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My understanding of the article was that it doesn't need to be a blood-borne disease. The authors point out several times that, while most people would assume t
by SamBam 7y ago
My understanding of the article was that it doesn't need to be a blood-borne disease. The authors point out several times that, while most people would assume this works by directly killing germs (i.e. like sterilizing water with UV), this is not the mechanism. The exact mechanism is still unclear (which is one of the reasons it was never as widely adopted), but it seems more likely to be boosting the immune system.
So there would be no need to shine UV light directly into the lungs.
- Retric 7y agoTo expand on the unknown method of action. It could for example be removing other pathogens from the blood that lets the immune system focus on covid-19. Alternatively, random cellular damage could clause a useful immune response. Etc etc. Medicine has often found treatments that works without any real understanding of why.
- klenwell 7y agoIsn't this true of Pasteur and his initial application of vaccines? While he identified the mechanism of inoculation, my understanding is he theorized that it was due to the attenuated pathogen outcompeting the virulent one for nutrients rather than due to stimulation of the immune system. I think I got that from a lecture by a science historian once. This idea seems to be glossed in the Wikipedia article on Pasteur here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur#Anthrax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur#Anthrax Do I have that right?
- belltaco 7y ago>While he identified the mechanism of inoculation, my understanding is he theorized that it was due to the attenuated pathogen outcompeting the virulent one for nutrients rather than due to stimulation of the immune system. How could it outcompete the actual virus if the actual virus isn't there yet at the time of vaccination?
- klenwell 7y agoGood point. Maybe the theory was the attenuated pathogen would consume available nutrients thereby depriving the real pathogen when it arrived?
- guscost 7y agoVitamin D?
- jvanderbot 7y agoCreated in the skin, not blood.
- munk-a 7y agoInteresting, the vitamin letters were arbitrarily assigned but I wonder if we could back-cronym D to dermis
- croddin 7y agoInteresting, but if it boosts the immune system in the wrong way a side effect could possibly be a cytokine storm.
- rtkwe 7y agoThere are some indications that COVID-19 can already triggers cytokine storms by itself and that's what's killing some patients that seem to get better then crash.