Physics Girl
7 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2023
4:38 · 5.9M views · Mar 6, 2023
A health update from the Physics Girl channel explaining that Dianna Cowern has been seriously ill with long COVID and ME/CFS, and that new science videos are postponed.
HN uses it as an example of how severe long COVID and ME/CFS can become.
7 comments from Hacker News
The two easy areas I can cite are the lackluster results of the RECOVER initiative ( [LINK] ), and the complete failure of any government to distribute vaccines well. Another: 19 September 2022, US President Biden declares COVID to be "over" [LINK] Meanwhile, it is easy to get Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (mRNA based), and hard to get Novavax (protein based). By hard I mean impossible. mRNA are not well understood, have nasty side effects for some people (including me), and lose their efficacy after a few months, thus the need for boosters. You can verify this with blood tests that show antibody levels. With Novavax, which is based on technology that's been around for 20 years, it appears (based on studies) that it keeps its efficacy for at least a year after multiple doses, and it has minimal side effects (including my own shot). That said, many governments have relationships with Pfizer and Moderna, and so these vaccines are easily attainable, while no such relationship exists with Novavax, and it is impossible to get it. I say impossible after asking about 50 doctors, contacting pharmacies, and finally contacting Novavax themselves, who told me that it is not possible to get until the new mix comes out. So why would a vaccine that seems to actually work be unavailable, while ones that do not work are easy to get? I realize that this is more a commentary on COVID than ME/CFS, but I'm arguing that they are very similar. Just consider Physics Girl, who contracted COVID a year
While long Covid is an encompassing term, there is symptom overlap between long COVID and ME/CFS. Around 50% of people with long COVID meet the criteria for a diagnosis of ME/CFS. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Mild ME/CFS is usually associated with around 50% reduction in daily functioning. Moderate will usually lead to people being housebound and intermittently bed-bound. Severe and very severe are associated with a level of suffering that is hard to imagine possible. An example of someone becoming severe is PhysicsGirl - Dianna Cowern. this video The associated severe dysautonomia means that people are unable to sit or stand and often they can not eat or digest. They may require intravenous nutrition. Regrettably there are cases where the disease has not been treated appropriately and young people have died as a result. A recent example is Maeve Boothby-O'Neill and her father Sean O'Neill wrote in The Times with an interview with Maeve's Mother by Dr David Tuller. [LINK] [LINK]
She did her own video when she first become extremely ill with Long Covid: this video There has also been a few updates on shorts showing the extent of how severely unwell she is. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] She also gives some updates on twitter/X as well. She has severe to very severe ME/CFS brought on by Long Covid. This disease is brutal, its one of the most deblitating diseases with the worst quality of life known and it has almost no research funding for decades. She is one of many millions now missing from life stuck in bed suffering with no one offering any help.
Dianna (Physics Girl) is currently experiencing severe complications from ME/CFS/long COVID. Per the last update on her twitter: The last weeks were scary. ER visits were hard. Dianna still can’t walk, or even sit up in bed. But we see signs of progress. Sleeping more. Eating more. More treatments coming. Update here - this video [LINK]
Well maybe a practical example [0] would be more convincing. It's really infuriating that most people still seem to discount even the existence of long covid. [0] this video