#LongCovid can kill. It's scientifically proven it can. #LongCovid can present with cardiovascular and thrombotic manifestations. It's scientifically proven it can. If you're glossing over this, you're not on the side of patients. You are, also, not on the side of science acc.org/About-ACC/Pres…

A kind reminder to policymakers etc. making promises now, that you have *already* let Long Covid patients down. You're too little, too late. Long Covid was openly recognised by WHO in August 2020. People have died since. You might even have participated in "let it rip" dynamics The Covid pandemic is one of the greatest health disasters in modern history. A preventable disaster, I'd suggest. An estimated 20-30 millions have died. An estimated 400 millions have experienced #LongCovid. We knew how dangerous SARS-CoV-2 was in 2020

osf.io/preprints/soca…

A kind reminder that the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 has been posited and increasingly demonstrated (at least in a number of subjects) since 2020—1. Long Covid patients and patient-researchers have been at the forefront of this. Policymakers are late. While we need to fully elucidate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 persistence (with different manifestations) on human health (especially in the long-term), the precautionary principle should have been in place, including in view of data emerging since 2020, and data on SARS-CoV-1 (SARS)

We're in the most devastating pandemic in one century, with an estimated 20—30 million dead; an estimated 400 millions to have experienced #LongCovid; immune dysfunction; and a surge in other infectious diseases. It's not over. This is a key reason why people are so often sick

https://twitter.com/gershbrain/status/1779492850117247312

Bibliography as usual. Excess mortality from Covid at ~30 million dead. Additional estimates in such range (20 to 30 millions) by WHO, and others (a review in Perego 2023b, attached)



wsws.org/en/articles/20…
osf.io/preprints/soca…

Usual reminder that "living with Covid" policies need the erasure and minimization of #LongCovid to be effective. People wouldn't accept themselves and their children to be be mass infected with a SARS virus if they were fully aware of the risks People with a glaring conflict of interest, such as minimizing of the pandemic threat, have all the interests in minimizing/erasing #LongCovid, as they could be held accountable for the damage their policies caused to the global population, including children

The desperate fight by policymakers like Queensland's CHO to drop the term #LongCovid is evidence of the term's power and efficacy, and of our activism. They wouldn't need to fight so hard and try to mobilize the press otherwise. I'll keep using the patient made term Long Covid Policymakers and pundits who have been involved in minimizing the dangers of SARS-CoV-2 infection, obviously, have a great interest in dropping a term, Long Covid, which has been so useful in drawing attention to the long-term damage from this infection

No. #LongCovid is a multi-system, heterogeneous disease entity which is proven to be disabling, life-threatening, even fatal in a subset. "Light rehabilitation" won't treat it. Please do better, especially if you're a public figure with degrees in medicine/adjacent fields

https://twitter.com/Karl_Lauterbach/status/1776549467866431747

Choosing to highlight a flawed, small-scale study on #LongCovid from a big platform, rather than the thousands of research papers that document severe pathology down to the cellular level, is wrong. Policymakers and medical professionals must do better.

It's not surprising, in my opinion, that so many attempts at erasing #LongCovid, or minimizing the grassroots LC movement, come from Australian policymakers and academics. Australia was a zero Covid country that was pushed into mass infection, with devastating consequences

It's obvious, thus, that Australia's establishment is particularly concerned about the Covid death toll and LC being a key topic of scrutiny: Australia had a choice: life and health. The wrong choice was made. Critically, was this choice taken freely and consciously by citizens?

The history of #LongCovid is being rewritten: by policymakers, prize-winning journalists adjacent to power, medical professionals, science journals, and health bodies: facts and names are being erased, knowledge we had in 2020 is being hidden, patient-driven contributions omitted The severity of Covid/Long Covid is being downplayed and the disease(s) often reduced to only a handful of symptoms. People who suffered life-threatening events, like cardiovascular events, are being omitted from the narrative.

I think policymakers truly fear a strong, collective, international, grassroots #LongCovid movement that would hold them accountable for the pandemic disaster. All the people harmed by SARS-CoV-2. Millions. So policymakers want to curb this, including by erasing LC itself They're are in damage control. Erase the name Long Covid. Erase the link with SARS-CoV-2. Say it's like "seasonal influenza". Erase the true history of how #LongCovid came into being and the early pandemic grassroots efforts.

In early 2022, a well-known UK-based newspaper painted Australians concerned about catching SARS-CoV-2 (when Australia dropped zero Covid) as basically being just irrationally "anxious".
We later saw the real-life consequences of SARS-CoV-2 spread in Australia 1/

The article spoke of a "tidal wave of Covid-related mental distress", of "Covid [having] been demonised in Australia for so long, compounded by .. “Covid zero”, a concept that was hopelessly naive at best and a dangerous political fallacy at worst."

theguardian.com/australia-news…

#LongCovid is a stark reminder of the biological damage inflicted by Covid. SARS-CoV-2 caused the deadliest pandemic in over 1 century. It has been intentionally left to spread and infect billions. The term Long Covid is an existential threat to those committed to mass infection The term #LongCovid is an existential threat to those committed to mass infection because their policies led to the death of an estimated 20—30 millions from Covid and an estimated 400 millions with LC. LC reminds the public of Covid's dangers and those unhinged policies

Four years ago today @WHO declared Covid a pandemic. An estimated 20—30 millions have died since and an estimated 100—400 millions have experienced #LongCovid. SARS-CoV-2 is still spreading at a fast pace, and Covid remains a leading cause of death and disability. It's not over

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1237777021742338049

Bibliography on estimated death toll from Covid based on excess mortality: @WHO itself, @TheEconomist excess death tracker; also Adam 2022

wsws.org/en/articles/20…

There are a "record 2.8 million long-term sick [in UK 🇬🇧], a figure that rose 200,000 last year, with incapacity benefits claimants rising to 3.1 million, 600,000 more than before the pandemic."
Such is "living with Covid". This is letting SARS-CoV-2 rip
thetimes.co.uk/article/1be769… Now look at what policymakers are thinking to do according to the newspaper to disabled people:

#LongCovid and autoimmune disease ⚠️

In a large-scale study from South Korea 🇰🇷 + Japan 🇯🇵, Covid survivors 2020—1 had higher risk of being diagnosed with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) than uninfected controls and influenza survivors
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38437702/ "SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with increased risk for incident AIRD [autoimmune inflammatory reumathic disease] compared with matched patients without [Covid] or with influenza infection. The risk for incident AIRD was higher with greater severity of acute COVID-19."

Covid and the thyroid ⚠️

Large-scale study of over 1 million Covid patients with over 6 million controls showed SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with an increased risk of thyroid dysfunction, including thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism

#LongCovid

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38407979/ The increased risk for thyroid dysfunction post Covid was evident in the sample at three months and persisted during a 12-month follow-up period. Risk was detected regardless of age or sex, with both women and men affected (with slight more prevalence in women)

Persistent high levels of IFN-γ are a potential biomarker in some patients with #LongCovid
IFN-γ (gamma) is a cytokine that plays an important role in inducing and modulating a vast array of immune responses. Study based on a novel assay to detect IFN-γ levels

https://twitter.com/BenjaminKrishn3/status/1760381043733885334

The team "detected persistently high levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with Long Covid using highly sensitive FluoroSpot assays."

A kind reminder it was known by e.g. April 2020 (for example thanks to research from hard-hit Lombardy) that Covid was a multi-system disease that affected people beyond the lungs. @ScienceMagazine published A rampage through the body on 24 April 2020

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… #LongCovid was immediately characterized as a multi-system disease entity by those suffering from it. This was a key epistemic contribution to science, when Covid was still presented as a short, self-limiting condition esp. in the young and healthy

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Important thread on HIV/AIDS and Covid. And here lies the problem. Thanks to #LongCovid advocacy, it was recognized by mid 2020 that Covid was everyone's problem. @WHO recognized LC in August 2020. Yet, policymakers reverted and doubled down on "living with the virus". What now?

https://twitter.com/broadwaybabyto/status/1756166467618279549

In case you're not familiar with the story, yes, policymakers were openly aware by mid/late 2020* that SARS-CoV-2 infection was potentially dangerous to all, including children and young people, and was causing #LongCovid in many. One of the reasons I know is that I was there

Patients with #LongCovid show dysregulated responses in platelets and coagulation in plasma

Plasma from patients with LC "was an extremely potent activator of washed, healthy platelets" – a phenomenon that didn't happen with plasma from healthy donors
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13… Patients with #LongCovid and matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study ~15 months after documented SARS-CoV-2 infection. "Platelet activation was evaluated by light transmission aggregometry (LTA) and flow cytometry in response to platelet surface receptor agonists."

“I haven’t had a Covid test. It’s kind of a regular viral infection that I’ve been through. Now it’s in its last stages. I still have some secrete coming out. That’s all it is.”

Tennis star N. Djokovic after struggling with illness at the Australian Open

foxsports.com.au/tennis/austral… Djokovic, which has made the headlines for refusing the Covid vaccine, "has spoken about not feeling his best this week and has been pictured needing tissues on breaks during his matches." at the top Australian Open tennis tournament, where he struggled a bit through his matches