Thread by @NjbBari3

@farid__jalali Lymphopenia is present during and after some viral infections and this also varies between individuals. It is very *transient* in most cases and by that I mean a couple of weeks. ->

@farid__jalali The viruses that cause longer derangement are already known to be associated with long term immune system derangement including secondary infections, immune amnesia and cancers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@farid__jalali COVID-19 lymphopenia has been recorded present for months. COVID-19 has been found to destroy (engulf in syncytia) directly infect, stimulate and suppress a lot of white cell function. Re-infections are frequent. Secondary infections/reactivations observed.

Its a huge worry.

@farid__jalali As a general rule efforts are made to control/treat viruses that cause prolonged immune system derangement.

COVID-19 is wildly exceptional in that we are ignoring it, pretending the lymphocytes bounce back like after a cold and frequently infecting people with it.

@farid__jalali We are also losing naive lymphocytes in large numbers due to superantigen stimulation. This is very different to transient suppression of peripheral blood lymphocytes due to cytokines or migration.

@farid__jalali This is another example of people making assumptions (huge and wrong) based on entirely dissimilar pathogens. It’s ver important to look at what happens in similar situations, such as post other super antigen carrying infections. (Nothing good.)

@farid__jalali I could have saved my energy today and just let everyone play with a super antigen and find out… but sadly the people finding out the hardest lessons are not the people deciding to play with it.

So… here we are…