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Could the mask, already seen by many scientists as the most effective protection against Covid-19, also hide another advantage? A team of researchers presented a unique theory a few days ago: the masks could help to crudely immunize some people against the coronavirus. The provocative theory is yet to be proven but according to some scientists, pending a safe and effective solid vaccine, the mask could become a rudimentary vaccine against coronavirus because, However, protecting the entry of the virus in large quantities could allow some viral particles to pass and penetrate the user’s respiratory tract, thus activating an immunization process against Sars-CoV-2even with an infection without symptoms.
Cannot replace vaccine
Of course, wearing a mask cannot replace a vaccine.. However, taking the mask to a universal level could help reduce the severity of the disease by ensuring that an increasing percentage of new infections are asymptomatic. If this theory is confirmed, wearing the mask could become a form of variolation build immunity and slow the spread around the world. To hold it Monica gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco with a commentary on the pages of the New England Journal of Medicine. You may have the virus but be asymptomatic, so masks can increase the rate of asymptomatic infections, and perhaps this could become a way to safely inoculate the virus into the population, writes the infectious specialist.
What is variolation?
The idea is inspired by the old concept of variolation, deliberate exposure to a pathogen to generate a protective immune response. First tested against smallpox, the risky practice eventually fell out of favor, but paved the way for the rise of modern vaccines. In detail, variolation was a method of protection against smallpox used before the arrival of the vaccine and consisted of inoculating, in the subject to be immunized, material extracted from smallpox lesions or from the scabs of non-serious patients. The person to be protected contacted someone affected by Minor variola, a mild form of smallpox, so it would become infected. After about a week, the infected person developed Minor variola from which he recovered without reporting scar results while gaining permanent immunity against the Variola vera and V.ariola haemorragica, severe forms of the disease.
Studies
However, it will be difficult to prove the effectiveness of this hypothetical method which refers to the now obsolete practice of variolation. For now, some animal studies have shown that inoculating small doses of the coronavirus causes mild and not severe illness, Gandhi explains, and some epidemiological evidence (for example, in outbreaks on cruise ships or in other crowded places where everyone wore masks) show that the use of the mask in the presence of virus-positive subjects can favor predominantly asymptomatic outbreaks. A Hong Kong study on hamsters found that rodents wearing a surgical mask in their cage were less likely to get sick with Covid even though the neighboring cage was home to infected hamsters. And even if they got sick, they developed mild forms.
Scientist Comments
an interesting theory with a reasonable guess, he told AFP Archie clements, an epidemiologist with the Curtin University School of Health Sciences in Australia. Other scientists have expressed reservations. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, said she was quite skeptical this is a good idea, noting that we don’t yet know if a lower dose of the virus actually means milder illness. Furthermore, the duration and level of immunity are still poorly understood.
September 28, 2020 (change September 28, 2020 | 15:42)
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