This letter to the editor is written in response to a letter printed last week that stated in part that COVID- 19 is not a virus, but it is an exosome. The letter was titled “COVID is a Myth in Cook County (Minnesota).”
Of course, with only two confirmed cases of the virus that cause COVID-19 (Sars-CoV-2) in Cook County, this is essentially a myth. Thanks to Governor Walz and the Minnesota Department of Health leadership, it is likely to remain as mythology for most residents here. It is very real in most of the rest of the world and will remain so for some time to come. In order to preserve human and economic life, most of the world will need to social distance and wear masks for the foreseeable future.
I agree that our national government and its institutions (CDC and FDA) have responded poorly to this pandemic. The lack of national coordination, especially in testing and tracing, have been particularly bad. How can China test all 10 million residents of Wuhan in one week when we still can’t test adequately?
Humans have been dying from pandemic infections since the beginning of recorded time. From Thucydides’ description of plague during the Peloponnesian war, which started in 431 BC to the influenza pandemic that started in 1918 during the “war to end all wars.”
The one thing different from past pandemics has been the rapid development of medical science driven by the 1918 pandemic. There has been unprecedented international cooperation in research and in understanding and developing treatment and prevention of COVID-19. I am currently reviewing daily the hundreds of new publications on COVID-19 for my hospital. There are over 100 every day and most of the early ones were from doctors and scientists in China. We are rightly suspicious of the Chinese Government, but we are indebted to the Chinese medical establishment.
There is an overlap between exosome (extracellular vesical) and viruses, but they are not the same thing. Exosomes are part of normal cellular metabolism and are being developed as a treatment and vaccine for Sars- CoV-2. Viruses are not invisible; Sars-CoV-2 can be seen with an electron microscope, fusing with human cells, entering them, madly reproducing and then bursting out of the cell to find another victim. www.exosomerna.com/is-covid-19-virus-an-exosome/
Besides wearing masks, social distancing and hand washing, there are other activities that will help lessen your risk of dying from the “Cook County Corona Myth” should it become real for you.
Make sure you and your children are up-to-date on vaccines. There is evidence that adults who received seasonal influenza vaccine have less severe COVID-19. Measles is a potentially deadly infection in young children who have not been vaccinated.
Get off your chair and exercise. Obesity is rising in the pandemic. Obesity increases your risk of severe COVID-19 in the short term and cancer in the long term. It is exercise, not oxygen, that improves your immune system.
Most Minnesotans are vitamin D deficient. Consider taking vitamin D: 400 units a day for a child, 1000 units for a young adult, and 2000 units for adults. Double the dose if you are overweight or obese.
Don’t visit your grandparents if they are over 65. Eighty percent of COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota are in the greatest generation living in nursing homes.
Be kind, respectful, and help one another.
Listen to the experts. www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “The great thing about science is that it is true whether you believe it or not.”
Bruce Bostrom, MD,
Saint Paul, Minnesota
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