My Covid Adventure

 

In early December, I got Covid – the Wuhan Flu, ChiCom Fever. This is the disease that has California and New York locked down. The one that has us cowering in fear. (That’s not a joke. I have several otherwise-sane friends, who are locking themselves in the house, venturing out only when they have to. Two are MENSA members.)

What was it like? Are you ready?

It was like having a chest cold. Not even a severe chest cold – a mild chest cold. That was it.

I am 65 years old. I have controlled hypertension. I am 75 to 85 pounds overweight, depending on how you define my ideal weight. I have allergies that affect my respiratory system. I get occasional asthma. All co-morbidities. It was a mild chest cold.

Do you want to see me at my worst during the disease? (Or pretty close to it?) Look at David March’s podcast The Historians Give their Two Cents. That’s me on the left. I was well into it then.

I had a mild sore throat for the first couple of days. Then a little bit of chest congestion – a very little bit. I was a little more tired than usual, but that was due to insomnia rather than Covid. (Mainly due to worry and frustration. I sleep poorly if I let myself get wound up.)

The day job is as a tech writer. I am also a freelance author, and I have another part-time consulting gig I do a couple of hours a day. I had just started a new short-term tech writing gig that runs through mid-January and I have a book on deadline. (I always have a book on deadline.) So I worked 10- to 14-hour days throughout the period I had Covid. I had no trouble working those hours. It was all work from home so I did not have to go anywhere. Just sit at my computer and write.

I cannot write if my mind is foggy due to illness. I was writing at least 10 hours each day. I had no problem banging out words on my book and no problem working 8 hours Monday through Friday doing some finicky editing of a complex technical document. Covid was no more than an inconvenience. (In some ways it was a benefit because I was forced to stay home and work.)

I know I had Covid. An adult nephew, who lives in my house, got it. He had just started a new job. He thinks he may have picked it up at the clinic where he had to go for his pre-job physical (or possibly at his workplace). He lost his sense of taste and smell on December 7, so he got tested. His results came back positive. Three days later, I developed a mild sore throat. (You know how your throat feels the day after you go to an exciting football game and spend most of it loudly cheering on your team? It felt like that.) So I got tested.

I have a certificate that says I tested positive for Covid. The County Health Department called me to tell me not to leave the house for ten days following my first symptom. So, yeah, I had it.

My nephew had a worse case than I did. He is in his twenties. He says his case was equivalent to a mild case of the flu. I had loose stools; he had full-on diarrhea. His case lasted about ten days. I had symptoms last six, maybe seven days. His case was much milder than the norovirus he contracted two years earlier.

Why was I stressed out and losing sleep? Because I had Covid. Because relatives were afraid I was going to be very ill and half my friends seemed to be measuring me for my coffin. My nephew was behaving as if he had given me the Black Death and was guilt-tripping over potentially having given me a fatal disease.

I was worried. I had been told it was a very serious disease for people my age and with my health conditions. I kept waiting for it to get worse. Even though it was not severe, I had been warned since March it had the potential to very suddenly turn very, very bad.

It never got worse. The mountain gave birth to a mouse.

So here is a question: was I lucky or typical?

If I was lucky it is the first time in my life. Luck never breaks my way. Plus there was my nephew’s mild experience. A son got it last December (2019), and had the same symptoms as my nephew, except it was more like full-blown, but typical flu. In November a niece got it, as did her husband, child, mother, and stepfather. Everyone except her mother got cases that were mild to medium. Her mother had a more severe case, requiring a trip to the ER and being released later that day. Ricochet’s Doctor Robert wrote about his experience. It was not that bad.

If my nephew had not lost his sense of taste and smell he would not have gotten tested. He thought what he had was allergies. If he had not tested positive I would not have gotten tested, and never realized I had the dread killer Covid.

I suspect I am more typical than lucky. Those who get mild cases often do not get recorded. Even if they do, those cases never headline the news articles about Covid, the only add to the shrieking case count numbers.

Yes, we may have had 300,000 Covid deaths. That is still less than one-tenth of one percent of the US population. More, overall morbidity with Covid is less than 1 percent for those that get it. The deaths are clustered in the elderly (over half of those who died from it are over 75) and the infirm (the vast majority of those under 75 who have died of it had life-threatening health conditions.)

I’d like to expand on the chest cold theme I raised earlier. People die from chest colds. The elderly and infirm contract chest colds which develop into pneumonia, and then they die from pneumonia. The profile of those who die from chest colds seems pretty similar to those that die from Covid, it seems to me.

What if Covid is the functional equivalent of a chest cold? What if its behavior is highly similar? Covid mutates. So do colds. Both are viruses. Both spread the same way. Neither Covid nor colds have high mortality rates. Do you know what is more likely to kill you than Covid if you are under 50? Going to work each day if you are a logger, a professional fisherman, an oilfield worker, or a long-haul trucker.

We have been trying to find a cure for the common cold for at least 150 years, including attempting to develop a vaccination. We have not succeeded so far. What if we are as successful in finding a way to control Covid? Would that be surprising?

Do we remain in hiding and locked down if that happens? Can we? If we lock down for Covid shouldn’t we lockdown during the cold season? The two seem very little different if you ignore the names given to each disease. The lockdowns, social distancing, and masks appear to be taking a greater toll than Covid.

I really believe a lot of the fear about Covid boils down to superstition. Some examples:

I have had Covid. I recovered from it. According to what we know about the disease, once you have had it you cannot catch it and cannot pass it on.

Do I need to wear a mask? According to my county health department I do. Why? They said it was so I will not pass on to others a disease that I already have had and cannot pass on and so that I will not catch a disease I already had and cannot catch from others. Because Science!

Do I need to get vaccinated? According to my county health department I do. Why? They said it was so the vaccination will train my immune system to resist a disease my immune system resisted before getting immunized. Because Science!

That is not science. It is superstition. It is endowing science with magical powers. Superstition is defined as excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings. We are treating Covid, masks, and immunization as supernatural beings, with powers beyond natural forces.

Immunizations train your immune system to resist a disease. So does getting the disease and recovering from it. The immunization is intended to substitute for getting the disease. If getting the disease and recovering from it doesn’t make you immune an immunization won’t. All an immunization does is trick your immune system into believing you had the disease. You endow a vaccine with magical power if you believe otherwise.

Throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder will be as effective in preventing a reoccurrence of Covid as getting an immunization from a vaccine developed before you got Covid. You already have an immunization for a version of Covid more recent than that for which the immunization protects you. The vaccine is protecting you from an earlier strain of the virus. It is the same reason this year’s flu shot protects you from last year’s flu and not this year’s. It was developed from the previous year’s strain.

I am not against vaccination. I have favorably reviewed books arguing against avoiding vaccination. I was planning to get immunized before I got Covid. However, someone needs to give me a scientific, rather than a faith-based reason, for me to get the current Covid immunization. Explain how it is supposed to provide better protection than my own immune system has already provided.

Moreover – at least for me – Covid wasn’t a serious disease. It did not endanger my health any more than the colds I have suffered previously. Why should I even worry about a reoccurrence of a strain for which the current vaccine protects me from?

We need to stop treating this disease with superstitious dread. Or it will kill us all. It will scare us to death. And we will deserve to die.

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  1. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Is it the Black Death ? Nope.

    Is it just the Flu Bro ? Nope.

    We are seeing about 10 times the number of deaths from this then we see in the worst flu seasons.

    @kozak, copy all. Now…

    Filter for people over 75 years of age. Then

    Filter for people with comorbidities. Then

    Filter for geriatric people with comorbidities. Then

    Throw in a filter (how extensive is hard to guesstimate) for all of those listed as dying of COVID because they died with COVID. Dr. Birx, she of Thanksgiving Day house winterizations, admitted that that was the CDC standard. Plus, I’ve seen too many reports, here in FL, of people who died in motorcycle accidents or of GSWs being listed as COVID deaths.

    So, sorry for thinking this is a tempest in a teacup.

    Sure thing

    About 50% of deaths under 75.

    Majority of ICU admission.

    Majority of hospitalizations.

    Everything is worse with comorbidity.  So what? Are those fat people or hypertensive people any less dead? 

    The “died with covid”  is just nonsense.

     

    • #61
  2. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Kozak (View Comment):

    e thing

    About 50% of deaths under 75.

    Majority of ICU admission.

    Majority of hospitalizations.

    Everything is worse with comorbidity. So what? Are those fat people or hypertensive people any less dead? 

    The “died with covid” is just nonsense.

    It’s unclear what’s represented on the Y axis. Number of what?  Where? Over what period of time?

    • #62
  3. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    Okay, ready? Here we go: It’s a tempest in a teacup.

    Shame on you.

    Over 300,000 Americans are dead from it.  With thousands more dying every day.

    I just don’t get it.  

    I’m done.

    • #63
  4. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    Okay, ready? Here we go: It’s a tempest in a teacup.

    Shame on you.

    Over 300,000 Americans are dead from it. With thousands more dying every day.

    I just don’t get it.

    I’m done.

    It’s a big deal if the number of deaths is 10-12 percent higher this year, which is about where this puts us.  Or if covid killed about 0.1 percent of the population, if my math is right. Nothing to sneeze at, and certainly worthy of special measures. 

    It’s not as big a deal as if we had 50 percent more deaths than usual this year. Or if 0.65 percent of the population was killed by influenza, as happened in the 1918-1919 pandemic.

    Just what the cutoff is for tempest-in-a-teacup status will probably vary from person to person.

    • #64
  5. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    @larry3435, @kozak:  Look, I don’t mean to sound flip.  I know on these here inter webs the voice in my head narrating is not the same as the voice in yours reciting what you read.

    Should I have more empathy and sympathy for those who die COVID than  of lockdown/unemployment motivated opioid addiction?  Than suicide born of depression and despair?  Than cancer in all of its forms because people either couldn’t be seen by their docs, or because they were too scared to go in to get screened/examined/treated after watching the MSM?  

    What about those who, unlike their government health administrators and politicians, don’t get paid if they don’t work?  I’m supposed to write them off?  “Sorry, pal.  I know you worked your whole life to establish this garage/restaurant/Mom & Pop store.  But because we politicians are blatantly incompetent and thus unable to perform a Public Health analysis and develop meaningful courses of action that protect our most vulnerable, you’ve got to suck it up and lose everything.”

    Kozak, you’ve posted that graph before, but it’s not filtered out, and it’s not resolved against the flu.  You point out that fully have of COVID deaths were people under 75.  Tracking.  But that means that half were over that age.  To me, that statistic is an object example that we misaligned our time, resources and energy and didn’t protect our most vulnerable.  

    Does Fauci, who just turned 80, believe his own BS?  I say no, after the first pitch/in the stands compare and contrast.  Don’t even get me started on his “noble lies” about mask wearing and herd immunity.  That’s a guy I would, personally and literally, tar and feather.  

    Same with Birx, with her Thanksgiving winterizing of the house.  The list of leaders who committed flagrant and profligate violations of their own rules is long, indeed.  

    Do they believe their own propaganda?  Or are they immune from the ravages of COVID on account of they are the anointed?

    The health of the American public is not truly the goal of their lockdowns and mitigation strategies.  Don’t know what their goal is, but it is not the health and welfare of my family and me.

    Finally, if I’m so wrong, how come NY and CA’s numbers are worse than Florida’s?

    • #65
  6. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    e thing

    About 50% of deaths under 75.

    Majority of ICU admission.

    Majority of hospitalizations.

    Everything is worse with comorbidity. So what? Are those fat people or hypertensive people any less dead?

    The “died with covid” is just nonsense.

    It’s unclear what’s represented on the Y axis. Number of what? Where? Over what period of time?

    I have no idea what that graph represents or where it came from. It has no attribution, scale, or any way to verify its validity. The CDC’s own numbers show that 80.8% of Covid deaths are people age 65 and over. CDC COVID Data Tracker

    • #66
  7. JustmeinAZ Member
    JustmeinAZ
    @JustmeinAZ

    OldPhil (View Comment):
    I have no idea what that graph represents or where it came from. It has no attribution, scale, or any way to verify its validity. The CDC’s own numbers show that 80.8% of Covid deaths are people age 65 and over. CDC COVID Data Tracker

    Exactly. These are the people who should be protected and to take responsibility for protecting themselves if they are able. Should millions of lives be ruined and the entire economy of a nation be shut down to try and protect the 60K  under 65 who have died? The “experts” have terrified the nation to the extent that people who are at low risk think they will get the Black Death if they leave the house. A good portion of school age children are being traumatized. This is just criminal.

    • #67
  8. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    I am 65 years old. I have controlled hypertension. I am 75 to 85 pounds overweight

    Back in August I invited some people to an event. Hardly anyone showed up. One person was probably quite similar — about 65 years old and maybe even more overweight. He said he already had had the virus and survived as he thought it was no big deal. However, his relative who was maybe older with perhaps some medical problems sort of refused to go to the doctor and didn’t make it.

    Last month, I was at  area sort of on the edge of the Ozarks. I talked to a guy at a house. Apparently a lot of the people who live in this community are older. SNIP The person starts telling me that the person who lived in this neighboring house died, one of the people who lived in this neighboring house died, etc.

    If the relatives and friends of the people who had died over these months understood what is really going on, they might get angrier at our officials than at some schmuck out in public who due to high blood pressure is not wearing a mask.

    Why do I say this? Because of the data physicians like Dr Zev has disseminated. While so many have died of COVID, Dr Zev of upstate New York has published his data on all the cases he has treated. His cases were primarily of senior citizens, and he  administered the HCQ protocol. Back in the Spring, he had treated 400 COVID patients in that elderly age range and only 4 died. Meanwhile the cases who had the misfortune to end up at NYC hospitals ended up on ventilators, and the overall fatality rate was 6%.

    If this was highlighted night and day across the Mainstream Media, people might wake up that we are being played. HCQ protocol is one of five treatments known to work, yet our governing “health experts” have decided that we should all await the vaccine.

    The scenario is so similar to what Fauci did back in the late 1980’s to the 17,000 AIDS patients who might have survived if he had allowed for the approval of bactrim, a  cheap antibiotic. But then as now he was so insistent on the “Gold Standard,” which I believe reflects on the gold he receives for helping Big Pharma/Bill Gates out in this manner. That Gold Standard for AIDS – AZT – took over 15 months to develop. It was expensive. Bactrim had been cheap and available.

    The big difference between then and now is several years ago, Congress had already approved of having a drug that is used for one purpose to be fast tracked for another purpose. HCQ is used widely by both arthritis and lupus patients – and is so trusted that doctors offer up enough of the meds that many such patients have stockpiled it. But for some reason Fauci won’t push for its approval?

    • #68
  9. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    Okay, ready? Here we go: It’s a tempest in a teacup.

    Shame on you.

    Over 300,000 Americans are dead from it. With thousands more dying every day.

    I just don’t get it.

    I’m done.

    You’re done? If only.

    Look, we understand this is an extremely dangerous disease for an extremely small portion of the population. We get that.

    At the same time we understand brush fires are extremely dangerous to those that live in California’s chaparral country. All you had to do was look at what the fires did to homes there to understand how dangerous they are. But to insist that people living in the Texas Coastal Plain take the same precautions in protecting their houses from chaparral fires as those in California’s chaparral country because of the dangers they pose there is just plain silly. Especially if some of those preparations are contraindicated for hurricane protection when hurricanes are a real problem in the Texas Coastal Plain.

    Similarly, insisting those in their 20s and 30s take the same precautions against Covid as those in their 70s, 80s, and 90s is equally silly. You are more likely to die going to work each day if you are a 20-something Texas oilfield worker as you are to die by catching Covid. They don’t need to social distance and they don’t need to wear masks because the risks to them from contracting Covid are so low.  Wearing masks and social distancing while an oil rig worker is on the job increases their risks of occupational injury through reducing oxygen levels and making it more difficult to communicate.

    One size does not fit all. Common sense works. Shutting down restaurants and bars doesn’t slow the spread of Covid. It may even increase it if California and New York numbers are compared to those of Florida.

    Do we want herd immunity? Let the healthy 20-somethings and 30-somethings go to bars and restaurants and get the typically mild cases they get. Stop terrorizing schoolkids by telling them Covid poses a threat to them. It simply doesn’t. More teens have died of suicide than Covid this year. (That doesn’t mean teen suicide rates have necessarily risen. They might be the same as last year. In which case my point about Covid posing a trivial risk to teens is underscored.)

    It’s not a Big Bad Wolf, except to the infirm and the extremely elderly. It is not a magic virus that has powers beyond those of typical viruses. Even for overweight, out-of-shape, hypertensive 65-year-old males like me it is not a serious disease.

    Stop scaring people by exaggerating its dangers. Because the most valuable thing public health officials own is their credibility.  And over the the last nine months they have been pouring gasoline over their credibility and are lighting up matches like stoned groupies at a rock concert.

    Some day the Big Bad Virus Wolf will come calling – and although people should listen then – no one will because doomsayers burned down the credibility of America’s public health establishment during 2020.

    • #69
  10. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    This was never reported by the liberal media, and seems to be forgotten today, but here’s a radio interview from late March with Dr. Anthony Fauci:

    CHRIS STIGALL:If you’re a doctor listening to me right now and a patient with coronavirus feels like they want to try [Chloroquine] and you’re their doctor, you’re not Anthony Fauci the guy running the coronavirus task force, would you say ‘alright, we’ll give it a whirl’?

    DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Yeah, of course, particularly if people have no other option. You want to give them hope. In fact, for physicians in this country, these drugs are approved drugs for other reasons. They’re anti-malaria drugs and they’re drugs against certain autoimmune diseases, like lupus. Physicians throughout the country can prescribe that in an off-label way. Which means they can write it for something it was not originally approved for. People do that all the time, and it really is an individual choice between the physician and his or her patient as to whether or not they want to do that.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/25/dr-anthony-fauci-of-course-i-would-prescribe-chloroquine-to-coronavirus-patients/

     

     

    • #70
  11. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    At the same time we understand brush fires are extremely dangerous to those that live in California’s chaparral country.

    I’m just about convinced that ‘chaparral’ is Spanish for ‘kindling.’

    • #71
  12. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Percival (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    At the same time we understand brush fires are extremely dangerous to those that live in California’s chaparral country.

    I’m just about convinced that ‘chaparral’ is Spanish for ‘kindling.’

    Well, yes. Chaparral is plant life that protects itself from water loss by impregnating its leaves with creosote and turpentine. It’s like dipping the branch in kerosene. All you need is a lightning strike. 

    • #72
  13. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Stop scaring people by exaggerating its dangers. Because the most valuable thing public health officials own is their credibility. And over the the last nine months they have been pouring gasoline over their credibility and are lighting up matches like stoned groupies at a rock concert.

    Some day the Big Bad Virus Wolf will come calling – and although people should listen then – no one will because doomsayers burned down the credibility of America’s public health establishment during 2020.

    I just thought this was worth repeating.

    • #73
  14. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker (View Comment):

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    I am 65 years old. I have controlled hypertension. I am 75 to 85 pounds overweight

    Back in August I invited some people to an event. Hardly anyone showed up. One person was probably quite similar — about 65 years old and maybe even more overweight. He said he already had had the virus and survived as he thought it was no big deal. However, his relative who was maybe older with perhaps some medical problems sort of refused to go to the doctor and didn’t make it.

    Last month, I was at area sort of on the edge of the Ozarks. I talked to a guy at a house. Apparently a lot of the people who live in this community are older. SNIP The person starts telling me that the person who lived in this neighboring house died, one of the people who lived in this neighboring house died, etc.

    If the relatives and friends of the people who had died over these months understood what is really going on, they might get angrier at our officials than at some schmuck out in public who due to high blood pressure is not wearing a mask.

    Why do I say this? Because of the data physicians like Dr Zev has disseminated. While so many have died of COVID, Dr Zev of upstate New York has published his data on all the cases he has treated. His cases were primarily of senior citizens, and he administered the HCQ protocol. Back in the Spring, he had treated 400 COVID patients in that elderly age range and only 4 died. Meanwhile the cases who had the misfortune to end up at NYC hospitals ended up on ventilators, and the overall fatality rate was 6%.

    If this was highlighted night and day across the Mainstream Media, people might wake up that we are being played. HCQ protocol is one of five treatments known to work, yet our governing “health experts” have decided that we should all await the vaccine.

    The scenario is so similar to what Fauci did back in the late 1980’s to the 17,000 AIDS patients who might have survived if he had allowed for the approval of bactrim, a cheap antibiotic. But then as now he was so insistent on the “Gold Standard,” which I believe reflects on the gold he receives for helping Big Pharma/Bill Gates out in this manner. That Gold Standard for AIDS – AZT – took over 15 months to develop. It was expensive. Bactrim had been cheap and available.

    The big difference between then and now is several years ago, Congress had already approved of having a drug that is used for one purpose to be fast tracked for another purpose. HCQ is used widely by both arthritis and lupus patients – and is so trusted that doctors offer up enough of the meds that many such patients have stockpiled it. But for some reason Fauci won’t push for its approval?

    Dr Zev is a quack- his own community wants him gone-they loudly say he has over estimated the number of cases in his community by a huge amount-notice that he has left his practice.

    • #74
  15. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    1)Yup- its just the flu- with 5x+ as many deaths.

    2) Only kills the old- except for 41 year old congressman elect with no underlying health issues….

    3) Masks don’t work- except when they are used:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-was-consuming-india-until-nearly-everyone-started-wearing-masks-11609329603?mod=world_major_1_pos1

    4) HCQ works despite the data ……I know they did not use ZINC! or they didn’t use Vit C! or they didn’t use eye of newt or wing of bat…..

    • #75
  16. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MiMac (View Comment):

    1)Yup- its just the flu- with 5x+ as many deaths.

    2) Only kills the old- except for 41 year old congressman elect with no underlying health issues….

    3) Masks don’t work- except when they are used:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-was-consuming-india-until-nearly-everyone-started-wearing-masks-11609329603?mod=world_major_1_pos1

    4) HCQ works despite the data ……I know they did not use ZINC! or they didn’t use Vit C! or they didn’t use eye of newt or wing of bat…..

    Item 3 is a hate media article. It’s written by journalists. In it there is a link to a PNAS study, but it is about face mask mandates, not usage of face masks. There have been studies that have studied the actual usage; I’m not sure why people aren’t citing those instead.   This one is about one country, only, although to its credit it is a study of variation within the country. The only controls are “synthetic” controls.  I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.  The paper even takes seriously the PNAS article by Zhang, Li, Zhang, Wang, and Molina that was published earlier this year – the one that was like a kindergarten attempt at a scientific paper. It does refer to  some of its limitations, though, but why should this study even associate itself with that one, which had no redeeming value.

    Rule: Never get your information from journalists.  You didn’t get your M.D. by reading articles written by journalists. 

    Item 2 in your list is a strawman argument. 

    If your idea is to fight nonsense with nonsense, you should note it as such. (Can’t say I’ve never done that myself.)

     

    • #76
  17. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    The only controls are “synthetic” controls. I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.

    On second thought, I’m not sure I’ll bother. I doubt the FDA is going to allow “synthetic” controls for its vaccine tests anytime soon.

    • #77
  18. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    The only controls are “synthetic” controls. I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.

    On second thought, I’m not sure I’ll bother. I doubt the FDA is going to allow “synthetic” controls for its vaccine tests anytime soon.

    there are dozens and dozens of graphs available on ricochet that try to show masks don’t work which are just “synthetic” controls (actually comparisons with little to no controls)- as i have pointed out many times- so my post is no more nonsense than pages of such posts. Like Rush- pointing out absurdity by using (similar) absurdity.

    • #78
  19. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    MiMac (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    The only controls are “synthetic” controls. I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.

    On second thought, I’m not sure I’ll bother. I doubt the FDA is going to allow “synthetic” controls for its vaccine tests anytime soon.

    there are dozens and dozens of graphs available on ricochet that try to show masks don’t work which are just “synthetic” controls (actually comparisons with little to no controls)- as i have pointed out many times- so my post is no more nonsense than pages of such posts. Like Rush- pointing out absurdity by using (similar) absurdity.

    Speaking of absurdity, the 41-year-old man with no underlying health conditions had a heart attack following a surgical procedure.

    It seems that story isn’t as straightforward as the first press reports made it sound.

    • #79
  20. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MiMac (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    The only controls are “synthetic” controls. I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.

    On second thought, I’m not sure I’ll bother. I doubt the FDA is going to allow “synthetic” controls for its vaccine tests anytime soon.

    there are dozens and dozens of graphs available on ricochet that try to show masks don’t work which are just “synthetic” controls (actually comparisons with little to no controls)- as i have pointed out many times- so my post is no more nonsense than pages of such posts. Like Rush- pointing out absurdity by using (similar) absurdity.

    I won’t disagree with that.

    • #80
  21. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    Okay, ready? Here we go: It’s a tempest in a teacup.

    Shame on you.

    Over 300,000 Americans are dead from it.SNIP

    You’re done? If only.

    Look, we understand this is an extremely dangerous disease for an extremely small portion of the population. We get that.

    At the same time we understand brush fires are extremely dangerous to those that live in California’s chaparral country. All you had to do was look at what the fires did to homes there to understand how dangerous they are. SNIP

    Similarly, insisting those in their 20s and 30s take the same precautions against Covid as those in their 70s, 80s, and 90s is equally silly. You are more likely to die going to work each day if you are a 20-something Texas oilfield worker as you are to die by catching Covid. They don’t need to social distance & they don’t need to wear masks because risks to them from contracting Covid are so low. Wearing masks and social distancing while an oil rig worker is on the job increases their risks of occupational injury through reducing oxygen levels and making it more difficult to communicate.

    One size does not fit all. Common sense works. SNIP

    Do we want herd immunity? Let the healthy 20-somethings and 30-somethings go to bars and restaurants and get the typically mild cases they get. Stop terrorizing schoolkids by telling them Covid poses a threat to them. It simply doesn’t. More teens have died of suicide than Covid this year. SNIP

    It’s not a Big Bad Wolf, except to the infirm and the extremely elderly. SNIP

    …the most valuable thing public health officials own is their credibility. And over the the last nine months they have been pouring gasoline over their credibility SNIP

    Some day the Big Bad Virus Wolf will come calling – and although people should listen then – no one will because doomsayers burned down the credibility of America’s public health establishment during 2020.

    Excellent analogy.

    And here in the high risk wildfire region of Northern Calif, being told by authorities about the wolf one time too many has indeed led us to put down our guard.

    It takes one false cry  of wolf to lead to apathy. Especially if that one cry caused you to leave house and community to relocate, then wait with bated breath to be allowed to return, and come home to find out your home had been robbed. (Even a regional fire director ignores evacuation notices from suspect authorities right now.)

    The public at large is upset already with the draconian COVID restrictions that are mostly nonsensical. I have a few theories about how they will keep this going until 2023 or 2025, but they are only theories. If the public is not impeded by being impacted by some side effects of what may be planned for us, the public is going to all out rebel.

    • #81
  22. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    The only controls are “synthetic” controls. I need to learn more about what that means (there are two citations on the topic) but I’m highly suspicious and wouldn’t want to be caught recommending something like that without some assurance.

    On second thought, I’m not sure I’ll bother. I doubt the FDA is going to allow “synthetic” controls for its vaccine tests anytime soon.

    there are dozens and dozens of graphs available on ricochet that try to show masks don’t work which are just “synthetic” controls (actually comparisons with little to no controls)- as i have pointed out many times- so my post is no more nonsense than pages of such posts. Like Rush- pointing out absurdity by using (similar) absurdity.

    Speaking of absurdity, the 41-year-old man with no underlying health conditions had a heart attack following a surgical procedure.

    It seems that story isn’t as straightforward as the first press reports made it sound.

    Actually it could be straightforward- post operative heart attacks are typically “demand related”- ie due to elevated heart rates etc(unlike typical heart attacks which are supply related-coronary thrombus).  A COVID infection would likely cause a high heart rate and along with reduced oxygen levels could easily trigger a heart attack. Sepsis/infection often also lowers blood pressure- a very bad combo with high heart rates and low oxygen levels . Additionally, COVID patients have an elevated rate of blood clots-and you can imagine a blood clot in a coronary vessel. Obviously with few facts it is hard to know.

    demand related-ie increased demand for oxygen-the main determinants of oxygen requirements for the heart are heart rate, contractility, pressure work. In the post op period the demand for oxygen is elevated in reponse to tissue trauma from the procedure (inflammation) and the need for healing. Pain can also play a role in increasing demand.(The post op inflammatory state also predisposes to thrombosis-which can effect supply).

    supply related-coronary blood flow and oxygen content.

    • #82
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