[quote Gobbeldegook]@notrub have a read. It talks of the actual pollen exacerbating illness, as a lack of immune reaction, rather than sneezing causing greater spread, though I'd imagine that won't help.
@AspergersMum there are several trees who peak pollen in march in the uk, yew, elm, alder, hazel, willow, poplar. Might be more but those I know off.
I start around now and it gets worse with the apple and cherry blossoms coming soon. Mine dies off towards late June, provided the local farmers don't plant rape.
Masks don't help me escape pollen, I always have all my windows open. I'd rather suffer in an airy house 🤣
Thank god for citerazine![/quote]
Thanks I did read the report a few days ago, however it's just a statistical correlation here.
There has been work done before on the effect of pollen as a suppressant of the innate immune system,
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31512243/
but imo it's a little inconclusive and MUCH work would be needed in this area before anything conclusive could be known. Rhinoviruses are known to spread in Spring when pollen counts are high - is that causative or coincidence?
With covid, it's nothing to be terribly alarmed at - the authors note a 10-30% effect on TRANSMISSION - not disease severity!
NB - the innate immune system is the first line of defence against viral intrusion into the body. Suppression of this would mean a smaller initial viral load could result in an infection. However, once someone is infected, it's the response of the ADAPTIVE immune system that controls disease severity and this isn't affected by pollen.
Also note that the effects were observed in non-allergic volunteers suggesting that it has nothing to do with hayfever so if the reported effect of pollen is real, taking antihistamines won't change a thing, but neither does being a hayfever sufferer put you at increased risk compared to everyone else.
In short - it's not in our control, but it's nothing to worry about either.