JimmFeb 9, 2023
Augie Ray
As an informed person, here's what I believe about #COVID19 in the future:
💠 We will see more surges of variants that defeat immunity.
💠 This will cause waves of hospitalizations and Long COVID disabilities.
💠 We could see variants that lift fatality rates.
💠 But the thing that should guide our decisions isn't the risk of death but chronic health damage and disability.
💠 Autoimmune issues will rise, including record levels of diabetes in the years to come due to repeated COVID infections.
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Feb 9, 2023 at 11:13amWeb
Show threadAugie RayFeb 9, 2023
💠 We will see cancer rates rise, and it will take years to realize that's due to repeated, careless infections now.
💠 Rates of cardiovascular disease and heart attacks will also rise in the years ahead, and over time, we'll learn it's associated with repeated COVID infections.
💠 As today's children age into their 30s and 40s, the damage they've done to their bodies will become more evident. They'll wish their parents had been more careful today.
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Show threadAugie RayFeb 9, 2023
💠 A small but significant share of people will be permanently unable to fully return to work. It might be 1% to 3%--enough to create a lasting drag on the economy because we refused to take #COVID19 seriously.
💠 Other viruses may rise and mutate causing new health risks, because so many allowed their immune systems to be weakened repeatedly.
💠 Belatedly, we'll adopt a new normal. Masks will become more common (at least seasonally). New air regulations will be enforced in public areas.
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Show threadAugie RayFeb 9, 2023
That was the end of my thread, but I don't believe these things without cause. Data shows us COVID is mutating. Studies say it could mutate into more deadly forms. Research shows COVID damages hearts & immune systems. Rising excess deaths tell us something vital and lasting changed with our health in the last three years. Avian flu in mammals is rising, and flu and RSV swamped hospitals in winter. We've been lulled into a false sense of complacency. We're done with COVID; it's not done with us.
Show threadghost_shitFeb 9, 2023

@augieray Well, this is grim...

History will rightly judge our current "leaders" as cowardly corporate puppets, who believe they are - somehow - above disease and climate collapse. History is an excellent judge, but it is useless as an executioner...

Show threadLooking for explanations…Feb 10, 2023
@augieray Vaccines have protected many, but by not preventing infection & being used to justify dropping mitigations, they are enabling mutation at a faster rate & potentially more dangerous way. 😩
Show threadAugie RayFeb 10, 2023
@Susan60 Then the issue is not that vaccines are saving lives and preventing suffering but that we've dropped the mitigations that prevent transmission and mutation. In fact, I think you're wrong to associate vaccines with mutations--by preventing infections, the vaccines also reduce mutation compared to if we let COVID infect and reinfect people. Few vaccines are truly sterilizing. All of this should have been expected.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Feb 10, 2023
@augieray I agree. Mitigations should never have been dropped. We’ve become used to highly effective vaccines such as those used for polio, rubella etc & assumed we could resume normal life. We couldn’t, for several reasons.
Show threadStessa CohenFeb 9, 2023
@augieray all this combined with a growing shortage of doctors and other healthcare workers, the picture is quite grim -- without another pandemic surge. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/05/opinion/doctors-universal-health-care.html?unlocked_article_code=38alH1u9Suh1pHyhgeHhV5D78Ny-Wem0O7lV-p3Xc02jph1u1R--jig1QBgtd8qHUx4xh3d5o4avoDKWg3DRtALGHSrrhgatIHjK81d-dgsmSDhFMWZ9EL8NkhBR7MqMbFEEtw-Ywmx5qnIBn0sOaKew92ezMNu3bQJ40sB_F1X2fveVqDbtnlpFDoPFycRvvfDJ-cTYBzT3m_4AZ6EquUyZ-OkLJCrKz8SoaT4hgiog2dUvfjdIg8f6_s0jOtsHUI0cHUIDj_rko4_HSsDAfW1KlXP7tUls98SsH-BAg06SGhYg7nYGfWxeknkjxDMqImk9fnofv_OOQkPlahWzThwJqrSgNRo&smid=share-url&fbclid=IwAR15hMUVB2Nb2KhUMx4Szpx0iByXzfoAeKX9ykIzPs7HjoNaGNSiKkqrz-A
Opinion | Doctors Aren’t Burned Out From Overwork. We’re Demoralized by Our Health System.

The end of medical ideology.

The New York Times
Show threadWJJHFeb 9, 2023
@augieray Without minimizing what we are experiencing and ignoring today, but I think #Covid19 is a breeze compared to the hurricane #Climatechange will be.
Broadly speaking we should not close our eyes for the link between #ClimateChange and infectious disease leading to an uptick in future epidemics caused by viruses and other pathogens and how they spread as the planet warms.
Show threadAugie RayFeb 9, 2023

@WJJH This isn't an either/or situation. If I told you that you were about to get hit by a car, would you say that the risk is minor compared to the cancer you may develop a decade from now? Or would you act ASAP?

Both problems demand public action. Both require we believe science. And both need action--but we can take easy, immediate action to prevent COVID risks today, while climate change is more complex. Masks, jabs, and fresh air in buildings would solve most COVID risks now.

Show threadWJJHFeb 9, 2023
@augieray There is no doubt there are different issues which require action, both short term and long term. I am reminded that I read in the early 1970’s the report “The Limits of Growth” and now 50 years later our global village is facing different challenges, which were warned for, cannot be solved with the same thinking that helped create them. These challenges require changes in our value systems and priorities. A tall order…