I'm going to do some coverage on here of the assisted dying debate. If you're not interested please mute this thread now. It'll probably go on a while.

Finally, here’s the lay summary of our #LongCovid paper on
@independentsage.bsky.social
Substack! open.substack.com/pub/independ...
/20

I had a go at summarising the whole paper in a single graphic. I’m not the world’s best artist so if someone wants to play with this and improve it, feel free! 17/

In the paper, we have a huge table listing various symptoms along with current recommended management. Here’s the first two rows of that table. 16/

Generalist primary care clinicians (e.g. GPs) have a vital role to play in the management of this miserable condition. The opposite of gaslighting is engagement, active listening, acknowledging the story, witnessing suffering and getting your head round what’s at stake for the patient. 15/

Long COVID results from bad stuff occurring at the micro level. The literature on this is vast and confusing. Coauthor Janko Nikolitch cut through it nicely in this panel. Three PRIMARY pathological mechanisms (viral persistence, immune dysregulation, endothelial inflammation/thrombosis). 11/

The longer you’ve had Long COVID, the lower your chances of full recovery. This is why everyone with significant symptoms of this disease should be seen *promptly* for assessment and treatment. 10/

Long COVID is a multi-system disease. Can cause almost every symptom in the book. But (and I learnt this from sitting in on Long COVID clinic hearing patient stories) there is often a *distinctive narrative* of how these symptoms fit together and fluctuate/persist/progress/resolve over time. 7/

Reproducing my thread from the Other Place on our Lancet paper 'Long COVID - a clinical update'. Coauthors Manoj Sivan, Alice Perlowski, Janko Nikolich. 1/

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...?

It’s extremely crap* to deal with #LongCovid. If you don’t already have it, I recommend taking steps to avoid getting it, because it is extremely crap* and difficult to treat, while lots of people like to tell you to yoga it better (even if someone is bedridden) and medical gaslighting is rife…

Patients and activists are putting up billboards all around the world (including the UK, US, and Canada) to warn people about Long COVID and advocate for prevention and treatment. Great work!

Nothing makes me more apprehensive regarding H5N1 than human cases in which the route of infection is unknown. The previously hospitalised patient in Missouri in August. The Canadian teenager with severe illness. Now the child in California.

This is unfortunately a well-known experience to anyone who experienced disability prior to the pandemic. And another reminder that disabled folks warned everyone about this mass-disabling event and how it would irrevocably change people’s lives.

Hi @medsky.social could you possibly also make a category for #LongCovid and #MECFS specialists? With 400 million Long Covid sufferers as of 08/2024, many of which have developed ME/CFS, and such a lack of knowledgeable clinical care, this would be really helpful 🙏

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Surprisingly poor results from 35 UK Long Covid specialist clinics.

The mean scores for fatigue, quality of life and work hardly improved at all.

WSAS: baseline: 21.3 - 6 months: 19.1
FACIT-F: baseline: 32 - 6 months: 29.1
EQ-5D-5L: baseline: 63 - 6 months: 64

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/1...

If you're new to RFK Jr studies, you may know about the vaccine & fluoride denial, but not that he's another pro-Kremlin voice in the incoming Trump administration. In business, I believe this is called a takeover.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...