Shifting Reality

Image by finaformsora at DeviantArt

Although I’ve mentioned this before, it needs more emphasis. Much of what we thought we knew about human health has gotten the rug pulled out from under it. Even most scientists don’t seem to have fully absorbed what that means. Journalists seem to be oblivious.

When you wrap your mind around the implications, you will be out of step with the majority until they catch up. I hope that’s part of why you read my posts. I hope you are here partly to catch occasions when I bring up something that is not being discussed much yet.

Let’s start with examples from recent news stories. I’ll outline them the way they were presented, which is only partly correct and then goes very wrong:

• The incidence of diabetes, which was already rising, has begun to soar in the past three or four years. We know bad habits raise the risk of diabetes. People must be indulging more in poor eating habits and lack of exercise, so we must crack down on those.

• Cancers of multiple types are turning up at an abnormally high rate and are often more aggressive than they used to be. We know lifestyle and diet, such as consumption of too much red meat or too little fiber, contribute to many types of cancer. We must crack down on unhealthy habits.

• The incidence of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes has begun to soar in the past three or four years. We know bad habits raise the risk of these. People must be indulging more in poor eating habits and lack of exercise, so we must crack down on those.

• Liver disease is suddenly becoming more common. We know people get liver disease mainly by drinking too much alcohol or taking too much of drugs that are hard on the liver. People must have started drinking too much to cope with the mental stress of the pandemic, so we must crack down on alcohol.

What is the point where each of these begins to go awry? It’s the phrase We know.

We used to know.

We have decades of scientific studies that show a clear association between (insert name of health disorder here) and factors people can modify in their lives. If we modify those factors, we reduce the likelihood and/or severity of the health problem. It has become gospel truth, firmly established by solid science.

SARS-CoV-2 confounds a great many of those supposedly solid truths. We initially thought it caused respiratory illness. We were mistaken. The key it uses to get into cells is widespread in the body, so it gets into a staggering variety of tissues. It can wreck whatever it touches and unexpectedly can persist, establishing reservoirs hidden from the immune system instead of being cleared out. Studies done in the past nearly-four years have established that this virus doesn’t even need to cause symptomatic COVID to trigger, as delayed aftereffects:

• Onset of diabetes.

• An array of types of cancers.

• Heart attacks, strokes, aneurisms, impaired peripheral circulation (e.g. “COVID toes”), high pulse rate, high blood pressure, postural orthostatic tachycardia, and other cardiovascular problems.

• Brain damage, dementia, autonomic nervous system damage.

• Metabolic disorders, e.g. impaired mitochondria.

• Liver disease.

• Kidney disease.

• Gastrointestinal disease.

We had uncovered reasons behind many of these health issues. Between genetics, environment, diet and lifestyle habits, we had at least some understanding of what made such trouble happen. Modifying the environmental, dietary and lifestyle factors in people’s lives reduces these illnesses.

That was gospel truth until 2020.

It is not true any more. To be more precise, it is not enough of the truth.

I repeat, studies done in the past almost-four years have established that infection with this virus doesn’t even have to cause symptomatic COVID to trigger all those problems and more that I didn’t list.

Much of what we thought we knew isn’t completely out the window, but it has an immense modifier.

We have decades of scientific studies that show a clear association between (insert name of health disorder here) and either factors people can modify in their lives or infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

If someone has gone through even one infection with this particular virus, the factors they used to be able to modify in their lives to diminish a long list of health problems cannot negate damage wrought by the virus.

This does not appear to have found its way into the design of further scientific studies so far. Science relies heavily on grants for funding. Applying for a grant and winning it takes time. I’m herding the cats in a materials science research project now. Doing it through grant funding rather than commercial research funding introduced more than a year of delay. That’s on a fast-track grant process without the extra safety measures of a health-related study. Many studies publishing results now or underway now were designed and may have been started before we got far enough into 2020 or later to see that perhaps many health science truths have been uprooted.

Scientists get interviewed in mainstream media and podcasts. They repeat what they have always known to be proven. Very few seem to have any inkling yet of how many of those truths have been sliced to ribbons. Journalists hardly have any chance of getting it right when their expert information sources haven’t caught up with our new reality.

Somewhere in the future, studies will have to be designed to account for our new reality. Studies will have to distinguish between what happens in people who have a history of infection with this virus versus what happens in the dwindling number of people who never caught it.

Until science catches up, people who have their thinking caps on must repeat a caveat to ourselves every time we hear health news that includes a We know segment based on pre-pandemic truths. We used to know. We don’t really know any more until we go back and check again with our new reality factored in.