On Covid
The (Ongoing) Pandemic.
Alright. This post is going to be a composite of:
- current world data links
- links to current thoughts from doctors/etc about what people should do (ie. wear an n95 or better mask, especially when you're around other people who may need to be there to survive - they could be immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable)
- strategies used around the world and results
- personal thoughts re ^
TODO: all that, and maybe more
Mask Nerd - Aaron Collins
Aaron Collins (@masknerd) runs the youtube channel @coll0412, where he posts videos about mask efficacy. From his bio, his "[g]oal is to test and evaluate the best masks out there. Mask up and stay safe!"
Project N95
Project N95 is a "Nat’l non-profit advancing access to affordable & authentic respiratory protection for all via education, advocacy & distribution" on twitter and mastodon @ProjectN95.
Tweets
Keep yourself safe - Oct 19, 2022
From Eniko 'cohost.org/eniko' Fox (@Enichan) here
For anyone who needs to hear it: you don't have to be immunocompromised to keep yourself safe from covid, you can do it simply because you don't want to get or pass on the virus that gives people brain and cardiovascular damage. It's ok to not want that
It's especially okay to not listen to anyone who keeps insisting you don't need to mask anymore because frankly anyone who does that does not have your best interests at heart
Covid Denialism - Sep 29, 2022
From IronProle aka Comrade Red (@IronProle) here:
Mfers need to stop trying to sell me on covid denial because im dying.
I still have comrades and family i want to protect. I still have time i want to spend. I dont want to occupy my last days sicker than i need to be or infecting someone else.
Sickening attitudes.
I still have my values, my principles, that center my larger community and its long term needs.
Im not a coward or a liberal. I dont have a fake outter shell of compassion and consideration that falls away when i have nothing left to worry about personally.
Thats disgusting.
Im going into the grave with a mask on, covid free. Knowing i did my part in life to protect the lives of others in every single way i could muster, large or small.
Im willing to die bleeding on barbed wire for you, why not mask up?
From Dr. Claire Taylor (@drclairetaylor) here:
Covid is a vascular disease 🩸. We need to stop thinking of it primarily as a lung 🫁 disease. I hear lung Doctors says ‘we don’t see much on the chest X-rays in #longcovid’. The rheumatologists say ‘we don’t see raised inflammation on the blood tests in #LongCovid’
the cardiologists say ‘we don’t see much myocarditis in #LongCovid and when we do it’s mild’. The GPs say ‘ we see lots of odd chest pain after Covid but we don’t really know what it is’.
the media say ‘Covid is mild, long Covid is a mystery and we don’t know what causes it or how to treat it’.
I say- Covid is a virus that causes vascular damage and inflammation. I say the ‘odd chest pain’ is not a mystery and neither is #LongCovid
why do I say that? We now know that the blood tests we do in the NHS only show a tiny % of the immune system. We are testing the wrong markers. In studies Interleukins and cytokines ARE raised. Clinical characteristics with inflammation profiling of long COVID and association with 1-year recovery following hospitalisation in the UK: a prospective observational study (via thelancet.com) #Covid_19 causes inflammation. No mystery.
Now to more exciting stuff. Covid causes micro clots 🩸 with amyloid. Yes amyloid. They block capillaries and reduce oxygenation. Here is a photo of a patient’s blood before Covid and afterwards when they got #LongCovid showing new microclots. Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is accompanied by increased levels of antiplasmin (via cardiab.biomedcentral.com)
Covid is a vascular disease. If you want to learn more this is a brilliant paper. A central role for amyloid fibrin microclots in long COVID/PASC: origins and therapeutic implications (via portlandpress.com) @dbkell @resiapretorius
why is it not on the front pages of the newspapers? Why hasn’t our health secretary mentioned it? Why doesn’t your Doctor know about it? Why don’t they know that ‘normal’ bloods in Covid don’t test the whole immune system and for microclots? These would be good questions
#LongCovid is a post viral illness. Therefore it has not surprised me today to see the pre-print showing the same microclots in #MECFS The occurrence of hyperactivated platelets and fibrinaloid microclots in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) (via researchsquare.com) This will not show up in blood tests done currently for #MECFS or #LongCovid resulting in ‘but your bloods are normal’
Hopefully this thread might convince you Covid is more than a cold. That Covid causes vascular complications.That doing the usual tests won’t show you the problem. That when you apply cutting edge science to medicine you find answers. #MedTwitter #LongCovid #MECFS #TeamClots
Medical science has proven time and again that when the resources are provided, great progress in the treatment, cure, and prevention of disease can occur. Michael J. Fox
Dr. Taylor also has some resources and information at her website here.
Things twitter folks know that people on the streets don't - Oct 7-25, 2022
From tern (@1goodtern) here:
Ten things twitter folks know about Covid that people on the streets don't.
1 Covid isn't over
2 There's no such thing as herd immunity
3 Covid is hospitalising thousands each week
4 Covid harms kids
5 Covid moves like smoke
6 Hybrid immunity won't end the pandemic
7 Catching Covid does not benefit you in any way
8 Covid can cause Long Covid (even if you're vaccinated)
9 Covid damages your body leaving you at risk of Covid Induced Delayed Injury (even if you're vaccinated)
10 Covid infection can damage your brain (even if you're vaccinated)
11 Covid is a systemic infection that harms every part of your body.
12 There are new and potentially very nasty variants on the way
13 Some of the pharmaceutical tools against covid are failing
14 Masks and filtration help remove covid from circulation in the air and provide a layer of protection
15 Covid is affecting pregnant women and their developing babies
16 The vaccines are generally safe (with specific known medical exceptions)
17 Covid is not mild
18 Covid is considerably reducing life expectancy
19 Covid is harming the economy
20 Covid has disabled millions of people
21 Covid is harming immune systems
22 Covid is harming every system
23 Covid is not fully understood yet
24 Schools are hotbeds of Covid infection
25 You can be infectious for 10+ days
26 Plastic screens don't protect against airborne focus
27 You can catch Covid in one breath
28 Fresh air ventilation reduces concentration of Covid particles.
29 Covid particles can hang in indoor air for hours if there is limited ventilation.
30 People breathe through both their mouth and nose
31 Cloth masks are better than no masks, surgical masks are better than cloth masks, but well fitted ffp2/3 n95/96 masks / respirators are far more effective than either.
32 You can catch Covid repeatedly
33 Repeat infections are not necessarily more mild
34 Damage from repeat infections is cumulative
35 Covid infections age you
36 Handwashing is a great thing to do anyway, but Covid is mostly caught by breathing in floaty smoke-like covid.
37 You can catch Covid from someone more than 2m away
38 You can catch Covid outdoors, but it's less likely
39 Activities like singing, shouting, and exercise make you produce more viral particles
40 You can catch Covid from friends or strangers
41 Some people are on their sixth infections already
42 The efficiency of your vaccination decreases over time
43 An infection is not an immunity top up
44 Hospitalisation is not mild
45 More children have died from covid in the UK in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021 put together
46 You can't tell if you're infectious
47 Lateral flow tests are a useful tool, but they're not guaranteed reliable
48 Covid functions similarly in children to adults - there is no "but kids don't..."
49 Swabbing throat and nose is better
50 Many people don't realise their ongoing symptoms are long covid
51 Some people who have had Covid barely remember their infection
52 Coughing spreads covid particles very effectively
53 Boosters are useful in reducing short-term serious illness and death, but you can still develop long term problems from infection after vaccination
54 Mitigations are more effective when used together eg ffp2 masks + ventilation + isolation
55 Masks are not the only mitigation. Some mitigations are invisible
56 No one wants lockdowns
57 Different covid strains have different symptoms and effects, some are more dangerous than others, none are mild
58 Covid can cause problems anywhere in your body, so long term effects can be very different from one person to another
59 There are people who will do anything they can to stop you believing points 1-58.
60 A covid infection does not protect you from future covid infections
61 Covid illness and death has disproportionately affected ethnic minority groups
62 Covid infection can be serious for anyone, not just 'the vulnerable'
63 Covid infection can be exceptionally serious for 'the vulnerable'
64 Sensible proportionate Covid mitigations are good for the economy in both the short and long term
65 Long Covid is not caused by anxiety
66 Covid infections increase your risk of death from other causes
67 Covid brain damage can cause anxiety, depression, memory loss, character change, mania and more
68 One way masking is only partially effective
69 A society with no covid mitigations forces vulnerable people into high risk choices or their own personal lockdown
70 Covid infection creates vulnerable people
71 Covid is not mysterious. How it moves and spreads is governed by simple and easily understandable science
72 The amount of Covid virus you inhale may affect the seriousness of your illness
73 The duration of social interactions may affect the amount of Covid virus you inhale
74 We don't "all have to get it"
75 We don't "all have to get it" repeatedly
76 The human brain finds it hard to focus on multiple subjects, so it's easy to forget that there are multiple aspects to the problem of Covid
77 Immunity debt is a fiction created by people who told you that covid was over, mild, or beneficial
78 High prevalence of Covid causes harm to healthcare systems including both basic and emergency care
79 High prevalence of Covid correlates precisely with long delays for ambulances in the UK
80 There is no 'cure' for long covid
81 Exercise can be detrimental to long covid sufferers
82 Long Covid is not just persistent symptoms of covid, new symptoms can occur weeks, months, or even years later
83 Many Long Covid sufferers infected in first wave are not improving
84 Long Covid has over 200 possible symptoms
85 Surviving one covid infection does not guarantee survival of a second or subsequent infection
86 You can be reinfected by Covid within days tern
87 Covid virus can persist in viral reservoirs within the body after short term infection is over
88 Avoiding an infection is almost* always beneficial.
*you're creative, you'll be able to think of exceptions
89 Masks do not stop children developing language skills
90 Viral infections that damage the brain and body affect language skills
91 3 years into the covid pandemic we still don't truly know the long term effects of Covid
92 Covid infection seems to be able to make the body vulnerable to other types of infection: bacterial, fungal, viral
93 Covid causes deaths for longer than 28 days, so 28 day stats are an ineffective guide
94 The debate about being hospitalised 'with or from' covid is often a deliberate distraction.
95 Catching Covid while in hospital is not beneficial for inpatients
96 Practising healthcare workers do not necessarily keep up to date with latest research on covid or guidance on protective equipment and mitigations tern
97 Vaccines on their own are not enough to stop this pandemic
98 Evidenced data on the effects of covid is readily available and can be found with little effort
99 More is being learnt about Covid by serious researchers every minute
100 There was nothing beneficial about a covid infection before vaccination, and there's nothing beneficial about a covid infection now
101 Covid particles can hang in the air, so an empty room is not necessarily a safe room
102 Covid particles can hang in the air, so can move through a building via ventilation ducts
103 Some covid commentators have built their reputation and fanbase on incorrect optimistic predictions and have failed to admit their mistakes or correct them
104 A balance does have to be struck somewhere between total lockdown and absolute freedom, these are not the only two options
105 Pretending covid does not exist has not succeeded as a preventative tactic
106 In a reasonable world 'living with covid' should mean doing something about it rather than ignoring it
107 Covid infections can cause erectile dysfunction
108 Covid infections can damage the placenta
109 Wide spread of Covid can be avoided or reduced
110 'Endemicity' is not a good thing and should certainly not be a goal
111 The eyes are a potential avenue of infection, even if less common than breath or touch
112 Long Covid is not laziness
113 Long Covid sufferers are not snowflakes
114 Long Covid is not imagined
115 Long Covid sufferers are not doing it for attention
116 Covid can be transmitted in classrooms
117 There is no age group that is at no risk from covid
118 Vaccines can reduce the chance of infection and onwards transmission, but they do not prevent them.
119 Covid may spread via poo particles, making communal toilets an area of risk, and toilet air hazardous
120 Some people, for example the immunocompromised, do not respond to vaccination in a way that will mitigate infection, and run a high risk from infection
121 People who are unvaccinated are far more likely to suffer severe illness, hospitalisation, disability, or death than vaccinated
122 Covid is not evolving to become less harmful
123 Some variants may have combinations of mutations that cause different symptoms and preferentially damage different organs.
124 Newborn babies can catch Covid and are not able to be vaccinated
125 Covid infection for newborns can be extremely problematic
126 Babies can spread covid
127 Covid can damage blood consistency and circulatory system causing clotting in every part of body
128 Covid infection can interfere with the immune system allowing other dormant viruses like herpes and Epstein Barr (glandular fever, mono) to reactivate in the body
129 Air filters reduce the risk of transmission overall, but do not prevent close range transmission
130 Covid infection can cause hair loss
131 You cannot tell someone is vulnerable by looking at them
132 You cannot know if you are vulnerable
133 A significant proportion of spread is by people who are not yet displaying any symptoms
134 Covid is just "like a flu" if you think of flu as something that matches all the info in this thread
135 Effects from some viruses are not seen for decades, and can then be devastating, eg polio
136 No one has survived more than three years after catching Covid*
*because it has only been circulating among humans that long
137 A 'mild' initial infection can still lead to serious long term effects
138 Rampant spread of covid has probably allowed the rampant development of mutations
139 Covid can spread in any setting, including hospitals
140 There are no sector of workers, eg healthcare workers, that are immune to covid
141 Everyone who is infected with Covid, whatever age or status, has an increased risk of stroke, thrombosis, heart attack, aneurysm, and more during the initial infection and for a significant time period afterwards
142 Meeting in crowded places, indoor or outdoor, increases risk of infection
143 Covid can be spread in food venues, bars, and cafés
144 Government choices on covid mitigations are often made for popularity and political reasons rather than scientific or public health reasons
145 Catching Covid during pregnancy increases the risk that your child will be born with congenital anomalies, especially central nervous system and genitourinary anomalies
(Covid can mess up the blueprint that guides the assembly of your developing baby)
146 For many Long Covid sufferers, Long Covid is a hideous and long lasting misery
147 The numbers of mechanical ventilation beds occupied are no longer a good indication of the number of seriously ill covid patients in hospitals.
148 Covid isn't only bad if it affects the lungs, but if it does you can be in big trouble very quickly
149 Covid is not a seasonal virus that only comes at one time of year
150 Covid is transmissible in all climates, hot, cold, wet, dry
151 This isn't the last wave
152 Nor is the next one
153 The people who were wrong about Covid in 2020, were also wrong about Covid in 2021, and are still wrong now
154 Vaccines have prevented tens of millions of deaths from covid.
500,000 deaths prevented in the UK alone
155 Hand sanitisation should not be prioritised ahead of air hygiene
But still keep your hands clean
156 It's actually possible to tell how bad covid hospitalisations in the UK are getting just by listening out for the frequency of ambulance sirens
157 There have already been more covid hospitalisations in the UK in 2022 with three whole months left and a huge wave to come than in 2020 or 2021
158 Reported covid data lags:
- Symptoms lag behind infection
- Testing lags behind symptoms
- Hospitalisation lags behind symptoms and testing
- Death lags behind symptoms and hospitalisations
"but deaths aren't going up" is meaningless
159 Death is not the only bad outcome
160 A parent dying from covid is bad for the mental health of a school child
161 Covid has orphaned over ten million children worldwide
162 You may not test positive on a lateral flow test for a number of days after you develop symptoms
163 Covid can trigger vast numbers of tiny blood clots in the smallest blood vessels called capillaries, reducing the efficiency of blood flow to any tissue
164 Covid can trick your body into attacking your liver
165 There is no evidence that children are not infectious after three days of symptoms
166 There is plenty of evidence that children can remain infectious as long as adults
167 Plastic see through face shields protect against spit, but do not protect against covid that moves like smoke
168 The next month of statistics of 'within 28 days of Covid' deaths are already fixed by the number of Covid infections that took place in the last month
169 You can't stop covid infections by not reporting them
170 The tools to combat covid are far more readily available to the rich and influential
171 Covid can trigger diabetes
172 Covid can cause your teeth to fall out
173 Covid can trigger epilepsy
174 Covid may lower your body's natural ability to fight cancer
175 Covid damages body tissue
Your body is completely made of body tissue or things made by body tissue
176 Re: 158, You don't find out how bad a wave is until after it is passing, so don't believe anyone who says "this wave is mild"
177 Covid was mostly likely the main cause of that liver damage in kids
178 Society doesn't see the worst long covid sufferers, because they are unable to leave their house, bed, or hospital
179 The end of the pandemic is not in sight
180 Your pets can catch Covid from you
181 People who tell you optimistic things about Covid do not necessarily have your best interests at heart
182 Covid can trigger or make worse POTS.
(POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, probably needs its own whole thread. In a nutshell... no, I don't think I can. But trust me, it's a nightmare)
183 Covid, like many infections, can trigger a type of brain swelling in children called PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) that can radically alter a child's personality
184 On average, everyone who has caught covid has given it to more people than gave it to them
185 You can be infected by multiple variants at the same time
186 Children do not need to catch Covid to build immunity
187 Covid infection in children can trigger swelling throughout the body called pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (which means that Covid infection in children can trigger swelling throughout the body)
188 Covid can damage your optic nerve causing loss of sight
189 Covid can damage your olfactory nerve causing loss or distortion of tears and smell
190 Covid can damage your hearing.. One common hearing problem is tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or rattling in the ears
191 No wave will ever bring herd immunity
192 Covid is evolving to evade our bodies' biochemical defence systems and the pharmaceutical treatments we use to fight it, but it will never ever be able to evolve to avoid hepa filters
193 It will only take one single new evasive variant to totally escape all the scant immunity that has been acquired from vaccinations and infections
194 Covid infection can have a massive impact on the menstrual cycle
(and vaccines can too to a lesser degree)
195 Women make up 70% of healthcare workers worldwide, a sector that has disproportionately suffered during the pandemic
196 A single covid infection can damage your lungs equivalent to 15 (fifteen) years of aging
197 Covid particles move in the air by diffusion, which means they spread out slowly through still air, decreasing in concentration, and they move by convection, carried on draughts, when they can potentially remain concentrated.
198 Asthma sufferers are at significantly increased risk during and after Covid infections
199 In the UK there has been a significant excess death toll during the pandemic, and it has remained constantly high during 2022, at higher than 10% above expected deaths.
200 The peaks of the excess death graphs in the UK for 2022 coincide with the times of high prevalence of Covid.
201 Time from infection with covid to first symptoms is about two days
202 It can take 8-10days from the start of first symptoms to the onset serious illness.
203 Most of the immediate symptoms of the initial Covid infection are the body's reaction to the virus (temperature, sweating, headache), not necessarily the damage that the virus is causing.
That can come later
204 High prevalence of Covid is a government choice, not an inevitability
205 Engineers, aerosol scientists, and physicists often know more about how Covid spreads than many doctors and healthcare workers do.
206 Vaccines are not causing excess deaths
207 Covid is causing excess deaths
208 One person with a covid infection can infect a whole community if there are no measures in place to reduce spread.
209 Lockdowns do not cause brain damage, Covid causes brain damage
210 Covid brain damage can present in many different ways, but one of the most common is anxiety
211 Compromise after differences of opinion about Covid prevention measures does not have equal impact on the disagreeing parties. Compromise discomforts minimisers. Compromise endangers the vulnerable.
212 'One way masking' makes people who want to ignore covid uncomfortable.
213 'One way masking' endangers the vulnerable
214 Symptoms are not an indication of infectivity
215 Covid's main entry method for human cells is a protein on the surface of the cell wall called the 'ACE2 receptor'. Cells throughout the body have these receptors, so Covid can damage any of these cells and cause problems in any organ.
216 People who are concerned about the dangers do not want the pandemic to continue
217 Talking about the pandemic does not make the pandemic continue
218 Mitigations do not make the pandemic continue
219 People who take precautions against catching Covid are not anxious, they are sensible
220 Covid is not 'evolving into a dead end branch of mutation that will end the pandemic'.
221 Doctors often have no idea about how Covid works
222 Doctors often have no idea how Long Covid works
223 The initial symptoms of covid can look radically different from individual to individual
224 The gradual symptoms of Long Covid can look radically different from individual to individual
225 You can be very infectious before displaying symptoms
226 Covid can cause long term damage to your body that you can't see or feel
227 No one knows what multiple covid infections will do in the long term to children
228 No one knows what multiple covid infections will do in the long term to adults
229 Some mitigations to reduce the chance or risk of Covid are more effective than others
230 Having any covid mitigations in place is better than having no covid mitigations in place
231 The negative mental health impacts of a serious covid infection are greater than the negative mental health impacts of simple mitigations
232 Kids can catch Covid
233 Kids can get seriously ill from Covid
234 Kids can die from Covid
235 Kids can spread Covid
236 Kids do not need to catch Covid for their immunity
237 'Immunity by infection' is not better than immunity by vaccine
238 Kids can spread Covid to other kids
239 Kids can spread Covid to adults, including their carers and workers like teachers, nursery carers, and school staff
240 A tiny proportion of a huge number is still a big number: Covid may only kill a few of the people it infects, but it infects a lot of people
241 A moderate percentage of a huge number is still a large number: Covid may cause Long Covid in about a fifth of cases*. A fifth of a huge number of cases is a large number.
*roughly, depending on definition and methodology
242 Covid has probably killed about 1 in 300 people worldwide
243 Vaccines do not prevent infection
244 Vaccines do not prevent transmission
245 When a vaccinated person infects someone else, the infection is not more mild
246 Covid is not a hoax
247 The vaccines are what they say they are
248 Someone whose covid is presenting as vomiting and diarrhoea can still spread the virus by aerosols.
249 Lateral Flow Tests, also known as Rapid Antigen Tests, are more likely to test positive when someone is infectious, as opposed to when they are just infected.
250 Covid can shrink your brain
251 A Covid infection elevates your risk of multiple diseases for at least a year after infection.
252 Covid vaccines can reduce the length of time you are infectious for during an infection, therefore helping reduce the risk of transmission.
253 Covid vaccines can reduce the amount of virus that you produce while infectious, therefore helping reduce the risk of transmission.
254 Long Covid is not caused by lockdowns, it is caused by Covid
255 Long Covid is not caused by anxiety, it is caused by Covid
256 Covid can cause brain inflammation which can cause many brain dysfunctions including anxiety
index tags: Resource List, Covid, Pandemic, Twitter, Backup, @Enichan, @IronProle, @1goodtern, Aaron Collins, @masknerd, Project N95, @ProjectN95
category tags: Resource Lists, Tweets