COVID-19 Reality Check
UPDATE: WHAT WE'VE LEARNED
We’ve actually learned quite a lot since our last update, none of it particularly good.
By Ray Cunneff
July 7, 2020
A study by the esteemed British medical journal Lancet Psychiatry confirms the recent discovery that the COVID-19 coronavirus is a blood vessel disease as well as a respiratory infection, meaning that it affects bodily systems far beyond the lungs. Not good.
Beyond those alarming implications, the study also suggests that COVID-19 may be linked to psychological and neurological conditions including strokes and psychosis. Also not good.
In their introduction, the authors claim that "ischaemic stroke was common in our cohort of 153 patients (most of whom were confirmed to have COVID-19). We identified a large group of patients with altered mental status, reflecting both neurological and psychiatric diagnoses, such as encephalitis and psychosis. Altered mental status was identified across all age groups, and many younger patients had this presentation."
It has become clear that many of our initial assumptions about this virus have been not only wrong but counter-productive.
Comparisons to the 1918 Influenza pandemic have proven more misleading than enlightening. Unlike the flu, we are not experiencing a "first wave" in the spring followed by a lull during the heat of summer. A better metaphor is a "forest fire" burning until there is no more fuel.
Our assumptions about 'physical distancing' may need to be completely reconsidered due to the growing evidence of aerosol spread, much finer particles than the "droplets" we thought would not travel more than six feet. A fine aerosol virus mist could travel far greater distances and linger far longer, especially in enclosed environments.
What was originally thought to be simply a respiratory infection has proven a far more complex and multi-faceted pulmonary, coronary, neurological and even psychological attack on the human body, affecting different populations, by age, ethnicity, and underlying conditions, differently.
The virus appears to seek out the body's vulnerabilities. And the virus is mutating, new and more communicable, and perhaps eventually more lethal, strains appearing globally at regular intervals.
COVID-19 is thought to have a (relatively slow) mutation rate of 25 per year compared to influenza's 50 per year — the best hope for a safe, effective vaccine.
And finally, there is mounting evidence that COVID-19 survivors, even those with relatively mild cases, might nonetheless suffer lifetime health and mental health consequences, potentially a generation with chronic conditions for the rest of their lives.
The more we learn about this virus, the less we know.
Ray Cunneff is a former CBS television executive, professional motion picture and television writer. His book, "2020: A Trump Odyssey - The Rise of America's Fascist Dictator" is available on Amazon Kindle