i've learned more about the real on-the-ground ugliness of COVID from r/nursing than I've learned from any other source. Even the most unflinching media portrayals of what COVID does to the unvaccinated and the people who have to care for them leaves a lot out.
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for example last week i learned that a lot of nurses have had to deal with maggots in the intubated bodies of COVID patients, because anybody who has to be intubated for as long as many COVID patients do makes an attractive home for fly larvae, even when they're still alive
spoiler
yeah I couldn't even bring myself to ask what I meant which was NOT IN THE RESPIRATORY TRACT RIGHT?
I've heard doctors talk about removing maggots from necrotized tissue in the past, but that stuff just hits differently.
As I understand it that's... kind of a mixed blessing.
They only eat dead tissue, which was going to cause its own problems anyway.
Not that it's good for them to do that except on purpose and tightly controlled
My understanding is that some kinds of maggots prefer dead tissue (the kinds that would be used to remove rotting flesh) but the idea that any of them eat it exclusively is a bit of a myth.
maggot therapy is an actual treatment that exists and is still legitimate, there are definitely some maggots that will exclusively eat rotting flesh
when i had the displeasure of finding maggots in my apartment once, i did notice that they seem to be surprisingly picky eaters