Covid: I’m still on the side of science.

Let’s all share what we know about this virus.

1.) It’s not only as bad as the common cold. That might be the Fox News line or the Trump line but we have to remember that they’ve got conflicts of interest.

2.) The vast majority of us will not get sick or will get only mildly ill from this virus. Some of us will die from it. And there is a whole spectrum of symptoms in between. The truth is that we do not know how our individual bodies will react in advance. That’s what makes it so scary.

3.) Severity of symptoms may be linked to viral load. If you inhale a lot of virus, you’ll get sicker than if you were only casually exposed by the lady standing a few feet in front of you at the check out line.

4.) The virus uses the ACE2 receptor to gain access to your cells. The ACE2 receptor is involved in regulating your blood pressure. So, if you have high blood pressure or are overweight, take your BP meds and/or lose weight.

5.) The virus affects all ages. However, if you are under the age of 11 or 12, you’re unlikely to experience illness. After that age, men are more severely impacted than women and more likely to die.

6.) For every 74 year old male you know who gets a mild case (or a serious case that is treated extremely aggressively with experimental therapeutics) you will find a 17 year old who spent 6 weeks on a ventilator. Or a 27 year old who spent most of her summer barely able to get out of bed.

Which brings me to…

7.) All those people at Trump rallies not wearing masks and piled up next to each other are being very badly mislead into thinking they aren’t in any immediate danger. The truth is more like, there might be one or two people in that crowd who are on the verge of experiencing symptoms and they are shedding copious amounts of virus in their immediate vicinity. The people around them will either get a mild dose or a major dose when they start shouting. Then, unbeknownst to them, they take that virus home to their families where in about 5-10 days later, they will start passing it around to their children. Sort of like what Kellyanne did to her daughter Claudia after she went to the Rose Garden Massacre.

8.) I believe Trump had more than a mild case of Covid. He was on supplemental oxygen. When was the last time you had supplemental oxygen when you had a cold. Since his hospitalization, he has looked really awful and has sounded just as bad with heavy breathing and coughing. Gradually, almost everyone recovers. It looks like he is slowly getting better. But it hasn’t been without a cost. He has shortened his speeches significantly and takes the short stairs into AF1. There are images that show a bandage on his hand where an IV might go. Is that for saline? A bit more remdesivir? Or is it for the steroids that gave him such energy?

Can’t you picture it? There’s Trump energized by a nice dose of dexamethasone thinking, jeez, why didn’t anyone tell me about this stuff before?? If I had more of this, I could get through campaign season seriously kicking Biden’s ass.

Do I think that’s what’s going on? I have no way of knowing but some intrepid reporters might want to stop badgering Biden on the court packing question that he has answered 50 million times and get Trump to answer the question: “are you still on steroids? And is that safe?”

9.) Another vaccine manufacturer just paused another phase 3 trial due to a serious adverse effect. I heard about it as I was drifting off to sleep so I need to get more info on this. Ah, here it is. It’s a Johnson and Johnson vaccine. No need to despair yet. It might just be temporary and there are plenty of vaccine candidates in the pipeline.

10.) Going back to point 1, if you’re so convinced that Covid is nothing worse than a cold because Trump is minimizing the threat so you whip kissers get back to work, then you should not be in a hurry for a vaccine. In fact, I’m counting on you to happily volunteer to be the last people on earth to get a vaccine at all. Ever.