Sir,

In the biennium 20-21 World antivaxx used to sing hosannas to colloidal silver as preventing or curing agents with regard to some variants of covid (especially to avoid putative aggressive vaccines or antiviral agents) and effectively a real enthusiasm deflagrated worldwide and was demonstred by manifold scientists who used to prohesy its accreditated success [1,2], particularly this proclam of 2021 posted on the website AzoNano.

An international team of scientists from institutions in Mexico, Spain, and Russia has released promising findings from its study investigating the impact of silver nanoparticles on the transmission of COVID-19. The team’s data, published on the preprint server medRxiv*, shows that mouthwash and nose rinses made with silver nanoparticles may be an effective method of protecting healthcare personnel exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and albeit in 1999 FDA banned the usage of whichever colloidal Silver products to combat viruses and/or bacteria, some refrains of this fashion rambled till 2022 [3].

Presently Covid-19 cases are starting to rise again as a result of the JN.1 Covid variant, which appeared last September in France. The variant accounts for around 60% of new infections in early January, according to a data tracker from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At the same time, data from both the CDC and the UK Health Security Agency shows that hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19 are markedly lower compared to January 2023. Primary care physicians say they are finding it virtually impossible to distinguish Covid-19 symptoms from influenza without the help of a PCR test.

“When Covid first came, it was characterised by these very odd, vague symptoms – from brain fog, feeling exhausted, and losing taste and smell.

This shows that it’s mutated to more similar symptoms to the flu, where it’s very difficult clinically to distinguish between the two.”

While this might all suggest that the virus is evolving to become progressively less pathogenic, epidemiologists believe that the reality of the situation is more nuanced.

“The virus isn’t necessarily less pathogenic,” (source: virology at University College London, UK).Rather, it’s infecting a population that are less inclined to become sick, because they’ve been affected by Sars-CoV before, and they’re better at regulating their immune response against it.

The major lesson over the course of the pandemic is that the symptoms which appear in patients are highly dependent on prior immune status. In the first two years of Covid-19, the responses of an individual patient to the virus were primarily dictated by their state of immune health, along with prior exposure to other coronaviruses.

Now, in 2024, this is determined by a much more complex cocktail of factors, including how many times that person has already been infected by the virus, their vaccination status, and whether their vaccination-induced immunity might be on the wane.

As a result, people now experiencing Covid-19 for the very first time are at greater risk, especially if it has been a while since their last booster vaccine.

“There are still people who have somehow managed to remain completely Covid-näive, If they are unvaccinated or under vaccinated, they stand to have the highest risk of severe and protracted symptoms.

Still, Sars-CoV-2 is also constantly mutating, something which is also subtly shifting how it attempts to invade the human body. The JN.1 variant has an elevated ability to evade the immune system, for example, compared to other Omicron sub-variants. But this is also altering the way it affects the human body.

In 2023, some Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine reported that people now being infected with Omicron-related subvariants are just 6-7% as likely to lose their sense of smell or taste, compared to infections by the virus in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There has been a huge shift in viral tropism, meaning which cells get infected and that’s governed by the sequence of the spike protein. Almost everybody in the world has been infected or vaccinated, so the virus is under huge pressure to escape those immune responses to continue to transmit, so the spike protein has evolved a lot. This leads to it infecting different cells to gain entry, which is why people aren’t losing their smell or taste anymore.

Researchers are still trying to figure out whether some more subtle, internal consequences of Sars-CoV-2 infection varies between variants of the virus or whether any differences are more driven by the waning of previous vaccine-induced protection. One of the ongoing concerns remains the virus’ ability to cause damage to blood vessels

Studies from the March-summer 2020 period show that the risk of Long Covid from any case, was about 10%,

Now we have far more infections, and the risk of Long Covid looks to have fallen, not because of a milder variant but because of a degree of protection from vaccine doses. A paper in the BMJ on a national cohort in Sweden shows protection goes up with each additional dose.

Symptoms do seem to change from one variant to another,” he says. “We’ve had periods where the earliest symptom is headache, and others where it’s more gastrointestinal. We all to go back to life as normal, but the reality is, Covid isn’t going anywhere.”

Apart from the concrete differeces among the diverse symptoms evoked by other variants and subvariants, in this paper the choice of promoting and accepting the validity of the usage of colloidal silver (in Italy it is called Collargolo, Solargol, Creadargon or Lisargina that are available in whichever drugstores and have been always since last decades of XIX century to combat ear or nose microbial infections, the fact is that JN1 has already shown its chameleonism, and so people who contracted the variant JN1 (and too often have believed it was a normal seasonal flu, since it lasted 3-5 days) are recognizable by the phenomenon of cyanosis (that has always existing since the dawn of civilization,

Cyanosis is the change of body tissue color to a bluish-purple hue, as a result of decrease in the amount of oxygen bound to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells of the capillary bed. Cyanosis is apparent usually in the body tissues covered with thin skin, including the mucous membranes, lips, nail beds, and ear lobes [4] Some medications may cause discoloration such as medications containing amiodarone or silver. Furthermore, mongolian spots, large birthmarks, and the consumption of food products with blue or purple dyes can also result in the bluish skin tissue discoloration and may be mistaken for cyanosis [5,6]. Appropriate physical examination and history taking is a crucial part to diagnose cyanosis. Management of cyanosis involves treating the main cause, as cyanosis isn’t a disease, it is a.symptom [4].

Taking colloidal silver by mouth is not thought to be safe or effective for any of the health claims that many manufacturers make. Silver is not an essential mineral, as some sellers of silver products say.

Colloidal silver products are made of tiny silver bits that float in a liquid. This is the same type of precious metal used in jewelry, dental fillings and silverware.

Colloidal silver products are often marketed as dietary supplements to take by mouth. These products also come in forms to use on the skin.

Manufacturers of colloidal silver products often say that their products are cure-alls. Some claim these products can improve your immune system and fight bacteria and viruses. And they say these products can treat cancer, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, shingles, herpes, acne, eye diseases and prostatitis.

But little research has been done to study these health claims. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acted against some manufacturers of colloidal silver products for making unproven health claims.

It’s not clear how much colloidal silver you can take before it may be harmful. But it can build up in your body’s tissues over months or years. This can lead to a blue-gray tint on your skin, eyes, organs, nails and gums. This condition is called argyria (ahr-JIR-e-uh). Argyria does not typically cause a major health problem. But it can be a cosmetic concern because it does not go away when you stop taking silver products.

In rare cases, too many doses of colloidal silver can cause long-lasting severe health problems, such as kidney damage and seizures.

Colloidal silver products also may interact with medicines, such as some antibiotics and levothyroxine (Unithroid, Levoxyl, others).

The AA of this modest contribution desire to underline that governments cannot avoid industries (both pharmaceutcal and cosmeticological ones) prepare and sell especially on line whichever kind of cSi products and cannot prohibit to use them as well.

JN1 is characterised by the evidence of blood oxygen lacking and cyanosis must be evidentiated at the very beginning of the infection in order to treat it, but the employ of whichever type of cSi products may bamboozle physicians or specialists when they notice a grey or bluish skin or lips or nails.

The real and eventual distinction between an evident occurrence of the JN1 variant and/or the ingestion or inhalation of colloidal silver used as curative or preventive agent, is to observe if tongue or buccal mucosa grow blue or grey: this is the only indication that the individual assumed colloidal silver and so this can allow to keep all the inherent dispositions, observations and conclusions.

Effectively The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that colloidal silver isn’t safe or effective for treating any disease or condition. Additionally, the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission have taken action against a number of companies for making misleading claims about colloidal silver products.

Colloidal silver can cause serious side effects. The most common is argyria, a build-up of silver in the body’s tissues causing a bluish-gray discoloration of the skin, which is usually permanent.

Colloidal silver can cause poor absorption of some drugs, such thyroxine. There is also some evidence that it can cause kidney, liver, or nervous system problems.

Silver has no known functions or benefits in the body when taken by mouth, and it is not an essential mineral.

Colloidal silver was used to treat infections and wounds before antibiotics became available.

There is no clinical evidence supporting the use of colloidal silver to prevent or treat COVID-19. Furthermore, no alternative remedies or dietary supplements have been shown to prevent or cure COVID-19.

A few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of colloidal silver nasal spray to treat chronic sinus infections, but they did not demonstrate meaningful improvements.

REFERENCES

1. Jeremiah SS, Miyakawa K, Morita T, Yamaoka Y, Ryo A. Potent antiviral effect of silver nanoparticles on SARS-CoV-2. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2020;533:195–200.

2. Pilaquinga F, Morey J, Torres M, Seqqat R, Piña MLN. Silver nanoparticles as a potential treatment against SARS-CoV-2:A review. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2021;13:e1707.

3. Phalalochanan Nair Jayapal Arjun PNJ, Sankar B. Silver and Silver Nanoparticles for the Potential Treatment of COVID-19:A Review:Coatings. 2022;12:1679.

4. Yaneva M, Demerdjieva Z, Darlenski R, Tsankov N. COVID-19 and skin:Analysis of the available data. Our Dermatol Online. 2020;11(Supp. 2):6-9.

5. Dereure O. Drug-Induced Skin Pigmentation:Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment. Am J Clin Dermatol. 2001;2:253–62.

6. Conlon JD, Drolet BA. Skin lesions in the neonate. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2004;51:863-viii.