Understanding the CoronaVirus
The Corona virus or OVID-19, which is a virus which causes flu-like symptoms including upper-respiratory tract disease. It is from a family of viruses which cause up to a third of flus and colds, there are just some members of this viral family which can cause more severe symptoms and OVID-19 is one of these more dangerous members. The operative word is can. Some people will have the virus and will experience it with normal uncomfortable flu symptoms but in a few extreme cases may experience bronchitis and pneumonia. The complications from bronchitis and pneumonia is what may prove fatal in around 3.4% of cases. To put this into perspective other outbreaks of this family of virus have had fatality rates as high as 38% (MERS-Cov2). Transmission mechanisms are thought to primarily be via sneezing and coughing, however the possible routes of transmission are still being investigated and transmission by surface contact is a possibility but is unconfirmed as a significant transmission route.
Our modern rates of intense international travel and migration, combined with warming of planetary conditions increase significantly the chances of global pandemics and since there has been a slowdown in pharmaceutical investment in antivirals and antibiotics, pharmaceutical companies wish access to public funds to conduct research, since they have understandably come to the conclusion that funding these types of research is too expensive, the research journeys too long, the risk of pursuing avenues which result in no effective drugs too high and in the face of these factors pharmaceutical companies have increasingly turned away from such research. Publicly funded research by public institutions requires strong and strategic leadership and this has been lacking. In liberal market economies like ours the drive is for the kind of publicity which is capable of generating the conditions which encourage access to public funds for pharmaceutical companies which are seen as the most effective solution for tackling this public health risk.
Since viruses operate by entering cells and hijacking the cell operations by uncoating and replicating their RNA and using the cells to parasitically replicate themselves and pursue their life strategies. The optimal defence strategy against viruses is to maintain sound effective immunity pre-infection. After infection the traditional strategy of Greco-Arab, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine is to discourage the conditions that the virus promotes, by either causing the conditions that the symptoms encourage to accelerate and complete quickly whilst maintaining the strength and energetic integrity of the patient or to simply clear the conditions that support the conditions that the virus encourages so that the viral strategies do not have a viable ground to work in. These strategies can be pursued along with antivirals.
Tomorrow I will give some examples of how you can use some of these strategies and some recipes that you may make using ingredients from your kitchens.