On Twitter, there are many ZeroCovid fans who say they will never again meet with others, will not go in stores, movie theaters, restaurants or fly on airplanes, and will always wear an N95 mask everywhere else for the rest of their lives – or until they get Covid anyway. Many outsource their risk to low paid delivery workers, so that they can pretend their ZeroCovid lifestyle is holier than everyone else.
One of these people has a “Dr” title (turns out it is in exercise psychology) and has made a model predicting that more than 2/3ds of everyone in the U.S. will have “Long Covid” by 2025.
Infections seems to be a normal part of life though. And pandemics end through a combination of widespread immunity and the virus mutating to a less virulent form over time.
I’ve had
- Measles
- Mumps
- Chicken pox
- Numerous infected “earaches” as a child
- Influenza at least 4 times (with a fever of 101.5 or higher for at least 3 days, and fever lasting at last 7-9 days total)
- Pneumonia at least twice (diagnosed)
- Staphylococcus A infection (simultaneous with influenza and pneumonia) – this took months to recover from, hence “Long Staph A/Flu/Pneumonia” before that was a thing)
- Hepatitis (this also took months to fully recover – “Long Hepatitis”)
- Covid-19 (while I was recovering from hepatitis)
- Enumerable head colds, sore throats – when you have kids, you’ll have these many times per year
- Infected wisdom tooth, root was cracked, caused long term infection up into my left ear, until discovered.
- I’ve also had one skull fracture, 5 concussions, one broken left hand, one broken right wrist, broken ribs two times, a broken foot, a tendon tear in my left ankle and who knows what I am forgetting. Now I also have osteoarthritis in both knees. I’m basically a brain injured idiot with bad knees.
Life is pretty tough.
Infections are common.
But some believe they can live life without any infections or injuries – forever.
Today, kids are vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, pneumonia, influenza, Covid-19 and several more infections. Some of the vaccines are highly effective while some are not so effective (influenza, and Covid).
As a child, the only vaccinations I was offered were polio and smallpox. Smallpox has been eradicated (it existed only in people) and vaccinations are now longer given. I received the oral polio vaccine (a.k.a. “the sugar cube”). Smallpox was delivered with a jet injector gun. I was probably 4 years old but I still remember that vividly.
The only common child disease I did not have was rubella. However, no one asked me about getting a vaccination for that until I went over my vaccine record with my doctor – and a blood test confirmed I had never had rubella, so I received an MMR shot as an old person.
I am not anti-vax – I had 14 vaccination shots (Shingrix x 2, Covid-19 x 3, influenza x 4, MMR, hepatitis x 3, pneumonia) from Dec 2019 to Dec 2022, and am due to get a TDap booster shot soon in 2024.
