Thread by @NohaAboelataMD

The latest wave of covid propaganda is to claim that ~covid anxiety~ is the biggest pandemic problem we're facing. I have yet to see the data. I have, on the other hand, seen mountains of data indicating structural and functional changes to heart, lungs, brain, and more. 🧵

"But same with the flu!"

No. Via ACE receptors and otherwise, SARS-CoV-2 can affect every system, even damage inside blood vessels (yes the tubes that deliver blood everywhere). True, we've likely under-appreciated post-influenza sequelae. Still, it seems less and fewer organs.

Did the rapidly spreading airborne virus killing people all around us scare folks? Ummm, yes. People's experiences, reactions, and coping mechanisms are diverse. Some lost loved ones, experienced hospitalization/ICU, gained new chronic health issues. Children lost their parents.

Others lost jobs, got off-track with their education, got behind on the basics.

If you're behind on preventative health, cancer screenings, labwork, please catch up! Knowledge = power.

If you need someone to talk to, please find someone.

Also, check on your people.

As for how we're living now, there are those with zero regard for covid risk, and there are those who continue to mitigate it (to varying degrees of course). We know there are layers of protection, and the more layers, the better. Mask, vax, gather outside, test, isolate when +.

The best intervention we can do as a society is create & maintain high standards for indoor ventilation/air exchange/filtration, especially important in schools & congregate settings, with transparency like the restaurant letter grade! Create more safe outdoor gathering spaces.

Protecting yourself is a personal choice. It's a choice that can affect others mainly because C19 is airborne and highly contagious, and because asymptomatic transmission occurs. So a filtration mask is currently our best bet for individual protection when there may be exposure.

Trying to shoo away long covid by insulting those experiencing it is trash. The lack of evidence thus far is noted. Data that "will be presented" at the such-and-such conference is dead to me. Wake me up when the peer reviewed article is published and then we'll talk.

This trash take is also insulting to all the real researchers who've published actual findings. I hope your peer reviewed studies cite them well and explain how your research contributes. If you really care about covid-era behavioral health challenges, let's hear your plan.

We still have a lot to learn and a ways to go - it's still early! The more we can quantify and understand, the better we can evolve and tailor our interventions. I hope for better vaccines, better treatments, better diagnostics, and significant advancements in long & post-covid.

Until then I'm continuing to mask, strategically test, gather outdoors as much as possible, improve indoor ventilation/filtration wherever I can, and improve my own understanding through reading the literature and listening to patients and to experts in their respective fields. /