Sweat With Purpose: Exercise in the Heat to Unlock Your Body's Deepest Detox

It’s summertime for me in Texas, that means another 100 degree day coming home from work and deciding, should I go for a workout which is typically involves calisthenics, biking, running, finished by swimming but all in the heat?💧 Sweat Equity: Harnessing Summer’s Heat as Nature’s Detox ProtocolThe human body possesses an elegant, built-in detoxification system that modern medicine consistently undervalues: sweating. As temperatures climb each summer, millions retreat into air-conditioned bubbles, slathering on antiperspirants that chemically block one of our most ancient purification mechanisms. This avoidance of a natural physiological process represents a profound misunderstanding of what the body is trying to accomplish when the mercury rises.🔬 The Biochemistry of Therapeutic SweatingSweat is not merely saltwater. Eccrine glands—the body’s primary sweat-producing structures numbering between 2 and 5 million across human skin—excrete a complex cocktail that includesheavy metals, phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and yes mRNA and Spike protein from COVID-19 vaccination years ago. Research has consistently demonstrated that arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury are measurably excreted through sweat, often at concentrations exceeding those found in urine.A 2012 systematic review published in theJournal of Environmental and Public Healthdocumented that induced sweating consistently mobilized stored toxicants from adipose tissue and eliminated them through the skin. This is particularly significant given that many persistent organic pollutants are lipophilic—they sequester in fat tissue where they resist urinary excretion. Sweating provides a route of elimination that bypasses this limitation entirely.The mechanism is straightforward: as core body temperature rises, blood flow to the skin increases dramatically—up to 8 liters per minute during intense heat exposure. This perfusion carries mobilized toxins to sweat glands, where they exit the body. Simultaneously, the heat shock proteins activated by thermal stress initiate cellular repair cascades and autophagy, the body’s intracellular housekeeping process.🌡 Beyond Detox: The Systemic BenefitsThe benefits extend well beyond toxicant elimination:Cardiovascular conditioning.Passive heating through sauna use—a close analogue to summer heat exposure—demonstrates remarkable effects on cardiovascular health. The Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study, tracking over 2,300 middle-aged Finnish men across two decades, found that those using saunas 4–7 times weekly experienced a63% reduction in sudden cardiac deathand a50% reduction in cardiovascular mortalitycompared to once-weekly users. The physiological stress of heat exposure mimics moderate cardiovascular exercise, improving endothelial function, reducing arterial stiffness, and lowering blood pressure.Immune system modulation.Hyperthermia triggers a transient increase in circulating white blood cells, natural killer cells, and neutrophils. This simulated fever state activates dormant immune pathways that modern temperature-controlled living leaves chronically understimulated.Mental health and neuroprotection.Heat exposure elevates beta-endorphins and dynorphins. The initial discomfort of heat triggers dynorphin release, which subsequently upregulates endorphin receptors—producing the euphoric “afterglow” familiar to sauna users. More critically, repeated heat exposure increases expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and observational data from the KIHD study suggests a66% reduction in dementia and Alzheimer’s riskamong frequent sauna users.Skin purification.The increased blood flow and pore dilation during sweating mechanically flushes sebaceous glands, reducing bacterial load and improving skin microbiome diversity. This is the body’s own deep-cleaning mechanism—no topical product can replicate it.🧪 The Modern Toxic BurdenThe case for intentional sweating has never been stronger. The average person now carries an unprecedented body burden of synthetic chemicals. NHANES biomonitoring data reveals that virtually every American has detectable levels of phthalates, flame retardants, pesticides, and industrial compounds circulating in their blood and stored in their tissues. The liver and kidneys—magnificent as they are—evolved to handle naturally occurring toxins, not the thousands of novel synthetic compounds introduced since the Industrial Revolution.Glyphosate, the world’s most widely applied herbicide, is now detectable in the urine of the majority of the population. Atrazine, linked to endocrine disruption, contaminates drinking water across the agricultural Midwest. Microplastics have been found in human blood, lung tissue, and placental samples. These compounds were never part of our evolutionary environment, and our primary detoxification pathways are not optimized for their elimination.Sweating provides an auxiliary route—a pressure-release valve for a system under unprecedented chemical siege.💦 Hydration: The Non-Negotiable FoundationNone of the above is possible without adequate hydration. The average adult loses 0.8 to 1.4 liters of water per hour during heavy sweating in hot conditions. This fluid is not merely water—it carries electrolytes, trace minerals, and water-soluble vitamins that must be replaced for continued safe sweating.Dehydration during heat exposure is dangerous and counterproductive. When fluid volume drops, sweating decreases, toxin elimination stalls, and core temperature rises unchecked. The body, in its wisdom, prioritizes temperature regulation over detoxification—but only when fluid reserves permit both.This is where strategic hydration becomes essential. Water alone is insufficient for prolonged sweating; electrolyte replacement is mandatory. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium losses during heavy sweating can reach clinically significant levels, and hyponatremia from consuming plain water without electrolyte replacement during extended heat exposure is a well-documented medical emergency.🧊 The Pique Life Deep Hydration Protocol: A 24-Hour SolutionPique Life’s Deep Hydration Protocol bundles two complementary products designed for round-the-clock hydration coverage, and the logic behind this pairing is physiologically sound.The daytime component—BT Fountain Electrolyte Recovery—addresses acute needs.During active sweating in summer heat, rapid sodium and potassium replenishment is paramount. Sodium facilitates fluid retention and prevents the dangerous drop in plasma osmolality that occurs when sweaters drink plain water without salt. Potassium maintains intracellular fluid balance and prevents muscle cramping. Magnesium supports the hundreds of enzymatic reactions involved in energy metabolism during heat stress. A well-formulated electrolyte product taken during and after heat exposure transforms sweating from a potentially dehydrating stress into a controlled therapeutic intervention.The nighttime component—RE Fountain—addresses the repair window.Sleep is when the body conducts its most intensive cellular repair, and hydration status during these hours is frequently overlooked. The 8-hour fasting period of sleep represents a significant dehydration window, particularly after a day of heavy sweating. Pique’s sleep formulation provides sustained, slow-release hydration without the diuretic effect that disrupts sleep architecture. The inclusion of calming botanicals and skin-supporting compounds aligns with the body’s natural circadian repair rhythms. Skin that has been purged through sweating during the day receives continued support through the night.The 24-hour coverage concept is not marketing—it is physiology. Sweating depletes; sleep restores. Addressing only the active sweating window while neglecting the overnight repair window leaves half the equation unsolved. The bundled approach ensures continuity: electrolyte-supported sweating during waking hours, sustained hydration and repair support during sleep.For anyone implementing a regular heat exposure protocol—whether through outdoor summer activity, sauna use, or exercise—this dual-phase hydration strategy represents the difference between stress and adaptation. The body can only benefit from heat exposure to the extent that its fluid and electrolyte reserves permit. Pique’s bundle acknowledges this reality and addresses it comprehensively.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Please subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPresident, McCullough FoundationFOCAL POINTS has partnered withPiqueto promote your optimal health. To learn more aboutPiqueproducts and get 20% off and free gifts today,https://www.piquelife.com/DRPETER📚 ReferencesSears, M. E., Kerr, K. J., & Bray, R. I. (2012). Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in sweat: A systematic review.Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012, 184745.Genuis, S. J., Birkholz, D., Rodushkin, I., & Beesoon, S. (2011). Blood, urine, and sweat (BUS) study: Monitoring and elimination of bioaccumulated toxic elements.Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 61(2), 344–357.Laukkanen, J. A., Laukkanen, T., & Kunutsor, S. K. (2018). Cardiovascular and other health benefits of sauna bathing: A review of the evidence.Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 93(8), 1111–1121.Laukkanen, T., Kunutsor, S., Kauhanen, J., & Laukkanen, J. A. (2017). Sauna bathing is inversely associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in middle-aged Finnish men.Age and Ageing, 46(2), 245–249.Crinnion, W. J. (2011). Sauna as a valuable clinical tool for cardiovascular, autoimmune, toxicant-induced and other chronic health problems.Alternative Medicine Review, 16(3), 215–225.Hussain, J., & Cohen, M. (2018). Clinical effects of regular dry sauna bathing: A systematic review.Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2018, 1857413.Patrick, R. P., & Johnson, T. L. (2021). Sauna use as a lifestyle practice to extend healthspan.Experimental Gerontology, 154, 111509.Kukkonen-Harjula, K., & Kauppinen, K. (2006). Health effects and risks of sauna bathing.International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 65(3), 195–205.

Summary: How strategic hydration and summer swelter combine to purge toxins, fortify your heart, and sharpen your mind—without burning out


The Air Quality Scam

The Air Quality Scam: How Statistical Sleight-of-Hand Convinced the World That Breathing Is Killing YouBy Stan Young, PhD and Warren Kindzierski, PhDGuest post on Dr. Robert Malone’s SubstackWe’ve spent decades watching epidemiology turn into something between a cargo cult and a magic show. Worse still, university epidemiologists and government public health policymakers have been trying to convince us for decades that the air we breathe is killing us — and that only trillion-dollar regulatory regimes stand between us and the grave.We just published a paper in theJournal of the Academy of Public Healththat pulls back the curtain on this scam. The response has been... well, the usual deafening silence from the regulatory priesthood. Let’s walk you through the scam.Real Air Pollution Disasters (And Why They Don’t Prove What You Think)First, let’s be honest about where the air quality panic comes from. There werethree genuine eventswhere a combination of temperature inversions, acid in the air, and particulate matter resulted in deaths:· London Fog, 1952 (and again in 1956 and 1962) — Temperature inversions trapped coal smoke, soot, and industrial gases causing 4,000 excess deaths in 1952 (and 1,000 in 1956 and another 700 in 1962).· Meuse River Valley, Belgium, December1930 — Same story. Inversion, trapped industrial emissions, 60 deaths.· Donora, Pennsylvania, October 1948 — Ditto, 20 deaths.These events were real, and here’s the part nobody mentions:these conditions literally cannot occur today.Modern emissions controls and clean air regulations eliminated the conditions that created those killing fogs. Using these events to justify an air quality panic is like citing the 1918 flu to justify locking down for a common cold.Yet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still claims particulates in air can causepremature deaths. In 2011, theagency estimatedClean Air Actcompliance costs at $65 billion annually and claimed the regulations would prevent 230,000 premature deaths in 2020.Let’s look at the evidence.Particulate Matter (PM)refers to microscopic solid or liquid particles suspended in the air, classified by their aerodynamic diameter.PM10encompassesinhalable coarse particleswith diameters of10 micrometers (μm) or less. These particles are small enough to pass through the nose and throat into the lungs but are generally filtered out in the upper respiratory tract. Common sources include wind-blown dust, pollen, mold spores, and construction dust.PM2.5refers tofine particleswith diameters of2.5 micrometers (μm) or less. These are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, posing higher health risks such as respiratory and cardiovascular issues. They originate from combustion sources like vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and wildfires.Technically,PM2.5 is a subset of PM10, meaning all PM2.5 particles are included in the PM10 measurement, but PM10 also includes larger particles between 2.5 and 10 μm.The Air Quality‒Premature Death ArgumentThis argument can be traced back to two 1990 studies, both partially funded by the EPA. One became famous, the other ignored.The 1993Harvard Six Cities studyfollowed 8,111 adults across six American cities for 16 years. Over that period, 1,430 people died. The researchers claimed that fine particles in air (PM2.5) increased deaths by26%.Let that sink in. Eight thousand people. Six cities. The “sample size” for statistical purposes?Six. Because the comparisons wereacross cities, not individuals. You can’t get much statistical power from six data points unless you’re using very creative math. Nevertheless, it has been cited over 11,000 times in literature.A 1995National Institute of Statistical Sciences studylooked at over 785,000 deaths among elderly people across two counties over six years. Their finding? No association between PM10 — which is highly correlated with PM2.5 — and deaths. When you breathe, you breathe both.The EPA even secured Harvard’s dataset and, along with industry, partially funded another group of epidemiologists to reanalyze it. The result,published in 2000? If you followed Harvard’s exact analysis, you got roughly the same answer. But if you varied the analysis method — changed a covariate, adjusted for a different confounder — the effect fell apart completely.The EPA did not secure the NISS dataset for reanalysis. Why would you scrutinize a study that found nothing?Thanks for reading Malone News! This post is public so feel free to share it.ShareThe Big Studies That Found NothingAfter Harvard, two major air quality‒premature death studies dwarfed it in scale:One study in 2011used individual-level data from a population of 18.2 million (with 3.2 million deaths) across 814 US locations over the period 2000 to 2006. They found effectsacrosslocations but noted these were “likely due to unmeasured confounders.” Their within-location analysis? Direct quote: “We are not able to demonstrate any change in life expectancy for a reduction in PM2.5.”Theother study in 2017used individual-level data from a population of roughly 20 million people (with over 2 million deaths) in eight California air basins over the period 2000 to 2012. They found no association between PM2.5 and daily deaths.Just to recap… Harvard’s study: 8,111 people and a positive association between PM2.5 and deaths. Later studies: millions of people, no association.The Dirty Secret of Big Observational DatasetsHere’s the problem nobody in public health wants to discuss… give a complex dataset to different analysts, pose the same research question to them, and watch what happens. You can literally get any result you want.Researchers at Yale recognized this problem back in 1988 (seehereandhere). They initially identified 56 medical and pharmaceutical research claims from observational studies in literature, then they tracked down other studies on thesame topicsfrom thesame period. The result — they found 136 studies supporting the claims and 127 contradicting them. This is coin-flip territory.The president of the Biometrics Society gave his2002 Presidential Addressnoting that when his regression class students were given the same dataset and question as homework, they produced dramatically different results.Today, we know from “multiverse analysis” (many-analyst studies, exampleshereandhere) — where independent teams get the same data and same research question — that there are thousands of seemingly reasonable ways to run an analysis, with wildly different results depending on analysis choices.A concrete example…Smith (2021)analyzed PM2.5‒premature death associations in Medicaid data. He showed that simply removing one covariate — previous day’s temperature — flipped PM2.5 from non-significant to statistically significant. One variable. That’s the difference between “air quality kills” and “nothing to see here.” And researchers have thousands of choices like this to make in their analysis.The Data Harvard Won’t ReleaseHere’s what should keep you up at night… the2011 (Greven) studydemonstrated that when you use individual-level data with proper spatio-temporal modeling, the PM2.5‒premature death association evaporates. It’s a gold-standard approach — individual deaths, precise timing, geographic granularity, and the statistical power of millions of observations.So why hasn’t Harvard released their Six Cities study dataset in a form that would allow someone to run a Greven-style analysis on it? The original dataset, as far as anyone outside the inner circle can tell, remains locked away.The 2000 reanalysis commissioned by the EPA and industry was conducted under controlled conditions with the original Harvard team hovering nearby — and even then, the effect crumbled when the analysis method was varied.Thirty-plus years later, the Six Cities study — thatanchors billions of dollars in EPA regulatory costs— has never been independently reproduced from its raw data with modern methods. In any other field, this would be called what it is…science by press release, sustained by data hoarding.The Research‒Publishing ProblemHere’s what the world doesn’t see happening in the university research‒journal publishing game:· Most studies that do not find positive associations — the negative studies — go unpublished. Researchers put themin file drawersand move on.· Researchers in other studies can useflexible designs and selectively report their resultsto nudge what should be non-significant results to significant.· Journals prefer publishingpositive studies. No editor wants to headline “nothing to see here” in a study.· False positive studies that are published canget canonized— endlessly cited until everyone assumes they’re settled fact.Academicsmake up mostof the journal peer review and editorial positions. The academic publishing and tenure process functions asnatural selection of bad science. Career incentives reward splashy positive findings, not careful null results. The Harvard Six Cities study was a small positive study that became famous. The larger negative studies that followed? Ignored.Follow the MoneyThe EPA justifies its existence and its $65 billion annual regulatory burden by claiming lives are being saved. University researchers who produce studies showing air quality harms public health get grants, publications, tenure, and prestigious appointments. Journals who publish these studies get citations and impact factors. The environmental consulting industry gets contracts.Who benefits from a null result? Nobody. Who loses? Everyone with a stake in the university‒government‒journal publishing industrial complex.The National Association of Scholars published adetailed reportthat we co-authored on how selective research methods gives rise to irreproducible claims for PM2.5 and premature deaths, heart attacks, and asthma attacks. It’s calledShifting Sands— apt, because the scientific foundation for these claims keeps moving if you look closely at the methods.The Bottom LineAir quality‒premature death epidemiology, as currently practiced, looks like astatistical fluke— an artifact of analytical flexibility, publication bias, and unaccounted confounding dressed up as public health consensus.The genuine air disasters of the mid-20th century were real. But they bear no resemblance to current conditions. The Harvard Six Cities study methods crumble under scrutiny. Larger, better-designed studies that followed found nothing. Using the 1952 London fog and Harvard Six Cities study to justify regulatory overreach today is intellectually dishonest.Multiverse analyses show that different reasonable analytical choices produce contradictory results in research. And the entire journal publication ecosystem is structurally biased toward publishing false positive research.Are there real environmental health threats worth addressing? Absolutely. Smoking, asbestos fiber inhalation, foodborne illness outbreaks (e.g., fromE. coli) — these are genuine concerns with plausible mechanisms of harm. But the PM2.5‒premature death panic is a house of cards built on statistical sleight-of-hand and institutional self-preservation.The next time someone tells you that air quality is shaving years off your life, ask them one question:Which covariate did you leave out?Stan Young, PhD, is a statistician and can be reached at genetree@bellsouth.net. Warren Kindzierski, PhD, is a retired college professor (public health) and can be reached at warrenk@ualberta.ca. Young and Kindzierski authored the paper“Are air quality–health effect claims a statistical analysis fluke?” published in the Journal of the Academy of Public Health.Malone News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.


How a $9 Billion Bureaucracy Got Outsmarted by Tainted Lettuce

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHIf you’re wondering about thecurrent U.S. Cyclospora (cyclospora cayetanensis) outbreak, the CDC says the2026 outbreak season began on May 1, 2026. As of July 2026, health officials were still investigating multiple clusters of cases, including a multistate outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce.🥬 Cyclospora Crisis Entering Fourth MonthThe OutbreakDr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer of The Wellness Company, sat down with John Fredericks onOutside the Beltwayto discuss the cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce supplied to Taco Bell from farms in central Mexico.What happened:The protozoal parasiteCyclospora— a waterborne organism typically found in stagnant ponds and contaminated water sources — made its way onto lettuce at the farm level. The likely mechanism: irrigation or washing with contaminated water that got absorbed into the leaves themselves.Why it spread so fast:Lettuce is a sponge. As McCullough and Fredericks discussed, nobody peels and washes every individual leaf. You pull off the outer layers, run the head under water, and call it done. But cyclospora getsinsidethe vegetable — surface rinsing won’t touch it. Add in supply chain mixing, intermediaries hosing down produce, and the fact that Taco Bell serves the lowest-cost demographic at massive scale, and you’ve got a “Code Brown” wildfire.The illness:Explosive watery diarrhea that can last a month or more. Dehydration. Hospitalization. People missing weeks of work. Not a stomach bug — a serious protozoal infection.The Institutional FailureThe CDC has 12,000 employees and a $9 billion budget. The USDA and FDA are supposed to inspect imported produce. None of them caught this before people got sick. None of them got ahead of it after people got sick either.McCullough’s phrase —“paralysis by analysis”— captures the core problem. These agencies excel at holding meetings and issuing press releases days after the damage is done. What they don’t do is protect Americans in real time.Fredericks noted that when a reporter at a White House press briefing tried to blame DOGE cuts for the outbreak, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed out the obvious: 12,000 employees should be able to handle a diarrhea outbreak. The impulse to politicize food safety failures instead of fixing them is exactly why people have lost faith in these institutions.Should America Stop Eating Lettuce?No — but you should stop trusting the system to protect you.McCullough’s point wasn’t that lettuce is inherently dangerous. It’s that you cannot know whether the lettuce on your plate — at a restaurant, from a grocery store, delivered via Instacart — is contaminated. You simply don’t know. The supply chain is opaque. The regulators are reactive. The inspection protocols are inadequate.The practical takeaway:Wash produce thoroughly— but understand that with leafy greens that absorb water, washing has limits.Have treatment on hand.McCullough emphasized that the combination of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim/Septra) shuts this down in about a week instead of a month of misery. Without it, you’re at the mercy of an overburdened healthcare system that’s perpetually behind the curve.Optimize your immune system.A robust immune system can handle a low-dose exposure that floors someone with a junk-food diet. McCullough recommended immune-support supplements (he mentioned The Wellness Company’sNatural Immunitycapsules) and daily nasal/throat spray (Immune Defense) containing xylitol and erythritol to prevent pathogens from colonizing.The larger point:This isn’t really about lettuce. It’s about a public health infrastructure that spends billions preparing for theoretical biothreats while getting pantsed by a protozoan on a salad bar. The solution isn’t to stop eating vegetables — it’s to stop outsourcing your health security to agencies that have repeatedly demonstrated they can’t deliver.The Cyclospora Treatment ProtocolScenario Intervention Active cyclospora infection Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim/Septra), 1 tablet twice daily, typically ~1 week course.  If the patient is sulfa-allergic then a doctor may considernitazoxanideis which FDA-approved for certain other protozoal infections (such asGiardiaandCryptosporidium) at500 mg orally every 12 hours with food for 3 days.Symptom management Imodium (OTC) to slow diarrhea; Pedialyte or electrolyte replacement for dehydration Prevention/immune supportImmune Defensenasal spray + throat spray (2–4 sprays each nostril, 5 sprays throat), daily immune optimization Immune-support supplements, adequate nutrition, avoid junk-food loaded with sugar, starches, and saturated fat.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Please subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companywww.twc.health/focalpointsReferencesTranscript:Outside the Beltwaywith John Fredericks, interview with Dr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer of The Wellness Company, July 22, 2026 (attached).The Wellness Company Medical Emergency Kit (Aqua Marine kit):twc.health/Godzilla, promo code Godzilla for 10% off.

Summary: The cyclospora outbreak proves America’s public health apparatus is useless — and your kitchen counter is now the front line


Are You Ready for the Coming Energy Shock?

The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was established in response to the 1973–1974 Arab oil embargo, which followed the Yom Kippur War and caused oil prices to quadruple, thereby exposing America’s vulnerability to disruptions of foreign supplies. The image below shows cars lining up to buy gas during the 1973-74 crisis because many gas stations ran out of inventory.Enacted through the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 under President Gerald Ford, the SPR was conceived to mitigate the economic and national-security impacts of severe petroleum supply interruptions caused by geopolitical turmoil or natural disasters.The SPR also fulfills U.S. obligations under the International Energy Agency’s coordinated emergency response system, requiring member countries to maintain strategic stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net imports.By storing a large, government-controlled inventory of crude oil—authorized at up to 714 million barrels and stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast—the reserve acts as a buffer supply that can begin entering the market within roughly 13 days of a presidential order.Construction and filling of the four SPR sites began in the late 1970s. Inventory grew steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, with intermittent drawdowns for hurricanes, pipeline disruptions, and limited sales.Levels peaked near727 million barrelsin the late 2000s before declines from congressionally mandated sales and exchanges. A major drawdown occurred in 2022 under the Biden administration in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, reducing stocks significantly; subsequent refill efforts partially restored inventory, leaving roughly415 millionbarrels in mid-February 2026.The military operation against Iran that commenced in late February 2026—widely described as a U.S.-Israeli campaign—triggered the largest coordinated release of strategic stocks in IEA history.In March 2026, IEA members agreed to make 400 million barrels available, with the United States committing 172 million barrels from the SPR, largely structured as loans or exchanges under which companies repay the crude plus a premium.As of the week ending July 17 2026, SPR inventories had fallen to311.4million barrels—the lowest level since March 1983.This is a cumulative drawdown of approximately104 million barrelssince the conflict began, equivalent to roughlyone-quarter of the pre-war stockpileand a reduction of more than 18 percent from early-2026 levels.Weekly draws have frequently exceeded several million barrels, driving the reserve well below its long-term average and raising questions about remaining operational margins, cavern integrity, and the ability to respond to another crisis.In short, the SPR remains a cornerstone of U.S. energy security policy, born of the lessons of 1973 and repeatedly tested by subsequent shocks. The 2026 Iran conflict has subjected it to one of its most sustained and substantial drawdowns, illustrating both its utility as a short-term price and supply stabilizer and the limits of even the world’s largest emergency oil stockpile when geopolitical disruptions prove prolonged.I grew up in Texas and my maternal grandfather worked (on the banking side) in the Texas petroleum industry, the fortunes of which I have carefully followed for years. The psychopathic clowns who are currently running this country are not telling us the truth about the enormous risk to the real economy that is growing with each passing day that the pointless war of choice again Iran continues.Most Americans who are alive today have grown so accustomed to cheap, readily available energy that they take it completely for granted. As soon as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve draws down, thereby removing the buffer, this country will face a marked reduction of available fuel products, with an array of severe negative consequences for the real economy, including outright fuel shortages and significant inflation of food costs.An energy shock will also imperil the gazillions of CAPEX investment in A.I., which absolutely requires cheap and plentiful energy.I hope I am wrong, but I fear that this country (and the entire West) will soon be facing a severe economic and financial crisis.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: US Strategic Petroleum Reserve lowest since March 1983.


STUDY: Magnesium L-Threonate Made Participants’ Brains Perform as if They Were 7.5 Years Younger in Six Weeks

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHA recentrandomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trialfound that magnesium L-threonate significantly improved several measures of cognitive performance in healthy adults experiencing dissatisfied sleep.Researchers randomized 100 adults between the ages of 18 and 45 to receive either magnesium L-threonate or placebo for six weeks. The daily dose contained 2 grams of magnesium L-threonate, providing 145 milligrams of elemental magnesium.Cognitive performance was measured using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, alongside tests of working memory, reaction time, fluid intelligence, sleep quality, heart rate, and heart-rate variability.Brains Performed as if They Were 7.5 Years YoungerAfter six weeks, the magnesium group demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in overall cognition compared with placebo.The researchers then compared participants’ cognitive scores with age-based NIH normative data. Because total cognition scores normally decline by approximately 0.3 points per year after early adulthood, the observed treatment advantage corresponded to an estimated7.5-year reduction in cognitive age.This does not mean the supplement literally reversed biological brain aging. Rather, participants performed on cognitive tests at a level expected from people approximately 7.5 years younger.Significant Cognitive ImprovementsCompared with their baseline scores, participants receiving magnesium L-threonate experienced:7.5% improvement in overall cognition5.6% improvement in working memory6.3% improvement in reaction time and hand-eye coordinationOverall cognition increased by 8.4 points in the magnesium group compared with 5.6 points in the placebo group, representing a50% greater improvement. Working-memory gains were more than four times larger than those observed with placebo.The per-protocol analysis produced similarly strong results. Overall cognition increased by 9.08 points, while working-memory scores rose by 7.25 points compared with only 1.10 points in the placebo group.The magnesium group also experienced improved sleep-related daytime impairment, a lower resting heart rate during sleep, and increased heart-rate variability—an indicator associated with improved autonomic balance.However, the supplement did not significantly outperform placebo for fluid intelligence, several other cognitive tasks, or objective sleep duration and sleep-stage measurements recorded by an Oura Ring. This suggests that its clearest benefits were concentrated in overall cognition, working memory, reaction time, and selected physiological measures rather than every outcome tested.Possible MechanismsMagnesium is essential for normal neuronal function and serves as a cofactor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions throughout the body. In the brain, it supports cellular energy production, neurotransmission, synaptic plasticity, and the electrical stability of neurons—all processes required for learning, memory, and healthy cognitive performance. Lower magnesium concentrations have also been observed in people with reduced cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease.One reason magnesium L-threonate may produce cognitive effects is its ability to raise magnesium concentrations in the brain. The L-threonate component appears to interact with glucose transport pathways, helping transport magnesium into the brain and increasing neuronal magnesium availability.Higher brain magnesium may strengthen synaptic connections, support communication between neurons, and enhance the plasticity required to form and retrieve memories. It may also help regulate NMDA receptors, which play a central role in learning and memory.ConclusionThis randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 100 adults found significant gains across multiple measures of cognitive performance after six weeks of supplementation with 2 grams of magnesium L-threonate daily, providing 145 mg of elemental magnesium. Larger and longer independent trials are needed to confirm how durable these benefits are.Nicolas Hulscher, MPHEpidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough FoundationSupport our mission:mcculloughfnd.orgPlease consider following both theMcCullough Foundationandmy personal accountonX(formerly Twitter) for further content.Subscribe now

Summary: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial finds magnesium L-threonate improved overall cognition by 7.5%, working memory by 5.6%, and reaction time/hand-eye coordination by 6.3%.


Why War Propaganda Always Works

In the 2004 filmTroy, Brad Pitt plays a very pretty and very deadly Achilles. In Homer’s telling of the Trojan war, it started because the Trojan prince Paris stole the wife (Helen) of the Spartan king Menelaus. In reality, the war was probably fought for control of marine traffic entering the only entrance to the Dardanelles—i.e., the Greeks wanted to wrest control of this valuable maritime shipping lane from the Trojans.Nevertheless, the erotic casus belli of the Homeric story strikes me as apt. In the same way that erotic imagery always works in selling products, war propagandaalways worksin persuading people to believe that their nation should participate in war.Especially in the male brain, the arousal to fight seems to originate in the same neural circuitry as sexual arousal, and the closely related desire of young men to prove themselves in the eyes of young women.Shortly after the British government declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, young women were deployed in British cities to approach young men on the streets and ask them why—by all appearances—they hadn’t yet enlisted.When a German U-Boat torpedoed the Lusitania—which was carrying over 4 million rounds of machine gun ammunition from the U.S. to Britain—the British government created potent propaganda using various imagery of drowned maidens and young mothers clutching their infants as they sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.In the United States, various parties who wanted American participation in the war—especially banking interests—published equally potent propaganda to drum up fear and loathing of Germany.No matter how many U.S. military adventures abroad fail and are later revealed to have been launched under false pretenses, large swaths of the American public can be easily manipulated to support yet another foolhardy and costly adventure. Humans are absolute suckers for war propaganda.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Like erotic imagery, war propaganda activates the brain's most powerful, archaic circuitry.


Biden, Trump, and Trauma Bonding

I am grateful for all of my readers, and I greatly welcome ALL reader comments, including highly critical comments. I donottake critical comments personally, but regard them as an opportunity for introspection and possibly to clarify something or provide additional information to help make my point.Reviewing the comments to my post of earlier today,Are You Ready for the Coming Energy Shock?, I see that many of my readers are unhappy with my characterization of the Trump administration as psychopathic clowns.And so, I would like to clarify something for my readers: I am very strongly opposed to war, and to violence in general, unless it is absolutely necessary for defending my country, my community, or my family.For an entire decade between 2015 and 2025, I was a fierce defender of Donald Trump—often at the cost of social ostracism—BECAUSEhe clearly articulated and promised on dozens of occasions that he would cease the US government’s policy of perpetual warfare abroad.For me to now adopt the attitude “You broke your promise about refraining from mass death, maiming, and destruction, but that’s okay with me, and I still think you’re a swell guy,” would be contemptibly obsequious and display a pitiful lack of self-respect.To explain WHY I have assumed this posture would require a very long column citing a great deal of history, literature, and personal experience visiting veterans suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries, and I am currently pressed for time.My new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, contains a chapter on Iran that carefully elucidates that nation’s history, its relations with Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, drawing on assessments of the Iranian regime written by seasoned intelligence agency analysts, including Israeli intelligence analysts.In response to the unfounded accusation that I am suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, I would like to express my perception that many of my negative commentators are suffering from a trauma bond the with the President of the United States—both the office and the man who is currently occupying it. This bond causes them to tolerate being abused by the POTUS and to believe his lame excuses for breaking his promises.A Google search for “Trauma Bond” yielded the following definition.A trauma bond isa powerful, unhealthy emotional attachment that develops between a victim and their abuser, often characterized by a cycle of intense abuse followed by periods of affection or kindness. Coined by Dr. Patrick Carnes, this bond is rooted in fear, dependency, and intermittent reinforcement, making it incredibly difficult for victims to leave, even when they recognize the toxicity.For four years, we were constantly abused by the madness of the Biden administration and the preposterous insistence that the senile Joe Biden was our true executive. Then Trump managed to get reelected president because he seemed to understand and sympathize with our distress about censorship, the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine against nuclear-armed Russia. He really offered a helping hand.The bond between the abused (We the People) and the abuser (the U.S. government) was thereby reconstituted.After entering office, he then:Refused to acknowledge that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are toxic.Honored Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla by inviting him to the White HouseDid NOT demand a full investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2Did NOT end the U.S. proxy war against Ukraine as he promisedDid NOT demand the full disclosure of the Epstein FilesAttacked Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene for demanding the full release of the Epstein FilesDid NOT demand that Google-YouTube cease running its vigorous shadow-banning program on dissident voicesDid NOT in the slightest tame the voracious beast of runaway federal spendingDid NOT reduce the undue influence of national security stateNow, despite his dozens of promises of no new wars since he announced his candidacy in 2015, he has started a war with Iran—a country four times the size of Iraq with twice the population and a standing army of 610,000 active duty personnel.Like a the proverbial abused wife who can’t break free from her abusive husband, tens of millions of Trump supporters cannot see that he reconstituted their bond with the U.S. federal government, which is now abusing them again.The ONLY way for this country could reclaim its health and vitality is through a widespread movement to reassert LIMITS of federal power, which happens to be the key underlying concept of the U.S. Constitution.Only whenWe the Peopletell the U.S. government—regardless of who is president—that we reject the continuous expansion of its size and power, and especially its abominable wars, will the cycle of abuse end.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: The Biden administration abused us, then Trump offered us hope for a better future, thereby reconstituting our bond with the federal government. Now the cycle of abuse is repeating.


Sunday Strip: "Trust the Plan"

Malone News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading Malone News! This post is public so feel free to crosspost, and share it!ShareRobert wearing his dinner again, is a common joke in our house…Of note, after a grueling two days of travel, we are now in Israel for the next week with a delegation of medical freedom professionals.We finally arrived here at 5:00 AM this morning after leaving on Friday. When we arrived in Rome, all of the non-Israeli airlines had canceled their flights due to the once again escalating conflict. So we had to rebook for a second red-eye in a row with an Israeli airline - which are the ones flying into this country right now.Today, we are at the Agricultural University to learn about innovations in agriculture in Israel. As this topic and the use of such innovations in regenerative agriculture are closely related, this day was a not-to-be-missed event for us.You will hear more about this endeavor in the days to come.JGM


Friday Funnies: Screwed

Thanks for reading Malone News! This post is public, so feel free to crosspost or share on social media, including notes!ShareMalone News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.True story:JGM

Summary: Thanks for reading Malone News!


Lettuce Pray: Dr. McCullough Says Cyclospora Must be Treated with Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX)

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHAmerica has seen food contamination crises in the past, but the Cyclospora outbreak seems to be lingering for months.🥬 The Cyclospora Outbreak and Need for Emergency PreparednessJust the News, No Noise — July 22, 2026Hosts: Amanda Head & John Solomon Guest: Dr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Company.  Dr. McCullough describedCyclosporaas a protozoan parasite that contaminates water trapped between lettuce leaves, particularly iceberg lettuce. Federal agencies initially traced the source to Taylor Farms in central Mexico but have since backed off that single-source claim, suggesting possible cross-contamination in trucks or processing facilities. Thousands of cases and several hundred hospitalizations from dehydration have been reported.The illness causesexplosive, watery diarrhea(more than four stools per day) that can persist for about a month if untreated. McCullough warned that standard stool ova-and-parasite exams miss it, and even the old acid-fast stain was only 50% accurate. While PCR multiplex panels exist, not all clinics have them.TreatmentThe treatment is straightforward:trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole(Bactrim/SEPTRA), one tablet twice daily for about a week. McCullough’s advice: if diarrhea lasts more than a day, assume Cyclospora and start treatment immediately — don’t wait for testing.  If sulfa allergic, then a doctor will need to prescribe an alternative (eg Nitazoxanide).He noted TMP-SMX is included in The Wellness Company’s aqua-blue Emergency Medical Kit, and urged Americans to have it on hand rather than waiting hours in an ER.Critique of the CDCMcCullough took direct aim at the CDC, which employs 12,000 people:“They sit behind computers all day long. They’re not out in the field doing public health.”He argued the agency has developed a “lassitude” and should be tracing nearly every case back to specific food sources — something he says has dragged on far too long.The Daszak RevelationJohn Solomon raised Senator Rand Paul’s disclosure that the FBI blocked Customs and Border Patrol from questioningPeter Daszakwhen he returned from Wuhan in 2021. McCullough stated Daszak was“part of the team with Fauci that created the virus”and that Fauci “gave the orders through the intelligence agencies to leave Daszak, who could have been shuttling viral samples, alone at the border.” He called it a critical revelation exposing the nexus between Fauci, Daszak, and the intelligence community.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companywww.twc.health/focalpointsReferences:Transcript:Just the News, No Noise, Real America’s Voice, July 22, 2026Dr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Company (twc.health)Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul, disclosure re: FBI/Daszak (July 21, 2026)

Summary: Explosive diarrhea, a missing CDC, and why your medicine cabinet needs an upgrade — plus, Fauci's pal gets the VIP border treatment


"Our Society is Run By Insane People"

A few years ago I saw a recording of an interview that John Lennon gave on June 6, 1968 that has haunted me ever since.Four years before Lennon gave his interview, Stanley Kubrick’sDr. Strangelovewas released in US cinemas. In the following scene, the titular character — who seems to a mishmash of former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and game theory guru John von Neumann—explains why he concluded that a computer-automated “Doomsday Machine,” designed to exclude “human meddling” from rational decision-making in the business of waging nuclear warfare, was not such a great idea after all.I have long regarded asDr. Strangeloveas the strangest and most fascinating film ever made. Equally fascinating is the evolution of Kubrick’s thinking as he got into the project.It began with him acquiring the rights to Peter George’s 1958 novelRed Alert—a deadly serious Cold War thriller about the terrifying ease with which a nuclear exchange could be triggered by a single deranged American general and the frantic efforts to recall the bombers before they triggered Mutually Assured Destruction.As Kubrick got into developing the screenplay with George, he found the material’s inherent paradoxes impossible to treat with a serious tone. He later explained that while he was trying to develop the scenes realistically, he repeatedly had to suppress details that were ridiculous or paradoxical to keep the story from becoming absurdly funny. The logic of mutual assured destruction, fail-safe protocols that could be subverted by one paranoid officer, and political and military leaders calmly calculating megadeaths as acceptable trade-offs struck him as so preposterous that it could only be treated in a comedic fashion.What could be more absurd, he suggested, than two superpowers prepared to erase human civilization over accidents and ideological differences that future generations would likely regard as an adolescent ideological pissing contest.The comedy does not dilute the horror, but enhances it by exposing how systems built for rational deterrence can easily be derailed by human fallibility and insane rationalizations that normalize the unthinkable.It seems to me that the people who run our society today are just as insane as they were in the 1960s, perhaps even more so.Since I published the video trailer to my new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, a few people have told me that the video is too relentlessly over-the-top in its depiction of chaotic insanity—that the viewer’s mind is overwhelmed and cannot process it. And yet, all of the imagery and news clips are real, taken directly from archives.I would be most grateful if my readers would take five minutes to watch the trailer and to let me know in the comments what you think.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: John Lennon's earnest statement in 1968 and Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" in 1964


We've Become (Un)comfortably Numb

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHWell folks, this is it—the end of five years of volunteer journalism on America Out Loud News,The McCullough ReportandPULSE.It has been a great privilege.  I am thankful to Malcolm Out Loud and all of the wonderful sponsors of the platform including The Wellness Company, XLEAR, and so many more.🌍Every Human Life Mat…Read more

Summary: Every Human Life Matters — The Final McCullough Report


BREAKING--Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Post-Vaccination Pulmonary Embolism and the Disconnect in Public Health Policy

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHJust a few days before his appearance before the US Senate, Senator Rand Paul dropped this bombshell on Dr Anthony Fauci.The Architect’s Secret: A Case Study in Medical HypocrisyThe story of the COVID-19 pandemic is one defined by a chasm between the public directives issued by the medical establishment and the private realities of its most prominent leaders. Dr. Anthony Fauci, as the long-serving director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), became the primary architect of the global vaccination strategy. Yet, documents recently released by Senator Rand Paul reveal a stark, personal contradiction that exposes the profound dissonance between the official narrative of universal vaccine safety and the private health crises faced by those enforcing it.A Timeline of Public Mandates and Private CrisisOn December 22, 2020, Dr. Fauci stood before the nation at the NIH Clinical Center to receive his first dose of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine. This performance was not merely a medical procedure; it was a carefully choreographed spectacle designed to manufacture public confidence and serve as a symbol of the supposed “veil of protection” the shots would provide.However, the reality of the situation on the ground was far more complex than the celebratory press releases suggested. By mid-2021, the veneer began to crack. Internal records released by Chairman Rand Paul illuminate a harrowing medical event in June 2021. According to these documents, on June 19, 2021, Dr. Fauci was grappling with the aftermath of an acute “pulmonary infarct”—a direct result of a pulmonary embolism which is a known side effect of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. The medical consensus documented in these notes from his own inner circle of advisors concluded that the “only definite thing” on his scan was this infarct, necessitating the immediate commencement of anticoagulation therapy with the drug Eliquis.Crucially, this health emergency occurred just months after his primary vaccination series.  Yet Fauci was not transparent with the public. Furthermore, Dr. Fauci would later contract SARS-CoV-2 in June 2022, despite being “fully vaccinated” and twice-boosted, a fact that NIAID was forced to disclose as the reality of the shots’ failure to prevent infection became impossible to ignore.The Irony of the Establishment’s PathThe most damning aspect of this revelation is not merely the medical failure itself, but the behavioral response of the architect of the policy. Even as Dr. Fauci was personally navigating the dangers of vaccine-associated vascular events—evidenced by his own prescription for Eliquis—he continued to utilize the full weight of his office to pressure the American public into accepting the same pharmaceutical interventions.There is a profound, sick irony in a public health leader suffering a life-threatening blood clot following a novel mRNA inoculation, only to return to the podium to demand that millions of others accept the same risk profile. While he navigated his own recovery with the specialized care of top-tier pulmonologists and radiologists, he simultaneously championed policies that forced the populace into a state of medical compliance. He moved to normalize the very health outcomes he was personally managing behind closed doors, effectively putting the public on the same path of potential iatrogenic harm while preaching a doctrine of “extreme confidence” in the safety of these products.The documents released by Senator Paul confirm what many have long suspected: that for the architects of the pandemic response, the risks of the experimental technologies were not hypothetical, but personal. The insistence on universal vaccination, despite the evident risks to vascular health, remains one of the most significant breaches of the public trust in modern medical history.  Fauci either knew or should have known he suffered a potentially fatal side effect of the Moderna vaccine—yet he kept it quiet while encouraging others to suffer the same fate.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPresident, McCullough FoundationFOCAL POINTS has partnered withAlterAIto defend your medical freedom. Subscribe toAlterAItoday and get a discount on unbiased and accurate AI!ReferencesNIAID Director Fauci Tests Positive for COVID-19, National Institutes of Health, June 15, 2022.Fauci, other top health officials receive Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on camera, NBC News, December 22, 2020.Documents released by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Chairman Rand Paul), 2026.

Summary: Examining the Dissonance Between a Concealed Medical Crisis and Federal Public Health Directives--Fauci Knew or Should Have Known Moderna Causes Blood Clots


Fauci's Diary: A Fascination with Fame

Senator Rand Paul just released more than a thousand pages of personal diary entries recorded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during the period from December 2019 through December 2022.The diary presents an unfiltered private record of the pandemic’s early months and beyond. What emerges is a portrait of a so-called “expert” acutely conscious of his growing celebrity while playing the mendacious game of Washington DC politics and dealing with President Trump, who lacked the confidence to fire the tricky, smart-ass gnome.The most striking theme is Fauci’s preoccupation with his growing fame, with multiple entries recording his adulatory media coverage. In May 2020 he noted a “very flattering” front-page *Washington Post* profile and declared it “not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person in the world.” He tracked profiles onNightline, editorials in major newspapers, and the production of Fauci-themed merchandise—socks, doughnuts, and a prayer necklace casting him as the “Patron Saint of Public Health.”He proudly records celebrity contacts such as a “great call” with Barbra Streisand in which he advised her on the mRNA vaccine. Also noted are his interactions with Julia Roberts, Steph Curry, and others. The diary concludes in December 2022 with an embrace of Hunter Biden at the Kennedy Center Honors and a note about the online reaction a photograph would provoke.Especially remarkable are the early entries on the virus’s origin. On January 26, 2020, Fauci wrote that epidemiological and genomic data showed the first infection occurred in early December and was unconnected to the Wuhan market: “Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier.”Days later he recorded his infamous conference call with his virology buddies in which only two favored a natural origin while the rest thought “deliberate insertion was possible,” including a discussion of the furin cleavage siteandthe possibility of accidental or intentional laboratory release. These private remarks contradict his public assertions about a natural spillover and dismissal of the lab-leak hypothesis.Other notable passages document his initially amicable relationship with President Trump—who called him “the smartest person in the world” and said “We are counting on you.”Fauci also recorded continued private contact with senior adviser David Morens, whom he later disavowed under oath, and expressed frustration with congressional critics he viewed as intent on “bring[ing] me down.”The diary presents Fauci’s experience of the pandemic as a public-health emergency that catapulted him to international fame among his legions of dimwitted and adoring fans.I find it fun to compare and contrast Fauci’s diaries to those of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) , whose diaries offer a fascinating and colorful portrait of England in the momentous 1660s that featured the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the Second Anglo-Dutch War.Pepys was a high-ranking naval administrator and Member of Parliament. Between January 1, 1660 and May 31, 1669 he kept a private diary in a personal shorthand system that mixed English tachygraphy with French, Spanish, Latin, and other languages for sensitive passages.His eyewitness account of the Great Plague remains the best in recorded history, because unlike most people of his social class, he continued spending much of his time in London. The plague reached the City by early summer 1665. He sent his wife Elisabeth (and household) to Woolwich for safety in July, and the Navy Office later moved to Greenwich in the late summer. Pepys overnighted in Greenwich but regularly commuted by river back to his London home and other parts of the capital for work and pleasure.He stayed through much of the epidemic’s peak, and continued his official duties and social life. He recorded his observations (including seeing red-crossed doors, empty streets, and burial pits), took the precautions of the time such as chewing tobacco, and noted that he “never lived so merrily” or prospered as much as during that plague year.Early published editions of his diary redacted or obscured its extensive sexual material. Victorian and later editors cut, paraphrased, or left untranslated the passages in which Pepys recorded his frequent extramarital encounters, many of them with servants, subordinates’ wives, and young women in positions of dependence.The most complete modern transcription, the eleven-volume Latham and Matthews edition (1970–1983), restored the full text and supplied translations of the coded sections. What emerges is a man of boundless curiosity, energy, cultural and sexual appetite. He recorded his sexual acts and his subsequent shame, prayers for forgiveness, and his relapse to the same kind of behavior.Whereas Fauci is fascinated by himself, Pepys is fascinated by everything and everyone around him, and his portrait of life in London during the reign of Charles II is extremely entertaining.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Comparing Fauci's diary to that of Samuel Pepys


Cracking Under Pressure: Why the FDA Let Salmonella Eggs Ship for 7 Months

Many egg-eating MAHA health freedom activists have run into a roadblock this summer—salmonella gastroenteritis.🥚 The Great Texas Egg Recall of 2026: Salmonella, Industrial Farming, and the Revolving Door🔬 The Outbreak: By the NumbersNearly 100 people across 17 states have been sickened in aSalmonellaoutbreak definitively traced back to shell eggs produced byMidwest Poultry Services L.P., an Indiana-based conglomerate operating farms in Texas. The numbers tell a grim story:98 confirmed casesspanning from coast to coast26 hospitalizations— that’s a hospitalization rate over 26%, far exceeding what you’d expect for routine foodborne illness17 statesaffected: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West VirginiaIllness onsetstretching from November 21, 2025, through June 30, 2026 — meaning this outbreak simmered for overseven monthsbefore the recall was finally initiatedThe recall, issued on July 21, 2026, coversmore than 1.5 million shell eggs— both white and brown cage-free varieties — produced between June 6 and July 3, with sell-by dates ranging from July 20 through August 17. The affected cartons bear identifying codesP-1950or0840962with Julian dates between 157 and 184.These eggs hit shelves atKrogerandBrookshire Grocerylocations across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi — though the FDA acknowledges the distribution could extend well beyond those borders.🏭 Industrial Agriculture: The Root Cause Nobody Wants to DiscussWhat’s notable here isn’t just the outbreak itself — it’s what it reveals about our food safety apparatus.Midwest Poultry Services is exactly the kind of vertically integrated, industrial-scale operation that has come to dominate American egg production. When you concentrate millions of laying hens into densely packed facilities in Texas heat, you create a perfect incubator for pathogens. The company’s own samples — collected at their Texas farms and tested by a third-party lab — came back positive forSalmonella. Whole genome sequencing confirmed the match to the outbreak strain.The company’s own testing found the pathogen. And yet the recall didn’t come until late July, after illnesses had been accumulating for the better part of a year.This is the predictable result of a regulatory system where the FDA relies on voluntary compliance and company self-reporting. The agency doesn’t have the inspectors, the teeth, or frankly the institutional will to police industrial agriculture in real time. By the time traceback investigations identify a source, the contaminated product has already been distributed, sold, and consumed across half the country.And here’s the part that should genuinely anger people:Midwest Poultry Services doesn’t account for all the illnesses in this outbreak.The FDA’s own investigation acknowledges that additional sources remain unidentified. So we’re dealing with a known contaminated producer whose recall doesn’t fully explain the outbreak, while the agency continues to “investigate” — and in the meantime, contaminated eggs from God knows where else continue circulating through the supply chain.🤔 The “Cage-Free” IronyOne of the grim little ironies here is that the recall includes “brown cage free shell eggs” — the premium-priced variety that conscientious consumers pay extra for, believing they’re buying a safer, more ethically produced product.The reality is thatSalmonella enteritidisdoesn’t care about your cage-free certification. The bacterium can colonize a hen’s ovaries and contaminate the egg before the shell even forms. The industrial conditions that facilitate outbreak-scale contamination — massive flocks, centralized processing, nationwide distribution — are present in both conventional and “free-range” operations when they’re scaled to feed millions.What actually matters is biosecurity, sanitation, testing frequency, and the willingness to pull product the moment contamination is detected rather than waiting for epidemiological confirmation months later. On all those fronts, the system failed.💊 Treatment: What Actually Works for Salmonella EnteritisHere’s where the rubber meets the road. WhenSalmonellagets past your stomach acid and sets up shop in your intestinal epithelium, you’re in for a miserable few days — or worse.Thecornerstone of treatment for Salmonella enteritis is supportive hydration.Full stop. The overwhelming majority of cases in healthy adults are self-limited. Your body knows how to clear the infection; what it needs is fluid and electrolyte replacement to compensate for the losses from diarrhea and vomiting. Oral rehydration solutions — the kind with glucose and electrolytes in proper ratios — are ideal. IV fluids if you can’t keep anything down. Anti-motility agents like loperamide are generally avoided because they can prolong the infection and increase the risk of complications.Antibiotics arenotroutinely indicated for uncomplicated Salmonella gastroenteritis. In fact, antibiotics can prolong the carrier state and increase the risk of relapse. The data on this is solid.However, there are two critical exceptions where antibiotic therapy becomes necessary:Patients over 65— this population is at markedly increased risk for bacteremia, endovascular infection, and extra-intestinal seeding of the organism. When Salmonella escapes the gut in an elderly patient, the consequences can be catastrophic.CiprofloxacinorAzithromycinis the treatment of choice here — it achieves high intracellular concentrations, has excellent activity againstSalmonellaspecies, and carries a favorable side effect profile compared to fluoroquinolones.Children— particularly infants and young children, who are at risk for severe dehydration and, in rare cases, disseminated infection. Again,azithromycinis the preferred agent when antibiotics are indicated.For those looking to be prepared, these medications — azithromycin among them — are available in theMedical Emergency Kit (Aqua Blue)fromThe Wellness Company.In an era where supply chains falter and getting a timely prescription isn’t always guaranteed, having a properly stocked emergency medical kit isn’t paranoia — it’s basic preparedness. The same kind of preparedness that used to be common sense before we outsourced every aspect of our health to government agencies that demonstrably fail us on a regular basis, as this outbreak makes painfully clear.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePlease subscribe toFOCAL POINTSas a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHChief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Companywww.twc.health/focalpoints

Summary: Midwest Poultry tested positive, sat on the data, and sickened 98 Americans across 17 states


International Study Finds 75% of Embalmers Observed White Fibrous Clots in Corpses

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHFormer Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association President Christopher Calvey Jr., former Air Force Major Thomas Haviland, and embalmer Richard Hirschman joined me to discuss the now-widespread reports of anomalous white fibrous clots being recovered from human corpses.Havilandrecently published the resultsof a four-year international survey involving 808 embalmers across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand in a peer-reviewed medical journal.Among those surveyed,75.2% reported observing the unusual white fibrous clots, while respondents estimated that the structures were present in approximately23.4% of embalmed bodies.Reports of the phenomenon increased in 2020 and accelerated sharply beginning in 2021, coinciding with the mass mRNA injection campaigns.During the interview, Hirschman displayed a recent specimen that he estimated would have measured approximately60 inches longif fully extended. He said he continues to observe the unusual structures in roughly half of the bodies he embalms and emphasized that he had never encountered them before 2021.Calvey described similar findings, including artery-sized fibrous structures that can obstruct embalming-fluid distribution and force embalmers to use multiple injection sites. He also reported observing increasingly thick and viscous blood during the embalming process.All three panelists stressed that these structures appear fundamentally different from conventional postmortem blood clots. The discussion also examinedemerging laboratory analysessuggesting that the white fibrous clots contain abnormal, amyloid-like fibrin and are linked to spike protein exposure.Although embalmers are uniquely positioned to observe changes within the vascular system, many funeral professionals remain reluctant to discuss the findings publicly. Hirschman and Calvey described widespread private acknowledgment of the phenomenon among their colleagues, including at professional funeral-director meetings and mortuary schools.We concluded the panel by calling for a congressional hearing led by Senator Ron Johnson and demanding that major institutions—including the FDA, CDC, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford—finally do their jobs and investigate this major public health crisis.Nicolas Hulscher, MPHEpidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough FoundationSupport our mission:mcculloughfnd.orgPlease consider following both theMcCullough Foundationandmy personal accountonX(formerly Twitter) for further content.Subscribe now

Summary: Former Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association President Chris Calvey Jr., former Air Force Major Thomas Haviland, and embalmer Richard Hirschman joined me to discuss.


The Joy of Killing

There’s a disturbing scene in the 2000 filmGladiatorin which the Emperor Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, experiences a paroxysm of elation akin to sexual arousal at the sight of men grievously wounded and decapitated in the Arena.I was reminded of this scene this morning when I saw newly released footage of Lyndsay Graham expressing elation at the news of bombing and mass destruction and killing.Both spectacles remind me of a thought I’ve been turning over in my head since I was a teenager—namely, that some of the people among us, perhaps many of them, exult in the spectacle of other human beings being killed.The joy of killing seems to be rooted in the archaic desire of some men to dominate and coerce other men and to destroy them if they don’t comply. This would explain why so much of human ingenuity as been dedicated to developing and refining ways to kill other humans.When I was a kid, I had a friend who was obsessed with the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, and one of his favorites was thecarro armato con falci— scythed chariot, sometimes referred to as a man harvester.“Isn’t it cool?” my friend said. “You get a couple of guys mounted on really strong horses and then plough across the battlefield and just chop the other soldiers to pieces.”“Yeah, that’s awesome!” I agreed, not stopping to think how weird we were being.To be sure, most people can only enjoy the spectacle of killing when they are animated with the conviction that those who diedeserveto die.. The psychological drama begins with imagining all the vices and depravity of the enemy, at least as he is portrayed to us by our governments.This drama has enormous cathartic and therapeutical value for people who are—whether they admit it to themselves or not—troubled by their own vices or those that are pervasive in their community. Carl Jung called thisprojection. Closely related to projection isscapegoating, in which the sins of a community are transferred to a purported enemy.After our minds are thus primed, we are treated to the spectacle of the enemy being destroyed. We find it thrilling and cathartic, and we triumph in the feeling that “we are killing the bad guys!”A couple of years ago I listened to an interview with the British author Peter Hitchens in which he talked about World War I and its total catastrophe for the Christian civilization of Europe.Most disturbing was the fact that the purportedly Christian clergy on both sides of the infernal war claimed that Jesus Christ was on their side. In Hitchens’s view, this was a total perversion of Christ’s teachings, and the despair the war ultimately created from millions of dead and disfigured was a massive blow to the Christian faith.At one point in the interview, he made the startling statement that the Great Powers waged war not because conflict resolution was so hard, but because the men running the belligerent countries simply wanted war. Regarding his native Britain and its leaders, he said, “Churchill loved war. He didn’t look for ways to avoid it. He sought it.”One positive thing that can be said about British and European war up until young Winston’s day is that the ruling class that started wars was expected to send their young sons to fight them. My favorite aristocratic warlord in history wasJames Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan. He not only used his influence to push hard for the Crimean War, he served on the front line of it.Notorious for his haughtiness and extravagance, he achieved legendary status for leading the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava, immortalized in Tennyson’s poem.Watching Cardigan charge directly into a Russian battery, the French commander, Pierre Bosquet remarked: “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c’est de la folie(”It is magnificent, but it is not war: it is madness.”)Prominent members of our warmonger class in Washington could do much to redeem themselves if they would, like Lord Cardigan, serve on the front line. Alas, that was never in the cards for Lyndsay Graham, who was able to obtain ecstatic satisfaction from viewing electronic recordings and reports of bombing and killing.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Newly released footage of Lyndsay Graham reveals his elation at the news of bombing and mass destruction and killing.


Mind Viruses: How Fear, Greed, and the War Machine Hijack Your Brain—And How to Reclaim It

Since I met author John Leake—with whom I have written two books and who is now Vice President of the McCullough Foundation—we have had innumerable conversations about how our U.S. Republic lurches from one “crisis” to the next, and how all these “crises” are rooted in irrational beliefs that spread like a contagion. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called these contagions “psychic epidemics."In his just published book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, Leake reveals how each psychic epidemic is generated using the same script composed of the following three elements.1) Propagate fear and loathing of a purported threat to national security or public health.2) Present a purported solution whose implementation is characterized as a sacred mission.3) Scapegoat the purported enemies or opponents of this mission.As Leake puts it in the Preface:Recent missions have included reducing greenhouse gas emissions and getting all humanity vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Here at the outset, it should be noted that, in each of these missions, the threat is grossly overstated and oversimplified, and the efficacy of the championed solution cannot be measured, tested, or falsified. The rational observer eventually suspects that the point of the sacred mission is to keep it going, because the interested parties would be out of business as soon as the problem is solved.Please watch this long format interview of McCullough Foundation Vice President John Leake aboutMind Viruses:  America’s Irrational Obsessionsand share it with your friends.🧠 Mind Viruses: Fear, Money, and the Contagion of Irrational ThoughtMcCullough Foundation President, Dr. Peter McCulloughopens by framing the COVID-19 pandemic as a textbook mind virus: a fear-driven script in which an exaggerated threat (“respiratory viral monster”) meets a pre-packaged solution (the heralded vaccine) with no allowance for questioning—even by physicians of McCullough’s academic credentials and clinical experience.Leakeunpacks the mechanism that begins with FEAR, which he describes in his book as follows:Fear is a critically important emotion for rapidly detecting and reacting to mortal dangers and avoiding them in the future. Fear keenly sharpens one’s focus on a threat and prepares the body to fight it or flee from it. Within the hostile natural environment in which human evolved, fear kept people alive. Without it, the human species would not have survived. However, as the conditions of modern life have become more secure and complex, fear may greatly impair the ability of individuals and societies to respond to events in a rational manner that serves their best interests.Mind viruses are propagated when central authority raises the alarmabout a boogeyman, terrifies the populace, and offers salvation with a grossly oversimplified but wildly profitable “solution.”💰 The Financial EngineLeake identifies the core driver:institutional profiteering through crisis.Drawing on Thomas Sowell’s insight, he notes that institutions purportedly created tosolveproblems will go out of business if the problems are indeed solved. The military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, the biopharmaceutical complex that profited massively from COVID, the Wall Street bailouts—all follow the same perverse logic: a major crisis is a bonanza for the parties who are positioned to take advantage of it.Peace and health would put an end to the massive transfer of public funds to the purveyors of “countermeasures.”McCullough drives this home: defense contractors, intelligence agencies, and biopharma entities are financially dependent on threats. No threats, no revenue. This creates an incentive to exaggerate, foment, and even fabricate threats. True threats may be mismanaged and allowed to do harm to generate a pretext (or “false flag”) for massive central government actions such as the “War on Terror” and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.🦠 How It SpreadsThe book traces mind viruses across multiple domains, including the following selection mentioned in the interview. See the above table of contents for the full list of mind viruses characterized in the book.War:The “Father of All Mind Viruses”—an archaic fear of invasion exploited by a national security state that is constantly on the offense all over the globe, despite thirty documented American misadventures abroad since the end of World War II.Bioterrorism:The anthrax letters, gain-of-function research, and the PREP Act all follow the script: manufacture a threat, offer a “countermeasure,” use it as an instrument for exerting power and making a fortune.Racism:A “divide and conquer” misdirection trick for drawing scrutiny away from the massive Wall Street fraud and malfeasance, and especially the bailouts— trillions of Treasury and Federal Reserve money—that went to the same bankers who caused the Financial Crisis of 2008.Climate Change:A particularly virulent mind virus for the young, built on unmeasurable, untestable, and unfalsifiable claims, serving as a pretext for transferring hundreds of billions of funds to the purveyors of “alternative energy” and destroying the traditional manufacturing economy of developed nations such as Germany.“Transgender Medicine” for Minors:The most criminally insane and perverse mind virus documented in the book.🛡 The Antidote: Free SpeechLeake anchors his defense of free speech in John Milton’s 1644 pamphletAreopagitica. As Milton put it, human understanding is imperfect, and any attempt to gain understanding will be error prone. If orthodoxy forbids free speech to prevent error or heresy, there can be no advancement of understanding. The First Amendment exists precisely to protectunpopularspeech—that is, opinions that many people (especially those in power) find threatening.Leake observes that many of those who admired McCullough for his pandemic stance will now likely regard him as a dangerous heretic for opposing the Iran war. They must contend with the question: Why did you vehemently reject the US government’s representations of COVID-19, but wholeheartedly embrace the government’s representations of Iran?Free speech isn’t a matter of protecting opinions with which one agrees, but those that challenge one’s assumptions.The antidote to mind viruses isn’t censorship; it’s the disciplined willingness to listen to points of view that are incongruous with your long-held beliefs, the maturity to have a civil conversation about challenging ideas instead of angrily dismissing them out of hand, and the courage to overcome fear instead of being governed by it.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Please subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.AlterAImay be used to assist in searches, synthesis, and review.Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPresident, McCullough FoundationSubscribe nowShare

Summary: Provocative new book shows how all the "crises" of recent years are connected, and how you can immunize your mind against the next mind virus that is unleashed on us.