Mastodawn

@gemelliz You might want to look into the infection fatality rate for the black death versus COVID, particularly following COVID vaccination and boost.

The black death killed about a third of the people in Europe. COVID-19 has killed a bit less than 0.3% of the people in the US, and most of those were unvaccinated.

COVID-19 is a terrible disease and a pandemic. It is not the plague.

@merz @gemelliz Avoid it like thinking about long co vid

@gerdcastan @gemelliz I don't want to get COVID so I do mask in most public settings, but I'm fully vaccinated and boosted, which greatly reduces the risk of long COVID.

Again, COVID is bad but we needn't pretend that with current vaccines and therapeutics it's bubonic plague or AIDS.

gerdcastan

@merz @gemelliz being vaccinated reduces the likelyhood of long covid per infection by 15% to 50%, depending on which study you cite.
Still 10-20% chance of lc for each infection.
And most behave in a way that make several infection per year likely.

@gerdcastan @gemelliz Nope. There is a strong dose-response relationship for vaccination and boost and the protective effect of vaccination + boost against long COVID — once you’ve hd acut COVID — is closer to 3X.

Additionally, vaccination and boost substantially decrease odds of getting acute COVID in the first place, meaning that overall protection against long COVID is substantially better than 3x.

@merz @gemelliz show me studies

@gerdcastan @gemelliz https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2794072

BNT162b2 Vaccination and Long COVID After Infections Not Requiring Hospitalization in Health Care Workers

This study examines the risk of long COVID following mRNA vaccination, compared with no vaccination, in health care workers in Italy who had COVID-19 infection.

@merz @gemelliz
so you back my numbers 10-20% chances of long covid per infection for 3x vaccinated.
(the time since the last vaccination should also play a role)

@gerdcastan @gemelliz 10-20% of acute disease cases, not infections. And most long COVID cases resolve after a few months.

Yes, COVID is serious business. But in 2023 we have good tools to decrease both the likelihood and severity of infection. Comparing the current situation in industrialized countries with good vaccine and therapeutic access to a plague is disempowering and unhelpful.

@merz @gemelliz In Germany, all measures that could dampen the numbers of infections are actively sabotaged by politics.
For most LC causes/symptoms, doctors have no clue what to do about them.

@gerdcastan @gemelliz Also your claim of “several infections per year” being “likely” is nonsense.