Covid-19 can make an elite fall to AVERAGE

The CDT is a garbage newspaper. They got lucky that this story involves a doctor from the local college. So they got to fall into reporting it.

The concern, or I should say, my concern, is that we really don't know the long term effects on athletes, specifically masters athletes.

There are numerous anecdotal reports of long-lasting side effects in runners. We can't definitely say these effects are permanent because the disease hasn't been around that long yet.

Even more concerning, an athlete can be dramatically hindered in performance by a heart or lung function decline that wouldn't even be detected in normal medical testing, unless there was an established baseline prior to COVID. We may never know how COVID affects elite runners as a group.

As case in point, I experienced lung damage in June 2019. A complete pulmonary test and xrays found nothing abnormal. In fact, the doctor said I had excellent lung function. Maybe true, but it wasn't nearly as good as before inhaling toxic fumes. I couldn't even do one of 8x400m intervals without gasping for breath after the first one.

Six months later, my 800m was a full 10 seconds slower than where I was in June!

Pajac wrote:

What percentage of positives don't even get tested/detected?

Of all the positives, what tiny percentage ends up in hospital?

Great questions.

As of late May 2020, when tests weren't yet widely available and many people were still experiencing the common springtime cold and regular influenza (leading to confusion over what virus one might have), researchers had pegged the percentage between the very broad range of somewhere between 25%-80% (positives not getting tested).

While this is a large % even at 25%, keep in mind that recent seroprevalence studies have shown avg. cumulative antibody prevalence rates of only between 1% - 6% in most US cities and as high as 20% in NYC. So to answer the second question, take the seroprevalence in a city and multiply by total population to get the denominator (true number of positives, tested or not). Then use the number hospitalized as the numerator. Every city is different depending on many factors.

Breaking it down by age is probably more meaningful than an average for all people. A 20-something has about a 1% chance of illness so severe it requires hospitalization, and that risk rises to more than 8% for people in their 50s and to nearly 19% for people over 80.

However, as pointed out earlier, just because you're not hospitalized doesn't mean you don't get lung scarring and other organs affected.

I hadn't seen the new data which showed that 15% of the Penn state football team that had coronavirus also contracted myocarditis which weakens the heart. Normally only 20 out of 100000 people develop myocarditis per year. This is a big deal but morons on here will just dismiss it anyway.

I have a buddy who's a pretty high level biker in his 20s with no pre-existing conditions. He was the second case of covid I knew. His symptoms were "mild", but 3 months later, he was still struggling to hold 100 w on a one hour road ride (for those who don't know cycling, that's really bad).

dragonfly spikes wrote:

I have a buddy who's a pretty high level biker in his 20s with no pre-existing conditions. He was the second case of covid I knew. His symptoms were "mild", but 3 months later, he was still struggling to hold 100 w on a one hour road ride (for those who don't know cycling, that's really bad).

I'll be cracking up next year when there's a bunch of users asking if their terrible race results are due to Covid.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

I'll be cracking up next year when there's a bunch of users asking if their terrible race results are due to Covid.

My concern with people is they just can't be bothered with this pandemic. "I wanted to go to the bars." or "I knew I had tested positive but I went to the party anyway since I had no symptoms."

It's just so irresponsible and all the misinformation out there doesn't help. Earlier in this thread (page 1), someone stated that "there is a 90% chance you will never know you had covid." This was 1) incorrect and 2) not cited. Pajac and Some_Local totally ignored this post and instead chose to challenge the OP on his/her claim that covid causes lung scarring. Which it does. Why attack a claim being made by doctors and totally ignore the most incorrect claim yet made on the thread?

It's because they don't want to hear anything negative about the pandemic. America is only 5-20% "done" with catching this highly infectious disease. (I quote "done" since you can apparently catch it again later.) Minds will begin to change this winter as more and more people have first or second hand experiences with covid.

Geez y’all it’s not that hard. Here’s the 30/70 odds they’re talking about. Small sample, sure. You could argue that this analysis missed some positive cases or that there are other causes but don’t act like the data doesn’t exist.

Penn state released a statement saying that Dr. Sebastianelli was not speaking clearly and that they do not have a single case of myocarditis. Not only was Dr. Sebastianelli misleading on the source of this data, which is in an upcoming study that may or may not include Big ten athletes, but he also overstated the percentages with myocarditis. We should await this study with interest before commenting. Once it comes out, we should read through it carefully.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5710763002

And like I said before, JAMA’s updated study found no statistical difference in the prevalence of myocarditis in those who had COVID previously versus risk factor matched controls.

It wouldn’t be shocking if COVID causes myocarditis in some cases. Many viruses do, including common cold viruses such as the adenovirus. However, the studies so far do not indicate some epidemic of myocarditis.

Ok but I thinkVO2 Max, which this thread was originally about, can be affected by heart issues and/or lung issues, right? So even if myocarditis turns out to be a minimal concern, we still have the lung scarring which is significant.

I had it in March and can confirm how hard it is to run now. Running 8 min pace feels like a tempo. I’m sore from simple runs and my lungs still don’t feel right. It’s awful and don’t wish it on anyone.

Lung scarring could still be an issue. I am not as well versed in the pulmonary research on COVID. If COVID gives you pulmonary fibrosis you’ll be in a world of hurt, much like you would if you got it from pneumonia or tuberculosis. The big question I would say is whether any differences seen in your lungs after a mild infection A. Exist and B. have any clinical significance. I think most scientists would agree any severe pulmonary infection can cause residual issues.

You didn't read that article nor my follow up. He said 30-35% and the official report had it at 15%.

It's also ridiculous that you come in here and say that plenty of other illnesses cause it as if it's common when the prevalence of myocarditis is between 10 and 20 people out of 100000 every year.

Don’t be rude. I certainly read the article, which says that Dr. Sebastianelli got the data from a colleague which will be in a soon to be published study. This study did not include Penn state and may not have included anyone on the Big ten, I’d love to know when it comes out. I did in fact mention that Dr. Sebastianelli exaggerated the numbers though I did not say the exact (15% vs 33%). Regardless, I’d like to see the full study before using its data.

However, the literature we already have (JAMA) found no significant increase in abnormal cardiac MRI findings or abnormal troponin or CRP in those who had COVID vs risk factor matched controls. Hence, no significant increase in myocarditis.

You are the only one who didn’t read the article. It clearly says Penn state has had NO cases of myocarditis.

So before you go and make rude accusations why don’t you read it?

Shiloh: “I hadn't seen the new data which showed that 15% of the Penn state football team that had coronavirus also contracted myocarditis which weakens the heart.”

USA Today Article: “‘The research was not conducted by Dr. Sebastianelli or Penn State. Dr. Sebastianelli wishes to clarify this point, and apologize for any confusion,’" said the statement. No cases of myocarditis have been found among Penn State athletes, the university said.”

myocarditis wrote:

The literature we already have (JAMA) found no significant increase in abnormal cardiac MRI findings or abnormal troponin or CRP in those who had COVID vs risk factor matched controls. Hence, no significant increase in myocarditis.

I really don't mean to split hairs over semantics, and I understand your point (and the researchers' point) completely, but since COVID-19 is new, and a significantly contagious disease, and in some percentage of people it causes myocarditis, this is an additive effect. In my view, when you ADD new cases of myocarditis, it is a significant increase. We already had a certain number of people getting myocarditis annually because of the flu or pneumonia or whatever other baseline causes existed. COVID-19 is new and something a lot of people might get and it will add to the number of people with myocarditis.

If you are a serious competitive runner, you are going to do your best to not get Covid. If you've fine tuned your nutrition, recovery, training, etc, you are not about to throw it all away by taking a pointless risk like going to a giant party with no mask on. You've sacrificed so much to run well and you aren't about to throw that all away.

If you don't care, it just means you don't care about running well. People here stating they don't care about Covid are merely just advertising they don't care about their future ability to run fast.