Academician Chuchalin: "We pay for underestimating the world of viruses in which we live"

“Today it is very important to realize that our civilization has approached new infectious diseases that humans did not have before.

What is a new infectious disease? This is a new pathogen when a person infects a person.

Coronavirus is the oldest infection, but new strains are emerging. We have an outstanding virologist in our country, he is the only one, Academician Lvov (Dmitry Konstantinovich Lvov is a Soviet and Russian virologist, director of the DI Ivanovsky Research Institute of Virology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, closed in 2002 - noted the editor). He deals with the phylogenesis of viruses. A very serious scientist, world-class. Until recently, he was director of the Institute of Virology, which, unfortunately, was destroyed.

He cites very interesting data, which I later double-checked when I met American virologists in lectures who deal with the phylogenetic tree.

So, according to these data, the coronavirus infection appeared when a person began to come into contact with seafood, then the first transmission of the coronavirus took place. That is, the coronavirus infection is more ancient than influenza and tuberculosis, but the covid mutates.

...The world did not understand where the alarm would come from. And the alarm came from the world of viruses.

Scientific forecasts said: alarm, alarm ... The Japanese were the first to sound this alarm. Wild birds are the main vectors of viruses ...

What happened now - we didn't know the day, we didn't know the hour, we didn't know in which city it would happen and how.

But the viral biocenosis has led to the fact that humanity is faced with this.

Scientific forecasts are disappointing. And here's why: modern man has changed his entire environment so much, but he himself could not adapt to this.

Food, clothing, air, water ... What Vernadsky called the noosphere. And in this noosphere, man turned out to be very vulnerable to what he created.

And first of all, it concerns his immune system.

Of course, you have heard that there are a number of risk factors for disease: tobacco smoking, being overweight, and others.

But you have never heard that the immune system, its population weakening, is a risk of developing the disease. And we are now paying for it.

We did not understand that in this, as it were, evolutionary process, the human immune system turned out to be the most vulnerable point and the underestimation of the world of viruses in which a person lives.

...We need to lay in what will enable us to work ahead of the curve.

Now they often cite Stalin as an example, and this even irritates our society.

But Stalin was informed that biological weapons were being prepared, there was intelligence information that in addition to atomic bombs, biological weapons were being prepared against the USSR. Under the patronage of Stalin, a military virological laboratory appears in Sergiev Posad. One of a kind.

You see, then problems responded instantly. Just like with a nuclear bomb - a nuclear shield, you know. You can't do this without scientists.

The thing that worries you is where in these problems the place of scientists?

...What worries me the most ... Of course, we will get out of this problem, it will certainly be resolved on its own, this problem, so that there is no speculation that this is being done at the expense of the vaccine.

This is not the problem ... You see, we have to look at a person differently now.

If we want to save civilization and so on, we must understand that today man is more vulnerable than ever.

And the coronavirus problem once again raises the question of a person and his problems.

Sadovnichy Viktor Antonovich at Moscow State University created the Institute of Man. Of our modern scientists, only he is concerned about how to look at a person from all sides of his modern life. I simply don't know other such scientists ...

...A person has no greater value than health.

Conscience, freedom and health.

Each person should understand what he is doing for himself in terms of health.

Simple things like, let's say, smoking is bad, but the smoking that has come now is even worse: electronic cigarettes, vapes ... It's even worse, it's a terrible thing.

Protecting yourself, developing your health is a fundamental thing.

People want to hear from doctors about a panacea: "take this pill" - and it contains a "vita", here's life in this pill... It just needs to be disrespected to say so...

But now we are talking about a specific topic: how can a person protect himself from respiratory viral diseases, in particular, from coronavirus infection, what are the ways.

And we are raising a topic that is called primary prevention in medical language.

What it is made of is, of course, hygiene. Hygiene plays a big role. Therefore, the recommendations that are given are justified.

But with regard to masks. There is scientific information related to the research of biophysicists about what is happening on the back of the mask - the mask becomes a source of infection even worse than when you are without a mask.

So the question is about the quality of the mask and how often to change it. And you need a mask number 95.

But I want to say again: the mask “works” for one and a half to two hours, then it needs to be changed.

We have to learn from the surgeons - they change the mask every hour and a half in the operating room.

On the back of the mask is everything that a person exhales with his air - such a large number of viruses, bacteria and fungi that it is better not to comment on it. The mask becomes a breeding ground for later becoming a breeding ground.

But the mask is from external influences, but how to help from the inside? How to make the mucous membrane more stable?

The greatest importance is attached to the nasal mucosa. There should be hygiene of the nasal passages.

I always recommend that at home, when you come after a working day, to do lavage - washing - the nasal mucosa from what has settled there.

The mucous membrane requires a certain recharge, which will allow better recovery and functioning of epithelial cells.

Therefore, it is especially important to take vitamin D-3, B-12 and folic acid, an oily solution of vitamin "A" and the so-called vitamin E - tocopherol. So during the winter-spring period it is recommended to take vitamins with such a content.

All this helps the mucosa to acquire mucosal immunity.

Of course, a person needs to go in for light sports and be in the fresh air.

This is primary prevention. And primary prevention includes a vaccine.

We say that the 21st century is the century of vaccines and this is actually the case. Vaccine selection is another topic.

…There is a vaccine, there is its structure, and there is vaccinology.

What it is? This is a doctor who will assess immunity, make a diagnosis and, based on this, say: a vaccine is recommended for you.

Medicine is based on this.

Tatyana Alekseevna Golikova, a smart, good person. But she begins to comment - people who have undergone covid - they do not need to be vaccinated.

I have doctors who underwent covid in May, but they did not produce antibodies, and in the fall they became seriously ill. I have two employees, whom I hardly saved the life of, and so on.

...Immunity requires training. Like other organs - how we walk, run... If we do not do this, then we get what we have received now.

The immune system is innate, with mother's milk, as we say, there are certain mechanisms of the immune system.

The innate immune system is subdivided into so-called mucosal immunity and innate immunity.

Mucosal is the immunity of the mucous membrane: nose, oropharyngeal region, trachea, bronchi, esophagus, stomach ...

The first thing is to raise the mucous membrane protection barrier. To have good mucosal immunity.

And innate immunity is the one that is associated with the production of interferon. Innate immunity in humans is active as it grows, develops, somewhere up to 30 years old. At the age of 30, all sorts of evolutionary moments end... The lungs develop up to 30 years.

Acquired immunity develops due to what happens to a person in the environment, including infectious diseases.

But every organ and every system is entering a phase of aging. The immune system does too. Therefore, in the elderly, immunity is weakened.

...What can we expect? New infections and old infections come back.

The plague is particularly troubling. There was a plague pandemic that dramatically changed the world. There was a mutation, big changes. The bubonic plague is the anxiety that is. It is discussed in the scientific literature. This is a serious problem.

The second problem is hanging in the air and I think it is about to go off. And the first signals for this appeared. This is H5N1 avian flu.

More recently, in Japan, less than a month ago, all chickens were slaughtered. They became the reservoir of this virus.

True, there is not a single person who has contracted this bird flu, but it is a highly pathogenic and extremely aggressive influenza virus.

There is a biological antagonism between coronavirus and influenza. Look: there is very little flu, practically none, and when there is an increase in flu activity, the coronavirus goes into the shadows and is not dominant.

But the scientific prognosis for H5N1 flu is very hectic. There have been outbreaks in China, a small group of people have already fallen ill in the villages. In terms of its aggressiveness, it resembles a Spanish woman of 18

If we treat this the way we did in 2002, it will go wild.

Today we must have everything in our hands, the vaccine, on the very first day when it happens, and not “catch up”.

...Russia is the only country in the world that has destroyed its virological service. The Institute of Virology was destroyed in 2002.

I don't know what the motives were behind this.

Lvov and his team created a whole service, starting from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, through Siberia - this Trans-Siberian flight of birds - many, many laboratories.

There was a very good laboratory in Khabarovsk and so on. It's all destroyed now.

To prepare a specialist in virology, one university education is not enough, for this you need to spend at least another 5-6 years in the leading virological laboratories.

Therefore, one of the challenges of today is the training of clinical virologists.

AIDS - virology, hepatitis - virology, rheumatic diseases - viral diseases, pulmonary diseases - also viral diseases.

But society does nothing. This is terrible. Society behaves inappropriately to the situation.

Yes, we have always lived in this world, but viral diseases have never been such an acute problem as they are now.

...I did a lot to ensure that our country has a pulmonology service, so that there are doctors. Now it is also destroyed.

And when this misfortune happened, everyone phoned me - give me pulmonologists, give me pulmonologists... But from where can I "give" them to you?!"

The full conversation with Aleksandro Chuchalin can be viewed here.