- The coming hot weather will help
By: Dr Riaz ul Haq Ramay
What are the limits of Covid-19 and when will it be wiped out? It is a one-hundred-million-dollar question still to be answered. Speculations are everywhere but no-one is in a position to answer it exactly. The temperature was the only hope which was keeping people little bit satisfied but it too is losing its ground. Most of the International doctors, scientists and virologists are of the opinion that Covid-19 is not going to die out with the increase of temperature in the summer season. Even the team of Chinese doctorswho visited Pakistan recently had categorically dispelled the impression formed here, and were emphatic that temperature has nothing to do with the spread of covid-19 infection. The lockdown has failed to bear fruit here thanks to our halfhearted approach. The vaccine against Covid-19 seems to be off the horizon so far, due to a higher mutation rate in the virus. Then how will we be able to get rid of this calamity which is wreaking so much havoc on humanity.
I tried to go through this issue in depth and I come to one conclusion that nature has not produced anything eternally. If there is beginning, there is an end. Fast growing creatures die out much faster than others. Nature always keeps some check points in the ecological system which ultimately checks the population growth of a creature. I am reasoned to believe that these check points exist for the covid-19. When experiments and research fails, logic comes forth to answer the question. Let me paint a rosy picture out of my logic.
One thing that we have to keep in mind is that Covi-19 does not spread like the common cold or common flu. Colds and flus spread when seasonal changes occur and when our body is trying to adjust to the arrival of the new season. The mucous membranes of the cells become vulnerable at that time to the attack of these viruses during this period. Cold and flu capitalize on this time and easily enter the respiratory tract and damage its components, and cause cold or flu. Hence these diseases are seasonal and die out with the passage of season. Some people also erroneously take covid-19 attack as seasonal, owing to the similarity in symptoms of all these infections. But covid-19 infection is in no way a seasonal disease. The coronavirus does not wait for the mucous membrane of cells to become vulnerable to be attacked.
I thus request the people of Pakistan not use airconditioners in the coming warm weather. Let the temperature take this opportunity of finishing the viruses on different surfaces. It is a reasonable hope that the covid-19 infection will be reduced dramatically in the coming warm days. There is another silver lining in the dark clouds. It has been found that the covid-19 undergoes mutation rapidly, which has been an obstacle in developing a vaccine. It is hoped that some mutation will automatically occur in it which will make it less lethal or harmless. Though the coronavirus is not like the cold or the flu, that is how a lot of once-fatal viruses are now liable to cause only mild illness.
Rather, it uses an entirely different mechanism to enter the cell. The virus causing covid-19 is composed of RNA (Ribonucleic acid) and protein, which are covered by a lipid membrane. Some spikes are attached on the surface of the lipid membrane. These spikes contain glycoprotein markers which help in the attachment and entry of covid-19 into the cells. Actually it has a duplicate key very similar to the original key which open the locks of our cells. The cells rather take covid-19 as a guest and welcome it with pomp and show, without knowing what it is going to do with them. The cells give it full protection from environmental effects like temperature, and so on. Once the coronavirus makes its way into a cell it show its true colours. It takes the control of cells and uses the cell components to reproduce itself. This observation shows that it does not forcefully enter the cell like the flu virus, rather it enters as a friend. You can kill your enemy as you know he is your enemy and you are well prepared against him. But if your friend attacks you, you are not prepared for this attack and hence you are at disadvantage. That is the case with covid-19. Keep in mind how temperature cannot kill the covid-19 virus when your own body is protecting it.
But the virus is at an advantage everywhere inside. Outside the body the virus is at disadvantage. It is a non-living particle outside the body and its RNA and protein coat are wrapped over by a lipid membrane. Spikes of glycoprotein are attacked to the lipid membrane covering. These are same spikes which act as a key to open the doors of our cells. Outside the human body, the virus is much more vulnerable. Two factors can destroy the virulence of the virus. These are temperature and humidity. Low temperature and high humidity prolong the life of the virus outside the body. Everyone knew (or should know by now) that there are two means of transmission of the virus, direct transmission and surface transmission. Direct transmission occurs when an affected person sneezes and transfers the virus to the body of a healthy person directly. Here temperature and humidity are helpless to do anything.
In the case of surface transmission, the virus falls on the surface of some objects. If somebody touches such a surface, the virus is attached to that person and makes its way into the respiratory tract of that host. This surface transmission is the actually the checkpoint which nature has provided to us. High temperature increases the fluidity of the lipid membrane outside the membrane, which potentially breaks the membrane and some of its spikes. Without this membrane, the virus will lose its virulence and if it enters the body, our cells would not allow it to enter into them. Similarly, low humidity makes the environment much drier. A membrane cannot remain intact in a dry environment, and thus it gets damaged, along with its spikes, producing the same result as a high temperature.
This logic says that covid-19 will lose its virulence outside the body at a high temperature and in low humidity. It will reduce the chances of transmission through surface. We can save ourselves from direct transmission by social distancing, which is not that much difficult. But the most dangerous transmission is surface transmission which is hidden. Here the temperature will come to rescue us in the coming warm days.
I thus request the people of Pakistan not use airconditioners in the coming warm weather. Let the temperature take this opportunity of finishing the viruses on different surfaces. It is a reasonable hope that the covid-19 infection will be reduced dramatically in the coming warm days. There is another silver lining in the dark clouds. It has been found that the covid-19 undergoes mutation rapidly, which has been an obstacle in developing a vaccine. It is hoped that some mutation will automatically occur in it which will make it less lethal or harmless. Though the coronavirus is not like the cold or the flu, that is how a lot of once-fatal viruses are now liable to cause only mild illness.
The writer can be reached at ramay11
