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Why frequent mask wearing does no harm - "The immune system is not a muscle"

2022-07-24T17:12:18.578Z


Why frequent mask wearing does no harm - "The immune system is not a muscle" Created: 07/24/2022, 18:56 The mask requirement has fallen in many places, now the question arises for many: Mask on or off? In any case, frequent wearing of a mask cannot damage the immune system (symbol image). © picture alliance/dpa | Marijan Murat An above-average number of people in Germany are currently suffering


Why frequent mask wearing does no harm - "The immune system is not a muscle"

Created: 07/24/2022, 18:56

The mask requirement has fallen in many places, now the question arises for many: Mask on or off?

In any case, frequent wearing of a mask cannot damage the immune system (symbol image).

© picture alliance/dpa |

Marijan Murat

An above-average number of people in Germany are currently suffering from respiratory diseases.

Is our immune system possibly out of practice from wearing masks?

Berlin – Anyone who could otherwise set the clock in the winter season to catch a cold or flu may have paid attention to disinfecting their hands, wore a mask or kept their distance from other people since the beginning of the corona pandemic.

Lo and behold: for many, colds were suddenly a thing of the past.

According to figures from the US health authority CDC and the RKI, there were significantly fewer cases of flu worldwide in 2021 than usual. However, respiratory diseases are currently on the rise in Germany.

What if wearing the mask weakens the immune system in the long run?

More respiratory diseases in Germany than in previous years - even before Corona

Currently, an above-average number of people in Germany are suffering from acute respiratory diseases, ARE for short.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), within a week there were 4.5 million sick people in Germany.

This corresponds to about one disease per 18.5 inhabitants.

In previous years - both during and before the pandemic - the values ​​​​for respiratory diseases with fever, cough or sore throat were significantly lower.

Why there are currently so many respiratory diseases in Germany

However: Correlation is not the same as causality, is an important principle in science.

This is simply explained with apparent correlations, i.e. two events that are only related at first glance.

For example, there is a correlation between the release of films starring actor Nicolas Cage and, conversely, the number of people who drowned in swimming pools in the same years. 

While it is clear here that Nicolas Cage films can hardly be responsible for the drowning, it is not so obvious on other issues.

For example, when the doctor Michael Kulas suspects that the immune system has not been trained in the past two years by wearing a mask all the time.

He did point out to the

world

that the mask should continue to be worn in “situations where special protection is required”.

At the same time, however, he advocated giving the immune system a certain amount of training.

These are the real reasons for current respiratory diseases: "The immune system is not a muscle"

The Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, Carsten Watzl, apparently does not see the immune system now having to train.

"The immune system is not a muscle: it does not recede if it is not used or is used less," Watzl explained to the dpa.

In his view, the immune system still had enough to do in the two years of the pandemic.

According to Watzl, people come into contact with pathogens not only through the respiratory tract, but also through the skin or food, so that the immune system kicks in.

“You get rhinoviruses, for example, because the virus is constantly changing and therefore appears new to the immune system.

It's not because of lack of experience.” 

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According to the RKI, the coronavirus is mainly responsible for the high number of diseases in adults.

Unlike in 2020 and 2021, there is currently a corona summer wave due to the more contagious omicron variant.

In children, rhino and parainfluenza viruses in particular circulated.

Influenza viruses also continued to play a role, according to the RKI.

Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology (DGfI), is standing in a laboratory.

The expert assumes that the Corona variant BA.5 will also prevail in this country (archive image).

© picture alliance/dpa/Leibniz Institute for Labor Research at the TU Dortmund (IfADo) |

Watzl also sees a "catch-up effect" as a possible explanation.

Some viruses are seasonal.

The immunologist believes that anyone who has missed these seasonal corona viruses over the past two years can now catch several colds in a row.

“During the pandemic, many of us have gotten used to not having colds for a long time at a time.

It was already the case before that you were affected again and again,” Watzl continues.

Experts continue to recommend wearing masks indoors

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach expects a severe autumn wave after the current summer wave.

According to a corona expert panel, protective measures such as wearing a mask can continue to be helpful against corona.

Since the corona virus can be transmitted indoors more easily than outdoors, “in future, the obligation to wear a mask should be restricted to indoor areas and places with a higher risk of infection,” the committee recommends.

But the masks must be worn properly.

"However, an ill-fitting and not tight-fitting mask has a reduced or no effect," according to the experts.

These viruses and bacteria make us sick

View photo gallery

From the point of view of scientists, however, caution is required in the coming autumn because of the flu: "If we have not come into contact with influenza in these years, it is possible that the virus will "run away from us" in evolution, so we will at some point follow it have to do with a virus that we know less well," says Bernd Salzberger, infectiologist at the University Hospital Regensburg of the dpa.

But the immune system does not forget old encounters so quickly.

Antibodies against influenza hardly decreased during the pandemic.

Nevertheless: "Vaccination fatigue this autumn and winter would be negligent," says the scientist.

(

bm/dpa

)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-24

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