Could the emerging corona virus, which causes Covid-19 disease, become a common seasonal virus just like the common cold?
Is developing an oral drug soon?
Are masks safe to use during intense exercise?
The answers are here.
We start from France, where the virologist and a member of the French Scientific Council, Bruno Lina, announced on the website "France Info" that "post-infection and post-vaccination" immunity began to affect the course of the spread of the Covid-19 virus, explaining that the virus needs to be Adapt and evolve so that it continues to spread.
Bruno Lina believes that the emergence of new strains may be evidence that "the virus has ended its development, and that we are now approaching the end stage of the pandemic and entering the stage of narrow spread of the virus."
In this report, which was published by the French newspaper "Le Figaro", Laura Andreu quoted the virologist that "Covid-19 has reached its maximum developmental potential, which means that it will become one of the seasonal viruses that will cause colds or non-severe infections."
Could Covid-19 become a common seasonal virus just like the common cold?
"RNA viruses such as Corona virus, AIDS or influenza have the potential to mutate greatly. But after more than a year has passed since the virus appeared, and after more than a hundred million have been infected," said Mirdad Kazanji, a virologist and director of the Pasteur Institute in Guyana. "We have only recorded 3 new mutated strains, which means that his ability to develop is low. For this reason, it can be optimistic that the virus will lose its ability to develop over time."
Nevertheless, epidemiologist Antoine Flahau of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva believes that it is too early to predict anything regarding the development of this epidemic, and he is working with his team to provide daily forecasts about Covid-19 for the rest of the world for a period not exceeding 7 days, due to the absence of a model It allows to provide reliable long-term forecasts today.
According to Flahau, the hypothesis presented by Bruno Linna is among the possible scenarios.
For his part, Director of Research at the Institute of Health and Medical Research in France, Cami Lochte, believes that this hypothesis is subject to several conditions. “If we launch a good and very effective vaccination campaign that prevents the transmission of the virus, not only severe forms of it, and if a large segment of the population is vaccinated, it may not return. "The virus is again with the same force. But at the present time we do not have enough data to know whether these vaccines are effective to stop the spread of the virus and prevent its transmission."
Professor Mercha Sofonia, a professor of epidemiology and the development of infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier, in France, said, "A recent study has shown that it is possible for Covid-19 to become an endemic disease with less impact on health if the new variables do not exceed immunity."
The American researcher Christopher J.L. Murray from the University of Washington, in an article, indicated that it is not clear whether the Covid-19 virus will become a chronic seasonal disease.
In addition, there are great doubts about the possibility of the emergence and frequency of new strains, the low effectiveness of vaccines in facing them, and the critical issue of cross-immunity and safe human behaviors.
It is imperative to prepare for this possibility because the transformation of Covid-19 into a seasonal virus requires a change in the health system and a profound cultural adjustment to the lives of people at high risk during the winter season.
Is developing an oral drug soon?
We are moving to Germany, where the German pharmaceutical giant, Merck, and the American laboratory, Ridgeback Bio, announced that progress has been made in developing an anti-Covid-19 drug taken orally. The drug, which is still under trial, has shown positive effects in reducing the load. Viral, according to the Deutsche Welle website published.
The drug is called "molnupiravir" (molnupiravir). During a meeting last Saturday with specialists in infectious diseases, the drug’s developers indicated that the drug significantly reduced the viral load in patients after 5 days of treatment.
In this context, Wendy Pinter, chief drug officer at Ridgeback Bio, said in a statement that: There is a need for anti-SARS-CoV-2″ (scientific name for Coronavirus) treatments that have not been met.
The French newspaper "Le Figaro" quoted William Fischer, one of the study directors and a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, that "the results of the study, which are represented in a rapid decrease in the viral load in individuals infected with Covid-19 in the initial stage who They have received Molnopiravir, which is promising. "
Fisher adds, "If the results are enhanced by conducting additional studies, this may have important public health implications, especially in light of the virus continuing to spread and develop around the world."
Merck is also working on a treatment called MK-711.
The group said at the end of last January that the first results of clinical trials showed a more than 50% reduction in the risk of death or respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe forms of the emerging corona virus.
Are masks safe to use during intense exercise?
Preliminary research results indicate that face masks can be safely worn during intense exercise, as they can reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in indoor gyms.
In her report, published in the British newspaper, the Guardian, writer Phoebe Weston said that scientists from the Monzino Heart Center in Milan and the University of Milan tested the respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels of six women and men on sports bikes, some wearing face masks and some. The other one is not wearing it.
According to the research paper published in the "European Respiratory Journal", wearing a face mask reduced the participants' ability to perform vigorous exercises by about 10%, as they were likely to have found slight difficulty breathing through it.
“This decrease is modest, and most importantly, it does not indicate a risk to healthy people who exercise while wearing a face mask, even when they are training at their maximum capacity,” said Dr. Massimo Mapelli, cardiologist at the Monzino Heart Center. We are waiting for more people to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, this result could have practical effects in daily life, such as making indoor gyms opening safer. "
The writer quoted what was stated by the scholars who stated that more research should be conducted to find out whether the same applies to people suffering from heart or lung diseases.
In fact, the volunteers, made up of healthy individuals with an average age of forty, did three rounds of exercises, one without a face mask, the other with a single-use surgical mask, and the last round with the FFB2 mask.
The researchers said that the thicker "FFP2" mask led to a 10% reduction in peak oxygen absorption, so the surgical mask had a marginally less effect.
Researchers are studying whether wearing a face mask affects people's ability to do daily activities such as housework or climbing stairs, where they examine healthy people, in addition to people with heart and lung disease.
Professor Sam Piatt, a physiologist from the University Hospital in Grenoble, who was not involved in the research, said, “Although these results are preliminary and need to be confirmed with larger groups of people, they seem to indicate that face masks can be worn safely. During indoor sports and fitness activities, with an acceptable effect on performance. "