Death isn't the sole outcome of concern when it comes to covid avoidance. For survivors, the long term, and too often permanent, impact and damage can radically diminish one's capabilities. My husband regularly encounters such covid survivors. He does cardiopulmonary exercise testing at NYU Langone's cardiopulmonary rehab center. And just the other day—as one example—he tested a guy in his early 30s, who had been a super-fit runner before he had covid. Covid was mild, and several months went by before he began experiencing the symptoms that led him to discover that covid had damaged his heart to the point where he needed a transplant. He was post-transplant when my husband tested him, to determine if he was ready to begin rehab and if so, at what level. The frequency with which he encounters young people whose health has been permanently devastated is really frightening. This does not happen with the flu.
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