I’m just here to connect with like-minded people who take (long) covid seriously and to keep up-to-date with the evidence. Views are my own.
#CovidIsAirborne
I’m beginning to realise that when people use the words ‘Covid is airborne’ most don’t understand what this means and why e.g. when I see my GP I’m more worried about whose been in their unventilated office in the past 48hrs than if they put on a mask for the short time I’m there
Just found out that my last (extremely lovely) friend who was masking has made the v difficult decision to stop. Makes me feel sad & alone but also so grateful to have found all you wise, caring SARS-CoV-2 savvy folk on this platform. Thank you for being here!!
My genuine concern is that a lot of people have now forgotten what it’s like to be well and this persistent state of ill-health is starting to become normalised.
Petty much every other person I know has a ‘cold’, cough and/or chest/sinus infection right now. Thankfully, they seem to have finally stopped blaming lockdowns for their weakened immune systems… But how many more years will we have to wait before they finally join the dots?
Right so my clinically vulnerable (Novid) mother’s been stuck in A&E for over 30 hours with multiple clots in her lungs. There are no hospital beds & not one health professional is masking to protect her from a Covid infection which could cause further clots. This is so wrong 🥲
I 😷 because I follow the evidence. I 😷 because the virus took away a big part of me in 2020 & I don’t want to lose any more of myself. I 😷 because I want to retain the ability to work & look after the people I love. I 😷 because I care.
#CovidIsAirborne
#BeKind
#LongCovid
That’s me just after my
#novavax
on Thursday! It’s been over 2 years since my last vaccine thanks to UK government not caring about people with LC/anyone. Had v bad side effects after AZ & Moderna. Pleased to report my Novavax experience has been so much better, I’m so relieved!
Well, I’ve just had to turn down another opportunity to present at a conference as everything is back to f-2-f. No hybrid options for people like me. The lack of accommodation for folks with LC and those wanting to be careful for the people they love is killing our careers 😢
Liverpool GP has highest rate of Long Covid patients in England, UK… 1/5 patients… yes that’s one in five … FFS why are we screaming into an abyss? This has to stop. People’s lives are being ruined & the economy is going to crash if people can’t work.
The UK Covid-19 inquiry continues. It’s so clear we couldn’t trust the government then so why on earth should we trust them now. Covid is not a cold. Covid is airborne. Covid (SARS2) continues to kill and destroy people’s lives. We are all at risk. It’s time to wake up.
What do most people think happened to everyone who got sick during the pandemic (which, incidentally, hasn’t ended)? Do they think people with
#LongCovid
mysteriously got better?
Hi everyone in our covid cautious/caring community. There are quite a few people right now still testing positive on day 10 despite feeling much better. Some are deeply kind individuals who want to keep others safe. Any advice for them as to when they can come out of isolation?
What I love about this photo is seeing a group of super smart athletes looking so confident and comfortable in their respirators. What a fantastic, positive image. Great to see these images being so widely cascaded. Thank you team 🇦🇺
Petty much every other person I know has a ‘cold’, cough and/or chest/sinus infection right now. Thankfully, they seem to have finally stopped blaming lockdowns for their weakened immune systems… But how many more years will we have to wait before they finally join the dots?
Now I’ve seen everything: a national Long Covid conference full of seemingly maskless, tightly packed together folks. No hybrid option (exclusion=discrimination). People with LC invited to attend this f-2-f event (note: LC risk increases with each infection).
Conclusion: WTF!
What I don’t understand of why every single parent is not screaming about this.. well I do, it’s because they don’t know! And there’s a simple solution: clean the air in schools and make boosters available to kids. It’s not rocket science! Please share the original post widely
@1goodtern
Yes, the number of children suffering from Long Covid nearly DOUBLED in a year between March 2023 & March 2024, soaring to over 111K children in England & Scotland.
That increase is equivalent to around 1,000 new cases of Long Covid in kids PER WEEK over the course of the year.
To all the kind people out there, if you see someone like me wearing a mask it may be because I have long Covid, it may be because I’m caring for someone I love undergoing chemotherapy, it may be both. It’s lonely behind a mask. Please smile at me and lift my heart. Thank you.
Here’s an idea for a horror film🍿Virus escapes from lab & replicates & mutates in the human 🧠 causing ‘host manipulation’: hosts experience reduced IQs & ability to assess risk. Worse with each infection. Humans go crazy & choose to go for brunch over their own survival. End.
@Ceri_turns
My friend who had stage 4 cancer was asked by a woman on the till why she was wearing a mask. She told her she was dying and didn’t want to spend her last precious days in bed sick with covid. That woman shut and never hassled my friend again.
@CounsellingSam
but they don’t ship to uk Sam.
Some of us are lobbying thefacemaskstore to see if they will supply them. If you have a medial appt and need one DM me and I will post. Am getting more in oct when partner goes to France
My mum has just been for a Covid booster. The vaccinator said she’d vaccinated 7000+ people recently and my mum was the only to check if she was getting the JN.1 one. The vaccinator was unmasked but said she wasn’t worried about getting covid as she tests every morning 🤔
So we couldn’t trust public health and governmental agencies at the start of the (ongoing) pandemic so why on earth do people think it’s ok now to continually expose themselves to a level 3 biohazard with no mitigations? 🤔
"Covid is not airborne it's droplets - surgical masks are fine"
Dr Barry Jones describes the "dishonesty" of the IPC cell & the WHO, originally categorising
#covid
as airborne but then insisting via social media and official guidance that it was not
@covidinquiryuk
Right, so we know that each SARS-CoV-2 variant which becomes dominant is even more transmissible (contagious) than the last one. Surely this means we’ll soon reach a point where it’s so contagious it’ll be almost impossible to dodge/mitigate. That’s a pretty terrifying prospect.
Good news - I have just been called by my pharmacy in Edinburgh and told they will be getting
#novavax
on 23rd. Offered appointment on 24th April. No request to identify a group of 5 people. £60
Right, so if you were a healthcare professional seeing someone with long Covid and were offered one of these lovely, life protecting FFP3s to wear which one would you choose?
Spoiler alert: duh don’t be stupid, the answer is none of them - obviously!!
I don’t want us to ‘learn to live with the virus’, I want us to ‘learn to live SAFELY with the virus’. Clean air in schools & workplaces; mask up in healthcare settings and treat people who want or need to be careful with kindness and respect
#CovidIsAirborne
#CovidIsNotOver
Has anyone else in the UK just had their appointment request for a novavax booster declined and been directed to the Dears pharmacy website where you can now only book a Pfizer booster. This is a disaster!
To all SARS-CoV-2 cautious folks still out there, let’s stop saying ‘cautious’ and use the term ‘careful’ to describe ourselves instead. Language matters and ‘careful’ so much better captures who we are: people who care about ourselves and people who care about those around us.
@DALupton
In my experience the people who are continuing to be COVID careful are thoughtful, intelligent and wise individuals who care deeply about a plethora of issues (Palestine, the environment etc) and are very kind. Something to be proud of I reckon.
For those in UK hoping to get two doses of
#Novavax
here is the correct info. The licence secured in 🇬🇧 means we can only get a 2nd dose at least 3 months after the 1st, though there’s a bit of wiggle room (in theory) if a clinician recommends this eg due to a weak immune system.
@GwynneMP
I strongly recommend you look at the responses to your post. Many have got considerably more likes than yours. Many come from people who are much more knowledgeable about SARS-CoV-2 mitigations than you. You might learn something enabling you to do your job better.
💙 Thanks to everyone in
@NHSEngland
for their hard work vaccinating as many people as possible.
Vaccines remain the best defence against Covid and flu for the most vulnerable and I encourage everyone eligible to take up the offer as soon as you can. 🦠
@CounsellingSam
Thank you for your courageous and honest tweets. There are so many people out there suffering with LC who are feeling isolated and abandoned. I pray we can use these experiences to lobby for more funding to help ensure people get the care and support they need.
Sadly, it’s been confirmed that Novavax won’t reach the UK till 22 April. I do hope we get v good uptake as Novavax is better & cheaper than mRNA options & has less side effects plus for some of us mRNAs are not an option. So we need to show there’s a v good market 4 Novavax
NOVAVAX COVID VACCINE UPDATE: Despite being told by Novavax that their Covid vaccine would be delivered to pharmacies from 1st April, we received an email from them yesterday at 3pm saying "The expected date of vaccine being available is at this point week commencing 22nd April".
To my best friend on the one year anniversary of your death. You retained your charisma, generosity & gratitude for life despite being failed by the 🏴🇬🇧NHS & staff who wouldn’t mask to keep you safe when you had so few precious days left. I miss you today more than ever ❤️.
@GwynneMP
@NHSEngland
Some of us can’t afford vaccines and aren’t eligible for free ones, also some of us to only tolerate Novavax and the updated version of that has been not yet been approved by MHRA. Ps a well-fitted respirator offers much better protection than a vaccine.
@pharmadoctoruk
@LifestyleBath
Given that a lot of us wanting
#Novavax
are also trying to avoid getting Covid it would’ve been great if the vaccinator in the publicity photo had been wearing a respirator.
@PharmaDRclinic
please make your participating pharmacies aware that we appreciate & need mitigations
@DALupton
I’m so grateful a prominent academic is being public about COVID cautiousness. I am grappling with similar issues and am pretty certain by being ‘out’ my career is being harmed. I feel a strong ethical mandate to advocate for others without job security but it comes at a cost.
@mm_tw9
I wish you were right. Sadly I offered all three ffp3s to the person doing my blood test and they said they wouldn’t wear one to protect me… same person who said no masking when doing a home visit for my best friend who was dying of cancer ….
How convenient: the timing of these things is rarely coincidental. Suffice to say in Edinburgh 🏴 we’re enduring the Fringe with approx. 2.5 million visitors from across the globe crammed together in a soup of Covid variants, poorly ventilated venues & virtually no 😷ing...
Covid in Scotland
"Wastewater data analysis will be paused until the end of August as the responsibility of laboratory COVID-19 water samples testing transfers from Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to NHS Lothian"
@carolvorders
@mrjamesobrien
@LBC
Please ask what’s happening to the first wavers Carol. Many are now dying (or dead) & no one seems to know or care. Society has moved on & left them behind. And keep in mind that what’s happening to the first wavers is a sign of things to come for many many more of us. Thank you
@1goodtern
There’s so many 🇬🇧 people desperate for an updated Novavax & for quite a few of us mRNA’s are not an option. I think we’ve demonstrated there’s a good market thru high uptake earlier this year. If needs be, let’s use this platform to lobby & put pressure on MHRA
@PharmaDRclinic
@quarecuttie
Yes but they say you can un peel the bottom bit to eat and drink I did that as an experiment and it resealed really well -
Good option for hairdresser too
Does anyone know of a French equivalent of someone like Dr Claire Taylor who has a pinned tweet in French providing a clear overview of the up-to-date evidence re: the on-going, long-term health impacts of being (reportedly) infected with SARS-CoV-2? Thank you!
@carolvorders
@LBC
Journalists with integrity don’t break their promises, but yet again you have let the long Covid community down and made us feel worthless and invisible. This is beyond disappointing.
@_CatintheHat
Great news but let’s hope MHRA also approves the updated Novavax soon for 🇬🇧. We now have persuasive evidence that 10% of people with LC can’t tolerate mRNA options and symptoms worsen with each booster so we need an updated Novavax here and in every country
This guy is a hero…please take the time to read his thread and repost. Really powerful points made and it takes huge courage for someone of this stature to share their SARS-CoV-2 experiences so candidly
HEALTH UPDATE:
It has officially been one year since I contracted Covid-19 while on set for my movie that I’ve been working on.
I was once a very healthy 31-year old man, but now every day is a struggle for me.
A THREAD... 🧵
@DALupton
You have been absolutely amazing and a great role model for people like me.
Thank you for caring so much and using your title and kudos so responsibly to raise awareness about SARS-CoV-2. I am so sorry this has come at a personal cost. History will remember you very kindly.
@sum_social
Sadly I totally agree… I remember growing up in the 1970s when it was considered an achievement to live to 70. Plus pensions were calculated on the basis people would live up to 3-5 yrs after retirement so there is an economic motive to ‘allowing’ life expectancies to drop
@1goodtern
@Saffiya_Khan1
Not been in the office since March 2020; been shielding ever since waiting for the penny to drop for everyone else. I think I’m going to be waiting for a very long time!
We need clean air in schools & workplaces; we need to treat eachother with care & respect
#CovidIsNotOver
Ps the vaccinator also told my mum there are a lot of old boosters still in circulation and it’s up individual pharmacies whether they use them or not. So if you are getting boosted please check you are getting the updated one!
@hollystortholme
Heaven forbid that a GP might think of opening a window and potentially saving a life or preventing a life ruined by chronic illness by doing so. Added bonus of opening a window is that, if it’s cold, patients won’t hang around and eat into your precious time …so a win win
@cv_cev
@BBCLookEast
@DrChrisSmith
@BBCLookEast
please please stop wheeling out the same old ‘experts’ who clearly are not up to speed with evidence base and are not capable of offering the public an informed and responsible perspective. Do better we deserve so much more from you.
@_CatintheHat
Meanwhile I can’t help thinking someone somewhere has a financial interest in stalling MHRA approval of the updated Novavax for as long as possible as there’s no other obvious explanation (other than incompetence), surely?
I’m not going to renew my tv licence
@BBCMorningLive
&
@BBCNews
thanks to your irresponsible reporting. Pls stop doing sloppy, lazy journalism; pls stop wheeling out the same old Covid minimiser ‘experts’ & give the public the information they need make informed choices
🦠With so many coughs going around, hay fever season & now a summer Covid wave growing, it's hard to know when to be worried.
@xandvt
's here with the ultimate guide to what might be causing your cough & when to be worry. To watch this in full click here:
@1goodtern
Kind of makes sense - I suspect (white) masks/respirators resembling those worn in the early phases of the pandemic have triggering effects for so many due to trauma/bad associations. Makes sense to develop options which look different as long as functionality not compromised
@Angellife999
@FaceMaskStore
My apologies for earlier misinformation I have since found out
@FaceMaskStore
has started to supply them. Quite expensive though but still grateful we can get them in uk and hopefully they can drop prices if there’s good demand here
Year 4 of LC. So grateful to my employer for allowing me to work from home.
- Thanks to my students & team for always meeting me outside/on MS teams❤️
- Thanks to the lovely admin staff for offering to meet for outdoor coffees & walks❤️
- As to my academic colleagues, with a few
@drclairetaylor
One of my colleagues has just had their third symptomatic infection in under 12 months, fully boosted etc and pretty careful. Deeply worrying. Just shows how quickly this virus mutates in a crazy world where hardly anyone uses mitigations.
Delighted to report I’ve tracked down the mystery person behind the informative & highly creative stickers which have been appearing across Edinburgh during the superspreader Fringe event. They’re not on this platform, but their artwork can be found here:
@PSBaker10
I think a lot of people are struggling to shake off colds and are getting bacterial infections on the back of viral infections and weakened immune systems from earlier covid infections - plus I know plenty of people with the ‘100 day cough’ which was pretty rare before 2020
See Connor Browne’s excellent commentary. The BBC news coverage of this Lancet paper re: covid and cognitive decline and the misrepresentation of its contents is irresponsible and downright misleading. Sadly this isn’t the first time this has happened. Shame on you BBC.
1. This is the paper that's making the headlines today. I've read it in full, and its findings are, in my opinion, robust, and, frankly, align with common sense. The problem is not the paper, but its misinterpretation by the media.
Thank you
@FaceMaskStore
for supplying & reducing the prices for ‘the proper mask’. This is a strapless FFP2 & a good option if e.g. going for a MRI scan or haircut. It’s great we can get these in 🇬🇧 & at a more affordable price as the German manufacturer won’t ship to UK buyers
@oldo
@Prof_J_Lawton
@wobbliestbear
@CounsellingSam
Hello, thank you for your suggestion, this has now been added by our product team after a pricing meeting this morning:
2 x Bag of 3: £23.98 (£11.99 each)
10 x Bag of 3: £99.50 (£9.95 each)
Thanks,
TFMS
@ktho641521
My v sick mother was finally moved onto a ward after 33 hours of waiting in A&E for a bed to come free. I’m extremely upset & absolutely furious. If she survives & gets Covid thanks to no one masking to help protect her then heaven help the people who’ll be dealing with me…
I am watching the UK covid inquiry. UKHSA’s Jenny Harries is giving evidence. There aren’t words in my vocabulary to convey the disgust and anger I feel on hearing she endorsed discharge of covid+ frail older people into care homes. She has blood on her hands.
@drclairetaylor
Thank you for everything you say. Thank you for not giving up and thank you for being brave enough to tell people the things they need to know even if they don’t want to hear them
@Victoriantaddeo
@AHAhistorians
Couldn’t agree more, we had a perfect opportunity to tackle inequality and make conferences and meetings more affordable and accessible for everyone by making hybrid the default… it’s so disappointing
Ps the stick on readimask seems to fare much better under testing
If they don’t ship to where you live eg UK email them and they’ll arrange payment & postage off their website. Normally arrive in about 3-4 days.
@systematic_fun
I come from Liverpool- the people there are proud, caring & have good work ethic so if they say they’re sick they’re sick. They’re also in poorly paid jobs and living in poor housing which means they’re being battered by the virus and will be the first to get
#LongCovid
About to enter soon to be covid hot spot Edinburgh where Taylor Swift is performing for a second night. Needless to say, I am not going to the concert.
@LancsArtist
That’s what I think too - the problem is that it leaves all those people who are sick (and getting sicker) being gaslighted. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to advocate for ourselves e.g. asking a doctor to open a window etc. without being accused of being over-anxious
As someone who shared a positive experience of ‘the proper mask’ I’m grateful for this review based on lab-testing. My conclusion: if you need a stick on mask e.g., to go for an MRI scan this is better than nothing, otherwise stick to well a fitted FFP2/3 with head-strap.
"The Proper Mask" is unsafe. We tested it in our lab under real-world conditions and in our tests, between 8 to 20% of particles entered the mask without getting filtered, which is much worse than many high-quality FFP2 masks. Read our blog post here:
@Rose_Mary_X
I got a friend to post from Germany as they don’t ship to uk thanks to brexit. I have emailed thefacemaskstore and asked if they will get them in for UK people. They r trying. But for now you need a pal abroad which is annoying as they are really good
@buzzingboo
🤞we so need the option of novavax in 🇬🇧 as some of us can’t tolerate mRNA ones so it’s our only option. As importantly, novavax is cheaper to buy - £45 versus £100 for Pfizer - so it’s a bit more accessible to people on low incomes but it’s still inexcusable anyone has to pay
@Goat_testes
I doubt the vaccinator tests but probably wanted to save face because my mum asked why she wasn’t masked.
My clinically vulnerable mother. I despair!
@LetChuckLoveYou
Weakened immune systems from covid infections, lots of research showing this is what’s happening but media not reporting this so a lot of people don’t realise what’s happening to them
I was chatting to a pal who works in healthcare. I asked about her colleague who has LC. Her: ‘She’s fine now’. Me: ‘Ah great’. Her: ‘Yes, she still gets really tired & has to have gaps between treating patients so she can rest, but she’s recovered’. Me: ‘hmmm’.
It’ll be interesting to see how the messaging about SARS-CoV-2 and the importance of being boosted changes (from being almost non-existent) now that vaccination is going to be a profit-driven exercise in the UK! Maybe we even see stuff in the media about Covid still existing here
@GayFabFourFan
Yes and we also know that doctors struggle to stay on top of the research/evidence in their own clinical speciality and rarely read outside of that. So don’t think for a second NEJM articles reporting the latest SARS-CoV-2 research are their bedtime reading.
Good morning
@carolvorders
and
@LBC
please can you let us know if you’ll still be taking about
#LongCovid
on your show 4-7pm today. It’s such an important topic and there’re so many people out there who are desperate to talk about their experiences. 🤞🤞🇬🇧
Thank you for all of your calls & messages on this morning's show.... overwhelmed
Sitting in for
@mrjamesobrien
on
@LBC
all wk
Apologies for not being able to get to the subject of Long Covid today
I'll cover Long Covid on my show a week on Sunday. Thanks for your patience x
@sheencr
@ConversationUK
I’ve noted that they will be fobbing off the small number of eligible people in the uk with out of date covid vaccines like they did last year. Anyone would think they want pensioners dead!
If you’re trying to book a Novavax booster in 🇬🇧 and were declined (like I was) it looks like it’s worth persevering. My guess is it will be a postcode lottery with some chemists getting Novavax on time and others not. Do ring and check b4 your appointment. Good luck everyone!
@dxrevisionwatch
@Prof_J_Lawton
@buzzingboo
We were told by Novavax that their vaccine will start being delivered to pharmacies from the 1st April. We’ve not heard anything different. Our partner pharmacies will be able to offer all licensed Covid vaccines incl the Pfizer vaccine which some pharmacies received last week.
@DavidFoxon2
Economy first … but it’s such short-sighted and naive perspective as our kids will grow into chronically sick adults who won’t be able to work.
@_CatintheHat
I was wondering if it’s time for us to write to our MPs to raise concerns that the MHRA has still not approved the updated novavax and to remind them that lots of us can’t tollerate mRNAs. Denying us access to a booster which helps prevent LC, death etc is medically negligent
@kwame_mckenzie
Thank you but please try to avoid referring to the pandemic in the past tense (we are still in one) and please remember you send out a v mixed message by not wearing a respirator…
I’ve been looking at interviews we’ve recently done with people living with chronic health conditions like diabetes. People talk a lot about trauma in these interviews; mostly to explain why managing a chronic illness is hard. No-one talks about Covid or the pandemic… 1/