Honestly my Hexbear people won't learn much from this, but this is a good resource to beat libs over the head with.

  • Long COVID is an often debilitating illness that occurs in at least 10% of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections.

  • At least 65 million individuals worldwide are estimated to have long COVID,

  • ...[occurs in] 10–12% of vaccinated cases

Yes that's right, 10% of vaccinated cases

  • With significant proportions of individuals with long COVID unable to return to work, the scale of newly disabled individuals is contributing to labour shortages.

  • Six months after breakthrough infection, increased risks were observed for cardiovascular conditions, coagulation and haematological conditions, death, fatigue, neurological conditions and pulmonary conditions

  • A higher prevalence of long Covid has been reported in certain ethnicities, including people with Hispanic or Latino heritage. Socio-economic risk factors include lower income and an inability to adequately rest in the early weeks after developing COVID-19

Rich people don't have to give a fuck about COVID

  • Long COVID impacts children of all ages [with symptoms] 2 to 36 times more likely [with children who had COVID]

  • Studies looking at immune dysregulation in individuals with long COVID who had mild acute COVID-19 have found T cell alterations, including exhausted T cells [and other immune reductions]

  • A long-lasting reduction in vascular density, specifically affecting small capillaries, was found in patients with long COVID compared with controls, 18 months after infection.

  • Cardiac MRI studies revealed cardiac impairment in 78% of 100 individuals who had a prior COVID-19 episode

  • 70% of [long COVID] patients had damage to at least one organ and 29% had multi-organ damage... The organ damage experienced by patients with long COVID appears durable

  • ... fatigue was found in 32% and cognitive impairment was found in 22% of patients with COVID-19 at 12 weeks after infection. Cognitive impairments in long COVID are debilitating, at the same magnitude as intoxication at the :ukkk: drink driving limit or 10 years of cognitive ageing

  • Viral persistence in the penile tissue has been documented, as has an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, likely resulting from endothelial dysfunction. In one study, impairments to sperm count, semen volume, motility, sperm morphology and sperm concentration were reported in individuals

:alex-aware:

  • Several imaging studies that included non-hospitalized individuals with long COVID demonstrated pulmonary abnormalities including in air trapping and lung perfusion

  • Few people with long COVID demonstrate full recovery, with one study finding that 85% of patients who had symptoms 2 months after the initial infection reported symptoms 1 year after symptom onset

There's lots of good links to studies if you need to debate libs

  • macabrett
    ·
    2 years ago

    My rheumatologist told me I could "get another booster if you feel like it, but it's not necessary" back in APRIL. This doctor works exclusively with chronically ill immunocompromised people, most of which are old, and started a rant about how "they keep changing how many are recommended"

    like... jesus christ, you went to med school!

      • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        One of my dumbest customers when I was a bartender before the pandemic was this right wing boomer lib doctor who just started shitting on Bernie for no reason and could never take the polite hint that I didn't want to talk to him

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I think the primary qualifications of getting through med school are being smart in a few specific competencies, and after that having an enormous tolerance for stress and sleep deprivation that serve no educational purpose but are used as a form of sadistic hazing for no useful or justifiable reason. Having residents pull 24 hour shifts is just measurably, provably bad for everyone involved including patients, and they continue to do it purely for hazing.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      “they keep changing how many are recommended”

      That is part of the problem though. You can try and stay on top of things and go insane, or just follow the pack. Most doctors are going with the latter, it seems.

      • machiabelly [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Doctors are still people I guess and people are famously lazy with things like this.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I am shocked that doctors and other medical professionals are so blasé about this, but it also perfectly conforms to many of my experiences with doctors being totally useless and occasionally contemptuous of patients. Like the second anything doesn't go exactly like it does in their textbooks they become totally lost and retreat in to arrogance and dismissal to protect their egos. Not every doctor, but when you're dealing with quality of life destroying chronic illnesses it doesn't take many for you to be suspicious of all of them.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If this was an ordinary disease we could rely t and b cells when antibodies wear off, but this one harms our immune system itself and can harm every organ in our body by the time our bodies figure out they are infected.

      All studies that come out indicating that this happens, going back to the first Sars, are being ignored or dismissed as a problem for only a small subset of people who are infected.

      So we've been set on a course of repeat infections to "build immunity" with a disease that attacks our immune system and can infect everyone on the planet, and even more wild animals. 8 billion hosts to evolve mutations in, several times a year, and we expect it to burn itself out when its getting better at evading the immune system and binding to our cells. It's fucking madness.