Ho, Ho, Ho?

Reindeer meds - on deciding Santa's fate

So this amusing comic came into my inbox this morning and it made me chuckle. But only for a moment. The reason that my chuckle was fleeting was because my ‘big picture’ brain slapped my ‘chuckle brain’ while proclaiming, “look at what this cartoon implies”. So let’s break that down, shall we?

First, context. Christmas is coming. Ah, Christmas. The childhood excitement. The family reunions. Driving all night on Highway 1 to get to Ottawa to visit Grandma and Grandpa and all the uncles and aunts and cousins. Grandma and Grandpa Rose’s house in Ottawa was so amazing. It was one of these original oldies with an attic AND a basement and the basement was FILLED with toys from ages gone by. What a treat it was to visit every year. And then there was the food! And the presents! And the hockey tournaments! And the shows! My aunt took us all to a theatrical show every year and it was one of the highlights for me. The snow. The lights. The charm. The anticipation of Santa coming. Watching for reindeer in the sky. Listening for hooves on the roof. Every year, without fail, dad would read The Night Before Christmas to us. I remember his voice and timbre. And it always enhanced the excitement of the arrival of the following morning.

It was wonderful and I thank my parents for these times.

Christmas changed for me when I moved away from Canada, way back when. I spent my first Christmas away from my family when I went to live in Seville, Spain, to train in Flamenco dancing. I remember very clearly that Christmas Eve: standing in the middle of one of the town squares near the Seville Cathedral. I was leaning on a statue and it was snowing. Sigh. It was night time. I was thinking to myself: this is bliss. That was the first time I spent Christmas alone. Without family. Without a partner. And it felt wonderful to me. Everyone knows that in addition to the happy times, there are always conflicts and fights: who will eat dinner where, etc… So I was happy to switch those gears up. You all know what I mean.

That year, I held a Christmas dinner for all the solo travelers at the Flamenco school in my friend’s apartment and it was magical. It was the first time I cooked chickens. They came to me with their heads on. It was hard for me to butcher chickens (I am a vegetarian now) but I figured, it made me a little less of a hypocrite to prepare the ‘meat’ myself. The wandering solo guests enjoyed the food, including the chickens, and we all became fast friends. I still talk regularly to some of them to this day.

As life had it, soon thereafter, I found myself in Israel. I was there to commence my PhD program and naturally, Christmas took on a whole new meaning. Kind of like, a non-meaning. Christmas is celebrated by some Christian communities in Israel so for many years, me and my Director of Photography friend would hit as many midnight masses around Tel Aviv as we could (it was hard because they were all at midnight) so that we could photograph the celebrations and feel the spirit. I don’t know why he did this with me but I liked that I had a friend to share that with. Soon, Christmas kind of fell away as a thing to celebrate. It’s hard here since everyone celebrates Hanukkah instead. I don’t have any ties to Hanukkah so it’s hard to participate authentically.

More recently, I moved to a place where there is a church that sits on the promenade that I walk on every day. It is adorned with Christmas lights and on this same promenade, there are some houses that even have Christmas trees with lights in their windows. So it kind of taps into something deeply entrenched in my childhood memories. It feels, nostalgic. I even hung around the outside of the church for midnight mass last year. I stayed outside because I was wearing gym clothes and the people inside would have been ‘shocked’. I imagine. They have told me I can’t come in due to my garments in the past.

Fast forward…

We are going on almost 2 years of this COVID-19 nonsense. Last Christmas may not have been so bad for some of you but for others, it was not how we remember it traditionally. Being forced to be away from family is very different from choosing to be or having to be. I watched the changes happen from afar - all over the world. I was on a short Zoom call with my parents on Christmas day and had I actually asked if I could watch them unwrap presents but that didn’t happen. That was my experience of Christmas last year, including a walk to the church.

So let’s get back to the cartoon. This cartoon depicts Santa standing at the queue of a pharmacy with a couple of his reindeer behind/beside him asking to fill a prescription for Ivermectin - for his reindeer. Now, think about this. Go back 2 years, if you dare. If you even can. In what twisted, weird imagination-stretched version of reality would ANYONE have been able to even imagine why this might be funny in 2021? Maybe last Christmas, SOME people may have understood, but certainly not the majority.

So NOW it’s funny. Everyone knows about Joe Rogan’s awesome confrontation of Sanjay Gupta on the subject of taking Ivermectin to help him breeze through his COVID-19 experience in a couple of days. Everyone knows about the safety and efficacy studies on Ivermectin as an off-label¹ drug in the context of COVID-19.

Everyone knows that the legacy media has tried to smear people who dare to tell the stories of their positive experiences with this, and other off-label drugs, in the context of their COVID-19 experience. Everybody knows that if there exists a drug that is effective and safe against COVID-19 that an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a brand new injectable Lipid NanoParticle (LNP)-wrapped mRNA-technology product would be impossible to introduce and to maintain. And everybody knows that the Pfizer products penned ‘COMIRNATY’ being administered under the guise of being something different from the original batches are the same shit. And all of these ‘injectable products’ are pretty much useless at preventing COVID-19 (it may even enhance your chances of getting it) and in some people, are causing irreparable and life-long damages in the form of Adverse Events. Everybody knows this.

So it’s funny - this cartoon with Santa needing Ivermectin. Or, is it? Santa presumably has COVID-19. What kind of sick dark humor is that? Are ad agencies now being incentivized to kill off Santa in the same way that they are trying to take the Christ out of Christmas with their Happy Holidays campaign? I personally really like the idea of Santa. I think he’s a keeper. But let’s keep going with this train of thought.

Santa has COVID-19. We also have to assume that he has chosen not to get injected with these experimental LNP mRNA shots. Maybe he’s read some studies on Adverse Event reports being made with higher frequency in the obese. Let’s assume he has. Let’s also assume that he has also read some peer-reviewed articles pertaining to Ivermectin effectiveness and also that it has an incredible safety profile. He was also amazed to know that Ivermectin is associated with a Nobel Prize and been FDA-approved for decades and subsequently doled out to billions and billions of people over these decades. Pregnant women included! So Santa decides, in his quest to make sure that the boys and girls who are ‘nice’ keep getting their presents delivered on time, decides to go fill a prescription for Ivermectin to increase his chances of breezing through his COVID-19.

But we have to make one more assumption! Santa has a doctor who has also read these same peer-reviewed studies and has not been coerced by the dead-eyed establishment to not prescribe Ivermectin and only promote injections. This in itself is a rare find these days - a GP who is not hypnotized by the pharma overlords - so good on ya Santa for finding an honest and up-to-date GP! Maybe his GP is Pierre Kory! Or Paul Marik!

Santa also is a big fan of Joe Rogan, by the way. Sources tell me.

So Santa goes to the Pharmacy to get this prescription for himself. But he knows, however, that the pharmacist might not be as up-to-date or educated as he is on the subject of the safety of Ivermectin, and he also knows that the pharmacist might not know that it is illegal for him to interfere with the doctor/patient relationship by refusing to fill the doctor’s prescription. Sling your pills, pill slinger. That’s your job. The doctor is the only one who has the authority to prescribe. Or not to. He also knows that the pharmacist might also be knowingly interfering based on his own personal beliefs (beliefs!) pertaining to anything COVID-19 instead of simply being a good citizen and doing his job, ethically.

So Santa decides to lie. He tells the pharmacist that the drugs are for his animals. And this is funny, if only for a moment, because the joke is that Ivermectin is ‘horse medicine’. Or in this case, ‘reindeer medicine’.

So this is why my chuckle was fleeting. I don’t think any of this is funny although I am deeply grateful that this cartoon was created and that it found me, to help me to unravel this for myself. And perhaps for some of you.

You made Santa lie. And Santa is a childhood phenom. Santa doesn’t lie. Santa delivers joy.

So where does that leave us? We are left with a choice, as always. Or at least, the illusion of choice. We need to choose what the fate of Santa will be next year .

Will Santa be alive?

Will Santa have been silenced by big pharma and their colluders?

Will Santa get through his COVID-19 experience with the help of Ivermectin to provide him with life-long protective immunity?

Will Santa be delivering presents to all the good boys and girls of the world next year?

I think we decide.

HO. HO. HO.

1. off-label: [adjective] of, relating to, or being a drug used to treat a condition for which it has not been officially approved. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/off-label