This articles style of writing is so infuriaring. Mask wearing is the best thing everyone can do to protect themselves and those around them. It is proven that it works and works best when a) everyone is doing it b) everyone is doing it all the time, not just when there is a surge.
It is not fearful to do the best things you can to protect yourself. It requires courage to go against the conformism and the peer pressure to reinfect yourself over and over again.
There is nothing fearful about seeing the science about covid and long covid and doing the logical thing. It is being rational.
I have gotten it once, a year ago. Had a relatively mild acute phase of the infection. Still have not recovered. And I will keep doing my best in order to not get it again.
I am not afraid. I am angry that the world has decided to abandon those that are disabled, immunocompromised, and those with long covid.
I have had COVID at least 3 times (I'm an advocate masks, but I live where masks are not a pop6choice,) and I swear my brain function has plummeted since my first infection. I feel so dumb at times because my memory has went to shit, I can't think of simple words, comprehend simple questions or solve simple problems. It's like having writers block but it affects all my thinking abilities.
My dad is anti-mask and his mental function has suffered greatly. During his first infection, he would ask the same question multiple times in a single conversation, and although he's better now, he's not the same as he was.
My symptoms during consequent infections after the first were not bad, in fact I wouldn't have guessed I was sick at all the 2nd or 3rd time, so I have no idea if I've had it more...
As someone currently in the throes of their second bout of covid, I can confirm it definitely still sucks and sucks hard. Throat is better today, cough is worse, sinus problems are back but no fever. I got lucky last time so let's see how the dice fall this time.
Just as a reminder to people if you are feeling ill, don't fucking come into work, please.
Just as a reminder to people if you are feeling ill, don’t fucking come into work, please.
Fucking boomers that legitimately love in person. Had one coworker that had covid and was back in office 1 week after saying they had it. I immediately turned around and went home, telling my team I felt ill out of nowhere. So fucking selfish.
To be fair CDC recommends 7 days after onset of symptoms.
At least 7 days have passed since symptoms first appeared if a negative viral test* is obtained within 48 hours prior to returning to work (or 10 days if testing is not performed or if a positive test at day 5-7)
Recent findings involve research with the endoplasmic reticulum that appears to go off the rails when over-stressed breaking the mitochondria within a cell robbing it of ATP production and increasing lactate (related to metabolic acidosis) in the body:
My current reasoning is somehow to recover you've got to pace yourself just enough to encourage new mitochondria to form, but
not so much that you experience PEM/crashing. The ME/CFS people have been discussing pacing for years. So:
Fail With
staying in bed for weeks doing as little as possible (a very slow success?-- mitochondria aren't encouraged to form)
trying to train it away with exercise/exertion (a quick fail-- the stressed ER will break mitochondria and flood body with lactate and set you back with a slew of acidosis-caused symptoms that will take time for the body to resolve. e.g. kidneys excreting the acid, COVID diabetes from gluconeogensis of lactate into glucose in order to raise the body's pH away from acidosis)
I am prescribed high dose creatine and CoQ10 to support ATP production in mitochondria by my physician who studies ME/CFS. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than I was before. And it's a very safe regimen to recommend.
I'm having it for the first time. Fully vaccinated, on day 5 of miserable. Worst store throat of my life that transitioned into sinus congestion. I can't imagine what it would have been like if it chose to go down to my lungs instead.
Because I'm 51 with a history of asthma I was able to start antivirals. Paxlovid mouth is brutal, but since I've also lost taste and smell, I'm getting used to it. While I understand why some people give up on the meds because of the taste, I'd rather suffer through that than risk worsening illness. I've found holding small pieces of taffy on my tongue to slowly suck on has been the best relief.
I work in healthcare and have always been conscious of protecting myself, but had a normal human moment last week and went to a concert unmasked. Be careful out there.