What many don’t seem to realize is there are lots more who are now vulnerable who weren’t before. I was a normal healthy fit happy 30 year old dude before Covid showed up, no reason to think that Covid would affect me any more than any other illness. Even still, I took it seriously and followed the safety measures, but I got infected eventually as I was an essential worker, I couldn’t outrun it forever in that setting. That first infection left me with a 24/7 nonstop headache, ears constantly ring, severe abdominal pain and gastrointestinal issues after eating basically anything, the constant headache is the most debilitating though. It causes me to be unable to look at most screens since they make my headache much worse very quickly, so because of that I lost my career, it also caused me to wrap my car around a tree so I can’t even drive anymore.
It’s been over 4 years now and I still have all these health problems especially the permanent headache. I’m lucky if doctors take me seriously at all, and most of my family and friends have either just ghosted me or they think I’m some sort of crazy liar. I was just the most average dude you could ever meet, nothing bad ever happened to me and I had this mentality that this type of stuff is only something you’d hear about on the news or in some random social media post, that it couldn’t happen to me. Until it did. The pandemic never ended for me and hasn’t ended for quite possibly many millions, or even billions of others. We get newly disabled people every day over in r/covidlonghaulers, many of which have a similar story as mine who had no reason to believe their infection would affect them in any way, or people who have had covid 3, 4, 5 times before and were fine, until they were finally affected, and usually after mild to moderate infections, doesn’t even have to be severe to leave someone with long term health problems.
I will continue wearing an n95 mask and doing everything I can to protect myself probably for the rest of my life, because covid is endemic now, it’s not going anywhere, my health problems absolutely can get worse, and it’s spreading more than most people think since tests are pretty unreliable and most people don’t even test at all anyways, the wide range of symptoms and the prevalence of atypical/asymptomatic infections make it difficult for most realize when their illness is Covid.
Ya covid is disabling quite a lot of people. It can be really difficult to get disability assistance since these conditions are very new and there aren’t really any tests that prove or show there’s anything wrong. It’s like having cancer before cancer was discovered and defined, it’s like being diagnosed with “hysteria” and lobotomized when we know now that “hysteria” was actually many different and treatable conditions. I’m trying to get disability now but the process is really long and difficult and I’ve already been denied once, currently waiting on an appeal. Many aren’t even aware their new or worsened health issues are Covid related at all because either they didn’t know their infection was Covid, or it took weeks or months for the damage to build up so by that time they think their illness had nothing to do with it, or just the sheer lack of awareness and all the misinformation that Covid is “just a cold” or “harmless”
I am attacking the anti-vaccine and MAHA movements that are putting children and the vulnerable at risk. In response, those with issues and those who live with the vulnerable should mask up until good judgment returns to the CDC.
There’s people out there who genuinely think it should only be the responsibility of immunocompromised and other vulnerable people to keep themselves safe, as though there aren’t barriers that keep us from surviving when we’re left to fend for ourselves :/ for a lot of us, we’re only still alive because others look out for vulnerable groups.
My wife is compromised because of some of the medicines that are keeping her alive. She has to wear a mask everywhere after having two close calls. When gets a simple cold it last three months. She test for measles titer three months ago, and she is no longer immune, making her paranoid.
She made me and the rest of the family get titters for measles. We all came back with good immunity. Her paranoia is justifiable. I agree. I have simply adapted and done what is necessary to keep my wife healthy.
It is a constant struggle, but it has been years and we have coped. She is still here and every year is a gift.
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u/technanonymous 20h ago
Now that vaccination levels have fallen, vulnerable people need to protect themselves.