By Chiedu Bandoh
The immune system in summary is an organ that is responsible for the protection of the body against pathogens, bacteria, toxins and even viruses. According to HEALTHLINE.COM, your immune system is your body’s version of the military: sworn to defend against all who threaten it, both foreign and domestic.
One thing I will avoid doing in this article is to write plenty of medical jargons which are difficult to comprehend, especially by lay persons like myself. However, to fully understand this you must read with patience and open mind. The question should be; why does Covid-19 virus react differently in different people?
It is no longer news that a lot of credit have been given to Covid-19 over the past few months, experts are in a hurry to come up with a solution which is for now a vaccine and not drugs, (drugs takes over 5 years to get approval). Of course while that is a great move, it is pathetic that very few people are looking at the bigger picture. Recall that there was a sickness called Scurvy which for years proved a major challenge to health workers (you can Google it), hundreds of thousands died as a result. Many health experts named a pathogen or virus as the culprit. But a hundred years later, boom: it was discovered that scurvy was not a disease like we were made to believe, but rather a deficiency in certain vitamin (Vit. C).
The reason I throwed in the scurvy example was to prepare our minds because many would still doubt simple solutions. They would prefer the complicated measures, i.e. Ventilators. When a child is born, that child is suddenly faced with a variety of exposure to germs, bacteria, and pathogens. Let’s use children from Congo (Africa) and Canada (North America) as example. The amount of bacteria and pathogens a child from Congo is exposed to if injected into ten different kids from Canada could kill them. This is not meant to downgrade the North American kid but there is a why (which I will get to shortly).
Another popular example is Wayne Rooney, the ex-England footballer who arrived Nigeria for a friendly match many years ago, he only spent a few days before he was airlifted back to UK where he was hospitalized. Why? He had contracted malaria. The same parasite can be found in hundreds of millions of Nigerians. We literarily breathe and sleep with mosquitoes. Again, this example does not mean we are stronger than the now veteran football player, no, far from it. We will get to the why if you are patient enough.
The truth is researchers before now have barely scratched the surface of the immune system, and many who might know about the immune system seem to be more interested in suppressing it for selfish reasons, for example pharmaceutical companies who are set to make trillions of dollars when a vaccine is approved. That is a topic for another day. Now the question is how does it connect? Simple.
Research recently has shown that the immune system is a very adaptive organ. That is, the moment you are born and exposed to pathogens, the immune system kicks into action by creating antibodies that help protect you against these invaders. Say for example, you get bit by a malaria giving mosquito as a child, your body immediately begins to fight for you. This is why your threshold for malaria is far higher than that of Wayne Rooney who had to be evacuated from Nigeria because of what many Nigerians would term – ordinary malaria. Don’t forget that Rooney had never been exposed to the parasite before, that’s why there reaction was adverse.
This (very briefly) brings me to vaccines which are one of the proposed means of solving this pandemic. The history of vaccines further proves that we have for many years underrated the capacity of the immune system. In the early days (17th century and earlier), the people would take a pathogen from an infected person or animal (i.e. cowpox) and use it to infect the healthy. Why? Because they understood that the healthy would become stronger. The idea behind this is to infect the person so that his/her immune system would create antibodies to fight that pathogen. This means that if a healthy person comes in contact with a virus, the body immediately gets to work in defense of the Invader. The idea of vaccines is to trick the immune system into creating antibodies for a particular pathogen. So it is not the vaccine that protects you from the virus, but rather your immune system.
The biggest lie ever told was that viruses, bacteria and pathogens could kill us. Put simply, it is a scam, viruses don’t kill us. The human body is made up of 360 trillion viruses, 60 trillion bacteria and about 6 trillion cells. So it is safe to say that our bodies are walking bacteria and viruses. Viruses, bacteria and pathogens don’t kill us. We are bigger and stronger than them (this is research backed truth). This includes Coronavirus. Many people believe that when we get in contact with viruses and bacteria, they go into our bodies and start eating away at our organs, fat lie. What actually happens is something even many MDs don’t know or they choose not to say. The body hurts itself.
Whenever a virus or pathogen get in contact with our body, within a few minutes, the body’s immune defense system intervenes with its innate response: Granulocytes, scavenger cells and killer cells from the blood and lymphatic system stream in to fight the virus. They are supported by numerous plasma proteins that either act as messengers or help to destroy the virus. And this is actually where it gets tricky. The immune system if at its optimal level would contain any pathogen or virus, that’s the simple truth. But the problem is, if it is not at its best level, the immune system becomes deadly to us.
Look at it this way. Let’s assume that the immune system in a normal condition fires on six cylinders, but when it is compromised it fires on 1 cylinder. When a virus or bacteria enters the body, the compromised immune system in an attempt to fight the intruder goes overboard. That is, it uses the one cylinder in fighting dirty, or recklessly. It is like a mad soldier who has lost his comrades and begins to shoot recklessly. It is in this process that the immune system begins to hurt not just the virus or pathogen, but also its own body cells. This is what kills, not the virus like many are made to believe. Infected CoronaVirus patient die because their immune system is dysfunctional thereby leading to it attaching it own cells, tissues and organs. It’s simple.
When we talk about vaccines as solution I laugh because vaccines are just like a bandaid used to wrap a wound. Or it’s like patching a tire. The dysfunctional immune response which harms us is as a result of underlying preexisting condition which includes: Obesity, diabetes, smoking, heart disease amongst others. Instead of talking about vaccines, the world should be looking at the root cause of the problem which is poor immune health and how to tackle it. The focus should be on boosting the immune system of the compromised which is less than 15 percent of the world population. Why should we vaccinate over 7 billion people because of less than 50 million?
Do you know that a report from One America News (OAN) confirms that New York Governor Andrew said that 21 percent of New Yorkers sampled and tested randomly tested positive for CoronaVirus antibodies. That means they have had the virus at some stage and recovered without falling sick (asymptomatic). That means the fatality of the virus is 0.5 percent as against the 3.5 percent earlier recorded. This means that common flu kills more than CoronaVirus in New York. Diabetes kills more than the virus, heart disease kills more than the virus, but nobody is shutting the world down because of those.
Now the talk about a solution should focus on boosting the immune system so that it can fire on all cylinders. Research have shown that certain vitamin will go a long way in strengthening the immune system. Vitamins A, C and especially D helps the immune system. Asking people to stay indoors leaves them vulnerable because if you are indoor then you can’t get the cheapest vitamin (D) which comes from sunlight.
Don’t be surprised if those who should be recommending these simple solutions shy away from it, it all boils down to vested interest. Don’t forget that a vaccine solution would cost about 7 trillion dollars (who is benefiting from that?) Whereas a simpler solution as recommended by top immunologist and inventor of email, Dr V.A. Shiva, involves boosting the immune system with something as cheap as vitamin D, vitamin A and vitamin C. And for critical patients, high dose of IV vitamin C.
