Most people don’t realize that 6 hours of sleep, dehydration, and drinking the night before reduce IQ, memory, and focus substantially. But that doesn’t change the fact that those things are easily and permanently fixable, if a little inconvenient.
Brain damage, on the other hand, is permanently unfixable. But with a P100 mask, eating outdoors, and washing hands before touching face, avoiding permanent brain damage is a little inconvenient.
These mitigations will have to be carried out forever. You will never be able to dine indoors anywhere except your own home, always have to wear a P100 mask all the time outside of your home/a few places you deem okay, and you will never be able to touch your face before washing your hands again. People really struggled with that last one, especially; so many of us touch our faces without even realizing it.
Zvi’s talked a good number of times about the quality of the long COVID studies and doesn’t have much nice to say about them. Suffice it to say that the risk of permanent brain damage from COVID is not close to 1. Cost-benefit-wise, for many people, having to P100-mask-up/always eat outside except at home/basically never touch your face again is not worth it compared to the risks. It certainly isn’t for me.
ETA: Forgot about relative risks; many of the other things we do have risk of permanent brain damage that might be comparable to that from long COVID. Driving is one example, traumatic brain injuries are definitely possible. We could reduce this risk by wearing helmets while driving, yet no one does.
We could reduce this risk by wearing helmets while driving, yet no one does.
Arguments like this, while strictly about consistency, tend to implicitly take the correctness of the status quo for granted. Unless you have thoroughly evaluated all of your current habits, this is unjustified. I’d prefer to be inconsistent and sometimes right than consistently wrong.
That’s a fair take; it reminds me of alcohol and tobacco, which were largely “grandfathered” in. We probably wouldn’t allow them if they were discovered today.
Most people don’t realize that 6 hours of sleep, dehydration, and drinking the night before reduce IQ, memory, and focus substantially. But that doesn’t change the fact that those things are easily and permanently fixable, if a little inconvenient.
Brain damage, on the other hand, is permanently unfixable. But with a P100 mask, eating outdoors, and washing hands before touching face, avoiding permanent brain damage is a little inconvenient.
These mitigations will have to be carried out forever. You will never be able to dine indoors anywhere except your own home, always have to wear a P100 mask all the time outside of your home/a few places you deem okay, and you will never be able to touch your face before washing your hands again. People really struggled with that last one, especially; so many of us touch our faces without even realizing it.
Zvi’s talked a good number of times about the quality of the long COVID studies and doesn’t have much nice to say about them. Suffice it to say that the risk of permanent brain damage from COVID is not close to 1. Cost-benefit-wise, for many people, having to P100-mask-up/always eat outside except at home/basically never touch your face again is not worth it compared to the risks. It certainly isn’t for me.
ETA: Forgot about relative risks; many of the other things we do have risk of permanent brain damage that might be comparable to that from long COVID. Driving is one example, traumatic brain injuries are definitely possible. We could reduce this risk by wearing helmets while driving, yet no one does.
Arguments like this, while strictly about consistency, tend to implicitly take the correctness of the status quo for granted. Unless you have thoroughly evaluated all of your current habits, this is unjustified. I’d prefer to be inconsistent and sometimes right than consistently wrong.
That’s a fair take; it reminds me of alcohol and tobacco, which were largely “grandfathered” in. We probably wouldn’t allow them if they were discovered today.