I know someone who has an advanced degree and had a pretty impressive career. I don’t think he will ever be able to work a normal job again. He got it in the early days and the hospital told him not to come. Yes, brain damage.
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I wasn’t blaming anyone
To people who say it’s oVeRbLoWn CoNsPiRaCy
Every viral disease may leave long term consequences, including the common flu. So can COVID. But we as a society got quite good at handling common flu. Also most people don’t contract it that often and if they do it’s a cause for medical attention. Meanwhile people are getting infected with COVID 3-4 times within 4 years and no one bats an eye besides “yeah, you’re not lucky”. So we were forced into pretending that going through a potentially heavily debilitating disease every 1-2 years is a perfectly normal thing and those who eventually “find out” are either just unfortunate or straight up lying.
Sadly facts don’t care about our feelings and social setups. The endgame (that is max percentage of affected people) is at the level of 50% of the entire population with long covid at all times because the damage from subsequent infections accumulates. I just don’t remember if the timescale for this was 10 or 20 years of unmitigated spread of the virus (that is: what we have now)
Meanwhile the new mutations are not really less severe. Only vaccinations make it so we’re not seeing death rates of 2020 until today. And sooner or later one or another mutated form will evade all immunity, wheteher it emerges tomorrow or in 5 years.
Fun times ahead and, oh, remind me how well are health care systems faring right now when “the pandemic has ended”? Yeah, thought so. And these people are first in line to be affected so it won’t be getting better. If anythong COVID is the one topic where doomerism is perfectly justified as we don’t even try to pretend we’re doing something like we are with climate.
Absolutely hilarious move to say: “The end game is X but I forget when”. Trust me guys it’ll happen. I am very smart.
People look at me strangely, but I don’t go in anywhere without a mask, still. I don’t eat in restaurants, I don’t go to indoor family gatherings without a mask.
It’s a big sacrifice but I’m not willing to live with long COVID and brain fog.
Same here. I’m already disabled and have cancer, and don’t need any extra health issues to manage. Still get strange looks but I’ve evaded catching it so far, so I’ll keep my mask.
My heart goes out to you friend. I’m with you; masking is still better than the alternative.
I appreciate it, thank you
Hang in there
It’s not even that big of a sacrifice honestly. Wearing a mask is pretty trivial. Restaurants have outdoor tables. The indoor-only ones that don’t but are still worth going to tend to seat less than 15 people so I occasionally deem it worth the risk.
Long Covid seems way, way worse than a mask. When we have a cure for that I’ll drop it, but until then it’s not even that inconvenient.
Plus, you don’t even have to get the worst symptoms for it to affect you. A couple people I know lost their taste and smell in 2020/2021 and have yet to regain it. That, I think, ruins restaurants more than sitting outside.
As someone with long covid, it is fucking hell. The extreme fatigue, muscle soreness, lengthened healing times of wounds or new sicknesses or physical exertion have made life hardly bearable. I just straight up don’t have the energy or mental capacity to do anything I used to love and enjoy.
It’s endlessly depressing, even though I know I am keeping myself out of clinical depression after learning how to deal with depressive issues more proactively now.
I wish I just wore an n95 whenever I was around people now, but I know I never would have done so unless I knew how truly awful long covid is.
I’m there with you. If you haven’t already, look into the treatments for mast cell activation disorder, it has a lot of overlap. In fact, I’m convinced they’re largely the same thing. I’m popping pills like candy nowadays but I’m finally on the upswing.
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I was told over and over again that wearing a mask is the most tiny, unnoticeable thing in the world. Literally the easiest thing you can do
Well, did you?
No way
Then shut the fuck up
The sacrifice would be tiny if the general population made that same tiny sacrifice. Instead they don’t bother to ever wear a mask, exponentially increasing the chances they’ll spread it to someone else.
I have a family member that relies on me for help as well as a friend that I see weekly. Both are very high risk for COVID complications - family has almost no immune system and friend has a rare clotting disorder. I don’t think I would be able to forgive myself if they caught COVID from me.
I also don’t want to end up like two other friends of mine with long COVID. They were healthy and extremely active, now they are riddled with problems and had to abandon the activities they used to enjoy (and that I’d really prefer to continue to enjoy myself).
So, yes, avoiding everyone who takes no precautions has become quite a sacrifice. If I was confident that I’d be surrounded by people who were vaccinated and (regularly) wearing N95s I’d feel safer at restaurants, shops, gyms, public transit, parties, maybe even a concert. Instead I do take out or occasionally outdoor dining, minimize my time in most places, and avoid gatherings of any significant size.
Being extremely careful because nobody else is willing to be even a little careful really shrinks your world and it fucking sucks. Alternatively, I could join my dumbass aunt and make fun of people masking at the grocery store immediately after complaining about suddenly, mysteriously being diabetic following her third COVID infection.
We’re pretty shut in because of health concerns and I feel for you :(. Sucks that everybody else has moved on and just thinks you’re being ridiculous. I guess at this point I don’t know when to stop worrying. Sometimes I think “maybe it really is fine now” but then you hear about somebody getting ruined by long COVID and it just seems really scary. I’m also just kind of upset about how everything went down… If nothing else I kind of just mask up still out of spite.
The sacrifice isn’t really wearing a mask. It’s avoiding the get togethers and in person events and having people forget about you and move on with their lives while you’re still cautious. You could argue that these are small things too, but it’s a pretty big change for most people, and while they claimed this was a “big sacrifice” that’s just a figure of speech… They didn’t claim it was something they couldn’t do or weren’t willing to do, just that it sucks… Which it does.
There is a difference between you doing it when everyone is and you doing it when almost no one is.
If you haven’t done so, check out PhysicsGirl on YouTube. Good science channel, then she got covid right after her wedding.
EDIT: Link to video.
I have lasting issues from a mild 2020 infection. My heart scares me the most these days.
Long COVID is a bitch. I wake up every night coughing my lungs out for about 15 minutes. And I’m one of the lucky ones when it comes to Long COVID.
Yup. Can’t get a solid nights sleep since the last time I got covid months ago. I get this too. It’s awful.
My lungs are completely fucked since I had covod in 2021. I can’t go up three steps without being seriously short of breath. I struggle to breathe every day. It’s exhausting.
Got COVID from my cousin during Christmas, still feeling terrible.
He went to the doctor and they didn’t even test him. they just assumed it was the flu and gave him Tamiflu.
Tested myself after I got it and came up positive for COVID. It seems that our medical professionals are complicit in the cover-up of diagnoses. Once it left the news people just assumed it was gone.
I don’t think that at all.
People are now just accepting that COVID is part of our lives. It’s only a risk if you’re extremely elderly, obese or otherwise particularly infirm, in which case, you’re also vulnerable to bad flu’s, not just COVID.
COVID is not something that can be beaten. No amount of lockdowns or vaccines will eliminate it. You’d only be postponing the inevitable. Permanent lockdown would obviously be an unsustainable idea, even if it was a popular one and vaccinating COVID is like vaccinating flu, it’s impossible to keep up!
What is even the point of testing for COVID anymore? If you have bad symptoms, stay at home what ever sort of flu, cough or cold it might be!
Realistically if everyone (literally everyone) were given n95’s used them, and washed their hands any time they touch something someone else touched without touching their faces: we actually could beat things like COVID and the flu.
What makes it unrealistic is that people aren’t that far removed from monkeys, and behave like it.
Not even N95s. If people just did the bare minimum and wore a surgical mask and washed their hands frequently the instant they felt like they might be sick, we would work wonders to reduce spread, morbidity, and lost wages/productivity. We just need the same simple politeness around respiratory illnesses that already exists in some Asian nations.
Do those Asia nations not have COVID or flu’s?
I think that believing we could eliminate flu like viruses is extremely optimistic, but it’s not something I can really argue against because it’s just an opinion.
I mean, presumably you wear an N95 at all times and keep your hands meticulously clean, but when you get ill, it’s just some other idiots fault.
But if they were eliminated, flu’s are probably the most common things for keeping our immune system in practice. If we all had immune systems that are completely out of practice with dealing with viruses. What could go wrong?!
Yes, the last line of my comment very clearly addressed why it’s unrealistic.
Ok and my implication was that even with compulsory N95s and diligent hand washing that it would still be optimistic.
Are you wearing an N95 at all times you’re in the vicinity of others and disinfecting your hands any time you’ve touched something that’s been near yours or someone else’s face? Because if not you’re nothing but a virtue signalling hypocrit.
We literally did beat one of the flu variants due to COVID prevention measures.
You said did. The article said may have.
There are 18 HA sub types and 11 NA subtypes. The article implies that it was the lockdowns that specifically harmed the spread of the flu.
How long do you want us to be locked down for in the attempt to eliminate the other 28 and the COVID variants too? Please consider that it would have to be a world wide lockdown.
I understand that many people people are happy to swap their freedom for an idea of safety, but many others value their freedom too highly.
Please understand that I’m not saying that the measures against COVID weren’t effective. I’m saying that total eradication of COVID is an unatainable target.
Countries like Japan and Korea wear face masks as a normal part of their cultures and dirty behaviour is extremely frowned upon there. They still have flu and COVID.
I feel like you haven’t thought this through. My cousin is young so he has very low risk of having serious side effects from his COVID. The thing is we had elderly grandparents at Christmas as well, one of which with stage 4 cancer.
There is a point to testing for COVID. If we don’t test for it we have no idea how much it is spreading.
I used to get the flu once every 10 years, roughly. I’ve been getting COVID nearly every single winter.
There are relatively young people who are completely bedridden from long COVID. I’ve never heard of someone having years of their lives taken from them because of the flu.
Ever since I first got COVID I have had a irregular heartbeats and periods of extremely low energy
I find it funny you’re creating a false dichotomy of either locking people in their homes for eternity or being free. We all had a chance to stop this in its tracks, nearly everyone around me was completely unable to sacrifice one summer of vacations. I know people who literally went on vacation knowing they had COVID, breaking state laws in the process.
If you didn’t lose anybody to COVID that’s great for you, but a lot of us did.
A lot of people believed our president at the time who said that it was nothing more than the flu, similar to what you are saying today.
I believe there should be legal repercussions for those who have spread that misinformation, leading to needless death
Please don’t open your comments with statements like “I feel like you haven’t thought this through”. We can have an adult debate without needing to imply that the other person is an idiot.
I do understand your point however, presumably your elderly and frail grandparents are also vulnerable to flu’s, colds and all the sorts of different risks to their immune systems. So why stop at COVID? Presumably, if you were coughing up a lung or shitting through the eye of a needle, you wouldn’t give grandma a big hug and a kiss just because it’s not COVID, you’d stay at home anyway.
Sorry, I don’t buy your idea that we had a chance to “stop it in its tracks”. Even if we had a coordinated world wide lockdown that everyone abided by, it still would remain dormant in non symptomatic carriers or animal populations. COVID would just be waiting for us to unlock and it’ll be back just as it was.
You then have to factor in that not everyone can lockdown. We still need the workers that produce our water and power, our food workers, our bin men and sewage workers, all the people that actually keep our countries running. A full lockdown is an impossibility.
Many people have the false impression that lockdowns were “to stop covid”. They weren’t, they were for bringing pressure off of over crowded hospitals.
We are both adults here, right? I think you can handle being told you didn’t think it through. I’m not going to use kid-gloves with you and lie to you to serve your ego.
you are still going on implying that COVID is the same as the flu or a cold. The flu has never altered my heartbeat rhythms for years after.
You are still ascribing to the false dichotomy I stated in my comment when you say “not everyone can lock down” absolutely, except tons of people I personally know were still going out on vacations, some knowing they had COVID before flying to their destination.
Just because a full lockdown wouldn’t have 100% wiped out COVID doesn’t mean we should have given up on stopping the spread. It’s not one or the other.
I feel like you are trying to make excuses for endangering the lives of other people so you can not be bored. My Grandfather is buried under 6ft of dirt because of this mentality in Texas. He died needlessly. He was an active man who was writing a novel and was constantly physically active. He had at least 10 years left
A lot of us are not going to forget the actions of our fellow man during the peak of COVID, especially those who lost loved ones needlessly
Ok. A well written argument of your own can make me look like I haven’t thought things through. But if you feel the need to state it additionally for no other reason than I don’t wholly agree with you or because put downs make you feel better or superior, then good for you. This isn’t about my ego, I’m just trying to help you improve your debating skills.
I’m not going to debate long COVID. I don’t doubt it is a real phenomena but this is because the facts around it are far too vague and this means that making serious policy decisions could be foolhardy. There is no real test for long COVID other than a random assortment of ailments that some people get some of and others get none of, supposedly related to a primary COVID infection in a minority of people.
I’m not arguing about people that broke lockdown laws. I’m suggesting that even with maximum possible levels of compliance that COVID can only be slowed, not stopped.
There is a debate to be had about freedom Vs proposed safety but I don’t think we’re going to agree. We’d just be wasting eachothers time and getting upset. Sorry you lost your grandad unexpectedly.
Some times shit things happen and there is no reason. It might make you feel better to blame “other idiots” but that doesn’t change anything.
At the school I work at, not 1 teacher uses masks in classes / meetings. Only if they suspect they have covid or the flu.
Many times, I see them sniffling (or with other signs of flu / cold) and they are in closed spaces without any mask.
Makes my blood fucking boil.
Mostly because I keep hearing them criticizing students, for how uneducated and stupid they are, but then they are the ones setting these examples.
Smh
People can sniffle plenty and not have the flu or another illness. Once you have become an adult, and pay attention, it is really easy to tell the difference. I frequently get allergic response to various things. Even when medicated, there is still a slow trickle.
Maybe you should trust people, he probably knows of if it is allergies or the flu more than you do.
I guess what you’re saying makes sense. But some of those times, they complained about headaches and fever. I mean, it is easy to spot when someone is actually sick vs. someone has allergies. Regardless, in my country, it is not the “season” of allergies.
You see teachers call kids stupid?
Almost every single day.
They complain about students, but then I see them doing the same shit.
It’s so wild to hear that people don’t know this.
I:
- Fainted while watching TV on the couch.
- Had a blood pressure of 80/40.
- Have been to the ER twice.
- Had long-running (over two years) chest pain, heart pounding, weight loss, vision differences, dizziness, shortness of breath.
- Was so sick with those issues I was bed bound for months.
- After I started feeling a little better, overdid it and put myself back to bed for a week. Twice. With easy shit like rearranging the canned goods cabinet.
- Lost a tooth. (White lie, actually. I’m scheduled to have it extracted early February.)
- Still have lingering heart pounding and dizziness on a not-infrequent basis.
All from covid.
I’m fortunate to be mostly recovered. It sucks that there are so many who haven’t recovered to speak of.
I caught it for the first time a few months ago, relatively fit/healthy guy and it gave me the whammy for a full week (I could barely move, didn’t want to eat at all, sweats, dizziness) I’ve never felt that bad in my life. Thankfully, no long covid here, aside from randomly coughing to clear up something left in my lungs once a day, but it put a 2-3 week sized hole in my life, it can show up with a vengeance, no joke.
I got COVID after taking all precautions because my father didn’t wear a mask and took it home. I was sick for a month. I only left my bed to use the bathroom or eat. I literally slept the rest of the time. I probably should have gone to the hospital because I could hardly stay awake even just to eat. I remember waking up one day, and just knowing that I was recovering.
Recovery was hell. I couldn’t taste, or smell anything. I had awful flu like symptoms. I was lethargic and I could hardly walk. It took two weeks to feel functional, and for three months my sense of taste was completely fucked.
The masks don’t really do much to prevent getting covid. Their main purpose was to stop people from spreading their covid.
Well first off yes, it does help prevent you from getting covid. But also if it prevents people from spreading covid then by extension it also prevents other people from getting covid.
I’m no musician, writer, scientist or athlete. I’m just a regular ole shitbag who has worked far too hard to make something of his life while the economy ruined the value of what i worked for and life has gone nothing but backwards.
The fuck should i care what covid does to this shithole.
The point of these articles is a call to action, not a request of sympathy.
People seem to have reached their covid limit out here in the real world though.
