The people running the BBC Horizon "Great British Intelligence Test" challenge on over 80,000 people took the opportunity to see if they could detect any differences by whether people had had covid or not...
2. They did this because of increasing concern over reoprted cognitive impacts of long covid - but more evidence is badly needed.
3. What they found was significant cognitive deficit for people who'd had covid compared to people that hadn't, after controlling for things like age, education, sex, first language etc.
The degree of deficit was worse the more severe the initial covid infection had been.
4. This isn't just about long covid - this compares people who had had covid with those who hadn't, regardless of ongoing symptoms. Most people who had had covid reported being recovered, but about 25% with confirmed covid reported ongoing symptoms (ie long covid).
5. The cognitive deficits remained whether ongoing symptoms were there or not, and did not depend on time since covid either.
This seems to suggest it is a long lasting effect.
It also doesn't depend on pre-existing health problems .
6. The authors put the results into context - the average deficit experienced by hospitalised covid patients (0.47 for ventilator, 0.26 no ventilator) were worse than average deficit by people who'd suffered a stroke (0.24).
7. And the types of deficity found were consistent with the sorts of cognitive problems reported by people wth long covid
8. The authors conclude that their data support other studies showing cognitive problems after covid.
Evidence for long term neurological and other impacts of covid is growing. But govt position seems to be that infections don't matter as long as NHS not overwhelmed.
9. I worry that once again we are watching an unfolding disaster while waiting for unequivocal evidence. Unquivocal evidence on long term impacts will, by definition, take months or years.
Maybe it never will - but so far, trajectory is towards more certain evidence not less.
10. What if by the time there can be no doubt of long term problems in many people who've had covid, we've allowed millions more infections leaving hundreds of thousands more people affected.
ONS estimated 634K people with long covid that impacts their life in June.
11. For comparison, c. 260K people are diagnosed with diabetes & 500K with heart disease each year.
I worry that we are creating a chronic disease tragedy right now.
Please watch this @allthecitizens video about long covid to see what it can be like.
🧵War causes direct civilian deaths but also indirect deaths over the following years.
Recent paper estimates eventual total direct & indirect deaths in Gaza attributable to the war - 10% of entire pop'n.
I want to explain these estimates and why deaths must be counted. 1/13
Why count casualties from war anyway? For moral, legal and strategic reasons.
1 - owe it to those who have died
2 - International law says must count & identify dead as far as possible
3 - monitor progress of war & learn from tactics
2/13
There are direct and indirect casualties of war. Direct deaths include those who killed by fighting or bombs.
Indirect deaths are those that die when they would otherwise have lived because of one or more of: lack of food, healthcare, housing, sanitation, income, hope. 3/13
THREAD: the summer Covid wave in the UK continues.
Basically, there is a LOT of Covid around and not a lot of other respiratory viruses.
If you have cold or flu symptoms, it's probably Covid.
The latest hospital data from England shows steady, quite high levels. 1/8
But admissions don't tell us how much virus is circulating more generally. The best (but imperfect) measure we have is wasterwater measurements, and only in Scotland and not England.
Scotland's wastewater is showing a huge July peak - highest since Omicron's 1st yr in 2022 2/8
Because different people shed different amounts of virus and variants can matter too, you can't for sure infer how many people were infected between different wasterwater peaks. BUT given the size, I'd say it's pretty likely this is the largest peak since 2022 in Scotland 3/8
Quick thread on current Covid situation in England and Long Covid.
I have Thoughts about the Inquiry Report published yesterday but am still trying to organise them.
TLDR: high Covid levels remain, Long Covid remains 1/11
This wave is not over. While the number of admissions with Covid remains lower than the autumn/winter waves, it has now remained highsh for several weeks.
This means there are a lot of people out there getting sick - and having their work, plans and holidays disrupted. 2/11
Scottish wastewater data to 9 July shows a sharp decrease, suggesting that prevalence might be on its way down.
Obviously Scotland and England can have different dynamics, but it’s the best we’ve got as long as England refuses to analyse its own wastwater. 3/11
THREAD: Given tomorrow's election, I've been thinking about our nation's (poor) health, the wider determinants of health and how these have worsened and what it means for policy....
TLDR: worrying only about NHS & social care is missing the point
let's dive in... 1/25
The UK has a health problem. After steady gains in life expectancy for decades, it flatlined during the austerity years and fell for the first time this century with the Covid pandemic.
The number of people out of work for long term sickness is near record levels. 2/25
There are huge inequalities between rich & poor. Boys born in the most deprived areas can expect to die almost 10 years earlier than their peers in the least deprived areas.
Even worse, they can expect to spend 18 fewer years of their life in good health (52 vs 70 years) 3/25