Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

thetimes.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 157 posts

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#111

Post by antiSingularity »

noduerme wrote: post #106
antiSingularity wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who gets to define my anecdote as "disinformation"? Surely you can't be saying that any story that runs counter to a particular given narrative must be false? (FWIW, it is completely true). How do you know the disease would be worse? This particular relative is in mental anguish, as the kind of statements that you just made are the only available opinions on whether you should get the vaccine. After 6 months of f…

If there was a vaccine for cancer, it wouldn't matter to anyone else if you got it. This is a virus. It's a public sacrifice. As brutal as it sounds, you and I and everyone we know had to line up against a wall, and some people were going to take a bullet for the team. I went in prepared to do that, rather than deluding myself that the virus wasn't real or that it was avoidable. When my uncles were in the Navy, they…

And how exactly does me getting vaccinated protect someone else? I understand that you will probably be outraged by me even asking this question, but I am for real. The official messaging here in the UK has recently removed the vague suggestion that being vaccinated protects others.

If you bring out the usual line that "being vaccinated stops you having such bad symptoms and thus passing it on to others", then surely that means I would have a higher chance of being asymptomatic if I do still catch Covid, and thus not knowing if I am putting others at risk? I suppose you might tell me that's why I need to also regularly test, but then why get vaccinated?

>I'm sorry for them - and I hope they recover - but they should be considered a hero.

I think they would find your gung-ho attitude deeply upsetting, especially when they are of an age where the personal protection offered by the vaccine is significantly more relevant than any supposed benefit to others.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#112

Post by noduerme »

elyobo wrote: post #67
noduerme wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some viruses are worse than others. Some will hide out in your spinal cord forever and make an appearance when you're under stress. If you've ever had to watch someone go through an outbreak of shingles... holy crap that looks miserable. I had Mono when I was 15 and still get what I take to be occasional, minor resurgences of that level of total body-wide exhaustion, every five years or so for a couple days. A fr…

Yeah, I did not like shingles.

FWIW - there may be a link between other stealthy viral hangers-on and the long-haul covid effect.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210630/could-the-mono-viru...

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#113

Post by tdrdt »

shoto_io wrote: post #13
gambiting wrote: post #9

Not had covid, but about 2 years ago had a Parvovirus-B19 infection which triggered a reactive arthritis, which means 2 years later I'm still having steroid injections and my joints are more or less in pain. The medical summary is basically "sucks to be you I guess" but it's a semi-common side effect of a virus infection. So yeah, all I want to say is that virus infections are not a joke, even if you got through one…

I had a very bad flu in 2017 or so and could not smell nor taste for at least 4 months after I had it.

Yes this is very common with a bad cold. The inside of your nose can swell blocking the 'smell nerve' (olfactory nerve). This can even damage the nerve which, if you are lucky, will heal after some time.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#114

Post by antiSingularity »

noduerme wrote: post #98
antiSingularity wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My immune system would definitely be better if I hadn't been confined to my house for months, and banned from seeing anyone for months after that.

True, and the social isolation has sucked. I've had the shots, and those sucked too. But I'm not concerned this is going to be a new permanent state of affairs. I think it was a one time emergency, and how one carries oneself in a crisis says a lot about a person. If or when it shows itself to be a permanent state of affairs - then the calculus of endless vaccinations and endless quarantine would change things. I hav…

I too have a long term view of this whole situation, and based on what I see of the never-ending impositions on our every day lives that have removed all trace of many things that made life pleasant, easier, and civilized, have taken steps to ensure that my family do not suffer un-necessarily.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#115

Post by antiSingularity »

nicoburns wrote: post #88
antiSingularity wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can I imagine such a thing? Being a parent makes you do superhuman things. It's just not an option to "not feel like getting out of bed" - for all I know, the extra motivation of needing to care for my young family made me get on with life even when I did feel as bad as your hypothetical well-rested person.

If you have chronic fatigue, it’s not an option TO get out of bed. Your body physically doesn’t have energy. And if you push it, it punishes you by making you even worse. I myself have a relatively mild case so I can still mostly do my everyday activities, but what has gone is my ability to push myself past my comfort limits. Stay up late onto get something done? Go for a 15 minute run? Previously I’d have felt a bit…

A parent suffers from a genetic condition, which makes that an accurate description of their lives when symptoms are bad. Very sadly, their response to the AZ vaccine has made that a daily occurance for the past 6 months.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#116

Post by celticninja »

nuerow wrote: post #101
celticninja wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n490 Sounds like the BMJ dont trust this chap and are questioning his financial interests. Therefore I would question his motives with regard to this article, he isnt very forthcoming which is usually indicative of having something to hide.

> Sounds like the BMJ dont trust this chap and are questioning his financial interests. The article you mentioned only refers to stock portfolio and potential conflicts of interest regarding policy decisions on performing antibody tests. The statement that was quoted in this discussion is about an entirely unrelated subject: the prevalence of long Covid. The initial claim is that the statement is supported by data fr…

I question his impartiality on making statements such as this. I wonder about what he gains from making statements like this? If he was open about questions put to him in the past then I would be less suspect, but given he has hidden his financial interests related to his work then I suspect he has some hidden motivation here too.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#117

Post by q1w2 »

heurisko wrote: post #102
stuaxo wrote: post #14

The Times and Telepgraph have been minimising Covid since day one, even providing a platform for groups such as "us for them". Right now there are no mitigations for Covid in UK schools. One of the things safer schools campaigners are pointing out is the risk of long Covid (as well as hospitalisations etc). Example of Covid in one area of the UK https://mobile.twitter.com/DmodosCutter/status/1445303921300...

Coronavirus's risk to children is low. It's not true that there are no mitigations for Covid: children in the UK are being vaccinated against Covid, as often happens against winter flu. Measures to protect adults against coronavirus have not come for free for children. Mental health referrals amongst children have doubled since before the pandemic [1]. In more unintended consequences, smoking amongst young people has…

No masks in schools - no distancing. They are not even doing the basics.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#118

Post by sofixa »

disneygibson wrote: post #82
noduerme wrote: post #24

Some guy says it's overblown and this is ranking on HN? Personally, I know several people who are not normally complainers or full of shit who have had some wild effects for 9-12 months after a bout of covid, including visual disturbances, extreme exhaustion, and loss of focus or mental acuity. I really don't doubt my friends who've suffered this. They're not the kind of folks who think they have made-up diseases or…

Have you considered that some of these symptoms are consequences of locking down society and preventing real human interaction for 18 months? I haven’t had COVID and I have had more depression and exhaustion in the last year than in my entire life.

Was there any place on the planet that had 18 months of uninterrupted lockdowns, preventing real human interaction? The pandemic has hit in waves, and lockdowns were usually only applied when needed.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#119

Post by q1w2 »

nuerow wrote: post #36
noduerme wrote: post #24

Some guy says it's overblown and this is ranking on HN? Personally, I know several people who are not normally complainers or full of shit who have had some wild effects for 9-12 months after a bout of covid, including visual disturbances, extreme exhaustion, and loss of focus or mental acuity. I really don't doubt my friends who've suffered this. They're not the kind of folks who think they have made-up diseases or…

> Some guy says it's overblown and this is ranking on HN? The guy quoted for said statement is a professor of medicine of a reputable university, so he does have the authority thing sorted out. Also, I feel the quote means something different than the original interpretation. After reading the article, it seems that John Bell simply states that a) long Covid is "more complicated than people assume", and b) it's incid…

> a professor of medicine of a reputable university

That is not nearly good enough.

This is HN. We should be posting peer-reviewed research results, not just-any-professor-in-the-field's-feelings.

Re: Long Covid is overblown and often something else, says Oxford professor

#120

Post by q1w2 »

jzellis wrote: post #93

So one professor of medicine at Oxford says that long Covid is idiopathic. As Bell is an academic professor and not a clinician in the field handling patients, or a virologist tasked with studying this particular situation, his opinions are educated but not necessarily informed enough to be authoritative. And, of course, no amount of theorizing negates the fact that a great number of people with Covid seem to be suff…

It shouldn't be on the HN front page at all. He's literally presenting zero evidence. This is just some professor's personal opinion.
Post reply on HN