James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture
Oct 3 9 tweets 2 min read Read on X
🧵 Attribution Bias: The Hidden Fuel of COVID Denial

One of the main reasons society refuses to face the ongoing damage of SARS-CoV-2 is attribution bias

It’s not that the harms aren’t there, they’re everywhere

It’s that people are misattributing them to the wrong causes

1/9
Brain fog? Must just be “stress.”

Shortness of breath? Must be “getting older.”

Heart palpitations? Probably “anxiety.”

Cognitive slips? “Too much screen time.”

Anything, literally anything, but admitting that repeat COVID infections are the cause.

2/
Attribution bias makes the invisible visible elsewhere.

Instead of facing the direct, uncomfortable truth (“COVID has injured me”), people redirect it to a more socially acceptable explanation.

This isn’t an accident.

It’s how the human brain protects fragile worldviews.

3/
On an individual level:

“I can’t run like I used to, must be age.”

“I’ve been so tired lately, must be diet.”

“My memory is slipping, must be burnout.”

On a societal level:

Surging chronic illness? “Lifestyle choices.”

Rising aggression and apathy? “Polarisation.”

4/
But the pattern is too consistent to ignore.

One virus, capable of harming nearly every organ system, explains far more of what we’re seeing than these scattered excuses do.

The refusal to connect the dots is attribution bias at work.

5/
Attribution bias doesn’t just distort understanding, it enables the disaster to continue.

If you convince yourself your palpitations are “just stress,” you keep reinfecting yourself.

If society convinces itself it’s all “lifestyle disease,” we normalise mass decline.

6/
Attribution bias lets people deny reality, but denial doesn’t protect the body.

- The damage still accumulates.

- Brains still deteriorate.

- Hearts still weaken.

- Lives still shorten.

Only the awareness is dulled.

7/
We are living through the largest misattribution crisis in human history.

A neurotropic, vascular virus is dismantling health & society, and people are blaming anything but the obvious cause.

And until attribution bias is broken, reinfection will remain inevitable & endless

8/
If you take one thing from this thread, let it be this…

Every time you hear someone dismiss their new health problem, or hand-wave away society’s behavioural collapse; remember Attribution Bias.

They’re not seeing the truth.

But the COVID-19 virus doesn’t care.

END

9/9

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath

James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JamesThrot

Sep 18
As a neuropathologist with decades of experience studying dementia, Alzheimer’s & viral brain injury…

I know exactly how brain damage presents itself.

I’m seeing this unfold at a population level each & every day.

SARS-CoV-2 is inflicting neurological harm on a global scale.
For the “Correlation isn’t causation” crowd:

Covid is neurotropic, it directly infects the brain. It causes vascular injury/clotting/neurodegeneration.

We’re not guessing. The mechanism is established. The population-level consequences are what you’re watching unfold right now.
Frontotemporal injury doesn’t stay hidden. It shows as:

- Declining empathy/compassion
- Poor impulse control/reckless behaviour
- Collapsing attention spans & foresight
– Susceptibility to lies, rage & tribalism

Sound familiar?

That’s covid’s neurological footprint at scale.
Read 8 tweets
Sep 18
We don’t live in a free society.

We live in one where obedience is disguised as opportunity.

Where exhaustion is called “hard work.”

Where exploitation is sold as “luck.”

This is modern slavery with a smile.

A thread 🧵
It starts in school. We were told it’s about “education,” but the real lesson is obedience:

- Be on time, every day
- Sit still, don’t question authority
- Complete every assignment, no matter how absurd
- Face punishment if you refuse

i.e. Training for a lifetime of compliance
So when we reach the workplace, we’re already programmed.

We say yes to unpaid overtime.

Yes to being disturbed on holiday.

Yes to covering for colleagues.

We’ve been taught that refusal equals punishment, so our default response is obedience… even to exploitation.
Read 8 tweets
Aug 27
“My baby had Covid and was fine”

Did your baby tell you how their endothelial function, immune system & neurodevelopment are doing compared to baseline?

Did they explain their risk profile for future disease?

Or are you just guessing because they didn’t drop dead on the spot?
SARS-CoV-2 isn’t harmless in babies.

Infections are linked to disrupted brain development, higher risk of neurological disorders (incl. autism spectrum, seizures, developmental delay), immune dysregulation & heart damage.

Babies can’t self report.

Fine today ≠ fine long term.
And guess what?

If you catch COVID while pregnant, the stakes are higher.

Increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, stillbirth, NICU stays… and possible long-term neurodevelopmental issues, including autism.

This isn’t speculation by the way, it’s science.
Read 6 tweets
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
Image
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
Image
Image
Image
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

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(