James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture
Jul 30 21 tweets 5 min read Read on X
🧵 Thread: Why don’t people take COVID seriously in Year 6 of the pandemic?

A virus that disables the immune system, damages the brain, heart, and vasculature.

And spreads like smoke.

Yet the world shrugs.

Why?

Because mass denial is doing what it always does.

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When a threat is chronic, invisible, and socially inconvenient, people don’t rationally evaluate it, they emotionally suppress it.

Denial becomes a survival mechanism. Especially in societies offering zero support for caution, it’s easier to numb out than face reality.

2/
This denial is socially rewarded.

If you mask, you’re weird.

If you talk about COVID, you’re exhausting.

If you stay home sick, you’re overreacting.

People protect their comfort and status by mirroring the crowd, even if the crowd is sleepwalking off a cliff.

3/
And here’s the trap:

You look around and think,
“Well, most people seem fine.”

They’re working. Studying. Socialising. Posting selfies at festivals. So maybe it’s not so bad?

Wrong. You’re seeing the illusion of normalcy, not the absence of harm.

4/
This is survivorship bias in action.

Those visibly unwell aren’t in your social feeds, they’re out of work, at home, in hospital, or dead.

You don’t see the dropouts, breakdowns, or subtle cognitive slips.

You see what’s left: the people still functioning. For now.

5/
Many people appear fine after 5, 6, even 10 infections. But the science tells us this:

- Every reinfection carries additional risk

- Long-term effects can be cumulative and delayed

- Brain, heart, and immune damage can be subclinical/invisible, until it’s not

6/
We are not saying everyone who gets covid becomes visibly disabled overnight.

We’re saying SARS-CoV-2 is a slow burn. It chips away at systems, bodily and societal, while the surface still looks “normal.”

By the time it’s obvious, the damage is widespread and entrenched.

7/
We’re not saying everyone who had covid is cognitively impaired.

But if you’re seeing mass apathy, normalisation of harm, and a public that won’t even say the word “covid” anymore, you’re seeing population-level damage; psychological and neurological.

8/
Yes, people under 25 often look resilient. They’re finishing exams, going to university, competing in sports.

But infection isn’t a test of how you look today. It’s about what’s accumulating in your cells, your vessels, your brain, year after year.

“Fine” is not forever.

9/
Lead didn’t destroy brains in a day.

Smoking didn’t kill after one cigarette.

Covid is no different. It accumulates, corrodes, then collapses.

“Feeling fine” just means the timer hasn’t hit zero yet.

10/
And that’s what keeps this denial loop going:

- People look fine
- So others assume infection doesn’t matter
- So they take no precautions
- So reinfections continue
- And the invisible damage builds

Until “fine” collapses, too late for many to reverse it.

11/
And yes, brain damage is real.

SARS-CoV-2 invades the brain and can damage areas like the frontal lobe, which governs judgment, empathy, and threat detection. That’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s published science.

We’re normalising subtle impairment on a mass scale.

12/
And here’s the thing: brain changes don’t replace societal or cultural shifts. They interact.

You can have rising fascism and a neurotropic virus blunting empathy. You can have structural cruelty and people less neurologically equipped to resist it.

It’s not either/or.

13/
And this is in addition to the psychological collapse caused by societal neglect:

- No sick leave
- No protections
- No support
- No solidarity

People shut down because they’re overwhelmed, unsupported, and exhausted. The neurological damage exacerbates this collapse.

14/
So they downplay, minimise, gaslight, or laugh it off.

They say “it’s just a cold,” even while sick for weeks.

They blame masks, lockdowns, vaccines; anything but the virus.

They forget their last infection, until the next one.

It’s mass cognitive avoidance.

15/
These aren’t contradictory explanations. They’re synergistic.

Social cruelty and brain damage can coexist. Normalisation and neurological harm reinforce each other.

To pretend it’s “one or the other” is intellectually dishonest, and dangerously reductive.

16/
So when people say:
“Why are you still worried?”
“Most people are fine.”
“Covid is just like the flu now.”

Understand they’re not seeing clearly; biologically, socially, or morally.

Because the very systems meant to notice danger are being degraded.

17/
This is not just a health crisis. It’s a cognitive, emotional, and civilisational one.

The longer we ignore it, the more we lose. Clarity, empathy, memory, trust, our future.

Wake up.

18/18
People don’t blindly believe the government on everything.

They protest over Palestine, reject official lines on climate change, corruption, war.

Why assume they suddenly become helpless truth-consumers when it comes to COVID?
Evidence of mass illness is everywhere: workplace outbreaks, long-term sickness, cognitive issues, kids constantly sick.

This isn’t just propaganda, it’s denial by choice.

The reality is that people aren’t just misled, they want to believe it’s over.

Denial is embraced.
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More from @JamesThrot

Aug 15
The neurological toll of COVID is vastly underestimated

Brain scans can look “normal” while things too subtle for MRI detection; microvascular damage, neuroinflammation, and synaptic loss… quietly erode cognition, mood & behaviour

We are flying blind on the scale of impairment
MRI is a blunt tool for subtle brain injury.

It can’t resolve microvascular lesions, detect most neuroinflammation, or see lost synaptic connections.

Many COVID-related brain changes are chemical or cellular, leaving scans ‘normal’ while function is impaired.
We are likely undercounting COVID’s neurological impact by orders of magnitude.

If our main detection tools miss most of the injury, we mistake ‘no visible damage’ for ‘no damage at all’.

Hence policy stays blind to the real, long-term toll.
Read 5 tweets
Aug 14
A-level results are out in the UK. Record numbers of students got their first choice university place. Politicians call this a “success story.”

But how is this possible when SARS-CoV-2 has been repeatedly disrupting education and damaging brain health?

🧠🧵 Image
Let’s remember:

- Covid disrupts learning through illness, teacher absences, and long-term symptoms/chronic health.

- Many children have been infected multiple times (5-10 times already).

- Each infection increases the risk of ongoing symptoms and neurological effects. Image
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SARS-CoV-2 isn’t “just a cold.” It can:

- Damage blood vessels in the brain
- Trigger inflammation/neuroinflammation
- Shrink grey matter in regions linked to memory, attention, empathy and executive function
- Impair working memory and processing speed Image
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Read 11 tweets
Aug 13
Surging aggression. Language delays. Developmental issues. Teachers & parents report major changes in children

Lockdowns are often blamed. But many lockdowns were short (e.g. UK)

So what else changed in early childhood since 2020?

I’m a neurologist. Let's talk COVID & brains🧵
Let's be clear: lockdowns may have had an impact on some children, especially in unsafe homes or w/poor digital access. That shouldn't be denied.

But what we're seeing now goes far beyond what short-term isolation would explain, especially in children born after lockdowns ended.
Babies aren't socialised in their first 2-3 months to protect their fragile immune systems. Instead, they focus on bonding with caregivers.

So blaming lockdowns for behavioral issues in babies born during or after 2020 ignores the major factor: widespread infections in infancy. Image
Read 18 tweets
Aug 10
How Covid brain damage fuels social & political chaos in UK & USA 🧵

The UK & US face unprecedented strain on healthcare & social trust

Political discourse often scapegoats immigrants/minorities, ignoring a major driver:

The pandemic’s lasting & ongoing neurological toll

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SARS-CoV-2 is neurotropic; it infects brain tissue, especially the frontal cortex, critical for empathy, impulse control, and decision-making.

Research shows repeat infections cause cumulative cognitive impairments & damage.

This inevitably erodes social reasoning.

2/
This slow-burning health crisis increases absenteeism, reduces workforce productivity, and overloads healthcare systems, all without obvious cause for most.

When people can’t see the virus causing this strain, they look for simpler explanations.

3/ Image
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Read 11 tweets
Aug 8
Surging aggression. Language delays. Dysregulation. Developmental issues. Teachers & parents are seeing major changes in children.

Lockdowns are often blamed. But UK lockdowns were short. So what else changed in early childhood since 2020?

Let’s talk about COVID. And brains. 🧵 Image
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Let’s be clear: lockdowns may have had an impact on some children, especially in unsafe homes or w/poor digital access. That shouldn’t be denied.

But what we’re seeing now goes far beyond what short-term isolation would explain, especially in children born after lockdowns ended.
Babies aren’t socialised in their first 2–3 months to protect their fragile immune systems. Instead, they focus on bonding with caregivers.

So blaming lockdowns for behavioral issues in babies born during or after 2020 ignores the major factor: widespread infections in infancy. Image
Read 14 tweets
Jul 14
The following question has been on my mind. So to the covid cautious community, I ask:

If you know that the virus, SARS-CoV-2, is harmful, persistent and disabling, why do some of you still participate in systems, relationships, behaviours, and events that perpetuate its spread?
Many of you claim to understand and oppose the ongoing harms of SARS-CoV-2, but continue to participate in, and normalise, environments and events that fuel its spread.

Participation legitimises the harm, does it not?
Attending an indoor concert (masked) still contributes money, attendance numbers & social legitimacy to an event that has zero protections in place, resulting in multiple new infections. Low paid staff at these events are put in harms way.

By participating, you’re endorsing it.
Read 10 tweets

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