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.

1/18 Image
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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

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
Jul 5
Covid damages the part of your brain (frontal lobe) which is responsible for empathy, emotional regulation & overcoming self-centeredness.

This will facilitate immorality.

Each & every infection you have causes damage.

Many are on infection 4 (or more).

Signed, a neurologist.
Unless you’re taking measures to prevent infection, you’re catching SARS-CoV-2 frequently. Many infections are asymptomatic.

Each new infection will compound the brain damage, causing new issues that previous infections may not have done.

You are gambling with your cognition. Image
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Due to the nature of the aforementioned brain damage, many who succumb to such damage are completely unaware of the fact.

It is, in fact, quite common to be unaware of your brain damage, even in severe cases.

The medical term for this is anosognosia.

Just a heads up. Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 2
After targeted harassment & defamation, I’ve realised that people want to insist that doctors take all SARS-CoV-2 sequelae seriously, except for neurological sequelae/brain damage.

I’ve been called ableist & bigoted for stating that damage can negatively affect behaviour.

🧵
Suggesting that an increase in violent behaviour, diminishing empathy, increasing apathy & emotional lability, decreasing risk aversion & more disinhibition could be a result of damage to the frontal & temporal lobes in the brain is apparently ableist & bigoted.

Yet it is fact.
Many accusations come from those who have neurological disorders or brain damage themselves, presumably because they see it as an attack on them, that I’m somehow making the insinuation that any/all brain damage makes someone behave in an undesirable manner.

I am not saying this
Read 8 tweets
Mar 31
Lol.

Most people keep getting sick w/a few months respite between infections (Covid, flu, norovirus, take your pick).

What in gods name do people think Long Covid is?

“Yeah I get sick all the time since I had Covid & I’ve had that several times. But I don’t have long covid” 😂
My dude, that’s Long Covid.

“Erm no it’s not. I just keep getting sick”.

And what does it mean if you keep getting sick?

“Erm that my immune system isn’t working properly… [long thoughtful pause]”

Immune system damage sounds like Long Covid to me.

“You could be right”

I am
Here’s the long & short of it. If something has changed regarding your health since Covid arrived on the scene, the overwhelming chances are that it’s Long Covid.

Whether that’s getting sick more often, new fatigue, diabetes, cognitive issues, insomnia, or all of the above.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 11
In neurology/psychiatry, we would call this Apathy.

Brain damage to the frontal lobe (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) causes apathy & reduces empathy.

SARS-CoV-2 damages this region of the brain. Every. Single. Time.

More infections = more damage = more apathy.

🧵
Increase in apathy is often seen in traumatic brain injury, stroke & dementia.

It manifests as a lack of motivation/enthusiasm due to disruption in the brain regions responsible for goal directed behavior & reward processing.

Resulting in a lack of drive to engage in activities
Apathy means having a lack of interest in activities once enjoyed.

Difficulty in initiating tasks.

Reduced motivation to engage in social interactions.

Feeling indifferent & unbothered.

Everything the OP & others are experiencing, with many assuming they just have ‘burnout’.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 10
“They create the idea of a terrifying plague that will kill us all, when the truth is far less frightening”

The truth is SARS-CoV-2 likely won’t kill you today, nor tomorrow.

But it will damage the brain, internal organs, blood vessels & immune system of everyone it infects.
“Well covid did me no harm”

- You can lose up to 90% kidney function before experiencing any symptoms.

- Cancers often develop silently with symptoms only appearing at a more advanced stage.

- Blood clots develop silently.

- Brain damage often goes unnoticed by the sufferer.
An example regarding immune damage;

- Once infected with HIV, the time taken to develop AIDS is usually 10-15yrs.

- If people caught HIV in 2020, most would still be extremely fit & healthy with zero symptoms.

- HIV+ folk wouldn’t be sick every couple of months this early on.
Read 4 tweets

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