Thread by @elisaperego78

Three years ago today the patient-made hashtag #apresJ20 was coined. Apresj20 ("after 20 days") drew attention to people with persistent symptoms, who hadn't recovered from Covid in 2 weeks. Early in the pandemic, "15 days" max. was what covid, we were said, was to last for most

https://twitter.com/apresj20/status/1646095892938670080

Patients from many early hotspots, however, were coming together on social and other media, like Twitter, to challenge the view that Covid was a "short", "mild", "respiratory" illness in most people, including the "young" and "healthy".

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Instead, Covid was, often, a prolonged, heterogeneous, multi-systemic, painful, and severe disease even in those who had not been hospitalized, or were supposed to be at "low risk", because they had "no commorbities" and were "young"

somatosphere.net/2020/mild-covi…

In that early, dramatic, early pandemic months, #apresJ20, a patient-made name and hashtag, contributed to catalyze the growing patient community in France and internationally. It connected people, experiences, patient-led research, advocacy, collaborations and contributions

It is thanks to patient-made contributions like this, that the #LongCovid patient-driven advocacy and research movement was born, and achieved open recognition for Long Covid by the WHO already in August 2020. Congratulations #apresJ20 special day

@apresj20 #apresJ20 #covidlong #LongCovid

#apres3ans is the hashtag for today and to remind that many are still ill over three years after the pandemic started

#LongCovid