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0 pointsonecommentman4y ago0 comments

The most vulnerable “comorbidity” subpopulation rarely mentioned in popular social media are the immunocompromised

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines/blog/immunocompromised-...

The title itself suggests the immunocompromised are acknowledged as an overlooked group.

The CDC has some discussion at

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isola...

From the link above, the immunocompromised are a reservoir for the virus for a longer time, since it takes longer for the body to clear the virus. So certainly worth the extra attention, from an epidemiological standpoint if nothing else.

My sense is the immunocompromised would know the COVID response drill from all the other infectious agents they have to deal with so, maybe, they are more careful anyway, but…

The puzzling thing is (from the Johns Hopkins link) there are 15M immunocompromised in the US.

Which does beg the question: if COVID is truly a superbug, two years on, why aren’t they (the immunocompromised) dead yet?

A death rate of only 6%, over two years, for this highly vulnerable immunocompromised population would explain all the US deaths from COVID.

How can COVID be simultaneously

(1) the Plague of the Century and,

(2) two years on, also leave 94% to 99+% of the most vulnerable alive (depending on your assumption on the percentage of symptomatic/hospitalized/fatal COVID cases who are/were immunocompromised)?

Just another COVID “mystery”? Seems a bit odd.

0 comments

ryanbrunner4y ago

For severely immunocompromised individuals (I'm a transplant recipient, so can speak to that), the CFR for COVID is anywhere between 20-35%. There's also a lot more attention paid to avoiding viruses even when there's not a global pandemic, so they are far more likely to be careful, and their IFR is probably much, much closer to their CFR due to being routinely monitored probably more than any other group (I have biweekly blood work and my blood is screened for some viruses every month, I take my vitals literally every day).

"Immunocompromised" as a category includes a very wide range of people, and someone who's on a small temporary prednisone prescription is far less immunocompromised than a chemotherapy patient, solid organ transplant recipient, or HIV+ individual.

TylerE4y ago

Maybe because those of us in that subpopulation aren't treating it by sticking our heads in the sand, and actually doing the stuff that works - not going out, wearing a (good) mask when we must, getting our shots...

oneoff7864y ago

Immunocompromised is not a binary term. Allergies to gluten are an autoimmune disorder. Arthritis can be an autoimmune disorder. A lot of these are minor.

dnautics4y ago

Autoimmune is not immunocompromised unless you're taking immunosuppressants to mitigate the disease.

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