Some Covid experts think that over-use of sedatives and opiates caused the increased deaths in early Covid. They even go as far as suggesting euthanasia was committed. I strongly disagree.
Very disappointed in this post. "I promise you that if a doctor or nurse started giving doses of medications that were inappropriate or not indicated and patients started dying under their care as a result.. they would be immediately be reported by a colleague, lose their license, or even go to jail (maybe not too).. " Really? Are you kidding? Who wrote this? I personally know of a young family, father was hospitalized with covid in 2020, given remdesivir, ventilated, and lungs severely damaged. Doctors told the wife there was no hope, his lungs were beyond saving, that he was too weak even for a lung transplant. She fought them and many months later, he is now home breathing on his own. See the case in Vera Sherav's documentary of the girl with Down's Syndrome who was vented and doped up against her family's wishes and died. See the testimonies of many physicians and nurses who reported malpractice including starvation, lack of hydration, over sedation, inadequate monitoring, neglect, etc. ICU patients being managed by unlicensed medical students in NYC. Are you kidding? What are you talking about? You don't know what went on in the UK. And couldn't unprecedented high sedative doses also decrease and disturb all organ function, including the heart?
Thanks for this post, which gives wider context to the UK concerns. However it doesn’t address what I thought was the main concern (as reflected, eg, by John Campbell) that in the UK, the NICE guidelines issued at the time were disturbing, and appeared to be consistent with end of life practice rather than with therapeutics. The data on dosages may have been circumstantial but the directive (since withdrawn) was not. In addition, the very sudden (and short) and large mortality spikes observed were not consistent with any patterns of a spreading virus. While of course I respect your experience, and first hand accounts of NYC situation, your post doesn’t yet allay all the concerns I think.
The New York situation in 2020 was an organizational mess. While you and your colleagues were overworked in the hospitals, I knew people staffing the Javits center who stood around for several weeks with nothing to do. Clearly political motives were ruling the day trying to make the impact of COVID -19 look as bad as possible.
I am sure this was a very good post because Dr. Kory wrote it. Maybe I shouldn't even be responding because I didn't read the entire thing. The minute I see the word "ventilator" I have a really hard time reading about patients being put on ventilators as a matter of course. It brings tears to my eyes because my sister (who I've written about before) got the first Pfizer jab and was immediately put on a vent and put in the ICU because she wouldn't stop pulling off the oxygen mask. Exactly two months later died when one lung after the other collapsed in quick succession. That was November 2021 - not early in the Plandemic as described here. Her husband wouldn't listen to a thing I had to say because he was so sure the hospital was doing everything to save her. I wonder if he has finally woken up.
As a retired Registered Nurse who has worked both with end-of-life patients in the lCU setting as well as hospice at home situations l can vouch that EVERY WORD DR. KORY HAS WRITTEN IS TRUE!
Those that are expressing criticism need to re-read this article where Dr. Kory explains he is discussing the time period at the very beginning of the pandemic when the NYC hospitals were inundated with patients in their ICU's.
I'm afraid, Dr. Kory, that you are going to receive much negative feedback from the average layperson for this article because they will not comprehend that the use of sedative medication has been used to relieve respiratory distress in end-of-life patients for YEARS & YEARS before the covid pandemic arrived. It has ALWAYS been the accepted medical standard of care & (as you explained) allows that precious human -being to be so much more comfortable as they experience the process of dying!
Dr. Kory, you are very brave to write & publish this truthful article. You are one of the "true & honorable physicians" who have upheld their Hippocratic Oath when so many lousy, cowardly doctors have not during these past 3 years! God bless you sir!
Thank you for your thoughtful words about this - such a difficult (impossible) emotional situation to try to disentangle. Even more so as it’s between countries and cultures, as you so clearly presented. The issue for me personally, is the numbers of anecdotes from those with relatives with clearly no need to be on an ‘end of life pathway’, who were labelled DNR against their families’ wishes. Of course, there are some authentic deaths in the mix, but even one unauthorised, unnecessary death is, without doubt, murder. Or at least manslaughter. And accountability must be underway from these starting blocks of investigations/debate. If only these conversations could occur openly...
Drs. Kory and Marik are my most trusted medical authorities. That said, I've read a lot on the allegations of NHS wrongdoing. Below, I've offered links to articles I find damning.
Several things in this article don't line up. First, the use of opiates in ICUs was tied to creating comfort with ventilators. Because ventilators weren't in use in care homes, there was no synchronizing or terminal weaning. This article didn't discuss other uses for opiates.
Here's an article pointing out the government's policy to kick elders out of ICUs, and to record DNR orders in patient records without patient or family approval:
Finally, here is a disturbing article alleging misdeeds by the NHS, including "...during the COVID19 pandemic DNACPR notices have been applied in a blanket fashion to some categories of person by some care providers, without any involvement of the individuals or their families":
I always appreciate your posts as one my favorite doctors ever, Dr. Kory, although my two-cent observations as a non-doctor have been the opposite of this post. While I am not a medical doctor myself, I work with them as a scientist in multiple unique roles and have observed the care of numerous critically ill (not COVID) patients on life support. Almost every single time a family has refused to withdraw their loved one's care despite intense pressure to "relieve their suffering", the families turned out to be right- the patient eventually came off the ventilator and went home. In many of these cases, achieving successful ventilator weaning was as simple as reducing excessive and unnecessary doses of medications that induce respiratory depression, plus giving the patient time to improve. I even saw this when my own grandmother had to go on a ventilator (before COVID), which the doctors said she would never be able to come off of- they intensely pressured us to withdraw care from her but we refused (partly because I was fortunate to know how to read the literature and find out that they greatly underestimated her chances of survival). All it took to wean her off the ventilator was time and reducing unnecessary CNS-depressing medications, and she went home and survived quite some time. And on a related note, almost every time a patient was deemed not a "worthy" candidate for a life-saving procedure, but a maverick doctor stepped in to save the day for the patient, the maverick doctor was right and the patient went on to live a good or decent quality life for at least a few years. It's sad to think about the similar patients who weren't as lucky to have a maverick step in to save them. So based on my own two-cent observations, the "naysayer" doctors in life-or-death situations have been wrong many many times, and this makes me think of how the "naysayer" doctors were wrong to dismiss ivermectin and early treatments for COVID, which sadly cost lots of lives.
Thank you for all the folks you helped, through death or life. I can only hope I have someone as cognizant and caring as you when my time comes (Pulmonary Fibrosis). 🙏🏼💜
"We weren't trying to “kill” them using such doses, we were trying to save them."
Then why administer drugs that do exactly the opposite?
They depress the Central Nervous System (CNS) and impede breathing. Even the UK government flipflopped and both gave the signal to give Midazolam *and* disclaimed the fact it wasn't licenced for such use, and Levomepromazine is a sedative. Haloperidol causes cardiovascular issues and pneumonia.
And yet the deaths weren't marked as respiratory failures. They were reclassified as dementia deaths. Not even peer-reviewed studies could find a justification.
Why the sudden massive increase in April 2020 of the shots?
I was sat in a UK coffee shop last week and overheard the conversation of two ladies sat next to me. They were nurse auxilliaries talking about their own vaccine injuries. (Post-jabs one had hives all over her body for several months, the other had extreme tiredness for 7 months plus a blood clot in her left calf. They also told me of a 49 year old nurse who died of a blood clot.). I engaged them in conversation. We had a long discussion about the injuries and deaths they have seen since the jabbings begun. What was interesting is what they said about 2020.
They told me that in 2020 the hospital - major trauma centre for West Wales - seemed intent on hospitalising elderly people. By elderly they meant people in their mid-60s and over. They gave an example of a chap in his 70s who came in with a head cut and was hospitalised. He then effectively ended up on 'the Liverpool pathway' - no water, no one to help feed him. The nurses told me that they offered to feed him but were told that they must not as if he choked they and the hospital could be sued. The 2 nurse auxilliaries could not understand why so many elderly people were being hospitalised for things that usually would have seen them treated and sent home.
Make of this what you will. The nurses had their opinion on what was going on. UK laws of libel do not allow me to repeat those views in print.
I can’t say enough how much I appreciate your perspective here. I really value your presence in these conversations and I can tell you really care about people and your craft both! Your continued efforts on all our behalf is so appreciated! 🙏
I’d like to add that it’s possible that the process of dying is unknowable for those not going through it. I would caution against what seems obvious to so many in these modern times, that expressions of agony are the same as suffering while dying. Expressions of anguish are signs that the living person is suffering. I understand the kinds of questions that follow this thought aren’t testable, but I think we should be honest with ourselves. Are we trying to minimize the expressions of agony? Or trying to minimize suffering? Perhaps each dying person knows their situation better than those around them. I know it might be hard as a doctor to prolong your exposure to the signs of agony, maybe even without perceivable benefit, but I hope you can understand that you’re not the one dying.
To all doctors, you should know that patients and their families can tell what you believe about end of life issues by the way you talk, words you choose, tone, etc. It has a significant influence on your future interactions with them. Maybe that’s why some patients push back. Because too many doctors are approaching the care-related tasks like machines working on other machines, rather than humans having an experience with other humans having an experience. Just my two cents anyway.
Dr Kory, you’re a doctor to be admired, so please continue the good work!
It’s almost like we’re talking about a different disease. Whatever happened there in NYC doesn’t sound or look like “covid.” Or whatever we have now (Omicron) isn’t “covid.”
Dr. Kory, I’m a professional registered nurse with 32 years of acute care experience in WI., although I had retired at the time of the Covid plandemic. I’ve seen a lot and have always had a good, respectful relationship with the physicians, surgeons, and staff I’ve worked with. However in the last few years of my career I noticed the impact of government interference in healthcare probably due to the increase of patients on Medicare and Medicaid. Reimbursement to physicians and hospitals were based on criteria that was often unrealistic based on the cognitive status of the patient. There were standards of care developed that took away autonomy from a physician to individualize care with their patients. The staff became burdened with non-patient care focused responsibilities from OSHA that took time and care away from the bedside. One other thing that needs to be said is that the quality of personnel in healthcare has declined significantly in the past couple decades. In many situations diversity has become the driving factor in who is admitted to medical school or into healthcare professions vs the best and brightest. Standards of care have replaced individualized care decisions between a physician and their patients and I think that is due to lack of critical thinking skills, managing costs and reimbursement and hospitals needing to be profitable to survive the competitive environment they’re in, especially small hospitals vs the huge healthcare systems. Finally, the traveling nurse fiasco. It takes at least 6 months of mentoring to be adept at the policies and procedures at a facility not to mention the time to develop a rapport with your colleagues as they see if you’re capable and can be trusted to provide the appropriate care particularly during high patient load times and with acute care patients. To allow the most inexperienced nurses to travel to various facilities and expect they’re going to deliver the same high quality care an experienced nurse can provide in a facility or region they’re not familiar with was a very poor decision. Every travel nurse I spoke with was motivated by one thing, money, and admitted they couldn’t handle the most difficult patients. Generally they were relatively new to the profession, therefore mostly young because they were either single or didn’t have children and were able to drop everything for the opportunity to earn a lot more money than the usual nurses’s salary. Inexperience leads to a lack of ability to make good assessments and decisions particularly during a crisis.
I could go on and on but personally I’m ashamed at the healthcare system and how it failed during Covid and is still failing with many hospitals and practitioners going along with ineffective mandates and protocols while suppressing therapeutics that could have worked. I never saw how corrupt big Pharma was until the past decade. But my eyes are wide open now and I’ll help anyone I can on an individual basis but I’m staying as far away from hospitals and healthcare practices as I can.
One last point, a major difference between WI. and NYC is that most people from WI. have a genuine faith and a trust in God that sadly is missing in many large urban areas.
Very disappointed in this post. "I promise you that if a doctor or nurse started giving doses of medications that were inappropriate or not indicated and patients started dying under their care as a result.. they would be immediately be reported by a colleague, lose their license, or even go to jail (maybe not too).. " Really? Are you kidding? Who wrote this? I personally know of a young family, father was hospitalized with covid in 2020, given remdesivir, ventilated, and lungs severely damaged. Doctors told the wife there was no hope, his lungs were beyond saving, that he was too weak even for a lung transplant. She fought them and many months later, he is now home breathing on his own. See the case in Vera Sherav's documentary of the girl with Down's Syndrome who was vented and doped up against her family's wishes and died. See the testimonies of many physicians and nurses who reported malpractice including starvation, lack of hydration, over sedation, inadequate monitoring, neglect, etc. ICU patients being managed by unlicensed medical students in NYC. Are you kidding? What are you talking about? You don't know what went on in the UK. And couldn't unprecedented high sedative doses also decrease and disturb all organ function, including the heart?
Thanks for this post, which gives wider context to the UK concerns. However it doesn’t address what I thought was the main concern (as reflected, eg, by John Campbell) that in the UK, the NICE guidelines issued at the time were disturbing, and appeared to be consistent with end of life practice rather than with therapeutics. The data on dosages may have been circumstantial but the directive (since withdrawn) was not. In addition, the very sudden (and short) and large mortality spikes observed were not consistent with any patterns of a spreading virus. While of course I respect your experience, and first hand accounts of NYC situation, your post doesn’t yet allay all the concerns I think.
A thousand other nurses and doctors say the opposite of what you just said.
"I need to admonish some colleagues to “stay in your lane.”
Seriously?
The New York situation in 2020 was an organizational mess. While you and your colleagues were overworked in the hospitals, I knew people staffing the Javits center who stood around for several weeks with nothing to do. Clearly political motives were ruling the day trying to make the impact of COVID -19 look as bad as possible.
I am sure this was a very good post because Dr. Kory wrote it. Maybe I shouldn't even be responding because I didn't read the entire thing. The minute I see the word "ventilator" I have a really hard time reading about patients being put on ventilators as a matter of course. It brings tears to my eyes because my sister (who I've written about before) got the first Pfizer jab and was immediately put on a vent and put in the ICU because she wouldn't stop pulling off the oxygen mask. Exactly two months later died when one lung after the other collapsed in quick succession. That was November 2021 - not early in the Plandemic as described here. Her husband wouldn't listen to a thing I had to say because he was so sure the hospital was doing everything to save her. I wonder if he has finally woken up.
As a retired Registered Nurse who has worked both with end-of-life patients in the lCU setting as well as hospice at home situations l can vouch that EVERY WORD DR. KORY HAS WRITTEN IS TRUE!
Those that are expressing criticism need to re-read this article where Dr. Kory explains he is discussing the time period at the very beginning of the pandemic when the NYC hospitals were inundated with patients in their ICU's.
I'm afraid, Dr. Kory, that you are going to receive much negative feedback from the average layperson for this article because they will not comprehend that the use of sedative medication has been used to relieve respiratory distress in end-of-life patients for YEARS & YEARS before the covid pandemic arrived. It has ALWAYS been the accepted medical standard of care & (as you explained) allows that precious human -being to be so much more comfortable as they experience the process of dying!
Dr. Kory, you are very brave to write & publish this truthful article. You are one of the "true & honorable physicians" who have upheld their Hippocratic Oath when so many lousy, cowardly doctors have not during these past 3 years! God bless you sir!
Thank you for your thoughtful words about this - such a difficult (impossible) emotional situation to try to disentangle. Even more so as it’s between countries and cultures, as you so clearly presented. The issue for me personally, is the numbers of anecdotes from those with relatives with clearly no need to be on an ‘end of life pathway’, who were labelled DNR against their families’ wishes. Of course, there are some authentic deaths in the mix, but even one unauthorised, unnecessary death is, without doubt, murder. Or at least manslaughter. And accountability must be underway from these starting blocks of investigations/debate. If only these conversations could occur openly...
Drs. Kory and Marik are my most trusted medical authorities. That said, I've read a lot on the allegations of NHS wrongdoing. Below, I've offered links to articles I find damning.
Several things in this article don't line up. First, the use of opiates in ICUs was tied to creating comfort with ventilators. Because ventilators weren't in use in care homes, there was no synchronizing or terminal weaning. This article didn't discuss other uses for opiates.
Here's an article pointing out the government's policy to kick elders out of ICUs, and to record DNR orders in patient records without patient or family approval:
https://expose-news.com/2022/11/11/midzolam-matt-genocide-elderly-prison-not-jungle/
Here are articles about the Liverpool Care Pathway, which sent otherwise healthy people into an end-of-life protocol.
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/04/23/you-gave-up-twp-years-life-midazolam-covid-lie/
https://canadianpatriot.org/2021/03/14/nazi-healthcare-revived-across-the-five-eyes-a-eugenic-solution-for-the-baby-boomer-time-bomb/
Finally, here is a disturbing article alleging misdeeds by the NHS, including "...during the COVID19 pandemic DNACPR notices have been applied in a blanket fashion to some categories of person by some care providers, without any involvement of the individuals or their families":
https://expose-news.com/2023/01/21/nhs-staff-told-to-kill-patients-for-covid/?cmid=244027c2-785f-47f6-b079-f2e2a3ea3ae6
I always appreciate your posts as one my favorite doctors ever, Dr. Kory, although my two-cent observations as a non-doctor have been the opposite of this post. While I am not a medical doctor myself, I work with them as a scientist in multiple unique roles and have observed the care of numerous critically ill (not COVID) patients on life support. Almost every single time a family has refused to withdraw their loved one's care despite intense pressure to "relieve their suffering", the families turned out to be right- the patient eventually came off the ventilator and went home. In many of these cases, achieving successful ventilator weaning was as simple as reducing excessive and unnecessary doses of medications that induce respiratory depression, plus giving the patient time to improve. I even saw this when my own grandmother had to go on a ventilator (before COVID), which the doctors said she would never be able to come off of- they intensely pressured us to withdraw care from her but we refused (partly because I was fortunate to know how to read the literature and find out that they greatly underestimated her chances of survival). All it took to wean her off the ventilator was time and reducing unnecessary CNS-depressing medications, and she went home and survived quite some time. And on a related note, almost every time a patient was deemed not a "worthy" candidate for a life-saving procedure, but a maverick doctor stepped in to save the day for the patient, the maverick doctor was right and the patient went on to live a good or decent quality life for at least a few years. It's sad to think about the similar patients who weren't as lucky to have a maverick step in to save them. So based on my own two-cent observations, the "naysayer" doctors in life-or-death situations have been wrong many many times, and this makes me think of how the "naysayer" doctors were wrong to dismiss ivermectin and early treatments for COVID, which sadly cost lots of lives.
Thank you for all the folks you helped, through death or life. I can only hope I have someone as cognizant and caring as you when my time comes (Pulmonary Fibrosis). 🙏🏼💜
"We weren't trying to “kill” them using such doses, we were trying to save them."
Then why administer drugs that do exactly the opposite?
They depress the Central Nervous System (CNS) and impede breathing. Even the UK government flipflopped and both gave the signal to give Midazolam *and* disclaimed the fact it wasn't licenced for such use, and Levomepromazine is a sedative. Haloperidol causes cardiovascular issues and pneumonia.
And yet the deaths weren't marked as respiratory failures. They were reclassified as dementia deaths. Not even peer-reviewed studies could find a justification.
Why the sudden massive increase in April 2020 of the shots?
https://thedailybeagle.substack.com/p/mass-murdering-of-the-elderly
Is this your attempt to try to exonerate yourself Dr Kory?
No, I won't "stay in my lane", because yours crossed the line years ago.
I was sat in a UK coffee shop last week and overheard the conversation of two ladies sat next to me. They were nurse auxilliaries talking about their own vaccine injuries. (Post-jabs one had hives all over her body for several months, the other had extreme tiredness for 7 months plus a blood clot in her left calf. They also told me of a 49 year old nurse who died of a blood clot.). I engaged them in conversation. We had a long discussion about the injuries and deaths they have seen since the jabbings begun. What was interesting is what they said about 2020.
They told me that in 2020 the hospital - major trauma centre for West Wales - seemed intent on hospitalising elderly people. By elderly they meant people in their mid-60s and over. They gave an example of a chap in his 70s who came in with a head cut and was hospitalised. He then effectively ended up on 'the Liverpool pathway' - no water, no one to help feed him. The nurses told me that they offered to feed him but were told that they must not as if he choked they and the hospital could be sued. The 2 nurse auxilliaries could not understand why so many elderly people were being hospitalised for things that usually would have seen them treated and sent home.
Make of this what you will. The nurses had their opinion on what was going on. UK laws of libel do not allow me to repeat those views in print.
I can’t say enough how much I appreciate your perspective here. I really value your presence in these conversations and I can tell you really care about people and your craft both! Your continued efforts on all our behalf is so appreciated! 🙏
I’d like to add that it’s possible that the process of dying is unknowable for those not going through it. I would caution against what seems obvious to so many in these modern times, that expressions of agony are the same as suffering while dying. Expressions of anguish are signs that the living person is suffering. I understand the kinds of questions that follow this thought aren’t testable, but I think we should be honest with ourselves. Are we trying to minimize the expressions of agony? Or trying to minimize suffering? Perhaps each dying person knows their situation better than those around them. I know it might be hard as a doctor to prolong your exposure to the signs of agony, maybe even without perceivable benefit, but I hope you can understand that you’re not the one dying.
To all doctors, you should know that patients and their families can tell what you believe about end of life issues by the way you talk, words you choose, tone, etc. It has a significant influence on your future interactions with them. Maybe that’s why some patients push back. Because too many doctors are approaching the care-related tasks like machines working on other machines, rather than humans having an experience with other humans having an experience. Just my two cents anyway.
Dr Kory, you’re a doctor to be admired, so please continue the good work!
The question remains: How did they get this so disastrously wrong?
It’s almost like we’re talking about a different disease. Whatever happened there in NYC doesn’t sound or look like “covid.” Or whatever we have now (Omicron) isn’t “covid.”
Dr. Kory, I’m a professional registered nurse with 32 years of acute care experience in WI., although I had retired at the time of the Covid plandemic. I’ve seen a lot and have always had a good, respectful relationship with the physicians, surgeons, and staff I’ve worked with. However in the last few years of my career I noticed the impact of government interference in healthcare probably due to the increase of patients on Medicare and Medicaid. Reimbursement to physicians and hospitals were based on criteria that was often unrealistic based on the cognitive status of the patient. There were standards of care developed that took away autonomy from a physician to individualize care with their patients. The staff became burdened with non-patient care focused responsibilities from OSHA that took time and care away from the bedside. One other thing that needs to be said is that the quality of personnel in healthcare has declined significantly in the past couple decades. In many situations diversity has become the driving factor in who is admitted to medical school or into healthcare professions vs the best and brightest. Standards of care have replaced individualized care decisions between a physician and their patients and I think that is due to lack of critical thinking skills, managing costs and reimbursement and hospitals needing to be profitable to survive the competitive environment they’re in, especially small hospitals vs the huge healthcare systems. Finally, the traveling nurse fiasco. It takes at least 6 months of mentoring to be adept at the policies and procedures at a facility not to mention the time to develop a rapport with your colleagues as they see if you’re capable and can be trusted to provide the appropriate care particularly during high patient load times and with acute care patients. To allow the most inexperienced nurses to travel to various facilities and expect they’re going to deliver the same high quality care an experienced nurse can provide in a facility or region they’re not familiar with was a very poor decision. Every travel nurse I spoke with was motivated by one thing, money, and admitted they couldn’t handle the most difficult patients. Generally they were relatively new to the profession, therefore mostly young because they were either single or didn’t have children and were able to drop everything for the opportunity to earn a lot more money than the usual nurses’s salary. Inexperience leads to a lack of ability to make good assessments and decisions particularly during a crisis.
I could go on and on but personally I’m ashamed at the healthcare system and how it failed during Covid and is still failing with many hospitals and practitioners going along with ineffective mandates and protocols while suppressing therapeutics that could have worked. I never saw how corrupt big Pharma was until the past decade. But my eyes are wide open now and I’ll help anyone I can on an individual basis but I’m staying as far away from hospitals and healthcare practices as I can.
One last point, a major difference between WI. and NYC is that most people from WI. have a genuine faith and a trust in God that sadly is missing in many large urban areas.