MINDANAO TIMES
SUNDAY, APRIL 05, 2020
Could TB vaccine protect medics from COVID-19?
7
After a long day of lockdown, how 'essential' is a drink?
SOME countries have banned alcohol, othwine and spirits stores on the list of ers say liquor shops are essential services, “essential” businesses. and one top official even suggested a tipple The New York State Liquor Stores BY ANNE-SOPHIE THILL / after another long day trapped at home can Association confirms that sales have Could a common vacWITH AFP BUREAUS be a necessary restorative. increased significantly. cine used for decades The debate around alcohol and the “In a way, we are helping the to protect against tuBY AMÉLIE BAUBEAU coronavirus pandemic touches on issues of health, the economy,” president Stefan Kalogridis told AFP. berculosis help shield economy, worker safety -- and whether for some a glass Experts also note that for people who are addicted, health workers from of wine may indeed help cope with the stress of seeing the side effects of abrupt alcohol withdrawal can include COVID-19? tremors, insomnia and nausea. While developing a specific immunisation against the their lives upended in the space of weeks. Police in South Africa are brutally enforcing a ban on This “could have serious complications, especially coronavirus sweeping the planet will likely take many all alcohol sales during the shutdown. if the person is confined to their home, it is very, very months, researchers are studying the potential benefits But in North America and much of Europe, alcohol dangerous,” says Anne-Elizabeth Lapointe, director of of the BCG shot, which many people around the world stores remain open, and busy -often protected under the the Addiction Prevention Center in Montreal. receive as children. But even for the majority of moderate alcohol consumLaboratories and pharmaceutical firms are racing to same regulations that allow businesses such as supermarers, closing liquor stores could lead to increased anxiety find medicines to tackle COVID-19, which has infected kets or pharmacies to operate. In Canada -- where legal cannabis stores have also and stress. more than a million people, killed at least 50,000 and Since the start of the epidemic, alcohol has served for which there is currently no known treatment, vac- stayed open -- Quebec’s premier Francois Legault justified the decision to keep alcohol sales flowing, a move other purposes too. cine or cure. welcomed by consumers but criticized by a trade union In France, where wine merchants remain open, Pernod They are also looking at repurposing existing drugs. concerned for shop workers. Ricard and Bacardi were also among the first beverage gi- Experts remain cautious “To reduce the stress, you have to do some exercise, ants to convert part of their production into alcohol-based “We have known for decades that BCG has nonspecific beneficial effects”, in that it protects against so have a walk -- but sometimes a glass of wine may hand sanitizer gel. In Poland meanwhile, almost half a million liters of diseases other than the one for which it was created, help,” he said. Unlike much of the world Canadians are not under contraband vodka and illegally-produced pure alcohol Camille Locht, of the French public health research official lockdown, but they have been urged to stay home have been used as a disinfectant instead of being destroyed. institute Inserm, told AFP. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has even Children vaccinated with BCG suffer less from other and practice social distancing -- and that has been enough to send alcool sales soaring. recommended drinking a 100-ml glass of vodka after respiratory illnesses, it is used to treat certain bladder “Everyone feels like it is Friday or Saturday all the going to the sauna -- as a spurious miracle remedy for cancers and it could protect against asthma and autoimtime,” said Catherine Paradis, an analyst at the Canadian coronavirus. mune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. At the other end of the spectrum Hong Kong execuResearchers want to test whether the tuberculosis Center on Addictions and Substance Use. Consumers are hitting stores like “in the weeks be- tive Carrie Lam has banned all restaurants and bars from vaccine could have a similar effect against the new coronavirus, either by reducing the risk of being infected, or fore Christmas” as well as buying at peak levels online, serving alcohol -- arguing that easy access could harm according to a spokesman for the Societe des alcools du social distancing. by limiting the severity of the symptoms. “Sometimes people get a bit intimate when they In France, where the BCG vaccine was compulsory Quebec (SAQ) -- a government corporation which last year reported net earnings of CAN$1.146 billion. are drunk, and this will raise the risk of infection,” until 2007, “most of the study participants will have Nationwide, Paradis notes that closing stores selling she said. already had a first vaccination”, but the protective effect alcohol would cut off a significant source of government A perhaps more serious risk linked to excessive alcoof this decreases over time, said Locht. Because healthcare workers are on the front lines of revenue -- estimated at about 411 Can dollars ($288) an- hol consumption, points out addiction specialist Paradis, is domestic violence under the lockdown and mounting the efforts to tackle COVID-19, they should be the “first nually per person. - Sauna, then vodka? stress. target” if there is any benefit found with the BCG vacOn the other side of the border, New York, the epiTo limit the risk, Greenland has temporarily banned cine, said Locht, who is finalising details for a clinical center of the epidemic in the United States, has also placed sales in its capital Nuuk.Agence France-Presse trial in France. But experts remain cautious on the potential of the BCG to provide protection. - ‘Military exercise in peacetime’ “That is exactly the reason for this research,” says Mihai Netea, professor of experimental internal medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands, which recently announced a clinical trial, with the University of Utrecht involving hundreds of healthcare workers. This will see 500 medical professionals receive the SIX NIGHTS a week, Shelley Howard cations for the city of Santa Fe, New BCG jab and 500 get a placebo. Mexico, also yearns for the return of “If during this epidemic fewer people in the BCG- could normally be found at a restaurant simple human touch in her life. vaccinated group would drop out due to illness, this would or bar in the famous Rush Street area BY BOB CHIARITO Chacon, 65, lives alone and has be an encouraging result,” added Netea, a specialist in of Chicago, dining out or having a drink with friends. been working from home. “trained immunity”. A naturally social person, Howard, 73, regularly "This is how fast your reality changes. I'll be watchThis is a relatively new concept based on the disposted online pictures from his nights out, often showing ing TV and you'll see people all together at a table, all covery that our innate immune response -- the body’s him giving hugs or handshakes. hugging and I'll say to myself, 'Oh my God, that would generalised defences -- also has a memory, alongside But for the past three weeks, like millions of people never happen today. No way!'," Chacon said. the acquired immunity, which develops antibodies after around the world, he has seen none of his friends -- instead, To try to make up for the lack of hugs and handshakes, coming into contact with a specific pathogen. The BCG vaccine does not directly protect against the sitting at home to try to avoid the coronavirus pandemic. Chacon said she has been using video chats with friends. Howard, who still works as a graphic artist in the mu"We find ways of maintaining friendships and inticoronavirus, but provides a boost to the immune system which may lead to improved protection and a milder sic industry, lives alone, so the confinement orders and the macy. I've been really making a point of using FaceTime. shutdown of non-essential business have left him isolated I'm making a point of staying in touch with my friends infection, Radboud university said of the study. in a visual way, not just phone calls. And it does help," The idea is that the innate immune system can be and cut off from almost all human contact. "I'm critically aware of that. I posted Springsteen's Chacon said. prepared, or “trained” to better combat attacks, thanks 'Human Touch' video on my Facebook page last week," Older people are particularly affected, as they are in particular to live attenuated vaccines, such as BCG highly vulnerable to the coronavirus and often live alone. or measles, which contained a weakened sliver of the Howard said. "I'm a big hugger, and people like me. But it is what Mary Carlson is a neurobiologist at Harvard Medioriginal pathogen. cal School who became a sensory deprivation specialist In the case of COVID-19, in addition to infection by it is." His experience is matched around the globe by those studying babies who grew up in understaffed Romanian the virus itself, some patients have also suffered excessive immune responses, with the uncontrolled production of mourning the loss of daily physical contact that was once institutions during the 1990s. taken for granted, and which scientists say is vital. "I would encourage people to engage in more social pro-inflammatory proteins, cytokines. "What happens with touch is a very physical change," interaction through vision and hearing," she said. “Vaccination, in particular against BCG, might help said Tammy Field, director of the Touch Research Institute "For those living alone, technology provides for to better orchestrate this inflammatory immune response,” said Laurent Lagrost, Inserm research director who works at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine. phone and video interaction to compensate for this neces"The nervous system is slowed. Heart rate decreases, sary -- and limited -- period of touch restriction." on links between inflammation and the immune system. She offered reassurance to the many people who The vaccine acts as a “military exercise in peace- blood pressure decreases, brainwaves change in the ditime” so that the body can “fight the enemy effectively in rection of more relaxation, and that in turn knocks down worry that they won't remember how to interact normally after the coronavirus pandemic subsides. wartime,” he said in an interview this week with French cortisol, which is the stress hormone." Staying in touch "I always give the example of Nelson Mandela, broadcaster BFMTV. Lilia Chacon, who works as the director of communi( / COULD / 15) ( / LIVING / 15)
ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS
Living alone and in need of a hug during global shutdown ANALYSIS