9. Third, in my own experience, people do not understand Long Covid. They have a fixed view of it that can be summed up as 'severe symptoms that do not resolve'. It is also seen as rare, which is why I know people with Long Covid who don't know they have Long Covid.
Most people also don’t understand the math of transmission and exponential growth. “Rare” times the entire population is a bigger number than people realize.
Justin has #LongCOVID. Like many of us (not bedbound by Long COVID, which many sadly are) - outwardly he looks fine. But Justin very much isn't fine, And he's been sick for 5+ years now - youtu.be/p8HPBmtHzEg?...
10. In addition, the vast majority of people are not accustomed to viewing acute diseases as risk factors. Most people don't grasp that a cardiovascular event could be triggered by a mild bout of Covid-19 they had three months previously, for example.
It took my long covid 2 years to clog the one critical coronary artery that caused massive heart attack. I've had POTS for 5 years now and have histamine responses to a ridiculous number of things.
11. These three factors: lack of triggering the human disgust mechanism, inability to be generalised, and lack of widespread understanding of sequelae of infection all contribute to the societal denial of the dangers of Covid-19. /end
Great thread!
Great 🧵! I’d suggest #4 The sociopathy, gaslighting, minimizing by public health officers. Denying the obvious that it was aerosol spread Denying the need for mandatory and 95 masks Abandoning healthcare workers and patients by not having mandatory in 95s in all healthcare settings and
Effective Public health is one of the greatest losses of COVID. It was politicized early on in order to protect employers and return people to unsafe work places.
It sure is Before Covid, I completely trusted public health. I had no reason not to trust public health. After public health lies, gaslighting, disinformation, minimization, I don’t trust public health at all, at least not on Covid Instead I trust epidemiologists and doctors who know Covid
refusing to be honest about the risk of long Covid to the public, what long Covid was in the many ways it could harm people Refusing to have an effective campaign to educate the public on how Covid was aerosol spread the need for a 95 mask not inferior surgical and huge LT risks of long Covid
Covid does cause the human disgust mechanism in me as I always end up with nausea and diarrhoea! Perhaps that's why I still wear a mask in indoor spaces.
Excellent thread, Conor. You've nailed it - and this is what makes it such a horrific situation to be in and nobody cares, and nobody gives a damn about getting it or spreading it as there's no visible accountability.
So, about this measles thing...
You have excellently put into words what I have thought for a long time. Congratulations for condensing the whole COVID disaster into one succinct thread!
I propose that our 20th century framing for infectious disease prevents folks form understanding covid. ie ID is fits into 1 once and done 2 vaccine-prevented 3 unimportant or 4 happens to people somewhere else. And it all over after acute phase. Measles polio flu Ebola, respectively
Its ability to spread at a distance among asymptomatic people is also unhelpful
Yes indeed. This might be its sneakiest superpower. That a full 60% (according to Anthony Fauci) of acute infections are asymptomatic, and yet these people are just as contagious as those with with symptoms.
I suspect that even if it didn't exhibit asymptomatic spread, we would still be in this mess.
Thank you, Conor. I had never considered the lack of triggering the human disgust mechanism as contributing to denial.