Readers of this Substack will probably know most of the material in What the Nurses Saw: An Investigation Into Systemic Medical Murders That Took Place in Hospitals During the COVID Panic and the Nurses Who Fought Back to Save Their Patients (Medical System Corruption) by Ken McCarthy. It's devastating to read not only what the nurses saw, but also what they went through for speaking up about it: harassment, job loss, lawsuits, the necessity to move, death threats and open ridicule and scorn from the press, social media, doctors and their fellow nurses.
It is well worth the read particularly a chapter not involving a nurse entitled "Following the Money Trail." More on that a little later. Here are some quotes from the book.
In short, nurses were ordered to do things they could see were injuring and killing their patients and were prohibited from doing things that they knew had a chance to save them. (p. 11)
I didn’t see a single patient die of COVID. I’ve seen a substantial number of patients die of negligence and medical malfeasance.
— Nicole Sirotek (p. 32)Hydroxychloroquine was banned for off-label use. If doctors did try to prescribe it, they would likely lose their licenses and their jobs. In New York, the first line of defense was the ventilators.
— Erin Marie Olszewski (p. 52)When you’re put on a ventilator, the machine is essentially breathing for you. For that to work, you have to be paralyzed. You can’t move, and you have to be sedated so you don’t wake up. It’s essentially a medically induced coma. You can compare it to being under general anesthesia while in surgery....The ventilator is meant to be the last resort and should never be a first line of defense.
— Erin Marie Olszewski (pp. 71, 73)It’s a trend that’s been in place for a long time, maybe the last 20 years. The medical healthcare professionals’ allegiances have been shifted toward the state and the government and away from the patients that they’re dealing with.
— Dr. Kevin Corbett PhD (p. 101)Therefore, not only was a protocol created and promulgated that did not work and caused observable harm, a nationwide system was put in place to enforce its exclusive use, which included the systematic targeting of professionals who questioned it. (p. 124)
In each country, execution of the details varied, but the overall theme, especially in the countries of the European Union, the British Commonwealth, and the countries they and the U.S. have influence over, was the same: Top-down directives promoted unproven and untested methods, threw all previous experience with respiratory distress and infectious disease out the window, and systematically attacked experienced professionals who asked questions and refused to comply or remain silent about the crimes they witnessed. (p. 247)
Doctors are no longer self-employed. They’re employed by hospital systems, and many of them have a lot of debt and a lifestyle they want to maintain, so they follow orders without taking into consideration the lives of their patients.
— Mark Bishofsky (p. 334)
There is a lot more and more in depth. I found the chapter, "Following the Money Trail," almost the most interesting. For some reason I never realized the below until I read this book. I knew about the hospitals being paid for ventilator use, but for most of them just admitting a COVID patient was the biggest payoff and then they just kept making more with every procedure they added...icing on the cake, I guess.
COVID Hospital Admission Incentives
Amounts hospitals were paid for admitting one Covid patient. Don't worry, there couldn't possibly be a conflict of interest. Move along.
Alabama — $158,000
Alaska — $306,000
Arizona — $23,000
Arkansas — $285,000
California — $145,000
Colorado — $58,000
Connecticut — $38,000
Delaware — $127,000
Florida — $132,000
Georgia — $73,000
Hawaii — $301,000
Idaho — $100,000
Illinois — $73,000
Indiana — $105,000
Iowa — $235,000
Kansas — $291,000
Kentucky — $297,000
Louisana — $26,000
Maine — $260,000
Maryland — $120,000
Massachusetts — $44,000
Michigan — $44,000
Minnesota — $380,000
Mississippi — $166,000
Missouri — $175,000
Montana — $315,000
Nebraska — $379,000
Nevada — $98,000
New Hampshire — $201,000
New Jersey — $18,000
New Mexico — $171,000
New York — $12,000
North Carolina — $252,000
North Dakota — $339,000
Ohio — $180,000
Oklahoma — $291,000
Oregon — $220,000
Pennsylvania — $68,000
Rhode Island — $52,000
South Carolina — $186,000
South Dakota — $241,000
Tennessee — $166,000
Texas — $184,000
Utah — $94,000
Vermont — $87,000
Virginia — $201,000
Washington — $58,000
West Virginia — $471,000
Wisconsin — $163,000
Wyoming — $278,000
Average per patient/per hospital: $173,740
Source: "Follow the Money Series: Blood Money in U.S. Healthcare Financial Incentives: The Use of 'Covered Countermeasures'PDF, opens new window ©2022 AJ DePriest and TN Liberty Network
From the PDF: "The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) distributed the first phase of $100B emergency funding on 10 Apr 2020. However, $30B was distributed to hospitals based on Medicare revenue—not number of Covid cases in each state. Figure 5 [the above list] shows what states were paid per Covid case admitted to hospitals. Some states received as little as $12,000 per Covid case (e.g., New York). Some states received as much as $471,000 per Covid case (e.g., West Virginia). Another $20B went to providers on 24 Apr 2020."
I highly recommend the book.
McCarthy, Ken. What the Nurses Saw: An Investigation Into Systemic Medical Murders That Took Place in Hospitals During the COVID Panic and the Nurses Who Fought Back to Save Their Patients (Medical System Corruption). Brasscheck Press, 2023. Kindle edition.
I remember a Bloom County comic strip where Senator Bedfellow asks a 4th-grade class, "What's the first principle of American government," and Milo says, "Money talks!" I know it shouldn't have surprised me, but before COVID, I didn't expect "Money talks!" to be the first principle of American healthcare too. The Hypocritic Oath: do no harm to your employer's profit margin.
Pretty sad. My sis-in-law is a newly retired ICU nurse. I sent her some info on the use of remdesivir and ventilators and why it was dangerous. I'm glad she retired. I think she was following hospital protocol. If she really knew, I like to think she would have said something.