Long Covid Awareness Day - a photo on Flickriver

            © Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved

Street photography from Glasgow, Scotland.

Previously unpublished shot from March 2017. Captured well before Covid19 came into our lives, yet at this time even influenza could cause debilitating long term disease although this was much rarer and little understood.

Today, 17th March, is the 2nd International Long Covid Awareness Day with the theme this year being "Confront Long Covid".

Today, of all days, the global mainstream media is choosing to push a non-peer reviewed opinion piece by a single Australian public health doctor calling for the term 'Long Covid' to be abolished because it invites fear of Covid. This is like asking to abolish the term AIDS because it creates fear of HIV. Removing fear does not remove the disease.

The same mainstream media hardly ever publishes any of the thousands of peer reviewed papers on SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19 and Long Covid. The evidence out there published by leading scientists and clinicians around the world is mounting daily. Covid-19 is and has never been 'just a cold or flu'. Remember, even HIV infection has so-called 'mild' initial flu-like symptoms.

SARS-Cov-2 is a serious infection. Spread by airborne aerosols that hang in the air for hours, it is a multi-systemic infection that damages the immune system, in a similar way to HIV infection, and causes damage to blood vessels, the brain and bodily organs. It increases your risk of clotting that leads to heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary emboli. Many of these deaths in the weeks and months after infection are not being correctly attributed to Covid but the rate of increase with these directly correlates with the timeline of Covid-19 infection variant waves.

Long Covid is the result of permanent damage caused by SARS-CoV-2. Bearing in mind that even 'mild' infection has been proven to cause permanent damage to internal organs, blood vessels and the brain. So called 'mild' Covid-19 results in permanent brain damage, particularly to the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for short-term memory and impulse control. It has been shown to age the brain by 7-10 years per infection.
Long Covid is multi-systemic as a direct result of this and lasting symptoms can range from lightly annoying to completely debilitating.
Youth and fitness is no protection. Some of those most severely debilitated by Long Covid, unable to get out of bed, brush their hair or even chew solid food, are young, fit and healthy people with no pre-existing conditions.
Vaccination offers very limited protection. Our vaccines are several variants out of date by the time we receive them. SARS-CoV-2 is evolving so rapidly that it is evading immunity. Prior infection is even more useless in providing protection. The next infection you receive will be a different variant to which you have no immunity.

Long Covid is real. Long Covid is destroying lives. Take a look at the figures around the world for the increase in long term sickness and the 'economically inactive'. Financial institutions are sitting up and taking notice. Insurance companies will refuse health insurance if you have one of many of the Long Covid symptoms following a Covid infection. You are banned from giving blood if you have Long Covid. The corporate capitalist world has a vested interest in covering up Covid and Long Covid to keep the short-term profits rolling in. These systems have the lobbying power over politics. Follow the money.

Each Covid-19 infection causes cumulative damage and increases your risk of developing Long Covid.

Preventing infection is your only way to avoid Covid and Long Covid. The only way to prevent infection is to clean the air. Washing your hands is almost entirely pointless for an airborne disease.
FFP2/3 (N95/99) standard respirators will offer personal protection. Surgical masks, as pictured, are pointless and only protect from direct large droplets.
Ventilation and HEPA filtration of indoor air is essential. The world powers and global elite know this and practice this already.

Millions of people have Long Covid already. Millions more have it without realising because they never adequately tested for Covid or don't realise that their mild 'brain fog' is actually brain damage.

Covid is over though, right?

No. We are still in the middle of the pandemic. 

The evidence is out there. I keep up to date with the scientific peer reviewed papers from Harvard, The Lancet, the BMJ etc. and I know two people personally with Long Covid right now. Their lives are significantly ruined by the disease. One with a quality of life worse than that of someone with stage 4 cancer.

A lot of text here I know and I am obviously passionate about the subject. I care. I don't wish to see anyone suffer, least of all with a permanent debilitating disease that destroys quality, and quantity, of life.
I am also angered by disinformation and injustice, of which there is a great deal surrounding Covid-19 and Long Covid. This is why I am sharing this long post on Long Covid Awareness Day.

Please educate yourselves from proper, reliable and peer reviewed sources. Please keep yourselves safe and minimise your risk of exposure.

We used to get actual influenza maybe once in a decade. People are now getting Covid infections 2-6 times a year. This is unsustainable and the walls of false security will crumble. Of course the media will point the finger at other causes, the vaccine, lockdowns and such, but just an ounce of critical thought and scientific research will dispel these.

Be aware. Be safe. Confront Long Covid.

Thank you so much for your time and I am profoundly grateful if you read this huge wall of text. Take care.

Taken in: UK / Scotland / Tradeston (show map)

Taken on: March 25, 2017

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/4.5, 1/2000 sec, 70mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Aperture:	f/4.5
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/2000)
Focal Length:	70mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Partial
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.2 (Windows)
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