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Do masks help boost Covid immunity?
- Lessons from smallpox -The theory echoes "variolation", a rudimentary technique used before the appearance of vaccines that involved giving people a mild illness to try to inoculate them against more serious forms of a disease.In Asia, early variolation often meant blowing dried scabs from smallpox patients up the noses of healthy people, according to the US National Library of Medicine.When it reached Europe and America in the 18th century, the practice -- which sometimes killed the patient -- commonly involved inserting smallpox under the skin.The NEJM article suggests a parallel in the idea that being exposed to small doses of virus boosts immunity."It is an interesting theory with a reasonable hypothesis," Archie Clements,