Mask instead of a vaccine, useless gloves, immune age, super-distributors and other details of the pandemic that we have learned recently
It will soon be a year since we share this world with COVID-19. During this time, it has hit more than 36 million and killed over a million people. We haven’t learned enough about it yet, but more than we’ve learned about other viruses in years. Waiting for a vaccine – our top ten not the most obvious, but important facts.
The mask can work as a vaccine. Opponents of wearing masks like to compare this practice to trying to fence off mosquitoes. The tissue doesn’t actually trap all virus particles, but as it turns out, this is for the best. If the virus penetrates through the mask, it is usually in smaller doses, so it is easier for the body to cope with it and develop protection. This technology of stimulating the immune system is called “variolation”. Before the introduction of vaccination, healthy people were “vaccinated” with microdoses of affected tissues taken from patients. This method helped to cope with smallpox – the only virus that humanity was able to completely defeat.
Gloves won’t save you from the coronavirus. On latex, viral particles actually live less than on the skin of the hands: 2-4 hours instead of 7-11. But if you touch a contaminated surface with gloves, you should not touch your face or objects in the house with them, as well as with your bare hands. The problem is that because of a false sense of security, people wearing gloves are more likely to ignore this rule, increasing the risk of infection. The most reliable way to kill the virus is still washing your hands with soap and alcohol sanitizer treatment. In both cases, the virus particles disintegrate in 15-20 seconds. In the same way, the hands should be treated after removing the used gloves. So it doesn’t make any difference whether you wear gloves or not. And if you remove your gloves incorrectly, it may even increase the risk of spreading the infection to other surfaces.
A lack of vitamin D can increase the risk of infection. According to the latest data, people with vitamin D deficiency are 1.77 times more likely to be diagnosed with coronavirus. In the study, the level of vitamin D in the blood was determined by the most accurate indicator: the concentration of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol-a product of its processing in the liver. The deficit was considered to be less than 20 ng/ml. The analysis can be taken in almost any laboratory. Up to 90% of vitamin D is synthesized in the skin under the influence of ultraviolet light, but to fill the deficit, wild salmon fat or — this is the easiest way — vitamin D in the form of a dietary Supplement.
Glasses help protect you from the coronavirus if you wear them for at least eight hours a day. Chinese scientists decided to calculate the proportion of patients with glasses among those hospitalized with coronavirus in Suizhou County, and it turned out that although on average 31.5% of the population wears glasses, only 5.8% of those in a hospital with a positive test for the new coronavirus. Apparently, the glass really protects the eyes from virus penetration, especially since their mucous membrane also has cells with receptors that viral particles cling to.
Covid is not defeated, but the flu is retreating. Social distance, hand washing and wearing masks-this was enough to reduce the incidence of SARS, including flu. In some regions of Russia — by 60%. And in the US, off-season flu activity has fallen to a historic low. Similar trends are observed in countries as diverse as Estonia, South Korea, Australia, and Chile. Even more striking is the data on the spread of infectious diseases among children in Massachusetts: there, at the beginning of 2020, the incidence of flu was higher than in 2019, and after the introduction of measures against the coronavirus, flu and bronchitis were almost defeated.
Immune age is the main risk factor. Not just for the elderly. Until now, most deaths among those over 60 were attributed to the presence of comorbidities. But, according to a recent study, it’s all about age. Only not in the simple, but in the immune. This is the biological clock that counts down the aging of the immune system. Main causes: age-related changes in the red bone marrow and thymus gland. The main consequences: chronic inflammatory processes, a decrease in the level of young T-lymphocytes that are ready to fight new infections, and an increase in the number of old T-lymphocytes that are not able to learn how to fight new infections. Usually this weakening of the immune system begins after 60 years, but sometimes earlier. For various reasons, including an unhealthy lifestyle, the immune system may be much older than its carrier. The easiest way to keep your immune system young is to maintain the balance of your gut microbiome with a healthy diet.
The severity of the coronavirus disease may depend on the blood type. The link was first traced back to 2002 during an outbreak of acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV). In June of this year, the suspicion was confirmed by data from a study of a new coronavirus: people with the second blood group have a 45% higher risk of developing a severe form of the disease, and patients with the first blood group have a 35% lower risk than the average. Question-why? Scientists have identified specific genetic variations in two sections of DNA in patients with severe COVID-19 that are associated with an increased risk of respiratory failure and death. In one of these areas, by an unfortunate coincidence, there are just the genes that determine the blood group.
Cold against coronavirus. As German scientists have found, almost a third of people who have never had COVID-19, immune cells recognize the new coronavirus. But not all of it, but only some of the components of its proteins that other coronaviruses have. This is due to cross-immunity — the ability of immune cells to remember viruses that they have already dealt with, and identify new ones based on similar signs. There are currently seven known coronaviruses that affect humans. We tamed four of them: they cause the common cold-SARS. A cold that you have had before will not protect you from infection, but it will help you survive the disease more easily and develop immunity faster.
Super-propagators and the Pareto principle. The main role in the expansion of the coronavirus is played by super-distributors — people who infect dozens of others. Recorded anti-records: 40 infected from a single carrier in South Korea, 32-in Washington. The super-distributor either releases the virus to the external environment more actively than others, or has a large number of contacts, or both at once. Hence mass infections within closed social groups. A classic example is religious communities. In South Korea, almost two-thirds of the first carriers were infected at a single sect meeting. Interestingly, the famous Pareto rule (80/20) also applies here: according to scientists, 80% of the world’s patients were infected from only 20% of carriers. In Israel and China, the skew is even greater-90/10.
Watch your sense of smell. Fever, cough, weakness, headache-these symptoms are similar to other COVID-19 infections. But there is one neurological symptom that may be the earliest harbinger of coronavirus infection: loss of smell. In South Korea, loss of smell as the first symptom is reported by 30% of those infected, and in Germany, anosmia is noted in ⅔ patients. There is even evidence that in some cases, with an asymptomatic course of the disease, loss of smell may be its only manifestation. At the same time, as neuroscientists have found out, the sensory neurons themselves that transmit signals about odors to the brain are invulnerable to the virus. It affects only other cells that ensure their normal operation