POWER AND GROWTH
This is a bit of a catch-up post--stuff accumulates on my desk and sometimes I just need to go through the stack and clean the snippets out.
First is a big headline in The Wall Street Journal "McDonald's Sales Bruised by E. Coli Fallout." Remember back in October onions from a farm in Colorado that has 25,000 employees (I posted about that at the time) caused an E. coli outbreak that killed one and hospitalized 34 people in 14 states.
Total damage to sales was estimated at $200 million but recovery due to a chicken sandwich rollout and broad low-cost meal items brought folks back. The bottom line is this: in 2025 McDonald's plans to open 600 new stores in the U.S. and 1,600 in foreign countries, for a total expansion of 2,200 new McDonald's sites. Does that sound like a business in trouble?
I've said for many years that we'll know our side is starting to win when McDonald's starts posting ongoing losses and quits building new outlets. For all the hoopla about MAHA, this litmus test is far from being achieved. We have plenty of work to do.
Second, the sheer power of the pharmaceutical industry. Two easy solutions to bird flu seem apparent. One is Chlorine Dioxide Solution (CDS), an antimicrobial safe enough for both animals and humans to drink. Several studies, especially in Japan, show its antiviral efficacy. The other is hypochlorous, another non-toxic anti-microbial used in organic certified slaughter houses as a disinfectant and, again, drinkable.
Both of these have nearly 100 percent efficacy against bird flu in many trials, but the USDA won't even consider them or study them. They're simply ignored in favor of vaccine development. So far, any bird flu vaccine developed has the unfortunate side effect of making bird flu more virulent. Fancy that. Why can't alternatives get a seat at the table?
Third, and related to number two, I did a podcast recently (I do a lot of those these days) and the host said pharmaceutical companies own everything: the USDA, the mainstream media, the research institutions. Roughly half the ads on TV are pharmaceutical companies. He said those ads aren't to encourage people to buy the drugs; they are to make it clear to the media who butters their bread. In others words, the media is completely beholden to the pharmaceutical companies. I remember well during my short stint as an investigative reporter at a daily newspaper how many stories got spiked (journalist lingo for buried, nixed, or killed) because the corrupt, fraudulent individual was a member of the publisher's Rotary Club or a big advertiser. It was obscene.
Fourth, and finally, I did a podcast with Dr. Ben Edwards this week; he's the guy in Texas who treated those Mennonite children with measles. He said in 1950, when the measles vaccine was developed, deaths were extremely low. At today's U.S. population, the equivalent deaths would be about 100 children per year. Right now, 900 children die each year from the MMR vaccine. Did anybody say "do no harm?"
If we tie all this together, McDonald's, pharmaceuticals, bird flu, vaccines, we see a showdown looming, a cultural OK Corral moment, when the forces of truth confront the forces of untruth. I think bird flu is COVID 2.0. The dry run of covid is now being leveraged in bird flu. The conflict of paradigm, pragmatism, and policy held by two diametrically opposed camps is being fought in real time right in front of our eyes. We're in, part of, and watching this war unfold. How exciting.
So don't sit back. Lean in. Don't hunker down. Charge forward. We have a nation's heart and soul to rescue from untruthful power and growth. Our communities need us, each of us, to participate in this great struggle.
Are you in?