BY DR. JOSE MA. EDUARDO P. DACUDAO
(Continued from Oct. 22-23, 2022)
HOW ABOUT today? Yes, we still do get lots of flu cases. The viruses nowadays may be mutated descendants of the ones that caused the Spanish flu. So why don’t they kill as proficiently as they did? Really deadly strains just can’t transmit themselves before killing their hosts. Host populations develop widespread immunity and resistance. It has always been that way for epidemics and pandemics – they run their course. None of the measures taken by the governments and medical personnel of 1918, from mandatory face masks to quarantined wards, have been proven to have been effective by any study.
How do we minimize contracting the flu? Permanent social distancing? Frankly, I haven’t seen a study definitively proving its effectiveness. Masks? Surgical masks are cheaper but it’s the N95 (especially designed to closely fit over a person’s face) that has been recommended by the World Health Organization for medical personnel. For patients the WHO recommends that they cover themselves with surgical masks. Again there doesn’t seem to be a study that definitively proves N95 masks are better than plain surgical masks. And wearing and discarding N95 masks (which are more expensive than common surgical masks) all the time is costly, impairs a health worker’s ability to communicate with patients, distracts, and may feel uncomfortable to the nose. Why not just wear a more comfortable surgical mask in the presence of obviously sick patients and stay several meters away from them? While also having the flu patients cover themselves with said masks.
The point is that most of state agencies’ recommendations (facemask, face shield, social distancing for a meter or so, and so on) are actually just things that appear rationale, without definitive proof of effectivity from extensive scientific experiments. (And unfortunately they could easily turn into rackets, especially if there is the possibility of a government and a company making a deal for a particular brand of mask or shield. The same might be true for expensive undertakings such as repeated swab tests and vaccinations, but those are topics for another day.)
Having said that, there are many commonsensical and logical things that we can do easily, even without proof of definitive scientific experiments (which can be extremely expensive, lengthy, and difficult to do in a worldwide scale, keeping in mind that pandemics are indeed worldwide). The obvious thing is to avoid contact with the obviously sick. And if you are the one sick, try not to sneeze and cough freely into the air, by covering your face with tissue or at the very least with your hands if there is no tissue paper around. Or as mentioned above, wear a mask. Dispose of the tissue or mask properly afterward. (This could be a problem though as I will discuss below.) Disinfectants and detergents generally inactivate flu viruses. So wash your hands with such. The virus supposedly may remain infectious for a week at normal human temperature. So it certainly won’t do harm for you to avoid touching things that may have been contaminated by expectorated aerosols from a coughing or sneezing patient, at least for a week. Have these potentially contaminated things washed with disinfectants and detergents, or dispose of them properly.
The surest way to dispose of those pesky germs and the things they contaminate is to burn them of course. Thing is, we have a (hopefully to be modified or abrogated) passé law on Clean Air, that illegalizes the incineration of plastics. And most contaminated things from a hospital and the sick that are handled by other people closely are plastic. Clothes, diapers, bottles, bags, containers, cleaning scrubs and foams, and all sorts of medical paraphernalia including facemasks. Here is a brief summary. Polyethylene or polythene (PE), Chemical formula (C2H4) [plastic bags, bottles, syringes, etc…]. Polypropylene or polypropene (PP), Chemical formula (C3H6)n [plastic vials, ropes seats, etc…]. Polyethylene terephthalate or poly(ethylene terephthalate, (PET, PETE), Chemical formula (C10H8O4)n ) [polyester fabric, bottles for food and liquids, etc…]. Polystyrene (PS), Chemical formula (C8H8)n [Styrofoam]. Polycarbonates (PC), Chemical formula C15H16O2 [water container in water dispensers, etc…]. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), Chemical formula (C5O2H8)n [acrylic, acrylic glass, also known by brand names such as Plexiglas and Perspex]. Polyurethane (PUR and PU), Chemical formula (NH2COOH) [rigid and flexible foams, scrubs, varnishes, adhesives, spandex]. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Chemical formula (C2H3Cl)n [piping].
What do you notice about the chemical composition of the plastics above? They’re mostly just hydrogen and carbon, so incinerating them produces a minimum of toxic substances. Of these commercial plastics produced on a large scale, the exception to safe combustion is chlorine-containing plastics like Polyvinyl Chlorides (PVCs) which can produce carcinogenic dioxins. The rest you can burn and get mostly water and carbon dioxide, just like burning paper. It must be pointed out that incineration is legal and routine in a multitude of countries, including in the USA, Europe, China, Japan, and so on. One notable point is that cremation, which our laws allow, is equivalent to the incineration of a human body; and incinerating a vertebrate body (rich in sulfur and chlorine which produces sulfur dioxide and carcinogenic chlorine-containing dioxins) produces far more pollutants than burning plastic.
One thing we have today that wasn’t around in 1918 is flu vaccines. Are they effective? As far as I can tell, the subject is still debated. Some doctors though have themselves vaccinated for the flu, just to be on the safe side, and recommend it for the elderly as well.
So in the battle of the pandemics, who’s the clearest winner? Or rather who’s the darkest killer? The Spanish flu or today’s COVID?
In any case, the commonsensical things we can do to minimize infections noted above should hold true for both Influenza and COVID./PN
