Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of youf're the cure. I'm Dr. Ben Edwards, excited to have a wonderful guest today.
Tina Siemens from Gaines County, Texas, Seminole in particular. And Tina, who's also been a patient for a long time with Veritas, basically has been the bridge builder between the Mennonite community and me for sure. But also even the outside world. And she's just an amazing lady with an amazing story, an amazing purpose in a God given purpose in her life.
Obviously we're going to talk about the measles situation but I've asked her to come on to talk about just the community and the Mennonite story in particular and then obviously how the measles outbreak has impacted and highlighted some things. And we want to bring the truth to this story. It hasn't been told fully by very many sources, definitely not the mainstream media.
So we want to kind of set the record straight and you know, we'll talk in future shows. I'm gonna have Dr. Richard Bartlett join me. I think that'll be next week to talk more on the science of budesonide and the secondary bacterial pneumonias you can get with any viral infection and how to appropriately treat that. So we'll get back into that science evidence based discussion next week. We'll talk more about vitamin A and, and the fact that you really can't get an accurate blood level of it because 90% of your retinol, which is vitamin A is actually in your liver. So there's just a lot of misinformation, misunderstanding and lack of education in mainstream doctors regarding nutrition and vitamin A in particular. We'll talk about about that more in a Future show too. Dr. Andy Wakefield will be joining in a couple of weeks to talk about there are risk with mmr and we'll get into that some today with Tina because. Because the Mennonites experience some of that. So there's just so much more to this story than obviously what the conventional media talks about. So we'll continue this discussion in the coming weeks. But today it's the focus is on the Mennonite community. What a beautiful people group that that is. And I've been honored to be around them, with them more than I have ever in my life over the past few weeks. And Tina is the reason for that. So Tina, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and thank you for inviting me into your community so I could be blessed by the amazing people who are the Mennonites of Gain County. Welcome.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Dr. Ben for the opportunity and for your selfless time and wisdom that you brought. Like you, you were, you are the considered one of the saviors in our community, in the Mennonite community, because you brought hope, not only with the protocol, but hope being here physically.
One of the highlights was when one of the ladies just started speaking to you in German, thinking that you were one of us. Because you were and you truly are. You are one of us. And we consider it a high honor to have had you in our community and just be in the Mets of what we will never forget.
I think this is going to be a time that will go down in history, not just for my community, but certainly in my own life, of how I've been able to live my purpose on purpose. So thank you for the opportunity.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: No, you're very, very welcome. So let's start with.
And thank you for that. It's a great honor to be thought of like that. And you know, the emotion that I've had is just sadness when people and reporters ask me about that, because I feel like every doctor should and could and would do what I did when you called me. So it's really just. And we'll talk about that maybe later. But I don't consider myself to be a hero at all. I'm just doing what I feel like every doctor should, should be doing. But thank you for that, those sweet words.
I want to encourage everybody to go to Tina's Museum. If you're ever in Gaines county, you need to go to the West Texas Living Museum. And so I want you to talk about that, Tina, but start wherever you want. Just kind of introduce yourself to my audience who maybe haven't heard of you, although a lot of people have. Now, I think you've given probably 20 or 30 interviews. I don't even know you, probably lost track, but kind of just share who you are, where you came from, and of course, the Mennonite story. How did they end up in Gaines County?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Well, I was one. My family was one of the first Mennonite families in Gaines county in Seminole in March of 1977. There was a couple of families that came in February of 77. But this week we will celebrate our anniversary of coming to Seminole, Texas. And it is always a highlight for me to add one more year of being not only what my parents were looking for to make make a better living for a family. So many reporters have asked, so did you come here to West Texas on account of just wanting religious freedoms? That has been the case going back to the 1500s. In 1530, 6 a Catholic priest who left the church as the priest of the community. And he then joined a small group of Anabaptists, meaning they baptized each other again upon their newfound faith in Jesus. And so they Menno Simons joined the small group that was in his community and they elected him as a leader. And that group became known as the Mennonites. Deprived from his name, Menno Simons, as in Switzerland, was Jakob Arman that became the Amish community. So when Mennonites and Amishes are compared apples to apples, we came from the same region in Europe during the same period during the Reformation years.
And so that's where the Mennonites started. So they then went from the Netherlands to present day Poland, from Poland, invited by Catherine the Great to present day Ukraine, where my ancestors lived for many years and, and prosperity and in great wealth building. And they just had an empire of Mennonite two, two separate settlements in Ukraine. And then in the 1718 70s they started immigrating after World War I came on the world stage. And so then my family went to Canada. But there was a large group of Mennonites that moved to the Midwest states here or Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas. And they brought with them the red turkey wheat which your facility has talked about with bread making and wheat berries and all of that. My ancestors brought those red turkey wheats to the Midwest states and that is why we have the breadbasket of America versus the Ukraine being the breadbasket of the world. And so those connections are very personal to me because I have traced many of my family members to the group that was also that came to Canada and also to, to the United States. But then in 1920s, my great grandparents were young marrieds when they started immigrating and there was about 7,000, close to 7,000 that initially immigrated from Canada to Chihuahua, Mexico. And that's where I was born. And so in 1977 when we came to West Texas was one of the first migrations that wasn't based on religion privileges of having your own schools and your own mayor and, and your own community, your own little world within a bigger world. So we have been here absolutely a difficult, difficult journey from the get go. But we persevered through, through faith and prayer and unity. This community has been a unit for all these years. And coming up with the 50th anniversary, I hope to celebrate that big.
We will just showcase to the world that not only are we resilient and wrongly accused very often, but for them to think of us as this is the group that's Unvaccinated, uneducated. I would love to just have the world know the true meaning of our community. It is not one way or other solely there's those on both sides. But we have been once again just like in 1970s and early 80s, we were the spotlight of America and the world. I have letters literally from around the world aimed at my mayor, the late Bob Clark, who was encouraged to do something to make the immigration status legal here in Gaines County. And they did.
A special bill called the private law in 9663 was introduced in the Senate, passed in the House after the second time and then signed by the late President Jimmy Carter, who loved the Mennonites and his regent. He told me personally when he would go to the doctor then or the hospital, he would request Mennonite nurses because he knew that he got quality care.
And so when I was had the privilege of flying to Plains Georgia and attend President Carter's last Sunday school lesson that he gave ever in his life, I was then able to present him as a thank you not only for myself and my family, but my community, Gaines county community, for making it possible for us to immigrate and become U.S. citizens. And so that is a very short term of the journey that my family went through to become U.S. citizens. And I consider myself American first. I love my Mennonite history. I love who I have been able to become, grow up into. And now that this measle epidemic came to my area was when I was called upon again to showcase how amazing God's grace has been throughout my life and and this community. We are no strangers to hardships going back to the 1500s. I have wrote a lot of that in my first book, Seminal. Some people never give up. And then during COVID years I wrote my own journey as an eight year old through the eyes of an eight year old immigrating to land with not knowing the language, not knowing the cultures of the land. But that we again without God's help we could not have made the journey. We could not have persevered through the many ups and downs that immigration threw at us. That hardships of not knowing how to maneuver in a land without the language. But we were determined to learn the language. And today I'm so grateful not to only be able to speak the high and the low German, but a little bit of English. So I just feel like our whole journey has been proven over and over that we are not our own. We serve a mighty Creator who if we rely on him for answers, the answers will will come. And so that has been proven over again very dramatically in the last three weeks.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Yes, it has.
Before we go into that the last three weeks, would you tell a story? I loved it when you, you told me at the museum when there was some persecution, I forget which century this was, but the dyke builders, when the Mennonites were allowed to move into a country and, but they were given the worst land. And I think this seems to be a theme throughout. You can come here, we're going to give you the worst land and then they turn it into some of the richest, best producing farmland. But tell the, that story.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: When Menno Simons, after the persecution got so severe by, by drownings, by being burnt at the stake. There's a large volume that's a gathering of the story. It's called the Martyr's Mirror. And so many cruel and just unimaginable ways of killing these newborn Christians. And that is when King Zigman Augustus from what is now Poland invited the Mennonites from Germany and the Netherlands to come to him. So there's a large group, I mean a large piece of property, land that was six feet under sea level. And he said, I will give you all the religious freedoms if you'll come here, build some dikes and drain the swampy land so that we have more arable farmland. And the, and the Mennonites, they did that. They came to Poland and they were able to build themselves in just a little, a plot of land, enough to build a small hut for their families, safekeeping. And then the men went to work. They built dikes that are 30ft high. And these dikes are still in existence in Poland today. I was there in 2016 and I was able to go on top of one of those dikes and just stand there and realize my ancestors gave their lives, gave their sweat and blood to build this, these dikes to drain the swamp. They invented the auger system, the screw augur, as well as the, the large round wheels with buckets. And so they would channel all of the water from both sides into this man made channel and drained all of that swampy land for, for absolutely the most fertile farmland. And so they did that. Thousands died of swamp fever during those years, but they were able to do that and live in peace at the same time. So they've done so much to preserve not only their God given freedoms of living in peace, but they were willing to do what it took to go to that ends and to make life easier for them. And as soon as King Augustus passed away and his predecessors Saw how well and prosperous the Mennonites were by working the land. They then started implementing taxes and just really taking small steps to take their freedoms away. And that's when Catherine the Great heard about it. And she had gained so much farmland, what is now Ukraine, it was south Russia. Then she sent a delegate to Danzig, which is the capital of Poland. And he stayed at my sixth great grandpa's inn. And, and so he loved the, the way they served him. And he asked my sixth great grandpa, Jacob Hepner, if he would be willing to be one of the first delegates. And so he traveled to Ukraine and traveled with Catherine the Great for six months selecting the. The sites where the Mennonites would then move to. But again they made the topsoil was six feet deep in Ukraine. The crops were just absolutely so beautiful. The grains of fields, there's poems written about it. And then they flourished there again. They were best in silk making and they made their own linen during World War I and 2 they had their own Red Cross because they were self conscientious objectors not going to war, but they contributed by making their own Red Cross train going through the countryside, picking up the wounded soldiers. But because they had all the man made, I mean the homemade remedies and salves and tinctures, they applied all of those with linen bindings, linen bandages that they had made from flaxseed that they grew and then made the linen. And these soldiers just healed in record time. When I went to Ukraine in 2019, the Odessa archive came onto our ship. So we were a floating Mennonite ship that went from Odessa, Ukraine all the way to Kyiv to the capital now. And so during the day we would go into our ancestors villages. Many of the homes that my ancestors built are still, were still standing at that time. I don't know if today but. And the factories that they built, the gr. The mills that they had built, the brick factories, so all of that was still there when I was walking the land, the countrysides of Ukraine and just knowing the hardships there too that they endured, but they persevered through and they made something of the land. So agriculture and self sustainability has been the history of the Mennonite culture. And it proved over and over again that not only did the home remedies work, it was not all what the world today would look at as quack healings or just what's the word that they use?
Old wives tales. And so they were proven over and over that these home remedies work and the God given nature of Making the tinctures and using plants and herbs. Genesis 1 tells us exactly how God created the earth to be there for our food and the herbs for our healing. And so we have historically been able to do that. And I'm so grateful that I have been handed many of those, the knowledge on how to do these. So with the measles outbreak here, earaches were a huge thing. God knew. Back in April, I mean, October of last year, John and I, my husband, took a trip to New Mexico and we saw these amazing mullein plants. So I have video of me being out in the field just gathering mullen. I came home, I dehydrated it and I had made my own ear drop tincture with mullein garlic and covered it in olive oil and these ear drops. I got an ear infection last week. I did two nights of two drops of this ear drops and my earache was gone. So it cost me absolutely pennies to make that. And then my grandson had a really bad earache after his measle outbreak. I went and applied it. I did some lymph draining on him and put the ear drop. And this morning I got a report that his earache was gone. So all of these are things that mother nature gives us and we can then apply in our lives. But it's so often it's lost art, it's loss help. And so now we are here and we are our community created a WhatsApp group with now over 500 ladies on there just helping each other. This is what worked for me. This was my children's symptoms. And Dr. Ben's name is recited on that group every single day, hundreds of times. Because this is what Dr. Ben told me. This worked for me. This is what I applied. And then along with their tinctures that they have, and with our local health food stores, we have been able to get through this. Not only the unvaccinated, but many of the vaccinated people as well that got measles and got are getting secondary infections of pneumonia or mumps or whatever. And with many of the people in our community are going through these remedies. And it's working. It has worked so beautifully in so many cases that we saw one on one, how overnight, with the prescription of budesonite, was able to help these little ones. And so, yeah, we have. The stories are endless that we could be talking about of what you and I have witnessed in the last three weeks.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Yes, it's really been incredible. And I think we need to probably just jump straight to what the official recommendation is by the health authorities about vaccination. And I've talked to the health authorities, state and federal, you know, vaccinations for prevention. And what Tina is just talking about, what I've been talking about is actual treatment. So when a child comes to you and they're sick, 103 fever, a rash, maybe diarrhea or vomiting, but a cough, bad cough, respiratory distress, wheezing, you know, those are patients that need treatment. Obviously you would think this is so obvious, we don't need to even distinguish this. But we, we need to. Vaccinations for prevention. Treatment is for sick people.
So it seems common sense and clear. But these were very, these were some sick kids initially. Those that first night and the first Sunday morning, there's some pretty sick kids. So I just want to be clear on that.
The official recommendation from the state is prevention and isolation. And there's a time and place for that conversation. But obviously we're dealing with sick children in treatment. But Tina, maybe you could speak to that a little bit because, you know, I didn't start doing this initially, but I have more recently asking the parents. So this generation of, you know, 30 and 40 year olds and a lot of them told me they were vaccinated as children, but their children not vaccinated. So maybe talk a little bit about that. You already mentioned, you know, there's folks on both sides of this, but specifically the parents of these children who I seem to just polling them, they're vaccinated, but now they're not. And why not? Which I can speak to that too, because I asked them why not. But give me your perspective on the whole vaccination versus treatment. And there are both vaxxed and unvaxxed in this community.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. When I was first notified by our local health inspector here, he came to me at the museum and he said, tina, we have two cases of measles and they started in a private school. And at that point I was really working hard on finishing my third book and getting ready to go to Dallas for a launch. But in that week I started hearing there's more cases and there's more. So I was in that early onset. I was just helping our local health department personnel looking over their translations because they were posting vaccine and testing sites around the community. And so I was just helping them get the word out. Are there translations of into high German? Correct. To where the High German people or the Mennonite community could read that? And so they posted in high German, English and in Spanish. And I was More than happy to direct people that way. And I've directed them whoever asked me or called me, which were many, what I do and where do I go. So I just thought, well, that would be the end of it. But then after I came back from Dallas, then I was just, I came back on Saturday and then on Sunday you were, that was the first day you were here. I, I was just like, okay, those who choose to get vaccinated, they have their opportunities, they have their, their places that they can literally go and get what they desire to do is get the, the shots of mmr. And many did.
But then there's those who have chosen for some reason not to vaccinate their children or themselves.
They were the adults like my age and my children's age. They were vaccinated. When I first immigrated, we went to school and we got our vaccines. And so I was, I can't speak of that because that's just what, what the parents were told to do then. And because the language barrier, we just did and praise the Lord that it didn't affect me in a negative way. But in our community there is many that, that we saw that have proof that, that they've been affected. But a little more on that later on. But we saw the increase of what, what do we do for we, our children are getting the measles, but we don't, we don't feel good. And there had been some horrible incidences at some clinics and some hospitals and that just spread like wildfire. So I was praying, Lord, what could we do? And that's when I called you on what can we do to help treat. And you said you had your supplier in Scottsdale that had this shipment of cod liver oil and vitamin C. He can ship it, mail it first thing Monday morning. And this was Saturday. And, and so I said I have a friend that they own a plane and they have a pilot.
Would the supplier be open to having it loaded up on Sunday? And you made the call? I made the call. And by 8:30 in the morning we had that plane on its way to Scottsdale, Arizona. And they loaded it. By 2:30 they were back in the ground. On the ground here in Seminole. We unloaded it and by 3 o'clock we had that makeshift clinic going of you treating these children and families that were, were with measles or that had, had been, were on the tail end of the measles but were needing some help.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Yeah, measles really depletes the vitamin A status in the body. And when I say vitamin A I'm, I mean retinol, that's a true form of vitamin A and it's found in animals. So you find the sources of this would be animal fat. So you can find this in butterfly heavy whipping cream, tallow, beef liver, egg yolks. Of course, cod liver oil is probably the easiest and best and highest quality and most potent form of kind of a supplemental. But it's from a food source. From a toxicity standpoint, it's very, very difficult, next to almost impossible to get toxic on vitamin A from a food source. There is evidence in the literature, the Merck manual talks about a Arctic explorer who ate a polar bear liver and they estimated over a million international units of vitamin A. And he started to experience some toxicity so he stopped eating that and immediately the symptoms went away. So it is possible but very, very, very difficult. Now synthetic vitamin A, that's different that you don't have all the CO factors, you don't have the full retinol molecule, you don't have the vitamin D to balance that A, which you do in cod liver oil and other food sources. So that's just a topic that's not taught in medical school. So doctors don't really understand this. The vitamin A level in the blood is inaccurate because 90% of the, the retinols in the liver. So you have to really question, you know, combine a blood test and different types of blood tests because there's different forms of A in the body, different isomers of it and you've got to ask questions because vitamin A deficiency or toxicity you can kind of get clinically from questioning the patient. That's kind of a side side note though, but that's why I chose cod liver oil. And there's lots of data going back to the 1700s, actually lots of published data, lots of doctors in the 1800s and 1900s and, and pretty much it's credited with eradicating tuberculosis. Around 1920, this you see a huge uptake of cod liver oil in the United States and you see tuberculosis drop. And you can find old articles and old books about this environment. A now is well known to be, to be such a powerful anti infectious vitamin. It powers the immune system in such amazing ways. So anyways, that's a little bit on the cod liver oil and the vitamin A that's in that, that's why we chose that.
So yes, we started that makeshift clinic again out of necessity. There were sick kids, some, some in respiratory distress, mild to moderate distress. So they needed treatment right away. Tina, you mentioned some treatment at other facilities. And I don't want to bash other facilities, but it is a piece of the story that people need to be aware of. And it kind of reminded me of COVID It sounds like some practitioners might have gone into fear mode and judgment mode, like anger at an unvaccinated patient. And why are you. Why didn't you get vaccinated? And because you haven't, it's your fault and therefore sit outside for a little while. You need a quarantine. But it just. It's almost like there's a change of attitude and heart towards that patient. And so some people experience some of that which had the effect of, fine, I'm not going to the hospital, I'm not going to doctor, I'll just sit at home. And then if they don't know what to do at home, that could be a really bad outcome. So talk a little bit about that.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Well, when I got educated through you on, on the symptoms of what level is oxygen just really a necessity to seek higher help, I was able to advise moms that would call me and say, what. What is Dr. Ben's thought on this? And what is. So I, I wrote down kind of markers and I encourage them. If your child gets oxygen levels in the 70s, then it's time to seek higher help, because that is. That is really getting critical in the, in the oxygen level.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: So we actually saw that. We saw patients that sick, that respiratory distress, because obviously even in the 80s isn't good, but down to the 70s. And they were still at home. Yes, it was incredible. But go ahead, Tina. Sorry.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: And yes, and that. So you were asking, do they have nebulizers? And yes, during COVID I think almost every household has a nebulizer. And that is just one more piece of, of a home that is been proven to be helpful in many, many cases. So you asked. And then yes, they did. And so they had been applying that.
But to be afraid of not seeking higher help was something that we really had to calm them. And I was again working with the local health officials to let's get these people some help if they are coming for help.
And yes, the media really played. And I know my health department person told me that, that they had to turn away media from the hospital because people were coming in to get tested and they were attacked. So then they went back into their vehicle. So. So that was. That happened here as well. But is there the fear factor like you mentioned? It is such a huge part of when it plays into a community like this, like who do we listen to what is, what is the real facts, what are, what are, something that we can go on. And for them to then wade through all of this information, download from one side or the other is just, it takes a while. And in that while there's some people that really got sick. And so praise the Lord, you were there for, for that side that, that chose to go the other way. But we have seen many go take advantage of being hospitalized and, and have gotten help again thanks to you and Dr. Bartlett.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and I'll speak to that real quick. So budesonide and inhaled steroid, not traditionally thought of to be used in a viral respiratory infection. We usually think of these steroids to be used when the airway is inflamed from more of an autoimmune type picture, which is asthma, or from chronic inflammation from smoking. So if you have emphysema or copd, so that's where doctors are trained to use these steroids.
And there's a thought you could suppress the immune system with steroids. And that's true. So therefore you could aggravate or cause a bacterial infection to maybe come if you have too much steroid effect. So you balance that, I mean most doctors know with emphysema and copd, if a patient's struggling, having a flare up of their copd, you give them a steroid and an antibiotic. So you cover the inflammation and the infection.
So but during COVID Dr. Richard Bartlett really discovered this and started utilizing it clinically, seeing great results. And then numerous published studies supported his clinical finding of using budesonide, the inhaled steroid for a viral respiratory infection. So Covid could trigger what's called cytokine storm. Cytokines are chemicals the body makes to create inflammation because you need some inflammation to kill germs, but sometimes there's too much of it. And all that inflammation actually causes the oxygen to not be able to, to penetrate into the bloodstream because there's just too much inflammatory fluid, inflammatory water, mucus, so you don't get good oxygenation. So if you can slow down or depress that inflammation a little bit, that clears up the airway. Now you can get oxygen in. So we saw that during COVID it worked beautifully. Again, lots of published studies, budesonideworks.com has a lot of those on there. So that's why I chose to try that on these really sick kids. And it worked beautifully. And I called Dr. Bartlett and asked him if he could help me to educate because I knew that he knew all those studies off the top of his head. So he went and did that at the hospital. And luckily the doctors received that truth and started utilizing that. So that really, really was a game changer.
Tina? I think I do. We do need to go to the more touchy subject, and it's more potentially inflammatory subject, but it's really important because so many will say, well, if everyone just had the mmr, then you wouldn't be in this situation, even though vaccinated kids are coming down with measles. But that still, that's what they're saying, is if everyone gets mmr, you won't get the measles, therefore, you won't be at risk for the pneumonia. And, and there's some truth in that statement. But with every medical procedure, there's a potential for risk and bad outcomes. Just like with a measles infection, typically, especially historically, it was a rash, a fever. You got over it in a few days, and. And then you had lifelong immunity. There was a small chance you could have something more severe happen to you. Encephalitis, inflammation of the brain, or pneumonia, and even potentially death. So there's risk of. In measles, but there's risk in medical procedures. All medical procedures, all pharmaceuticals, all surgeries and vaccinations have a potential risk.
And that's, that's probably that. We'll talk more about that in The Future with Dr. Andy Wakefield because there's. That's a huge discussion. But without getting into all the scientific evidence that there is out there on the risk of mmr, the community over, over these years just saw with their own eyes. Now, doctors would call this anecdotal. You're not supposed to really believe anecdotal. That's a testimony doctors are told. Testimonies or anecdotal stories are the very, very lowest level of evidence, barely to even be listened to at all. That's how doctors are trained. But speak a little bit to that, because that's what I heard when I asked the Mennonite parents who were vaccinated, why are your kids not well? Because the MMR has injured kids in our community, was the answer I heard. Could you enlighten the audience any on some of that?
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Yes.
With a small community, everybody knows everybody else. And so communication is such a vital key in a small community.
And so when you have up to 14 in a small, less than 75,000 countywide population, then to have 14 parents that are saying this happened in some cases 15 minutes after they got the vaccine, that their child was never the same again. Last Saturday when we had many of those who, who had the vaccine injuries come and to be interviewed, they, they would just tell us that and one of them turned 41 on that very day. So they, they had lived through this for 41 years and hers happened at the age of too, I believe. And for them to have lived with a child and, and she wheelchair bound and totally having to be cared for, those are mighty, mighty testimonies in a community like that. If that is what happens, then I would rather deal with the measles, deal with what, what's coming and be, be past that without having the chances of taking the vaccines. So we, we see more of that. And I think even during COVID so many of the media that interviewed me, they would ask why are they not vaccinated? And the headlines over and over it was the Mennonites are the uneducated unvaccinated. And that was, that is the furthest thing from the truth. My parents couldn't read when they chose to vaccinate us. That's what we are now in a brand new land. This is the rules and the regulations of the land and it's being offered. So yes, they got us vaccinated even with the next generation. Many of them did. And so when I get today's listening to hundreds and hundreds of mom explain why they did not choose to vaccinate their babies and, and they're going into teenage years now. These are the stories that they have evidence of in our community that this is, this is why I'm not it. They read the insert. We had a young lady that, that came and, and did the interview and she said, I worked at a clinic. I read the inserts of these vaccines and the parents, they would just, nope, this is what I'm here for today, getting the vaccine for my child, never even asking what's in it.
They just said this is what my doctor wants me to do and therefore I do. And so these younger parents that are now very well read on inserts of the vaccines and then plus seeing the injured in our community, they say, what is that 1 in 100,000 that could possibly get a vaccine injury, you'll have to correct me on the status on that. But in a small community like this, to have more than 12 that really speaks loud to some of these young moms and dads that are saying, no, I'd rather take the risks of what the actual illness and virus would bring instead of us having to go through what I'm seeing from my cousin or my aunt and uncle having to go through. So there is a combination of what they see and now what they're reading themselves and educating themselves. So I say that these young moms I see, saw their passion, compassion in when they told me what they read in the inserts and they said, I just don't want my child to have to have that fighting against all of that in their small bodies. And I had many moms come to me and said, I specifically asked to just get three vaccines in one day instead of the multiple. And one mom told me when she, they said, okay, we'll just do three injections today. When she gets the list of what was injected, they had cocktailed each one of those three to where her children got nine actual vaccines in one day because they cocktailed these three. And so she says autism, ADHD was the cause of this. Decisions that the health care made on their own. And so these stories are what drives these younger generation to say, I don't want my children to have to deal with that. And learning is as much as it might have been in some of the revenues when the immigration from Canada to Mexico, there was a high decline of education. But coming here and having the, the literature and then the language learned to where they can read it, all of this just makes for a decision of I don't want to go that route. And that is what happened here. It's not because they weren't read about it, but it is because they read and decided not to do it.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So the exact opposite of the narrative. Uneducated, ignorant, uninformed. The exact opposite. They're actually more educated than your standard American Amen. And the standard American protocols in these pediatric medical protocols, this is correlation. But the United States health care system and their protocols, and we have the sickest kids now, that's just a correlation thing. Well, well, there's studies. There's many, many, many studies. I haven't heard any of the media, which I don't really watch media, but when they come and talk to me and I talk to them off the record, it's the same line of oh, Andy Wakefield's debunked and the movie Vax is propaganda and autism MMR done cause autism. Vaccines don't cause autism. Don't you know that?
Like when I hear that from the me this, that, that parroted line, we've already paid out millions of dollars to the vaccine injury compensation court for autism. It's clear that there it can cause it. We've already proven it in the literature and paid it out through the vaccine court.
So now we're so beyond that. That's settled in my book now we're should be to the point of what causes this increased risk. Is there a way to decrease that risk of injury? Like spacing them out or doing fewer than at one time or not doing them so young, not doing them when they're sick. There's lots and lots of evidence in the literature that there are things that make it more likely to injure. These vaccines, injure you. But we can't even have the conversation.
The media won't even admit and many doctors I see on the media admit that this is even possible. And of course vaers, which doctors are supposed to report to during COVID VAERS got to be such a topic. More doctors know about it now. But pre Covid I don't think hardly any doctors knew what VAERS was. That's where they're supposed to report an injury. They don't even know how to identify these injuries. We're not trained in school how to identify an injury we're told they don't even injure, much less do we report it. And HHS in 2010 did a study to see how accurate is this vaccine reporting adverse event reporting system, how accurate is it, how many of adverse events actually get reported. And that was a. The author was Lazarus and He concluded about 1% of vaccine injuries get reported to VAERS. So when VAERS says five people a year die from MMR shot on average you have to multiply that by about a hundred so it's more like 500 instead of 5. That's not my opinion. That's the evidence from VAERS. 5 evidence from Lazarus, that's the 5 is only 1%. That's how I get to that number. That's informed consent. So if people don't like VAERS or they don't like that Lazarus report, that's fine for them to have an opinion, to not like those or to think they're not accurate. Well then you have to go clean all those up or do another study. We, we need the data. If you want to be totally data driven, then that's the data. Let's go get more data and let's like have the. But you can't even talk about it. So that's a red flag number one. And I would encourage the audience and probably if you're listening to this, you're already doing this. Turn off those news sources and I'll put news in quotes there. It's, it is propaganda because they're not given the whole story. I I, and you was Tina witnessed this. I had three people from CNN turn off their camera, turn off their microphone, sit down on the couch and let's just have a conversation where I'm going to tell you the truth, the whole story. And I did for about 15 or 20 minutes and, and the one lady almost started crying. So I know there's at least three people at CNN that know the truth, but. And then at the end I said, now you know, and I know the whole story. I just told you your boss won't let you publish that to the public.
We know. And they, they agreed with that. And they said, well, can we can just tell this part? No, no, I'm not going to go on the record just to tell one sliver that's just going to continue the division and inflame the situation. If you could tell the whole story, if the New York Times could tell the whole story, if NBC News could tell, if all of them, they've disqualified themselves. They're biased. They won't even publish this point of view. They won't publish the truth about the Mennonites and these moms who are educated, in fact, they publish the opposite, not the truth. There's been no retractions, there's been no apologies. There's still time for both, but so far I haven't seen it. And of course it just came out this week that the sweet little girl who died was not given the appropriate antibiotics for community acquired pneumonia. A clear cut case of a mistake and very unfortunate. And I don't, you know, I feel really sorry and bad for that doctor. I've made mistakes in my career and you know, it's awful when that happens. We're human beings, we make mistakes. That was a really, really big and deadly one.
So it's just been such a big story and incompletely told story. And in our last 10 minutes here, Tina, I'd like to kind of wrap it back around to what my opinion when I look at the big picture is there's two cultures here. That is how I see it. A culture of, of based in love, loving your neighbor, respecting your neighbor, coming into community, coming to your neighbor to understand them, to talk to them, to see what's their side of the story, do they need help? How can I help you? Love your neighbor. So it's this connected community, love your neighbors at the heart of it versus this other culture of division rooted in fear but causing division, separation, hatred, judgment and just disconnection. And it's ugly.
And what I witnessed in, in Gaines county and with the Mennonite community in particular was absolute, amazing love, loving their neighbor, helping their neighbor, coming together to overcome as they've overcome so many times over, over the centuries, overcome by trusting God. And, and Jesus said it, if you just love God, which in my mind means trust God and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, don't be self centered. Jesus said, you do those two things, everything else falls into place. And that's what I saw, that's what I saw in Gaines county and that's why I was honored to be a part of that. And, and I'll remember it the rest of my life. But I'll let you kind of give the closing thoughts. And I mean, we have 10 minutes, so feel free to comment on any of that or just share from your heart on behalf of your community.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: Well, right now we are, like you said, there's the two sides. There's so much division.
And how as a believer am I going to be the bridge between these two divisions? I have said from the get go, I'm not the message, I'm the message carrier. I'm living my purpose on purpose. And so for me to be able to be this bridge now, because I have so many amazing, amazing friends, lifelong friends in this community that are supportive of, of me and have supported me and my family and the, and the Mennonite community, they've embraced us. That's why we're here. But how do we bring it back together of where it's not you who are the measle infected population or the ones that are non Mennonites are. So many of them are with us. Like they are not vaccinated. They are, or if they were vaccinated, they are no longer taking the vaccine. So this divide, how do we bridge that? And it is not living in fear, not living in that. It's you versus me.
Throughout history I have said that if we concentrate on our similarities, there is many more similar similarities that we have as created human beings. Then there are differences. And I think that will have to be the starting point of rebuilding this divide in love. Being that neighbor that, that you're not afraid to come, go to their house or meet in a restaurant or, or have a meal out.
You don't have to be afraid.
The, the measles have come and they will go. The physical healing is happening, but the emotional is going to be just as big or a bigger part after the dust has settled on the actual measles and the subsequent infections and all of that. But we are to make A conscious decision that I want to be a part of the rebuilding instead of dividing and an individual basis decision that they will have to come to. And if that isn't the case, then Satan is. Satan's got what he does best, kill, steal and destroy. And we are one that are going to fight against it because we have way too much history built together in this community to start living in separate worlds. Now our little world can be a witness and a light to the rest of the world and the rest of the nation because we were unwillingly or unknowingly put in this position wherever that started. But our decision as an individual human being, you have the capability of being the bridge yourself. And that is what I encourage. And everyone from news media don't just repeat the same thing over again. Now you know the truth has come out. But so let's start building instead of repeating the same stories over that is causing more division.
Everyone has the capability to be the change and I encourage you to do so.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: Amen. Well said.
Tina. In the last few minutes, talk a little. I want you to promote the museum, your books. I know what's coming this summer with farmers markets and classes. Obviously this is for local people, but share a little bit more about what's in your heart and what's, what's coming you've already done, but also going to be doing this summer.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: Well, the West Texas Living Heritage museum was a 20 year dream come true for me to, to open and share history. Because I love history, I love genealogy, I love connecting the past. Because if we do not know history, we don't know our roots. And knowing your roots is where stories of resilience, of stories of, of family recipes, of family characters that you might have in your DNA. And you know, if you read your own family stories, I always say start with your grandma and grandpa, start with the ones that are still living, aunts and uncles that know and build your own history. It doesn't cost you a thing, but it will benefit you so, so much in the, in the future. And so that is what I set up the West Texas Living Heritage Museum for is to share not only with local Mennonites who don't know our history, but with the communities around. And that is how they found 40 some interviews that I have done from New York Times to people out of California that have come to interview me. Who are the Mennonites? Where do they come from? And it's been a beautiful platform for me to share my family's history. And this year will be our second farmer's market. We'll start June 3rd and go all the way through October 28th. Every Tuesday we'll have a unless weather prevents it because it's an outdoor set up in small little booths of locally organically grown and local made. And we have vendors coming in all the way from Lubbock last year. So this year will be bigger and better. And so I encourage you come out, get your vegetables, get your canned goods that that you that is locally made. And every other week we'll have an adult class and every other week a children's class. So we will teach beekeeping. We'll teach butter making, tallow making, bone broth making. Just the essentials of what you have at your fingertips and not just learning how to but then you can go and teach it to your children and your grandchildren. So I'm looking forward to an amazing year ahead with the Heritage Farmers Market and I'd love for you to come by and I will share not only what what I have in the museum which is some antiques but my the word Living West Texas Living Heritage Museum. That's where my heart is to not only have them see some antiques but teach them history of what our ancestors did to be self sustaining and to be a help in your family and community. So that's what my books are out about Seminoles Some people never give up the little sandals that could me as an 8 year old immigrating to a new land. And then my latest release is Post Oak Quanah Parker the Comanche Animation and learn how my my blood relatives had interactions with the chief Quana Parker. So I would love to have you come out and visit us at the museum every Tuesday starting June 3rd.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: Awesome. Well guys I highly recommend that and if you can't if you're from out of state, out of town and you can't make it this summer anytime get to that museum when you are around this area and Tina will give you an amazing tour and an education and especially that part about Quantum Parker and the Jesus house. That was amazing. Amazing story. Tina, thank you so much. It's been an honor and it'll be for the rest of my life a memory that I'll never forget seeing you in action translating for me and just the way you help so many people and continue to to this very day. And guys I will say I think and this was even pre this breakout I was saying this a long time ago as a generation passes that had measles naturally pre1963ish as that generation passes because they have robust lifelong immun vaccine immunity is shorter and wanes. But as we see that generation pass, I believe we're going to see more and more measles outbreaks, regardless of vaccine status. Many, many outbreaks over the last decade and two decades have been in a lot of vaccinated people. So we just have to understand that man's version of vaccine, there are some limitations to that. Natural immunity is more robust and long lasting. But we're about to be done with that generation of people that had natural measles. So we do need to be prepared. Now that wasn't to invoke fear. The is be prepared. Learn how your ancestors lived. How did we get a 99% drop in mortality from all these different infectious diseases including scarlet fever and tuberculosis? It never had a vaccine. And all that, this big dramatic drop happened pre vaccines coming on the market. How did that happen? Nutrition, sanitation, clean water, just these natural ways of living that we've lost a lot of that knowledge. So that's what Tina's teaching a lot of that. And that's what veritas wellnessmember.com, our website, you can go to and, and we can teach some of that too, how to eat more ancestrally, cook more ancestrally and just live more in community, in peace. So check out the website. We have wellness navigators ready to walk with you today and teach you some of this if you're here local, get down there to the farmer's market Every Tuesday, start June 3rd. Tina, thanks again so much for joining us today. It's been a pleasure.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely an honor.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: All right, everybody, I'm Dr. Ben Edwards. You're the Cure. This program will be on all the podcast platforms and at the website veritas wellnessmember.com we'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us today. Bye.
