I had a long talk this week with a friend who had COVID-19 and barely survived

[DFW]

Last edited Wed Jun 23, 2021, 10:39 AM - Edit history (2)

He had just received his first vaccination, and then got infected. It was the worst possible moment, as his antibodies were reacting along with the ones brought on by the vaccine. His system was a mess, and the virus ravaged his entire system. His lungs were so bad, they were down to 20% capacity, and he was receiving massive doses of oxygen being forced into his lungs for days. It was touch and go with intubation, but his doctors said it was something to avoid if possible.

He was in an ICU station with 44 worst-case patients. He was one of the 17 who survived. An 18 year old asthmatic was admitted to his station while he was there. The kid was in a coma, revived to the point where he was conscious, could joke around a bit, and then relapsed into a comatose state. He never regained consciousness. The wailing of his family when they were informed could be heard throughout the whole clinic.

My friend is now out of the hospital, just returning to work, where he will be working half days until the end of the summer. Just getting up and crossing the street exhausts him. He was told he has lost about half his muscle mass, and his respiratory and G-I systems are a wreck. Heart and liver are functioning, but just barely, and he was told not to expect to be fully functional for at least a year, if then.

It just stupefies me that so many millions of Republicans back in the States are denying this disease, and acting if it posed no danger, even after so many of their own have been killed by it. It is a slow, agonizing process, and it inflicts a tortuous ordeal on those who get severe cases. In the past, I have advocated denying treatment to those who deny the disease and refuse vaccination on non-medical grounds. I guess that, as a doctor, I would be hard-put to send someone agonizing and wrestling with death back onto the street if they showed up begging for treatment, having heard my friend's story. However, I would still give priority to any victim who wanted vaccination and couldn't get it, or took precautions and got infected despite them.

[Scrivener7]

1. Think of what that means to all the people whose employers won't tolerate half days through

the summer. This horrible experience becomes infinitely compounded.

My heart breaks for the people who are having slow recoveries.

[DFW]

11. A few details I left out

His employer is also his cousin, and there is no chance of him losing his job. I know the cousin, too, and there is no way he‘d let his cousin twist in the wind. They are both from Paris, but the cousin that owns the business moved to Israel after being freaked out by all the anti-Jewish violence a few years back. He is back in Paris now, supporting his sick cousin who stayed on.

I was just down in Paris, and at the border they were being extremely strict about whom they let in.

[Scrivener7]

13. I'm glad to hear he's secure, but not that the cousin had to leave Paris due to anti-Jewish

violence.

May they all come through it OK.

[DFW]

17. It was his choice

He is OK with it, goes back and forth regularly. I've never been to Israel, so I have no clue what his life is like there, but if he's happy there, that's what matters.

The cousin who had Covid knew he had been at death's door, and was fortunate to have made it back. The clinic didn't sugar-coat his status to him. He knows how close he came. This is not a case of "take two aspirin and call me in the morning." It is more like, "we're doing everything we can for you, and let's hope you're still alive in the morning." Plenty is his ward were not.

[PatSeg]

14. That occurred to be as well

I've had jobs where I would be out of luck.

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Wow. So sorry for your friend. This is a cruel virus.

[nuxvomica]

3. I strongly suspect the deniers are actually the most scared

Denial is a defense mechanism to keep one's fears at bay. People who get that the virus is real and vaccinations are critical have a profound horror of the disease but they also have more hope than the deniers, and more confidence in themselves and institutions to deal with it. There may be some of the mind-over-matter folk belief in this. Yes, the mind has powerful effects on the body and it can make you physically ill all by itself but against a physical adversary it's best used to find solutions that work and personal discipline that protects.

[jaxexpat]

5. You could be right. It fits.

Scared into shock and taking the only readily available route their minds can track, denial. It's also psychologically less complex to accept fascism than free thinking. And it's sure as hell a lot easier to just go along with the nearest quackery when that crowd makes up the lion's share of your acquaintance. If you're also of a type that absolutely NEEDS and depends on the company of others, even above good mental health, you're pretty much a prime candidate to swallow the kool-aid even to your detriment.

Weak mindedness is a disease too. Tends to break out in flocks and the infected tend to flock together. Pure sheep wisdom.

[mitch96]

7. "deniers are actually the most scared". I have a conservative buddy who runs, RUNS on fear.

Everything Faux noise tells him to be afraid of........ he's afraid of... Normally a level headed guy that does not preach politics (thank god).. We actually have real conversations!!!
m

[nuxvomica]

8. There was a pseudo-science film many years ago that made an impression on me

Last edited Wed Jun 23, 2021, 09:06 AM - Edit history (2)

It was called What the Bleep Do We Know? and while most of what it posited was kind of "out there", the idea that we can get sort of addicted to negative emotions as we develop more receptors to their related neuropeptides has stuck with me. The physiological mechanism may be hogwash but I swear people become dependent on negative emotional states. I enjoy watching comedies but also scary movies and sad ones so I can see the allure. Fear and anger may be particularly addictive but you've got to have the self-awareness to take a step back when you experience those emotions and try to balance them with reality. If only everyone were a master of impulse control the world would be a paradise.

[mitch96]

15. "people become dependent on negative emotional states" I worked with a lady that was all that.

Everything was negative/bad/gloom and doom.. Her life was a mess also so I think her experiences were all negative. Self fulfilling prophecy?
Got pregnant, shot gun wedding, twins! and something happened and she lost both kids b4 birth.. shot gun divorce and then her parents died in a car accident... Uff.. Karma..
m

[NJCher]

46. There is research on that

When I read it i immediately thought of right wingers.

I may have even posted about it here.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I think this country might've benefitted...

... from more media coverage of very sick Covid patients in hospitals.

Some people would proclaim it was "fake media" coverage or whatever, but they're a lost cause regardless.

I know that CNN showed some severe cases inside ICU's, but the commentators would always forewarn that it was "disturbing" and they didn't really cover it very often.

That's the kind of stuff that I kept texting my evangelical sister, and she later told me it's what convinced her to get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the family of one of her "church friends" were not vaccinated. And the friend's daughter AND son-in-law are still connected to ECMO machines since even ventilators with pure oxygen weren't sufficient to keep them alive. I haven't received an update in about a week, but they've been in ICU on ECMO (which circulates their blood through a machine to oxygenate it and remove the CO2 since their lungs are so damaged) for about two months!

Then her friend finally got vaccinated, after that experience made it REAL for her.

Edit: Btw, if the daughter and son-in-law both die, then my sister's 70 year old friend will be the only surviving family member of their three children. She's taking care of them now, obviously, but wasn't expecting that at her age.

[appalachiablue]

10. More media exposure of cases

is a great suggestion. It could reach and motivate people, If corporations would be willing to do it.

Authentic coverage of the horrible effects and reality of Covid should have been in place months ago actually, from the outset.

This reminds me of the powerful but brief television segment done by well known actor Yul Brenner years ago when he had cancer from smoking cigarettes. You could see how gaunt and serious he was when he said, 'Don't smoke.'

I think his advocacy and that of others can reach audiences directly, hit them in the face so to speak. Many people esp. deniers and the uninformed are more receptive to visual statements than print articles especially with the decline of reading in the past decades.
_________

This is an excellent post, thanks for sharing DFW.

[wnylib]

34. One problem with media coverage of

severely ill patients is the health privacy issue. How do you get consent from someone in a coma?

I agree that it could make some people face reality, but getting permission to show sick people would not be easy.

A neighbor in my senior apartment complex refused to wear a mask in the beginning of the pandemic. She told me that she was old and would die anyway. I described to her what death from covid was like and how she could end up killing others by spreading it. She started wearing masks then. Some people just don't know or think through the details of the reality.

[FakeNoose]

24. Yes you're absolutely right

The Repukes got away with denials for way too long. It wasn't happening to anyone "we" know, therefore it must be a hoax. It's only happening in states and cities run by Dems, not anywhere that "we" care about. "We" aren't getting sick, so don't try to make us get vaccinated. "We" aren't wearing masks so don't try and make us.

Of course it's all back-firing now, or very soon.

The media would better serve by telling personal stories of those who almost died - like DFW has told us here in this post. Many Repukes only watch Faux Noise and they haven't even heard about the Delta variant that's taking hold. By this Fall people will be dying all around the US, even some who are already vaccinated.

Every time I turn on the TV, it's this or that Repuke denying it all. The truth is not coming out, the danger of this virus is being ignored.

[Wingus Dingus]

27. I have seen a number of case stories, throughout last year and this year--

sad, scary stories. But if you go to conservative blogs/websites, they are replete with members insisting these are all fictitious, meant to scare the sheep into vaccines or lockdowns or masking. They spend a lot of time trying to pick apart and debunk such cases. As you say, a lost cause, but there's enough of them to keep this disease circulating and mutating.

[LiberalLoner]

6. So horrifying. 😢

[Lonestarblue]

9. I heard an interview recently during which a commenter said that part of vaccine

hesitation is that people who get no sick leave are afraid to get the shot because if they’re too sick to work for a few days they’ll lose their jobs—especially a problem for many minorities. But what a sad commentary that people feel they can’t protect their health because they could lose their jobs. And everyone has different reactions to the shots, so you just don’t know. I had the Moderna vaccine and had nothing more than a slightly sore arm for a day with both doses, though I know others had fevers and flu-like symptoms. Perhaps it’s employers the Biden administration needs to work with, not only to make it easier for employees to be vaccinated, perhaps through mobile units at the workplace, but also assuring people that they can have paid time off if they feel bad for a few days.

[appalachiablue]

12. Agree, I'm aware of this miserable reality

for workers in America and it's appalling.

Good people here are working towards strengthening rights for employees, there's hardly any labor movement left after decades of decimation since Reagan.

[LisaL]

18. Unless they work seven days a week, they can get it on Friday, for instance.

Surely they realize they will need more time off if they get infected with covid?

[moriah]

50. I don't know about every employer, but my roomie scheduled....

.... one day off so that he could recover from the second shot. No, it wasn't paid, but his employer had requested people who were worried they might not be at 100% the day after their second shot let them know right after they got their first when they were scheduled for the second, so they could arrange the schedule to have enough staff.

For what it's worth, the absolute worst shot reaction any of my friends experienced was in a friend who was just barely 3 months post-COVID (a pretty rough case, though he avoided intubation). It was to the *first* Moderna, not the second, which his doc with the VA said was fairly normal for people getting a shot so soon after recovery.

But still, even that misery he had, where his body that'd already been hit by the disease was like "NOT AGAIN! NOOOOT AGAAAAIN!!!" (fever, not able to hold down water, unhappy other end of GI too) lasted less than 48 hours. And he'd still recommend getting the shot to those who think they have some immunity despite his own reaction, because he remembers those days in the hospital all too well.

[LisaL]

19. I don't think vaccine timing had anything to do with severe outcome-

your friend getting the vaccine and getting infected right away probably didn't make it worse.
There was just not enough time to build immunity.
I had an elderly relative in a similar situation who got first dose but several days later tested positive for covid-relative was nearly asymptomatic.

[DFW]

21. My friend definitely had bad luck with his timing

If he had been fortunate enough to be asymptomatic, he might not even have noticed his infection.

[yardwork]

22. It's a cruel disease.

[DFW]

23. When you hear first hand what some victims go through

You can just shake your head in frustration at the willful ignorance of those who trivialize it.

One can only wish the worst for those who scream in irrational anger at those who wear masks for protection.

[yardwork]

26. I know! It's very frustrating.

That's how I feel about one-third of the U.S. population. Willfully ignorant, just plain mean and spiteful, wrong about almost everything. It's difficult for me to feel any empathy or compassion.

[DFW]

29. We have some people like that here in Europe, but they seem to be far fewer in number

Of course, Fox Noise was denied a license to broadcast here (decades ago--I don't know if they have retried, or intend to). Maybe the strictly enforced German anti-Nazi laws still in force are still proving too complicated for them to circumvent?

The trouble here was that the German government left everything in the hands of disinterested bureaucrats, and fell woefully behind in making vaccine available. My wife and I were told in March that we might be scheduled for our first injection in late August. We said right, we'll see what we can do about that. We traveled to the USA in early April, got our first shots two days after landing, and our second shots exactly 28 days later. We informed our local Health Department here near Düsseldorf and actually got our EU vaccination certificates based on the Dallas vaccinations.

I still have to travel for work, so every day of delay was an added risk for me. This week, I was in Paris on Monday, Brussels yesterday, and have to be in Zürich tomorrow. I already have spent a bloody fortune on getting the required "48 hours old or less" negative tests that countries like Spain, France and Switzerland still require for us barbarians to enter their sacred territory.

[FakeNoose]

25. You and Mrs. DFW were vaccinated here this Spring, am I right?

I remember that you came to the US and arranged for shots while you were here visiting. It's great that you were able to do that, however it's not likely that many folks in Europe are able to make such a trip. The vaccination wait-list was long and slow in Germany, and I do hope it's improving now.

[DFW]

30. That is right.

Most Europeans could indeed not make the trip. Only diplomatic personnel, people on government business, or immediate family members can make the trip. We even had to produce our marriage certificate from 1982 before they would let my wife board the plane. She thought I was being ridiculous when I insisted we bring it. She wasn't laughing any more when they demanded it at the airport.

The test of fire comes in two weeks. My younger daughter lives with her German partner in Frankfurt. They have 2 daughter together, and both are (now) US citizens. He is listed on their birth certificates as the father, so under the regulations in force, he should be allowed in. Let's see if they honor that.

Germany has accelerated their schedule, and--supposedly, since we no longer care--60 year olds and older can now apply for a permit to make an appointment. This is still Europe, don't forget. Not find a place with vaccine, but apply for permission to make an appointment. In Europe, it is forbidden to do something efficiently if there is a more complicated way to do it.

[Laurelin]

41. Germany is just vaccinating 60 year olds?

The NL is down to early 20s i think. I don't know anyone who hasn't had at least one shot. Last I heard germany was ahead of us with vaccinations so I'm shocked.

[DFW]

42. We are in NRW

It’s possible some more sparsely populated parts are further along, but not much. It has been an uneven mess here from the start.

[Laurelin]

47. Glad you're vaccinated, at least.

I hope we make it through the delta variant. "We" meaning Europe... well, really, the world, but we already missed that goal.

[leftyladyfrommo]

28. They just don't believe it's that bad because they have

been told so many lies.

Now they also have been told that vaccinated people will all be dead by 2023.

It's pathetic but true.

[DFW]

32. No doubt they will all be wondering why in two years

Instead of Democrats all dying off, they will be the ones dying off. As an updated version of the man in the flood who refuses all help, believing God will save him (after which he drowns), all the Republican anti-vaxxers will come before their God asking why he didn't save them, and God will reprimand them, saying, "I sent you Pfizer, I sent you Moderna, I sent you Johnson and Johnson, I even sent you Astra-Zeneca. What were you waiting for, Dr. House?"

[roamer65]

31. Step right up for your turn anti-vax Q freaks and Dump lovers.

It’s your turn with me.

🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠

With Love,

Delta.

[Hekate]

33. KnR

[malaise]

35. He's one of the lucky ones

Glad he's recovering

[oldsoftie]

36. Why cant the deniers be the only ones who catch it.

Dammit

[Evolve Dammit]

39. really

[DFW]

45. Poetic justice rarely occurs when it is most needed. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

37. My son has a 23 year old friend in Ukraine who was scheduled to come to

the USA at the end of April. She was notified she was positive for Covid when she took a PCR test to leave. Quarantined. Thought she was taking a cold around May 4. Was admitted to hospital the following week. She was on a ventilator and had two lung surgeries to remove tissue, dead from the inflammation. She's still in the hospital, improving and doing PT. She might be released tomorrow, after 32 days.

[Snackshack]

38. This past year.

Has shown me a side of America I never thought existed or that I would see. I have always known about the hate and division between class and race and how people can be cruel and heartless. Naively I thought that hate and division stopped at those borders. I know now that is not the case.

I look back at 9/11 and I see how Bush, Cheney, Rove tried to divide the country. Rove’s comment of something like Republicans want justice, Democrats want counseling then Bush with the you are either with us or against us comment during the run up to the wars. But most did not buy that and the media certainly did not. Most Americans came together felt compassion for New York, DC, Shanksville and the ~3000 Americans lost that day.

Fast forward to 2020 and the Pandemic and it is a complete opposite. 616,000 Americans have died that we know of a study done recently buy UofW says it is probably closer to 1,000,000 because of under reporting. So many have died and yet people still will not vaccinate. When asked to have compassion for their fellow Americans and wear a mask people said 🖕. I will never view my fellow American the same again.

[Evolve Dammit]

40. Exactly how I feel. And after 9-11, we had the whole world on our side and we pissed it away.

Let's just attack the country that didn't attack us but threatened my Daddy. Just like calling Covid a Democrat hoax,,masks are muzzles, blah blah. Don't get me going on the orange anus being the chosen one...

[NJCher]

48. Re your last sentence

Same here. At least I am lucky to live in a blue town and state where I don’t have to interact with these morons.

However, I am an educator and it bothers me enormously that this many people can be so ignorant. We spend so much on education and we should have a better return for our investment.

When I was in middle and high school, I recall studying and recognizing propaganda. I always loved those units because they required us to study the media and bring in examples.

[Skittles]

43. I hear you, DFW

I promised a valued friend with health concerns I would not harp on her about getting vaccinated, but ultimately I did just that - I had nightmare scenarios in my head where she was dying of this hideous disease and I was asking myself why didn't I try harder to get her to understand. I am so very happy that she told me today she will be vaccinated. She was one of the "never had the flu shot, never had the flu" folk. Articles about the Delta variant convinced her. Me, I don't even try with the Trump humpers. In my mind, anyone who thought that guy would make a fine president are kind of a lost cause.

[DFW]

44. What I cannot grasp is this:

OK, people watch Fox and actually believe what they hear, so there are many who really thought he would be a fine president. The truly frightening ones are those who, after four years of that ordeal, believe he really was one.