Oxygen cylinders are in high demand in Myanmar as the country struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic.

But is this a sign that the wrong treatment – if any – is being provided to patients?

The COVID-19 pandemic threat couldn’t be coming at a worse time for Myanmar, given the breakdown in what was already a rickety health system, compounded by the actions of the Myanmar Military junta and a number of health workers in the Civil Disobedience Movement walking off the job.

COVID-19 TOLL

As of the beginning of this week, Myanmar’s official COVID-19 cases numbered over 351,000 and deaths stood at over 13,000.

The key theme of the Myanmar COVID-19 crisis has been a rush for oxygen cylinders. What this appears to indicate is that people with COVID-19 symptoms are not getting treatment or receiving inadequate or the wrong treatment and their symptoms have worsened to the point where they are having problems breathing.

FAULTY APPROACH?

As we reported in the COVID-19 SPECIAL REPORT in the last issue of Mizzima Weekly, the whole approach to tackling this health threat around the world is allegedly wrong and fraudulent. As a growing number of health professionals and lawyers claim through careful research, the PCR Test is not suitable for use and is faulty – as America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has acknowledged, noting that amongst other problems, it can’t distinguish between COVID-19 and the flu.

In simple terms, health professionals have criticized the test saying it has dramatically and artificially inflated worldwide COVID-19 figures.

What this means for Myanmar – and other countries around the world – is the rush to test people with this test is not helping deal effectively with the problem and does not give a fair indication of the spread of the virus. As noted, the PCR Test is typically run at a cycle threshold that is too high and produces as many as 90% false positives.

What this could mean is that Myanmar’s COVID-19 figures are significantly inflated.

In contrast, normal health practice focuses on treating people who have symptoms of illness or health conditions.

But what has happened with the standard COVID-19 testing is large numbers of healthy individuals with no symptoms have been caught up in the dragnet in searching for people who are COVID-19 “positive”.

Often these people who come up “positive” are put in lockdown or quarantine even though they show no symptoms and are likely not to have the virus.

CATCHING IT EARLY

Normal health practice, however, would be to ignore the healthy population and focus on those with COVID-19 symptoms. Here the onus would be on identifying the problem early and providing the right treatment, including antivirals, vitamins and minerals.

However, what appears to be happening in Myanmar – and needs confirmation – is people with COVID-19 symptoms are not getting early treatment, nor the right treatment, hence the rush for oxygen cylinders.

For many with COVID-19 symptoms in Myanmar, the situation is dire because of the security situation and the limited health facilities operating.

It is not surprising, given these circumstances, that a significant number of people are treated too late, or fail to get treatment, and die.

But what is unclear is the veracity of the actual COVID-19 tally in terms of case numbers and death numbers. These numbers could be heavily inflated, if the claims of doctors and lawyers challenging the pandemic narrative are anything to go by.

VARIANTS

Complicating the issue of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic is what appears to be hyped up news about COVID-19 variants. Governments and the media are claiming these variants are more dangerous and more rapidly spreading than the standard COVID-19. But there are problems with these assessments, according to health professionals.

Firstly, claims of variant spread are not backed up by science. The PCR Test – which is an already flawed test – does not distinguish between COVID-19 and so-called variants, such as Delta.

Secondly, the difference between COVID-19 and a variant – assuming it was specially tested in a laboratory – is minuscule, possibly less than one percent difference compared with COVID-19, according to immunologists. What this means is that the variant may not be all that different from COVID-19 and it should be expected that viruses will mutate to some extent.

However, what appears to be happening is governments and the media are ramping up fear about the “new threat” posed by variants, and it is likely they will continue to roll out new named variants to maintain an atmosphere of fear. All this appears to be being used to maintain an emergency and keep restrictions in place.

VAXED CATCH COVID-19

Myanmar health professionals would be wise to focus on trying to treat people early and using the correct antivirals and vitamins.

But what would be a mistake is to try to rush to get the population vaccinated, according to health professionals who have been assessing the ingredients in the vaccines and the vaccine effects.

There are two core points to keep in mind: firstly, the dangers allegedly posed by the vaccines, and, secondly, the efficacy of the vaccines.

When it comes to the potential dangers posed by the COVID-19 vaccines, frightening stories are coming in in their thousands about people having adverse reactions, including death, as a result of taking the vaccine.

The voluntary reporting systems of VAERS in the USA and the Yellow Card in the UK indicate high adverse reactions including death. As noted in the USA, more people have reportedly died of the COVID-19 vaccine over the last six months than from all other vaccines over the last 20 years.

However, the other unfortunate point appears to be that the vaccines may not work. As the manufacturers admit, and the CDC agrees, the vaccine does not stop a person from catching the COVID-19 virus or from passing it on. The vaccines remain under trial until 2023.

What this means is that many of the cases of people being hospitalized with COVID-19 are of people who have been double-vaccinated, according to reports. People who have been vaccinated are dying from the virus.

However, as if to compound the problem, a number of health authorities are rushing to give the elderly or the immune-compromised vaccine booster shots.

WHAT IS AT HAND

For most people in Myanmar, there is no option to get the vaccine. And given the possible dangers, the best course of action might be to focus on what is at hand.

This ought to include trying to treat people early and to use the right antiviral and vitamin protocols that have been tried and tested with success.

After all, if caught early, COVID-19 has a high survival rate of 99.96%, not so different from seasonal flu.

Are Myanmar COVID-19 patients getting the right treatment? The answer is unclear.

Jan Raphael is the pseudonym of a writer who covers Asian and world affairs.

NOTE: The information provided in this article should not be considered as medical advice.

Mizzima Media is not responsible for the views expressed here.

This story was first published in Mizzima Weekly Magazine.