PLEASE READ THIS
“Chicken pox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't
think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays
in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you
have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get
over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We
know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied
medically for years.
"Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has
it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get
a little run down or stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak.
Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job
interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of
your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this
because it's been around for years, and been studied medically for
years.
"HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system, and makes
the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of
symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades
before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live
with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your
body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the
body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health
conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes,
bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of
cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been
studied medically for years.
"Now, with COVID-19, we have a novel
virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and
health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less
understood.
"So far the symptoms may include:
- Fever
- Fatigue
- Coughing
- Pneumonia
- Chills/Trembling
- Acute respiratory distress
- Lung damage (potentially permanent)
- Loss of taste (a neurological symptom)
- Sore throat
- Headaches
- Difficulty breathing
- Mental confusion
- Diarrhea
- Nausea or vomiting
- Loss of appetite
- Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)
- Swollen eyes
- Blood clots
- Seizures
- Liver damage
- Kidney damage
- Rash
- COVID toes (weird, right?)
"People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick
even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then
experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A
man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be
released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to
mention a $1.1 million medical bill.
"Then there is MIS-C.
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where
different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs,
kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with
MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain,
vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra
tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.
"This disease has not
been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet
the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down
the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know*
what we do not know.
"For those in our society who suggest that
people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even
the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them,
I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:
"How dare you?
"How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you
decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over
with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms"
case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some
people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also
know that 20 and 30 year olds have died, marathon runners and fitness
nuts have died, children and infants have died.
"How dare you
behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same
experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with
what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is
spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
- Frequent hand-washing
- Physical distancing
- Reduced social/public contact or interaction
- Mask wearing
- Covering your cough or sneeze
- Avoiding touching your face
- Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces
"The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the
better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve
and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that
aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces
unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific
community to study the virus in order to come to a more full
understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long
term.
"I reject the notion that it's 'just a virus' and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.”
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