A year or two ago, there was a study from Spain that showed good evidence that nursing home patients who took a daily dose of loratadine (AKA as Claritin, the over-the-counter anti-allergy drug) had a 90%+ decrease in rates of covid infection. I remember fuss when it was revealed this info was kept out of the media for a year after it was published.
Anyway, if you can't lessen your exposure to crowds, you can perhaps lower your exposure to covid by taking this drug. IIRC, it's postulated that loratadine makes your nasal/sinus mucosa a little drier, which is sufficient to make your mucosa non-receptive to the virus particles.
Personally, I've been of the mind just to let myself get exposed, as I've already had covid, and just let exposure to all the new variants keep my immune system tuned and updated. Since Jan 2020, I've had only one instance of a cold-like illness, namely covid itself in Nov 2021. In that same time-frame, my un-vexed daughters have had covid once, and a cold once. My vex'ed former wife has had covid several times, and more or less the same rate of colds/flus as before the covid era.
Having said that, I'm going to re-read the discussion above and re-assess whether my strategy is optimal, and whether I should start daily loratadine.
Re: Population Immunity
Anyway, if you can't lessen your exposure to crowds, you can perhaps lower your exposure to covid by taking this drug. IIRC, it's postulated that loratadine makes your nasal/sinus mucosa a little drier, which is sufficient to make your mucosa non-receptive to the virus particles.
Personally, I've been of the mind just to let myself get exposed, as I've already had covid, and just let exposure to all the new variants keep my immune system tuned and updated. Since Jan 2020, I've had only one instance of a cold-like illness, namely covid itself in Nov 2021. In that same time-frame, my un-vexed daughters have had covid once, and a cold once. My vex'ed former wife has had covid several times, and more or less the same rate of colds/flus as before the covid era.
Having said that, I'm going to re-read the discussion above and re-assess whether my strategy is optimal, and whether I should start daily loratadine.
--Lunar Apprentice