| | | Hopeless medical people. They were so dumb they couldn't figure out that washing hands was trivial compared with inhaling wuflu mist from close up loud talkers so wearing a breathing filter would stop a proportion of the mist and flying spittle. Yes, common sense is not nearly as common as people think. That’s how surfaces get infected - because exhaled mist settles on them. So, for a while, it’s possible to pick up the virus by touching them. But, it’s not the primary mechanism of people getting infected.
The problem with masks - and consequently with almost all the studies related to masks - is that people very seldom pay enough attention to how they fit. For some reason, people seem to think that it’s normal when their eyeglasses become foggy when they wear masks. But, it really means that those masks are not fitted right. What’s the point of using them if the air isn’t forced to get filtered?
I bought a couple of very sophisticated Israeli made masks. Expensive. They use some special material, impregnated with some metals and chemicals, capable of killing the virus. There is one problem - there is no way to get this masks to fit properly. The glasses get foggy all the time. So, basically, it’s a useless rag.
Why are some viruses harder on the old - and others, on the young? Man, that’s a tough one. Great numbers of moving parts. You mentioned telomeres - one would think that long telomeres should be a good thing - and often it is - but it turns out that often, long telomeres are associated with some existing or impending cancers. So, again there is a problem.
I seriously think that in the relatively near future human Docs will have to routinely consult super computers with enormous databases and great processing capacity - to help them identify the best possible management of individual patients.
Actually, I think we do data crunching a lot better than we do common sense. This year, too many people did too much of their thinking using the archaic, ancient parts of their brains... including the editors of some of the greatest medical journals. |
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