Myths About COVID-19

15.05.2020

COVID-19, which emerged as a result of a mutation in the coronavirus family, which is a very large family, causes an epidemic of this scale for the first time. It seems that there is a great information pollution through social media about the epidemic, which was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in February. In crisis situations, especially in an epidemic environment where there is a risk of death and a very high spreading rate, it is seen that in addition to sharing useful information in many respects, fictitious (fabricated) information that may cause anxiety and panic in people is also circulating in the virtual communication environment. Healthcare personnel and even doctors believe in the virtual pollution, and methods and suggestions that may be risky or harmful to public health are spreading rapidly.

“While the new coronavirus continues to infect people all over the world, news and social media posts about this virus are also spreading on the internet. Information pollution, especially in the precautions to be taken against the disease and the advice given to avoid getting sick, also prevents people from accessing the right information. “

Not biological warfare!

The COVID-19 virus is a virus that has mutated and is very likely to originate from bats in nature. Contrary to popular belief, its ability to be a biological warfare bug is irrational. Considering that a biological agent, 80% of which is asymptomatic or does not show a fatal effect on the young population with very few symptoms, it is necessary to see the fact that it cannot be a very effective attack weapon, considering that the "military community" consists of 18-25 young people. Any country in the world, without knowing its protective vaccine and its treatment, cannot go away from reason and logic enough to return to the country of origin and use a biological weapon that can confront itself with an economic, administrative and social problem. Could it be a lab accident? Although we do not know exactly the answer to the question, the starting point of the epidemic in the People's Republic of China is a region where more wild animal meat (such as bat, mouse, snake) is consumed, the same virus has also been seen in wild animals, and also the bio-safe laboratories working with live viruses We can say that this possibility is also very weak for reasons such as being kept under very strict control.

The disease is transmitted by respiratory secretions

As in respiratory infections, COVID-19 transmission occurs through respiratory secretions and is called droplet contamination. As people talk, they cough and sneeze and release their respiratory secretions into the air in the form of tiny liquid droplets. These droplets larger than 5 microns are suspended in the air in a very short time. It then lands on surfaces and can remain contagious for a while on these inanimate surfaces. Cleaning the surface and washing hands prevents the spread of these contaminating droplets remaining on the surface. On the other hand, the droplets (very small liquid particles such as 1-2 microns) that emerge in dental treatments performed with aerospace and interventional medical procedures such as bronchoscopy increase the possibility of contaminating indoor spaces with the breeze. Therefore, dental treatments (in which aerosol should be used) should be postponed for a while.

Treatment ways against the virus

Viruses do not die with the wide variety of antibiotics we know of. It is extremely easy to destroy viruses in the outdoor environment, where we produce them in laboratories (which can be live cell culture or live egg cell membranes), with various drugs or substances added to the environment. This is what we call in-vitro. That is, producing outside the body. Anti-viral drugs are needed to destroy viruses in-vivo. While these drugs do not damage human (or animal) tissues, organs or cells, they provide healing by destroying the virus. Acyclovir used in herpes virus, oseltamivir used in flu virus, many anti-virals used in HIV act in this way.

However, a drug specific to COVID-19 is currently experimental. The knowledge for their activities is not sufficient. However, there are still experimental anti-viral and immune response-regulating drugs that can be used, and it is understood that positive results are obtained from case reports and they facilitate exit from intensive care by reducing the duration of the disease. Scientific interpretation of drug efficacy and clinical laboratory results on thousands of patients is required in order to show that treatment models are useful in a disease such as COVID-19 that can result in 80-85% improvement. This situation will arise with the difficulty of interpretation experienced in another epidemic (as in the Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever-Ribavirin interaction). In this case, it would be useful to look at the guidelines of scientific organizations such as WHO or CDC in treatment decisions. In fact, CCHF produces a cytokine storm similar to COVID-19 disease. However, the tissues and organs damaged by our own immune system are different.

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