Long COVID Foundation

U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit supporting those with Long COVID & others affected by the pandemic. Advocates for those with chronic SARS-CoV-2 & Ongoing-COVID.

[Long COVID Foundation @LongCFoundation]

The Long COVID Foundation has put together The Danger Dozen. 12 important papers that show the long term harm of a SARS-CoV-2 Infection & Long COVID.

You don't want this virus & you don't want #LongCOVID.

More below⏬

#pwLC #COVID #DangerDozen

🧵🧵🧵

https://t.co/XeBeRip2PO

[Harry Spoelstra @HarrySpoelstra]

Pulmonary vascular abnormalities in Long COVID: a radiological perspective

🚨Your CT is ‘normal,’ yet you’re still breathless months after COVID. New review shows hidden microvascular damage (perfusion defects, vessel pruning, gas-transfer defects) that standard scans miss, explaining LongC0VID symptoms that routine imaging miss!

➡️Interesting new narrative review from India shifts the focus of LongC0VID from parenchymal lung damage to a distinct pulmonary vascular phenotype! REMEMBER SARSCOV2 is basically a VASCULAR VIRUS!

➡️Core mechanisms:
- SARSCoV2 enters endothelial cells via ACE2 receptors, triggering endotheliitis that creates a pro-coagulant environment and promotes the formation of in-situ microthrombi,
- This is amplified by immunothrombosis (driven by neutrophil extracellular traps) and the generation of amyloid-like fibrin microclots that resist normal breakdown,
- Over time, the vasculature undergoes maladaptive remodelling, including intussusceptive angiogenesis and progressive “pruning” of small vessels, which reduces the available surface area for gas exchange,

➡️Conventional CT pulmonary/angiography frequently appears normal or near-normal and misses microvascular disease,

➡️Advanced imaging uncovers the pathology:
1. Dual-energy CT (DECT) detects persistent wedge-shaped perfusion defects in otherwise normal lung tissue, seen in 36–60% of symptomatic patients and still present in 36.3% at roughly 3 months,
2. Quantitative CT shows reduced small-vessel volume (PBV5), which correlates with lower DLCO and poorer exercise tolerance,
3. Hyperpolarized xenon-129 MRI reveals a hallmark gas-transfer defect, impaired alveolar-to-RBC gas exchange, even when standard CT and pulmonary function tests appear normal,
4. V/Q SPECT and PREFUL MRI demonstrate mottled perfusion patterns consistent with diffuse small-vessel disease,

➡️Findings correlate with ongoing dyspnoea, fatigue, and reduced exercise capacity,

➡️Higher (admission) D-dimer/CRP often predict later defects,

➡️2025 RSNA/STR/ESTI consensus guidelines recommend imaging at 3 months with paired inspiratory/expiratory protocols and the term “Post-COVID-19 Residual Lung Abnormality.”

‼️So, AGAIN, routine CT scans can look reassuring while the pulmonary microvasculature remains structurally and functionally damaged, directly accounting for persistent breathlessness and fatigue in a substantial subset of LongC0VID patients.

‼️The proposed framework matters clinically every day: many patients with ongoing dyspnoea or exercise intolerance after COVID have occult vascular injury that conventional imaging and basic Pulmonary Function Tests(PFTs) fail to detect. Recognizing the vascular phenotype guides use of functional/quantitative techniques (DECT, xenon MRI, etc.), supports standardized 3-month imaging protocols, and should shift management toward vascular rather than purely parenchymal explanations. It also helps differentiate vascular from airway-related causes of symptoms and UNDERSCORES the public-health scale of residual impairment in survivors!

REMINDER AGAIN, COVID-19(SARSCOV2) is basically a VASCULAR INFECTION!
#AvoidSars2 #AvoidReinfections #Mitigation
https://t.co/TKFeI01gAG

[SharonBC,Canada @SharonBurnabyBC]

“…. every COVID infection a person gets increases their risk of developing long-term health issues. “There is no such thing as a COVID infection without consequence.””
March 2025 CBC article https://t.co/EovQRp6jyO #Burnaby #Coquitlam

[Denis - The COVID info guy - @BigBadDenis]

A US study found 93% of medical students had no formal Long COVID training, even though 41% had seen Long COVID patients. After an online course, students felt more confident about understanding and treating Long COVID, with 75% saying they'd change how they care for patients.

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

A mutated strain of influenza is helping fuel an early start to the flu season, prompting experts to urge Americans to get their shots ASAP.

Positive flu tests for this time of year have hit highs not seen in a decade, according to CDC data.

Read more: https://t.co/qWop9vwqNl

[Data Report @CovidDataReport]

CDC doom and gloom epidemic map shows the north is worsening for Covid. Waiting to see what the wastewater data shows, but if it follows, it will be bad news. To even see the epidemic status map like this pre-Halloween and all the other holidays is very unusual.

[Denis - The COVID info guy - @BigBadDenis]

A study of nearly 500,000 adults found Paxlovid taken within 5 days of COVID-19 infection was linked to a 12% lower risk of Long COVID in high-risk adults.

That's around 3 fewer Long COVID cases per 100 people treated.

For lower-risk adults, researchers found no clear benefit.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

PMC COVlD Update, Oct 26, 2026

🔥44 states with COVlD outbreaks (see Alt)
🔥Double wave peaks, both at an estimated 950,000 new daily infections
🔥6th week in a row of massive CDC upward retroactive corrections going back to early July

THREAD (1/4)

[Long COVID Foundation @LongCFoundation]

Actress Christina Applegate revealed she’s suffered from #LongCOVID.

She in turn contracted a chest infection & had wild heart problems. Her heart was speeding up on her. She experienced dizziness & had trouble eating.

🧵🧵🧵

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

If you haven't been tracking COVlD closely the past 8 weeks, it's important to know that the CDC has made sizable retroactive upward corrections over and over.

What once looked like a small wave or wavelet has nearly doubled in height.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

NYT Today: Any SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger Long COVlD. Getting reinfected in perpetuity is like playing "Russian Roulette."

[MaskTogetherAmerica @TogetherWeMask]

Ventilation at @newyorkcomiccon is super insufficient for the crowd this year. COVID and other pathogens are spreading. We need safer #IndoorAir. Take precautions. @MsJulieSLam at #NYCC #MaskTogetherAmerica

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

Covid cases double in a month and hospital admissions rise five-fold, amid spread of new XFG variant https://t.co/S1ol2phxLB

[BuDS Disability Service @BuDs_UK]

The Covid wave in England is growing very fast, & the overall Covid risk level has been raised to High. As of 4 October, 1 in every 175 people were infected, up 34% on the previous week. We recommend that Covid-Cautious people take full precautions anywhere indoors.

A thread 🧵

[MaskTogetherAmerica @TogetherWeMask]

We invite you to read “Long COVID Lungs” and explore studies that expose serious outcomes that follow SARS-CoV-2 including the risks of Pulmonary Fibrosis, #Cancer and #Asthma.

https://t.co/txwOZDeUXa

https://t.co/5AyQup4IgY

#CleanAir #MaskUp

[LongCovidJourney.com @Longcovidjourne]

Long COVID disability isn’t a mystery.

If someone can’t work, think, stand, walk or function like they did before, that is a real loss of function even when routine tests don’t show the whole picture.

Why is this still so difficult to understand?

👇 https://t.co/Q7soJYr3Pp

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

I see people running LC trials saying they can't meet basic standards of COVlD safety that exceed local norms. That's not how any of this works. A research study has the ethical obligation to minimize harm, especially with vulnerable populations, even where others fail.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

WastewaterSCAN data suggest an apparent national peak on the 13th US COVlD wave between Sep 8-13.

Substantial transmission persists on the back end of waves. Mask up and get boosted. 💉💪😷
#DescentNeglect

[Vipin M. Vashishtha @vipintukur]

Could some #LongCOVID symptoms be driven by antibodies that turn against the nervous system?

➡️ Researchers found autoantibodies targeting proteins in the central and peripheral nervous systems in a subgroup of people with LongCOVID, particularly those with neurocognitive symptoms.

➡️ Remarkably, their IgG antibodies reacted with human brain regions and peripheral nerves, and some antibody levels correlated with neurological symptoms. 1/

[Long COVID Foundation @LongCFoundation]

@DonEford You’re illuminating why biomarkers for SARS-CoV-2 are important because syncytia wouldn’t form without it.

We agree, it’s not complicated, it’s pretty clear what needs to happen for us suffering with Long COVID. We need tests and biomarkers which should help spur treatments.

[Long COVID Foundation @LongCFoundation]

There doesn’t seem to be a specific SARS-CoV-2 viral & parts persistence biomarker RECOVER-TLC are going to analyze.

How is that possible?! It makes no sense!

These biomarkers aren’t specific enough. This has always been the issue with unsolved unresolved chronic pathogens & disease.

Even if they found a unique pattern with these markers for Long COVID it still very likely won’t tell us what we need to know & probably won’t be useful as an actual diagnostic, which we desperately need.

It’s 7 years now, demand better from the NIH because this isn’t it!

#LongCOVID #pwLC #LCBiomarkersNow

[Zdenek Vrozina @ZdenekVrozina]

RECOVER-TLC has published a list of 82 blood biomarkers to be measured in its Long COVID treatment trials.
It's not a diagnostic test, and it won't change anything in the clinic for now. But it's worth looking at what's on the list, and especially what isn't🧵

[Long COVID Foundation @LongCFoundation]

We’re more concerned with the root(s) of the symptoms than the symptoms alone. The heterogeneity in presentation and symptoms may not mean as much as people think in terms of root cause and targeting that root. HIV is heterogeneous. Chronic pathogens and diseases with biomarkers are often heterogeneous.

The persistent SARS-CoV-2 would be specific to Long COVID as well. Not all pathogens are equal just because they persist.

We’re not asking for a single diagnostic, but it’s vital there are SARS-CoV-2 and Long COVID diagnostics, that much is clear.

What is the normal version of non-Long COVID Long COVID? All other chronic disease?

We want to know why Long COVID looks more degenerative and is unique. There’s a reason for that. That reason might be the biomarker that’s needed for those suffering with Long COVID.