Thread by @DrEricDing

It’s not just death from #COVID19, it’s also the long term suffering of #LongCovid.

Don’t let COVID deniers / minimizers try to tell you otherwise. The human suffering toll is real.

Thread 🧵
amp.economist.com/science-and-te…

2) “In the 1890s one of the biggest pandemics, known at the time as “Russian flu”, swept the world. It left 1m people dead. Russian flu is now thought to have been misnamed—rather a coronavirus ancestral to one that now just causes symptoms described by sufferers as “a cold”…

3) “When it was new, however, few people had immunity to it, so it was often lethal. And not only that. For, as the pandemic receded, it left in its wake a wave of nervous disorders.

4) “A similar wave followed the next big pandemic, the “Spanish” flu of 1918 (nothing much to do with Spain). One common symptom was lethargy so bad that in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) it helped cause a famine because so many people were too debilitated to pick the harvest.”

5) And something similar is happening now with #COVID19 - #LongCovid is formally called “post Covid syndrome” or PCS.

6) And we know that among UK 🇬🇧 #LongCovid survivors, it has huge effects on everyday living.

7) Even UK 🇬🇧 health minister acknowledges #LongCovid is real, even for young people. #LongCovidKids

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1380238894441054215

8) in one study of 87,000 #COVID19 patients and nearly 5 million control patients in a federal database, they found COVID-19 patients had a 59% higher risk of death up to 6 months after infection, compared to non-infected people. webmd.com/lung/news/2021…

9) “Those findings translate into about eight extra deaths per 1,000 patients over 6 months, because many deaths caused by long-term COVID complications are not recorded as COVID-19 deaths, the researchers said.”

10) “Among patients who were hospitalized and died after more than 30 days, there were 29 excess deaths per 1,000 patients over 6 months.”

webmd.com/lung/news/2021…

11) 1 in 7 suffer #LongCovid after 12 weeks.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1380177346158792705

12) And in UK, which occupation is most affected after healthcare workers by #LongCovid? Teachers.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1378995589568991232

13) What about #LongCovidKids? 7-8% of kids age 2-16 still affected at week 12. @LongCovidKids

https://twitter.com/dr2nisreenalwan/status/1377549257570316290

14) Explain to people the side effects of #COVID19 to those who don’t want to vaccinate because they believe risk of dying is low… it’s not just dying. See thread 🧵

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1355637599029899267

15) COVID lung 🫁 symptoms are serious too. @BKendallMD shared this:

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1350612168211910663

16) This is your lung… and your lung on #COVID19 and on #LongCovid

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1350618532560707585

17) This lung 🫁 issue is very personal to me too. As a child, due to a tumor, I lost a large section of my right lung that had to be removed along with my baseball sized tumor that invaded my lung. It made me want to study epidemiology someday. Story: well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/a-w…