This article contains:
Danger of the Internet During COVID-19 Outbreaks
Could Antibody Testing Be Helpful For Coronavirus?
Danger of the Internet During COVID-19 Outbreaks
Written By: Pimtawan Jatupornpakdee
COVID-19 is a mass topic of discussion flying around recently. There are thousands of news updates about the situations and predictions of the disease daily, but can all those news be trusted? Recently, the President of America talked about how injecting disinfectants directly into our body and exposing our body to UV light can be the cure to the COVID-19. Although these information came from the President, they have not been scientifically proven. Furthermore, this claim of the cure may bring danger to innocent citizens who put trust in the news and their president. Disinfectants are common chemicals that you can find in your household such as isopropyl alcohol, bleach, and lysol. Bleach is one of the most common disinfectants found in every household. This chemical should be kept away from children’s hands. Just from inhaling the chemical, the lungs and other organs could be damaged from it. These chemicals are not to be used both internally and externally. Injecting disinfectants to our body then would cause fatal danger to our body. Body exposure to UV light also might not be the best cure for this disease since UV light can cause skin cancer, sunburn, and many more dangerous diseases. Mainly, UV light would damage our skin cells. Some sources might claim that exposure to UV light would benefit our health because we would receive vitamins from the light, but long exposure to the light would damage our skin more than benefitting it. During this outbreak, people are in self-quarantine to avoid unnecessary contacts with other people. The best way we could socialize with others and receive news updates is through social media. Despite the fact that social media meets the needs of social distancing, it doesn’t filter all the news posted in the public. This makes some sites more unreliable than others. Many health organizations came out to warn about this danger as well as the danger in self-treatments. The best solution to find treatments right now is to discuss it with a knowledgeable doctor instead of internet claimed doctors. It is understandable that some people would panic from the current situation, but it is best to put trust in only trustable sites and ignore unscientific information.
Could Antibody Testing Be Helpful For Coronavirus?
Written By: Nayada Deevisetpunt
Antibody tests, tests that are able to detect whether a person has been infected with COVID-19 at some point in their life, might be helpful for doctors and government officials during this coronavirus pandemic. This method could be a very important step towards reopening the community while awaiting for a vaccine to cure this virus. Recently, antibody tests have gained much attention since they are designed to show whether a person ever had encountered COVID-19 or not, despite not showing any symptoms or not having any clues that he or she was infected. This type of testing looks for antibodies (proteins in the blood) left over after our body fights off a disease. After the body’s immune system detects a new infection, the white blood cells would respond to this by producing antibodies to fight the invader. These antibodies neutralize the foreign pathogen, destroying and removing it from our body. Even when the invader has been destroyed, our body would continue to produce antibodies in case the invader ever comes back again. The leftover antibodies produced by our immune system is what the coronavirus antibody tests are looking for. While testing for COVID-19 includes collecting samples swabbed from the back of the nasal cavity, antibody testing is done by collecting blood samples in order to look for evidence of the body’s immune response. A person will have to give some blood, through a finger prick, for doctors to test for antibodies to this virus. The two kinds of antibodies include IgM antibodies (developed early in an infection) and IgG antibodies (likely to show up after a person is recovered). A positive result for this virus would mean that a person was exposed to SARS-CoV-2 at some point, and that his or her immune system was strong enough to produce antibodies to fight off this disease. This might mean that a person has full, partial, or no immunity at all. Because antibodies decrease over time, a person might be immune for about 6 months to a year, or fortunately the rest of his or her life; there is no way definitive answers could be given at this moment. This method is very important since many who contract this disease are presymptomatic, meaning that there are times when they may not produce or show any symptoms. However, antibody testing does not reveal whether a person is “currently” infected with the virus nor have they recovered from it. Antibody testing only shows that a person, at some point, had the virus; it shows nothing more and nothing less than this. Unfortunately, unlike SARS, MERS, or other diseases caused by coronavirus where a positive antibody test would indicate some degree of immunity towards the virus, scientists do not have enough information to confirm any immunity about this new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
Sources:
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/coronavirus-antibody-testing-a-big-deal-what-to-know-about-the-promising-serology-tests/ https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/cancerwise/7-things-to-know-about-coronavirus-COVID19-antibody-testing.h00-159381156.html https://www.webmd.com/lung/antibody-testing-covid-19#1
Comments