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Biomedical Infophysical Models Of Filtering Ghost Airflows By Wearing Masks And Maintaining Social Distancing To Prevent COVID-19 And Reopen All Systems After Shutdowns (Lockdowns)

Cheng Kang ¹

Zou Changhua ²

1 Basic Medicine, Medical School, Qingdao Binhai University, Qingdao, P.R. China

2 Biomedical and Biochemical Infophysics, Science Research Institute, Edison NJ 08817, USAFV

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 400 thousand and infected more than 7 million people in the whole world as of 06/10/2020. Many open systems, such as educations, transportations, entertainments, sports or foods, have been completely or partially locked down in many regions of the world to prevent COVID-19 spreading. Therefore, how to reopen all of the open systems after the shutdown has become a world urgent issue.

Evidences of COIVD-19 have showed: person-to-person transmission occurs among close contacts; virus droplets (or aerosols) play an important role in the transmission; people can prevent COVID-19 by measures of mask-wearing or maintaining social distancing. However, how these measures work to prevent COVID-19 is still not clear in a perspective of biomedical Infophysics.

In this study, (1) we think the transmission of infection can be accomplished by real or virtual person; (2) we define a virtual person as ghost airflow, a term we coin to describe virus droplets (or aerosols) that are initially generated by human carriers and remain in the air to be transmitted. These ghost airflows are as dangerous as the real virus carriers particularly in enclosed (confined) environments; (3) we propose biomedical infophysical models (BMIPM) of filtering the ghost airflows by mask-wearing and maintaining social distancing, to help people to understand the filtering mechanisms and willingly follow the guidelines of preventing covid-19, and therefore to successfully reopen all of the open systems after the shutdowns (lockdowns) and (or) to avoid the shutdowns (lockdowns) in future epidemics or pandemics.

Significantly, we compare the prevention efficiencies of COVID-19 between people who are accustomed and not accustomed to masks based on the published WHO, CDC or NHC pandemic data. The compared results support our models in this investigation.

Coronaviruses easily survive and have high toxicity, in dirty, wet and cold environments, and the air pollution is linked with higher COVID-19 death rates. The dingy environments and air-conditioning, freezing systems sufficiently provide such necessary dirty, wet and cold conditions and polluted airflows to exacerbate the mortality rate of COVID-19. Therefore, we strongly suggest: to use air conditioners as less as possible, to turn the wind levels as low as possible and to clean (disinfecting) the air-conditioning systems (filters and channels) and environments as frequent as possible.

Author Contributions

Received Jun 11, 2020 Accepted Jun 15, 2020 Published Jun 17, 2020

Copyright© 2020 Cheng Kang, et al.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Competing interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Funding Interests:

Citation:

Cheng Kang, Zou Changhua (2020) Biomedical Infophysical Models Of Filtering Ghost Airflows By Wearing Masks And Maintaining Social Distancing To Prevent COVID-19 And Reopen All Systems After Shutdowns (Lockdowns) Journal of Public Health International. - 2(4):26-39

DOI 10.14302/issn.2641-4538.jphi-20-3426

Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 400 thousand and infected about 7 million of people in the whole world as of 06/10/2020 1. Many open systems, such as educations, transportations, entertainments, sports or foods, have been completely or partially shut down or locked down in many regions of the world to prevent COVID-19 spreading. Therefore, how to reopen all of the open systems after the shutdown has become a world urgent issue.

Evidences of COIVD-19 have showed that person-to-person transmission occurs among close contacts and the virus droplets (or aerosols) play an important role in the transmission 3456.

In the middle of February 2020, we urgently suggested American people to wear masks to prevent the respiratory infectious diseases 3. We believe the people would have significantly reduced the death rate of COVID-19 pandemic if they had worn the masks early.

WHO (World Health Organization) 1, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 27 and NHC (National Health Commission of China) 8 have issued precautions or measures to prevent COVID-19 transmission, such as washing hands frequently, maintaining social distancing, wearing face masks (covers) properly.

People can prevent COVID-19 by measures of mask-wearing or maintaining social distancing 12. However, how these measures work to prevent COVID-19 is not clear from a perspective of biomedical Infophysics.

In this study, we propose biomedical infophysical models (BMIPM) of filtering ghost airflows (GAF) through mask-wearing and maintaining social distancing, to help people to understand the filtering mechanisms and willingly follow WHO or CDC guidelines of preventing covid-19, and therefore to successfully reopen the systems after the shutdowns (lockdowns) and (or) to avoid the shutdowns (lockdowns) in future epidemics or pandemics. To our knowledge, there is not any published model like ours.

Medical and surgical masks were invented in Europe about 100 years ago 910 and they are successfully applied in hospitals. However, most people in Europe and America are not used to wearing face masks. In contrast, most Eastern Asian people are used to wear face masks (covers) to protect their faces, nostrils and mouths from winds, sands, dusts and pollutions. Thus, they easily accept the wearing of masks to prevent respiratory infectious diseases 311, as seen with well efficient prevention of COVID-19 today 1.

In this article, we compare the prevention efficiencies of COVID-19 between people who are used to and not used to wearing masks, based on published WHO 1, CDC 2 or NHC 8 pandemic data. The results from this comparison support our models; we also believe our models are applicable (suitable) to prevent other respiratory infectious diseases.

Discussion

Discussions

So far, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rates of fatalities and (or) mortalities of people who are accustomed to wearing masks are roughly the same as that of influenzas infectious diseases; in contrast, the rates of people who are not used to wearing masks are ten to hundred folds of that of the people who are used to wear masks 128, see Figure 6 to Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9.

Comparing the death rate of Sweden (without lockdowns and nor mask-wearing) and that of Republic of (S) Korea, Taiwan and Japan (without economic lockdown and with mask-wearing) 1, we think we can avoid the lockdowns (shutdowns) in future epidemics or pandemics, as long as we follow WHO or CDC guidelines of the precautionary measures (mask-wearing is the first important).

The face masks (covers) don't have to be N95 for medical or healthcare workers; they can be general medical masks or homemade cloth masks (covers) 1213 as long as long they are hygienic and can filter out ghost airflows or virus droplets. The more people wear masks in daily life, the less the N95 masks are needed for healthcare workers in clinics. Of course, infants under 2 years old should not use any mask or cover 12.

We believe the following measures could be very helpful to cure or to prevent COVID-19: to drink more warm liquids with complete nutrients 329303132 and water for easy digestion, energy supplementation, and blood clots prevention 33. This is a similar solution to altitude sickness during hypoxia: drinking more nutrients and water than usual when we have no appetite to eat; to sip distilled liquors, 60%-70% by volume, 1 cc or ml/an hour (for adults only), according to our previous initial clinical trials of treating flu infection before 2930.

In similar ways to equations 10 - 14, we could define an absolute natural herd immunity rate (ANHIR), i.e., absolute natural herd immunity information intensity 29 (ANHI II), in a region. ANHIR is,

ANHIR =AIR - ADR = R^tcc_ap - R^td_ap= R^tcc-td_ap(19)

and an absolute natural herd immunity information (ANHII) :

ANHII= -Log₂ (ANHIR)= -Log₂(R^tcc-td_ap) (20)

and a relative natural herd immunity rate (RNHIR), i.e., a relative natural herd immunity information intensity (RNHIII) 29, in a region. RNHIR is,

RNHIR = RIR - RDR = R^tcc_rp - R^td_rp = R^tcc-td_rp = R^tcc-td_ap* AI =R^tcc-td_ap^ai(21)

and a relative natural herd immunity information (RNHII):

RNHII= -Log₂(RNHIR) = -Log₂(R^tcc-td_rp) = -Log₂(R^tcc-td_ap^ai)(22)

Based on equations 19- 22, high natural herd immunity rates could be achieved by the high infection rates and low death rates generally, such as the immunity data of Singapore 1.

The mask-wearing or maintaining social distancing might play a role to minimize the rate of infection mortality and to maximize the natural herd immunity; with measures of mask-wearing and other precautions, we would significantly reduce the losses of our lives and economies in the battles against COVID-19. It is possible, that most of the mildly symptomatic individuals have achieved the natural herd immunization, regardless of whether or not they have been detected using a virus test kit.

Just like current security examinations, we predict, in future, that virus tests will be routine to prevent the spread of infectious diseases for some public activities such as traveling, entertainment, banquets, sports, assemblies or meetings as well as working, because the it is uncertain when the respiratory infectious diseases break out.

Therefore, we suggest all people routinely carry face masks (covers) with them when they are outdoors or in public environments, and wear masks when necessary, in similar ways to how healthcare workers wear masks in hospitals or as how we would wear a hat or scarf. We should use proven precautionary measures to respond to the unpredictability of viruses for future prevention of infectious epidemics or pandemics.

Journal of Public Health International