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Substantial analysis of @BenMarten regarding the mortality in Germany. Particularly noticeable is the "excess mortality" in December. Ben states that "lockdown deaths" could play an important role here. I would like to elaborate my thoughts on that. ⬇️Mini-Thread⬇️


Factor 1: Vitamin D deficiency.

Many people (especially elderly) have been locked in during the summer. Also the majority of holiday trips have been cancelled, leading to a lower 25(OH)D blood serum level as usual. The body can store vitamin D up to several months.


As vitamin D is a hormon that modulates the immune responses, we can assume that the lockdown measures had some adverse effect on our immune system. Especially elderly people in retirement homes must have been severely affected.

Factor 2: Loneliness

"Loneliness, it seems, can lead to long-term "fight-or-flight" stress signaling, which negatively affects immune system functioning. Simply put, people who feel lonely have less immunity and more inflammation than people who

Factor 3: Hyper Hygiene

Constant disinfections and high hygienic standards weaken the immune system. It gets literally "out of
#Lebanon "for the 1st time can control its borders"? @MlongdenUK must have landed in Lebanon very fresh w/o doing him homework. Lebanon needs medicine & electricity not 100 armed vehicles to a 50.000 @LebarmyOfficial who spend wild of the country's


The west, mainly #US and #UK, supply the Lebanese Army with light and medium calibre weapons and transport vehicles in the hope that one day the army would stand against #Hezbollah. Most Lebanese believe the Army is "sacred" and can't be criticised and its leader is an almighty.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent monthly in #Lebanon on over 125,000 members of the security forces when the number of inhabitants is around 5-6 million. This large number has mostly a prestigious role, ease connections & services & employ people to satisfy politicians

#US offer weapons & training for Lebanese officers abroad, impose a condition on the Lebanese government to have the strategic weapon depot in the Christian area of the country. The excuse would be a fear of #Hezbollah that has quality & quantity #Lebanon is not allowed to have.

#US delivered once 6 Hellfire missiles to the Lebanese Army but held the decision to fire these missiles on targets that should be previously approved by the Americans. The US once denied the permission to kill Al-Qaeda leader in the Qalamoun, Abu Malik al-Talli while in #Lebanon