It’s unclear to me that you wouldn’t end up with a worse clinical course in this case—perhaps you wouldn’t, but I’m not sure why you’d assume it’s safer.
It’s a superficially plausible idea, assuming you don’t always burp or vomit the virus up into your lungs anyway or get very slight viremia getting them there anyway too which is COMPLETLEY possible given what we know. And assuming you somehow get it into your gut without getting it into your throat. Huge numbers of assumptions, dosage unknown, methods unknown, effectiveness unknown. Superficially plausible and right now a very bad idea. You absolutely CANNOT assume it’s safer, but it could be something to look for in case studies of natural infections, seeing if people who first manifest with intestinal issues have lower levels of pneumonia.
If you COULD somehow reliably restrict viral replication to the gut rather than the lungs… I don’t think many first-world (or, to expand the sample, American) COVID patients have died of the diarrhea.
EDIT: “Patients with COVID-19 who have digestive symptoms were shown to have a worse prognosis than those without.”
I’m more concerned about increased rates of central nervous system impacts and cytokine storms, both of which are rare in typical COVID cases, but seem closely related to high fatality rates in the minority where they occur.
It’s unclear to me that you wouldn’t end up with a worse clinical course in this case—perhaps you wouldn’t, but I’m not sure why you’d assume it’s safer.
It’s a superficially plausible idea, assuming you don’t always burp or vomit the virus up into your lungs anyway or get very slight viremia getting them there anyway too which is COMPLETLEY possible given what we know. And assuming you somehow get it into your gut without getting it into your throat. Huge numbers of assumptions, dosage unknown, methods unknown, effectiveness unknown. Superficially plausible and right now a very bad idea. You absolutely CANNOT assume it’s safer, but it could be something to look for in case studies of natural infections, seeing if people who first manifest with intestinal issues have lower levels of pneumonia.
If you COULD somehow reliably restrict viral replication to the gut rather than the lungs… I don’t think many first-world (or, to expand the sample, American) COVID patients have died of the diarrhea.
EDIT: “Patients with COVID-19 who have digestive symptoms were shown to have a worse prognosis than those without.”
https://www.practiceupdate.com/content/clinical-characteristics-of-covid-19-patients-with-digestive-symptoms-in-hubei-china/98000
I’m more concerned about increased rates of central nervous system impacts and cytokine storms, both of which are rare in typical COVID cases, but seem closely related to high fatality rates in the minority where they occur.