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.
I finally got it. After 3 years of avoiding it, working in an office job with very minimal contact with coworkers, masking religiously in public, and tracking my county's data and adjusting how much I'm socializing based on that data, etc. I honestly don't know how I got it, I've been more cautious this past month and none of my other friends/family had it or were symptomatic. Luckily it's been 'mild' for me, but the first couple days were still pretty hellish. It's been 3 weeks and luckily all I have left is brain fog which is getting better and should resolve in 90 days according to my pcp (jesus christ that's a long time). The long covid studies and the permanent brain fog really scares the shit out of me compared to the other stuff since i have a bunch of dementia/alzheimers in the family, but obvs it's all pretty alarming. Solidarity and love to the folks this has disabled and killed, if this eventually disables me I'm going to [REDACTED] an elected official.
We have east coast family visiting and among them are multiple doctors and libs who believe in climate change that call themselves "progressive". Whenever I mention any new study on long covid I am made to feel like an annoying shut-in who believes in chem trails. I don't even get into the details of the study, just the mention of the article title is enough to make these "trust the science" types imply that I'm spending too much time online and blowing things out of proportion. These people are great and smart and accepting in many other ways, but holy fuck. They are fucking DONE trusting the science. I honestly don't know what it's going to take, maybe one of them or their kids getting long covid and suffering before they'll actually shut the fuck up and start "trusting the science" again?? Like I know the media has been normalizing this for years so this is expected but like you'd think people with fucking MDs would be able to see through the media bias, denialism and normalization of this. guess not. it's literally fine
Oof. The only consistant advice I've seen is for people to get as much rest as possible while infected.
The people still concerned about covid get lumped in with the anti-vax wierdos all over social media blaming everything on vaccines. It seems deliberate. The CDC and WHO acknowledge the problem with long covid and all the negative health effects it can cause, but quietly, and most people are left with the impression that covid is a solved problem and anyone still concerned is an anxious nutter.
Agreed, tho I'm definitely an anxious nutter
I'm just shocked that even these highly educated PMC people who work in the field and are generally interested in research are going buck wild maskless this Christmas. I guess one of them just got sick (non-Covid) now while on vacation. In the beginning of Death Panel's Covid Year Four episode they summed it up pretty well calling it the 'sociological production of the end of the pandemic'.