Day 1224 — I don't know what worries me more. That I came up with it? That I made a thing with it? Or that I'm actually broadcasting it. "COVID causes brain damage", they said. Believe it. #DadJoke #MECFS #LongCOVID #ChronicIllness #MedSky

Dr. Raywat @deonandan.bsky.social I am trying to help someone connect with a Faculty of Science at U of Ottawa. This project is a collaboration between the university's art & science departments. It requires a letter of support. It’s intended to bring attention to masking. Know anyone who’d support?

Whoever came up with the acronym deserves an award. "Published In Support of Self" truly is PISS on a pile of predatory pedantry. The solution? Fund peer review. Fund academic publication. Give it independent, rigorous oversight. It should be a public service, not a careerist cash cow.

Public health agencies: COVID is mostly Mild™️. If you avoid it, you get immunity debt. If you catch it, you get some immunity (super robust Hybrid Immunity™️ if you had a vaccine at some point). It's here to stay 🥳 Public health agencies: Mystery! Not thinking COVID is a risk is reducing vax uptake.

Six months later...

Good news for us all—but particularly for COVID safe & airborne-aware advocates. “Surgical face masks provide inadequate protection against flu-like illnesses including Covid, and should be replaced by respirator-level masks – worn every time doctors and nurses are face to face with a patient…”

A new systems model positions nature as the foundation for economies and societies, emphasizing integrated approaches to sustainable development and the need to balance natural, social, and economic capital. doi.org/hbh9jm

Day 1217—Some songs hit different when you suffer from Long COVID.

2026 resolution: make my home's air as safe as outdoors—silently. A tall order, but not impossible. There's a lot of bad intel re: DIY purifiers out there which is why @nathventilation.bsky.social is a particularly precious resource. Help me make her break up with the X. We've got work to do.

Day 1216 — "You've tried treatments, sure. But have you ever tried The Cure?" #LongCOVID #MECFS #GriftersEverywhere

Day 1215—I had two stellate ganglion blocks performed in 2023 and it did not offer any noticeable benefit. I suffer from PEM/brain fog. See ALT txt for more info. Bottom line: Beyond it not helping me, the available data has left me unconvinced. As with all things Long COVID: "More research needed"

I started the protocol as soon as I came upon your initial results. This week's my last. Unfortunately, zero benefits (I have the ME/CFS presentation of Long COVID). I'm glad it's helped some patients. Would love to know why it hasn't helped me—i.e. what it even is we're trying to fix.

You learn something every day.

@putrinolab.bsky.social, just knowing you're on it keeps many of us going. May this be a year of breakthroughs in understanding. ✊🤞🖖 [Below, screenshot of the full thread, with its key questions in ALT txt along with links to referenced tests] There is no cure for Long COVID. Yet.

History will show that COVID disabled many more people than we realized: • Humanity lost the ability to smell rot. #AI #Slop #MAGA #DOGE #ICE #Oligarchy #Disinformation #FauxNews • As well as the ability to think clearly. #ClimateCrisis #Genocide #Transparency #Privacy #PublicHealth #Collapse

We don't know why COVID disables, only that it still does. There are no treatments nor cure for Long COVID. That is why those who've been paying attention remain #OneOfTheTwo. They aren't pretending a mild infection didn't end my life & couldn't end theirs, too. Stay safe out there—and thank you.

You'd think from hearing these chuckled takes that #LongCOVID weren't really a thing. That my life hadn't ended in 2022; that my sudden and inexplicable inability to work, play, plan, function weren't actually happening. You'd think COVID were benign. I fucking wish it were, Jon. All the damn time

Yeah my wife and child (STILL?!) mask. A mild COVID infection broke my metabolism in 2022—I crash for weeks if I spend ANY energy. I ran marathons—I can’t even run errands. Can’t work, can’t play; just rot away. Why me? We have no clue. So yeah, Jon, I am #OneOfTheTwo Why the fuck aren’t you?

No. He’s not. That’s not how Long COVID works. Porzingis: “I just wasn’t feeling too good. Not being healthy, but I wouldn’t say it was the same stuff from last season, so that’s good.” This is what we all thought, initially. That it was just a bad spell—not an inexplicable, irreversible curse.

Jon Stewart and the pod saves guys mocking people who wear masks while talking about What Is To Be Done is exactly what Jon Stewart and the pod saves guys are, it's the most Jon Stewart and pod saves guys thing possible.

CONSENSUS: "The impacts of COVID-19 on children should be a research priority (e.g. prevention of transmission in schools, long-term impacts of infections on learning/development, etc.) … Gvts need to prioritize investment in public health protections to prevent reinfections." #MedSky #CdnPoli

🚨 Holy s**t. I just went and manually pulled the annual flu totals in Canada. Almost like something happened to make us less able to fight off the flu. @nicktsergas.ca @spichaksimon.bsky.social @tryangregory.bsky.social @barryhunt008.bsky.social @jvipondmd.bsky.social @drgorfinkel.bsky.social

Day 1201—I am of the millions who've quietly disappeared. I was the energy, the drive; the snow-fort-building, big-gift giving, adventure-planner. There was nothing I couldn't do. Now there's nothing I can do. Not without crashing. COVID robbed me of myself. Stole me from my family, too. #MECFS

Day 1200—New research shows maladaptation in ME/CFS following exertion: Unlike cancer or diabetes or MS, which are wholly present at rest, ME/CFS only reveals itself when the body’s systems are put under stress. "That’s why it’s one of the most functionally disabling diseases known."

“Schools have become cesspools for cold and flu [AND COVID], but they don’t have to be: Ontario School Safety” ottawa.citynews.ca/2025/12/21/s...

One of the reasons why I go so hard on science misinformation/disinformation, is that as a working scientist it is frustrating to see your research misreported to push an agenda. For example, consider this piece of right-wing propaganda from The Telegraph that was just published

So people don't vaccinate anymore. BIG WHOOP(ing cough surge). So? Work that immunity, baby! (Not how immunity works).

Day 1197—"Been thinking a lot about you… it may be better to have something that is potentially fatal but curable, rather than something incurable—for now, of course!" From a dear friend who just underwent surgery for testicular cancer. I haven't felt this seen in years. (1/2)

This. This is the problem. OH and S standards are different for HCWs and for the life of me (and them) I can't understand why.

Day 1195—Dr John Goldman, infectious disease specialist at UPMC, tells ABC News that COVID's just the flu Why? Because if you're healthy, it no longer kills you Dear John: COVID doesn't have to kill you to end your life. Signed, millions of young, formerly healthy people crippled by #LongCOVID

A lot of people are sick right now. Flu and Covid are raging, but the good news is a well fitted respirator can prevent both! A good mask like an N95 is very effective at stopping flu and Covid. My article looks at how to choose one, how to fit test, where to buy & more. Mask up & save lives!

How long will it be before we are as appalled at the idea that we ever went without an N95 in places where smoking used to be allowed? Or an unmasked healthcare worker is as unthinkable as one smoking while examining a bleeding wound without gloves, or even washing their hands?

"The biggest problem may be resisting pressures to be more active, from health professionals, family, peers and the need to maintain self-esteem." The last part of that sentence gave me pause. This is a valuable read. #LongCOVID #MECFS

Something else to look forward to Thanks a lot, SARS CoV-2 →Depression isn't the only thing that leads to "loss of self-confidence & difficulty concentrating"—Post-viral cognitive impairment & a complete loss of function will do that too. Just be glad it hasn't happened to you—yet #LongCOVID #MECFS

"Since Nov. 13, Porzingis has missed 10 of 14 games. The Hawks said in order to ensure Porzingis continues to make progress toward a full recovery, the center will continue this current period of limited basketball activities." Yeah, good luck with that. #LongCOVID

Alterations in gut microbiota and associated metabolites in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Found a positive correlation of Alistipes & Rikenellaceae with multiple SCFAs & symptomatic improvement & a negative correlation between isovalerate and fatigue severity. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Finally, some actionable intel: "Because the IL-6 and JAK-STAT pathways were among the top upregulated pathways in both cohorts, we have initiated a clinical trial to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the JAK1 inhibitor abrocitinib for Long COVID" Now you're talking.

“One fundamental challenge for managing conditions like long COVID is to identify the mechanisms operating in each individual affected” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Long COVID in children is real, common, and still widely misunderstood. New pediatric studies show that kids and teens can experience lasting effects after infection, and reinfections significantly increase the risks.

“We sought out Amy & PolyBio because we cannot afford less than the best knowledge & information to help guide our [mAb trials],” said Invivyd chairman Marc Elia. PolyBio has funded 4+ clinical trials & most recently is supporting sample analysis for a RCT of Anktiva in Long Covid.

For those of us who were wondering whether catching SARS CoV-2 still puts you at risk for developing debilitating post-acute sequelae... (And I was wondering, not for my sake—I've been disabled with Long COVID since 2022—but in regards to my teenage son). Pro tip for 2026: Don't catch COVID.

"Ungoverning is not a neutral act. It is an ethical choice. It shifts power from the many to the few. It transforms rights into commodities. It turns need into opportunity for private profit. And it abandons the belief that a society should be judged by how it treats the vulnerable."

The reason it's so hard to remain safe from Long COVID is that no indoor public space is sufficiently ventilated, no one realizes "just sniffles" is still destroying lives. We need a cultural shift regarding respiratory infections. We need for Public Health to do its job. #CanPoli #CleanAir

Exactly this. Only I didn't put it so gently.

The flip-side: My son (m16) just left for a friend's (f17) house party & will be the only N95 there No ventilation or testing Because nobody sees the risk He'll have to step out early Will say it's to keep me safe How is that fair? This wouldn't be so hard if public health did it's FUCKING JOB

A school study shows shared classroom time and poor air quality drive virus transmission more than close contact. Prolonged exposure in poorly ventilated spaces is the main risk factor, suggesting ventilation improvements are key. #SARSCoV2 #COVID #flu #LongCOVID nature.com/articles/s41...

Day 5 #ArtAdventCalendar • This is my first #MECFS #symptomatology #embroidery: paresthesia (hand 1) 2016. The idea came to me while doing a meditation technique to dissect the tingling sensations in my body to make them less overwhelming. #SciArt

New research shows major damage in the brain stress system of people with very severe ME/CFS. The key finding: a near-loss of the neurons that start the cortisol stress response. This helps explain low cortisol and many symptoms. Let’s break it down in simple language.

National University Hospital Singapore studied 189 people and found stroke patients with prior COVID-19 had 73% worse recovery at 3 months. Their blood showed lingering immune and protein-synthesis disruptions that may impair brain healing. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yale scientists reviewed 100 years of records and found that Long COVID is part of a larger pattern. Viruses like polio, SARS, and EBV have long caused lasting illness in some people, often through immune dysfunction www.cell.com/trends/immun...