Thread by @ahandvanish

There's a big reality gap right now between people who are actively staying on top of COVID research & those who just trust the current guidelines. There's no judgment here, but I'd like to try to communicate the worldview of the former based on what we know about COVID now:

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The US has chosen to prioritize the economy despite strong, countless studies that COVID harms many people, even those without #LongCovid or hospitalization. COVID predominantly affects the *vascular* system (the blood vessels), causing harm to the blood cells & blood flow;

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this has a downstream impact on nerves, immune system, & multiple organs, including the brain. Vaccination prevents against death, but not against long term damage.

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Your first COVID infection can leave you with pre-existing conditions that will make you more vulnerable to subsequent infections. #LongCovid

If COVID circulates forever, you will be more vulnerable with every year that goes by.

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There is no permanent protection from this, neither from vaccination not infection. Having some immunity does not prevent damage on subsequent infections. COVID infections can impact fertility in all genders, making conceiving harder and causing more miscarriages.

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Even having *non-hospitalized* COVID increases the risk of 18 severe vascular conditions, including strokes, heart failure, clots, embolisms.

COVID can cause reactivated EBV, which is associated with lymphomas, multiple sclerosis, and other health issues.

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COVID can cause severe cognitive issues and brain changes in people who had never been hospitalized. There is no evidence that this resolves; many have had this for 2 years. Past SARS resulted in the same.

These are just a few examples. There are thousands. Harm is not rare.

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There is no real evidence that COVID will evolve to become less dangerous over time, but there is evidence to suggest it will become more dangerous especially given the amount of spread and ability to create new variants.

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Behind the scenes, all of this is acknowledged. Researchers, including at NIH, have acknowledged a likely wave of early onset dementia. The WHO & CDC meet with patients regularly & acknowledge the severity & future consequences.

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But there is no public awareness that just having COVID in itself is a huge health risk for your future, even from a "mild" infection, even if you feel recovered.

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For those of us who are up to date on COVID impacts, including breakthroughs & reinfections, it genuinely looks like we are going to kill or disable an enormous % of our population in the next 10 years, & our leaders have decided to intentionally keep people in the dark.

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And spoiler alert - the disability from COVID is *already* hurting the economy, and this will get worse every year too.

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ft.com/content/33444f…

As always, if you or a family member have health issues from COVID, I recommend joining the @itsbodypolitic support group, and @patientled for current research.

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I'm (slowly) going to add citations to this thread as I have brain space. A bunch to start:

COVID's vascular impact (google "endothelial dysfunction" for more):
*thelancet.com/journals/lanre…
*npr.org/sections/healt…
*mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-…

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Downstream impact on nerves, brain, immune system, organs:
*frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
*frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
*biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
*science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
*medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

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Waning immunity both infection & vaccination (& booster):
*cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7…
*thelancet.com/journals/lanmi…
*nature.com/articles/d4158…

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COVID increases the risk of 18 vascular conditions in non-hospitalized patients (20 in hospitalized patients):

nature.com/articles/s4159…

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