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When I catch an infection I tend to get pneumonia afterwards and I am sick for months. I already had a predilection for working from home because too many peopl
by varelse 5y ago
When I catch an infection I tend to get pneumonia afterwards and I am sick for months. I already had a predilection for working from home because too many people who are sick insist on coming to the office despite what their company guidance says and even their managers telling them otherwise. WTH is up with that?
Now that there's a small chance that this could kill me, I have zero inclination to return to the office whereas I used to go to the office quite a bit during the summer when people weren't usually sick and avoid it during the winter months especially around the holidays. You asked.
Put it another way. I offer you a job for a $1M salary but there's one catch: every year I drag out the least productive employee (100% according to me) and publicly execute that person in front of everyone else. Would you take that job?
- jefftk 5y ago> Now that there's a small chance that this could kill me Wasn't that also true before covid?
- varelse 5y agoMuch much smaller covid is not just like the flu please go away.
- jefftk 5y agoCovid is not just like the flu, yes. If you have no immunity covid is about 10x more likely to kill you. But, once you're vaccinated, the risk from covid is lower than the flu.
- varelse 5y agoRight up until our strong pool of unvaccinated folk provide the evolutionary opportunity to infect the vaccinated pool. Why that seems to be exactly what's happening right now with omicron. But since fatality rates are decoupled from virulence rates as long as you survive long enough to spread the thing, we're all stuck waiting another couple months to sort this out. I'm 100% on team life finds a way (tm). I don't need you to think that way but I'm going to continue thinking that way and we'll see how that goes.
- jefftk 5y agoThe vaccines are highly protective against hospitalization and death. As someone vaccinated (and boosted) against covid, I would much rather be infected with covid than the flu. As for life finding a way, I do think we should expect to continue to see additional waves of covid, mutation and infection, but I'm not sure why you would expect that to lead to a high risk of death?
- varelse 5y agoThe vaccines are great (And I'm boosted)! We agree on that. But I hope we agree that anti-vaxxers suck. And they are providing a pool for the virus to evolve past the vaccines (as Omicron seems to do). As for the risk of death. I know people who prefer normality with a ~0.5-1.0% additional chance of random death over continued isolation. I get that. I prefer isolation to that myself but I won't impose my views on anyone else. Why can't we just politely accept both sorts have to coexist? Go back to normality if you wish, be my guest even, except where we have to mix upon where you put on a mask or GTFO. Why is this unreasonable? Because apparently this is crazytalk to some.
- nradov 5y agoWhile I encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated, the current thinking is that new variants are most likely to evolve in immunocompromised patients who have persistent infections. Vaccines aren't very effective for patients with malfunctioning immune systems. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-variants-may-arise-in-people-with-compromised-immune-systems/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-variants-ma... https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2104756 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2104756
- unmole 5y agoUnvaccinated people will eventually catch the virus and in the overwhelming majority of the cases recover and develop potent and robust immunity against future infection.
- 5y ago
- stjohnswarts 5y agoThat may have been true a week ago, with omicron we don't know that yet. Hence google delaying. Jan 10 seems a little optimistic though. i'm not sure why they were even going to bother right before Christmas break anyway, at least in mostly Christian Western countries that slow down the last couple of weeks of december anyway.
- wffurr 5y agoDon't forget the danger of the commute itself. Also a small chance that it could kill you.
- varelse 5y agoAlso remember to consider the threat posed by dihydrogen monoxide but I digress...
- wffurr 5y agoThe ocean in particular has it out for humans. Record drownings in New England this past summer. I dug into it some and realized that I was shockingly ignorant of safe behavior around water in general.
- disabled 5y agoThis can be a sign of primary immunodeficiency: http://jmfworld.com/library/educational-materials/10-warning-signs http://jmfworld.com/library/educational-materials/10-warning... Regardless, you still should get checked out by an immunologist. Often, it is treatable with immunoglobulin. While I do not have primary immunodeficiency, I have 2 rare immune mediated neurological diseases affecting my peripheral nervous system, and I am on subcutaneous immunoglobulin as a treatment. I infuse it twice per week. I have not had a respiratory infection since being on subcutaneous immunoglobulin, and it's been about 5 years since I started this therapy. I also feel your pain. I cannot work in an office environment due to health reasons, but some reasons are not due to immunological issues.
- nradov 5y agoIt is not at all normal to experience frequent pneumonia due to minor upper respiratory infections. That's likely a symptom of some more serious underlying pathology. I recommend consulting a physician. At least get your vitamin D levels checked.
- varelse 5y agoI've had multiple physicals and my vitamin D level checked. I'm in great health with a resting pulse close to 40. I would love to find a root cause here and address it but I haven't found a doctor who has seen anything obvious. I'm with you otherwise. Any ideas?
- cowmoo728 5y agoShot in the dark and I'm not a doctor but you could look into getting a genetic test for atypical cystic fibrosis. It's increasingly diagnosed into adulthood and recurrent pneumonia is one of the clues.
- DLTADragonHawk 5y agoAtypical would probably be an understatement. I'm not an expert of the disease, but having it along with family members having it, there are many more symptoms that would have appeared by now.
- cowmoo728 5y agoThere are milder / alternate forms of CF that are often diagnosed late in life. They're often mild enough that a doctor will immediately rule out CF. Example case studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652023/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652023/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2054270420921003 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20542704209210...
- seanhunter 5y agoI was in this same boat (probably not as fit as you), but got sick a lot (pneumonia twice, bronchitis a couple of times, hospitalized with "mystery virus" twice including once leading to ICU, etc etc) no obvious signs of immune compromise, decent Vitamin D nothing showing up on physicals etc until I went to see a Rheumatologist for chronic pain. He diagnosed me with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome[1], which turns out to explain all sorts of other things that I thought were seperate and unrelated problems. It's worth drilling into these things further because there could be some underlying cause that joins all the dots together and (although there's no real treatment for EDS) you could get help. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/
- easytiger 5y agoSo all human activity prior to March 2020 was murderous, evil and so forth?
- varelse 5y agoTechnically, the activity of lumbering golems constructed by unthinking strands of DNA seeking to make copies of themselves, and if it weren't for that meddling virus...
- easytiger 5y ago> Technically, the activity of lumbering golems constructed by unthinking strands of DNA seeking to make copies of themselves, and if it weren't for that meddling virus... This is frankly insanity. You can't think this right minded?
- varelse 5y ago"We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA. ... This is exactly what we are for. We are machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living. " - Richard Dawkins