My Vaccine Injury - What Happened

First of all, I want you to know that I'm not a crazy anti-vaxxer. I've always been in support of vaccines, but was like many others, hesitant to get the COVID vaccine because it was so new, and so little time was available to study long-term side effects. This is my personal story of my ongoing struggle with adverse effects of the COVID vaccine. I am not a medical professional, this is not medical advice.

In August, knowing that the Federal government was going to mandate the vaccine for employees and contractors, I received the J&J COVID vaccine. I don't remember much from the following two weeks, other than being in immense pain, and being unable to think clearly. At some point a family member drove me to the ER, where they confirmed I was experiencing adverse effects of the vaccine, but were unable to provide me any relief other than "take Advil and stay hydrated".

Fall COVID Spike Might Be Replica of 1918 Influenza "W" Curve

The 1918 Influenza pandemic contained interesting properties which, to this day, still somewhat baffle the medical community. Most influenzas have a "U" shaped curve for mortality rates. However, the 1918 second wave in September contained a rather unusual "W" shape. In addition to affecting the very young and very old, the second wave of the 1918 flu pandemic also severely affected people between 25 and 35 years of age. One interesting theory for this phenomenon is that people over 35 years of age at the time had been exposed to a similar flu virus prior to 1889, granting them better immunity to the 1918 flu. Read more of this interesting analysis in the NIH article from 2006: 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics

Disclaimer: This is an analysis of current COVID data from a data perspective only. I am not a doctor. This is not medical or legal advice. Consult your physician for concerns regarding COVID.

The Virus Will Lose: Why The Atlantic Got it Wrong

The Atlantic recently wrote an article titled "The Virus Will Win" filled with doom and gloom about the coming "second wave" of the Coronavirus and how polarized public opinion is with regards to re-opening the country, and a full list of reasons why the "virus will win" with everything from the World Health Organization to the Trump administration to the protests over the death of George Floyd. Simply put, they're flat out wrong. The virus will lose, because we as a country will not allow it to win, ever.

Ohio Unemployment Data Breach Victims - Claim Your FREE Copy of My Book "Death by Identity Theft"

In response to the news that the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services has suffered a data breach relating to their unemployment system, I'm giving away copies of my book "Death by Identity Theft" for the next 30 days.

News Media Claims "Facts Not Fear" While Spreading Fear During COVID-19

What do South Korea, Maryland, Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA, and Alabama all have in common? Apparently the same two workers in yellow suits with the same patient in a red isolation chamber have been spotted in all of these locations, according to news media. As discussed in my latest book, "Hacking of the Free", news media often uses imagery and stories designed to invoke emotion, just so they can get better ratings.

I first noticed the photo on March 3rd, when Fox 45 Baltimore ran a story about 7 Marylanders being tested for Coronavirus. I thought it was a bit excessive to have someone on a stretcher in an isolation chamber while wearing hazmat suits, just in order to test for the presence of the virus.

About a month later I see the exact same photo in another Fox 45 article. Only this time the photo is labeled as a "file photo".  While it's not uncommon for news organizations to re-use some of their own photos for future stories, this photo just stuck out to me as odd, so I started digging.

Contact Tracing Privacy Concerns and You

While many are challenging that mandatory stay-at-home orders which have been enacted in many states across the United States are unconstitutional and a violation of our right to assemble, an often overlooked issue is how "contact tracing", tracing who has been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19, is threatening our privacy.

Before diving into the privacy concerns with contact tracing, I'd like to take a moment to say that COVID-19 is absolutely a serious health issue which should not be ignored. People should take reasonable precautions to reduce the chance of infection. Personally, I've been wearing a respirator mask in public since the beginning, as well as frequently using hand sanitizer. I'm not downplaying how serious this situation is. However, I do have concerns that through all this we're losing our ability to freely travel, we're losing many small businesses which have been the lifeblood of our communities for decades, and we're losing our privacy. At some point a line must be drawn, and people must say "enough".

The fact of the matter is, just like with identity theft, you can only reduce the risk, you can't eliminate it. Between social distancing, masks, and frequent hand washing, we've already greatly reduced the risk of spreading infection at a rate which our healthcare system can't handle.

COVID-19 Restored My Faith in Humanity

Several years ago, we lost a great man named Walter Haxton. Walter was an entrepreneur with a huge heart who wanted to fix the homeless issue we face in Hagerstown, Maryland. As of June 2019, Washington County had approximately 249 homeless people. One of the challenges these people face is that most of our shelters are only open during winter months. Walter believed that the solution to this problem was not private industry, not government. As such, Walter created Hagerstown Maryland Summer Homeless Shelters Incorporated. It was a very bold plan devised by Walter - buy a home, then have homeless move in and fix up that home as their rent. After the home was fixed up, sell the home and purchase more homes. Unfortunately Walter fell prey to a romance scam, believing that a foreign woman overseas was romantically interested in him. He spent much of his time trying to help a woman who didn't even exist. Ultimately Walter had to sell the home he had worked so hard on, and passed away shortly after finding out he had been scammed. Many of us truly believe that Walter passed away from a broken heart.

For a long time now, I've seen a very large divide in our nation. This has been a divide forged by biased, sensationalist media reporting and propaganda. This divide has been growing out of control for at least the past 10 years, possibly more. I've seen the ugly side of humanity - resorting to not just vicious personal attacks and firing people for their political views, but even violence against elected officials simply because of their political party.

I had almost given up home in people being able to set aside their differences and work towards a common good.

Then the coronavirus, aka COVID-19, came along.

Now don't get me wrong - yes the virus resulted in a complete emptying of shelves, including respirator masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, milk, bread, and canned goods. However, was that truly unexpected when people are required to quarantine themselves for 14 days just because they were in contact with someone who had the virus?

But what truly restored my faith in humanity is how people have come together to try and help each other. All of these solutions have been implemented voluntarily without government mandate.

Do you need toilet paper?

Yes, the lack of available toilet paper became a serious problem for those of us who don't purchase toilet paper in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco. But one of the things I've seen locally is that people who had an excess supply started giving away that excess supply at no cost to those who needed it.

Undoubtedly these unsung heroes of the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 deserve medals. You'll most likely never read a news article about them, but they exist all across the country.

Sewing for health

In response to the dwindling supply of protective equipment for healthcare workers, businesses such as JoAnn Fabrics started giving away kits to create masks and gowns for healthcare workers.

This business has been forced to close their doors in many states due to being deemed "non-essential", but instead of tightening the belt to cover expenses during this downturn, the company starts giving away fabric to help those in need.

3D Printing Finds its Niche

For many years now, 3D printing has found its niche in the healthcare industry by printing prosthetic limbs, significantly reducing the time and cost for traditional amputee patients. With the spread of the coronavirus 3D printing has taken on a new role - supplying equipment to healthcare workers.

This is probably an incomplete list, but here's a list of medical equipment I've seen being 3D printed for hospitals all across the United States, and probably the rest of the world:

• Face Shields
• Respirators (still need to add filter cartridges afterwards)
• Ventilator valves
• Ventilator splitters - allowing up to four patients to share a single ventilator
• Valves turning snorkel masks into protective equipment for healthcare workers
• Safety Goggles

Open Source Off The Shelf Ventilators

One of the biggest challenges many healthcare providers face during a crisis is the lack of available ventilators. These devices which enable people to breath typically cost between $25,000 to $50,000 each.

Researchers at the University of Florida are working on developing an open source ventilator which can be assembled using components from hardware stores such as Home Depot or Lowe's. The estimated cost of these ventilators? $125 to $250 each.

They say the "necessity is the mother of all invention". I have to admit that today I'm proud of my fellow humans for their invention in this time of crisis.

Ken is a Cyber Security professional, real estate investor, and author.