News Updates from Dr. Baxter Feb. 17, 2021

• Why we think schools are safer from COVID than FLU
• A Week in the Life

FLU vs. COVID

Kids are germ-balls, so the fact that COVID was sparing the youngest while hitting the oldest members of our population is actually the key to understanding transmission. Since this does not always make the news, people are aghast that clenbuterol achat the CDC is recommending kids go back to school. In fact, though, the way SARS-CoV-2 spreads is why I feel good about kids going back to school, even though it actually MIGHT lead to a burst of flu.

Respiratory Droplets

Both COVID and flu are spread by respiratory droplets. For this reason, even before the 2020 flurry of mask articles, it was recognized that mask-wearing is much more useful than hand-washing for fighting Flu. https://lnkd.in/dNvcavB

However, SARS-CoV-2 also spreads in aerosols small enough to linger, whereas sneezing, coughing, and – to a much bigger extent – touching objects spreads flu. While flu can enter through the mouth, eyes, or nose through touching, most COVID enters through the specific wiggly “ciliated epithelia” past the nose in the nasal cavities.

Viral Load Volume

While touching a doorknob and then biting a nail or wiping a nose can transmit flu, a kid would have trouble inserting enough virus into the nasal cavity by nose-picking. Plus, while SARS-C0v-2 survives on surfaces, it is not likely to be infectious from there, because SARS-CoV-2 has to be nasally inhaled.

While adults and kids have the same immune response when the virus enters, it is the total viral load volume that matters. Nasal cavities grow with age, with adult males having the largest, and children not even having fully developed sinuses until age 12. Even if the swab shows the same viral load, the tank size is SO much different, so kids spread and catch COVID less.

A Week in the Life

This is an experiment, so if you’re not so interested, please let me know what you would like to know about me, our company, or our activities.

Low Back Pain Device Development 

A research grant from NIH NIDA allows us to evaluate whether the Buzzy/Vibracool mechanical frequency can reduce opioid use for people with low back pain. The working-title “Duotherm” was ready for tooling, but the clinical outcomes of the patients were not quite as good with the slick professional-looking one as the homemade one we tried first. So, we are “back” to the drawing board for two small changes.

HHS Vaccine Advisory Committee Testimony & New Studies

Last week, I was invited by the Health and Human Services Vaccine Advisory Committee to testify on needle fear. It was the honor of a lifetime. I have dedicated my professional life to researching and developing solutions to improve healthcare delivery. Now that needle fear is understood to be a barrier to healthcare, we can make informed decisions to accelerate herd immunity against COVID. See my testimony here.

This week, we learned about two new studies with good new info on Buzzy. One is a poster on Port Access from Sweden – so exciting!

Sorry for the long missive, keep those cards and letters coming,

Amy