Covid: It's That Bad : science

[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 148 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months ago

That's fucked, buddy. One can only wonder at the uncalculated costs of everyone who had it that bad.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 16 points 10 months ago

If we knew the costs, we could charge the republican senators a share directly.

[-] fubbernuckin@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

If only

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[-] Sharpiemarker@startrek.website 96 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] schrodingers_dinger@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.

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[-] thrawn@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 62 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.

[+] Lord_ToRA@lemmy.world 49 points 10 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

[deleted]

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[-] Johnvanjim@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] GarrettBird@lemmy.world 36 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

The masks don't really do much to prevent getting covid. Their main purpose was to stop people from spreading their covid.

[-] timetravel@lemmings.world 19 points 10 months ago

My fiance was on a movie set that got hit bad and had to shutdown twice, she was one of the only people not to catch it, and was in very close contact with infected. She always wears a kn95 mask. I know they aren't as great but they have kept us both from getting it so far and these newer ones are comfy enough to wear. I'm already heavily disabled and could easily be screwed so we've been careful and are grateful to not have to deal with long COVID. I have friends who lost wives and were in thier 30s. Every time I'm about to loosen up I see something like this article and m just gonna keep a stock of em. The limited effectiveness has been enough for us so far

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I don't think that's true. Face masks, especially the kind designed to filter air, reduce how many particles from the air get into your lungs and airways.

IIRC the studies used to make that argument were using data from respiratory diseases other than covid, which are different in that you only get infected when stuff gets deep in your lungs, which is going to be the very smallest particles that will not end up getting filtered before then by landing on the inside of your throat etc. That might mean that masks are less effective, since they don't filter the very smallest water droplets quite as well. But it doesn't apply to covid because with that disease infection isn't as localized.

There isn't a practical case for why masks would not make a difference. You block particles containing the virus, you reduce chance of infection.

Edit: Also, here's a snippet from an article a few clicks away from the OP article:

Epidemiological investigations have helped quantify the benefit of mask wearing to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (Table; Supplement). At a hair salon in which all staff and clients were required to wear a mask under local ordinance and company policy, 2 symptomatic, infected stylists attended to 139 clients and no infections were observed in the 67 clients who were reached for interviewing and testing. During a COVID-19 outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, persons who wore masks experienced a 70% lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection.4 Similar reductions have been reported in case contact investigations when contacts were masked5 and in household clusters in which household members were masked.6

[-] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This is valid downvoters. Masks are for the community, not the wearer. You may get some protection, but that's not the general goal.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 8 points 10 months ago

The person said "masks don’t really do much to prevent getting covid", which is simply false. We'd all be safer if both sides wore masks, but a N95 is an effective method of greatly reducing your individual risk.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-updates-mask-guidelines-know-n95-kn95-masks-rcna12302

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[-] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Hopefully you didn't lose your sense of smell / taste as this is a sign of brain damage. Who knows what kind of illness people will start to develop 3-4 years down the line. It won't be pretty.

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[-] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 37 points 10 months ago

I have lasting issues from a mild 2020 infection. My heart scares me the most these days.

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[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago

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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[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

I caught it earlier this year at the peak effectiveness of my booster, so it was extremely mild. I still had a nasty cough for nearly 2 months after I recovered, and my memory is noticably worse.

[-] jantin@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago

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.

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[-] droog_the_droog@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Anecdotally this statistic is just not right, or the hardships of long covid hits people very differently. Most people I know (hundreds) have had covid several times at this point. I know one person who believes to have long covid in a debilitating way.

[-] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

I've had long COVID symptons (reduced sense of smell, instantly tired, heart going on a gallop for no or not much reason) for 6 to 7 months after my COVID infection, after which point those symptons suddenly cleared up. At the start I did hospital visits to have my heart checked out and everything, but nothing wrong could be found. I have no trouble believing that some people will never recover.

[-] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago

I’m going on 2+ years at this point. Was in the best shape of my life when I was infected. I haven’t been able to properly exercise ever since (without severe repercussions that last several days). My bloodwork, which was previously fantastic, is all over the place now. Outrageously high cholesterol, iron levels, inflammation markers. It’s hard having hope for the future when I don’t see an end in sight.

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[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 10 months ago

10% does seem crazy high. But it's also possible that some long covid effects go noticed. Also totally anecdotally, but I heard multiple people say they just don't feel as fit now doing cardio, myself included. Is it we're just older or did we get slight lung damage? Or worse, heart damage. Our bodies are really surprisingly sturdy and able to keep up with damage for a long time.

I know 2 people with severe complications from long covid. And I don't know that many people. So how many around me are living with mild long covid complications and don't realize it?

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[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 months ago

This is why anecdotes are not informative when trying to understand statistics. You almost certainly don't have a close relationship with hundreds of people that would involve informing you of lingering COVID symptoms nor do you have a random sampling of acquaintances (age, ethnicity, and vaccination status affect how common it is).

https://www.webmd.com/covid/news/20230526/one-in-ten-people-omicron-long-covid

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[-] 4lan@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] umulu@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

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

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