Thread by @fitterhappierAJ

In 2020 I wrote a paper claiming the lymphopenia in Covid included Apoptosis, or T cell death

I made this "extreme" claim after reading the 1st paper on Covid's clinical course

Now, a paper claims ongoing T cell death is shaping population immunity
1/ link.springer.com/article/10.118…

Here they start by suggesting the immune system is aging from covid and that aged immune systems are vulnerable

In 2020 I projected that if reinfections would occur, then we would be left with population-level prematurely aged immune systems
2/

https://x.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1297352852373897223

Their meta-analysis concludes Covid is causing sustained T cell death

There is an alternative hypothesis that reverses causality, but it is ridiculous

However, I claimed in 2020 immune harm from covid would ↑ susceptibility to a sera-evading variant
3/

https://x.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1297352624765894656

My claims of immune harm and degradation were conveyed to the public in 2020 via twitter, publication, and in 2022 in the Tyee in an article by Andrew Nikiforuk, "What If COVID Reinfections Wear Down Our Immunity?"

This study corroborates them
4/ thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/…

Sadly, prominent immunologists and the field itself claimed my claim was too extreme at the time of its relevance to inform the public and take action into proper immunological research and mitigation

They now have acknowledged immune harm in BMJ news

5/bmj.com/content/390/bm…

Now we are left with rising disability and increasing secondary infections
6/

https://x.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1286371102227337216

On a population level, covid-mediated immune harm may manifest in increasing R of epidemic infections (eg from .99 to 1.01)

Something Joffe has coined the "Leonardi Effect," which is NOT "dead and buried."
7/

https://x.com/HelenFa92229708/status/1955890938494247305

Dissenting from the immunological status quo as a trainee has been completely demoralizing. Academics went out of their way to insult me when the claim in 2020 had no traction, and have slowly co-opted the idea in 2024-2025

8/

I was a medical student in 2020 & didn't need a lab to know that holding your T cells to flame would set them alight

In 2024 I was working as a Doctor. I didnt need a lab to read papers & draw my own conclusions

That is a sin to the pretentious

9/

https://x.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1774968584772460819

In the last year, I have seen many people move onto this idea of covid's immune harm

I was interviewed for the BMJ piece, but due to the controversy, the reputations attached, & the shame of the people who were wrong, the paragraph was excised- wiped from history.

10/

Indeed, it would behoove movers in this area and politicians to claim there was no way to have known earlier, as the disaster mounts

11/
telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…

We have not yet seen the worst of the immune effects of Covid.

End