Thread by @yaneerbaryam

Get Ready for the Forever Plague [—Or Take Action]

"Public health officials’ COVID complacency has opened the door to new illnesses and devastating long-term damage.

@TheTyee

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“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” — C.S. Lewis

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"While Omicron’s subvariants find new ways to evade vaccines and destabilize immune systems, another pandemic has overwhelmed officials who are supposed to be in charge of public health.

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"Let’s call it a plague of willful incompetence or an outbreak of epidemiological stupidity. Or maybe José Saramago’s novel has come to life and targeted public officials with a scourge of blindness.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindness…
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In any case, COVID, a novel virus that can wreak havoc with vital organs in the body, continues to evolve at a furious pace.

nature.com/articles/s4159…

scientificamerican.com/article/even-m…

https://twitter.com/DGBassani/status/1542991378073935877

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"In response officials have largely abandoned any coherent response, including masking, testing, tracing and even basic data collection.

"Yes, the people have been abandoned [—by the leaders, so take action]

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So don’t expect “normal” to return to your hospital, your airport, your nation, your community or your life anytime soon [—unless you act with others]

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"Although many public health officials still dismiss COVID infections as inevitable and even beneficial, a growing body of science shows this fashionable dogma is dangerously wrongheaded, if not an outright form of malpractice.

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"Reinfections, and 2022 is surely the year of reinfections, just increase the damage from COVID, which can be profound: immune dysregulation, blood clots, nerve cell death, inflammation, lung damage, kidney failure and brain damage.

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New science shows that Omicron and its variants are getting better at evading immune defences induced by vaccines or by natural infection. BA5, for example, is more transmissible than any previous variant.

erictopol.substack.com/p/the-ba5-story

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As a consequence it is now possible to be reinfected with one of Omicron’s variants every two to three weeks.

forbes.com/sites/victoria…

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"The data also shows that each reinfection confers so little immunity — because the immune system is unable to remember it — that we must seek every other protection available.* A summer infection, for example, will not protect you against a fall infection.

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"But each and every infection will damage your immune system regardless of how mild the symptoms.

Let’s start with a startling U.S. Veterans Affairs study involving five million people.

erictopol.substack.com/p/a-reinfectio…

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"It looked at the health outcomes after a first, second and third infection in both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. A second infection, for instance, doubled the risk for death, blood clots and lung damage.

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"It also increased the risk of hospitalization by three times. Every COVID infection increased the risk for bad outcomes in a graded fashion.

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"The unvaccinated fared worse than the vaccinated. “Reducing overall burden of death and disease due to SARS-CoV-2 will require strategies for reinfection prevention,” noted the study.

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researchsquare.com/article/rs-174…

"There is more bad news. Past infection by older variants dampen rather than strengthen immune protection even among those with three vaccinations.

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“That previous SARS-CoV-2 infection history can imprint such a profound, negative impact on subsequent protective immunity is an unexpected consequence of COVID-19,” noted the researchers in Science.

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"The high global prevalence of Omicron subvariant infections and reinfections “likely reflects considerable subversion of immune recognition” in the population, the study concluded.

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science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…)

"COVID is paving the way for other diseases

"So the virus is getting better at thwarting vaccines and evading immunity. Although vaccine protection against hospitalization and death remains strong, it is being steadily eroded by Omicron’s subvariants.
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twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

"Meanwhile protection against severe disease has declined as the effectiveness of our vaccines progressively wanes.

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"Immunologist Anthony Leonardi, a specialist in T cells, which play a complex role in immune function, predicted such a development nearly two years ago. That’s when he speculated COVID was destabilizing the immune system by subverting T-cell function.
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frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

"And that is exactly what many researchers are now finding

nature.com/articles/s4141…
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"Leonardi bluntly describes the current state: “There is cumulative damage from SARS-CoV-2 reinfections, and reinfections are not mild, the virus is intrinsically virulent. Immune memory doesn't turn a SARS into something like a flu. It remains severe.”24/
twitter.com/fitterhappieraj

"So if each COVID infection depletes T cells and destabilizes immune function and the damage is cumulative, then policies that allow the virus to run riot through the population will not only cause immense suffering but erode public health along with trust in government.

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The word diabolical comes to mind. The British immunologist Danny Altmann compares the situation to “being trapped on a rollercoaster in a horror film.”

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

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"Previous COVID infections probably also play a major role in deadly hepatitis infections in hundreds of children. A Chinese study recently spelled out the likely mechanism: “Similar to patients with HIV-1, the children previously infected by SARS-CoV-2 may have a..

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"..repetitive immune activation caused by the comparatively long-term existence of SARS-CoV-2 in the gastrointestinal tract… children may be prone to infections by other viruses, which would contribute to the development of acute hepatitis.”

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"But COVID has become such a formidable biological force on the planet affecting the ecology of other viruses and species. What role immune-destabilizing COVID infections play in rapid advance of monkeypox or deadly meningitis outbreak in Florida is not really understood.
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"But many experts suspect that COVID infections, along with declining smallpox immunity, are playing a subversive role. Immune systems bashed by COVID open doors for other infectious diseases.

ann-clinmicrob.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…
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"Every COVID infection now leaves a non-linear legacy of troubling human health outcomes in unforeseen ways. A Danish study, for example, found that people infected with COVID “were at an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic stroke.”

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"The risk wasn’t trivial: the infected were 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

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alzheimersresearchuk.org/increased-risk…

"A nightmare scenario

"So letting the virus run unchecked is pretty much a strategy for creating a tsunami of neurological impairment and chronic illness in the general population. It is also a nihilistic prescription for sowing chaos in western societies already dancing..

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"..a tango with political collapse.

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nature.com/articles/s4138…

"If anyone needs a reminder that direct simple actions can thwart viral aggression, consider the actions of the Japanese people. Despite having one of the world’s oldest populations, they outperformed most western countries in terms of death and disability with aplomb.

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"They did so, not with lockdowns, but by observing a real public health message on “the three Cs.” Avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation. Avoid crowded spaces. Avoid close contact settings with people.

"And mask up.

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"And that’s what citizens who care about the future of our children, our health-care workers, our immunocompromised and our elderly, will do now.

Full and outstanding article:
thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/…
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