This is a challenging conversation for me. I'm trying to mostly lean on facts because the topic brings up feelings for me. I don't feel I can fully say what I believe without causing offense that would effectively shut down the conversation. I will try to share some of my opinions here though.

> Regardless, I am actually more interested in your opinions here. My opinion on this is not derived from sorting through studies, almost no one's is. Instead it comes from personal ideological positions

I think that's interesting & surprising to me: I would say that my opinion has been shaped primarily by reading studies, and learning about the odds & impacts of Long COVID. I've held these opinions even before I become ill this year.

I actually feel troubled about the notion of making health decisions based on ideology instead of science!

I'll do some science/opinion back & forth here:

Opinion: Long COVID presents an unacceptable amount of long-term damage to the human body.

Science: Given that each infection & reinfection provides a new chance of developing Long COVID (the CDC backs this claim), and that 33% of people with LC symptoms go on to develop long-term symptoms (as cited by you), it simply doesn't make sense to me to continue to subject myself to environments where this may reasonably happen.

Opinion, which is not widely shared: Long COVID presents an unacceptable risk & danger to public health.

Science: we know what things greatly reduce infection rates in a space: masking, social distancing, good air ventilation, & practices like hand-washing.

More science: (1) people infected with COVID have a pre-symptomatic stage, and, far scarier, (2) at least *33%* of infected people are asymptomatic[1]. That means that a policy of "mask when you have symptoms" is obviously insufficient: people are spreading COVID and not even knowing it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19#Symptoms_and_signs