With both RSV and influenza, infection as a baby or toddler seems to increase the likelihood of asthma in later life. Do we talk about asthma?
I think it is just so ordinary, an accepted part of life, and often not thought of in terms of being caused by an identifiable pathogen, that it's not really remarkable. Sort of like the fact that viral pneumonia is what kills the very elderly -- if nothing else gets them first -- the older someone is the more likely viral pneumonia will be the cause of death, rising to around half of all deaths in the 90 yo+ demographic. RSV, rhinoviruses, influenza. We're used to it. And short of getting our influenza shots and washing our hands, there's not terribly much we can do about it.
> currently present case of COVID
Well, that's just people abusing terminology. Technically, COVID is not the virus; it's the illness caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. Same sort of distinction as between HIV/AIDS. A person with severe AIDS who hypothetically was cured of HIV, would still have severe AIDS until/unless they manage to recover some immune function.
It is poorly named I guess. People still mix up AIDS/HIV today and I don't even bother to correct them; can't really blame them for conflating two closely related concepts.
> With both RSV and influenza, infection as a baby or toddler seems to increase the likelihood of asthma in later life. Do we talk about asthma?
I think this reinforces my point succinctly. It’s not “extended RSV” or “persistent influenza”, it’s asthma.
COVID is a completely politicized term and dying on a hill to use it to describe symptoms people are stuck with after recovering from the acute disease, especially in a way that implies they’re still infected, is just - well you can see what it does.
Asthma induced by influenza would be about right, I think.
Much of this is novel, in having the ability to attribute to a specific viral cause, easily and cheaply and widely. This is new ground, new technology. Much of this was until recently, put up to non-specific viral infection, or even idiopathic.
We may start to re-conceive of asthma as different diseases if we could attribute the factors which went into causing a particular person's asthma. Flu-asthma, toxin-asthma, autoimmune-asthma, and COVID-asthma - and hybrid cases.
Those interested in seeing funding devoted towards the study of this would do well do steer away from the political COVID branding. And if that’s too hard, call it “post COVID disease” or something.
With both RSV and influenza, infection as a baby or toddler seems to increase the likelihood of asthma in later life. Do we talk about asthma?
I think it is just so ordinary, an accepted part of life, and often not thought of in terms of being caused by an identifiable pathogen, that it's not really remarkable. Sort of like the fact that viral pneumonia is what kills the very elderly -- if nothing else gets them first -- the older someone is the more likely viral pneumonia will be the cause of death, rising to around half of all deaths in the 90 yo+ demographic. RSV, rhinoviruses, influenza. We're used to it. And short of getting our influenza shots and washing our hands, there's not terribly much we can do about it.
> currently present case of COVID
Well, that's just people abusing terminology. Technically, COVID is not the virus; it's the illness caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. Same sort of distinction as between HIV/AIDS. A person with severe AIDS who hypothetically was cured of HIV, would still have severe AIDS until/unless they manage to recover some immune function.
It is poorly named I guess. People still mix up AIDS/HIV today and I don't even bother to correct them; can't really blame them for conflating two closely related concepts.
Anyway. A popsci article from 2018: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/health/flu-body-effects-partn... And if you want to dive in to it, the relevant search terms are: influenza pulmonary fibrosis