As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations creep up during a summer wave of heightened virus activity, updated vaccines are still likely weeks away.
Why it matters:
- Americans have largely tuned out COVID, but the latest COVID uptick is a reminder that the virus continues to circulate and mutate — though the threat is far below pandemic-era levels.
- Health officials face a challenge convincing a pandemic-fatigued public to get an updated COVID shot, as vaccine uptake has declined with each successive booster.
COVID disables healthy people in a way the flu does not.
The flu absolutely kills healthy, young individuals.
I personally know an otherwise healthy 18 year old who died of the flu.
Edit: mine is a completely factual statement. I’m not sure what the issue is, but a later comment is making me think I should tell people to Google “long flu”.
Some viruses are not so bad. Both COVID and the flu are bad. Hopefully, we can control this with something like a combined flu/COVID annual shot (and maybe we should start calling it that instead of a booster). Both are not the same as, e.g., smallpox where it’s kinda “one and done”.
OP said “disables” not “kills” so your comment doesn’t actually address OP’s comment. Long COVID is way more common than any after effects from the flu.
And you think that a disease that kills healthy young people doesn’t also disable them?
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Are you fucking kidding me? Mock? Dude didn’t think the flu was dangerous. That’s (maybe almost) as dangerous as being a COVID vaccine denier and deserving of criticism.
Next, I want you to apologize for not googling “long flu” before making this comment. Do that and get back to me. Consider thinking before posting. Everything I’ve said is completely factual.
Now, no one is saying that COVID is not dangerous or that it killed millions, but the flu is also very dangerous. That’s why we get vaccinated for the flu every year and why we will (I think) have to do the same for COVID.
COVID killed so many because it was completely novel. When the flu was/is introduced to unexposed populations, it kills terribly. I can’t say more or less bad than COVID. Nearly everyone has now been exposed to flu, similar to COVID, and now we can’t do the “more or less dangerous” science in a simple statistical manner.
I’m not sure how else to end this except to say, huh?
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Post viral syndrome is not unique to covid, and is typically minor and short lived
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Both can kill, but only one has a rather high chance (some estimate 10-20%) of leaving you exhausted for months on end or worse - Physics Girl has been bedridden and at times hospitalized for the last year or so because of it.
See my edit earlier in the thread. “Long flu” is (of course) a thing. It’ll be different because there’re lots of differences between viruses (and, you know, everything)
I do love science populizers and physics girl is a wonderful populizer. I really hope that she’s able to recover.
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