Bomani talked about this on his pod today. People keep talking about symptoms being mild — but that just means in the medical sense where hospitalization isn’t required. It’s weird how dismissive people are being of loss of smell/test, brain fog, etc, that clearly demonstrate neurological issues that none of us would’ve deemed mild prior to COVID.
On NPR, they profiled a baker who still hasn't recovered her senses of taste and smell long after COVID. She owns a shop and said that she relies on memory to continue working since everything smells like burnt wood or trash to her.
This is an example of how "mild" symptoms can affect people for a non-negligible amount of time.
Another one is athletes' performance being severely impacted over time. There are plenty of documented cases in many sports.
Most importantly, we know that the rate of those affected by long COVID is significantly higher than those who die from it. It is estimated that 100 million people worldwide are suffering from it.
But watch somebody say that these concerns are the same as anti-vaxx concerns.
Not to mention, how many of these cases are mild(like mine was) because we have been vaccinated and boosted? That needs to be taken into perspective too.
The vaccination rate of children 5-11 currently stands at 20% in many areas. I haven't been able to see what the national numbers look like, but considering that parents are more reluctant to vaccinate their kids, I wouldn't be surprised that the national rate is still way under 50%.
That's why vaccine availability alone is not enough to justify a return to "normal" life; the medicine is ineffective if people don't take it.
Mandates are a necessary step to get out of the pandemic faster, they've already been proven to work for businesses, and politicians have both the power and legal precedent to implement them. Not doing so at this point is simply catering to the ostriches among us.
www.politico.com
. One day he’ll realize that regardless of what he says, they still don’t love him like that
