Updated on 24 July 2024

New-Coronavirus-Disease-Officially-Named-COVID-19-By-The-World-Health-Organization-804809566-1581442221.jpg

Unprecedented quarantines and policy measures
What is COVID19? [Updated]
Is it different from other coronaviruses? [Updated]
More about the ACE2 target receptor [Updated]
How do I keep my home safe? [Updated]

[update july 2024] Since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 2020, we have learnt a lot about it.

As restrictions on movement continues and people remain indoors more than ever, and the virus sars-cov-2 remains to be isolated, parts 2-5 of this post on research & immunity on coronaviruses are updated with new information. (part 1 of this post is as first published, apart from minimal edits.)

Since news of the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (or its disease COVID-19) first broke in December 2019, the outbreak is evolving daily and information at times unclear and overwhelming.

What caught my attention were the swift and large-scale quarantines in order to contain the virus. Early social media scenes appeared apocalyptic. [1] Some were bolted in and not allowed a step past their door threshold. Such confinement indirectly caused other outbreaks (famously, Chinese film director Chang Kai and three members of his family died within weeks of one another during self-quarantine). [2]

Social distancing was enforced, including self-isolation and long quarantines.

It is essential to ensure our immediate spaces—our homes, offices, and our community places—are set up to support our biology so that we can keep up our immune system against multiple environmental stressors.

Unprecedented quarantines and policy measures

As news broke of mass quarantines in China in January, its government embarked on the ambitious build of two 1,000 bed hospitals in one week in Wuhan and more cities fell under lock-down.

Here are some unprecedented measures taken worldwide:

(3 Apr 2020) Singapore announces stricter measures intended as a “circuit breaker" to slow the spread of the coronavirus, including closing schools and non-essential services.[2c] Malaysia extends its Movement Control Order a week later for a second time; arrests and heavy fines continue for people caught breaking the MCO, including joggers.
(10 March 2020) Companies such as Google and Amazon are asking employees in certain locations to work remotely, and cancelling all in-person job interviews for the "foreseeable future" to "protect our candidates' and interviewers' health and well-being." [2b]
(9 March 2020) Italy announces a lockdown as the number of infected people jumped 25% in a single day: quarantines for 60 million people [3]. Later extended to the entire country.
(7 March 2020) WHO: "Allowing uncontrolled spread should not be a choice of any government, as it will harm not only the citizens of that country but affect other countries as well." [4]
(29 Feb 2020) France bans gatherings of more than 5,000 people.[5]
(7 Feb 2020) Singapore moved its disease response up a level to orange, only the second time it has been activated. The first was for swine flu (H1N1) in 2009.[6]
(1 Feb 2020) The US CDC quarantines repatriated citizens. The first issue in 50 years:

“While we realise this is an unprecedented action, this is an unprecedented threat. We would rather be remembered for overreacting than underreacting.”[7]—Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases

(23 Jan 2020) "Unprecedented in public health history": China orders a lockdown of Wuhan; 11 million people quarantined in the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. More cities are quarantined in subsequent weeks.[8]
(1 February 2020) After a passenger is tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, the Diamond Princess cruise ship is quarantined for 14 days, during which over 700 (out of over 3,000) eventually test positive and 4 died. Passengers are barred from disembarking at many ports.[9]

You can find information on COVID-19 cases here:

Malaysia updates: https://www.outbreak.my/
Singapore updates:
COVID-19 tracking dashboard https://co.vid19.sg/dashboard
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/COVID-19-coronavirus-feb-13-singapore-update-12429952?cid=TWTcna
Data maps from Johns Hopkins University https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

What is COVID-19?

COVID-19 (not the scientific name) is the name for symptoms believed to be caused by viruses that cause respiratory illness.

[Update July 2022] The virus causing COVID19 symptoms remain to be fully isolated.

Evidence shows that the virus believed to cause COVID-19 is not always confined to the respiratory tract and that they may also affect the central nervous system inducing neurological diseases.[11]

Is it a virus like any other?

Viruses are strands of either RNA or DNA. The sequence for COVID-19 shows an RNA virus that transcribe its genome into the host, essentially reprogramming the cell. [10b]

RNA viruses mutate easily according to their environment. If a virus enters the host’s DNA, it can affect the wider genome by moving around a chromosome or to a new chromosome.

Viruses are bits of genetic material enveloped in a lipid and cannot replicate without a host. It is not 'alive' like bacteria and fungi, rather it is information that needs a specific environment to reproduce this information. Viruses are completely dependent on right conditions in their environment to replicate. They infect host cells by fusion with cellular membranes at low pH. So they are classified as “pH-dependent viruses". [12]

[7 Jun 2021] Many renowned scientists and doctors have shared about how covid-19 functions.

[July 2022] While I strove to keep this article squarely focused on the COVID-19 phenomenon as it emerged in 2020 and in the wake of our individual and collective responses, how we can keep our spaces supportive of our natural and biological health, it would be remiss of me to not mention the Germ vs Terrain theories of viruses. Many resources exist, and this presentation by Dr. Jordan Grant is helpful to elucidate the breadth of what we know about how viruses act: https://rumble.com/v13jt4t-science-pseudoscience-and-the-germ-theory-of-disease-dr.-jordan-grant-2022-.html

this is why you must tackle environmental factors such as toxins, pollution, and malnutrition first to gain immunity “over” viruses.

“When you get a bad, overwhelming infection, everything starts to fall apart in a cascade. You pass the tipping point where everything is going downhill and, at some point, you can’t get it back.” — David Morens, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA [13]

What is unique about covid-19?

There are significant differences that emerged about COVID-19:

Whole genome sequencing showed it is 89.11% similar to the SARS virus. Public information released by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre. [14] Like SARS, it targets ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2), a receptor enzyme that plays a role in constriction of the lungs.
The higher the ACE2, the more susceptible an individual will be to COVID-19. Interestingly, the ACE2 protein is not normally found in large quantities in healthy people. Air pollution increases ACE2, so does smoking. More about this later.
Genes in Covid-19 that do not exist in SARS or MERS are found in the viruses responsible for spreading HIV and Ebola.[15] Prominent virologist Prof. Ruan Jishou at Nankai University in Tianjin, China:
"This finding suggests that 2019-nCoV coronavirus may be significantly different from the SARS coronavirus in the infection pathway and has the added potency of using the packing mechanisms of other viruses such as HIV." [16]
A structure known as a “furin cleavage site” was discovered in the S protein of the 2019 novel coronavirus.[17] This was also found by European researchers.[18] Compared to the initial SARS mode of entry, this binding method is more than a 1,000 times efficient. This furin cleavage site is not present in S proteins of all other coronavirus, including the highly infectious SARS coronavirus.[19]
Symptoms are usually mild; some never experience any. But there are important differences, such as the absence of upper respiratory tract symptoms like runny nose, sneezing and sore throat and intestinal symptoms like diarrhea (which affected 20% to 25% of SARS patients).[10a]
The incubation period is in the same range as SARS, but longer than the common cold or flu.[20]

These set the COVID-19 apart from the rest of the known coronaviruses and can explain how it is more infectious. We know COVID-19 is very easily spread, especially in close spaces such as buildings and in closed spaces. [20]

More about the ACE2 target receptor

The COVID-19 virus target the ACE2 receptor, which has a vital role in cardiovascular and immune systems. It points to environmental clues that could help us understand why some experience higher infection and fatality rates.

The coronavirus, which is shaped like a crown, seems to attach itself to the ACE2 receptor, which can be abundantly produced in the lungs and heart, as well as in the colon, skin, kidneys, lymph and many other places. The higher the expression of ACE2 you have, the more likely it will be that you're infected and the more virulent the virus will be.[21]

People at higher risk for COVID-19 have health issues such as hypertension (CFR 6.0%), diabetes (CFR 7.3%), cardiovascular disease (CFR 10.5%). (Age > 70 years is another factor (CFR 10.2%)). Similar co-morbidities were noted for the SARS outbreak in 2003. [22]
"High ratio of comorbidities": Of 170 patients who died in January in Wuhan—the first wave of casualties caused by a pathogen that’s now raced around the world—nearly half had hypertension. [23]
ACE2 expression—a preferred pathway for the virus—is reduced by vitamin D. There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has seasonality like the flu, so it may persist into the summer months. But the ACE2 factor shows we can lower our risk by getting enough sun on ourselves to raise Vitamin D.

How do I keep my home safe?

Viruses break down quickly in unfavourable environments. If you want to reduce your exposure to potential viral infections, simple principles will help. Ultimately, it is your immune system that is dependent on feedback from your environment and determines how your body responds to any threat, whether it is a virus or any stressor in the environment.

These basic Building Biology principles help ensure your environment at home or other enclosed spaces are high in vitality, low in toxicity, and in turn keep your immune system optimal for the job it is built to do:

Increase fresh air

Ventilation freshens indoor air and helps the immune system. Open windows to allow outside air to mix. Opt for true HEPA filters that can filter viruses.

Choose well-ventilated rooms instead of air-conditioned ones, which only circulate stale indoor air. [23] Evidence shows viruses thrive in dry and cool environments so the tropical heat and humidity is in our favour.

Use nature’s best disinfectant: sunlight

Like any simple envelope that encases viruses, the spikes on the virus' surface (hence its name ‘corona’) are essentially made of proteins, which are susceptible to being destroyed or denatured by heat or the sun's UV rays.

[6 Jun 2021] Many studies have since shown how sunlight and Vit D levels are highly effective at reducing severity and mortality of viral respiratory illness, including SARS-COV-2.

For example, UVC has been shown to deactivate SARS, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus and the Nipah virus. [24] (UV radiation in sunlight also works on bacteria; it has been shown to kill TB bacteria[4], E. coli bacteria in twelve feet of seawater, and in waste stabilisation ponds.)

Get yourself in the sunlight too

Vitamin D plays a major role in the inhibition of viruses. [25] But it is considered generally deficient in most populations surveyed throughout the world, even in tropical countries. Only 20% of our Vit D reserve is meant to come from the diet. The remaining 80% is expected to be produced in our skin from the sun’s UVB.

This is interesting as thus far, it matches populations most affected by COVID-19:

70 percent of older Chinese are vitamin D deficient. [26]
Vitamin D (as well as Vits C and A) are deficient even in people living in tropical locales, such as Iranians.[27]
The majority of COVID-19 cases outside China are in temperate countries. Japan, even after taking into account the Princess Diamond Cruise ship outbreak, has more cases than Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan combined who are more integrated with mainland China.

"If you can stay under the sun for a while, it would be good. Vitamin D can also boost the immune system.” — Prof. Wang Linfa, Duke-NUS Medical School [28]

Reduce artificial EMFs

EMFs from electronics emit a positive charge and has been shown to increase viral replication. Many studies also show how EMR compromises the immune system.[29] Our urban environment are EMF hot soups in a digital age. But we can reduce exposure in personal sources such as WIFI and cell phones.

Wuhan is the first pilot city for 5G trials and has 30,000 base stations [30]. The highest death rates outside of China have been in places already implementing or linked to 5G technology: South Korea, Italy, Iran.

Get grounded

Wherever the body has low voltage, cell function suffers. The lower the voltage, the lower the pH, and likewise oxygen levels.

Stand on grass, bare feet if possible, or buy a properly installed grounding mat (you can check with a meter or book a consultation).

Use the power of plant essential oils

Essential oils are strong botanical medicine that have antiviral, antibacterial, and anti fungal properties. Follow safety guidelines for diffusing these powerful oils.

My favourites:

Bergamot
Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia)
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

Maintain any air vents and water holes

Swabs taken from air exhaust outlets were positive for the virus, even though air samples tested negative. This study suggests that virus-laden droplets may be carried by air flows and deposited on vents.[31]

The virus has been found in public toilet flushing.[32] After a woman was diagnosed with the virus, the Hong Kong Center for Health Protection advised:

"to maintain drainage pipes properly and regularly pour water into drain outlets (U-traps); after using the toilet, they should put the toilet lid down before flushing to avoid spreading germs."

A previous study on SARS in a Hong Kong apartment building found: [33]

"respiratory droplets from contaminated individuals were believed to mix with water vapor from showers, spreading throughout the complex by fans and ventilation systems. Second, U-shaped pipes under sinks, known collectively as “u-traps”, acted as reservoirs for the virus.”

Filter your water

Filter water down to 0.02 micron, which will filter out most viruses.

Viruses are much smaller than protozoa and bacteria at 20-300 nanometers (0.02 to 0.3 microns). Bottle filters may not have a decent flow rate at this size.

If your water has contaminants from industrial runoff, you may need to do several stages through other filtration such as activated carbon that would fit your specific needs.

Choose non-toxic sanitisers ( soap probably works better too)

Disinfectants and alcohol-based sanitisers "dissolve" the membrane. Common ingredients such as ethanol (alcohol), hydrogen peroxide (bleach), and sodium hypochlorite (another bleaching agent) can quickly and successfully break down coronaviruses.

Hand sanitisers are handy. However, we do not want to keep literally wiping out our own microbiome, which is what we want to keep out unwanted germs and viruses. Here is a simple 4-ingredient recipe without alcohol: https://naturalgreenmom.com/how-to-make-hand-sanitizer-with-all-natural-products/.

Washing with soaps works better for removing viral particles. Soap gives a sudsing action that breaks down the lipid layer around viruses.

Practise good hygiene basics

Treat the outbreak as you would any viral outbreak. As mentioned above, wash your hands. Simple soap works! It dissolves the fat membrane and all the virus is, a weak “non-covalent” bonds between the proteins, RNA and lipids, falls apart.

Coronaviruses can remain infectious on surfaces at room temperature for up to 9 days. This study found it cannot survive at higher temperatures (30°C or 40°C) and lower humidity (50% compared to 30% relative humidity). It is more stable on flat materials such as steel, aluminium compared to wood and paper.[34]

So double up on cleaning high-touch surfaces such as door knobs, the refrigerator, light switches, and electronic devices.

Keep your home a biological sanctuary

Our indoor spaces must support our biological needs for our immune system to remain strong. Strengthen your circadian rhythm. Get 7-8 hours of sleep at night. Take care of your mental health. Raise dopamine levels.

One of the main reasons people become immune compromised is that they are living in compromised environments, taking in polluted air, contaminated water, and less than ideal food in an artificial electromagnetic soup.

[6 Jun 2021] As lockdowns continue, creating your own biological sanctuary will help alleviate environmental stressors.

Coronaviruses: How to Keep Your Home Spaces Safe and Immunity Strong