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Empathy, science, determination, hope.
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Dec 20 28 tweets 2 min read
Ten words you need to know to understand how we can be entering the seventh year of the covid pandemic. 1
Covvabarator
A public health figure who sides with the virus over the people.
Dec 19 8 tweets 3 min read
Covid infections make people more vulnerable to other infections.

Here's what the Cleveland Clinic say about Brucellosis:
"Brucellosis is an uncommon bacterial infection that comes on slowly and can last for a long time. It can look like a lot of other illnesses, so it’s important to see a healthcare provider to get properly diagnosed and treated. Brucellosis usually isn’t serious, but it can infect your bones and organs, so it’s important to keep a close eye on your symptoms."

Less uncommon now, apparently.Image Meanwhile... listeria continues its rampant ascent. Image
Dec 19 17 tweets 3 min read
You've heard about lots of people having cancer scares recently, haven't you?

I certainly have.
I work supporting people with exactly this kind of situation. I was specifically thinking today about cancer scares that have turned out to *not be malignant cancer*, *yet*.
Dec 18 44 tweets 6 min read
Ok... so this is going to be an extremely weird thread...
If you're squeamish or sensitive, *stop reading*. Image You know that you have mites living in the hair follicles of your eyelashes and eyebrows, right?

The ones pictured in the tweet above - and another similar species.
Dec 15 41 tweets 7 min read
The UKHSA have started publishing this goldmine again - but this year it's even more valuable *because they've reset it to a period when testing was consistent*.

This is very important and it shows yet again:
Covid infection makes you vulnerable to other infection. Image So... in the weekly flu and covid surveillance report (that also covers other respiratory infections too), they publish these two charts. Image
Image
Dec 15 35 tweets 4 min read
Most people just don't understand the immune system, its different components, how covid weakens it, and what that leaves you vulnerable to. Image We tend to imagine immunity as a single light switch.
On or off.

Maybe on a dimmer switch.
Strong or weak.
Dec 13 45 tweets 3 min read
Five simple facts about masks: 1
FFP2+/N95+ masks filter out fine aerosols.
They're built to capture tiny airborne particles that surgical masks simply don’t catch.
Dec 10 84 tweets 2 min read
Ten Pathogens that are airborne: 1
Covid
Dec 9 13 tweets 2 min read
I keep getting messages and hearing snippets from people who sit in various cross-department government working groups.

Over the last couple of years there’s been a steady drumbeat of concern, but recent ones have felt a bit more like panic: Things like mortality rising higher than births in some parts of the country, antibiotic resistance creeping up, disability claims rising, sickness absence climbing...
Dec 7 28 tweets 2 min read
I quite like the bold insanity of the people who claim that the reason that there wasn't officially much flu, noro, adeno, rsv etc around in 2020/21 is because *they were all around but governments pretended they were covid*.

But It accidentally points to something profound. That year those things (flu, norovirus, adenovirus, rsv, para influenza) *weren't around to cause death*.

So covid infections actually caused *a lot more excess than people have realised*.
Dec 3 31 tweets 4 min read
I had an interesting conversation last week that I've been trying to process.

It was with a therapist who I'm supporting, and they said it was ok to share this thread and its contents. I'm going to call them Sam, because I tried writing this saying 'they' the whole time and I kept on getting confused. I have also changed a couple of minor details to preserve anonymity.
Dec 2 42 tweets 9 min read
We have a group of lovely birthing groups and parenting groups that use some of our building regularly, and I get to chat to them - women who are pregnant and women who have young babies.

They are *in a bad way*. In one of the expectant mothers groups, two of the nine had to stop work early due to complications in their pregnancies.
Dec 2 33 tweets 3 min read
The problem with science denial is that once you start, you just can't stop.

When you deny any science, you switch on an overrule function in your brain that you can use on any information you dislike.

The more you use it, the more effective it becomes. And the more detached from reality your brain becomes.
Nov 30 18 tweets 4 min read
It's absolutely time to talk more about this.

This kind of scabies that they're describing in here is *horrific*, and it's a result of *a weakened immune system*.

But LadBible are mistaken to think that it's just in Devon...
It's everywhere here.

But there's worse news... Image It's not just scabies that's a problem...
Nov 26 20 tweets 4 min read
If by 'growths on my eyeballs' she means pterygium, then here's the chart for that in England. Image If, on the other hand she means conjunctival deposits...

Here's that bad boy: Image
Nov 26 48 tweets 8 min read
😮I want to smash something.
I've just stumbled across the official NHS coding guidance for U07.3 - 'Personal history of Covid-19' - and it left me on the floor.

🚨When paired with the data on the number of times it is currently used, it is a huge unknown national scandal. Image The ICD-10 codes are the codes that are entered into NHS hospitals activity databases.
So when someone gets healthcare, it's for a reason, so they look up the code for that reason, and put the code into the database.
Nov 25 48 tweets 11 min read
There's absolutely zero doubt in my mind that things have changed.

But *how*?

I've been sharing a lot of these graphs over the last month, but each chart looks at the *small* picture.

I have a big picture brain.
So here's a thread about the *big* picture. Image You can see in this image charts with loads of different *shapes*.

They all chart the same time span.
They're all from the same geographical area and age range.
They all chart the same type of data - 'hospital episodes'. Image
Nov 25 10 tweets 3 min read
What on earth is going on.

Seriously.

Where are the doctors raising the awareness about this?
Where are the journalists screaming?

What is wrong with everyone?

Hospital episodes for babies with heart valve problems in England. Image Two to four year old infants with heart problems. Image
Nov 25 50 tweets 10 min read
Yesterday I started posting a long breakdown of women's health issues that appear to have seen a change of trend since the population embraced widespread repeat covid infections.

This is part two. Image You don't need to have read part one first.

They're just collations of charts in no particular order, although there is running commentary and some observations along the way, so it is well worth reading that one, and I'll be posting a third too.

Nov 24 99 tweets 21 min read
In light of the fact that repeated studies suggest that women are more likely to be develop Long Covid, I think it's really important to know what's happening with the different health conditions that specifically affect women.

This is a painful thread at times. Image Older working age adults... Image
Nov 22 98 tweets 20 min read
Covid infection affects every part of the body, every body system, and every body function, but it *loves* the lungs.

So how does that play out in hospital episode data... And Parainfluenza virus (also not flu) pneumonia... Image