Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update July 27: Someone you know compare COVID-19 to other illnesses?

Want to see how COVID falls in relationship to other conditions? 1/

There are 4 things to know:

How you get it
How serious is it
How it relates to other conditions
What happens when you’ve had it

2/

You hear a lot of people comparing COVID-19 to the flu or car accidents. Some of them are what I call “Twitter experts.”

These are people presumably aiming to make the point that we should not let the presence of COVID -19 change our way of life. 3/

I’d love to say that just going as if there’s no pandemic is everyone’s independent decision. And to a degree it is. And for that reason, let’s compare COVID to other illnesses.

But let’s also discuss if it really is something that should be an individual decision only. 4/

How does getting COVID-19 compare to other major diseases?

The two biggest killers in the US are heart disease & cancer. Third, fourth & fifth are lung disease, injury & stroke. 5/

There’s a combination of bad luck & bad genes and some individual behaviors that drive those illnesses.

Smoking is an obvious one. High blood pressure & metabolic disease with obesity is another one. Food deserts & other environmental factor play a big role.6/

There are other environmental factors.

But now that smoking is prohibited in bars & restaurants in the majority of the country, one commonality is these diseases are usually not passed from one person to the next. 7/

This year COVID-19 will bump stroke out of the top 5. And it will also move ahead of lung disease (smoking related) and injury. Deaths started in April and COVID-19 will be our third leading cause of death. 8/

People who argue that it really isn’t deadly are mostly misinformed. Maybe it’s a fear that’s difficult to admit.

Some, however, like Tucker Carlson, do the misinforming. Why? Who really cares. 9/

There’s no need to watch this (believe me) but you can tell by how he says my name just how much he respects me.

He is telling his audience how much the seriousness of Coronavirus is exaggerated to take away his constitutional rights. 10/

mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson…

As @DrTomFrieden points out, our death rate is 4x that of Germany. If we did as well as Germany, it wouldn’t be in the top 5.

In fact it wouldn’t be in the top 10.

Because we do something Germany doesn’t.
11/

We give each other the disease.

The only way you get COVID-19 is if somebody gives it to you.

Ultimately, our third biggest killer is something we give one another. We are a “first world” country with an infectious respiratory disease as a top 3 killer. 12/

To keep it very basic, we know there is a contagious respiratory disease & we choose to breathe near one another.

And we choose to breathe near people who don’t have a choice but to share our breath. Which is why the elderly, prisoners & “essential workers” suffer. 13/

We are giving this to our poorer, older (and as I will mention in a moment) & sicker friends & family.

They may not be your friends & family. But they are someone’s.

For that reason, the extent of our unbridled liberty ends where someone else’s safety begins. 14/

We are a country of chronically ill people with a virus that preys on the chronically ill.

47% of adults have a condition that puts them at high risk for complications:
BMI≥30 (35.4%)
Diabetes (12.8%)
Emphysema/chronic bronchitis (8.9%)
Heart dz (8.6%)
Kidney dz (3.4%) 15/

Look familiar? This is the same list of diseases that COVID jokns as our biggest killers.

Add age, race & living conditions & you see why Americans are at such high risk. 16/

Some of the confusion that hits the cause of death numbers is someone with a chronic kidney or lung condition gets COVID-19. What killed them?

The real answer? It doesn’t matter. No one wants to be a statistic. They want to live. 17/

People who try to obscure the data lose sight (DeSantis) that we need these data to understand the disease & prevent more deaths. 18/

As @larrybrilliant says here what we call a respiratory disease is really something quite different. What it is we don’t understand. 19/

Smarturl.it/inthebubble

There are mysteries related to genetic factors, mutations called TLR7, predispositions & partial immunities we don’t understand.

Long haul issues— mental, clotting, kidney, gut, immune system, toes, smell, lungs, heart— that we don’t understand. 20/

There are both very good things & bad things we will learn over time.
-some who appear to be asymptomatic will develop issues later
+basic treatments like venting improve
+therapies & vaccines will improve
-chronic & mental health 21/

But as much as we want to know the good things/the better things about COVID, we mostly want to know the bad things.

That’s how our researchers and clinicians will solve them.

This is why the Pollyannaish crowd doesn’t sit right with me. 22/

We don’t really need optimism or pessimism. The recipe of making a global pandemic sound “not that bad” when there’s much to learn & people are dying isn’t a success recipe. It’s a political recipe. 23/

People may be frightened. I think the people who say they’re frightened are actually less frightened than many of the people who don’t.

In 2021, vaccines, mask wearing, new treatments & habits could make this a much less fearful & contagious illness. 24/

Our ultimate triumph will come more from understanding the things we don’t understand today than the things we already do.

The truth, good or bad, is far less frightening than being lulled by propaganda. /end

Oh and if you haven’t listened to #inthebubble Safe or Not Safe edition, it’s filled with stuff like this. Give yourself this 1/2 hour.

https://twitter.com/lemonadamedia/status/1287900576693604352?s=21

https://twitter.com/lemonadamedia/status/1287900576693604352