The common cold can suppress the coronavirus: how it will affect the pandemic

The virus that causes the common cold can effectively drive Covid out of the body, scientists say. The thing is that some viruses “compete” for a place in the human body, explains Air force.

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British scientists from the University of Glasgow found that common rhinoviruses that cause the common cold were stronger than the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease.

The benefits may be short-lived, but rhinoviruses are so common that they can help suppress the coronavirus.

Think of the cells in your nose, throat, and lungs as a row of houses. Once a virus gets inside, he can either keep the doors of his house open to let other viruses in, or close them to live without neighbors.

Flu is one of the most selfish viruses and almost always works alone. Others, such as adenoviruses, tend to coexist.

There has been much speculation about how the virus that causes Covid (Sars-CoV-2) will fit into the mysterious world of “viral interactions”.

However, a year of social distancing has slowed the spread of all viruses and made them harder to learn.

Scientists at the Glasgow Viral Research Center took a copy of the mucous membrane of the human respiratory tract and infected it with Sars-CoV-2 and rhinovirus, which is one of the most common infections in the world and the cause of the common cold.

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It turned out that if rhinovirus and Sars-CoV-2 are released at the same time, then the first one suppresses Covid-19.

If the rhinovirus is given a 24-hour head start, then Sars-CoV-2 simply won't stand a chance. And even when scientists released Sars-CoV-2 24 hours earlier, the rhinovirus was still stronger.

"Sars-CoV-2 doesn't evolve, it's very much suppressed by the rhinovirus," Dr Pablo Murcia told BBC News. “This is very interesting because the high prevalence of the common cold may reduce the number of new cases of Sars-CoV-2 infection.”

Similar cases have been observed before. A large outbreak of rhinovirus likely delayed the 2009 swine flu pandemic in parts of Europe.

Further experiments showed that the rhinovirus triggers an immune response within infected cells that blocks the ability of Sars-CoV-2 to make copies of itself.

A “harsh winter” is ahead

However, when the cold passes and the immune response returns to normal, Covid will return to its old ways.

“Vaccinations, hygiene measures and interactions between viruses can significantly reduce the incidence of Covid-19, but only vaccination will have the maximum effect,” says Dr Murcia.

Professor Lawrence Young, from the University of Warwick Medical School, says rhinoviruses are "highly contagious".

He added that new research suggests "that this infection may influence the spread of Covid-19 especially during the autumn and winter months when seasonal colds become more frequent."

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It is not yet known what awaits us in the coming winters. The coronavirus will probably not go away, and other infections that were suppressed during the pandemic could intensify as immunity to them weakened.

Dr Susan Hopkins from Public Health England has already warned that people are facing a "harsh winter".

“We have seen spikes in influenza and other respiratory viruses and pathogens,” she said.

The results of the study were published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, a scientific journal covering infectious diseases and microbiology.

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