About the measures related to the COVID-19 coronavirus

Why is this virus so dangerous?

Viruses are everywhere in nature. In terms of numbers, there are more viruses on Earth than anything else. There are many times more viruses than humans.

On their own they are only viable to a very limited extent. They can reproduce only when they enter a so-called host organism. When they meet a host, they act as parasites and force it to replicate the virus. Your body is used like a “photocopier”: your cells make countless copies of the virus. These then flood your body and disrupt its functioning.

In nature every plant and animal species — and humans as well, even fungi, lichens, etc. — have their own viruses.

Most viruses can infect only a specific species. That is, a corn virus infects corn, a pig virus infects pigs, a human virus infects humans. In principle this means a corn virus cannot infect humans. Humans can become ill only from human viruses. Your immune system can defend itself more effectively against a "native human virus" than against a foreign one.

It is assumed that the COVID-19 coronavirus originally came from animals and somehow underwent a change (mutated) that enabled it to reproduce in humans and cause disease. Sources mentioned include snakes, bats and other species, but this may never be definitively determined.

Because of its "foreign" origin, it contains structures and codes completely unknown to the human immune system, so compared to the "usual human viruses" the immune system has a harder time finding a way to destroy it and it causes more severe illness.

How does the virus spread?

The COVID-19 virus spreads by respiratory droplets. That means you need to come into contact with the saliva (or other secretions) of a person who is carrying and shedding the virus. The carrier may not necessarily show symptoms! They can shed the virus completely without any symptoms.

Patients and carriers "carry" the pathogen everywhere and pass it on to others. For example, on public transport, in a shopping center, cinema, workplace, etc., when someone coughs or sneezes they "spit" viruses into the air, which can float for a long time and travel far. If you inhale that air, you immediately draw the virus deep into your lungs.

It can also happen that they do not “spit” directly on you, but you shake hands and the virus they sneezed into their palm transfers to your hand. When you touch your mouth, nose or eyes you infect yourself. The same can happen if viruses stick to a bus handrail and you later "pick them up" with your hands and touch your face.

Recently there have also been opinions that simply exhaling is enough to release a sufficient amount of virus from the carrier. If this is true, it means that if someone walks past you you could catch the virus by inhaling the virus-laden air they exhaled.

Who is a virus carrier?

A carrier is a person (anyone from a small child to an adult) who shows no symptoms of the disease but already sheds the viruses and can infect others.

When a small number of viruses enter the body, the host does not infect others immediately. The viruses are still busy reproducing. It takes time until they force the host cells to start "copying" the virus.

Within a few hours to 1–2 days, each infected cell can produce hundreds or even thousands of new viruses. These escape from the cell and "seek" other cells to infect. After a while the virus multiplies so much that it appears outside cells, in the lungs, airways and throat. At this point it is expelled with secretions and can infect others.

Consequently, after the virus has entered the body, symptoms do not appear immediately. A certain amount of time is needed for the virus to multiply enough to cause symptoms. The time between the virus entering the body and the appearance of symptoms is the incubation period. For COVID-19 this can be up to 12–14 days.

How long can someone be a carrier and infectious?

Current data does not give an exact number yet. It seems to be around 3–6 weeks.

As I already wrote above, the immune system eventually overcomes and destroys the virus. Those with a stronger immune system (who do not fall ill despite the viruses present and multiplying in them) will eliminate the viruses in their body in a shorter time.

The virus does not persist for months or years in an asymptomatic carrier, so you do not need to fear that someone will repeatedly infect others for years.

How can I tell who to be wary of?

You can't. There is no way to know who might be a source of infection! Anyone can be, even someone who appears to be in perfect health.

There are reports that apparently healthy people can have blood oxygen levels drop to 80 or below. It may be worth acquiring a simple pulse oximeter and measuring once, at most twice, daily.

You could be a carrier even if you feel fine. If you are not careful, you can spread it to everyone you come into contact with. A carrier can infect those who were within 1–2 meters. Transmission can occur in the shop, on the street, at work, etc.

You can avoid infection only by keeping your distance. Even a friendly handshake is enough. In Western Europe the main slogan is “social distancing”, literally "keep yourself away from others".

What does the virus cause?

With the "usual" cold and influenza viruses the leading symptoms are coughing, sneezing, nasal congestion and runny nose, and mild fever. In stronger cases there can be fever and muscle aches, and in rare cases the situation can worsen to pneumonia.

COVID-19 is asymptomatic in about 80% of cases. That is, people catch the virus but it does not cause complaints. However, if symptoms appear, the course of the disease can be harsher than with the flu.

Information suggests that loss of smell and taste can be an early sign of infection. Then low-grade fever and nasal congestion (often without runny nose) can occur, and fatigue and weakness increase. Initially a dry cough is troublesome, but over time more and more secretions are produced from the lungs. Fever rises, weakness forces you to stay in bed, and everything hurts.

The most severe complication of COVID-19 can be bilateral pneumonia. In the inflamed areas of the lung gas exchange (both oxygen uptake and CO2 removal) is impaired or even stops. That means the lung cannot take up enough oxygen. Breathing becomes increasingly rapid. A normal respiratory rate of 10–13 breaths per minute can rise to even 30. Attention! Anxiety about the virus or a panic attack can also cause similarly high breathing rates — don't confuse these causes!

In pneumonia the oxygen deficiency is also reflected by a drop in blood oxygen saturation, which you can measure with a pulse oximeter. In healthy people blood oxygen saturation is between 97–100%. In pneumonia this value slowly falls first to 95, then even below 90. Below 90% pronounced shortness of breath appears. At such values medical care and supplemental oxygen may be necessary.

Several medical groups have reported measuring values of 80 or below even in almost asymptomatic infected people. Thus daily measurement of saturation once or twice and noticing a falling value can be an early warning.

COVID-19 can lead to such severe lung damage that without ventilator support recovery is unlikely. Pneumonia appears more frequently in COVID-19 patients than in previous viruses, which is why epidemiologists are especially concerned.

Who is at greatest risk?

COVID-19 is dangerous to everyone, but not to everyone equally. Each person has a different immune system, which can be affected by other diseases. That is, everyone can react differently. There are no "compulsory" symptoms or outcomes.

In people with a healthy immune system it may cause somewhat stronger symptoms than a common cold or flu. However, the intact immune system recognizes the virus, mounts a defense and destroys the "attacker." The infected person therefore recovers.

The virus poses a greater risk to those whose immune system does not function effectively for some reason.

• In old age immune activity decreases, so those over 65 struggle more with the disease. Their symptoms are more severe and the course more protracted than in younger people.
• Those on long-term steroid therapy are at higher risk because steroids reduce immune activity. In recent days French and Spanish doctors also mentioned that ibuprofen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) may have a similar effect.
  People with weakened immune systems can expect more severe symptoms, prolonged recovery and an increased risk of serious complications.
• The greatest danger is to those weakened by other diseases (heart disease, high blood pressure, COPD, cystic fibrosis, cancer, diabetes, alcoholism, drug use, obesity, etc.). Constant struggle with these conditions "takes away" the immune system's strength.
• Organ transplant recipients receive treatments to prevent rejection that reduce immune activity (and thus protection against infections).

For the multiple-ill, elderly patients COVID-19 can be a "death sentence." Current data shows the disease hits those over 75–80 particularly hard.
Update: domestic data received since then also confirm that the virus poses the greatest danger to the elderly, particularly men. The average age of those who died from the infection is over 70. Worldwide, only a few deaths were under 50 and deaths under 40 are very rare. Some 65–70% of the deceased are men.

How can I protect Grandpa and Grandma?

You can protect them by not meeting them in person! Keep contact only virtually, by phone, Skype, etc. This is hard, but personal contact can be fatal for the elderly.

You must also make them understand that they cannot go out! They can't drop by the neighbor for a chat, pop into the lottery shop to buy a ticket, or go to the corner store for a loaf of bread. Don't let grandchildren visit to eat the usual schnitzel and mashed potatoes!

It is not you or your child who faces the greatest risk, but your parents and grandparents for whom this infection can be fatal.

In this situation the elderly must accept a forced "house arrest." Help them! Take over shopping and procuring necessary supplies. Preferably do one weekly shopping trip and delivery instead of running errands 3–4 times a day. More frequent contact increases risk.

Pay special attention that when you hand over the goods emotions do not take over: no hugging, no kissing. Place the package behind the threshold, step back or leave. Let them bring in the purchased items, discard the packaging as soon as possible and wash their hands thoroughly.

Why can't we go to the cinema?

Recall past influenza epidemics. Some years there were millions of infections in our country. Children spread the virus in daycare groups and classes; adults at workplaces, on public transport, in cinemas, theaters and entertainment venues—packed together they pass the virus back and forth. Someone confined in an office with 2–3 others will infect everyone.

If "free spread" were allowed, millions of Hungarians would be infected in a short time.

In a closed space (for example a cinema), during a two-hour screening one single "virus-shedder" could infect several dozen people.

The children are bored. Can I let them go to a house party?

If you still ask that question you have understood nothing!

If even one child at the party is shedding the virus, every participant can take it home and infect older family members.

House parties and children "hanging out" are a very bad idea right now.

What is the purpose of the restrictions?

Among those infected, 2–3% will develop severe symptoms and may require hospital treatment. Based on the calculation above, with 3 million infected, 90–100 thousand people would need intensive care and ventilation!

Until the first phase of the epidemic in our country there were about 1,200 intensive care beds and a total of about 1,500–2,000 ventilators available. That is how many trained doctors and nurses we have to operate them.

In the meantime the government purchased many devices, but the number of doctors and nurses experienced in ventilation has not changed. To operate nearly twenty thousand machines you need the same number of trained staff as barely managed the previous 2,000.

In my opinion the deciding factors are not the number of machines, but the technical capabilities of the machines and the physicians' ventilation expertise.

In Hungarian hospitals before the epidemic the majority of ventilators were Dräger (German), Hamilton (Swiss), Medtronic or GE (both American). These are known to doctors. Most of the devices purchased from China are far from the capabilities of these machines — like a Trabant compared to a Mercedes. Only a few dozen of the previously used, proven, reliable models were procured, and most of the new devices are unfamiliar to doctors.

The other problem is expertise. Ventilation skills cannot be acquired in a two-day crash course. We hear of internal medicine physicians, ENT specialists, etc. being reassigned to COVID wards. I would not want to be placed on a ventilator under the supervision of a doctor who has never seen one. It's like grabbing a golf club for the first time—there is little chance you'll hit the ball, let alone control it!

Therefore everything should be done so that only as many people become infected at once as our excellent ventilators and our physicians trained in ventilation can handle.

The only purpose of the restrictions is to keep this threshold from being exceeded, i.e., to keep the number of people requiring ventilators simultaneously low.

If you don't take the restrictions seriously, run around and spread the virus, you accelerate the outbreak and this can lead to many deaths.

So now it's best to stay put. Leave home as little as possible. Avoid people, wash your hands frequently. And advise your acquaintances to take this seriously.

How long can this situation last?

It seems governments mostly expect the second wave to subside and restrictions to be relaxable around May 2021.

They already warn that further waves may come. That means this back-and-forth could last for years.

Great hopes are placed on vaccines — with good reason. Thanks to widespread vaccination many infectious diseases (diphtheria, polio, smallpox, etc.) have practically disappeared.

Developing a vaccine takes time, and even longer is needed to prove its long-term effectiveness — that it provides lasting protection.

Unfortunately this is the problem: it seems long-lasting immune protection may not develop against this virus, since many cases have been registered worldwide of people who had a mild infection in the spring wave and then were infected again a few months later.

Until there is an effective vaccine, the epidemic may recur in waves and with it the disruption of our usual lives.

Prepare for a prolonged situation! Life will not snap back to the old normal even after restrictions are lifted. You will have to give up many things you were used to and loved. Those without reserves will face very hard financial times.

Despite difficulties and restrictions try to remain calm, because stress makes you ill and weakens the immune system. Find useful activities! Spend more time on yourself and with those you live with. It's no small task!

This is just politicians' trick to ruin us!

I do not share that view!

Let's not deceive ourselves! There is no chance to foresee the future. We will never know what would have happened if decisions had gone one way or the other.

I think governments had to choose between two main directions.

1. introduce restrictions to slow the virus and protect lives, which leads to economic hardship, or
2. let the virus spread, which could result in a pandemic like the Spanish flu, while temporarily keeping the economy running.

Why might they have chosen option 1?

In 1918–1919 the Spanish flu pandemic caused 100,000,000 deaths out of a world population of about 1.8 billion. Today the global population is 7.5 billion. Experts say the coronavirus is much more aggressive than the virus that caused the Spanish flu. The observed case fatality rates of 5–10% for some confirmed infections support this.

World leaders judged the risk of hundreds of millions of deaths from an uncontrolled pandemic to be greater than the risk of a temporary economic collapse.

We will never know what would have happened had they allowed the virus to ravage freely. I believe that alongside many deaths the economy would have collapsed just the same as now.

Only a few years ago we experienced an economic crisis and many suffered and lacked because of it. As then, these hard times will pass and things will recover.

A parent, relative or friend killed by the virus, however, cannot be brought back.

Do garlic, ginger and antibiotics help treat it?

Currently there is no drug against the virus (this is generally true for viruses).

Viruses cannot be killed by antibiotics. Do not start taking them for a viral infection! There can be situations where a bacterial infection accompanies a viral one — then antibiotics may be necessary, but that judgment belongs to a doctor.

Symptomatic treatments make a viral infection more bearable. You may take an antipyretic for fever above 38.5°C (for example paracetamol is good, but NOT ibuprofen). Use nasal drops for nasal congestion (try to use them sparingly because excessive use can damage the nasal mucosa). Throat antiseptics can help, but only in the mouth and throat area — they do not reach pathogens deep in the lungs. Drink plenty of fluids (but not alcohol!). Eat easily digestible, varied meals with lots of vegetables and don't neglect fruits. Avoid heavy, fatty foods and moderate your meat consumption.

A healthy immune system is the real weapon against viruses!

When you "catch" a virus for the first time in your life, it can spread relatively quickly in your body. The time between the virus entering your body and the appearance of symptoms is the incubation period.

When your immune system detects the invader it sounds the alarm. Two types of defense are activated against the intruder: humoral and cellular.

The humoral immune system begins producing antibodies that bind to the virus and prevent it from entering cells and spreading. Immunoglobulin M (IgM) is produced from the onset of infection for a few weeks. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) production starts afterward and can remain for years or even lifelong, providing protection against later infections. Detectable IgM in the blood indicates a recent infection, while IgG indicates past exposure to the pathogen.

Virus-infected cells begin to produce a substance called interferon, which activates and attracts white blood cells. If these find virus-suspicious proteins on a cell membrane, they destroy those cells. That is the cellular (cell-mediated) defense system.

In the first days of infection it may seem the virus is winning, but then your immune system kicks in and turns the tide.

As I stated earlier: if the immune system is healthy it wins. Those at risk are people whose immune systems are fighting other illnesses or are suppressed for some reason and thus do not function effectively.

You maintain your immune health with a varied diet rich in vegetables and fruits and with moderate meat consumption. Overconsuming a single food, vitamin or mineral brings no advantage. Garlic or ginger, whether consumed in small or large amounts, will not protect you from viral infection. They do not have meaningful effects, but they also do no harm.

How do I know if my condition is severe?

If you sneeze and have a runny nose you may be quite frightened in the current situation. If these are your only symptoms it is more likely you have a common cold or the flu (both are caused by viruses and can therefore be confused). Current data show runny nose is rare with COVID-19 infection.

If despite nasal congestion your nose does not run, you lose your sense of smell and taste, develop muscle aches, have a distressing cough with lots of phlegm, your fever climbs higher and you experience shortness of breath, COVID-19 infection is more likely.

If you experience such symptoms or have met an infected person, do not rush into a clinic, because if you are indeed viral you could put doctors and nurses into quarantine. Call your family doctor, the on-call doctor or ambulance service by phone. With their questions they can confirm or rule out the suspicion of infection and decide on the necessary steps.

Specialty clinics canceled my treatments. What can I do?

The government is concentrating healthcare resources on fighting the virus. One can debate whether the reaction is excessive, but readiness is necessary.

Your knee osteoarthritis, back pain from spinal calcification, etc., however painful, are not life-threatening, so these are being "postponed" on the priority list. Rightly so.

For chronic musculoskeletal conditions there are many medical devices designed for home use. Therapeutic ultrasound, softlaser, magnetic therapy devices, TENS, muscle stimulation devices and many other tools are available. With these you can effectively treat chronic, long-standing conditions at home without a doctor present. Ask your treating physician for advice and guidance on what home treatments you can use! Obtain the necessary device and you do not have to wait until hospitals and specialty clinics resume regular appointments.

Read my article about what home medical devices are for.