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The Delta variant: It’s moving faster. It’s deadlier. It either is or is close to the most infectious agent on the earth in recorded medicine.
By
Published: Jul 25, 2021
Category:
Health
Infuriating, isn’t?
You did everything right. Stayed home. Masked everywhere. Gained weight, walked it off. Tipped delivery people generously, donated to food banks, cheered essential workers at 7 PM. Said goodbye to the dying on FaceTime. Most important of all: got vaccinated. And now, out of courtesy, you still wear masks in stores that require masks for employees.
Along the way, you were astonished by friends and family who declined vaccination. When they said that Gates put chips in the vaccine, you didn’t respond, “Oh, is that why tech and car companies are short of chips?” When they said it’s important to know if COVID started in a lab or an open-air market before they decide to get vaccinated, you didn’t ask them why that knowledge could possibly matter. When they bitched about airline restrictions, you didn’t say, “If you can’t board a flight with more than 3.4 ounces of liquid, why should you be allowed to fly with a deadly virus?” When they said it’s “coercion” to tell unvaccinated people they can’t drink wine in a bar or listen to live music, you didn’t respond: “Why isn’t it ‘coercion’ to tell people they can’t smoke in restaurants?” And then they took the self-serving “wisdom” of an… osteopath as good reason to dismiss science?
No, you said none of those things, because either you are too stupid to understand that we are in the grip of a “Great Reset,” with the usual suspects using a disease no deadlier than the flu to take over the world, or perhaps because the past 15 months have taught you that formerly smart but suddenly stupid friends are a lost cause — and you have quietly dropped them. Ok, one chore done. What next? Right: your survival.
This Butler addresses two questions:
– We gratefully took the vaccine. Can we still get COVID? And if so, can we die? Will we possibly need to be hospitalized?
– What can we do to strengthen our immune systems, the better to avoid or minimize COVID?
William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology and a faculty member of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, summarizes the threat:
Delta is highly transmissible — about 60 percent more so than the previously dominant Alpha, which was itself more transmissible than the original virus — and more virulent.
Delta’s higher transmissibility means it can infect people before we get to offer them protection with vaccines — and the vast majority of the world has not yet been vaccinated. It appears that, in comparison with the previously dominant virus, Delta produces higher viral loads earlier in infection, which may mean that it’s even more infectious during the period when people don’t yet realize they’re infected. It also appears that Delta is more able to cause so-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, although, fortunately, the resulting infections are comparatively mild.
Delta’s greater virulence means that unvaccinated people who become infected will be sicker and the burden on the health care system will be greater. Evidence suggests, for example, that an unvaccinated person with Delta infection is roughly twice as likely to require hospital treatment than a person infected with the previously dominant variant.
Even if Delta hasn’t come to your town yet, it will. And sooner than you think.
What can you do? Exercise. I’m too nervous to go to the gym, but unless the city is in a heat lockdown, I walk 6,000 to 10,000 steps a day, always in the most comfortable shoes, Allbirds.
And I take the same supplements I took — and recommended — last year:
VITAMIN C
Most of the Vitamin C in pills or capsules never reaches the bloodstream. Estimates of its absorption rate are less than 50%. Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C has a 90% absorption rate. Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C isn’t cheap. Thirty packets cost a dollar per dose. The Amazon reviews are extremely positive. My take: I’ve taken this daily for 5 years. It’s the most important supplement I take. [To read more on Butler, click here. To buy a 30 dose box of Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C, click here.]
VITAMIN D
Clinical trials show that taking vitamin D supplements reduces the risk of experiencing at least one respiratory infection, including influenza and pneumonia, by a third, with positive benefits seen within 3 weeks. [To buy Vitamin D3 Enhanced with Coconut Oil from Amazon, click here. To buy Vitamin D3 in Fruit Flavored Gummies from Amazon, click here.]
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR GUMMY VITAMINS
Apple cider vinegar contains potassium, which thins mucus. The acetic acid in it prevents germ growth, which could contribute to nasal congestion. [To buy Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies from Amazon, click here.]
WALKING
The New York Times: “If you want a healthy heart, the more you exercise, the better, according to an encouraging new study of the links between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. It finds that people who often exercise and stay active are much less likely to develop heart disease than people who rarely move..” The most comfortable shoes to walk in are “the most comfortable shoes ever made. Allbirds. $95. A bargain. Click for why and how to buy.
AIR PURIFIER
In late July, with COVID spiking again, Wirecutter — the New York Times-owned site that reviews products — took another look at air purifiers. The Times report: “Our pick among small-space purifiers, the Levoit Core 300, is a true-HEPA machine, and has a CADR of 135, which means it’s effective in rooms up to 200 square feet.” If you’re going to be entertaining indoors in small rooms, this may be a very good thing to have. I wrote about it last winter. Some of you bought it. I published their enthusiastic responses. For the Butler review, click here.
MASKS
Pretend you’re living in Beijing. [To buy a pack of 15 disposable masks from Amazon, click here. To buy washable high quality masks with a filter pocket from Alice Glass, a Butler reader and theatre artist in Berkeley, click here.]
GINGER TEA
Ginger has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. But not so much in tea bags or pills. You want fresh ginger root. Peel it. Slice it. Boil it in a lot of hot water, enough for several cups. Pour it, slices and all, so it steeps, into a Zojirushi Stainless Steel Thermos. In the cup, I add a little honey. [To read about this remarkable thermos and buy it from Amazon, click here.]
COFFEE
Set aside that it makes you more alert, thus better prepared to respond to the next challenging round of COVID news. Think long-term. From the Times:
Coffee has been linked to a reduced risk of all kinds of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, depression, suicide, cirrhosis, liver cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer.
In fact, in numerous studies conducted throughout the world, consuming four or five eight-ounce cups of coffee (or about 400 milligrams of caffeine) a day has been associated with reduced death rates. In a study of more than 200,000 participants followed for up to 30 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day, with or without caffeine, were 15 percent less likely to die early from all causes than were people who shunned coffee. Perhaps most dramatic was a 50 percent reduction in the risk of suicide among both men and women who were moderate coffee drinkers, perhaps by boosting production of brain chemicals that have antidepressant effects.
For everything I know about the preparation of coffee, click here.
This too shall pass.
