This is all very strange to me. Basically everyone I know have had Covid, but no one are reporting any “long Covid”. Same with the rest of the country. Pretty sure most of us have had Covid at this point, but very little reports of long term effects. I’m sure there’s some people who experience long term effects of Covid, much the same as many people will experience long term effects from f.ex influenza. It’s just something that doesn’t fit right in my head. From the start of the pandemic Covid has been reported as much more dangerous in the US than in many other countries. I would be interested in seeing a comparison of long Covid in the US and a country that is much more relaxed about the whole thing, perhaps one of the Scandinavian countries. There might be cultural issues and/or “pre-existing” health issues that effects how Covid works on the populace.
Our neighbor got long covid. Went from a very active, helpful and involved community member .. into a recluse who lost his job, has not been able to function let alone work for almost 2 years now, and combined with economic strain is now facing bankruptcy and a divorce. Dramatic and tragic outcome for something that is "just the flu". My dad's take on it? "bad genes". For those suffering, to hear such casual dismissal is just salt in the wound.
8500 recorded cases may not sound like much (for one possible diagnostic code of a few choices), but that's 0.1% of the population, and about half the number of people who died in Sweden. That's a pretty substantial amount of increased disability, especially if the risk of long COVID on each infection is close to independent (e.g. we keep accumulating people with long term effects at this kind of rate).
I have a family member affected; went from highly active to completely intolerant of exercise in her early 20's. Walking half a mile wipes her out for a few days.
> This is all very strange to me. Basically everyone I know have had Covid, but no one are reporting any “long Covid”.
Five of my teammates had it. One of them got long Covid.
> From the start of the pandemic Covid has been reported as much more dangerous in the US than in many other countries.
The US is a leader in the developed world when it comes to the venn diagram of co-morbidities, obesity, and poor access to healthcare for the people most afflicted by it.
It also has a generous helping of anti-collective-action public attitudes, horrible sick time policy, and a large fragment of the population that's been primed to believe all sorts of unscientific nonsense, due to a few decades of cynical and self-serving political messaging.
All of these factors are present in other countries, but to a lesser extent.
Furthermore, I can assure you that Covid has been reported as just as dangerous outside the US as within. Indeed, it was within the US that it became most strongly politicised, spawning such dangerous nonsense as it is 'just the flu'.
