long_covid.md 4.6 KB
Long COVID
Preamble
My take on long covid
- Persisting pathology associated with intensity and duration of a condition
- Massive interest in identifying effects of COVID-19
- Analysis of most modern humans would discover excess inflammation, scarring and dysfunction
- Media have driven a narrative of long covid which treats the matter mysteriously. Constant suggestion of this outcome for mild cases.
- Many don't realize that their previous respiratory illnesses could have produced effects that would today be evaluated as evidence of "long "
- The severity of effects should be associated with the potential to cause death
- All considered, there is still a plausible potential for SARS-CoV2's spike to produce particularly pronounced damage, but it should follow that these are based on access to the vascular system, which follows a lower respiratory infection. Asymptomatic or mild cases which don't progress that far shouldn't be expected to lead to these outcomes.
- The human condition includes an interwoven set of complex systems whose cohesive function allow for our continued existence through respiration and metabolism. The complexity coupled with the perceived body experience informed by sensory input and reflection on these can easily lead to a perceived discomfort and indication of disease. It's for this reason that humans feel instantly better by even a modest calibration of underlying mechanisms for metabolism and respiration. Improving one's ability to respire, even slightly, yields an improved state of mind and outlook on the world. I'd wager that most humans, in any normal state, have the capacity to make observations of themselves that could be characterized a recognizing or suspecting to recognize symptoms of disease.
- 4.4% of 1734 "infected" children report headache/fatigue/anosmia for more than 1 month
- ZOE provides everyone with an app to remind them to check for symptoms everyday
- Not very rigorous to be getting self reports of mild symptoms by people who are being told to obsess over them
- Lancet study of brain changes in adults -> warning about children, saying we don't know what is happening to children
- Australia paper of 171 kids of "infected" with 95% no symptoms or mild. 2 had inflammation issues - but this tells us very little
- Admits none of the papers are reliable for estimating Long Covid, but qualify concern on the basis of reported symptoms
- Reported symptoms for self reported covid diagnoses
- Extrapolating to estimate rates of long covid in children
- Estimates for very long (1+ years) of covid symptoms
- Brings up myocarditis and claims all children recovered
- Values population data over clinical opinions. Does that mean data reported by people who are more likely to suspect symptoms?
Another striking feature of the covid narrative are the manner in which the aspects of health and disease are reintroduced as though each is introduced as a seemingly novel black box. This began with the initial declaration of the viral threat, where it was presented as a phenomenon completely independent from extant pathogens to which we are already faced. Naive immune systems were assumed to be completely oblivious as to how to meet the challenge. A progression of disease that could include mild symptoms which were considered to be a stepping stone towards ones that are most severe.
As time has gone on, however, it appears as though our understanding of the threat, and our ability to deal with it, are not so novel, as it shares most of the patterns predictable of other respiratory disease. This should be no huge surprise, as the progression of disease is fundamentally based on our biology and the means by which we respond to pathogenic proliferation.
Yet, somehow, everyone has forgotten their own past experiences with respiratory disease, and come to view this threat as a perpetual mystery. Whether due to programming through film, or just by the sheer weight of words from those posing themselves as an authority, the expected progression of disease is assessed purely by media description, without much room for one to produce a reasoned composition.
A perfect case in point is the construct of long covid which, in a very basic sense, describes the consequence of a prolonged disease. The difference being, however, that prolonged effects of a disease should be predicated on the intensity and duration of particular stages.
Fear Mongering Buffet
Some of the fear mongering going on comes from real doctors or, in this case, a former one. Promoting a book on "sympathy for groups" as a means of public health, and who works as an associate for SAGE in the UK.