Not much news this week, because of the holiday, so I’ll just share a couple of longer articles:
Since the lab-leak theory is still being pushed by people with the worst agendas, here’s an excellent interactive article on its (lack of) plausability. (I owe some kind jackal a hat tip for sharing an unpaywalled version.)
From the Toronto Star, “Raccoon dog? Bamboo rat? Lab leak? Four years after first COVID case in China, science is providing new clues to the virus’s origins”:
In the early morning hours, a ghostly group of figures in white fanned out across the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China.
Clad in hazmat suits, the researchers from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had been dispatched to the sprawling downtown market to hunt for the cause of a strange new virus that was infecting the city’s residents…
In their sweeps beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, the researchers targeted a wide swath of locations — doors, floors, wildlife stalls, public toilets, trash cans, sewage drains and even dead and stray animals. They collected nearly 1,000 environmental samples and more than 400 animal samples during several visits over the next three months.
But it would be another three years — three years during which the COVID-19 pandemic swept the planet and became the largest public health emergency in a century, infecting more than 750 million people, killing an estimated 15 million, and upending the lives of countless more — before the genetic data culled from those market samples would be made public.
It was a delay that prevented scientists early in the pandemic from gaining insight into how the virus may have first infected humans, information that could have aided officials in their efforts to clamp down on the early spread. The delay allowed conspiracy theories to fester and was a decision that Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the COVID-19 response at the World Health Organization, calls “inexcusable.”
It wasn’t until March 2023 that a French researcher stumbled on the Chinese data and blew the search for the origins of COVID wide open…
The missing data was just one puzzle piece in what has become a complicated and contentious search for the virus’s origins — an endeavour made all the more difficult by a lack of transparency on the part of Chinese authorities and a desire by some U.S. lawmakers and pundits to exploit every turn for political or financial gain.
As we approach the fourth anniversary of the first diagnosis of COVID on the planet, we still don’t know conclusively where the virus came from. While a scientific consensus has emerged among many of the world’s top virologists about how it most likely spread to humans, there has been no smoking gun found.
The truth is, experts say, when it comes to unravelling the origins of COVID-19, there may never be a smoking gun. There may just be the best theory of what happened, based on the evidence uncovered.
That can be a frustrating answer, in a time when many of us expect a certainty from science similar to movies and television. The legacy of that uncertainty has spread into almost every aspect of our lives: our politics, our schools, our workplaces, our relationships…
======
(Unpaywalled) gift link:
… I wrote about long Covid in June 2020. In the following days, I got more than 100 emails from people who thought they were going mad — or had been told as much — and felt validated to see their reality reflected. That story was the first of an octet; those responses were the vanguards of thousands more.
Long-haulers have told me that through those pieces, they better understood what was happening to them, found community and medical care, and felt the relief of recognition at a time when friends, family members and health care professionals brushed off their ordeal as imaginary. As a science writer, I have written about many topics throughout my career. None have affected me more than long Covid. None have more profoundly changed my view about what journalism can achieve and how it can do so.
Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force it is often misconstrued as. It is instead a human endeavor, relentlessly buffeted by our culture, values and politics. As energy-depleting illnesses that disproportionately affect women, long Covid and M.E./C.F.S. are easily belittled by a sexist society that trivializes women’s pain, and a capitalist one that values people according to their productivity. Societal dismissal leads to scientific neglect, and a lack of research becomes fodder for further skepticism. I understood these dynamics only after interviewing social scientists, disability scholars and patients themselves, whose voices are often absent or minimized in the media. Like the pandemic writ large, long Covid is not just a health problem. It is a social one, and must also be understood as such.
Many long-haulers have told me that they’ve used my work to finally get through to skeptical loved ones, employers and doctors — a use that, naïvely, I didn’t previously consider. I had always imagined that the testing ground for my writing was the minds of my readers, who would learn something new or perhaps even change what and how they think. But this one-step model is woefully incomplete because we are a social species. Journalism doesn’t stop with first-generation readers but cascades through their networks. Done well, it can make those networks stronger…
Another gift link:
… I’ve come to realize that “long Covid” is a deceptive term for a condition that can trigger a diverse swarm of debilitating symptoms with no end in sight. What I’ve experienced is in no way just a lingering cough or a few weeks of fatigue after an acute Covid infection.
I first got Covid in March 2020, just as New York City was going into lockdown. My case was mild. I was not hospitalized. Like many who got sick in those early days, I experienced what felt like a bad flu.
A few weeks after I seemed to recover, strange symptoms emerged: extreme fatigue, frequent low-grade fevers, general temperature dysregulation, chills, heart palpitations, brain fog, burning sensations all over my body and more…My doctors were confused when I wanted them to be alarmed. After many tests returned inconclusive results, they told me that I was probably just stressed and should take a break from work. Or I should try to push through and exercise. Or maybe I should start anti-anxiety meds….
Manyakitty
Ugh. That last bit sums up the experiences of SO many women. Beyond frustrating.
OzarkHillbilly
@Manyakitty: It’s a thrice told tale.
Ohio Mom
We all have Covid for the second time, same pattern as the first go-round: you’d think Ohio Dad and Son had head colds, I was flat on my back until the Paxlovid kicked in. Just hope I don’t get a rebound case this time.
Jay
I was reading a CBC article earlier on today, about a teenager with Long Covid, and no life.
No prom, no fumbles under the covers, just an O2 tank.
raven
I got all that shit, I’m just old.
Ohio Mom
I’m guessing that one reason authorities don’t want to recognize long Covid is the expense it would bring. If you are a long hauler, are you eligible for disability payments? Are you covered by the ADA?
That’s on the micro level. One the macro level, it’s developing the definitions and policies and putting the programs into place. I don’t know how much it costs to review a disability claim, and keep reviewing it because maybe the person got better, but all those cases add up.
As for individual doctors blowing patients off — it’s all in your head — that comes with the territory of having a condition doctors don’t have easy answers for.
Geo Wilcox
@Manyakitty: And as we know that feeling of not getting your symptoms across is not limited to long covid. Even female doctors do that to their female patients.
BethanyAnne
@Geo Wilcox: It was stunning to me to see that in action. I grew up a boy, but now I’m out as trans. Starting in 2018, I became my Mom’s full time caregiver. Watching doctors ask questions and not register her answers outraged me. I interrupted the process to let them know that better was expected. It shocked them to be called out. I still get angry when I think about the bullshit she endured.
Betty
Ed Yong is an excellent journalist. We need more of his calibre. I also had Covid in March of 2020 which led to a year of pain and bizarre symptoms. Some damage to my cardiovascular system was permanent, but I have pretty much recovered from the rest. Just now recovering from round four and praying that no further damage has been done.
trnc
@Ohio Mom: Ugh! Sorry about that. We’ve all had it, but no worse than colds for us. My wife got it twice and had almost no symptoms, which is pretty ironic because she’s the one we expected to be hit the hardest.
Hope you’re over it soon.
New Deal democrat
The CDC data is way behind at this point, having updated only through December 16. At that point there were 25,600 hospitalizations, up 3,400 from one week before and up over 10,000 from the first week of November. I suspect the true number as of today is about 35,000 and still rising. If so, that will only be 10% to 15% below last year.
Deaths as of December 2 – which are still preliminary – are up to 1,470, the highest number since last April, and about 60% of the equivalent week last year.
So the bad news is that hospitalizations are not far behind last year, but the good news is that deaths are far below.
The worse news is that wastewater data for infections as of the 16th are over 20% higher than one year previous, and almost equal to last winter’s peak from early January. The outbreak is particularly severe in the Northeast, where infections are about 40% higher than one year previous, and over 20% higher than the January peak. The Midwest is also higher than one year ago. The South is about even. Only the West is lower than one year ago, by about 10%.
As anticipated, new infections are being driven by variant JN.1, a throwback to BA.2, which was about 45% of all new infections as of last Friday. It is probably already up over 50%.
Short conclusion: this is not a time for seniors to let their guards down.
azlib
My spouse got infected a few days ago. I am still clear. It is weird since I got infected last January and she was clear. We are both boosted with the latest vaccine. It is odd that one us tests positive and the other does not, even though we live together in close proximity. We are glad we are vaccinated and boosted or it could be much worse.
JMG
Wife and I tested positive for covid week after Thanksgiving. Like a bad cold for three-four days, Now fully recovered except we’re both still somewhat congested when we wake up in the morning. That could just be the dryness of a New England home in winter.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all!
To my knowledge, I’ve never had COVID. I got vaxxed as soon as the vaccines were available and boosted when the boosters were available.
Still … I’ve always wondered if I may have had an asymptomatic case or the one or two cases of “the crud” were actually COVID.
And then there was what happened in February 2020.
Back in February 2020, I was supposed to get underway on a ship for 3 days. I woke up that morning around 0330 (had to be onboard NLT 0600) and didn’t exactly feel great but figured I had a cold or sinus infection coming on. We were fogged in that day, so the powers-that-be made the call at 1300 to release everyone to be back at 0600 the next day. I went back home, climbed under the covers and slept with a fever, chills, sweats until the next morning. When I got up, I felt better so I went in.
That was a mistake. We got underway and I wound up spending most of the time in my rack feeling like dog poop. It didn’t help that was one of the roughest underways I’ve ever been on in the Gulf. Within a week, a number of my coworkers, including my son, came down with something similar. I earned the reputation as being “Patient Zero”.
I finally went to an urgent care clinic about 4 weeks after as I couldn’t seem to get rid of a horrible cough and generally just felt fatigued, etc. I got meds for a bad case of bronchitis. When I asked the nurse PA about COVID, she said that it was possible, but given there had been very few reports of it in South MS at that time, it was more likely to be influenza A, which had been making the rounds.
So … I’ll never know for sure.
Odd thing is, I’ve only been under the weather (meaning cold, sinus infection, allergy, etc) perhaps only once or twice since then.
Matt McIrvin
As mentioned on one of the Christmas threads, my wife tested positive for COVID on Christmas Eve, so we had to quarantine for the holiday. On that day, we both had congestion in our heads and in our ears, itchy eyes, tickle in the throat.
But she stayed that way, and I just suddenly got better. I tested myself later that day and tested negative. Our daughter did too, never got sick. I’m testing myself again now and it looks like I’m going to test negative again, despite being in the house with an obvious COVID patient for days. I’m not feeling sick at all.
It’s a weird situation, compared to our previous experience. My wife still has what seems like a mild cold but it’s lingering on. Nothing like the massive raging congestion plus intense sore throat that we all had before.
So that’s actually very consistent with the numbers I’ve been seeing from the state of Massachusetts, that say this thing is spreading but not affecting people nearly as much as previous waves.
I’ve got friends who are linking to COVID alarmists warning that this could turn into “the second-worst wave of the pandemic”… and from everything I’m seeing, no, it’s just not. At least not here. Obviously, I’m going to keep masking up in stores and buses.
Matt McIrvin
@Nukular Biskits: The only time I had COVID *for sure* was in January 2023. But for the reasons I just posted, I strongly suspect I just shrugged off a mild COVID infection a couple of days ago, without ever testing positive on a fast antigen test. This wave is… different.
In January 2020, when COVID was already raging in Wuhan and they were about to shut down the city, we went to Singapore for a week and came back with some kind of mild crud we probably picked up at the Adventure Cove waterpark on Sentosa Island.
Singapore’s first known case of COVID was a tourist who arrived from Wuhan and went straight to Sentosa… something like two hours after we flew out of Changi to go home.
So we probably didn’t carry COVID-19 back from Singapore. But who knows.
Albatrossity
Some of us already knew this, but it never hurts to spread the word.
Watching birds and listening to birdsong reduces stress and anxiety.
(Gift link, no paywall)
Ohio Mom
@Nukular Biskits: You are the opposite of Ohio Dad, who tests himself if he sneezes a few times in a row. Which is how I knew I had Covid, it never occurs to me it’s not some miscellaneous crud.
But if you don’t have a stash of tests, you can’t be always on the lookout.
PT&S
I’ve tried the Toronto Star article in a couple of browsers and the graphics elements aren’t working in either. Are some of you have this experience and can anyone suggest how to get them working?
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: I have had Covid twice, and I would not have even stopped what I was doing — it was no more than a mild cold — except that I found out that some people around me had tested positive, so I tested and found out that I also had Covid. I was vaxxed and boosted, and I am sure that helped.
Even though many people can still get an infection after being vaccinated, it appears that the vaccination does lower the overall incidence of the disease, which means that there are people whose immunity is sufficiently boosted that they actually repel the infection from taking hold. It’s just not as many as for vaccines like measles, which prevent and don’t just lessen the infection. You might be one of the lucky ones.
Barbara
@Ohio Mom: I had food poisoning at the beginning of December, and I was violently ill for an evening, followed by five days of not wanting to eat anything ever again. On the very first night my daughters were at my bedside telling me to take a Covid test and the very thought of putting that swab up my nose made me start heaving. I was annoyed. I did take a test 24 hours later, but my experience in life told me that this was FOOD POISONING but they would not believe me.
frosty
Which, as it turned out, was one of the worst things you could do. Exercise sometimes increased the disability. My friend with long COVID did this and it made it worse. On New Year’s Day she’ll be starting her third year with it. She worked part-time for awhile, then her employer laid her off saying they needed somebody who could dedicate full time to the job. She’s in her early fifties and may never work again.
Tenar Arha
@Nukular Biskits: @Matt McIrvin: @Ohio Mom:
AFAICT I’ve never had COVID. I haven’t even had a cold since December 2019. I’m not sure exactly how I’ve avoided it unless I did get an asymptomatic case. OTOH, I live alone, I still mask indoors, and I’ve gotten all the shots I could get & I time them before “big events” so that celebrating the holidays with my family, or going to a big outdoor concert festival is less risky.
But I go to restaurants occasionally, and I just don’t know how I have avoided this. Then I wonder about that MMR series I re-took in 2019 because I read an article, followed up with my doctor & found out my rubella titers were low. I wonder about a couple allergic seasonal symptoms that could have hidden a really mild case. But it would have to be a very mild because I started tracking my temperature and oxygen level and pulse at the beginning. Which goes back to living alone, and remembering back to March 2020, reading the news, & I could feel full blown hypochondria was hovering & I figured data would counteract it. Which worked for me, though I have a new habit.
I know a few people like this, can’t tell you if they had COVID, but haven’t been really been sick in years possibly because of some lucky combination more likely only asymptomatic and never popped a test.
Barbara
@frosty: When my son was sick — on a cruise no less — he just wanted to move around because he felt he was so cooped up but the medical staff were adamant that he not do calisthenics or exercise of any kind while he was isolating, because of the risk to his respiratory system. Even though the experience was a real bummer, I have to say that we probably got better attention and care on the ship than we would have at home. Accessibility of care even for relatively well-heeled people like me is a real problem in the U.S. that no one wants to admit to.
Barbara
@Tenar Arha: We go to restaurants. Our normal day to day activities of shopping and so on have not resulted in Covid. We have gotten Covid when we traveled for more than a few days and were thus exposed to many more people in settings where we could not retreat to home.
jonas
One of the weird things about Covid is how differently people respond to it, even when they’re vaccinated. Some are totally asymptomatic or get nothing more than a few sniffles. Others end up in the ER or with Long Covid. I guess we just don’t notice normally how completely different everyone’s immune system is. Growing up, our kids were very rarely sick. Maybe a cold or fever once or twice a year would keep them home from school. One year, in like the third grade or something, I think our oldest had a perfect attendance record. Kids in some other families we knew seemed to be missing half the school year with recurrent colds, flu, stomach bugs, or what have you. Sure enough, when we got Covid during the 21 Omicron wave, it was like a mild cold for them and they haven’t had it again since. A family friend, one of those who was always out sick in elementary school, has had Covid at least once every year since the pandemic began and is out now with Long Covid. It’s terrible.
Nukular Biskits
@frosty:
One of the things I learned the hard way many years ago is to NOT push through a serious illness like the flu.
When my oldest son was about 6 weeks old, I left work early one day not feeling well, only to be greeted at the door by his mother, who had come down with the flu. Because we had no family nearby, I had to push myself to go to the store and buy formula (she was told to stop nursing while she was sick), more diapers, meds for her, etc. I remember standing in the checkout line thinking death would be more acceptable than being sick.
It was a couple of days before my mom could make it down to take care of the baby and those couple of days, I wound up having to do everything simply because she was in no condition.
It took me a couple of months to recover.
Barbara
@jonas: Part of the issue with Covid is that we have turned a microscope on it in a way that we have never done with other seasonal diseases like flu. Flu is definitely of variable severity for people, though there are clearly groups that are at higher risk. Even the influenza pandemic at the end of WWI had a clearly variable impact on people, with, paradoxically, young adults being at highest risk because of the dreaded cytokine storm. It would not surprise me in the least if there is “long flu” for some people — or that some elements of chronic fatigue syndrome are a form of prolonged impact from an underlying acute infection. We don’t know because it has never been a priority for research.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Albatrossity: “Watching birds and listening to birdsong reduces stress and anxiety.”
Unless you are a CAT, in which case it is of EXTREME IMPORTANCE!1meow!!
Nelle
@frosty: Get my email from Watergirl. There is a doc in Oregon who says he is having success with BVitamin supplements with Long Covid patients, if she is interested in joining his study. I can put her in touch with him.
trollhattan
We’re #1! 🎈
County in California for Covid hospitalizations.
Kiddo came down with flu yesterday–got tested at the local pharmacy because our doc and all the walk-in clinics are inundated with sick folks and no openings. W/O proper testing it was impossible to know whether it was flu or covid, given both are galloping through the metroplex. Dad’s crossing fingers last week’s flu and covid jabs are up and running now.
New Year’s Eve will be lit.
Tenar Arha
@Barbara: Yeah. I figured that’s going to be how I get it.
I may not have gotten sick yet on my summer trips to the Cape or Maine, but I drove there. And next, I’m going to NYC on the train. I’ve bought some special nose pad fitted over the head strap masks for that, but that’s definitely going to expand my risk.
ETA re your comment re viruses, I think docs are finally going to take all post viral illness & complications more seriously now. Finally, that it’s not just mostly women experiencing these problems.
TBone
I got Covid very early (Jan. 2020) at the County court house. Before tests were available, and a few days before the alarm bells started to ring out across the nation. I know this because the person I was there to see suddenly vanished and I was told by his supervisor that he was in hospital with a “flu that he couldn’t recover from.” I was so sick, and very, very scared, but my experience with long Lyme Disease told me that keeping away from doctors at that early stage would be best for preserving sanity. I used my hubby’s pulse oximeter to calm myself during particularly bad spells. A few weeks in, my entire body literally inflated (severe multisystem inflammation supposedly only in kids?) and I blew up like a balloon. I could actually feel my intestines swelling, it was so bad. Finally called the doctor and was told to “take water pills, we don’t have much COVID here and you’re not eligible for a test anyway.” At that time, you had to have known contact with someone positive to qualify for testing, and the Court House person was no longer employed (and wouldn’t admit to Covid when I confidentially emailed him asking what his symptoms were, he just denied being sick at all). This began two years of symptoms cycling on a sorta monthly basis, which gradually became less violent each month. I think the vaccine and all the boosters really helped. I’m still not fully recovered but vastly improved over the first year. I am grateful to have survived and to have a partner who cared for me and our pets and our home all by himself for such a long time. He never got sick but all of our 3 cats did, all survived (2 had to be treated for “asthma” with inhalers because the vet told me they couldn’t catch COVID either).
Barbara
@TBone: Yikes. I am glad you are starting to feel better but sorry you have had such a horrendous experience.
Kristine
@Albatrossity:
I live a stone’s throw from a nature walk/woods/state park.
Yes.
Glidwrith
@Nukular Biskits: My family is also vaxed and boosted as much as possible. Only two have caught Covid in July of last year, one transmitted to the other.
But…..we were traveling at the end of 2019, returning after the turn of the year through at least two international airports. Both boys caught something…cough and fever that took a few weeks to resolve. No way of knowing if it was Covid, but I shudder with how close we came.
Ohio Mom
This is off-topic
Since we have Covid, Ohio Dad and I are watching the streaming of the funeral of MIL’s BFF. So far I’ve counted FOUR instances of dead-naming the recently-transitioned grandson. And it’s only 10 minutes into the service.
Kristine
@Barbara:
Granted it was a relatively minor effect, but when my Dad and I suffered through bouts of the flu one year, we came out the other side with an aversion to coffee. I started drinking it again after a few months, but Dad switched to tea and never went back.
TBone
@Barbara: thank you! I wish people would take masking more seriously – I am frequently the lone masker in the County and even my hubby will no longer mask up. I once was left standing at the deli counter in my mask for 30 minutes while all unmasked customers were served first, a little while after being yelled at in the canned soup aisle by a little old lady “THANKS TO ALL WHO VOTED FOR BIDEN FOR THESE PRICES!” Politicizing the pandemic and its consequences is one reason I survived (through sheer spite and anger). I want to live to see that orange shit stain jailed or dead before I shuffle off this mortal coil and when he got airlifted out of the White House I was literally jumping for joy in hopes of his demise in the biggest self own in human history. Sadly, no, that didn’t happen.
Mike in Pasadena
Susie, a female Air Force nurse living in the same apartment building I lived in once admitted she sometimes wanted to say to patients, “Get over it!” That’s when I realized that doctors and nurses are not some goddess-like creatures, but humans often frustrated by diseases and patients much the same as the rest of us. Long Covid is probably one of the many diseases causing great frustration for everyone, suferers and medical professionals alike. I’ve given thanks to Suzie for her statement ever since. It ain’t easy being a doctor, nurse, orderly, other caregivers etc.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: Ohio Dad says maybe they asked grandchild’s permission to deadname them for simplicity’s sake. It would be confusing to acquaintances others not in the know.
It is just like Ohio Dad to think better of people than I do.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: Ugh. That would annoy the hell out of me.
Anoniminous
There’s no evidence the SARS-Cov-2 virus ever clears from the body. That implies “long Covid” icould very well be just Covid without a symptom lapse
Mel
@Manyakitty: Yes, indeed! “Gaslighting Female Patients” seems to have been a required course in med school until recently, along with the popular elective “Rude-Ass Comments Guaranteed to Demean and Enrage Those ‘Little Ladies’ “.
I got told that I probably was “ having the menopause* early” when I was at the start of my autoimmune horror. I was 28 years old and had totally normal hormone tests.
Two years later and sicker, another doctor told me that, “all you professional gals get depressed around 30 because you haven’t had your babies yet.” I had 101 fever, my hair was falling out in clumps, my white cells were rock bottom, I had unexplained heart arrhythmias, and I had had three surgeries to try and offset the unexplained bone loss in my jaws.
But, hey, sure, a good old diagnosis of Victorian era “hysteria” must be the correct answer…
* This particular gem of a doctor pronounced it “The Mini-Paws” – always prefaced with “The” , for unknown reasons.
Ruckus
@jonas:
We are all human. We all look relatively like the same animal. But genetically we are more different than one might imagine because we don’t stay in one area and mate with others in a relatively small area. And that doesn’t mean we are all that different but there is enough difference genetically now that we can react to the surrounding world differently in a situation like Covid. The other side is that Covid has mutated a fair amount and created variations of Covid. It is effectively a rather different type of disease that mutates somewhat more easily than many. And then that same thing – genetic mutation from the human concept of being able to travel rather long distances rather easily. And the human concept of gathering in relatively small spaces. So we have variations in genes that can give a lot of differences in response to the current surroundings, including disease. Back 75 yrs ago that was rather different from today. Sure we had travel back then but that was rather different than today. Air travel, cruise ships, crowed cities like NYC or areas like Los Angeles county, with a population just shy of 10 million humans in an area that would be the second smallest state in the US.
zhena gogolia
Just heard that Tommy Smothers has died.
CaseyL
@Mike in Pasadena:
I used to hear analyses of stubborn medical cases, and it is astonishing, just downright gobsmacking, how people will knowingly persist in habits and behaviors that inhibit their healing and shorten their lives.
I don’t mean the sorts of things that are genuinely hard to shake, like addictions to this or that.
I mean things like not doing the follow-up visits and tests, not changing diets, not increasing one’s level of physical activity even a little (or, alternatively, NOT taking it easy after surgery to give the tissues and bones time to knit)… and, of course, refusing to take the prescribed medications.
And then the medical providers have to try to fix the additional problems along with the original problem… I don’t blame them at all for getting frustrated and angry. They must want to scream by the end of the day.
@zhena gogolia: I just saw that on Mastodon. I remember the Smothers Brothers on TV, though I was too young at the time to appreciate how subversive they were.
TBone
@Mel: may these ignorant fucks all burn in hell for eternity. My Lyme journey taught these lessons well (I’ve heard every piss poor gaslighting excuse in the book over the years) but I’m glad I found that out BEFORE long Covid so I saved myself that one agony. I hope your illness abates and your sanity come through this intact!
satby
@Barbara: Post-viral (not just covid) is a known phenomenon for some people. POTS syndrome, CFS, and fibromyalgia are all suspected to be triggered by viral infection. Studies are going on now whether long covid is related to them.
Encephalitis from measles caused the blindness/deafness that some kids got after infection. There’s a lot we still don’t understand about how viruses affect the body long term and what makes one person more susceptible to complications than another person.
Barbara
@Mel: Try to imagine the intersection of “gaslighting female patients” with “minimizing the needs of Black patients” and you get to a place where, however shocking it seems initially, it is actually totally unsurprising that someone like Serena Williams nearly died after giving birth to her first child because medical personnel ignored her symptoms of pulmonary clots even though she TOLD THEM repeatedly she had a history of blood clots, which is clearly a potential complication of pregnancy. She wasn’t young and she wasn’t poor, but apparently it doesn’t take a whole lot of prompting for medical personnel to write off complaints as just the result of being “annoying while Black.” I still seethe on her behalf.
Mel
@Mike in Pasadena: True. It isn’t easy, but taking care of patients and being fully engaged is part of the job, and if the med professional can’t get past their own prejudices and impatience, perhaps they need to seek another profession. It’s people’s lives at stake.
Teachers, social workers, counselors, legal aid attorneys, community non-profit employees: all function in at times extremely stressful jobs, where they often see people at the worst, most frightening, confusing, or painful times of those people’s lives.
Burnout happens. These are difficult, sometimes heartbreaking professions that never pay what the work is worth. But if someone burns out to the point where they make snap judgments, or see a large percent of the people they serve as a nuisance or worthy of disdain and mockery and dismissal, then that practitioner needs to get out of the field at least temporarily or get help managing their burnout/ frustration, because the people they teach, treat, counsel are counting on them.
In the case of counselors and medical professionals, a jaded, dismissive attitude can literally mean the difference between early help or a missed diagnosis, and sometimes between life and death.
Barbara
@Mel: On the one hand, people’s symptoms can be too readily dismissed — on the other hand, there is a lot of research showing that depression can exacerbate your feelings of pain or symptoms, or, basically, allow pain or symptoms to overtake your life at a lower level than it might for someone who is not depressed or anxious. This is why chronic pain is so difficult to manage. Essentially, you are only managing half the equation for many people, but they might be unwilling to admit or even unaware that they are suffering from clinical depression. You can be sympathetic to a patient but still have nothing to offer them in the way of relief.
Mel
@TBone: My post- infection syndrome and the ensuing autoimmune immune conditions began with a Lyme disease infection. I noted the attachment, saved the tick, and went to four doctors in five weeks when I spiked a 104 fever, had swollen joints, rashes, and swollen lymph nodes within a week of the tick bite.
Because I didn’t have a full, classic “bull’seye” rash, and had a borderline response instead of a high positive on the ELISA, I was told it couldn’t possibly be Lyme disease. Of course I didn’t develop high antibodies. I have an immune complement deficiency that by its very nature means that I cannot produce antibodies /fight infections effectively.
Flash forward five years later: broke, career destroyed, completely disabled – a loved one lent the money to follow through on a referral to a major New York hospital. PCR positive, suffering Lyme encephalopathy and neurological Lyme, with the added bonus of three autoimmune diseases that the years of uncontrolled infection and inflammation had kicked into action.
If one of the early physicians had listened, looked, and been engaged enough to help, it’s likely that the Lyme disease would have been diagnosed and then treated with simple oral antibiotics, and all of the ensuing horrors avoided.
I understand your pain and am so, so sorry you have gone through your own medical nightmare. It’s heartbreaking, inexplicable, and often so very lonely, that’s for damn sure.
raven
@CaseyL: I was ‘traveling abroad so I missed the show but they rattled Nixon and that was enough for me.
H.E.Wolf
It would be very interesting to see the crosstabs. Dave Anderson to the courtesy phone! :)
Race; poverty*; food deserts; age-related cognitive deficits; social pressures, some of which are gendered (“tough it out” vs. “it’s all in your head”); onerous work schedules, particularly for blue- and pink-collar job holders; primary language other than English – these are some of the many factors that could play a part.
* We’ve probably all read about folks who rationed or stretched their Rx, to the detriment of their health, because the cost was beyond their means. Insulin is probably one of the best-known examples of a widely-prescribed medication that has become less affordable.
Ruckus
@satby:
Encephalitis from measles.
Aww yes, my favorite time growing up. Or should I say almost not actually growing for almost 5 yrs.
Barbara
@Mel: My husband’s cousin’s wife had a similar experience to yours, except that she was treated for Lyme Disease, but continued to exhibit symptoms, which were dismissed because her testing results were negative. It turns out that everyone was right, sort of — her physicians were right, she no longer had Lyme Disease, because she had a different tick-borne disorder the symptoms of which (duh) are often associated with Lyme Disease because so many people get both and the symptoms of the less common parasite infection are considered to be just a sign of the Lyme disorder. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a real cure for her disorder, known as Babesiosis.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: It’s not just different experiences for different people, it’s often vastly different for the same person if they get COVID multiple times. Getting off easy once is no guarantee that you won’t end up with long COVID on your second go-around, which is worrying.
Mel
@Barbara: That is absolutely true, but I think that being engaged and sympathetic, and still being willing to keep eyes and ears open and see if there are any new answers/ treatments/ trials on the horizon that might be beneficial is the key here.
The practitioners who dismiss, pre-judge, or throw in the towel without real effort are the issue, in any caring or helping profession.
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: About ten years and change ago I got what seemed like the mild cold I got just about every year (particularly since my little kid started going to day care), and it turned into bronchitis that I couldn’t shake until they gave me antibiotics and an asthma inhaler. Could have been a lot worse, I guess.
CaseyL
@H.E.Wolf: Probably quite a lot of overlap.
The providers I spoke to always sounded very respectful when talking about their patients, and generally liked them. But I don’t know how that was perceived by the patients, particularly if they had prior experience with providers who were not respectful and didn’t take them seriously.
geg6
OT, but a big loss to the world of comedy. RIP Tommy Smothers.
NoOneOfConsequence
@Ohio Mom: It’s also possible that they didn’t get permission, and didn’t care. Don’t assume malice, but definitely don’t assume ally-ship. Family can be more cruel in some ways than strangers. If a family has gotten used to sticking the knife in each other, they might do it without even realizing it would be especially mean to do it “today”.
@Barbara: Long Flu has been reported on in the popular press, and, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (technically, myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) is known to show up after an illness.
Some of us are really hoping people generalize the research, rather than just digging into Covid-19, and stopping.
Sister Golden Bear
I’m really thankful my doctors took my Long Covid seriously. In my case Covid caused some major diabetes issues, and the big swings in blood sugar highs/lows were a big factor in feeling lousy. So even if you’re not diabetic, it’s worth getting your A1C levels checked, and better yet, trying a continuous glucose monitor (like the Freestyle Libre) that tracks your glucose levels minute-by-minute.
Another thing that really helped was using a combination of Zyrtec and Pepcid AC, which reduce mast cell inflammation (Type 1 and Type 2). After two weeks of that I was feeling remarkably better. I also was prescribed a Wix inhaler which help reduce lung inflammation.
Finally, acupuncture and a Chinese herb brand named “Fight Invasion” helped get rid of the last of the symptoms. Acupuncture took about 10 sessions. My practitioner says that in China they’ll do the sessions every day straight through, but since people here usually don’t have the time/money to do that, she typically spreads it out over a number of weeks. (Note: I’m extremely not woo, but I’ve previously found acupuncture to be really effective in reducing pinched nerve pain.)
twbrandt
The WaPo has good story on Tommy Smothers and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (gift link)
satby
@H.E.Wolf: and people who just won’t do what they need to do. Without the detriments of food deserts, lack of funds, complications from work schedules, race, cognitive impairment, etc. They just won’t because no one is the boss of them. Saw it all the time when I worked in healthcare, now see it among some of my friends.
Sometimes it’s just that they’ve gotten to a certain age and are now YOLOing their way to the end, which I can understand a tiny bit. But many times, like with red staters dying to prove their freedoms, it’s sheer cussedness.
NoOneOfConsequence
That’s a normal literary device for opening an article.
Here’s a better one.
“I’ve listened to people who describe an unending hellscape for those suffering from long Covid. Then, I came to understand the real damage was far worse than I’d imagined.”
For the NYT Pitchbot, perhaps “People say that Long Covid is horrifying and scary, but, it’s actually a progressive plot to get universal health care for universal transgenderism!”
NoOneOfConsequence
@satby: Funny thing is, part of the susceptibility is neurological, and we just don’t have a lot of data on neuro-pain, especially if it doesn’t *present* as neuro-pain.
@frosty: The “Bias For Exercise” is one of the worst parts of fatigue disorders. “If I keep getting stronger…” seems seductive. Also, fatigue makes you less able to self-assess.
Steeplejack
@Nukular Biskits:
I had an experience similar to yours. I don’t think I have had COVID, but . . . I rarely get a cold or the flu, and then it’s just for a few days. But in late February/early March of 2020 I got what I thought was a raging case of the flu that knocked me on my ass for a solid two weeks. Then later I wondered if it was COVID, especially since I live in the D.C. area with exposure to international travelers. I might have caught an early case.
Then in October 2022 I had a bout of something where I was extremely tired and my SpO2 dropped way down—below 90%. That got me to go to the Kaiser clinic, where my doctor ran tests for pneumonia and COVID, both of which were negative. She did not test for RSV, which at the time I didn’t even know about, but later I wondered WTF didn’t she test for that? Anyway, I got better. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No incidents since then. Like others here, I live alone and don’t mingle with a lot of people. But I haven’t gone out of my way to circumscribe my life. I feel like I have low energy a lot of the time, but that could be bad sleep hygiene (hate that phrase!) and lack of exercise more than anything else.
ETA: Every time I have tested myself for COVID, either from feeling bad or from being exposed to someone, the result has been negative.
TBone
@raven: THIS is why Jesus’ middle name is FUCKING. JFC! Almost an identical story to yours, except I worked in a law office for an attorney group that had sympathy (!) not only because another administrator there came down with the classic bullseye. If not for those attorneys, I’d be in your position too (and I am so angry for you). I got a response call from an attorney in New York while I was at my desk struggling with suicidal thoughts and he told me to ask for Doryx (another co-worker finally steered me to her mom’s rheumatologist who believed in me so we researched together back when you could still “do your own research” in the before times). I did eventually get canned, but those people and one doctor I was lucky to find saved my life first. I went into remission for 4 years before I got bitten AGAIN. My body can now no longer tolerate treatment. UGH. I am sending all my love and positivity to you in the hope that somehow you get as lucky as I did after ten years of traveling the East Coast to find help.
StringOnAStick
@satby: I had measles and mumps at the same time as a kid, and you just triggered my wondering if my lifelong decline in my hearing is related to that. Looks possible.
TBone
TBone
@Mel: my reply to Raven was supposed to be to you.
StringOnAStick
@Mel: I briefly worked in a hospital for a training program until knee arthritis made it clear I couldn’t do that. My main take away is what we as patients see as life altering to life and death stuff is just another day at a job for most, and the ones for whom it is just as important as it is to you, the burn out rate is very high plus your colleagues give you subtle shit for caring too much because it points out their “just a job” attitude.
Never spend any time in a hospital without an advocate, even if it is a friend with very little medical knowledge. They might try to get away with ignoring the latter, but the fact that you have someone there committed to your care makes them understand you won’t go away or pass quietly and there very likely will be consequences for poor care on their part. Sucks, but it’s Unfortunately true.
Manyakitty
@Geo Wilcox: can verify. Disappointing on every level
Barbara
@StringOnAStick: The same thing happens in teaching. My sister told me that you can’t survive as a teacher if you identify too closely with every student. You have to cultivate a certain level of distance to do your job effectively.
StringOnAStick
@twbrandt: Thank you for that gift link, I count the Smothers Brothers show as a big part of how I turned out liberal with extremely conservative parents while growing up in a redneck backwater. I always liked Tommy best!
StringOnAStick
@Barbara: IT makes sense when we look at it from inside the shoes of any of these professions. Who among us wants to have a job that consumes our lives?
Manyakitty
@Mel: JFC. The rage. RAGE. It took years of pressure to get my CFS diagnosis. It’s been quiet for years and I live in fear of catching covid and getting stuck in a permanent exacerbation because it seems like it’s related to long covid.
Finding decent healthcare is a struggle. It will only get worse as long as an entire political party is running on a platform of dead women.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Obviously, I’m going to keep masking up in stores and buses.
This is one good reason it likely won’t be as bad, many are masking up. I have been on the rare occasions I’m around those that mingle or am in closed spaces, like the commuter train. As we are in another season where we are more in closed spaces with others masking becomes even more important. The VA hospital is once again requiring masking up when you walk in the door.
Ruckus
@jonas:
I am of an age that the only vaccinations available when I was born were diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and smallpox. The Salk polio vaccine came out in 1955 and my entire family got it then. I’ve known (and still know one person) who had polio. All lived within a very few miles of me growing up. The current person I know is my age and lives in a wheelchair and has one leg that is totally useless and shorter than her other leg. It has basically zero muscle left.
Kayla Rudbek
@H.E.Wolf: and not taking the medication because it’s laced with lactose so it makes them sick.
bluefoot
@H.E.Wolf:
My sister is a clinician in a rural city, and literally the only specialist of her type for a couple hundred miles. Some of her patients need to take a day off to come see her. She is continually working at adapting how she practices medicine to make it less onerous on her patients, but there’s only so much that’s possible when some need to be seen in person.
Hell, even getting necessary visits can be difficult. Currently there is a 10 month backlog for a specialist type I need to see – even if I were to go out of network and pay out of pocket. I’m in the Boston area which doesn’t lack for clinicians.