Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social)

Neuroscientist 🧠 Judoka, Bookworm, Mumma, Australian 🇦🇺 Long Covid-ing since Feb 2022. All opinions my own.

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

Snapshots of Da Nang:
Lady Buddha and Linh Ung pagoda

[🐝 @beha_hun]

Incredible how every “pro-life” policy actually leads to a large amount of unnecessary death.

[Julia Marie @julia_doubleday]

I wrote before about how ppl seem to misunderstand MAHA’s picture of idealized “natural health” when they talk about children dying of preventable illness: for Nazis and MAHA, they believe that is eliminating the weak and therefore “good”

https://t.co/FoPMyIOyj9

[Gigi @Gigi_chienergy]

The screwworm program wasn't charity, it was a $10 million fence that kept a billion-dollar problem from eating our own livestock alive. That's the thing with most USAID funding: it looks like "aid," but it's really cheap self-defense. Solve a problem there, and it never lands on our doorstep. But sure, let a bunch of guys who can't define DEI without Googling take a chainsaw to it. They didn't stop to ask, "Will this cut hurt us too?" Unless that's the point, burn it all down and call it efficiency.

As usual our inept agriculture secretary, blaming the Biden administration as usual, instead of offering a solution to the problem they created.

Texan here

A screwworm infestation is a nightmare for cattle, causing horrific wounds and economic devastation. For Texas, the situation has escalated dramatically in the last 24 hours with the first confirmed case of New World Screwworm (NWS) in over 60 years! This could have been avoided!

Infested animal can kill a cow in less than two weeks.

Treatment is extremely difficult and time-consuming, requiring the painful removal of every visible larva and deep disinfection of the wound. Ranchers no longer have much experience with this labor-intensive process, and there is currently no approved pharmaceutical treatment to make it easier.

This has triggered a massive economic threat. The USDA estimates that a widespread outbreak would drain an astonishing $1.8 billion from the Texas economy alone in livestock deaths, labor, and medication expenses.

How will this affect you? Tightening supplies will drive already high beef prices higher.

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@coco_chatel Oh, I'll just ask my brain nicely to stop the 1am tachycardia, chest pain, heart palpitations, nausea, & next day horror shits that now happen whenever I eat cheese or cured meats 🫠 sure sure

[Salvatore Mattera @SalvMattera]

Honestly, the last year has been one of the worst years of my life. Somehow - maybe it was the maraviroc, maybe it was dumb luck - I finally *mostly* recovered from my Long COVID symptoms (recent fainting episode notwithstanding), and then my wife had multiple strokes, got hospitalized for a month, had part of her skull removed, and wound up even more disabled than I was at my worst.

For that reason, when @AlanLevinovitz emailed me a few months ago and asked me to talk about Long COVID, I missed it. By the time I got to it in my inbox, he had already finished his piece. But even if I had responded in time, I wouldn't have spoken to him - a quick search of his twitter history indicates that, despite not having read seemingly any of the scientific literature, he has strong opinions about what Long COVID is and who has it. He can cite no evidence for his claims, but felt it worthwhile to declare that "60-80%" of Long COVID is psychosomatic. A range that is somehow both bizarrely specific, and entirely fabricated.

I knew exactly the type of piece he would write before I read it, because he's not a neutral observer here. I don't know what his incentives are, but regardless of his intentions, I can tell you exactly how that piece in @WIRED functions: as free advertising for a cottage industry of alternative medicine scammers that prey on some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Here's what Levinovitz conveniently doesn't tell you (I wonder if his editors know about this stuff, assuming this was even edited - a 10 second search can reveal extensive articles on MEpedia and other websites detailing this; even wikipedia covers it a bit):

Like most alternative medicine scams, brain retraining is based on taking something legitimate from medicine (in this case, neuroplasticity and CBT) and putting a spin on it that involves pseudoscience and a money-making scheme.

I never knew these folks existed until I developed Long COVID and became exposed to this space, but they've operated for years. For a couple decades at least they've preyed on people with ME/CFS, and in more recent year, have set their sights on profiting from Long COVID.

There are far too many examples of them for me to name them all. Kennedy, the quack Levinovitz profiles, charges only a couple hundred dollars an appointment - which, for nonsense, is still far too much IMO - but others are worse.

There's this guy Toby Morrison who runs "CFS Health". He and his website look like a lame Tony Robbins ripoff, complete with high pressure sales tactics. He sells a $500 monthly membership and offers "coaching".

There's the Lightning Process, which costs somewhere around $900-$1500 for a course. There's ANS Rewire and the Gupta Program, which are a series of online videos you pay $500 to access. There's DNRS, which sells $2K + seminar tickets.

A lot of these programs have a sort of multi-level marketing feel to them as well. The Gupta Program gives you a pathway to become an "official" Gupta coach. Primal Trust offers a way to refer people into the program. etc.

These programs use social media to ensnare sick people into emptying their pockets. They operate a web of YouTube channels and Facebook groups, some of which I'm in. Below, I'll paste a screenshot of a moderator in one of these groups who seems to be implying that people with chest pain who go to the ER are wasting their time.

Which is maybe the more important point: This stuff isn't just a money-making scheme. It's dangerous and potentially deadly. Essentially, the core tenant is that the symptoms are all in your head, driven by an over-active nervous system, and you just need to think your way out of them.

We have, in fact, run this experiment before. It was called the PACE trial: the idea that these patients are deconditioned and frightened of activity, curable with exercise and a change of beliefs. Patients reported in droves that the exercise made them sicker (74% in one survey) and over time the major bodies reversed course. The CDC now opens its overview of ME/CFS by stating that its a biological illness. What Levinovitz is calling a brave, suppressed paradigm is a long discredited and dangerous theory given a different name.

Although it's lengthy, his article reads like something I might have written as a freshman in undergrad. He just didn't do the work, didn't follow the money, didn't talk to the right people. He doesn't look for the harm caused, or who profits from it.

And so what we wind up with is a lengthy advertisement for alternative medicine in a major publication. I doubt the industry could have bought anything better.

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@CartoonsHateHer After I had my 2nd, my mum (who has 3) said to me "don't have 3 kids, it's too many for you to hang onto all of them when you're out & they outnumber the parents & you have to completely change parenting strategies" which is v funny because her 3rd is her obvious favourite child

[Dr Elisa Perego @elisaperego78]

Long Covid is not "baffling" at all. There are thousands of publications which show multi-system pathology across all body systems, including extensive evidence of organ damage. The scientific and clinical evidence is undeniable and should be reported about accurately

[Danielle Beckman @DaniBeckman]

One year ago, I gave this interview to CNN about leaving the U.S. because of cuts to scientific funding and because immigrant scientists like me no longer felt welcome there.

What followed was a difficult year. I applied for dozens of positions, received dozens of rejections, and eventually relocated to Germany. Even now, I still mourn some of those opportunities that never materialized. That's a normal part of the process.

At the time, there was widespread concern that American scientists would flood an already saturated European academic job market. That never happened, and likely never will. The reality is that opportunities outside the U.S. are far scarcer than many people realize.

Many of the initiatives and campaigns that promised a "safe haven" for scientists leaving the U.S turned out to be something else entirely. In practice, most were used to attract European researchers back from American institutions, while others functioned largely as political or media statements. Very few created meaningful opportunities for the thousands of scientists, immigrants and U.S. citizens, whose careers were disrupted by funding cuts and instability.

The hard truth is that most scientists affected by these policies remain trapped. They cannot easily stay, but they cannot easily leave either. Meanwhile, the situation continues to deteriorate.

I wish more institutions and governments expressing concern about the U.S. scientific exodus would move beyond press releases and empty gestures and invest in real pathways for talented researchers to rebuild their careers elsewhere.

#BrainDrain
https://t.co/r6CycmGWfB

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@generativist We eventually redid sleep training when we had it happen, because everyone in the house was miserable & over tired 🫠 hopefully he settles back into his normal routine for you soon!

[Dr LG @subversivepsych]

Now imagine someone coming along and saying these mice need graded exercise therapy and CBT

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@Dfrizz007 Undergrad: bachelor of science majoring in anatomy & histology, & physiology
PhD: developmental neuroscience
Postdoc: developmental neuroscience
Covid caught me just after I'd finished my postdoc contract

[Gemini Princesss @MaskedHottiee]

I think yall actually have long covid

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@swampflora Ah shit yeah that's a distinct possibility, too 😑

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@swampflora Probably eugenics of those disabled by covid infections 🫠

[Hazie Thompson @haziethompson]

MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) is chronic illness that has become a common outcome after a Covid infection.
Its treatment includes an antihistamine regime.
This is not perimenopause.
This is Long Covid.

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@SarahOC_MECFS @ThePOTSPostman Mine in particular I cannot physically fight through or push to stay awake, I have blacked out mid-sentence while reading to my kids because my body just goes NOPE, SHUTTING DOWN. It's a very different sensation & experience than fatigue or extreme tiredness.

[Olenka Sayko @coco_chatel]

*stares in MCAS*

[Angela May O'Connor (@amayoco.bsky.social) @amayoco]

@SarahOC_MECFS @ThePOTSPostman Yeah, I describe PEM as like a combination of the physical sensations of having the flu, the stupids & poisoned feeling you get with a hangover, & the exhaustion of bad jetlag, all at once 🫠

[dead domain (OF 50% OFF 🏳️‍🌈) @DomainDead]

I spent the last week digging through old articles and studies on racist policy like segregation, redlining, war on drugs etc.

It’s SHOCKING how many “.gov” addresses and resources now end in “404 not found”

They’ve deleted so much nobody realizes is gone.