It was a privilege to be at @covidinquiryuk as part of @LongCovidKids last week.
Over 100,000 children are affected in the UK. They live with horrendous symptoms every day. Some like my son have had to give up physical activity, friendships and full-time education.
Others are confined to bed, invisible to society; unable to tolerate light, sound and even food and drink.
There are no approved treatments and no proper services for these children. Families are often forced to seek private healthcare. On top of this, they have to fight to be believed; too many have been accused of fabricating their child’s disease simply for advocating for them or because the child’s attendance has dropped below targets.
It is not a few months of lockdown or masking that has damaged the health of our children. It is the recurrent exposure to a deadly vascular virus which continues to kill & disable millions.
Covid never went away; we know that the risk of Long Covid is cumulative (5% with each infection). The risk of acquiring it can be dramatically reduced by cleaning the air in indoor spaces; yet there is zero investment into this area, and children continued to be forced back to unsafe classrooms. This is despite the evidence that apart from reducing the risk of respiratory infections, ventilation improves academic performance and attendance.
Of his (at least) 5 infections, 3 of my son’s were acquired through school.
We wouldn’t drink dirty water; why are we happy to breathe dirty air?
I hope this inquiry results in some accountability for those responsible for the negligence that has resulted in the mass disabling of millions of children and adults. And that there is increased recognition of the need for treatment, support and most fundamentally, for these children & their families to be believed.
Grey columns are using brightfield microscopy; black are using Thioflavin T
See the difference in size between #LongCovid & control microclots
There were statistically significant differences in mean size, number & other variables
More in the paper!
2/n
Why is this important?
Because flow cytometry is already accessible in clinical settings, unlike fluorescence microscopy which is mainly a research tool.
To those intent on psychologising #LongCovid & #MECFS because ‘there is no biomarker’- let me tell you something as a senior Dr. Many diseases don’t have biomarkers & diagnosis is clinical. Take asthma for example. Symptoms vary between patients. 1/n
Many patients have abnormal exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) & histamine challenge tests- some don’t. Yet if the patient’s symptoms & signs fit with asthma, we have no hesitation in making the diagnosis. 2/n
There is the well-known example of multiple sclerosis. Many deemed it psychogenic because there was no lab or radiology test that was diagnostic. Until of course the MR scan was invented. 3/n
Treating hospital discharges for 14 days with half a dose of one anticoagulant does NOT mean that ‘anticoagulants are ineffective in #LongCovid’ (HEAL-COVID study) 1/n
-this is a different population to the vast majority of #LongCovid
-the role of the hyperactivated platelet has been totally disregarded
-treatment dose apixaban is 5mg bd, not 2.5mg
-even if the correct population & drugs were used, #LongCovid does not get better in 14 days 2/n
The ramifications of this could be catastrophic. It could shut the door on funding for properly designed anticoagulant trials. And millions will continue to endure agony. I cannot emphasise enough what a serious own-goal this is.
Latest #TeamClots preprint on clotting abnormalities in #LongCovid. We demonstrated that the average levels of 6 inflammatory procoagulatory molecules were significantly higher in the soluble fraction of blood in #LongCovid when compared to controls medrxiv.org/content/10.110… 1/n
These werealpha-2-antiplasmin (A2AP), serum amyloid A (SAA), platelet factor 4 (PF4), E-selectin, von Willebrand Factor (VWF) & platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1). The mean A2AP level exceeded the upper limit of the lab reference range in #LongCovid 2/n
Considering that large quantities of these molecules have already been detected inside microclots using proteomics, the elevation in plasma/serum means that total levels of these inflammatory mediators are indeed alarming in #LongCovid 3/n