The Infectious Disease Paradox
Kris Verburgh, MD, evaluated the pandemic for us back in March 2020. His observations are as relevant as ever. Read which role nutrition and the meat industry play to prevent and fight viruses like Covid-19.
March 2020
As experts in innovation investing one of our assets is our great network of experts in technology and science. Last week, at the very beginning of the pandemic, we had a discussion with Dr. Kris Verburgh, MD, who is a medical doctor and author of various books on biogerontology, a research-field exploring the process of aging with the aim of increasing lifespan and health.
Before we reveal his views on the COVID-19 situation, why we need to learn to live with the virus, and the role of factory farming in this context, we want to share a list of vitamins and minerals that he recommends to proactively strengthen the immune system as both a firewall (to reduce the risk of getting infected) and virus scanner (to better fight an infection).
- Vitamin D(3): 2.000–4.000 units/day
- Zinc: 15 mg/day
- Magnesium: 2000 mg/day (malate powder)
- Vitamin C: 500 mg/day
- Selenium (yeast version): 50–100 ug/day
- Vegetarians/vegans should add vitamin B12, iron and omega 3 fatty acids to the mix
- Try to follow a regular sleep regimen. Sleep deprivation has a negative impact on the immune system — and psyche.
Furthermore, he highlights the benefits of fasting for 3 days once a quarter. More on that later.
Balancing probabilities: Collateral damage vs. corona fatalities
“There’s a reason why mostly the elderly are affected and why one of the key factors in fighting diseases — in general — is rejuvenating the immune system,” explains Verburgh. Other than keeping the body’s defense strong, he suggests society has to learn to live with the virus and accept that there will be what he calls “corona season” every year — sometimes milder and other times worse. “Luckily, COVID-19 is not an aggressive virus in comparison with former epidemics such as SARS, which came with a mortality rate of about 10 percent or MERS with even 34%.” Governments have to consider the fact that quarantine can kill more people than the disease itself,” warns Verburgh. He is especially concerned with mental health problems like depression and rising suicide rates, domestic violence, restricted movement, and people who experience serious health incidences like strokes or heart attacks avoiding hospitals due to the risk of infection during times of confinement and national emergency plans in place. “If we want to stay in the war rhetoric some governments use, there is ‘collateral damage’ to be balanced against fatalities from the virus.”
Verburgh finds it naive to believe that social distancing will solve the problem. It is effective to buy time, however, the virus mutates reasonably quickly, which would require faster action to develop vaccine(s). “We need to be prepared to treat viruses right away,” he claims. “It’s a matter of time that there will be another, more aggressive virus and that the current crisis is only a wake-up call.”
The actual problem — investment incentives
One of the reasons for the slow responses to infectious diseases lies in the lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies to steer efforts towards them. A vaccine is a one-off treatment, and as such neither lucrative nor in relation to the development costs that trials and phase I to III studies require. Patients receive it once — and then they are cured for a while (estimates for COVID-19 between one and four years). Compared to the daily dose of insulin or other drugs for chronic diseases, sporadic demand does just not justify the continuous investment in supply. Verburgh adds that after the SARS and MERS epidemics, there was an uproar and promise to invest more, but little has happened since. Is this time different? Is the fact that now the whole world is in this together a game-changer?
The solution — investment incentives
To be prepared for more severe pandemics, he suggests
- Enabling global scientific alliances
- Accelerating genome sequencing research to speed up the development of vaccines and their mass production
- Funding vaccine development
- Skipping or at least facilitating phase III trials for vaccines
- Scaling telemedicine and home diagnostics
- Abandoning factory farming — a disinvestment that animal rights activists had little success promoting over the last years despite animal abuse scandals and the climate change crises — but perhaps a pandemic was required to force a change!
How much is the meat industry to blame?
The latter appears to be an under-discussed aspect Verburgh brings to the (dining) table. “What has been almost ignored: Viruses become deadly when they jump from one species to another, one that can’t handle it — which is from animals to humans in almost all cases,” he says. 21st century factory farming — apart from moral aspects — comes with gross side effects. A recent article in Wired summarizes: “Both farmed and caged wild animals create the perfect breeding ground for zoonotic diseases. Extraordinarily high population densities, prolonged heightened stress levels, poor sanitation, and unnatural diets create a veritable speed-dating event for viruses to rendezvous with a weakened human host and transcend the species barrier.”
Often viruses extend to humans via an intermediate (animal) host. Scientists agree that there’s a clear link between influenza and intensified poultry factory farming. Rob Wallace explores some of the reasons in his book “Big Farms Make Big Flu”: There is the density with which chickens, turkeys or other poultry are kept, and also the fact that the birds tend to be near genetic clones of one another — having been selected over decades for specific traits. A virus can race through such a flock without having to deal with any disturbance in the form of genetic variants that prevent its spread, which potentially leads to a virus becoming more virulent. This effect is not exclusive to “feathered food”: Similar observations have been made for pig farms.
The random and mass use of antibiotics in livestock adds to the threat. Antibiotic resistance in humans has become an increasing problem in the treatment of otherwise curable diseases; bacterial diseases often come along with a virus-induced, weakened immune system and add serious, potentially fatal complications. “While working in hospitals, I witnessed people die from common infections like in the Middle Ages, simply because antibiotics didn’t show any effect,” explains Verburgh.
The power of nutrition or: prevention is better than cure
“Just because evolution made us get used to eating meat, doesn’t mean it’s healthy for us or good in a broader context,” Verburgh says. Instead, he advises to regularly reflect on eating habits and to adapt them accordingly to state-of-the-art recommendations: because the most powerful tool we have to stay healthy longer is and remains nutrition. If we ate less and ate differently, we could boost the immune system and slow down ageing, making us much better prepared for any unforeseeable crises and infections than we are today. Verburgh recommends three days of fasting every three months to rejuvenate cells and promote riddance of cancerogenous cells: “Cancer cells need nutrition. They love sugar and hate fasting.” Eating habits can reverse chronic diseases like diabetes and even have an effect on Alzheimer’s. Or as the ancient Roman Juvenal put it: “Mens sana in corpore sano.“ — a healthy mind in a healthy body.
For a deeper dive into the topic, we recommend his current book “The Longevity Code”.
