Rising CO2 levels and COVID 19 Pandemic
In the year 2019 , the world watched in horror as the Amazon forests, California, Himalayan and Australia bush burned, releasing gigatonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. In January 2020 there were signals of a new life threatening pneumonia which later came to be known as COVID19/Sars-Cov-2 from Wuhan.
By March it had spread globally and the world was placed under draconian lockdowns. WHO has considered it to be a totally new virus with humanity having no existing immunity to it . This was the rationale behind the sanitary and social distancing measures taken and need for an urgent vaccination program for it. The virus has been well studied since then and there are many variants of it existing. Many vaccines have been made available, and while the world is racing for mass vaccination of populations but rising disease burden and collapse of health and economic systems is clearly visible.
So what is that we are missing? I think the answer lies in understanding the link of high CO2 levels in the atmosphere and its health impacts on elderly and people with comorbidities and those who are having or at risk of a COVID19 infection.
Till now CO2 studies have been done on healthy individuals and have come to conclusions that when CO2 is above 600 ppm, there is a decline of cognitive functions. As the levels rise symptoms become severe and death is possible at very high levels. There has been no study to look at what will happen to people who are elderly with comorbid conditions, the population which has been majorly hit by the COVID19 pandemic.
This lack of foresight has cost us dearly.
CO2 levels are currently at 420 ppm and are rising rapidly even after initial slowdown due to lockdowns. This is the highest in 14 million years. Humans have been around 1 million years. This level has had a major impact on our climate and created global climate catastrophes, coral bleaching etc. Our climate change mitigation programs are meant to conform with climate and temperature models and have not taken into account the impact of CO2 on human health.
Before we go into the CO2 story further, let us look at the evidence of COVID19 not being a nouvel virus. The commonly held narrative is that the COVID19 originated in Wuhan meat markets and has spread globally via airborne mechanisms. But there are few vital holes in this theory.
Firstly, a case of confirmed COVID pneumonia in France in December 2019.This clearly indicates that the virus was already circulating in Europe way before pandemic was declared in China towards end of January (https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-52526554)
Secondly, and the more important one is that T cell tests have revealed the presence of immunity to COVID19 present in the vast majority of the population even without prior exposure. T cell testing is done to look at the long term germ exposure and memory of immunity. Antibody testing gives us an idea of short term exposure and is mediated by B cells. B cells are further under control of T cells. Those who have T cell reactivity to SARS-Cov-2 are considered immune. These are findings reported in a study published by British medical journal in September 2020. The study looked at the question whether Human populations had no prior exposure to COVID19 as had been assumed. But the study found an opposite conclusion: “At least six studies have reported T cell reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 in 20% to 50% of people with no known exposure to the virus.” This has been reported in different countries in different continents. (https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3563)
This is evidence that the virus has been circulating in humans for a way longer than what has been assumed and the human population has had immunity present to it at different levels.
Then what has changed which could have been the trigger for big mortality rates as seen now? I think it is because of the high CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
Human blood is of the same nature as the ocean. We know the negative impact of high CO2 on marine life. Bleaching of corals, ear damage in marine fishes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7065673/) and so on due to rising CO2 levels has been documented.
High CO2 levels and chronic exposure to it could be affecting our immune system and making us more vulnerable to an already existing virus. CO2 levels are known to change over the year.
CO2 levels in the Earths atmosphere peak in May and then decline to October. This graph is in sync with how the pandemic has been rising and falling globally. COVID19 pandemic picked up in mid March 2020 and lockdowns lasted till mid June. COVID19 death rates started rising again as CO2 levels started to rise again after October 2020 and now we are in full lockdown in April 2021 with the highest CO2 levels in 14 million years.
For me this is the strongest evidence of positive relation of CO2 levels and COVID19 pandemic.This idea needs to be further investigated and my worst fear is that the vaccine campaign is not going to change the death rates. You can offer temporary immunity to the virus but ultimately rising CO2 will win. Masks are also raising CO2 levels in blood and this should be also looked into carefully (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33858372/).
Hence with this I make an urgent appeal to the entire world and its leaders, to act immediately on CO2 levels. You have run out of time and triggered a hypercapnia (high CO2 in blood) response on a global scale. Right now the fragile are dying next it will be the turn of the fit.
Stop all deforestation projects (eg river interlinking projects in India), change the global agriculture model to organic farming (eg support small farmers in India to grow organic food) and switch from petrochemical based society to renewable low carbon society (eg remove subsidies to chemical agriculture which only increases atmospheric carbon), increase biodiversity education and protection, utilise evidence based traditional medicine systems in collaboration with modern medicine (eg Kabasura kudineer chooranam has COVID19 protease blocking inhibitor molecules). .
When we live in harmony with nature we will be truly humans. HU-Man is combination of sound Hu - which represents the creative Nature and “Mann/Mana” which means mind in sanskrit. Together Human means Natural Mind living in harmony with nature.
Written by Dr Sunny Sandhu
Graduate of Medicine from India’s top Medical Institute AIIMS New delhi and then spent years studying traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda, Dhrupad,Yoga and Bhakti traditions of India . Currently lives in France where he runs a wellness centre teaching Dhrupad and Ayurveda www.atelierom.guru