A Note from Dr. Crandall
When I awakened on January 21, 2020, there was no hint of the nightmare to come. But the first case of an unknown illness had just been confirmed in Washington state, and the 2019 novel coronavirus, or coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), had begun silently creeping into the United States. Fewer than three months later, all of our fifty states would be under a disaster declaration for the first time in U.S. history!
How could this happen? How could a microscopic viral pathogen bring down not only our economy but that of other great countries in the world?
Unlike some others, I have seen other pandemics up close. I have been involved in fighting epidemics throughout my career, including AIDS, malaria, dysentery, and cholera.
Prior to becoming a cardiologist, I trained to become an anthropologist, and I learned to appreciate that there is more than Western medicine, that the medical systems created by ancient cultures have much to teach us.
One thing that has perplexed scientists since the world first learned of COVID-19 is the mystery of how this pathogen can cause such wildly varying results. It’s puzzling how some people don’t even get symptoms, others survive it relatively unscathed, and yet in some people, it kills.
I can come to only one conclusion—our best defense against COVID-19 is to prevail over this virus by becoming stronger and healthier and by strengthening our immune system so that can fight back against it.
Throughout this book, I will give you many strategies to use in fighting COVID-19, and as this is a formidable virus, I want you to pay attention to all of them.
But pay special attention to the chapters in part 3 on immunity, because I believe that within the immune system lies the secret to how you can personally fight back against COVID-19.
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We must remember we are at war now with an invisible enemy, and Winston Churchill’s statement is just as pertinent now as it was during World War II:
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!”
The first cluster of cases caused by coronavirus 19 was announced by China on December 31, and less than a month later, a thirty-five-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, became the first COVID-19 case to be confirmed in the United States.
At the very same time, coronavirus 19, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, was spreading rapidly through Asia, and then Europe, and eventually to all corners of the globe. The outbreak was so massive that on March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed it to be a pandemic, one of those rare diseases whose scale is so enormous that it sweeps across all international borders, affecting the whole world.
By the time we awakened on April 12, Easter Sunday, most of America had self-isolated to try to halt the spread of COVID-19; almost all of our churches and synagogues were closed, our hotels empty, and our cafés and restaurants shuttered. Nursing homes were barred to visitors to attempt to stem the tragic outbreaks there; most of our parks, beaches, and playgrounds were barricaded, and where massive outbreaks had occurred, convention centers and stadiums had been transformed into field hospitals.
By the end of April, just one hundred days since that first U.S. case was confirmed, our streets were still empty; even bustling thoroughfares like New York’s Fifth Avenue. Las Vegas was a ghost town, its casinos closed, its shows canceled, and its famous strip deserted.
What happened was something that almost none of us had ever seen in our lifetimes or could have ever imagined; the United States of America had been shut down, closed to business because of a microscopic, invisible, viral pathogen.
As this book goes to press, America is emerging from lockdown, but even as this is happening, there are fears of a second wave of the disease expected to come in the fall and possibly beyond that as well. Remember, until we have a vaccine, COVID-19 remains an invisible enemy, a ticking time bomb!
Note: As we went to press, the information in this book was as current as possible, but scientists are working at breakneck speed to find answers and new treatments for COVID-19, so new information is constantly emerging. For updates, please go to the Newsmax Coronavirus Resource Page link: https://www.newsmax.com/coronavirus.
Why COVID-19 Is Worse Than the Flu
The flu has been around for centuries, during which time we humans have built up a “herd” immunity, meaning that our immune systems have learned to mount at least some response to it, and have also developed a vaccination for those who wish to take it.
COVID-19 is different. It is caused by a new strain of the coronavirus that we have never seen before, so as of now, we have no immunity to it, there is no vaccine, and there is no cure.
Since its discovery last December, it’s also becoming obvious that the coronavirus is significantly more lethal than seasonal flu and has seeded the most disruptive pandemic in one hundred years.
New serological data just coming in suggests that infections outnumber confirmed coronavirus cases by a factor of ten or more, since many people don’t experience symptoms, so they aren’t tested or counted in the case tally. But infectious disease specialists know that a disease with a small mortality rate can cause soaring death tolls when it infects millions of people, which is happening with COVID-19.
COVID-19 spreads like wildfire. Somewhere between 40 and 70 percent of the world’s population can be infected in the next couple of years if there’s no vaccine or no steps are taken to limit its spread.
Also, even though its termed a respiratory disease, it’s becoming obvious that COVID-19 damages the whole body.
The coronavirus enters the body through the eyes, nose, or mouth and latches onto certain cells covered with an ACE2 enzyme receptor.
For most people, that seems to be where it stays, causing only mild symptoms or none at all.
But in one out of every six cases, it travels farther down the body into the lungs and into the bloodstream, and from there, it can enter and invade other organs, resulting in a wide variety of damage.
The coronavirus can infiltrate both the heart and the lungs because they each contain cells covered with the same ACE2 enzyme receptor.
The coronavirus can also head for other organs that contain these enzyme receptors as well, including the small and large intestines, the liver, and the kidneys. Just recently these receptors have been found lining cells of the nose.
