And COVID is still doing damage to people because it's still spreading unchecked year-round; no, it's not always spreading at the same level year-round, but even when the reports say the levels are low (which is mostly from wastewater data and that is being drastically cut in the US, so we'll be even more in the dark about the spread of it and multiple other infectious diseases), there's still a risk of catching and spreading it. Low risk doesn't mean no risk and it's still too much risk for me personally, as someone who suspects I have long COVID on top of the disabilities I already had, who doesn't want to risk getting it or other infectious diseases, and who doesn't want to risk spreading infectious diseases to others.
People are still getting infected, becoming disabled, and dying from both the acute infection and from the cumulative damage caused by getting COVID repeatedly. Even one infection is enough to cause lasting damage, to disable someone, and to kill someone in the acute phase or from the long-term damage. And I will die pissed that instead of us uniting as a species to get it under control and help all of us, the powers that be turned it into a political debate and misled the public about the realities of COVID and repeatedly threw the most vulnerable amongst us (chronically ill and disabled people, those who are immunocompromised, and the elderly, as well as children who now have long COVID as one of if not the most common chronic illness now) under the bus in an ill-fated attempt to pretend COVID is over and we can just go back to our pre-COVID lives.
I've been wondering how many people would actually take precautions and take them seriously if they really understood the risk, but yet again, late last year there was a conference about needing more research and funding for long COVID and supposedly only one person, a patient with long COVID there to talk about their experiences with it, was masked. Even the so-called experts on long COVID couldn't be assed to mask, despite the only way we know to prevent long COVID being to prevent COVID infections. Despite there being no cure and no specific treatments for long COVID. If you're lucky to find a healthcare provider who believes in and knows about long COVID and tries to help, the best they can do is try to treat the symptoms. And long COVID has 200+ possible symptoms because COVID and thus long COVID impacts every part of the body.
Additionally, the estimates for both COVID infections (currently and in the past) and long COVID are underestimated, especially because so many people have been infected by COVID and often multiple times but not enough people are aware of long COVID and what it can look like to even think that their new or worsened symptoms post infection could be due to long COVID. On top of that, so many healthcare providers don't know about it or don't understand enough or don't believe it's real, so even if you can access healthcare and try to get answers, there's a decent chance long COVID would either be dismissed as a possibility or not even be considered.
If you've had or suspect you've had at least one COVID infection (and it doesn't matter if it was asymptomatic, mild, or put you in the hospital, you're still at risk of developing long COVID), and especially if you then developed new or worsened chronic symptoms, please look into it and if you can, try to find a healthcare provider who understands long COVID.
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