It’s 15 March #LongCovidAwareness Day.
It exists.
It’s real.
It’s disabling to many.
It can affect anyone regardless of their previous health.
It needs more research.
It need equitable clinical pathways.
It needs employment fairness.
It needs destigmatising.
Give your support.— Prof Nisreen Alwan 🌻 (@Dr2NisreenAlwan) March 15, 2023
This is why I wear a mask.
I'll repeat that it is likely we will see a wave of a mystery disease of older people in 20-30 years, which will be sequelae of Covid-19. https://t.co/gI5baI3p9O
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) March 7, 2023
From a long, worthwhile thread:
This is a very interesting article, featuring a quote from yours truly about how many lives *could* have been lost in the US due to the pandemic before vaccines. This is my reasoning 1/n https://t.co/TFFLjBJjrO
— Bill Hanage (@BillHanage) March 10, 2023
Unpaywalled link to the Washington Post story:
… What unfolded in March 2020 was a national shutdown unlike anything the country had tried before.
The shutdown was profoundly strange and has had lasting effects on our national psyche. But memories fade, circumstances change, opinions shift. Three years later, the decision by local, state and federal government officials to limit spread of the virus continues to spark rancorous battles in the pandemic-fueled arenas of the culture war.
So what will the country do the next time a deadly virus comes knocking on the door?…
A traveler from China brought the first documented coronavirus case to the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Jan. 20, 2020. For weeks afterward there was only a smattering of isolated cases, and no deaths.
But this was a stealthy virus, able to move among people who didn’t show any symptoms…
The administration’s top doctors ultimately persuaded President Donald Trump to issue a national public health order, a stay-at-home guideline titled “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” effective March 16. The doctors knew a mere 15 days of social distancing and other precautions would not be enough to bring the contagion under control. But that’s all they thought they could sell to Trump and his aides.
“The president listened — to his credit — listened to what Dr. Birx and I said about it,” said Anthony S. Fauci, until recently the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The scale of the viral calamity became increasingly clear. At a briefing on March 31 to announce the 30-day extension of the shutdown, Birx provided shocking new modeling projections: 100,000 to 240,000 people would die of covid-19 in coming months even if the country followed the mitigation efforts. Without the restrictions, modelers forecast as many as 2.2 million deaths. Trump was persuaded…
In public health, though, success is measured against counterfactual outcomes: hypothetical infections, conjectured suffering, imaginary deaths.
By contrast, the pain of the national shutdown — businesses going under, weddings postponed, protracted isolation of the elderly, learning losses among schoolkids — is glaringly obvious. Critics of pandemic restrictions contend that the cure was worse than the disease. In response, Republican-dominated legislatures in many states have passed laws limiting public health interventions, such as vaccine or mask mandates.
The pandemic schooled everyone. It taught many office workers how to function remotely. It taught restaurateurs how to turn sidewalks into dining spaces. It taught the CDC how critically important it is to communicate clearly with the public — and the consequences of failing to do so.
And it taught the opponents of the public health authorities how to block government mandates and restrictions.
This is not an esoteric dilemma: There are more pathogens out there poised to spill into the human species. A novel strain of avian influenza, H5N1, already has seized the attention of scientists as a potential spillover hazard.
Wachter, of UC San Francisco, said the opposition to emergency measures “will emerge on Day One” of any new pandemic: “It will create a tension and a level of pushback against any public health mandates to do anything.”
Doing pieces on how privileged and well-resourced people are taking more risks with COVID is manufactured consent. It leaves out the many stories of people who are being excluded from society and can't get access to essential needs like medical care due to lack of protections.
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) March 12, 2023
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The pandemic at 3 yearshttps://t.co/rvOR5COfai by @CarlaKJohnson @AP
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 10, 2023
Short thread — read the whole thing:
On March 11, 2020, @pahowho characterized #COVID19 as a “pandemic,” stating, “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”
Here @KFF lists 10 key data points that illuminate the challenges, and progress, made to date.
MORE pic.twitter.com/JqQhq2UL5I— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 12, 2023
— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) March 12, 2023
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Let's protect our children from COVID as we protect astronauts.
Wear tight-fitting N95 (or better) masks. pic.twitter.com/QGqn5vsawV
— Augusto Carballido 😷 (@AstroAugusto) March 12, 2023
I signed this. What needs to happen in the next pandemic: TRIPS waiver, tech transfer, regional manufacturing, robust communications & community engagement campaigns at the outset, @AfricaCDC a key decisionmaker in future countermeasures platform. https://t.co/A8G59rs6Jb
— Dr Fifa A Rahman (@FifaRahman) March 13, 2023
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“Long COVID has not received anywhere near the same level of attention or resources: the result has been widespread harm to health, societies, and economies. 3 years in, more is needed to recognise, treat, and support patients with long COVID.” 💯https://t.co/oJXNqC9snq
— Prof. Akiko Iwasaki (@VirusesImmunity) March 11, 2023
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Things will look different in twenty years — hopefully, sometimes for the better:
Nearly everyone has some form of immunity against the coronavirus now. But most of us didn’t acquire that protection as kids. When the coronavirus reaches everyone early in life, will COVID be a different disease? @KatherineJWu reports: https://t.co/gnSr9spcXr
— Helen Haskell (@hhask) March 14, 2023
Who is most at risk for #LongCovid? New Harvard research has found that in the US, #Covid "long haulers" were more likely to be older & female, w/ chronic conditions. The nat'l study focused on people w/ private insurance or Medicare Advantage coverage https://t.co/ubBmhgEJ1j
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) March 10, 2023
Friends, we are once again putting out a big call for ANYONE who has had COVID and FULLY RECOVERED (no persistent symptoms) in the NEW YORK CITY area to assist us with a #LongCovid study. If this sounds like you, please contact us at [email protected]
— Putrino Lab (@PutrinoLab) March 14, 2023
I've published a detailed intro to CO2 monitoring.
– How to use it
– What it tells you
– What levels should be
– Limitations you need to be aware of
– Gauging risk for airborne disease transmissionhttps://t.co/QXiUO8E9Bq— Joey Fox (@joeyfox85) March 12, 2023
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My friends & colleagues in India are still angry with him for arguing in Jan 2021 that most Indians were immune (they were NOT) & that it would be harmful & unethical to vaccinate them.
Shortly after his article, the horrific 2nd wave happened. pic.twitter.com/czXxUD8Wdo
— Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) March 13, 2023
‘Accidental’ citywide trial…
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Why do we work so hard to counter misinformation about COVID vaccines?
Because the damage caused by misinformation is real & long-lasting.
25 years after Wakefield's fraudulent study, MMR vaccine rates are lagging & case of measles rising.https://t.co/s9rh4IeQxC pic.twitter.com/D7YuPnDTPZ
— Glen Pyle | #WomensHeartHealth ❤️🩹 (@glenpyle) March 12, 2023
Danny Dumbf*ck may’ve deserved it, but what about those poor kids?
… For the last decade, Lemoi had taken a daily dose of veterinary ivermectin, a dewormer designed to be used on large animals like horses and cows. In 2021, as ivermectin became a popular alternative COVID-19 treatment among anti-vaxxers, he launched what became one of the largest Telegram channels dedicated to promoting the use of it, including instructions on how to administer ivermectin to children.
But despite Lemoi’s death, the administrators of his channel are pushing his misinformation—even as his followers share their own worrying possible side effects from taking ivermectin and some question the safety of the drug…
Lemoi began taking the version of ivermectin designed for animals on a daily basis in 2012, after he was diagnosed with Lyme disease, according to a detailed account of his medical history he gave on a podcast last November. He said then that five months after first taking the drug, he quit all other treatments and believed ivermectin had “regenerated” his heart muscle…
In the Telegram channel, administrators broke the news of his death to his followers. “Though it was obvious that Danny had the biggest heart, it was unbeknownst to him that his heart was quite literally overworking and overgrowing beyond its capacity, nearly doubled in size from what it should have been,” the admins wrote, adding: “We understand that this is going to raise questions for those who were following him.”
“Danny was fully convinced that his heart had regenerated after his incident with Lyme disease that almost ended in congestive heart failure,” the admins wrote, before claiming that “a family history of heart disease and chronic stress” were why his heart had ultimately become engorged. “All of his other organs were unremarkable,” the admins wrote. “And this was determined to be a death by unfortunate natural causes.” …
Some members of the group are taking ivermectin not only as a treatment against COVID, but as a cure-all for almost every disease—from cancer and depression, to autism and ovarian cysts—believing that every disease is caused by a parasite that is removed from the body by ivermectin, just as animals are given the drug to treat a variety of parasitic worms.
Ad Block ChoicesLemoi also formulated an ivermectin regimen for children, and numerous members of the group reported that they were using it. This week alone one member wrote that she had established another group for “parents of children on the spectrum, cerebral palsy, pans/panda, downs etc.,” who are using the Lemoi’s recommended children’s dosage…
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022 – First to Schynige Platte
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
75 new cases on 03/08/23.
80 new cases on 03/09/23.
73 new cases on 03/10/23.
78 new cases on 03/11/23.
71 new cases on 03/12/23.
44 new cases on 03/13/23.
43 new cases on 03/14/23.
Deaths now at 2206, up 7 since last week.
Hospital beds: we’re at 5% available now, including 20 ICU beds among 4 hospitals. The largest hospital still has no regular available beds, and it only has 2 available ICU beds (out of 130).
New Deal democrat
The 3rd annual spring respite in COVID is continuing.
The CDC’s variant update last Friday showed that XBB and it’s subvariants made up over 93% of all cases. In the Northeast, that was over 99% of cases! In the Pacific Northwest, where XBB was the lowest % of all cases, it still made up 84%. No new variant has appeared yet.
Biobot updated Monday to show 384 particles per mL, the lowest in 20 months except for 2 months last spring and 1 week in autumn 2021. The Northeast had its lowest level since summer 2021.
Sadly, both Our World in Data and 91-Divoc stopped updating confirmed cases and deaths one week ago. The loss of the latter data is particularly upsetting. The CDC may still update weekly, but there has been none since March 8. That showed an average of 266 deaths per day, the lowest ever since the onset of the pandemic except for 1 week in June 2021, but may simply reflect incomplete reporting. Only hospitalizations have continued to be updated daily, and at 19,900 are the lowest since early last May. Only June and July 2021 and mid-March through mid-May last year were lower.
Good news, if we can keep it.
Matt McIrvin
YouTuber Dianna Cowern, aka Physics Girl, has one of the more horrifying Long COVID cases I’ve heard of–she got it in 2022 and is chronically debilitated and bedridden with ME/CFS. (I heard about this from a video hosted in her stead by engineer/artist Simone Giertz, who has had public health struggles of her own.) No idea about her vaccination status but given her general attitude toward science it’s hard for me to imagine she wasn’t up to date.
Locally, according to all the stats, we seem to be getting a break: wastewater COVID levels are at their lowest point in almost a year, and hospitalizations and deaths seem to be following that trend. But among people I personally know it seemed like there was an outbreak going on over the past couple of weeks. Mostly goes to show the limits of extrapolating from statistics to your small-number situation.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I subscribe to her but don’t regular watch her stuff. Too bad. She seems like a great person.
eclare
Scheduled to get my second bivalent booster this Friday, six months after my first. I think this will bring my total number of shots to six?
NeenerNeener
@eclare: I tried to get a 2nd bivalent booster and when I showed up at the pharmacy the pharmacist refused as she’s waiting for clear guidance from the CDC. Let us know if you manage to get one.
RevRick
I know of a previously healthy, active, 50-year-old man, who developed Long COVID with severe, debilitating cardiac issues. He committed suicide, leaving behind his wife and three college-age children.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: I’ve been looking at a combination of covidactnow and various sites collecting Biobot data (Biobot itself, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and the state government’s COVID data site, which also has statewide case, hospital and vaccination info). All these are US-specific or more local.
eclare
@NeenerNeener: If the pharmacy where I am scheduled to go won’t do it, I’ll go to a different chain and claim it’s my first bivalent.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: Looking at the Missouri site, it seems that we didn’t have much of an uptick in the winter this year. Covid has had a winter peak and a summer peak the previous two years. Levels here are still low, although our smaller plant had a significant uptick in their last sample.
Other MJS
Great stuff. Thanks for your continued work on this, AL!
geg6
AL, you missed this idiocy from Tilda Swinton:
https://ew.com/movies/tilda-swinton-over-covid-safety-protocols-on-set/
I wouldn’t step foot on a set she’s on. And I think I’ll avoid her movies, just like, I am very sad to say, I am avoiding Woody Harrelson’s, for the same reasons. I’m done excusing or supporting idiots just because they are only artists and shouldn’t be taken seriously. They have influence over a lot of people, whether I like it or not. And though I probably agree with Woody on many other things political, I have vowed to stop giving people like him and Swinton a pass.
RedDirtGirl
Just reached out to Mount Sinai about their Long COVID study.
geg6
@eclare:
Everything I’ve been reading says that unless you are immunocompromised, you don’t need another bivalent booster until a year has passed. I don’t know what the policies at pharmacies or doctor offices are, but that seems to be the consensus of everything I’ve seen. My sister, who has just finished up a year of chemo and radiation for breast cancer, was told she could get it if she wanted to but that her treatment team didn’t see as necessary at this point. I found that reassuring.
YY_Sima Qian
There is no need to study counterfactual models to determine whether the lockdowns (& other NPIs) saved lives before vaccines became widely available. Just look at the deaths rates of the “Zero COVID” countries before vaccines became widely available, & compare them to the countries that gave up before that point, or the countries that never tried. This contrast was much remarked upon throughout 2020 & 2021. Are American talking heads still that prone to amnesia & navel gazing? (Rhetorical question.)
eclare
@geg6: That is reassuring, thanks. I have read some recs for six months, but that was a while back. I am still going to try to get one due to my unique circumstances.
stinger
Thank you for all this information, Anne.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 223 new Covid-19 cases on 11th March, for a cumulative reported total of 5,045,192 cases. 220 of these new cases were local infections; three new cases were imported. It also reported no deaths, for an adjusted cumulative total of 36,967 deaths – 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.73% of resolved cases.
11,269 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 10th March, with a positivity rate of 1.8%.
There were 9,380 active cases on 11th March, 30 more than the day before. 298 were in hospital. Five confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, four confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 193 patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,998,845 patients recovered – 99.1% of the cumulative reported total.
(For some reason, the numbers above have not been updated since 11th March.)
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 583 doses of vaccine on 14th March: 32 first doses, 58 second doses, 254 first booster doses, and 239 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,807,043 doses administered: 28,131,579 first doses, 27,543,880 second doses, 16,318,025 first booster doses, and 813,559 second booster doses. 86.1% of the population have received their first dose, 84.3% their second dose, 50.0% their first booster dose, and 2.5% their second booster dose.
YY_Sima Qian
The disease that is causing concern in China right now is the Influenza A strain that is sweeping across northern & central parts of the country, heading south. My wife, daughter, & in-laws all developed symptoms in a span of 24 hrs late last week. The index case in my household was probably my daughter who caught it at kindergarten. At one point, only 4 out of 19 kids in her class had shown up. Fortunately, the fevers only lasted a day in each case, & symptoms & sequalae are milder than the COVID-19 experience in Dec. I lucked out because I was on business travel last week, & I masked up in N95s as soon as I got home.
I am relieved that China is now recognizing the previously issued long term multiple-entry visas. That is one more hurdle removed for my parents to return to China. However, cross-Pacific flights between China & the US are still very few in number & extraordinarily expensive. This is only the case between China & the US, ticket prices to other parts of the world have returned to nearly pre-pandemic levels, & flights readily available. Apparently, the US is not happy that Chinese airlines can overly Russia, while the US airlines are forbidden from doing so (as part of the sanctions imposed when Russia re-invaded Ukraine, or as a matter of precaution). This results in the routes flown by the Chinese airlines being much shorter & consume less fuel, & thus more attractive & more profitable. The US is asserting that the discrepancy places the US airlines at an unfair disadvantage, insists that Chinese airlines avoid Russian airspace to & from the US, as well, & is holding the resumption of flights as leverage. I highly doubt China will give in. European airlines have the same complaint for the same reason, but they are lobbying the EU to allow them to overly Russia again.
Hopefully, this stand off can end in a couple of months. My parents are planning to come back to China in Q3.
WV Blondie
My sister and her partner were diagnosed with covid on Sunday. About a week after returning from … a cruise! Neither of them is very sick (thank Dog!), and they had all the vaxes and boosters, and did for the most part keep using masks when they went places like the grocery store. But they own a retail business and managed to avoid it for three years. So it only takes a tiny bit of overconfidence …
She lives less than a mile from me, and normally we get together at least once a week. Now? I’m going to wait at least a month – my husband has numerous underlying conditions.
MelissaM
Here’s one thing the pandemic changed for me: I’ll always keep a supply of N95-type masks on hand. Whether I wear one in daily life or not, that depends. But for traveling? Yes. Being sick and needing to be out in public? Yes. Early on I marveled at how I never expected I would have spent X dollars on masks, and now I know I’ll always be buying masks.
Another Scott
My J tested positive on Sunday and I did on Tuesday. She’s had a 1-2 degree fever. I’ve got aches and clogged sinuses. With any luck we’ll both be better this weekend.
Wear your mask – it’s still out there! (We’re in NoVA.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@YY_Sima Qian:
Are American talking heads still that prone to amnesia & navel gazing?
No. Most of them have taken the next step after amnesia & navel gazing and gone right to stuffing their pea sized brains where the sun don’t shine.
Bill Arnold
@geg6:
From the piece, bold mine. She literally considers it acceptable to inflict career-destroying cognitive damage on her co-workers.
Xavier
Ivermectin is not used just on large animals, it’s the active ingredient in HeartGard, given to dogs for heartworm prevention.
Tenar Arha
@eclare: definitely let us know if this works, bc I’ve checked & they don’t seem to want to give it
ETA if they know you’ve already had a bivalent one that is
SomeRandomGuy
One of Long Covid’s main problems is fatigue.
Not sure I shared this, but in studying CFS, I found that the proper term to use for searching is not “fatigue” but “malaise.” Why?
If you feel fatigued, you probably don’t read it as fatigue. You read it as being “a bit sluggish” or something like that. You blast through, with willpower and coffee, you see. If your body slowed down, because you were fatigued, your ancestor probably got eaten by something; it really makes sense that we’re used to powering through times of fatigue.
Malaise – that’s a feeling of sickness, “maybe I’m coming down with something” or “I can’t put a finger on it, but something is wrong.” That’s what long covid people might start with: they’re not quite back to their proverbial “old self” and they aren’t sure what’s wrong, but something is.
One other thing: if a person has shortness of breath, they often have fatigue, and might think that it’s *only* their breath. After all, if you’re gasping for air, of course you’re wiped out! But when they get their wind back, and are breathing normally, fatigue would go away *if* it was just shortness of breath.
It’s possible to spend a lot of years, in ever worsening fatigue, without quite putting together that you *are* fatigued – and there might be ways to help. (And if there aren’t ways to help, it can take a large group of angry people to spur research. We’re not like the UK, where we’d want to research everything our people suffer from, to save our medical system money over the long term.)