Does Britain have a new pandemic on its hands? This is my verdict on HMPV - Dr Renée Hoenderkamp
Renee Hoenderkamp plays down the WHO's warning of a HMPV outbreak
GB News
My immediate reaction to the spread of HMPV is: 'Oh come on guys, calm down'. But why?
I think we have gone through a really difficult time during the four years of Covid where we were told minute by minute how many people were dead, how many would be dead if we didn’t hide away and how dangerous we were as vectors of disease.
Children were told that they could kill Granny, and Granny was told she was at risk of dying if someone sneezed near her.
Understandably, this changed our relationship with each other, with how we view infectious disease and how we think about our risk.
I would like to say that I think the latter part of that has not been a positive thing, it has not enhanced how we approach our own health, just how we now start to fret with every new virus that arrives. And that, in my humble opinion, isn’t helpful. Let me tell you why, and I will come back to HMPV.
Covid was caused by a coronavirus. You may feel that viruses are here to harm humans. They have indeed caused some deadly disease pandemics that have cost untold lives over the millennia. An example, oft-quoted, was that of the 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed an estimated 50-100 million people.
Smallpox killed an estimated 200 million people. The Covid-19 pandemic was just one in a series of viruses.It therefore follows that if we could make all viruses disappear that would sound like a no-brainer. But it would be a deadly mistake.
Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the BBC: “If all viruses suddenly disappeared, the world would be a wonderful place for about a day and a half, and then we’d all die”.
We are but one small cog in a very complex, interconnected world in which we cohabit with an uncountable number of viruses and bacteria. They are critical in maintaining the ecosystem on which we rely to live, from insects through to fungi. They kill pathogenic microbes, they regulate ecosystems, and we need them as much as they need us. Hardly any of them are dangerous to humans, but some are. So, what can we do?
HMPV is a far cry from the dark days of the pandemic but people should be vigilant, writes Dr Renée Hoenderkamp
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Honestly, the most important thing we can do is live the healthiest life we can and aim for the healthiest body we can as part of that. And the most important aspect of that is weight, I know it’s easy to say, but one of the biggest predictors of a bad outcome when we do get infected is body weight and we have control over this.
When you are overweight, your body is in a constant state of inflammation, your blood pressure goes up and you start moving towards pre-diabetes/diabetes. In covid those who died, on average, had three co-morbidities and amongst these were high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity! To this day I am sure that Boris Johnson got so ill from covid due to his weight. I feel he should have used that lectern, at which he stood each day to terrify us, better by admitting that his weight was his risk and he should have gone on a weight loss program with us instead!
So, let’s come back to the HMPV virus that the media have been hailing as the next pandemic and suggesting that we should use masks and isolation again! Firstly, I wish the media wouldn’t do this. Some people are still scared by the covid era and this kind of thing really terrifies them. We are all seeing people with masks on again. To many, it's mind-blowing, to others, it's sensible. What it does mean is that people are being scared again, and that is sad and wrong. Part of this is also being driven by the headlines about the NHS being under threat from a "Quademic" - scary words again. And neither of these claims are remotely real. There is flu around, but it’s not as bad as two years ago.
There is norovirus around, as there is every year at this time. Covid is at a very low level, and RSV is as it usually is. But the detail is irrelevant when the MSM is searching for headline drama that generates clicks.
And the same is true of HMPV, which is not a new virus. We have seen it bumping along with low-level infections for 10-15 years. There has been a very, and I stress very, small increase in the number of these infections detected over the last month, but in numbers which are not anywhere near significant enough to even consider that this is the next pandemic. So don’t panic, and don’t start wearing masks.
The evidence for masks stopping microscopic viruses from being breathed in is just not there. They don’t work in the community, but what they do achieve is fear and social isolation. They damage communication, and they affect children’s development. And, if you care about the environment, they destroy it! More than one billion face masks ended up in the sea in 2020, and it will take 450 years to biodegrade.
What I would say is to be sensible. Wash your hands regularly, sneeze and cough into a tissue, and discard it in a bin. If you are feeling really grotty, don’t go on the tube or to a party, and be kind to others as you would with any cold, which frankly, is what HMPV is!
And if you want to prepare in the best way you can and live your fullest and healthiest life; lose weight, eat less, stop eating ultra-processed food and exercise.
Live your life knowing and accepting that viruses will come and go; some will make us ill, but our bodies are amazing, and we can prevail. That’s the only plan we should all have as a pandemic plan.
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