Thread by @ScribblerPen

🧵For the past couple of weeks, my child, severely disabled by Long Covid since a Delta wave infection in her teens has been battling Covid, again. She called NHS 111 for help. NHS 111 said she was not eligible for Paxlovid and was too young to have a serious Covid infection...

... The NHS 111 person proceeded to tell her that Covid "is now mild", that there is no such thing as Long Covid, and that even if there is such a thing as Long Covid, people don't get it if they are vaccinated, then went off to expound personal pet theories about Covid and LC.

She would've had a more informative conversation if instead of NHS 111 she'd called a speaking clock.
Meanwhile:
1. A new Covid wave is coming, with an outbreak in East Asia. Feeling like your throat is full of broken glass, nosebleeds are some of this variant's early symptoms.

2. The NHS provides no antivirals (minimal eligibility).
3. The NHS has no vaccination programme (minimal eligibility).
4. NHS staff work without PPE and can come into work with Covid.
5. NHS hospitals no longer routinely test for Covid, hospital infections aren't monitored.

6. Since NHS Covid sick leave ended in July 2023, NHS trusts have been sacking more workers with Long Covid.
7. It's exam season, and students are expected to sit exams 5 days after testing positive. They might still be positive, still ill and very contagious while sitting exams.

8. Most schools have no Covid mitigations in place. Parents are pushed to send sick children in.
9. Children and young people do develop Long Covid. At March 2024, there were an estimated 112,000 children in England and Scotland alone with LC. That's when the UK stopped counting.

The "seasonal virus" is becoming a year-round occurrence. We are heading into another summer that could be spent upgrading school environments (installing CO2 monitors and HEPA filters ahead of winter months when windows are closed) to reduce the spread of airborne infections.

We are heading into another summer after Covid Inquiry @covidinquiryuk modules that heard evidence about the lack of pandemic preparedness, the lack of adequate PPE in hospitals, that could be spent learning the inquiry's lessons, so we can have "lessons learned" for next time.

@covidinquiryuk This "next time" is now. Like last time, we are unprepared. Like last time, there is no infection control. Like last time, NHS 111 is woefully uninformed about Covid and about its post-viral sequelae, Long Covid. Five+ years on, there is no LC treatment, 1 in 4 clinics have shut.

@covidinquiryuk Instead of getting ready to deal with another wave, NHS trusts will be figuring out which workers to lay off to meet staff funding cuts (~50% in places) made to meet the Treasury's targets. Schools will be working out how to get more sick children in to meet presenteeism targets.

@covidinquiryuk MPs will be voting on cutting support for disabled people, including those disabled by post-viral illness, injuries, or conditions that become disabilities while they're stuck on waiting lists. And on how not to provide treatment or care for patients with no prospect of recovery.

@covidinquiryuk Then there'll be a recess when we get a break from ministers holding forth about how forcing sick and disabled people into work and sick children into school is an "opportunity" and complaining why UK productivity is not "back to pre-pandemic level". Lack of public health maybe?

@covidinquiryuk I would welcome any ideas for breaking this vicious cycle. A nation's economic health, educational attainment, productivity, all start with public health. They don't start with pushing healthy people into illness and disability, or ill and disabled people into poverty. Any ideas?