Most folk understand that HIV is very harmful long after the acute infection.
Most people think that Covid does nothing at all after acute infection.
The difference in understanding, I fear, could just be time.
It took many years for this to be widely acknowledged for HIV.
1/🧵
I'm not aiming to draw a parallel between the two viruses - just that of our decades-old understanding of HIV and the comparative novelty of Covid and the way it is ignored.
But knowing what you know, if HIV was airborne and there were no treatments, would you ignore it?
2/
Let's also consider that currently, we simply don't know all of the latent long term effects of Covid infection & reinfection.
What we do know is cause for concern.
If we discover in 5, 10 or 20 years time that it has a massively detrimental effect on the brain for example...
3/
...even in children, how would you look back at what is being advised:
For kids in UK; "It is not recommended that children and young people are tested for COVID-19 unless directed to by a health professional."
Think back to HIV. Imagine a similar directive.
4/
How ridiculous would it sound now if the Gov advice was that there's no need for protective sex and no need to test. Just carry on regardless. Onto the next partner.
You'd think they were out of their minds.
But that's only because you know that HIV is extremely dangerous.
5/
And that's the main issue.
You only think you know that Covid isn't.
And you only think that because that's what Govs & media told you. Do you really have enough medical knowledge to disagree with a neuroscientist & consultant cardiologist who work on it & say it's concerning?
6/
Right now, the Gov is telling parents not to test kids for Covid and send kids into school as normal, even if they are symptomatic & unwell.
We have NHS staff told to work if positive.
Testing is discouraged and so is every other practical measure to prevent transmission.
7/
If it's discovered that this virus is way more harmful in the long run than the public have been told - how would you look back on this advice?
I'd imagine you'd be furious.
Well that's my position. I think the directions given are ludicrous & that it will become clear to all.
8/
I want you to imagine this:
Only you & a small minority know about HIV.
Everywhere you look, people say mad stuff like:
It's mild, it's over, wash your hands, don't test, don't wear protection, it's foodborne (yeah mode of transmission is critical).
Your head would explode.
9/
The only difference is you know HIV is dangerous & you only think Covid isn't...based on nothing.
That's why people like me keep messaging.
We keep trying to warn you not to overlook this. That it's still happening. That you're still at risk.
Time will tell. Hope I'm wrong.
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Listening to a neuroscientist explaining that it's worrying seeing how covid affects vessels, cells & neurons in the brain; long term effects unknown.
A cardiologist talking about heart, blood vessel & endothelium damage.
Are you personally sure that Covid can be ignored?
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If so, why?
It's absolutely clear that there is still more that we don't understand than what we already know. But what we know is reason for significant concern. Read up on it.
It bothered me greatly when pediatricians came out so quickly to say there's no risk to children.
2/
With a completely new virus, it takes a long time and an awful lot of research to be able to reach such a conclusion and it's clear that couldn't possibly have known when Govs also declared it 'mild' and akin to a bad cold.
There are hundreds of thousands of research papers.
3/
2.8M people with long term sickness.
"the do nothing trajectory is that it's set to rise to 4M; we have to act on this"
Well @patmcfaddenmp your party have expertise in doing nothing. You're creating more long term ill health by doing nothing to reduce Covid transmissions.
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Perhaps instead of punishing people who have become ill through poor infection control everywhere but especially in schools as well as all health and social care settings, you could actually do something.
You know how to reduce infections.
Your party was very vocal about it.
2/
Your former Health Minister Andrew Gwynne knew all too well about the ongoing risk of Long Covid as well as the importance of masks in healthcare and clean air. In fact your health sec and Edu sec both made pleas to the Cons Gov to implement these changes in ventilation.
3/
There was a webinar on school air quality yesterday.
It was attended by the teachers unions and had some excellent presentations.
There was one presentation I must mention though.
Herts council were suggesting using the machines they bought should be a blueprint for others.
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Whilst it's great that they invested in air filters, the choice of machine baffles me quite frankly.
It's costly, noisy, has default auto mode, power hungry and unnecessary tech like UV (which has no utility at all in this set up) and an ioniser that cannot be disabled.
2/
I'm struggling to find a plus point.
They are saying nobody needs to go through a procurement process because they have done all of the leg work and this can just be used by others.
This terrifies me 😬.
It's the wrong product entirely for suitability for classroom use.
3/
In Jan there was a conference:
Breathing achievement into every classroom
This conference was designed to probe the link between Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in educational buildings and the health, wellbeing, and educational outcomes of students.
UKHSA presented & IAQ experts.
1/🧵
This was something of a surprise to me.
I'm faced with a presentation from @UKHSA and some of their Key Recommendations are:
• Use of air cleaners in naturally ventilated buildings.
• Ensuring provision of adequate classroom ventilation
This seems like quite a breakthrough.
2/
~90% of UK schools are naturally ventilated.
This recommendation is that air filters are put into all naturally ventilated classrooms.
I've been calling for this for a number of years now and I never thought I'd hear @UKHSA recommend this given the years of pushback from Gov. 3/
I don't normally spend time arguing on here but I have lately. I'm so fed up with misinfo. Thought I'd challenge some of it.
It's amazing how strong opinions are formed from such little knowledge or insight.
Often people are fooled by credentials; cos they must know, right?
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However, when you consider how we ended up here, we have had no end of highly credentialed people who are just flat out wrong, 'helping' to direct policies.
Qualifications are all well and good but it doesn't = right.
But folk who don't know are guided by folk they think do.
2/
And this gives rise to pretenders who gain themselves a following and inflated self importance on the back of it.
Their followers become almost besotted with their icon; often because they're calm mongerers; providing a comforting version of events.
They back them to the hilt.
3/
Health minister @GwynneMP got sacked today.
He was useless on Covid anyway.
Some say he has been badly advised by 'experts'.
I think those experts were selected because they tenaciously defend flawed science.
Govs hide behind these 'experts' to limit costs & liability.
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It isn't just in the UK.
In Canada for example, people like John Conly are doing the same thing as Lisa Ritchie in UK.
They are demonstrably wrong.
For @UKLabour to have any credibility, they need a clear out.
If I'd been elected, my first job would have been a sacking spree.
2/
Get rid of the CMO, head of UKHSA, head of infection control for NHS etc.
Strip them of any titles they've received...not for their service; simply for their compliance and for being the faces Governments can hide behind.
There are no excuses left - none whatsoever.
3/