COVID 19, HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Many immunologists, virologists, "everything scientists" have a ready answer to this question.
In recent days, in the press and on television, we have heard many, different from each other. However, I have not yet listened to the opinion of some microbiologist expert in the Human Microbiota, who could help us read reality differently, given that it would be supported by the research carried out in the last 15 years through the Human Microbiome Project.
I am a research microbiologist who has spent 30 years of my life cultivating microorganisms; I spent the last 10, out of personal interest, following studies on the Human Microbiota which week after week are churning out unexpected knowledge.
It is now clear that the Human Microbiota has an essential beneficial role in the health of individuals: the biodiversity of this microbial flora is essential for the creation of our immune system from the day of our birth. Unfortunately in Western countries we have always seen microbes as organisms to be fought, because our culture has always associated them with the most terrible diseases which from time to time have been the cause of destructive epidemics such as plague and cholera. For more than 80 years we have set our daily personal hygiene and the environments in which we live at maximum cleanliness, with the use of increasingly antimicrobial products: the more sterile we are, the better! The same microbiota that was transmitted to us by farm animals has reduced its biodiversity with the massive use of antibiotics in this field. The living spaces themselves (large buildings, skyscrapers, overbuilding, little urban greenery) are certainly not ideal for the reproduction of microorganisms in the environment around us, which need organic matter. But the most damaging thing for the biodiversity of the Human Microbiota was perhaps the excessive use of antibiotics to fight any infection. Last but not least, the nutritional lifestyle, which has made us appreciate increasingly refined foods, poor in fibre, limiting the proliferation of probiotics in our intestines, those good microorganisms with which nature has always enriched us since first days of life. In short, we are in daily contact with fewer and fewer types of microorganisms. The result of the fight against the Microbiota and its Biodiversity is that we Westerners, even as part of this process, have an insufficient immune system, which has, on the other hand, developed intolerances, allergies and autoimmune diseases.
Have you ever wondered why individuals react differently to COVID 19?
Beyond the multifactorial nature of the personal response to the virus, we could summarize the response as follows: for the different immune system.
…but what contributes to defining our immune system?
I was pleased about this: opening new questions rather than closing ourselves in further answers.
I would like to point out that the disinfection and cleaning measures implemented and suggested by the institutions, despite the fact that they may seem to some to be in conflict with what I have explained, are the only ones that can currently stop the contagion.