Coronavirus and You - Page 671

On December 13 2022 18:45 Razyda wrote:


This is really nice study, thank you for the link. I really like inclusion of control group and sheer amount of various tests they made there.

Bolded: I actually think it was correct of them. All those symptoms are attributed to long covid and authors weren't looking at particular symptoms, but at long covid as a whole.

On December 14 2022 04:14 Magic Powers wrote:
There are many people who have to live with long covid symptoms (the best current estimate is 30% of recovered) and many of them aren't getting the help they need. They need a way to get through the tough times until they regain their full health. Even less impactful symptoms can significantly impact someone's ability to get through the day. Being stringent with the list of symptoms, when we haven't yet figured out what belongs on the list, doesn't help people very much, but it sure does quite the opposite.
Symptoms vary right now, and they may become even more variable in the future as the infection changes. This is one of a number of reasons why casting a wide net is good. Mistakes will be made either way, and especially right now it's more productive to err on the side of the sick.

Long covid can also not be understood as a one-dimensional list of symptoms. Physical or mental activity for example may worsen someone's condition. So it may seem people are quite healthy when relaxing, but then they come down hard when they're put under stress. This can also make it seem to an observer that someone is "simulating". Such things make it even harder to determine what exactly constitutes a long covid symptom, and it's all the more important to not be dismissive. In the worst case people might even dismiss their own symptoms.

"Symptoms of Long COVID often come in waves or “episodes” that can last for days or months before reducing again. Patients regularly report that if they are too physically or mentally active, it causes them to “crash” which is characterized by extreme fatigue and a worsening of many of their symptoms simultaneously."

"As mentioned earlier, many patients have had trouble getting medical professionals to believe them, or they have been dismissed as mentally ill."

https://cornerstonephysio.com/resources/long-covid/

If even medical professionals dismiss people with long covid, imagine how difficult it'll be to get credit from non-experts. Those who don't have long covid have it easy ignoring the issue. But their mind will change if they don't get health coverage or they have to jump through many unnecessary hoops to get coverage.

My dad has recovered from covid four times, and he's a strict anti-vaxxer. In a recent phone call he told me that he sometimes gets dizzy when he gets up after sitting for a while, and it's apparently happening more often these days. I don't know if this is from covid or otherwise, but if he slips through the cracks of the system it could become a serious problem, because he's not getting any fitter or younger, and he doesn't have a lot of money. Frequently recovering from covid doesn't give us powers, if anything we should expect it to chip away at our defenses.

Findings In this cohort study of 1000 US adults with symptomatic illness, poor well-being scores at follow-up were common in both those who tested positive and negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Despite some improvements over time, 39.6% of COVID-19–positive and 53.5% of COVID-19–negative patients reported residual symptoms.

On December 15 2022 09:15 ChristianS wrote:
Alternatively, maybe we’ve all been under-rating the damage being done by other diseases’ sequelae, because they’re confusing and we’re bad at calibrating our sense of low-probability risks. My not-remotely-quantitative impression is that Covid sequelae really are more severe and common (haven’t heard anything post-flu as much as I’ve heard people missing smell or taste for months), but also, I think some of the semi-rare long-term effects of the flu really are pretty gnarly.

On December 15 2022 09:15 ChristianS wrote:
Alternatively, maybe we’ve all been under-rating the damage being done by other diseases’ sequelae, because they’re confusing and we’re bad at calibrating our sense of low-probability risks. My not-remotely-quantitative impression is that Covid sequelae really are more severe and common (haven’t heard anything post-flu as much as I’ve heard people missing smell or taste for months), but also, I think some of the semi-rare long-term effects of the flu really are pretty gnarly.

On December 16 2022 03:39 castleeMg wrote:
LOL I guess I’m an anomaly, I do a lot of driving and I have a nice driving record, I’m a big fan of the seatbelt too. Hopefully my rates don’t go up because that would be pretty discriminatory wouldn’t it?

On December 16 2022 04:35 JimmiC wrote:

Not if there is massive data to support it. I think if a life, health insurer wanted to add a rating they could, and I do not think there would be much blowback, or at least the blowback would be from the people they do not want to insure at their best rates. I think it would be a hard sell for an auto insurance company to do. Maybe a discount for those who did vaccinate??? Before an auto insurance company did it they would likely need a lot more specific studies like this. The health and life can use it with all the other data that is out there on vaccination to just further their case.

I do not think either is imminent though, insurance companies are not known for moving fast or taking any sorts of risk. This study is mostly just something to file in the old "isn't that interesting but there is not much to be done with it" file.

On December 16 2022 03:24 JimmiC wrote:
There is a study out that shows that vaccine hesitsitant individuals are more likely to be in car accidents. I had mentioned earlier that an actuary had told me that vaccine hesitant people die of all sorts of things more often because they do not follow the advice of health professionals. This goes even further to show that this group also likely does not follow traffic rules and I would say likely do not follow all sorts of expert advice and societal rules. I expect more and more data and studies like this to follow.

More and more evidence could cause insurers to add ratings on unvaccinated individuals. Yes those unvaccinated people would go elsewhere, but that would still be better for the company as the people they have would live longer with less health challenges and it would be good for the peoole they have because they would not be supporting those making less optimal choices. Smoker ratings and all sorts of others are already common place.

The disapointing part is I do not think this is helpful in converting the vaccine hesitant people.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9345291/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-ontario-crashes/