3 ms·

Is long covid still a thing? I thought it was a coping mechanism for managing the regret of taking the vaccine AND then getting covid and/or injured. Is there a

Is long covid still a thing? I thought it was a coping mechanism for managing the regret of taking the vaccine AND then getting covid and/or injured. Is there a proper differential diagnosis?

danparsonson 2y ago
> ...taking the vaccine AND then getting covid... Your immune system does not generally prevent you from catching anything; it allows your body to fight the infection more effectively the next time you catch it, thereby reducing or eliminating the symptoms. In your lifetime you will likely have caught some illnesses that you are vaccinated against without realising it, because you successfully fought the infection before it became serious. The COVID vaccine in particular never claimed to eliminate the symptoms altogether but reduces the severity so that rather than breathing through a tube for three weeks, you get a nasty cold. Long COVID is still a possibility and yes, very much a real thing albeit not well understood yet; I know at least one person who is recovering from it now.
- richrichie 2y ago
  > In your lifetime you will likely have caught some illnesses that you are vaccinated against without realising it, because you successfully fought the infection before it became serious. >The COVID vaccine in particular never claimed to eliminate the symptoms altogether but reduces the severity so that rather than breathing through a tube for three weeks, you get a nasty cold. Good examples of propositions that cannot be falsified.
  - danparsonson 2y ago
    Indeed, and you cannot prove that a specific car crash would have been worse for the passengers without seatbelts, however a proper understanding of how seatbelts work makes the conclusion nonetheless fairly obvious. Also, statistics are a thing; propositions like 'vaccination reduces severity of illness' can in fact be proven or falsified by studying a sufficiently large cohort, such as is readily available during, say, a pandemic.
cjbgkagh 2y ago
Long covid is no longer a thing the same way ME/CFS is no longer a thing. The world moves on without you (me). I did have an adverse reaction and I knew before taking it that I was in a high risk category for adverse effects, i.e. I already knew I had ME/CFS. My main consideration was that I'm also in the high risk category for adverse effect from covid. I'm open to the idea that the pericarditis that I got from the vaccine I would not have gotten from covid but I really don't know. I wish this was something that society would talk about openly and honestly. Not something I particularly wanted to get into but the genetic predispositions for long covid do seem to appear most frequently in the more intelligent. And since our society is so stratified by intelligence a large portion of the population does not directly interact with intelligent people and are truly sincere when they report that they don't personally know anyone with long covid. My experience is quite different as 1/3rd of my friends that I knew prior to my own issues have developed such long covid/ME/CFS issues of their own. I went through the whole gifted / magnet schooling system so my peer group is substantially biased.
- richrichie 2y ago
  > genetic predispositions for long covid do seem to appear most frequently in the more intelligent I am not surprised, since many of them were easily manipulated into a pretty bad risk trade off that even a plumber would not take. Regret is bound to be high for that kind of people. Historically speaking many of the brief episodes of strange psycho-somatic “illness” with vague descriptions were found among the equivalent of the laptop class and suburban wine moms.
  - cjbgkagh 2y ago
    I believe the word you're looking for is 'credulous'. Yes, there is a general question of why do otherwise smart people believe ridiculous things. There is a common refrain that because they're smart they can more easily rationalize their beliefs but I don't believe that is true. I think diminished ability to ameliorate stress leads to stress aversion behaviors and a strong attraction to rules, structure, and authority. I think when the effect of that is greater than their intelligence they become prone to believing many untrue things but once intelligence goes over a certain threshold that effect is lost. I think that's why a lot of the bell curve memes ring true to many people where both the very smart and the very dim share the same beliefs but for different reasons. Historically speaking most of those people, generally considered hypochondriacs, did have the conditions they complained of. Historically medicine has been literally blowing smoke up peoples asses, draining their blood, and feeding them mercury. I think it's a bit weird that you're using evidence from the same medical system you don't trust to get covid and the vaccines right to unwittingly gaslight on their behalf. You are simultaneously dismissing others personal anecdotes while providing your own as evidence. I believe you are reporting honestly of your observations, just as I believe these wine drinking suburban moms do have the conditions they complain of. This stuff does affect women worse than men and for the aforementioned stratification reasons those affected are more likely to be in the upper middle class and above.

Is long covid still a thing? I thought it was a coping mechanism for managing the regret of taking the vaccine AND then getting covid and/or injured. Is there a proper differential diagnosis?

danparsonson 2y ago

> ...taking the vaccine AND then getting covid... Your immune system does not generally prevent you from catching anything; it allows your body to fight the infection more effectively the next time you catch it, thereby reducing or eliminating the symptoms. In your lifetime you will likely have caught some illnesses that you are vaccinated against without realising it, because you successfully fought the infection before it became serious. The COVID vaccine in particular never claimed to eliminate the symptoms altogether but reduces the severity so that rather than breathing through a tube for three weeks, you get a nasty cold. Long COVID is still a possibility and yes, very much a real thing albeit not well understood yet; I know at least one person who is recovering from it now.

richrichie 2y ago
> In your lifetime you will likely have caught some illnesses that you are vaccinated against without realising it, because you successfully fought the infection before it became serious. >The COVID vaccine in particular never claimed to eliminate the symptoms altogether but reduces the severity so that rather than breathing through a tube for three weeks, you get a nasty cold. Good examples of propositions that cannot be falsified.
- danparsonson 2y ago
  Indeed, and you cannot prove that a specific car crash would have been worse for the passengers without seatbelts, however a proper understanding of how seatbelts work makes the conclusion nonetheless fairly obvious. Also, statistics are a thing; propositions like 'vaccination reduces severity of illness' can in fact be proven or falsified by studying a sufficiently large cohort, such as is readily available during, say, a pandemic.

cjbgkagh 2y ago

Long covid is no longer a thing the same way ME/CFS is no longer a thing. The world moves on without you (me). I did have an adverse reaction and I knew before taking it that I was in a high risk category for adverse effects, i.e. I already knew I had ME/CFS. My main consideration was that I'm also in the high risk category for adverse effect from covid. I'm open to the idea that the pericarditis that I got from the vaccine I would not have gotten from covid but I really don't know. I wish this was something that society would talk about openly and honestly. Not something I particularly wanted to get into but the genetic predispositions for long covid do seem to appear most frequently in the more intelligent. And since our society is so stratified by intelligence a large portion of the population does not directly interact with intelligent people and are truly sincere when they report that they don't personally know anyone with long covid. My experience is quite different as 1/3rd of my friends that I knew prior to my own issues have developed such long covid/ME/CFS issues of their own. I went through the whole gifted / magnet schooling system so my peer group is substantially biased.

richrichie 2y ago
> genetic predispositions for long covid do seem to appear most frequently in the more intelligent I am not surprised, since many of them were easily manipulated into a pretty bad risk trade off that even a plumber would not take. Regret is bound to be high for that kind of people. Historically speaking many of the brief episodes of strange psycho-somatic “illness” with vague descriptions were found among the equivalent of the laptop class and suburban wine moms.
- cjbgkagh 2y ago
  I believe the word you're looking for is 'credulous'. Yes, there is a general question of why do otherwise smart people believe ridiculous things. There is a common refrain that because they're smart they can more easily rationalize their beliefs but I don't believe that is true. I think diminished ability to ameliorate stress leads to stress aversion behaviors and a strong attraction to rules, structure, and authority. I think when the effect of that is greater than their intelligence they become prone to believing many untrue things but once intelligence goes over a certain threshold that effect is lost. I think that's why a lot of the bell curve memes ring true to many people where both the very smart and the very dim share the same beliefs but for different reasons. Historically speaking most of those people, generally considered hypochondriacs, did have the conditions they complained of. Historically medicine has been literally blowing smoke up peoples asses, draining their blood, and feeding them mercury. I think it's a bit weird that you're using evidence from the same medical system you don't trust to get covid and the vaccines right to unwittingly gaslight on their behalf. You are simultaneously dismissing others personal anecdotes while providing your own as evidence. I believe you are reporting honestly of your observations, just as I believe these wine drinking suburban moms do have the conditions they complain of. This stuff does affect women worse than men and for the aforementioned stratification reasons those affected are more likely to be in the upper middle class and above.