>Why is this all the sudden a thing? I know Covid can potentially cause (maybe?) more damage than the Flu/or random colds but did people literally not get sick before Covid? Because it really seems like it.
In my entire life, I cannot think of anyone I personally know (family, friends, colleagues) who has been seriously ill (either in the short term or long term) due to a cold, cough, or flu.
On the other hand, in just two years of the pandemic, I've personally known several people who have either ended up in hospital with the virus itself, or have persistent problems over a year after infection (e.g. loss of smell).
To make things more concerning, I know of people in their 20s and 30s that have been badly affected by Covid. Not just people who are 55+.
In an average year flu kills about 500k people, in the same sense of how we say those die from Covid. And infects about 1B, will a reasonable percentage of those resulting in serious disease.
So you're experience isn't typical; the average person knows more people who suffered of flu.
Yea I'm not trying to down play it, just seems a little off. I can't think of a person in my entire life that I know that ever gotten the flu (while I've known them) besides my wife when she was like 16. I know around 8 people that got Covid though.
The loss of smell one is going to be huge but that's a side effect of any virus. Maybe what we're seeing here is an insane amount of people getting a virus, not necessarily that it has worse post viral syndrome than any other virus. Either way we're in for a shit show.
Unfortunately, we can't really dwell on Long Covid. We can only do what we can individually to reduce risk and move on. Unless of course we want to live in a bubble the rest of our lives.
Also if related to loss of smell for your friends, I'd recommend them trying scent training. I ordered a kit through here https://abscent.org/learn-us/smell-training. It does seem to help. I'm doing it as a meditation almost and thinking back to past memories with the scent. It's kind of cool.
In my entire life, I cannot think of anyone I personally know (family, friends, colleagues) who has been seriously ill (either in the short term or long term) due to a cold, cough, or flu.
On the other hand, in just two years of the pandemic, I've personally known several people who have either ended up in hospital with the virus itself, or have persistent problems over a year after infection (e.g. loss of smell).
To make things more concerning, I know of people in their 20s and 30s that have been badly affected by Covid. Not just people who are 55+.