Please do not block, censor, edit or tamper with this comment. It is my honest opion posted in good faith in response to your invitation to do so. Every idea needs to be evaluated carefully by everyone. By interfering with the free discussion of possible solutions to the pandemic, you would undoubtedly be causing the number of deaths and maimings to be greater than it would have been. Perhaps much greater. So let me be heard. If I wrong, explain why. Peace and love to India.
I
am not a doctor. These are my own opinions and not medical advice.
Consult your doctor. Our civilization in danger.
We
should be finding out how the virus spreads by all ethical methods,
including using human volunteers who have given their informed consent.
There doesn’t seem to be much on the internet about this.
Human
challenge experiment (HCE), infection-inducing challenge
experiment(IICE), controlled human infection model (CHIM) are some terms
you could Google. Don’t be surprised if each set of hits is completely
different: it seems Google does not ‘get’ that these are all the same
thing.
Transmission
research could be done on its own or in combination with other
research, for example, if testing a vaccine you could expose people
(some vaccinated and some having received a placebo — double blind
methodology would be used, of course) the virus in realistic ways, eg by
having them touch a surface that has been sneezed on by someone with
the disease, and then rub their left eye exactly once. Another group
would do the same but rub both eyes exactly once. Another group, both
eyes exactly twice, and so on. The groups would be tested every day,
say, for the disease and results recorded.
Another
group of groups would do the same thing but touch a particular point on
or in the nose. Another group of groups, the mouth. Another group of
groups would be exposed to the virus is some other way, and so on for
every possible way you could catch the disease (within reason).
We
could get priceless knowledge about transmission within a very short
time, just weeks in principle, if just one nation, India, say, would
start a program of exposing volunteers to the virus. The whole world
could start to feel a bit more in control. I mention India because I saw
a paper by some Indian scientists making an argument in favour what
they called CHIM, ie controlled human infection model.
By
the way, it seems odd that that we are told not to touch out mouths.
For years I have been hearing that the common cold is spread partly by
touching the nose mainly, and to a lesser extent touching the eyes, e.g.
after shaking hands. Never any mention of the mouth. Covid-19 is a type
of coronavirus and the common cold is caused by a rhinovirus or a
coronavirus, the latter being responsible for about 20% of colds.
Several different coronaviruses do this and yet not one is thought to
come from touching one’s mouth. Likewise the rhinoviruses. So why should
it be different with the covid-19 virus? I’m guessing that they are
just guessing.
One
great thing is that this does not require a lot of money or technology,
and could thus be done by any country in the world. In a pinch, you do
not even need to test the subjects every day. You could test only those
that have the symptoms (ie signs and symptoms, as some people say) of
the disease. But ideally there would be continuous video recording of
everything that could be shared with other researchers.
We should be doing this with covid-19, the flu, the common cold, and every other common infectious disease.
It
isn’t just a matter of health, unless you count sanity, dignity, or
wisdom etc. as health (I guess it could be an aspect of mental health).
We are pathetic, and ridiculous when we stumble around in the dark when
there is candle we could light. We make fools of ourselves by taking
preventive measures based on inadequate information, looking like we are
panicking. If we knew exactly how these diseases are caught, we could
approach minimizing the risk in a rational, dignified way.
Also,
this pandemic seems to be threatening to do a lot more than kill a few
of us, through the way we are reacting to it. The lockdowns are
threatening to wreck our economies, lead to civil strife, and lead to
oppressive regimes. Maybe it already has — it’s pretty extreme to lock
down entire nations like this — and not everyone agrees with it, but
they are getting forced to cooperate. Lockdowns are arguable worse than
than letting the disease run its course while advising individuals and
treating them where possible, as we do with flu. Some say that this is
“just a strong flu”. But other unpleasant prospects are there. We might
be forced to get blood tests every day, or provide a urine or feces
sample, or it could be stolen from us via machines in the waste water
system. Some call it medical snooping. Others call it snooping. People
are starting to talk as if we should adopt the Chinese political system,
just for the sake of our health.Think it couldn’t happen? Look at all
the other things they thought never could happen, but have happened, in
our political system.
There’s
nothing unethical about human testing. It’s been done with vaccines in
the past, and they are planning to do it with covid-19 vaccines. There’s
nothing unethical about it if people give their informed consent.
People are invited by advertisements to sign up for the army and this is
not considered unethical by most people. If a few hundred deaths from a
disease by volunteers allows us to know how it is caught and thus allow
governments, companies and individuals to make rational decisions and
thus save a few hundred thousand lives, it’s well worth it.
And
in fact, as pointed out by the covid challenge organization (something
like that) in the United States run by a kidney donor called Josh, it
may be possible to do the research in such a way that volunteers
actually have a lower death rate than they would have had, e.g. if they
are recruited from an area where they are at high risk of catching the
disease and getting lousy treatment, they may be better off in a
research establishment where if they do get sick they will get treatment
second to none.
Josh
didn’t mention that the volunteers could get treatment that is second
to none if they get sick from ANYTHING. And this could be extended to a
period after they leave (if they live) the research establishment, and
perhaps for the rest of their lives. In other words they could be
guaranteed the best medical treatment for the rest of their lives. This
would make it even more healthy to volunteer.
Another
idea could be to treat some sick people (not with covid-19) and thus
save their lives in return for volunteering or human experiments. E.g.
poor peope in poor countries with aids could be given expensive lifelong
treatment in return for volunteering for covid-19 experiments. And
lifelong treatment for every other ailment too. A fantastic opportunity
for the person.
This
is not to say that compensation should be limited to guarantees of
medical treatment. There’s nothing wrong with paying volunteers.
Soldiers, are paid, after all. But it might be a way to get some
ethically myopic people to allow human testing.
Future
strains of covid-19 will probably evolve fairly fast, and there must
prepare for that and other pandemics, perhaps much worse than this one.
One way to do that is to get experience with, as soon as possible, HCE.
We might need to learn about transmission much more urgently with a
future pandemic, and develop a vaccine or a series of vaccines, in just
two months or who knows, even less time. We need get good at doing all
this stuff as quickly as possible, before the new strains of covid-19 or
a new pandemic.
By
the way, there’s nothing stopping another pandemic with another virus
starting somewhere else right now. Maybe it already has and we don’t
know about it.
Another
thing that should be tested with HCE as soon as possible is the
effectiveness of various masks, soaps, disinfectants, negative pressure
rooms (a misnomer because pressure is always positive by definition —
reduced pressure rooms would be less of a misnomer), and social
distancing (another misnomer — physical distancing is meant), and so on.
Enough for now. I’ve lots more thoughts, on DIY masks and many other subjects, but this is so urgent that every hour counts.