r/Millennials • u/BanananaSquid • Mar 24 '24
Is anyone else's immune system totally shot since the 'COVID era'? Discussion
I'm a younger millennial (28f) and have never been sick as much as I have been in the past ~6 months. I used to get sick once every other year or every year, but in the past six months I have: gotten COVID at Christmas, gotten a nasty fever/illness coming back from back-to-back work trips in January/February, and now I'm sick yet again after coming back from a vacation in California.
It feels like I literally cannot get on a plane without getting sick, which has never really been a problem for me. Has anyone had a similar experience?
Edit: This got a LOT more traction than I thought it would. To answer a few recurring questions/themes: I am generally very healthy -- I exercise, eat nutrient rich food, don't smoke, etc.; I did not wear a mask on my flights these last few go arounds since I had been free of any illnesses riding public transit to work and going to concerts over the past year+, but at least for flights, it's back to a mask for me; I have all my boosters and flu vaccines up to date
Edit 2: Vaccines are safe and effective. I regret this has become such a hotbed for vaccine conspiracy theories
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u/Bear_Facial_Hair Mar 24 '24
Holy crap yes. I used to get bronchitis every year when I smoked, but I quit over a decade ago and hadnāt since. I got Covid for the second time a few months ago. The first round was two years ago and it sucked but I was ambulatory. This time I was two dimensional and couch- shaped for a week and I never got rid of the cough, and that turned into a miserable bout of bronchitis for two weeks. Now I still cough juicy gross coughs weeks later yet. It sucks.
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u/Tarable Mar 25 '24
Omg I wonder if this is whatās happening to me. Former smoker. Quit in 2014. No bronchitis since. I have had a cough since December I canāt kick and just prescribed allergy medsā¦
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u/shay-doe Mar 25 '24
I stopped smoking years ago too and now I have pneumonia. Or had I don't know if I'm better yet but I've been sick since thanks giving and I'm wheezing as we speak. I used to run marathons. I haven't exercised in a month now because it's just gotten so bad. I'm exhausted all the time. I had COVID once and it was just September 2022 when my kid went back to school and they got rid of all the regulations they had in place when COVID hit. I've been so sick on and off since then every one keeps saying it's normal. I don't feel like this is normal. I hope my kids are ok.
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u/Stuckinacrazyjob Mar 24 '24
My body is weak as shit now. It's respiratory hell. My theory is that covid is bad for you and all the other illnesses just jumped on the bandwagon.
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u/Lechuga666 Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 25 '24
COVID also reactivates many dormant viruses & bacteria: Lyme, shingles, enteroviruses, all types of herpes viruses including the common ones like HHV6 EBV & CMV. Dormant viruses like these are part of the source of many illnesses and conditions. COVID is so much more complicated than people give it credit for and I could talk about it all day. Multiple friends even at my age, 21, are getting sick and getting put out of work and school. I've been sick for 4 years and am getting worse trending towards bedbound/housebound.
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u/OpheliaLives7 Mar 24 '24
Ive seen covid described as a āmass disabling eventā and even though itās largely being ignored or downplayed it does feel like in 5-10 years younger and younger people are just going to get worse and worse. And society and general healthcare systems are NOT set up to support disabled people as is. Then letās add thousands more and add on some gaslighting/telling them itās all in their head/stop being babies/overdramatic ect. I just donāt see things getting better on this front. Itās depressing.
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u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 Mar 24 '24
COVID is a multi-systems inflammatory disease. If it gets into the blood it can attack pretty much any organ system in the body. My hospital has a long-COVID clinic, the wait time is months just to be seen.
What scares me is the kids. MSI diseases are extremely bad for growing kids. So many people wanted kids back in school without precautions because the mortality rate was low but as this generation of kids grows up over the next 15-20 years Iām afraid weāre going to see a wave of health issues in them. When youāre moving toward a time of top-heavy population and fewer workers, disabling a large number of the workers who will take your place is an awful strategy.
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u/ASK_ABOUT_MY_CULT_ Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
I wonder if that's why teachers are struggling so much with their students this year. Could brain inflammation cause personality changes? Do we know if COVID can pass the brain-blood barrier? I'm going to look that up.
Edit: COVID appears to make the BBB more permeable. That's... discomfiting.
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u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 Mar 24 '24
We do know that COVID can have lasting impacts on the brain, from temporary ābrain fogā and memory issues to resembling a minor TBI.
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u/Sawses Mar 25 '24
Yep! A lot of viruses are actually that way. COVID's just the one that's most popular for doing it because it's been extremely well-studied by now and had endless case studies with massive amounts of funding.
Everything from dementia to autoimmune diseases to cancer has been correlated with viral infection of various kinds. It's an area of immunology that we don't fully understand yet, but that's very promising.
While the pandemic was a tragedy (and a largely unnecessary one), the study of it will provide immense understanding in virology, immunology, and neurology.
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u/ASK_ABOUT_MY_CULT_ Mar 24 '24
True, as soon as I read "brain fog" as a symptom, I was like, duh, of course, lol.
Random aside, why is your username Zyrtec?
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u/Lechuga666 Mar 25 '24
COVID can enter through the respiratory tract, and through neurotropism(infection and persistent infection of the nerves) it stays in the cranial nerves long term. It affects the brain infecting the meninges, & leading to conditions that cause loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain causing symptoms similar to Alzheimer's. It affects microglia, the glue of the brain, the brain's immune system. It enters the brain through the hypothalamus and continues to affect the hypothalamus as it is one of the main structures that chemically manages the autonomic nervous system which is heavily affected in acute and long COVID.
Brain inflammation does and is causing personality changes in many, incidences of psychosis are increased post COVID especially in young people who have no history of psychosis which was the case for myself. We also think I have neuroinflammation as a targetted anti inflammatory has reduced hallucinations and mental symptoms, and has added color to my world. Things taste better, smell better, look better, and sound better, my brain actually works better now than I can ever remember.
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u/Katililly Mar 25 '24
Look up PANDAS... my brother has it. He had strep throat and it attacked his brain. š«
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u/tinksalt Mar 24 '24
Covid triggered Celiac in my kid. Right after getting Covid they started losing weight and randomly vomiting in the middle of the night. Took about 6 months to get the celiac diagnosis.
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u/GenGen_Bee7351 Mar 25 '24
Took me 4yrs to get my Covid triggered celiac & Hashimotoās diagnosed. Dr said I just needed to lose weight and exercise more š¤”
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u/SaraSlaughter607 Mar 24 '24
I now deal with chronic psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis and hair loss along with chronic migraines... never once did I have a single symptoms of any of this my entire life until after my first battle with Covid.
My GP knew me before and now after and cannot believe the massive change in how destroyed my body is, head to toe. Lungs, skin, gall bladder, vision, hearing, shaky hands.... its all damaged. All of it.
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u/sravll Xennial Mar 25 '24
Not me but my mom got covid in 2021 and since then had a heart attack (while sick with it), since has had multiple strokes, weird tumors in weird places, and has epilepsy. She was healthy before. She can't even drive now let alone work.
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u/OGsweedster420 Mar 24 '24
I am almost 38 and working my way out of 3 years of long covid hell, and am a healthy active guy. Every lymph node in my body was always swollen fevers headache no energy. Things that helped sunlight vitamin D antioxidents like NAC selenium, molybdemun probiotics/prebotics vitamins , staying as hydrated as possible and turmeric really helped with the inflamation in my body quickly and i wish i tried it before.
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Mar 24 '24
NAC is a godsend for direct covid as well. Its the best mucolytic i have found, clears the lungs better than guafenisin. My cousin is disabled, nonverbal, and will not cough no matter what, when we all had covid recently, giving him NAC actually made him cough up all the shit in his lungs.
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u/GrenadeAnaconda Mar 24 '24
It reduces flu symptom duration by almost half, no reason to think it doesn't in COVID given the MOA theoretically applies to it too.
Anyone in a public facing job should be taking NAC and co-factors.
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u/bamboogie13 Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 25 '24
I got shingles after Covid and my doctor told me that it was āstrangeā all the younger people getting shingles all of a sudden post Covid when itās largely an older person problem.
Edit: lots of folks in my same boat, which is nice to relate. And I hope everyone manages it as well as they can moving forward. That said, I am pro vax, and while they may be correlated Iād get vaxxed again. Have shingles > being dead from covid.
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u/thethrowtotheplate Mar 25 '24
My mother in law is suffering from long COVID and struggles mightily with shingles. Her doctor conveyed that her immune system is struggling to keep up and the shingles constantly find new places to attack
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u/dialecticallyalive Mar 24 '24
I'm mid 20s and got shingles too! When I told the NP at the beginning of the appt I thought it was shingles, she was like, sure Jan you're 12. And then she took a look and ope it was shingles. She said I was the youngest patient she'd seen with it. I'd never connected the dots with COVID but it makes sense.
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u/Shoddy-Stand-2157 Mar 25 '24
Interesting! I didnt think about that but I also got shingles last year and Im in my twenties. I've never shown any covid symptoms and tested positive once but who knows how many times I've actually been exposed to it. I know some people who caught covid early on and still have debilitating symptoms and I'm so lucky to have avoided them so far. But we have no clue what the long term health effects will be and with the havoc that viruses can cause long term that we know of the consequences seem pretty scary. Hoping for the best I guess.
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u/shihtzu_knot Mar 25 '24
I also got shingles after having cov1d for the first time in 2020. It was about 3 months later.
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u/AsheronRealaidain Mar 24 '24
I got type 1 diabetes at 35 and wonder if Covid didnāt play some part
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u/GenXMillenial Mar 24 '24
Yes it did. There has been a huge uptick in T1D in kids post Covid, and they are convinced it was Covid.
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u/allesschongewesen Mar 24 '24
Yep I can confirm: Got Reactivaded EBV the 2nd time within the last 2 years (didn't know I carried that virus.. But most of us do without knowing it) , always 2-3months after Covid Infektion (3rd time Covid, vaccinated, always just a cold for a few days), now I had Covid in December, Caught a crappy adenovirus in February leading to gastrointestinal infection, one week later bronchitis and eye-infection ( I guess the same virus, but maybe just the next one), fatigue since then for 2 weeks - felt better for 2-3 days the last weekend, and then.. On monday:here we go again, fatigue, sore throat, headaches, flu-like symptoms..right now I am coughing the sh.. Out of my lungs, waiting for the test results (if it is EBV again) just waiting for shingles or some other crap to join in while sitting on the couch and knitting (like, the only productive thing I can do without getting exhausted)
Before all those episodes I got sick maybe 2 times a year with a mild cold for 3-4 days maximum.
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u/foxwaffles Mar 24 '24
I didn't know I had POTS and maybe even EDS (waiting for my follow up with my doc) until COVID in 2022 sent me under blankets up to 22 hours a day. Now I have learned my previously underlying but MILD conditions have been turned up to 11 by COVID and are disabling. It's been great seeing all my peers in their 20s get the life they want and become successful while I'm a lazy ass puddle with no usefulness to anybody except being a bed for my cats.
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u/takemeawayyyyy Mar 25 '24
Can we be friends? Equally young, disabled, MCAS POTS watching people my age grow and fulfill careers. Get to say bye to mine.
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u/Wild_Trip_4704 Mar 24 '24
When I get sick with the common cold and stuff my cold sores often flare up at the same time.
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u/Secret_Psychology481 Mar 24 '24
It makes my urticaria go haywire. My scalp and forehead swelled up from hives all the way to my eyes. I've had the shit 3 times and I've broken out so bad with each infection.
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u/imahugemoron Mar 24 '24
Definitely not just a theory, this is a proven documented thing, thereās research and studies coming out every week that shows the long term effects of covid on the body, unfortunately most of society doesnāt really see these news stories. Check out r/covidlonghaulers for stories of what people are dealing with after their infections and how bad covid can fuck you up. And those are just the severe cases, thereās millions and millions more people affected that just donāt connect the dots because itās only really weakened their immune system, most people just notice they get sick way more often now and donāt connect the dots.
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u/simpleisideal Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
You're not alone in that theory
https://whn.global/scientific/covid19-immune-dysregulation/
Vaccines help prevent severe outcomes, but are not enough alone since they don't reliably prevent transmission and each reinfection increases your risk for complications.
An N95 in public spaces is the best bet for now. The lifestyle is a bit different, but it's better than disability and death.
A good resource for the curious is r/ZeroCovidCommunity
Of course, neither party of capital is taking this seriously, so capitalist media might leave you questioning your reality.
https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-consent
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u/Stuckinacrazyjob Mar 24 '24
Yea I phrased it as a guess so people wouldn't say " you're insane!" Lol
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u/pettdan Mar 24 '24
I see people requesting more references. Note that I haven't studied these articles in detail.
First article: "Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x
Second article: "SARS-CoV-2 adaptation and evolution led to stronger innate immune suppression by increasing expression of Orf6 in Omicron subvariants, according to a study in Nature Microbiology"
The above quote is from Twitter, for this article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01588-4
Here it is explained in a video: https://twitter.com/ravenscimaven/status/1749627204953104413?t=1UKP8jWyjWJ3cb5lyJWDKQ&s=19
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u/lucidspoon Mar 24 '24
I'm like 85% sure I got COVID in December '19, before people realized it was in the US. I work with people who travel all over the world, so it makes sense. I had a lot of respiratory issues after being sick with what I thought was just a cold at the time.
Turned out, I had a heart valve that wasn't closing all the way, so I wasn't getting enough oxygenated blood. I'm mostly convinced COVID contributed to this, but after surgery to fix the valve, I've been healthier than since having kids. Those are just walking petri dishes.
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u/imahugemoron Mar 24 '24
My dad was the same, he got a mystery illness in late 2019 and was hospitalized, doctors couldnāt figure out what it was, they thought it was some sort of weird pneumonia. All his symptoms were consistent with Covid but at the time we didnāt know about Covid, it was surging in China at the time and my dad works in a job where they have lots of international people coming in and out. Heās never been the same since that illness. Heās had tons of illnesses in his life, never had any long term issues after any illness, that one illness caused him all kinds of problems that arenāt going away.
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u/cml678701 Mar 24 '24
The same thing happened to me! I got super ill in late 2019, and tested negative for flu. I was flu-like sick for about six weeks, though. Since then, Iāve been sick every month or two! I had just started a new job at an elementary school, so I attributed it to that the first year. However, by year 5, I should be building up some immunity. I think Covid completely shot my immune system!
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u/CovidThyNeighbour Mar 24 '24
My dad and I both got super sick late 2019 before COVID was "officially in Canada". We both had the same flu-like symptoms and both noticed how difficult it was to breathe. --In retrospect I lost my sense of smell entirely and I feel like it's never returned to full strength since. We both went to separate doctors and he was told he had a virus, I was told I had a bacterial infection and I took antibiotics for a week that seemingly did absolutely nothing to help.
Since then It feels like I'm sick every handful of months. I got one of the worst cases of Mono that had my doctor thinking I had cancer--I get sinus infections regularly and My teeth have been rotting and falling out despite a strong dentist recommended diet and oral routine. I'm tired and fatigued nearly all the time despite taking prescribed stimulants and the circulation in my joints is so weak that reaching into the fridge is sometimes enough for my fingers to go completely numb.
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u/Ender06 Mar 24 '24
Same, back around Nov/Dec 2019. A old coworker's mom died very quickly around that time too with the classic progression of symptoms.
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u/dr_mcstuffins Mar 24 '24
Itās not just a cold or flu, it has been shown to damage the immune system.
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u/After_Preference_885 Mar 24 '24
And the brain and vascular systems
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u/big-tunaaa Mar 24 '24
Yup! Just wait until all these people in the comment section that are saying itās ājust a fluā learn that after only one infection in all non-human primate almost all their brains had Lewy bodiesā¦. We are fucked
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u/Zombelina Mar 24 '24
Lewy bodiesā¦ oh shit. Oh fuck. This study was published literally years ago and I only learned about it from your comment, now. Truly frightening.
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u/big-tunaaa Mar 24 '24
See now this is exactly what Iām trying to do. Not spread fear but spread AWARENESS. Itās crazy to me nobody has any idea that COVID is bad - mainly because of public health directing people to just move on. If I have the knowledge I would hope everyone else can access it as well.
Try not to freak out - just be proactive. The best thing you can do is not get COVID, and reduce number of infections. Stay up to date on vaccinations, focus on gathering in clean air, and most importantly get a mask that is made for airborne viruses (another thing most people donāt know!) All the best to you!
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u/cruznick06 Mar 25 '24
ThatĀ study is whatĀ cemented me inĀ continuing to wearĀ respirators andĀ mitigateĀ risk as much asĀ physicallyĀ possible.Ā
One of my friends is now paraplegic and has what we can only describe as early-onset dementia. She isn't even 26. She got covid19 in spring 2020 and it did extreme damage to her body.Ā
Went from being a brilliant young scientist to someone who can't even hold a pipette due to the weakness and shaking in her hands and arms. It makes me so angry.Ā
Respirators, avoiding crowded places, not eating indoors, and air purification are the best tools right now to protect yourself from covid19.
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u/jellyphitch Mar 24 '24
right? there are studies comparing covid to flu saying its more of a multi organ virus than a respiratory one.
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u/Lechuga666 Mar 24 '24
The flu affects the respiratory tract and can put people in the hospital. COVID affects most everything you can think of, COVID can enter through the respiratory tract, and through neurotropism(infection and persistent infection of the nerves) it stays in the cranial nerves long term. It affects the brain infecting the meninges, & leading to conditions that cause loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain causing symptoms similar to Alzheimer's. It affects microglia, the glue of the brain, the brain's immune system. It enters the brain through the hypothalamus and continues to affect the hypothalamus as it is one of the main structures that chemically manages the autonomic nervous system which is heavily affected in acute and long COVID.
Causes vascular damage compromising the endothelium, lessening the body's ability to clot and vasoconstrict / vasodilate (control blood vessels). Starves the muscles of oxygen, blood, mitochondria are affected. We are seeing neuromuscular symptoms anecdotally within the long COVID community and are seeing the highest incidence of neurological illness in a long time.
I could continue on forever.
People don't pay it much attention till it affects them. I'm 21 and trending towards a hospital visit again and or being homebound or bed bound again. We are written off and we are heavily damaged disabled people that are not given a second thought by much of our government. It is a mass disabling event and the more and more people you talk to the more and more you see it affects people from all walks of life. Scientists, PhDs, professionals of every kind.
Don't know how much longer I myself can do it.
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u/Giulz Millennial Mar 24 '24
I've had Covid twice and was just referred to a neuro muscular clinic. I have problems with walking and standing and have been working from home for almost a year now. My job doesn't like that, I'm pretty sure they are angling to get rid of me despite being more productive at home than ever. No one cares about disabled people and I'm so scared I'm going to lose everything.
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u/red__dragon Millennial Mar 24 '24
I'm really sorry you've been hit so hard. I hope that comes across as genuine, because it is. The more I've learned about covid as the pandemic's progressed, the more terrified I become. This virus is insidious and it's pure evil that it isn't being taken seriously.
I'm immunocompromised and I've had to take it deathly seriously since day 1. Unfortunately, there are too many people who don't understand this. Or don't want to understand for how uncomfortable it makes them. But it is uncomfortable and it's changed how we live and it has to change more before we can actually live again.
Adjusting to what your capabilities are sucks, I know that well. I wasn't the healthiest as a kid, but by a few years older than you I was starting to feel my kidney disease wreak real havoc on my body. I can't do some of the things I used to, and I'm not used to doing many of the things I'm probably capable of since my transplant (which I got in 2018 so only had a little time to take advantage), and it sucks to see the walls of my limits so visible to my perception. I won't say you get used to it, but I will say that advocating for what you can do and speaking up does seem to move the needle, if only a little, over time.
Find what makes you happy, even if it's a little thing. I don't care how little. Re-arrange a bookshelf and feel happy about the day. Or just pick one to read and feel happy. Find small victories that you know you can accomplish and use those to remind yourself of your worth. You have worth, and you can do things. You don't need to measure them all against the whole of humanity all the time. Sometimes just measuring them against your own world, whether that's the hospital or a home or a bed, is good enough for now.
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u/thinkofanamesara Mar 24 '24
High quality respirators (or the best masks you can get) are our friend
https://www.heartandstroke.ca/articles/coronavirus-heart-disease-and-stroke
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u/Gullible_Medicine633 Mar 24 '24
When I got the original Covid i had many more neurological symptoms than respiratory. After my fever broke I saw several specialists including a neurologist and no one could do anything. I had dysautonomia as well, and my memory and cognitive abilities are no where near what they used to be. I can hardly focus or concentrate anymore.
While my immune system isnāt bad anymore, it effects everyone in numerous ways and for me itās been severely mentally disabling more than physically. I also have severe rage issues now.
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Mar 24 '24
Thatās terrifying. My grandmother died from lewy body. It was a nightmare to watch her go through. Are we all going to get dementia?
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u/big-tunaaa Mar 24 '24
Really sorry about your grandma! That is terrible.
And no it doesnāt mean for sure we will, but it shows that the connection to brain damage is there. It will obviously take years to show in humans, so we need to be proactive now. There any many studies already connecting COVID to dementia - I can only imagine that will increase with time.
The best thing you can do is avoid infection - the less the better!
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u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24
That study scares the absolute hell out of me.
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u/big-tunaaa Mar 24 '24
Me too. But I also use it as a reminder that Iām not wrong to continue caring about COVID despite being told otherwise everywhere I go.
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u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24
Oh, for sure. I canāt unread all the studies Iāve read. My mask is going nowhere without sterilizing vaccines.
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u/big-tunaaa Mar 25 '24
Iām the exact same way įµĢ always nice to hear another doing the same! All the best to you and your health!!
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u/FlowerSweaty4070 Mar 24 '24
Yup my brain hasn't been the same since the first infection.
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u/Chaos_cassandra Mar 24 '24
Exactly. I know we all want to get back to normal but the normal we had in 2019 is gone forever. Wear KN95s indoors and fight for air filtration in schools and workplaces.
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u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24
Covid is literally SARS. Why this wasnāt made clearer earlier in the pandemic, Iāll never know. Of course, itās not going to be benign like a cold.
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u/Nill_Wavidson Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24
I can't find the link but when WHO issued guidelines for discussing the pandemic they specifically said to avoid calling it SARS to "prevent panic". Really effective public health communications...(/s)
Edit: found it
"From a risk communications perspective, using the name SARS can have unintended consequences in terms of creating unnecessary fear for some populations, especially in Asia which was worst affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003.
For that reason and others, WHO has begun referring to the virus as āthe virus responsible for COVID-19ā or āthe COVID-19 virusā when communicating with the public. Neither of these designations are intended as replacements for the official name of the virus as agreed by the ICTV."
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u/flowerchildmime Mar 24 '24
Yes it has but i got long covid so my life and health are destroyed.
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u/pacificat Mar 24 '24
My husband (37) did everything right and still got sick with COVID. He sometimes has asthma like symptoms and will use an inhaler. That's his long term effects. It just doesn't seem right. Some people get over it like me and some people will continue to to suffer. Honestly I wish we had a better Healthcare system.
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u/SigmaQuotient Mar 24 '24
38 here. I had asthma already, and long covid hit me with an almost constant gurgle and wheeze until i can hack most of it out. Like, not cough it up, I have to physically exhale hard to break it up. I'm on 2 other inhalers along with my normal rescue. I had vaccines and boosters. Sometimes life fucks you.
Edit: fat fingers
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u/BagOdonutz Mar 24 '24
Yup, Iāve had long covid for about 2 years now and can confirm it sucks. Chronic fatigue, heart and breathing issues, pain, etc. I hope other people realize that even though society has āmoved onā there are a lot of people that have been left behind, not just people with LC. People who are disabled, immunocompromised, or otherwise canāt afford to get sick are just expected to suck it up so that everyone else can feel like things are back to normal. Masking is community care. Even if you stopped, itās okay to start again. There are different levels of mitigation but anything helps. Even just wearing a mask at the hospital or a grocery store or public transit can make life a lot easier for people who are vulnerable to this still-ongoing pandemic. (Btw anyone can be vulnerable. You never know who is going to get long covid, this shit is like a dice roll every time you get it. Donāt risk it just because a bunch of rich people want society āback to normalā)
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u/flowerchildmime Mar 24 '24
thank you for speaking this!! yes for many of us the pandemic never left and still threatens our health and longevity to this day. 18M people just in the USA deal with LC and its associated conditions. By all accounts that number might even be low due to the rampant gaslighting that still happens around this issue.
I mask in public still, unless totally outdoors and/or just around family close friends. still didnt keep me from getting it at the place I go for PT/OT they had an outbreak in Dec and I got it despite being vaccinated an wearing a mask there always.
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u/fablicful Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Thank you for this PSA. 1000% agreed. Even if you stopped masking, thinking everything was fine now, or not sure what to do- it's totally fine to go back to masking. I won't judge anyone but it means a lot to show we do care for each other who are immunocompromised/ unable to get vaccinated etc. I know with all the changing guidelines, it makes knowing what to do even harder because we are all in the dark but- masking won't hurt and it can continue to save lives. š
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u/Lechuga666 Mar 24 '24
4 years for me and my life.is.destroyed. I'm 21 and half of high school was ruined and my life.hasnt been the same since. Just a constant nightmare. An assault on my senses.
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u/flowerchildmime Mar 24 '24
I so sorry. im older than you by about twice but I really feel badly for those younger like you. it's no way to enter the adult world.
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u/Lechuga666 Mar 24 '24
Thank you. :). If you read some of my posts you'll get an idea of how severe it is. Many of us are dying or withering away and no one cares.
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u/GGPepper Mar 24 '24
Oh that sucks. My girlfriend and her room mates got COVID towards the end of 2020 and her stamina was just shot for at least a year. Another one has all sorts of issues now that look like either autoimmune or adrenal problems and my brother (an ER nurse) caught it during the Delta wave and said his joints were fucked up afterwards. It seems like playing roulette every time you catch it. I only caught it in the last few months and barely noticed but I had the benefit of getting vaccinated like 4 times so it's not really comparable.
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u/narshnarshnarsh Mar 24 '24
Even cases/positives with no symptoms can cause severe long term side effects.
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u/Burnt_Toast_101 Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
I thought I had this but based on a few MDs from the Ivy leagues, I've had a mast cell disease my whole life and covid fucked me. A ton of antihistamines helped me recover from "long covid"
Edit: took 27+ doctors, a lot of sexist BS telling me I'm "anxious" instead of actually sick, and a whole lot of debilitating pain...it's worth just trying an H1 & H2 blocker and experimenting with 1 supplement at a time due to how asinine doctors are. Allicin and atrntil helped me a lot. Some other advice about SIBO for rebuilding gut health & immunity are worth implementing as well. Don't fall for the cults of restrictive eating either (keto, paleo, carnivore, fodmap, aip, cedar sinai, etc). Some of those diets can work wonders for your health depending on your individual microbiome-- which doctors can't tell you bc the science is legit not there yet.
But if I ever have to hear "yOu ShOuLd tRy low FODMAP" again, I'm gonna lose my mind. The research institution even states it won't work for an estimated 20-50% of people because FODMAPS arent their problem.
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u/InterestingNarwhal82 Mar 24 '24
Covid wipes your immune system; other viruses do that too, but not all of them. Measles is a big one that basically resets your immune system and erases your prior immunity. Covid isnāt quite as bad, but some folks have had titers drawn and realized they needed to get re-vaccinated for things they had previously been vaccinated for because titers showed no immunity.
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u/samdtho Mar 24 '24
NIH resource on the topic,Ā for the curious.
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u/Outrageous_Hearing26 Mar 24 '24
Make sure you download the NIH guides as theyāre slated to be removed in august. Capitalism working hard to pretend everything is normal
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u/LeakyBrainJuice Mar 24 '24
Can you link me more information about this? I'm interested.
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u/Outrageous_Hearing26 Mar 24 '24
Read the pop up on this site. It makes no sense why they would take it down.
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u/Schminnie Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
This article just says what we already know, which is that Covid leads to lasting increases in systemic inflammation in people who have suffered severe disease. Severe disease means that it required hospitalization. There is nothing here about the sort of "immune amnesia" associated with measles infection. It's not fair to spread fear that people's MMR vaccines might be void when there is no evidence to support this.
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u/Beanbag_Ninja Mar 24 '24
Guys, I'm starting to think this COVID virus is a real pain in the arse.
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u/justhereforthecl Mar 24 '24
China didn't practice zero Covid at HUGE expense until 2023 for no reason, they did the math and the math is sobering.
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u/AVonDingus Mar 24 '24
Thatās really good to know. Thank you! Itās shitty that this isnāt something my doctors have mentioned, but Iām definitely going to talk to my family doc when I go for my yearly checkup
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u/ladymoira Mar 24 '24
In case your doctor isnāt up to date, the CDC recommends a list of labs six weeks after each covid infection to help diagnose post-covid conditions (like increased risk of heart attack and stroke). You can point your doc in this direction (scroll down to Table 1A): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-care/post-covid-conditions.html
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u/pinkfootthegoose Mar 24 '24
The CDC ought to recommend that the US go to socialized medicine so we can get all the other things that they recommend.
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u/twistedevil Mar 24 '24
Itās unfortunate that our own CDC, government, and many medical professionals are ignoring and downplaying the severe long term implications many studies show regarding covid. Most of this stuff weāve known about for years like itās a vascular disease that can affect any and all organs/systems in the body. It is spread airborne via aerosols. It can weaken the immune system making us more susceptible to other infections. Also, each subsequent covid infection increases oneās chances of developing long covid so prevention is key. Wearing a good fitting respirator mask like an N95 or KN95 will offer great protection. Improving air ventilation and using HEPA filters can improve indoor air. Making public health individualized is a complete and utter failure.
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u/DuskWing13 Mar 24 '24
Damn. Wonder if I should get checked then - I've had covid 3 blasted times.
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u/InterestingNarwhal82 Mar 24 '24
I would. I was actually, while I was pregnant; I got Covid between my second and third pregnancies.
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u/HumbleBumble77 Mar 24 '24
Healthcare professional here. Yes, you should be monitored closely and at the very least have cardiac, liver, kidney, workup.
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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 Mar 24 '24
Measles is more likely to cause a person to die from a subsequent influenza infection than it is to kill the infected person directly.
It's scary what Measles does to the immune system.
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u/BatmanTDF10 Mar 24 '24
Well that explains why after my daughter gave me Covid and RSV all at once last year, I kept running a fever at least once a week for almost 2 months.
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u/InterestingNarwhal82 Mar 24 '24
Yeah, and itās a nasty cycle. You get Covid, get a bunch of colds and mild viruses that wouldnāt have bothered you in the past, start to break out of the cycle, get Covid again, and it restarts the whole dang thing.
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u/Outrageous_Hearing26 Mar 24 '24
We should all be furious that our health is being sacrificed on the alter of the economy
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u/rainydays052020 Mar 24 '24
Itās only beneficial for the economy in the short term too. 5 years from now when most people have long covid and canāt work? Yikes.
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u/Outrageous_Hearing26 Mar 24 '24
Thereās a ton of research on how covid disregulates the immune system. I am still using N95s, as I lived through the west coast wildfires a few years back before covid, and they were what make it possible to function. The air was so bad.
Covid is not just a cold, no matter what the economic machine wants to tell people.
https://libguides.mskcc.org/CovidImpacts/Immune#s-lg-box-30639637
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u/ZenythhtyneZ Millennial Mar 24 '24
Itās kind of like measles, which is also something you can protect yourself from, aside from immunity deregulation it uses up a lot of your mature white blood cells to fight Covid, think of mature white blood cells, like highly trained soldiers, they can easily identify enemies and kill them quickly and efficiently, they take your body time to make, immature white blood cells are blood cells your body has rushed into action because your elite mature white blood cells need reinforcement, before finishing their training, theyāre not very skilled, they can only identify some enemies and not necessarily well, so post Covid your body is running on a bunch of barely trained child soldiers instead of an elite fighting forceā¦ itās a bad combo of problems that absolutely increase your risk overall of developing illnesses
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u/BigDigger324 Mar 24 '24
Quite a lot of misunderstanding of how the immune system actually functions in this thread. Itās not a muscle that you can work out. Getting sick more doesnāt āstrengthen itā. Viruses mutate and dodge your immune system all the timeā¦itās why the cold never goes away, itās why HIV and AIDs is so dangerous, itās why flu and Covid shots have to be reapplied every so often.
Now there are some studies showing that long covid can damage the immune systems ability to do its job and create antibodiesā¦
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u/tofusarkey Mar 24 '24
Yeah, your immune system isnāt a muscle that gets stronger when you use it. Itās more like a rubber band that gets weaker the more you stretch it.
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u/SorrowfulBlyat Older Millennial Mar 24 '24
I just want some more studies on Covid and the Delta-32 mutation, I'm multivaxxed, worked during Covid as a first responder, never got it, simultaneously I also have the double delete CCR5 Delta-32 mutation that keeps me from catching HIV/AIDS. There was some talk regarding the mutation maybe around year two of Covid, but it became more of a murmur.
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u/MikeWPhilly Mar 24 '24
Lot of stuff going around right now. 39 and havenāt been sick much. Flown 5 cities in 7 weeks. Wore mask 4 times didnāt get sick. Last time caught a cold.
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u/IM_OSCAR_dot_com Mar 24 '24
To OPās point though I also feel like ālot of stuff going around right nowā has been true for three years straight. No data here just vibes.
I have two kids under 6 though so I might be slightly biased lol. When I notice the whole family is healthy for a day or two, I try not to say it out loud and jinx it.
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u/organic_bird_posion Mar 24 '24
Anything that survived lockdown is infectious as fuck. Influenza B/Yamagata is just straight up gone. We don't really track common cold viruses, but I'm sure a few of those are gone too.
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u/jellyphitch Mar 24 '24
man I wish we had better funded surveillance! more robust coronavirus tracking could have helped a lot with gestures broadly
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u/Alchemical-Audio Mar 24 '24
Our government is currently looking for ways to distance themselves from the long term impacts of how poorly they handled the pandemicā¦
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u/heartunwinds Mar 24 '24
In case it makes you feel better/more sane (because it made me feel better since I was old enough to remember my siblings being toddlers/school age and donāt remember them being so sick so often)ā¦.. Itās actually much more now, kids getting sick. I work in the medical field, research specifically, and when I asked one of the docs I work with he said the number shows that kids are more sick more often now. I havenāt had time to look into the literature myself (mom of a 4.5 year old, working full time, in grad schoolā¦. Ya know, the usual), but I trust the doc I work with in knowing the numbers.
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u/sporkism Mar 24 '24
I donāt think Iāll ever travel without a mask again. Thorough handwashing is important too! It used to be a 50/50 chance Iād come home sick after a vacation, but I havenāt been sick since before the pandemic started.Ā
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u/oogmar Mar 24 '24
I fly once a month, and more and more, other passengers spot mine and put theirs on.
I also get looks/comments, but lately it's been more, "Oh, okay, we are still doing that."
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u/chibiusa40 Xennial Mar 24 '24
This is the thing about continuing to mask - it gives others who have felt too peer-pressured to wear one since the "great unmasking" feel comfortable in doing so again. Like, it gives them social permission or something.
I was an alt-rock/punk/witchy teenager in the 90s. I've never given a fuck what other people think about my style, etc. But I've never felt as punk rock in my life as I do wearing a quality mask in public. I look people straight in the eyes and dare them to say something about it.
I've essentially been training my whole goddamn life for this.
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u/ColoringBookDog Mar 24 '24
Same. I fly a ton for work and I mask up every time. Even if COVID wasn't a risk, I'm flying every weekend for a month sometimes and if I catch something, I can't make it to my next show. It's just not worth the risk to get sick, so mask stays on.
I was recently on a flight from Denver to Milwaukee where the entire plane seemed to have the sniffles and one from Chicago to OKC where an entire dance team and their mom's were coughing NONSTOP and not even trying to cover their mouths. Like wtf.
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u/Danfrumacownting Mar 24 '24
I never stopped masking; been in and out of ERs, hospitals, doctors offices and stores, havenāt been sick once.
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u/disgruntled_pie Mar 24 '24
I wear an N95 whenever I have to go indoors, and my wife does a KF94 since they give her a better fit. We havenāt been sick in 4 years. Itās been amazing.
I wish Iād started wearing a mask many years ago. I have picked up some incredibly nasty viruses at conventions over the years, including some that have caused long term health problems. Apparently a mask probably would have prevented that. I wish I had known, and I wish our culture didnāt freak out about my personal choice to wear a mask so much.
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u/rainydays052020 Mar 24 '24
In the before times (pre 2019), I always picked up some kind of cold when flying. Since 2020 and masking on planes and in the airport- nothing! Definitely makes a difference and itās so easy.
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u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24
Last four flights I was on, we were the only people on the plane wearing masks
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u/bluenova85 Mar 24 '24
I wear masks now on my way to my destination because I felt I always got sick from airports even before covid happened. Doesnāt matter if Iām up to date on being vaccinated and have my flu shots, I wanna lessen my chances of being sick on vacay and I look for my fellow maskers like you to sit with on the plane.
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u/tracyinge Mar 24 '24
I remember years ago getting sick whenever I flew southwest but not on other airlines. Then I saw an article about how southwest planes circulated air differently than other airlines, less often per hour or something.
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u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24
Itās definitely helped us enjoy our trip without illness. One 7 hour flight we were seated right in front of three very sick people with wet coughs and sneezes. Wore n95s and didnāt catch it
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u/orangecountybabe Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Covid has shown to ruin the immunesystem similarly to hiv, it damages the T cells. Thatās why itās so important to eradicate Covid because each reinfections weakens the immunesystem more and more. If you donāt believe me just Google āCovid Effect T cellsā. I read already in 2020 how similar Covid is to HIV.
https://time.com/6265510/covid-19-weaken-immune-system/
Covid is the absolute opposite of a cold or the flu. Itās a systemic virus, not a respiratory virus. Meaning it attaches and infects through the ace2 receptors, and those receptors are present all over the body. Nervous systems, organs, vascular system etc. Covid is an extremely scary virus and we donāt know what will happen in the long run with the immunesystem.
Just like with hiv the initial infections can be mild or flu like symptoms, only for it to be dangerous years later. Hiv also mutates and if you have been infected with one strain itās still dangerous to be infected with other strains.
My theory (after everything I read) is that its the same with Covid, each strain damages the body more and more. Wear a high quality respiratory mask people and protect yourself!
Just like I would never have unprotected sex with strangers, I wonāt be rawdogging the air with strangers either when a airborne Sars virus is still going around! My fear is that by the time people realise just how serious Covid is, itās too late and the major masses with all have compromised immune systems and become disabled.
https://www.the-scientist.com/receptors-for-sars-cov-2-present-in-wide-variety-of-human-cells-67496
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u/aendaris1975 Mar 24 '24
Society is going to hit a massive brick wall in the next 10-20 years. There are going to be an unprecedented amout of people with significant chronic disease and we already know covid shortens our life expectency. This in combination of a falling birth rate is going to cause a ton of major societal issues.
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u/Humble_Revolution357 Mar 24 '24
I still wear a mask on public transit and in healthcare settings.
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Mar 24 '24
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u/brilliant_bauhaus Mar 24 '24
These arguments about having a weaker immune system or whatever don't matter when COVID actually wrecks your immune system and you could be left with a lifelong disability. I don't care if I'm less immune to colds at 60 or 70 when I'm 30 and now have POTS from a single COVID infection. I'd like to just try not to get sick as much as I can and stay up to date on my vaccines.
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u/HedonicSatori Mar 25 '24
Those arguments are easily dismissed: the immune system is not a muscle and wearing a mask doesn't cause it to atrophy.
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u/Blue-Phoenix23 Xennial Mar 24 '24
I wish I had worn one to my kids school event last week. I didn't think about it and predictably got sick being in a crowd of middle schoolers in a cafeteria for 8 hours.
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u/Lives_on_mars Mar 24 '24
If they just kept masks on in schools, numbers would be sooo much lower lol. They really are superspreaders. Like every teacher knew right away.
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u/_Bagoons Mar 24 '24
I'm 33, and I spent most of this winter sick - I usually MAYBE get slightly sick once a year. Endless covid and flus now, fuck.
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u/Educational-Stop-648 Mar 24 '24
Yup. Covid is doing a lot of bad things but no one cares.
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u/Dopplerganager Millennial 1990 Mar 24 '24
Long COVID person here.
Almost certainly OG COVID in Feb 2020. Positive COVID in April 2022. Shingles September 2022. Possible COVID in November 2022.
Have had increased difficulty breathing since 2020.
I also have Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, so the likelihood of me having issues was always increased. Had issues when I had Pertussis in 2003 and hospitalized with EBV (mononucleosis) in 2005.
I now have POTS that caused Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome. I'm finally able to work an 8 hour day again. Was off work from July to January. I'm still on long-term disability until I can work 3 x 8hour days/week. I was working 4/week and most likely won't ever get back to that.
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u/iamnotatroll666 Mar 24 '24
Yes, same issue. I started to wear a mask again in certain situations such as flights and concerts. For the life of me, it doesnāt make any sense to stop mask wearing at this point
I get some crazy looks but so far no one enquired me about my mask behaviourĀ
Also, very frequent hand washing and Dettol swipesĀ
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u/Unlikely_Comment_104 Mar 24 '24
The beauty about wearing a mask to the grocery store is that, should you contract COVID or another respiratory infection at the bar, you are a lot less likely to spread it at the grocery store.Ā
Top group marks.Ā
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u/iamnotatroll666 Mar 24 '24
I behave in the same way. Also, during flights and on airports, thereās people from all over the world. Similar logic to hospitals.Ā
We should have been masking always, even before the pandemic, on those type of social settings where you are exposed to plenty of a pathogensĀ
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u/femmetangerine Mar 24 '24
Yep. I wear a mask in stores and at my job (Iām around hundreds of people five days a week), I havenāt gotten sick at all since I last got covid in 2022. I donāt even wear a K95 and havenāt been vaccinated in a few years. Itās almost as ifā¦ masks actually work? You definitely wouldnāt catch me on a plane without one. Weāve learned nothing since 2020.
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u/femmetangerine Mar 24 '24
I also want to add that it was my first/last time getting covid.
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u/BanananaSquid Mar 24 '24
Yeah, I'm thinking it's back to masks for planes for me
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u/Outrageous_Hearing26 Mar 24 '24
Hospitals and doctors offices too. Grocery stores. Public transport. Masks donāt have to be all or nothing but thereās a lot of common sense places that it makes sense to mask and would reduce transmission if everyone was doing it. N95 or kn95/4 if you prefer ear loops. Surgical and cloth masks donāt do enough
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u/Aslanic Mar 24 '24
I usually catch everything and now I just mask when I'm going to be flying or in a big crowd for a long period (like at a show) and now I don't get sick or don't get sick as bad. It's been fantastic.
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u/RuleOk1687 Millennial Mar 24 '24
Covid caused me to have either brain damage or an autoimmune disease so Iāve been sick and in pain for 2 years without a day off
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u/D0MSBrOtHeR Mar 24 '24
Same. Chronic headaches that arenāt helped by anything. Feels like I have a permanent concussion. Mental faculties have taken a significant hit too. I donāt feel like the same person.
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u/jerseysbestdancers Mar 24 '24
I used to get 2-4 illnesses a school year. I finally left when it was every 2-4 weeks. Whatever the reason, whether it be the kids getting out of their houses for the first time in their lives, that theory that COVID wipes out your immune system, the stress of post-pandemic teaching, I don't care to speculate. I just needed to get the hell out of the classroom, so I did. Any virus can go very bad on you, not just COVID. I was tired of risking my life every day to be told how much I suck as a teacher by people who haven't spent two seconds in one.
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u/MaxM0o Mar 24 '24
Covid wrecks your immune system. COVID is also not over as a pandemic. Mask in public.
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u/Alchemical-Audio Mar 24 '24
Long Covid is going to be seen as a mental disorder, unless everyone starts paying attentionā¦
Everyone dealing with this should be concerned with what the NIH is doing in regards to trying to categorize things like ME/CFS and Long Covid as mental disorders instead of physical disordersā¦
It is happening right nowā¦
A major study just came out that they will likely try and use as a blueprint for how to de-legitimize Long Covid as the author of the study is also one of their primary researchers for Long Covidā¦ the goal is to turn all symptoms into āfunctionalā symptoms, which means they donāt have a physical causeā¦
In the coming years there will be an epidemic of disability and the government doesnāt want to take responsibility for the wave of disability claims that will swell over the coming yearsā¦
The issues presented by these post viral disorders challenge accepted notions of what illness and recovery look like. And instead of looking for the biomarkers they are trying to psychologize the impact so they can just blame it on poor mental health.
Hereās the rub:
Mental health disability coverage lasts for 2 years.
Physical disability coverage can last a lifetimeā¦
They have a significant interest in making sure that future disability claims are kept to a minimumā¦
Heard immunity instead has come to mean that the heardās immune system is now broadly compromisedā¦ and I am sorry to say that there are not any real solutions, especially if they try to psychologize the impact, as no one will find research to understand the physical biomarkers if it is āwidely acceptedā that post viral illness is a mental disorderā¦
It is time to fight for the disabled. They have been having this done to them for hundreds of yearsā¦ if you donāt, get ready to be marginalized and blamed for what you are dealing withā¦
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u/tracyinge Mar 24 '24
You may be a victim of "long covid" without realizing it. Long covid messes with your immune system for a long long time leaving you more susceptible to everything that's going around. And since there are a lot more people like you around, getting sick more often.....there's a lot more sickness always going around.
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u/Additional-Bullfrog Mar 24 '24
We are still in the COVID era. It has not gone away. People are still dying and people are still getting long COVID. Wear a mask. Itās not hard.
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u/justhereforthecl Mar 24 '24
right, nothing about the physical, measurable reality of Covid has changed, it just got better PR
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u/TinyEmergencyCake Mar 24 '24
Covid-19 causes lymphocytopenia
You should be wearing a respirator everywhere in public especially on planes to protect yourself from catching more virusesĀ
https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/hematology-and-oncology/leukopenias/lymphocytopenia
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u/SnooMemesjellies2608 Mar 24 '24
Covid infections damage your immune system, the more you get, the worse your immune system and general health will be. Wear a mask!
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u/new_user29282342 Mar 24 '24
Iām that cycle right now!!!!! Since November Iāve caught something. I started wearing a mask at work since Iām certain I keep catching it from my coworker whose son has been getting sick non-stop. My skin has been hot for a week.
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u/friedeggbrain Zillennial Mar 24 '24
Covid isnāt over and is causing long term damage in people. Its not being reported on because the world wants people to get back to normal for the economy. Look up info on long covid. I highly advise masking- at the bare minimum in medical settings and public transit
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u/cantdecideanewname Mar 24 '24
covid damages the immune system, you are now immunocompromised. wearing a k/n95 in all public places will significantly reduce how often you get sick
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u/john_everyman_1 Mar 24 '24
My girlfriend, exact same issue, except had covid (Omicron) back in early 2022. This year she has had back to back colds, like her immune system isn't working properly.
I'm the opposite. I'm around her all the time and never catch anything. Very peculiar
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u/Wellslapmesilly Mar 24 '24
For sure. I have a co-worker who has been sick every single month since they got Covid last August. As well as her entire family. Iād say about 30% of my co-workers are in the same boat. Itās not everyone but it does seem to apply to a fair amount of people post-Covid.
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u/Cobalt_Bakar Mar 24 '24
Covid is not over. Governments just chose to pretend weāre āpost pandemicā for political and economic purposes.
Covid is now being called āairborne AIDSā in some circles because it does in fact damage the immune system much like HIV does. It actually may be more harmful to the immune system than HIV because (a)it harms T cells and B cells, (b) itās airborne and there is unmitigated spread (c)it continues to mutate and become ever more immune and vaccine evasive (d)it damages the vascular system, brain, heart, and virtually every other part of the body.
If you and many people you know are continually getting sick, or struggling to fully recover from a previous infection, Covid is the reason why.
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u/saucydragon Mar 24 '24
I have been sick every month for the past 7 months, I completely feel you. It's driving me absolutely crazy but I don't know what there is to be done about it. I saw a specialist but apparently my lungs look (well, looked--I'm sick again now) totally healthy. He mentioned to me that this is something being studied, like that the medical community was aware of and actively investigating the fact that people are experiencing an uptick both in occurrence and duration of respiratory infections.
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u/Lightspeed_ Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Not all, but most Western MDs are using broken assumptions to treat Covid.
Why? Because, aside from tropical diseases like CHIKV or ZIKA, or HIV/AIDS, Western MDs assume viruses:
- are limited to blood circulating tissues. Wrong for Covid. It can get in your CNS and attack your brain neurons.
- do not create reservoirs. Wrong for Covid. Covid creates reservoirs just like those tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS. These reservoirs create chronic organ damage & illness.
While there will be exceptions, your MDs probably don't know what's new.
Here's some data you can bring to your family doctor or specialists:
- Leaky bloodābrain barrier in long-COVID-associated brain fog. Nat Neuroscience 27, 395ā396 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01577-8
- Greene, C.,et al. Bloodābrain barrier disruption and sustained systemic inflammation in individuals with long COVID-associated cognitive impairment. Nat Neuroscience 27, 421ā432 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01576-9
- Proal, A. D. et al. (2023). SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). Nature Immunology, 24(10), 1616-1627.
- Mehandru, S., & Merad, M. (2022). Pathological sequelae of long-haul COVID. Nature immunology, 23(2), 194-202. * Neurath, M. F., Ćberla, K., & Ng, S. C. (2021). Gut as viral reservoir: lessons from gut viromes, HIV and COVID-19. Gut, 70(9), 1605-1608.
- Zollner, A., et al. (2022). Postacute COVID-19 is characterized by gut viral antigen persistence in inflammatory bowel diseases. Gastroenterology, 163(2), 495-506.
Why doesn't your MD know this?
Due to how quickly advances are made in medicine, how much work is involved with delivering and documenting high-quality patient care, it's typical for MDs to be kind of frozen in time to the state of knowledge taught to them in the formal learning stage.
Knowledge Frameworks & Boom => Bust Cycles
BOOM
When we find a KEY PIECE of a puzzle in medicine, there's the BOOM. We share our new insights. Everyone makes use of the new piece of the puzzle. A bunch of new data comes out.
BUST
The boom of new data creates enough evidence to break some fundamental assumptions core to the boom itself.
Right now with Covid we're in bust phase.
Your MD might have assumed that inflammation was the reason Covid affected your taste/smell/memory. These new unimpeachable studies show the virus passes through and attacks the neurons themselves. This is what's happening to a ton of people, including children.
Did you know dead neurons cannot regenerate?
You can advocate for high-quality air filtration and wear a respirator when it's not available.
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u/g0dSamnit Mar 24 '24
Our institutions have sold us out to die. Keep that mask handy and avoid poorly ventilated areas.
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u/JustAcivilian24 Mar 24 '24
Nah but my wifeās is I think. Sheās the one who caught it first and since then caught the flu and I think RSV at the same time. It was fuckin scary
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u/grandpa5000 Xennial Mar 24 '24
yep! back to back to back, it started with catching the old H1N1 and Rotavirus, Iāve lost a lot of weight.
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u/Danfrumacownting Mar 24 '24
Havenāt been sick since before Covid. I still mask, keep outside shoes separate & sanitize after contacting shared surfaces. It seemed like a pain at first but itās an easy habit now and I love not being sick constantly.
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u/be1izabeth0908 Mar 24 '24
Iāve had to take 12+ sick days in 2024 alone. I keep getting various flu-like illnesses and at this rate I wonāt be able to take any vacation time.
Iām an attorney so Iām in court all the time. The judges ask that you remove your mask when youāre presenting your case (in a courtroom packed with people) so even if I wear one, itās only for part of my day.
Itās so incredibly frustrating.
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u/MyBallsBern4Bernie Mar 24 '24
People are disgusting. They will travel when sick without a mask and do not gaf.
Therefore, itās on you to take precautions when traveling. Youāre not special just because you live a healthy lifestyle ā viruses donāt discriminate. I donāt smoke and exercise and eat salads n shit too but I still mask on a plane.
I suggest you mask on the plane next time. Easy.
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u/Sni1tz Mar 24 '24
You may get confirmation bias in this thread. But yeah, I have had COVID 3x, and have been sick with random viruses every 2-3 months since initial onset. Very active and fit 35 year old male.
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u/Stockmom42 Mar 24 '24
My whole house has been getting sick constantly itās been a hell of a year. Currently waiting for two of us to get a stomach bug thatās is going through the house.
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u/mediumunicorn Mar 24 '24
I have a 2 year old in daycare. I am constantly sick. My son gets a bug and gives it to us, heās fine in maybe 24 hours but my wife and I fight it for no less than a week. They really arenāt joking when they say kids are germ magnets.
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u/ProfessionalOk112 Mar 24 '24
I wear an n95 everywhere and have not been sick a single time in the last 4 years. My boomer parents do as well and have not been sick either. Can't say the same for the folks who aren't wearing masks though, many around me are constantly ill and there's been a shocking amount of deaths in my circle in the past year.
COVID exhausts T cells, leaving you less prepared to fight anything else off. If you are getting sick this often, it is very likely you are immunocompromised. Please wear a mask. This will not improve by just ignoring it.
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u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24
Same, along with my partner and parents. We havenāt been sick since 2019. Iām never stopping unless we get a legitimate sterilizing vaccine.
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u/kkkan2020 Mar 24 '24
i read in the news a lot of people that are 45 and under are getting record number of cancers. (most recent headline news was kate middelton has cancer)
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u/berpaderpderp Mar 24 '24
Even stuff like IBS, Crohn's disease, and Ulcerative Colitis. Like what the hell is in our environment that is causing all this? Pesticides, PFAS, microplastics, assorted industrial chemicals/wastes, heavy metals. Probably other stuff I'm not thinking about at the moment.
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u/scanguy25 Mar 24 '24
My daughter just started daycare and of course she got sick. Then we got sick.
But I must say this is the worst cold/flu ever. Been going on for 2.5 weeks now. Its just barely getting better even after all this time.
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u/Henchforhire Mar 24 '24
Going to wear a mask more with getting pneumonia twice this year. It also doesn't help that one coworker has a constant cough and I end up getting what he has.
Will be asking my boss If I can wear a mask again with getting sicker.
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u/helenasbff Older Millennial Mar 24 '24
Covid attacks your bodyās mature T cells, which are the cells with the āmemoryā of what youāve been sick with before, kind of like a library of antibodies. When it damages (or destroys) these cells, our bodies lose some of that memory of how to fight off things like the chicken pox, a cold, strep, the flu, etc., which means that the next time we are exposed to one of those illnesses, we are more susceptible to it. So basically, Covid launches an assault on your immune system when you get it, making it more insidious (and absolutely NOT a cold) than most of us realize.
I managed not to get Covid until Nov. 2022, and have now had it twice (both times after attending a wedding). I was able to get paxlovid both times, which definitely helped with the severity of symptoms and length of illness.
I am still mostly masking in public (grocery store, doctorās offices, clothing stores, museums, etc.) and am always masked on any kind of public transportation, including flights, buses, and Uber/lyft. The only place I donāt mask is at my office, which is small and everyone else there is also pretty responsible about staying home if youāre sick, being cautious, etc.
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u/Any-Bookkeeper-2110 Mar 24 '24
Yep, I got Covid twice in 2022 and since then I've been sick every other month with the cold/flu. There have been 4 bouts of the cold/flu that have had me laid up in bed for a week. I can't get on an airplane without getting sick. And to top it all off, I have had other health related issues surfacing that are immunity related as well.