Watching academia and scientific institutions fully embrace or be slowly made to conform to the minimizing of the SARS² pandemic has been one of the most disheartening aspects of the ongoing Pandemic. Here I present one saddening example of the subtle ways they do it. 1/

Our World in Data has been a huge resource during the pandemic. I've spent countless hours checking and interpreting their data, so I got to know the site pretty well. I have noticed some minimizing changes the last year, but this one really got to me. 2/
ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-e…

Like Mycoplasma, Chlamydia (Chlamydophila) psittaci is an aerosol spread, intracellular bacteria. Many are asymptomatic carriers. The immune system relies on lymphocytes to fight it. SARS² kills lymphocytes weakening the host defences. The quiescent bugs explode. People die. 1/

https://twitter.com/CoronaHeadsUp/status/1765416445846950043

Out of the 5 deaths, 4 were in 'let it rip' Denmark. But every country is 'let it rip' now so Denmark is probably just doing a better job diagnosing it. The deaths coincided with the last COVID wave in Europe, but they are blaming birds and maybe soon avocados (/s). 2/

This is what 'You do you' means to me as I prepare to attend a dinner party inside a restaurant today.
Checking my privilege at the door: the risk involved, even with mitigations, is simply too big for many to take; these mitigations are expensive and out of reach to many. 1/ But this is what I am doing tonight, and I want to share it to help move the discussion forward, always. What is different tonight is that I will be eating with a big group of people that won't test, inside a restaurant I have never eaten in. So here are my 'cheese' layers: 2/

The Portuguese Health Minister, when faced with an extraordinary wave of excess deaths due to infectious respiratory illnesses, says there is STILL no reason for a widespread obligation of mask wearing in health care settings. I wonder how many excess deaths they need? 1/ While denying the need for widespread masking in Healthcare, the Portuguese Health Minister shed some crocodile tears and said he is concerned about increased hospitalizations in intensive care, so concerned that he is prepared to do absolutely nothing to prevent them. 2/

The usual pundits are trying to say that the flu is killing as many people in Portugal now as COVID killed in the worst periods. This is blatant COVID minimising lie. 1/

https://twitter.com/correio/status/1743664151048687928

Mortality in Portugal is very high at the moment (black line), with around 500 people dying daily, an excess mortality of 15-20%. But as the graph below shows, at the height of acute COVID deaths (grey line) over 700 people were dying daily, 80-90% more than expected. 4x more. 2/

Europe prefers to waste millions of boxes of the COVID antiviral drug Paxlovid instead of trying to save people's lives. I have never known of anyone in Portugal receiving Paxlovid and despite being a doctor I can't prescribe it, it is locked away in hospital pharmacies. 1/ European Governments have so fully embraced the denial that a deadly pandemic is ongoing that they have chosen to let people die undiagnosed and therefore untreated. Because for Paxlovid to be prescribed, people would need to be tested. 2/

Today I tried - and failed - to get permission to place this HEPA air purifier in the shared hospital room where my loved one has been moved to while waiting urgent surgery. They hadn't received such a request before and the usual bureaucratic arguments/excuses prevailed. 1/

https://twitter.com/RPLerias/status/1737522698136220055

I had a positive discussion with the most senior person present, who nevertheless wasn't prepared to take responsibility for authorising it. I never intended to be confrontational about it, and actively sought permission, aware that it would probably doom my purpose. 2/

PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. It's a prevention strategy that works for HIV infection where people use a 2 antiviral cocktail continuously or intermittently so that if they are exposed to the virus they are not infected. There is a caveat, though. You MUST be HIV-. 👇🏻 If you are already HIV+, your virus will become resistant to the 2 antiviral cocktail.
Treatment for HIV is normally based on 3 antivirals. Also, if you are knowingly exposed to the virus you can make Post Exposure Prophylaxis to try and prevent the infection from taking hold. 👇🏻

I had a scary dream last night where I tested + for SARS². That second line frightened me. I retested and it was still there.
I have dreamed before of being unmasked amongst unmasked people but this was the first time I remember dreaming of being infected. And I was scared. 1/ I had this dream because I was in a not ideal situation a couple of days ago. So I am apprehensive. In the dream I remember warning everyone to mask around me and being masked myself, of opening windows, of telling people to test. But the 'shit, I'm infected' dominated. 2/

I would like someone to write about the role of high impact scientific journals like The Lancet, BMJ and even Nature in the COVID minimizing narrative. It has been apparent to me that minimizing papers have been held to lower standards for publishing and have been fast tracked.👇 While non-minimizing papers have been rejected or have seen their revision process delayed.
And then we have the invitations to write some astonishing editorials/opinion pieces that were/are aligned with political powers to minimize COVID.👇

The play book for minimizing a pandemic is the same accross diseases, decades and governments:
1. Say it only affects a group of people that we don't really care about (old, sick, gay, migrant);
AND/OR
2. Say we have an effective vaccine that will save you from inconvenience. 👇 This is what they did to minimize both COVID and monkeypox, now mpox.
In the case of mpox they repeat ad nauseum that:
1. it only affects gay men.
2. we have an effective vaccine.
Both are lies. As a airborne disease, mpox affects anyone that breaths. 👇

Information on the COVID Vaccination Campaign for Autumn/Winter 2023/24 in Portugal

The rules for access are out and can be consulted (in Portuguese) on the link below. I will try to explain to the best of my knowledge the main points. 👇

covid19.min-saude.pt/wp-content/upl… - Vaccination starts on the 2nd of October 2023.
- Only the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine adapted to the XBB.1.5 variant is available in Portugal.
- Everyone 60 or over years of age is elegible and those at least 5 years of age and older included in a list of "Risk Pathologies".

Study: Long COVID in a highly vaccinated population infected during a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron wave – Australia, 2022 (preprint)

1. 18% reported Long COVID symptoms;
2. of these, 17.9% reported reducing/discontinuing work/study;
3. more vaccine doses reduced the risk. 👇 ‘Long COVID’ was defined as reporting new or ongoing COVID-19 illness-related symptoms or health issues 90 days post diagnosis. Out of total of 11 697 people, 2,130 (18.2%) study participants were classified as having Long COVID at 90 days post diagnosis.

We are going to watch a worldwide increase in Tuberculosis (TB) active cases and the WHO-World Health Organisation explains why in a straightforward way in its dedicated TB pages. 👇

who.int/news-room/fact… Not everyone who is infected with TB goes on to develop active disease. It is estimated that as low as only 5 to 10% of infected people will do so. And it is thought that only people with active disease are infectious.

As a doctor, people tell me stuff. Friends and acquaintances phone when a dear one isn't doing well and they want an opinion or reassurance. My patients tell me about their families/friends.
So much death and suffering. Cancers exploding out of nowhere, sudden deaths, sepsis... My mind keeps screaming inside "Covid is doing this." But then I look around and I feel alone. Noone wants to think about it. Noone wears masks. Doctors' organisations in Portugal are totally connivent with what's happening.

'Harrisson's Principles of Internal Medicine' is a global reference book. I revisited my own copy of the 18th edition, published in 2013, over 6 years before the SARS² pandemic, and would like to share what it says about how influenza and SARS¹ are/were transmitted. 👇 First an interesting piece of information. Anthony Fauci has been a long-term editor of this textbook, since its 11th edition, and had been editor-in-chief twice by the time the 18th edition came out. He is not only familiar with it but fewer people would know its content better.

SARS² --> COVID
COVID --> Long COVID
Long COVID --> C-AIDS

It's time to revisit how untreated HIV infection evolves to better understand what increasingly looks like is happening to people after COVID.

https://t.co/6XG0SvPIcbcanfar.com/stages-of-hiv-…
In the acute phase of HIV infection people have a self-limited flu like illness of varying intensity that lasts up to 2 weeks. In this period there is high viral load and CD4+ lymphocytes take a first hit, decreasing in numbers.

I have difficulty understanding the resistance to the concept of viral persistence as one of the main mechanisms behind Long Covid.
I didn't know of this person who tragically died. He mentioned he was neutropenic, had a persistente Clostridium infection and lately oral thrush.

https://twitter.com/D_Bone/status/1687538084941115392

Had he been infected with HIV, he would have been diagnosed as an AIDS patient and likely put on prophylatic anti fungal drugs.
As it was, the Clostridium infectium (this is speculation on my part) doesn't seem to have been taken as part of a wider syndrome.

Citizen Science: The 💩 🐀 challenge!

What if lots of people did a RAT (Covid Rapid Antigen Test) on their poo?

Are you shedding SARS² virus from your digestive tract? Find out! Do a 🐀 on your 💩!

From Novid to Long Covid, everyone can join on this Citizen Science survey! 👇 Sewage SARS² surveillance has prooved it's worth in monitoring infection levels in the population. But very few people have actually tested their own poo. I know I hadn't until today. But after suggesting to someone with Long Covid to try it, I thought why not myself? 👇

The HIV pandemic was first suspected in 1981 when cases of a rare form of pneumonia started to pile up. By then, the people who were dying had, on average, become infected 10 years earlier, in 1971. Now imagine that you are in 1971. The people getting infected with HIV then suffer flu-like symptoms for a few days and than recover. NOONE dies from the acute infection.

This is the anedoctal tale of six rapid antigen covid tests (RAT) from four different brands taken by the same person, within a 2 hour time period and how the results were quite diverse. It reinforces that a negative RAT doesn't mean a person isn't infected. Act accordingly.
1/ The tests were taken in order from left to right: A B A B C D. Each letter represents a different brand. The A tests are positive, the Bs negative, C and D are ver faint positives (the C + is extremely faint but is there).
2/