Key words: Kawasaki Disease, pollen exposure, cancers, influenza, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, mutant, Wuhan, host and parasite, Parkinson disease, pollen avoidance, Takayasu disease, pollen-induced diseases(PID) Introduction In addition, it is expected that SARS-CoV-2 mutants will emerge simultaneously in many countries in the future when a patient host who has been compromised after pollen exposure in spring becomes infected with SARS-CoV-2 by chance. The authors hypothesize that the host who has been compromised after a large amount of pollen exposure responded to the coronavirus, which happened to be a slightly different parasite from the conventional one, with an abnormal response similar to the carcinogenesis process, and that the virus made many mistakes in the replication process, resulting in the virulent and highly infectious SARS-CoV-2. This report closes up the three-way relationship between pollen exposure and the number of influenza patients as well as KD patients, and further points out the possible involvement of pollen exposure in the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. The author has already reported the phenomenon that the onset of KD which is delayed induced by pollen exposure is suppressed during influenza epidemics, and at the same time, the number of KD and influenza patients parallelly moved. We reported on these topics in our previous report in a predictive manner.
When I looked into the pollen dispersal situation in Wuhan, the city where SARS-CoV-2 originated, I found that Chinese research reports up to 1989 stated that the number of pollens dispersed in Wuhan was significantly higher than in other Chinese cities. Having studied for many years the involvement of pollen sensitivity in the background of the development of many intractable diseases, the author has recently come to assume that these viral infections would also be related to pollen exposure in the host population. The four severe viral infections in the 21st century consist of SARS (2002~2003), pandemic 2009 H1N1, MERS (2012~), and COVID-19 (2019~) due to SARS-COV-2 infection. Next, in analyzing the correlation between pollen counts and the number of newly diagnosed cases of various specific intractable diseases, the author has proposed that 40 designated intractable diseases, as well as 24 types of cancer and malignant tumors, may be PIDs. In 2018, the author showed in an epidemiological analysis that Takayasu disease, a designated intractable vasculitis syndrome is also a PID. Since 2003, the author has reported in four epidemiological analyses that Kawasaki disease (KD) in infants which has still been considered to be of unknown etiology, is probably a pollen-induced disease (PID) triggered by pollen. *Corresponding author: Akira Awaya, Dermatology & Epidemiology Research Institute (DERI), 4978 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama 244-0003, Japan, E-mail: Abstract A hypothetical discussion of the linkage of airborne pollen exposure to the COVID-19 outbreak phenomenon, as well as to the development of various intractable diseases and cancersĪkira Awaya 1,2* and Yoshiyuki Kuroiwa 3,4,5ġDermatology and Epidemiology Research Institute (DERI), 4978 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 244-0003, JapanĢGraduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, Seto 22-2, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-0027, JapanģDepartment of Neurology, University Hospital Mizonokuchi, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 5-1-1, Futago, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-8507, JapanĤDepartment of Medical Office, Ministry of Finance, 3-1-1, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8940, JapanĥDepartment of Neurology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-9, Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0004, Japan