One of the things that has come out of Covid-19 is how little was actually known about flus, despite the fact that flus have been killing 30-70k Americans each year for decades. This ignorance is "interesting" because "we need to be ready for the next Spanish flu" has been at the core of the "give us more money for research" argument for decades.
For example, it looks like we still don't understand transmission in any useful sense. There was some reasonable research in the late 40s but we've learned more in the last two years than in the intervening 80 years.
Yes, some of the tools used in the last two years weren't available 20 years ago but they were available 10 years ago. That said, many of the tools have been available, albeit unused, for 80+ years.
I think going forward we are going to learn a lot more about these long term issues. Before COVID, getting chronic fatigue from flu was mostly ignored by the medical community. Now, with popularity of covid a lot more doctors are aware of some possible neurological issues.
There have been case studies, research and support groups for these things for many years. However, handful of physicians treating patients. I am now seeing more doctors seeing patients with odd symptoms at clinics all over the US, some even have ads targeting long covid.
I think we are going to make some major advancements in the next 10 years, and I'm happy many suffering quietly will be heard.
One of the things that has come out of Covid-19 is how little was actually known about flus, despite the fact that flus have been killing 30-70k Americans each year for decades. This ignorance is "interesting" because "we need to be ready for the next Spanish flu" has been at the core of the "give us more money for research" argument for decades.
For example, it looks like we still don't understand transmission in any useful sense. There was some reasonable research in the late 40s but we've learned more in the last two years than in the intervening 80 years.
Yes, some of the tools used in the last two years weren't available 20 years ago but they were available 10 years ago. That said, many of the tools have been available, albeit unused, for 80+ years.