Forum members who have lost the battle against COVID-19

[lajoswinkler]

Last couple of years I've been very inactive on this forum, partially because of the pandemic. It sure made a dent on our lives and it's still not over (it wasn't difficult to predict this outcome), but now it's much more manageable with the vaccines and all. People are still dying like flies around the world, let us not forget that.

Perhaps there have been some notable changes in the member structure due to this pestilence? Anyone you know?

[tater]

Have seen nothing on this forum. On another game forum I guy I know (online) lost both parents—one was 102, the other 98-99 I think—they were in a nursing home, already fragile by definition (healthy people are not in nursing homes, those facilities are elder-hospice).

Literally every human I personally know from kids to my 86 year old dad, and 92 year old father in law and their family friend who is 94 have had COVID.

None worse than a cold or seasonal flu. Many in 2020 before vaccines. More vaccinated than unvaccinated at this point (most worse than my unvaccinated case in 2021, and I'm in my mid-50s (was a cold, plus anosmia—wrecked my wine palate for months, still sorta meh, so bourbon ). 85% of my wife's always-masked (still), eating in their offices alone, 100% vaccinated office staff at the cancer center got COVID in October in the span of 2 weeks. From a vaccinated doc, who got it from another vaccinated doc.

It has been completely clear since pretty early in 2020 (check the threads here) that risk for initial COVID-19 (alpha) was 2-4X seasonal flu (and 2X as infectious). Delta was less deadly, and about twice as infectious as alpha, and omicron is even less deadly (flu like) and about twice as infectious (or more) than delta. Anyone more than 4X more worried than have been every other year of their life from seasonal flu was being irrational. That was my take in early 2020, and 4X is in the omicron era an overestimate of risk (assuming you're one of the few who has not had a cold in the last 2 years). Personally I now have ~zero concern, since I had it already. Course I assessed my covid risk before as 4X flu, and my flu concern was ~0.

When I get old enough I am worried about death from a cold, I'll reevaluate.

As for the vaccines, if they were meaningfully effective, mortality should have certainly been grossly lower in the first world where nearly all elderly people were vaccinated (the bulk of people at high risk). It was higher in 2021 most places. Sweden did pretty well, and was highly vaccinated for people at risk (older people). My guess is that being "open" normally made sense for people vaccinated since the efficacy falls off a cliff after a brief period. get vaccinated—then actually get infected while under some protection, gaining broader immunity (since infection immunity will ALWAYS be better than vaccination could be for a vaccine that is part of a single protein, vs ALL the proteins in the virus).

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by tater

[MKI]

This might be a weird question to ask because of survivor bias.

If someone lost their lives to COVID, or really lost their life to anything, odds of getting information and knowing of that would be very very low unless there was a secondary "offline" connection made and that connection knew about such events and that connection comes here and provides that information.

So withholding that scenario where there is some sort of offline/external connection, the only people here would of not lost their lives to COVID.

 

At this point in the pandemic odds are you have been affected directly or immediately in connection with someone who has had COVID in some capacity. I personally haven't even been sick of any kind in the last few years.  The first year and a half I was much more cautious due to underlying health conditions related to my lungs, which didn't seem to bode well for a sickness that could affect the lungs. However I've healed and more or less went about my business as usual to this day.

Today I'm not exactly careful, but I also don't do known high risk activities often, not out of fear, but that's just how my life is structured. Something like eating out, going to the movie theater, family functions and going into the office are all activities I don't do too often but still do. 

I know of a number of people who have gotten COVID multiple times, a few of them serious enough to end up in the hospital, but no fatalities. 

 

For the US, the pandemic has moved into the final phase, where things start moving back to normal and the actual danger of the virus itself is stuffed into the other endemics of society. So yes it will still be around, yes it will kill people, yes it is dangerous, yes it will present risk to you and your loved ones, but so do all the other endemics of a multitude of kinds. The risk factors in regards to fatalities today stand a little worse than the flu, which  will still fluctuate based on a huge number of factors.

Ultimately the biggest impact will be the psychological one. It's not exactly "easy" to get over a few years of non-stop coverage of some global event, but that is what society will need to do to truly move on. Depending on your personal network, you could have already gotten over this long ago, or still feel like it's a serious thing. Generally the risk factors haven't changed much beyond getting lower over time due to general heard immunity. So if you're just as worried now as you were in the past, don't be. 

 

The best way to get out of the mindset of some form of "fear" is to understand you and your families risks as clearly as possible, and assess it with pre-existing risks. Just because COVID has been a big deal the last few years doesn't directly make it more risky than if you heard nothing about it. The risk is there, just because you hear about the risks (or don't hear about the risks) doesn't actually change it.