[CQ-Contest] Aging contesters

[kq2m at kq2m.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 at 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 at 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