Inka Parpola

#zeroCOVID

[PACO @PacoOnPause]

I think it's the opposite. The way that climate change has been handled was a preview for how COVID would be handled.

Ignore it and hope it will be okay, while locking in more and more long term consequences.

[Asko J. Ärvinen parodia @JaskoArvinen]

Sukupuolitaudeista
-jos käsiä ei pese kunnolla, tippuri ja kuppa voi tarttua kumppanille/kumppanilta
-väestössä kuppa/tippurivelkaa, koska 2020 sulut
-väestön immuniteettia olisi kasvatettava
-vaaraksi lähinnä riskiryhmille

[Don Ford - The People's Strategist - @DonEford]

Here's the problem I see with how the hantavirus outbreak is being handled...

While everyone is fighting over direct human-to-human spread via airborne transmission, this is not the normal method of transmission.

Normally, it's transmitted via aerosolized dried rat waste, which, btw, means it's always been airborne. But this also means that humans infected with hantavirus are creating infected human waste.

Some countries are gathering it for disposal, and others are not.

See, we could easily say hantavirus is endemic in rat populations worldwide, and all that separates the normal kind and the human-to-human kind is THREE amino acid changes.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins... so really small changes.

We have already seen animal reservoirs develop for SARS2, when infected human waste makes its way into animal drinking water...

And pumping Andes hantavirus into normal wastewater systems, where it will expose the local rat population, seems like a great way for us to establish endemic Andes variants of hantavirus in regions where hantavirus, a BSL-4 pathogen, was not normally transmissible between humans.

SARS2 is a BSL-3, but BSL-2 protections are incorrectly allowed by the WHO. Hantavirus is a BSL-4, and that's as high as the scale goes.

The possibility of the Andes variant replacing current endemic variants that are not human-to-human is on the table, and we have never had this variant in so many places at once, ever.

There is the potential to screw this up in ways that are hard to conceptualize, and other countries are collecting the infected human waste because they know this is a possible outcome.

So, no, this is not another COVID...

It could actually be much worse.

And the chances of it getting worse increase with every mishandling.

[tern @1goodtern]

Climate change.
Biodiversity collapse.
Pandemics.
Famine.
Water shortages.
Air pollution.
Antimicrobial resistance.
Forced migration.
Environmental destruction.

These are not separate subjects.
They are one crisis, breaking in different places.

[Jim the hermit @SleepyJim0]

Natural selection by avoidable infection.
#DarwinianDays

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

There are now more than half a million scientific publications related to COVID-19 and a rapidly growing body of evidence linking SARS-CoV-2 infection to immune dysregulation, microvascular injury, autonomic dysfunction, clotting abnormalities, viral persistence, and measurable cognitive changes.

And to the people constantly sick, exhausted, dizzy, forgetful, exercise intolerant, waking up to feeling like you got hit by a truck on the daily or suddenly developing strange inflammation, heart issues, GI problems, or “mystery” symptoms after repeated infections…

At some point you and society as a whole must confront the reality that repeated infection with a vascular and neurotropic virus was never as harmless as everyone wanted it to be.

I choose to live in reality.

That virus is still here. It is still spreading through the air. And it is still associated with long-term vascular, immune, and neurological consequences for many people.

Protecting yourself from that threat — through cleaner air, better ventilation, filtration, vaccination, and high-quality masks in high-risk settings — also reduces your risk from many of the other respiratory pathogens constantly circulating around us.

And if you are tired of watching people suffer while being told this is “normal,” then start demanding urgency.

Ask why Long Covid clinics are closing instead of expanding.
Ask why immunologists, virologists, neurologists, vascular scientists, and pathologists are not being funded at Manhattan Project scale to investigate viral persistence, immune dysfunction, clotting, mitochondrial damage, and cognitive impairment.
Ask why billions can appear overnight for almost anything else, but millions living with chronic illness are told to “pace themselves” and move on.

Support researchers (the ones who are still focused on Long Covid that don’t conflate the disease)
Support clean air initiatives (two strong efforts happening in Illinois right now! Help us!!).
Support disability advocacy.
Pressure institutions to improve indoor air quality.
Stop mocking people for protecting themselves.
And stop accepting “everyone is sick all the time now” as a normal feature of modern life.

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

This. It’s always this. If you’ve lived through Covid and didn’t learn this, we’re all screwed.

[tern @1goodtern]

I'm just going to say it again once, as simply as I can, for everyone who is slow to understand this:

Covid infection damages the vascular endothelium, the delicate lining inside your blood vessels.

Hantavirus *targets* the vascular endothelium.

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

I talk about COVID in almost every class.

I explicitly tell students not to come when they’re sick. We go over the limits of testing. We talk about what “safe” actually means. It’s not 1 day. Not 3 days. Not 5 days. Often not even a week. If you’re thinking in arbitrary timelines, you’re already missing the point.

And yet, every year, I see the same pattern.

Students “cry wolf” on skip days… then show up to class for two straight weeks, spaced just far enough apart to make it obvious what’s happening. Still coughing. Still symptomatic. Clearly contagious. No mask.

If we’re being honest, they should be missing closer to three classes when they’re sick.

But that exposes the real issue.

No one can afford that.

Not students. Not workers. Not anyone operating inside systems that punish absence more than they prevent transmission.

So we end up with the worst possible compromise:
people showing up sick, spreading illness, and calling it normal.

[tern @1goodtern]

Everyone understands that on the whole the population is getting sicker. Kids, young adults, older adults, everyone.

Some people shrug.
Some people stick their fingers in their ears.

I say fight it.

Why doesn't everyone choose to fight it?

[James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath @JamesThrot]

Oh those COVID infections are absolutely contributing

Each infection is able to cause frontal lobe hypometabolism, microglial activation, neuroinflammation, white matter/blood brain barrier injury, grey matter reduction, neuronal/glial fusion, microclots

I recommend avoiding it

[🎒Joanna Teglund✊😷🍉Human life is sacred @JoannaTeglund]

Since January 2020, I've read millions of tweets about the pandemic, but no one has been able to explain as factually and precisely as James has, how COVID infections affect our behavior and thus the fate of our species, because billions are carriers of SARS-CoV-2.
Read and share

[Cat (CovidSolidarity) @CovidSolidarit1]

SarsCov2 causes damage to:

Brain
Nervous system

And also:

Heart
Kidneys
Gallbladder
Pancreas
Intestines
Liver
Uterus
Prostate
Ovaries
Testes
Stomach
Spleen
Oesophagus
Thyroid
Blood vessels
Thymus
Tonsils
Tongue
Spinal cord
Ears
Nose
Eyes
Bone marrow
Lymphatic system

[charlos @loscharlos]

“If Covid is quietly accelerating cognitive aging… in working-age adults, the consequences will ripple through workplaces & health systems for years.”

“The incidence & prevalence of Alzheimer’s is going to just escalate,” he says. “It’s a huge public-health problem.” #LongCovid

[tern @1goodtern]

Can you help get PACO to 10k followers?

[Prof Julia Lawton @Prof_J_Lawton]

Remember: brain fog is brain damage. Ask yourself why so people are making so many mistakes, driving through red lights, getting prescriptions wrong etc. So many people have now been infected multiple times. Imagine what the world will look like in 10, 20 or 30 years time.

[Jess ꩜ @BlueLotusBlunts]

I care more about my health than people seeing my mouth and nose. Covid is not over wake the fuck up and protect yourself and your community.

[🎒Joanna Teglund✊😷🍉Human life is sacred @JoannaTeglund]

When the pandemic began, we Übermenschen, believed the lie that only the vulnerable would die. We accepted it. Now we are repeatedly infected with SARS-CoV-2 and slowly dying—there is no cure.
My grandma would say divine punishment. I say we chose this.
I only pity the children.

[tern @1goodtern]

Isn't it strange that for anyone other than astronauts, some athletes, and for some a-listers, trying to avoid airborne infection is now seen as an intense act of rebellion.