What Covid-19 can teach us
Meeting the virus with fear or informed common sense?
‘The picture we have of viruses and their significance for human beings and nature has fundamentally changed in the last two decades but with hardly any of this more widely known although this Organism has occupied the headlines for many months. Viruses are the oldest, the most common and the most broadly distributed organic structures that evolution has ever created. Viruses basically are the most ancient building blocks of life; without this knowledge we will not be able to understand their role and the part they play in the course of illness.’ T. Hardtmuth
It is with this backdrop that Dr Thomas Hardtmuth tackles the whole issue of the current Corona pandemic. We need a thorough understanding of the significance of viruses not just as a cause of illnesses but as a medium, under the right conditions, for building and maintaining health, as a carrier and changer of genetic information in the service of evolution. The more we merely view them as enemies to be fought, the more it will be that we will consign ourselves to battleground stations, with all that that entails. And, as Hardtmuth describes in detail, this applies just as well if not even more so to COVID-19. In fact, governments have described it as a war.
The newest research and understanding, though, is leading to very different conclusions. We are deeply influenced by predominantly pathogenic studies with regard to viruses in the past century, whereas the most astonishing recent research is showing viruses, in their mutability and in their ability to change our DNA, to be one of the most essential life forms not only for maintaining health but allowing us to adapt to new situations, in short: to evolve.
How does this apply to illnesses and a pandemic? The prevalent view of a virus attacking us and making us ill, laying the blame fully on the virus, is outdated. Its effect depends on the situation and the host – it is not a simple question of cause and effect.
This is just one aspect of Hardtmuth’s discussion. This short book takes the discussion further, delving in more detail into subjects such as the PCR tests and the so-called Ct (or amplification) values; the psychology of fear and power; the inner-outer relationship between human health and environmental health; and the effects of fear as well as other factors on the immune system. In addition, he introduces the welcome subject of alternative therapies and the controversial subject around the uses and risks of vaccination, both in general and more specifically with regard to the current Covid vaccines. On the latter he details in comprehensible form the processes both by which the different types of vaccines have been produced as well as the different mechanisms by which they affect human cells and immune systems. He goes on to consider the testing processes in production which were significantly shortened for Covid vaccines, the potential risks, and the immunological responses in the organism through vaccines in comparison to responses arising naturally through actual infections. They are not the same. This leads into a comprehensive survey of the functioning of the human immune system.
In all the sections, the effort is made to explore the issues from a broad, open-minded and holistic perspective, showing how this approach has an important significance also for the details of the Covid pandemic and the various measures being taken.
For the handy, easily readable format, Hardtmuth brings a considerable amount of information, helping the reader sort the chaff from the wheat in the headline grabbing news stories, giving a broader sense for the intricate interconnectedness of health, illness, environment and evolution.
Publisher: InterActions
Format: Paperback
Other Titles by this author
