Having just lost a good friend to the ravages of Covid. It didn’t have to be like that but he fell for the “covid vaccine is bad for seniors” line. Covid nailed him as he spent months in hospital with pneumonia in 2023. So did it to his wife.
He barely recovered from near organ failure, lost the ability to walk as a result of his extended hospitalization, and his body never recovered properly. He could have his shots, and been absolutely fine. He passed away this morning. God bless him.
Well, that’s sad, but why on earth would you assume things would have turned out any differently if he’d had all his magic shots? As per the other thread, Taiwan’s very own CDC just recently announced what we all knew - people who had their “primary series” gained no advantage by doing so, and merely assumed an additional risk. There are many reasons your friend might have had a rough time during the last few months of his life - medical malpractice being one of them - but it’s hardly unusual.
I’m not sure I understand the sequence of events here, but it sounds like a rather ordinary death from old age. Everyone has to die of something and of course it’s never pleasant when a life ends; the process is rarely a painless one. A lot of elderly people die of pneumonia (several hundred a week in Taiwan, IIRC) and it’s usually one of the better ways to go. There are certainly far worse things that can happen to you.
Should we not be more concerned about the way we spend our days while we’re alive, rather than pretending we can extend our lives indefinitely as long as we perform the correct medical rituals?
Actually, he was 89 years old and an avid Tai Qi practitioner. While his health had declined somewhat, he was still belting out songs and practicing his qi art until this year May actually. For 89 years old, he was hale and hearty. Covid kicked the stuffing out of him and killed his spirit. Obviously, age is a factor. As it is with everyone. He had a good few years in him, tremendous energy and a huge heart. I’m glad he was with us for a bit longer but his recovery was decent enough but he didn’t return to his previous health by any means. A thoroughly decent guy who’d have given you shirt off his back.
Not trying to detract from your loss, but it’s quite difficult to assess how many good years someone has left in them, isn’t it? As it is to figure out what could have been done to change the outcome and what might have helped.
My granddad died at a similar age several years ago from run-of-the-mill pneumonia, which I understand is fairly common. In the last couple of months, one friend and one acquaintance of mine died unexpectedly at much younger ages (both around 30). One a South African teacher here who died in her sleep, apparently from the poorly named “dead-in-bed syndrome”, the other a Taiwanese guy who had a sudden recurrence of a brain tumor that the last time I met him he’d said had been successfully removed and he was optimistic about. All shocks and personal tragedies of course, but what can you do?
Then he lived life to the full, and that’s the best that any of us can hope for.
I get the feeling - and just to be clear, I’m not referring to you personally - that a lot of people today have not spent much time having a conversation with themselves about their own mortality. It’s a very modern idea that death can be postponed indefinitely, or at least until we’re good and ready and have somehow reached the “correct” age. Death is not a predictable event, and at 89 one should be at peace with the idea that it may all go downhill tomorrow; I can think of three elderly relatives/friends who were pottering around, apparently perfectly healthy, at roughly that age, and then just died “for no good reason” - one of them in his bed, and two of them from short and unpleasant illnesses. Fortunately, none of them had any regrets and were ready to go.
IMO we all need to come to terms with the reality of death, and how we intend to handle it. It sounds like your friend made the most of his long life and has left a memorable legacy.
As predicted in December - its definitely peaking now - lots of people i know getting covid just over the past week in Taiwan.
Be safe out there!
Not looking good, with a spike expected before Lunar New Year.
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20240111003059-260405
Actually, I was going through my mental notes … I realized that I had frozen him 3 years ago at 89! But in fact, he was approaching 92 this year.
He was quite a character. Played football for Taiwan, worked as a manager at DTF in Macau<?>, born in 30’s near Shanghai, exiled and persecuted by the KMT for his father’s sins as a movie producer for the CCP, became a Taiqi GM… and told everyone proudly he’d live to about 120 because of his lifelong Taiqi. Sadly, life had other plans that got in the way. I kinda believed him when he said that. It was a beautiful dream!!!
I think his belief system included the afterlife, so he was comfortable with his exit stage life. He’d probably already made peace with this in the hospital. Our friends and I kinda thought he might not make it out, given how severely he was ill. But he did grace us with his presence for a nearly 8 months more.
It’s a pity that he made it through so much of the Covid plague just to get kicked in the tail as brutally as he was at the end. Of course, as you say, we’ll never know the reasons for his passing. Perhaps he felt it was time.
Thank you for being here to let me share. And thank you for your wisdom on life & death. It’s a discussion worth having.
Uh…nuke it?
Although terrifying, the study is the first of its kind to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected by the COVID-19 related virus — far surpassing previously reported results from another study, the researchers wrote.
Oh. OK then.
Very strange use of although.
Yep. No, it’s just terrifying.
One Covid case so far this year in Taiwan.
Inconceivable.
Surely time for the CECC to be reformed and call a press conference? Do they not realise that cases increase exponentially? They’re being awfully careless about this.
I didn’t notice it before, but that second-to-last parameter is interesting:
(Previous Week) - (Average of The Same Period During The Previous 3 Years) (Number of Cases)
It seems like subtracting the average of the same week for the preceding three years would be a completely useless metric for the entirety of the period from when cases started being semi-accurately monitored in Taiwan up to now. It’s so cute when the CDC tries to do statistics.
Cases of all kinds of lurgies will rise during mass gatherings during Lunar New Year. Take care.
CDC website still reporting zero covid.
Wish they would update their website and provide some easily accessible current information.
Because it’s still showing zero covet this year.
Found it.
https://nidss.cdc.gov.tw/en/nndss/disease?id=19CVS
“CDC said 98% of local cases with complications and 99% deaths had not received the new jab.”
Neither of those news reports give a link or place to find more information.
Frustrating news reporting.
That stat would be impressive if a high percentage of people had recieved it. Have they?
99 percent of people didnt get the new jab. 99 percent of deaths were in people who didnt get the new jab sounds less impressive.
Poor lad got polio as a child and spent 70 in an iron lung. Died yesterday from Covid.
Many articles about his story throughout his life.
Since polio tends to crop up again and again (with comparisons to the COVID vaccination campaign) I just happened to watch this. It’s not necessary to take the claim at face value - he could be completely wrong - but the hypothesis being presented is an interesting one, and it fits the observed facts better than the “official” narrative:
