Author: spero

Government Incompetence is Killing Us
Federal & State Governments All Fail To Warn Public about Low Vitamin D
this file freely available at: governmentincompetence.org

"J'Accuse" (I accuse) the US Federal Government, as well as the federal agencies NIAID, NIH, and FDA of civic incompetence, where such incompetence is understood as subsuming the 'regulatory capture' flavor of corruption. The cost of this civic incompetence, in the context of covid-19 response, has been avoidable death, sickness, massive transfer of wealth, upwards [1] and economic destruction, especially of small businesses. These will have further reverberations in disaster capitalism style looting (see: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, by Naomi Klein), decayed mental and physical health of the populace, an enlargement of a permanent underclass, despair, and possible loss of civil rights. The United States is on a trajectory of becoming a 3rd world nation.
I also accuse each and every state government of similar civic incompetence.
I have looked at the covid-19 sections of each and every state web site - from Alabama's to Wyoming's - and found not a single one recommended getting Vitamin D levels checked. Apparently, NO state government - whether dominated by Republicans, or Democrats, or neither - demonstrated enough competence to have acted expeditiously on behalf of their citizens.
covid-19 and Vitamin D
A growing body of evidence has been coming in about Vitamin D sufficiency and covid-19 mortality. The data out of Indonesia may be the most stunning. As reported in SSRN, Patterns of COVID-19 Mortality and Vitamin D: An Indonesian Study, which compared the death rates of hospitalized covid-19 patients with respect to their vitamin D blood levels:

Mortality	Vitamin D Status	Vitamin D Blood Level
98.9% died	deficient	< 50 nmol/L
87.8% died	insufficient	50-75 nmol/L
4.1% died	normal	> 75 nmol/L

Vitamin D Deficiency
is Common!

40% of Americans are Vitamin D Deficient &
76% of African Americans are Vitamin D Deficient
The Cooper Institute

Federal government is as incompetent as the States
Looking at the CDC.gov's "Prevent Getting Sick" page in their covid-19 section, we again find nothing about Vitamin D. Given the dire nature of the covid-19 threat, we can expect that, even if vitamin D insufficiency was known to be uncommon, in a civically competent state, a public education campaign to spare a small, vulnerable sub-population would nevertheless have been conducted. As it turns out, there was a crying need for ongoing public education campaigns long before 2020, since it was known that vitamin D insufficiency is widespread. While the incidence of Vitamin D deficiency is generally enormous, it is catastrophically so in African-Americans, and other darker-skinned Americans. In fact, rickets is on the rise! Another risk factor for vitamin D deficiency is age, because we become less efficient at creating vitamin D via sunlight exposure, as we age. The Federal government has equally failed to protect the elderly.
Vitamin D vs. disease
There is an impressive list of diseases and conditions for which evidence exists correlating adequate vitamin D levels with lower susceptibility. This includes: breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, preterm birth, poor cognitive function. https://vitamindsociety.org/press_release.php?id=60
Perhaps the strongest evidence of Vitamin D efficacy against disease concerns upper respiratory infections - i.e., cold and flu.

Vitamin D can cut upper respiratory infections in half

Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data
(British Medical Journal, 15 Feb 2017)
https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

This meta study (i.e., a study of studies) was from almost 3 years before the covid-19 pandemic. While the most dire scenarios of ICU and ventilator shortages never materialized, that wasn't known as the country swung into action and lockdowns. Just halving seasonal flu hospitalizations would have largely addressed the eventual shortages in ICU capacity that did eventually appear in New York.
No sign of covid-19 governmental competence, as cases tick upwards
The SSRN preprint with Indonesian data was published April 30, 2020. This was well after the covid-19 pandemic strongly hit the United States. There has been more than enough time for ‘signs of intelligent life’ to fall through the cracks of state and federal incompetence, even if belatedly. However, as of 6/26/2020, even with cases ticking upwards, the story is the same.
So, more people will die, needlessly. More economic destruction will occur, needlessly. Perhaps the worst aspect of this #GovernmentIncompetence is that there may be a second wave of covid-19 - one that may be worse than the first wave. If there are further lockdowns, small businesses, in particular, will fail at catastrophic rates.
More people will die, needlessly. More people will suffer, needlessly. More economc destruction will occur, needlessly.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this #PoliticalIncompetence is that there may be a second wave of covid-19 - one that may be worse than the first wave.
If there are further lockdowns, small businesses, in particular, will fail at catastrophic rates.
Vitamin D vs. disease
There is an impressive list of diseases and conditions for which evidence exists correlating adequate

I thereby call for citizens to self-organize a Civic
Competence movement.
And I call on leaders to especially come from the ranks of small businesses and religious communities, whose businesses and communities have been shown to be of little concern to some of our political leaders. For many small business people, the covid-19 crisis is an existential threat both to their livelihoods, but also to their dreams.
Such a movement should work at two levels.

1 At a local and personal-network level, such a movement would generally ignore politics and politicians, and relentlessly spread the word about Vitamin D, vitamin D blood testing, the superiority of sunshine over supplements for raising vitamin D blood levels, and the critical role of Vitamin D in building up the level of immune system robustness in the populace. This aspect of the movement can then later branch into other natural and "alternative" healing modalities that have been suppressed by governmental and medical authorities, and also "heighten the contradictions" between said suppression and what should be the default operation of a civically competent government. This would be a grassroots, bottom up educational process, first and foremost.

2 However, equally important, though of less immediate concern, is to take over the 2 stooges of the ruling plutocracy in the United States. These are the Democratic and Republican parties, which are both equally guilty in selling out the public. This means the public will have to engage in the messy world of Democratic and Republican politics, while keeping themselves pure from corrupting influence and alliances, and any sort of unethical compromises. To avoid wasting time and energy, the public will have to become knowledgeable about the need to install primary candidates, as 86% of House congressional seats are not competitive, with respect to party. In other words, it is certain that either a Democrat or Republican will win a given seat, in 86% of elections, depending on the district. Getting involved with electoral politics, after party standard-bearers are selected, is too late.
It is delusional to think that the United States has anything close to a properly functioning democracy. It was shown, statistically, in Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, by researchers Gilens and Page, that the United States' government functions as a plutocracy. [2] To claw back power from the de facto ruling class will not be easy, but can be done. Represent.us has endorsed research showing that “when 3.5% of a population actively engages in fighting for change, they win, every single time”. [3] (Note: while I respect represent.us’s strategy of getting anti-corruption laws passed at state and local levels, I disagree with not making direct electoral threats at the federal level, right from the get-go.)

References and Notes
[1] An ongoing, massive wealth transfer, upwards, is being accelerated by the covid-19 crisis, as explained by Chris Martenson, of peakprosperity.com, in the youtube video Coronavirus: The "Rescue" Is Stealing Your Wealth. Martenson. This process began before covid-19 hit. See also Martenson’s 2017 article, The Coming Great Wealth Transfer (Spoiler alert: It’s already here.) See also the youtube video Perspectives on the Pandemic | The Monopoly Edition with author Matt Stoller | Episode Eight.
[2] Unbreaking America: Divided We Fall (video), at represent.us. ( Note: I disagree with represent.us's call for mail-in voting, and also automatic registration. I would support, instead, having a multi-day election period, to make voting less of a sacrifice, and with more social distancing. )
[3] Corruption is Legal in America (video), at represent.us
Vitamin D Resources
vitamindwiki.com This site has a wealth of information, is updated regularly, including covid-19 related articles.
grassrootshealth.net
GrassrootsHealth is not just another health web site. Instead it is the amalgamation of many vitamin D scientists from around the world and across many disciplines. 48 scientists worked together to create our call to action. 48 scientists have agreed that there is no perfect supplement amount, instead blood levels must be tested, and that level should be 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L). Much research, not just one study, is behind our mission to make vitamin D testing and monitoring part of standard of care for ALL people.
key article by health hero Dr. Joseph Mercola, et. al.: Vitamin D in the Prevention of Covid-19 ( https://tinyurl.com/yb4xxwju )
The purpose of this report is to help you understand why it is so important to optimize your vitamin D level in order to have healthy immune functions, and then provide you with a detailed strategy for how to do that.
This report can be an invaluable tool to share with your family and community to help prepare for a second wave of the pandemic, which is expected in the fall.
Dr. Mercola is requesting the public’s help in propagating his Vit D vs. covid-19 message

governmentincompetence.org
#GovernmentIncompetence
@GovernmentInco1