I was actively posting about infection-associated chronic illness before Long COVID got its name, along with estimates of how many might be ultimately affected. I chose the most conservative figures that were still credible, but folks thought it couldn't possibly be that bad, really.

We mentioned the cold-blooded reasoning above: inconvenience and profit. But a sizable chunk of people have the far more innocent perception that they're a main character in a novel and nothing that bad could happen to them personally. PEOPLE might get sick or die-- but not them, or 'their' people.