Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[mordant]

I also take offense at "Too many cakes and sodas."  My husband has diabetes.  That's because he has a very rare autoimmune disease that damaged his pancreas.  He did not get the autoimmune disease from poor diet and little exercise.  It's just ignorant to think that all diabetes is caused by overeating.

Diabetes also creates is own dynamic by altering cravings and energy metabolism in ways that feed the progress of the illness.

As a diabetic I eat quite healthy but feel massively deprived and famished literally all the time. I pay a heavy price for avoiding the baleful judgments of others over my eating habits. It took me years to shed 80 pounds and be near-"normal" in that regard, just the same.

I get by these days eating six smaller "meals" a day and distracting myself with work or whatever I can to not pay attention to the constant feeling that I desperately need to ingest carbs. At bedtime, I have a small snack and hope I fall asleep before the cravings start keeping me awake.

Know how I can tell I forgot my morning meds? I feel full of energy, clear of mind, and positive of attitude, because I'm having a fucking sugar high. If I feel human, I know I've either forgotten my meds or have eaten poorly.

People who want to dismiss all this as "too many cakes and sodas" can just fuck themselves.

Mord, would it make you feel better to know that one of the volunteers I work with in the dog rescue came down with it.  She's 70.  She's diabetic.  Had a serious lung issue some 10 years ago.  Former smoker.  Has kidney disease on top of it.  She was in the hospital for 5 days and made a full recovery after an IV course of remdesivir.

I simply cannot understand how younger, seemingly far more healthy, people are dying from this thing and she breezed through it.  I don't think even the doctors know.

Counterexamples are always encouraging, but as you point out, they seem more exceptions that prove the rule.

Remdesivir does seem to be a sort of miracle drug if you qualify for it ... I assume they are using it for people who are old and sick enough to need the extra kick in the ass. And for the president and legislators and top leadership in general. And doubtless for rich fucks.

I'm not going to test the theory though.

To your other point, there have been so many people in their 40s and younger who Covid just collapses like a house of cards, and no-one really knows why. Even little children who get a weird vascular inflammatory syndrome that often leaves them in worse shape than "dead". I assume there are subtle vulnerabilities that normally wouldn't be a problem, but the general mayhem of Covid exposes it; and perhaps some epigenetic factor is triggered by the virus, too.

It really is a crap shoot, one I won't willingly take.

ETA: It appears Remdesivir is now being made in sufficient quantities that it's available in the US to anyone hospitalized with Covid. It is not FDA approved (application pending) but has an emergency use authorization with Covid. This leads me to believe that the main gatekeeper for whether you get it or not is (1) being hospitalized and (2) the judgment call of the attending physician.

https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/pr...ted-states