@Not Henry Kissinger I've already done the hospital stay in ICU hooked up to a ventilator thing, just because someone went to work sick, with just the FLU. The You know the Flu does KILL 40-70 thousand a year, right?

I've been in financial purgatory ever since I could not pay the 47K hospital bill because some guy decided, or was forced to go to work sick, and still contagious, with just the FLU! I almost died!

So, not wearing a mask because you don't feel like it or your disagree with it, or you feel it's an infringement on your "rights", displays how one's selfishness can be deadly, if not at least financially devastating to others, no?

To me, if you're around me without a mask, it's the same thing as pointing a gun at my head. You're a clear and present danger to my life, and I have the legal right to defend myself accordingly.

To me, and the law, you would be infringing on my "right to life, liberty and happiness", simply because someone is selfish and has no regard for others well being.

If my life or anyone else's doesn't mean anything to someone, well, that speaks volumes about their character, does it not?

Wearing a mask during a deadly pandemic which has claimed nearly 150 thousand people in just 5-6 months, would be much appreciate by people like me.

As an aside, I find it an interesting disconnect, how some people recognize the "precautionary principal" when it comes to the "climate crisis", but gee, a deadly pandemic, well, fuck everyone else, I have a "right" to not wear mask and not give two cents about other people.

I'm just saying...

PS: We had a record 30 COVID related deaths yesterday in Dallas.

I think that the science is clear that the wearing of masks is necessary.

also says asymptomatic people very rarely spread the virus.

On Tuesday, Van Kerkhove and her colleague Mike Ryan, MD, executive director for health emergencies at the WHO, explained that there are two distinct kinds of silent transmission: “asymptomatic” (spreading a disease when you don’t have symptoms) and “presymptomatic” (spreading it before symptoms start). Both are difficult to stop. Presymptomatic spread is believed to be far more common than asymptomatic spread.

...

She said in the few studies that have been able to follow infected people who never get symptoms, to track down every person they’ve been in contact with and monitor those people for infection, transmission appeared to be “very rare.”

But hey, let's not let "The Science" get in the way of a cool laser-guided video.

IMO, if you feel you are at risk or are symptomatic, by all means wear a mask. But this constant drumbeat of coronashaming anyone who deigns to show his or her face in public is far more insidious to social cohesion than any virus whose symptoms many if not most infected people never even feel.

@lotlizard
When I was little, my maternal grandmother and aunt used to assemble quilts in the middle of my grandparents' living room. My two cousins and I pretended they were teepees. We loved it. Imagination is a great thing!

As for masks, I like hoping I'm jacking with face recognition software.

years ago it was something one did to put a realistic finishing touch on one’s cosplay as a Japanese schoolgirl in her sailor-style uniform.

@UntimelyRippd

I'm crawling back into my cave for another fortnight or so. Or longer, I hope. Forever would suit me fine.

Well, some of us hope it isn't longer ...and especially not forever.

Covid-NET, a surveillance of hospital admissions in 100 different counties spread across 14 states (CA, CO, CT, GA, MD, MN, NM, NY, OR, TN, IA, MI, OH, and UT), indicates that over the past 5 weeks, ~35% of Covid-19 hospital admissions have been 18-49. Cumulative statistics over the course of the pandemic indicate that about 1/4 of hospitalizations for that age cohort have required ICU treatment, and about 1/2 of that subgroup have required mechanical ventilation.

Now, if you know anything at all, you know that spending time in the ICU is, at the very least, an expensive proposition. Beyond that, some people — who don’t know what they’re talking about, but can’t stop talking anyway — would like you to think that it’s too early to know whether spending time in the ICU with Covid-19 will have serious long-term effects for the patients, but that’s actually a lie. We know that it will.

Almost all Covid-19 ICU patients are there because they’ve descended into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), per “SARS-Cov-2” — the SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Which is to say, it’s an especially bad case of ARDS.

And guess what? People have studied the long-term effects of being an ARDS patient. And they’re bad.

There are lots and lots of papers out there. What most of them find is that generally "on average" ARDS patients are no worse off in the long run than other ICU patients, but then, they’re no better off either, and that’s too bad, because people who’ve been in the ICU are prone to several long-term “sequelae”. After all, many of them are in the ICU because they’ve suffered serious physical trauma, including brain injuries and terrible burns and irreparable spine damage and heart attacks and strokes.

Many ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term physical problem, and most ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term psychological problem. One year down the road, the majority of ARDS survivors suffer at least one of PTSD, depression, or diagnosable anxiety (and guess what again: These are more prevalent among younger survivors). Across all of the studies I read, almost all negative sequelae of ARDS were reported by at least 1/5 of survivors, and many were reported by 30 to 40%. (You don’t have to be an arithmetical savant to understand that this means that most survivors suffer from two or more of the many measurable negative outcomes).

One study found that 5 years after discharge, varying percentages of ARDS survivors had not fully recovered across all the different functions measured: Physical, cognitive, etc. At least two studies found that 1 year after discharge, almost half of ARDS survivors who had been students or workers, had not returned to school/work, resulting in a permanent financial setback, in addition to psychological suffering. About half of those who had not returned to work were on disability. Of those who had, many were working fewer hours, many had made a “major change” in occupation, and many had subsequently lost the job they had returned to. (Unsurprisingly, since many reported themselves to be “less effective at work”.)

So you see, we don’t need to wait a year, or two years, or more to know whether Covid-19 will have serious long-term negative outcomes for those who survive a run in the ICU. Of course it will. Why wouldn’t it?.

Something we don’t know is whether these negative outcomes will be exacerbated by the characteristics that make Covid-19 ARDS so much more deadly and harmful than typical ARDS: For example, hyper-coagulation, and the terrible lung damage that patients present at admission — no, it’s not from the ventilators, it’s observed on scans of patients before they even get to the ICU; in fact, it’s present on scans of patients who never go to the ICU. These negative outcomes are not, for the most part, about the ICU itself -- they're about getting so sick that you need to be admitted to the ICU. (Feel free to speculate that maybe Covid-19 ARDS will somehow magically be less serious for its survivors. Feel free to stomp the feet and beat the chest and blather that we cannot, after all, know that it won’t. Those of us who inhabit the Real World will recognize such bleating for what it is: Disingenuousness motivated by a toddlerish refusal to admit that one doesn't know what one is talking about, when one has been caught out.)

And finally, a little bonus cherry on top. Here are two other things that you cannot know:

A. You cannot know that anybody died of the Spanish flu. Because not one person ever tested positive for it. And we all know that diagnosing any death from any disease — say, for example, Covid-19 — based only on symptoms, without a corresponding positive test is … well it’s just a lie. It’s a big fat WHO/CDC/Pharma lie intended to frighten and confuse you by exaggerating the magnitude of the pandemic, if this silly little virus even deserves to be called that. Because always, and forever through all the years of human history, it’s been commonly accepted by the elites and the hoi polloi alike, that you can only assign a cause of death by applying a sensitive molecular diagnostic to identify the genome of the causative pathogen. That’s the only way it’s ever been done. I mean, ever. At least, until now, when suddenly we’re just going to take the attending physician’s word for it. Like, how did that suddenly be acceptable when filling out a death certificate? How gullible do they think we are? The numbers don’t add up. (No, really. They don’t. Way more excess deaths have been observed, than have been counted against Covid-19. Covid-19 mortality is being undercounted, almost everywhere.) I suggest to you that the Spanish flu was no worse than, uh, well, "the flu," but TPTB ginned up this whole story about millions dying to distract the increasingly rebellious public from the mountains of war casualties in Europe. By inventing this whole Spanish flu deal, the armaments manufacturers and the, uh, you know, bankers (wink wink) hoped to keep the big war gravy train rolling on for another year or two. And if you think that's crazy talk, all I'm gonna say is this: Were you there?

B. You cannot know that you’ve had Covid-19, if you haven’t been tested. No, really — I mean, if you happen to have died of respiratory failure after suffering a high fever for a few days, then, yeah it’s a pretty good bet, go ahead and brag about it -- but if you're still alive and you never even ended up in the hospital, well, not so much. So, uh, if epistemology is your bag, if you like to run your rhetoric along the rails of what is knowable and unknowable, well, um, then, you shouldn’t claim to have had Covid-19 unless you’ve tested positive. For that matter, you shouldn’t even believe it, never mind claim it, but I’ve seen plenty of people doing so. Which is funny, because 85% of people who are sick enough to go to their doctor or to urgent care and get tested, test negative. So. You know. What are the odds, really, that that's what you had?

And that's it for now, I'm crawling back into my cave for another fortnight or so. Or longer, I hope. Forever would suit me fine.

@UntimelyRippd

...is verifiable and remarkable fact. Parts of it that may sound extreme to even your own ears are actually known-knowns among those who need to know. The fatality rate of patients put on ventilation in New York was over 90 percent. That was not made common knowledge but it may explain why infection hot-spots in the world have more ventilators than they plan to use.

Just one quibble. There was nothing ordinary about the Spanish Flu.

I suggest to you that the Spanish flu was no worse than, uh, well, "the flu," but TPTB ginned up this whole story about millions dying to distract the increasingly rebellious public from the mountains of war casualties in Europe.

It is true, the public wanted no part of the WWI slaughter. But that flu's death rates being used as a distraction is a thin speculation. US war involvement was due to the trickery of the Council on Foreign Relations. Their work continues at an extreme level right now, with the push for a physical world war for empire, without delay. I don't see how a pandemic was useful to the CFR then or now. The Biden ticket gives the CFR total control over State and Defense. The draft is automatic. With or without a flu, doomsday war seems inevitable. Without a world war now, the dollar will crash to its debt value, closing all foreign military bases.

There have been four coronavirus pandemics, plus the common cold.

A century of science has failed to create a vaccine for any of them.

All this flies above the intellectual awareness of Americans, who have been groomed for little more than war cheerleading and cannon fodder. If Americans are not triggered to fight the Russians or Chinese, it appears that they will be fighting the unfinished Civil War at home.

Covid-NET, a surveillance of hospital admissions in 100 different counties spread across 14 states (CA, CO, CT, GA, MD, MN, NM, NY, OR, TN, IA, MI, OH, and UT), indicates that over the past 5 weeks, ~35% of Covid-19 hospital admissions have been 18-49. Cumulative statistics over the course of the pandemic indicate that about 1/4 of hospitalizations for that age cohort have required ICU treatment, and about 1/2 of that subgroup have required mechanical ventilation.

Now, if you know anything at all, you know that spending time in the ICU is, at the very least, an expensive proposition. Beyond that, some people — who don’t know what they’re talking about, but can’t stop talking anyway — would like you to think that it’s too early to know whether spending time in the ICU with Covid-19 will have serious long-term effects for the patients, but that’s actually a lie. We know that it will.

Almost all Covid-19 ICU patients are there because they’ve descended into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), per “SARS-Cov-2” — the SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Which is to say, it’s an especially bad case of ARDS.

And guess what? People have studied the long-term effects of being an ARDS patient. And they’re bad.

There are lots and lots of papers out there. What most of them find is that generally "on average" ARDS patients are no worse off in the long run than other ICU patients, but then, they’re no better off either, and that’s too bad, because people who’ve been in the ICU are prone to several long-term “sequelae”. After all, many of them are in the ICU because they’ve suffered serious physical trauma, including brain injuries and terrible burns and irreparable spine damage and heart attacks and strokes.

Many ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term physical problem, and most ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term psychological problem. One year down the road, the majority of ARDS survivors suffer at least one of PTSD, depression, or diagnosable anxiety (and guess what again: These are more prevalent among younger survivors). Across all of the studies I read, almost all negative sequelae of ARDS were reported by at least 1/5 of survivors, and many were reported by 30 to 40%. (You don’t have to be an arithmetical savant to understand that this means that most survivors suffer from two or more of the many measurable negative outcomes).

One study found that 5 years after discharge, varying percentages of ARDS survivors had not fully recovered across all the different functions measured: Physical, cognitive, etc. At least two studies found that 1 year after discharge, almost half of ARDS survivors who had been students or workers, had not returned to school/work, resulting in a permanent financial setback, in addition to psychological suffering. About half of those who had not returned to work were on disability. Of those who had, many were working fewer hours, many had made a “major change” in occupation, and many had subsequently lost the job they had returned to. (Unsurprisingly, since many reported themselves to be “less effective at work”.)

So you see, we don’t need to wait a year, or two years, or more to know whether Covid-19 will have serious long-term negative outcomes for those who survive a run in the ICU. Of course it will. Why wouldn’t it?.

Something we don’t know is whether these negative outcomes will be exacerbated by the characteristics that make Covid-19 ARDS so much more deadly and harmful than typical ARDS: For example, hyper-coagulation, and the terrible lung damage that patients present at admission — no, it’s not from the ventilators, it’s observed on scans of patients before they even get to the ICU; in fact, it’s present on scans of patients who never go to the ICU. These negative outcomes are not, for the most part, about the ICU itself -- they're about getting so sick that you need to be admitted to the ICU. (Feel free to speculate that maybe Covid-19 ARDS will somehow magically be less serious for its survivors. Feel free to stomp the feet and beat the chest and blather that we cannot, after all, know that it won’t. Those of us who inhabit the Real World will recognize such bleating for what it is: Disingenuousness motivated by a toddlerish refusal to admit that one doesn't know what one is talking about, when one has been caught out.)

And finally, a little bonus cherry on top. Here are two other things that you cannot know:

A. You cannot know that anybody died of the Spanish flu. Because not one person ever tested positive for it. And we all know that diagnosing any death from any disease — say, for example, Covid-19 — based only on symptoms, without a corresponding positive test is … well it’s just a lie. It’s a big fat WHO/CDC/Pharma lie intended to frighten and confuse you by exaggerating the magnitude of the pandemic, if this silly little virus even deserves to be called that. Because always, and forever through all the years of human history, it’s been commonly accepted by the elites and the hoi polloi alike, that you can only assign a cause of death by applying a sensitive molecular diagnostic to identify the genome of the causative pathogen. That’s the only way it’s ever been done. I mean, ever. At least, until now, when suddenly we’re just going to take the attending physician’s word for it. Like, how did that suddenly be acceptable when filling out a death certificate? How gullible do they think we are? The numbers don’t add up. (No, really. They don’t. Way more excess deaths have been observed, than have been counted against Covid-19. Covid-19 mortality is being undercounted, almost everywhere.) I suggest to you that the Spanish flu was no worse than, uh, well, "the flu," but TPTB ginned up this whole story about millions dying to distract the increasingly rebellious public from the mountains of war casualties in Europe. By inventing this whole Spanish flu deal, the armaments manufacturers and the, uh, you know, bankers (wink wink) hoped to keep the big war gravy train rolling on for another year or two. And if you think that's crazy talk, all I'm gonna say is this: Were you there?

B. You cannot know that you’ve had Covid-19, if you haven’t been tested. No, really — I mean, if you happen to have died of respiratory failure after suffering a high fever for a few days, then, yeah it’s a pretty good bet, go ahead and brag about it -- but if you're still alive and you never even ended up in the hospital, well, not so much. So, uh, if epistemology is your bag, if you like to run your rhetoric along the rails of what is knowable and unknowable, well, um, then, you shouldn’t claim to have had Covid-19 unless you’ve tested positive. For that matter, you shouldn’t even believe it, never mind claim it, but I’ve seen plenty of people doing so. Which is funny, because 85% of people who are sick enough to go to their doctor or to urgent care and get tested, test negative. So. You know. What are the odds, really, that that's what you had?

And that's it for now, I'm crawling back into my cave for another fortnight or so. Or longer, I hope. Forever would suit me fine.

@UntimelyRippd

be well and have a good one

Covid-NET, a surveillance of hospital admissions in 100 different counties spread across 14 states (CA, CO, CT, GA, MD, MN, NM, NY, OR, TN, IA, MI, OH, and UT), indicates that over the past 5 weeks, ~35% of Covid-19 hospital admissions have been 18-49. Cumulative statistics over the course of the pandemic indicate that about 1/4 of hospitalizations for that age cohort have required ICU treatment, and about 1/2 of that subgroup have required mechanical ventilation.

Now, if you know anything at all, you know that spending time in the ICU is, at the very least, an expensive proposition. Beyond that, some people — who don’t know what they’re talking about, but can’t stop talking anyway — would like you to think that it’s too early to know whether spending time in the ICU with Covid-19 will have serious long-term effects for the patients, but that’s actually a lie. We know that it will.

Almost all Covid-19 ICU patients are there because they’ve descended into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), per “SARS-Cov-2” — the SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Which is to say, it’s an especially bad case of ARDS.

And guess what? People have studied the long-term effects of being an ARDS patient. And they’re bad.

There are lots and lots of papers out there. What most of them find is that generally "on average" ARDS patients are no worse off in the long run than other ICU patients, but then, they’re no better off either, and that’s too bad, because people who’ve been in the ICU are prone to several long-term “sequelae”. After all, many of them are in the ICU because they’ve suffered serious physical trauma, including brain injuries and terrible burns and irreparable spine damage and heart attacks and strokes.

Many ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term physical problem, and most ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term psychological problem. One year down the road, the majority of ARDS survivors suffer at least one of PTSD, depression, or diagnosable anxiety (and guess what again: These are more prevalent among younger survivors). Across all of the studies I read, almost all negative sequelae of ARDS were reported by at least 1/5 of survivors, and many were reported by 30 to 40%. (You don’t have to be an arithmetical savant to understand that this means that most survivors suffer from two or more of the many measurable negative outcomes).

One study found that 5 years after discharge, varying percentages of ARDS survivors had not fully recovered across all the different functions measured: Physical, cognitive, etc. At least two studies found that 1 year after discharge, almost half of ARDS survivors who had been students or workers, had not returned to school/work, resulting in a permanent financial setback, in addition to psychological suffering. About half of those who had not returned to work were on disability. Of those who had, many were working fewer hours, many had made a “major change” in occupation, and many had subsequently lost the job they had returned to. (Unsurprisingly, since many reported themselves to be “less effective at work”.)

So you see, we don’t need to wait a year, or two years, or more to know whether Covid-19 will have serious long-term negative outcomes for those who survive a run in the ICU. Of course it will. Why wouldn’t it?.

Something we don’t know is whether these negative outcomes will be exacerbated by the characteristics that make Covid-19 ARDS so much more deadly and harmful than typical ARDS: For example, hyper-coagulation, and the terrible lung damage that patients present at admission — no, it’s not from the ventilators, it’s observed on scans of patients before they even get to the ICU; in fact, it’s present on scans of patients who never go to the ICU. These negative outcomes are not, for the most part, about the ICU itself -- they're about getting so sick that you need to be admitted to the ICU. (Feel free to speculate that maybe Covid-19 ARDS will somehow magically be less serious for its survivors. Feel free to stomp the feet and beat the chest and blather that we cannot, after all, know that it won’t. Those of us who inhabit the Real World will recognize such bleating for what it is: Disingenuousness motivated by a toddlerish refusal to admit that one doesn't know what one is talking about, when one has been caught out.)

And finally, a little bonus cherry on top. Here are two other things that you cannot know:

A. You cannot know that anybody died of the Spanish flu. Because not one person ever tested positive for it. And we all know that diagnosing any death from any disease — say, for example, Covid-19 — based only on symptoms, without a corresponding positive test is … well it’s just a lie. It’s a big fat WHO/CDC/Pharma lie intended to frighten and confuse you by exaggerating the magnitude of the pandemic, if this silly little virus even deserves to be called that. Because always, and forever through all the years of human history, it’s been commonly accepted by the elites and the hoi polloi alike, that you can only assign a cause of death by applying a sensitive molecular diagnostic to identify the genome of the causative pathogen. That’s the only way it’s ever been done. I mean, ever. At least, until now, when suddenly we’re just going to take the attending physician’s word for it. Like, how did that suddenly be acceptable when filling out a death certificate? How gullible do they think we are? The numbers don’t add up. (No, really. They don’t. Way more excess deaths have been observed, than have been counted against Covid-19. Covid-19 mortality is being undercounted, almost everywhere.) I suggest to you that the Spanish flu was no worse than, uh, well, "the flu," but TPTB ginned up this whole story about millions dying to distract the increasingly rebellious public from the mountains of war casualties in Europe. By inventing this whole Spanish flu deal, the armaments manufacturers and the, uh, you know, bankers (wink wink) hoped to keep the big war gravy train rolling on for another year or two. And if you think that's crazy talk, all I'm gonna say is this: Were you there?

B. You cannot know that you’ve had Covid-19, if you haven’t been tested. No, really — I mean, if you happen to have died of respiratory failure after suffering a high fever for a few days, then, yeah it’s a pretty good bet, go ahead and brag about it -- but if you're still alive and you never even ended up in the hospital, well, not so much. So, uh, if epistemology is your bag, if you like to run your rhetoric along the rails of what is knowable and unknowable, well, um, then, you shouldn’t claim to have had Covid-19 unless you’ve tested positive. For that matter, you shouldn’t even believe it, never mind claim it, but I’ve seen plenty of people doing so. Which is funny, because 85% of people who are sick enough to go to their doctor or to urgent care and get tested, test negative. So. You know. What are the odds, really, that that's what you had?

And that's it for now, I'm crawling back into my cave for another fortnight or so. Or longer, I hope. Forever would suit me fine.

@UntimelyRippd

Way more excess deaths have been observed, than have been counted against Covid-19. Covid-19 mortality is being undercounted, almost everywhere.

.

My co-worker's next door neighbor tested positive, was admitted to hospital, sent home, readmitted, then developed pneumonia. Her death is not reflected (yet) in the publicly available county data. She died two weeks ago. I will not be surprised if they consider her death as pneumonia, rather than covid19.

The crowd who thinks the entire virus is a hoax believe that no one has really died, all the numbers are fake and we're being trained to wear masks because something. I still can't figure it out. They claim the hospital "gets" $40,000 for a covid19 death. I have no idea where that's supposedly coming from.

At first I thought huge discrepancies from state to state might have to do with the political party this governor or that governor belongs to, but I don't think that works. Admitting to higher positive rates and death tolls makes the governor admitting the info to the public a loser in the reverse pissing contest.

It would certainly be nice to be able to trust what we're told, but pies and skies I suppose. As it is, I just assume everyone I see is infected and assume that the numbers are vastly under reported. Human behavior spreads it, and humans prove every day how incredibly stupid we can be.

Covid-NET, a surveillance of hospital admissions in 100 different counties spread across 14 states (CA, CO, CT, GA, MD, MN, NM, NY, OR, TN, IA, MI, OH, and UT), indicates that over the past 5 weeks, ~35% of Covid-19 hospital admissions have been 18-49. Cumulative statistics over the course of the pandemic indicate that about 1/4 of hospitalizations for that age cohort have required ICU treatment, and about 1/2 of that subgroup have required mechanical ventilation.

Now, if you know anything at all, you know that spending time in the ICU is, at the very least, an expensive proposition. Beyond that, some people — who don’t know what they’re talking about, but can’t stop talking anyway — would like you to think that it’s too early to know whether spending time in the ICU with Covid-19 will have serious long-term effects for the patients, but that’s actually a lie. We know that it will.

Almost all Covid-19 ICU patients are there because they’ve descended into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), per “SARS-Cov-2” — the SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Which is to say, it’s an especially bad case of ARDS.

And guess what? People have studied the long-term effects of being an ARDS patient. And they’re bad.

There are lots and lots of papers out there. What most of them find is that generally "on average" ARDS patients are no worse off in the long run than other ICU patients, but then, they’re no better off either, and that’s too bad, because people who’ve been in the ICU are prone to several long-term “sequelae”. After all, many of them are in the ICU because they’ve suffered serious physical trauma, including brain injuries and terrible burns and irreparable spine damage and heart attacks and strokes.

Many ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term physical problem, and most ARDS survivors will experience at least one significant long-term psychological problem. One year down the road, the majority of ARDS survivors suffer at least one of PTSD, depression, or diagnosable anxiety (and guess what again: These are more prevalent among younger survivors). Across all of the studies I read, almost all negative sequelae of ARDS were reported by at least 1/5 of survivors, and many were reported by 30 to 40%. (You don’t have to be an arithmetical savant to understand that this means that most survivors suffer from two or more of the many measurable negative outcomes).

One study found that 5 years after discharge, varying percentages of ARDS survivors had not fully recovered across all the different functions measured: Physical, cognitive, etc. At least two studies found that 1 year after discharge, almost half of ARDS survivors who had been students or workers, had not returned to school/work, resulting in a permanent financial setback, in addition to psychological suffering. About half of those who had not returned to work were on disability. Of those who had, many were working fewer hours, many had made a “major change” in occupation, and many had subsequently lost the job they had returned to. (Unsurprisingly, since many reported themselves to be “less effective at work”.)

So you see, we don’t need to wait a year, or two years, or more to know whether Covid-19 will have serious long-term negative outcomes for those who survive a run in the ICU. Of course it will. Why wouldn’t it?.

Something we don’t know is whether these negative outcomes will be exacerbated by the characteristics that make Covid-19 ARDS so much more deadly and harmful than typical ARDS: For example, hyper-coagulation, and the terrible lung damage that patients present at admission — no, it’s not from the ventilators, it’s observed on scans of patients before they even get to the ICU; in fact, it’s present on scans of patients who never go to the ICU. These negative outcomes are not, for the most part, about the ICU itself -- they're about getting so sick that you need to be admitted to the ICU. (Feel free to speculate that maybe Covid-19 ARDS will somehow magically be less serious for its survivors. Feel free to stomp the feet and beat the chest and blather that we cannot, after all, know that it won’t. Those of us who inhabit the Real World will recognize such bleating for what it is: Disingenuousness motivated by a toddlerish refusal to admit that one doesn't know what one is talking about, when one has been caught out.)

And finally, a little bonus cherry on top. Here are two other things that you cannot know:

A. You cannot know that anybody died of the Spanish flu. Because not one person ever tested positive for it. And we all know that diagnosing any death from any disease — say, for example, Covid-19 — based only on symptoms, without a corresponding positive test is … well it’s just a lie. It’s a big fat WHO/CDC/Pharma lie intended to frighten and confuse you by exaggerating the magnitude of the pandemic, if this silly little virus even deserves to be called that. Because always, and forever through all the years of human history, it’s been commonly accepted by the elites and the hoi polloi alike, that you can only assign a cause of death by applying a sensitive molecular diagnostic to identify the genome of the causative pathogen. That’s the only way it’s ever been done. I mean, ever. At least, until now, when suddenly we’re just going to take the attending physician’s word for it. Like, how did that suddenly be acceptable when filling out a death certificate? How gullible do they think we are? The numbers don’t add up. (No, really. They don’t. Way more excess deaths have been observed, than have been counted against Covid-19. Covid-19 mortality is being undercounted, almost everywhere.) I suggest to you that the Spanish flu was no worse than, uh, well, "the flu," but TPTB ginned up this whole story about millions dying to distract the increasingly rebellious public from the mountains of war casualties in Europe. By inventing this whole Spanish flu deal, the armaments manufacturers and the, uh, you know, bankers (wink wink) hoped to keep the big war gravy train rolling on for another year or two. And if you think that's crazy talk, all I'm gonna say is this: Were you there?

B. You cannot know that you’ve had Covid-19, if you haven’t been tested. No, really — I mean, if you happen to have died of respiratory failure after suffering a high fever for a few days, then, yeah it’s a pretty good bet, go ahead and brag about it -- but if you're still alive and you never even ended up in the hospital, well, not so much. So, uh, if epistemology is your bag, if you like to run your rhetoric along the rails of what is knowable and unknowable, well, um, then, you shouldn’t claim to have had Covid-19 unless you’ve tested positive. For that matter, you shouldn’t even believe it, never mind claim it, but I’ve seen plenty of people doing so. Which is funny, because 85% of people who are sick enough to go to their doctor or to urgent care and get tested, test negative. So. You know. What are the odds, really, that that's what you had?

And that's it for now, I'm crawling back into my cave for another fortnight or so. Or longer, I hope. Forever would suit me fine.