According to this article there are now three large scale studies analyzing covid risk, and they all indicate that your risk of negative health consequences goes up every infection.
While this risk starts (relatively) low for most of us, particularly those vaccinated and in younger people or children, there are concerning signs it may not stay low. If each new invasion of our bodies allows this insidious virus a greater chance to cause damage, such small risks will eventually add up to a big one.
Even if you only experience the symptom of the initial infection mildly.
"Each subsequent COVID infection will increase your risk of developing chronic health issues like diabetes, kidney disease, organ failure and even mental health problems," physician Rambod Rouhbakhsh warned journalist Sara Berg in an American Medical Association podcast earlier this year.
"This dispels the myth that repeated brushes with the virus are mild and you don't have to worry about it. It is akin to playing Russian roulette."
Long COVID is defined as a multisystem disease that have a devastating effect on any organ system, with potentially lifelong consequences. Rates of long COVID among people who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 vary controversially between studies and regions, from about 10 percent to a staggering 50 percent of people who've had the virus reported as having long term symptoms.
We are basically ignoring the risks and hoping for a science miracle to save us before things get too bad. Same approach we are taking with global warming. What an interesting time to be alive.
Yeah, covid is contributing to the realization that other illnesses we are used to also cause negative long term health effects. There was a paper that just came out showing that the flu also causes long term harm in some cases.
Is this leading to more careful attitudes towards repiratory illness? Of course not. It's being used by the media to normalize covid infections and long covid. Most people don't even have any idea what the difference between a cold and flu is.
Also, covid is a lot worse than the flu in all regards. It's killing more people by far, takes a more severe toll on the body, leads to more long term effects, is mutating several times more rapidly than the flu, is way more infectious than the flu, and will infect people several times more often than the flu typically does. 1-3 times a year for covid vs. once every 3-5 years for the flu.