1. The single most pernicious and damaging societal imperative I see in action right now, with Ireland in a Covid wave, is this: 'There's no need to test'. Why? Not just because it tacitly normalises unmitigated transmission, but, more importantly, it hides Long Covid.
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You know, when dealing with a problem, I always find myself thinking, "You know what I could use less of right now, information."
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Public health leaders encourage an undercount, and then policy and guidance rely on bad numbers. AFAICT Canada's vaccine guidance is built on models assuming zero #longCOVID incidence in people who didn't seek medical attention for acute COVID. Cui bono? PH leaders who botched the COVID response.
"Don't look up"
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Most doctors don't recognize long COVID. They can, though, pick up clinical signals of cardiovascular disease, so that you can get on BP meds in a timely manner, or change your diet if you've become pre-diabetic. They'll send you for a gamut of expensive tests to rule out every other explanation.
Because they don't want to know, because if it's COVID, it means it hasn't gone away and all these health problems haven't just happened, they've happened because they've had a hand in it by choosing to ignore the fact that it's still around.
Bang on!
and a big majority of people simply prefers not to know, no matter how much others are suffering directly because of their wilful ignorance. No doubt carefully manipulated to that point by our lovely governments who care more about protecting capital than the people they're supposedly representing.
2. This is the danger of the 'just another respiratory virus' narrative; by not knowing if you've had Covid, you absolutely will not connect any subsequent new-onset chronic health issues you experience to the 'cold' or 'flu' you had previously. And neither will a doctor.
In Nov, my family contracted Covid (1st time, as far as we know). A week later, pancreatitis. 8 months later, another pancreatitis. We told all hospital docs about the Covid infection & every one (no exaggeration) preferred to believe they can't identify the pacreatites' cause. An uphill struggle.
3. This is precisely how Long Covid hides in plain sight. Societally camouflaged by the imperative not to test. This is precisely why so many people have Long Covid but so few realise they do. /end
Just one more reason why I prefer to talk about ME/CFS (when the criteria are met) instead of Long Covid. I got sick during the first wave, before tests so I never officially got the LC label. And it was predictable that more and more people won't get tested.
I agree and it also means many are unaware of the risk they pose to others or themselves by failing to rest when infected.
The most crucial bit for me is failure to test patients prior to surgery, given the blood clot risk and especially as most aren’t vaccinating atm.
Absolutely agree. I cannot understand why people do not recognise the necessity of testing.
But where are you seeing that Ireland is in a covid wave? Not exactly prominent news… also damaging.
