9-day novena to St Joseph | Day 7
Germ-theory idolatry and other Sacred Cows
Photo by Devyn Holman on Unsplash
"The greatest good for the greatest people is the measure of right and wrong."
--Jeremy Bentham, Utilitarian Philosopher
The above quote and model is used for medical-resource allocation, especially by Infectious Disease, Epidemiology and health insurance. Morally-flawed, it prioritizes a collective at the expense of an individual i.e. abortion. Politically, who defines a public good? Socially, who decides which population benefits? The purpose of this post is twofold: to bring God back into health care and to debunk the sacred cows that drive healthcare decision-making. In 2020, many lessons were learned when a government-funded, foreign-lab neatly-spliced 2-viruses: SARs and coronavirus. Ramifications were world-fear (germ-theory idolatry), loss of free will (herd immunity idolatry) and forced-immunizations (pharmakeia). How did we get here?
Germ theory postulates that disease is caused by micro-organisms. This is a gross oversimplification. An awkward comparison would be to claim that all plants are poisonous. Germ theory denies the existence of pro-biotics, which reside on the good end of the micro-organism spectrum. Moreover, 6-conditions must be present for infections to "germinate." These demonstrate God's 6-firewalls against pestilence. However, our free will and socio-economic choices affect these firewalls. Here are 5-interferences that affect our susceptibility to infections.
- Asymptomatic carriers. Born immune to certain infections, historical examples are Typhoid-Mary and the Russian Romanov-dynasty, maternal-transmission of hemophilia. Silent spreaders of SARs/covid were recent occurences as well.
- Genetic diversity. Inbreeding leads to gene mutations which increases disease-vulnerability i.e. hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, congenital defects and miscarriage. Beastiality can result in zoonotic cross-infections i.e. HIV, monkey pox, and other STDs.
- Immune diversity. Manageable stress, adequate sleep, a healthy gut-biome and exercise can disarm germs. Unnecessary and wrongful-antibiotics disrupt the gut, negate protections and create superinfections.
- Mutations. Microbes are opportunistic. They adapt as they learn our defenses.
- Viruses. National Geographic states SARs-covid viruses can mutate differently in each person as often as every 11 days, which makes previous-variant vaccines obsolete. Antibiotics do not stop viruses and lead to further immune vulnerabilities.
- Bacteria. While certain antibiotics harm bacteria, the microbe must be sensitive since not all antibiotics kill all bacteria. While they mutate less frequently than viruses, they are sly-resisters of antibiotics. One example is the formation of an M and M-like candy-shell that older antibiotics cannot penetrate. Moral: avoid antibiotics if at all possible. Please do not use leftover antibiotics from medicine cabinets, which create new superbugs.
- Virulence--is the potential damage or threat caused by microbes. Highly-virulent microbes are botulism, cholera, anthrax and MRSA. Low-virulent microbes are pre-biotics, pro-biotics and normal flora.
Health Insurances use statistics to determine payment for low risk/low cost-healthcare in various populations. Generically-defined, it is a warranty which collects regular fees in return for bodily repair payments and other medical-events. Often, health insurance will not cover high-risk/high-cost events. This minimizes payouts of for-profit entities. With insurance, the patient is not the customer. Stockholders are the customers who expect quarterly-dividends and capital gains. Patients must buy expensive-supplements AND catastrophic-insurance to be 100% covered. This sacred cow has replaced trust in God. Did Jesus or Mother Mary have health insurance? Previously, families cared for their sick. Gradually, hospitals were built by saintly-nuns and hospitaliers. Today, health-complexities have evolved beyond recognition. We accept corporate-greed as the norm as we pay expensive premiums to managed-care-conglomerates who pay for bare essentials. Is this what God meant by corporal works of mercy? Additionally, we pay deductables, co-pays and other penalties for out-of-network care. God wants our trust and ultimately, our souls. His forever-plan does not concern our mortal bodies. He promises to give us new bodies on the last day. While we must use prudence and exercise stewardship, like the saints we must spend our health in a holy way that leaves nothing behind. For what are we saving our health, if not to suffer cheerfully, like Jesus?
Pharmakeia is Greek-word that appears in the Bible 5 times: Galatians 5:20; Revelation 9:21, 18:23, 21:8 and 22:15. This mirrors our term, pharmacy. While biblical interpretations differ, it warns against using pharmacology to manipulate reality: biological, physical, mental, etc. Modern examples are below.
- Direct marketing and Tele-health are dangerous ways to market risky-medications to the uneducated, suffering and unaware. Telehealth prevents hands-on physical examinations and can lead to prescriptive-inaccuracies and fraud.
- Viral immunizations. The effectiveness of influenza vaccines is not statistically-significant within 95% p-value standards. The CDC admits that 15-years of data yielded an average-effectiveness rate of 42.87% annually. Why does it continue? What is their definition of effectiveness? Meanwhile, future vaccines are manufactured based on educated-conjecture and politics. Imagine St Joseph rolling up his sleeve for his annual flu shot. Then help me understand how this annual sacred-cow is not questioned for its' under-effectiveness? Using the utilitarian-quote above, how is this a public good and which population benefits? Might this annual funding be better-spent elsewhere?
- Birth control. For this sacred cow, please see Catholic365 Part 1 and Catholic365 Part 2.
- Weight loss injections (GLP-1) manipulate thyroid hormones which cause thyroid tumors in rodent-experiment models. Patients with thyroid disease should avoid them. Meanwhile, it is too early to know long-term health effects in humans. While we love losing weight painlessly, this semi-experimental drug was intended for pathologic-BMI cases. Big pharma's direct marketing and greed has created incentives to avoid exercise and bypass fasting. Moreover, this rewards gluttony, sloth and pride. Our Lord Jesus asks us to pray and fast to avoid the 7-deadly sins. Many saints fasted and received showers of graces leading to miracles, in some cases. This newest sacred-cow circumvents God's will, and furthers soul-eating concupiscence.
Herd Immunity is a house-of-cards. This concept suggests that once a pre-defined immunized-population % is reached, the disease is "contained."
- With the focus on flawed germ-theory, it allows root causes of outbreaks to be overlooked. This misdirection enables public-health tax dollars to promote untested-vaccines and expensive-antivirals. Meanwhile, outbreak-causes proliferate: overcrowding, unsafe water, lab breaches or other broken environmental factors. Promoting herd immunity over causal-fixes prolongs disease-cycles.
- Herd immunity ignores the realities of waning immunity, viral mutations and reinfections. Even if 100% of a population were immune for a snapshot in time, emerging variants would render previous immunity moot within 11 days. Meanwhile, herd immunity lower-thresholds are based on oversimplified-assumptions. In truth, most thresholds are in the 80-90% range, which are logistically-unachievable. Idolizing this sacred cow encourages congressional-funding to questionable sources. Unless causality is reversed, pharmacologic-approaches will be lucrative and risky, but rarely curative. At best, they represent securing a Band-Aid to hide an undiagnosed cancer.
Medical device-implants with microchips. The FDA-website lists 20-pages of tiny-font approved implantable-devices. Many have GPS-capability with stored-library computer-chips to enable upgrades. There are offsite setting-options via modem with change-functions and kill-switches in the event of recalls. Examples are brain implants, defibrillators, cochlear-implants, A-fib implants, pacemakers, etc. Many Christians have begun to question implant technology; specifically, who is the end user?
Paralyzed in a diving accident, 29-year old Noland A became the first person to receive a brain implant in January of 2024. The purpose of the implant was return of function. While the initial surgery was successful, things went south when 85% of brain electrodes retracted from their anchor-sites, crippling the implant's intended function. Scrambling to employ software fixes, the implant was left in place. As of publication date, Noland can play computer games and access other simple functions with thought-control of a computer cursor. His level of function, prior to implantation is unknown.
In the Book of Revelation, verse 13:16-18 mentions a required-mark on the hand or forehead in order to buy or sell. Since they may contain a digital-ID, how are microchips a slippery slope or precursor toward this prophecy's fulfillment? If these sacred-cows control our brains, hearts and other vital functions, when does this raise theological concerns of playing God? While there is no direct-connection between microchips and the Biblical mark-of-the-beast, where is the line and when is it crossed? Just because we can, ethically, does it mean we should? Currently, the subject of microchipping humans is based on individual Scripture interpretation.
Who owns your data? Why are security and social media companies like Palantir and Google interested in healthcare? Because their businesses leverage data, and healthcare is one of the most data-rich fields in the world. In fact, healthcare produces nearly a third of the world’s entire data. Studies indicate that almost 97% of this data is unanalyzed. Platforms for patient-data are being built around AI and optimization. These companies, including the World Economic Forum, plan to organize datasets to glean better insights. If this becomes a "world-based" sacred-cow, our healthcare data cannot be considered private.
Conclusion. Idolatry of health experts and their endproducts--over trust in God--leads to fear since humans make mistakes. Germ-theory and herd-immunity propaganda creates unsafe and unnecessary dependance on pharmakeia. Modern science has already debunked these concepts, yet sacred cows proliferate. The good news is that God has designed our immune systems with 6-firewalls to prevent infections. If we have fear, let it be fear-of-the-Lord. If He can protect souls during pre-antibiotic and pre-vaccine eras, He can protect us.
St Joseph, pray for us.
Mother Mary, pray for us.
Jesus, we trust in You!
Sources:
CDC Seasonal Flu Vaccine Effectiveness | CDC
The coronavirus is mutating—but what determines how quickly? | National Geographic
Covid-19 Herd Immunity is a 'dangerous fallacy' scientists warn | NBC News
The Flaws of “Herd Immunity.” | Journal of Emergency Nursing
The germ theory revisited: A non-centric view on infection outcome | PMC.ncbi,nlm.nih.gov/articles
How to harness the power of health data to improve patient outcomes | World Economic Forum
Recommended Stories
About the Author
Science cannot explain suffering. As Lay Passionist and nurse, she challenges modern health care assumptions; contraception, abortion, euthanasia, herd immunity and more. Behind every health dilemma, God asks us to abide in Him. Author of 7 books & >20 peer-reviewed nursing journal articles; she also writes as "The Catholic Nurse" on Substack, see "Archives." She is a veteran of the Army Nurse Corps. Her primary charism is mercy through which she explores redemptive suffering, spiritual healing and the joy of bringing of souls to God.
More Stories By :
