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You’re focusing exclusively on deaths, which is only proving the parent’s point. What about all the people who don’t die, but sustain chronic, potentially perma

You’re focusing exclusively on deaths, which is only proving the parent’s point. What about all the people who don’t die, but sustain chronic, potentially permanent damage as a result? Economies recover, but it’s less clear whether organs affected by COVID-19 do the same. There are widespread reports indicating that surviving COVID-19 doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, regardless of your age. Yet a significant number of people continue to focus exclusively on death rate. To reiterate the parent’s question: why are you, personally, focused exclusively on the death rate? Presumably, you’re young, and your risk of dying from COVID-19 is low. Why aren’t you more concerned about non-fatal but irreversible damage to your body, since that’s a more likely outcome for you? This is a perspective that people like the parent and myself genuinely don’t understand. What is your thought process?

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
The article here doesn't say the damage is irreversible, or that it hugely impacts quality of life. Which has been a pattern when I've researched long-term effects. There was a study getting passed around showing that 84% of sufferers had persistent neurological symptoms - certainly scary, even if they're not permanent! But if you poked in further, they were mostly composed of headaches, muscle aches, and dizziness, which are entirely normal and unsurprising consequences of recovering from a serious disease. More generally, chronic and potentially permanent damage is a fact of life. If the long-term nonfatal consequences of the coronavirus don't pass the scale or severity of, say, carpal tunnel syndrome, I'm comfortable rounding that off as "not a big deal in the scheme of things".
- zenexer 6y ago
  There are still a concerning number of much more serious chronic complications reported by low-risk young adults. Many report that the symptoms continue months after recovering from COVID-19, with no end in sight. Even though there isn’t much in the way of formal research at this point, it should at least raise some eyebrows.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  >mostly composed of headaches, muscle aches, and dizziness, I think you are imagining the most mild manifestations that could be categorized as those things. Those terms could cover a range from trivial to debilitating/life destroying. It's like when you read that someone isn't or no longer is in "critical condition". It sounds good, it's antiseptic, but it could conceal unimaginable horror.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

The article here doesn't say the damage is irreversible, or that it hugely impacts quality of life. Which has been a pattern when I've researched long-term effects. There was a study getting passed around showing that 84% of sufferers had persistent neurological symptoms - certainly scary, even if they're not permanent! But if you poked in further, they were mostly composed of headaches, muscle aches, and dizziness, which are entirely normal and unsurprising consequences of recovering from a serious disease. More generally, chronic and potentially permanent damage is a fact of life. If the long-term nonfatal consequences of the coronavirus don't pass the scale or severity of, say, carpal tunnel syndrome, I'm comfortable rounding that off as "not a big deal in the scheme of things".

zenexer 6y ago
There are still a concerning number of much more serious chronic complications reported by low-risk young adults. Many report that the symptoms continue months after recovering from COVID-19, with no end in sight. Even though there isn’t much in the way of formal research at this point, it should at least raise some eyebrows.
perl4ever 6y ago
>mostly composed of headaches, muscle aches, and dizziness, I think you are imagining the most mild manifestations that could be categorized as those things. Those terms could cover a range from trivial to debilitating/life destroying. It's like when you read that someone isn't or no longer is in "critical condition". It sounds good, it's antiseptic, but it could conceal unimaginable horror.