In a broader sense, I think that if we actually DO want to maximize public resistance to C19, masks, gloves, and distances ARE THE WAY to make that happen, and this IS about viral load, so what does viral load mean?
It’s a game of levels. The virus has to make into your system in sufficient quantities that you get sick before your body has a chance to build an immune response. Every failed attempt increases the immune system’s chances to improve its response and kill more virus faster. In a novel virus like this (meaning that as a species we have no immunological experience in our genes to build on), defeating the virus will be slower than usual because our bodies aren’t accustomed to dealing with, genetically as well as individually. So, if it’s only a tiny exposure, once every week or two, your immune system may be able toStay on top of it, improve its response, and keep you healthy.
But what if it’s not a tiny bit, now and then? What if it’s a full-on uncovered sneeze 3’ away from someone who won’t know they’re sick until TOMORROW? Hope you were wearing a mask, and that you punched the MF and called the manager! But say, you weren’t wearing a mask or anything like it, you just happened to be facing his way, what happens now?
This is a fresh case: our individual has gone from no load to a massive load, and theres literally no point in trying to quantify some theoretical load point, because the determining is strictly individual: did our crash-test dummy get ENOUGH virus - that is, enough virus that it’s normal reproductive rate overwhelms the body’s ability to fight it off. The larger the load, the faster you get sick, and the sicker you get. Also, the higher the load, the shorter the incubation period, so I suppose it’s possible that if one got a large enough initial exposure, the incubation period could be a few days, not a couple of weeks.
So how do we achieve herd immunity in this way? By making sure that EVERYONE’s exposure is minimal, not because they’re 100% but because our immune systems individually need enough time and enough health to decode the virus and provide us maximum resistance. Doing that, fewer people will get too sick too fast, fewer will need to be in the hospital at any given moment, everybody can look toward becoming resistant over time, and toward changing what needs to be changed to permit this. The greatest natural resistance with the least harm done and the fewest lives lost...but EVERYONE distances. EVERYONE masks. EVERYONE gloves (when appropriate).
in short, everyone acts like an effing grown-up
UPDATE: of course, there’s a downside to this approach - which is that every child born will need the same accommodation, until we discover if our acquired immunity is transmittable to newborns via mother’s milk - which is how newborns get an immune system, BTW. Or we learn that it won’t. Maybe we’ll have a vaccine that meets emerging standards by then.
(cue the Gates/5g/microchip/vaccine crew)
, don't touch your mask or re-adjust with unsanitized hands.