This tone-policing message from a paediatrician in my DMs. The ONS data shows we have 9000 children now living with long COVID for > 1 yr. Why do we need to understand 'how it differs from post-viral syndromes' to take it seriously. Isn't the suffering of those affected enough?🧵
If other post-viral syndromes are this severe, surely we should be taking all of them seriously, not dismissing this one. Shouldn't paediatricians be basing their level of concern on the symptoms being reported by those affected? I'm a clinician, and have always done this.
The notion that this may be 'psychological issues in young people' at a point in time evidence tells us this is a neuroinvasive virus that causes multi-organ dysfunction even in young adults (studies not done in children so far), with markers of thrombo-microngiopathy in children
I get lots of 'suggestions' like this. If my public messaging feels alarming- it should be. Because we should be alarmed by exposing millions of children to a virus that has led to 9000 children affected for >1yr and 33,000 for > 3 months. One that causes multi-organ dysfunction.
Paediatricians should be alarmed. We don't need to wait for evidence before sounding the alarm on this- because there are enough children who's real-life experiences tell us that what's happening here is deeply concerning. The alarm here is well-warranted.
So stop tone-policing me. Many in the paediatrics community who have minimised children's very real experiences have a lot to answer for.
btw, I did share the evidence with him, and was told that he didn't believe the ONS data was good enough, and that chronic fatigue doesn't constitute a disability.
The ONS data is population level surveillance data on >100,000 people with weekly and then monthly follow up. It includes children with mild/asymptomatic symptoms that other studies don't. And has a control group of the uninfected. It doesn't get a lot more robust than this.
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Predictable but worrying data showing continuing rises in daily case numbers and a increases in hospitalisations. We're now seeing 500 daily hospitalisations, and some NHS trusts are already having to cancel routine operations & delay cancer care. 🧵
The spread among school-age children and young adults is frankly quite shocking. The almost vertical line here says it all.
Most outbreaks are in educational settings - rapid increases week on week. Large numbers of outbreaks in both primary and secondary schools.
Our letter in @TheLancet signed by >120 scientists on the government's dangerous strategy of allowing mass infection. We call on govt to pause its plans & take urgent action to protect the public
The governments strategy of letting cases surge while only half our population is fully vaccinated is beyond reckless. This will create a generation of young with chronic illness who could've been vaccinated in the coming weeks.
We are holding an emergency summit tomorrow at 10am to outline our grave concerns about the UK government’s current strategy & the urgent steps we need to take to protect our public.🧵
What on earth is going on with the mess that is govt's current COVID-19 strategy? Not only is it completely unscientific, it's also unethical and inhumane. We must not accept what can only be described as mass endangerment of children & young people. We must challenge this.🧵
Yesterday, the govt announced dropping mandatory restrictions on the 19th July. Sajid Javid admitted today that this may well lead to 100,000 daily cases over the summer- as @JonAshworth says this means 5000 cases of long COVID each day. theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…
The estimates by @guardian of 2 million cases over the summer are quite conservative. @chrischirp estimates suggest 90-100K daily cases by 19th July if growth continues as is. As @chrischirp shows, this would mean *1 million* cases by 19th July alone.
Some thoughts on the PMs briefing today:
-false 'now or never' narrative alert
-no mention of long COVID or CV
-implicit that mass infection of young doesn't matter
-abdication of govt responsibility
-Internal inconsistency and confused messaging🧵
First, the 'now or never' narrative.
The govt says we are in a position to open up because vaccines are working well and keeping hospitalisations down. The PM says that if we don't open up now, when? He & Whitty claim opening up in winter may make matters worse. Is this true?
This is an interesting claim- the suggestion is that we should let it rip now, rather than delaying, because then the surge will coincide with winter leading to a bigger wave.
This claim doesn't even pass basic scrutiny Here's why:
Beware of media/political false narratives that anyone concerned about 19th July opening is 'pro-lockdown'. The govt, has conveniently framed policy as 'lockdown' vs 'open-up', when many countries have kept people safe without needing long-term restrictions.🧵
Let's be clear- lockdowns are a failure of public health strategy- this means that countries have acted too late, and not taken basic measures at a point in time when cases were low, to pre-empt this.
Unfortunately, without good test, trace, isolate systems, mitigations in schools, workplaces, with surges in cases compounded by new variants either emerging or being imported due to failures of policy- lockdowns have been used in the UK as the primary strategy to contain spread.