By Garrick A. Moritz, editor
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe and the United States, there are still some people who aren’t taking this virus seriously. Thankfully, Garretson does have a resident who is a serious scientist and trained virologist who actually lives right here in town.
Keith N. Haffer, Ph.D., not only owns Rainbow Delight with his wife Jeri, but he also owns two other companies, Braasch Biotech LLC (which savvy readers will remember we did a story about a few years ago) and Advantage Bio Consultants.
“I got my bachelors at the University of Boston, my Masters and PHD at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst. I have a doctorate in Veterinary Science, Immunology and Virology.”
Dr. Haffer has taught students at the university level and his biotech and consulting companies have been in business since 1994.
“I’ve been in the veterinary vaccine business for the last 20 years,” he said. “I regularly consult with companies for veterinary practices, vaccines and biosafety. I teach biosafety to laboratories. I have also dealt with, and immunized against, the wide family of the coronaviruses for about 40 years.”
To get started, Dr. Haffer first gave a little background on what a virus is, in case it’s been awhile since that lecture in high school biology.
“There are lots of viruses out there, but this is a specific kind of cross-species jumping. We call these Zoonotic viruses, when they jump from animals to human beings. Rabies is probably the oldest known of these viruses. There are pictographs of rabies infections that go back to the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Rabies is extremely dangerous, but thankfully it is now treatable. Also, thankfully it’s a biological dead end for the virus as it can’t transfer from a human to a human. Smallpox is also a classic example. It mutated from a disease that infected horses or cows to then infect humans. It was, and still is one of the most lethal viruses we’ve ever known. Influenza is of course, the most common virus that people know about, mostly because most of us get annual flu shots. It is also a virus that can and has mutated to affect multiple species.”
“The start of the coronavirus family infecting humans began with SARS and then MERS, they’ re all in the coronavirus family. There were some outbreaks of both those, and they were carefully observed, but there wasn’t widespread dissemination. So these things have always been there, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to jump. Animal to human jump is very good, usually, but the human to human transmission has been much less likely. Until now, that is.”
“COVID-19, called that because it was discovered in the year 2019, not because it’s the nineteenth strain of the virus. It infected a bat or pangolin that went to market in China and from there was transmitted to humans, and grew in humans. It’s an unusual situation. The original transmission vector for SARS was a cat, but SARS on the whole was fairly well contained and didn’t spread at a high rate. This one does spread at a very high rate. Interestingly they’re finding this virus can transmit from humans to their cats, but it is unknown if it can be transmitted back from cats to humans.
“Now something that people should understand about viruses is that they are not really living organisms. They are strands of rogue parasitic RNA. They need to grow inside living hosts to replicate. They can’t do anything on their own without a host to expand in, unlike bacterial infections, which are independent living organisms. It’s actually not in the virus’ interest for the host or host species to die out, because then it loses its ability to transfer to other hosts. It’s like many other primary pathogens. It infects cells and replicates, and sets up ideal conditions for secondary infections. The most common with COVID-19 is pneumonia, and that’s what usually kills the patient.”
And though this family of diseases isn’t brand new, it’s certainly new to us as a species.
“There is nowhere in the world where we have any kind of disease blockers. As far as we know, everyone is susceptible. No innate immunity, no herd immunity, and no vaccine for it at the present time. As is typically the case with viruses, the old and the young are the most vulnerable because they have the least immunity. This virus would be particularly deadly in nursing homes, so I’ m glad they are taking the threat seriously. People just aren’t as strong when they hit a certain age, and will have less ability to fight off this virus. There are others who are at higher risk as well. People of African descent, African Americans are getting infected at a higher rate than people of white European descent. It has to do with cellular proteins forming better places for the virus to take up residence. As an example, a person of white European descent is much more likely to contract say, malaria, where many people of African descent are simply immune. Anyone with immune disorders, respiratory problems like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. These people are all at highrisk for infection. If you’ re a smoker or an alcoholic, I’ m sorry to tell you that you are also at extreme high risk. Those things compromise your immune system in just the right way (or wrong way depending how you look at it) to make you more susceptible to this disease.”
So how bad could this potentially get? In plain English, very bad.
“The death tolls in our state, nation and around the world are changing daily,” Dr. Haffer said, “but here is the thing. Those death tolls are only official tallies, from recorded cases that have had positive test results. These are the people lucky enough to have gotten tested and had some treatment. Most people who get this virus don’t actually get that test or treatment. The number of flu deaths are also climbing, and you know, the symptoms are very similar. Similar enough, one can be construed as the other, and only an autopsy could show for sure. And again, you can get COVID-19 and then develop pneumonia and that is what kills you. Then you died from pneumonia when you may have gotten over your COVID-19 infection. Testing can be hard or impossible to find, or very unreliable too. And many people who contract COVID-19 have only minor symptoms, like a cold or bad flu. Then they go about their daily lives, their cells still producing the virus. The majority of people who have this virus don’t know that they have it and are just spreading it. Honestly, we’re lucky we’ve never seen anything on this scale before, it was a storm just waiting to brew.”
Information changes rapidly here. Just since this interview, some studies have come out showing that about 25% of people are completely without symptoms of any kind. Dr. Haffer had some good practical advice on what the average person can do during this crisis to keep themselves healthy.
“Thankfully this virus is not a very stable virus, structurally speaking,” he said. “Many viruses have a solid structure that’s hard to break apart, but with COVID-19 it’s relatively easy to destroy. The virus has an envelope, think of it as sort of a microscopic balloon. In the center of that balloon is where the RNA resides. A sneeze, cough or just breathing the air that host of the virus transmits, is bad. So, cover your sneeze or cough, and maintain that 6-foot distance. This balloon is the transport mechanism, it floats the virus to get it to new cells. But you can pop this balloon, and anything that destroys the balloon destroys the virus. Good old soap and water will destroy it. Hot water won’t kill it, not at temperatures we as humans can stand anyway, so plenty of soap and scrubbing is what’s called for. Cleaning vinegars also do nothing. Hydrogen peroxide, Lysol, bleach and ammonia-based cleaners will destroy it. (Though please never mix bleach and ammonia as that will create chlorine gas and could kill you.) Alcohol will destroy it, but it needs to be at a concentration of 63% or higher. Vodka won’t cut it, but isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) will. Everclear is a great disinfectant. I’m a big fan of Clorox myself, but any over the counter bleach should do the trick, just be careful and check the label as some off brands have a pretty low bleach concentration. For lab sterilization we use about 10 percent bleach solution. With this disease there is no such thing as overkill.”
There are also some things you should certainly not do that Dr. Haffer stressed in this interview as well.
“I’m certainly not getting on a plane anytime in the near future, and you should not as well. I’m glad to see that our local merchants and businesses are taking it seriously. I’ve seen them installing plexiglass shields, wearing gloves and masks. Most places in Garretson have done a very good job in that regard. When I went to our closest local pharmacy, the Lewis/Sunshine in Brandon I have to say that I was a little less impressed. The Pharmacy itself was well-done, masks, gloves, shields and everything I would expect of medical professionals. Excellent there. But the checkout lines, not excellent at all. Checkers not masked or gloved, and no distance maintained. I don’t know whose call that was, but it was a bad one. Ron and Lori and their staff at GFC are doing a much better job in my opinion.”
“The idea of going to a bar terrifies me in the current climate. That’s not to say anything bad about our local businesses, all of whom are making delivery and takeout options for food. But actually, going inside, having someone serve you and being around other patrons in an enclosed space is a really bad idea.”
The same goes for social smoking. Standing together smoking outside on the sidewalk is also very ill-considered at this time. The smoke makes a great transmission vector between smokers, a group that will be extremely susceptible to the virus already, sharing air that easily could be polluted by more than just the usual unhealthy act.
“Smoking a cigarette doesn’t kill the virus, it just creates another transmission vector for it,” he said. “So, we’ve talked about soap and water, that destroys the virus. If you go out and about, and you will have to eventually of course for whatever you need to keep on living, the most important thing is to keep your distance whenever possible. Distance yourself however you can. Wear a face mask, and keep your hands sanitary and clean. Don’t shake hands. Be clear and precise in your communication with others. Anyone can be a virus carrier, and even if they’ve been cured, they still may be carrying it and can transmit it. If you were out in public, there is no reason that you have to bring your clothes inside your house with you. Take off your gloves, mask, and clothes and just leave them outside your door. Alternately, you can put them straight into the wash after you’ve been out, because soap and water will do the job. Sanitize your doorknobs and anything you own that you touched on the way to and from the store, like keys or your car steering wheel, shifter and door latches. Anything your hands might touch, and keep those hands away from your face until you’ve washed them. Bleach won’t work so well on your clothes without destroying them of course, but alcohol is a great option, and good old detergent in the wash machine gets it done. Be vigilant and use your head. Don’t take chances.”
There is light at the end of the tunnel, but Keith feels that certainly this will have profound changes to the world as we know it, and repercussions we haven’t begun to see yet.
“The good news is that social distance and stay at home practices are working,” he said. “The transmission rate has slowed down. We know it works, which is why it’s frustrating when you see people protesting for their “rights to be free,” and all they are managing to accomplish is provide more opportunities for this disease to infect themselves and their loved ones. It’s just pure idiocy. It’s a scary time for everyone, because we don’t know what to expect from the future. This disease will have long-term consequences too. From people who have needed ventilators to recover, there is scarring from that. People who have high blood pressure might develop more complications post COVID-19. COVID-19 affects the kidneys, so we might see an increase in kidney diseases and especially in those folks who’ve had kidney transplants or just organ transplants of any kind. And in the wake of this disease I’m afraid we’ re in for a major resurgence of some diseases that we’ve thought were all but cured just a few short years ago, things like measles and mumps.”
So, don’t be fooled by people with microphones who have political, social and/or economic agendas, and who don’t have a single care for you or your family’s health. People are more important than things. Care for your neighbors, community, and yourself. Follow this advice and don’t take risks. When you do go out, because you will have to at some point, support your local businesses as much as possible, and take precautions and respect the precautions they must take to protect themselves. If you don’t think the virus is real, you are dead wrong. It’s here. There have been and currently are cases in Garretson and the Garretson area. The reason it hasn’t spread overmuch here, is because our community has banded together well and is taking the right actions! Keep it up!
