Editor’s Note: Jonathan wishes it noted that this column was written with contributions by Jessica Pysz-Mutti)
This is one of the most difficult columns I have ever written. I am trying to write this column without any prejudice or even the hint of politicization.
Well, here we are, more than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, information is coming in constantly, sometimes changing by the hour.
There is a reason for this. The information IS changing by the hour, and our demand for instant information keeps growing.
In the old days we would get the news from newspapers, or radio and television. We would have time to read, hear, digest and analyze the information, then form our opinion.
That doesn’t happen anymore.
(I have said for years that if we had the 24 hour news cycle and instantaneous information during the Cuban missile crisis, we would all be dead.) Most of the “news” sources are not news. They are commentary, cloaked in a journalistic facade. More people are depending on social media, and other internet sources for their information. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of websites, blogs, boards and such that spew stories and “quasi- facts” that offer just enough information to make their story sound legitimate. Sort of like what the National Enquirer does.
This column is health related. The delta variant is spreading like the wildfires in the western United States. I have written previous articles explaining how COVID-19 has devastated our medical system. The doctors and nurses were and are at the end of their ropes.
They are begging people to get the vaccines.
I do not care what your political affiliation is. We need facts, and facts are facts.
Opinions are not facts.
That’s why science keeps changing – they’re basing their findings on the new information coming in, analysing and comparing to past info, and changing the results based on those new findings. What was said yesterday is different today because we learned something new in the meantime.
We are working with the best information available at this time. People have dedicated their entire adult lives and careers to gathering and compiling data, to becoming experts in their field. Their professional research beats out any of the angry blogger’s opinions that are playing into fears over facts.
Remember what I said about digesting and analyzing the information?
Here are my humble suggestions for accurate and trustworthy sources for information regarding health and herbal information. These are legitimate sources, cross referencing their information and basing their pronouncements on studies, and pertinent data.
Over the years I have found these sources to be the best sites for information. Even with that said, I still cross reference them to be doubly sure.
Many people have come to me with herbal information that is incorrect. They usually tell me they checked several sources online. The problem arises when the first source puts out incorrect information, then is quoted by several others. It becomes a house of cards with no stable foundation. Please use the aforementioned sites if you have problems. These are sources you can trust.
—Jonathan
Send questions on botanical remedies to: Natures Rx: Jonathan Evans at herbarium258@gmail.com, or byregular mail to: The Herbarium, 264 Exchange Street, Chicopee, MA 01013. If requesting additional info, include a self-addressed stamped envelope.
