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Covid: It's That Bad
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this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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Anecdotally this statistic is just not right, or the hardships of long covid hits people very differently. Most people I know (hundreds) have had covid several times at this point. I know one person who believes to have long covid in a debilitating way.
This is why anecdotes are not informative when trying to understand statistics. You almost certainly don't have a close relationship with hundreds of people that would involve informing you of lingering COVID symptoms nor do you have a random sampling of acquaintances (age, ethnicity, and vaccination status affect how common it is).
https://www.webmd.com/covid/news/20230526/one-in-ten-people-omicron-long-covid
I mean, fair, but also: if the implication is that vaccination is the key to reducing covid symptoms - no shit? Also, the article you link mentions 10 percent rate of omicron cases leading to long covid (not mentioning how vaccination rates play into it), so...
Assuming I have a 100 close ties (I have significantly more), and just one of these exhibiting publicly that they have long covid seems highly unlikely. According to the below link, 60% of the US population has caught omicron. The probability of only one of my sixty close ties having long covid is ~1.2%. So...
https://www.statnews.com/2022/04/26/with-omicron-nearly-60-percent-in-us-infected-covid/
The correct response to being reminded that anecdotes aren't data isn't trying to do more math on your anecdata.
Actual studies measure these rates. Your limited knowledge of your extended acquaintance group means jack shit for whether they're correct. I only know of a single person in my extended acquaintances who had heart disease. It doesn't mean that general population statistics on heart disease are wrong, it means some combination of I'm missing information and my sample is biased. Your sample is not random (so multiplying a statistic of the general population against them is not valid) and you don't actually know who's experienced long COVID symptoms. Some may have had some and gotten better, some may not even recognize a lingering cough or being more worn out as a symptom, and some may just not feel like it's necessary to tell you.
Absolutely. Always consider medical statistics based on self reporting with a grain of salt is all I'm saying. Obviously, my back of a napkin maths based on my personal circumstances shouldn't be used as any kind of evidence on your behalf. This is also why I say it's based on my own anecdotes.