I want to scream this at every middle class person I know. Study after study shows that long COVID disproportionately affects poorer and non-white people. People are like "oh COVID is just a cold", and I want to shake them screaming "not everyone has family income to fall back upon". Disability pay and health care access for the poor is so much harder, why would anyone want to subject someone else to the hell of hospital queues and terrible government support?
People who claim COVID is just a cold are fucking hilarious, because even superficially, COVID is way worse than any cold. When I caught a "mild" case of COVID, it literally hurt to breathe. I felt like I was going to die. I could only lie in bed for an entire week, and I couldn't physically exert myself for the next month.
No cold has ever made it literally hurt to breathe. And even ignoring that, colds fucking suck! Runny nose, constant sneezing, lose all your energy for 3 days - that fucking sucks!
I feel like some people (most people?) still have the idea that catching diseases is good for the immune system when that's just catastrophically false. Getting sick is not good for the body. The human condition is not improved by the presence of pathogens in the environment. I am for the eventual eradication of all diseases, including the common cold, because there is nothing to be gained from getting sick.
I think its because people make the mistake of thinking exposure to 'good' bacteria and other non-infectious pathogens are the same as getting sick when its totally different things at play, also building up tolerance to disease isn't the same as true health/resistance its like a developing callous on a well-worn hand or foot when one should be wearing gloves/shoes or ideally not be exposed to harm.
Even when covid is mild as a cold, it is terrifying. Colds don't shred the vascular system or require long ramps up back to intense physical activity to avoid getting ME/CFS. Mild cases of COVID can do both.
That is also false, though. And we don't really rely on people's immune systems to solve bacterial diseases -- strep is treated with antibiotics, cholera is filtered out of the water, sinus infections are treated with antibiotics before they can spread to the brain.
I want to scream this at every middle class person I know. Study after study shows that long COVID disproportionately affects poorer and non-white people. People are like "oh COVID is just a cold", and I want to shake them screaming "not everyone has family income to fall back upon". Disability pay and health care access for the poor is so much harder, why would anyone want to subject someone else to the hell of hospital queues and terrible government support?
People who claim COVID is just a cold are fucking hilarious, because even superficially, COVID is way worse than any cold. When I caught a "mild" case of COVID, it literally hurt to breathe. I felt like I was going to die. I could only lie in bed for an entire week, and I couldn't physically exert myself for the next month.
No cold has ever made it literally hurt to breathe. And even ignoring that, colds fucking suck! Runny nose, constant sneezing, lose all your energy for 3 days - that fucking sucks!
I feel like some people (most people?) still have the idea that catching diseases is good for the immune system when that's just catastrophically false. Getting sick is not good for the body. The human condition is not improved by the presence of pathogens in the environment. I am for the eventual eradication of all diseases, including the common cold, because there is nothing to be gained from getting sick.
I think its because people make the mistake of thinking exposure to 'good' bacteria and other non-infectious pathogens are the same as getting sick when its totally different things at play, also building up tolerance to disease isn't the same as true health/resistance its like a developing callous on a well-worn hand or foot when one should be wearing gloves/shoes or ideally not be exposed to harm.
Even when covid is mild as a cold, it is terrifying. Colds don't shred the vascular system or require long ramps up back to intense physical activity to avoid getting ME/CFS. Mild cases of COVID can do both.
Removed by mod
That is also false, though. And we don't really rely on people's immune systems to solve bacterial diseases -- strep is treated with antibiotics, cholera is filtered out of the water, sinus infections are treated with antibiotics before they can spread to the brain.
Removed by mod