Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe we’re nearly three years into this mess and people like OP still refer to taking precautions as “virtue signaling.”

We past virtue signaling more than a year ago. Things like indefinite masking, social isolation, and pulling people out of school or work for mild cold symptoms are just examples of health anxiety.

Do you not understand that some of us have long term health issues regardless of covid but getting an illness like covid is a huge issue for us. It's not health anxiety. Why on earth would you be ok with getting sick or making someone else sick when some of it is preventable.

All prevention measures have costs. You need to decide whether the costs are worth the benefits. Personally I don’t feel comfortable imposing my cost-benefit analysis in others. YMMV.

How is something as simple as staying home when sick an unreasonable expectation? You simply don’t care about anyone but yourself. Sad.

Staying home when sick is not simple for a lot of people. Some work hourly jobs and will not get paid if they do not work. Other people burned through sick leave. It might be simple for you but some people can't eat if they don't work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Some of us very much limit things because people like you will not stay home stick or have any level of consideration. Clearly your wants come before others needs. You have done you. You only care about you. This is why kids are so screwed up. You just have to look at the example set by the adults in their lives.

Well you’re a much better person then us. Is that the attention you’re looking for?

Why do people keep accusing others of this motive? It doesn’t make any sense! How does posting anonymously provide any value re: “virtue signaling” when it’s all…anonymous? Isn’t it more likely that people are truly dumbfounded by the actions of others that seem so selfish? Believe me or not but I am outright saying that is what I care about.

Who do you want to stay home? Anyone with a cough? Anyone with a runny nose? I mean you can want what you want and call everyone selfish until you turn blue, but anyone with kids understands that means a large percentage of kids miss several weeks of school every semester. That is not a reasonable thing to expect and most high-risk people I know understand that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Some of us very much limit things because people like you will not stay home stick or have any level of consideration. Clearly your wants come before others needs. You have done you. You only care about you. This is why kids are so screwed up. You just have to look at the example set by the adults in their lives.

Well you’re a much better person then us. Is that the attention you’re looking for?

Why do people keep accusing others of this motive? It doesn’t make any sense! How does posting anonymously provide any value re: “virtue signaling” when it’s all…anonymous? Isn’t it more likely that people are truly dumbfounded by the actions of others that seem so selfish? Believe me or not but I am outright saying that is what I care about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Some of us very much limit things because people like you will not stay home stick or have any level of consideration. Clearly your wants come before others needs. You have done you. You only care about you. This is why kids are so screwed up. You just have to look at the example set by the adults in their lives.

Well you’re a much better person then us. Is that the attention you’re looking for?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do expect people to do?
- Is it just about getting people to get a booster?
- wear a mask indefinitely (in which settings? A full day at school/work? Just the grocery store?)
- avoid any "optional" indoor social activities?
- Pull children out from in-person school/daycare?

It's virtue signaling. They've made their personality about COVID and can't let it go. They just love to prove to everyone that they're such a great person by wearing a mask and avoiding crowds!

Thankfully, I don't see anyone on my FB feed going on and on about COVID. I haven't seen anything from my friends on COVID in months. It's just here on DCUM where I see the hand wringing. IRL, I don't know anyone who cares about this anymore.

People who accuse other people of virtue signaling are virtue signaling themselves. Stop it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do expect people to do?
- Is it just about getting people to get a booster?
- wear a mask indefinitely (in which settings? A full day at school/work? Just the grocery store?)
- avoid any "optional" indoor social activities?
- Pull children out from in-person school/daycare?

It's virtue signaling. They've made their personality about COVID and can't let it go. They just love to prove to everyone that they're such a great person by wearing a mask and avoiding crowds!

Thankfully, I don't see anyone on my FB feed going on and on about COVID. I haven't seen anything from my friends on COVID in months. It's just here on DCUM where I see the hand wringing. IRL, I don't know anyone who cares about this anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Some of us very much limit things because people like you will not stay home stick or have any level of consideration. Clearly your wants come before others needs. You have done you. You only care about you. This is why kids are so screwed up. You just have to look at the example set by the adults in their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Some of us very much limit things because people like you will not stay home stick or have any level of consideration. Clearly your wants come before others needs. You have done you. You only care about you. This is why kids are so screwed up. You just have to look at the example set by the adults in their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe we’re nearly three years into this mess and people like OP still refer to taking precautions as “virtue signaling.”

We past virtue signaling more than a year ago. Things like indefinite masking, social isolation, and pulling people out of school or work for mild cold symptoms are just examples of health anxiety.

Do you not understand that some of us have long term health issues regardless of covid but getting an illness like covid is a huge issue for us. It's not health anxiety. Why on earth would you be ok with getting sick or making someone else sick when some of it is preventable.

All prevention measures have costs. You need to decide whether the costs are worth the benefits. Personally I don’t feel comfortable imposing my cost-benefit analysis in others. YMMV.

How is something as simple as staying home when sick an unreasonable expectation? You simply don’t care about anyone but yourself. Sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe we’re nearly three years into this mess and people like OP still refer to taking precautions as “virtue signaling.”

We past virtue signaling more than a year ago. Things like indefinite masking, social isolation, and pulling people out of school or work for mild cold symptoms are just examples of health anxiety.

Do you not understand that some of us have long term health issues regardless of covid but getting an illness like covid is a huge issue for us. It's not health anxiety. Why on earth would you be ok with getting sick or making someone else sick when some of it is preventable.

All prevention measures have costs. You need to decide whether the costs are worth the benefits. Personally I don’t feel comfortable imposing my cost-benefit analysis in others. YMMV.

How is something as simple as staying home when sick an unreasonable expectation? You simply don’t care about anyone but yourself. Sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe we’re nearly three years into this mess and people like OP still refer to taking precautions as “virtue signaling.”

We past virtue signaling more than a year ago. Things like indefinite masking, social isolation, and pulling people out of school or work for mild cold symptoms are just examples of health anxiety.

Do you not understand that some of us have long term health issues regardless of covid but getting an illness like covid is a huge issue for us. It's not health anxiety. Why on earth would you be ok with getting sick or making someone else sick when some of it is preventable.

All prevention measures have costs. You need to decide whether the costs are worth the benefits. Personally I don’t feel comfortable imposing my cost-benefit analysis in others. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also love the way the non-mask side has posted throughout this thread about how their potential to drop the mild safeguards they currently practice (almost begrudgingly!) such as staying home when they're sick (!), is the fault of the people who are more careful than they are.

Stop blaming other people for dropping your safeguards. You are the ones making those choices. Own it. Stop comparing yourselves to people making different choices than you.

Just being honest. I am not the only person that rolls their eyes when people post moralistic exhortations to mask forever, not do any indoor activities. But feel free to keep posting. You do you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder whether people who don't mask in crowded indoor areas expect is going to happen to them, exactly?

If you catch covid 1-2x per year from this, and your chance of getting long covid is 15% each time, you're rolling the dice each time and you've got less than 7 years before the jig is up and you get long covid. Less time if you're including others in your family. Barring some major scientific development.

- Do you not believe in long covid and think it is a magical white lady disease? (I saw that earlier in this thread. Good luck with that.)
-- Is it just about hating masks no matter what the cost to your personal health?
- will you not take precautions like masking and not eating indoors again EVER or will you start again if more people around you are being careful again
- avoid any "optional" indoor social activities?
- if someone in your family gets long covid and suffers from constant fatigue and brain fog that doesn't resolve, will you change your mind about what precautions your family might have taken to prevent the exposure or at least reduce the dosage inhaled? Or will you still be happy with the choices you made now?

I'm pretty sure you will say you are happy with your choices because no one can plan for the unexpected. (It's not that unexpected! but whatever you do you)

What? Where on earth are you getting that you have a 15% chance of getting “Long Covid?” That’s crazy. I’ve never heard the estimate to be that high, even 5% seems high with the current strains, never mind 15%. Keep in mind we have lots of “Coronaviruses” circulating, of which Covid-19 is the “novel” Coronavirus, but it’s still just a Coronavirus which causes cold and flu like symptoms. Even if one does have post-viral complications/symptoms, in the majority of people these are resolved within 6 months.

So you’re giving up precious years of your life for something that has a 5% or less chance of happening and if it does, is resolved within 6 months at most. That doesn’t seem like a way to live, to me. Studies have shown that more liberal Democrats tend to OVERstate the risks of Covid to them and the risks of dying or becoming permanently disabled by Covid. Maybe that happened to you?

It’s the CDC’s number. Dispute it or whatever, but it’s not some mystery number. It was widely reported.

And it includes the type of long COVID that many people are ok to risk getting. If I can't run a 5k for 6 months I'll survive. I'm not going to cancel Christmas to avoid that.

I honestly think that some people have never been or have completely forgotten what it was like to be truly sick. I’ve had various illnesses that lingered, I mean REALLY lingered, long before Covid. I caught a bad case of bronchitis on a cruise, or possibly from plane travel to get to the cruise, 10 years ago, and I coughed for probably 3 months after. I remember because it was fall and I was still coughing at night even at Christmas. It sucked but it was only temporary! Was my experience really that rare? I expect to have a lingering cough and some congestion for awhile after a bad bout of whatever respiratory illness. But maybe that’s not been other people’s experiences so they way overreact to lingering symptoms.

You folks have no idea what you are talking about. I had to take 14 months of medical leave from a high-status, professional job because of long Covid. I had frightening cognitive deficients. I couldn’t recall words or remember something I was told minutes earlier. I lost the ability to raise my left arm. I lost 20 (starting with a normal BMI— friends and colleagues described me as emaciated. I had crushing, crushing fatigue. Believe me, you don’t understand what the word “fatigue” means until you’ve experienced this. Like it would be an all afternoon project to walk across a room. I’d be thirsty with a glass of water right next to me, but lifting it required too much effort. Prior to long Covid, I never had any serious medical issues, never missed work for illness, never even caught the flu. I took no medications, no chronic or underlying conditions. I was fit and active and healthy by every objective measure. You do not have any idea what you are talking about. Your views on Long Covid are ignorant nonsense. I hope you never have to learn about it the hard way.

This type of long covid is incredibly rare. It’s amazing that we don’t have any stats on this, because this is what people are afraid of. CDC includes having a prolonged cough or stuffy nose, or even just hair loss as long covid.

Severe long Covid was more common following infection with the original Wuhan variant, before anyone was vaccinated. Incidence of severe long Covid is also related to viral load (people who got Wuhan variant before anyone was masking got sicker). But severe long Covid is not rare, even following Omicron infection and some people do die of it, months after surviving their acute infection. It is most likely caused by viral persistence, itself likely caused by a poor adaptive immune response (possibly attributable to past [non-Covid] coronavirus antibodies—there is a whole literature on those if anyone is interested). There is a gendered gap because women’s adaptive immune system are different from men’s (for reasons related to reproduction). In any event, the best protection against severe long Covid is not getting infected. Second best is having the best possible antibody match to currently circulating variants (which right now means the bivariant booster). Despite popular perception, past exposure to other variants (which creates antibodies that may attach but not neutralize) does not necessarily help you to avoid long Covid (it may even increase the risk). The third best protection against severe long Covid is to avoid a catastrophically large initial viral load. Masks help immensely with that, even one way masking.

For those that believe that significant morbidity or disability from long Covid is rare, or becoming more rare because of less pathogenic variants, I wish you were right, but the current data does not support that view. Of course we’ll only be able to accurately tally the total morbidity rate in retrospect, several years from now. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-resulted-in-1-2-million-more-disabled-people-by-the-end-of-2021-workplaces-and-policy-will-need-to-adapt/

I mean, did you think we were going to emerge from the pandemic unscathed? Stop complaining!

I don’t understand this comment. I was just trying to correct some misinformation on this thread. Some commenters seem to believe that long Covid is over-counted, or that it is little more than a mild nuisance for most people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder whether people who don't mask in crowded indoor areas expect is going to happen to them, exactly?

If you catch covid 1-2x per year from this, and your chance of getting long covid is 15% each time, you're rolling the dice each time and you've got less than 7 years before the jig is up and you get long covid. Less time if you're including others in your family. Barring some major scientific development.

- Do you not believe in long covid and think it is a magical white lady disease? (I saw that earlier in this thread. Good luck with that.)
-- Is it just about hating masks no matter what the cost to your personal health?
- will you not take precautions like masking and not eating indoors again EVER or will you start again if more people around you are being careful again
- avoid any "optional" indoor social activities?
- if someone in your family gets long covid and suffers from constant fatigue and brain fog that doesn't resolve, will you change your mind about what precautions your family might have taken to prevent the exposure or at least reduce the dosage inhaled? Or will you still be happy with the choices you made now?

I'm pretty sure you will say you are happy with your choices because no one can plan for the unexpected. (It's not that unexpected! but whatever you do you)

What? Where on earth are you getting that you have a 15% chance of getting “Long Covid?” That’s crazy. I’ve never heard the estimate to be that high, even 5% seems high with the current strains, never mind 15%. Keep in mind we have lots of “Coronaviruses” circulating, of which Covid-19 is the “novel” Coronavirus, but it’s still just a Coronavirus which causes cold and flu like symptoms. Even if one does have post-viral complications/symptoms, in the majority of people these are resolved within 6 months.

So you’re giving up precious years of your life for something that has a 5% or less chance of happening and if it does, is resolved within 6 months at most. That doesn’t seem like a way to live, to me. Studies have shown that more liberal Democrats tend to OVERstate the risks of Covid to them and the risks of dying or becoming permanently disabled by Covid. Maybe that happened to you?

It’s the CDC’s number. Dispute it or whatever, but it’s not some mystery number. It was widely reported.

And it includes the type of long COVID that many people are ok to risk getting. If I can't run a 5k for 6 months I'll survive. I'm not going to cancel Christmas to avoid that.

I honestly think that some people have never been or have completely forgotten what it was like to be truly sick. I’ve had various illnesses that lingered, I mean REALLY lingered, long before Covid. I caught a bad case of bronchitis on a cruise, or possibly from plane travel to get to the cruise, 10 years ago, and I coughed for probably 3 months after. I remember because it was fall and I was still coughing at night even at Christmas. It sucked but it was only temporary! Was my experience really that rare? I expect to have a lingering cough and some congestion for awhile after a bad bout of whatever respiratory illness. But maybe that’s not been other people’s experiences so they way overreact to lingering symptoms.

You folks have no idea what you are talking about. I had to take 14 months of medical leave from a high-status, professional job because of long Covid. I had frightening cognitive deficients. I couldn’t recall words or remember something I was told minutes earlier. I lost the ability to raise my left arm. I lost 20 (starting with a normal BMI— friends and colleagues described me as emaciated. I had crushing, crushing fatigue. Believe me, you don’t understand what the word “fatigue” means until you’ve experienced this. Like it would be an all afternoon project to walk across a room. I’d be thirsty with a glass of water right next to me, but lifting it required too much effort. Prior to long Covid, I never had any serious medical issues, never missed work for illness, never even caught the flu. I took no medications, no chronic or underlying conditions. I was fit and active and healthy by every objective measure. You do not have any idea what you are talking about. Your views on Long Covid are ignorant nonsense. I hope you never have to learn about it the hard way.

This type of long covid is incredibly rare. It’s amazing that we don’t have any stats on this, because this is what people are afraid of. CDC includes having a prolonged cough or stuffy nose, or even just hair loss as long covid.

Severe long Covid was more common following infection with the original Wuhan variant, before anyone was vaccinated. Incidence of severe long Covid is also related to viral load (people who got Wuhan variant before anyone was masking got sicker). But severe long Covid is not rare, even following Omicron infection and some people do die of it, months after surviving their acute infection. It is most likely caused by viral persistence, itself likely caused by a poor adaptive immune response (possibly attributable to past [non-Covid] coronavirus antibodies—there is a whole literature on those if anyone is interested). There is a gendered gap because women’s adaptive immune system are different from men’s (for reasons related to reproduction). In any event, the best protection against severe long Covid is not getting infected. Second best is having the best possible antibody match to currently circulating variants (which right now means the bivariant booster). Despite popular perception, past exposure to other variants (which creates antibodies that may attach but not neutralize) does not necessarily help you to avoid long Covid (it may even increase the risk). The third best protection against severe long Covid is to avoid a catastrophically large initial viral load. Masks help immensely with that, even one way masking.

For those that believe that significant morbidity or disability from long Covid is rare, or becoming more rare because of less pathogenic variants, I wish you were right, but the current data does not support that view. Of course we’ll only be able to accurately tally the total morbidity rate in retrospect, several years from now. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-resulted-in-1-2-million-more-disabled-people-by-the-end-of-2021-workplaces-and-policy-will-need-to-adapt/

I mean, did you think we were going to emerge from the pandemic unscathed? Stop complaining!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder whether people who don't mask in crowded indoor areas expect is going to happen to them, exactly?

If you catch covid 1-2x per year from this, and your chance of getting long covid is 15% each time, you're rolling the dice each time and you've got less than 7 years before the jig is up and you get long covid. Less time if you're including others in your family. Barring some major scientific development.

- Do you not believe in long covid and think it is a magical white lady disease? (I saw that earlier in this thread. Good luck with that.)
-- Is it just about hating masks no matter what the cost to your personal health?
- will you not take precautions like masking and not eating indoors again EVER or will you start again if more people around you are being careful again
- avoid any "optional" indoor social activities?
- if someone in your family gets long covid and suffers from constant fatigue and brain fog that doesn't resolve, will you change your mind about what precautions your family might have taken to prevent the exposure or at least reduce the dosage inhaled? Or will you still be happy with the choices you made now?

I'm pretty sure you will say you are happy with your choices because no one can plan for the unexpected. (It's not that unexpected! but whatever you do you)

What? Where on earth are you getting that you have a 15% chance of getting “Long Covid?” That’s crazy. I’ve never heard the estimate to be that high, even 5% seems high with the current strains, never mind 15%. Keep in mind we have lots of “Coronaviruses” circulating, of which Covid-19 is the “novel” Coronavirus, but it’s still just a Coronavirus which causes cold and flu like symptoms. Even if one does have post-viral complications/symptoms, in the majority of people these are resolved within 6 months.

So you’re giving up precious years of your life for something that has a 5% or less chance of happening and if it does, is resolved within 6 months at most. That doesn’t seem like a way to live, to me. Studies have shown that more liberal Democrats tend to OVERstate the risks of Covid to them and the risks of dying or becoming permanently disabled by Covid. Maybe that happened to you?

It’s the CDC’s number. Dispute it or whatever, but it’s not some mystery number. It was widely reported.

And it includes the type of long COVID that many people are ok to risk getting. If I can't run a 5k for 6 months I'll survive. I'm not going to cancel Christmas to avoid that.

I honestly think that some people have never been or have completely forgotten what it was like to be truly sick. I’ve had various illnesses that lingered, I mean REALLY lingered, long before Covid. I caught a bad case of bronchitis on a cruise, or possibly from plane travel to get to the cruise, 10 years ago, and I coughed for probably 3 months after. I remember because it was fall and I was still coughing at night even at Christmas. It sucked but it was only temporary! Was my experience really that rare? I expect to have a lingering cough and some congestion for awhile after a bad bout of whatever respiratory illness. But maybe that’s not been other people’s experiences so they way overreact to lingering symptoms.

You folks have no idea what you are talking about. I had to take 14 months of medical leave from a high-status, professional job because of long Covid. I had frightening cognitive deficients. I couldn’t recall words or remember something I was told minutes earlier. I lost the ability to raise my left arm. I lost 20 (starting with a normal BMI— friends and colleagues described me as emaciated. I had crushing, crushing fatigue. Believe me, you don’t understand what the word “fatigue” means until you’ve experienced this. Like it would be an all afternoon project to walk across a room. I’d be thirsty with a glass of water right next to me, but lifting it required too much effort. Prior to long Covid, I never had any serious medical issues, never missed work for illness, never even caught the flu. I took no medications, no chronic or underlying conditions. I was fit and active and healthy by every objective measure. You do not have any idea what you are talking about. Your views on Long Covid are ignorant nonsense. I hope you never have to learn about it the hard way.

This type of long covid is incredibly rare. It’s amazing that we don’t have any stats on this, because this is what people are afraid of. CDC includes having a prolonged cough or stuffy nose, or even just hair loss as long covid.

Severe long Covid was more common following infection with the original Wuhan variant, before anyone was vaccinated. Incidence of severe long Covid is also related to viral load (people who got Wuhan variant before anyone was masking got sicker). But severe long Covid is not rare, even following Omicron infection and some people do die of it, months after surviving their acute infection. It is most likely caused by viral persistence, itself likely caused by a poor adaptive immune response (possibly attributable to past [non-Covid] coronavirus antibodies—there is a whole literature on those if anyone is interested). There is a gendered gap because women’s adaptive immune system are different from men’s (for reasons related to reproduction). In any event, the best protection against severe long Covid is not getting infected. Second best is having the best possible antibody match to currently circulating variants (which right now means the bivariant booster). Despite popular perception, past exposure to other variants (which creates antibodies that may attach but not neutralize) does not necessarily help you to avoid long Covid (it may even increase the risk). The third best protection against severe long Covid is to avoid a catastrophically large initial viral load. Masks help immensely with that, even one way masking.

For those that believe that significant morbidity or disability from long Covid is rare, or becoming more rare because of less pathogenic variants, I wish you were right, but the current data does not support that view. Of course we’ll only be able to accurately tally the total morbidity rate in retrospect, several years from now. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-resulted-in-1-2-million-more-disabled-people-by-the-end-of-2021-workplaces-and-policy-will-need-to-adapt/