Hi Jim,
I would argue that the facts did not change, we just didn't know all of
them yet, which of course was to our detriment. Even later on the facts
about the original strains did not change when new variants arose with
similar but different and dangerous characteristics, but we needed to
recognize and understand that distinction, which caused analysis and
proper treatment to became more complex and difficult.
COVID has always been transmissible by water droplets in the air and
most definitely through contact with infected surfaces with wildly
varying lengths of viable transmission depending on the physical
characteristics of the surface and the strain of virus. Regardless of
what people choose to think, the only thing that matters is what YOU you
are exposed to and under what circumstances.
The initial failure to recognize "Long COVID" as a serious and prevalent
form of extended disease was responsible for the deaths of untold tens
of thousands (likely more) in the US alone from seemingly unrelated but
actually very much related causes as a result of permanent damage from
COVID (Organ failure, stroke, heart attacks, pneumonia, etc.) And,
among the living, long term and possibly permanent decreases in
cognition and memory, cardiac/lung function and breathing ability, etc.,
high incidence of depression, and are struggling to complete routine
mental and physical tasks. Tragically, suicide rates are up as well.
By now, most, if not all of us, know at least one person who has died
from COVID or been severely impacted from it on a permanent basis.
The ignoramuses out there who insisted for political and or/other
reasons that "COVID is no different from the Flu", only worsened
matters; and it foolishly and needlessly cost many of them their lives
and/or the lives of their loved ones.
But I am not here to pick a fight with doctors about what they know or
should have known, or what they believed vs. being curious and
objective. We all know that in any profession there are a small % of
exceptional practitioners, a significant % of charlatans best avoided,
and the "middle ground" of everyone else which runs the gamut of
competence and helpfulness. It behooves us to seek out excellent
counsel and only stay with the best. I have had seen 54 !! different
doctors and specialists over the past 14 years. In my experience, only
5 were outstanding, 7 were astonishingly ignorant/downright dangerous
and should be in jail, and the rest were "in-between". I have been
blessed to find 2 doctors that have saved my life at least once; and
they are the only ones that I fully trust. Among the 7 I loathe,
several have caused serious harm to myself and others, resulting in at
least one death. I suspect that these numbers are somewhat similar to
that seen in other professions/industries but the stakes are obviously
higher with healthcare.
My point is that it behooves ALL OF US to learn about and take good care
of our health because it impacts our lives and our performance at
whatever we are pursuing Generally, the the greater the physical and
mental stress of the activity, the greater the deterioration of
performance if we are not adequately prepared for it.
Nature is not fair; in punishing us for our lack of adequate
preparedness it doesn't take whether or not we knew something, or knew
something and chose to believe something else, or got the facts wrong,
or were misled or confused. We pay for it regardless! The rest is just
semantics but it has no impact on the outcome.
Contesting, especially SO2R and 2BSIQ, when pursued at the highest
intensity, makes enormous physical and mental demands on us, and our
performance deteriorates rapidly with sleep deprivation and as we exceed
our reserves of mental/physical stamina. If we are also ill or become
ill, the deterioration becomes exponential with the passage of time. But
the impacts on performance are not uniform - some competitors experience
worse effects than others and in some cases they may be potentially
dangerous, likely linked to underlying health issues whether diagnosed
or not. As expected, the better conditioned/trained can maintain their
level of performance for longer periods and with fewer deleterious side
effects. And there are crossover benefits - those with better physical
conditioning can compensate to some degree for a lower level of mental
stamina, and those with superior cognition and memory (and will) can
compensate for physical deterioration. Just like in "real life".
We have gotten pretty far afield of the original topic so this will be
my past post. If anyone wishes to continue, please email me privately
at kq2m@kq2m.com
73 and GL to all next weekend!
Bob, KQ2M
On 2022-10-23 03:20, Jim Brown wrote:
On 10/22/2022 5:25 PM, kq2m@kq2m.com wrote:
The facts never changed, but what the doctors chose to believe and why
was/is a different matter.
In situations like COVID19, which was a brand new virus, the
scientists were using the scientific method to learn from what
evidence they could gather how the virus was transmitted, how it
affected humans. At the beginning they were pretty sure that it was
transmitted in the air, and because the virus was so dangerous, they
erred on the side of caution, assuming that there MIGHT BE
transmission via contact with the virus on surfaces until they were
able to rule it out, which took quite a while. Which is why we were
letting packages sit for a couple of days, and wiping them down with
bleach before touching them.
This wasn't a matter of what someone chose to believe, but rather a
matter of what had not yet been learned!
73, Jim K9YC
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