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Background: I came back from the Middle East in late 2008 and fell over ILL.  I'd cough until I hacked up blood, pulse hammering, drink some water, pass out for a couple of hours, repeat. Sinus drainage, congestion, the works.

The VA was as useless as the VA usually is, giving me 6 different medications to fix the symptoms, but not addressing the cause.  "But you feel better, right?"

Yeah, but I'd like to get back to when I didn't need 6 pills and inhalers a day to survive.  Even if it means surgery.

Found a good private doc (Dr Sanjay Vyas, Indiana Primary Care, highly recommended if you can get on his list), who did five minutes of tests and discussions and said, "I think you have severe allergy and asthma, see this guy."

Dr Garrick Hubbard, nationally rated, Indiana Allergy and Asthma Care. Also highly recommended. He even has workarounds for people allergic to allergy treatment. Yes, that exists.  My wife has that.

Now, a lot of vets came back with similar stuff, and we're still sorting out how much was environmental, contamination, etc.

Dr Hubbard did a bank of tests, determined I had several environmental allergies I'd had not before deploying, and asthma, same.  (My pre-deployment PT test was 50 pushups in 60 seconds, 50 crunches in 60 seconds, 1.5 mile run in 11 minutes, and 60 seconds later my resting pulse was 63 bpm). After deployment, they wouldn't let me run in case I died.  I was bad. See para 1.

So Dr Hubbard lays out this list of issues, tells me the treatment, tells me median recovery is about 70%.  Given that my 8 liter lung capacity was down to a functional 2 liters, that sounds great.

Five years later, I was unmedicated between shots, lung capacity over 5 liters, no need for an inhaler, and I very occasionally take a decongestant or antihistamine if the trees are really bad, or the wet leaves are getting moldy.  We've been tapering off the shots for a while and should be ceasing them shortly.

I want you to comprehend that my doctor is top rate.  My doctor who is an expert in breathing issues.

During the initial COVID panic, he was requiring patients to remain in the exam room for the 30 minute post-injection observation period.

As of last week, back to normal. Get your shots, sit in the waiting area, which is roomy and has good ventilation. The staff are still wearing masks.

So if you're going to sit there shrieking that "OH MY GOD! WE CAN NEVER SIT THAT CLOSE AGAIN OR WE WILL ALL DIE! BECAUSE SCIENCE! YOUR DOCTOR IS TERRIBLE AND YOU NEED TO FIND A BETTER ONE RIGHT NOW!"  Then I'm going to just note that Dr Hubbard knows more science than you, and has proven so.  I'm healthy again.

Stop shrieking about "Because science!" and actually look at some.

COVID is bad for vulnerable populations, especially the elderly. But it's not going to last forever, and there's no significant risk even to asthmatics, if you're responsible about your hand washing and coughing.

And the odds are there will never be a vaccine, nor will it matter by summer.

Idiots in comments will be mocked.

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