The above short video explores the possibility that COVID-19 is NOT an acute respiratory distress syndrome, as most assume it is.
As I have tried to point out time and again, we are figuring this out as we go along. Things that we were told early on about COVID-19 have turned out to be questionable or flat out false.
For instance, early on, we were told not to hoard masks and that if you were not a medical worker, they were useless. Then we were told that wearing a mask could be more dangerous than not wearing one. Now we are being told that maybe we should all wear masks after all.
Early on, we were told that only old or immunocompromised people need to worry; for others, it was like a mild cold. Then we started hearing stories of healthy people in their 20s 30s and 40s and even children dying.
We were also told that if you didn’t have symptoms, you could not infect another person, so don’t go out if you are sick or have a fever, and it will be fine. Then it turns out that it is those who show no signs of being sick, which were probably the ones who were spreading the virus fastest and who are the most contagious. And we still don’t know if once infected; you have immunity to reinfection.
One of my favorite sayings is, “we don’t know what we don’t know.” I find thinking we know something when we don’t can be very dangerous. For instance, what if COVID-19 is not an acute respiratory distress syndrome? How might we go about saving those with the infection if we approached it as something, well, novel or new? What if COVID-19 is indeed a blood disorder as a friend of mine suggests? Would treating COVID-19 as a blood disorder instead of an ARDS lead to better outcomes?
In general, I think humanity suffers from a mental disease of thinking it knows more than it does. What we lack is a fundamental sense of humility before Life itself, which has so many mysteries. It is a fact there is much more we don’t know than we do know. If that is not humbling, then I don’t know what is? I feel we would cause a lot less suffering to ourselves, to the plants and animals we share the planet with, and to the earth itself if we were a little more curious and humble.
-Douglas Johnson E-RYT 500, YACEP
