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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"How dare you?"
Found on FB...
Wow! I did not write this. Written by Sandy Long. Simply sharing.
Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been around for years, and been studied medically for years.
HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system, and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been studied medically for years.
Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be catalogued, much less understood.
So far the symptoms include:
Fever
Fatigue
Coughing
Pneumonia
Chills/Trembling
Acute respiratory distress
Lung damage (potentially permanent)
Loss of taste (a troubling neurological symptom)
Sore throat
Headaches
Difficulty breathing
Mental confusion
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Loss of appetite
Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)
Swollen eyes
Blood clots
Seizures
Liver damage
Kidney damage
Rash
COVID toes (weird, right?)
People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again.
A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.
Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.
This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know* what we do not know.
For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:
How dare you?
How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20 and 30 year olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.
How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
Frequent hand-washing
Physical distancing
Reduced social/public contact or interaction
Mask wearing
Covering your cough or sneeze
Avoiding touching your face
Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces
The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.
I reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance. Being intentional and taking basic, common sense precautions has permitted me to avoid many common viruses. I've never had the flu. And while I'm not saying I never will, I also am not about to run out and intentionally expose myself to "get it over with".
SWBTATTReg
(22,130 posts)information all in one place. Take care and thanks again for thinking of us here on DU.
cayugafalls
(5,641 posts)Thank you for posting, this will be shared widely.
Delphinus
(11,831 posts)I will definitely share.
BBG
(2,539 posts)And I care a lot
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)KY_EnviroGuy
(14,492 posts)Condense it and print a few then fold to a small size and put a label on saying "Please read this to save our lives". Carry in purse or wallet.
Call it self-defense......
If Trump won't properly educate our public, we may need to.
Thank you for posting, Babylonsister........
Frances
(8,545 posts)Got a long lasting super painful case of shingles when I was 70
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,586 posts)It was horrible -- like poison ivy times 100 -- and because I didn't know what it was I kept putting calamine lotion on it. I finally went to a doctor and got it treated, thank god.
By these standards, the chicken pox I had when I was 10 would be considered a pre-existing condition, and I would either be denied medical coverage or be charged more for it. Think of how many people could be denied coverage because they had this childhood disease.
yellowdogintexas
(22,256 posts)the time between a chickenpox infection and a shingles event would be far too long for even the nastiest insurance company to bother. Thank.Goodness.
State insurance regulations have limits on how far back and/or how far forward the insurance can investigate, whether for a claim after issue or during the application/approval process. This can vary from 45 days to 2 years depending on the state. So if you came in for something and it was after the investigation period, the company would not bother.
Also (thankfully) some things are just not worth the expense and time to the insurance carrier. Investigations are expensive!!
Disclaimer: I learned all of this when I was a claims analyst for an insurance company in the pre ACA days. I do not know what applies now what with all the messing around the Rs have done with the ACA. Still these rule would probably vary from state to state.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,586 posts)with a subject. It seems it's getting harder and harder to ferret out actual facts.
Nevilledog
(51,112 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,130 posts)Do you have someone to take care of you?
Nevilledog
(51,112 posts)I think my Dr. It's just being overly cautious. Hubby gets tested today. Only thing bad is the headache. Nothing touches it.
I'm not stuck in bed or anything. I'd be shocked if it was anything but negative.
AwakeAtLast
(14,130 posts)I don't wish this on anyone!
Solly Mack
(90,769 posts)c-rational
(2,593 posts)Hekate
(90,708 posts)Meanwhile, today the Tangerine Hellbeast said again that the numbers are very good and the pandemic is just going to go away.
Dem2theMax
(9,651 posts)Thank you so very much for posting this.
mtngirl47
(989 posts)Hep C now has a "cure" but often there is already serious liver damage.
Hep B has no cure and causes liver damage.
liberalla
(9,249 posts)information and presenting in a well organized manner.
Bookmarking for future reference!
I have a few people in mind to share this with.
FakeNoose
(32,641 posts)... when those others are YOUR loved ones and members of YOUR OWN FAMILY?
That's the way to zing them!
lostnfound
(16,179 posts)People like to think that theyre personally can tough it out, arent scared or in some cases dont care if they live or die.
But many of those same people just havent considered the misery of watching a family member die of something you gave them.
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)luv2fly
(2,475 posts)Kinda preaching to the choir... the people that really need to read this never will and have zero attention span.
Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)Can Trumpers understand this?
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)I tried to search it but not being a full time Facebook person I did not have much success.
Thanks for the really really good OP.
Amy-Strange
(854 posts)Tommymac
(7,263 posts)amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)Upthevibe
(8,051 posts)I'm also going to save it....
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
dawn5651
(604 posts)she is profoundly deaf in one ear....the deafness was caused by a virus...the only virus she had was chicken pox ....i see people out and about all the time without ppe, i can only be responsible for me . and that means i wear my ppe.
Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,173 posts)as I have, do, and would for other illnesses, garlic, green drinks, minerals, cleansings, immune boosters. I hope to avoid getting it, but if I don't, I want my body running well, not clogged with everything it's ever taken in and ingests on a daily basis. I have my tweaks and supplement additions, but that's based on things I've fought off and made recovery better, so ... junk science. But any contact with viruses in the illnesses I've encountered in my life begins with garlic or sulfur supplements because the inhibitory effects of garlic are not unknown. Nothing crazy or in truckload amounts, just additions and subtractions from an ordinary diet.
Aussie105
(5,401 posts)Last edited Thu Jul 2, 2020, 09:26 AM - Edit history (1)
Words well used.
And the message behind the words is powerful.
I went to the hospital with the wife again today, second time this week.
Both wore masks.
Nobody else did.
COVID-19 is well under control here in South Australia, but some other places in Australia are having a wave 2 type resurgence. Minor at the moment, but growing. State leaders are not amused, whole suburbs are on lockdown.
People in the hospital looked at us twice. I figure hospitals are for sick people, and sick people spread germs, right? Can't be too careful.
I've spent too much time, energy and money surviving to my current age, not letting a virus finish me off!
kentuck
(111,098 posts)...and health problems for the rest of their lives.
What are they trying to prove?
Kid Berwyn
(14,907 posts)Thank you, babylonsister!
Sancho
(9,070 posts)niyad
(113,323 posts)Amy-Strange
(854 posts)crickets
(25,981 posts)Roc2020
(1,616 posts)this virus do not value their life or their health or the life or health of anyone else. they just don't.
calimary
(81,301 posts)Got a link?