Some thoughts from a guy who's tracked more than 2,500 studies on #COVID19's chronic impact:
- I naively thought this would be a short-term project and that once the long-term risks were clear, people would take COVID seriously.
- I didn't expect risks of Long COVID to accumulate with each infection as they do. I thought LC might decline over time.
- It's depressing to see how quickly we knew of COVID's chronic harm--early studies were published in 2020/21, and we ignored them.
1/3
- I thought we might learn of COVID's impact on cancer risks more quickly, but this takes a lot of time and study to understand.
- I had no idea when I started of the breadth of harm COVID might cause. My spreadsheet has tabs for cardiovascular, brain/neuro, cancer, immune, pregnancy, and other. I could've had tabs for pulmonary, fatigue, cognitive issues, psych issues, and reproductive system risks and filled those with dozens of studies. (They are all in the "other" category.)
2/3
- I never thought I'd need a tab for pediatric studies, but there are several dozen of those that have been published. (Studies of COVID in kids are scattered in other tabs.)
- Reading this many studies makes it easier to be COVID cautious, but it's still not easy. I see my friends doing things I want to do and going places I want to go. They don't understand the risks they're accepting, but it sure looks like fun to pretend everything is normal.
Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12VbMkvqUF9eSggJsdsFEjKs5x0ABxQJi5tvfzJIDd3U/edit?usp=sharing
Augie Ray
Jenny