The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable” • Hacker News Board

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#61

Post by chasebank » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #17

Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are a couple of things going on: Long COVID is real, but I bet most people that think they have it don’t. On the other hand, I doubt long COVID is all that novel compared to what happens with other viruses as well. I think there’s some pushback because the media acts like long COVID is some terribly novel and huge thing, when neither are probably true. All that said I’m glad more research is happening o…

Agreed. I have a friend who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which has destroyed her life, turning the most energetic person I knew into someone who cannot walk more than a block a day. Her ME was likely triggered by the H1N1 flu in 2009. It's too early to tell whether this is the same as long COVID, but it is certainly suggestive.

Longshot but have her look into megadose Thiamine (B1). Some miracle stories out there.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#62

Post by wredue » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

FormulatedEdits wrote: post #55

jimbob45 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

COVID was feared to mutate into something dangerous and that's why we took it so seriously. The Spanish Flu started out similarly innocuously and then turned into something terrible. That's what we were trying to (and succeeded at being able to) avoid.

Sorry, but that’s not the narrative that was all over the news at all. If that’s what the powers that be were thinking they didn’t tell us so!

They most certainly did.

The main point that was pushed, however, was that health infrastructure simply could not handle Covid, and that without suppressing its transmission, many more would have died.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#63

Post by unsupp0rted » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #37

Proven wrote: post #12

> The best way to not get long Covid is to not get Covid, and the best way to not get Covid is to be well vaccinated and boosted and have a good level of antibodies to stop the virus getting in. I know people who got multiple jabs and have had Covid-19 several times already. These suggestions are useless. > in those breakthrough cases in the vaccinated people, your chance of long Covid is further reduced perhaps by a…

What risk do you perceive from being vaccinated that makes it at least as risky as covid and long covid? You feel like shit for a day, true.

The risk from being vaccinated against covid isn't "you feel like shit for a day". That's not a worry for most people.

Is injecting a person with mRNA that makes them produce a particularly nasty spike protein zero risk? No. Is this spike protein one of those? Does it end up where it shouldn't?

In 2023 that information is not available. Not true or false, but simply unavailable.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#64

Post by andai » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

>The gold standard to test for viruses lurking in the body is with a gut biopsy, but "it wouldn't be ethical to go around taking out bits of people's guts to have a look," Altmann says. So new ways to test this would need to be worked out.

Isn't this standard procedure for cancer testing? Or is it a more invasive procedure?

If someone's experiencing symptoms as debilitating as the article says, I think they'd be OK with some short term pain in exchange for some forward progress.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#65

Post by cjbgkagh » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #36

thebooktocome wrote: post #5

Long COVID pretty much obliterated the career of a mentor of mine. She went from being a competitive athlete in her late sixties to a home-bound invalid in her early seventies. You know a health condition is grievous when it makes a mathematician give up lecturing.

It has ended dozens if not hundreds of elite athlete careers but also Olympians. Newspapers and specialty websites are full of these stories over the past few years but the public is either willfully ignorant or feel like denial is some kind of superpower. Has nothing to do with lack of fitness, anyone can get it. One big risk factor though to be clear is not the ONLY risk factor is literally genetics so that much is…

I think people are dismissive due to the expectation that if it really was that bad they would be hearing much more about it. The idea that something so bad affecting so many people could be largely ignored is incomprehensible to many people. It also didn’t help that ME/CFS was falsely maligned for many decades by horrible scientists in the US and UK.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#66

Post by giraffe_lady » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

retrac wrote: post #48

monero-xmr wrote: post #28

There is a lack of hard scientific evidence definitively proving this. However you may know in your bones that this is real, from lived experience or from people you know. Please keep that in mind when you dismiss other things that lack definitive scientific evidence. We as humans seem to pick and choose which currently unverified things to believe and which to dismiss.

I cannot comprehend a position of total long COVID denial, though I have encountered it online. Every virus you can think of that causes acute illness, can cause long term or even permanent damage. Sometimes rarely, sometimes often. Even the mildest common cold viruses, can, in very rare cases, be severe enough to cause pneumonia which causes scarring which leads to permanent loss of lung function. Hepatitis A is usu…

It makes sense to me unfortunately.

If some small but significant portion of people will be disabled by this then what are we doing going to work, eating in restaurants? What does it mean about me if I stay home working but still get food delivered? Do gas station employees get sick days? If repeated exposure as children risks disability in adulthood then what are we doing sending our kids to school? In a world where being unable to work long-term means deprivation, misery and likely a preventable death? No, it can't be true.

Much more comfortable to believe we wouldn't do this than to confront what it says about us that we have, or what we would have to change to prevent it.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#67

Post by downWidOutaFite » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

monero-xmr wrote: post #28

There is a lack of hard scientific evidence definitively proving this. However you may know in your bones that this is real, from lived experience or from people you know. Please keep that in mind when you dismiss other things that lack definitive scientific evidence. We as humans seem to pick and choose which currently unverified things to believe and which to dismiss.

False. There is tons of hard evidence about long covid including in this article.

If I were you I would try to examine why false beliefs are being accepted into my model of the world.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#68

Post by LudwigNagasena » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

treprinum wrote: post #57

I spent two years in bed, sometimes sleeping 16 hours a day and feeling like passing out just from walking 100m. All my tests were fine, all doctors thought it's just "anxiety" and basically ignored me until I had what looked like a stroke when they started taking it slightly more seriously. However, given all the tests were OK I went in circles from one doctor to another when I had better days, or being completely b…

What supplements have you been taking and what is your diet?

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#69

Post by NickC25 » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

zingababba wrote: post #21

Still suffering from this myself. I used to train for hours a day nearly every day (BJJ/Calisthenics/KettleBells.) Totally obliterated my exercise capacity after I got Covid twice, first time acute symptoms lasted for 6 weeks, second time was shorter at 3 weeks. Years later and I'm still not the same. It hit hard.

Me too.

Wile I still push myself in the gym nearly every day, for some reason I'm just not as energetic as I used to be. I'm 33, and was in my 20s when COVID came around. I got vaxed quickly, and have gotten boosters since. I still caught COVID twice. Not fun. Still not the same though, although hitting 30 and beyond might have something to do with it too, as that's the "line" where athletes of all levels usually start to loose a step or a second of reaction time.

The constant brain fog is not cool either. It's like I'm stoned out of my mind sometimes and not able to function properly....but without the relaxation that being stoned brings.

Re: The burden of Long Covid “so large as to be unfathomable”

#70

Post by whimsicalism » Tue, Jul 25, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

treprinum wrote: post #57

I spent two years in bed, sometimes sleeping 16 hours a day and feeling like passing out just from walking 100m. All my tests were fine, all doctors thought it's just "anxiety" and basically ignored me until I had what looked like a stroke when they started taking it slightly more seriously. However, given all the tests were OK I went in circles from one doctor to another when I had better days, or being completely b…

I think it is certainly true, but I also think that lay people significantly underestimate psychosomnia and the power of placebo and having a more active lifestyle.