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
I don't think maggots are really parasites because from what i remember, they're only interested in things that are already dead/rotten. Maggots can even be used for medical purposes because if you put them in an open wound, they will only eat dead tissue and perfectly clean the wound with impressive precision. It's really gross but also super interesting imo.
Not entirely true, some species only eat dead flesh (and are useful in medicine) but your standard blowfly maggot will eat what it can chomp on.