REPORT: One-Third Of Migrant Caravan Sick: HIV, Tuberculosis, Chickenpox

dailywire
Joseph Curl

@josephcurl

November 29, 2018

 

 

 

Thousands of migrants marched from Central America to the U.S. border over the last six weeks, but many of them are suffering from respiratory infections, tuberculosis, chickenpox and other serious health issues — including HIV.
 
Of the 6,000 migrants gathered in Tijuana just south of the U.S. border near San Diego, more than a third of them (2,267) are being treated for health-related issues, a spokesman for Tijuana's Health Department told Fox News.

There are three confirmed cases of tuberculosis, four cases of HIV/AIDS and four separate cases of chickenpox, the spokesman said.

At least 101 migrants have lice and multiple instances of skin infections, the department’s data shows.

There’s also a threat of Hepatitis outbreak due to unsanitary conditions, the spokesman said. The thousands of migrants are being sheltered at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex near the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico Port of Entry, despite the place being capable of providing for 1,000 people.

The location also has only 35 portable bathrooms. A sign reading “No Spitting” was put up, as coughing and spitting by migrants are rampant in the shelter.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Tijuana said Tuesday that the city cannot afford to help the migrants that are there. “We won’t compromise the resources of the residents of Tijuana,” Juan Manuel Gastelum said during a press conference, noting that the city is spending some $30,000 a day. "“We won’t raise taxes tomorrow to pay for today’s problem.”

Hundreds of migrants stormed the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, and the U.S. Border Patrol's top San Diego agent said they shoved women and children to the front of the mob to use as human shields.

"What we saw over and over yesterday was that the group – the caravan, as we call them – would push women and children to the front, and then begin, basically, rocking our agents,” Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said in a CNN interview.

"Several agents were actually struck by rocks," Scott said, noting that three were injured.

And President Trump's warning that the caravan included violent criminals was proven true, too.

"You're going to find MS-13, you're going to find Middle Eastern, you're going to find everything," Trump said last week.

"U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested a member of the infamous Salvadoran MS-13 gang who admitted to authorities that he traveled with a caravan of Central American migrants who were hoping to qualify for asylum in America," National Review's Mairead McArdle reports.

The member of the notoriously brutal gang, which is responsible for numerous violent murders in the U.S. over the last three decades, is 29-year-old Jose Villalobos-Jobel, a Honduran national who was arrested Saturday evening in U.S. territory east of the Calexico Port of Entry.

He admitted to agents that he'd traveled with the caravan with the intention of entering the country illegally. Villalobos-Jobel "told agents he traveled to the United States border with a large group of people from Central America intending on filing for asylum in the United States," U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement about his arrest.

Related: Trump Said Migrant Caravan Includes MS-13 Gang Members; Border Patrol Just Arrested One

Read More: Donald Trump Illegal Immigration Mexico

 

Thank You Daily Wire and Mr Curl. 

WATCH: Caravan Migrants Tell MSNBC, ‘We Want To Go Home’

weaselzippers
Nov28, 2018



Finally getting it’s not a piece of cake to get in.
Via Daily Wire:

Members of the “migrant caravan” currently camped out in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego, California, told MSNBC late Tuesday that they were told making entrance into the United States would be much easier and that they’re ready to make the long journey back home.

The MSNBC reporter on scene claims that after speaking with migrants biding their time in shelters near the border, that many of the would-be asylum seekers were told that crossing the border would be a relatively painless process, and that most of them would be eligible for available work programs designed to help them integrate into American culture and society.

That didn’t turn out to be the case; it appears many of the members of the “migrant caravan” were sold a bill of goods, and are just coming to realize that crossing the border will be much more difficult than they imagined, particularly in light of the weekend’s violence.
Keep reading…

Thank You President Trump, Nick, and MSNBC

The Migrant Caravan of Diseases

American Thinker
By Brian C. Joondeph


The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently announced the formation of a task force to investigate a new mysterious illness afflicting primarily children. Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a polio-like illness believed to be caused by a virus. But in contrast to polio, which has been mostly eradicated, except in a few pockets around the globe, AFM is on the rise.

The disease sleuths at the CDC are befuddled. Unlike in the movie The Andromeda Strain, where a crack team of scientists, within a few days, identified and cured a mysterious illness from far beyond the reaches of our galaxy, a bureaucratic behemoth full of scientists is stumped.

When a government agency either does not know the answer, or for political reasons does not want to acknowledge and reveal the answer, they form a task force. By the time the task force settles on a meeting schedule and what types of snacks to serve during meetings, AFM will either disappear naturally or become a mass extinction event.

Perhaps the scientists have some ideas where AFM came from and why it is increasing in prevalence, but if they want to keep their jobs, pensions, and reputations, they feign ignorance. A task force with a few scientists and many more non-scientists, skilled at media and public relations, will eventually announce their findings, scrubbed of anything politically incorrect or offensive to any of the many victim groups in America. But it's worth looking at who's bringing this disease in, because it coincides with recent vast waves of illegal immigration.

AFM begins as a flu-like illness progressing to difficulty swallowing, slurred speech, and sudden limb weakness. Most children improve although many are left with residual arm and leg weakness, much like polio. It’s believed to be caused by a virus, specifically Enterococcus D68. AFM incidence seems to spike every other year. In 2018, 38 cases so far. In 2017, 33 cases, but in 2016, 149 cases. In 2015, 22 cases, and 120 cases in 2014.

Much of the U.S media is uninterested in AFM. Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta most likely send their children to private schools plagued by the occasional cold or weekend underage drinking and partying. Their children pal around with other private school kids, returning home to tony neighborhoods free of annoying infectious diseases, whether AFM, or other refugee afflictions such as lice and scabies. CNN is far more concerned with President Trump’s latest tweets.

Most of America doesn’t live the charmed lives of media stars and Washington D.C. politicians, however. Instead they live in lower- or middle-class enclaves. Their kids attend public schools, the same schools frequented by the illegal immigrants settled into their towns.

As the media is incurious about the migrant caravan and illegal immigrants beyond their tweets of outrage and framing the story in a way to inflict maximal damage on President Trump, let’s take a closer look at those migrating to our southern border. Where are the migrants coming from and what diseases might they be bringing to America?

The Association of American Physicians and surgeons asked these questions and took note of the obvious.

What invisible travelers are accompanying them? And what infections are already here in the millions of illegals already dispersed throughout the country?

In the past, waves of immigrants from Europe were stopped at Ellis Island, medically examined, and quarantined long enough to be sure they were not incubating a contagious disease. Procedures are less rigorous today, and of course those who enter illegally are not screened at all.

Polio has been eradicated in much of the world, but is still endemic in three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Polio has also reemerged in the socialist paradise of Venezuela, as reported by CNN. How many migrants are fleeing the Venezuelan hellhole, bringing who knows what with them?

Middle Easterners, despite media claims to the contrary, are also part of the migrant invading force. Some may be bringing jihad, others may be carrying infectious diseases such as AFM. How many of those crossing our southern border receive a comprehensive medical examination? How many in the past have been resettled around America after their brief “catch and release” layover in a border town?

It’s not just AFM that is crossing the border, but many other unpleasant diseases. The CDC reports 300 million legal southern border crossings each year for work and travel. That’s part of the problem. But it’s the illegal crossings that are of most concern regarding contagious diseases.

In July of this year, “A total of 31,303 people were apprehended at the border after illegally crossing into the United States” according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. How many were not apprehended? Likely a far greater number. And that’s just in one month.

What disease might these illegal border crossers be carrying? The CDC provides an answer.

Studies have identified the importance of cross-border movement in the transmission of various diseases, including HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shigellosis, syphilis, Mycobacterium bovis infection, brucellosis, and foodborne diseases, such as infections associated with raw cheese and produce.

And let’s not forget that mysterious polio-like illness, AFM, caused by a virus, much like many of the above-mentioned diseases, that has the CDC perplexed to the point of needing a task force to formulate a politically correct explanation and solution.

If you keep the windows of your home open and have a problem with flies, wasps, or racoons entering your home, common sense tells you to install screens, close your windows, or put up with your visitors. Same goes for a national border.

If a country wants screens on its windows, it’s easy enough. The Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted immigration to the U.S. and established quotas based on nationality. The purpose of this act “was to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity.” So, there is precedent.

Unfortunately, both political parties want the windows open. President Trump and a handful in Congress want to put up screens. And most who voted Trump into the White House want screens, too. Yet many Republicans, bought and paid for by the Chamber of Commerce, do not. Neither do Democrats needing a growing dependent class to vote them into power.

Yet the suburban parents of some of the children afflicted with AFM are also offended and outraged over Trump’s tweets and treatment of Jim Acosta. They do their children a disservice by supporting the party that wants no screens on America’s windows, no border at all, migrants and diseases free to invade our fruited plains.

The answer for the CDC is not a bureaucratic and politically correct task force, but common-sense analysis and solutions. Secure the border, scrutinize who comes across and stays, and put the well-being of Americans first. How hard is that?



Brian C. Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Thank You Dr Joondeph and American Thinker

Trump Hacks Through Thick Central American Jungle In Search Of Entirely New Ethnic Group To Demonize

Meanwhile, living rent free inside the Democrats heads, . . . .

The Onion
11/12/18 11:47am

TALAMANCAN MONTANE FORESTS, COSTA RICA—Venturing deep into rainforest no outsider has dared explore, President Trump slashed through the thick vines of a Central American jungle Monday in search of a previously unknown ethnic group to vilify. “Legend has it that this land is home to a lost race of people living in complete isolation, and if I can manage to find them, I will be able to stereotype them in any way I choose,” said the machete-wielding commander in chief who was wearing a tan field jacket as he led a group of loyal Republican allies through the oppressively hot and humid thicket in search of the mythic tribe. “This discovery could change everything. These people remain entirely untouched by any media coverage whatsoever, so I can easily stick them with the blame for our nation’s drug problems, violent crime, stagnant wage growth, you name it.” Upon sighting the uncontacted tribe, Trump’s reelection team reportedly took grainy black-and-white videos of them for immediate use in menacing campaign ads.

Thank You The Onion.

Recently Pardoned Turkey Found Dead After Claiming To Have Dirt On Hillary Clinton

Babylon Bee
Nov 26, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A turkey recently pardoned by President Trump was found dead after claiming to have dirt on the Clintons, sources at the FBI confirmed Monday.



The official cause of death was suicide, though the bullet wounds were in the back of the turkey's head and the bird lacked opposable thumbs with which to operate a firearm.

The turkey had been publicly pardoned for the crime of being delicious and set free by Trump in a popular White House Thanksgiving tradition. Shortly after being released, the turkey confirmed its possession of "credible" information that would lead to the indictment of Hillary Clinton, posting on the bird's social media account that it was a good thing Trump had pardoned the turkey, so the world could find the truth out about the Clintons.

Metro police discovered the turkey's body the next morning, shot twice in the back of the head and stabbed in the back. There was a nearby handwritten note confirming that the death was "not fowl play."


Thank You Babylon Bee.

Classical Music: RIMSKY KORSAKOV - Symphonie No.1

Migrants Storm Border, Border Entry Closed…Update: Border Patrol Fires Tear Gas At Migrants When They Rush Fence

weaselzippers
Nov 25, 2018

Via San Diego Union Tribune:

Access to the Mexican border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry was temporarily closed Sunday amid protests from migrants seeking entry to the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Twitter that both northbound and southbound access at the port of entry was closed along with pedestrian routes.

The move came as some migrants who have been gathering in Tijuana made moves toward the border Sunday.

The Associated Press reported that several hundred Central American migrants pushed past a blockade of Mexican police standing guard near the international border The migrants carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags and chanted: “We are not criminals! We are international workers!”

More than 4,700 Central Americans have been living crammed together in a Tiijuana sports complex.
State authorities say by the time it is over, as many as 9,000 Central Americans will have arrived in Tijuana with the hope of crossing to the United States.
Keep reading…

Update:
Via NY Post:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection closed a section of the southern border with Mexico on Sunday and fired tear gas at a group of migrants that tried to breach a fence separating the two countries.

CNN reported that road and pedestrian bridge access at the San Ysidro port had been closed.

This major artery connects San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.

Video footage from journalists on-site shows hundreds of migrants rushing toward the U.S. border.

The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials fired tear gas at the migrants as they attempted to break through the fence.
Keep reading…

Update:

They are chanting: “The town united will never be defeated.” #Tijuana #MigrantCaravan pic.twitter.com/nKYHnLaTvn

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) November 25, 2018

The migrants broke through the fence and were repelled with pepper spray smoke pellets. #MigrantCaravan pic.twitter.com/pC8dDFRfOy

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) November 25, 2018

Can someone explain why they're still waving their flag….even at our border  pic.twitter.com/UyQxRH9yLE

— ℳҽӀ  (@mel_faith1) November 25, 2018

Thank You Dapandico and WZ

Gun Purchasers May Need To Submit Social Media History Under Proposed New York Legislation

weaselzippers
Nov 24, 2018



Unconstitutional and seriously problematic.

Via Fox News:


Those looking to buy a gun in New York may need to submit their social media profiles and search history prior to purchase if new firearm legislation in the state becomes law.

Under the legislation drafted by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and State Senator Kevin Parker, both Democrats, up to three years’ worth of search history on social media would be able to be reviewed, ABC Action News reported.

Senate Bill 9191, according to WHAM, mandates “social media and search engine reviews prior to the approval of an application or renewal of a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver; requires a person applying for a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver or a renewal of such license to consent to having his or her social media accounts and search engine history reviewed and investigated for certain posts and/or searches over a period of 1-3 years prior to the approval of such application or renewal; defines terms.”

Keep reading…

Thank You Nick and WZ

US Leading The Charge In Pushing Back Against UN’s Migration Agenda

weaselzippers
Nov 24, 2018



Via Fox News:


Under the Trump administration, the U.S. is leading the charge in pushing back against the U.N.’s migration agenda — a move that is picking up support from other countries and giving political cover to those seeking to join them.

The Trump administration announced last December that it would withdraw from the U.N.’s Global Migration Compact — due to be adopted by an intergovernmental conference in Morocco next month. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued last year that the compact could undermine America’s right to enforce its immigration laws and secure its borders.

“The United States supports international cooperation on migration issues, but it is the primary responsibility of sovereign states to help ensure that migration is safe, orderly, and legal,” Tillerson said.

The U.S. was the first country to withdraw, but it was soon followed by a stream of other countries pulling out of the non-binding compact, officially called the “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.” Hungary, Poland, Austria, Australia and Israel have all since announced they will not sign the accord, citing concerns that it will limit the ability of countries to set and enforce their own immigration policies.

Keep reading…


Thank You Nick and WZ

Beijing to Judge Every Resident Based on Behavior by End of 2020

weaselzippers

Nov 24 2018

 
Scary stuff. We already see the left trying to dictate what is acceptable behavior here.

Via Bloomberg:


China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident.

The capital city will pool data from several departments to reward and punish some 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations by the end of 2020, according to a plan posted on the Beijing municipal government’s website on Monday. Those with better so-called social credit will get “green channel” benefits while those who violate laws will find life more difficult.

The Beijing project will improve blacklist systems so that those deemed untrustworthy will be “unable to move even a single step,” according to the government’s plan. Xinhua reported on the proposal Tuesday, while the report posted on the municipal government’s website is dated July 18.

Keep reading…



Thank You Nick and WZ

Trump Signs Order Closing Border With Mexico, Authorizing Lethal Force

zerohedge

Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/22/2018 - 20:27
Yesterday we reported that president Trump had authorized troops stationed at the border to act in a law enforcement capacity to “perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary” to protect border agents, including “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention. and cursory search.”

That wasn't all: speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, the president said on Thursday that he also signed an order to close the U.S. border with Mexico, adding that he’s authorized troops to use lethal force against migrants who attempt to enter the U.S.

“If they have to,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, claiming that at least 500 criminals are among migrants trying to enter the U.S. "So I’m not going to let the military be taken advantage of. I have no choice. Do I want that to happen? Absolutely not. But you’re dealing with rough people."

Trump also said that he would welcome a partial shutdown of the government over “border security.”

According to Bloomberg, Trump signed the order two days ago and that "I’ve already shutdown parts of the border" warning that the entire border may be closed if conflict with migrants escalates.

"If we find that its uncontrollable,” he said, “if we find that it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control."

"The whole border,” he clarified. "I mean the whole border. And Mexico will not be able to sell their cars into the United States where they make so many cars at great benefit to them, not at great benefit to us."

read more

Thank You President Trump, Tyler Durden and Zerohedge.


Whatever it takes. No more murders of Americans by known criminals breaking into America.

Store Owner Pulls Gun On Robbery Suspect, Suspect Flees

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yowza: Trump Posts Pic Of Additions To Border Fence In Tijuana

weaselzippers

Nov 20, 2018




That’s going to hurt.

Via Townhall:

President Trump, apparently frustrated with footage of the U.S. border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, tweeted a photo Monday afternoon of a new and improved version.

Meanwhile, thousands of illegal migrants traveling in a caravan from Central America have made their way to Tijuana. They are on the Mexican side of the border waiting to make asylum claims in the U.S. The Trump administration recently implemented a new policy that allows migrants to claim asylum only at official ports of entry. Approximately 100 cases per day are completed and wait times can be as long as six months.

Keep reading…

Thank You Nick, Townhall, and WZ.

Mexican Citizens: Trump is Right, This Caravan is Absolutely an Invasion

South Africa White Farmer Land Grabs Will Be Law After Change To Constitution Approved

weaselzippers

Nov 20, 2018



But Trump…

Via Daily Star:


After months of talks, the country is set to go ahead with the proposals that will see farms seized without compensation – something critics have said will be devastating.

The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been attempting to amend South Africa’s constitution for months, but has been met with stiff opposition.

But now the controversial seizures will become legal after the changes were approved by a parliamentary review committee.

South Africans have spoken loud and clear, and we listened to their cry,” said Lewis Nzimande, the co-chair of the committee.

Critics of the plans have previously warned the land seizures will lead to mass starvation and riots.

Ian Cameron, of South African trade group AfriForum, previously warned: “We’re really heading for a state of anarchy if something doesn’t change drastically.

“I’m convinced this year we’ll see between 21,000 to 22,000 people having been murdered in the past year.”

Keep reading…

HT: Wirecutter



Thank You Dapandico, Daily Star and WZ. 

South Africa’s Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land seizures

The Agonizing Nightmare of Drug-Induced Akathisia

madinamerica
J.A. Carter-Winward

Nov 18, 2018

The pain assessment chart. We’ve all seen it on the wall in the ER, the doctor’s office.

I remember laughing at it when I first saw it in the local pain clinic in October of 2017. I’d gone in to get deep Botox injections in my neck — 24 of them — for my seized neck muscles, one of the many neurological conditions caused by psychiatric medications.

It was October 2017, and I’d been off the offending medication, Latuda, for over a year. Latuda is one of many “new generation” atypical antipsychotics that, once upon a time, were only given to the “severely mentally ill.” Atypical antipsychotics were FDA-approved for bipolar disorder, bipolar depression, treatment-resistant depression, and unipolar depression. They are also routinely prescribed by all manner of physicians to treat insomnia, postpartum depression, PTSD, and other mental and physiological disorders.

I pointed to the pain scale and said to my husband, “I wish ‘10’ and ‘bed rest required’ was my ‘worst possible pain.’” He agreed. I looked at the pain scale in the pain clinic with no small amount of anger and feelings of loss and betrayal because by that time, I’d been to see four doctors — three neurologists and one ER doctor — all of whom didn’t, and don’t, believe I was in pain when I came in to see them.

Which, looking back, seems odd to me. They (doctors) believed me when, in the 1990s, a CT scan showed I’d sustained a concussion and whiplash after being violently assaulted. They believed me when I presented with all the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and was experiencing depression as well as cognitive difficulties — things I’d never before struggled with — consistent with a TBI, such as a substantial loss of executive functioning. They believed me when I said I felt myself heading for a brick wall physically and emotionally. They took my word for it and gave me more and more medications to try to stop the collision.

Fast-forward years later:

In 2016, after years of suffering with an extrapyramidal side effect caused by the medications they gave me beginning in 2004, I told these three neurologists and the ER doctor the name of my suffering: akathisia. The bastard child of psychiatric medications that no one wants to claim. I knew the name because my former psychiatrist and neuropsychologist diagnosed me and told me to see a neurologist. They took one look at me and all but ordered me to the ER. They assured me the physician there would admit me, and I’d get a full neurological workup. I didn’t want to go, even though I finally knew why I was feeling this pain. A drug side effect? Unbelievable. 



I couldn’t believe a medication could cause something so completely disabling — a pain that blurred the lines between emotional and physical: the type of pain you feel when you can’t eat after a horrific loss or trauma. Pain that ground inside me every day, without a reprieve. How bad is the pain? The following is a short YouTube film I wrote and produced. It shows you just how bad the daily pain can be. And how the “good” medications we’re given caused it.

I’d been told it was my “illness,” so I battled shame, guilt, and daily thoughts of ending my own life due to how agonizing it had become. The pain seemed to center right in my solar plexus, and it was so unrelenting, I was almost entirely homebound. My career as a public figure dwindled to a whisper. My world, our world, had shrunk from a panoramic window of infinite possibility and adventure to a peephole.

The Pain, as I called it, was not depression, not anxiety, and it wasn’t a worsening of an underlying mental illness, as I’d been told. I’d been treated successfully with talk therapy for depression as a teen. I knew “depression.” I’d had some anxiety and knew how to deal with that well enough. But when I began taking antipsychotics, the pain I experienced was something else altogether, and I knew it.

“Akathisia: restlessness and feeling like you can’t sit still, right?” Not quite. Not entirely. That’s like saying “Ah, cancer. So, losing some weight, are you?”

But when I told these four doctors I had drug-induced akathisia, and it was tardive, acute, chronic, and getting worse — when I told them how akathisia presented in me and for me subjectively, because there is a “subjective component” of akathisia that’s been documented, which all four acknowledged…

They did not and do not believe me.

I’m not even sure my current doctors believe me. I think they believe *I* believe I am experiencing “real or perceived pain.” But they don’t fully believe it’s the neurological movement disorder, akathisia. This begs the question:

When did my credibility suddenly disappear? And why?

It’s simple, really. I lost credibility when they misdiagnosed me in the 1990s with a mental illness after I sustained the TBI. In other words: They stopped believing me when I chose to believe them.
* * *

When they ignored the classic TBI symptoms with which I presented at the county-run, sliding-fee mental health facility back in 1996, the only care I could afford with no insurance, they went with the easier diagnosis: “bipolar disorder.” The other obvious issues I faced didn’t fit their categories.

I couldn’t google symptoms of a brain injury in 1996, and I had no financial help. All I had was implicit trust in doctors, something my parents handed down to all of us, and why I have a disproportionate number of doctors in my family, I’d wager. In the world in which my parents had grown up, doctors were akin to clergy: sacrosanct, and impervious to baser human frailties.

They asked me questions at the mental health clinic, and I offered up the other symptoms that had caused me to lose jobs, and flunk out of college because my professors suddenly spoke in “word salads.” Panic gripped me as I watched my once off-the-charts reading comprehension dissolve into an inability to follow a simple cake recipe. But they didn’t want to hear about those symptoms. Instead, they misdiagnosed me, and I believed them, because they were supposed to know more than I did.

In the last 2+ years, I’ve been searching for help, specifically from neurologists, since “neurological” is right there in my diagnoses. I have what is called DIMDs, or drug-induced movement disorders, and they are neurological. Most recently, my dystonia has advanced. It is now beginning to affect not only my ability to swallow, it has progressed to the point where my respiratory muscles can, and have, seized up. When this happens, I cannot breathe. I literally feel as though I’m suffocating. And as it progresses? I could.

But I no longer feel safe going to a new doctor, nor the hospital. That’s because the three neurologists and one ER doctor we saw told us, and wrote in their clinical notes, that I am psychosomatically ill.

Each doctor wrote in my chart, to be seen by every healthcare provider I see “in-network,” that I have Conversion Disorder, now known as FND — functional neurological disorder — and that I should be evaluated by a mental healthcare professional/specialist.

They all said that the subjective “pain” caused by akathisia, the pain I experience, is not neurological. Doesn’t “subjective” mean it’s different for everyone? Yet their unilateral diagnoses, which relied on my health history and their clinical, subjective opinions, have been validated by their white coats.

Further, two of the neurologists suggested that I had features of a Cluster B Personality Disorder. In case you’re not familiar, these include Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, and Antisocial Personality Disorder. The Cluster B’s are characterized by emotional instability, cries for attention, unstable self-concept, and by being overly dramatic, pathologically dishonest, manipulative, and lacking empathy for others, among other “features.” In other words, the neurologists all concur that I am the most unreliable “narrator” of my own subjective experience and pain.

One neurologist, who seemed extremely hyper-focused on my need to see a “mental health specialist,” wrote that I should be evaluated specifically for Borderline Personality Disorder. Because they are not “mental healthcare specialists,” they are not qualified to diagnose me themselves, despite obliquely doing exactly that.

After they all cast doubt on the reality of my pain with what they wrote in my chart, they all concurred that I have drug-induced neurological movement disorders: tardive akathisia, dystonia, dyskinesia. They also confirmed the TBI. An MRI of my neck a year ago (before the Botox shots) confirmed the herniated discs in my C-spine, but the injuries were not new. Had I been in a car accident 20+ years ago? asked the pain-clinic doctor.

But what the neurologists categorically deny is that akathisia is “painful” — specifically, “subjectively, emotionally painful.”

One neurologist, the second one I saw, wrote a redundant narrative throughout my chart about my emotional “instability,” and suggested the BPD “evaluation.” Usually it takes a while for even a therapist to make that call. He diagnosed it, wrote it in my chart, despite the fact that he knew I am currently in therapy and have been most of my adult life, due to the trauma of sustaining a TBI in a violent assault, but also dealing with what we now know to be the direct result of iatrogenic harm.

Yet, he told us akathisia does not cause feelings so painful that they can lead to suicide.

“Sure. Akathisia does cause some ‘restlessness’ and that can be ‘uncomfortable…’ but akathisia is a motor dysfunction characterized by… and it does not ‘cause’ suicidal feelings…”

The pain of akathisia is worse than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’d rather go through natural childbirth, daily. Yet Dr. “Uncomfortable” then told me my movements weren’t “consistent with akathisia presentation.” He proceeded to dance like a belly dancer in his chair, “showing” us what akathisia looks like. We left, and I was in tears. I was worried that perhaps I was mentally unstable. He gave us patient handouts about akathisia. Dr. Uncomfortable showed us an adorable belly-dance routine while my body shook and jittered exactly as his patient handout described.

My account was the same as I spoke to these doctors, varying only a little, because how does one purport to describe the indescribable? I’m a writer by trade, so, I used my skills to convey the pain of the persisting akathisia to each doctor and neurologist this way:

Take every horrific feeling you’ve ever had in your life, all at once. Now, times them by 200, right in your gut. The “my-mother-just- died-and-so-did-my-cat-and-my-wife-left-me-for-my-best-friend” feeling. On top of those? A feeling of terror, panic, fear, as if you LIVE in a horror movie, and you must do something, or everyone you love will die, YOU will die — and you’ve no clue what that “something” is. So sick with this pain, caused by this neurological condition… so sick from it you can barely eat. That is how akathisia pain feels. It’s how it feels to me, and countless others who are experiencing it, or who have.

And they have all methodically undermined my credibility in my permanent record — a medical maligning that could cost me my life.

Because if it’s emotional, then it’s my fault. My problem. My issue. When, in fact, my symptoms were not present before they gave me the medications in the first place. Hardly a causal link in the world of science. But when I walked into their offices? I was not suicidal.

Yet, all I had to do was tell them I was in emotional pain when I walked into the doctor’s offices in the 90’s, then again in 2004, and they believed me enough to give me dopamine-altering medications that can, and have, caused permanent damage to my brain.

And this is because they do not know, and rather than admit that, they dispute my subjective experience, and the experience of countless others, and add “mental health” determinations they are not qualified to make based on less than 30 minutes of face-time. A personality disorder. And according to their criteria and the general definition of Cluster B Personality Disorder they adhere to from the DSM-5, symptoms must:
not be due to another disorder
not be due to an isolated stressful situation

Well, they’re right about one thing: It isn’t due to only one, isolated stressful situation — not anymore. The TBI from having my head bashed into a car by someone I once trusted? That was only the first of many blows to come.

The first neurologist I saw in Salt Lake City is a specialist in movement disorders. After telling me there was no viable treatment for them, specifically akathisia, she went on to write this characterization of akathisia and its subjective component:

“Tardive akathisia . . . most often associated with antipsychotic drugs, which antagonize dopamine receptors. The subjective component can be characterized by the aforementioned restlessness, as well as tension, panic, irritability and impatience.”

Along with this, she wrote her impressions of me, impressions that seem particularly callous and paradoxical, given her diagnoses:

“PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: General. Extremely frustrated, anxious and at times tearful woman.”

Two weeks prior to seeing her, I had lost my ability to walk normally, had begun to move involuntarily, was developing aphasia (an inability to understand or express speech), and let’s not forget The Pain — akathisia — a pain so horrific I wanted to die to escape it.

Yes, when she told us she had nothing to offer, I was upset, emotional, and began to sob in the exam room. With no answers, no hope in sight, I behaved exactly how a person who had sustained a TBI would behave; exactly how someone who suffered from the neurological disorders each doctor diagnosed me with (including rapid-onset dystonia) would behave. According to the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation’s website:

Finally, I behaved exactly how any human being would behave and react when told there is no treatment, no cure, no hope, and that her pain is not real, not physiological, but an emotional and mental health issue.

My brain injury has impacted me for over 20+ years, and I did not know it. I had suffered from drug-induced akathisia for 12+ years and did not know it. My dopamine has been dysregulated by medications, and yet they told me that akathisia could not cause subjective emotional pain, despite the role dopamine plays in our brains’ control centers for all our physiology — including our emotional states.

And if I suddenly can’t breathe due to a dystonic seizure of my respiratory muscles again, and it’s worse than the last attack? I can’t call for help. Even if I make it to the ER, it’s possible a nurse or doctor there will read through my chart and see, hidden in the medical language of those who have made their arbitrary dismissals: “Unstable, unsound. Don’t believe her.” And as I slowly suffocate, they could very well pat me on the head and tell me to calm down while they go find a sugar pill.

Well, at least a sugar pill won’t make my akathisia worse.

The article on “Talking to Your Doctor About Pain” that arrived in my Inbox the other morning made me bark a laughter as bitter as my chicory-laced coffee. It suggested that we don’t “shy away from ‘flowery language’ to describe [our] pain.” Flowery language? I’ve written a whole book of flowery language: flowery, plain, in-your-face-obscene language, medically accurate and appropriate language, all describing akathisia pain. I tried flowery. But my doctors didn’t hear it. They searched for categories in which to place me. And they’ve succeeded.

After the premier of my “How Bad Can Good Be” video, messages and emails came pouring into our site’s contact form (akathisia.life — the website my husband put up to help bring awareness to those who don’t have the resources we do). The messages all had horror stories, more horrific even than mine, and the single, common thread within the messages, from those who are suffering with akathisia:

“Thank you for writing the feelings I couldn’t express and conveying the horror I feel every day.”

My film has been shared on social media (it now has over 10k views on Facebook alone), and one chilling tagline was simple, and terrible, in its implications:

“It has a name.”

And now it also has a face. To capture the horrifying pain of akathisia, I created a painting with charcoal and photo collage: 

“Akathisia: It Has a Name,” photo collage and charcoal by J.A. Carter-Winward

This is my worst pain, far beyond “bed rest required.” Tell me, does the image above convey simply “uncomfortable” to you?

I’m going on 14+ years now with drug-induced, now tardive, chronic akathisia. As I’ve searched for a neurologist to be on my “care team” to help me deal with the drug-induced movement disorders, specifically help with ways to deal with the progression of drug-induced dystonia, they brush me off.

More to the point, they brush akathisia off. “Uncomfortable,” remember? Not so painful you want to end your life. Not so horrific you might take someone else’s with you to the other side. No. Uncomfortable.


If I were as “emotionally unsound” as they say in my medical chart, I’d say it’s almost like they want me to end my life, so they can write it off as “another tragic suicide caused by mental illness.”

Only, I’m not mentally ill, based on their own criteria. The only mental health issues with which I currently deal? The trauma of iatrogenesis and living, every day, with these conditions created by medications as I fight for my life.

Sorry, Doctor Uncomfortable and Co. I’m not going anywhere. And your patients? We are reading the same studies as you — and more. Because your motivation is to keep the status quo, aka your jobs, your relevance, your authority. So, you will only seek out studies that support what you believe. Call it confirmation bias, call it professional and publication bias, it’s all the same stuff. Our motivation? We want you to hear us, help us, and tell us what we do NOT know. Admit what you cannot do, and then do your jobs. HEAL. You broke it: fix it. And only pressure from you, the “dealers,” will change the way pharmaceutical companies create and market medications.

Our pain is real. And too many medical professionals have actually caused it by their willful ignorance, coupled with blind, medical arrogance. Yes, it takes two to form a lie: we are complicit. We want professionals to have the answers, so we give them the answers they need to give us our labels, medicate us, so we can go on with our lives. But the lies are killing us.

And when we begin trusting ourselves, and arming ourselves with the facts and studies coming out of Europe (the more-evolved cluster of First-World countries who provide universal healthcare to their citizenry), we will defer to them, because they are not motivated by the greed that riddles the polluted, crooked, for-profit healthcare system in the U.S.

For any of you who have taken medications that cause akathisia, arm yourselves with facts. You can google. Look it up. You’ll officially know more than most neurologists.

Watch my video. Look at the website for akathisia info. Read Robert Whitaker’s book, Mad in America, and the others out there who are trying to wake you up. We are trying to save your lives.

Then share what you learn like your life depends on it.

Because statistically… someone’s life does.

And yes, it will be uncomfortable. Challenging accepted wisdom usually is.

But look into the “face” of that pain, above. I promise you: Confronting your doctor with your truth isn’t nearly as “uncomfortable” as a pain that invades your entire being, finds every soft and vulnerable place within you, and rips it out with its teeth as you watch in horror…

Because “it” isn’t holding the gun to your head, or stringing the rope up in the rafters:

It’s you.

Flowery enough for you?



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J.A. Carter-Winward
https://www.jacarterwinward.com/akathisia

J.A. Carter-Winward is an award-winning poet, literary novelist, playwright, performer, and visual artist. Through 14 years of drug-induced akathisia, she authored 13 books. Off the medications seven months, she developed a cluster of neurological movement disorders that impact every facet of her life as a writer, public figure, and human being. Her upcoming collection, in-her-rest-less-ness: prose and poems, is a chronicle spanning 14+ years, written before she knew her suffering had a name.

Thank You Ms Carter-Winward and MIA.

Teacher Says Pupils Being ‘Tricked’ Into Thinking They’re Wrong Sex At School With 17 Children Changing Gender

weaselzippers

Nov 19, 2018


Yikes.
Via Daily Mail:

An astonishing 17 pupils at a single British school are in the process of changing gender, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Most of the youngsters undergoing the transformation are autistic, according to a teacher there, who said vulnerable children with mental health problems were being ‘tricked’ into believing they are the wrong sex.

The whistleblower says few of the transgender children are suffering from gender dysphoria – the medical term for someone who feels they were born in the wrong body – but are just easily influenced, latching on to the mistaken belief they are the wrong sex as a way of coping with the problems caused by autism.

Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a third of youngsters referred to the NHS’s only gender identity clinic for children showed ‘moderate to severe autistic traits’.

Keep reading…


Thank You Nick and WZ.

White House To Pull Acosta's Pass Again After Temporary Court Order Expires

zerohedge
Tyler Durden 11, 19, 2018


Update2: In a complete reversal, the White House says it has fully restored Acosta's press pass. As a result, CNN said "our lawsuit is no longer necessary."

Update: According to ABC News Chief White House Correpsondent Jonathan Karl, "A senior WH official tells me the White House is dropping its effort to ban Jim Acosta for his behavior at the Nov 7 press conference. The office says, however, the White House reserves the right to revoke Acosta’s pass if he violates White House decorum in the future."

A senior WH official tells me the White House is dropping its effort to ban Jim Acosta for his behavior at the Nov 7 press conference.

The office says, however, the White House reserves the right to revoke Acosta’s pass if he violates White House decorum in the future. — Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) November 19, 2018

"Friday's court ruling means that a temporary restraining order is in effect for 14 days. But [White House] officials sent Acosta a letter stating that his press pass is set to be suspended again once the restraining order expires," reports CNN's Brian Stelter. 

Friday's court ruling means that a temporary restraining order is in effect for 14 days. But W.H. officials sent @Acosta a letter stating that his press pass is set to be suspended again once the restraining order expires... https://t.co/yML7r7ymmM

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 19, 2018

CNN said in a statement that rescinding Acosta's press pass again would threaten "all journalists and news organizations."

read more

Trump’s Drug Pricing Czar Found With ‘Multiple Blunt Force Injuries,’ Ruled Suicide

Epoch Times
Petr Svab November 18, 2018 Updated: November 18, 2018

The high-level federal official tasked with lowering drug prices was found dead and, according to authorities in Washington, took his own life.

Daniel Best was the senior adviser to Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), for drug pricing reform.

Best was found “unresponsive” near the garage door exit of an apartment building in Navy Yard, a neighborhood about a mile south of the Capitol at 5:25 a.m. on Nov. 1, Cleveland.com reported, quoting the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department. Best was pronounced dead on the scene.

On Nov. 15, the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner declared the death a suicide, saying Best succumbed to “multiple blunt force injuries” without providing further details, according to Cleveland.com.

Best was a drug industry insider. He worked for more than a decade in various executive roles for the drugmaker Pfizer, Universal American, MemberHealth, and CVS Caremark Corporation.

His March appointment to HSS sparked criticism from some opponents of President Donald Trump, who accused the administration of cozying up to the drug industry. Azar is also a former pharma executive as well as lobbyist.

But Best’s experience could swing the other way, too. 

Pharma ‘Shake Up’

Azar and Best will “know where the bodies are buried,” a health insurance lobbyist told Stat in May, though he added the two would also know how far they could go against the industry. “You can only shake up so much.”

Best apparently wanted to shake up quite a bit.

Two days before his death, HHS published a question-and-answer article where Best explained one of the initiatives he led was expected to save the government more than $50 billion in its first eight years on Medicare and Medicaid expenses—at the expense of drugmakers and/or other developed countries.

As Best explained, Americans often pay much higher prices than people in other developed countries for some expensive drugs. The plan was to attempt to level the playing field by tying how much Medicare pays for some drugs to a selection of international prices, instead of the average U.S. price.

Many European countries, for instance, exercise broad control over health care and dictate how much companies can charge for drugs. Conservative pundits have long complained over the oversized chunk of pharmaceutical research paid by Americans through higher drug prices.

“The world reaps the benefits of American genius and innovation, while American citizens—and especially our great seniors, who are hit the hardest—pick up the tab,” Trump said on Oct. 25 when announcing the plan. 

Rebates

Other initiatives of Best included opening the market to generics and biosimilar drugs, and restructuring drug rebate programs that are blamed by some for driving up prices.

The rebates have been on his mind for years, Best’s brother Tim told GoErie.com.

“It was a concept he started on in 2005 to be able to take the rebates from the drug companies and give them back to the consumer,” Tim Best said. “I think that’s what he is really looking to do.”
 
Nice Guy

People who came into professional contact with Best described him as a congenial person and tough negotiator.

“He’s got a real nice personality,” said Chuck Spinelli, former team member of Best’s at MemberHealth. “He’s not a jerk, he’s not overbearing. He’s approachable, and pharma liked him. They appreciated working with him. He was very transparent. He was very honest. He didn’t play any games.”

Spinelli recalled a story of another of Best’s former coworkers who tried to get Best to include a new drug he was selling onto an insurance plan Best managed. But Best disregarded the longtime personal connection and refused the drug as it wasn’t a good fit for his customers.

Best grew up in the Erie, Pennsylvania, area and graduated from the University of Dayton. He leaves behind a wife and three sons.

“He brought his deep expertise and passion to this task with great humility and collegiality,” Azar said in a statement after news of Best’s death, The Associated Press reported. “All of us who served with Dan at HHS and in the administration mourn his passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his wife Lisa and the entire Best family at this difficult time.”

The HHS, D.C. police, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner didn’t respond to requests for comment. Follow Petr on Twitter: @PetrSvab

Thank You Mr Svab and Epoch Times. 

Breaking: Brenda Snipes Submits Resignation as Broward County Supervisor of Elections

It's nice to have truly good news to repost.

weaselzippers

Really need someone competent for 2020. And check the whole culture, in that office and Palm Beach, as to why they keep screwing up.
Via NBC Miami:

Brenda Snipes has submitted her resignation as the Broward County supervisor of elections.
A representative of Snipes confirmed the news to NBC 6 on Sunday.

Snipes became the Broward County supervisor of elections in 2003 after the calamitous issues in the 2000 election.

Snipes faced heavy scrutiny over Broward’s election and recount process in the recent 2018 midterm contest.

Snipes was appointed to serve out a term in the role by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and she has won re-elections ever since. She was re-elected despite some controversies along the way.

Keep reading…

Thank You Nick and WZ. 

And for once, they didn't get away with it, at least not against Scott and DeSantis.

Stacey Abrams Refuses To Call Brian Kemp The ‘Legitimate’ Governor Of Georgia

weaselzippers

Hillary Clinton 2.0. Leftists simply refuse delivery on reality.

Via Daily Caller:


Stacey Abrams refused to acknowledge Georgia’s Republican Governor-elect Brian Kemp as “legitimate” during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.

Throughout the course of the interview, Tapper pressed Abrams several times on the issue — and she repeatedly refused to use the word “legitimate.”

“Sherrod Brown says the election was stolen. Do you agree that it was stolen and do you think that Brian Kemp is not the legitimate governor-elect of Georgia?” Tapper asked.

“The law, as it stands, says that he received an adequate number of votes to become the governor of Georgia,” Abrams began. “And I acknowledge the law as it stands. I am a lawyer by training and I have taken the constitutional oath to uphold the law. But we know sometimes the law does not do what it should and something being legal does not make it right.”

Keep reading…

Thank You Nick and WZ.