I'm a layperson, on a read through this appears to have content that would a) enable a new testing method for covid that could offer higher throughput than PCR and b) describe functional changes brought about by covid that persist for 120 days beyond the infection that could be implicated in cases of long covid.

"Since mature erythrocytes cannot synthesize new proteins to replace damaged ones and the average lifespan of erythrocytes is 120 days, the authors hypothesize that the circulation of irreversibly damaged erythrocytes with impaired function could contribute to the long-term effects of COVID-19 (25)"

Also a layman, but I've a vague recall of reports of how a 4-5 day fast can trigger autophagy, followed by new cell generation once re-fed.

So could that end up as a useful treatment? Or would it only help with the WBC, and not the RBC?

Warning: Link goes to browser, then tries to open another app. Possible scam/Trojan.

It's ok. First a redirect to https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S00063495210045...

then some javascript shenanigans

then jumps to https://www.biophysj.org/retrieve/pii/S0006349521004549

then to https://www.cell.com/biophysj/retrieve/pii/S0006349521004549

and finally https://www.cell.com/biophysj/pdf/S0006-3495(21)00454-9.pdf

Going directly to the final PDF URL works as of right now but the previous URL is probably better in case they publish another revision. The paper is not yet final. Cell.com belongs to Elsevier.

Followed the link, the browser gets redirected to this PDF:

https://www.cell.com/biophysj/pdf/S0006-3495(21)00454-9.pdf

The document contains 32 pages about the subject.