@freemo the CDC study I posted specifically cites a range from 10-80% for PCS, and the Nature review also shows a range up to 70% (the higher estimates are for people who were hospitalized, which is obviously not the same as ambulatory cases). Literally right there in the papers I cited, one of which is a recent and broad review in Nature…
@freemo@PattyHanson If you have had COVID 7 times from working with patients, it sounds like you need to wear appropriate PPE. I work in a cesspool of COVID, doing high-risk procedures such as intubation, and have had it only twice (once from my kid).
@freemo while the prevalence is not well established, the estimates of long COVID range from 10-80%, with most studies I’ve seen landing somewhere around 30%. Arrhythmias are a commonly cited concern, and prevalence there again is variable, but 10-20% is a pretty reasonable slice of the published literature. The intro to this Nature review pretty well sums up the concerns…
@freemo up to 30% of people who get COVID get some form of post-COVID syndrome. Estimates vary widely on the number who experience cardiovascular complications, but there are entire clinics dedicated the problem, so it isn’t exactly a rare presentation to healthcare. I agree that there is overhyping of some of the risk, but overall, I would argue that in fact the risks associated with infection have been downplayed quite a bit.
@freemo I said palpitations are common (10-20% of folks with post-COVID syndromes have them). A-fib is one of the many causes of this, and I would argue is not all that rare compared to many things we consider quite serious in Emergency Medicine, particularly since a-fib has a significant stroke risk associated with it. We can quibble over what exact cutoff makes something a concern I suppose, but to what end?
I saw a post today discussing palpitations after COVID. Folks, what I tell my patients is: if you get palpitations in the weeks to months after COVID, call your doc and get seen. Here’s why — palpitations after COVID are common, and one prevalent cause is atrial fibrillation. This is often detected by a wearable event recorder such as a Holter monitor, because a 1-time ECG (as if often done in the ER) is worthless if you aren’t in a-fib at the time. A-fib dramatically increases stroke risk.
The #mRNA vaccines do not change your DNA. RNA can, in rare cases, be transcribed by special enzymes, and DNA can be produced, and this can occur on your DNA, but the vaccines have no mechanism to do that. Special viruses do sometimes have the reverse transcriptase enzymes required for that to happen, but neither SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) nor the mRNA vaccines contain that enzyme. The mRNA vaccines cannot change your DNA.
Every time a Republican says Ukraine should cede land to Russia, they should be asked what part of Texas we’re going to give to Mexico or which part of the Aleutians we will cede to Putin to “keep peace”.
Right now, a woman in Texas is carrying a baby that will die on, or shortly after, birth. She will suffer all of the risk of pregnancy and childbirth, for a pregnancy that will ultimately result in a dead baby. The government in Texas is very actively using the courts and legal threats to prevent her from having an abortion. They will, of course, have nothing to offer her once she delivers this dead or soon to be dead baby.
This is the whole US if Republicans ever win again.
Whenever anyone asks what I think about any 2024 election, I remind them of one singular thing: Republicans either have banned, or are trying to ban, abortion everywhere in the United States. Women have nearly died because of these bans. Girls as young as 10 have had to carry their rapists’ babies to term. It is that simple.
If you’re considering not vaccinating your pet for rabies, hear me out: Rabies is 100% fatal (there are fewer than ten cases who have survived, and all were neurologically devastated).
If you get bitten by an animal that might have rabies, the treatment is a bunch of injections around the bite, then a series of shots of the rabies vaccine. Or skip that and die a horrific death.
Hey y’all, so listen, I don’t pump up political orgs much here, but I’ve posted about VFRL before, and I’m going to again. Here’s Dan’s email about the next year. VFRL isn’t Democratic or Republican. They are pro-democracy. Dan Barkhuff is a former SEAL who is now an ER doc in Vermont. He’s a stand up dude. I don’t see eye to eye with him on every issue, but his outfit helped crush Trump, supports middle-ground candidates, and is out here to save democracy.
Donald Trump is suggesting putting people in camps again. It doesn’t really matter who he wants to put in camps. It doesn’t really matter why. What matters is that he, and the men working around him, continue to feel that forcibly placing people in camps is a solution to a problem. These are the same guys who refuse to understand that the constitution very intentionally bars the military from domestic law enforcement. These guys want a dictator.
Iowa GOP Senate passed a bill allowing 14 year olds to work night shifts. I have worked countless night shifts. I’ve worked 24 and 36 hour call, and I’ve had to go to lectures or meetings after many of these. I can tell you with certainty that kids who work night shift aren’t learning at school the day after. Night work also increases risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, among other ill effects. Kids should never work nights. Ever.
It is not “the Jewish people” killing people in Gaza. It is not “Arabs” or “Palestinians” killing people in Israel. The people doing the killing are a tiny number of people, led by a few jackasses. It is, in fact, possible to criticize the people doing the killing, while bearing no ill-will to the ethnic, religious, or national group to which those people belong.
There are hospitals in Gaza. They now have no water, electricity, or communications. People who are not combatants are, without a doubt, dying in those hospitals for lack of adequate sanitation or means to power medical devices.
As I’ve said before, I don’t have good answers, but I do know that punishing an entire population for the acts of a few is generally unethical, immoral, and cruel. Letting hospitalized civilians die is just one example.
First they told me I’d get 5G from the vaccines, but my service still sucks. Now they told me I’d be a zombie after the national emergency alert, but here I am alive and still having to go to work. I’m beginning to think these conspiracy folks are lying to me.
One week ago a nazi shot up the dollar store, targeting only black people. Today nazis openly demonstrated in Orlando. Haven’t yet heard a peep from DeSantis about it.
Hunter, ER doc, believer in democracy. I’m here to rant, combat medical misinfo, shitpost, and get social therapy. Posts aren’t medical advice. This is the only platform I am currently on. If you find “me” elsewhere, it isn’t me. “You can’t love your country only when you win” — JB ‘24