yyyyyep

very depressing.

I follow the Physics Girl (Dianna Cowern) who is suffering from debilitating Long Covid. Her husband and others have done their best to help document the issues for Long Covid and those who suffer. She is holding on but this is an extreme case.

I understand the fatigue, brain fog, and other issues related to Long Covid as they are similar or same with many other chronic conditions. It angers me that the press keeps sweeping this under the rug. I wish the medical community and the press would get on board. I think it is held back by the for profit health care system that does not want to

cover the costs if this is "officially" recognized as something serious.

yeah im sure that's a component

but also we have an economy predicated on scarcity--the organizing principle "everyone has to struggle to provide labor or else we're all doomed"

if you accept that model, you can't have millions of people shift their net labor output downward (never mind that most of the value of their labor is redistributed to the aristocracy anyway), so as with everything else that threatens scarcity economics we're inclined to just... not confront it

I still try to find at least one news item a day about covid in my Apple News feed, and it's very rare that there isn't anything. But when there isn't a new wave flaring, the current news is most often a new finding about long covid. There's A LOT being learned, but I guess unless you're specifically looking for it, it's not front-and-center.

I'm not sure if I saw the long-covid-denying article the author of this piece refers to because she doesn't name it or link to it (which I get, if the point is not to give it more exposure, but it also takes away the reader's opportunity to have context for the rebuttal). But I did read one over the weekend that was being spun in a sketchy way.

The headline of the one I read suggested that a new study found that long covid just isn't that common and that the researchers think we should stop talking about it because it makes people think they have it. What the ACTUAL study found was that long covid is approximately as common as other post-viral syndromes, like "long flu" (which isn't called that).

So to me, the proper conclusion isn't that it isn't common, and it isn't that we shouldn't talk about it, it's that we should pay more attention to other post-viral syndromes, which have mostly flown under the radar because we didn't suddenly get 16 million new cases in the course of three years.

But it is true, and it is fishy, that that particular spin was used on that particular day. And I think I saw it in the Guardian, which is usually pretty good about not promoting misinformation.

This is indeed depressing. It’s analogous to climate change eh. We have epidemiologists shouting that the pandemic is not over, long covid is a real threat and we need to look after ourselves via masking and ventilation, not just vaccination. The media: "Yay covid is over!"

I will continue to stay in my hidey hole.

LettePonnier: you hit the nail on the head with the need to focus on all post viral issues

I also think there’s a range to the severity. I’d say I’m moderate from what I can tell and I think the biggest number of folks are so mild they’re not being properly documented but that doesn’t mean theee wi t be long term effects

LettePonnier: the novelty is a factor yeah tho also COVID's infectiousness is pretty darn high

OhCecilia: unfortunately, "if you aren't completely crippled, it's not serious" is a pattern in our society

Exacerangutan: ayup