So what if I get covid?
It is true that most people who catch covid will have mild flu or cold like symptoms, and this is why you don’t need to panic. But it’s important to be aware of the facts and why covid is disrupting life. Covid is more dangerous than the flu, and kills more people.
It infects people by entering healthy cells. When covid reproduces and spreads, it damages and even kills these cells. Covid mainly spreads through the respiratory tract - that’s your mouth, nose, throughs and lungs. For most people, symptoms go away in 5-8 days. But as it damages the respiratory tract, your lungs might get inflamed (swollen) making it hard to breath. This can lead to pneumonia - an infection in the lungs that can be deadly. For other people, covid causes ‘acute respiratory distress syndrome’ (ARDS) where their lungs get worse and breathing is very hard. This is when people might be put on a ventilator to help them breath. ARDS can mean important internal organs like kidneys and lungs don’t get enough oxygen and begin to stop working.
Covid can also cause something called a ‘cytokine storm’. Cytokines are like an army general that tell your immune system what to do. Covid can make cytokines respond far too aggressively, and instead of attacking just the covid, your immune system can start to attack your own healthy tissues. This can be fatal.
People who do not die can suffer serious illness for long periods of time. Some people experience long term complications because of covid, including lung damage, secondary infections (infections that got in because the body was too weak from fighting covid), and chronic fatigue. Young and healthy people can catch covid, not just older or vulnerable people. It’s hard to tell who might get seriously sick from covid because we are all different.
Apart from making you very sick, when you have covid, whether it’s mild like a cold or very bad, you can then pass it on to other people. It’s safer to do everything you can to avoid catching covid.
These are all reasons why we want to try and not get covid ourselves, or to spread it to other people if we do get it. But it’s really important not to worry too much. By following health guidelines like washing hands and getting the vaccine, you’re doing everything you can to protect yourself and others. If you’re very worried, contact us.
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