Posted on by Californiacontrarian

M.I.D.


Let me first warn you, that even though this piece may be informative, the author is possibly probably Moronic, Idiotic, Demented! (i.e. M.I.D.!)

When the term M.I.D. is used, in today’s world we are speaking about Covid-19. I would surmise that only a few of you know what M.I.D. stands for or what it means in the real world.

M.I.D. stands for Minimal Infectious Dose, and it refers to the amount of virus needed to establish a Covid-19 infection. In practical everyday lingo it means that not every single exposure to the virus will result in an infection. In general, it is felt that one’s meaningful exposure is a product of the amount of virus one is exposed to, and the length of the exposure. That is why it is thought that those who work in grocery stores catch the virus . . . exposure to a small amount of the virus over the course of many hours attains that M.I.D. and the worker gets the virus infection. Whereas those of us who are shoppers in that same store are potentially exposed to the same amount of the virus “floating” around in the air, but we are in the store for perhaps 20 minutes, and thus do not attain the M.I.D., and thus do not come down with the clinical disease. The same logic applies as to why meatpackers are coming down with the disease . . . prolonged exposure in a confined area to a certain amount of “floating” viral particles in that meatpacking plant. ( In addition these meatpacking plants are extremely noisy, and so that is a lot of shouting is necessary; shouting increases the virus that is expelled , and so more “floating” viral particles.) 

Likewise it has been demonstrated that a clusters of Covid are likely to occur in households . . . prolonged exposure to a small amount of “floating” viral particles will likely attain the M.I.D. Similarly a one second exposure to a passing walker or jogger is not likely to lead to a clinical infection, whether the jogger/ walker/ runner is wearing a mask or not.

Now that everyone understands what M.I.D. means, and it’s practical implications, that leads me to the real purpose of this piece. In general, the optimum situation for each individual adult would be to get Covid, and it’s subsequent antibodies, but be asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic and at the same time not expose those at higher risk to our disease. 

One of the big mysteries with this Wuhan virus is “why are there many infected individuals who are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic?” (Estimates run as high as 25-30%.) Could it be that these individuals obviously were exposed (they had to catch it from somebody or somewhere), but perhaps were not exposed to the M.I.D.? Could it be that these sub-M.I.D. exposed individuals might be a clue as to how to prevent the spread of this viral disease? Now granted at this moment in time, no one seems to know what the M.I.D. is for Covid-19, or furthermore how to measure the M.I.D. in certain situations. 

But let’s fantasize for a second . . . what if church services would provide an environment with X number of “floating” particles, but only for a relatively short period of time – let’s say one hour. If the M.I.D. is not achieved, would we, could we, get some asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic people as a result? In the long run would this be good or bad? . . . keeping in mind that asymptomatic individuals can still spread the disease. Perhaps after a church gathering, those in attendance should quarantine themselves for two weeks? This quarantining, however, would only be of value if at least one person attending that church service were positive for Covid. If no one at the church service were positive, then there would be a lot of useless quarantining!

And what about “let’s get Covid” parties where a group of people would purposely get exposed to a minimally symptomatic, but Covid positive individual. Here, as opposed to a church service, everyone attending this party would know for sure that he/she had been exposed before self-quarantining for two weeks.

Again, like I said before . . . M.I.D. = Moronic, Idiotic, Demented!

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