Why Some People Get Sicker Than Others
The Atlantic,
by
James Hamblin
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
4/22/2020 4:49:57 PM
The COVID-19 crash comes suddenly. In early March, the 37-year-old writer F. T. Kola began to feel mildly ill, with a fever and body aches. To be safe, she isolated herself at home in San Francisco. Life continued apace for a week, until one day she tried to load her dishwasher and felt strangely exhausted.(Snip)An ambulance raced her to the hospital, where she spent three days in the ICU, before being moved to a newly created coronavirus-only ward. Sometimes she barely felt sick at all, and other times she felt on the verge of death. But after two weeks in the hospital, she walked out. Now, as the death toll
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/22/2020 4:54:26 PM (No. 388044)
The author is James Hamblin, MD. The article is free. And it is not the usual Atlantic propaganda, but rather a fairly detailed explanation of the possible answers to the headline question. Good read.
8 people like this.
Thanks for the information #1. Normally, if I see the story is from the Atlantic, I'll blow it off. They're such a left wing rag.
13 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
SamNJ 4/22/2020 5:04:57 PM (No. 388056)
"it is not the usual Atlantic propaganda"
Not until the last paragraph.
24 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
LadyHen 4/22/2020 5:06:50 PM (No. 388057)
fta: In typical circumstances in the United States and other industrialized nations, patients would be urged to go to the hospital sooner rather than later. But right now, to avoid catastrophic strain on an already overburdened health-care system, people are told to avoid the hospital until they feel short of breath. For those who do become critically ill and arrive at the ER in respiratory failure, health-care workers are then behind the ball.
Which does make me question the whole "flattening the curve logic. How many of died because they waited too long due to this insistence we not go to the doctor or hospital until we are in distress. From much I have seen, early identification and intervention is one of the keys to success with this illness.
Past that the article fades at the last into a socialist screed. Totally ruined what could have been a light on science but okay article.
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
montwoodcliff 4/22/2020 5:16:39 PM (No. 388062)
Last paragraph--we destroy food because we are not allowed to give it away due to health reasons, like leftovers from restaurants.
We bail out corporations because they provide jobs so people can have a job and earn money to buy food and shelter. And by giving people an extra $600/week of bailout money over and above the welfare check, makes them wait until the benefits run out before going back to their $15/hr minimum wage job. Yes, it was a good article until the bleeding heart, society is evil, and we are not compassionate as a people screed crept in. The writer may be a good doctor but he is ignorant of the big picture.
12 people like this.
If I may ask, is it possible for journalists to write about actual Americans, you know, ones actually born here and perhaps have had several generations of family stretching back decades if not hundreds of years? Once again, and you guessed it, we have to read about yet ANOTHER immigrant, this one, F.T. Kola, born in South Africa, but traveled and lived the world, Australia, England, New York city, then Austin, Texas, liberal immigrant havens all.
And as a mixed-race, immigrant, world traveling, uber-liberal woman she just happened to get the virus, and most importantly, get super sick from it. And she just has to be the one profiled.
19 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Mofongo 4/22/2020 5:32:52 PM (No. 388078)
Why are you littering this site with The Atlantic. Who’s gonna bother? Sheesh!
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
AltaD 4/22/2020 5:45:15 PM (No. 388085)
Seems as if they author couldn't decide if he wanted to write an article focusing on medicine or preaching social justice so he did both. He begins with what doctors currently know and/or theorize about this virus and ends with a typical eyerolling social justice lecture.
8 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/22/2020 5:46:56 PM (No. 388088)
Nothing more than a list of virus behaviors and bodily responses. It comes to the standard democrat conclusion that African Americans and people of lower socioeconomic status are most adversely affected. My opinion is that your chances are still better staying home than going to the hospital.
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
qr4j 4/22/2020 5:48:01 PM (No. 388089)
The questions about throwing away food while people go hungry and about empty hotels while people sleep in the street are good ones. But the answer often comes in the form of shove-it-down-your-throat socialism and government control. Yet in many instances it is the nanny state that prevents well-meaning people from making leftover food available and doing other works of mercy to help people in need. The government regulates the hell out of people. And the legal climate is lawsuit-friendly.
The socialists want control. They say they want to solve problems. But really they want control. They want power over others. Good capitalists say to the government: Get out of the way. Let us solve these problems.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Alecto2 4/22/2020 6:14:33 PM (No. 388104)
About 50% of the deaths will be at "long-term" facilities. I didn't know until last week, the average life span for people going into these facilities is 6 months and that was before Covid.
As for many of the rest, many have comorbidities such as diabetes, asthma, obesity etc. I.E. you are what you stuff in your face.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 4/22/2020 6:40:30 PM (No. 388124)
This opens the door to some juicy jokes and pithy comments. Some get sicker than others because others probably take better care of themselves and as a result are healthier. But what do I know? A liberal will look at this is as racist discrimination and want to sue for equality.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
PostAway 4/22/2020 6:54:25 PM (No. 388133)
I stopped reading this at the part about the degree of illness being less a function of the virus than the body’s reaction to it. Why, thank you for the information, Captain Obvious.
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 4/22/2020 6:58:43 PM (No. 388138)
People are different. Who knew?
10 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 4/22/2020 8:35:54 PM (No. 388200)
It seems like the virus wreaks havoc on a number of systems within the body. If your body has multiple weaknesses then it's ''lights out''. But I'm still puzzled how some victims who seemed otherwise healthy have died very quickly. 3 days from falling till to taking their last breath. Still lots more to learn.
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Italiano 4/22/2020 8:52:32 PM (No. 388210)
FTA: "But right now, to avoid catastrophic strain on an already overburdened health-care system..."
Huh?
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 4/22/2020 9:10:06 PM (No. 388223)
Interesting article, but much/most of this same info was heard in an interview with a doc on Hannity's radio show about a month ago. I liked it until the very end when he goes all socialist and lefty.
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 4/22/2020 9:53:27 PM (No. 388258)
Upon recommendation in OP comment, I decided to glance at the article even though it is the Atlantic. I'm glad I did read it. It explains so very much aside from all the COVID-19 information. Shh. Don't tell, but I printed it out to show my doctor.
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 4/22/2020 10:10:38 PM (No. 388270)
Liberal pap. Waits until the final paragraphs to engage in a putrid "America bad" mantra.
Hey, Doc, has anyone studied whether "lifestyle" has anything to do with this?
Are poor African-Americans more inclined to a) eat fried chicken b) smoke Menthol cigarettes c) drink Malt Liquor d) do crack-cocaine than rich honkies?
And are Mexican illegals more inclined to a) drink more cheap beer b) drink more cheap wine c) drink more cheap liquor d) drink more even cheaper beer?
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
bamboozle 4/22/2020 11:37:46 PM (No. 388298)
Has anyone considered or studied whether the strain (out of at least 30 so far identified) of the virus causing severe disease is different from the strain causing mild or asymptomatic disease?
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DVC 4/23/2020 12:09:34 AM (No. 388305)
And the overwhelming majority who die have diabetes. Not good for a number of people I know who have it, and at least one was born with it, not from obesity.
1 person likes this.
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A question many are asking, while others just shrug it off as “ just another cold”.Unfortunately. the latter won’t read this article.