Does Pollen play a role in helping to inhibit the spread of COVID-19?
A new blog post published June 10, 2020 in www.news-medical.net by Dr. Liji Thomas explores this topic, based on a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv.
The researchers in the study made observations and built a hypothesis that pollen plays an important role in reducing the seasonal spread of flu-like epidemics like COVID-19.
The study is based on the finding that flu season and pollen season have been found to consistently and predictably follow each other year after year in countries in a certain climate, something that can’t be explained by the weather only. Pollen is antiviral by nature and has anti-influenza effects including helping to activate the human immune system. So when pollen begins to emerge and spread, typically after flu-season, it contributes to helping reduce the spread of pandemics.
In the blog post, the researchers are quoted as saying “COVID-19 behaves according to the expected pollen-flu seasonality like all other flu-like pandemics have since the end of the 19th century.”
The study concludes: “A consequence of our findings could potentially be that social distancing and other preventive behavior are especially important during the flu-like season, but probably less relevant during pollen season when nature takes care by inhibiting viruses.”
While this is an intriguing hypothesis, it should certainly not be relied upon. Social distancing is still an essential component of the fight against the spread of Covid. Light E.N.T. recommends that individuals always follow the recommendations of the CDC and local and state health officials.
Read the original blog post and learn more about these intriguing findings.
Light ENT diagnoses & treats patients with pollen allergies and other allergies in Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach and across South Florida.
