Before Covid, I had a huge amount of faith in the CDC. I am a pro-science person and I believed that they would act in accordance with the science to protect public health. Let's outline all the reasons that I no longer believe that. 1) Let's start with masking.

https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1233134710638825473

The general public doesn’t seem to know that Covid is airborne, that reinfection is common, that the vaccinated can get it, that Covid is a vascular disease with serious neurological complications possible, that #LongCovid is common and can disable anyone including the vaxed. How can we expect people to accurately assess their Covid risk when they don’t understand such basic information? Public health like the @CDCgov has failed so spectacularly during this pandemic I sometimes marvel at how badly this has been bungled.

Life with #LongCovid: I've had a great few months where I felt like I was really starting to heal. Today, I'm back in bed, crashing though I don't know exactly why. Yesterday, I was able to write, talk on the phone, I got things done. Today I'm having trouble walking or speaking. To be fair, I did a lot yesterday (walked up and down stairs 6 whole times, played with my son and puppy, took my son to an art class, did almost a hour of writing, called a pharmacy to work out a snafu with meds) but not so much that I would expect this massive crash.

I feel like we should be talking more about the GAO report on #LongCovid that stated, "The full magnitude of health and economic effects [of Long Covid] is unknown but is expected to be significant." a 🧵 gao.gov/products/gao-2… What is the GAO you ask? The US Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan agency that uses data to evaluate how much something is gonna cost us. That's it. Their mandate is to, "improve the performance of government, ensuring transparency and saving money."

I want to talk about the hot button topic of exercise and #LongCovid. I had an interaction with a doctor recently and when I said I had long covid, she said I should be on a graded exercise program to "start healing." The thing is, I have been getting better. 1/ In the last 2 months, I've been able to do some VERY light movement and it isn't sending me into a crash (yay!). I think doctors and the public see me doing a bit of exercise, and they think that's why I'm improving. And yes, it is certainly helping me 2/

Since so many people asked for details about treatment in my last #LongCovid thread, I thought I'd do a detailed thread on it. I'll start by saying that this was with guidance from my doctors. I know medical care is inaccessible to many but please be cautious. Things that have helped me the most:
- d-ribose was the first thing that allowed me to get out of bed for more than a few minutes. I credit this with turning the corner from bed bound to "just" home bound.
- CoQ10 gave me some more energy and clarity.

On my 2 year Covid anniversary, a thread about my experience with #LongCovid and what I've learned about post-viral illnesses like #MECFS. This is me just before I caught Covid 3/20. I'd just hiked 10 miles and was having a blast. I was celebrating publishing my 3rd book. 1/ At the time I was in great shape, hiking and running regularly, working on my next book, being a very active mom, contemplating going back to do some university teaching. About a month after that photos was taken, I thought I had allergies. I felt a little tired. 2/