Two years ago today I tested positive for Covid. I was fit and healthy and expected to be back to normal in a few days. It's been two years and I still can't walk 50 yards.
The only people who think #LongCovid is no big deal are those who don’t know enough about it.
From Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:
"Until now, people who suffered mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 were thought to have dodged the brunt of the virus’s brutal side effects. But new evidence has revealed that anyone infected with COVID is at higher risk for heart issues—including clots, inflammation, and arrhythmias—a risk that persists even in relatively healthy people long after the illness has passed."
I see people, smart people, justify the argument that the latest #covid19 variants are more mild by the fact that people are getting less sick (during the acute phase). In fact, many people are completely asymptomatic.
That argument might make sense if this was a respiratory illness, such as a cold. But it's not - its vascular. It enters the body by way of the respiratory system, but it manifests itself in the bloodstream, and lives in internal organs such as the heart, brain, and others.
The respiratory symptoms people typically show are when the body recognizes the intruder and launches a counterattack to it.
The fact there is little to no immune response to an invading virus is incredibly bad.
The fact the body no longer recognizes the virus as an invader possibly is due to an impaired/rewired immune system (we know Covid damages the immune system).
It likely also means the virus is mutating to better evade the immune response (this has been documented in newer mutations).
We have constantly and consistently underestimated this virus at every turn. For some reason we want to keep wishing this thing to be nothing to worry about, instead of focusing on just how bad it could be.
Some people argue that a virus should become less dangerous to humans over time, in order to improve its chances of reproducing and growing.
There's no reason that it has to follow this route, however.
In reality, the better the virus is at disguising its damage, the better it becomes at transmitting, because we have become less likely to take steps to block it.
And there is zero reason to expect that it suddenly stopped causing long term harms ( #LongCOVID ). By it's very definition, long term effects of current variants won't be known for a while. And fundamentally, this virus has not become less dangerous.
SARS-CoV-2 attacks the mitochondria in cells, depleting their energy.
"researchers found that the virus blocks specific genes that use oxygen to create ATP, forcing the body to deplete finite energy reserves in the body. Without an energy source, cells throughout the body begin to starve, with the cells powering the brain and the heart suffering the most.”
HANNAH DAVIS: No. That is a narrative that has been perpetuated, I think, in order to help communicate that the pandemic is over when it’s not. The CDC and census have a Household Pulse Survey that actually just released new data, and showed that the rates of long COVID in the U.S. adult population have actually jumped tremendously since the last time they counted."
• Mask wearers are immunocompromised.
• Mask wearers are sick.
• Mask wearers are caregivers of high risk people.
• Mask wearers know that #CovidVax is not enough to stop transmission.
• Mask wearers are healthy and want to STAY that way.
Fuck it. This was my 2023: getting married, almost dying, learning that the thing about almost dying is that nobody cares except for the people who care so much that it rewrites the world around you, the way that scientists love, the fact that at the end of the day we are our cells, what it means to get caught up inside of #LongCovid while everyone talks about it but nobody listens, the cruelty of doctors, how much we try not to see it all.
This is a pretty incredible piece of work impacting #LongCovid future treatments that I just made my neuroscientist wife explain to me. Potentially a big finding and here's a good readable summary:
Politicians will use the end of the #COVID emergency as an excuse to do nothing. But what they really should be doing is shifting to long-term strategies to mitigate ongoing death & harm:
Study reveals how #SARSCoV2 alters mitochondria, leading to energy outages and organ failure
> An interdisciplinary #COVID19 International Research Team found that SARS-CoV-2 alters mitochondria on a genetic level, leading to widespread "energy outages" throughout the body and its major organs.
Welp. The buried lede in this study is that even people who had #Covid but supposedly don't have #LongCovid still show cognitive slowing (compared to Novids), and "the data indicate that this impairment does not improve over time"*
*in LC people, less clear for nonLC
Good luck with the plan to just let everyone get this all the time, eh
For those of you not familiar with the medical term “fatigue,” let me describe it. I experienced it while having mono, undergoing chemotherapy, and again now with #LongCovid.
Think back to a time when you were as tired as you’ve ever been. Not sleepy, but completely physically exhausted, to where you couldn’t wait to get into bed.
Now imagine that you’re in bed, but you don’t feel as if you’ve laid down yet. You’re still that tired. Hours pass. Maybe you sleep all night. You wake up, and you’re still that exhausted. The exhaustion is deep in your bones, and nothing can relieve it.
You can’t think straight. You can’t hold a conversation. You can’t read because holding a book or tablet is too tiring and you can’t focus anyway. You can’t watch anything.
You don’t let yourself cry because then you’d have to blow your nose afterwards, and you’re too tired to do that.
Maybe in a day or two you start feeling as if you can get up and do something, so you tackle the most urgent thing. Or you get a burst of adrenaline and manage to deal with a crisis. Then you’re back to being that exhausted. It goes on for days, or weeks, or months.
You feel as if you should just make yourself exercise a little, and then it’ll get better. You do something small, like a walk. Or you get online for a couple of rousing discussions. The next morning, you wake up exhausted again. You overdid it. Of course you hide this from your friends and colleagues, because nobody wants to hear the same thing every day: “I’m completely exhausted.”
This is what millions of people with #LongCovid are experiencing, and we don’t know yet how to treat it or when it will end.
“Well, it only happens to people with comorbidities.”
“Well, it only happens to old people.”
“Well, it only happens to the unvaccinated.”
“Well, it only happens to the immunocompromised.”
“Well, it only happens to poor people in frontline jobs with no healthcare.”
“Well, it only happens to people coinfected with COVID and another virus.”
At some point, we have to realize our excuses for ignoring #COVID19 are not just wrong but shockingly uncaring and immoral. #LongCOVID can happen to anyone.
I cannot express how huge this is. Being able to get a diagnosis via blood test is so HUGE. For those lucky enough to have never experienced it, many of the conditions along with #MECFS that they hope this blood test could diagnose with over 90% certainty normally take YEARS to be diagnosed. #LongCovid#fibromyalgia#ms#LymeDisease
These are all life changing illnesses. The quicker you are diagnosed the quicker you can be treated.
#LongCOVID patients are walking out of studies because doctors are refusing to wear a mask. All patients have the right to access healthcare safely. Healthcare workers have the responsibility to do no harm.
An old practice from #AIDS movements that I think we should try out for this pandemic: at the beginning of events, inviting audiences to call out the names of people who aren’t here because of the virus. Covid deaths, long covid, people sick today, immuno-inaccessible events, caregivers, etc. It’s so hidden, people think they don’t know anyone despite the huge numbers.
Quote from an interview with Dr. Asad Khan, talking about Long Covid:
"We worship exercise, and exercise is good for most people, but when you have a post viral illness, it is the worst thing you can do ... and this is not really well known.
So there are other illnesses for example like M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis), Long Covid, and Lyme disease, for example, where if you make people exercise they only get worse."
A harrowing tale about a middle schooler who got #LongCOVID. He had lost 10 pounds and all his energy; could barely walk around the block; and went from being fully functional to needing 24-7 help. But the real story is the journey of the denial and judgement that this boy and his mother had to face.
No one wants to read this, but we all need to know it. The more we get infected with #COVID19 , the likelier this becomes.