I'm going to quote a big portion of the article but I will also link the article if you want to read the entire thing. It's very interesting.
I do remember studying immunology in medical school -- by the way it's one of the most difficult courses I took. Very detailed. But one thing I do remember that stood out to me was that by not exposing yourself to germs, you develop allergies. Now of course there's a fine line between getting sick all the time and living a normal germ free hygienic life. But for example, children who are not exposed to pets during childhood often end up allergic. Same thing with certain foods. Obviously, the more you are exposed to, the more antibodies you produce and carry with you. And the more protected you are against myriad diseases.
If I remember correctly the hypothesis or theory is that your immune system begins to recognize what is normal and what is pathogenic, the more antigens it is exposed to. And the more antibodies it produces against pathogens. When the immune system doesn't have anything to fight it starts getting confused and attacking normal cells. That's one theory about autoimmune diseases. Which is still not well understood.
Remember the story about the milk maids? Well you probably don't, since you didn't study immunology, :-). Back during the smallpox epidemic it was discovered that milk maids who were exposed to cowpox did not get smallpox. Even though they were different viruses, they were related enough that the antibodies produced against cowpox worked against smallpox as well. Cowpox is a much milder disease than smallpox. Therefore, the milkmaids got cowpox, recovered, and were immune to smallpox. This is how the smallpox vaccine came about.
Believe it or not, we are exposed to pathogens all the time. Or at least to microbes. Some are nonpathogenic. Leave a petri dish exposed to air for a few minutes and then incubate it. You'll find all kinds of things growing on it. Molds, bacteria, fungus, yeast. I'm sure you would also find viruses if you could see them. They are only visible under an electron microscope. Plus they don't survive long outside of a host. But my point is, we coexist with microbes. They are floating in the air. We breathe them, eat them -- our immune system takes care of most microbes and pathogens without our knowledge of being exposed.
Herd immunity is an interesting concept. You may have heard about this with all of the coronavirus talk going on. I don't know. But I will explain it as I learned it in medical school. People who are immune to a disease actually protect others from the disease. This works because people carrying antibodies to a disease do not spread it to others. Thereby protecting the herd. If I remember correctly, at least 30% of the herd must be immune for this to work. Of course, the higher percentage of immunity in the herd, the more protective herd immunity is. This is why vaccinations are so important. They not only protect you but other people also. But, just being exposed to disease and producing antibodies -- whether you ever become symptomatic or not -- produces immunity. Also protecting the herd.
Now, after your mini immunology lesson here are the excerpts from the article I mentioned (link at end of article):
"More importantly, the deep knowledge of viruses garnered from studying both the original H1N1 flu and polio strongly implies that, if we continue to over-react and over-protect people from COVID 19, we risk turning it into a much more lethal virus.
...
"Our current everyone-stay-home approach is anything but enlightened by immunological theory. Quite the opposite: As billions of people worldwide are currently in their homes, in close confinement, in situations of extreme fear and psychological distress, being told by their governments to go to the grocery store as rarely as possible, we are creating an environment which is more and more conducive for facilitating a virus with enhanced virulence in the future. How are we doing this?
1) Lowering everyone’s resistance to viruses by scaring, stressing, and discouraging them from normal activities including buying food and drink.
2) Keeping everyone at home in effect creates just the immunosuppressive scenario that fosters flu during the winter time -- cold, close quarters and stress.
3) Discouraging direct human contact including hugging and kissing, and directly loving one another suppresses immunity. With social distancing, our species never would have made it this far.
4) Preventing young people from being exposed to COVID 19 short circuits “herd immunity.”
"In stark contrast to the quixotic fantasies driving our stay-at-home American approach, which sees all new viruses as equally terrifying, British health authorities are taking the more sober approach, one which is solidly based on contemporary virological, immunological and evolutionary biological theory: letting children go to school, to acquire COVID 19 and become naturally immune is absolutely the best way to assure that this new virus learns to peacefully coexist with we human beings. Viruses have always been with us, and are part of our very genomes.
"I have met few modern immunologists who believe, as Dr. Fauci does, that washing one’s hands 50 times a day is the best way to stay healthy. At the Ghost lab at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology in the 2000s, we often discussed how over-cleanliness and over-protection from viruses and bacteria was a very poor public health approach: too much hand washing actually prevents normal development of the immune system, and leads to autoimmune and other immune-regulatory disturbances later in life. That “hygiene hypothesis” is well known and well accepted by most immunologists." -- Viruses 101: How Overprotecting People from COVID 19 Could Make it More Lethal, By Brandon P. Reines, April 14, 2020 (Brandon P. Reines’s academic appointments include adjunct assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Visiting Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics, Australia National University)
Now, we should still wash our hands. That's the best way to prevent the spread of pathogenic disease. But, don't be OCD about it. Social distancing among healthy people is stupid. First of all it doesn't stop the spread of disease. It may slow it -- which is another topic(tomorrow perhaps). But letting nature take its course, thereby building up herd immunity in the healthy population, actually prevents more disease and death than this ridiculous social distancing, lock down, stay at home garbage. The way to create monster viruses (by mutation) is to do exactly what we are doing. Putting a bunch of immunosuppressed people (caused by stress) together in close quarters. Brilliant!
The human race has survived for millennia without tyrannical governments forcing the entire world population into quarantine. When is everyone going to realize that this is causing much more harm to everyone than any good it may be doing? Honestly, I don't see one advantage to this craziness. It's insane.
Give us back our freedoms and let us live our lives as we choose.
That's my two cents.
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