In times of stress, like living through a global pandemic, it’s natural to fall back on soothing habits — gardening, playing vid

admin2023-03-07  99

问题     In times of stress, like living through a global pandemic, it’s natural to fall back on soothing habits — gardening, playing video games or lighting up a cigarette.
    But what are the risks, given that the novel coronavirus at the center of the current crisis attacks the lungs? The science is in its early stages, but studies are finding that cigarette smokers are more likely to have severe infections. There is data to show that if you are a smoker, you’re more likely to have adverse outcomes from COVID-19, need mechanical ventilation and die than if you’re not a smoker. Smoking damages the lung’s defense mechanisms, making is harder to fight off COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
    What does science say? Early data was conflicting. Some reports indicated that smoking was not associated with increased adverse outcomes and that smokers were underrepresented in hospital settings, leading some to claim that smokers might even have immunity to the virus. But specialists dismissed the claim as "really fringe stuff. One study found that of those who died of COVID-19, 9 percent were current smokers, compared with 4 percent of those that survived. Smoking, for one thing, inhibits blood cells that would otherwise clean and repair damaged lungs.
    What about e-cigarettes? Less is known about how coronavirus patients who use e-cigarettes products are faring, but several doctors suspect their trajectory will mirror that of cigarette smokers. Smoking e-cigarettes has all the same adverse effects as smoking ordinary cigarettes does. Smoking anything can irritate the lining of your lungs. If you irritate the lining of your lungs, you set yourself up for trouble, because the disease kills people by attacking the lungs.
    What about secondhand smoke? Smokers do not expel more of a respiratory virus than non-smokers, although they do cough more. The smoke itself doesn’t seem to increase the amount of virus that gets in the air. However, to the extent that the virus is carried in tiny aerosol particles that stay in the air, one of the possible means of transmission, the smoke shows where those particles are located. One study showed that people who had been exposed to secondhand smoke were more likely to contract tuberculosis and, once they got it, didn’t do as well as those who weren’t exposed to smoke. In terms of these immune-suppressive effects, as it relates to tuberculosis, secondhand smoke has adverse effects.
    Each virus has its unique pattern of dispersion, and scientists are starting to get a handle on how the novel coronavirus behaves. This understanding is making it possible to rank the risks of different activities from high to low to trivial.
    The two drivers of the spread of the disease are close contact and crowding in closed spaces, as the virus is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets and close contact. It spreads through homeless shelters and nursing homes, where people are crowded in with many others. And it spreads through people’s households. Scientists have found same trends. For example, spending time dining together or being on public transport might increase the risk of spreading or contracting the disease, while going to a market briefly for five minutes or a transient encounter while you walk or run past someone is considered low risk.
    The studies were all done through contact tracing, which may turn out to be humanity’s greatest strategy for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing can stop chains of transmission, even after a disease is widespread. Another major benefit is that it offers clues as to how the disease spreads. Each virus has its unique pattern.

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答案 面对压力时,如遭遇全球疫情,人们自然而然会求助于一些解压的习惯——摆弄花草,打电子游戏或吸烟。 然而,鉴于目前处于这场危机中心的新冠病毒会攻击人体肺部,那么这些习惯又可能会带来哪些风险呢?相关科学发展尚处于起步阶段,但研究发现吸烟者更容易患重症。数据表明,相比不吸烟的人来说,吸烟者更有可能因感染新冠病毒肺炎而出现不良反应,需要呼吸机辅助通气,甚至死亡。吸烟会破坏肺部的防御机制,使人体更难以抵御新冠病毒肺炎和其他呼吸道疾病。 科学是如何解释的?早期数据在矛盾。一些研究报告指出,吸烟与不良反应发生率的提高无关,另外因为吸烟者占住院患者比例不高,导致有些人声称,吸烟者甚至可能对新冠病毒存在免疫力。但专家们驳斥了这一说法,称其“纯属无稽之谈”。一项研究发现,死于新冠肺炎的人中,有9%为现时吸烟者,而幸存病例中,现时吸烟者只占4%。其中一个原因是吸烟会抑制血细胞,而血细胞原本可以起到清洁肺部和修复肺部损伤的作用。 如果吸电子烟呢?人们对使用电子烟产品的新冠肺炎患者的病情还知之甚少,但有些医生怀疑他们的病情发展也可以反映普通吸烟者的病情。无论是吸食电子烟还是普通烟,带来的危害是完全一致的,都会刺激人体的肺黏膜。一旦刺激了肺黏膜,你就是在“自掘坟墓”,因为新冠肺炎正是通过攻击肺部致死。 那如果吸二手烟呢?与不吸烟的人相比。虽然吸烟者咳嗽得更厉害,但并未呼出更多的呼吸道病毒。烟雾本身似乎并不会增加空气中病毒的数量。然而,由于悬浮在空气中的微小气溶胶颗粒会携带病毒(新冠病毒的潜在传播途径之一),而烟雾正是以气溶胶的形式存在于空气中。一项研究表明,暴露于二手烟环境中的人更容易感染肺结核,而一旦感染,他们的身体状况也会不如那些没有接触二手烟的人。鉴于二手烟与肺结核相关,存在免疫抑制效果,可见其危害性。 每种病毒都有其独特的传播方式,科学家们正着手弄清楚新冠病毒的传播方式。成功掌握后就可以将不同活动按照高、低、无风险进行排序。 由于新冠病毒主要通过呼吸道飞沫传播和近距离接触传播,因此,造成疫情扩散的两大因素分别为密切接触和密闭场所聚集。病毒在人员密集的收容所和疗养院中传播,还会在家庭中传播。科学家发现了同样的群聚感染趋势。举个例子,聚餐或乘坐公共交通工具都可能会增加传播或感染新冠病毒的风险,但在市场短暂逗留五分钟,或在走路或跑步过程中与他人短暂交集,则被视为低风险行为。 这些研究均通过流调完成,这可能成为人类抗击新冠肺炎疫情最重要的方法。即便是在某种疾病开始广泛传播后,流调也能阻断传播链。另一个好处是,它为研究疾病传播机制提供了线索。毕竟每种病毒都有其独特的传播方式。

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