Posted on 03/22/2020 6:55:04 AM PDT by Theoria
I spoke on the phone with my RN cousin for about an hour yesterday. One of his comments was along the lines of “I wouldn’t get on one of the floating Petri dishes BEFORE coronavirus!”
I stay home and protect my family and myself and try to cut down on the spread of this disease and these idiots cruise into the teeth of the disease storm and bless their hearts they upset about the trouble they have getting home.
AND.... they are brought back and dumped in our communities. But note that this last bunch was dumped in ATLANTA GA. What is wrong with sending them to NYC or other airports.
I wonder what is the percentage of those in the United States who test positive for COVID19 are democrats/progressives and how many are conservative republicans.
Hopefully they’re gettin a 14 day quarantine at the facility set up at Dobbins AFB.
I told Mrs. JimRed I'd take her on a cruise- if they let me drive. Hey, the Navy let me drive a warship at 19 years old...
“I admit that I don’t know how most viruses work so I have a question. Is the severity of your illness determined by how much of the virus you are exposed to or can just a brush with it send you into full blown sickness? For instance, if you touch a barely contaminated surface, say with one finger, that has a tiny bit of virus on it are your risks as great as if you touched a surface that somebody had full on sneezed on and covered with the virus? Just trying to learn. I know how to lessen your chances (hand washing, etc.) but don’t fully understand how it works.”
Here’s my (non-professional) take:
1) Think in terms of ‘virons’, which are the little-pecker flu particles. They are tiny - you can fit one million of them in an average sized human cell (which is still too small to see).
2) The virons are so numerous they we all get them inside of us, by breathing, or other means. We all have gotten some virons from Coronavirus, as they simply cannot be avoided if one breathes the air on this planet.
3) When a viron makes it inside the body, it attaches to a cell and immediately tries to replicate.
4) But, almost immediately, our immune system identifies it, and begins a vicious, multi-pronged assault on its host cell, with the goal of destroying the cell and thereby preventing the viron from replicating, and then tearing apart the viron.
5) In the vast majority of cases, our immune system destroys that viron before it gets to replicate. If the response is a bit too slow, the viron may replicate, thereby requiring additional immune system resources.
6) Still, in the vast majority of cases, the end result is the same - the virons, whether they replicate a bit or not, are destroyed. Coronavirus is no different than other viruses in that regard.
7) However, if your intake of virons is too fast, in a given amount of time, then the replication of the virons (inside your body) exceeds the capacity of the immune system, and you’re infected. At that point your body kicks into a higher gear and you may have the symptoms, maybe bad symptoms, maybe death.
8) So how do you get the virons? Lots of ways, but the worst way for Coronavirus is by breathing them in, as they do target the lungs for their replication. You probably can get them other ways, by touching surfaces with virons, maybe by touching US Mail with virons on it, but then the virons still have to figure out a way into your body, and then into your lungs.
9) But you still need a lot of virons. A door knob that someone breathed on my wind up transferring 100 virons into your body - but if you need a million virons to get infected, you’re not going to get sick from that doorknob (now, if an infected person sneezes on that door knob, then all bets are off). But get in an Uber for 20 minutes with a badly infected carrier and he’s loading up the air virons...and that’s not good, as you can easily reach the point of where the virons are replicating beyond the immune system’s capability to destroy them.
10) So, for the full-up protective gear for a doctor or nurse in a hospital, while it may block 99% of the virons, the 1% remaining could still easily be enough to infect them, due to the very high starting concentration in that environment...which is why so many get sick.
11) Wear a typical mask in a less-intense environment, say a Costco, but with a decent number of infected people, but also with a lot more air volume, the 97% blocked by the cheaper mask could easily make the difference.
12) Obviously, the ability to fight off virons will be different for every person and probably will vary significantly for a single person, due to different conditions. That’s why mom told you to wear a jacket when it’s cold - you’ll still breathe the same number of virons, but your tolerance level is higher with your body not having to deal with a crappy environment at the same time.
13) The one other question you had, which is whether a strong exposure is worse to a low-level exposure - assuming that both are still above your tolerance level. I think that’s the case, based on the following theory: It could be that, once your infected, your body’s immune system sends out a notice (i.e., hormone) that tells ALL of your cells that a big battle is about to be waged, so the body toughs-up and goes into some kind of self-protection mode during the fight. But getting into that mode takes a certain amount of time, and if you’re hit by a really high concentration of virons, the virus is all over the place before you’re body is toughened-up...so it’s not as ready as it could be, so it succumbs easier. Just a theory, but I haven’t seen anything else.
14) One other note - in countries like Taiwan that know how to fight Coronavirus, they check temperatures of everyone, every time they enter a business (along with ratting them out if they are sick). They know they won’t catch carriers that do not yet have a fever, but I suspect those who do have a fever are spewing out far more virons than non-fever carriers, so if you stop those with a fever, you’ve cut 90 to 99% of the virons for a given environment - and then add masks (for all people) and you can pretty much assure that no one picks it up in the community...which has been the case in those countries. Social distancing also has the same effect as masks, reducing the concentration of virons being breathed by others, if a person is a carrier. If you’re outdoors and 6 feet away from a carrier - assuming that the carrier isn’t sneezing on you, you’re safe, easily.
15) So, a multi-faceted approach to this virus would be the following:
a) Identify carriers with symptoms and get them off the streets (via massive temperature checking)
b) Trace and quarantine close contacts with identified carriers
c) Require the use of masks for all people in public
d) Put in place social distancing to avoid unnecessary risks due to high concentrations of people
They’re also really into washing hands and sanitizing, but I’m not sure that’s a big factor for Coronavirus.
Size Comparison of Small Things:
A viron is 1/100 the diameter of the average human cell, and thus is 1 millionth of the volume - 1,000,000 virons can fit in an average human cell
Likewise, 500,000 human cells can fit in a grain of sand. So, 500 Billion virons could fit into a grain of sand - they are tiny!
It’s also ‘out of fashion’... short the cruise lines...
They know they won’t catch carriers that do not yet have a fever, but I suspect those who do have a fever are spewing out far more virons than non-fever carriers, so if you stop those with a fever, you’ve cut 90 to 99% of the virons for a given environment - and then add masks (for all people) and you can pretty much assure that no one picks it up in the community...which has been the case in those countries.
Our grocery stores and pharmacies need to do this NOW... but rather than 'rat out' people with temps they should assign a shopper to get their stuff and put it in their car. NO ONE with a temp should be in a store infecting fellow customers and innocent employees.
Thanks so much! I understand much better now. I would love to have a big enough supply of masks for people to wear them in public. That would help a lot since so many ignore the request to distance.
I’m 65 with seasonal asthma and my husband is 81 with diabetes and high BP. His lungs are better than mine but I’m overall healthier and stronger. The only time I go out is to get groceries but I use grocery pickup. We are rural. I try to remember to wear gloves in public to remind me to keep my hands off my face. I have extremely sensitive skin and I’m a face toucher. I pumped gas a week ago and forgot the gloves but I tried my best to remember not to touch my face until I got home to wash.
So far we have stayed well. I’ve had bronchitis for a week due to severe allergies (sneezing, runny nose, two day sore throat, chest congestion, you know, the works) but other than that no fever. It worries him sick that I might catch it and he’s not able to take care of me. We were pretty prepared because I stock up on necessities in the Fall so that I can stay out of crowds.
He has cataract surgery on one eye in two weeks and the other one two weeks after that so we’ll take extra special care if they do his surgery.
Anyway, your explanation made a lot of sense and now I know how it works. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain it.
A friend’s grandson recently tested positive for the virus following a trip to Paris.......My friend wasn’t too happy about the kid going there.
You’re welcome Tenn, and I wish you the best.
I’ll thank you also for both driving me to put this down on paper, and also thinking through the high concentration scenario (#13), as I had been struggling with that one and it didn’t occur to me until last night that changes in other cells could take place before the all-out war is started.
It’s good information for everybody to read and I appreciate you for going to the trouble. I understand bacteria more than virus so it helped me a lot.
dont pay him till you get to the other side...
“It’s good information for everybody to read and I appreciate you for going to the trouble. I understand bacteria more than virus so it helped me a lot.”
Sure thing - I copied it into my homepage. I also thought a bit more about #13. It may be that the body goes into a type of prepping mode, knowing that an all-out war is about to be waged against the virus, with reduces services (food/oxygen/waste disposal) available to healthy cells. But it takes time to get ready!
Kind of like the immune response we get from a vaccination.
“Kind of like the immune response we get from a vaccination.”
That’s a good thought. Vaccinations aid the body in identifying and quickly reacting to virons - so if it’s a low enough dose, we could, maybe become ‘vaccinated’, or at least better equipped to deal with a higher dose. But no thanks, since I can’t count virons (or know my trigger level), I’ll keep clear of everything!
Don’t blame you one bit!
Excellent! Thank you.
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