The Air We Breathe-- COVID19 Transmission

While at the American Chemical Society (ACS) website, my eyes stopped at the following title, Airborne Transmission of COVID-19: Aerosol Dispersion, Lung Deposition, and Virus Receptor Interactions. The lead author, Yi Y. Zuo and his two co-workers are affiliated with reputable US Universities. The article, itself, is from the ACS journal, NANO, the title is short for nanotechnology. The field of nanotechnology was originally launched from lecture given by the late Richard P. Feynman at the California Institute of Technology in 1960.

JUSTIFYING THE BAD-SCIENCE?

COVID-19 transmission perplexes those of us who watch public figures continue to assert COVID-19 as not dangerous. Many of us continue to mask up and have received a vaccination.

Whether for personal gain or perceived political advantage, public officials continue to harm their constituents. When the COVID-19 issue was labeled a hoax in 2020, conspiracy theorists seized on public perceptions of vaccines and masking to equate to big government Socialism. In the end, the harsh reality points towards a free-for-all with no real winners. Thus, a small minority behave as if their personal comforts should dominate the public discourse and others are left to their own devices. 

Thus, we listen to daily pleas from wiser sources: mask up and get vaccinated. There should be no real justification to save lives, should there?

EXPOSURE TO COVID-19?

At times, exposure to the present variation of the COVID virus elicits the types of responses from some in the public as if it were no big deal. However, there are people in parts of the world that would give their eye teeth to have the vaccines and robust health care system that the USA brags-on. That much said, scientists, worldwide, are trying to further delineate the mechanisms of airborne transmission.

Much of what was thought to be true for the CORONA virus, one year ago, has turned out to be mere speculation. Surface contact with the virus is not as dangerous as the exposure to aerosols containing the virus. Moreover, the size of droplets emanating from the breaths of infected people can dictate the chances of likelihood of infection. 

And, having the virus lodge directly to the lungs of healthy individuals may be deadly whereas, the virus lodging in the nasal cavity first may not prove as deadly in the long haul. Delineating the mechanisms of infection between the lungs and nasal cavities are still in progress. However, what is known of the CORONA virus has been gained at a breath-taking but competent pace. 

THE LONG HAUL

Perhaps, the most frightening aspects of the CORONA virus are understanding the differences between 'long hauling the virus and the short, acute versions of the illness.' Long hauling the virus is poorly understood, let alone having the ability to predict who will long haul a potentially deadly virus. 

In one journal article from the  American Chemical Society titled, Innate Immunity Plays a Key Role in Controlling Viral Load in NCOVID-19: Mechanistic Insights from a Whole-Body Infection Dynamics Model --the virus, as many experts have stated, does not discriminate whether you are Black, Asian, or Caucasian. Sadly, much of the dynamics behind levels of infection remain shrouded from scientific analysis or insight. Seemingly, healthy Caucasian males seem to be spared the worst effects. However, we have as yet to know how formerly infected people will fair in two years, let alone six months. 

WHERE DO WE STAND? 

As with most standard medical practices, medicine undergoes changes in this kind of scenario. We forget, in part, because the Novel Corona virus has indiscriminately preyed upon all of us-- symptomatic or healthy, The refusal of a large swath of citizens to be vaccinated will make COVID-19 a new normal. The world will not be the same.