Get the facts right to beat the virus: Canadian Doc
Published on: Sunday, March 29, 2020
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Dr. Peter Lin.
Understand how the virus work, how it transmits, where it wants to go, do the right things not to get the virus nor pass it to others, then we don’t have anything to worry about nor panic, argues Toronto hailed Canadian physician Dr Peter Lin, in a YouTube talk watched by more than two million.
This is probably the most lucid and enlightening clip in this hour of global panic over this dire health concern.
Some members of the Coronavirus cause only mild common flu
“The Coronavirus is a family of viruses that can cause as mild things as just a common flu, all the way up to SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome). SARS and MERS are bad pneumonia we are talking about and basically, these are the viruses we are talking about.
They look like a tennis ball with all the spikes sticking out of it and depending on the type (structure) of the spikes, it allows the virus to attach to certain places (along the respiratory system),” Dr Lin explains in simple language.
“Some virus have spikes that attach to your nose so basically you just get a common cold,” he explains.
This Coronavirus COVID-19 attacks and destroys the lung
“But SARS virus and this new virus that we are talking about now has spikes that allow it to attach, enter and attack the cells in your lung and when it attacks there (attacked cells die, fill lung’s airways/sacs with fluid and debris so the victim suffers severe respiratory stress, can’t breathe while the virus hijacks the DNA of living cells there to replicate) to put in the information to make photocopies of itself.
So it uses our equipment to make more viruses,” Dr Lin provides a very interesting insight on how COVID-19 operates”.
Where does this new Coronavirus come from
“Most Coronavirus live in animals, then it crosses the human. In this particular case, it was from Wuhan.
There was a fish market where they were selling live animals and the thought is the virus was in live animals and it crossed into a human.
But then what we found was people getting sick in terms of healthcare workers, in terms of family members who were looking after them, which now meant that the virus passed from human to another human.”
Readers should bear in mind though there are heated controversies on where the Coronavirus first originated and where it first appeared but we will not delve into it here.
Covid-19 targets the lung but can’t get in without help
He adds: “ Just like all viruses it needs to reach a target which is your lung and it wants to get there with your help because it has no feet and no wings. So, therefore, it needs us to move there.
This is why we keep saying: don’t hang around sneezy people because you are gonna breathe it in.
Don’t touch your face because that’s how the virus is going to get in. The masks are helpful but they are not necessary because they are leaky since the virus is a nano particle.
The ones that you and I buy are helpful but they are not necessary because they are leaky so therefore the virus can get in.
What the masks really do is they stop us from touching our face. If you are sick, we tend to mask you so therefore you are not spewing out the virus to other people sitting around you.
The true people who have the real mask are the N95. These are sealed, these are for doctors who may be caring for patients. “
The tell-tell sign of Covid-19 attack
What are the tell-tell signs of a Covid-19 attack?
“In the beginning, the Coronavirus will cause a kind of flu-like symptoms or a cold.
So people just get the stuffy nose that kind of thing. But you will understand that as soon as that virus starts to manufacture in your lung cells, they are producing and replicating all these copies of the virus.
Then all of a sudden now they kill the lung cells.
So now you can’t exchange oxygen and that’s why the early symptom is people get very short of breath and they tend to have difficult time breathing and that’s why they end up in the hospital where unfortunately currently we don’t have a direct treatment for the Coronavirus (speaking on 2 March 2020 in Toronto).
We don’t have a medication that can kill it off and so it’s a supportive process.
As the patient can’t breathe we give them oxygen to help them breathe, we give them fluids to support them, their kidneys begin to shut down, we help them with those things.”
A virus on the rampage across the world – why?
Why is the Coronavirus able to go on the rampage and frighten the whole world?
“This is a new virus that we have never seen before, so our immune system, our army are having a hard time figuring out what to do.
So usually what we have to do we make something called antibodies which can grab on to the spikes that we see on the virus and it will get rid of the virus for you and that will actually bring you back to good health.
But the elderly may have the worst outcome because their immune system may not be so good either so they may not make those antibodies as well.”
So, how to avoid catching it?
Remember one thing: Coronavirus can’t hurt unless you help it: Dr Lin
“ Just remember your hands maybe with the virus which makes your hands hands your own vectors! The virus cannot hurt you because it can’t get through your skin but the moment I put my hands to touch my face now we brought the virus right to where it wants to go.
So let’s remember not to touch our hands to our faces.
But what if you might have bumped into somebody or you have been to a place or in a flight that have it, the first thing could e see your doctor or call a paramedic or hospital, even if you don’t have any symptoms, that what we do is a little bit of self quarantine just keep you away from other people so that you don’ go into parties, don’t go with your friends, don’t go into public transportation so that we can contain it very sassily by making sure that you do a self confinement lets’ say form 7 to 14 days is the longest incubation time.
After that you are feeling well then you don’t have anything to worry about.
If you get the facts right then we don’t have to be overly worried but we do the right things so that we don’t get the virus ourselves and that we don’t pass it on to others and if we look after each other in this way this virus will have nowhere to go, It needs us to move it, it needs us to make copies of itself to destroy our lung and if we don’t help it, then the virus will stop.
So we have the power to do that, right now,” Dr Lin concluded emphatically.
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