A sad story for sure, and I don't doubt that it is real. But I can't help but wonder, considering how many people have actually been infected with the virus and miraculously survived, are these stories the rule, or the exception?
> Up to 95 percent of people infected with polio have no symptoms. However, infected persons without symptoms can still spread the virus and cause others to develop polio. About four to five percent of infected people have minor symptoms such as fever, muscle weakness, headache, nausea and vomiting. One to two percent of infected persons develop severe muscle pain and stiffness in the neck and back. Less than one percent of polio cases result in paralysis.*
Despite most cases being harmless, polio was considered a huge public health issue worldwide. The small percentage of cases that developed paralysis added up, essentially becoming a roulette for the majority of children. This is because it was still transmitted easily and rapidly, so it spread through millions of people quickly.
Covid can be seen similarly. Yes most people are fine. The same way that most people that get into car accidents are fine. And yet I don't think it'd be a stretch to say most people probably know at least one person that has suffered serious health complications due to covid
* https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/poliomyeliti...
And
‘History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme.’
This is the number of people you will spread the infection to.
Flu has a R of 1.
Covid Alpha/Beta have a R of 3-5.
Delta has a R7-9.
Omicron is allegedly 15+, and unlike anything we’ve ever seen outside Measles.
Giving you a death rate of 1% infected, to keep it easy. Current numbers in the US are 1.56%.
So, 1% dead of spread of a R1 is going to be a lot slower and manageable versus 1% of R7. The exponential (Logarithmic?) rise of infections will kill a lot more, a lot faster, and have knock-on effects everywhere within the healthcare system, and society as a whole.
The only hope is that by rule, typical virus evolutions are less virulent, but we’re still not sure of that at this time. The big fear with omicron is that the spike protein mutations are immune-system dodging and faster infecting/more contagious, but that the payload within is still functionally the same. The mutations not on the spike are not changed enough that virologists are hopeful at this time.
Sorry, wall of text. Hope this addresses the question.
So the stories are the exception.
However, they're also very common.
If 1 out of every 50 people who ate at a McDonald's in America died, 50,000 people would die every day [https://financesonline.com/number-of-mcdonalds-in-north-amer...].
I have no idea why you think they did, but that never happened.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...
That doesn't mean that COVID isn't bad, or that people shouldn't consider getting the vaccine (especially if they are old, obese, or have diabetes). It just means that his experience is not representative of what COVID is like for most people.
Around half of those admitted were unvaccinated people in their 50s, the other half vaccinated and in their 80s. The former group was something like 5-7 times more represented. I think 90% of them were overweight or obese.
So, yeah, seems like if you get admitted to the ICU today, you're either a fully vaccinated very old senior citizen, or unvaccinated high-risk individual in your 50s.