Mastodawn

Augie Ray Jan 25, 2023

I think people are missing several important things about #COVID19 trends. First, while our surge peaks are less than in the past, the general state of COVID risks is not positive. For example, the US has had a positive rate of testing above 7.8% CONSTANTLY since May. That's the longest, uninterrupted period of the entire pandemic at this level.

Show thread

Augie Ray Jan 25, 2023

Another example of how we're normalizing #COVID19 risks is hospitalizations. In the US, hospitalizations have declined since the holiday peak, but the rate as of January 17 (1.52 hospitalizations/100,000 population) is higher than it's been for all but 14 weeks in the past 11 months.

Show thread

Augie Ray Jan 25, 2023

The 2nd thing people seem to miss is that the primary #COVID19 risk is NOT severe acute illness, hospitalization or death. Yes, we're losing around 4,000 lives a week in the US, but the bigger risk is that COVID is leaving so many with disabling symptoms. Data from the first two years of the pandemic found 71% of people with #longCOVID required continuing medical treatment or were unable to work for 6 months or more, and 18% could not return to work after a year. https://news.yahoo.com/long-covid-keeping-significant-numbers-125618654.html

Yahooist Teil der Yahoo Markenfamilie

Show thread

Vox Populi

@augieray I could not agree more. I haven’t worked since last January, a full year at this point. For the first 9 months of this, death would have been preferable because I couldn’t even get out of bed and walk to the bathroom right next to my bedroom without my heart rate jumping up well over 160 (often over 200) & I slept 18-20 out of 24 hours with no circadian rhythm at all. I’m SLOWLY improving. Clearly, I’m still receiving evolving forms of treatment. #LongCovid literally steals your life.