Thread by @fearnley_k

1/ An important thread on Long Covid and #viralpersistence

“Almost all infectious outbreaks leave behind a proportion of pts who remain chronically unwell with symptom patterns similar to #LongCovid. This is known as the ‘long tail’ of epidemics.”

🧵

bbc.com/future/article…

2/ Clues can be gained from studying survivors of the SARS (SARS CoV-1) outbreaks of the early 2000’s, and the West Africa Ebola crisis of the past decade.

3/ After SARS CoV-1 in 2002 - 2004, some survivors were reported to feel “weak, extremely fatigued, had aches and pains all over their body, and they were completely unable to work”

Some also reported ‘sleeping extremely poorly’.

4/ Importantly, scientists in China later reported discovering fragments of the SARS virus' genetic material in various brain cells in patients with post-SARS syndrome.

5/ Chronic infection is not a new phenomenon. Pathogens such as #ebola have also been shown to persist for years in body tissues beyond reach of the immune system, in areas known as immune privileged sites or anatomical sanctuaries.

A growing number of studies are now reporting on #viralpersistence in #LongHaulers.

“We observed successful virus isolation up to 128 days. Complete #SARSCoV2 genome integrity was demonstrated, suggesting the presence of replication-competent viruses.”

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/Sp…

7/ #SARSCoV2 RNA has also been reported in tissues by several studies. We know viral RNA rapidly degrades, & so its presence infers viral persistence.

#SARSCoV2 RNA detection in plasma, stool, & urine in patients with persistent symptoms after COVID-19: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

8/ Some viruses are highly neurotrophic, meaning they can burrow into nerves and linger there.

There is evidence #SARSCoV2 is capable of this. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

9/ #viralpersistence will likely be driving symptoms in a significant subset of #LongCovid patients, with autoimmunity and abnormal coagulation being down downstream processes of this.

10/ The medical community and pharmaceutical industry need to wake up to the idea of #viralpersistence. A huge amount of studies which show how infectious organisms can persist in tissue & contribute to disease have - to date - been largely neglected by mainstream medicine.

11/ Adding weight to the #viralpersistence theory, after the Ebola pandemic in West Africa, survivors reported “..pain, fatigue and a range of neurological symptoms including headaches and dizziness.”

Scientists found many #ebola survivors experienced a resurgence in antibody levels to the virus up to a yr after infection & detected the presence of genetic material in “reservoirs throughout the body, from the eye, to lymph nodes & even in body fluids like breast milk & semen”

13/ While scientists had previously thought that these viral traces might be relatively benign, studies show that #ebola can remain active in these reservoir sites for months or even years.

An Ebola outbreak in Guinea was speculated to have originated from an Ebola survivor who initially contracted the infection between 2014-16. The man spread the virus by infecting a sexual partner, after it had lain dormant in his testes for at least 5yrs virological.org/t/guinea-2021-…

15/ Testicles, eyes, brain, are all examples immune privileged sites.

#ebola isn’t the only virus found to be hiding in these tissues. #SARSCoV2 has also been found in these immune privileged sites.

Testicles.

#SARSCoV2 found replicating in testes nearly a month after death - testes found to be 'viral reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 replication':

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Eyes.

#SARSCoV2 has been found to infect cells in the eyes and replicate within them. mpg.de/18453648/0322-…

Various studies report detection of #SARSCoV2 virus in retinal biopsies taken from patients who have died from Covid-19.

CNS.

“We describe a long COVID patient with SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the cerebrospinal fluid, which seems important, specifically due to recent reports of gray matter volume loss in COVID-19 patients.” journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Appendix & Breast

“We established the presence of residual virus within the appendix and breast tissue of 2 patients who exhibited LC symptoms, 175 to 462 days upon positive diagnosis, using immunohistological techniques.”

researchsquare.com/article/rs-137…

20/ Symptoms of #LongCovid, #LongEbola and #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis (which often follows after an infection, or trauma which would allow reactivation of dormant pathogens), likely occur because the body fails to completely clear the invading pathogen.

21/ It is time to start trialling medications to rid the body of #pathogenpersistence #viralpersistence esp from intracellular immune privileged sites.

@NIH @NIHRresearch @NIHDirector @WHO @sajidjavid @pfizer @Merck @Novartis @NovartisGH @NovartisUS @NovartisEU @GileadSciences

NB. For those #vaccineinjured presenting with symptoms typical of #LongCovid, who say #viralpersistence is not the cause of their symptoms; firstly, I am sorry you are injured. Sometimes good drugs do bad things. You were injured performing a civic duty & shd not be gaslighted.

There needs to be open & honest discussion around vaccine injury to ensure you get the help and recognition you deserve, and to avoid public trust in future vaccination programmes being erroded. I know many #LongHaulers are #vaccineinjured, including myself.

Regarding pathological mechanisms, we know the spike protein is central to clotting. Synthetic vaccine spike will still drive pathological mechanisms of abnormal clotting & autoimmunity.

We can also not exclude prior infection in a subset of those #vaccineinjured for whom #viralpersistence may also be contributing.

End.