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Re: [CQ-Contest] Aging contesters

To: k9yc@arrl.net
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Aging contesters
From: kq2m@kq2m.com
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2022 10:10:47 -0500
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>


Hi Jim,

I would argue that the facts did not change, we just didn't know all of them yet, which of course was to our detriment. Even later on the facts about the original strains did not change when new variants arose with similar but different and dangerous characteristics, but we needed to recognize and understand that distinction, which caused analysis and proper treatment to became more complex and difficult.

COVID has always been transmissible by water droplets in the air and most definitely through contact with infected surfaces with wildly varying lengths of viable transmission depending on the physical characteristics of the surface and the strain of virus. Regardless of what people choose to think, the only thing that matters is what YOU you are exposed to and under what circumstances.

The initial failure to recognize "Long COVID" as a serious and prevalent form of extended disease was responsible for the deaths of untold tens of thousands (likely more) in the US alone from seemingly unrelated but actually very much related causes as a result of permanent damage from COVID (Organ failure, stroke, heart attacks, pneumonia, etc.) And, among the living, long term and possibly permanent decreases in cognition and memory, cardiac/lung function and breathing ability, etc., high incidence of depression, and are struggling to complete routine mental and physical tasks. Tragically, suicide rates are up as well.

By now, most, if not all of us, know at least one person who has died from COVID or been severely impacted from it on a permanent basis.

The ignoramuses out there who insisted for political and or/other reasons that "COVID is no different from the Flu", only worsened matters; and it foolishly and needlessly cost many of them their lives and/or the lives of their loved ones.

But I am not here to pick a fight with doctors about what they know or should have known, or what they believed vs. being curious and objective. We all know that in any profession there are a small % of exceptional practitioners, a significant % of charlatans best avoided, and the "middle ground" of everyone else which runs the gamut of competence and helpfulness. It behooves us to seek out excellent counsel and only stay with the best. I have had seen 54 !! different doctors and specialists over the past 14 years. In my experience, only 5 were outstanding, 7 were astonishingly ignorant/downright dangerous and should be in jail, and the rest were "in-between". I have been blessed to find 2 doctors that have saved my life at least once; and they are the only ones that I fully trust. Among the 7 I loathe, several have caused serious harm to myself and others, resulting in at least one death. I suspect that these numbers are somewhat similar to that seen in other professions/industries but the stakes are obviously higher with healthcare.

My point is that it behooves ALL OF US to learn about and take good care of our health because it impacts our lives and our performance at whatever we are pursuing Generally, the the greater the physical and mental stress of the activity, the greater the deterioration of performance if we are not adequately prepared for it. Nature is not fair; in punishing us for our lack of adequate preparedness it doesn't take whether or not we knew something, or knew something and chose to believe something else, or got the facts wrong, or were misled or confused. We pay for it regardless! The rest is just semantics but it has no impact on the outcome.

Contesting, especially SO2R and 2BSIQ, when pursued at the highest intensity, makes enormous physical and mental demands on us, and our performance deteriorates rapidly with sleep deprivation and as we exceed our reserves of mental/physical stamina. If we are also ill or become ill, the deterioration becomes exponential with the passage of time. But the impacts on performance are not uniform - some competitors experience worse effects than others and in some cases they may be potentially dangerous, likely linked to underlying health issues whether diagnosed or not. As expected, the better conditioned/trained can maintain their level of performance for longer periods and with fewer deleterious side effects. And there are crossover benefits - those with better physical conditioning can compensate to some degree for a lower level of mental stamina, and those with superior cognition and memory (and will) can compensate for physical deterioration. Just like in "real life".

We have gotten pretty far afield of the original topic so this will be my past post. If anyone wishes to continue, please email me privately at kq2m@kq2m.com

73 and GL to all next weekend!

Bob, KQ2M



On 2022-10-23 03:20, Jim Brown wrote:
On 10/22/2022 5:25 PM, kq2m@kq2m.com wrote:
The facts never changed, but what the doctors chose to believe and why was/is a different matter.

In situations like COVID19, which was a brand new virus, the
scientists were using the scientific method to learn from what
evidence they could gather how the virus was transmitted, how it
affected humans. At the beginning they were pretty sure that it was
transmitted in the air, and because the virus was so dangerous, they
erred on the side of caution, assuming that there MIGHT BE
transmission via contact with the virus on surfaces until they were
able to rule it out, which took quite a while. Which is why we were
letting packages sit for a couple of days, and wiping them down with
bleach before touching them.

This wasn't a matter of what someone chose to believe, but rather a
matter of what had not yet been learned!

73, Jim K9YC
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