Welcome to the first Dr Matt Newsletter
This was created for my private practice patients but all are welcome
My hope is to encourage healthy social interactions, no matter what new viral variant is on the prowl. On that note, I hope you will join me for the first “Dr Matt Practice Family Picnic” in Alexandria. This will happen Saturday morning, September 17th, at 10 am, in Founder’s Park near the sand volley ball court between Oronoco and Princess Streets. Many of my patients have small children and I will bring the toddler play station from my office, as well as a bubble machine so you can find us easily - just follow the bubbles. In case of rain, we will postpone to the next Saturday, September 24th. My patients have known all along that it is healthier to stay connected, with no social distancing or mask requirements, and several of them have commented that they would like to meet others in my practice. If you do plan to attend, please email me a few days before the event.
There is a Farmer’s Market every Saturday on King Street, and one option is to buy your picnic items there and bring them over. There is room for frisbee, volley ball, soccer, walking along the path by the Potomac river, or just socializing. If you bring some stale bread in addition to your picnic items, you can attract geese and ducks along the waterfront. The birds in this area are always on the lookout for just such an event, and this can be more entertaining than a child’s favorite video game, even for teenagers :-).
My practice is extremely diverse, with people on the political right and left, and many in the middle. There are African Americans, Asian Americans, and European Americans. I also have a lot of people from other countries including Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. It is very unlikely people will agree about everything, which will make this event even more valuable.
Below are some interesting items. I plan to share similar ones each week. One item I want to highlight is the “Family-run businesses of the week”. If you have such a business, even if it is very small scale such as making candles for sale, please send me a two sentence description and a way for people to contact you. I intend to create a page on my website with family-run businesses to allow my patients to support each other. Because I can get rather long-winded with research reviews, I included that section last.
Feel free to email me ideas to add to my next newsletter. I wish I could add them all but I will have to choose from many options and want to keep my newsletters fairly brief.
Yours truly, one moment at a time,
Matt Irwin
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— Weekly Picture worth 1000 words
— Health Tip of the Week
Practicing mindful present-moment attention can help all of us. Sitting with our own, internal, free floating anxiety and frustration, as well as with our more pleasant emotions, helps keep a cool head when these emotions appear during our daily life. A short dedicated time period twice a day is a very good start.
— Weekly musical selection - Feel Good
— Family-run businesses of the week: When possible, paying in cash or check avoids giving a percentage of every sale to credit card companies :-).
1) Dad’s Tree Service - The “Dad” in this case, although very fit and healthy, is actually the grandpa to patients in my practice. Their team is skilled not just in removing dead and dying trees and limbs, but also in helping make trees healthier, such as the 200 year old oak tree in my backyard: https://www.dadstreeservice.com/ 703-799-5844
2) Jonathan and Brittany make hand-made beautiful custom dog kennels to fit your home and family. “We mend the struggle between giving your pups a comfortable place to call their own and having an eye-sore from those big bulky metal crates.” Feel free to reach out to them via email, phone, or Etsy with any questions or inquiries.
Email: thegesingathering@gmail.com, Phone: 978-602-2072, https://etsy.me/2S3pRt2
Please send me two sentence summaries of your own business and I will add them to a new page on my website.
— Inspirational quote of the week
“Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa
— Humor of the week
— Research summary of the week
I recently reviewed two studies that show - again - that masks are ineffective. Unlike previous ones that only showed no statistically significant difference, these studies actually showed trends towards increased rates of covid-19 in areas that had the highest mask usage, and in one study also increased deaths. Graphs of the key results as well as links to the actual studies are included below.
One study showed trends of increased covid-19 rates and also increased mortality in countries that had higher rates of mask wearing. This was a carefully controlled observational study comparing all the European nations, some of whom had extremely low use of masks, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, and some of which had extremely high mask usage. The other study compared two extremely similar areas in the US, literally next door to each other. They compared two neighboring school systems in Fargo North Dakota, one of which required masks and one of which made them optional. As you might guess from this introduction, the one that required masks had higher rates of covid-19.
Although these studies seem significant, my main area of research shows the unreliability of the “covid-19 test”, and the low risk from covid-19, which makes the mask issue completely symbolic. All of the various tests used to decide who should be quarantined are likely to test positive on people with inflammatory symptoms, no matter the cause, as described in my paper from 20 years ago on false positive PCR tests (Irwin, 2001). In addition, people who get normal high-quality caregiving handle covid-19 diagnoses well, especially if they have supportive underlying beliefs about their body’s healing systems (Irwin 2021).
Below is the graph of the two school systems, showing increased covid-19 rates in the school system that required masks. The black line represents the district with the mask mandate, which has a higher peak than the school district where they were optional. This graph is reprinted from an article on the Brownstone Institute website describing the study in detail. https://brownstone.org/articles/the-best-mask-study-yet/).
The other study compared European countries with different mask usage, finding a trend toward increased covid-19 cases and increased mortality in high usage countries. This trend is only mentioned briefly, using statistical language that makes it hard to spot. Here’s the only quote from the study authors:
“Surprisingly, weak positive correlations were observed when mask compliance was plotted against morbidity (cases/million) or mortality (deaths/million) in each country (Figure 3).”
These “positive correlations” are seen in figure 3 (copied below). The line is sloped slightly upwards with more mask usage correlated positively with more covid-19 cases and more deaths. Although these results most likely lack statistical significance, they still argue against mask usage. Masks have many harms, not the least of which is that you cannot tell for sure if people are smiling or frowning.
Figure 3: Correlation between average mask compliance and cases/million (A) or deaths/million (B) in 35 European countries.
These two observational studies do not give “proof”, but they do counter the prevailing narrative quite effectively. They also combine well with prior randomized studies showing a lack of any statistically significant effect from masks, including “N95” masks. I reviewed these earlier studies in a previous paper (Irwin 2021).
Unfortunately, the ineffectiveness of masks and other “countermeasures” to reduce people’s chance of testing positive on the “covid-tests” tends to make people who have adopted viral containment as a valued objective even more anxious. None of these measures are really about science, but rather belief systems and rituals to relieve anxiety. Therefore, the big question is: How can we live with this human anxiety in the healthiest possible way?
I have just as much anxiety and fear of death as everyone else. However, I have learned a few things after years of practice. Sitting with this anxiety and feeling it completely, rather than trying to escape it with distractions, leads to momentary acceptance. This acceptance allows me to act from a different source when they are triggered by events, no matter how forceful they are. Although I often catch myself a bit late, after the emotional reaction dust has settled, sometimes I am able see things a bit more clearly in the midst of the action, and re-act from a healthier place. This not only feels better, it reduces our risk of unnecessary suffering, including reducing the risk of car accidents 😊.
Loving these newsletters!
So glad you're doing this!! Can't make it to the picnic, we're out of town, but definitely next time!