COVID-19 isn't killing people...

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I’ll say it for you.

“Oh. My. God. Not another coronavirus panic piece!”

I get it. You all are sick (pun intended) of reading about the gloom and doom of COVID-19. It’s all over the TV stations, inundating your news feeds and blasting social media timelines. There is no escape. I am right there rolling my eyes with you. I mean, I’m safely six feet away, but you can still hear my groan and see me commiserating all the same.

Here’s the great big BUT (and not the good kind):

BUT, recently I found myself overthinking (as I do) a heap of pandemic-related uncertainties.

Over the course of the quarantine, I overloaded my A.D.D. addled brain with virus and death statistics, quarantine procedures, contagion rates, where the novel coronavirus really originated, ways it can spread, what is or isn’t essential business, my son’s and my own school updates, social distancing rules and regulations, cocaine as a cure for this disease, the actual words that form the COVID acronym, possible symptoms, testing policies and locations, each new Donald Trump fumble, each new Donald Trump touchdown, how the situation is breeding bigotry, how the situation is breeding kindness, economic side effects, conspiracy theories, what is the military doing here, QAnon, how Democrats are to blame, how Republicans are to blame, how to hold a Netflix Party and a seemingly endless pile of Tiger King memes.

Most of my questions were easily answered by watching every video of Dr. Fauci I could find. But one argument remained a sore thumb to me.

This virus is only as serious as the flu and everyone is overreacting

vs

This virus is deadly, and people are too stubborn to acknowledge the severity

I wasn’t really sure where I fell on the “it’s just a cough” –-- “coronavirus is killin’ e’rybody up in here” spectrum. And I realized that one of the big mysteries remaining on my personal list was how this virus actually causes death.

Does it attack our healthy cells like cancer? Does it degrade our organs until they fail? Does it cause our lungs to fill with bacteria and kill them off so we can’t breathe?

I was shocked to discover that I had heard about so many “coronavirus deaths,” but never actually learned how those unfortunate victims went from a slight cough, to depending on a ventilator, to death. And completing that timeline so rapidly.

The answers I discovered were a bit morbid and slightly terrifying. It makes sense why we never really stop to consider the reality of how another actually suffers. It’s kind of like not wanting to know how the sausage gets made.

For the record, that is not a rabbit hole I ever want to descend. My apologies to all the vegetarians out there. My point is society tends to gloss over the gory details.

But, maybe, the posterity’s-sake details we leave out are the exact morsels of information that make us more cautious and, ultimately, safer?

This is my hope as I share what I’ve learned in a way that is, hopefully, easy to understand.

Perhaps the most important pieces of information I want to stress are these:

• · This is not just like the seasonal flu

• · People don’t die of COVID-19

Let me address the less controversial statement first. I have seen so many people telling others that the seasonal flu is much worse than our current pandemic. They also claim the flu kills as many, if not more people than this illness.

This information just is not true.

While COVID-19 presents with flu-like symptoms including fever, cough, fatigue and shortness of breath, it’s the incubation period, contagion rate and number of severe cases (meaning hospitalization is required) that makes this illness far more dangerous than your run-of-the-mill Monday morning sick day excuse.

The World Health Organization estimates that roughly 20% of COVID-19 cases are severe or critical, where just over one percent of flu patients require hospitalization. WHO also indicates that COVID-19 mortality rate is approximately 3-4%, dwarfing that of influenza at 0.1%.

Now let’s shine a blinding spotlight on that big fat elephant in the room. Yes, I said that people don’t die from COVID-19. Hear me out. I’ll explain.

According to medical author and popular bariatric surgeon, Dr. Duc C. Vuong (the morbidly obese are among high-risk coronavirus patients), it is actually Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) that kills those infected with COVID-19. He explains in a video the way it happens, and it’s sort of grisly.

As most know, the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, enters the body via our oral airways and rides our esophagi to respiratory heaven – the lungs. This is where the (evil) magic happens. To clarify, that evil magic is the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Pay attention now.

Our lung tissue contains tiny air sacs called alveoli. These sacs are made of two pneumocyte (or cell) types, creatively named Type I and Type II. Type I does the oxygen-CO2 gas exchange. Type II produces a goo called surfactant that helps our lungs expand and collapse.

I know it’s hard to follow, but just trust me on this. I read a lot of stuff and looked at a ton of pictures.

SARS-Cov-2 targets the Type II pneumocyte, entering through receptors (which consequently also aid in regulating blood pressure – yikes!). They then multiply and kill it.

You with me so far? It’s ok. I’ll wait for you to reread that real quick.

So COVID-19 happens when a virus invades our lungs and kills all the cells, so they don’t work anymore, right?

WRONG! Pay closer attention.

That dead cell causes the body to create an inflammatory response which triggers a crazy immunity defense to fight the inflammation. That means an insane amount of infection-killing science stuff floods the alveoli. Think about the pus and fluid that plagues an infected cut on the skin. Now imagine that ooze on the inside of those tiny air sacs.

You see where this is going? This process causes major damage to the alveoli. Then, uh-oh, it’s (evil) magic!

It is perfectly acceptable to sing that last bit, by the way.

The damaged sacs let in fluid which results in pneumonia. The pneumonia worsens until the COVID-19 patient develops ARDS.

That still doesn’t seem particularly heinous, right?

Well, what if I said it would be like being paralyzed with your nose and mouth barely under the surface of a pool of water? You can feel yourself slowly drowning, but you are unable to move yourself above the water to draw oxygen.

But wait, it gets worse. As the lungs struggle to function, the rest of the organs are deprived of vital oxygen and can progress to sepsis. In other words, the patient is faced with kidney and liver failure, even cardiac arrest.

Are you sufficiently horrified now? Does the morbidity rate still seem that low to you?

Although I still don’t fall on the “coronavirus killin’ e’rybody” side of the panic spectrum, this information has convinced me that even sitting somewhere in the middle, the number of COVID-19 related deaths is far too many.

I have never been one to overreact or take my kids to the hospital for stitches when super glue or duct tape would suffice. But I would be remiss if I didn’t take this research to heart (and lung) and really consider adjusting my casual approach to medical response and general healthcare.

It may have taken a global pandemic to shift my attitude a bit, and I admit that I’ve always been a little late the party. But I am here now with full awareness. Better late than never.

So, my fellow isolationists, I leave you with this.

Stay healthy and, for God’s sake, stay away!