Over 144 million people long-term sick. Increases in stillbirths, preterm birth, and postpartum haemorrhage. Young people in numbers not seen before presenting to cardiologists.
The experts are screaming at the top of their lungs.
Arrhythmias. Myocarditis. Pericarditis. Sudden deaths in fit and healthy adults. Blood clots in lungs and brains. Bowel ischaemia. Damaged kidneys.
The experts are screaming at the top of their lungs.
The politicians are busy outlasting lettuces. The media tags along.
The experts are screaming at the top of their lungs.
The others pats their friends with damaged bodies on their shoulders. Grieves the lost friend or relative. Reads the media’s headlines.
The experts are screaming at the top of their lungs.
The US economy is losing $2.6 trillion. The UK doesn’t have enough healthy people to employ and growth halts.
The experts are screaming at the top of their lungs.
🧵 My 2-year #LongCovid anniversary present? A reinfection.
2yrs of gaslighting; dismissal; organ damage & subsequent chronic chest pain; the rare but amazing doctor who practices real medicine - listens, investigates & treats; my deep refusal to give up; and a very gradual and non-linear process of patching my life back together again.
And I’d done it. I was hiking mountains, running 5Ks in 27mins, routinely cycling 10KM to work, and gradually but successfully increasing my workload (cognitive rehab was slower than physical - but equally working, especially after stellate ganglion blocks..).
Commonly, the narrative around long covid is that we need to ‘understand how long the condition lasts’. I find that concerning.
2/9 It implies that #longcovid is a condition that will self-resolve with time, i.e. medical intervention is not needed. But we do not know this, which makes it a dangerous assumption.
3/9 If anything, @resiapretorius’s work on microclots and platelet hyperactivation suggests otherwise. New organ damage, occurring at any point during the disease process - including many months down the line, also suggests otherwise.