When Covid started, society largely came together.
A shared sense that we could act in a way that helped us all; especially the most vulnerable.
When Gov's realised this threat was here to stay they had 2 choices:
1) Lie
2) Be honest
Which do you think they chose?
1/ They effectively threw tear gas canisters into the crowd. They needed to break the togetherness and get people to disperse and back into their old way of life.
They knew it was airborne.
They knew it was, and remains debilitating and causes all manner of long term harms.
2/

Badly designed studies give the wrong answers.
Here, air filters were used in *some* residents rooms; always on sleep mode.
In communal areas they were also hugely underpowered.
The level of air filtration is super-important.
Seemingly not to researchers designing studies.
1/🧵 2/ I'd expect honest reviewers to see the issues here immediately rather than report 'doesn't work'.
It's as simple as me studying whether heat can cook chicken.
I raised the chicken temp by 1 degree C.
Chicken remained raw.
Therefore heat does not work to cook chicken ❌.
2/

Until the real harms from Covid infection are widely understood and accepted, pretty much nothing is likely to change.
Acknowledgement means everything else slots into place easily.
It would no longer be a fight for the obvious steps needed.
There would be a demand for them.
1/🧵 People would want to know how it's transmitted and how to avoid it.
The drive for clean air everywhere would face no push-back.
The thousands of nonsense arguments would be brushed aside.
There are still relatively few of us who know and understand the true harms.
2/

I did a bit more digging about a recent BBC news article about how installing air quality monitors had a 'dramatic' effect on health.
It is an initiative by @sthelenscouncil and @WarringtonBC called the Healthy Air for Healthy Lungs project.
So what's it all about?...
1/🧵 The program targets households with kids aged 2 to 10 who have respiratory conditions.
Applicants get a home assessment of their IAQ situation.
Participants get advice on how to improve their home's air quality; guidance on cooking, cleaning, heating and ventilation practices.
2/

Latest UKHSA blog:
"With tuberculosis (TB) on the rise again, how can we prevent further spread?"
Well guys it's airborne so airborne precautions, right?
"The infection is spread when a person with TB in their lungs or throat coughs or sneezes."
Oh FFS
1/🧵 "How frontline healthcare professionals can help reduce TB"
Airborne precautions - respirators, improved ventilation and air filtration, right?
"It is essential that at risk groups and healthcare workers know the signs and symptoms of TB and seek out a timely diagnosis"
Oh FFS
2/

Most folk understand that HIV is very harmful long after the acute infection.
Most people think that Covid does nothing at all after acute infection.
The difference in understanding, I fear, could just be time.
It took many years for this to be widely acknowledged for HIV.
1/🧵 I'm not aiming to draw a parallel between the two viruses - just that of our decades-old understanding of HIV and the comparative novelty of Covid and the way it is ignored.
But knowing what you know, if HIV was airborne and there were no treatments, would you ignore it?
2/

Listening to a neuroscientist explaining that it's worrying seeing how covid affects vessels, cells & neurons in the brain; long term effects unknown.
A cardiologist talking about heart, blood vessel & endothelium damage.
Are you personally sure that Covid can be ignored?
1/🧵 If so, why?
It's absolutely clear that there is still more that we don't understand than what we already know. But what we know is reason for significant concern. Read up on it.
It bothered me greatly when pediatricians came out so quickly to say there's no risk to children.
2/

This is an example of just how much we have started to disrespect infectious diseases; Football today:
Going into the match, Palmer's involvement was in doubt after he missed training with a fever but insisted on playing to "help the team".
It seems we no longer understand.
1/🧵 It's twofold:
We have lost respect for isolation when ill to protect others.
We have no understanding of how the body needs rest during & after infection.
And when I say we, I mean the general public.
And why - because of Covid and the way Public Health had to lie to cover up.
2/

2.8M people with long term sickness.
"the do nothing trajectory is that it's set to rise to 4M; we have to act on this"
Well @patmcfaddenmp your party have expertise in doing nothing. You're creating more long term ill health by doing nothing to reduce Covid transmissions.
1/🧵 Perhaps instead of punishing people who have become ill through poor infection control everywhere but especially in schools as well as all health and social care settings, you could actually do something.
You know how to reduce infections.
Your party was very vocal about it.
2/

There was a webinar on school air quality yesterday.
It was attended by the teachers unions and had some excellent presentations.
There was one presentation I must mention though.
Herts council were suggesting using the machines they bought should be a blueprint for others.
1/🧵 Whilst it's great that they invested in air filters, the choice of machine baffles me quite frankly.
It's costly, noisy, has default auto mode, power hungry and unnecessary tech like UV (which has no utility at all in this set up) and an ioniser that cannot be disabled.
2/

In Jan there was a conference:
Breathing achievement into every classroom
This conference was designed to probe the link between Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in educational buildings and the health, wellbeing, and educational outcomes of students.
UKHSA presented & IAQ experts.
1/🧵 This was something of a surprise to me.
I'm faced with a presentation from @UKHSA and some of their Key Recommendations are:
• Use of air cleaners in naturally ventilated buildings.
• Ensuring provision of adequate classroom ventilation
This seems like quite a breakthrough.
2/

I don't normally spend time arguing on here but I have lately. I'm so fed up with misinfo. Thought I'd challenge some of it.
It's amazing how strong opinions are formed from such little knowledge or insight.
Often people are fooled by credentials; cos they must know, right?
1/🧵 However, when you consider how we ended up here, we have had no end of highly credentialed people who are just flat out wrong, 'helping' to direct policies.
Qualifications are all well and good but it doesn't = right.
But folk who don't know are guided by folk they think do.
2/

Health minister @GwynneMP got sacked today.
He was useless on Covid anyway.
Some say he has been badly advised by 'experts'.
I think those experts were selected because they tenaciously defend flawed science.
Govs hide behind these 'experts' to limit costs & liability.
1/🧵 It isn't just in the UK.
In Canada for example, people like John Conly are doing the same thing as Lisa Ritchie in UK.
They are demonstrably wrong.
For @UKLabour to have any credibility, they need a clear out.
If I'd been elected, my first job would have been a sacking spree.
2/

Thoughts on recent UCL study of ventilation & air cleaners.
I've seen a lot of negativity towards it and I think that's mainly due to the headline used, saying it can increase risk.
The study also found it can decrease risk.
It complex to study fluid dynamics in a hospital.
1/🧵 The authors are urging caution to ensure that HVAC/PAC give the desired result by using predictive fluid dynamics models.
That's hardly a bad thing.
There's almost no point trying to measure anything experimentally if people write off the findings because they don't like them.
2/

Relly: You're Aunt is very ill
Me: What with?
R: A very bad cold.
M: Has she tested to see what it is?
R: No, no point.
M: It makes a difference as to what steps you could take.
R: She's taking Lemsip. She caught it from her son who caught it at work.
1/ R: He's been extremely ill but is slowly recovering.
M: Does he take any precautions to protect her when he's out at work? She's only just getting over cancer.
R: Oh yes - he eats his lunch in his car.
M: But what does he do in the workplace to mitigate risk?
R: I don't know.
2/

When I discovered that UK Gov had a page on their website saying that airborne transmission is 'the main route', they ref'd a 2021 paper:
"Breathing, speaking, coughing or sneezing: What drives transmission of SARS-CoV-2?"
Linked in the next post but here's an excerpt:
1/🧵 2/
Here's a link to that paper:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jo…

I've been looking at the evidence statement submitted to @covidinquiryuk by Prof. Cath Noakes.
I'd highly recommend @GwynneMP does the same.
However, it would make it very clear how disingenuous you have been in the letter written to @timfarron.
Let's look at some examples;
1/🧵 It was clear in 2020 that airborne transmission was important:

I had reason to visit urgent care recently. Let me tell you my experience @AmandaPritchard.
First up, I was greeted with an eye roll from the receptionist when she saw my 3M FFP3 Aura 🙄.
I was the only one masked.
But listen to what happened next in my thread below:
1/🧵

https://twitter.com/AmandaPritchard/status/1877072570714874310

Doc: You may have Covid.
Me: I do not. I have been isolated.
Doc: You can catch it just walking past someone in the street.
Me: I am very knowledgeable about Covid and how it is transmitted.
Doc: What qualifications do you have?
Me: I have been studying it for 4 years.
2/

I wonder why we aren't hearing more from employers about sick & unproductive staff as a result of Covid on their workforce?
A friend of mine is very frustrated about an important staff member that's had symptomatic covid 3X in the last year & has just signed off sick again.
1/🧵 This time with chest, ear and eye infection after a cold (their second cold leading to a chest infection in last year too). They've totally lost their voice. This person has had 6 weeks off sick this year already and will need at least another week with this chest infection.
2/

UK Gov Statement:
"children will very likely be exposed to COVID-19 during their childhood and future generations are likely to become progressively more protected by the combination of vaccination and infection"
Does this look like being "protected by infection" to you?
1/🧵 Some of the so-called experts actually think this is required.
"Healthy kids have to be exposed to the virus, ideally earlier than later" says Prof Bollox.
Is exposure and subsequent hospitalisation of babies early enough for you Prof Bollox?
2/

It seems that most people infected with Covid don't really consider they may have been harmed.
Warnings of hidden damage & increased risks don't seem to be hitting home.
I wonder how many have worse health but don't perceive it or just don't attribute it to having had Covid?
1/🧵 We're not good at perceiving things that happen gradually.
It's surprising how quickly feeling less healthy than you were becomes normal and you can no longer quite recall what your baseline health was like.
I know this from personal experience; just not with covid.
2/