I am not saying you are lying but I have known plenty of people with covid including my father that was in the hospital and none of them have long term issues yet when I check out reddit or other forums everyone has long covid and then have all been reinfected and they know tons of others with long covid, and not surprisingly these comments are from people that love masks and lockdowns, your story may be true but there are people out there with agendas exploting the people that actually do suffer
I agree with you. I know many people who have recovered also. Quite a few have minor issues months later such as a noticeable dry and unobtrusive slight cough. Many report no real lasting effects.
I should probably mention I have OCD and ASD and I am very tuned into often unnoticed traits in the behaviour and mannerisms of others. I often joke "I just see things others don't see" which can freak folk out a little. It is a way of making light of an issue that is far from light for me - a coping mechanism if you wish.
I do not like masks and detest lockdowns.
The lockdown and isolation has done incredible damage to my mental health. As I mentioned I have OCD and spent years learning to cope with my desire to implement coping mechanisms - cleaning, hygiene, danger from others and so on. All of a sudden every message I had from therapy was suddenly the public health message. I am sure you can imagine what that has done. What annoys me are the "professionals", politicians and others who simply fail to see why this is a problem or why I cannot simply stop doing that. Of course, I had been missing their insight and wisdom for so many years and despite being highly intelligent and having high functioning autistic traits (a polite way of saying I avoid labels as I have done all my life) I missed the obvious and should simply have stopped thinking of these actions.
I also do not like masks. As mentioned I have ASD so wearing a mask which draws attention and is restrictive is not easy. I would love to cast it aside and not feel it is either helpful or necessary.
As for your suggestion that folk are always exploiting agendas I could not agree more. For one reason or another so many like to seize on a situation and use it to promote their ideals and supress the desires and consideration of others.
In 2008 I suffered a very serious viral infection that led to numerous secondary complications. Never really found out what it was though it started as an upper respiratory infection then led to secondary lower respiratory infection, laryngitis and other issues. As I am a lifetime sufferer of asthma this was not pleasant. I went through numerous courses of various antibiotics, steroids, decongestants (not the over the counter type), antivirals and others. I don't think I slept in any reasonable quality for most of that time. After over 8 weeks I managed to overcome it but was left with a permanent weakness in upper respiratory tract that leaves me susceptible to complications from even minor rhinoviral infection which often leads to steroids, antibiotics and others. Since 2008 I have suffered numerous repeat bouts.
In 2018 I suffered another serious viral infection which I can almost trace to point of infection when I was aware I was in company of someone with a viral infection. Within 24 hours I had the common sign of slight burning in lower respiratory tract. Another serious escalation followed. By day 7 or 8 I went to bed in such pain and aching so badly, struggling to breath and with other issues I would not have been surprised to not wake up. The usual would of steroids, antibiotics and others took 4 weeks to feel even half normal and another 4 weeks to recover. Again I had no idea what had triggered the infection.
In November 2019 I caught a very odd viral infection. I had all sorts of respiratory complications and felt truly awful. Again I had to take antivirals, antibiotics and others. This lasted until January before I felt anyway normal. I always wondered what this was given proximity to CoVid.
Since start of CoVid I have taken part in surveys for ONS and tested many times, offering PCR, antigen and antibody blood tests I take at home. I was early in vaccine list and carried out antibody tests before and at intervals after vaccine to feedback levels of antibody response. For those interested I had no antibody detection just prior to vaccine suggesting no prior infection then showed a huge antibody response especially at 2 weeks following vaccine. This has and does drop off quite quickly. I remain largely isolated from people, live alone, work from home, shop entirely online and have few visits to shops or similar and none to those that are crowded. I wondered why I was so valuable to survey given my isolation but apparently it was for this reason I was useful. At least my condition and social aversion eventually was useful to someone! (Another agenda and reason I was given so many incentives and free tests? ;-))
Anyway, I do not advocate that lockdowns and masks should be enforced. I prefer to see lockdown as a last resort and would prefer not to do this again. If continued use of masks, hygiene, testing and vaccination allows this then I am all for the latter while it has proven benefits.
I also believe anything that can be done to reduce demand on healthcare facilities and professionals must be worth doing. So many folk in need of care are being delayed or denied due to the demand. Surely the use of masks if it has even a modest effect release capacity for these in more need is another benefit.
