SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to HCoV-OC43, another endemic betacoronavirus. There is strong circumstantial evidence that OC43 caused the 1889 pandemic which killed around 0.06% of the world population. Now most of us get infected with OC43 as children and build up a level of immunity which protects us later in life, but it can still kill frail and elderly patients.
According to the ancient legends, our ancestors have eliminated smallpox planet-wide. Too bad their awesome skills are forever lost in history.
80% of the US population is there already...
"From 1999–2000 through 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.
The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight"
When you see a person not doing something and are confused, a good first step to understanding the situation is to map out the steps that would be required. Then, go through and start listing the risks and impediments to executing those steps.
It is a lot easier to see a good idea than to implement it -- especially if you're willing to distrustfully ignore difficulties as "excuses".
It has been disappointing to see how our public health officials have taken a defeatist approach by focusing almost entirely on infection control. While minimizing infections is an important aspect of pandemic management, many people are still going to get infected no matter what. So we should also take steps to reduce their risk of a bad outcome, including reducing excess body fat.
One reason the COVID-19 death rate has been low in Japan despite having a high infection rate and a high proportion of elderly population is that they have very little obesity. I don't support the coercive legal measures they use under the 2008 ”Metabo Law". But strictly from a public health standpoint they have proven effective.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2009-11-10/fat-japan-youre-break...
Health and nutrition are one of the topics where people don't want to hear the truth or know the solution because it's inconvenient and difficult, even though it's straightforward and doable for a lot of people.
Combine this with the replication crisis, and bias towards only funding and publishing novel results... things are worse.
Combine that with the telomere issues from having lab mice optimized for lowest cost... and the subsequent need to re-test everything... and there isn't much hope left.
Is there any reason to believe the 95% who didn't "go down" after the first time have the same 5% risk if they get it again?
Not saying you are wrong or that the article is right. It's just something important to consider. It's also important to remember that even if the 95% face zero risk after they get it once, 5% of the global population is still a lot of people.
I got heart arrhythmia as a bonus, but lowish dose of Concor, a beta-blocker, took care of that. Fortunately, nothing serious on the heart itself.
I also suffer from some muscle twitching, especially at rest. It is getting better, but very slowly. Accidentally, the cardiologist who got me into a heart clinic for my arrhythmia (a friend) suffers from the same twitching problem after his bout of Covid, but in his case, it is a bigger problem, because he actually performs heart surgeries. I was happy to tell him that a certain over-the-counter medication reduced my twiching problem. It helped him as well.
Perhaps there is something that can help you with your shortness of breath. Do not give up the search for possible solutions.
I’ve never been able to get my fitness levels back up to where I was before though, maybe 50%. I’m also still way more tired than I ever was before. It sucks to never really have fully recovered. I feel bad for the long COVID sufferers who sound like they’re in for something similar.
But living with this coronavirus certainly does not mean that 5% of the population will have long term negative health effects, especially in light of a dozen effective vaccines (and more in the pipeline). We should also consider what we mean when we say "long term" for a disease that has barely been around for a single year.
The US doesn't even have modern healthcare. There's no point of developing new vaccines if we're using the market—you know for sure it's going to go to fewer people than it should. For-profit medical research is fundamentally a death cult.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455195/ [2] https://www.red-dot.org/project/backpod-6994
I'll keep digging, but it looks like some simple exercised might help get me out of this hell. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455195/
There are substantial animal reservoirs, vaccinating the entire planet won't do it, like it did for smallpox.
The bearish hypothesis is vaccines could not be effective against newer variants and the carnage continues, could all airplane travel be banned in this scenario? Could Lockdowns continue in perpetuity? Maybe? I really doubt this scenario as history has never seen a scenario like this, looking at previous epidemics, like the swine flu of 1918 the virus ran its course in a year and half due to immunity after infection. Given we have vaccines being deployed now this should stop the virus in its tracks after more people are being immunized.
Honestly, yes.
Covid has long term effects, not all known at this time. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects....
Are you willing to have 5% of the population end up like me... short of breath, and pretty much unable to do more than 1/2 hour of physical labor per day? I can do grocery shopping, and that's it for me.
[Update] I used to be a machinist, on my feet 8-10 hours per day. I feel like I've lost 10-20 years off my life.
If 5% more of the population goes down each time they get it, you're going to run out of people.. just like Texas ran out of natural gas, when it seemed impossible.
Never underestimate exponentials, and long term effects of novel situations.