Age related Covid susceptibility, a possible explanation – Chris Whitty on Tobacco and Vapes Bill – absence of students

Children are less likely than adults to develop severe Covid, because cells in their nose are better at fighting off the virus, a study suggests. 

• Lab tests show ageing adult nose cells contain 100 times more virus in the first few days after an infection.
• The lab discovery could explain why older adults are hit worst by Covid and children are rarely very ill.
• The nose is the first place Covid enters the body.
• Researchers analysed cells from the nose lining of healthy people
• They then grew the nasal cells in lab dishes, infected them with coronavirus, and watched closely.
• Three days later, viewed under a microscope, the nasal epithelial cells – as they are known
• Those taken from under 12s were quick to defend against the virus and reduce viral load.
• For 30-50 year olds this protective effect was less obvious in middle-aged adults
• And in nose cells from the over 70s, there was more virus, more shedding and more damage.
• Anti-viral treatments should be tailored to different age groups, the UK researchers say.

This may explain Covid sensitivity. RSV sensitivity is quite the opposite, affecting the young much more.

This is Prof Sir Chris Whitty writing in the Guardian.

Addiction to smoking traps then slowly disables and kills thousands of our fellow citizens, especially the most vulnerable. The great majority of smokers wish they had never started, but their choice was taken away at a young age by marketing that deliberately promoted addiction to nicotine. 

• About 80,000 people a year die in the UK as a result and many more are harmed. The burden of smoking-related diseases is very heavily weighted towards people living in areas of deprivation, with about one-third of smokers in England living in the most deprived two deciles. Smoking is one of the most important modifiable drivers of the substantial inequalities in health we see across the country.

The deprivation group mentioned here may correspond with the highest rate of Covid infections according to the weekly reports.

After he wrote, the bill has passed its second reading in the Commons, albeit with Tory votes against and abstentions.

It’s about bl00dy time!

Small and select group turned up today. I still have never seen five students (of 70) in this cohort. We’re in week 11 of 12.

Music

George Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), Trumpet Suite in D Major “Mr Handel Celebrate Water Piece” HWV341, Ouverture, Allegro (Gigue), Air (Minuet), March (Bourée), March, Camerata Estense Baroque Orchestra, Michele Santi, baroque trumpet