
A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure from Covid-19 - _bxg1
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-medical-worker-describes--terrifying-lung-failure-from-covid19-even-in-his-young-patients
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alpineidyll3
While the disease is horrible, risk mitigation must be done with science and
statistics, not one-off emotional narratives.

Some of the remedies which are being proposed for the pandemic would have
human costs demonstrably higher than the virus itself.

I have seen more and more smart people adopting black and white attitudes that
this is humanity's only risk, while numerically it is merely comparable to
several other risks American's embrace daily including driving and gun
violence.

My only wish is that policymakers set scientific priorities. Shutdown cruise
ships and airplanes before schools. Manufacture tests and bailout individuals
before worrying about banks etc.

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_bxg1
I agree when it comes to policy, but when it comes to individuals' personal
decisions, there's this perception that it's going to be mild for anyone under
50 who doesn't have extreme special circumstances. This anecdote hits home the
point that that isn't true, and that you should have a healthy amount of fear
even if you're young and healthy.

~~~
alpineidyll3
I agree. However I also think that it more people accepted the fact that a
virus can come and wipe them out whenever, they might live with a little bit
more intention :P. I'm the sort of weirdo with a skull on his desk though.

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xenonite
If anyone has ever doubted this has an effect on young people, please consider
the following excerpts from the article:

> “It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus
> patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this
> relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of
> his tube.” [...]

> “Reading about it in the news, I knew it was going to be bad, but we deal
> with the flu every year so I was thinking: Well, it’s probably not that much
> worse than the flu. But seeing patients with COVID-19 completely changed my
> perspective, and it’s a lot more frightening.”

> “I have patients in their early 40s and, yeah, I was kind of shocked. I’m
> seeing people who look relatively healthy with a minimal health history, and
> they are completely wiped out, like they’ve been hit by a truck. This is
> knocking out what should be perfectly fit, healthy people. Patients will be
> on minimal support, on a little bit of oxygen, and then all of a sudden,
> they go into complete respiratory arrest, shut down and can’t breathe at
> all.”

Edit: removed a double negative in the introductory sentence.

~~~
_bxg1
You've got a double-negative in there

~~~
xenonite
Indeed, thank you, I removed it.

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basicplus2
Sounds like a Cytokine Storm as the body's defense systems do all the damage

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294426/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294426/)

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vardump
That's truly terrifying. We really need to do everything we can to reduce
infections.

