One of the big outcomes of the pandemic for me was developing a far better understanding of the concept of viral load, and why it can be extremely important to do everything possible to reduce viral load if/when one contracts an infection, whether SARS-CoV-2 or otherwise.
One reason why this doesn't get talked about as frequently when talking about potential treatments is because many of the methods that should get used to reduce viral load don't have major money-making opportunities attached to them. Paxlovid is one exception in that it is getting promoted, but then again, in my (certainly limited!) view it isn't that great a tool because there's still a rebound that happens.
Other methods include ramping up sick room air filtration (and/or overall ventilation - keep the windows open!), saline nasal rinses, and antiviral or virus-reducing nasal sprays. It seems that infections get started in the sinuses before migrating to other, more troubling destinations (deep in lungs; nervous tissue).
I also definitely now think differently about sharing air with other people, but weigh a range of factors when deciding how I will approach any particular situation. I will always and forevermore fly masked, but I will generally not mask up to teach or visit coffeeshops or restaurants at this point, unless I start to see signs of very high local disease transmission rates again. (e.g. stuff getting spread in the communal living situation of a college campus...which absolutely and definitely happens.).
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One of the big outcomes of the pandemic for me was developing a far better understanding of the concept of viral load, and why it can be extremely important to do everything possible to reduce viral load if/when one contracts an infection, whether SARS-CoV-2 or otherwise.
One reason why this doesn't get talked about as frequently when talking about potential treatments is because many of the methods that should get used to reduce viral load don't have major money-making opportunities attached to them. Paxlovid is one exception in that it is getting promoted, but then again, in my (certainly limited!) view it isn't that great a tool because there's still a rebound that happens.
Other methods include ramping up sick room air filtration (and/or overall ventilation - keep the windows open!), saline nasal rinses, and antiviral or virus-reducing nasal sprays. It seems that infections get started in the sinuses before migrating to other, more troubling destinations (deep in lungs; nervous tissue).
I also definitely now think differently about sharing air with other people, but weigh a range of factors when deciding how I will approach any particular situation. I will always and forevermore fly masked, but I will generally not mask up to teach or visit coffeeshops or restaurants at this point, unless I start to see signs of very high local disease transmission rates again. (e.g. stuff getting spread in the communal living situation of a college campus...which absolutely and definitely happens.).