On recent dog walk, got chatting to a lady I'd met a few times:
Her: Are you holidaying abroad this year
Me: I can't because of Covid & immunosuppressed family members
Her: But Covid is over now
Me: 1 in 45 people are infected & 1,000 ppl a week dying
Her: Not now though
1/
Me: Yes, those are recent numbers
Her: But you never hear about it anymore
Me: Yes because they'd sooner you ignored it
Her: It doesn't affect vaccinated people
Me: Well it does and you can still get bad outcomes & LC
Her: Well it's mild now and it'll soon be over
2/
Me: The 1,000 ppl dying every week are not finding it mild
Her: But they probably had something else and didn't die from it
Me: Yes, they'd like you to think that
Her: Well we've all had it anyway and so we're not worried
Me: But you can get it over and over again
3/
Her: But I was fine anyway. Had no symptoms at all so I'm not worried
Me: But asymptomatic infection doesn't mean it hasn't harmed you or weakened your immune system. It doesn't mean it will be asymptomatic with a subsequent infection
Her: But catching it again is rare
4/
Me: It's not rare. It's commonplace. Immunity is transient & lasting immunity is impossible
Her: Well the boosters will help
Me: So when's your next one planned
LONG PAUSE
Her: I haven't heard about getting another booster
Me: So how will you stay protected as this progresses
5/
Her: Well this will be the last wave. Omicron was a blessing
Me: There are already new variants that are expected to cause another wave
Her: But they just get milder until it's gone
Me: Where do you get your news from
Her: BBC and the Mail
Me: I see.
6/
Her: Well there's not much we can do about it. It's like getting a regular cold & we got those every year
Me: It's very different from a regular cold & there is plenty we could be doing about it
Her: Well we can't just keep everyone locked up
I explained clean air approaches.
7/
The propaganda has done a fine job in making people believe this is all over. It's clear that what I said was news to her & that she kind of only half believed me.
She & her family feel like there is no risk whatsoever. I can't change that no matter what I say.
8/
Many people seem to think that vaccines have solved the problem & any other kind of measure is a lockdown.
It's clear that the message about ventilation, measuring CO₂, high levels of air filtration, overhead GUV & FarUV have not yet reached everyone.
I'll keep trying.
9/END
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I did a bit more digging about a recent BBC news article about how installing air quality monitors had a 'dramatic' effect on health.
It is an initiative by @sthelenscouncil and @WarringtonBC called the Healthy Air for Healthy Lungs project.
So what's it all about?...
1/🧵
The program targets households with kids aged 2 to 10 who have respiratory conditions.
Applicants get a home assessment of their IAQ situation.
Participants get advice on how to improve their home's air quality; guidance on cooking, cleaning, heating and ventilation practices.
2/
St Helens Council distributed 150 monitors and has a waiting list for new applications.
Shows me that when people embrace & understand the benefits of clean air, there's a demand for it.
Feedback has been extremely positive.
IAQ sensors give people info they can act upon.
3/
Latest UKHSA blog:
"With tuberculosis (TB) on the rise again, how can we prevent further spread?"
Well guys it's airborne so airborne precautions, right?
"The infection is spread when a person with TB in their lungs or throat coughs or sneezes."
Oh FFS
1/🧵
"How frontline healthcare professionals can help reduce TB"
Airborne precautions - respirators, improved ventilation and air filtration, right?
"It is essential that at risk groups and healthcare workers know the signs and symptoms of TB and seek out a timely diagnosis"
Oh FFS
2/
"UKHSA is working with partners across the healthcare system to understand how we can best refocus efforts to eliminate this preventable and treatable infection."
What specifically are you doing to prevent it @UKHSA?
It seems nothing at all as far as I can see.
3/
Most folk understand that HIV is very harmful long after the acute infection.
Most people think that Covid does nothing at all after acute infection.
The difference in understanding, I fear, could just be time.
It took many years for this to be widely acknowledged for HIV.
1/🧵
I'm not aiming to draw a parallel between the two viruses - just that of our decades-old understanding of HIV and the comparative novelty of Covid and the way it is ignored.
But knowing what you know, if HIV was airborne and there were no treatments, would you ignore it?
2/
Let's also consider that currently, we simply don't know all of the latent long term effects of Covid infection & reinfection.
What we do know is cause for concern.
If we discover in 5, 10 or 20 years time that it has a massively detrimental effect on the brain for example...
3/
Listening to a neuroscientist explaining that it's worrying seeing how covid affects vessels, cells & neurons in the brain; long term effects unknown.
A cardiologist talking about heart, blood vessel & endothelium damage.
Are you personally sure that Covid can be ignored?
1/🧵
If so, why?
It's absolutely clear that there is still more that we don't understand than what we already know. But what we know is reason for significant concern. Read up on it.
It bothered me greatly when pediatricians came out so quickly to say there's no risk to children.
2/
With a completely new virus, it takes a long time and an awful lot of research to be able to reach such a conclusion and it's clear that couldn't possibly have known when Govs also declared it 'mild' and akin to a bad cold.
There are hundreds of thousands of research papers.
3/
This is an example of just how much we have started to disrespect infectious diseases; Football today:
Going into the match, Palmer's involvement was in doubt after he missed training with a fever but insisted on playing to "help the team".
It seems we no longer understand.
1/🧵
It's twofold:
We have lost respect for isolation when ill to protect others.
We have no understanding of how the body needs rest during & after infection.
And when I say we, I mean the general public.
And why - because of Covid and the way Public Health had to lie to cover up.
2/
And the media have been told to be complicit and never make a big deal out of it. To talk about it in past tense, to characterize it as mild and akin to a common cold. To belittle those suffering with Long Covid and make it appear psychological.
It's backfiring.
3/
2.8M people with long term sickness.
"the do nothing trajectory is that it's set to rise to 4M; we have to act on this"
Well @patmcfaddenmp your party have expertise in doing nothing. You're creating more long term ill health by doing nothing to reduce Covid transmissions.
1/🧵
Perhaps instead of punishing people who have become ill through poor infection control everywhere but especially in schools as well as all health and social care settings, you could actually do something.
You know how to reduce infections.
Your party was very vocal about it.
2/
Your former Health Minister Andrew Gwynne knew all too well about the ongoing risk of Long Covid as well as the importance of masks in healthcare and clean air. In fact your health sec and Edu sec both made pleas to the Cons Gov to implement these changes in ventilation.
3/