
those are steroids to use when appropriate and focus on the clotting mechanisms
to get really, really sick. You might need more clotting medicines
if you're just a little bit sick. Maybe an aspirin would do enough
because we don't want you to have this disease
and become what we call a long Horler. Will the disease damages to the cytokines
towards the capillary damages? It creates the clots
which damages organs throughout the body. Sometimes it takes a long time to recover. Sometimes people with underlying
conditions don't even recover. I've talked about a lot
given you a lot to think about. And remember, I want you
to do the thinking. You have a brain. God's given us things to think about. We can look at all the data out there
and can make some good decisions. But again, I want you to remind you again
about the big picture. And that's James three verse 17. Let me read it to you. But the wisdom that is from above,
and that's what we're seeking, it's hard right now
to sort through all this. Everyone has an agenda. Everyone gets a little bit
excited about this. And there's good people on both sides
that really believe in what they're doing. But we want to look to God for wisdom, too, because that's
ultimately going to heal us. But the wisdom that is from above,
what's it look like? Its first pure. That wisdom is peaceable. That wisdom is gentle,
that wisdom is willing to yield. It's full of mercy. It comes up with good fruits
without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we want to ask God
as we sort through this from wisdom above. And I hope all of you continue
to have good health. And thank you for joining me today. If you like this, hit the like button. If you might want to learn more.
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