Doug's Darkworld

The Invisible Enemy. This is how Trump has been characterizing Covid-19 recently. And got to give the man his due, in this instance, he’s right on the money. Covid-19 very much is an invisible enemy. And more on point, it’s an unknown enemy. A lot of people are not understanding that. Let me try to explain. In December 2019 an army of microscopic alien beings invaded Earth, from God knows where, but they landed in China. And you know what these invaders wanted? Our lungs. They found that they could use human lungs to grow ever more invaders, human lungs were perfect for their alien breeding facilities. And breed they did, infecting millions of lungs all over the planet, despite valiant attempts to hold them in check. The aliens have a foothold on Earth, a still expanding foothold.

What do these invaders want? Easy. They want to infect every human being on Earth. That is Covid-19’s “plan.” Or the reason for their existence or whatever, these aliens want to colonise every set of human lungs on Earth. Yours included gentle reader. An actual alien invader, just like the freaking things in the Aliens’ movies, wants to use your lungs to grow more copies of itself. Concerned yet? This is where we separate the wheat from the chaff. Because the next question is, so what if they win? What if Covid-19 does overwhelm our defences and infects a huge percentage of the human population? Again, easy. We don’t have a fucking clue. Let me repeat that, we have no idea what the long term effect on people Covid-19 will have.

This is where people confuse the map with the territory. Yes, Covid-19 might turn out to be “just another flu.” Might. Might also have all sorts of other consequences. The below quote goes into some of them. Or in another way, aliens have invaded Earth, should we just surrender to them to save the economy? Read the following to see what that may entail:

“I’ve seen a lot of people itching to “reopen” the country. Maybe I can add a tiny bit to this conversation and hopefully not be castrated for it. I’m a physician (ER Radiologist) and I’m seeing these patients. Right now there are many, many unknowns.

1) A high percent of people who get sick are dying, including young and healthy patients. For some reason the statistics being reported in the news is not what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a high proportion of dying patients in their 40’s. I’ve seen probably 2x more 40 year olds dying than patients over 70.

UPDATE 4/21/20: Since there have been nursing home outbreaks, the morbidity and mortality age statistics I’ve observed have started to reflect what is being reported in the media. Understand, though, this disease still greatly impacts younger individuals in very high numbers.

2) The ones who are surviving, including those who have “asymptomatic” random findings I see in the ER’s end up having elevated cardiac markers. In other words, this virus is messing with young patients’ hearts… and not a little bit. I’m talking WILDLY elevated cardiac markers. This could result in a massive need for heart transplants in the next decade and only time will tell if these patients convert to full blown cardiomyopathies (not a diagnosis I would wish on my worst enemy). If you are not scared of “a little” pneumonia and a small percent chance of dying from it, you should ABSOLUTELY be scared of getting a cardiomyopathy (and being among many at one time who will be getting it). This would be devastating for society.

3) This is only the first wave of the infection. All pandemics we know of come back with a vengeance. We won’t know when and we won’t know how bad. The (now decreased) estimated loss of life only takes into account ONE wave WITH mitigation. Any other assumptions after this one wave is truly a blind guess.

4) We don’t know whether or not infected individuals are gaining immunity. We also don’t know when a vaccine will be declared effective. It will be at a MINIMUM (best case) 18 months before we know, not a worst case.

5) We don’t know the effect of viral load yet. Whether the amount of virus you’ve been exposed to or remains in your body is a factor. Does it take repeated exposures or just one to become ill?

6) We don’t know ALL the effects of this virus yet. We know a common symptom is loss of smell and taste. Besides being incredibly “inconvenient” it means this virus is infecting the neurologic system. Herpes/Varicella viruses infect the neurologic system and then can get reactivated as the immune system weakens or when you get older. (How would you like to go through a life threatening illness every year of your life when you get older?) We also know many viruses cause cancer… HIV, EBV, HPV, etc. We don’t know if that will be the case with this one yet.

7) We don’t even know how to treat this well yet… forget cure, I’m talking about “well.” Once infected and progressing to the need for a ventilator, this infection doesn’t behave at all like what we’ve seen before. Hence, ineffective treatment and ~80% mortality on a ventilator. You don’t want to be in that situation. The last thing you’ll experience is suffocation and intubation and no family or friends around you. Not a great way to go.

— My take: Now, I don’t know about you, but if it meant that I stay locked up in jail (and we are not) in order to save my wife’s life or my children’s lives, you damn well believe I’d do it. I’ve seen the biostatistics, the epidemiology, the lack of trustworthy data coming from other countries, the conspiracy theories, but most importantly I’ve seen these patients’ lives and families be destroyed. Play the long game and don’t be impulsive. If we have no people left to participate in an economy, in a government then none of this is worthwhile. The best thing you can do for yourself and this world right now is avoid this infection at all cost and stay alive. 

Dr. Fred Weiss

Can I comment on the above? No, I’m not a doctor or an epidemiologist. What I do know is this, if the overwhelming majority of experts on the topic think we should do all we can to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it’s crazy not to listen to them. We live in crazy times though. So gentle reader, please, do whatever you can to avoid getting this disease. Be a survivor, not a statistic.

Have a great week everyone. Stay safe, stay sane. #StaytheFHome Comments, shares appreciated.

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Public domain image from Snappygoat.)