against the urgency of normal

[mellowtigger]

I'm on vacation for the rest of this month, but I just peeked at my work email this morning.  My employer has gone "mask optional" in the workplace.  That's finally the last proverbial straw.  I'll spend today writing my resignation letter, so I have it ready when I return.

As a reminder, 2019 December 01 is when the first known person developed symptoms of COVID-19, leading a pandemic caused by what is now known as the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  That was 830 days ago.  During those 830 days, we already have evidence of:

1. "viral persistence", meaning that people who get infected may very well remain infected for life.  The longest duration known so far is 230 days.
2. airborne transmission, meaning that this virus (more specifically, some of its variants) is more contagious than other diseases we know.
3. widespread clotting, meaning that people who are infected develop blood clots in organs throughout the body.
4. persistent clotting, meaning that even after initial infection there is a huge 55% greater risk of clotting events like heart attack, stroke, and death.  (reminder: see #1 above)
5. immune suppression, meaning that people who are infected develop a greater risk of infection by any agent. 
6. asymptomatic infection, meaning that 40% of people with primary infection wouldn't know they are infected and spreading disease.

That's the disastrous news we have after only 830 days.  I expect this pandemic will lead to a "slow burn", just like the insignificant HIV-1 infection led several years later to the tragedy of widespread AIDS.  I already had a DVT (deep-vein thrombosis) back in 2013.  I am a high-risk person in regards to covid.  I should not be an "essential worker" who has to enter office space with people who can spread this disease.  Biden's command to "return to the office" is now equally as idiotic and incompetent as Trump's lies that "it's like the flu" and  "it'll go down to zero".

I wish I could afford to immediately retire and hide.  The world has gone insane.  Well, except for China which seems to be the only country still taking this pandemic seriously.  Where is the bunker, the safe commune, for the people still left uninfected who want to remain that way?

Sorry, I know I promised to avoid this topic for 6 months, and I didn't even make it 1 full month.  I did say I'd write if I was personally affected before the expiration, and turning my workspace into a viral risk chamber does qualify as something that affects me personally.

Comments

[foeclan]

If anything on jobs.dell.com looks interesting, send me your resume and I'm happy to refer you. I think most of our stuff has remote options these days, so it may be less stressful than last time.

[mellowtigger]

Thanks. I'll check tomorrow. My document is half-written, and I'm still just so frustrated today. Much of what's happening in the world is just so... unnecessary.

[threemeninaboat]

Even in medicine masks are now optional. :(

[mellowtigger]

That's obviously a ridiculous policy, and I cannot explain why that's the new norm. It makes no medical sense. :(

I went to a local clinic yesterday (both health and dental providers), and they still want everyone masked. That's good. They also make everyone disinfect their hands. That's okay. There are still other infectious agents out there besides this one. I still disinfect my groceries before putting them away, even though we know that's an unlikely mode of transmission in this case.

[mtbc]

Thakn you for posting and summarizing this. I've nothing useful to add but still, I hear you.

[mellowtigger]

Hours after posting my rant, I saw a CDC notice that seems to admit THEY KNOW. The article is couched in some both-and terminology, like they're burying the lede and hoping that nobody notices, but if you're looking for it then it's alarming.

"COVID-19 is likely to increase the risk for pulmonary aspergillosis and mucormycosis because of COVID-19–induced immune dysregulation and treatments for COVID-19 (eg, corticosteroids) that weaken host immune defenses against molds."
- https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/969086?src=par_cdc_stm_mscpedt?&faf=1

Opportunistic infection along with covid due to "immune dysregulation"? Yep. Where have we heard that before, I wonder? I expect to hear more of "undetectable levels" of virus soon too. I really hope I'm wrong and just being tinfoil-hat paranoid. :(

imagine yelling "Fire" in a crowded room, and everyone ignored you

[mellowtigger]

This is the news that I was really hoping not to see. This is demonstrated only "in vitro" (in petri dishes, essentially), not in live humans. Still, though, it's bad news. I'll have to rely on other people to tell me if this study is reasonable or if it has obvious flaws that I don't know how to detect.

"We next prove that SARS-CoV-2 infects T lymphocytes, preferably activated CD4 + T cells in vitro. Upon infection, viral RNA, subgenomic RNA, viral protein or viral particle can be detected in the T cells. Furthermore, we show that the infection is spike-ACE2/TMPRSS2-independent through using ACE2 knockdown or receptor blocking experiments. Next, we demonstrate that viral antigen-positive T cells from patient undergone pronounced apoptosis... Here, we provided evidence that activated T lymphocytes could be infected by SARS-CoV-2 in an ACE2-independent manner. The infection leads to pronounced T-cell apoptosis in vitro or in patients with COVID-19. Our findings shed light on the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced lymphopenia... Notably, CD4 + and CD8 + T lymphocytes almost declined to zero in some patients (Fig. 1b)."
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-00919-x

I'm tired of yelling about this problem in a panic. Why are governments worldwide (except China, where this study was done) ignoring it? Imagine if AIDS went airborne, and it also caused blood clots before the opportunistic infections set in.

Re: imagine yelling "Fire" in a crowded room, and everyone ignored you

[zipperbear]

Sure, that study sounds plausible, with strong evidence to rule out some other possibilities. It could help explain Long Covid in cases where the useful T-cells are being depleted, and regular Covid in the majority of cases when the T-cells are successful in fighting the infection (remember, before vaccines, the early estimates for cases were 1/3 asymptomatic, 1/3 mild, and 1/3 serious, so the immune system can win, although we have no idea what happens decades later, like chicken pox coming back as a shingles outbreak).

On the other hand, long-term effects are less significant with an illness that kills millions of people suddenly with pneumonia, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. I'm following your postings with interest, but I'm not quite as worried as you are. Everyone our age will die in the next century or so (unless a medical miracle happens soon). There's Alzheimer's, COPD, cancer, glaucoma, hearing loss, arthritis, slipped discs, restless leg syndrome, motor disorders, autoimmune trouble, and all the other body malfunctions that get cumulatively worse with age. Compare those to external things like treatment-resistant infections, heavy metal accumulation, traffic accidents, slip-and-fall injuries, house fires, mauling by animals (wild or domestic), natural disasters, or warfare (military, inter-gang, or police SWAT activity).

Edit to add: The top causes for 2020 that I didn't mention off the top of my head were diabetes and kidney failure (nephritis, etc). Heart trouble and cancer still top the list, above Covid.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

If it's not one thing, it's another. The human immune system has lots of clever strategies, but it's really only optimized for a 35-year life expectancy -- once you're old enough to babysit the grandkids, your evolutionary advantage to your progeny is a trade-off vs. being another mouth to feed.
And science advances one funeral at a time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_principle

There's also not much we can do. Now that much of the world is vaccinated or previously infected, the virus strains that can continue to spread are good at breakthrough infections (to overcome antibodies) and good at inducing a high particle count (to overcome masking). We can't make dumb people smart, and we can't make evil people good.

If Covid cuts the human population by 10% or more, that's probably a good thing for the planet (unless it encourages a higher birth rate), even if it's bad for the people being culled. But then, I don't live near active gunfire, and I don't need to work with unvaccinated lunatics.

Re: imagine yelling "Fire" in a crowded room, and everyone ignored you

[mellowtigger]

Thanks for taking a look at the study.

"...so the immune system can win, although we have no idea what happens decades later, like chicken pox coming back as a shingles outbreak)."

That's what has me freaked out, the possibility that we never actually "win" because of the immune suppression and syncytial spreading. Rather, our immune system merely reaches detente, an equilibrium as we do with chicken pox and herpetic viruses. If so, then like them, we get a disease recurrence each time we break that detente. Rather than presenting merely an ornamental cold sore because our immune system is distracted by a cold or flu, instead this disease will result in blood clots. That escalation of danger worries me. It would mean the long term effects are basically a recurrence of the short term risk during initial infection. I don't want to be disabled with a stroke because I was unlucky to catch a cold.

"There's also not much we can do... If Covid cuts the human population by 10% or more, that's probably a good thing for the planet (unless it encourages a higher birth rate), even if it's bad for the people being culled."

Yeah, the virus is doing quite well in deer, bats, and cats, so we will have to be "on guard" pretty much always. Plus my worry that every time someone catches a cold/flu, they may well start exhaling more coronavirus too. We probably won't know an answer to that one until we have a strong cold/flu season, maybe this coming winter, since everyone's started pretending that there's no more pandemic. In my more twisted moods, I think this will be great for helping us deal with global warming. The planet could do with substantially fewer humans.

The only short-term solution I see is to build our infrastructure anew for air purity. We rebuilt cities/homes for better water and sewage, and now we need to rebuild cities/homes for better air. And while we're doing that, let's rebuild sustainably with greener tech too. Very long term, we'll eventually learn how to cure a persistent viral infection. That will be a game changer, the kind we only read about in science fiction stories. No more COVID, AIDS, cold sores, shingles. Maybe not even multiple sclerosis (EBV), chronic fatigue (XMRV), and others that are thought to have viral causes.

First, though, I'd rather live and not be damaged. That means staying uninfected by SARS-CoV-2.

Re: imagine yelling "Fire" in a crowded room, and everyone ignored you

[mellowtigger]

*SIGH* They've identified someone who's remained SARS-positive for 480 days.
Spanish source, and English translation by Google

The article says the data came from Mayo and UofWisconsin, but I've not heard anything about it here in the USA.

Re: imagine yelling "Fire" in a crowded room, and everyone ignored you

[mellowtigger]

I went looking for the nearest relative of SARS-CoV-2, wondering if SARS-CoV-1 was a permanent infection. Sure looks like it. This is just in vitro work, but "SARS-CoV established a stable persistent chronic infection that could be maintained after multiple passages."

Unrelated, and this paper is almost a year old already, but it seems to be an excellent plain English overview of the immune-suppression effect of COVID-19.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8276660/