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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XI - 2019

There are also genetic and environmental factors that could explain the
severity of infections. Environmental factors, such as smoking tobacco cigarettes
or the quality of air being breathed, may also play a role in disease severity. As for

genetic risk factor, the current situation would offer an opportunity for researchers
to tease out specific genes or variants in current infected subjects.

It has been noted that men are more affected by COVID-19 than women,
the incidence of which may have something to do with the fact that the gene for
the ACE-2 receptor, which is used by the SARS-CoV-2 to enter host cells, is found
on the X chromosome, which makes people more susceptible to the virus, but then
females could compensate for the bad variant because they have two copies of
the X chromosome, whereas men would be stuck with only one copy.
2. The first ever description of the early pathology of the SARS-CoV-2

infection was made before symptoms develop. (Tian S, Hu W, Niu L, Liu H,
Xu H, Xiao S-Y. Pulmonary pathology of early phase 2019 novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) pneumonia in two patients with lung cancer. Journal of Thoracic
Oncology doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/jtho.2020.02.010.).

In their report, Shu-Yuan Xiao and colleagues described their examination
of lung tissue surgically removed from two patients undergoing lung lobectomies
for adenocarcinoma, which retrospectively were found to have been infected with
COVID-19. Pathological examinations revealed that the lungs exhibited edema,
proteinaceous exudate, focal reactive hyperplasia of pneumocytes

with patchy inflammatory cellular infiltration, and multinucleated giant cells.
Fibroblastic plugs were noted in air spaces.

3. We do not need face masks to prevent coronavirus infection – they
might actually increase infection risk. (A note from Tara Haelle in Editors:
Pick2.438,941 views Feb 29, 2020, 10:29 pm)
It is worth noting that the coronavirus is not air-born; it is transmitted
through droplets, not on its own through the air. So far, all documented case of
transmission of COVID-19 have involved droplets. This means that people cannot
randomly breathe it in, and the standard surgical masks, which people have been

encouraged by some authorities to wear, will not help. Those masks are designed
to keep wearers who are ill from infecting others. Therefore, a mask should be
worn only if one is ill. In addition, wearing a mask is tricky because it can create

108 Short Communication : Further Understanding of COVID-19

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