This is hard to articulate coherently, but I'm going to try.

They're trying to have the best of both worlds, the best of every world... I'm fumbling for words here, but I'll get them right. Please stay with me... ❤️🙏

Where to start... Some viruses affect people of all ages in a generally similar way. Think mild: rhinovirus. Think messy: norovirus. Think severe: rabies.

Rhinovirus, it really is *a cold*, whether you're 8 or 80. Norovirus, you're going to poop and vomit whatever age you are. Rabies, the progression is always the same whether you're young and healthy or old and feeble.

With rhinovirus and norovirus there may be subtle long term effects that we don't yet fully understand, but the basic picture seems to be that you can regain full health after either. (rabies, not so much)

Some viruses affect you radically differently when you're young compared to when you're old. Think: chickenpox and shingles Think: measles Think: cytomegalavirus

In chickenpox, you get radically different effects dependent on age.

In children, chickenpox is usually mild. They get an itchy rash, a bit of fever, and after a week or so it clears. And then, as long as the immune system stays healthy, it keeps the virus under control.

The young immune system doesn't overreact to chickenpox, and it acts strongly and effectively.

In adults, the same virus often hits much harder. The fever is higher, the spots are more numerous, the risk of pneumonia or hepatitis goes up, and recovery takes longer.

Adult immune systems react more aggressively, which makes the whole thing feel worse, but also adult immune systems are less effective, so they don't control it so easily or fully.

So: Some viruses affect people the same at any age. Some viruses affect people differently at different ages.

But also, you mix into that the fact that every virus will interact slightly differently with every person.

So you have age or biochemistry or blood group or immune function or diet or lifestyle or exercise levels or whatever...

Ok, so that's the truth of it. Sometimes it's better to catch something when you're younger than when you're older, but also sometimes that thing you caught when you were younger comes back and bites you on the ass.

But public health are trying to have the best of both worlds.

They're pointing at *acute infections* in the young and saying that covid doesn't affect the young in the same way as the old.

And then when presented with a *different presentation of Long Covid in young compared to old*, they're saying "it can't be long covid because it's different".

And, in fact, worse than that, it appears that covid infections affect different age groups *radically* differently.

There are two parts of your body's system that are radically different depending on your stage of life.

Your immune system. Which goes through several stages of considerable change.

And your metabolism. And all its component parts.

Metabolism is made up of two main parts: anabolism, which builds things up like cells and tissues, and catabolism, which breaks things down to release energy.

And those are all regulated and conducted by things like hormones and enzymes and nutrient transfer...

So you have these two parts of your biological systems operating in very different ways at different stages of your life.

There are parts of the body that change over the decades - some lose function, some ramp up activity - but most organs basically work the same way whether you’re 8 or 80. The lungs, your example, don’t change what they do, they just do it less efficiently.

But the metabolism and immune system actually *change how they function*.

Now, why do chicken pox, measles, and cytalomegalavirus interact differently with you at different ages? Because of the different presentation of the immune system and metabolism at different ages.

It's not the virus that has changed. It's you.

And why do rhinovirus and norovirus basically do the same thing to you at any age? Because they mostly target organs whose basic function doesn’t really change over a lifetime.