What Were Morens & His Co-Conspirators Doing?

Both political parties and the media are doing a splendid job of NOT examining what exactly Fauci’s senior NIAID advisor, David Morens, and his co-conspirators Peter Daszak and Gerald Keusch were trying to accomplish.The short answer is DAMAGE CONTROL. The stated rationale, reported in the media, is that Daszak really and truly believed that his ongoing grant gravy train,Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,was a form of legitimate academic inquiry and should therefore be reinstated after the Trump administration suspended it.This strategy was part of Daszak’s gambit to pretend that the Gain-of-Function work performed in accordance with his grant’s stated research objective had NOT resulted in the production of SARS-CoV-2, even though it obviously had.Keusch is an emeritus Boston University professor, and I suspect he is one of Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel’s cronies. From 2009–2024 Professor Keusch wasAssociate Director of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL). Boston University is situated directly across the Charles River from Moderna’s office in Cambridge, and both men are top gurus in the Pandemic Preparedness/ Vaccine racket.We are told that Peter Daszak, Gerald Keusch, and David Morens corresponded primarily to coordinate responses to the suspension of EcoHealth Alliance’s NIH grant for bat coronavirus research (which included work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology), to share non-public information about NIH deliberations and FOIA requests,to advise on messaging and strategy regarding COVID-19 origins, and to facilitate back-channel communications aimed at restoring funding and managing political and public scrutiny.The stated rationale for using Morens’s personal Gmail account (rather than his official NIH email) was to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and keep the records beyond the reach of government searches and public disclosure.Morens repeatedly stated that his NIH email was “FOIA’d constantly,” that he preferred Gmail for sensitive matters, and that he would delete material he did not want appearing in the press.He instructed Daszak, Keusch, and others to use only his Gmail, warned against copying government addresses, claimed techniques (learned from NIH FOIA and IT staff) to make emails “disappear,” and described arrangements for relaying information to Fauci via private channels or in person to avoid creating searchable records. Daszak explicitly agreed to switch to Gmail “from now on” after receiving such guidance.Court documents related to Morens’s later guilty plea to conspiracy charges describe an agreement among the parties to hide these exchanges for precisely this reason, as they anticipated FOIA scrutiny ofCOVID origins, the EcoHealth grant, and related NIH activities.As one who is frequently accused of being a “Conspiracy Theorist,” I suspect that this sort of conspiracy probably happens hundreds of times per day in the federal government, which is now little more than a glorified racketeering syndicate.The truly astonishing feature of this conspiracy is that it’s core element— the massive organized crime of creating a bioweapon that was unleashed on mankind and then concealing its origin—sits like a bull elephant in an Afternoon Tea Salon . Morens is taking the heat for mishandling federal records while NO ONE is being prosecuted for the actual crime.Livin’ in America!Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Analyzing what Fauci’s senior advisor was trying to accomplish with Peter Daszak and Gerald Keusch


“When Plunder Becomes a Way of Life”

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.-Frédéric Bastiat’sThe Law, 1850.I’m getting a few independent media invitations to talk about my recent essay,NIAID’s David Morens Pleads Guilty to Concealing Records of Coronavirus Gain-of-Function Research GrantBecause most people who work in the media are still somewhat stuck in the “Left vs. Right” and “Republican vs. Democrat” concept of public affairs, they struggle to see that the entire US government is now a glorified racketeering syndicate. The “Pandemic Preparedness” and “Biodefense” Industries are perfect racketeering vehicles. Even when the syndicate’s breathtaking crimes—such as creating and concealing the origin of SARS-CoV-2—are exposed, the capos such as Fauci and Bancel get away with it, while a lower ranking bagman such as David Morens takes the rap for a mickey-mouse fraud charge. The real substance of the crime is thereby ignored.The final proof that the US government is a racketeering syndicate is the staggering amount of money the syndicate has borrowed and disbursed to an array of special interests over the last 26 years. Total US debt in 2000 stood at $5.674trillion. Today it crossed the$40trillion mark.To be sure, what enables the syndicate to flourish and plunder is the public remaining ignorant, distracted, and brainwashednotto see what is going on. In order to understand how the syndicate works, it is useful to have a basic grounding in history and civics.On a recent trip to Washington D.C. for a MAHA event, my faithful and talented filmmaker friend, Brian Olson, suggested that I take a crack at communicating why plunder has become a way of life in Washington D.C.Reviewing the final cut today, I realize that at the time I gave the talk, I failed to appreciate just how much Dr. William Thornton’s original design for the US Capitol building was altered after the British burned it in 1814.  The rebuilt edifice was far more Roman imperial in style than Thornton’s original.The British assault on Washington D.C. on August 24, 1814 was the last time our nation’s capital was occupied by foreign soldiers. The arrival of a violent thunderstorm and tornado the following day doused the fires and prompted the British soldiers to withdraw. In July 1864, a detachment of the Confederate army attacked the outskirts of the city but was repulsed.Apart from my error in realizing how much the current Capitol is an alteration of Thornton’s original design, my impromptu talk about our government’s repudiation (or betrayal) of our Founders’ vision is accurate.If you enjoy this video, please signal your approval by liking this post and sharing it with your friends. I would like to make more content about history, philosophy, and art as a relief to reporting the abominable behavior of our trashy ruling class.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: The “Pandemic Preparedness” and “Biodefense” industries are perfect examples of how the US government has become a glorified racketeering syndicate.


277 Million Reasons to Consider Your Plate Carefully and Be Ready

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHWhen there is an effective solution, many times that is an inflection point for understanding the enormity of the problem.  We found that out with micronized Ivermectin-Mebendazole from The Wellness Company.🦠 The Hidden Burden: Foodborne ParasitesWe tend to think of food poisoning as a bad shrimp cocktail or undercooked chicken — a few miserable hours, maybe a day, then back to normal. TheNewsweekpiece covering a newLancet Global Healthstudy shatters that comfortable assumption. We’re talking about277 million illnesses annuallylinked to potentially foodborne invasive parasites, with roughly171 milliondirectly attributable to what people eat. These aren’t stomach bugs that come and go. These are parasites that set up shop in your organs, your brain, your heart — and stay there.📊 The Scale of the ProblemThe study examined 14 parasitic diseases across two decades (2000–2021), and the numbers are staggering. An estimated4.89 million foodborne DALYs(disability-adjusted life-years) were associated with these infections. The biggest contributors wereTaenia solium— the pork tapeworm that can causeneurocysticercosis, where larval cysts lodge in the brain triggering epilepsy — andClonorchis sinensis, the Chinese liver fluke acquired from raw or undercooked freshwater fish.Professor Lucy Robertson, the study’s lead author, put it bluntly: “Food poisoning is not only bacteria.”Public health messaging has drilled bacterial contamination into everyone’s head —Salmonella,E. coli,Listeria. But parasites? They’re treated like a tropical curiosity, something that happens elsewhere. Yet the Americas carried the highest burden in this study, largely driven byChagas disease, which most people associate with kissing bugs, not their dinner plate. Robertson notes that foodborne Chagas transmission actually producesmore severedisease than the vector-borne route.🔴 The Wakeup Call Nobody Asked ForHere’s what should make public health authorities uncomfortable: the overall burden of parasitic diseases was enormous between 2000 and 2021, andClonorchis sinensisincreased on the trend line. Robertson called it unexpected and said it “should be a wakeup call for relevant authorities.”Testing will identify the serious infections that will require treatment other than IVM-Meb or Bactrim.If you are developing new abdominal symptoms, consider the usual suspects: changes in food production and distribution, more international travel, and — critically — the growing appetite for raw or undercooked foods. Sushi bars, ceviche, rare steak, raw milk.🧬 What Prevention Actually RequiresThe article correctly emphasizes that prevention isn’t simple. You can’t just tell people to cook their food thoroughly and call it a day. Many of these parasites arezoonotic— they cycle between animals, the environment, and humans. That means a “One Health” approach is essential: veterinary surveillance of animal hosts, control of infection in livestock, safe water systems, proper waste disposal, and food-safety infrastructure that actually works.Most doctors in developed countries aren’t trained to think about parasitic infection when a patient walks in with seizures or heart failure. That diagnostic delay means more suffering, more transmission, and worse outcomes.From the list of parasites in this paper Ascaris and Trichinella are treatable with IVM-Meb.  However in the United States their is a more responsive range of organisms:It’s important to remember that the current outbreak this summer in the United states is from Cyclospora a protozoa, where the treatment is TMP-SMX in the Emergency Medical Kit from The Wellness Company.🧠 What the Article Gets Right — and What’s MissingTheNewsweekpiece does a solid job translating the study’s findings into accessible language, and it avoids the trap of sensationalism. Authors are both quoted directly, and the key statistics are presented clearly.What’s missing — and this is a limitation of the format, not necessarily the reporting — is any real scrutiny ofwhyparasitic disease surveillance remains so neglected.  The pharmaceutical industry has little incentive to develop novel antiparasitics when the patients who need them can’t pay premium prices.There’s also the uncomfortable reality that global food supply chains have made these diseases everyone’s problem. That ahi tuna steak in Manhattan could be carrying something that originated in a Southeast Asia. The boundaries that once contained these parasites are gone.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📝 ReferencesRobertson, L. J., et al. (2026). “Burden of foodborne invasive parasitic diseases, 2000–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.”The Lancet Global Health.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214109X26001440Dewan, A. (2026, August). “Millions of Illnesses Linked to Foodborne Parasites, New Study Warns.”Newsweek.https://www.newsweek.com/millions-illnesses-linked-foodborne-parasites-new-study-warns-12332674

Summary: Foodborne parasites are causing more illness than most people realize — and the problem isn't going away


Taking On Leviathan: Todd Callender in Conversation with John Leake

Along with Aaron Siri, Todd Callender is one of the few attorneys in this nation infested with them that took on US government COVID-19 tyranny. I just asked GROK to create an image of him jousting with Leviathan, and I think the result is pretty cool.Please join my livestream conversation with Todd today (August. 21) at 11:00 Central Time by clicking on the image below and joining the call. And please share this post with your friends!Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Join my livestream conversation today at 11:00 CT with the valiant Colorado attorney who challenged the US government’s vaccine mandates for US service personnel.


BREAKING: Two New Studies Raise Alarm Over Potential COVID-19 “Vaccine” Contamination of the Blood Supply

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHA newly published two-part scientific study raises major alarms about an issue that has received remarkably little scrutiny:What happens when blood from COVID-19-vaccinated donors is transfused into another person?Blood banks routinely screen donations for recognized infectious threats. Yet the current blood supply is not routinely screened for vaccine-derived mRNA, spike protein, plasmid DNA, amyloid, fibrin-microclot complexes, or other relevant vaccine-associated constituents.Our newly published two-part series investigates this blind spot from two complementary directions. The two studies were authored by James A. Thorp, MD; Claire Rogers, MSPAS, PA-C; R. Clinton Ohlers, PhD; M. Nathaniel Mead, PhD; Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (myself); Kirstin Cosgrove, CCRA; Sierra Hamm, RN; David Speicher, PhD; and Steven Hatfill, MD, M Med.Part I: Serious Post-Transfusion Complications in Nine Unvaccinated PatientsPotential Implications of COVID-19 Vaccination for Blood Donation: A Retrospective Case Series and Literature Review—Part I of IIPart Ipresents a retrospective, hypothesis-generating case series ofnine individuals who had not received a COVID-19 vaccine and subsequently experienced serious medical events after receiving blood transfusions.Reported complications includedthromboembolic disease, progressive clotting disorders, myocarditis, pericardial disease, disseminated intravascular coagulation, multi-organ system failure, and death.We concluded that these cases, together with the existing literature, raise sufficient concern to warrant direct investigation of whether biologically active vaccine-derived constituents may be present in donated blood:This study suggests that blood donated by COVID-19-vaccinated individuals may contain biologically active vaccine-derived constituents that could cause adverse clinical outcomes. The case reports and cited studies identify questions that warrant further investigation. All the pathogenic components of the COVID-19 vaccine or byproducts from it, have been found in several studies to be circulating in the blood of vaccinated donors. Healthcare providers must honor the ethical principles of patient autonomy and non-maleficence and support patients’ requests for autologous and directed designated donor blood. Screening blood donations for the presence of spike protein, amyloid, fibrin-microclot complexes, vaccine-derived mRNA, and plasmid DNA using quantitative assays and PCR-based methods should be considered for further evaluation by relevant public health and regulatory authorities, including the CDC and FDA.Part II: Extraordinary Blood, Clotting, and Neurological Safety SignalsPotential Implications of COVID-19 Vaccination for Blood Donation: Part II—Analysis of VAERS and Review of the LiteraturePart IIexpands the investigation to the CDC/FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, analyzing reports fromJanuary 1, 1990 through June 26, 2026and comparing COVID-19 vaccines with influenza vaccines, DPT-containing vaccines, and all non-COVID vaccines combined.The analysis identified statistically significant safety signals across every investigated endpoint, including reported rate ratios reaching:Hemorrhage: up to 101-foldHemorrhage in pregnancy: up to 108-foldBlood transfusion: up to 62-foldPost-transfusion complications: up to 30-foldHypercoagulable biomarkers: up to 452-foldThrombotic events: up to 1,221-foldParkinson’s disease: up to 282-foldCreutzfeldt-Jakob disease: up to 1,333-foldPrion disease: 60-foldThese signals are particularly important because they overlap with many of the same clinical patterns observed in Part I, includingthrombosis, hemorrhage, DIC, and multi-organ dysfunction.Part I identifies a series of serious post-transfusion events that demand investigation. Part II identifies striking pharmacovigilance signals involving many of the same biological systems, particularly clotting, hemorrhage, transfusion complications, and multi-organ dysfunction.To preserve global blood-supply integrity, regulatory frameworks should move rapidly to implement direct quantitative spike-protein screening and high-sensitivity digital PCR testing for vaccine-derived genetic material across donor networks, while also investigating whether these constituents remain biologically active after donation, storage, processing, and transfusion.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: We report nine unvaccinated blood transfusion recipients who experienced serious complications including blood clots, heart damage, multi-organ failure, and death.


Reducing the Burden of Childhood Vaccines

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPlease enjoy this news clip where I review the topsy topsy-turvy story of Trump and RFK trying to get MAHA vaccine reform and lower the burden of vaccines faced by our children.  In many states, the shots are effectively mandatory to attend school with little chance of exemption.The impetus for trimming the ACIP vaccine schedule comes from theMcCullough Foundation Report:  Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Until more research is done, the most immediate step to curb the rise of autism is to reduced childhood vaccination, particularly combination products.  Courtesy, John Fredericks, Outside the Beltway.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share📝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 Foundation

Summary: Most expedient approach to curb the rise in autism spectrum disorder


The Man Who Hid the Pandemic: How Fauci's Senior Advisor Laundered the Origins Story

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHWhen asked on national television about the fate of Dr David Morens, the disheveled former NIAID official, the thought of conspiracy and conspirators came up.  Dr. David Morens was78 years oldat the time of his indictment and guilty plea.  He is scheduled to be sentenced November 12, 2026.His title wasSenior Advisor to the Director of NIAID— specifically, he served as a senior advisor inNIAID’s Office of the Directorfrom2006 through 2022, working directly under Dr. Anthony Fauci for the bulk of that period.  Thus Dr Anthony Fauci is undoubtedly the top co-conspirator.Morens admitted to a conspiracy to defraud the government by hiding records about SARS-CoV-2 origins — and the court filings name two unindicted co-conspirators whose identities are now effectively public.🕵 The Known Co-ConspiratorsPeter Daszak (Co-Conspirator 1)— President of theEcoHealth Alliance, the New York nonprofit that held the “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” grant and funneled a subaward directly to theWuhan Institute of Virology.  Daszak’s role was to shuttle the lab protocols from Dr Ralph Baric at UNC Chapel Hill to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  Daszak's relationship with WIV stretches back to2003–2004, when he and EcoHealth's Jonathan Epstein began collaborating withShi Zhenglion bat coronaviruses. Daszak himself first met Shi around2006. That's two decades of institutional partnership, with18 joint papersbetween them on SARS-related bat coronaviruses.  Daszak acknowledged to Congress: that he still had roughly15,000 samples sitting in freezers in Wuhan, many unanalyzed. That's not the profile of a casual collaborator making a few site visits — that's a deeply embedded operational partner with physical materials stored at the lab.Co-Conspirator 2— Described in filings as a physician, scientist, and professor at an academic institution receiving federal grants. The name hasn’t been unsealed, but the description fits a narrow circle of gain-of-function researchers who collaborated with both EcoHealth and NIAID on bat coronavirus work.  Dr GeraldKeusch is an emeritus Boston University professor, and a top suspect. From 2009–2024 Professor Keusch wasAssociate Director of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL).🔍 Who Else Belongs on the Suspect ListBeyond Fauci and the two named conspirators, the filings reference anunidentified Senior NIAID Official 1who received “back-channel” information through Morens’s personal Gmail. That official appears to be Fauci himself, but the structure of the scheme implies a broader network:Dr. Ralph Baric— The UNC coronavirus researcher whose gain-of-function chimeric virus work underpinned the EcoHealth-WIV research pipeline. His lab’s methodology is the scientific backbone of the very grant in question.The “FOIA lady”— Morens boasted about being coached on how to hide records, indicating an NIAID records officer or FOIA compliance staffer actively teaching evasion techniques. That person is a co-conspirator in spirit if not yet in name.NIAID grants management officials— Someone had to shepherd the effort to “influence NIH to fund Company #1” from the inside. The indictment mentions edits to letters addressed to NIH leadership, which means sympathetic staff were circulating drafts.💡 The Larger PatternWhat’s telling is that Morens acceptedwine and offers of Michelin-starred mealsin exchange for writing a “scientific commentary advocating natural origins” — published in a prominent medical journal. That’s the quiet mechanism by which the official narrative gets laundered: a favor here, a gift there, and suddenly a “peer-reviewed” article exists to wave away inconvenient questions.The plea confirms the public-health establishment’s real fear was never a virus — it was a paper trail. They were less worried about containing a pathogen than about containing information. When the man who briefed NIAID leadership, who relayed information to the White House and Congress, pleads guilty to hiding records about the pandemic’s origins, the “nothing to see here” era is officially over.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 withAlterAIto defend your medical freedom. Subscribe toAlterAItoday and get a discount on unbiased and accurate AI!

Summary: A guilty plea for Dr David Morens exposes the quiet machinery that buried the lab-leak question — and the co-conspirators are still walking free.


Dr McCullough Lands on the Pompa Podcast

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPlease enjoy this full-length, in-studio broadcast from the Dr Pompa Podcast studio on the pandemic and our modern-day great controversies.Dr. Pompa Podcastis hosted by cellular healing specialist and health speaker Dr. Daniel Pompa. The show focuses on root-cause healing, detoxification, cellular inflammation, fasting, and interviews with health and faith leaders. You can listen to episodes directly on theDr. Daniel Pompa Official Siteor major platforms likeSpotify. [1,2,3,4,5]  With this stance, I confirmed that Pompa wisely declined COVID-19 vaccination.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 Foundation

Summary: Carpeting with truth bombs


How Badly the New York Times Misleads

I subscribe to theNew York Timesand read it most days so that I can understand how its misinformed readers view the world. However, somehow I missed the following Opinion piece from last March.The author is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, and I have a hard time believing her assertion that she was simply misled about the origin of SARS-CoV-2.Almost certainly, she knew that “conspiracy theorists” like me and countless others had solid grounds for dismissing the fraudulent paperThe proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2by Andersen, Rambaut, et al., which STILL hasn’t been retracted fromNature Medicine.Because Dr. Peter McCullough — who has been right about everything since he published his Opinion pieceThe great gamble of COVID-19 vaccine developmentinThe HillonAug. 17, 2020— was labelled a “dangerous spreader of misinformation” in 2020, most of the bien pensant New York Times reading crowd was conditioned to dismiss out of hand his papers and Senate testimony.Likewise, I have many old friends and even family members who proudly obtain their information from theNew York Timesand would therefore never read our Substack newsletter.Professor Tufekci was not simply misled; she chose to go along with the lie because the truth did not comport with her position and her identity.Two yearsbeforeshe wrote her Opinion piece about being misled—thereby adding yet another element to this great charade— I published a three-part series titledThe Great SARS-CoV-2 Charadein which I painstakingly presented the documentary evidence of this greatest organized crime in history. The activities and publications of the key players that created the illegal bio-weapon and then concealed its origin are documented for all to see. I remain astonished that all of them aren’t already in prison.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: The NYT Opinion piece “We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives” is a shining example of why America’s “newspaper of record” cannot be trusted.


John Leake on Dr. Drew Today at 5:30 ET

My apologies for the short notice — I just got thelivestream link.Tune into Dr. Drew’s show today at 5:30 PM ET to listen to your discussion about the Senator Johnson’s Fauci text revelations and my new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Short notice, log onto X livestream if you can


The mRNA Gold Rush: Why Moderna's "Cancer Vaccine" Hype Will Get Challenged

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHAfter five years of being bashed on unsafe, ineffective, uncontrollable Spike protein-producing (Spikevax, mNEXSPIKE) vaccines, Moderna is solidly back home in the cancer business and their stock performance couldn’t be any better.🧬 The mRNA Cancer Long Game: Moderna’s Pivot from Pandemic to Personalized ChemotherapyThere’s a narrative that’s taken hold in the financial press and biotech cheerleading circles: Moderna, having saved humanity from COVID, is now developing “cancer vaccines” that will do for oncology what Operation Warp Speed did for respiratory viruses.This is marketing, not medicine.What Moderna is actually doing is using synthetic messenger RNA as a delivery mechanism for personalized neoantigens as a part of toxic combination chemotherapy. Calling these “vaccines” is a linguistic sleight of hand designed to borrow the halo from childhood immunization while obscuring the reality of what’s being injected into patients’ bodies week after week.Subscribe nowRead more

Summary: Mega-dose weekly mRNA part of toxic chemotherapy, however with rapid FDA approval, Intismeran poised to saddle patients with massive costs, tumor resistance, and accumulating long term safety concerns


One of the Greatest Crimes in Medical History

OnAugust 16, 2026, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) released the following text exchange between Dr. John Mascola, Director of the Vaccine Research Center at NIAID and Dr. Fauci, and between Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Both texts are datedJanuary 25, 2021.Text from Dr. John Mascola to Dr. Anthony Fauci:I am corrected on pregnancy studies. Initial Studies avoid vaccination in first trimester due to possible fever and higher rates of miscarriage in first trimester[.]Text from Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Rochelle Walensky.Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the first trimester.Shortly after this private text exchange, Drs. Fauci and Walensky aggressively advocated that ALL pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccines. Because of their enormous authority in the United States and the West, their advice was, in 2021, eagerly followed by most pregnant women in the developed world.On May 19, 2021, McCullough Foundation Vice President John Leake interviewed Dr Peter McCullough about the hasty and reckless rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine program in early 2021. In this interview, Dr. McCullough expressly warned that our public health authorities and media were violating a long-established axiom of modern medicine—namely, that we NEVER inject pregnant women with a bioactive substance that could cause an adverse reaction in the pregnant woman’s body. NEVER.Four hours after I published the interview on YouTube, the video was removed from the platform without explanation.As you will see in the following McCullough Foundation short film, the willful concealment of the known miscarriage risk—perpetrated by Drs. Anthony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky—is one of the greatest criminal acts in the history of modern medicine.I highlight this particular incident because it contains all the elements necessary for criminal prosecution—that is, clear documentary evidence (text messages on government issued cell phones) of two willful and deliberate acts committed by Drs. Anthony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky.1). Concealing from the public the known and clearly defined risk of miscarriage caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.2). Using their official authority to advise the pregnant women of the United States— and by extension the entire world—to receive the dangerous product.Please watch the following short documentary film and share it with your colleagues and friends.Author’s Note: TheMcCullough Foundationis currently making a series of documentary films about the stunning malfeasance of our public health authorities. With your support, we can fulfill our mission of making sure that our government institutionsnever againcommit such acts of tyranny and abuse against “We the People.”PleaseDONATEtoday to support us in making the highest quality documentaries of our investigative scholarship. With a critical mass of educated citizens, we can turn the tide against government corruption.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: McCullough Foundation short film reveals how Drs. Fauci and Walensky KNEW the miscarriage risk in Jan. 2021 but still exhorted the pregnant women of the US (and the world) to get the dangerous shot.


New World Screw Worm, Cyclospora, and Salmonella: Three Concurrent Threats

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHAs our CDC considers to flounder on infectious disease outbreaks, America is looking for practical suggestions on how to protect oneself.  Please listen to this quick segment covering three threats:  New World screw worm, Cyclospora, and Salmonella. Courtesy Stinchfield Tonight.  Solutions are provided in Emergency Medical Kits fromThe Wellness Company.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/focalpoints

Summary: Dr McCullough and Grant Stinchfield discuss practical preparation, prevention, and treatment


Clearer Exposition of How Drs. Fauci & Walensky Concealed the Miscarriage Risk of COVID-19 Vaccination

Yesterday, I posted a short documentary film detailing how Drs. Anthony Fauci & Anthony Fauci concealed from pregnant women the miscarriage risk associated with COVID-19 vaccination. Several readers wrote to tell me that the exposition was impaired by the video’s fast pace and small script that was hard to read. Others complained that the spooky sound effects detract from the true horror of this story, which should be allowed to stand on its own.In response to readers’ requests, I spent the better part of today working on the film to make the exposition clearer and less encumbered by distracting effects.I believe the film illuminates one of the greatest crimes in medical history. I therefore beseech my readers to watch this revised version, and to like and share this post with your friends. Many thanks!Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Please watch & share this short film about one of the greatest crimes in medical history.


Author John Leake Talks with Dr. Drew

On Monday I had a great conversation with Dr. Drew about my new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions.Please Note: After YouTube deleted my May 19, 2021 interview with Dr. Peter McCullough and assessed me with an Orwellian “Community Guidelines Violation,” I have struggled to build back my Author John Leake YouTube page. The platform remains BY FAR the most powerful for sharing videos, so I would be most grateful if you would like and subscribe to my page and share my videos with your friends. Many thanks!Subscribe nowShare

Summary: A conversation about the contagious spread of irrational ideas, scapegoating, and the extreme danger of unconstrained central state power.


Can a Nation Be Irrevocably Ruined By Its Leaders?

Oh Deutschland, bleiche Mutter!Wie haben deine Söhne dich zugerichtetDass du unter den Völkern sitzestEin Gespött oder eine Furcht!Oh Germany, pale mother!How have your sons ill-served youThat you are scorned by all people—A thing of obloquy and terror!Bertolt Brecht, “Deutschland”In William Faulkner’s storyThe Bear,the protagonist, Isaac McCaslin goes on a series of hunting expeditions to kill a bear named Old Ben. However, when he finally gets a chance to take a shot, he chooses to let the splendid animal—that seems to embody what’s left of the disappearing Mississippi wilderness—live. Later he watches in horror as another hunter brutally slays the old creature with a knife.The story seems to be a meditation on how men may be given to greed, lust, and the desire to dominate and kill, thereby losing their souls. Especially disturbing is Isaac’s perception that, from the actions of the men who settled it, including his own family, his homeland of Mississippi has been irredeemably tainted.Bertolt Brecht conveyed a similar idea in his poem “Deutschland” that expresses the idea that the once great nation of Germany—personified by a “pale mother”—will never recover from the dishonor inflicted upon her by the dreadful conduct of her sons.There was a time not that long ago in the United States when our society still valued the concept of agentleman—an idea that traced its lineage back to classical Greece. The Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus remarked that even a relatively minor form of misconduct is enough to ruin a man’s reputation forever. As he put it:A small thing may ruin and destroy all. There is no need of anything large to ruin us; to lose your self-respect, your integrity, your modesty, a single moment of intemperance or carelessness is enough.Increasingly, it seems to me that the people who own and run the United States possess the character traits that Isaac McCaslin perceived to have resulted in a fall from grace. They are conspicuously—even bombastically— greedy, rapacious, bloodthirsty, vulgar and seem to have no regard for the other peoples of the world or for even the younger generations of their own country.Has this coterie of awful people rendered America into “a thing of obloquy and terror”?The same question may be asked of Israel. In retaliation for approximately 4,000 Hamas assassins brutally killing about 828 Israeli civilians and 367 security personnel, Israel’s military has damaged or completely destroyed an estimated 82% of all buildings in Gaza and killed (according to a studyLancet Global Healthstudy) around 75,000 people and injured around 174,000. According to this study, women, children, and older people made up a majority of violent deaths.Just as the atrocious behavior of the German government (and people who played along with it) in the years 1933-1945 did irreparable harm to the reputation of ALL German people—including those not yet born—the reputation of the American and Israeli nations will likely be permanently damaged by the conduct of their current governments.We can try to defend the actions of our dreadful politicians till we are blue in the face, but it won’t change the factual reality that the rest of the world can plainly see, even if we are too willfully blind to see it ourselves.ShareSubscribe now

Summary: Reflections on how quickly a nation may fall from grace.


Grand Rounds: Spike Protein Detoxification

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPlease enjoy this long format grand rounds with slides I gave for Dr Ann Marie Fine at theEnvironmental Medication Education Internationalprogram this summer.  This is great for sharing among other health professionals waking up to and grappling with Spikeopathies or diseases caused by the human exposure to and retention of the S-protein in the human body.Estimates are that about 97% of the world’s human population as been exposed to this protein engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  This is a useful guide you can share with family and friends.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 FoundationHulscher N, Procter BC, Wynn C, McCullough PA. Clinical Approach to Post-acute Sequelae After COVID-19 Infection and Vaccination. Cureus. 2023 Nov 21;15(11):e49204. doi: 10.7759/cureus.49204. PMID: 38024037; PMCID: PMC10663976.

Summary: Update on the core principles of managing long pandemic syndromes caused by Spike protein exposure and retention


RFK Jr. Raises Possibility Pennsylvania’s Reported “Measles Deaths” Were Fabricated

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHA major controversy is unfolding in Pennsylvania after Governor Josh Shapiro publicly announced two “measles-associated” deaths in Lancaster County—yet local officials say they cannot find evidence that anyone in the county actually died from measles.RFK Jr. put the discrepancy plainly:“They cannot find ANY measles deaths in Lancaster County.”Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons says he personally contacted the county coroner to investigate the claim.“I spoke at length with the coroner himself… they have ZERO cases of measles death.”Parsons said the coroner was aware of one patient who“died with measles, not of measles.”Whether Pennsylvania is counting that individual as a measles death remains unclear, and Parsons said officials still had essentially no information about the second reported death.Notably, Parsons said virtually no information was released about the two individuals other than that they were unvaccinated. That selective detail immediately placed vaccination status at the center of the story, indicating that the announcement was being used to frighten the public into taking hazardous MMR vaccines.The situation becomes even more troubling because, according to Parsons, deaths from communicable diseases in Lancaster County are required to be reported to the coroner. Yet after speaking directly with the coroner’s office, he was told there werezero cases of measles deathon record.RFK Jr. says the CDC has also attempted to obtain information from Pennsylvania but has been unable to verify what happened. He said Pennsylvania is refusing to cooperate with federal health officials even as the deaths are being widely reported by the media as established fact.RFK Jr. has nowappropriately raisedthe possibility that the announcement was not merely premature, but that the reported deaths“may even have been altogether fabricated.”If Pennsylvania has evidence confirming two deaths caused by measles, it should release enough non-identifying information to substantiate that claim.Where are the measles deaths?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: Lancaster County’s coroner reports ZERO measles deaths despite Pennsylvania publicly announcing two “measles-associated” deaths.


Severe Diesel Shortage Coming Soon?

An odd feature of living in a highly developed, industrialized nation with abundant energy and food is that, most of the time, we have little understanding or even awareness of how it all hums along.Things just workand we don’t concern ourselves with all of the arrangements that make them work.When I was growing up, my grandfather had a small cattle ranch north of Dallas, and during summer recess, I worked a couple of days per week on the place, doing odd jobs. He kept a large diesel tank behind the barn for filling his two tractors, and one day he told me about the importance of diesel for agriculture, construction, and transportation of goods and services.“We put gasoline in our cars, but diesel is the lifeblood for growing, producing and transporting things,” he told me.Named after the German mechanical engineer, Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913) who developed the high efficiency internal combustion engine to replace the extremely inefficient steam engine.In my estimation, Diesel was one of the greatest inventors of all time, and he endured enormous hardship, litigation over patent disputes, and personal injury in his quest to build his engine that ultimately transformed agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and transportation.His death on the eve of World War I strikes me as deeply intriguing. On the evening of September 29, 1913 he boarded the steamer SS Dresden in Antwerp, bound for England for business meetings, including discussion of diesel use in British submarines.He dined, retired to his cabin around 10 p.m., and left instructions to be called at 6:15 a.m. He was never seen alive again. His coat was found neatly folded on deck; his bed was unused. His death was ruled a suicide, but I wonder if the Imperial German government was unhappy about him consulting the British navy about putting diesel engines into their submarines, and therefore sent an agent to make sure he didn’t make it to England.Speaking of diesel and war, I suspect that Americans are about to experience a very rude awakening about the cost of the US government’s senseless wars abroad if these conflicts aren’t resolved soon.Read more

Summary: With wars in Russia and Middle East throttling diesel supply, the real economy may soon be scrambling for fuel. Is this why CIA Director John Ratcliffe just made a trip to Moscow.


She Believed in It With Her Whole Heart

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHIt was just a few years ago we saw Dolly Parton, age 77 in a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader outfit.  Now she is dead.⚰ The Quiet Irony of Dolly PartonDolly Parton died Tuesday at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. She was 80. The estate’s official line — delivered first by a nephew in a recorded video, then repeated by publicist Marcel Pariseau and “Team Dolly” — is that she faced “a brief battle with cancer” and departed surrounded by loved ones. What type of cancer?Not disclosed.Hospitalized four days prior with, per one outlet,kidney and autoimmune issues. And that’s the whole story the public is getting.For a woman worth a reported $600 million, with access to the absolute best medicine money can buy, the opacity is striking.Subscribe nowRead more

Summary: Dolly Parton's hope for the genetic vaccine was as pure as anything she ever sang — and then her immune system turned on her, and a "brief battle" took her away


BREAKING: CDC V-Safe Data Reveals 185,285 People Reported Long-Term Health Problems After COVID-19 “Vaccination”

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHAnew studyanalyzing data from the CDC’s V-safe surveillance system has identified 185,285 people who reported that their health remained worse three months or longer after COVID-19 vaccination and who attributed that deterioration to the vaccine.The findings come from an analysis by MIT researchers Retsef Levi and Nelson Lu of one of the largest active COVID-19 vaccine surveillance datasets ever assembled.V-safe enrolled more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccine recipients and repeatedly contacted participants after vaccination to ask about symptoms, daily functioning, healthcare utilization, and changes in their health. Unlike VAERS, which relies primarily on spontaneous adverse-event reports, V-safe actively prompted enrolled vaccine recipients to provide follow-up information over time, including at 3, 6, and 12 months.Among 9,904,924 V-safe enrollees aged 16 or older included in the analysis,185,285 (1.87%) reported prolonged worsening of their health that they believed was related to COVID-19 vaccination.Women reported the problem at an even higher rate:137,430 of 6,141,800 women, or 2.24%.Nearly Half Reported Disability, Hospitalization, or Severe Adverse EventsAt the qualifying V-safe assessment, conducted at least three months after vaccination, approximately half of those reporting prolonged vaccine-attributed health deterioration also reported at least one major health impact.19.98%–22.70%reported being unable to work or attend school.39.88%–41.70%reported being unable to perform normal daily activities.3.61%–4.05%reported hospitalization.16.74%–20.27%were classified as reporting severe adverse events.Overall,49.52%–50.87%reported at least one of these outcomes.The authors estimate that this corresponds to approximately1% of all V-safe enrolleesreporting both prolonged vaccine-attributed health deterioration and a serious health impact. Extrapolating this estimate nationally could correspond toseveral million people with chronic COVID-19 vaccine injuries.Neurological, Cardiovascular, and Multi-System ProblemsThe most frequently reported symptoms included:Fatigue:27%Headache:23%Joint pain:~15%Dizziness:~13%Shortness of breath:9.8%Muscle pain:7.1%Chest pain:5.5%Palpitations:4.6%Tinnitus:3.7%The prolonged-AE cohort also had higher reporting rates of neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiac, vascular, ear, eye, and reproductive disorders.Cardiac disorders were reported by10.29%of the prolonged-AE cohort compared with0.67%of controls. Reported terms included palpitations, atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, cardiac disorders, and arrhythmias.Cancer and Neoplasm Reports Were ElevatedThe prolonged-AE cohort contained2,708 reports classified under “neoplasms benign, malignant and unspecified,” or 1.46%, compared with 15,474 reports, or 0.16%, in the control cohort—roughly a nine-fold difference in reporting prevalence.Reported terms included:Breast cancer:0.24%Malignant neoplasm:0.15%Lymphoma:0.05%Skin cancer:0.04%ConclusionMore than 185,000 people told the CDC’s own surveillance system that their health remained worse months after vaccination and that they believed the vaccine was responsible, and roughly half reported disability, hospitalization, or severe adverse events. This means that millions of Americans likely suffered the same fate.The CDC failed to do its job and never adequately investigated this enormous chronic health burden. Unfortunately, this new study indicates that America’s chronic disease epidemic will rage for years to come thanks to the mass-mandated genetic injections.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: Nearly half reported disability, hospitalization, or severe adverse events at least three months after COVID-19 vaccination—and the CDC never adequately investigated.


Celebrity Endorsements of Pharma Products

Celebrity endorsements of various products have long struck me as one of the odder features of being human—that is, a tribal primate that lives in a conspicuously hierarchical social structure. Recently, while walking through an airport, I saw the following advertisement that made me wonder what the grandparents of old wine properties in France think of the American advertising endorsements. I once met an old countess who owned a chateau in the Loire Valley. I got the impression from her manners that she would struggle to come to terms with this association.In 2002, star college and NFL quarterback Ricky Williamsappeared onThe Oprah Winfrey Showto discuss his struggles with social anxiety and chronic shyness, and the great remedy he’d obtained by taking the antidepressant Paxil. He did NOT mention in the interview that he was being paid by GlaxoSmithKline to flog its product. About a year later, Williams stated that Paxil wasn’t so great after all and that marijuana worked better for him.Williams was one of many celebrities who spoke of their struggles with depression. Prozac, the first widely prescribed SSRI antidepressant, became a cultural symbol after its 1987–1988 launch. Elizabeth Wurtzel’s 1994 memoirProzac Nationframed the drug as both personal salvation and generational marker.In the early 1990s a wave of public figures—journalist Mike Wallace, Tipper Gore, novelist William Styron, and others—spoke about depression and treatment, thereby promoting the grossly oversimplified notion that depression is merely a neurotransmitter deficiency that can be easily corrected with a pill.In fact, depression is a complex mental condition that is partly an expression of the mind telling you that you need to make changes in your life, habits, and often the company you keep in order to achieve a more fulfilling life.Actress Carrie Fisher was one of the most consistent voices on treating her depression with a pharmaceutical product. After her death, her ashes were placed in a porcelain vessel representing a giant Prozac capsule.Viagra was another blockbuster drug that received numerous celebrity endorsements.Read more

Summary: Dolly Parton was one of many celebrities who have promoted products such as the mRNA COVID-19 shots, Prozac, and Viagra.


Mosquito Self-Defense: Protecting Your Family from the Silent Swarm

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHAs summer winds down most are going to miss the sun and fun but no one will miss mosquito season which can last well into the fall.🦟 The Silent Swarm: Mosquito-Borne Illness in the United StatesThe Unseen ThreatMost Americans think of mosquitoes as a nuisance — an itchy annoyance at summer barbecues, a reason to stay inside at dusk. That complacency is dangerous. The United States is not immune to serious mosquito-borne disease, and the risk is growing year over year as climate patterns shift, travel increases, and public health infrastructure strains under competing priorities.  While solar bug zappers have become popular, the mosquitos seem to avoid these blue lights.🩸 West Nile Virus: The Established InvaderWest Nile virus arrived in New York City in 1999 and has since becomethe leading mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States. It’s endemic now — meaning it’s here to stay, cycling between birds and mosquitoes, with humans as accidental hosts.The clinical picture is stark. About 80% of infected people show no symptoms. That’s the good news. The other 20% develop West Nile fever with headaches, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, and rash. Roughly 1 in 150 developneuroinvasive disease— encephalitis or meningitis that can cause permanent neurological damage, paralysis, or death.The CDC has recorded tens of thousands of cases since 1999, but those numbers dramatically undercount reality because most mild cases are never tested or reported. Neuroinvasive cases are the tip of the iceberg, and even those are substantial — hundreds per year, concentrated in states like California, Texas, Arizona, and the Midwest.🟡 Dengue: The Expanding FrontierDengue was once considered a disease of the developing world. That’s no longer true.Locally acquired dengue transmission is now documented in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, and Arizona.Most cases are travel related.Dengue’s nickname — “breakbone fever” — tells you everything you need to know about what it feels like. Severe muscle and joint pain, high fever, and a characteristic rash. The real danger comes with a second infection from a different serotype, which dramatically increases the risk ofdengue hemorrhagic fever, without treatment, a life-threatening condition where blood vessels leak, platelets crash, and organ failure can follow.Aedes aegyptiandAedes albopictus, the primary vectors, are now established across much of the southern and eastern United States. The mosquitoes have colonized the territory. The virus is following close behind.🩸The Forgotten American ScourgeMalaria was not always a tropical disease — for centuries it was endemic across the American South and as far north as the Great Lakes, withPlasmodium vivaxandPlasmodium falciparumboth circulating widely. The disease shaped settlement patterns, agricultural productivity, and even military campaigns; more Union soldiers died of malaria than Confederate bullets during the Civil War. The CDC was founded in 1946 specifically as the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, and the agency’s first and most consequential achievement was the systematic elimination of malaria from the United States through aggressive drainage, insecticide application, and surveillance — a feat completed by 1951. Today, roughly 2,000 cases are reported annually, almost all imported, but withAnophelesmosquitoes still present across half the country and climate conditions growing more favorable, locally acquired transmission has already reappeared in Florida and Texas.⚠ Yellow Fever: The Sleeping GiantYellow fever shaped America more than most textbooks admit — stalling construction of the Panama Canal, ravaging Philadelphia in 1793 and forcing the federal government to flee, decimating New Orleans repeatedly, and ultimately driving the mosquito-control infrastructure that made the modern South habitable.Yellow fever hasn’t established itself in the continental US in the modern era, but the conditions are increasingly favorable. The sameAedes aegyptimosquito that transmits dengue also carries yellow fever. Urban outbreaks in South America and Africa demonstrate what happens when the virus reaches densely populated areas with the right vector — it moves fast and kills efficiently.Yellow fever’s severe form causes jaundice (hence the name), internal bleeding, and multi-organ failure. The case fatality rate without treatment in severe cases can reach 50%. A vaccine exists, but it’s a live attenuated vaccine with its own serious risks, includingyellow fever vaccine-associated viscerotropic disease, which essentially mimics the disease it’s supposed to prevent.  It should be avoided in immunocompromised persons.🦟 Other Players in the SwarmZika virusgrabbed headlines in 2015-2016 for purportedly causing microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers.Aedesmosquitoes capable of transmitting it remain widespread across the southern US, and sporadic cases continue.Chikungunyacauses debilitating joint pain that can persist for months or years. It’s not typically fatal, but the chronic arthritis-like symptoms can destroy quality of life. Outbreaks in the Caribbean and Latin America mean imported cases are constant, and local transmission is a matter of when, not if, in areas with established vector populations.Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)is rare but terrifying — a 30% fatality rate with inadequate treatment, and many survivors have permanent brain damage. It pops up periodically in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Gulf Coast states.St. Louis EncephalitisandLa Crosse Encephalitisround out the list of neuroinvasive threats circulating within US borders.🧥 The First Line of Defense: Physical BarriersBefore any discussion of repellents, the single most effective and under-discussed strategy isphysical coverage. Long sleeves and long pants, particularly when treated or worn during peak mosquito activity hours (dusk to dawn), create a barrier no mosquito can penetrate.This isn’t complicated. Skin that isn’t exposed is skin that can’t be bitten. Light-colored, loose-fitting clothing is more effective than dark, tight garments — mosquitoes can bite through spandex but struggle with woven cotton or linen. Tucking pants into socks and shirts into pants eliminates entry points. A wide-brimmed hat protects the neck and ears.The pushback is predictable: “It’s too hot.” But lightweight, breathable fabrics designed for sun protection exist for exactly this reason. Cultures that have lived with mosquito-borne disease for centuries — across Africa, Asia, and Latin America — understood this long before DEET was synthesized in a lab. Physical barriers work. They work every time. They have no side effects, no toxicity concerns, and no need for reapplication.🌿 Botanical Bug Defense: Nature’s Chemistry Done RightThe Wellness Company’sBotanical Bug Defenserepresents a fundamentally different approach to repellency — one that works with natural compounds rather than synthetic neurotoxins.The formulation is built around four key botanical ingredients, each with documented evidence for insect repellency:Cedarwood Oil’sprimary active compounds, cedrol and thujopsene, function as potent insect neurotoxins that disrupt octopamine receptor signaling in arthropods while leaving mammalian systems unaffected. Multiple studies have demonstrated cedarwood's fumigant and contact toxicity against mosquitoes, ticks, and other biting insects, with protection attributed to both repellency and direct mortality.  Cedarwood's multifaceted mode of action — repellent, larvicidal, and adulticidal — makes it a valuable synergistic component in blended formulations where it extends the efficacy window of shorter-duration oils. is the heavyweight of natural repellents.Citronella oilis well-known but often underestimated. The key is concentration and formulation — properly emulsified citronella masks the carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and other human-emitted chemical signals that mosquitoes use to locate targets. It’s not about killing insects; it’s about making you invisible to their sensory apparatus.Peppermintoil earns its place in natural repellent formulations through its high menthol content and complementary volatile compounds — primarily menthone and limonene — which disrupt the olfactory receptors mosquitoes use to locate human targets. Multiple studies have demonstrated peppermint oil's repellency againstAedes,Culex, andAnophelesspecies, with larvicidal activity adding a secondary layer of protection. The oil's rapid evaporation limits standalone duration, but in blended formulations it contributes a sharp initial barrier while cooling the skin and deterring insects through a mechanism distinct from the heavier, longer-lasting botanical oils it's paired with.Lemongrass oilcontains citral and geraniol, compounds shown in laboratory and field studies to repelAedes,Culex, andAnophelesspecies — the three genera responsible for virtually all mosquito-borne disease transmission. Geraniol in particular has demonstrated repellency comparable to DEET in some head-to-head comparisons at similar concentrations.The combination matters. Individual botanicals tend to have shorter protection windows than synthetic alternatives, butsynergistic blending— multiple compounds targeting different olfactory receptors in the mosquito — can extend efficacy beyond what any single ingredient achieves alone.☠ The Chemical Alternative: What You’re Actually Putting on Your SkinDEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) has been the gold standard of insect repellents since the 1940s. It works. Nobody disputes that. What’s less discussed ishowit works and what the trade-offs are.DEET is not merely a repellent in the conventional sense — it functions as a neurotoxin that disrupts the insect’s olfactory and nervous systems. The mechanism involves inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, the same enzyme targeted by organophosphate pesticides and nerve agents.Severe adverse reactions — including encephalopathy and seizures — have been documented, particularly in children. The EPA’s own incident reports include hundreds of seizure-related adverse events. DEET is readily absorbed through the skin, with studies showing 10-15% systemic absorption within hours of application. It crosses the placenta. It’s detectable in breast milk.Picaridin and IR3535 are often marketed as safer alternatives, but they’re still synthetic molecules with far less long-term safety data than anyone should be comfortable with. The precautionary principle — if you don’t need to expose yourself to a synthetic neuroactive compound, don’t — seems to have been abandoned in the name of convenience.Permethrin, used for treating clothing, is a pyrethroid insecticide that is directly neurotoxic. The argument that it’s safe because it binds tightly to fabric ignores the reality of skin transfer, inhalation during application, and environmental persistence.🛡 A Sensible Hierarchy of ProtectionThe rational approach to mosquito-borne disease isn’t either/or — it’s layered defense:Physical barriers first— long sleeves, long pants, mosquito nets in high-risk sleeping environmentsEnvironmental control— eliminate standing water where mosquitoes breedTiming— avoid peak biting hours when possibleBotanical repellentson exposed skin — effective protection without systemic neurotoxin exposureSynthetic repellentsreserved for extreme-risk scenarios — deep jungle, known active outbreaks, regions with high malaria or yellow fever transmission where the risk-benefit calculation shiftsFor the vast majority of Americans — backyard barbecues, hiking trips, evening walks — botanical formulations like The Wellness Company’sBotanical Bug Defenserepresent the rational middle ground: effective protection without the documented risks of DEET and its synthetic cousins.🧠 The Bottom LineMosquito-borne illness in the United States is not a theoretical concern. West Nile is endemic. Dengue is establishing local transmission. Zika, chikungunya, and EEE are distant threats. Yellow fever is one introduction event away from urban outbreaks in cities with establishedAedespopulations.The question isn’t whether to protect yourself — it’s how to do it intelligently. Long sleeves cost nothing and work perfectly. Botanical repellents with documented efficacy offer meaningful protection without the neurotoxic baggage of chemical repellents.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/focalpoints

Summary: Practical, non-toxic strategies against West Nile, dengue, and the diseases they don't warn you about


BREAKING: FDA Approves New Pfizer and Moderna XFG mRNA COVID Shots Based on Data From Just 8–10 Mice

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHThe FDA hasapproved PfizerandModerna’snew 2026–2027 XFG-adapted mRNA COVID-19 vaccines even though the XFG-specific evidencepublicly presented to regulatorswas preclinical animal data involving just 8–10 mice per group.The reach of these dangerous approvals is sweeping: Pfizer can now be given to every American age 65 and older and to “high-risk” individuals as young as 5, while Moderna extends all the way down to “high-risk” infants just 6 months old.The human safety and immunogenicity studies of the new formulations had not even begun when FDA granted approval.Pfizer’s new COMIRNATY formulation was approved onAugust 27, 2026, while its prospective human study of the 2026–2027 formula is scheduled to beginAugust 31—four days later.Moderna’s new SPIKEVAX formulation was also approved onAugust 27, but its Phase 3b/4 human study of the 2026–2027 SPIKEVAX and MNEXSPIKE formulations is not scheduled to begin untilNovember 16—nearly three months after approval.FDA’s own 2026 vaccine-selection materials distinguish between human data from earlier/current COVID vaccines and animal immunogenicity data for the new candidate vaccines.Pfizer’s FDA presentationshows the XFG candidate was tested in10 mice per group.Moderna’s FDA presentationshows its key XFG experiment used8 mice per group.The approval letters reveal another troubling development: FDA also releasedboth manufacturers from previously required placebo-controlled postmarketing studies, citing operational and feasibility problems. Pfizer’s abandoned study would have investigated circulating spike antigen and post-vaccination symptoms, while Moderna’s would have evaluated safety of variant-containing formulations.Rather than requiring new human data before approval, FDA relied in part on human safety and immunogenicity data from previous COVID-19 vaccine formulations and extrapolated that evidence to the newly updated XFG products, while the XFG-specific evidence itself remained preclinical.This reliance on older-formulation data is especially concerning given themillions of deaths, injuries, and disabilities, along with demonstratedcardiotoxicity,neurotoxicity,carcinogenicity,body-wide biodistribution, andyears-long persistence.This is extremely worrisome and needs to be reversed immediately.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: The new formulations were approved before their human safety and immunogenicity studies even began.


BILL GATES WARNS OF AI BIOTERRORISM JUST WEEKS AFTER HE FUNDED THE FIRST-EVER CREATION OF 16 SYNTHETIC VIRUSES USING AI

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHBill Gates is now publicly warning that artificial intelligence has become powerful enough to create dangerous viruses and enable bioterrorism.“AIs are now capable of causing bioterrorism risk,” Gates said on CNN, adding that we need to monitor whether people are “creating a dangerous virus.”But just weeks earlier, Gates Foundation-funded researcherspublished a study inSciencedescribing theFIRST-EVER creation of 16 synthetic viruses using AI.The mad scientists used artificial intelligence to design bacteriophages that do not exist in nature. The synthetic viruses were then manufactured, shown to self-replicate inside bacteria, kill their bacterial hosts, and produce new viral particles.The lead author who carried out much of the experimental work was financially supported by the Gates Foundation.So Bill Gates is now warning the world about the very capability his own foundation helped fund into existence:AI systems being used to design functional synthetic viruses.You cannot make this up.Nicolas Hulscher, MPHEpidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough FoundationSupport our mission:mcculloughfnd.orgPlease consider following both theMcCullough Foundationandmy personal accountonX(formerly Twitter) for further content.FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Summary: Bill Gates is now warning the world about the very capability his own foundation helped fund into existence.


The Green Ritual: How Matcha Is Powering a Healthier Return to Campus

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHFor millions of young people, August means the return to college campuses and time to settle into academic routines.  There are about 15.3 million undergraduate students and roughly 3.5 million graduate students in the United States.🍂 The Season of ReturnThere’s a particular excitement to late August—the kind that settles over driveways and dormitory steps, over suitcases zipped too full and anxious parents brimming with pride. Kids scatter back to campus. And in the scramble to rebuild a routine from scratch, one thing has quietly become the anchor of the whole endeavor:matcha in place of coffee.It used to be a specialty drink, the province of tea snobs and wellness blogs. Now? Walk any quad during the first week of classes and you’ll see it everywhere—whisked into oat milk, shaken over ice, balanced on the edge of a lecture-hall desk. Matcha has become theritualof the returning student: something to stir, something to hold, something that turns the mechanical act of “getting back into it” into a small daily ceremony.🌿 Why Matcha WonThe appeal isn’t mysterious. Students are waking up earlier, moving faster, and staring at screens longer than any generation before them. They want energy without the jitter, focus without the crash, and a drink thatdoessomething instead of just filling a cup.That’s where the science gets genuinely interesting—and wherePique Life’s Sun Goddess Matchaseparates itself from the crowd.🍵 Sun Goddess Matcha: The BreakdownSun Goddessis100% organic and ceremonial-grade, which matters more than the label lets on. Ceremonial grade means young, shade-grown leaves, stone-ground into a powder so fine it dissolves into something smooth, sweet, and almost creamy—packed with beneficial ingredients.💚 EGCG — Firm & BrightenEGCG, the star polyphenol in green tea, is the headline act here. Beyond its reputation as an antioxidant, EGCGfirms and brightens skin—which, for a student suddenly sleeping less and eating erratically, is exactly the kind of invisible support that shows up in the mirror within a couple weeks.🍬 Catechins — The Craving KillersEGCG belongs to the broader catechin family, and together they helpcurb sugar and hunger cravings. That 3 p.m. vending-machine collapse? The late-night pastry run? Catechins act as a gentle brake on the blood-sugar rollercoaster that drives those impulses.🌱 Chlorophyll — Clarity From WithinThat vivid green isn’t decoration.Chlorophyll, abundant in shade-grown ceremonial matcha, givesSun Goddessits color and supportsskin clarityfrom the inside out. It’s the quiet workhorse of clear, even-toned skin.⚡ Caffeine — Metabolism, Not Just WakefulnessMatcha’s caffeine arrives bound to its plant matrix, releasing slower than coffee’s sharp spike. Beyond the smooth energy, caffeine here supportslipid metabolism—meaning the body’s fat-burning machinery keeps ticking even when the only workout is sprinting between classes.🧘 L-Theanine — The CounterweightThis is matcha’s secret weapon.L-theaninepromotescalm and balanceby guiding the brain toward relaxed alertness—focus without anxiety, presence without the buzz. For a 20-year-old staring down three papers and a group project, that equilibrium is worth more than any energy drink.📦 What You’re Actually GettingDetail SpecGrade100% Organic, CeremonialTotal Weight56g per cartonServings28 per carton.  That’s a month of daily ritual in one carton. And for students whose budgets are already stretched thin by textbooks and takeout, this is perfect as a gift from parents who want to see their kids do the best they can.🎁 Try It YourselfYou can find Pique Life’sSun Goddess Matcharight here:👉Pique Life Sun Goddess MatchaAnd don’t forget to use promo codeDRPETERat checkout.🎒 The Real PointHere’s what I actually think when I watch the matcha mugs multiply each September: this generation, for all its screen-addled chaos, has quietly rediscovered something older than any of them. The idea thathowyou start your day matters. That a whisk and a bowl and two minutes of stirring can be a kind of meditation. That you don’t need to mainline espresso to feel alive.Sun Goddess Matchais a healthy tool—one that brings EGCG, catechins, chlorophyll, caffeine, and L-theanine to the same cup, in a form the body actually recognizes and processes naturally during a busy day on campus.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 about Pique products and get 20% off and free gifts today,https://www.piquelife.com/DRPETER

Summary: Pique Life’s Sun Goddess Matcha perfect for dorm life and peak academic performance


The Great Misdirection Trick of Partisan Politics

In the 1995 film,The Usual Suspects, what appears to be a hapless man named Roger “Verbal” Kint memorably paraphrases the French poet Charles Baudelaire with the remark:The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.It seems to me that the second greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the American people that they should place their faith and hope in one of the two political parties.For many years I have observed people with strong “Republican” identities and people with strong “Democrat” identities fulminate about the folly of the other party. The former watch Fox; the latter watch CNN; both are equally persuaded by the propaganda they are served.My personal sympathies and biases have always strongly tilted Republican. My paternal grandfather, who knew some of LBJ’s cronies, once told me that LBJ was “the most corrupt man who ever walked the earth.” Conversely, my maternal grandfather knew George H.W. Bush and thought he was a swell guy. In my twenties I also noticed that people who identify themselves as Democrats tend to be far more given tovirtue signaling, which I have long perceived to be a dangerous form of self-deception and self-congratulation.I was therefore, initially, a strong supporter of George W. Bush. My support began to attenuate rapidly after September 1, 2001. I was in Manhattan on that infamous day and was badly traumatized by it. Looking back, I believe my political awakening about the evil of both political parties began then. I now believe that the two major American parties should be understood as belonging to the same monstrous structure—as complementary halves of a single system.Like yin and yang, they are opposed in rhetoric and personnel, but in practice they are as co-dependent as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald after they became severe alcoholics and started quarreling all the time.Each political party supplies the other with anenemy, arationale for mobilization, and aready explanationwhen outcomes disappoint. Together they form the visible face of a national government whose scope and liabilities have grown under administrations of both labels.This face may be understood as that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. People who have strong partisan political identities see their party as the kindly and humane Dr. Jekyll and the other as Mr. Hyde, not realizing that they are the same.While the two parties constantly point the finger at each other,spending, regulation, and debthave risen across decades regardless of which coalition held the presidency or Congress.Wars, thenational security state,entitlements, andemergency authoritieshave been advanced, modified, or merely continued by both. Even when differences are real, they they operate inside a shared institutional logic of concentrated benefits, diffuse costs, logrolling, and political reward for delivering visible programs while deferring their fiscal consequences. The result is an entity that becomes steadily larger and more indebted even as the parties trade office.While the monster grows like a cancer, the public is served—through their preferred propaganda organs—with a partisan blame mechanism. Persistent problems—structural deficits, the growth of unfunded liabilities, regulatory accumulation, infrastructure decay—are routinely attributed to the other party’s unique vice, incompetence, or capture.When Democrats hold power, Republicans point to spending and bureaucracy; when Republicans hold power, Democrats point to tax cuts, wars, or corporate favoritism. Each side can produce examples that support its case. The mechanism works because it is psychologically efficient, converting complex outcomes into asimple story of villainy versus virtue. Voters are thereby equipped withan identityanda targetwithout having to examine the incentives that operate on both coalitions once they areinside government.Divide-and-conquerfollows from this arrangement. Energy that could be marshaled into the broader project of rejecting the entire game is instead absorbed by inter-party combat. Polarization is not an accidental byproduct; it is the system’s most essential function.A public sorted into hostile camps is less likely to form a durable coalition around taming the beast. These camps have been rigorously trained to view each other with mutual suspicion and contempt.The parties do not need to conspire for this effect, which naturally emerges from ordinary electoral incentive. Primary electorates reward differentiation; media markets rewardconflict and tribalism, and incumbents of both parties benefit from a government that continues to distribute resources.In my business of trying to communicate in the public forum,tribalismis especially operative. I once played golf with a major Silicon Valley investor who happened to be a fan of this newsletter, and he offered me the following counsel.The key to building a major media channel is to build a tribe and then constantly excite its outrage and flatter its identity. It seems to me that you and McCullough haven’t figured this out, and you have a rare talent for offending all tribes.What can I say? The truth hurts everyone, and every major lesson in life is learned through pain.The point of this essay is not to claim that both parties areidentical, but that their differences are secondary to the theirmutual captureby the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, the bio-pharmaceutical complex, and the intelligence agencies.Partisan political differences coexist with a deeper continuity in the size and indebtedness of the state, while the partisan narrative of exclusive blame helps stabilize that continuity.Yin and yang do not cancel each other; they complete a cycle. In this cycle, the government entity grows, the debt accumulates, and the public is offered a contest over which half of the whole is at fault.As I recently pointed out in a video shot overlooking the Capitol building, the fuel that feeds Leviathan, enabling him to grow to ever large and more terrifying dimensions, consists of an unending train of “crises” and “emergencies.” If you’ve not yet watched the video, you may find it interesting.Subscribe nowShare

Summary: Republicans and Democrats are the yin and yang of the same monstrous Leviathan that devours the American people.


Bill Gates Warns of AI Bioterrorism as the Vaccine–Alpha-Gal Link Emerges

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHI joined Rob Finnerty on Newsmax to discuss two major stories: new evidence pointing tovaccines as a possible contributorto the dramatic rise in Alpha-Gal Syndrome, andBill Gates warning about AI-driven bioterrorismjust weeks after Gates-funded research helped produce the first functional viruses designed using artificial intelligence.Ournew comprehensive review of Alpha-Gal Syndrome (AGS)identified vaccination as a risk factor. More than 90% of American children receive vaccines containing bovine-derived gelatin before entering school, resulting in injection of approximately 54 mg of alpha-gal-bearing gelatin through commonly administered childhood vaccines (MMR and chickenpox).The second major topic wasBill Gates’ recent warningthat increasingly powerful AI could create a bioterrorism risk.However, Just weeks earlier, aGates-funded paper published inSciencereported the first-ever creation of 16 functional viruses designed using artificial intelligence. The lead researcher received Gates Foundation funding, and the AI-designed bacteriophages were capable of infecting bacteria, replicating, and producing new viral particles.Bill Gates is warning the world about the very capability his own foundation funded into existence.As I told Rob:“It’s absolutely absurd, and you can’t even make it up.”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: Nicolas Hulscher joins Rob Finnerty on NEWSMAX to discuss Bill Gates’ contradictory AI bioterrorism warning and new evidence implicating vaccines as a risk factor for Alpha-Gal Syndrome.


BREAKING: BioNTech mRNA Cancer “Vaccine” Trial TERMINATED Over Alarming Mortality Signal

byNicolas Hulscher, MPHBioNTech hasabruptly terminateda Phase 2 trial of its experimental personalized mRNA cancer “vaccine” after an independent safety board identified an alarmingimbalance in overall survival between the treatment groups.The trial, known asBNT122-01 (NCT04486378), enrolled approximately 327 patients with surgically resected high-risk Stage II or Stage III colorectal cancer who remained positive for circulating tumor DNA. Participants were randomized to receive BioNTech’s individualized mRNA cancer immunotherapy, autogene cevumeran (BNT122/RO7198457), or watchful waiting.Patients in the mRNA arm underwent anaggressive hyper-dosing regimen of up to 15 intravenous infusions over roughly one year—six weekly doses across the first six treatment weeks, two more at two-week intervals over the following month, followed by seven additional doses every six weeks for the remainder of the year.The independent Data Safety Monitoring Board has now reported a“numerical imbalance in overall survival between treatment arms”and concluded that continuing the study was unlikely to change its efficacy outcome. Itrecommended that treatment be stopped and the entire clinical trial terminated. BioNTech surprisingly accepted the recommendation.In lay terms, overall survival measures how long patients remain alive after entering the trial. An imbalance therefore represents a mortality signal between the groups. BioNTech has not yet disclosed the number of deaths in each arm, the mortality rates, hazard ratio, causes of death, or which treatment group experienced poorer survival.Perhaps even more concerning, the trial had alreadycrossed a prespecified futility boundary in October 2025, indicating that the accumulating results were unlikely to demonstrate the intended efficacy. BioNTech nevertheless continued the study.As the vaccine cartel races to push mRNA technology into an ever-expanding list of diseases, this trial marks yet another major failure of the platform—this time in cancer patients, where the stakes could not be higher. It’s time to END the unchecked expansion of mRNA technology and protect innocent civilians from further death and disability.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: The independent Data Safety Monitoring Board flagged an overall-survival imbalance after cancer patients received an aggressive hyper-dosing regimen of up to 15 IV mRNA doses.


Four Epochs of Mankind’s Controversial History with Vaccines

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPHPlease enjoy this long format state presentation given on August 21 at the Advent Mission Institute Camp 365 in Berrien Springs, Michigan.  I reconnected with church leaders who suffered severe professional reprisal for their presentation to congregations of the “crisis of conscience” we all faced with mandated genetic vaccines for COVID-19 in 2021.I present four periods of time in our beautifully written book by first author John Leake—Vaccines:  Mythology, Ideology, and Reality:I.  The Great Prelude:  Smallpox VaccinationII.  Experimentation and DevelopmentIII.  The Modern Vaccination EraIV.  The Bioweapons EraYes, this describes starting in 2004, we entered a whole new phase of biotechnology applied to biowarfare where pathogens of pandemic potential are created in biolabs and vaccines are developed as military countermeasures.  That’s how we all became caught up in history that has certainly taken a dark turn.  Please enjoy the show.Thanks for reading FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse™)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share📝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 Foundation

Summary: Dr McCullough presents the timeline at Advent Mission Institute 365


The US Proxy War in Russia is Escalating & Imperiling the World

In spring of 2008, I was living in Vienna, Austria and carefully followed the reporting on the NATO Bucharest Summit from April 2-4. For readers who don’t remember this momentous occasion: it was during this summit that the NATO issued a declaration stating that Georgia and Ukraine would eventually become NATO members.What most people don’t remember about this summit was that the Bush administration pushed forthe immediate grantingof a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine and Georgia. Fortunately, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy successfully blocked this initiative but nevertheless appeased President Bush by agreeing to the vague promise that both nations "will become members of NATO.”Russian President Putin, who attended the summit, stated in his address that NATO’s expansion into Ukraine and Georgia was “direct threat to Russian security.” A the time it occurred to me that US policy wonkswelcomedthis unequivocal statement by Putin—on the record at a NATO summit—because with this statement, Putin publicly stated his red line, the crossing of which would force his hand to take military action.Make no mistake: The horrible people who run US foreign policywantedPutin to take military action in Ukraine because they believed it would lead to an Afghan style quagmire for Russia in Ukraine. As I tell this story in my new book,Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions:They apparently reasoned that, with the Ukrainian army equipped with sophisticated US weaponry and targeting assistance, the Russian army would suffer the same kind of humiliating defeat it had suffered in Afghanistan at the hands of the US-armed Mujahideen, who succeeded in getting the Soviet Army to withdrawal from in the country in February 1989. Hillary Clinton explicitly made this comparison in a February 28, 2022, MSNBC interview in which she said:Remember, the Russians invaded Afghanistan back in 1980. It didn’t end well for the Russians . . . but the fact is, that a very motivated, and then funded, and armed insurgency basically drove the Russians out of Afghanistan.Later in the interview, Clinton conceded that arming the Afghan Mujahideen had produced unintended consequences like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The actions of these groups resulted in the US government sending the American military to Afghanistan and occupying the country for twenty years. After getting thousands of American servicemen killed and maimed and spending $2.3 trillion, the US government made its own chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, leaving the countrybackin the hands of the Taliban that was supposed to have been vanquished twenty years earlier.It didn’t seem to bother Clinton that an Afghan-style quagmire in Ukraine would likely kill hundreds of thousands of people and inflict great suffering on the Ukrainian people, just as the Afghan people had suffered during the Soviet Afghan War. Implied in Clinton’s statement was her apparent assumption that the Ukrainian people view the Russian people as enemies. In fact, most Ukrainians and Russians have long had close and affectionate relations, and many have extended family members in both countries. For decades, ordinary Ukrainians have—because of the country’s location, history, and rich natural resources—been caught in the middle of oligarchies in Kiev and Moscow who have much in common but also frequently squabble over natural gas deals. Washington, London, and Brussels have sought to bring Ukraine into the western sphere of influence. Most disturbing to Moscow has been the aggressive foreign policy clique in Washington that has aspired to make Ukraine a forward operating base against Russia in the same way it aspired to make Iraq a forward operating base against Syria and Iran.I have seen ZERO evidence that an Austrian-style neutrality deal would not have worked for Ukraine and averted this senseless war. Here is former NATO Secretary General and US stooge Jens Stoltenberg stating that Russia’s neutrality proposal in the autumn of 2021 was rejected out of hand.As with all of Washington’s wars since 2001, the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has been a catastrophic failure, though it has certainly enriched the US military-industrial complex, the oligarchs who run Ukraine, and their US political cronies.Currently I am seeing an increasingly number of indications that this war is escalating, with growing risk of direct clashes between Russian and NATO forces and even Russian strikes on munitions factories in Germany and Great Britain.To be sure, President Putin knows what I already intuited in 2008—namely, the horrible people who run US foreign policy and their German puppet, Chancellor Friedrich Merz—wantRussia to strike western targets so that it will trigger general war in Europe.For some time it has been said that the US foreign policy clique running the proxy war have demonstrated a remarkably cold-blooded willingness “to fight till the lastUkrainianman,” and I know a young Ukrainian man who was recently abducted and sent to front line with minimal training. At the moment, I am not sure if he is still alive.Even more disturbing was the August 24, 2026statementof retired Lieutenant GeneralKeith Kellogg, who previously served as the US Special Envoy for Ukraine, in which he declared that the government in Kiev should expand military conscription to include women.Here it is important to understand that Ukraine’s oligarchs and their children are not fighting the war. As wasreportedin the French newspaperLe Mondein 2023, many oligarchs have left Ukraine and retreated to their villas in the South of France.Especially fascinating and disturbing to me is that most Americans seem to have no idea this is going on. It reminds me of carefree members of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy in the summer of 1914, who had no idea that the reckless machinations of the Austrian court against the Kingdom of Serbia would, just four years later, result in the total destruction of the Austrian Habsburg state and empire that had existed for over 600 years.Many of my friends in Vienna come from families lost ALL their ancestral property in Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and other parts of the empire. Some of their great grandparents retreated to their apartments in Vienna and burned family heirloom furniture in the winter of 1918-1919 to keep warm because their coal supply from Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech and Slovak Republics) was cut off.Unlike the Russian people—who suffered catastrophic death and suffering in the wake of Napoleon’s 1812 invasion and Hitler’s 1941 invasion—the American people alive today have little to no awareness of the horrors of war.My great grandmother, who died almost forty years ago, once told my mother that no a single day went by that she didn’t feel the pain of losing her only son Bobby, who was killed in combat at the age of eighteen, fighting the Germans near Florence, Italy in 1944.The dreadful old men who run this country seem to have no empathy for a mother’s pain—neither that of the mothers of Ukraine and Russia, nor of the mothers of ordinary Americans. I am increasingly drawn to the conclusion that the US government—in its reckless conduct in both domestic and foreign policy domains—is essentially a satanic entity.This entity—whoever in hell is running it—doesn’t seem to understand that escalation can result in all kinds of unpredictable and undesirable outcomes. Such was theme of the darkly satiric Cold War song “99 Luftballons” by the German band NENA, in which the appearance of 99 hot air balloons on the horizon is mistaken for an attack, thereby triggering an escalation that leads to World War III and the end of the world.The song may have been inspired by the so-called “Battle of Los Angeles” on February 25, 1942, when an errant weather balloon over Los Angeles triggered an air raid alert and blackout. This, in turn, triggered a massive anti-aircraft barrage of approximately 1,400 shells fired into the sky over Los Angeles at perceived enemy aircraft, even though none was clearly detected and identified. Five people died during the incident from stress-related heart attacks and traffic accidents caused by the panic. Later, the Army declared the incident to have been the result of “war nerves and imagination.”Songwriter Carlo Karges wrote “99 Luftballon” in 1982. About a year later, on September 26, 1983, when Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, stationed near Moscow, prevented a potential nuclear exchange by identifying a satellite warning system of incoming US ICBMs as more likely a system malfunction. Rather than following protocol to report the attack immediately, Petrov made the gut decision to classify the alert as a false alarm. His hunch was later confirmed to be a satellite malfunction that misinterpreted cloud reflections as missiles. For trusting his intuition and making his bold decision to err on the side of caution, Petrov was known as “the man who saved the world.”Petrov was born in 1939 and lived through many of the most dangerous years of the 20th century before dying in 2017. As we head up the escalation ladder with Russia, I hope there are still men like him managing Russia’s nuclear weapons systems.Subscribe nowShareMany Americans seem to think that this sort of thing—on a much wider and more catastrophic scale—couldn’t

Summary: The reckless gamble with the existence of the American people and the peoples of Western Europe appears to be getting more dangerous by the day.