In March Canada's Chief Science Advisor Warned Long COVID May Lead To A "Mass Disabling Event" - Here's The Current Thinking On How
Back in March Canada’s Chief Science Advisor Dr. Mona Nemer released her report on Long COVID. She reported that 10 to 20 per cent of people develop long COVID after they have recovered from infection which in turn has a wide range of symptoms - from those easily characterized like high blood pressure or heart arrhythmias to those more difficult to understand like chronic fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain and blurred vision.
In the Toronto Star story on same Nemer was quoted warning us that, “Canada could face a “mass disabling event” consequent to Long COVID.
As to the how, we’re clearly not there yet, but the data is accumulating. A few weeks ago a review article on same was published in Nature Reviews Immunology and they cover all of what we currently know about the condition that society and governments have decided to ignore. One of the authors’ theories as to why we’re purposely ignoring it is that the looming problem is so large we can’t comprehend it.
“The oncoming burden of long COVID faced by patients, health-care providers, governments and economies is so large as to be unfathomable, which is possibly why minimal high-level planning is currently allocated to it.”
Then last week a systematic review came out in Pediatrics discussing Long COVID and kids which reported it affects 16% of children and adolescents after infection.
After each infection.
A story in the Tyee covers long COVID in kids. It’s very much worth the read, but the key point of course is simply that each infection is a threat, and COVID is terrific at reinfection.
The make believe everything fine stick fingers in our ears while chanting loudly so we can’t hear hard truths world we’re living in is more frustrating in that there’s so much we now know about reducing the transmission of COVID by way of cleaning air, improving ventilation, killing viruses with upper room UV, utilizing rapid testing when necessary, ensuring easy and wide access to boosters, and maintaining masking in essential/vulnerable spaces. But apparently the motivated bias to pretend it’s 2019 is too much to overcome to deploy measures which would unobtrusively and equitably protect us all, not just from COVID but from all airborne diseases, including the ones that climate change may rush into our lives.
Future books on the malignant selfishcene era we’re living through will be lit.
Most of the people I know become very angry if I even try to bring up the current findings on long Covid, let alone encourage them to take measures to mitigate their risks. And unless the average person is actively engaged in seeking out the information, there is little to no mention of it on MSM or from our government or health officials. If masking and mitigating measures are not even being practiced in healthcare settings, this signals to ordinary people that they are either being extremists or uninformed if they mask. I continue to mask and follow developing data but it’s a lonely road.
All so true. Incredibly frustrating timeline where we have the knowledge, but lack the will to implement it. I fear our children and future generations will not forgive us for our selfish short sighted decisions. As a physician who masks and follows the science it is a lonely road. Thank you for making it a little less so.