Here are three overlooked methods of treating respiratory and disseminated infections that resemble the one caused by the COVID-19 virus.
The first method is Gargling. Even though a good deal of inhaled COVID-19 virus immediately penetrates into the lungs, some remains in the throat where it replicates to very high numbers–for instance, a peak at 711,000,000 RNA copies per throat swab day 4 (Wölfel R et al. Nature 2020;Apr 1). According to a Reinforcement Model of COVID-19, many of these replicates are aspirated or otherwise descend into the lungs, where they furnish reinforcements that cumulatively outweigh the replication of the initial penetrating dose. The replicated virus in the oral cavity also transmits the infection to others via breathing, speaking, and coughing. Japanese research studies show that gargling wards off respiratory infections. Povidone-iodine, the green tea extract EGCG, and hypertonic saline have been found effective in various studies.
The second method is Halotherapy. Russian research studies show that inhaled dry microparticles of salt in halotherapy can help destroy virus in the nasal passages and throat as well as penetrating into the alveoli (if under 5 microns). There they activate immune cells and, with their strong negative charge, adhere to virus, interfering with its replication and disrupting it with chloride ions. In a trial against upper respiratory tract infections, prophylactic halotherapy dramatically outperformed placebo. Methods of nasal lavage are also effective, but not directly for the lungs. Many people resist them, whereas halotherapy is less intrusive and so obtains higher adherence. Halotherapy can also be used to clear virus from the air of a classroom, for instance. See the video Halotherapy versus COVID-19.
Respiratory infections are a numbers game. Effective adjuvants can come to the rescue of a beleaguered immune system. CDC should recommend gargling and halotherapy to all Americans, but that will not happen soon. Instead, we should adopt these approaches on our own. Gargling and halotherapy can support reopening economies, while poor people worldwide can help protect themselves with these inexpensive adjuvant treatments.1
The third method is treatment of the blood with Biophotonic Therapy, a means of oxygenating the blood and stimulating the entire immune system, with a track record of effectiveness against respiratory and disseminated infections. Instead of putting a patient on a ventilator, doctors should treat him/her with BT (aka Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation). The medical establishment has made a fundamental mistake in ignoring it for 90 years, even though BT is the leading phototherapeutic treatment of infectious diseases, as is shown by the English, German, and Russian medical literature.
Biophotonic Therapy should be the standard of care for serious COVID-19 infections. See the video discussion of BT at https://www.scientiapress.com/rethinking-biophotonic-therapy.
A devastating pandemic is not the time for punctilious insistence on the finer points of protocols of clinical trials or for unrealistic demands for mechanisms of action. It is a time for first-rate scientists to use insight, discernment, and good judgment to ascertain which therapies should be prioritized, tested, and deployed. Where are those first-rate scientists?
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Kenneth J. Dillon is an historian who writes about science, medicine, and history. See the biosketch at https://www.scientiapress.com/about-us. He is the author of a book about Biophotonic Therapy.