LONG COVID in HEALTHCARE WORKERS
A new study from KCL has revealed that:
🚨 34% of healthcare workers in England are now suffering from Long Covid.
In this thread 🧵, I take a deep dive into the implications of this shocking statistic…
kcl.ac.uk/news/long-covi…
In July 2023, The BMA published a report which presented the results of a survey of doctors with Long Covid.
It concluded:
“The impact on doctors' ability to work is considerable & devasting, with nearly 1 in 5 responding doctors left unable to work.”
bma.org.uk/media/7318/bma…
When you put these two stats together, the implications are immense.
🚨 A THIRD of healthcare workers in England have Long Covid.
🚨Nearly 1 in 5 doctors with Long Covid (18%) are no longer working.
➡️ Potentially 6% of all doctors are no longer able to work due to Long Covid.
These findings are supported by the LOCOMOTION study which found:
🚨52% of people with LC had reduced their working hours or stopped working.
🚨On average, work lost to LC cost each participant £11K (equivalent to £5.7bn if scaled up across the UK).
evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/how-much… x.com/nihrevidence/s…
This report published by @TheEconomist specifically looked at the economic impact of Long Covid, both in the UK & other countries around the world.
The report estimates that the overall economic burden of Long Covid in the UK is around $15.5 BILLION.
impact.economist.com/perspectives/h…
I fear that healthcare workers are the canaries in the coal mine for the rest of us…
A Canadian study assessed the cumulative impact of Covid reinfections & found that the risk of developing LC was:
▪️15% after 1 infection
▪️25% after 2 infections
▪️38% after 3+ infections
Many studies have now been published which show how the risk of developing long-term health conditions increases with each successive Covid reinfection.
Just because you’ve had Covid before and were fine, it doesn’t mean you’ll be fine next time.
nature.com/articles/s4159…
Here’s another recent study by @patientled which shows how Covid reinfections are associated with increased likelihood of multiple Long Covid symptoms, including severe fatigue, post-exertional malaise, decreased physical function & poorer immune health.
researchsquare.com/article/rs-490… x.com/patientled/sta…
And this huge new study of 74,000 patients demonstrated how Covid reinfections had MILDER symptoms in the acute infection stage…
…but led to HIGHER rate & severity of Long Covid symptoms, including chronic fatigue, memory decline, brain fog.
thelancet.com/journals/lanwp… x.com/ahandvanish/st…
This recently published paper assessed a cohort of fit healthy young adult US Marines (n=899).
Mostly experienced asymptomatic or mild acute Covid infections…
…but A QUARTER reported physical, cognitive, or psychiatric long-term sequelae of infection.
thelancet.com/journals/lanam…
Healthcare workers are one of the professions at HIGHEST risk of repeated Covid infections since airborne infection control in hospitals is practically non-existent:
▪️Covid testing is actively discouraged
▪️No FFP3 masks
▪️Very few hospitals have air filters
It’s little wonder that Covid spreads like wildfire through hospitals.
Part of the reason it spreads so easily is that people are highly contagious just before the onset of any symptoms.
In fact, nearly 60% of all Covid infections are from people with NO symptoms (yet).
Since April 2023, there has been NO routine Covid testing for patients so any asymptomatic cases which would previously have been flagged up now go undetected.
Even if they have symptoms, they are generally not tested (unless they are eligible for anti-viral treatment).
The SIREN healthcare study is based on fortnightly testing of a cohort of 6,000 health workers across the UK (irrespective of whether they have symptoms or not).
This chart really demonstrates the immense impact of Covid infections across the NHS workforce throughout the year.
Even at the very peak of last winter’s flu & RSV season, the prevalence of Covid amongst healthcare workers was far greater than that of either flu or RSV.
Sadly, this survey is now on ‘pause’ with no indication of whether it will be reinstated over this winter.
Below is another important chart which shows sickness absence rates for NHS doctors across all grades from Jan 2017 - Apr 2024.
It’s clear to see just how much higher sickness absence is since the start of the pandemic.
(Chart: @1goodtern)
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-infor…
Of course, it’s not just staff affected by high rates of Covid transmission in hospitals.
Patients are too.
Hospital-acquired infections are no longer reported in England, but they are in Wales where a staggering 66% of patients currently in hospital with Covid caught it there.
This meta-analysis amalgamated the results of 21 studies across 8 countries to reveal that:
🚨Hospital-acquired Covid infection increases the in-hospital death rate by 30%.
🚨For immunocompromised patients, the in-hospital death rate is DOUBLED.
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
We’ve seen some shocking revelations at the Covid Inquiry recently about the flawed decisions which left healthcare workers & patients unprotected against airborne Covid transmission…
…and it’s clear that these flawed decisions are STILL having far-reaching consequences TODAY.
We’re already seeing some concerning early warning signs of what’s to come this Winter…
…and the really worrying thing is that the Winter flu & RSV waves haven’t even got going properly yet!
thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/…
liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool… x.com/shaunlintern/s…
The @WHO, @TheBMA and @theRCN have repeatedly called for action to improve infection control in healthcare settings but to no avail.
What will it take for the government to finally take action to address this massive ongoing issue?
We have the tools, but we’re not using them.
I’ll end my thread with this excellent article about how we’ve hit peak denial and why we need to pull our heads out of the sand, fast.
“Covid is a good case study for illustrating the collective-denial playbook that underpins our new normal reality.”
scientificamerican.com/article/weve-h… x.com/coopermarianne…
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