[LINK] O/t: “How can a disease with 1% mortality shut down the United States?”

[Stephen Loosley]

Karl writes,

> Seems plausible. The numbers are poorly expressed at best, for example
> it says (but I presume doesn't mean) that all people hospitalised will
> get permanent heart damage. It's also not clear whether or how much the
> numbers overlap, I would assume there is a lot of overlap. And it
> doesn't make clear that a sick person, especially a long-term sick
> person, has (in general) a far greater impact than a dead person.


Yes. And, you’re also right, the numbers are poorly expressed. As you say, his health
concern categories are not mutually exclusive. According to scant available research
however it would seem that his main point is correct. The economies of many world
countries are in trouble ...

For eg: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-30992030701-5/fulltext

Weeks and months after the onset of acute COVID-19, people continue to suffer. Paul Garner, a professor of epidemiology (UK) wrote on the 95th day after the onset of symptoms that, “I am unable to be out of bed for more than three hours at a stretch, my arms and legs are permanently fizzing as if injected with Szechuan peppercorns, I have ringing in the ears, intermittent brain fog, palpitations, and dramatic mood swings.”

Other people also describe similar complaints.  78 of 100 patients in an observational cohort study who had recovered from COVID-19 had abnormal findings on cardiovascular MRI (median of 71 days after diagnosis) and 36 of those reported dyspnoea and unusual fatigue.


And: https://hmri.org.au/news-article/what-are-long-term-symptoms-covid-19

About 20% of those infected with COVID-19 require hospitalisation to treat their pneumonia, and many need assistance with oxygen. In about 5% of cases the pneumonia becomes so severe patients are admitted to intensive care for breathing support.

So far, only one peer-reviewed study has reported results on the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 infection: a single group of 143 survivors from Rome. Most of them did not need hospitalisation and all were assessed at least 60 days after infection. They reported a worsened quality of life in 44.1% of cases, including symptoms of persistent fatigue (53.1%), breathlessness (43.4%), joint pain (27.3%), and chest pain (21.7%).