Chicken
pox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think
about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in
your body and lives there forever; and maybe when you're older, you
have devastatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get
over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect.
We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied
medically for years.
Herpes
is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and
lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or
stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you
have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date)
you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't
just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been
around for years, and been studied medically for years.
HIV
is a virus. It attacks the immune system, and makes the carrier far
more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and
negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before
viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a
reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body
forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the
body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health
conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes,
bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of
cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had
been studied medically for years.
Now
with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily.
The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just
beginning to be cataloged, much less understood.
So
far the symptoms may include:
Fever
Fatigue
Coughing
Pneumonia
Chills/Trembling
Acute
respiratory distress
Lung
damage (potentially permanent)
Loss
of taste (a neurological symptom)
Sore
throat
Headaches
Difficulty
breathing
Mental
confusion
Diarrhea
Nausea
or vomiting
Loss
of appetite
Strokes
have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the
relatively young)
Swollen
eyes
Blood
clots
Seizures
Liver
damage
Kidney
damage
Rash
COVID
toes (weird, right?)
People
testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even
after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then
experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A
man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to
be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to
mention a $1.1 million medical bill.
Then
there is MIS-C. Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children is a
condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including
the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal
organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms,
including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash,
bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused
deaths.
This
disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6
months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may
present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed.
We literally *do not know* what we do not know.
For
those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are
cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of
precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to
ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:
How
dare you?
How
dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide
for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over
with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild
symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we
know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more
serious case, we also know that 20 and 30 year olds have died,
marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants
have died.
How
dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when
those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet
know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how
easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
Frequent
hand-washing
Physical
distancing
Reduced
social/public contact or interaction
Mask
wearing
Covering
your cough or sneeze
Avoiding
touching your face
Sanitizing
frequently touched surfaces
The
more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the
better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the
curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service
that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also
reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the
scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more
full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short
and long term.
I
reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all
get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.
Protect
yourself, protect your family and friends, be a good person and
protect those you don’t know. We all have a right to feel safe. Put
on a mask and stay at least 6 ft away!
Copied
and shared — please do likewise (Thanks nurse Jill Jaeger)
I'm at my wits' end with it the ant-mask folks. Nothing but slippery slopes, circular talk, and willful ignorance. What is more alarming is the staggering number of level-headed people that seem to have joined their ranks. Coworkers of mine that I never would have expected. I get the fear of mandates, but we have sunk to the point where social contracts are looked on with disdain. What happened to "Love thy neighbor?"
ReplyDeleteAmen, Brother!
ReplyDelete