COVID-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has made its unexpected entrance into the world some time in late 2019 causing much fear, economic disasters, suffering and fatalities throughout the world. This paper suggests a more aggressive intervention and strategy, for humanity should not let themselves be sitting ducks waiting for the virus to attack, and some possible methods for stopping Covid-19 in its path. (Expanded & Updated)

that it might take many years, even decades, to return to normal. This paper provides the explanation, the strong reasons, why more preemptive and aggressive measures are needed for containing the virus. It also suggests three possible methods, which should be seriously considered, for containing the virus. To develop the equipment and carry out the microbiological research suggested in these methods may require a lot of funding, for example, from the government, as well as technical expertise. Of the three possible methods suggested, two of them may be totally new and original. The paper suggests a change to a new and better strategy for tackling the virus when the existing one apparently doesn't work well. In summary, this paper shows that there is possibly a better strategy or approach, with the involvement of new methods and technologies, for tackling the seemingly insurmountable Covid-19 challenge.

Overview
Covid-19 spreads contagiously through physical contact, and, by air making the wearing of face masks for preventing the spread of the virus more or less a necessity. Sad to say there are many delusory people who prefer to view Covid-19 as similar to the common flu and should be regarded as nothing more serious than the common flu, whereby they end up paying a heavy price by falling seriously ill, or even die, due to the virus.
Many countries have relaxed and let their guard down resulting in second, third or more waves of the infection. As the virus seems adamant to stay and refuses to go away, Covid-19 would become endemic, a new normal, similar to the common flu, dengue, and what have you.
Over-crowding also appears to cause the virus to spread quickly and easily. As we are all social beings, gathering in groups is desirable but this would help to hasten the spread of the virus. In this respect, the virus has put a damper on social interaction and gatherings. People can't go to the office and work because they might catch or spread the virus in groups there, they can't gather in big social groups such as parties and weddings, they can't travel freely for fear of catching or spreading the virus, and so on. Humanity appears to be losing to the virus in many ways.
The elderly, and even the very young, whose immune systems tend to be weak, are particularly vulnerable to infection by the virus, and, if infected it could be fatal for them. [1,2,6,7,8] Many have already been infected by Covid-19, with many deaths and serious side-effects caused by the virus. For instance, official records have shown that more than one million of the five million or so population of the author's country have been infected by Covid-19, but the figure is most likely much higher as there have been many self-test and self-isolation infection cases which are not officially recorded, including those who are infected but do not show any symptoms of infection. There is a palpable fear of the virus, which affects everyone's daily life and activities. It is apparently everyone's wish to have a way out of all this suffering and misery.

Methodology: Curbing Covid-19
In this section, some possible measures for curbing Covid-19 are suggested. Humanity should not allow themselves to be sitting ducks waiting for the virus to attack, seeing how aggressively the virus has been contagiously attacking them; they should find ways to counter-attack the virus, and stop it from infecting them. In fact, to admit that Covid-19 would be endemic and would be the new normal is to admit defeat by the virus.
Many countries are getting their people, especially the elderly and vulnerable, vaccinated against infection, if possible the whole population, so that there would be herd immunity, so that the various restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the virus could be eased and life could return to normal. But there are many problems in this move, for example, not enough doses of the vaccine to go round, people who refuse to be vaccinated due to lack of confidence in the vaccines, fear of side effects, infection even after partial or full vaccination, re-infection, etc. [4] For hotter climates, for example, in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Africa, etc., which have tropical or sub-tropical climates, Covid-19 infections and casualties are relatively much lower than those in the colder countries, for example, US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Iran, Sweden, etc. It has been found that the hotness of the tropical and sub-tropical countries puts a damper on or kill the viruses while the cold of the colder countries encourages their survival and proliferation.
The following measures, on top of the other measures in use, are suggested for curbing Covid-19:-(1) "Heating" equipment for reducing or eliminating infection by inactivating or killing the virus might be more practical for colder countries, especially in winters, besides keeping people warm. As the viruses could not survive at high temperatures, "high temperature generating" equipment, for example, hot-air blowers for both indoor and outdoor, might be viable for use against the virus. Evidently, the viruses could not withstand heat. A recent experiment in a French lab found that the viruses became inactive when the temperature was high; but the viruses died only when the temperature was near boiling point. This might explain why tropical or sub-tropical countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Africa have relatively much less Covid-19 infections and casualties than colder countries such as US, UK, Canada and France. (2) Covid-19 is also an air-borne disease. This means staying indoors may not be safe. For example, a gust of wind carrying the viruses blowing into the house or anywhere in the environment may infect people with the viruses. This might explain why many residents in nursing homes in the author's country who have not ventured out of the nursing homes have become infected by Covid-19. Also, the home-bound elderly mother of the author's friend, whose family members have not been infected by Covid-19, has herself surprisingly been infected by Covid-19. Vaccines provide the cure. Prevention is evidently better than cure. For prevention, there are disinfectants and UV lights which kill the virus, detergents, face-masks, face-shields, etc. However, it would probably be better to have air-filtering equipment, for both indoor and outdoor, which suck in air, filter away the viruses and other harmful substances from the air and release virus-free, clean air into the environment. Someone, who is probably an inventor, has been heard saying that he is attempting to make such an equipment, and, this is certainly a good preventive method. This would possibly be the most effective way of fighting Covid-19 if the equipment were available. Such airfiltering equipment might also be suitable for simultaneously filtering away other types of air-borne viruses and bacteria, for example, those that cause influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis, which would be "killing more than one bird with one stone". Of late in the author's country, a company has advertised their home air purifiers which they claim are capable of filtering away viruses and bacteria. [9] (3) The idea here might seem far-fetched but it might work. It is said that there are plenty of "good" and "bad" bacteria in the human body, for example, in the guts; the "good" bacteria in the body fight the "bad" bacteria and prevent the latter from causing harm to the body. Likewise, it might be possible to have "good" viruses or bacteria to fight and neutralize Covid-19, inside and outside the human body.

Results and Conclusion
Vaccines might not be effective especially if the virus could mutate or change very quickly and become resistant to them quickly, now that they are available, which probably explains why there are fully vaccinated people who still get infected by the virus. Though vaccines are important for the cure and vaccinated people would not fall so ill if infected by the virus, prevention from infection should take precedence as infection might cause serious problems such as multiple organs failure if not death and a weakened body even if the person recovers. The three suggested, possible ways of curbing the spread of the virus presented above should be seriously considered. While the important measures such as vaccination are defensive, these three suggested, possible methods are aggressive, offensive and preventive. Prevention is evidently better than cure.
Another concern is that face masks are not fool-proof against the virus. When a person breathes through the mask, unfiltered air also gets breathed in from the sides of the face mask. Air is fluid and it travels in all directions. The virus through transmission by air could land on any part of the person's body, in fact anywhere.
Many people are infected by Covid-19 and dying every day. Vaccinations and masks, though important, are only defensive weapons against the virus. They do not attack and eradicate the enemy, which is the virus, allowing it to continue causing trouble. More aggressive and offensive methods should be used, such as the three methods suggested in the paper, in order to eradicate or get rid of the virus which is causing much harm and deaths every day, in order to stop the virus from contagiously infecting more people, before it is too late. This may be easier said than done but this, if carried out, could effectively put a damper on Covid-19 infections. However, vaccinations are evidently for strengthening the body against/curing the body from Covid-19 infection only, while the methods suggested in the paper are for preventing  infection -there is a world of difference between the two. A more preemptive and preventive measure against the virus should be adopted to stop it from causing further harm and deaths. The best defence against the virus now wherein virus infections are getting more serious in many countries appears to be more aggressive intervention or more offensive action against the virus. The reason also, besides stopping the virus from contagiously infecting more people, is that if the virus is not eradicated and allowed to survive and thrive it could mutate into a stronger, more dangerous, more contagious virus (as has already happened, with there being several new, more contagious strains of the virus), whereby it would become harder, possibly impossible even, to eradicate, with the Covid-19 situation becoming more intractable as a result. In the past, when the bird flu outbreaks occurred, hordes of fowls infected by the bird flu were quickly rounded up and culled, thereby eradicating the bird flu virus and ending the outbreaks. Humanity could not do the same to its own kind. The above-mentioned suggested, possible methods of eradicating the Covid-19 virus possibly represent the next best alternative.
At the moment, the virus appears to be having the upper hand in the "game of chess" with humanity. Whatever steps have been taken to counter the viral infection so far, the virus has apparently been able to counter-block, mutate and become more contagious, causing consternation and fear. Evidently a better strategy is required for containing the virus, as in a game of chess against a chess opponent, or, in a war against the enemy.
In the news, more infections and more deaths are heard every day, which is worrying. Should this state of affairs be allowed to continue and should the situation be simply treated as endemic and the new normal, that is, should the infections and deaths be treated as normal and be allowed to continue? Should people continue to live in abject fear of the virus? What about countermeasures which could rectify all this? Positive thinkers would say the fight has to continue and the battle has to be won; otherwise it would be doom. Soldiers win battles by advancing and killing their enemies and not by staying put and allowing their enemies to attack; team sports players win matches by charging forward and scoring goals at their opponents' goal-mouth and not by staying put and allowing their opponents to charge at them and score goals at their own goal-mouth. In the battle against the virus the same principle should apply. [3,5,10]