Thread by @ErinSandersNP

In 1961 the @ACSNews, @AHAScience, the National TB Association & @APHA sent a joint letter to @POTUS Kennedy asking to appoint a national commission to investigate the link between smoking and health, without wanting to threaten the freedom of the tobacco industry. 🧵

2/ He assigned this seemingly impossible task to his @SurgeonGeneral, Luther Terry. Terry appointed an expert advisory committee to summarize the links between smoking and lung cancer. Over 13 months they met for 9 sessions.

profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/nn/f…

3/ The 387 page report was released on January 11, 1964 and was one of largest cohorts ever analyzed by an epidemiological report. The truth was, people had already known about health risks of smoking for almost 15 years. It wasn’t interesting news anymore despite ongoing harm.

4/ In 1950, two major studies were published showing exactly this link - smoking causes lung cancer. But despite being in prominent medical journals, @JAMA_current & @bmj_latest, they were largely ignored by the media & the public.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

bmj.com/content/2/4682…

5/ No amount of compelling or rock solid evidence could sway public opinion. It was a battle science could not fight alone. The cycle of greed, human tragedy, habit, deception, and doubt in science, is just so depressingly familiar.
history.com/.amp/news/ciga…

6/ BUT the 1964 report on smoking & health had an impact on public attitudes and policy. It was also a catalyst for removing television advertisements. A survey from @GallupNews found that in 1958 only 44% of Americans believed smoking caused cancer, while 78% believed so by 1968

7/ In 1965, Congress required all cigarette packages distributed in the United States to carry a health warning, and since 1970 this warning is made in the name of the @SurgeonGeneral.

In 1969, cigarette advertising on television and radio was banned, effective September 1970.

8/ On the mantle of history you CAN be remembered as a man like Luther Terry.

Or you can be complicit in the continued inaction and poor policy choices that have resulted in the death & disability of millions of Americans.

https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1615606691306807297

9/ Can you imagine if @Surgeon_General embodied Luther Terry and compiled the extensive data on #SARSCOV2 infection & #COVID19 and the observed long term health effects of the heart, brain and other organs, informed the public & issued a formal statement of warning to the nation?

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1615543462069428224

10/ When the pandemic began, I imagined creating a system of subcommittees by organ system or unique patient population (eg pregnancy) to issue guidelines in the context of discussions across disciplines. I still think that is how we will learn the most & best care for patients.

11/ Listen to patients. Read the data - it *IS* out there. Protect yourself from infection and reinfection. What we DO know is already scary👇, but just as with SARS1 there are decades of damage we have yet to discover and understand. H/T @EricTopol @ahandvanish @LisaAMcCorkell

https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1613965639609372673

12/ @POTUS, @VP, @Surgeon_General, it is time to WARN the #American public about what infection and repeat infection with this virus really does.

How many more US citizens have to die or become disabled?

For our kids and grandkids,

We MUST try.

#COVID #SARSCoV2 #LongCOVID 😷

13/ Below are just SOME of the papers that I have found most critical in understanding #COVID and #LongCOVID in particular,
but they are truly a drop in a literal OCEAN of existing literature showing the damage this virus can cause (obviously not complete/comprehensive)

https://twitter.com/michelle_monje/status/1578778545463042049

14/ #LongCOVID Immune Impact Follow @VirusesImmunity and @PutrinoLab

https://twitter.com/putrinolab/status/1569461409385451521

15/ COVID Reinfection

https://twitter.com/zalaly/status/1590738391855157249?s=46&t=fEB2KFoEzIU0W4gFFU8U2w

NeuroCOVID
nature.com/articles/s4159…

CardioCOVID
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35132265/

Follow @zalaly

https://twitter.com/zalaly/status/1590738391855157249

16/ Clotting and Microclots

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34425843/

Follow @resiapretorius @dbkell #TeamClots

17/ Mucosal vaccines have the potential to stop *infection* at the source not just reduce the severity/burden of disease after people are infected.

So grateful for the seemingly indefatigable @VirusesImmunity 🙏

https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1585697878776872961

18/ And historic work by so many patients, including:

How and Why Patients made Long COVID by @elisaperego78 & @felicitycallard
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecli…

IDEAS:

https://twitter.com/ErinSandersNP/status/1615964716970676224