In October 2020, Boris Johnson scrawled “bollocks” and “this is Gulf War Syndrome stuff” next to briefing notes on Long Covid.

I wanted to know where that attitude came from.

🧵

1/14 So yesterday I watched several programmes about Gulf War Illness to learn more about what had happened and how war veterans were treated.

I came across this lecture by Simon Wessely, given in January 2006.

?

2/14gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/some…

Many of us have noticed that there is a huge disconnect between Covid public health messaging and what the science is actually telling us.

A growing number of research papers show the harmful effects of the virus, yet this is not part of the public discourse.

1/10 We are told:

“Covid is mild now. People aren't dying so much. Vaccines are enough. We need to move on.”

What about the sudden deaths that happen in the wake of infection, or the immune dysfunction?

Excess deaths have increased significantly since 2020, and has sickness.

2/10

This is a thread of paraphrased Facebook posts from people describing new health problems (but not mentioning Covid or Long Covid). 01. “Does anyone have joint pain all over their body?”

I think my “problem” is this: while I accept that my life is now completely different because of (Long) Covid, I don’t think it’s okay that this happened to me in the first place. I don’t think it’s okay I was treated appallingly by my local A&E in 2020, I don’t think it’s… …okay that my own family refused to believe me when I said how ill I was (I thought I was dying and wrote farewell notes), I don’t think it’s okay society chooses to turn a blind eye to what has happened to millions like me, I don’t think it’s “just one of those things”….

In a menopause online support group, some entries from minimal scrolling, paraphrased to protect identities:

🔴Fed up with having a bad stomach, what can I do? 🔴 I am in my mid forties and am having to give up work. My colleague doesn’t believe it’s the menopause.

Chest pain: panic attack
Elevated heart rate: anxiety
Numbness: anxiety
Difficulty breathing: stress
Pins and needles: anxiety
Headache: stress
Exhaustion: depression
Diarrhoea: anxiety
Stomach pains: stress
Migraine: stress
Vomiting: stress
Tinnitus: stress
Neck pain: stress Not wanting to be infected by Covid: anxiety
Not wanting to see people who don’t mask: anxiety
Feeling too ill to go out: depression
Not wanting to go to crowded places: anxiety
Forgetting things; stress
Not wanting friends and family to get Covid: anxiety

A thread on banana bread 🧵

“Bananas appeared in the US in the 1870s but it took a while for them to appear as ingredients in desserts. Banana bread recipes began to appear in cookbooks across North America when baking powder became available in grocery stores in the 1930s….1/ …..Some food historians believe banana bread was a byproduct of the Great Depression as resourceful housewives did not wish to throw away overripe bananas. Others believe that banana bread was developed in corporate kitchens to promote flour and baking soda products. 2/