Not to mention the question of long Covid, which the government seems to work very hard at pretending isn't a thing.In any case, you have to be pretty ill to be admitted to hospital so there will be a lot of people feeling rough or very rough, and possibly continuing to feel too rough to go into work for a long time after they are infectious. Deaths + hospitalisations don't measure everything that matters.
Just to say in case it wasn't clear I'm not defending what's happening or ignoring all the other fallout, I was just answering the question of why the current situation isn't generating dramatic headlines.Deaths + hospitalisations don't measure everything that matters.
Just to say in case it wasn't clear I'm not defending what's happening or ignoring all the other fallout, I was just answering the question of why the current situation isn't generating dramatic headlines.
That deaths figure is a Monday figure which is always low because of patchy reporting at the weekends. I guarantee this afternoon's figure will be much higher as it catches up, same as every Tuesday. The average number of deaths over the last week is 124 per day; equivalent to 45,260 deaths in a year. As cases increase, I expect the number of people dying will increase too.Because hospitalisations/deaths remain relatively low?
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I know three people who has covid real bad and still suffer from long covid. None were hospitalised even with severe breathing difficulties. Not a great metric for determining how bad the pandemic is/was.
With the significant increase of positive cases we've seen recently I find it very hard to believe this won't be filtering through to the more vulnerable groups for the next few weeks.
It just seems to be swirling all around us.
I get an interesting perspective on the impact of COVID from the kabbess, which is a perspective I’ve just not really heard from elsewhere. She’s currently doing a Masters in regenerative medicine and her main focus of interest generally is cellular damage. She says that the whole understanding that people generally have of what an illness is and what it does to the body is just not really right. People view it as something that turns up as discrete little invaders and then the body fights off those invaders and everything goes back to normal. But that isn’t really a suitable metaphor.
So here’s the bit where I’m out of my depth and attempt to explain what she tells me as if I understand it. So you get the information filtered through my brain, for which I apologise.
Viruses get into cells and even if the virus is fought off, those cells are getting damaged. Damaged in problematic, DNA-altering ways. Damaged cells can become senescent, which means they aren’t working properly any more but they also don’t self-destruct, like normal cells that reach the end of their life. So they sit there, signalling in ways that causes problems and may well cause surrounding cells to become senescent. Effectively, it’s like those cells have aged. So you end up with cells that are kind of “older”, which makes you as an organism effectively “older” too. The problems that accumulate are kind of like the problems of old age. The more this happens — the more you get infected with viruses — the more these problems accumulate.
Furthermore, to create antibodies, the body needs to activate stem cells. These only have a limited number of uses. So every time you have to fight off an infection, you are slightly using up your ability to fight infections. I have to admit that my understanding kind of runs out at this point, but I am left distinctly feeling like you don’t want to have to keep on fighting off infections.
What all this means is that you can’t view yourself like a fortress that just fights off invaders and goes on undamaged. Every fight takes its toll. In a way, every disease has its “long” effect. COVID just seems to be one for which that cellular damage is particularly systematic and extensive. It’s not so much that you “get” something called “long COVID”, it’s more that something like COVID is an extreme example of viral damage. And that means that it isn’t really a question of whether or not long COVID ‘exists’. To ask whether it exists is to view reality in the wrong paradigm. It always does damage, the question is only how much damage it has done and what impact that damage has for that individual both in the short and long term.
My apologies to those who have actual medical knowledge, who might be wincing at some of the way I have put things. I think it’s important, though. It certainly changes my perspective on diseases. It means you can’t be cavalier about disease, ever. Treat your body as if it is the only one you have and it can’t infinitely repair, basically.
The human genome contains billions of pieces of information and around 22,000 genes, but not all of it is, strictly speaking, human. Eight percent of our DNA consists of remnants of ancient viruses, and another 40 percent is made up of repetitive strings of genetic letters that is also thought to have a viral origin. Those extensive viral regions are much more than evolutionary relics: They may be deeply involved with a wide range of diseases including multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), along with certain types of dementia and cancer.
thanks for thisI get an interesting perspective on the impact of COVID from the kabbess, which is a perspective I’ve just not really heard from elsewhere. She’s currently doing a Masters in regenerative medicine and her main focus of interest generally is cellular damage. She says that the whole understanding that people generally have of what an illness is and what it does to the body is just not really right. People view it as something that turns up as discrete little invaders and then the body fights off those invaders and everything goes back to normal. But that isn’t really a suitable metaphor.
So here’s the bit where I’m out of my depth and attempt to explain what she tells me as if I understand it. So you get the information filtered through my brain, for which I apologise.
Viruses get into cells and even if the virus is fought off, those cells are getting damaged. Damaged in problematic, DNA-altering ways. Damaged cells can become senescent, which means they aren’t working properly any more but they also don’t self-destruct, like normal cells that reach the end of their life. So they sit there, signalling in ways that causes problems and may well cause surrounding cells to become senescent. Effectively, it’s like those cells have aged. So you end up with cells that are kind of “older”, which makes you as an organism effectively “older” too. The problems that accumulate are kind of like the problems of old age. The more this happens — the more you get infected with viruses — the more these problems accumulate.
Furthermore, to create antibodies, the body needs to activate stem cells. These only have a limited number of uses. So every time you have to fight off an infection, you are slightly using up your ability to fight infections. I have to admit that my understanding kind of runs out at this point, but I am left distinctly feeling like you don’t want to have to keep on fighting off infections.
What all this means is that you can’t view yourself like a fortress that just fights off invaders and goes on undamaged. Every fight takes its toll. In a way, every disease has its “long” effect. COVID just seems to be one for which that cellular damage is particularly systematic and extensive. It’s not so much that you “get” something called “long COVID”, it’s more that something like COVID is an extreme example of viral damage. And that means that it isn’t really a question of whether or not long COVID ‘exists’. To ask whether it exists is to view reality in the wrong paradigm. It always does damage, the question is only how much damage it has done and what impact that damage has for that individual both in the short and long term.
My apologies to those who have actual medical knowledge, who might be wincing at some of the way I have put things. I think it’s important, though. It certainly changes my perspective on diseases. It means you can’t be cavalier about disease, ever. Treat your body as if it is the only one you have and it can’t infinitely repair, basically.
thanks for this
Yes makes perfect sense to me...when i was in the depths of Covid, say two, three months in, my hair started going grey, and fast! i felt 85 years old (am 46).
I just hope that i am young enough that i can regenerate those cells over time. 7 years to replace all cells isnt it? Does it work that way?
TBH i dont want to know any bad new saying it isnt as its important part of my recovery to try and get back in youthful ways - really hope this isnt permanent in any way. I seem to be in continuous if not linear improvement so remain hopeful
thanks a lot, ill be fine - already doing loads better... lots of people suffering a lot worse than meRooting for you, fwiw.
thanks a lot, ill be fine - already doing loads better... lots of people suffering a lot worse than me
Does anybody know, what happens to tourists / visitors to the UK if they get a positive test result whilst they are here or just before they intend to fly home?
I'm curious because of what's happening to my friend, currently incarcerated in a quarantine facility in Spain, which is not at all pleasant but is free.
All i can find online is the government website which sends people here, to book and pay their 2 grand, but thats just for if you are coming in from a red list country, what if you catch it whilst visiting.
thanks for this
Yes makes perfect sense to me...when i was in the depths of Covid, say two, three months in, my hair started going grey, and fast! i felt 85 years old (am 46).
I just hope that i am young enough that i can regenerate those cells over time. 7 years to replace all cells isnt it? Does it work that way?
TBH i dont want to know any bad new saying it isnt as its important part of my recovery to try and get back in youthful ways - really hope this isnt permanent in any way. I seem to be in continuous if not linear improvement so remain hopeful
sounds totally possible to meI wonder if in a dystopian future giant air sanitisers will analyse the chance of us getting an air born virus on your morning commute and broadcast it like the pollen index.
Or covid clothes/virus vests/morbid masks that change colour in the presence of a pathogen. Run away quick if it's you that's wearing them, or immediate sheep dip for anyone else.I wonder if in a dystopian future giant air sanitisers will analyse the chance of us getting an air born virus on your morning commute and broadcast it like the pollen index.