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Comment by SamoyedFurFluff | Hacker News Reader

I actually think very likely the effects of long Covid aren’t going to be evenly distributed. I would be shocked if 1 in 5 of my highly educated, knowledge-worker cohort, with the wealth to afford to minimize exposure (from ordering delivery to buying masks to having the time to fill out vaccination appointments) would be affected by Covid much less long Covid.

However, I’m more or less certain that this is much different for service workers, undocumented immigrants, the homeless, people who couldn’t afford to be in good health to begin with, etc. I know couples where both people developed long Covid, and they had disabling chronic illness to begin with. And their social circles where they get support and community for their conditions are similarly ravaged. It’s apparently devastating.

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I live in a southeast Asian country that has seen Covid infect a large portion of its substantial urban population. (Among my acquaintances, close to 100% have had Covid within the last year, some multiple times. I've had it three times myself over the last 2 years.)

Many people here live with chronic illnesses, and healthcare access & quality is highly variable.

There is zero discussion of long Covid here. Nobody reports any symptoms, no media talks about it, no medical resources are being spent on it. This is strange, because one would expect that if a problem were merely being ignored, there would be visible effects of that.

So I'm honestly unsure what to think about long Covid. There's "something there", but so many unknowns.

A lot of Americans self diagnose with various "long" illnesses that are not detectable via scientific means.

Tell us you don't understand human impact from viruses without telling us.

I don't have the original source but I read about a double bind test of one of the COVID-19 vaccine side effects. Only half of the test subjects received the vaccine (the other saline), but something like two thirds of the test subjects reported side effects. There isn't any doubt that long COVID is real, but it's more than likely that many of the people that report symptoms don't actually have it. There has been so much talk about long COVID in the media, that people expect to have it; so the media is working as a nocebo.

I understand that and the fact that co-psychopathologies also exist

The existence of medical conditions existing with no bio marker test is a globally understood phenomenon with established medical jargon and broad acceptance.

I self diagnose myself with attention disorder (towards the uninteresting), muscle fatigue (only at work), mental exhaustion (except for videogames), extreme sleepiness (getting out of bed is near impossible) and social aversion (everyone that I talk to tries to convince me to take a bath or something equally terrifying). I also get sick easily and only drink energy drinks. I'm so sad all the time and have no plans for the future but if I wasn't afflicted by this condition I would be a productive person, I swear!

Am hyperboling but the difference between being raised to think you're a victim and actually suffering from something else is difficult to get right. Infant traumas can lead people to become so daringly incompetent they think they have a problem other than needing psychological help. No one likes to realize they are stupid but the stupider you are the more it hurts.

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