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Covid-19 has been a moving target from the start. Here are some of the early misconceptions that were challenged by emerging new evidence – and sometimes difficult experience – along the way.
1. Only the vulnerable are “vulnerable”
At first, the ugly and dehumanizing phrase “elderly person with an underlying health problem” gave some people a false sense of security and a way to distance themselves from the risk of disease. When young people started getting sick in other countries, some people thought that this vulnerability was behavioral – it was because of the way they socialized or the overcrowded conditions they lived in.
Now we know better. The elderly and those with underlying illnesses are more vulnerable to serious illness with Covid, but neither age nor lifestyle grants any immunity. Some of those who died included young people with no underlying health problems. Ireland’s youngest Covid-19 victim was just 16 years old.
2. Children are “vectors”
Messages from pediatricians circulated on social networks in March 2020, in the first weeks after the schools were closed, suggesting that children were “vectors and not victims” of the virus. Children have been banned from certain stores, which has led a number of organizations to ask supermarkets to develop “child-friendly shopping guidelines”.
A summary of the evidence from 18 studies published by HIQA in May and updated in August 2020 found that “reported cases of Covid-19 in children represent a small percentage of cases diagnosed … based on evidence from low certainty, child-to-adult or child-to-child transmission occurs in family and educational settings, but reported rates of transmission for children remain low ”.
Could the now dominant B117 variant change that? It is even less clear. Public health authorities will closely monitor the phased return to schools.
There was resistance to changing mask wearing guidelines in the early days of the pandemic
3. The masks do not work
There was resistance to changing mask wearing guidelines in the early days of the pandemic. Initially, this was in part due to global shortages of personal protective equipment. But even in May, as members of the public were told to wear masks on public transport or indoors where they couldn’t socially distance themselves, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan continued to be “Concerned that the use of facial coatings can be seen as a kind of … magic shield,” a phrase echoed by then-health minister Simon Harris.
There were also concerns that the public would not wear their masks properly and that this could increase the risk.
A key scientific moment came in early June with the change in mask wearing guidelines by the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Control. The HSE began advising people to wear masks indoors as well from the same time, and masks became mandatory in August.
This should have happened sooner, says Professor Luke O’Neill, immunologist at Trinity College Dublin. “As soon as [asymptomatic spread] became clear, wearing a mask has become absolutely essential because then everyone wears a mask and then anyone who might be infected could pass it on. Unfortunately, our administration has dragged its heels on it. I was talking about it probably a good four to six weeks before the guidelines said it. I had seen the science: we had to have masks.
Thermal or temperature scanners have started to appear in some workplaces and public spaces
4. Thermal scanners can detect Covid-19
Thermal or temperature scanners began to appear in some workplaces and public spaces – as well as at international airports – at the very start of the pandemic. But did they offer a false sense of security? A September review of the evidence by ECRI concluded that infrared temperature screening was ‘ineffective’, detecting infection in, at best, only about half of cases. Thermal screening is expensive and resource-intensive, and detection rates are low, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report concluded in August.
The jury is still out on the role played by contaminated surfaces
5. Doorbells are dangerous
In fact, the jury is still out on the role played by contaminated surfaces. As early as February, the WHO warned that the virus could spread through contaminated surfaces, called fomites. At the end of March, a large study showed that SARS-CoV-2 could linger on plastic and stainless steel for days. Last October, tánaist Leo Varadkar warned that Covid could spread on doorbells and cutlery, while current advice from the HSE says: “You can also catch the virus from infected surfaces.”
But recent international evidence suggests that while the virus survives on surfaces, transmission through them is likely rare. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), contaminated surfaces “are not considered a common way to spread Covid-19.” So why are we still deep cleaning everything? The answer is that we do not know enough to rule out fomite transmission.
6. Ventilation is not important
Transmission occurs when infected people cough up large droplets when they cough, speak or breathe. We now know that small particles called aerosols are also important. “Airborne transmission does not appear to play a major role in the spread of Covid-19. But it can happen in certain situations. To protect yourself, ensure good ventilation of interior spaces, ”says the HSE.
O’Neill “kept warning people” of the importance of ventilation early on, he says. “I had a blue face. I was falling apart. I went on Claire Byrne Live and said, “ put granny out the window, ” and people dug me for saying that. Ventilation is the key. “
One of the hardest things about Sars-CoV-2 is that it doesn’t always have the symptoms it was associated with when it first appeared.
7. No cough, no Covid
One of the hardest things about Sars-CoV-2 is that it doesn’t always have the symptoms it was associated with when it first appeared in China – dry cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Sometimes there are no symptoms.
“One of the biggest issues we have with it is that it’s hard to see it coming,” says Professor Martin Cormican, HSE Clinical Lead on Infection Control. “If you have an infectious disease that has a very obvious clinical presentation, and people are only contagious when they are obviously sick, it’s a much more manageable situation. What we didn’t know at this time of last year was that a lot of people would be suffering from a very mild illness. “
The discovery that the virus could be spread by people without symptoms distinguished Covid-19 from its sibling viruses, SARS and MERS. “It turns out that 50 percent of people spread and walk around without any symptoms. Now, how do you control this kind of virus? This made him particularly malicious, ”says O’Neill.
8. Travel is not a major factor
Tomás Ryan, associate professor in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, believes that not restricting travel within the state during the first wave was a major mistake. “If we had done this, we would have had a very different situation, particularly benefiting from our island situation,” he says.
A recent study suggests that Ireland’s second wave was seeded by variants imported from overseas. Travel and quarantine restrictions are even more critical now in order to prevent new, more infectious coronavirus mutants against which Covid-19 vaccines may be less effective, Ryan believes.
“The priority must be to keep the variants out so that we can’t make the mistake of the second wave, which was, after we cleared the virus, let new ones in, and not to commit the error of the third wave, which let in the British variant. “
The risk outside of simply walking past someone is low
9. The danger of pedestrians
In the first weeks of the virus, some people jumped into oncoming traffic to avoid themselves while walking. In fact, because the fresh air disperses and dilutes the virus, the risk outside of simply walking past someone is low.
However, there have been a small number of recorded cases where it is spread outdoors between people who have spoken face to face. The HSE warns that “the risk of catching Covid-19 is low if you go for a walk or in a car and move away from others.” But you should always keep a distance of two meters between yourself and others, and wear a mask outside when possible, he says.
A number of experts now believe that the virus may never be eradicated, but thanks to vaccines we will find ways to live more safely alongside it, as we do with the flu.
10. The vaccine will make it go away
A number of experts now believe that the virus may never be eradicated, but thanks to vaccines, better therapies and – with luck – the emergence of new, milder variants, we will find ways to live more safely with him, as we do with the flu.
“It is very likely that viruses for which the vaccine will not work as well will emerge sooner or later,” says Professor Cormican. “The vaccine may have to adapt. For me, this virus is unlikely to ever go away. We have not yet completely eradicated polio myelitis. And we’ve had a vaccine for 50 years.
– Send us your photos of the last days before the 2020 lockdown
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