Maine Journal News Rebuttal Opinion to “Our View” by The Morning Sentinel Editorial Board

By: Maine Journal News

This opinion is written to counter the misleading and despicable “Our View” opinion piece by The Morning Sentinel Editorial Board.

As much as fighting a virus, this pandemic has been about silencing differing opinions, doing studies on repurposed therapeutic drugs that were designed to fail and using vague terms such as “misinformation” to stigmatize those who haven’t followed the warbly path of government officials and instead put all of its treatment “eggs” in the vaccine basket since it is not always the safe and effective treatment that local and mainstream media would like you to believe it is.

So, it’s disheartening to see the Maine Medical Association, which represents more than 4,000 physicians in our state, issue a statement condemning the doctors who are following longstanding public health policy for defeating infectious disease pandemics: quarantine and treat the sick; protect the vulnerable and aggressively develop repurposed therapeutic drugs and use early treatment protocols to avoid hospitalizations and praising the doctors give dangerous advice to Covid patients which is “go home and come back when you can’t breathe” at which time these same doctors will give patients Remdesivir that will likely shut down critical organs.

And it’s beyond persecutive though not at all surprising, that some of those same doctors (who don’t want to help you until you can’t breathe) will not provide you with any early treatment besides a vaccine are seen as worthwhile advisers by Democratic lawmakers and other political figures.

Sen. Lisa Keim, a Republican from Dixfield and Senator Ned Claxton, a Democrat from Androscoggin, last month co-hosted a legislative information session designed to inform lawmakers about healthcare professionals’ views on the vaccine mandate (many of those who attended are pro-vaccine but are against the Governor Janet Mills’ vaccine mandate). You may recall that on August 12, 2021, Janet Mills touted the vaccine mandate by telling us it would “ensure the highest quality healthcare in the State of Maine.” Months into the vaccine mandate, we can now see that the people of Maine are receiving the worst quality of healthcare in their lives. Interestingly, the Morning Sentinel “Our View” opinion piece never mentioned that Senator Ned Claxton, a Democrat co-hosted the event with Senator Keim and instead vilified only Senator Lisa Keim, a Republican. We spoke with Senator Keim and she told us the purpose of the session was to discuss with healthcare professionals why they are opposed to the mandate (again, they are not opposed to the vaccine but opposed to the mandate). The Morning Sentinel lied to you by omission.

Given that the Editorial Board of The Morning Sentinel has already been less than truthful in its opinion piece, one should take its next comment with a grain of salt. “a doctor says she lied to a pharmacist in order to get one of her patients a prescription to hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment that is ineffective at treating COVID but has been pushed as an alternative to vaccines. The same doctor says she is a consultant for Children’s Health Defense, led by anti-vaccination charlatan Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” Let’s break this down and fix this statement for MJN’s View: “hydroxychloroquine won a Nobel Prize for its treatment of malaria but is also used off label (as many medications are) for the treatment of Lupus symptoms and arthritis, to name a couple of off label uses. The same doctor says she is a consultant for Children’s Health Defense, led by pro-SAFE vaccination advocate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

Another doctor on the panel who spoke to legislators is part of America’s Frontline Doctors, a brave group of doctors who follow the longstanding public health policy for defeating an infectious disease pandemic by aggressively repurposing therapeutic drugs for early treatment to avoid hospitalization. While America’s Frontline Doctors reported over $6.7 million in referral fees from July to September 2021, $6.7 million it isn’t close to the BILLIONS pharmaceutical companies made by pushing the vaccine only treatment for COVID.

These doctors, and others like them, do not “have blood on their hands” as the Morning Sentinel suggests. Rather, they have helped many people who were turned away from hospitals for treatment because they weren’t sick enough to help and could still breathe on their own. While the Morning Sentinel laments that America’s Frontline Doctors have made a modest profit, it fails to mention the pharmaceutical companies’ staggering profits. The Sentinel also takes issue with doctors who “have been pushing medicines known to not work in treating COVID while badmouthing vaccines and masks, two methods proven to stop the flow of disease and death that has plagued this country for two years.” It seems that the Sentinel Editorial Board didn’t bother to look NIH’s own abstracts and reports about the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for prevention and treatment of Covid-19. It’s our opinion that it’s easier for the Sentinel to leave out this information because it doesn’t fit its narrative that “From April, when most Americans had access to vaccines, through the end of the year, nearly 250,000 Americans died from COVID, and nearly every one of them was preventable. That statement would likely draw guffaws from the quack doctors and the Republican lawmakers who think they are reliable sources.” MJN’s view based on reading and watching interviews with various doctors who are experts in their field is that up to 500,000 lives could have been saved had early treatment been actively sought by public health officials rather than their “slow the spread, flatten the curve, wait for the jab strategy.” In fact, I personally know folks who were quite ill and who were sent home from the ER departments with little or no treatment. They were simply told to come back when you get worse. Those patients then turned to doctors who prescribed repurposed therapeutic medications. They were feeling better within 36 hours and have since recovered from Covid and avoided hospitalization.

According to the Sentinel “But it is the absolute, unassailable truth. In Maine and across the country, the data is clear, consistent, and absolutely horrifying: The worst outcomes from COVID are now almost solely experienced by those who do not have protection from vaccination” to which MJN’s would like to add its view: because doctors aren’t allowed to use their best medical judgment to provide patients with early treatment.

The Sentinel continues “And it is those who are unvaccinated who are getting so sick they need critical care, putting relentless pressure on hospitals and health-care workers who have already gone through two hard years. Instead, Sen. Keim wants to blame Gov. Mills’ mandate, and in order to prove her point, she gave a high-level audience to fact-challenged physicians who hardly deserve the title.” MJN’s view is that both vaccinated and unvaccinated are getting sick because hospitalists are not following longstanding public health policy out of fear. It used to be that, before Covid, a second opinion, was actively sought and welcomed and doctors were allowed to use their best judgment in treating their patients. Once again, the Sentinel fails to mention that this event was co-hosted by a Democrat and failed to mention the true purposes of the meeting.

With the new session starting this week, most Democrats will continue with their blind support of Governor Mills’ mandates and ignore the real-life facts that show Mills’s Vaccine Mandate was an absolutely horrific failure for Maine’s citizens and doesn’t come close to the “highest quality care in the State of Maine” as she promised it would on August 12, 2021. Hospitals are reporting up to 1,000 workers are Covid positive (and we have to presume that if they are working that nearly all are fully vaccinated). With Dr. Shah’s HAN notice on 12/27/21 to healthcare workers telling them, they may remain at work if Covid positive in a crisis situation if they are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, it’s clear that those in charge in Maine’s public health policies are woefully inept.

Finally, opinion pieces can’t be wrong, per se. However, the Morning Sentinel has shown that opinion pieces can contain lies by omission to further a negative narrative against Republicans or anyone who has a differing opinion. It has also shown us that opinions can be vacuous. Ben Bragdon is the Editorial Page Editor at the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel, and he needs to do better.

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