Avoid COVID

A careful and caring resource to help you and your family understand the ongoing risks associated with COVID and how to make the best decisions to stay safe.

What is happening with COVID?

A COVID infection itself isn’t the biggest risk anymore, especially for healthy, vaccinated adults under age 65. We now understand that the worst effects of COVID can come after an infection passes, and may last for the rest of your life.

#1 – Long-term Disability

COVID is causing disability for millions of healthy adults

“Long COVID” is a name for a group of symptoms that are sometimes severe enough to cause long-term disability for people who were previously healthy.
Between 5–20% of people who had even mild COVID symptoms are developing Long COVID: hundreds of millions of people globally. Roll a single die once: did it come up as a 1? That’s your chance of getting Long COVID after your first infection. Your chances go up with every subsequent infection, increasing 3× by your 3rd infection.
Around 20% of people who were completely healthy before getting Long COVID are now disabled and unable to work due to symptoms like extreme fatigue, terrible headaches lasting hours or days, terrifying shortness of breath, and intense brain fog that never stops.

Cowboy smoking a cigar inside, behind a bar in front of shelves stocked with alcohol

→ Read Brenda’s story about suffering with Long COVID

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4]

#2 – Immune System & Organ Damage

Each time you get COVID, your body & immune system are damaged more, which doctors are now comparing to HIV

Even mild cases of COVID will lead to immune system damage.
COVID damages your white blood cells, for months, years or more depending on the individual.
COVID is now the 3rd most common cause of lymphocytopenia. #2 is HIV.
Damage to your immune system means that other illnesses from the flu, RSV, colds, etc. are more difficult for your body to fight off (and for some people, impossible).

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

#3 – Negative impact on children

COVID is more dangerous for children than the flu, chicken pox, and measles combined, with long-term damage common

First item
Second item
Third item

A young sick girl wearing a mask while lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by two nurses also wearing masks and looking serious

Sources:

#4 – Neurological Decline

COVID damages the brain and is now the #3 leading neurological disorder in the U.S.

A small distressed child seated at a desk, hovering over a book and lightly grasping her head with her hands, elbows on the table top

First item
Second item
Third item

Sources: [1] [2]

#5 – Airborne Transmission

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID, is airborne: we breathe it in just like smoke in the air

Have you ever smelled smoke from someone’s cigarette? Remember when people were allowed to smoke inside buildings? The smoke smell was everywhere, and it lingered long after a cigarette was gone.This is similar to how coronavirus particles behave in air: they swirl around, get trapped inside rooms, and can linger many hours after a contagious person leaves.Just like with cigarette smoke, the coronavirus particles are much more quickly dispersed outdoors. Of course, just like you can get a face full of smoke on a sidewalk, you can with the virus too. But you’ll inhale less smoke and less virus when you’re outside.