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Lessons from coronavirus have boosted public hygiene; The application of COVID-19 restrictions has lowered the rate of other infections. Time to make them permanent?
Digital Journal ^ | September 4, 2021 | Dr. Tim Sandle

Posted on 09/04/2021 8:43:49 PM PDT by DoodleBob

For many, the restrictions put in place to manage coronavirus have been life-style changing and in a lot of cases, unwelcomed. While most people understand the necessity of the restrictions to help to decrease viral reduction rates, the following of the rules has created challenges.

However, there is mounting evidence that the application of the restrictions – like social distancing, increased levels of disinfection and wearing face masks – has lowered the rate of other infections. This is particularly so with viral infections and the pattern of diseases like the common cold and influenza.

Hand washing with warm water and soap gets rid of all aerosol droplets from the hands, destroying not only the SARS-CoV-2 virus but also the viruses that lead to the development of cold and flu. Similarly, hand sanitization with an alcohol based product works across a range of viral pathogens, inactivating the virus on contaminated hands or surfaces.

As an example, flu cases have been at record lows. Taking the U.S. as an example, Scientific American reports that there were 24,000 reported flu deaths during the 2019–2020 season (and probably more if unreported cases are considered). For the current season the number stands at just 450.

As an indication of the impact of stricter and more rigorously enforced hygiene measures, influenza and other causes of pneumonia represent the eighth leading cause of U.S. deaths in non-pandemic years.

While there are many factors that could account for this, one of the factors to give serious consideration to relates to COVID-19 measures, such as lockdowns, school closures and decreased travel, and face mask wearing.

There are other potential contributors to the decline. For instance, those with influenza symptoms may well have avoided medical practices altogether, and instead have opted to isolate at home. This means that such cases may not show up health statistics and it also means that the opportunities for viral spread will be considerably reduced.

There is also the vaccine to factor in, provided that individuals have received the necessary number of doses.

Once the coronavirus pandemic has dissipated and reached endemic status (it is likely the virus will always be with us) it may be prudent to review those hygiene measures that have been effective and to decide where they could be successfully applied (such as in public spaces, schools and so on).

There may also be some developments of medical importance too. Scientists are assessing the impact of the disrupted flu and cold seasons and what this information might tell us about the transmission and behaviour of other viruses and what this may mean for long-term disease burdens. In a sense, a natural experiment has been taking place.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: covid19; hygine; mandates
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The subheading was embedded in the html source page of the article, but it pops up on Duck Duck Go when the article pops up in search.

Really? $500 fine for not washing with hot, soapy water for 30 seconds? Cameras in public bathrooms?

1 posted on 09/04/2021 8:43:49 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

We need political hygiene—time to bring back the guillotines.


2 posted on 09/04/2021 8:45:10 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: DoodleBob

Never let a crisis go to waste, and never give up an inch of hard-won control.


3 posted on 09/04/2021 8:46:05 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." ― Mao Zedong)
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To: DoodleBob

The article is written by a crack pot, but I would not mind seeing antibacterial wipes to clean the handles of grocery carts, or the plastic glove at the buffet line remain.


4 posted on 09/04/2021 8:49:51 PM PDT by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: DoodleBob

This is evil: “As an example, flu cases have been at record lows. Taking the U.S. as an example, Scientific American reports that there were 24,000 reported flu deaths during the 2019–2020 season (and probably more if unreported cases are considered). For the current season the number stands at just 450.”

They reclassified the flu as Covid, locked us down which lowered our immune system while destroying the economy, want to make it permanent and to police us like they do in China?!


5 posted on 09/04/2021 8:52:00 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: DoodleBob

I can’t wait for the end of this thing so I can quit washing my hands every time I go to the bathroom!!


6 posted on 09/04/2021 8:52:43 PM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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To: Fai Mao
The public service announcement is already to go. I heard this will start airing right after Labor Day.

MST3K - Body Care and Grooming
7 posted on 09/04/2021 8:54:27 PM PDT by RBW in PA
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To: DoodleBob
Clean House Syndrome

Homes so sanitized that kids do not developed antibodies to common bacteria.

8 posted on 09/04/2021 8:55:41 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: Deaf Smith

but yet when kids get sicker, not healthier, because of all the forced sanitation rules, the left will claim that they are not responsible for the increased sicknesses-

The left truly are scum


9 posted on 09/04/2021 9:11:36 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: DoodleBob
As an example, flu cases have been at record lows. Taking the U.S. as an example, Scientific American reports that there were 24,000 reported flu deaths during the 2019–2020 season (and probably more if unreported cases are considered). For the current season the number stands at just 450

Amazing how flu & colds can almost totally disappear, thanks to the stringent anit-COVID measures...especially, when the COVID "tests" can't differentiate, and the major symptoms are so similar.

10 posted on 09/04/2021 9:22:09 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!)
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To: ransomnote
"They reclassified the flu as Covid"


You beat me to it.. I was going to point that out, in case anyone forgot.
11 posted on 09/04/2021 9:30:10 PM PDT by Bikkuri
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To: ApplegateRanch

My sister in law kept telling me we didn’t have flu last year because everyone masked up and locked down, when I asked her why then did we have so much COVID if masks and lockdowns work, she didn’t have an answer.


12 posted on 09/04/2021 9:38:22 PM PDT by chuck allen
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To: Bikkuri
Bikkuri wrote:
"They reclassified the flu as Covid"


You beat me to it.. I was going to point that out, in case anyone forgot.

ransomnote: If the flu just 'magically disappeared' for no reason, something they don't find unusual enough to even mention, then why are they so certain we'll have Covid with us forever and this is the 'new normal?' Why not predict Covid will disappear just like the flu?


13 posted on 09/04/2021 9:38:35 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: DoodleBob

I’m unvaccinated and I never wore a mask, unless absolutely left with no other choice. We never had a mask mandate in Alaska, but a cabal of leftists control Anchorage, so I did have to wear one the few times I went there. But the voters actually elected a conservative mayor, so people there have been somewhat freed from the tyranny of the left. The only thing I’ve done differently over the past year and a half is keep sanitizer in my truck and use it every time I get in when I’m out and about. So far, no Covid.


14 posted on 09/04/2021 9:50:28 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (In time of peace, prepare for war.)
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To: DoodleBob

Interesting plot - the “experts” wipe out our baseline immunity to various bugs by making us all incapable of surviving on our own planet without masks, bio suits, etc. A few years down the road, colds and flu are wiping out millions.

Don’t have to wait for the movie though, they’re actually doing this to us all. And God only knows what they are actually doing to us with these “vaccines” to complicate the scenario.

This is not going to end well.


15 posted on 09/04/2021 9:59:52 PM PDT by bluejean (Living one day at a time in the national psych ward.)
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To: DoodleBob

Dr. Tim Sandle
totalitarian @sshole


16 posted on 09/04/2021 10:18:19 PM PDT by A strike (Barr to Gitmo, Roberts to Florence supermax, HerrDoktor FauxiGates to TerreHaute)
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To: DoodleBob

bookmark


17 posted on 09/04/2021 11:00:13 PM PDT by GOP Poet (Super cool you can change your tag line EVERYTIME you post!! :D. (Small things make me happy))
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To: chuck allen
My sister in law kept telling me we didn’t have flu last year because everyone masked up and locked down, when I asked her why then did we have so much COVID if masks and lockdowns work, she didn’t have an answer.

She’s not paying attention. The approved answer is because too many extremists are unvaccinated.

18 posted on 09/04/2021 11:07:05 PM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: DoodleBob

NO!


19 posted on 09/05/2021 12:47:05 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Fai Mao

Three things I tend to do in public are to use gardening gloves to pump gas, when I grab a shopping cart at the grocery store, take one that’s been sitting outside in the sun, and carry a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol for the times I am forced to use less than sanitary looking restroom facilities.

I will not disinfect everything as that only contributes to resistant bacteria, but if something is obviously dirty, I either take something else, or clean it if I have to. That the only reason to use the sanitizing wipes IMO.

The sanitizing wipes also give a false sense of security. Generally, if you read the labels, it says the solution must be on the clean surface for a number of minutes to be effective, and most people do not do that. They just wipe and go as if the sanitization is instantaneous.


20 posted on 09/05/2021 12:55:44 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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