Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – and the picture is unsettling - eviltoast

Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/rhOZ6

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    45
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    “Just another flu” is what everyone now feels, not because there’s ever been a clear argument for that status, but because everyone got tired of being worried and by universal acquiescence decided it’s so. But these studies show everyone just keeps rolling the dice on long COVID every time they get sick.

    And I get it. It’s like driving more carefully after getting in an accident. It’s hard to feel the urgency of what a lifelong chronic disability means until you’re close enough to touch it, and then it might be too late. I’m also tired of being worried. I just guess the virus didn’t get that memo…

    • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      5 months ago

      A flu, opposed to a common cold can absolutely give you long term health impacts, similar to what is described as long COVID.

      A flu is also very much deadly for vulnerable groups, especially elderly people.

      Let’s face it though. COVID is just the first of many pandemics we will see in the near future. The factors that favor pandemics are every increasing. Destruction and encroachment of natural land forces animals into contact with humans. Higher temperatures make it easier for airborne viruses to spread and survive. Dealing with extreme temperatures, pollution and stress lowers humans immune abilities. Ever increasing population densities make the spread of diseases easier.

      But we will continue at best with treating the symptoms, or not even that, with measures like lockdowns or mask mandates. But the root causes of the pandemics will not be treated, as those require to change the economic system and way of life away from capitalism.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    5 months ago

    Anti-vaxxers and other pro-virus people have blood on their hands, and should be treated accordingly.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    5 months ago

    sssshhhhhh. silence.

    is there a housing crisis? so shut up and enjoy the next wave of dumb people die. sounds cruel? isnt! it is nature at its best.

    also is there a leopardsatemayface on lemmy for this already?

      • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        5 months ago

        while true this applies to EVERYTHING. no safetybelt in a car? damn…innocent ppl aswell.

        luckily humans have a choice for safetybelts, vaxxing and so many other things. so it is kinda acting like a baby if you demand “full info on covid for everyone, mandatory masks and so on”. covid was 2020… humans had enough time to educate themselves on the consequences aswell as realize from the first wave there’ll people dumb like a trump n9 matter how hard the facts.

  • 1984@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    403
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    I still think these effects come from the vaccine, not the virus.

    It would be interesting to see data showing if unvaccinated people got long covid symptoms. But since society decided to try and force vaccinations on everyone, I think it’s going to be hard to see such data.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      117
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Vaccines*

      There was more than one, but none of them were unusual in composition.

      Long COVID is the permanent health proplems which people can suffer after recovering from COVID. It was noticed in people who survived infection even before any of the vaccines were developed.

      So how the fuck can it be caused by the vaccine?! Not to mention studies show that being vaccinated REDUCES the severity of COVID, in terms of both temporary and permanent effects!

      People who aren’t vaccinated get hit HARDER by long COVID, not spared the condition entirely. The immune system reacts to the disease and vaccine in exactly the same way. Surviving COVID unvaccinated doesn’t somehow mean your body beats the disease off “more properly”.

      It means the opposite, the disease gets more time to do more damage against a less prepared immune system.

      Even the “Pfizer admits myocarditis side effect” thing that made the rounds on social media last year, was a known side effect that someone tried to make seem like it had been kept secret or covered up, and only “officially” admitted to last year. In reality it has been on the list of potential side effects since 2021. It’s extremely rare, and suffering actual COVID has a far greater chance of causing the same complication.

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      90
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      i can’t believe it’s 2024 and we’re still having to put up with antivaxxer bullshit

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zipOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      69
      ·
      5 months ago

      There is data and it’s not hidden. See https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p491.

      The participants’ experience with long covid was compared with 455 unvaccinated people who matched the vaccinated group for age, sex, coexisting health conditions, and long covid severity, among other metrics.

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      63
      ·
      5 months ago

      First paragraph of the article

      when the omicron family of variants predominated, that rate declined to 7.7% among unvaccinated adults and 3.5% of vaccinated adults

      • Opisek@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’m sorry but reading one paragraph requires minimal effort. You can not realistically expect that.

    • protist@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      61
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      I still think these effects come from the vaccine, not the virus, based on my complete lack of knowledge and/or willful ignorance of the subject.

      I’m ignoring the data showing whether unvaccinated people got long covid symptoms. But since society decided to try and force vaccinations on everyone, and I didn’t like that, I’m going to continue to tell everyone vaccines are bad because that’s the narrative I want to push.

      You’re ignoring data so hard you didn’t even read the article you’re here commenting on lmao

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      52
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      What do you think of the various studies showing that vaccination reduces the risk of long COVID?

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/health/long-covid-vaccines.html

      (Archive without paywall: https://archive.ph/20240718022942/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/health/long-covid-vaccines.html)

      https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

      And the one in the BMJ from 2023 that someone else linked.

      There’s also an increasing scientific understanding of what causes long COVID (and again this article mentions how vaccination reduces the risk):

      https://theconversation.com/long-covid-puzzle-pieces-are-falling-into-place-the-picture-is-unsettling-233759

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          Seems you were right. Their curiosity for data evaporated as soon as people gave them all the data they needed.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          5 months ago

          Antivaxxers start of with a deep seated distrust of the medical and science establishment. Actual research is impossible if you have an implicit distrust of the authors.

      • Uli@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        I get the strange urge or

        A predictable fervor

        To ask for red meat

        Or get one more burger

        .

        As if it would be a feat

        To conquer my doubt

        That I could swear off entirely

        Do completely without

        .

        And replace that hot taste

        The grease in my face

        With that more peaceable label

        Plant eaters avow

        .

        To be able to face

        Not on my plate nor my table

        But a kind curious bovine

        Left to their stable

        .

        Wouldn’t that be fine

        To let live for futures beyond now

        And make not food but a friend

        Indeed a happier end

        .

        For us and the cow

        (I know it was meant for AI but I wanted to do it too)

    • tillary@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      46
      ·
      5 months ago

      Looks like you haven’t done a lot of research. That’s okay! There are many, many recorded cases of long COVID that existed long before the first vaccine was even available. Like between March 2020 and March 2021. If that changes your thought.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Why is he going to start reading anything NOW when there’s been so many rejected chances?

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        42
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        To some extent, its physiological. There is a physical pleasure that comes from “believing” things even when we don’t have evidence for them. “Believing” in things creates a dopamine cycle. Even further, some people are psychologically pre-disposed.

        Look at how cults and relgions function: secret knowledge, in-group/ out-group selection, ‘leaders’ who protect or are connected to some “other”, it goes on and on.

        We’re monkeys who are hard-wired to find patterns, which even if wrong, could be useful. We tell ourselves stories that are “convincing” to believe in these patterns. Our brains give us a pleasurable “bump” when we find one, even if its objectively wrong or easily dismissed by evidence. It takes substantial time and discipline to untrain yourself from this, and humans get extreme discomfort from “not knowing” things. We hate that. We’d rather a wrong knowing than confidence in our “not knowing”. And its not just that we don’t like not knowing; its physically painful. And then there are some of us that are more subject to these forces than others, and because of how self-selection works in online communities, these tendencies are allowed to exacerbate.

        We’re really starting on the back-foot when it comes to the “truth” as humans.

        • snooggums@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          5 months ago

          Oooh, I was ready to smash that downvote when I read the first sentence thinking you meant long covid was psychological and I’m glad you continued :)

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            24
            ·
            5 months ago

            No, I’m just very opposed against the rise in anti-scientific, anti-evidence based belief that I’ve watched rise to a fever pitch in the last several decades. I try to call it out where ever I find it, but I also think its important to understand why people engage in this kind of conspiratorial thinking. I think we under estimate how much of it is truly out of our control. Its baked into our physiology. We want to believe and our bodies aren’t giving us much choice.

            • Kraiden@kbin.run
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              5 months ago

              So what’s the solution then? Physical pleasure and psychological predisposition sounds like drug addiction. Personally I think the solution there is to legalize, regulate, and treat it as a medical condition, but how does that translate to conspiritorial thinking?

    • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, it makes so much more sense that doctors, institutions and (enemy) governments conspired to… what? Poison people?
      Way more plausible than a new virus causing a autoimmune condition already observed to be triggered by other viruses for centuries.

    • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      67
      ·
      5 months ago

      AGREED! There was ZERO cases of Long Covid until AFTER people EVENTUALLY started getting the JAB!