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Written by Marie Ellis on May 2, 2021 Fact checked by Alexandra Sanfins, Ph.D.
The world is more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, so many people have been living with lockdown restrictions, quarantine periods, and physical distancing for an extended period of time. Hand sanitizer and masks are rife, and the common cold has not felt so common. But what will these lifestyle changes do to our health?
How have lockdowns affected the immune systems of adults, children, and infants? Maskot/Getty Images
In this article, we look at what effect living physically distanced from other people might have on the immune systems of adults, children, and infants born during the pandemic.
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Photo: (Photo : Loegunn Lai / Unsplash)
At birth, the immune system is still maturing. A child s interactions with the world-microbes, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites are vital to development. The infant s newborn system needs to be educated to function properly to determine which foreign bodies are dangerous, which are not, and how to respond to each of them.
The Human Immune System Learns to Categorize Microbes
Microbiologist Sally F. Bloomfield likened the newborn immune system to a computer with limited data hardware and software. During the first years of life, additional data needs to be acquired. With the immune system, this equates to the need for contact with micro-organisms from the natural environment and other humans, The Conversation noted.
Sean Gallup / Staff / Getty Images
Current isolation policies will negatively impact young children s immune systems ability to self-regulate.
When people are less exposed to the natural environment, there s potential for an increase in allergic diseases.
Children in lockdown for over a year now are at risk for developing allergies, asthma, and autoimmune issues. Eat dirt! is a phrase I remember well. It was in the title of an article published by Harvard University environmental health professor, Dr. Scott T. Weiss, and it captured my attention while I was learning about an immunological concept known as the hygiene hypothesis.
The core of the idea is that we live in a microbial world: an environment full of bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi. And that our interactions with these microbes after birth are extremely important to educate our immune systems to function properly. When we are born, our immune systems are still maturing.