Herd immunity
By Phillip Wade B.Pharm ND DBotMed DNutr DRM MATMS
Herd immunity is a phrase that has been largely misunderstood by many people – not only whether by the public, but also by many bureaucratic-medical, political, or the major media types.
or
Pen-pushing perpetrators panic politicians into punishing public
(News editors are nonetheless unabashed in giving often forceful opinions, sometimes "herding" politicians into positions that are more extreme than they would like)
Prologue:
As I wrote this article in May 2001, another pandemic of Corona virus was creating a pandemic in Asia that would ultimately threaten Australia – SARS Cov-1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-1 – or Cov -1).
I later gained approval to form a Pandemic Committee to prepare for a massive outbreak which may happen the following year or the one after.
The idea was to “hold off” a disastrous situation until a vaccination became available,
Then herd immunity could do its thing.
This would look at all aspects of minimising the potential outbreak, and advise on methods of optimising immune function through healthy diet and lifestyle, and minising infectious opportunities via sensible avoidance techniques, such as advisig the spacing of people apart sensibly, utilising our abundant sunlight and taking advantake of breezy conditions at the beach etc. – and other methods such as nose masks, gloves where indicated, distancing ourselves by 2 metres and so on, creating potential availability of thousands of extra bed space, intravenous drips, harnessing thousnds of pharmacists and allied medical staff and so on.
And we organised a general anti-viral pharmaceutical to become available on first sign of a virus infection.
And hold out until CSL could produce a vaccination – that was in fact never needed.
The result was that the pandemic did not create high death rates or widespread illness.
And a specific vaccine was never formulated at that time, due to the uncommon structure of the corona-virus and basically the lack of need.
This was not a case of the “she’ll be right” mentality rather than by then also the asian virus had hit its peak and was in a decline by 2003.
The name of our committee? HELPERS – or Health Professionals Emergemcy Response.
This system was also used in the next year to fight off our first “one in a hundred years” bushfire “season”.
So what is Herd Immunisation and how do we get it?
Herd Immunisation occurs when sufficient people have been immunised from a contagious disease so that those around them will naturally acquire immunity.
How does infection from exposure work?
It operates obviously when the non-infected is being exposed to someone who is already sick.
The virus then enters their body via nose or mouth where it inhaled or swallowed.
From there, specialised immune cells may go to work and develop antibodies against the virus, typically over the next ten to fourteen days.
If the level of exposure is high – say a sneeze directly into the face – then the infectious virus will overwhelm your system by infecting large nunbers of your cells with heavy numbers of virus and commence replicating massive numbers of virus over the next 24-48 hours.
You are heavily infected.
If it is only a mild exposure – passing someony by in the street, then far fewer virus enter far fewer cells and you may develop a light infection that your immune calls may destroy qhickly, albeit with some symptoms.
You are lightly infected.
This low concentration may apply when the concentration of infectious bugs is low due to breezy conditions, or the air may be dry enough to ensure the non-survival of virus, or the person emitting the virus may have been already immunised and their own re-infection will therefore be unsuccessful and they ae emitting virus or bacteria that have already died.
In the latter case, the one type of the potential victim’s own immune cells will still recognise the “new” or “foreign” body (microbe particle) and commence the process of developing antibodies to the “invader”.
In all cases your existing “first rtesponse” immune cells will immediately attack the virus. Then it is a matter of whether the attack or defense will win.
So in the case of an otherwise healthy, newly infected person at the beach etc emitting their own freshly-acquired virus, then their own count obviously will initially be quite low and the breeze plus sunlight be quite active – so you are lightly infected or not at all.
That’s how Rotary has almost succeeded in eliminating the dreaded scourge of polio from the world stage – from hundreds of thousands per annum to only two individuals as I write in this financial year (2001-2)!
So how does herd immunity work in the case of a pandemic, where thousands of people have either been immunised, part immunised, immunised against a different form of the current virus or are acquiring a virus for the first time without immunisation?
Forward ro 2019-2020, I wrote:
Live virus or dead virus?
Live virus – how does it live?
Firstly, let’see how we are acquiring immunity from a live virus from an already infected person.
Virus dies in air
Unvaccinated or vaccinated, when passing someone in the street who is infected with an original or a new version of the virus, we know that some portion of the air that we inhale will contain some breath that they exhale, hopefully from a respectful distance.
Incidentally Queensland and WA as well as possibly Victoria might have a problem – as their impossible attempt to “sterilise” their states from the virus has meant that they might well be hit with quite a few strains of the virus all at once having finally re-opened their borders. This might possibly mean that their citizens may well “go down” with strain after strain until they catch up.
The vaccinations and the recent pharmaceutical drug release may help reduce serious cases however.
The saviour may be the findings of scientists – plus numerous case studies from our Wellness Chemist – that vitamin C complex preparations may help boost immunity. Our pharmacy has been using Winter Mix to great effect.
Virus only survives in human cells
So, that air will obviously contain both live and dead virus – and at varying concentrations, depending how near or far the person is, whether there is still air or movement, if they moisten their nostrils, if the sun is out, f there is heavy moisture.
Why does virus die over about a metre of being exposed in the air? SAee below.
Immune system – healthy or otherwise?
Our immune system then engages both of these new proteins in their breath, in this case both live and dead virus, and may ultimately develop its permanent immunity via antibody production. This link may help to explain how this all works.
Meanwhile, as part of this process you may experience the initial “scratchy” feeling in the first few days, as the initial and subsequent “wave” of viruses are replicating themselves in your upper airway cells and come bursting out.
Healthy NK cells squirt first then ask questions later
At this point you might be surprised to know that if your “natural killer” “NK” (first responder) immune cells are healthy and activated, then you will develop less disease than if they are unhealthy.
Kids have abundance of Thymus gland immune cells
The young have a particular abundance of natural killer cells.* See case study in footnotes. That’s why it was deemed unnecessary for children to avoid schooling. Later there was so much panic press that even this method was – in my opinion, wrongly – recanted.
But keep home the unhealthy kids – and elderly.
Still after all this time, very few if any healthy children have ever died directly from corona virus. Naturally, it is a wise move to heep unhealthy children at home during an active surge of a new variant, and the same obviously applies to the unwell elderly.
The symptoms of Covid disease from the SARS Covid 19 corona virus and its varying forms can vary from mild to fatal historically, varying with the health, and age of the infected person – and especially if institutionalised withour access to fresh air.
Even this may not have happened to the extent that it has, had the elderly been well nourished. ** See case study in footnotes.
Then after about 10-14 days, fever and coughing may happen that is caused by the activity of white blood cells going through their “manufacturing” stages, when cloned antibodies will suddenly burst out of those immune cells where they have been slowly developing, accompanied by possibly catastrophic bursts of inflammatory cytokines such as histamine and perforin. Meanwhile, these waves of “viraemias” may keep recurring unless steps are taken to prevent them.
Several pharmaceutical drugs are now available also for this purpose.
In the case of dead virus particles that you inhale, your mast cells may also treat these new proteins as a foreign body and may develop antibodies against them, in much the same manner as they would from a vaccination. See the link for more information on this process.
Dead virus – how has it died?
An exhaled virus dies rapidly in the air in the Australian climate after you have breathed out, or someone sneezes or coughs.
Why? Because a virus that is toxic to humans, by definition, can only live in a human cell, and so the fewer cells that are contained in the air via sputum or micro-droplets then the lower the concentration of live viruses.
The proportion of free live viruses in this exhaled lifeline may also increase in higher moisture and cooler conditions.
Well, what’s different about the Australian climate?
Firstly, in most parts of our country there exists a hotter, drier climate than for example in Europe.
Secondly, we are bathed in abundant ultraviolet rays that may also actively kill microbes, including the virus.
Author’s note: There is plenty of speculation that vitamin D is associated with killing the virus. However, we do know that UV light in high concentration is an effective industrial sterilising methos (kills microbes). So it stands to reason that in lower concentrations it may also do that, albeit to a lesser effect.
And the counter to this is that in the winter westerly breezes substantial electrostatic activity builds up causing the virus to suspend in the air longer than normal.
So, the bottom line is that by circulating in public you may acquire herd immunity safely by following the recommended precautions of wearing a mask in crowds, keeping a respectful distance from others, mposten your nose and throat regularly, cough/sneeze into your sleeve, and create an extra metre of space between you and any person who does that.
Incidentally, circulating a fortnight in the above manner (including maximising your health) after you have received either stage of your vaccination is just a logical thing to do, as you are teaching your immune cells how to protect you more permanently.
That is because the genetic vaccines have a much shorter immune span than the protein vaccines because they act differently. And the highlighted link may help to explain how to use them safely.
Serious virus disease – how does it happen?
Serious consequences from SARS Covid 19 happen if the initial “contact” by NK cells is so weak that the live virus may penetrate deeply into your circulation. So the viraemias are happening in mucous membrane, blood vessel cells and potentially deep organ cells.
This attracts the B cell activity that produces antibodies.
So the massive antibody clone release may then occur in these other parts of the body – and may cause inflammation, porosity of vessels (“scratchy feeling in lungs”), lung perfusion of fluid (“feeling of drowning”), and potentially organ and even multi-organ failure.
So keep healthy your immune system so that this is all “nipped in the bud”.
Countering serious disease
See this link for a fulsome explanation on prevention and see* and ** below, but the short story is take a vitamin C complex preparation such as Winter Mix aka Leucostat and complementary health-supporting nutritional input that may support immune health when required.
Case Study
*Two brothers, one 6 YO and the other 8 YO acquired the Omicron live virus variant (B.1.1.529) one after the other, designated as a variant of concern in November 2021. One took our Winter Mix* and the other wasn’t so keen so didn’t want to take it. The “control” brother developed only mild symptoms, and the younger brother had quite substantial bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea that seems to be a common feature of that virus. Both tested positive to the corona virus on PCR testing.
*Winter Mix was a pleasant tasting, effervescent powder that I (ahem!) formulated that was rich in immune-promoting supplements.
** A 78 YO male, having taken Winter Mix regularly and prior vaccination availability, was exposed to the original version of the virus in early 2020 as a prolonged close contact. He showed only very mild symptoms following his exposure.
Later the same male, by then vaccinated with Astra Zenica and still taking Winter Mix was again subjected to prolonged exposure at a function, some 18 months later. He did not register on the RAT test at any stage. His vaccinated 75YO wife, taking a commercial vitamin C complex of much lower dosage, experienced relatively mild symptoms and showed positive on the RAT.
Their colleagues, some significantly younger, with whom they were close contacts at the same function, also vaccinated and taking various small doses of a commercial vitamon C preparation, experienced quite severe symptoms.
The bottom line is to follow the safety rules of how to avoid serious infection and still mingle as freely and safely as the rules allow
Particularly as soon as it is possible to do so from 14 days onwards following booster jabs.
Epilogue
By March 2021, only 19 people under the age of 60 in Australia had died from “Covid 19”. The TGA ceased publishing the number of deaths following vaccinations after that month.
I received both criticism and a following apology of sorts from the relevant health authority, responding to complaints from 2 doctors for my giving handouts to patients regarding the above health and hygiene advice which didn’t contain “anti-vax” advice – merely immune support and other references as above.
Also I received many other “thank yous” for my Winter Mix in thos winters and since – and some summers.
Conclusion
It is not enough to say “health advice is all you need to avoid serious illness” just as it is ludicrous to suggest the “orthodox medicine” – including drugs and surgery – is all you need to stay healthy.
You need both.
Phil Wade