Thread by @inkblue01

"Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid" It's not your imagination: Around the world, people really are getting sick more often than before the pandemic. From Bloomberg🧵1/15
archive.ph/bW13b

"At least 13 communicable diseases, from the common cold to measles and tuberculosis, are surging past their pre-pandemic levels in many regions, and often by significant margins." 2/

"44 countries and territories have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the pre-pandemic baseline." 3/

"The post-Covid global surge of illnesses — viral and bacterial, common and historically rare — is a mystery that researchers and scientists are still trying to definitively explain." 4/

"Climate change, rising social inequality and wrung-out health-care services are contributing in ways that are hard to measure." 5/

"Influenza cases in the US have jumped about 40% in the two post-Covid flu seasons, compared with the pre-pandemic years, according to clinical lab results." 6/

"Whooping cough, or pertussis, cases have climbed by 45 times in China in the first four months compared with last year. And in some parts of Australia, where flu season is just getting underway, cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have nearly doubled from a year ago 7/

"Argentina is battling its worst-ever dengue outbreak. Japan is seeing a mysterious surge of Streptococcal A, also known as strep throat. Measles is making a comeback in more than 20 American states, the UK and parts of Europe." 8/

"Globally, 7.5 million people were newly diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2022 — the worst year on record since the World Health Organization started global TB monitoring in the mid-1990s." 9/

"Then there’s the unquantifiable role of poverty, which has spiked globally in the aftermath of the pandemic. Social inequality is the “biggest risk factor” for infectious disease, said David Owens, co-founder of OT&P Healthcare in Hong Kong" 10/

"The spikes in preventable illnesses, like measles, polio and pertussis are easier to explain, experts say. Vaccination rates fell sharply during the pandemic, with supply chains disrupted, resources diverted and immunization services limited by lockdowns, Cowling said." 11/

"At the same time, a growing number of children live in conflict or fragile environments, limiting ready access to vaccines. And Covid-era misinformation fueled simmering mistrust in vaccines in general." 12/

"About 25 million children missed at least one dose of the three-shot diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine in 2021. The percentage of children who received all the three doses of this vaccine dropped to 81%, the lowest level in 13 years." 13/

"The state of constant illness already is taking a toll on businesses and the economy. Nearly one in three US employees in white-collar jobs took at least one sick day in 2023, according to payroll company Gusto, up 42% from 2019." 14/

"And when they missed work, they missed more of it, with the average absence up 15%. And a UK study found workplace absences at the highest rate in over a decade, with employees missing nearly eight days on average over the past year, up from six before the pandemic." /end