bedpan posted:

friend of mine let me know their thoughts on long covid: it is entirely psychosomatic. I offered some examples of how people are experiencing continuing issues after the initial illness is addressed. Response was that psychosomatic illnesses are real to the delusional and that the afflicted are making those issues manifest by belief alone.

Ordinarily a smart person. Educated. Literate. Also thinks you are a fantasist who should get therapy and antidepressants if you say you have long term health problems as the result of a COVID infection.

bizwank posted:

There's a bunch of different sources for Covid deaths broken down by age/sex online, and motorcycle deaths in the US top out at around 5500/yr, but it's probably easiest to just use this site (which uses CDC data): https://oddsofdying.com/

It's noteworthy that as a rider who 1) always wears safety gear including a full-face helmet, 2) took a rider safety course and 3) doesn't ever drink and ride, my personal odds of being in an accident and/or dying from one are significantly lower then the average rider. And yet none of those precautions stop me from enjoying riding whenever I want aka. "living my life", and it only took a small expenditure of time and money to ensure I'm partaking in that activity as safely as possible.

bedpan posted:

friend of mine let me know their thoughts on long covid: it is entirely psychosomatic. I offered some examples of how people are experiencing continuing issues after the initial illness is addressed. Response was that psychosomatic illnesses are real to the delusional and that the afflicted are making those issues manifest by belief alone.

Ordinarily a smart person. Educated. Literate. Also thinks you are a fantasist who should get therapy and antidepressants if you say you have long term health problems as the result of a COVID infection.

bedpan posted:

friend of mine let me know their thoughts on long covid: it is entirely psychosomatic. I offered some examples of how people are experiencing continuing issues after the initial illness is addressed. Response was that psychosomatic illnesses are real to the delusional and that the afflicted are making those issues manifest by belief alone.

Ordinarily a smart person. Educated. Literate. Also thinks you are a fantasist who should get therapy and antidepressants if you say you have long term health problems as the result of a COVID infection.

PoundSand posted:

.... going to be more cagey about talking about/acknowledging the symptoms in yourself or those around you.

ColdBlooded posted:

Quoting to find this later in case I ever get got; thanks Petey for sharing

quote:

It is important for all athletes participating in organized competitive sports, with the support of their medical/training staff, to monitor closely for new or recurrent cardiopulmonary symptoms that would warrant cardiac testing after RTP. Most individuals participating in recreational athletics are not monitored nor have access to concierge medical professionals, so diligent surveillance for symptoms during graded RTP is vital.

Real Mean Queen posted:

But doesn’t the full face stop you from riding your bike in restaurants?

mawarannahr posted:

fwiw it is covid deaths from 2021 that that's based on

bedpan posted:

friend of mine let me know their thoughts on long covid: it is entirely psychosomatic. I offered some examples of how people are experiencing continuing issues after the initial illness is addressed. Response was that psychosomatic illnesses are real to the delusional and that the afflicted are making those issues manifest by belief alone.

Ordinarily a smart person. Educated. Literate. Also thinks you are a fantasist who should get therapy and antidepressants if you say you have long term health problems as the result of a COVID infection.

Livo posted:

[...]

ME/CFS is very, very poorly researched, treated & badly misunderstood by the medical field, period, but I'm curious to hear the foreign perspective about exercise & ME/CFS, as I was taught a very conservative approach in my studies, and that high intensity/rapid progression of exercise difficulty for these patients is an absolute no-no. I get the sad impression that overseas treatment for it is just "Work harder and it'll solve everything, it's all in your head lol" nonsense.

[...]

We were taught the "Letter/Envelope Theory" basically, at the start of the week, a ME/CFS patient has only a limited amount of endurance (cash in a letter) that they have to use for the entire week, and this encompasses all forms of physical activity (daily chores like shopping, cleaning) and exercise (structured planned workouts). If you do a fair amount of physical activity for daily tasks or do a hard workout in one day, that'll use up most of the money in the letter, which you then have to live off for the rest of the week. Hence why my lecturer spent a lot of time with education on energy management, getting the client to be very methodical and adapt with how they do their work and domestic chores (e.g. if I have to do a lot of extra stuff at work one day, then I must avoid doing anything other than mild physical activity for the next few days and get my husband to pick up the slack) & recognizing early signs of her fatigue.

One of my colleagues pre-Covid was teaching a Continued Professional Course overseas, and to her absolute horror, she had to explain to a large group of American physiotherapists this general concept: they were like "Huh? I've been making my ME/CFS clients do 2 hours of high intensity exercise three times a week and berating them for being lazy when they struggle to do basic tasks for the week, what do you mean I shouldn't do this?"

mawarannahr posted:

fwiw it is covid deaths from 2021 that that's based on

bedpan posted:

friend of mine let me know their thoughts on long covid: it is entirely psychosomatic. I offered some examples of how people are experiencing continuing issues after the initial illness is addressed. Response was that psychosomatic illnesses are real to the delusional and that the afflicted are making those issues manifest by belief alone.

Ordinarily a smart person. Educated. Literate. Also thinks you are a fantasist who should get therapy and antidepressants if you say you have long term health problems as the result of a COVID infection.

Livo posted:

We were taught the "Letter/Envelope Theory" basically, at the start of the week, a ME/CFS patient has only a limited amount of endurance (cash in a letter) that they have to use for the entire week, and this encompasses all forms of physical activity (daily chores like shopping, cleaning) and exercise (structured planned workouts). If you do a fair amount of physical activity for daily tasks or do a hard workout in one day, that'll use up most of the money in the letter, which you then have to live off for the rest of the week.

www.cidrap.umn.edu posted:

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) newly updated COVID-19 prevention and control guidelines purport to protect healthcare workers, patients, and the community, but some experts say they may encourage risky behavior by propagating long-disproven ideas about how viruses spread.

"I think they put healthcare workers and patients and the community at significant risk," said Lisa Brosseau, ScD, CIH, an expert on respiratory protection and infectious diseases and a CIDRAP research consultant.

One of the main problems, said Raina Macintyre, MBBS, PhD, professor and head of the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute in Sydney, Australia, is that the document doesn't incorporate many of the lessons learned during the pandemic—such as the major role of COVID-19 spread among people with no symptoms.

"The guidelines suggest using symptoms to screen people," she said via email. "This is seen in health guidelines in many countries—emphasis on symptoms ('wear a mask if you feel unwell'), when we know a substantial proportion of transmission is asymptomatic, which is a major rationale for universal masking in high-transmission settings."

Similarly, David Michaels, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist and professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and a former administrator at the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), said the guidelines don't directly address the modes of COVID-19 transmission.

"I was very disappointed," he told CIDRAP News, referring to the WHO's adherence to what he calls "droplet dogma,'" or the misguided belief that SARS-CoV-2 spreads mainly through droplets rather than aerosols. "It hasn't fully recognized the concept that this novel coronavirus is airborne.

### Masks, respirators not equivalent

Nor does the document fully recognize that N95 respirators offer better protection against the virus than medical, or surgical, masks. Rather, it says the Guideline Development Group (GDG) "considered the evidence for particular respirators versus medical masks and agreed that the strength of this evidence was insufficient to recommend one mask over another except in some specific conditions."

David Michaels, PhD, MPH posted:

Masks are good as source control for coughing and sneezing, but if a virus is truly airborne, as we think this coronavirus is, while it's useful, it's not adequately protective.

Brosseau said, "There's so much laboratory and workplace research that shows how much better a respirator works than a mask. Medical masks and respirators don't have the same filters, and medical masks leak through their filters a lot. They may be similar in capturing large particles, but in small particles, medical masks are very leaky, so it doesn't really matter how it fits on your face, many of the small particles are still going to exit through the filter and around the facepiece."

Michaels agreed, saying, "Masks are good as source control for coughing and sneezing, but if a virus is truly airborne, as we think this coronavirus is, while it's useful, it's not adequately protective."

Healthcare workers should demand better, Macintyre said: "Would a construction worker accept being told that a safety helmet that was 1.99 times worse than another was good enough for them because someone decided being almost twice as bad was 'equivalent' "? [See related content, "CDC seeks to update guidance to reflect recognition of aerosol viral spread," below this story.]

Michaels said he understands that the guidelines were the work of a committee that had to reach consensus. "But at the same time, this is a really important document that has global implications," he said. "There was a decision made to avoid requiring the best protection for workers, and that's unfortunate."

### The 1-meter rule and other contradictions

Macintyre pointed out that the guidelines recommend physical barriers, such as Plexiglass screens, which she said some evidence suggests may be detrimental because they impede airflow. "The use of the PICO [Patient or problem, Intervention or exposure, Comparison or Control, and Outcomes] framework tends to ignore or trivialize engineering and aerosol science research, when much of the key science around transmission of respiratory pathogens does require research from disciplines other than medicine," she said.

The WHO recommends that everyone in healthcare settings stay at least 1 meter (3.3 feet) apart, when possible. "There's no discussion of where this 1 meter, this 39 inches, comes from," Michaels said. Physical distancing is "one of the many precautions that are worth implementing, because with aerosol transmission, they'll be more exposure closer to the source than further away, but why use 1 meter or 2 meters or any other number without providing any rationale, any evidence?"

The guidelines also introduce the term "targeted continuous." "Use of masks is either targeted or continuous but cannot be both—which seems a deliberate attempt to introduce new terminology that makes it harder for advocates of occupational safety to ask for continuous protection," Macintyre said.

Most WHO recommendations that involve airborne pathogens—including ventilation—were tagged as "low certainty," which Macintyre said seems selective, when other recommendations with less evidence were deemed "good practice."

Lisa Brosseau, ScD, CIH posted:

So they're willing to talk about laboratory studies for better-fitting masks, but they're not willing to talk about laboratory studies for performance of respirators?

What stood out most to Brosseau is the guidelines' discussion of how to make medical masks fit better, when they're not designed to prevent small particles from escaping. "No one has ever cared that a medical mask actually fits, because it's not designed to fit, and you don't evaluate a mask for fit," she said.

"You finally get WHO talking about getting them to fit better and making recommendations on the basis of almost no data," she said. "So they're willing to talk about laboratory studies for better-fitting masks, but they're not willing to talk about laboratory studies for performance of respirators? If they're worried about the fit of a medical mask, why is it that they dismiss fit-testing respirators, where it really does matter?"

### Longstanding resistance to respirators

The bias against respirators has been evident for years, dating back to 1980s tuberculosis outbreaks in the early HIV/AIDS epidemic, Brosseau said.

"OSHA even proposed an emergency temporary standard that required the use of respirators for healthcare workers who were caring for tuberculosis patients, and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the American Hospital Association and the AMA [American Medical Association] and the rest lobbied against an OSHA standard. That standard was never promulgated as a permanent standard, which is unfortunate because it would have been useful during the pandemic," she said.

Macintyre concurs. "The ideology that a surgical mask is as good as an N95 respirator has been propagated for a very long time, during SARS [severe acute respiratory distress syndrome] in 2003," she said. She cited the different results seen in hospitals in two Canadian cities amid SARS (those in Toronto used surgical masks, while those in Vancouver used N95s, resulting in a large epidemic and many deaths only in Toronto).

"And again during the influenza pandemic of 2009 and reaching a fevered pitch during the COVID-19 pandemic," she continued. "The sum of evidence clearly shows that a surgical mask is not as protective as an N95."

Brosseau said those opposed to respirators have noted that they can be uncomfortable to wear and have argued that they aren't very accessible in low-income countries. Respirators weren't designed to be worn for hours on end without a break, she said, adding that low-income countries did manage to acquire respirators during the pandemic and that they can be reused multiple times before disposal.

The argument for universal respirator use
Macintyre, Michaels, and Brosseau all say they support universal respirator use in healthcare settings, especially during periods of high respiratory virus community transmission.

"I think it depends on the overall risk in the region, but certainly universal [respirator use] in periods of increased risk is absolutely vital, because you can't predict who will be infectious," Michaels said.

Using respiratory protection only when in close contact with patients diagnosed as having COVID-19 or during aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) ignores evidence that aerosols can waft through the entire indoor environment for prolonged periods, the experts say. "The guidelines mistakenly attribute the highest risk to AGPs, but studies show that coughing generates more aerosol than an endotracheal intubation," Macintyre said.

Brosseau said the data support universal respirator use among healthcare workers, at a minimum. "A patient might spend an hour, hour and a half, in a clinic, but a healthcare worker's exposure is continuous and ongoing, so they have a much greater chance of being exposed than visitors and patients," she said.

Raina Macintyre, MBBS, PhD posted:

The guidelines mistakenly attribute the highest risk to AGPs [aerosol-generating procedures], but studies show that coughing generates more aerosol than an endotracheal intubation.

Visitors and patients who can tolerate wearing a respirator should be encouraged to do so, especially during the respiratory virus season, she said: "Even a non–fit-tested respirator is better than a medical mask. If we take what we learned from the pandemic… I think we could probably reduce the burden of respiratory and viral disease overall." Brosseau was the lead author of a two-part commentary on respiratory protection published in 2021 by CIDRAP News.

Michaels agreed, saying that a culture shift is possible and cited the relatively recent use of universal gloving. "During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, OSHA required a bloodborne pathogen standard in healthcare facilities," he said. "Many people in the dental profession said, 'How can we work if you make us wear gloves?' Fortunately, OSHA did not accept their comments, and no one thinks anymore that universal gloving is not an appropriate precaution."

The Oldest Man posted:

What kind of N95 mask is hand washable and has ear loops?

Teabag Dome Scandal posted:

https://www.happymasks.com/ lol

Brain Curry posted:

I feel fully recovered from covid, but my heart rate spikes up randomly throughout the day. I was talking to my PT about it and his wife is still experiencing random hr spikes since she got infected in December 2020.

Malgrin posted:

Could you please be my doctor? It's insane that this isn't more commonly accepted because it's so loving obvious to anyone with this condition.

hot witch divorcee posted:

havent really been keeping up on this thread for a while but the perfect dodge streak continues. i really wish we'd take care of this poo poo already though im tired of the only places i can really go outside being like the park and the library. theres even a cute cafe i found nearby that i would love to hang out in and not just wander around a bit then get something to go but lol, lmao at ever being able to eat or drink in public ever again.

Frosted Flake posted:

You were correct that I didn't like to hear that lol.

Is it worth going in for vo2 max testing or should I wait a few weeks?

Brain Curry posted:

I feel fully recovered from covid, but my heart rate spikes up randomly throughout the day. I was talking to my PT about it and his wife is still experiencing random hr spikes since she got infected in December 2020.

Animal-Mother posted:

I've had this happen a few times since I got sick recently with something that didn't test positive for Covid on lovely old rapid tests. I was at the doctor's for something unrelated and he said "Why is your heart rate elevated?" And he kind of sized me up real fast and said "Probably just nervous."

Malgrin posted:

Could you please be my doctor? It's insane that this isn't more commonly accepted because it's so loving obvious to anyone with this condition.

The Oldest Man posted:

What kind of N95 mask is hand washable and has ear loops?

Livo posted:

Livo posted:

I've been wearing this model for a few years. I've been sealing the valve since 2020 as required by healthcare regulations (valved ones are banned here for clinical use) and it's still comfortable to wear even all sealed up. It has a metal nose-piece and adjustable cheek straps: I have to frequently bend the nose piece to get a good seal as I have a huge snoz. The cover is hand washable and air dried as the filter is built in: once the filter wears out after a few months, it's time for a new mask.They sell crappy cloth ones on their website also, but I specifically use this Cambridge model as it provides better protection. The different Cambridge models listed (Admiralty, Watson etc) just refer to the colour FYI.

Again, proper disposable N95/Aura type masks are indeed better protection wise, but my job is fairly physically demanding, so having one that doesn't get my face as hot when being active and doesn't slice my ears up with the thin straps is a factor. Plus I'm self employed and buying a ton of disposable N95s is more expensive currently. If my job was mostly inactive (or if I wasn't self employed and my employer gave me N95 masks), I would happily suck it up and use them instead. Very niche case for me, but it's better than the surgical ones I still see colleagues wear in their own private clinics. Stick with disposable N95s unless you're in the same weird position as me.

Thoguh posted:

Welp, got the ‘Give up on trying to avoid COVID or go on the spreadsheet’ ultimatum. Attempting to at least hold my ground on indoor dining. gently caress public health and all authorities in this country and may my and my child’s cases be mild and infrequent.

Livo posted:

The Oldest Man : you're right, I was using N95 as a general descriptive phrase instead of referring to the exact protection level, my bad. I'm aware and if certain circumstances were a bit different, I'd be wearing free N95s in a heart beat and putting up with the discomfort, instead of having to buy masks as a self employed health practitioner and paying an arm & a leg for them here. Fingers crossed I find a new practice to work in that gives them out!

tangy yet delightful posted:

Sucks to hear. For what it's worth, if you get a divorce you'll basically be at the same or higher risk from your spouses activities so I guess doing your own personal masking outside the house and hopefully still getting to run some hepas inside will be better COVID health wise.

Your relationship I'll leave between you and your spouse.

Thoguh posted:

Welp, got the ‘Give up on trying to avoid COVID or go on the spreadsheet’ ultimatum. Attempting to at least hold my ground on indoor dining. gently caress public health and all authorities in this country and may my and my child’s cases be mild and infrequent.

Thoguh posted:

Yeah that’s the reason to choose not to get spreadsheeted and give in. Because my kid is not less exposed and neither am I if I hold firm. So it’s all the bad stuff about covid but then all the relationship bad stuff on top of it so I guess it’s time to stop worrying and love the plague and just try and do my best to limit risk around the edges.

lmao, just lmao. COVID won.

Thoguh posted:

(..)
lmao, just lmao. COVID won.

Livo posted:

(..)
N95
(..)

Pingui posted:

Sorry man, this really sucks