A lot of people are asking why anyone would bother testing for Covid in 2024, when it’s the same as any illness, where you should just stay home if you feel sick. Here are some reasons why it’s still a good idea to test for Covid 🧵 /1
1. You could test if you know you’ve been exposed, because you can get covid even if you never develop symptoms. If you test positive even if you don’t feel sick, you can prevent spreading it to countless others. 2/
What is a mild a case for you could be spread to someone else and disable them. You can also get long covid even if your case was mild or asymptomatic in the acute phase. 3/
2. If you do have symptoms, you can still have the virus in your body and be contagious for days even after you feel better. So continuing to test is a helpful way to gauge if you should wait to go out and see people even if your symptoms have improved. 4/
3. It’s helpful to know if and when you’ve had Covid because the long term effects are cumulative, even if your acute phase is mild. Covid is not like other respiratory illnesses. It’s a vascular disease that damages multiple organ systems. 5/
If you develop a mystery heart issue three months from now, or countless other health issues that have popped up in millions of people in the last four years, it helps to be able to point to the last time you had a known Covid infection. 6/
4. If you have Covid, even if it’s mild, it’s recommended that you rest and don’t overly exert yourself for several weeks, to help prevent long covid. If you never know that you have Covid and you push it too soon, you put yourself at greater risk for long term complications. 7/
This is the main reason people are so adamant about avoiding Covid, the people who you might dismiss as crazy or paranoid. We are less concerned with feeling like we have a cold when we first get infected, and more concerned with the long term effects. 8/
Our chances of long covid go up with each infection and it will only make your future mystery health issues all the more baffling and impossible to explain if you were never aware that you had covid in the first place. 9/
The best way to prevent covid is by wearing a high quality respirator. We are in a massive surge right now. If you stopped masking, it’s okay to start again. It’s okay to learn new information and change your behavior. 10/10
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