Hacker News Reader

Comment by jwcrux | Hacker News Reader

We also don't know what the effects of covid are in 10 years.

This argument, while technically true, is relatively dismissive of all that we have learned about the virus.

Of primary importance, COVID-19 appears to be easily and completely cleared by the human immune system and does not appear to become latent by settling in immune privileged areas or by integrating itself into the human genome or body in any other way (like Epstein-Barr, Herpesvirus, HIV, etc.)

Outside of the mainstream media and in the medical research literature COVID-19 has been thought to be easily "curable" since early on in the pandemic. In my opinion there appeared to be more uncertainty around the FDA and the rapid development timelines than there ever was around whether or not an effective and complete treatment could be developed.

A severe infection or cytokine storm may obviously cause lasting damage. I do not mean to suggest that everyone will be off the hook in the future!

What do you think about all these people with long covid then? I've seen studies suggesting that it's pretty common, as well as anectodal observations, although I don't have any links handy off the top of my head.

I'm not a doctor but as I said in my earlier comment, I think the literature supports that most of this is just damage from the directly infected cells (lung, organ, nerve) that the body will eventually mostly repair given appropriate nutrition and time. But certainly for some people certainly there may be permanent damage.

A better way to state my point was to say that other diseases can cause exactly the same types of cell damage, and having, say, reduced lung function or some neuropathy going forward after a COVID infection are not themselves new and novel medical problems.

I have had COVID despite my best attempts to do everything possible not to contract it. For complete transparency here, I have a strongly vested interest in knowing the truth of this matter. I agree that there is not a strong consensus yet. Sorry I do not have great references at hand to share right now either.

You're correct in principle, but when weighing the "unknown long term risks" of a vaccine versus the "unknown long term risks" of COVID itself it really needs to be an apple to apples comparison.

We know both the virus and the vaccine will be out of your system within a short period of time. So any long term effects would have to be derived from what happens while they're in your system. The vaccine generates a few proteins, which your immune system learns to fight off in short order. The virus generates similar proteins, but continues to replicate many times over, attacking your cells and triggering a much more severe immune response as it goes.

So while there are unknown long-term risks for both, I think it is pretty safe to say the number of vectors for long term consequences are much more numerous with the virus.

I think my original comment was maybe misconstrued. I stated plainly that COVID could cause lasting damage just as any other virus. It just doesn't seem there is much to support that it causes damage above and beyond that of other viruses are capable of and for which long term therapies and treatments exist and are well understood. Certainly there isnt anything that I have seen which substantiates that COVID itself can persist in the body and continue to wreck havoc after the body is able to clear the infection, but no doubt it can do serious and potentially lasting damage.

I absolutely cannot agree more strongly that the long term consequences of any of the COVID vaccines will be far fewer than those of the virus itself.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com