There are still so many that we do not know.
The coronavirus of 2020 and Spanish flu of 1918 are two highly contagious respiratory diseases that spread across the world for months, and did not miss vaccines when they first occurred. People could not understand why they influenced some people more than others. Before the 1918 flu, healthier, younger people were most at risk. By 2020, it will be older people with pre-existing conditions.
But there is one cautionary note of the 1918 flu that resonated in 2020, and it could re-stimulate socially-distancing and masking behavior among those people who feel the fatigue of disruption in their daily lives: ‘Although 1918 was lethal, that contracts the virus survived. But survival does not mean that individuals are fully recovered. ”
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‘The range of lasting health effects for those who contract and survive COVID-19 remains to be seen.’
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That’s according to a review of literature and studies on the 1918 flu by economists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “The evidence suggests that, in 1918, those who survived the first infection had an increased mortality risk and some physiological conditions never fully cured.”
“The first lesson from 1918 is that the health effects were large and diffuse. We may never know the real consequences of the 1918 deaths due to incomplete or inaccurate record keeping, problems that undermine our ability to quantify the impact of COVID-19, ‘she wrote. “The range of lasting health effects for those who contract and survive COVID-19 remains to be seen.”
In fact, a recent study of 60 COVID-19 patients published in peer-reviewed medical journal Lancet this month found that 55% of patients in one study three months later still showed neurological symptoms during follow-up visits, including confusion and difficulty concentrate, such as headache, loss of taste and / or odor, mood swings and fatigue.
Younger COVID-19 patients who were otherwise healthy suffer from blood clots and stroke. Many “long-haulers” – patients on COVID-19 who have continued to have symptoms for months – report neurological problems, including confusion, concentration problems, headaches, extreme fatigue, mood swings, insomnia, plus loss of taste and / or smell.
Some 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, were infected with the Spanish flu of 1918. An estimated 50 million people died worldwide, with some 675,000 deaths occurring in the US, according to of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 has now killed at least 774,299 people worldwide, and 170,548 in the U.S., says Johns Hopkins University.
The Moneyist: My colleagues cough and sneeze, do not wear masks and talk about their parties. I’m worried about coronavirus. What do I do?
As of Tuesday, the U.S. still has the highest number of world-confirmed COVID-19 cases (5,443,162) and deaths. Worldwide, confirmed cases are now at 21,901,102. COVID-19 kills the respiratory system, but health care professionals say it also seems to affect the cardiovascular system, causing blood clots in some patients, even young patients, and can also affect organs.
A review of cases published last March in the medical journal JAMA Cardiology concluded: “Coronavirus 2019 disease is associated with a high inflammatory burden that can induce vascular inflammation, myocarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias.” It added, “Cardiovascular risk factors and circumstances should be judged by evidence-based guidelines.”
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‘Based on early clinical reports, significant cardiovascular complications with COVID-19 infection are expected.’
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COVID-19 can cause new cardiac problems and / or exacerbate underlying conditions, the researchers said. “During most flu epidemics, more patients die from cardiovascular causes than from pneumonia. Given the high inflammatory burden of COVID-19, and based on early clinical reports, significant cardiovascular complications with COVID-19 infection are expected. ”
During the 1918 flu pandemic as with COVID-19, rich people had a better chance of survival: Individuals of moderate and higher economic status had a mortality rate of 0.38%, against 0.52% for those of lower economic status and 1% for those who were “very bad,” economists Brian Beach, Karen Clay and Martin Saavedra wrote in the published paper this week.
“Compared to persons living in one-room apartments, persons living in two-room, three-room and four-room apartments, respectively, had 34%, 41% and 56% lower mortality,” he added. se. Although the 1918 pandemic is forever associated with Spain, this strain of H1N1 was previously discovered in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the US
The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA,
loses ground on Monday, while the S&P 500 SPX,
edges up and the Nasdaq Composite COMP,
assumed a triple-digit profit as investors hope for progress on the fax front and a fresh round of unemployment benefits in Round 2 of the Congressional Pandemic Relief Program.
AstraZeneca AZN,
in combination with Oxford University; BioNTech SE BNTX,
and partner Pfizer PFE,
; GlaxoSmithKline GSK,
Johnson & Johnson JNJ,
; Merck & Co. NOTE,
; Modern MRNA,
; and Sanofi SAN,
are among those currently working on COVID-19 vaccines.
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