Every Sunday, I launch a poll on "COVID infections" to count the percentage of COVID infections among my readership.
In this article, we'll look at the latest voting results, but we'll also talk about an expert's promotion of immunization debt and "advocating not wearing masks for long periods of time."
The results of the poll as of December 25 are as follows:
This week, the 7-day rate of new infections was 218%, basically the same as last week, still a large decline compared to two weeks ago.
So, after a wave of growth in the first two weeks, the data has fallen back in the last two weeks, which is good news.
In addition, let's look at the data of Beijing CDC.
December 11, 2023 On December 17, 2023, a total of 52,125 cases of 18 notifiable infectious diseases were reported in Beijing.
The top 5 diseases with the highest number of reported cases are: epidemic and novel coronavirus infection.
Judging from the data of Beijing's disease control, the number of infectious disease cases in Beijing also dropped significantly last week, which is consistent with my readers' data.
However, at present, the number of infectious disease cases in Beijing is still at a high level, and it remains to be seen whether it will continue to fall.
At a time when the epidemic is still at its peak, there is a quarrel over whether to wear a mask.
I'm also quite helpless about this, a little wearing a mask has now become a matter of endless quarrels.
This time, masks have become a hot topic again, because a well-known expert recently said such a paragraph.
The expert said: "There are two main reasons why respiratory diseases enter the high incidence period, one is the conventional reason, that is, after the sudden cold weather, the immune function of the nasal mucosa is reduced, so the virus is easy to enter the respiratory tract. The second reason is that wearing a mask for a long time will also make the autoimmune system unable to function normally, weakening the ability to resist diseases. ”
Unless there is a time of a pandemic, or when you go to a place where people gather, long-term wearing of a mask is not particularly recommended. ”
This is because the expert is also promoting the highly controversial claim of immunization debt, which is highly controversial at home and abroad, and also said that "it is not particularly advocating long-term wearing of masks."
As a result, "xxx said that it does not advocate long-term wearing of masks" has become a hot search entry, and many ** titles directly use "do not advocate long-term wearing of masks" and "long-term wearing of masks may weaken the ability to resist diseases" as the title.
Personally, I think that this ** atmosphere is really bad, and it is easy for ordinary people to just look at such headlines, exacerbating people's resistance to wearing masks, and even being unwilling to wear masks during the peak of infectious diseases, which will only make people more likely to get sick and exacerbate the peak of infectious diseases.
But in fact, even the expert, when he said this, had a premise, he said, "Unless there is a time of the virus pandemic, or go to a place where people gather, it is not particularly advisable to wear a mask for a long time." ”
Isn't this the time of the virus pandemic?
*The title directly reads "Do not advocate wearing masks for a long time", which is a completely irresponsible out-of-context act that completely ignores the preconditions.
Actually, this is not the first time.
On March 31, 2023, the expert suggested that after entering April, it is recommended not to wear a mask if conditions permit, except for special settings such as hospitals. ”
This is taken out of context as "you can not wear a mask after April", ignoring the premise of "if conditions permit".
As a result, the formation of a "don't wear masks" atmosphere has brought great obstacles to our public health work.
As a result, Mr. Wu Zunyou posted his last Weibo post on April 2, calling for "reasonable wearing of masks to protect your health".
This time too.
Actually, I'm quite puzzled, the expert's words, obviously changing the word, can have a completely different effect.
For example, the expert could well say, "Go to a place where people gather, and in times of the virus, it is advisable to wear a mask reasonably." ”
In fact, saying this is the same as what he is saying now, but saying this will not give ** room to take things out of context at all.
After all, this is not the first time he has been taken out of context like this, and he has already been taken out of context like this once at the end of March, and has been used by many people as a reason not to wear a mask.
How many people now can meet his definition of "not wearing a mask for a long time"?
More are people who don't wear masks at all.
So what is needed now is to emphasize that during the peak period of infectious diseases, go to places where people gather, and wear masks.
Rather than emphasizing, "Unless there is a time for a viral pandemic, or going to a place where people gather, long-term wearing of a mask is not particularly advocated." ”
These two words, although the core meaning is the same, give people a completely different impression.
At the peak of infectious diseases, saying such misleading words will only make more people resist wearing masks during the peak of infectious diseases, which will make more people sick during the peak of infectious diseases, and will only make our public health work more difficult.
As for the immune debt statement that "wearing a mask for a long time will also make the immune system unable to function normally and weaken the ability to resist diseases", he said it exactly. I still have to emphasize that this is a hugely controversial statement at home and abroad, not that this expert said so, that it is an authoritative coffin conclusion.
After all, the specialist is only a respiratory medicine expert, not an immunology expert.
On December 9, 2022, the expert said: "I was just asked when I will return to the pre-2019 stateMy opinion is in the first half of next year, after March, I can't guarantee it, but looking at the trend should be around this time. ”
Please, is it back to what it was before 2019?
On December 9, 2022, the expert said: "A large number of feelings of various so-called "post-COVID sequelae" at home and abroad are relatively subjective, such as general fatigue, lack of energy, depression and depression, lack of concentration, and now there is a new term "brain fog", memory decline. Of course, there are some problems, such as the loss of smell and taste, etc., but these can improve and disappear over time. So this is not called sequelae. ”
"Quite a lot of sequelae are what we now call sequelae due to the excessive effects of mental and psychological stress after infection," the expert said.
In fact, before last year, I also had a lot of respect for this expert.
But it wasn't until the end of last year that he said that "some so-called post-COVID sequelae are more of a subjective feeling", which made me quite disappointed.
Because of his statement, let ** directly use the title of "long COVID is a subjective feeling", which led many people to simply blame people who unfortunately have long COVID on the patient's psychological problems.
My readers have come to me to complain that after he was infected with the new crown, he had long-term extreme fatigue and fatigue, and he was no longer able to work, but his family did not understand, saying that it was just his psychological problem, and they thought that he was lazy.
Although many of the long COVID are related to emotions.
For example, there are studies abroad that long COVID can cause a spike in depression within 1-3 months, but it usually recovers within 3 months.
However, many people's long COVID, such as "allergies", palpitations, abnormal heart rate, extreme fatigue, brain fog and other factors, cannot be simply attributed to psychological factors.
And even the spike in depression caused by long COVID cannot be simply attributed to subjective psychological factors.
It's like thinking of depression as a mental illness is completely wrong, depression is a physiological disease, the result of hormonal disorders in the body.
Patients with depression do not subjectively want not to be depressed, so they can not be depressed.
Misunderstandings from the outside world can easily increase the psychological pressure of depressed patients, resulting in and worsening it.
Long COVID is actually the same thing, long COVID is an objective disease, not simply due to psychological factors, people's misunderstanding of long COVID is unfair to long COVID patients, and it will also exacerbate the pain of long COVID patients.
Therefore, since the expert can say that "the long COVID is due to excessive mental and psychological pressure after infection".
So for his statement that "wearing a mask for a long time will also make the immune system unable to function normally and weaken the ability to resist diseases", let's just take a look at it, and don't believe it.
It's not that what this expert says is what it is.
After all, the term immune debt is very controversial at home and abroad, and there are many authoritative and real immunologists abroad who are refuting immune debt and refuting the claim that wearing a mask will make immunity decrease.
As I have analyzed in my previous article, as early as November 23 last year, the Financial Times published an article "'immunity debt' is a misguided and dangerous concept", which means that "immunity debt" is a misguided and dangerous concept.
Deborah Dunn-Walters, professor of immunology at the University of Surrey, said there was no evidence that individuals who avoided early infection would get worse. "Immune debt as an individual concept is not recognized in immunology, and the immune system is not a muscle that must be used all the time to maintain its shape, or even the opposite," he said.
Therefore, including the French team, which was the first to put forward the theory of immunity debt, they have to find a supplement that immunity debt is not effective for individuals, but should be used for the whole.
However, I have also refuted before that Europe and the United States have had two consecutive years of peak infectious disease pandemics, and the immunization debt has been falsified at the overall level.
And the expert actually used the immune debt on individuals, directly saying that "wearing a mask for a long time will also make the immune system unable to function normally, weakening the ability to resist diseases."
This is somewhat outrageous.
What is "long-term mask-wearing"?Does it mean wearing a mask 24 hours a day?Does wearing a mask keep people in a sterile environment?How can you make "the autoimmune system unable to function normally", is there any data to prove this?Is this "exaggerated"?
I have also always advised everyone to wear a mask when going out during the peak period of infectious diseases, but you can also choose not to wear a mask during the trough period of infectious diseases.
I don't think that normal people just wear masks when they go out, just wear masks during the peak period of infectious diseases, and just wear masks in crowded places, what damage will there be to the immune system.
Direct infection with the new coronavirus may cause damage to the immune system.
But if you want to say that this expert is wrong, in fact, he also said that it is "long-term wearing of masks", but he doesn't tell you what is called "long-term wearing of masks", maybe what he said about long-term wearing of masks refers to wearing masks 24 hours a day, so who will do this, so what does this expert mean by this extreme situation?
There are also things like him said in April that he could not wear a mask, adding a premise of ""if conditions permit", but he also did not say anything "conditions".
And this time, he said that "it is not particularly advocating long-term masking", and you want to say that he has a problem, but he also said that the premise is "unless there is a time of the virus pandemic, or going to a place where people gather".
It's just that every time he says the premise, the focus is always on "not wearing a mask".
I don't understand why he said that.
Isn't it good that people wear masks and get sick less during the peak period of infectious diseases?
Singapore has recently ushered in another wave of epidemic peaks, and the epidemic data for two consecutive weeks is at the highest level this year, and also surpasses last year's high.
Therefore, Singapore's Ministry of Health strongly recommends that the public wear masks in crowded places, especially in indoor settings.
In Malaysia, which is next door to Singapore, "quarantine" has even been restarted, but this has also caused a lot of turmoil recently, and has been misinterpreted by some people internationally as "tourists need to be quarantined when entering the country".
So much so that the Malaysian Tourism Board had to issue a document to clarify that "the epidemic prevention measures have been misinterpreted".
Then we can see what the actual situation looks like after the clarification in Malaysia.
On the 23rd, the Tourism Board of Malaysia issued a document saying that in the past few days, reports on the Internet about "Malaysia's resumption of new crown quarantine" have been widely concerned, but in fact, the expression "restart" is not accurate.
Malaysia, like many other countries, has long had a home quarantine requirement for those who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, so it would be more appropriate to say "re-emphasis".
You see, Malaysia's refutation of rumors instead says that this is not a "restart", and Malaysia has always had a requirement for people diagnosed with the new crown to be quarantined at home.
In addition, Malaysia recommends that "symptomatic people self-isolate for 5 days", avoid going to crowded public places and avoid contact with high-risk groups for 10 days from the date of diagnosis.
Therefore, in fact, this is not a mandatory act, but a suggestion, it is more to see the consciousness of the people, rather than saying that inbound travelers should be subject to mandatory quarantine, Malaysia is to refute this rumor.
However, it is an objective fact that Malaysia has recently seen an outbreak of the epidemic, and from December 10 to 16, Malaysia reported more than 20,000 confirmed cases of the new crown, most of which have mild symptoms.
Malaysia's Ministry of Health does say that confirmed cases need to self-isolate for 5 days from the first day of symptoms, and after 5 days, they also need to continue to take epidemic prevention measures such as wearing masks.
Malaysia's Ministry of Transport is also encouraging people to wear masks when using the public transport system.
At least these countries are calling for people to wear masks when they go to crowded places and use public transport systems during peak infectious disease periods.
And we, how long will it take to wear masks for a very basic peak of infectious diseases, such a basic public health measure?
We don't know how much we have regressed in our public health measures this year, and these experts are "indispensable".
I still hope that the experts will really take the protection of people's health to heart.
The author of this article: Star Talk Dabai.