Coronavirus COVID-19. Will it lead to a re-assessment of a system of medical care that kills, or allows patients to die, destroys economies, and social life, as the result of an infectious disease?

Amidst the panic of coronavirus COVID-19, there is a recognition that nothing will ever be quite the same again. This infectious disease, and the way it has been dealt with by government, conventional medical health services, and the mainstream media, has certainly raised important issues - although unfortunately the most fundamental issues have not been identified, or even ascertained by any of these bodies.

A moment's reflection, the kind of reflection possible only if we are prepared to step outside conventional medical wisdom, will provide a very different picture to the one we are currently being presented with.

• the conventional medical establishment, with its monopoly position within most national health services around the world, has no effective treatment to offer. This has never been denied.
• it bemoans the fact that it has no preventative vaccine, which it sees as the only possible solution to the problem; although it seems confident it will have soon, most likely after the pandemic has run its course!
• government policy has responded to the pandemic by slavishly conforming to the best scientific advice, all of this emanating from the conventional medical establishment. Above and beyond this government appears to have no independent policy.
• the mainstream media has never seriously questioned this position, and have certainly not investigated any alternative explanation about what is happening. Meekly, it has never bothered to look outside the information government, and medical science, has told it.

The result is that there has been no independent thinking throughout the crisis, no alternative voice beyond what conventional medical science wants us to know. Medical science has dominated government thinking. It is totally dominant within mainstream medical services. And it dominates and controls the mainstream media. So everything we are being told comes from a single, unquestioned, and uninvestigated  source.

For many years I have wondered what pharmaceutical medicine would do if and when a serious infectious disease threatened humanity. I have watched what conventional medicine does when such diseases affects animals, and/or plant life.

• When cows and sheep contract Foot & Mouth the herds and flocks are slaughtered, usually in vast numbers; and this is called medical treatment!
• When a cow contracts TB it is slaughtered, along with the rest of the herd; and more recently the local badger population too. This is done in the name of medical treatment!
• When sheep contract scrapie there is no treatment available so they are usually destroyed too. Perhaps as an alternative to medical treatment!
• Avian flu outbreaks amongst domestic birds, chickens, turkeys, ducks, et al, is 'treated' by the culling entire infected flocks. This is the prescribed medical treatment!
• When a tree is diagnosed with a disease it is usually destroyed, chopped down. There is no medical treatment available!
• and so on, ad infinitum.

Conventional medicine is ruthless in its response to infectious disease, especially when it has no effective treatment - which unfortunately seems to be more often the case than not. So what would happen if an infectious disease, for which there was no conventional medical treatment, threatened humanity. How would medical science respond? Well, after COVID-19, we now know!

• Conventional medicine is prepared to spend any amount of taxpayers money to prevent the disease from spreading, to develop new vaccines, or to come up with drugs that have the smallest imaginable chance of having any impact on the disease.
• Conventional medicine is prepared to put at risk, and potentially to ruin entire national economies around the world.
• Conventional medicine is prepared to destroy people's lives and livelihoods, indeed, the very fabric of social life.
• Conventional medicine is prepared to allow people to die rather than look outside its own resources and territory for possible treatments.

More people are now prepared to speak out, still voices in the wilderness, stating that such a policy is ridiculous, senseless, and self-destructive.

And adherents of natural medicine, who espouse the importance of natural immunity, and maintaining health through strengthening our immune system, have look on incredulous at the non-sense of what is happening, the sheer absurdity of conventional medicine's fear of germs.

When considering the current state of affairs we must remember that it is the pharmaceutical medical system that claims to have defeated infectious diseases, from smallpox, to measles, mumps, rubella, and much else. Over the years it has successfully wrestled the credit for this achievement from vital public health policy, increased affluence, improved living circumstances, et al. The actual performance of conventional medicine has never matched their claims, and COVID-19, if it has done anything, has demonstrated that such claims are a lie.

Indeed, given the performance of conventional medicine in response to this epidemic it is no better, no more effective than it was 102 years ago - with the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

Hitherto, as regular readers will know, my main concern about pharmaceutical medicine has been about chronic diseases, such as allergy, dementia, arthritis, asthma, autism, autoimmune disease, COPD, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, and many, many others - including mental health conditions. They have all, at least in part, been caused by the pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that conventional medicine have been prescribing to us now for decades.

Now, following COVID-19, acute disease has been highlighted as another cause for serious concern about the validity and usefulness of conventional medicine - and the urgent need to rethink our approach to health care.

After some 70-100 years of dominating health care services around the world pharmaceutical medicine has not been improved health - it has massively increased the amount of illness and disease from which we suffer.

• all chronic disease is now running at unprecedented epidemic levels, and increasing.
• every chronic disease is known to be caused by pharmaceutical drugs and/or conventional medical treatment, not by allegation, but by reference to conventional medicine's own medical literature.
• there has been a long history of pharmaceutical drugs that have been withdrawn, or banned, following the harm they have caused to patients, often over decades.
• all currently used pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are known to have seriously damaging side effects, again referred to in conventional medical literature
• even former 'wonder' drugs, not least antibiotics, are failing, and will soon be worthless.

The situation will not improve until we completely rethink our understanding of health, what health is, our attitude to illness and disease, what illness and disease is, and where they come from. And most important, the way we can actively improve our wellness and well-being without resorting to toxic pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. Central to doing this will be two things.

First, there must be a new focus on natural immunity, our immune systems, and how we can best keep them functioning in order to protect us from bacterial and viral infections. This alone would lead to a different approach to staying well, as so brilliantly outlined recently in this Arnica Parents Support Network leaflet, Ideas to Avoid Viral Infections and to Support Recovery naturally. Anyone who is interested in looking at what 'natural health' is all about should read this leaflet.

• No more chasing after invisible viruses, or trying to kill 'problem' bacteria; and being scared stiff that they might randomly attack us. Just the simpler, more straightforward task of ensuring we are all taking personal responsibility for our health, and that our body is ready to face the trials and tribulations of living in the real world.

Second, that medical intervention should not seek to second-guess our immune system, not to tinker and interfere with it, or close it down. All medical treatment should support the body in its primary task of keeping itself well, to cease using drugs to 'kill' pain, or to 'block' or 'inhibit' some natural bodily process. We must move to natural therapies which believe in the body's ability to maintain its own health, and to get better when it becomes sick; and when sick to use medical therapies that do not cause us harm.

• No more thinking that good health comes from a bottle of pills, or a vaccine injected into our bloodstream. Just the understanding that we have everything within us to protect us from illness, so long as our lifestyle choices maintains it rather than undermine it.

Many people have already arrived at this brave new world. Many more people are joining us every day.

And after this epidemic those numbers will only increase.