3 ms·

Sexism and racism are absolutely rampant when it comes to dismissing people’s medical concerns, you’re totally on track there. It’s not “I hate them and want th

by bbor 2y ago

Sexism and racism are absolutely rampant when it comes to dismissing people’s medical concerns, you’re totally on track there. It’s not “I hate them and want them to suffer” prejudice, it’s “well that group of people tends to be less smart so they’re probably faking on accident” prejudice. That said, as a harsh skeptic of long covid: does the author present any evidence? Or just “I’ve been tired a lot, and I feel like I wasn’t before”? Sadly the article itself is paywalled for me. More scientifically, what is long covid? Is that how viruses work? I guess the idea is that the virus is hiding out somewhere in the body where the immune system and doctors can’t find it…?

zdragnar 2y ago
My brother has been suffering ever since his first or second encounter with COVID, I forget which. His resting heart rate was very elevated from before he got sick, and recovery rate quadrupled. Just walking up a flight of stairs or two would require him to sit down, winded, to recover. After all sorts of fitness tests, heart monitoring, lung tests, etc, the best guess the doctors could come up with was nerve damage from the infection or subsequent inflammation. He's gotten covid 4 times total now. I don't think there's any way to tell if he's just unlucky in getting exposed to it or if there is some mechanism that lets it hide in the body, though I suspect he's just unlucky.
0xbadcafebee 2y ago
I'm not a doctor but I know there are many widely accepted diseases that there's little understanding of and limited treatment for. MS for example; there's a basic idea of how it works, but it's almost random in how it presents and how it can be treated, and it's incurable.
Volundr 2y ago
> More scientifically, what is long covid? Is that how viruses work? I guess the idea is that the virus is hiding out somewhere in the body where the immune system and doctors can’t find it…? This is a big open question. Viruses absolutely can hang around for decades with the immune system unable to remove it (see for example shingles). It could also be damage done during infection that the body just isn't fully able to repair. Or it could be phycological (we can't rule it out), or some other not yet understood mechanism.

by bbor 2y ago

zdragnar 2y ago

My brother has been suffering ever since his first or second encounter with COVID, I forget which. His resting heart rate was very elevated from before he got sick, and recovery rate quadrupled. Just walking up a flight of stairs or two would require him to sit down, winded, to recover. After all sorts of fitness tests, heart monitoring, lung tests, etc, the best guess the doctors could come up with was nerve damage from the infection or subsequent inflammation. He's gotten covid 4 times total now. I don't think there's any way to tell if he's just unlucky in getting exposed to it or if there is some mechanism that lets it hide in the body, though I suspect he's just unlucky.

0xbadcafebee 2y ago

I'm not a doctor but I know there are many widely accepted diseases that there's little understanding of and limited treatment for. MS for example; there's a basic idea of how it works, but it's almost random in how it presents and how it can be treated, and it's incurable.

Volundr 2y ago

> More scientifically, what is long covid? Is that how viruses work? I guess the idea is that the virus is hiding out somewhere in the body where the immune system and doctors can’t find it…? This is a big open question. Viruses absolutely can hang around for decades with the immune system unable to remove it (see for example shingles). It could also be damage done during infection that the body just isn't fully able to repair. Or it could be phycological (we can't rule it out), or some other not yet understood mechanism.