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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.