A COVID-19 Vaccine Is NOT Coming Anytime Soon: Herd Immunity Will Have to Do — AFTER We Turn Off Cytokine Storm!
Let’s not kid ourselves with irrational optimism: A vaccine against COVID-19 is not coming anytime soon!
An optimistic guess, assuming scientists can actually create and test an effective vaccine, is over one year from now.
But by then, it’ll be too late!
Are we going to keep our economy shut down till then?
Or are we going to open things back up and have our healthcare system experience catastrophic destruction?
When Dr. Fauci and other Trump administration officials talk about a vaccine, I’m reminded of the Titanic’s distress calls after it hit the iceberg. The ships rushing to the scene to help were too far and too slow to get to them.
A COVID-19 vaccine is too far and too slow to help us now.
This is what being in between a rock and a hard place feels like, America!
But, just like with any complex problem, there are often simple solutions lurking in what appears to be confusing and complex existential challenge. If only we could exercise some “clarity of purpose and focused attention” as citizens and professionals to identify the Achilles Heel of the problem.
I believe that there is a simple solution to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Immunologists for over a hundred years now have understood a concept called Herd Immunity. That’s when a new pathogen that is not endemic, spreads through the population and eventually causes immunity. Herd Immunity is nature’s vaccine.
In fact, in the old days a lot of people used Herd Immunity to cure things like Chicken-pox. I remember vividly, when a kid in the family or neighborhood came down with chicken-pox, it was time for a “chicken-pox party”….Folks would get the kids together to pass it around and “get it over with”.
Of course, relying on Herd Immunity could be dangerous. Because unlike vaccines, the bugs cause disease in people and, as is the case with COVID-19, a fraction of those affected could get very sick or die. And when the pathogen is brand new (i.e., when it is not endemic), and almost everyone is susceptible to getting infected, that could mean a lot of people would die very quickly. A lot of deaths in a short period of time is not compatible with our current urban and globalized human social organization.
So the problem with using Herd Immunity to manage COVID-19 is simply this: way too many people are susceptible to getting sick all at once — and, though most people recover well from COVID-19 by themselves, the large number of people susceptible to getting infected means that a huge number will become very ill or die in a short period of time. The massive numbers or critically ill or dead will be simply too high for our society and healthcare institutions to handle.
So, really, COVID-19’s Achilles Heel is its “kill mechanism”.
In other words, if we could somehow “turn off” this virus’ “kill mechanism”, such that most people would not become critically ill or die from it, then the “COVID-19 vaccine” would be right in front of our faces: Good old HERD IMMUNITY!
Forget about PPEs, masks and gloves, social distancing, and ventilators! If we could turn-off COVID-19’s, “kill mechanism”….The solution will be COVID-19 parties beach parties and concerts all over the world!
But, the critical question is, how do we BLOCK COVID-19’s “kill mechanism”? THAT, is the million dollar question.
I think that answer to THAT question is also staring at us right in the face — as we hysterically blow past it: COVID-19’s “kill mechanism” seems to be a hyperimmune Cytokine Storm syndrome, like the one physicians know as “Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis”, or HLH for short. Doctors already have very specific and effective ways to turn off HLH Cytokine Storms.
So really, the question is how quickly medical professionals in America will get their act together, stop acting hysterically, or about far fetched pipe dreams or useless mitigation and treatment straetgies and, instead, think collectively and strategically about COVID-19’s “kill mechanism”: A HLH-like Cytokine Storm syndrome.
I’ve written about one of the most highly effective, broadly available and generic drugs that is used to block hyperimmune diseases and HLH Cytokine Storms, by doctors all over the world. It is called CYCLOSPORINE — and I think there is very good scientific and clinical reasons to believe that this drug will most likely also block COVID-19’s “kill mechanism”. You can read about this proposition, HERE.
So, I think its high time for our healthcare professionals and regulators to stop acting hysterically about the COVID-19 pandemic — and start thinking reasonably. Here’s the recipe for stopping the carnage and recovering the global economy:
STEP 1: Deploy CYCLOSPORINE, and well-established related drugs, to block COVID-19’s “kill mechanism” and progression to Cytokine Storm and death.
STEP 2: Call for international “COVID-19 parties and gathering” to immunize the masses, using nature’s time tested vaccine: Herd Immunity!
If we do not do this, not only will the vaccine we are wishfully hoping for NEVER arrive in time, but our social distancing practices will kill the global economy and government structures we ALL rely on for our survival.
It’s time for the medical profession to stop being hysterical and start thinking critically and mechanistically. COVID-19’s “kill mechanism” is an HLH-like Cytokine Storm. And we know how to shut that shit OFF!
So, let’s shut off the Cytokine Storm and party it up people!
I write as a cellular immunologist, a physician and a friend to American public health — and to global security at large.
