The world is more than a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so many people have been living with lockdown restrictions, quarantine periods and physical distances for a long time. Hand sanitizer and masks are commonplace, and the common cold hasn’t felt so common. But what will be the effect of these lifestyle changes on our health?
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In this article, we look at the effect living physically away from other people could have on the immune systems of adults, children and infants born during the pandemic.
Some people have expressed concerns about whether their immune systems are compromised, as the general public no longer physically mixes.
Could our immune system therefore “forget” how to fight pathogens? For adults and older children, there is good news: this is not how immunity works.
According to MIT Medical, by the time a person reaches adulthood, their immune system has already been exposed to many bacteria and viruses and is capable of launching an attack against these invaders.
Because of this, the immune system has already learned how to destroy these microbes and will not forget, even as a result of long term lockdowns.
But what about young children, whose immune systems are still learning?
Children and the “hygiene hypothesis”
Many parents and guardians are familiar with the so-called hygiene hypothesis, even if they do not know it by name.
Essentially, this is the idea that there is a link between increased allergic conditions and reduced exposure to microbes in childhood resulting from hygiene measures, such as frequent hand washing, place to protect children from infections.
Dr David Strachan first proposed this link in an article that appeared in BMJTrusted Source in 1989.
In an article that appeared in the journal Perspectives in Public Health in 2016, Professor Sally F. Bloomfield and colleagues review the original article by Dr Strachan.
They write: “The immune system is a learning tool, and at birth it looks like a computer with hardware and software, but little data. Additional data should be provided during the first year of life, through contact with microorganisms from other humans and the natural environment. “
