When will this end?
There are three possibilities. Best case, this turns out to resemble SARS, a coronavirus pandemic that started somewhere in Asia in 2003. SARS infected only about 8000 people globally and killed “only” 800. Obviously, the virus that causes COVID-19 is far more virulent, infecting over 9.3 million people, and killing – so far – about 480,000. And as scary as that looks, it could still theoretically die out like SARS did. There hasn’t been a documented case of SARS since 2004.
Second possibility is that it resembles the seasonal flu and we have to deal with it on a yearly basis, with various vaccines having some benefit and various Rx treatments mitigating the severity of infection (ie saving lives).
Then there is the herd immunity possibility, which would depend on 60 to 70% of the nation being infected, then generating enough antibodies to confer persistent immunity. In that case, the virus literally runs out of victims. Problem with this scenario is that antibody testing so far is not giving us very good news. I know people who were told that they had anti-COVID antibodies, who subsequently fell ill with a serious COVID-19 infection. Arghh!
Now. what’s common to all three possibilities? Answer: The need to identify modifiable risk factors to PREVENT infection and (if infected) MITIGATE the severity of the illness, speed recovery and repair the damage to lungs, heart and nervous system. That’s what Natalie and I are doing every day, both in her medical practice, on our website, My2048.com and here on FaceBook. The bottom line: the human immune system has astounding capabilities, as evidenced by the fact that we’re still here. But the ability of that system to keep us alive wanes over time, which is why age is the # 1 risk factor for all diseases, not just COVID-19. We cannot reverse our chronological age. Every time the earth passes around the sun, we are all one year older. So we need to look for ways to reduce our biological age. You can order our book, The Metabolic Makeover, scroll through my FB posts or tune in this Friday at 3:PM Pacific for our next FaceBook LIVE.
And I’ll post a study guide tomorrow.
Onward!
