A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org

@rchusid

The end of a government declared emergency doesn't *have* to be bad. Generally speaking if the problem is ongoing you would want the government to end the emergency phase when they have a plan for an ongoing response in place.

The real problem here is the government seems to just be washing their hands of it. They're pretending it's gone because there's virtually zero testing anymore, and so as the "cases" go down the deaths have to follow(can't die of COVID if no one tested you for COVID). I think one of the biggest problems at this point is that people keep reporting case and death numbers, comparing them to previous years, as if they mean anything at all. They don't.

@crooksandliars

Headline hits different when your little guy just had a 10th birthday a few weeks ago...

@pezmico

We've entered the data blackout phase of COVID in a lot of the world, unfortunately. My county in Florida, US has a 7 day average of 0 cases, officially. Because there's officially 0 cases there's officially 0 deaths.

Everyone here is acting as if that's because it's really gone and not because what started as one hospital's stubborn refusal to test for COVID, for at least the last year, now encompasses all three hospitals in the county. There's no municipal water here, everyone's on septic, so no wastewater samples to refute that, either.

@PollyWaugh

I always prefer to give lots of scientific studies for what I post, but, I don't have one for this. Just anecdotally I know of multiple people who have been treated, seemingly successfully so far, with Valtrex(Valaciclovir) for reactivation of EBV. It's one I keep an eye on because I had an absolutely horrible EBV case 20 years ago and that's probably my biggest COVID fear at this point. Might be worth bringing up with your doctors if they're not already looking at it.

Good luck with whatever treatment(s) they try for you!

@jik @alijonesie

You're spot on, but I'd like to add minimize not only the number of times, but the viral load if/when you do!

@fulanigirl @DrPsyBuffy

I find that this tracks pretty well with what I've seen from people I know. Their doctors consistently tell them "COVID doesn't do that" no matter what symptoms they present with post-COVID infection.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9448633/

@MrInappropriate

@maureen

Good luck!

@maureen

I wish you nothing but good luck with your new doctor. Anecdotally, I've heard good things about a stellate ganglion block in your type of situation, although it may need to be done repeatedly.

Hopefully something works for you soon!

@Ddiamond

A few recommendations:

@hannu_ikonen

@eeyam

@augieray

@CastlTrAstonDrs@med-mastodon.com

@Lorrrraaaaine @Geoffberner

Yeah, there's so many unfortunate things with COVID, but even the ones who avoid the worst of it are going to find out that aging faster isn't really all that great...

@CastlTrAstonDrs@med-mastodon.com @cellpress

This is a fantastic article. I had a lot of questions about this a few months back and did a lot of research. This answers most of those questions. Thank you for sharing it!

@neilhimself

My kids LOVED Chu when they were little. We'll have to get them into some of your other work now that they're older. Thank you for your writing!

@Lorrrraaaaine @Geoffberner

Aging's a tough one, because you certainly believe that you were going to age anyway. Take one of my friends since we were kids, for example. Whole family was super COVID cautious until his job required him back in the office, and traveling all over the country, beginning in around January of 2022. So, they decide to send the kids back to school, etc and just give up entirely on trying to avoid COVID. Of course, a few weeks later they all have COVID. They all feel better and start talking about how it really is "just a cold" and everything's fine and they can't believe spent so much time quarantining.

Anyway, 6 weeks later he starts telling me about this crippling arthritis that came out of nowhere. I mentioned it could happen post-COVID, but he really didn't want to hear that. His doctor backed up that belief and told him that COVID doesn't do that and he's just getting older and he should get used to it. We argued about it and simply haven't mentioned "COVID" again between us since, beyond the fact that they've now had it at least three or four times. A year later he still doesn't have the arthritis under any sort of control and he went from a guy running miles every early morning before work, for decades, to gaining 75 pounds and being unable to do much at all physically.

Aging? COVID? I know what I believe, but it's hard when *maybe* it's a coincidence, that's probably easier to believe since you made the decision to get COVID, and then your doctor tells you it is. We're mostly all getting crappy input from doctors and "experts" and so it's really no wonder that by and large we're wandering blindly down this path.

@Geoffberner

I hate to say it, but, time. I've been saying this for two years now, and it sure feels like it'll never happen, but, people are still convinced that it's just been "a couple of bad years" or that their health issues are coincidental to occurring in a global pandemic. Once they don't go away and people get tired of being sick all of the time public sentiment will begin to change, I think. Once people start to wistfully think about pre-pandemic times when they weren't sick so often. It *feels* like it's been forever, but it's really still a blip on the radar for a lot of people.

I was actually just talking to an older family member who I hadn't talked to since before the pandemic yesterday. She was telling me that her husband died in 2020 of COVID. But then she started talking about her health problems, and her daughter's been struggling, and her granddaughter's been sick practically constantly for the last 15 months. I don't usually bother, but since she'd mentioned COVID first, I asked if she thought the "rough few years" she was discussing had anything to do with COVID.

She thought about it...and thought about it...and said that it hadn't crossed her mind, but, they had all had COVID in 2020 and again in 2021 and it certainly made sense. It literally hadn't even crossed her mind to that point. She's just trying to survive day to day without her husband and around sick family members.

There's just not a constant drum beat of information out there telling people what's really going on at this point and they largely haven't figured it out on their own yet.

Or never...guess we'll find out.

@lhgmk2

I don't know what you've tried, but I know of people who had luck with famotidine and quercetin and others with cromolyn and anti-inflammatories(throw in some curcumin) if you're interested in trying any OTC-type things. It's all just dealing with the symptoms, though.

The antihistamine diet's rough...

@Hicsumus@federate.social

"We’ve heard from a number of readers who, like you, are struggling as they recover from COVID-19. The trajectory is as you have described -- mild or moderate illness followed by a recovery that doesn’t follow the familiar arc of recuperating from a cold or the flu."

When your immune system just can't clear the virus....

@TheRatCantRead@lgbtqia.space

Thank you for posting this! I meant to yesterday and lost the idea somewhere along the way.

I, too, am skeptical, but, participating in things like this is the only way they're ever going to hear you. I encourage everyone who has a story to tell to get involved.

@augieray @t_mkdf

Yeah, every local heads into the AC once it's over 90 everyday. Don't forget all of the tourists who cram into Florida in July, too, and then spread that Florida COVID nationwide.

@johnzajac

There's a frog in a boiling pot dynamic going on here, too. I've seen the slow degradation of health and it's like sometimes they get real close to realizing where it all started....but it's been too long in their mind and so they start looking for something that happened immediately before, say, the arthritis(my best friend). So then you go "Do you think that bout of COVID 6 weeks ago had anything to do with it?" and it's always "Nah, that was, like, months ago and my doctor said I'm over that."

Fast forward 6 more months and the conversation goes:

"Man, this arthritis is killing me. I've gained 50 pounds because I can't walk without pain, my doctor diagnosed me with some new autoimmune disorder that he can't quite pin down and the kids bring home a new virus every other week."

"Do you think..."

"Don't say COVID. It's not COVID."

"OK...."

@voron @panamared27401 @KimPerales @stargazersmith

This is pretty widely whispered about in Florida politics, from what I understand. People have been asking since before August of 2022 how they made $50 mill.

There's a reason it's all in the wife's name(no, she does not come from a wealthy family). She's the brains behind the operation and everyone knows it. She tells him what to do and he does it. They'r'e also fast friends with Ginny Thomas, so I'm sure she's shared some tips and tricks on keeping that kind of stuff "separated" from Ron.