[throwaway8581]

The demographic overlap of Covid longhaulers with people who have other largely psychosomatic fake diseases like long-Lyme disease and fibromyalgia is telling. It’s also the same demographic of which 1/4 take anti-anxiety medicine: young white women. These are sick people, but not from Covid.

Which is not to say that some people are not seriously, permanently injured by the flu or covid. But the concerns about "long covid" are out of proportion to the likely reality.

It is also deceptive to talk about the higher overall death count vs. a normal flu season. There was much less pre-existing immunity to covid than the flu, so many more people were infected. I think a more useful question is the difference in outcomes for people who are infected with one vs. the other. People do not feel safe during flu season because they are not so likely to catch the flu. They feel safe because, unless they are sick or frail, the flu is not so concerning even if they do catch it.

[jquery]

I’m an adult male who had severe negative lasting psychological changes (panic disorder, GAD, depression) after a bout with pneumonia and I can assure you my symptoms aren’t “fake”. Nor was it due to the fear of having pneumonia, as the psychological symptoms started before before my physical symptoms appeared.

You sound like an ignorant person who’s been lucky enough to avoid some of the meaner curveballs life can throw at a person. I believe the covid long-haulers. It took me years to recover my mental health to “almost baseline” and I will probably be on SSRIs the rest of my life.