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Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
There is no agenda, and there is nothing for you to agree or disagree with. These are actual facts.
The person who wrote the article is NOT a medical doctor. That is a fact. If you disagree with it, it will still be true.
The Spanish Flu ended on its own, as most virii do over time. There was no cure for it, and treatments for it were hit or miss with each patient. Some survived with treatment, some survived without treatment. Some died with treatment, and some died without treatment. It didn't matter what treatment was used - it was a virus that ravaged the immune system. It wasn't cured by sunlight. That is FALSE information. You can disagree with this fact if you want, but it will still be false information.
Hobday is a pseudoscience writer. Being published doesn't change that, and in fact the peer reviews on any of his sunlight-as-cure papers are less than complimentary, as a whole. He is not a credible source.
Saying sunlight was a valid treatment for the Spanish Flu is sort of like saying that diving into a vat of bleach is a valid way to get an ink stain off of your shirt.
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You are right about all of this. However:
In 1918, if you were coming home from the war on a troop ship or living in a crowded tenement house in a big city, conditions were often damp and warm, and people who didn’t have some disease were in close proximity with people who did. Meanwhile, people who had a disease might also be next to people who had some other disease or to people who were coughing out more of the pathogens other people were trying to fight off.
Beyond doubt, many pathogens multiply more readily in a dark, damp, still environment where there is nourishment for them. (Like the inside of a Petri dish with a nourishing broth in it, right, that helps pathogens grow quickly and become easier to see. Or like inside your throat or lungs.)
Spacing out people and cutting their contact with other sick people helps the sick and, perhaps more importantly, helps those who haven’t caught the pathogen. The UV light in sunlight definitely can kill many organisms. That’s why all of my household water flows past a UV sterilizing light. Dry air can also shrivel many pathogens or kill them. (Humid air, meanwhile, can help you breathe better by keeping your airways moist.) I’ve read that in the wards with wide open windows, day and night, the reason people healed faster was probably because of less reinfection from other patients, and it helped the nurses and orderlies avoid infection. This was the best treatment for tuberculosis for a long time—it gave people room to heal themselves.
Exposure to sunlight in moderation can help. Fresh air away from contagion can help, too. Cleanliness is crucial. This is a lot like what we are now calling “social distancing.” Getting fresh air is a great idea, whether on your porch or going for a walk. By all means walk and talk with friends, but keep a prudent distance apart. Keep track of each other.
We’ll get through this.