Anecdotal information - what we see around us - is far, far less accurate when measuring risks than scientific studies; unfortunately, it's far more persuasive. We need to heed the science.
I don't actually know anyone who died of lung cancer from smoking. In fact, my grandmother smoked like a chimney and lived a very long life. And, back in my extremely social days of yore, I was a smoker surrounded by tons of people who smoked and none got lung cancer - that I know of. Yet I believe the science when studies show a direct connection between the two, so I quit smoking.
So many studies show a direct connection between Covid and profound brain damage, cardiovascular damage, lung damage, immune system damage, and so much more. Long Covid is a brutal condition. Jeff Gilchrist wrote out a very long list of possible damage to a person with even just a mild or asymptomatic initial case. I get that many people don't know anyone who has it, which makes it feel like it can't possibly be that serious or common. That's why its important to look at stats from random samples of the population (and from wastewater measures and from air measures to see how Covid-y it is out there) and to recognize how serious this disease really is.
Covid is far more prevalent and with far more frequent long term effects than freakin' polio (which was originally minimized as not as bad as whooping cough!).
From Gregory Travis:
"Polio killed 150,000 in the US between 1890 and 1960 (70 years) [before widespread vaccinations]. Covid killed 150,000 between September 2020 and December 2021. There were 115,000 polio cases at the peak in 1952. There were 34,000,000 Covid cases in 2021."
Fewer than 1% of polio infections result in paralysis. Possibly up to 20% of Covid infections result in Long Covid. Like polio, Covid is biphasic with an initial minor illness that resolves, followed later by a major illness. Unlike polio, we can get Covid over and over and over again, and each new infection dramatically increases the chance of getting Long Covid. It's not 20% of people who will get Long Covid, but 20% of infections.
That's a fuck ton.
But where are they all??
Up to 15% of smokers get lung cancer. Where are they all???
People don't like talking about their illnesses. And people who get really sick often just quietly slip out of our social circles. It's easy to overlook the people you just don't see anymore.
But they're there in the stats.
Some countries are experiencing economic downturns from the sheer number of absences from Covid, currently averaging 20 days/year in Germany. In an excellent piece at The Gauntlet, Julia Doubleday wrote about,
"the media's construction of an artificial out-group, which continually expanded and now comprises everyone harmed by Covid: past, present and future. If your health is harmed or destroyed by Covid, you are no longer part of the oft-mentioned 'most people' who have nothing to fear from the virus. Now you are 'other'. Your fate cannot inspire people to take precautions because you are not like them. You may be pitiable and unfortunate, but you aren't a canary in a coal mine. . . . Rather than limiting its damage to the so-called 'vulnerable', Covid reinfections continue to create more vulnerable people. Yes, the most vulnerable surely were killed at an alarming clip during the initial reopening; but twenty sick days a year for the average worker speaks to the failure of this blood sacrifice to save the rest of us. There was never a binary between 'people who can be harmed' and 'people who can't be harmed' by SARS-CoV-2; the public was simply encouraged to believe this in order to break our solidarity. . . . All of the sociopathic calculations behind the idea that 'letting it rip' would be 'good for the economy' was based on this now obviously false presumption: that herd immunity was achievable. . . . Recurrent infections being the reality - and herd immunity being impossible - the mass, unending infection approach carries obvious and compounding economic consequences."
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| From "What doctors wish patients knew about Covid reinfections." |
And from Friesein,
"There will come a day where the dangers of Covid are as widely-recognized as the toxicity of asbestos or lead. By then, there will be layers of plausible deniability in place for the people who sacrificed the health of our children in exchange for short-term economic interests. . . . We know that some authorities were aware at least as early as 2021 of evidence showing overt long term consequences of Covid-19, often in 30% or more cases studied. And that's not even counting subclinical cardiovascular damage that appears six months to a year later. . . . Authorities around the world know that Covid causes severe health issues even in healthy individuals, but they can't admit it in public or they would be sued into oblivion. So instead, they choose to ignore it. Or, at least, they pretend to ignore it. The virus causing Covid is a SARS virus. The long term effects of SARS viruses (e.g. SARS1, MERS) were well-known before the pandemic. In terms of medical evidence, it is neither surprising nor controversial that SARS-CoV-2 has long term effects."
It's everywhere, and it's dangerous to your health and well-being. Quit smoking to reduce your chances of lung cancer, and wear a mask to reduce your chances of Covid and Long Covid. There's no treatment, only prevention.
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