48484
Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book.
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Common Cold Suppresses COVID-19 Infection

by Toby Young
23 March 2021 2:09 PM

There follows a guest post by Lockdown Sceptics’ regular Guy de la Bédoyère.

Just when you thought the Covid madness couldn’t take any more twists, here comes another one but you’d better brace yourself. The BBC’s Science Correspondent James Gallagher has a startling revelation that the common cold (the rhinovirus) can suppress COVID-19 because it’s so tough the SARS-CoV-2 virus gets pushed out of the way to make room for it. The news comes from the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Here’s the summary:

Human rhinovirus triggers an innate immune response that blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication within the human respiratory epithelium. Given the high prevalence of human rhinovirus, this interference effect might cause a population-wide reduction in the number of new COVID-19 infections.

From a host’s perspective, HRV [Human Rhinovirus] infections, which are usually associated with mild disease, stimulate an antiviral response that prevents infections by more severe (and sometimes lethal) viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

Fancy that? So, by suppressing COVID-19 we might have successfully suppressed the very virus that might have helped protect against it. Brilliant. Not only that, but also by suppressing all these viruses it’s apparently become far harder to work out where SARS-CoV-2 virus sits in the ruthless world of virus hierarchies. That’s why it’s taken so long for this revelation to emerge.

If that sounds like modest good news, forget it. Thanks to suppressing everything else, natural immunity to those normal diseases has plunged so the ‘experts’ are already lining up to warn of an apocalyptic consequence. We’re all going to get ill from diseases that might usually have not been so bad.

James Gallagher continues:

Dr Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England has already warned of a “hard winter” ahead as a result.

“We could see surges in flu. We could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens,” she said.

Spiffing. As Basil Fawlty once said.

I can see the headlines already: “Britain Clocks Cold Lockdown after Covid Cock-up.”

Forgive me for being so arrogant as to express something approaching a scientific opinion, but doesn’t this illustrate perfectly the stupidity of operating overwhelming knee-jerk reactions against a single threat without considering the consequences? Hasn’t that been the hallmark of this crisis from Day One?

Perhaps some of the expert epidemiologists who have ruled our lives for the last year could dust off their Physics GCSEs and read Newton’s Laws of Motion, particularly the third one: every force has an equal and opposite reaction. I’m sure that could be usefully reworked into the study of controlling infectious diseases.

At the heart of this seems to be the hubristic belief that we can control nature because we’re so clever. That we might already be immersed in an immensely complex web of virus interactions does not seem to have occurred to some of the experts so routinely wheeled out to pronounce on how we should live our lives. Nor does the ingenious ‘modelling’ seem to have taken any of this into account either.

It all reminds me of the line from Spinal Tap when David St Hubbins says, “There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”

Maybe the piece in the Journal of Infectious Diseases has got it all wrong. But somehow the article has the ominous ring of truth, and an obvious one at that, about it.

Tags: Common ColdJournal of Infectious DiseasesSARS-CoV-2

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

UK Faces Decades of Misery Due to Lockdown

Next Post

The Darkness and the Light

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Philip Schofield’s Swift Exit, the BBC’s Fondness for Satanists and the Target Boycott

by Toby Young
30 May 2023
4

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Antarctica Sensation: Ice Shelves Surrounding the Continent Grew in Overall Size From 2009-2019

4 June 2023
by Chris Morrison

Rowan Atkinson Challenges Electric Cars as Environmental Panacea

3 June 2023
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

4 June 2023
by Richard Eldred
A participant holds a drawing depicting Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg during a protest march to call for action against climate change, in The Hague, Netherlands September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Net Zero ‘Grocery Tax’ Will Push Shopping Bills Up by £4 Billion, Tories warned

4 June 2023
by Toby Young

The Woke Movement is an Attempt by Young, Privileged Whites to Wrest Power from Older, Privileged Whites

4 June 2023
by Paul Frijters, Gigi Foster and Michael Baker

Why Putin Won’t Go Nuclear

85

News Round-Up

41

Rowan Atkinson Challenges Electric Cars as Environmental Panacea

55
A participant holds a drawing depicting Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg during a protest march to call for action against climate change, in The Hague, Netherlands September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Net Zero ‘Grocery Tax’ Will Push Shopping Bills Up by £4 Billion, Tories warned

24

The Woke Movement is an Attempt by Young, Privileged Whites to Wrest Power from Older, Privileged Whites

21

As Enthusiasm For Covid Vaccines Wanes and Millions of Unwanted Doses Expire, German Press Finally Starts Scrutinising Contracts Between Big Pharma and Government

2 June 2023
by Eugyppius

Say it Loud – I’m Plus Size and Proud!

2 June 2023
by Tony Morrison

Don’t Tell the Doomsters and Gloomsters, But Ice Around Antarctica’s Thwaites ‘Doomsday’ Glacier Was Eight Times Thinner Around 8,000 Years Ago

2 June 2023
by Chris Morrison

The West’s Hypocrisy on Uganda’s Anti-gay Law

31 May 2023
by Noah Carl

How Theresa May Made Modern Britain

31 May 2023
by J Sorel

POSTS BY DATE

March 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Feb   Apr »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment