As we navigate our way through the post-Covid world, it's important to consider the link between infections and outcomes.
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TLDR :
🚫 Try to avoid catching / spreading infections
💨 Clean air will help
While you may well start off healthy, anyone can become Clinically Vulnerable at some point in their life, making them more susceptible to severe infections.
Take it from us, it isn't particularly fun - and frequently, our lives feel less valued.
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Covid infections or repeat infections of healthy people can lead to Long Covid*, where people experience prolonged symptoms and conditions including: fatigue, brain fog and respiratory issues.
* Some data suggests that up to 1 in 10 infections result in long-term symptoms.
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Also, people with Long Covid can become Clinically Vulnerable if they acquire conditions including:
You might have noticed people who have developed a persistent cough.
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According to the final ONS Covid Survey data, Clinically Vulnerable people have a 5.4x increased risk of Long Covid following Covid infections.
💙 Catching Covid isn't healthy
💜 It doesn't promote 'natural immunity'
💗 Living with Covid = constant reinfection
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Vaccination has been a crucial tool in breaking the Covid cycle and protecting lives.
Highly vaccinated countries are experiencing lower mortality despite the virus not actually being milder.
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However, we mustn't forget that Covid continues to claim far too many lives.
Anyone can be at risk, and we are all 3 years older and 3 years more vulnerable.
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To further break the Covid cycle, we need clean air as Covid spreads in aerosols.
We mustn't simply accept ~6 peaks a year as new variants continue to rip through the global community. It places a continuous burden on struggling health services. It is not 'flu.
No one wants to see more people suffering from Long Covid or losing their lives.
While the Covid cycle may be here to stay, we can't simply accept current rates of infection and reinfection.
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Going forward, we should consider the following:
💨 #CleanAir
😷 #WearAMask in high-risk, poorly ventilated indoor settings inc. healthcare
🥄 Testing / isolation if symptomatic
🌍 💉Supporting equitable access to vaccines around the world
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...and for anyone who thinks that young children can't or shouldn't be tested, there are saliva 'lollypop' tests that are accurate and trouble-free.
Parents in our Facebook group have been very happy with them.
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We need to talk about the new @Dawn_French “comedy” series that implies that infection control is a joke.
This is a serious issue, particularly for Clinically Vulnerable people who remain at increased risk, and we are not laughing. 1/
In the first episode, a GP appears in a dramatic “protective outfit” and face shield, and we’re told it’s because “since Covid” they’ve developed “very, very, very bad health anxiety.”
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Then the doctor refuses to get close to the patient, barely touches a wrist, and incorrectly declares them dead.
It invites audiences to mock precautions (during the current flu wave) and suggests that doctors who take measures are less competent.
🧵 This autumn the UKHSA is rightly worried, as 'flu is a real risk...
TLDR:
Clinically Vulnerable people ALL need 'flu vaccines + antivirals this year (if symptomatic or exposed) + confused infection control guidance.
If you are Clinically Vulnerable, please read on...
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This year's strains aren't looking good:
The infections have started earlier.
A(H3N2) strains are dominant - and linked to worse outcomes.
A shifted strain (slightly different to vaccines) is also doing the rounds.
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If you have been invited for a vaccine, or live with a Clinically Vulnerable person (but don't qualify) please consider getting a vaccine - they can be as cheap as £9.95.
Everyone benefits from 'flu vaccines and children (up to 16) are offered them for free in school.
Message to Gavin : 6/7/20
GW "need to push on the push compulsary attendance, and the message of normality"
AW "[You] encouraged him to continue the job.
Would you agree this was months before the vaccine...?"
BJ "Yes" 1/ @AdamWagner1
AW "Do you think in that race to return to normality [summer 2020] Clinically Vulnerable families may have been left behind?"
BJ "Getting back to school... would have been the best for all C&YP, CV or not."
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Johnson knew it would endanger our lives!!!
AW "It was sometimes not safe"
BJ "There was always going to be an argument... from that position... you were going to create a situation in which Vulnerable parents would be exposed to the virus picked up by kids in schools."