Viruses, Bacteria, COVID-19 and the path ahead

It's hard to understand what's coming next if you don't understand the basics of the enemy.

So let's start this article with 60 seconds of fun facts.

Bacteria are tiny living things that exist everywhere. They live inside us and on the outside of us, and on plants and animals and everywhere! They are just a normal part of living on planet Earth. You cannot get rid of all bacteria, nor would it be wise to do so.

Humans actually need some bacteria inside us in order to digest and maintain health. Some kinds of bacteria though, can make us sick.

We have a magic potion to fix most bacterial infections: antibiotics. (Antibiotics don't affect viruses at all.)

Bacteria can reproduce on their own, and they don’t use our cells to do that. They live OUTSIDE our cells.

A virus is totally different to bacteria.

A virus is... kind of living, but kind of not!

Whereas bacteria wriggle around looking for fun places to go. A virus is totally inert (“dead”) until it comes into contact with a very specific kind of cell that it recognizes.

At that point it has a special door key that lets it enter inside only that kind of cell . Once inside the cell it begins to seem “alive” and can interact and reproduce.

Viruses are a very important part of life on Earth. There are around 1 million kinds of viruses in one kilogram of ocean sediment. They actually invade and destroy 20% to 40% of all marine bacteria, making viruses a critical part of keeping bacteria in check and maintaining balance in the environment.

Without viruses, bacteria would RULE THE WORLD!! ??

Viruses kill half the world’s bacteria every two days! You gotta be grateful to viruses. ??

Even more interesting, virus fragments make up 8% of our DNA... so living alongside viruses has been part of human history as long as humans have existed.

OK, but COVID-19 is not a virus that we are grateful for! It's super deadly!

The COVID19 virus is actually quite harmless to almost all humans.

WHAT?! Harmless? Stay with me here folks, this is not controversial.

At least 80% (but probably 95%) of people will have no symptoms at all or just minor symptoms like a cold: a cough or minor fever for a couple of days. So for the vast vast vast majority of people the COVID-19 virus, IS absolutely harmless.

For a small number of people though, it causes a serious issue in the lungs and other bad symptoms. They are the people we need to protect from infection or at least have available treatments for. You yourself are probably not at any significant risk, but some people you know and love ARE at risk.

We don't yet have a perfect understanding of why a small percentage of people get really sick, however we do know that it's almost always folks over 65 years old, or those with a pre-existing serious medical condition like diabetes, lung issues, or ailments that seriously weaken your immune system.

How does infection with COVID-19 happen exactly?

The C19 virus can only infect you via the nose and possibly the mouth and eyes, because it only “wakes up” when it touches certain respiratory cells. The virus cannot wake up by touching your hair or skin.

Your skin is a PERFECT insulator against these viruses. You cannot “catch” any corona viruses by touching something. This is well-established science.

So why are we obsessing about washing hands and using sanitizer?

If you then transfer virus particles from your hand to your mouth, nose or eyes accidentally, that's when you MIGHT get infected. Only in these areas of your body can the virus "wake up" and start invading cells.

So basic but careful hygiene (hand washing mainly), keeping your hands away from your face, and keeping away from infected people who are coughing will prevent infections.

Hand washing with soap and water is the single most effective prevention. Why? Because the soap actually breaks apart the virus fragment. You're not just washing it OFF your hands, you're destroying it first and also washing it off.

Soap and water is also less harsh on your skin than alcohol. Everyone should be washing their hands with soap and water at least 5 times a day, and always always before eating.

Don't 5% of people who catch C19 die?

.... "Recovery", Immunity and other good news

The other thing that stops infections is to actually catch the virus and then get well.

This makes you immune from catching it again, but it's not yet know for how long you are immune (could be months or years). Studies are still underway.

It is estimated that already many tens of millions of people have already caught C19, their bodies killed it, and they are fine. (Just like with a cold.)

The “recovered" statistic you keep reading about in the media does not include tens of millions of people who had no symptoms or minor symptoms and never went to hospital.

It only describes a small number of very sick people who when to hospital and then also recovered.

The ACTUAL infection and recovery rate is between 20 and 90 times higher that those who have been officially tested and/or treated.... which is not necessarily a bad thing! If you have ZERO symptoms at all (like most people), you would have no reason to get tested, right? You wouldn't even THINK of getting tested.

So the real 'recovery rate' (including all those with NO symptoms and MINOR symptoms) is extremely close to 100%, at least 99.9% , but it could be as high as 99.95%.

If you're afraid to leave your home... then you really aren't understanding what's written above.

Don't be afraid of recovered people - they are helping all of us!

The more people that get infected and are then fine, the less chance we have of this virus being an ongoing issue for years.

Because even if the person next to you has the virus and coughs in your face, you and your friends already got over it, so it won’t spread to any of you, and you won’t spread it to others. This is known as “Herd immunity”.

Remember that every person who gets infected and then recovers is a great step towards a more protected society. So don't attach a stigma to these people, give them a thumbs up!

That’s why some countries are not pursuing “lock downs”, because they reason that there are only three realistic ways to end the COVID-19 pandemic:

The only three realistic ways to end the pandemic

1. A vaccine - which could be years away, has its own risks if rushed, wont be affordable to all, and is basically impossible to distribute to the entire human population. It might end up being useful, but we can't wait for it or rely on it.

Or

2. Most of the population gets C19 and gets over it, and stays immune for long enough for the virus to stop replicating.

Or

3. Natural mutations of the virus gradually make it less infectious anyway. Mutations are already happening as this is normal with some viruses. But so far it doesn't seem to be mutating itself out of existence.

So what is the purpose of a "lockdown" / "community quarantine"?

No government in the world expects that lock-downs will eradicate this virus; that's not the purpose of a lockdown.

If you think that lockdown is meant to be the 'cure', you've missed the point.

All that lockdowns are trying to do is slow down the spread so that we all catch the virus more gradually, which results in better medical care for the tiny percentage of people who get quite sick.

Sure, 99.95% of people wont need medical help, but if 10 million people all get infected at the same time, then that means 5000 of them need a lot of medical help quickly. So most countries are simply trying to slow down the infection.

Your government is not trying to control whether or not you get infected.

It is only trying to adjust WHEN you get infected.

The very few countries who have managed to cull infection numbers close to zero (at enormous economic cost and suffering), now have a completely different problem: they can't open their borders until the rest of the world achieves the same level of control.

Which of course, is completely impossible, because it takes an enormous amount of money and discipline to even have a chance of doing that. Thus we know that vaccine, herd immunity or mutations are the only viable ends to the pandemic.

So in summary...

This pandemic is not going away any time soon.

Take sensible precautions such as:

• Washing your hands five times per day and every time before eating.
• Don't share food utensils, cigarettes etc.
• Wearing a mask (this is to protect others from you in case of unknown infection). It's not to protect you.
• Stay 1-2 meters away from people not in your household. (social distancing).

Aside from that, look after your mental health! Too many people are driving themselves crazy with obsessing over death statistics. People are getting depressed and even suicidal. You HAVE to take care of your mind and stop feeding it poisonous and useless statistics every day.

The risk is manageable. Infection doesn't happen instantly. Infection is not a death sentence.

Understand the risks, take sensible precaustions and talk yourself into being comfortable with it being part of our every day life. We can't hide from the pandemic for years until it stops. Go on with life with confidence that you're going to be FINE.