4 ms·

The more we research the more ways we learn COVID infection harms you. I'm wondering if other infections are similar but havent been researched the way COVID ha

• fragmede 3y ago
  and also how much is known to science and how much is known generally. The flu kills people and also has long lasting effects in some people, but you'd never know as a layperson because it's not like it's major headline news.
  • Krssst 3y ago
    On another hand, people that don't take precautions get COVID maybe once a year, while the flu is more once every few years. So even if the dangerosity of an infection was of similar magnitude, COVID would be more impactful because of its higher ability to infect and reinfect people. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about other post-infection syndromes; if long COVID can raise awareness on those there's a small silver lining.
• delecti 3y ago
  There seem to be associations between various other viruses and chronic conditions. Epstein-Barr virus seems to dramatically increase the risk of Multiple Sclerosis, likewise with Herpes and Alzheimer's. And of course HPV seems to cause various forms of cancer depending on where it occurs. I wouldn't be surprised if we come to the conclusion that certain conditions are effectively "long" forms of those viruses.
• kbenson 3y ago
  That's what I assumed was happening. Ever since Zika ended up having effects that (to my knowledge) we thought previously weren't possible, it seems like there's a lot of possible poorly understood additional effects to diseases that we are unaware of. I think the additional harms linked to COVID we've found is another data point in favor of that.