Congratulations to The Signal for printing “New study links nose temperature and immune response” by Drs. Elizabeth Ko and Eve Glazier (health page, March 21), providing a public service announcement of sorts for the literate English-speaking people of northern Los Angeles County.
Unfortunately, these people are exiting winter and may not benefit from the PSA until the advent of next winter.
My earlier letter to the editor on the same subject was also a tad later than winter’s onset.
Drs. Ko and Glazier did suggest possible countermeasures to the unhealthiness of a cold nose in line with my earlier letter to the editor, noting the possible benefits of wearing a vented N95 mask in cold environments and my experimental experiences with masking.
I also seem to recall Australia and New Zealand having a very mild winter flu season during their draconian mask enforcement time period.
People in the Southern Hemisphere are of course enjoying fall so they would benefit from countermeasures to maintain the warmth of their nose linings when exposed to bacteria and viruses.
After a long period of government-mandated masking the general population of our area, Australia and New Zealand would probably be very reluctant to be masked again, regardless of the possible benefits.
This new study presents an opening for entrepreneurs hawking nose-warming devices on late-night television, though obviously not described as masks — although wearing a ski mask and accessorizing with a chainsaw would probably guarantee minimal exposure to diseased individuals or anyone else.
Gregory Whitney
Newhall
